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Chapter 143 – The Priestess’ Last Moments – Part 1

Sword Genius Hali’An, huh?

True, she’s different from the other dark elves.

Her movements show a high level of physical ability.

Female dark elves wearing vermilion protective gear — probably her subordinates — apply a potion-like liquid on her.

They also chant healing magic.

Healing magic of the water attribute? Water drizzles on the unconscious Hali’An like a shower.

Viine continues to glare at Hali’An as she receives healing.

For her, Hali’an is one of the leaders of her family’s enemies.

I guess I will leave Hali’an to her.

“Viine, you handle these guys.” (Shuuya)

“Yes!” (Viine)

Viine immediately tosses her bow and quiver on the ground.

Then she drew the silver sword and Black Snake that hang at her waist without any hesitation. Her unsheathing was accompanied by a pleasant metallic sound.

Maintaining a forward-bent posture, she starts running towards the dark elves that are nursing Hali’An.

One of them stands up, readies her longsword, and thrusts it at Viine, but Viine dodges by a hair’s breadth with a slight bend of her bluish-white body.

Viine unleashes a counter-thrust — stabbing the dark elf’s chest with her silver sword.

But, having judged the thrust to be too shallow, she lowers one shoulder and steps forward.

While saying what seems to be a skill name, she launches a slash diagonally from her shoulder with Black Snake.

The black slash severs the dark elf’s cervical vertebrae.

With a sword technique that combines thrusting and slashing, she easily lopped off the dark elf’s head.

Now snapping out of their shock, the remaining two dark elves stop nursing Hali’An.

They stand up in order to cover the collapsed Hali’an while hurling abuse at Viine.

“—Get out of the way!!”

Viine moves with those bloodcurdling words.

She repels an enemy longsword with Black Snake in her right hand as if scooping up from the lower left to the upper right. And then, as if being in a flow, she rotates her body and uses that momentum to swing horizontally at the torso of one of the dark elves with the silver sword in her left hand.

Using that opportunity, the other dark elf, who had circled around behind Viine, aims for Viine’s back with their short sword.

Viine evades the backstab by rotating to the right.

Afterward, she does a spinning backflip, passing over the dark elf’s head while swinging Black Snake downward.

The female dark elf, who had her head cleaved in two, collapses while showing a cross-section view of her brain.

The face of the collapsing elf was green.

I guess it’s an effect of Black Snake’s poison.

Viine lands on the ground like a gymnast.

Once her red gladiator boots touch down on the ground,

“Blood for blood! I will have you suffer my, no, my family’s regrets!” Viine shouts.

Did Hali’An notice Viine’s presence? She starts to crawl while churning the soil with both her hands in order to get quickly away.

Viine stomped down the sole of her red leather boot on the back of Hali’An.

“You are not going anywhere! I’m Viine, the former second daughter of the 【12th-ranked Sorcer Noble Azmail Household】. You shall suffer revenge for having destroyed my family—” (Viine)

Viine introduces herself and stabs Black Snake into the back of Hali’An.

“Ugeeh! Hyaaa—”

Hali’An bends her body, trembles, and screams.

“My elder sister’s, my mother’s and my younger sisters’ revenge!!!” (Viine)

She stabbed Black Snake into Hali’An again and again.

The vermilion protective gear is torn to pieces, the flesh on her back is a soggy mess, and her crushed head has lost any shape.

Viine still continued to stab even after Hali’An had become an unmoving corpse.

“Hey, Viine.” (Shuuya)

“Haa, haa, haa…yes.” (Viine)

The expression of the agitated Viine appeared to be tired.

“Stop it already, okay?” (Shuuya)

“Yes.” (Viine)

She was in a daze, but life returned into her eyes upon my words.

Tilting her head vertically, she gives a small nod. After wiping away the blood on Black Snake and the silver-steel longsword, she sheathed them in their scabbards at her waist, picked up the bow and quiver she had dropped, took out several arrows from within the quiver, and scanned the surroundings as if nothing had happened.

