Sorry about the delay. Here is the next chapter. I had a bit of trouble with it and probably should redo it some time.
Moonlit Night, Parade of Corpses【６】
I won"t mind how I suddenly wanted to die for some reason. I totally didn"t do something like hear Yuri Roll"s words after all.
I was about to reflexively go and escape from reality from the ambush from an unexpected place but, this is where I should endure and be in Serious Mode.
But, just what should I do~. I can jump but it"s not like I can fly in the sky……For now, I guess I"ll "get it back".
「Open, Door of the Empty s.p.a.ce 『Dimension Gate』」
When I muttered that in the modern Ishrel language, a faint light ran in a line across the black "fingerless" glove on my right hand.
When it did, after the momentary luminescence, the treasured sword that had linked to my right hand, the intertwined twin sword『Carbunculus』 had appeared.
That"s right, the thing that had taken out the Dragon Zombies that were chasing Mana and the others just a while ago was this.
Connecting the pommels and turning both of them in to a single sword, I threw it as a subst.i.tute for a spear.
And then, in order to recover it after throwing it, I sucked in the surrounding Maryoku and invoked the magic formation that was knitted into the glove.
Now then, for now, I guess I"ll go "kill" them.
Recognizing me as the enemy, a number of Dragon Zombies came swooping down. While jumping off from the roof of the building, I eventually chopped one down, and, using "that" as a foothold, I jumped up.
「……Toh」
While jumping into the sky with a speed like that of a rocket, I proceeded to bisect the Dragon Zombies with Carbunculus while looking like I was pa.s.sing by them. Chopping down the heads and the bodies, pieces of meat were scattered in the sky.
Around the time I killed about twenty of them, after a floating sensation, I was pulled in by gravity. Several seconds after jumping, the fall began.
「At this rate, who knows how long this will take. ……In that case!」
Kicking one of the Dragon Zombies" wings that were scattered around me and were starting to fall at about the same speed as me, I jumped not up, but in "front" of me.
And then, turning the linked sword into a "pair of swords", I jumped "on" the "back" of an attacking Dragon Zombie.
And then, on top of the back of the Dragon Zombie, I simultaneously swung the pair of blue and green swords.
The crystal swords that should have been lightly swung, sliced the wind, and "accelerated". What the accelerated slash had created was a shock wave.
The impact that sliced the wind, became a "blade" of a hurricane!
Rather than calling it a shockwave that was fired from the cutting of the pair of swords, would it be easier to understand if I called it a slashing wave? It"s cooler too.
That slashing wave had, starting with the Dragon Zombie under me, bisected the Dragon Zombies that had decided to aim for me and that came attacking.
「Starting off, that"s "about twenty of them".」
After that, ah, it was at that time. Cutting down the Dragon Zombies, using the corpses as a stepping stone to soar through the sky like wind, and wielding those shining twin blades, that figure was truly appropriate of the name StormBringer.
It was as if it were a windstorm that possessed a will of its own.
Soaring through the sky, the twin blades were swung about.
The sword flashes caught the Dragon Zombies, and the entangled enemies were torn to pieces in an instant.
As if drawn in by the wind, the Dragon Zombies gathered around the black clothed warrior.
Simply cutting them with a sword, with just that simple act of violence, the dead flesh of the Dragon Zombies fluttered about in the sky.
That fight that had once been overwhelming had, in just a few minutes, become one-sided.
It was the Darkness Executioner"s, the StormBringer"s victory.
「……That is, the fighting of the Darkness Executioner who was said to have driven away one of the pillars of the Six Blade Generals……!」
The sight of the Dragon Zombies" bodies being torn to pieces and disappearing from being turned to ash in her eyes, Henrietta felt herself trembling.
Henrietta felt an emotion similar to fear of the existence that, without even using magic, was overwhelming the existence that, although they were changed into ghosts, originally hunted humans and was known as a dragon.
……The Darkness Executioner, she knew that he was not an enemy.
However, Henrietta realized that that power could only be called monstrous.
He was an existence that could exterminate mankind"s enemy, that calamitous race"s summit.
She knew that he, was truly a monster.
「It would seem that things have ended.」
「! Alicia, san?」
When Henrietta turned around from noticing that voice, the silver-haired beautiful young lady, Alicia, was there, straddling a silver Kulkel.
「Everyone, are you alright?」
「Ha, hahi! ~!!?」
「Mana had bit her tongue just now but, generally, we are fine.」
When Alicia, who was wearing a dress that had a light pink color as the basis, asked that, Mana had the broom descend to beside Alicia, and both Henrietta and Eri got off from the broom.
「AH, Alicia-san, to you as well, are you alright!? I, was worried about you!」
「Ah, ahaha…… Yup, I"m alright.」
While lightly backing away from Henrietta"s excited, rough, and ghastly appearance, Alicia replied, and then her gaze went from the tall building to surveying the vicinity to facing the Darkness Executioner that wore a black clothed overcoat.
「……W, we, were saved by that person.」
「I"m sure you were.」
「……Eh?」
Mana had explained the situation but, when it was accepted, Alicia didn"t turn her eyes away.
「………,」
The warrior that received that gaze, turned his gaze to behind him as if he had noticed something and then,
「How are things over there?」
being asked that, he immediately got down and stood next to the girls.
「There doesn"t seem to be a problem. If things stay like this, by dawn, it looks like return to the reconstruction work.」
「Fue!?」
Mana was surprised by the large built Elf man that suddenly appeared.
It was because the Elf man had stood at Mana"s back.
「! ……I didn"t notice him at all.」
「Well, it"s because I"m not so weak that I"d get exposed by you little ladies.」
Promptly, Eri stood in front of Mana and the Elf man.
