Published at 26th of March 2019 2:42 am

Volume 13, Chapter 6 Gunner and Archer Part 4

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

The Zerns were stopped by other demihumans several times as they moved Neia, Shizu, and the prince in their barrels, but none of the barrels were opened and searched. In this way, the three of them reached the vicinity of the henchman demon’s office.

Neia and the others emerged from the barrels.

They had peeked outside from within the barrels, but security had not grown tight. It would seem the prince’s rescue had not yet been exposed.

Neia slung the prince onto her back, and as she secured him with a rope, one of the Zern went ahead to seek an audience with the henchman demon. This was a form of reconnaissance.

Once everyone had finished their preparations to barge in, the Zern returned.

“He’s alone, no guards.”

Neia frowned.

Now that Jaldabaoth had been hurt so badly, was he ― as one of only three henchman demons ― not going to strengthen his defences? Or had he relaxed now that the Sorcerer King was dead?

As all kinds of questions swirled around in her head, the only thing that mattered was the prince’s summation.

“That means it’s the perfect opportunity to kill him. Let’s go.”

In accordance with the prince’s words, they all moved into action.

One of the Zerns opened the door, and Neia ― who stood at the head of the group ― could clearly see what was inside the room.

The expansive office had a ceiling that was a full five meters tall, and it was very spacious. Due to its many superior furnishings, it gave off the impression of a stereotypical luxury suite.

There was a black, solid-looking table, and behind it, a hideous monster, which spoke.

“Humans? Zer…”

It seemed to be saying something. However, they were not here to talk.

The prince immediately cast a spell from Neia’s back.

“「Yin - Five Elements - Grand Fireball」.”

A feeble, flickering flame flew past Neia like it had been thrown into the room. She had heard along the way here that it was a fourth tier attack spell that was named for its attack power. It was typically the first thing into a room because it would explode upon making contact with anything. However―

“「Yang - Five Elements - Grand Fireball」.”

The flame vanished halfway, like it had been snuffed out by the wind.

“I knew it…” the prince muttered hatefully.

He did not cast again. That spell had been an experiment. While he had planned to press the attack if it had not been negated, unfortunately that had not been the case. Since he did not intend to waste mana, he would wait to cast spells in accordance with their attacks.

“...Is that the Zern prince on the human’s back? It doesn’t look like the humans captured him and brought him here… Kuhahaha. It’s treason, then? Interesting.”

The great demon looked like it had come from a nightmare as it slowly got to its feet, like a mockery of a human being.

It was completely naked, so its arms ― that reached down to its knees ― and its legs and skin-and-bones body were completely exposed.

Its body resembled withered wood, so slender and fragile that even Neia felt that she could break it.

That withered wood body did not have a head. There was nothing but a straight line extending from shoulder to shoulder. No, there was a slender ― thinner than a woman’s wrist ― branch protruding from its neck region. There were two fruits on it. Those must have been the so-called heads of this great demon.

“Eh? ―Ah.”

Neia could not help squeaking like that. Such was her shock that it was the only sound she could make at first.

Like Shizu had said, this was the special characteristic of Circlets ― two heads.

One of them belonged to a monstrous-looking maggot. It looked very much like the prince, and given the impression of what she had heard, it was probably the Grand Mother. The problem was the other head.

It belonged to a woman, her eyes rolled up into her head and her mouth gaping open like a fish. Her skin looked ghastly pale, but the head did not seem rotted or otherwise damaged, and her blonde hair was even gleaming. She could see bright red flesh at the plane where the head had been severed from the body, and it looked moist enough to bleed. While the fact that the head looked like it had been freshly removed was quite mysterious, that was how she could immediately tell who it belonged to.

(TL note: In a tweet, Maru mentions that he forgot to mention that Kelart’s brown hair was so shiny it looked blonde)

“Kelart Custodio-sama…”

While she had only seen her from afar, there was no way she could have mistaken her for anyone else. She was the highest ranking priest of the Holy Kingdom.

Confusion and doubt swirled within Neia.

What was going on? Had the Zern lied? Did they think Neia and Shizu would consider fleeing if they knew it was Kelart?

“I see. I see. I see. Oh Zern, does this mean you no longer care what happens to your king and the people in that land. I’ll give you one last chance. If you seize these people, I can let you off with a mild punishment. How about that?”

The two heads― which looked like bizarre fruits ― did not move. Neither did those white eyeballs. They seemed like nothing more than decorations. In that case, where had that voice come from?

The prince paid no heed to Neia’s question and castigated the great demon.

His Zern underlings immediately moved into position to attack at any time.