I survey the battlefield, too.

Once I do,

“Nya.”

Rollo in her Horse Lion form purrs lightly and transforms into a medium-sized Black Panther.

Rollo returns next to my feet.

“You did your best, didn’t you?” (Shuuya)

I stroke the black panther from her head to the bottom of her neck as a reward.

Rollo releases a happy, throaty purr while twining her long, black tail around my foot.

“Haha, now’s not the time for this.” (Shuuya)

I don’t let my guard down while frolicking around with Rollo.

I raise my head and look around.

On the left, there’s a lot of debris.

I was wondering whether there were only the corpses of defeated dark elves and the rubble of the mangled mansion scattered around, but I hear the sound of combat from close to the distant wall on the right side.

It was the site where the two Burning Knights and Helme were fighting.

Except for over there…we had apparently finished defeating all of the enemies.

“Master, the suspicious-looking people fighting over there are…” (Viine)

Viine asked me.

“Ah, those are my subordinates. I will introduce them to you afterwards.” (Shuuya)

“…You say those people are…understood.” (Viine)

Viine once again opened her mouth and widened her eyes in surprise.

For a short moment she was dumbfounded, but nodding her head several times as if she comprehended something in her own way, her face returns to her usual calm expression.

It’s the face of a beauty.

At that moment, there’s a rumbling in the distance off to the left.

It’s the sound of rubble collapsing.

As it collapsed, magic source responses show up from beneath.

A group of dark elves wearing vermilion protective gear appear from below the rubble.

There are also several soldiers wearing black chain mails with shoulder plates attached mixed in among them.

“It looks like there’s still quite a few survivors left.” (Shuuya)

“Yes, it seems so—” (Viine)

The new group of dark elves let out a jumbled yells while holding their weapons.

Once they discover us, they all charge towards us while hurling abusive words full of hatred.

There’s a bit of a distance, but…they come running with manic expressions.

Viine keeps a cool head as she gazes at the approaching enemies and shoots her arrows at them.

From a long distance — they are pierced one after the other.

I pondered whether I should kill them with magic, but,

“Nnn, nyao.”

RolloBlack Panther warns me by purring with a throaty voice, likely saying 『They are here nya』.

She hops in front to protect Viine and me.

Fire breath?

No. Making her six tentacles writhe in midair, she seems to be waiting for the enemy to get close.

At that moment,

“Master, I will release my Extra Skill since the number of enemies is big. Is that fine with you?” (Viine)

“Sure. Rollo, it seems that Viine is going to start something. I think we will be alright as they are still far away, but come to my side just in case.” (Shuuya)

“Nya.”

RolloBlack Panther runs back to me.

Viine’s Extra Skill. Now that I think of it, it will be my first time seeing it, won’t it?

I wonder what kind of effect it will have. I’m looking forward to it.

Moving not to the rear but off to Viine’s right, I peeked at her face.

“It will be safe for me to stand here, right?” (Shuuya)

“Yes.” (Viine)

She says with a smile. Then she takes off the silver mask and places it on top of her silver hair as if putting on a hat.

I could see the beautiful, silver butterfly on her right cheek start to shine.

Once she touches that shining butterfly with a fingertip, the butterfly moves from her cheek to her slender finger and then onto the back of her hand.

She carefully and lovingly places the now tattooed hand in front of her chest, then brings her together, leaving no gaps between them.

The silver radiance intensifies even further and the other hand starts to shine as well. Both hands start to glow brighter.

Parting her shining hands, she erects the thumbs and index fingers while folding the other fingers towards the palm.

She creates something similar to a Fugensanmaya1 hand seal.

As she formed the seal, the brightness of her two hands transforms into small, silver droplets.

Next, she creates a hand seal of a fist with both hands, the seal for Jin. Afterward, she creates a hand seal looking as if she’s going to shoot a qigong cannon2, and finally, she joins her hands together into a seal I have never seen before. She repeats changing and joining her hands several times.