「He is Gilley. A Light Elf whose origin is the Elf village called 『Wales』. He"s currently running an inn in this town.」
「Though he looks like this, he formerly had a scouting position. Erasing his presence is his specialty.」
From Alicia"s introduction, the large built Elf man, Gilley crossed his arms and smiled with a grin.
In another place from where the three were speechless from the former cla.s.s of the Ossan whose body didn"t match it, I surveyed the vicinity from a slightly raised building.
As for why I"m looking around, it"s because since Umbra"s movements were incomprehensible, I couldn"t help but have an unpleasant feeling.
Three years ago, we, the so-called Hero troupe, had visited a certain town in the middle of our journey. Maybe because of the welcoming mood, once we had a peace of mind, in actuality, that place was a town of the deceased that was controlled by that guy.
Other than how we were invited into a trap before, the case this time and the above-mentioned last time, had complied with each other.
The existence of the Dragon Tusk Warriors and the large scale advance due to the Zombie-type monsters. ……These two points were in compliance with each other.
And then, it seems that last time, a monster called a Ghost Knight was thrown in at the end.
A Ghost Knight was a knight that lived several hundred years before, and it was said that when it was alive, it was a hero that had guided its native country to victory in war many times.
It was a monster whose physical strength was able to suppress that Leonhart and Sylvia, and had outdone a delinquent priest that we had traveled with in terms of resourcefulness……so it would seem.
………If you"re wonder why I"ve been saying "seems" and talking in a vague way, ……Well, it"s because I didn"t fight at all.
It"s because I had eaten too much food at the welcome party and after that, I was having my sleeping soundly time in the bed!
I think it was about four months until now? I"ve said this before but, I have confidence that I"d be able to be sound asleep no matter the location (though that illusion was destroyed at the Guild"s quasi-rented house).
I can pleasantly sleep no matter the place. In other words, no matter what the circ.u.mstances are, I can be sound asleep.
Even if that place is in the middle of a battlefield, I have confidence that I would be able to continue to sleep (though, as expected, when I"m about to be killed is a different story).
Waking up after everything was finished, and getting beat up by Sylvia was a good memory.
Now then, getting back on topic, the chain of events of last time and this time strangely coincide with each other.
It probably goes without saying that Umbra"s forte strategy is a material war by means of Ghost-type monsters. He is a magician that became a scoundrel after all.
Ah, by the way, we"ve said a couple of things like "majutsushi", "mahou tsukai", and "madoushi"[1] but, there isn"t much of a difference between these names.
Magic is pretty typical and doesn"t have a framework like being able to reproduce miracles if time is spent on it.
Even though "mahou tsukai" is translated into "magician" in English, it has a feeling of being read as "tejinashi".[2]
And so, since things are consistent at the present, I"m being vigilant of what that Umbra guy is going to do next.
What happens once can happen twice, and what happens twice will happen thrice.
Just like there are guys that say "I won"t fall for that same trick!" on the second time, there are surprisingly guys that will play the same hand over and over again.
By the way, what about me?
No matter how many times I receive it, it won"t work! I guess? I am technically immortal after all.
Just when I was thinking that, a voice resounded in the communication stone that was on my ear.
(Yuu!)
It"s Alicia"s voice.
From that impatient voice, I immediately sharpened all of my nerves and,
「Choiya~!!」
「……Ha?」
right there, all of my nerves relaxed. They all completely went slack. The atmosphere was gone just like a ball that went flat.
In this battlefield that had gone full throttle serious just a little while ago, a couple of foolish shouts resounded.
This voice and this tension, it"s obviously Bernadette.
Jeez, just what is she……
「The head!?」
When I was about to turn around, in the next moment where I thought that an impact had run through the back of my head, I was flying in the sky.
……Yeah. I didn"t see what had happened behind me but, I pretty much understand how I was blown away.
「Guh……This, d.a.m.ned defected Sister.」
Falling headlong down from the building, without doing an ukemi, I hit my head.
And then, when I tried to do a forward somersault in accordance with the unpleasant premonition that functioned after an awfully long time, the spot I was going to land at burst open.
「My name is Bernadette. For the sake of my duty as an 『Agent』, I will subjugate you!」
Looking down on me from atop a building, Bernadette readied her pair of guns and pointed them at me.
Those eyes were the same as the ones shown when we first met, they were serious eyes.
……Oi oi, subjugation isn"t all that gentle. Actually, since she was awfully insistent on coming along with me, I should have halfheartedly told her that a Duke cla.s.s Mazoku was coming to attack and made Mana and the others a scapegoat, or rather, people to protect from that……That was it, right? Since I thought that Eri and Henrietta would be near Mana, didn"t I teach her the characteristics of Mana who was the easiest to recognize and make some random speech? I"m sure that I remember saying something like she was being targeted by Mazoku or something.
「Keeping quiet, is it. That doesn"t matter. Since all I have to do is subjugate you Mazoku.」
No sooner had she said that than Bernadette came shooting out Maryoku bullets without hesitation.
……Eh, Mazoku? Wait, that"s dangerous!
Although I promptly defended against them with my sword, Bernadette continually fired without hesitation.
「Wait! He is……!」
Alicia"s restrained voice resounded but, Bernadette came falling while spinning with the dual guns in her hands.
「Eighth Duke Cla.s.s……Prepare yourself!!」
By Eighth Duke Cla.s.s………So it was that rumor!!
It would seem that in this defective Sister"s head,
things have become, wire puller this time = me.
……J, just because I was in a hurry, doesn"t mean that I should have said anything that works!
Translator’s Notes:
[1] All of these things could be translated to magician.
[2] The kanji of "tejinashi" is 手品師, which could be literally translated as "sleight of hand master", so like a magician that does magic tricks at parties.