“Hmph! What else is there to say at this point? Who’d believe you after you killed the king!?”

“The king? Is that so…”

Neia heard what seemed to be surprise in that voice. Reading that was difficult because this demon did not have a head of its own and its expression did not change. That made it difficult to see if one’s attack had been effective from the enemy’s reaction. In that respect, Zerns were also troublesome opponents for humans.

“My duty is to rule this place. That matter was outside of my jurisdiction… I see, so it was killed? That was because your king was a fool.”

“What!”

“My. My. My. Dear traitors, don’t tell me you came merely to speak? You came here because you thought you could defeat me, no? In that case ― what is your trump card? That human?”

A finger raised itself, tipped with a claw that should have been over 60 centimeters long. It pointed at Neia.

“As if I’d tell you!”

The great demon calmly responded to the prince’s outburst:

“You don’t have to. Shadow Demons.”

The great demon’s shadow stretched out in a sliding motion.

It swelled up, going from a flat plane to three-dimensional. It looked like the commonly spoken image of a demon, but dyed completely black. And there were two of them.

That was probably why it did not have demihuman guards by its side.

“Kill all the Zern other than the prince. I will seize the prince… Human, if you betray them, I can spare the people in the camps who are valuable to you, up to the number of fingers on two hands.”

The great demon had made the same proposal Shizu had expected it to.

As Neia filled with respect for Shizu’s keen insight, she decided to reply in order to make it careless.

“Really?”

After she carefully asked her question, she could hear joy in the demon’s voice.

“What are you saying!? Are you betraying us!?” the prince shouted from Neia’s back, and so the great demon’s attention was completely focused on Neia.

“Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. I’m talking to her… I am a being of my word. Tell me how many people you want to protect and help. If the fingers on two hands are not enough, we can continue discussions―”

The defenseless demon seemed to have forgotten the meaning of caution, and it was full of openings.

Their hidden trump card (Shizu) did not miss that. She leapt out of the shadow of the door and raised her spell gun.

The muzzle spat fire, and the great demon grabbed its shoulder and stumbled back.

Shizu had been waiting alone outside the room for the right timing to launch this surprise attack, and it signalled the start of the hostilities.

The negotiations which had been intended to manipulate their opponent into carelessness were now over. The Zern honor guards sprang at the Shadow Demons. Shizu rushed into the room with fearsome speed, slipped past the the frontliners of both sides with lightning-fast footwork, and closed in on the great demon.

“What! The Sorcerer―”

“...No need to explain.”

Shizu hacked with her dagger, and the great demon parried with its claws.

While she knew that there was little time for such things once the battle started, Neia vented her unhappiness on the prince behind her.

“What do you mean, black hair! Isn’t her hair blonde!?”

“Blonde? How is that blonde! It’s light black, isn’t it?”

“Eh?”

He did not sound like he was lying. Could it be ― Zerns perceived colors differently from human beings?

Neia had once heard that certain species with complete darkvision could not tell colors apart, only black and white. There were also some who could not discern colors in dark places.

The light in the larder was probably so those species could see what color their food was.

“I”ll tell you later! 「Yin - Five Elements - Lightning Claw」!”

“Tch! 「Yang - Five Elements - Lightning Claw」!”

A stroke of electricity hurtled through the air like the swipe of a beast’s talons, but it fizzled out halfway through.

While there were spells like 「Five Elements - Soften Steel」 which decreased defensive strength and spells like 「Five Elements - Harden Steel」 which increased attack power, as well as summoning spells like 「Five Elements - Call The Lightning Lord」, the opposition might not have negated those and instead cast a high tier spell upon Neia and the others.

In order to avoid that, the prince simply cast attack spells, which the enemy could not ignore. In addition, he focused on using electricity-element spells, which the enemy should not have been able to resist, and then he used a special ability called Wood Element Strengthening upon them. While the demon’s elementalism should have been able to protect against it, the prince’s augmented spell could not be fully negated, and so it began to take minor damage.

While the original Grand Mother could have used strengthening techniques just like the prince had, she was now nothing more than an accessory for the great demon. The demon did not possess strengthening techniques of its own and the prince’s spellcasting overpowered it.

Since Shizu was taking the role of frontliner, Neia had to do her job as the rear guard. She could not simply serve as transportation for the prince in the face of such a mighty foe. She loosed an arrow from the Ultimate Shootingstar Super which she held.

While her shot against the main body was highly accurate, the great demon easily batted it away with his hand.

“Out of my way. 「Shock Wave」.”