With each hand seal she forms, her mana gains strength and the silver droplets assemble at the backs of her hands. Her hands turn into silver-shrouded cocoons from which small, silver butterflies are born and fly off.

It’s just for an instant, but I recall something from Japan’s history due to her actions.

The rugby player Ayumu Goromaru.

Hand seals from a ninja manga.

Mikkyou3 seals.

But, the instant Viine releases her hand seals, those nostalgic images floating in my mind disperse.

Just as spots of darkness appear on her hands that are now acting as silver cocoons, Viine separates both hands to the left and right as if cutting that darkness apart.

At that instant, silver butterflies, countless silver-speckled butterflies, flutter towards the black sky.

How pretty. The swarm of butterflies is beautiful.

A thick cloud of silver scales pours down like rain onto the oncoming dark elves from the countless, beautiful butterflies.

Once the silver scales and butterflies touch the exposed skin, the hands and faces of the dark elves, their attitude takes a swift turn.

They shout, laugh, rage, dance, and start running recklessly holding their heads, clashing and running into each other.

It’s a perfect state of chaos and derangement.

Not a single dark elf headed our way.

There are also some who are no longer moving after falling to the ground.

Having used such a strong Extra Skill, Viine sat down on the spot as if slumping down.

Did she sweat a lot? Her long, silver hair is clinging seductively to her face.

She looks exhausted as if she has become even paler.

With a movement that felt slow she recovers her face with the silver mask to hide the silver butterfly located there.

It looks like she has consumed so much mana that she can’t stand out of fatigue.

I should give her a mana recovery potion, I guess.

I take out a potion from my item box.

“Viine, are you alright? Drink this.” (Shuuya)

“Ah, this is…?” (Viine)

“It’s a potion. Don’t worry and drink it. This place is still a battlefield.” (Shuuya)

“Yes, Master! Thank you very much.” (Viine)

Once she drinks the potion, she smiles as she has apparently recovered somewhat. She returns the empty bottle to me.

I don’t really need it, but taking it, I store it in my bandolier.

“Now then—” (Shuuya)

I turn my face to the dark elves who are causing a racket.

There are still a lot of them alive.

I guess I have to clean them up.

Let’s do it with magic.

“…I will finish them off.” (Viine)

Viine suddenly gets up, readies her tawny, wooden bow, and begins shooting.

“—Wait, I will kill them all together in one go. Viine, you are still on a rest break. Enjoy the scenery.” (Shuuya)

“…Yes.” (Viine)

Viine sits down on the ground as her knees are a bit shaky.

As expected, she seems to be quite exhausted.

“Rollo, protect Viine.” (Shuuya)

“Nyaon.”

Rollo gives her acknowledgment with a loud meow and gallantly stands in front of Viine with her limbs loosely bent.

After ascertaining that Viine sat on the ground, I use <Magic Hand guided by Thought> to jump through the air.

I arrived diagonally above the confused dark elves.

—I guess I will quickly put an end to them.

Language magic of the water attribute.

The highest-class spell I have learned.

It seems easier to load it with mana now.

I strongly imagine “columns of ice dragon fangs.”

Gazing at the dark elves, I extend my arm…

—I silently cast 《Ice Dragon ColumnsFrozen Dragoness》.

After my casting, ice columns modeled after ice dragon heads shoot out from my arm.

The jaws of the ice dragons open wide and they fly off while roaring.

Each time the tails and fins of the ice dragons move, blue traces are left behind in the sky. Even I, who was quite far away, was able to feel the freezing air.

The ice dragons crash into the dark elves as if trying to bite them with their ice fangs.

The impact blows away the nearby rubble and the ice columns that turned into waves of a blizzard spread out in a sphere.

Pillars of ice served as something similar to the dark elves’ gravestones.

The dark elves died after being pierced by the ice columns or became pure white ice block molds.

Within the spell’s effect, it’s a scenery similar to a snow country.

The rubble that was blown away to the outer circumference and the corpses of the dark elves form sloppy clusters.

It went well.

