Chapter 187 - Episode Fourteen - Live Fogg (4)
“In the meantime, as Abel said earlier, I think we should let go of the baggage……! That guy earlier, it’s definitely getting closer!”
Sophia will try to convince me, but as for me, I definitely don’t want to give up the Lapides Sword.
I feel bad to Rinoa for staying up all night to make it for me, too.
The next time we see each other, I may not be able to look straight to her face.
And…… I can’t just throw it away at a stage like this when I haven’t even done a proper performance test yet.
“I’ll take care of it myself! So Sophia and the others stay away!”
“What crazy thing are you saying, bro! If you do that, Negrogriff-sama will kill us!”
Augen said as he shook my shoulder, followed by a look at Mea.
“Hey, little girl. You tell him, too! My brother, he plans to die! You don’t know what the scariness of a demon is like!”
“Uh-, Uhmmm~…… but since this what Abel wants…… No matter what you say it will not work……”
“What are you talking about!?”
That’s Mea, you know me well.
But I’d like to take out …… insurance.
I readied my wand and calmed my mind and hit the magic sensing.
I do feel …… two large magical power.
You can think of these as that demon manipulating space.
“Reveal that guy”
I imagine the magic circle and then cast the spell.
I don’t trust the status spell too much because it doesn’t measure my own ability value either, but I’ll check …… for insurance in case.
Since I’m sensing magic power, theoretically, this magic should be able to measure the approximate size of a large source of magic power for me.
The muscle power value doesn’t correspond to non-humans, so I can’t calculate it at all……
A small square plane suddenly appears in front of me.
-
“??????”
STR (muscle power):???
MAG(Magic):464
-
“Wha-……”
I couldn’t help but squeal.
Because it was far higher than any number I’d ever seen before.
I’d only ever seen numbers around 100 at best.
Then it was suddenly in the 400s.
Sure, this sorcery is still imperfect and not absolutely reliable, but it’s reason enough to be…… wary.
In case you’re wondering, when I measured myself in the past when I was little, it was close to 1000, but it soon became immeasurable.
Apparently, there is something wrong with my magic and my constitution is incapable of giving the correct measurements.
At the time, I was happy about it, but a figure of 1000 would not be helpful at all.
“W-what’s the matter, brother?”
“I…… I guess you could say I’m just kind of curious……”
When I looked back at Augen, he looked blatantly exasperated.
“This is bad, brother’s eyes, they’re shining……”
“Let’s just leave him alone and go!? I don’t want to be involved in this kind of collateral damage!?”
“Ka, Kamla-san, what are you talking about!”
“Can you really get away from someone who distorts …… space in the first place?”
In the meantime, it looks like we should launch a preemptive strike at ……
It’s been a while since I’ve had a shot at a seriously bad guy.
I pulled away from Augen and raised my wand into the air.
“Flame, form, ball”
A large flame emerges on the tip of the wand and compresses it more and more.
If it becomes smaller, I add more flames, compress it again, adds more flames, compress it again, and repeats the …… process.
This is the magic that I used to smash the Zeshum Ruins.
“A, Abel-san? What are you doing? Anything more than that can be…… I think, is a bit dangerous……”
Sophia looks at my magic and looks at the light quizzically.
“Is that so dangerous ……?”
Seeing Sophia’s condition, Kamla asks her.
“It seems to be wrapped in a singular ward and applying full force to the sphere, but if I were to compare it to …… it would be like stacking blocks of wood on the elbows of both arms while running as fast as you can. You never know when you’ll lose your balance and go out of control ……”
It seems a bit off, but …… well, it’s a good way to get a sense of it.
“What happens when it gets out of control?”
“I think that would wipe out all of us at ……”
“No, stop! Stop that sorcery!”
“C-calm down, Kamla! If you touch brother now, he’ll lose his balance!”
Kamla was about to attack me, but Augen and Sophia were stopping him from getting to me.
What Sophia said was wrong.
To be precise, if it were to go out of control, this entire mountain would disappear cleanly.
“Don’t worry. I’m confident in my ability to control my magic, so I won’t lose my balance even if I get poked a bit, and I can make it disappear in a heartbeat if I have to.”
“How can I trust you! Anyway, stop it! Please!”
Gradually, the presence of the demon that was coming towards me became more and more intense.
Even if you don’t pay special attention to it, you can feel a chill as if your spine is being licked.
Indeed, this guy might be an incomparable big deal compared to the opponent we’ve been dealing with so far.
If the Lapides Sword had attracted the great demon that was sleeping in the mountains, then ……
“…… This sword, it’s a good thing I brought it with me.”
“Hey you, what did you just say!?”
Kamla, who was being held down by Sophia and Augen, increased his strength and tried to jump at them.
