Published at 1st of July 2023 9:52 am

Chapter 398 – Battle against Spirit World Knight Delhart

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

After casting a quick glance at Helme and seeing small wings on her back for the first time – possibly an effect from her having absorbed a part of Golgonshura – I returned my attention to Delhart. I focused on <Tree of the Evil King> and <Hand guided by Thought>, creating a path of trees toward Delhart.

“Spirit Knight Delhart, you asked for a fight, so you got yourself one!”

“Hahaha, ridiculous! A halberd-type of spear similar to that of Demonic Puppet Yrzon? How laughable!”

No need to tell me, is what I thought but didn’t voice out.

I activated <Blood Path – Open Third Gate>, invoking <Bloody Accel>. Blood spewed out of both my feet. While dashing across the wooden road, I pulled the steel hilt from my hilt. As soon as I poured mana into it, the usual turquoise light blade surged out ― Murasame’s blade had triggered.

“A sword, huh? And on top of that, an unknown type of weapon――”

Delhart was worried about Murasame.

And behind me, around my back, floated a <Hand guided by Thought>, trailing behind with a slight delay. In the eyes of an opponent who could use Magic Observation, it might look as if a crooked mana hand, connected to me through mana strings, is swimming through the air.

As I rushed on like that, the wooden path crumbled apart midway, and vanished.

“How naive! It won’t work!”

It was an attack by Delhart. Mana blades with a sticky texture deployed in a fan formation from the trenches of his armor’s ribs.

Without minding that, I sporadically created new trees in order to salvage the few remnants of the wooden path while continuing to jump towards Delhart as if hopping, using the trees as foothold.

Soon my entire visual field was filled by Delhart’s huge frame. The instant I entered his spear’s range, I swung Murasame from the side, and matching the timing of the swing, I focused on the shoulder dragon 《Hal’Konk》. Ice pebbles were created from the Blue Eye of the Evil Dragon King, heading with a tremendous speed for Delhart’s head.

The ice pebbles were launched in close combat, so Delhart couldn’t react. No, he did react, but he didn’t manage to evade the pebbles. Several pebbles pierced his cheeks and forehead. One pebble also stabbed his chest.

“G-Guuaah!”

While Delhart got showered by the pebbles, he extended his violet spear below and to the side, parrying Murasame’s slash. The plasma blade slid across the spear’s surface.

I made several feints with my eyes, suggesting a competition of power between Murasame and Delhart’s spear. While making him believe so, I locked his weapon with Murasame.

Even without opposing the push, Delhart yelled, “You intend to have a contest of strength, eh――,” and forcibly twisted his spear.

My blade was thrown up, and after moving so as to target the inside, Delhart unleashed a <Thrust>-based technique.

I twisted my body, but wasn’t in time nonetheless. I got hit by his sharp thrust. My dark-green cloth bent and a part of it got punctured. It grazed my right flank so strongly that I could feel the impact even inside my body.

To be honest, that hurts damn a lot.

My body took one sharp stab after the other. Sparks flew from my coat. But, while shifting Murasame back downwards, I rotated it in order to ensnare Delhart’s spear, who was getting cocky with a series of attacks.

“For you to even be able to use swordsmanship――”

Delhart pulled the spear back with skilled movements, shifting to a combat range where he could unleash mid-thrusts while blending them with feints by using the lower muscles of his shoulders.

“Demonoid Martial Arts <Ryuuguto>――” 1

A chained thrusting attack boosted by a skill, huh? To feint with just his stance; what an amazing spirit world knight.

But, I also possess trump cards I haven’t used yet.

In the next moment, I focused on my new sage art <White Flame Sage Hand>. The aura of a white mist manifested around me within milliseconds. And a swarm of hands appeared from within the mist. I imagined their form to be like the spear hand attack I learned from Kisara and Gramps Ton.

“Gunuuoo!? White flames!? You possess the divine protection of the spirit world gods!?” Delhart was completely caught on the wrong foot.

In a hurry he lifted his spear sideways, shifting towards defense. My white hands were blocked by the spear handle.

But, as might be expected, even a spirit world knight couldn’t handle the entire swarm of spear hands assailing him in great force. His body took countless stabs. At the same time you could hear a series of loud bangs as if large cannons were continuously shooting their volleys.

Moreover, I added <Dusk of Lancer> to the mix.

“Dark God Rivograph!?”

Delhart’s magic armor was chipped away by the barrage of white flame hands and dark stakes, resulting in him having his bulky, light brown chest exposed in the end. Immediately following, the spear hands started to stab right through his skin.