No sooner than thinking that, I discover a moving dark elf.

I use <Chain Spear of the Ray SystemShining Chain Lance> on the spot.

The ray pierces into the back of the dark elf, who was trying to escape, while drawing an arc.

Moreover, the back part of the light spear breaks up in a spiral, as a spiderweb-like light net is created, then that light net spreads across the dark elf’s back.

Having been caught by the light net and with their back pierced through by the light spear, the dark elf can’t move any further.

I think they will die at this rate, but just in case I fire an 《Ice Ball》.

The imagined shape of the ice ball is that of a rifle bullet with a teardrop form.

The ice ball spell pulverizes the head of the dark elf.

Alright, it’s a hit.

Using <Magic Hand guided by Thought> as foothold, I descent to Viine’s and Rollo’s location.

Viine waits for me with her head lowered and a knee on the ground while her shoulders are trembling.

Rollo transforms back into her usual black cat size and returns on my shoulder.

“As expected of a strong male. It was terrifying water magic. I tremble from how moved I am…” (Viine)

I was about to say, “Haha, you are really exaggerating,” but I hold back.

Viine’s eyes are slightly moist and have a tinge of passion…it’s a serious face.

I change the topic.

“…Yeah, but rather than that, is your body fine, Viine? It seems like you used a lot of mana for the Extra Skill just now.” (Shuuya)

“Yes. Thanks to the potion, I recovered a bit. I’m alright now.” (Viine)

It seems I gave her a potion that increases her mana recovery instead of one that gives her mana upfront.

It’s one of the potions Kuna possessed, so its purity might be all over the place.

“I see, that’s great.” (Shuuya)

When I was checking Viine’s complexion, Helme and the Burning Knights came back after finishing with the surviving dark elves.

They abruptly stop in front of me and fall to one knee in unison.

The Burning Knights are covered in wounds.

The solid-looking chest parts of their red and black armors have holes at some parts and they had been stabbed by several arrows.

They are tattered.

Helme on the other hand is unhurt.

“Yo, thank you for your efforts. As expected, you are unhurt Helme, huh? But, Zemetas and Adomos, you were wounded quite a bit, weren’t you…?” (Shuuya)

“Nya, nn, nya, nyan.”

Rollo is saying something while rhythmically tapping my right shoulder with her forepaws and tentacles.

I imagine it’s something along the lines of “Big-Boney, Lucky Bones, how careless of you nya. Can’t you be a bit useful at least nya?”

“…Your Excellency, the Burning Knights and I annihilated the enemy while supporting each other with magic. The Burning Knights received a lot of attacks, but…” (Helme)

Helme gave me a light run-down of the battle progress.

She makes the blue and bluish-black leafy skin of her body undulate as if causing waves, her long hair then begins to sway as if it had been hit by the same waves.

Now flowing, she casts a sidelong glance at the tattered Burning Knights.

“Indeed, I’m ashamed…”

“Let’s make sure to finish the next fight without any injuries!”

Considering Zemetas and Adomos have rough bone helmets that give one an intense impression for a head, I can’t read their emotions from the expressions. They are speaking with heavy bass voices that seem to be full of vexation though.

Rollo extends her tentacles from my shoulder and comforted the Burning Knights by patting their skulls.

Well then, let’s ignore Rollo’s actions and get on with the introductions.

“…Got it. Now then, Burning Knights, Helme, I will introduce you. The silver-haired person kneeling over there is a dark elf. She was my slave, but now she’s my friend and servant. Please get along with her. Take care of each other, okay?” (Shuuya)

“”Yes, Master!! We shall follow your heart’s desires—“” (Zemetas & Adomos)

“Certainly.” (Helme)

“Nyaon.”

The Burning Knights match their voices and acknowledge it.

Helme also acknowledges it while lowering her head.

Even Rollo acknowledges it with a proud, self-satisfied look for some reason.

