Ch.124Chapter 124 – The Deserted Village (2)

“It was a bit awkward since it’s been so long.”

Christina began speaking shyly.

“The last time I actually saw a demon appear was when I had just become a novice nun.”

“When was that for you?”

“About six years ago.”

That was quite a while back.

“There are many records about demons and their energy, but they don’t actually appear very often.”

“Is that so?”

“They’re usually said to be confined beyond our dimension.”

Beatrice cut in.

“After the Demon War, demons were confined to their own dimension, but they occasionally cross over.”

“I see.”

“But only the weak ones.”

Beatrice explained while smoking.

“To cross between dimensions, you need something higher than a warp gate, and those are very unstable.”

“So the weaker they are, the more stable their crossing?”

“Something like that.”

Christina nodded at Beatrice’s words.

“That’s why most appearances are just imps. Very rarely, mid-level or higher demons appear, but they’re extremely weakened when they do.”

Christina glanced toward the village.

“…I think it’s been unheard of in recent times for a demon capable of doing this much damage to a village to appear.”

If Christina, who was practically in that line of work, didn’t know about it, then others certainly wouldn’t either.

Soon, Christina bowed her head toward us.

“I’m sorry. It’s my incompetence that I noticed the connection to demons so late.”

“Noticing it now is still plenty fast.”

Especially since others hadn’t even suspected it.

Beatrice made a slightly troubled expression and said:

“If demons are involved, this could be a bigger problem.”

“Why?”

“Like I said earlier, at most we’d expect the lowest rank, and even if a mage was involved in opening a gate, a weakened mid-rank demon would be about the limit.”

Beatrice clicked her tongue as if reluctant to admit it.

“For something of this scale, we’re talking about a high-rank demon or above, even assuming it’s weakened.”

“This is no ordinary situation.”

Eve was right.

“Either way, our only option is to eliminate it quickly.”

It was too late to quietly withdraw.

Since they had already sent people to attack us, we were already exposed to the enemy.

-Kikikik! Kikik!

-Grrrr.

“And it seems the other side has no intention of letting us go either.”

As if taking my words as some kind of signal, small purple monsters and some larger ones appeared.

“Imps and High Imps! Common demons!”

“Just cannon fodder.”

Beatrice said, flicking away her cigarette with her finger.

I switched my weapon to a halberd and stepped forward.

“Let’s go.”

At my words, everyone resumed their battle stances.

The demons also took their positions and began to charge.

-Kruaaa!!

I crushed the waist of one that rushed at me with my halberd.

I bisected a small purple demon that leaped at me.

I kept cutting down enemies that continued to charge at us.

“There’s a damn lot of them!”

Beatrice shouted while swinging her chain.

Looking to the side, I could see Eve beheading a High Imp with her sword, and Sera throwing something from her chest.

With an explosion, several imps were blown away, and Christina was using holy magic to burn multiple High Imps.

Meanwhile, I heard footsteps from ahead.

From the sound, it seemed to be running on four legs.

“Be careful, something’s coming!”

Just as Beatrice warned, something emerged through the fog.

This time it was a giant dog with two heads.

I saw the two-headed hound break through the fog and leap toward Christina’s neck as she was burning a High Imp.

-Woof woof!

“Shut up, you dog!”

I pushed Christina aside and changed my halberd into a sword.

Then I stabbed it into the beast’s stomach and swung it around.

The two-headed hound died instantly.

I shook the blood off my sword and looked at Christina.

“Are you alright?”

“Thank you!”

Christina immediately got up and started shooting Holy Arrows.

Five imps that had been trying to attack me from behind began to disintegrate after being hit by her attack.

-Kieek!

“My savior!”

“Don’t worry about this much.”

I quickly reached out, grabbed the face of an imp rushing at me, and threw it away.

After stepping on the imp as it tried to get up, I swung my halberd to cut down the High Imps.

“Who’s next?!”

I shouted as I split the head of a dazed High Imp in front of me.

As I advanced with my halberd, the imps and High Imps that had been fiercely attacking my companions began to back away.

One step, another step.

The imps, retreating in fear, finally couldn’t bear their terror and all threw themselves into the fog to escape.

“Christina?”

“That way!”

When I immediately asked for direction, Christina confidently pointed in one direction.

“Anyone hurt?”

“We’re all fine.”

Eve’s answer came, and Beatrice and Sera also approached, indicating they were okay.

“Let’s go, Helmet.”

Beatrice said, nodding her chin toward the direction Christina had pointed.

“Let’s see the face of whoever did this.”

She said with an extremely fierce smile.

+

“What, what, what, what!”

“She” was currently terrified.

At first, she thought they would be easy prey.

She had judged that after a long time, she could gather more sacrifices, and ambushing people in the fog would be sufficient.

However, the opponents, though struggling a bit, had completely subdued her people.

They even managed to dispel the magic she had cast.

Realizing this wouldn’t work, she sent imps and High Imps, and took special care to eliminate the most troublesome priest, but…

“Even Orthros…!”

The two-headed demon hound summoned with her from the demon realm.