Delhart madly screamed, “Guaaaaaah――”

His upper body became inflated, and a fountain of mana gushed out into the vicinity, erasing the white hands that had pierced his body. He twisted his naked, expanded body and stabbed his spear at my torso.

He’s definitely tough, but the spear trajectory is rather wild.

I summoned Ganghis into my left hand while simultaneously activating <Call of the Water Goddess>. As I twisted my left hand that held Ganghis, I extended the spear diagonally to the front, causing Ganghis to repel his spear.

Dripping with blood, Delhart shouted, “A-An illusion!?”

I also wondered whether it’s an illusion, but it looks like others than me can see it as well.

Having had his arm thrown upwards, Delhart’s balance fell apart. But, he still held onto his spear.

I unleashed a <Water Drill> with the force of having shifted my risen mana into Ganghis. The twin-moon-blade of Ganghis, clad by the sage art’s white flames and water vapor, penetrated Delhart’s chest.

“――Guuuaaahhh!”

Sheets of water sprays, which were burning with white flames, scattered from Ganghis’s spearhead into the surroundings. The glistening vapor transformed into a cone as if paying its respects to Divine Spear Ganghis.

Has the white mist of the sage art changed? Is it Water Goddess Akreshys? I can see something akin to a divine mirage.

But, the mirage vanished as fleeting as the hands of white mist.

An illusion that lasted but a few milliseconds, huh?

The spearhead of Ganghis was still embedded in Delhart’s body after the mirage passed. The attack hadn’t ended yet.

Without giving him any time to do anything, I used <Magic Hand guided by Thought>, unleashing a <Thrust> with Divine Spear Arost directly from above. Arost dove down with its cross-shaped spearhead spiraling while emitting a loud drilling sound. It seemed as if Arost might stab into the crown of Delhart’s head.

“Guaaaaaa!” He screamed.

Incredible, that fucker really managed to react here. By tilting his body, he had avoided his head being hit. But, Arost had torn through the top of his shoulder, making its way deep into his chest.

He’s now looking like Christ as he bore the cross…

Masses of blood were flowing out of the wound inflicted by Arost. The blood spray rained down on me as well. Delhart had stopped moving altogether.

<Magic Hand guided by Thought> twisted Arost downwards as if to bisect Delhart’s torso alongside the ring of blood spray that had formed around him. But, Delhart’s body was hard. The mana hand couldn’t bisect it, and instead only Arost’s handle sank deeper.

Well, since the momentum of the spiraling <Thrust> has stopped, it’s only reasonable, I guess. But, I’ll use the toughness of Delhart’s armor and muscles to my own advantage.

I erased Ganghis, and then I stepped with Arzen’s boot on the handle of Arost, kicked off it, and leaped high into the air. While twisting my body in the air, I moved around towards Delhart’s back.

“I’ll have you give me Baldok back――”

I touched Baldok, which had been embedded in Delhart’s back all the time, and immediately erased it. I also erased the <Magic Hand guided by Thought> behind me, and resummoned it as a foothold below me. Kicking off the crooked mana hand, I leaped high up while somersaulting in the air, perceiving the situation around me.

“Nnnn, nya～”

――A battlefield in the night sky, huh?

Delhart crashed towards the ground like a broken doll. The enemies around me…have been mostly mopped up.

At that point, I sensed movements in the Sea of trees below me. I checked Eva’s situation.

She was fighting against a black-haired vampire. Matabe was behind her. It looked like they were forming a joint front. Eva used her five Sergelon’s Balls to restrain the enemy.

While repelling some balls with sickle blades, the vampire swiftly rotated their body, dodging the rest of the balls. Their movements were fast. Eva glared at the opponent, obviously upset about her prided steel balls being dodged and repelled.

She kicked off the ground with her metallic legs which were clad in violet mana. Advancing in a forward-bent posture, she extended her tonfa from both sleeves, just to unleash a series of <Thrusts> aimed at the vampire’s torso.

The vampire focused on defense while slowly retreating. He warded the tonfa off with the sickle blades in his hands. He defended against the flurry of tonfa thrusts with a magnificent defensive sword dance that seemed to smoothly flow in all directions, and then tried to shift to counterattacking.

But, instead he suffered an intense low kick from Eva’s metallic foot. The power behind Eva’s kick was terrifying.

