Ch.248Chapter 248 – Pseudo-Divine Power

Two days had passed since Beatrice took the prisoners in for interrogation.

During that time, I had visited another village at Dodo’s request, but unfortunately, I only confirmed that everyone had already evacuated and returned without much to show for it. Besides that, nothing special had happened.

Therefore, all we could do was prepare for what was to come. After a simple meal, I was in the living room with Mask and Eve, maintaining our weapons.

Today, the three of us were sharpening our weapons together.

For a while, the only sounds in the room were the scraping of whetstones and occasional light jokes between us. Then suddenly, Mask looked up and said,

“I hear footsteps coming this way.”

“What?”

Eve looked at Mask questioningly.

“Footsteps? Who’s coming down?”

“No, outside. Outside… Miss probably can’t hear it. Key, can you hear it?”

“I can’t hear anything either.”

‘Is he hearing things?’

I was worried that our meals had been too meager lately.

While wondering if Mask needed more nutrition, I still strained my ears toward the outside just in case.

And then I heard it, very faintly.

Footsteps running toward us.

“It’s real?”

“Right?”

“…You’re not hearing things, are you?”

Just as Eve narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at Mask and me with suspicion—

The door suddenly burst open with a loud noise, and a familiar face entered the living room.

“I DID IT!!!!”

The space that had been filled with the sound of whetstones was now filled with Sera’s voice.

I was slightly taken aback by how loud she was as I looked at her. Then Sera rushed at me like a cannonball and embraced me.

With all her might.

“Ugh!!”

A perfect bear hug.

Her terrifying arm strength began to squeeze me.

As I struggled to free myself from the gradually tightening grip, Sera, with her face buried in my chest, shouted joyfully,

“I did it! Mr. Key!”

“Urk…”

“Just like you said, I completed a device that can locate the Soul-Absorbing Formation’s convergence points!”

“……”

“Mr. Key…?”

I couldn’t speak.

More importantly, I couldn’t breathe.

Sera’s face began to turn blue.

Just as I thought my face must have turned blue as well, salvation arrived.

“Miss Seraphina, please calm down and let go first.”

“Ah.”

Eve, who had approached without notice, quietly spoke as she placed her hand on Sera’s arm.

Soon Sera’s arms loosened, and fresh air finally began to enter my lungs.

“Mr. Key, I’m, I’m sorry, I got too excited and…”

“No, *cough*, it’s fine…”

I accepted Sera’s hasty apology while coughing.

“There was no, *hack*, malice in it.”

Since Sera certainly didn’t have any ill feelings toward me, I could easily forgive her.

After coughing a few more times, I straightened up and looked down at Sera.

“You must have been really happy.”

“Yes. Even though I had a hypothesis, I didn’t think I could make it perfectly in such a short time.”

She had stayed up all night researching, but getting results now was incredibly fast.

She thought it would be a bit difficult, but now that she had accomplished it, she was clearly overjoyed.

I almost died from her enthusiasm, but since things worked out well, I decided to laugh it off.

Then Mask looked at Sera and said,

“So, have you found the locations?”

“Yes. We can find them with this.”

Sera said, taking something out from her chest.

In her hand was what looked like a hand mirror.

“Can you show us now?”

“Of course.”

At Mask’s urging, Sera placed the hand mirror on the floor.

Then as she released a bit of magical power, arrow-like lights appeared above the hand mirror.

“What’s this?”

“It’s processed sacred power that I extracted from that egg. You can call it… pseudo-sacred power? Something like that.”

Sera quietly added that it was the result of the three of them working all night to recreate the components of sacred power.

“However, it’s a bit different from normal sacred power. Or rather, should I say it’s significantly degraded?”

“Degraded?”

“Yes. We still can’t use the various techniques that sacred power enables.”

Sera added that it was merely a magical recreation of sacred power’s properties, not sacred power itself.