She had thought it would take two or three holy knights to have a chance against it, as it was quite a powerful demon hound.

But it died in a single exchange.

“D-damn it, they shouldn’t be here yet…!”

Ignoring the agonizing voices coming from deep in the cave, she looked at the magic circle in front of her.

It was a magic circle for summoning a higher-ranking demon.

“For this, I went through all that trouble…!”

At first, she had kidnapped adventurers and merchants who came to the village to gather magical energy.

She extracted magical energy from them to the limit.

She spent days preparing around the village.

Her plan to use her power to charm the villagers and kidnap the entire village had barely succeeded a few days ago.

She had extracted magical energy from those sacrifices to the limit, again and again, and urgently gathered the necessary magical energy just three days ago.

Thinking she had succeeded, she poured almost all of that energy into her plan.

“Just a little longer, and the summoning will be complete…!”

Preparations to summon a demon stronger than herself were already underway.

She thought that if she could just succeed in summoning that demon, she would no longer need to tremble in fear.

But the problem was that the summoning circle was unstable.

That’s why the summoning, which should have been completed the day before yesterday, was still not finished.

‘I need to buy time somehow…!’

She was trying to think of a way while monitoring the enemies’ movements.

“How do they know exactly where to come?!”

Her hiding place was a cave in the mountains.

It should have been normal for people to get lost, given the rugged terrain and the fog she had created.

But the priest, who seemed to be no ordinary high priest, was coming directly toward her location.

At this rate, she couldn’t buy time with the fog.

‘Stay calm, find a way….’

First, it was clear she needed to throw all her remaining forces at them.

But she couldn’t fight in the room with the summoning circle.

If the circle was broken or damaged, her superior, who was being summoned, could be sent back immediately.

Then it would all be over.

Her plan to gain merit as part of this advance party and advance her career would be ruined.

‘Wait.’

She looked at her wings.

And then at her tail.

She looked at her nearly naked body.

As if she had just remembered something, she looked at the intruders.

‘That’s it.’

At first, she was a bit flustered by their strength, but she had missed one thing.

Most of them were women, but there was one man. And he was probably the strongest among them.

“I have no choice.”

Though she was trembling with fear inside, she soon made up her mind and stood up.

She gathered her remaining forces, shook her light blonde hair once, and checked her seductive body.

“I’ll have to make that man mine.”

Anyone who saw her would immediately recognize her species.

An attractive, nearly naked body and face.

Wings on her back and a tail.

She was a succubus.

“There’s no time, I need to prepare.”

She quickly gathered forces for interception and thought about her strategy.

And as if she had just remembered, she looked at those who were running toward her.

She looked at the helmeted man once more.

“I hope he’s handsome, at least.”

Even in this situation, she was true to her desires.

+

As we headed in the direction Christina had pointed, Beatrice spoke up.

“I think whoever’s behind this is running out of options too.”

“Why?”

“Because all they sent were cannon fodder.”

Soon she smiled fiercely and said:

“They probably rushed things, didn’t economize, went all-in, and now they’re on the verge of failure.”

“I see, they raised the stakes and now they’re about to lose.”

Beatrice was right.

If they had steadily built up their forces, they wouldn’t have ended with just imps and High Imps.

The two-headed hound was reasonably strong, but if that was all they had, it meant they had no more to spare.

In other words, the other side was out of options.

“In other words, if we had missed this opportunity, we might have faced something much worse.”

“That’s right.”

It was clear that once we became aware of their existence, things would have gotten much worse.

Whatever they were planning to use as their trump card was certainly threatening.

“But that’s only dangerous if they actually have it.”

If they already had it, they would have used it by now.

So, at least for now, that dangerous entity didn’t exist.

“What are you going to do when we get there?”

“Thoroughly crush them.”

It already felt like we were entangled, but I didn’t want to get further entangled with demons.

If possible, we needed to be thorough and leave no loose ends.

“It’s over there!”

Christina pointed in one direction.

Due to the thick fog, nothing was visible.

But there was a sense of something off.

“…The fog seems thicker in that direction.”

We cautiously headed in the direction Christina had pointed.

Then, a cave came into view.

It was a cave located in a position that could easily be missed.

“Well, shall we go in?”

Beatrice laughed boldly and walked forward.

And at the moment she took a step, it happened.

“Miss Beatrice! Jump to the side!”

“Huh?”

At Eve’s sudden cry, Beatrice paused momentarily.

Though she usually wouldn’t listen to others, this time she seemed to sense something and jumped as Eve instructed.

Immediately, an explosion occurred where she had been standing.

“Damn it!”

I quickly positioned myself between the explosion and my companions to protect them.

Some dirt flew toward my head.

“…Tch!”

Looking ahead, I could see Beatrice rolling on the snow.

She had avoided the explosion but seemed to have been knocked away by the shock.

Still, she got up, dusting off the snow as if nothing had happened.

But she must have been quite surprised, as she opened her eyes wide and started shouting:

“Wow, I survived because it was me!”

Anyone could see it was thanks to Eve.

I decided to ask Eve how she noticed it later and examined the site of the explosion.