The vampire, who had his leg completely broken, had to quickly prop himself up by pressing one hand against the ground. He swiftly retreated by twisting his body while holding the sickles close to his thighs. While continuing to fall back by using his hands skillfully like a rhythmic gymnastics athlete, he had his crushed leg regenerate within a few milliseconds.

His maneuvers and the decent recovery speed are anything but normal. Is he a kin of <Head Servant Leader> class?

The vampire laughed daringly swinging his sickle blades as if pruning weeds. He seemed to also say something. Going by his behavior, he reminds me of the former Shadow Wing Brigade member Kary.

The sickles in his hands were exceptional weapons, filled with mana. He was apparently wearing a mantle with metal clasps in the shape of badges sewed onto it at both shoulders. Below he wore pants made out of lame leather and leather boots.

His stance of standing sideways was reminiscent of kenpo. Overall, his Magic Combat Style-based technique was high and you could sense an air of composure from his relaxed motions. He was definitely strong.

Maybe that’s the stray vampire called noble youth?

My <Head Servant Leader> Eva is honestly powerful. But, I cannot help worrying about her.

I stopped watching and took a nosedive.

The black-haired vampire said, “I thought I’d nab that silver coffin while the things up there were heated, but I guess that was too optimistic.”

“Nn, who are you?”

“That doesn’t matter――”

They were in the middle of talking, but without giving a damn about that, I <Threw> Arost――

Yet, the vampire was able to easily dodge it.

“This is a light-based spear!? Oof, how damn scary! I really don’t wanna fight the spearmaster. So, sorry for disturbing, ‘kay? Don’t worry, I won’t show up anymore――”

Immediately after he entered the shade of a tree behind him, he disappeared as if melting into the darkness. His magic source response vanished, too.

“Shuuya, everything is fine except for the guy that disappeared just now. I knocked down everything with Sergelon.”

“Aye.”

“I’ve also contacted Rebecca, so that side will be alright, too.”

Eva used her <Mind Force> to pull Arost out of the ground and move it to me. The people we saved had gathered behind her who was speaking to me with a smile on her lips.

I nodded while returning a smile. Then I looked at the former flight passengers as I grabbed Arost and erased it. I spotted Sana and Hina. They had positioned them in front of the group so as to protect the passengers.

As soon as Matabe confirmed that the enemy was gone, he moved back to his position of protecting Eva’s rear.

I’m worried about that black-haired vampire, but…it doesn’t seem like he’s going to come back again.

“Sana, Hina, wait here for a bit together with Eva――”

After telling them so in Japanese, I shifted my eyes from the place where the vampire vanished to the sky. While watching the night sky where the extreme battles were still raging, I leaped. Given that Rollodeen, who had been spitting her fire up there all the time, came close, I jumped on her back. With Rollodeen’s tentacles coiled around my legs, waist, and neck.

“――Your Excellency, we fought as well!”

“Please take a look!”

Just as the Burning Knights hoisted up their shields and sword which were dripping with blood…the corpses of a humanoid demon with huge, black wings that were connected from his back to his arms and two-headed, bulky demons fell atop Rollodeen’s broad back.

The corpses were completely dried up. It looks like Rollodeen has sucked out all their blood. She appears to be in the mood to give the demons, which she defeated with her tentacle bone sword, a ride on her own back.

“It seems Spirit-sama has taken down some as well.”

“Mugu-class demonic beasts have been dropping after getting turned into frozen sculptures, too.”

Just as the Burning Knights were talking, Helme flew back towards us. She was dragging a female knight, who had her limbs bound by glittering, shining strings, behind her.

“Did you catch her?”

“Yes.”

Helme was emitting a nice scent as she landed on Rollodeen’s back. At her feet…was the spirit world knight. She was lying on Rollodeen’s back while wrapped up in her fluffy, black fur. The magic swords in her hands with its Demonic Eyes and the protector around her splendid thighs were also being pinned down by the strings of <Lapis Lazuli Flower>. The knight was wearing magic armor with an elaborate design.

Marvelous! Her breastplate followed the shape of her boobs! And the tasset, which continues all the way to her back protector, is flexible.

But, currently she was revealing an indescribably weird face, apparently feeling very good. Exactly because she was a beautiful demon with long and narrow eyes as well as long eyelashes, her current expression looked quite amusing. Moreover, with her wearing a classy face guard which covered a part of her cheeks, her weird face tood out even more.

Even so, it’s undeniably a lovely face. I feel like inspecting her face from much closer.

“Nnn,” Rollodeen rumbled lowly as if retorting my thoughts.