Kelart’s face ― her lips moved, and she cast a second tier attack spell at Shizu. While Shizu’s body lifted off the ground from an impact that was invisible to the human eye, she did not seem to have taken any damage which could have hampered her movements. Neia had expected nothing less of a difficulty rating 150 maid demon.

“「Yin - Five Elements - Lightning Claw」”

“「Yang - Five Elements - Lightning Claw」”

They cast the same spells at each other again, and a feeble current of electricity surged past the demon’s body.

“「Open Wounds」!”

That counterattack was a spell that would worsen any wounds. Naturally, it was targeted at Shizu, who was being attacked by the demon’s claws.

All she could see was Shizu’s back. However, her dexterity did not seem to have decreased.

Sweat ran down Neia’s back.

Neia was the only one among her allies who could heal. Therefore, she was naturally the healer. However, while she could tell how badly she was hurt, she lacked the combat experience to tell how severe others’ wounds were. In particular, unexpressive people like Shizu might exceed their limits and collapse before she realized something was wrong with them. Therefore, Neia had to pay close attention to what Shizu and the prince were up to. It was just like doing one thing with her right hand while doing another with her left, and she was so busy that she began to get confused.

Still, she had to do this.

The prince kept casting attack spells, while Shizu took minor damage as she swung at the demon with her knife. Both of them were carrying out their tasks to perfection, and she could not simply give up and say that she was the only one who could not do her part.

“「Heavy Recover」.”

Neia judged that Shizu had been badly hurt, so she activated the item the Sorcerer King had lent her and cast a third tier healing spell on Shizu.

“I see!”

Neia’s instincts told her that the attention of the faceless demon was on her.

The great demon’s words implied that it knew the identity of the healer ― who ought to be destroyed first. In fact, the great demon still had enough strength to cast an attack spell on Neia after negating the prince’s spell.

“「Shockwave」.”

An invisible pulse of force hit her like a warhammer.

She could hear sickening cracks from inside her body, and she writhed in agony from the pain which coursed through her.

It hurt more than the spell the Vah Un had used on her. She could not believe Shizu had taken an attack like this with such a straight face. She now knew why Kelart Custodio had been hailed as a genius. It was because of that powerful hit.

“Aieeee!”

Neia grit her teeth, but she could not prevent a choked cry of pain from escaping her.

“Are you alright!?”

“I, I’m fine!”

Neia answered the prince, who was worried for her.

“I’ll call all the Zern―”

“―No. I’ll protect Neia.”

Shizu spread her arms, standing like she was shielding Neia.

The great demon was huge, and he made Shizu look tiny. Therefore, he must be able to see Neia without any impediment. However, Neia was very happy inside.

“What!? Ahhhh!”

The demon cried out in a hoarse voice. It would seem Shizu had done something to him, which had had an effect.

Did she use a special ability? Or was it a spell?

She was not sure what exactly had happened, but Neia sensed the great demon’s hostility weakening. Of course, she was probably imagining things. After all, there was no reason why this great demon should want to kill her any less right now.

If there was another attack like the last one, another spell as powerful as the last one, she ought to be able to bear it. No, she wanted to bear it.

She had recovered the mana she had lost during the battle with the Vah Un, but the number of times she could use 「Heavy Recover」 was still unknown, so it was best to save as many uses as possible. However, waiting until the last moment to heal also meant that the slightest mistake would send her over the brink. Accurately judging the right time to heal was very difficult.

“And she’s wielding the bow that Ainz-sama lent her!”

Shizu’s voice sounded very loud for her. She was probably raising her volume to better praise the Sorcerer King. This was a life and death battle, but she could not bring herself to mention it. After all, the person doing this was Shizu, the strongest person on their side, and there was an aura of veterancy. She might have a plan in mind.

“What!? You mean, that Sorcerer King!?”

There was surprise in the henchman demon’s voice. That was the Sorcerer King for you. He must have heard from Jaldabaoth that he was an opponent to be wary of.

“Yes! It’s a runecrafted bow!”

Having heard something she could not overlook, Neia cautioned Shizu.

“Shizu! Don’t tell him about us!”

“What! So it was a weapon made with the ancient, lost art of runecraft! A weapon like that might even be able to kill me!”

Why was he explaining that in such detail? As Neia thought that, she immediately felt ashamed. Right now, she was fighting with an incredibly powerful adversary with her life on the line. A weakling like herself did not have the luxury of contemplating such matters.

“So it was runecraft! Amazing!”

The henchman demon kept on speaking in a very cautious tone. Perhaps it was doing so to distract Neia. In fact.

“Runecraft?”