“Fortunately, I was able to recreate the part Mr. Key mentioned.”

“The part about tracking demon energy.”

“More precisely, I made it track the magic that demons use.”

Sera nodded and said,

“I could have made it track only demon energy, but that would actually be less efficient.”

“If we were to track only demon energy, I’d be the first one within that range.”

As Mask said, if we were to search only for demons, Mask, being half-demon, would fall within that range.

Of course, if we focused on places with high concentrations of demons, it might work, but if the enemy considered this and stayed some distance away, it would only give us headaches.

So she must have limited the search in a slightly different direction.

“So I adjusted the pseudo-sacred power to track the energy of magic used by demons. However, this was quite difficult, and if the adjustment values were even slightly off, it would produce a completely different power than the sacred power we were trying to recreate… and there were unexpected applications too… but I’ll skip that part.”

It seemed Sera had almost explained everything due to the hard work she put in.

Soon, Sera cleared her throat once and spoke again.

“After considering everything and going through trial and error, I finally created this hand mirror.”

Sera smiled as she showed the hand mirror.

Looking down at her, I smiled slightly and said,

“…It must have been difficult.”

“Yes. Honestly, I thought my head was going to explode.”

Sera said with a laugh.

Then she lifted the hand mirror and showed me its interior.

“These arrows floating here are responding to particularly strong energies.”

“There are several floating, but can you tell which ones are the convergence points of the Soul-Absorbing Formation?”

Sera nodded.

Then, pointing to the second largest set of arrows, she said,

“Probably these arrows. I can roughly tell the distance too.”

“Can you mark them?”

“Ms. Lorona, may I ask for your help?”

At Sera’s words, Lorona, who had approached from behind, nodded and displayed a map of Ferarius.

Then Sera mumbled something quietly, seemed to calculate a few things, and soon marked three points on the map.

They were three points located at exactly the same distance from the capital.

“These are the locations suspected to be convergence points.”

“I see.”

I nodded at Sera’s words and quietly asked,

“…Can you be certain?”

“I believe they’re correct.”

I nodded at Sera’s response.

It seems that according to calculations, these three locations are definitely it.

After staring at those points for a moment, Eve quietly looked at me and asked,

“Key, are we leaving right away?”

“Not yet.”

I shook my head quietly at Eve’s question.

“There are three convergence points in total. Even with some time difference, we should attack all three simultaneously if we want to neutralize them.”

“That’s right. And dividing our forces into three is something to consider carefully.”

Mask looked at me and said,

“We could split into three teams based on you, Beatrice, and me… but that would mean at most four people per team.”

“Key, me, Miss Seraphina, and Miss Beatrice…”

“Mr. Asam, Mr. Mask, and Ms. Eina…”

“And four hatchlings.”

After each of us counted the personnel, Eve narrowed her eyes and said,

“…It’s questionable to split up and go without supporting forces, especially when we don’t know what’s at the convergence points.”

“We’ll need to gather the dwarf knight orders that are moving around the country.”

I had heard that the royal family of Ferarius had dispatched knight orders at the beginning of the crisis.

Perhaps there might be knight orders near the convergence points, so we should check.

Of course, that’s not my job.

I should ask Lorona to inquire and make the request.

After some thought, Mask looked at me and said,

“Let’s not make a decision here. Let’s hear everyone’s opinion.”

“Agreed.”

The people here aren’t the only ones with answers.

“In one hour, let’s all gather and talk.”

Mask said this and went outside to find the others.

+

Soon a meeting was called, and everyone gathered at the village chief’s house to begin the discussion.

After brief explanations from Sera and Asam, Lorona stepped out for a moment.

“She went to contact the dwarf palace for a bit.”

I nodded at Lilina’s explanation.

Then Beatrice quietly spoke up.

“About the personnel, I think we should divide into two teams.”

“Two teams?”

Beatrice nodded at Eve’s question.