She was on her back, but Rollodeen apparently could pinpoint the knight’s precise location through her shared senses with me. She twined her tentacles and fur around the knight’s entire body. In the end, she finished a human-shaped jail made out of black tentacles and fur. Or rather, it looked like an iron maiden that only allowed the face to peek out.

Rollodeen played around by tapping the knight’s cheeks with the pads of her tentacles.

“Spirit-sama, why did you catch the enemy alive?”

“You can’t tell, Zemetas? It looks like you still have a long way to go as His Excellency’s retainer.”

“You judged her to suit my preferences, didn’t you?”

“Hehe, yes.”

Even while saying so, Helme’s eyes were…directed at the knight’s butt.

At that point, Rollodeen meowed before spitting fire again. She was cleaning up what remained of the eyeball-shaped demons.

While touching her rein tentacle, I confirmed the location of my reliable comrade Kisara. She was using her crows. The battle against the rose-crowned demon, which had been unleashing many whips, was heading for its conclusion.

With Rotalz also joining the battle, the demon retreated. The way of its retreat, however, was praiseworthy. Smaller whips fanned out from the main whip, then they ballooned up like a jellyfish when drawing wind into itself, before deflating that swelling to advance by emitting wind. It was a movement method based on wind force.

It had already distanced itself quite a bit.

As I was watching that fight, the huge black rabbit, now covered with injuries all over, approached. The demon with the centipede cap and the demon with the multiple caterpillar legs, who fought against him, were nowhere to be seen.

“I shall return to Vaa-chan.”

“You have my gratitude for backing us up. Thanks.”

“…Humph, so you’re a guy who knows when to bow your head to me. I guess that’s why Varmina-sama has taken a liking to you.”

“You say so, but I won’t sacrifice any women for you.”

“…No need to spell it out. But, Vaa-chan truly intends to win you over to her side, you know? And today’s battle should have told you her wish to make you her spirit world knight. Anyway, I’m tired. See you――,” said the Shaysad while making his fur tremble, and then separated from us while regenerating his body.

“Leaving Shaysad aside, the monster that summoned the elephant nose was incredible…lightning had pierced the sky…and the one clad in darkness over there is Hoffmann…”

“The elephant nose, who gave the Wave Gourd to His Excellency, certainly moved in an abnormal way…and you can’t underestimate the forces of the divine domain either.”

“Your Excellency, we weren’t overly useful…”

Helme and the others didn’t pay much attention to Shaysad. Rather than that, they seemed to be more interested in the ever-changing battlefield in the sky, albeit that was only reasonable.

“Don’t mind it. You slaughtered the demon on Rollo’s back, didn’t you? Instead, please tell me about Zebal.”

“Zebal is one of the demonic marquis who owns a great number of knights. I have heard he’s a strong warrior who succeeded in securing territory in the Spirit World by successfully breeding gigantic mugu classes.”

“Demonic Moth King Zebal possesses moth-patterned wings on his back, or so they say.”

Hooh, moths, huh? Does he have some kind of connection to Demi-Goddess Golgonshura? Don’t tell me he’s aiming for the silver coffin below or some such?

“I see. Thanks. For the time being, we’re going to leave the Time Tapir, Hoffmann’s gang, and the divine forces alone. They also started to distance themselves from our location.”

After the human monks, who called themselves priests, joined in, Hoffmann’s side was getting overwhelmed. It was pretty clear when looking at his retreating battle.

“Shuuya-sama――”

“Yo, the demons in that part of the sky are gone. But, that skull bastard is…”

It was Kisara in her pretty, sleeveless witch outfit and Rotalz with his broken horn. However, even after stopping, Rotalz remained vigilant while watching right above us. He was preparing to fire his usual scattering beam.

The skeleton mage Hazes was floating right over our head on the right side. Next to him was also the flame-engulfed kid. It pointed with its rapier-shaped flames at us.

That kid seems to be bothered by Rotalz’s presence. Probably because of all his pixelated farts…

Even Rollodeen, who was carrying us right now, understood the kid’s feelings as she was repeatedly looking at Rotalz’s farts.

I don’t feel like understanding what they find so interesting about them…however, it’s inevitable as Rollo has been influenced by it as well. Since it’s a physiologic phenomenon, complaining about it wouldn’t help much…

“Shuuya-san, we’ve finally prepared an environment allowing for a talk.”

“Right? Right?” The kid’s high-pitched voice chimed in immediately after Hazes politely addressed me.