“I-, it won’t help if we’re falling out! Levi-sama said. Even a small wave will increase in its power when several overlaps…… Harmony is the shortcut to overcoming difficulties!”
“I’m not the one at fault, right?”
With the arguing behind me, I just kept on reinforcing the heat ball of light more and more.
“I’m surprised. I didn’t realize that the power that I was something this small”
In my head, I hear a voice.
It’s a thought wave.
The way it speaks seems somewhat different from the type of demon I’ve had before.
Could it possibly be a fairly rational demon ……?
“Oops…… do you understand this? I am Dantalion. One of the great spirits who served the ancient and destroyed earth god Garuja”
He spoke to me not in spirit language, but in the language used on this continent.
Absent-mindedly, a cloak that looked like a clown suit spread out in front of me.
There was a frill around its neck, and four female faces grew out of it, each facing a different direction.
It was only above the shoulders, and two arms floated slightly away from the cloak.
The four heads were scowling.
I’ve never seen a demon with such a bizarre appearance, either.
I’ve never heard of a demon named Dantalion, but if it’s true that he served the …… earth gods, then he’s a demon from the mythological era.
Most of the demons of that era were said to have been killed around by the god Kudor, but I didn’t know that there were …… survivors.
“It sounds like they don’t seem to be hostile.”
When I turned back to Kamla and the others, all three of them were staring at Dantalion with their weapons at each of them.
“W-What do we do ……?”
“If we can’t beat ’em, we’ll just have to punish ’em. I didn’t want to fight you, but if you’re telling me you’re a demon from Garuja, I can’t let you get away with it.”
“Let’s cut at least one of their heads off. I’ll use a special move, I’m sorry to Augen-san and Kamra-san, but please you to buy me some time.”
…… It’s clearly a change from earlier, and it’s clearly a killing intent their showing.
They said the earth and water gods did not get along very well with each other.
As a church member, maybe they have some thoughts.
“W-, wait…… the other side is stepping up to us, so let’s go a little more moderately ……”
“I’m going to pull you down to earth!”
“Die in this one!”
Kamla stretches out the arm he had hidden from his robe, exposing the crossbow secured to his arm.
Kamla pointed the tip of her arm at Dantalion and ejected it.
The speed of the arrow is considerably faster than a normal crossbow.
It seems to have a special material that increases in elasticity with magic power.
In addition, the arrows are engraved with a magic formula. That’s …… the explosion magic.
“Fuwaaaa!”
Augen with a wooden mallet jumped to a tree and kicked it off, then leaped up to chase the arrow with the recoil.
Incredible leaping power.
That would get him to the height of Dantalion.
“Explode”
Kamla shouted as he pointed his small sword at Dantalion.
Their plan is apparently to create an opening with the explosion, while Augen is planning to smash the mallet into it.
“I’m not interested in any of the …… you guys, though.”
Each of Dantalion’s four faces caught Kamla and Augen, respectively, and they sent thought waves flying as they opened their mouths in unison.
As Dantalion raised his hand, the arrow bounced back to Kamla, and Augen fell to the ground as if pulled by the mallet in his hand, hitting his shoulder.
“Guooooooh!”
The impact of the slamming hit made Augen sprawling and release the mallet from his hand.
The arrow stuck in Kamla’s feet flashed with a snap.
“Geh…… this is bad!”
I pointed my wand toward Kamla, working to maintain my hand toward the ball of light.
The arrow made a snapping sound and collapsed into pieces.
“Tha-, thank God……”
It was an odd trajectory, even if it was a bounce back.
Indeed, he seems to be able to control space.
“Hmph, you little guys, it’s impertinent of you to go against me. Quickly, you can offer me the thing. I’m not going to talk about this anymore. If you make me wait too long, I can kill you all, you know. I, Dantalion-sama, have taken it upon myself to give you a reprieve. Don’t piss me off, okay?”
“Uh, what is it you are looking for, Dantalion-sama?”
I asked, half curiously, to Dantalion.
“How shameless…… you know what I’m talking about. The sky god’s legacy. I can feel his magic so strongly…… I have a grudge against him, after all…… and I can’t be satisfied until I can crush the rest of what’s left of it.”
“The sky god’s, legacy ……?”
I knew that’s what Levi Church has, not me……
“Yes, from that area……”
Dantalion pointed a finger at me.
I couldn’t help but look back.
Mea was just standing there.
I froze, keeping eye contact with Mea for a few seconds.
“Mea, you have something for me……”
“N-no…… Mea thinks it’s still the sword from before …… Maybe that demon …… was something that bad ……”
“What……? Then……?”
“You know what I’m thinking. Now, hand it over quickly. Or …… if you really don’t want to hand it over, that’s also a good thing …… Foolishness is a sin. If you are too stupid to see the difference in power between you and me,…… you will be rewarded with death for your sins. Don’t think that you can die easily. Repent forever in the underworld.”