The prince’s surprised voice came from behind her. That was why Neia had to speak.

“No! This weapon isn’t like that!”

As Neia shouted, she sensed Shizu and the henchman demon freeze for an instant. That must have been it. When two opponents were evenly matched, all they could do was stare at each other without being able to make a move. There was no doubt about it.

“Rune…”

“No!”

Neia shouted without regard for anything else, and the henchman demon grunted under his breath.

“Is that so… then next, I’ll… 「Blindness」.”

The spell that came out of nowhere blackened Neia’s vision. He must have done so to render the healer powerless.

The item Neia had borrowed only allowed her to use 「Heavy Recover」, and not spells that could heal her blindness.

A priest or a divine magic caster could have cured the blinded status easily. Unfortunately, there was nobody like that here.

She did not know how long the darkness would last, but if she wanted to heal Shizu, she would have to get within touching range of her.

“I can’t see!” It was very important to tell her comrades what had happened to her. “Shizu! If you’re hurt, you need to tell me!”

“...Mm.”

“Sorry, I don’t know spells that can heal this condition of yours!”

“Don’t worry about it!”

After responding to the apology from behind her, Neia pulled her bowstring taut. She ought to be able to hit her target from memory alone. This was the fruit of the experience she had gained from fighting the Vah Un and many large-sized adversaries. The bowstring twanged.

“―Guwaaaargh!”

She heard the henchman demon wail in pain.

“You did it! It tried to dodge, but it had the opposite effect! Nicely done!”

After hearing the prince’s clarification, Neia realized how lucky she had been and prayed to the Sorcerer King.

“...Keep shooting like this.”

“Eiii!”

“Mm!”

Although the sound of the Zerns fighting the Shadow Demons around her made it very hard to tell what was going on, Neia focused on how much Shizu had been wounded and the henchman demon’s location and kept shooting at the latter.

Perhaps it was because he had been hurt and realized that he would lose if he did not defeat Shizu first, but the henchman demon focused all its attacks on Shizu. In addition, it kept casting 「Blindness」 spells on her, trying to disable her like it had Neia, but she resisted all of them, so they had no effect.

In that case, all she had to do was keep pressing it.

Just as the prince’s mana was about to run out, victory came to them like a matter of course. The prince’s cries of joy were even a little annoying.

The Zerns fighting around them had taken losses, but they had emerged victorious.

However ― the spell on Neia had not yet expired. She still could not see anything. Still, it was not a permanent spell. In all likelihood, it would wear off after some time had passed, and the only reason why it had lasted this long was because Kelart Custodio was very powerful.

While she could not see anything, she could sense the presence of the Zerns approaching her.

“My prince! I’m glad you’re alright.”

“Ahh… please consume Grand Mother-dono’s remains with all due respect.”

So you’re eating it? Neia thought.

And with all due respect. Since they had said as much, all she could do was accept it as a unique tradition of their species.

“Neia. What should we do with the human’s head? Shall we eat it too?”

“No, please don’t. We humans don’t have such burial practices. We will return it to the city with all due respect.”

“I see… human burial practices are truly a mystery. No, surely you must think the same of ours as well. This is probably what they call a culture clash. Also, I am deeply grateful to you. We alone could never have―”

“―Wait. There’s no time to keep talking. Let’s move.”

She could hear a disturbance in the distance. It would seem the Liberation Army had finally made contact with the Demihuman Alliance. Either that, or soldiers had heard the sound of the battle just now and come here to see what was going on. Whichever one it was, they could not stay here for long.

“That’s right, Shizu-san. Then, please help the Liberation Army attack Kalinsha as we arranged.”

“Umu, I understand. You lot!”

“Yes! We shall move right away. Will you and the humans be entering the barrels, my prince? We will carry you outside the city.”

While Neia could not tell because she could not see, she could sense Shizu hesitating. The reason for that was obvious ― she hated the barrels. Neia felt the same way.

“...I’ll help too.”

“Mm. I’ll lend a hand once I recover from my blindness.”

The prince was thrashing on her back like a caught fish. He was jumping for joy. Neia was a little dejected by how well she had adapted to the situation.

“If our allies are setting out, then let us go as well. Of course, my mana has been depleted so I cannot cast any powerful spells, so I shall cast strengthening spells on you instead.”

“My prince!”

“Be silent. Do you intend me to be a male who sends his comrades to their deaths?”

“...That ought to be enough. Let’s go.”

Shizu urged them on. She seemed eager to get away from the barrels as soon as possible.

“Then I shall send you to where our eggmates are gathered. Please get in.”

Share