“Ryanryan, go back for now.”

“Ryan――”

The flame child, which seemed to be called Ryan, contracted into the wand held by Hazes as if being absorbed. Hazes’s voice somehow had a timber like that of a middle-aged guy.

He performed a deep bow as if to show me the top of his skull head. He had the appearance of a skeleton, but with his polite manners, he was close to a Japanese person in atmosphere. I ended up feeling affinity towards him.

After lifting his head, he slowly descended towards us.

“Shuuya-sama, who is this skeleton mage?”

“Ah, his name is Hazes. He’s a subordinate of Shiki, who’s commonly called Collector. Shiki is an apostle of the Twilight Queen and lives in Pelneet, making Hazes over here someone connected to a kin of Twilight Queen Lebra.”

“A Spirit World Goddess’s…please excuse my rudeness then.”

Kisara instantly stored away the filaments of her witch spear. Then she positioned the spear so that it aligned with her slender leg.

“No, do not mind it. By the way, who might you be? Earlier you allowed me to witness a unique fighting style that combined spear and voice, but I could tell that you are fairly powerful. But, as a bloodkin-sama of spearmaster-sama…”

Hazes stared at Kisara with the Demonic Eyes in his eye sockets. Kisara reacted to Hazes’s appraising look with a beautiful smile.

『I don’t particularly mind you looking at me. But, you do know what’s going to happen if we fight, right?』 is what I felt her blue eyes were saying through her black mask.

And then she cast a fleeting glance at me. I felt like she was confirming with me whether it was okay to reveal information about us. That’s why I nodded. Kisara nodded back at me.

“…I am not a bloodkin yet. My name is Kisara. One of the Four Heavenly Witches, and the wielder of Damo’Anun’s Witch Spear.”

“One of the Four Heavenly Witches…how rare.” Hazes nodded after muttering with an unreadable expression. “Then, except for Spirit-sama and the skeleton knights, the bloodkin is the one below.”

Hazes inclined his jaw downwards. He’s probably looking at my <Head Servant Leader> Eva. He had seen Eva when she visited Shiki together with me.

At that point, I looked at Kisara, “That’s right. Kisara isn’t a bloodkin yet.”

“Is that so? But, a witch spear…I judged that it’s an item which Shiki-sama would be interested in, but…”

A cackling escaped from deep inside Hazes’s skull.

“Even if you might be connected to Queen Lebra, you’ll get destroyed if you run your mouth too thoughtlessly, you know?” Kisara started to talk in the same way as when she met me for the first time, making sure to get ready as a witch.

“…Haha, forgive me. ――Anyway, I have a message from Shiki-sama for you.”

Hazes moved in a way as if retreating half a step, and turned his skull in my direction.

“What is it?”

“Okay, it is as follows: 『I hear you have been officially recognized as master of the Sea of Trees by Twilight Queen Lebra-sama, Shuuya-sama. The land, tools, and place where the demi-goddess was sealed are valuable… Hehe, the apples are delicious, aren’t they? If you add pure water to the apple juice, you’ll obtain a drink with an exquisite taste. Oh, in addition, now that Light of the Yellow Bird left the labyrinth, we’re lacking personnel over here…if you’re still interested in labyrinth exploration and item collection, please come back by all means. Moreover, the eternal queen, Twilight Queen Lebra-sama expressly appeared “while scolding me” as she “wants to meet you”…』. The tone towards the end was blurred with anger…”

She’s angry? Or jealous? I don’t know, but she knows about the apples? Did she see them before?

“Okay, I have finished my task with this, so I shall take my leave――” While cackling once more, Hazes melted into his mantle.

A black umbrella sporadically appeared, moving away from us. Is that guy also able to transform into a black umbrella?

“Okay, for starters we’ll go back down, join up with Rebecca’s group, and then pull back.”

“Okay, I shall return into your eye, Your Excellency.”

“Roger.”

“The battle between Hoffmann and the divine forces is out of sight by now.”

While confirming how Helme appeared as a tiny version at the edge of my sight, “――Yeah. Also, I’m planning to salvage the remains of the aircraft, but could you help me together with Rotalz and Rollo?”

As might be expected, something so big won’t fit into my item bag. Well, I’ll try to stuff it in later, though.

“Yes, we will help. Rotalz.”

“Sure, count on me.”

We descended to the place near the lake. I still haven’t told them about Matabe, the semi-transparent warrior, but oh well, I think it’ll be alright.

Share