Dantalion’s, four heads laugh loudly.
Suddenly, Dantalion’s figure blurs and moves momentarily to another position.
And then it moves again to another position for a moment.
The sound of Dantalion’s laughter can be heard from around the area.
I felt as if I was surrounded by dozens of heads.
“You little ones will not even be able to catch a glimpse of my image. Getting arrogant by playing imitation, these servants of God…… I will teach you what is the horrors of real sorcery.”
Unlike…… humans, spirits can directly use magic power to cause singular phenomena.
As such, they don’t need a magic circle, but …… there seems to be a pattern to the teleportation and the residue of magic power, so it’s not difficult to follow them.
Well, …… even if I don’t bother to do that, it’s enough to have a homing function that tracks a specified magic print (like a fingerprint of magic power).
I carved Dantalion’s magic crests into the light ball as information on where to track it.
I’d like to avoid battles as much as possible, but…… a demon is still a demon.
It’s not like we can talk to each other,…… and I’m not going to hand over the Lapides Sword either.
Besides…… I genuinely wanted to see how far I could fight a mythical age demon on my own.
The other side’s trick is exposed…… If it comes down to it, I should be able to at least run away.
“There.”
When I extend my hand, the ball of light flies toward Dantalion.
As Dantalion moves in transition, the ball of light also changes its trajectory to match Dantalion’s.
The four smiling faces change in unison to bored faces.
“It hurts on one side that you think you’re competing with this level of petty tricks. Did you forget what happened earlier? Apparently, the little ones have completely forgotten as a species while I’ve been hiding in these mountains. …… This is like a bird or a pig ……”
Dantalion holds out his hand to the ball of light.
…… This attack is going to be a wait-and-see approach.
With the homing function of the light ball, it could be a countermeasure to the magic that manipulates and bounces off that space.
The power of that light ball is outrageous, but instead, it has been given a mechanism that allows it to easily disperse its power at any time to prevent outbursts.
Even if it’s countered, there’s no danger of it.
The ball of light comes to a standstill between Dantalion and me.
Dantalion’s four faces frowned at the same time.
“Hm? What just……”
Cracks appeared in space, and a loud sound that seemed to break through the glass echoed around the area.
A ball of light dived between the cracks and approached towards Dantalion.
“Huh, it’s more fragile than I thought……”
I thought the distortion of space was indestructible……
Easily, the light ball broke through between Dantalion and me.
“Wha-…… Whawha-…… Wha-……!”
Dantalion revealed himself to be unhinged.
One of the heads swells up and swallows the ball of light with its large mouth open.
The head that swallowed the ball of light turned its face to an earthen color and turned its head limp to the ground.
“…… For a little one, that was close. You can send me honest praise. I will acknowledge that you are worthy of being my equal in a fight. As expected of being a worthy successor to the sky god’s legacy…… Is what I’d like to say. I won’t let my guard down anymore…… and I won’t hold back anymore……”
Dantalion turns three angry faces to me.
One remains deflated.
“I…… can collect and make any impact, any energy body, disappear by sacrificing one of my heads. In other words, I will never die until three times…… Even an atrophied head can be resurrected after a day. By eating the heads of you little people! I’ll make up for lost stock with you!”
As soon as Dantalion shouted that, the head that had just swallowed the light ball slowly raised its head.
“Mu……?”
The other heads tilted their heads questioningly at the sight of it.
The next moment, the head burst into flames, spewing powerful fire from its eyes and mouth.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”
Dantalion flew dizzily and tried to flee somewhere as the fire burned from head to head, spewing black smoke.
“I thought you were going to make it disappear at the expense of one of its heads……”
Eventually, the flames spread to the cloak.
Its arm, which was far away from the body, seemed to catch fire as he struck it, and in an instant, a fireball formed.
“Azui, Azuiiiiiiii!”
The cloak burst into flames and turned to ashes, and a chunk of cloth fell in its place.
It happened in a flash.
The space around the area wriggled languidly.
It seems that Dantalion’s influence is gone and has been restored to normal.
Dantalion had said that he was going to teach me the horrors of real magic, but what the hell was he talking about?
In the end, we didn’t know, as we didn’t have any significant attack magic from Dantalion.
I have no idea about the sky god or anything else because it burned up so quickly.
Did Lapidestatoa had anything to do with the sky god?
Or rather, …… this …… was really a demon living from the mythical era that was driving the magic field of this mountain crazy?
I wanted to test my abilities against a powerful opponent, but all I could feel was an indescribable sense of guilt that I had done something that was not right.
I picked up a piece of cloth that had fallen off.
“Azui…… Human is scary ……”
…… A thought wave came through the cloth.
For now, I decided to keep the fragment of Dantalion in my pocket.
I might be able to use it for something else.