“Everyone, while I’m still inexperienced, it was decided that I will be added at the lowest seat as Master’s subordinate. My name is Viine. My race is dark elf. I have a diminutive body, but I want to support and be useful to Master as much as possible. I humbly ask you to please give me your encouragement and guidance from now on.” (Viine)

Viine bows her head very deeply towards my subordinates.

She managed to introduce herself properly.

“Best regards, blue-skinned Viine-dono. My name is Zemetas, a black burning knight.”

“Best regards, Viine-dono. I am Adomos, likewise a red burning knight.”

“…I was always watching you. I’m the Water Spirit of Everlasting Darkness, Helme. Make sure to show no discourtesy towards His Excellency.” (Helme)

“Nya, nn, nyaon.”

Helme looked at Viine with a slightly sharp look, but soon afterward she apparently consents and switches over to a sidelong glance, looking at Viine’s whole body as if checking her out.

For Rollo it’s that.

She’s probably acting like a senpai while showing a smug look again.

“…That’s the end of introductions then, right? This is still a battlefield after all. The third daughter, Sword Genius Hali’An was done in, but I still haven’t seen the corpses of the priestess matriarch Phelemin Dao Langibad, the eldest daughter Wizard Tomelia, or the second daughter Majin Gamily. They probably died after receiving the direct hit from the ancient magic at the beginning or they were swallowed up by the building’s collapse, but it’s also possible that they have lived through the explosion without dying like the third daughter.” (Shuuya)

“Yes, shall we make our rounds then?” (Viine)

“Let’s do that.” (Shuuya)

I agree with Viine while surveying the vicinity.

“Please order this Zemetas.”

“Please give instructions to Adomos.”

“Your Excellency, I shall follow you.” (Helme)

“Burning Knights, since your injuries are extreme, return to the spirit world for now. Helme, Viine, we will take a little walk.” (Shuuya)

Right after I ordered them, the Burning Knights bow and vanish without a word.

“As you command!” (Viine)

“I will accompany you, Your Excellency.” (Helme)

Together with the two, I start walking atop the debris with Rollo on my shoulder, I try to be careful of treacherous footing.

I also used Grasping Perception.

We advance while blowing away the rubble below with magic and the Magic Halberd.

We search the area where the central part of the mansion had been while getting rid of the wreckage, and then, after a few minutes,

—I sense magic source responses from below.

Several of them.

“There are several responses below this spot.” (Shuuya)

“Certainly, I sense them too. Should I make sure by going down there?” (Helme)

“Yes, go have a look.” (Shuuya)

Helme turns into liquid and seeps down through the gaps between the rubble.

We are standing on what’s left of the upper floor of the building.

Going by the location…it was probably the place where the priestess lived.

“…Helme-sama is a spirit-sama, right?” (Viine)

Viine stares at the spot where the liquefied Helme had seeped in.

She’s surprised by Helme’s sudden change into a liquid and her disappearance into the ground.

“Correct. A Water Spirit of Everlasting Darkness. She’s a spirit living with my mana as nourishment and kin of the darkness and water families. I think that there’s no other spirit like her.” (Shuuya)

“…” (Helme)

Viine stayed silent.

She pondered that thought for a while, showing the same troubled expression she showed when she was talking about her past the other day.

“…Viine, are you listening?” (Shuuya)

“Y-Yes. I’m sorry.” (Viine)

“You were thinking about something again, weren’t you? Try voicing it out.” (Shuuya)

I looked at Viine’s face while revealing a faint smile.

“Okay. Master, you seem to even understand our language…are you really a magul?” (Viine)

Viine asks with a stiff smile.

As expected, you might say that it’s natural for her to consider that.

I’m not a normal magul, or human.

I’m a light demon, a Lucival, a combined descent of humans and vampires.

Well, exactly because it’s her, I deliberately showed her the side aligned with darkness.

“…You want to know?” (Shuuya)

“Of course.” (Viine)

“Nn, nya.”

I know, right?

Even Rollo purrs as if saying “Just say it already nya.”

I guess I will summon my courage and simply tell her.

If she leaves me over this, I will accept that as well.