“The knight orders will probably move while maintaining an appropriate distance for efficiency, so they won’t be clustered in one place. That means there might only be one or two knight orders that can help us. In the worst case, there might not be any knight orders that can come immediately.”

“In the worst case?”

“The knight orders aren’t out for a stroll; they’re out to subjugate monsters across the country.”

Beatrice added that they might find it difficult to move if they’re in the middle of subjugation.

“I’m assuming we can get help from about one knight order… and I’m suggesting that we handle two locations ourselves if we can.”

“That would be dangerous.”

“It would be.”

Beatrice nodded in agreement with Sera’s words.

“But think about it. You might misunderstand because you’ve seen mages quite often, but in reality, mages are extremely rare asymmetric forces. And we have quite a lot of mages.”

“You’re excluding me, right?”

“Why would I exclude you? You’re an excellent assistant.”

Beatrice gave a slight jab at Asam.

“So, centered around Mask and me, we’ll divide the hatchlings into two teams, and split Sera and Asam between them. I think we need to start with this premise.”

“What about me?”

“Helmet, I’ve been thinking a lot about where to send you.”

Beatrice said seriously.

“Honestly, someone of your caliber would be a core part of our forces, but you’re currently carrying a huge problem.”

“I’m healthy…”

“No, you’re not. Everyone’s worried, so restrain yourself a bit.”

Beatrice looked at me with slightly disapproving eyes.

“First, promise everyone. Promise that you won’t fight at the forefront unless it’s truly dangerous.”

“I…”

“Please. Do it. Everyone’s worried, including me.”

Beatrice glanced at Sera and Eve.

And looking to the side, I saw Sera and Eve’s expressions, seemingly wanting to plead with me, and I sighed.

“…Alright, for now.”

“Thank you for being obedient.”

After saying that, Beatrice seemed to organize her thoughts for a moment.

Soon her mouth opened again.

“…Miss Eina separately, and Helmet with the guild leader. That’s how I’ll divide it. For now.”

Beatrice divided the personnel.

And Mask, after looking at the composition and glancing at me, Sera, and Eve, looked at Beatrice.

“…Will that be okay?”

“…Well, it can’t be helped. You probably think the same as I do.”

Beatrice muttered, seemingly dissatisfied.

Then Mask spoke.

“Then Beatrice, Eina, Asam, and two hatchlings should accompany you.”

“Is that alright with you?”

Eina looked at Beatrice and asked.

And Beatrice shrugged once.

“If you protect us well, we’ll finish quickly. We have four mages.”

“With this composition, it seems like you’ll have to fight at the front.”

“That’s my specialty, so it’s fine.”

Beatrice dismissed Asam’s concern.

Then she looked at Mask and said,

“I’m sorry for increasing your burden.”

“My burden?”

“Isn’t it a burden? Helmet will try to be as careful as possible.”

Mask chuckled at Beatrice’s words.

“It’s not a problem at all.”

Mask said with a hearty laugh.

“No matter how many enemies there are. I’ll cut them down.”

“With that confidence, I guess it’ll be fine.”

After saying that, Beatrice looked at everyone.

“Anyone with objections?”

“Most would have had similar thoughts to yours, miss.”

As Mask said, everyone seemed to have similar thoughts, as no one expressed any objections.

Then Lorona came in and said,

“…There’s a knight order near one of the convergence points. I was told they could arrive there by noon tomorrow.”

“What about the other knight orders?”

Lorona nodded.

As Beatrice had said, reinforcement from only one knight order seemed to be all we could get.

“Key.”

“It’s a race against time. We have no choice.”

Looking at everyone once, I quietly said,

“Tomorrow at noon. That’s when we’ll begin the attack.”

“Understood.”

Mask’s words fell.

Soon everyone agreed to disperse and began to rise from their seats one by one.

“…The final battle in Ferarius approaches.”

“Yes.”

I nodded at Eve’s quiet words as she approached.