Looking at the traces, Sera cautiously spoke:

“…They piled snow on top of fire stones. It’s like a natural landmine.”

“Ha, this kind of trap wouldn’t be detected by magical sensing.”

From Beatrice’s words, it seemed she hadn’t rushed in recklessly but had checked for traps before advancing.

However, she couldn’t detect the trap that used the natural fire stones.

“Still, the fact that they’re relying on traps like this rather than minions shows they’re really at the end of their rope.”

Beatrice said with a smile.

And a magic circle appeared under her feet.

“What are you doing?”

“Trap disarmament!”

Beatrice stomped on the ground.

The surrounding ground shook slightly.

It felt like a small earthquake.

And explosions began to occur in various places.

“Wait, the villagers might be—”

“They’ll be fine.”

Beatrice shouted confidently.

Looking closely, the explosions were only occurring around the entrance.

Soon the explosions stopped, and dust rose.

“If they’re gathering magical energy through human sacrifice, people are valuable assets. They wouldn’t let them get caught in these traps.”

Indeed, if the sacrifices were blown up by the traps, it would be a loss for those who set them.

It was a reasonable point.

“Still, let’s be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah~.”

Beatrice responded casually to my words.

After disarming all the traps, she smiled fiercely again and headed toward the cave entrance.

“Now, this time for real…”

“Miss Beatrice, above left!”

Eve shouted urgently again.

And this time, Christina extended her staff.

“‘Protect the Lamb’!”

A shield of light appeared above Beatrice, and she quickly jumped to the side.

Along with that, something pounded on the light shield.

It was a monster with four arms and horns.

“It’s a Lesser Demon!”

“Well, they’re really determined to keep us out!”

The Lesser Demon extended its fist, and Beatrice flew up into the air to avoid it.

And just as the Lesser Demon was about to continue chasing Beatrice…

The Lesser Demon’s feet suddenly sank down.

And a flask flew toward its head.

It soon caused an explosion.

-Krooooo!!

As if in agony from the fire suddenly on its face, the Lesser Demon covered its face with its arms.

And because of that, it became defenseless.

“Close your eyes, you!”

Beatrice, who had flown into the sky by hooking her chain in the air, used the chain’s recoil to fly back toward the Lesser Demon.

Magical energy gathered in her legs, and she kicked the Lesser Demon.

The Lesser Demon immediately fell to the ground.

And Beatrice landed on the ground.

“It has some punch to it, but is this all?”

“More are coming!”

As if Eve’s voice was some kind of signal, High Imps and Imps appeared.

“Looks like they scraped together all the ones that ran away earlier and whatever else they had left.”

Some were visibly wounded and afraid of us.

They were clearly the ones we had just been fighting.

-Kroo…!

“Ah, this one’s not dead yet!”

The Lesser Demon got up again and swung its fist at Beatrice, who easily jumped back to avoid the attack.

And seeing this, as if mustering their last courage, the Imps and High Imps began to charge.

-Kraa!

“This much is…”

Eve said as she cut down the first High Imp that charged.

And I changed my weapon to a spear and pierced the head of another High Imp that was targeting Eve.

Beatrice began swinging her chain, and Sera and Christina started supporting the group.

-Krooo!!

And this time, the Lesser Demon began charging toward me instead of Beatrice.

Does it think I’ll be easier than Beatrice?

I cut down the imps blocking my way and jumped toward the Lesser Demon.

“You want to try me?”

As if answering my question, the Lesser Demon threw its four fists in succession.

I easily avoided and deflected those fists.

And then I hit the Lesser Demon’s head with just my fist, not my weapon.

That alone sent its body backward.

‘Red Lightning is almost constantly activated, they said.’

Though the Lesser Demon looked anything but weak given its size, my physical abilities were stronger than its.

As I continued to throw punches, its body bent.

After delivering a finishing kick, it finally fell backward.

-Kraa!!

“All size and no substance.”

The level I felt was slightly stronger than the two-headed hound from earlier.

It wasn’t a problem for me.

Despite having two extra arms, I was actually faster at landing punches, and finally it couldn’t withstand and collapsed on the ground.

Still, as it tried to get up again, I stomped on it.

“Its head is in just the right spot.”

I changed my weapon to a mace and prepared to strike down.

There were no more creatures like that two-headed hound, and nothing else on this one’s level.

Plus, we were right at the entrance to their hideout.

“They’ve shown all their cards.”

If they had to mount a defensive battle with all their forces and this was it, the implication was simple.

Once we finish this, all that’s left is the mastermind.

If I bring this mace down on this thing’s head, there will be no more powerful creatures protecting it.

Convinced of this, I raised my mace.

“Kay!”

Eve’s urgent cry, and then.

“Hello?”

A blonde beauty had appeared beside me, looking at me.

She must have approached stealthily while I was dealing with the Lesser Demon.

Judging by the horns on her head, she was clearly a demon.

Anyone could see she hadn’t approached me with good intentions.

“Get lost!”

Just as I was about to push the demon away with my shoulder, her eyes began to glow purple.

Those eyes staring directly at me met mine.

“Won’t you become mine?”

The demon said with a seductive smile.