Ch.314Chapter 314 – Palace Assault (3)

Demons began to swarm from all directions.

“Kay, watch your back!”

At Eve’s warning, I swung my halberd behind me.

The vampire that had been targeting me from behind was struck by the halberd, splitting its head in two.

As I watched the vampire turning to ash from the corner of my eye, I quickly threw the halberd in Eve’s direction.

Eve must have anticipated this, as she had already moved to the side with Sera, and the halberd cleanly severed the neck of a minotaur that had been near her.

“Found him, it’s the White Dragon!”

“They’re after the Soul-Absorbing Formation! For the Demon Lord’s sake, stop them here!!”

Hearing the voice of what seemed to be a commander vampire, I quickly changed my weapon to a spear and threw it.

The spear pierced through demons in a diagonal line before embedding itself in the vampire’s shoulder.

And as the vampire commander screamed in pain, Sia sliced off his head.

“Please move away from the line of fire!”

At Chris’s words, Gigas and Vanilla who had been fighting in front carefully retreated, and golden holy power swept over the area they had vacated.

Unless they were powerful demons at the level of a Legion Commander, the average demons began to disintegrate without even being able to scream properly when hit by Chris’s light.

“Moooo…”

Only the minotaurs mixed among the enemies could withstand Chris’s attack.

However, seeing some of them kneeling with scorched bodies, unable to move, it seemed that while there were individual differences, they weren’t completely immune to damage.

Gigas charged at these weakened minotaurs with a smile.

“Seriously, having a goddess as an ally is so reassuring!”

“Don’t get distracted, next!”

Vanilla shouted as she hurled chunks of ice at the demons.

Soon, realizing they were outmatched, some demons turned and began to flee.

Then, a thick wall—whether it had been there originally or was newly created—rose up before us.

“What’s this now?”

“Seems to be a trap within the castle. Made to divide or trap intruders.”

Sia took a stance with her sword.

“I’ll just cut through it.”

“Don’t waste your energy unnecessarily. There’s a right tool for every job.”

I stopped her and looked at Sera.

“Sera, if you would.”

“Yes!”

Sera attached what looked like a small piece of paper to the wall.

“I anticipated this and modified what I had on hand.”

She gestured for us to step back, and as she retreated, she sent a small amount of magical power into the paper.

Immediately, an explosion occurred at the wall, and it began to crumble.

Behind the collapsed wall, demons who had been hiding and catching their breath looked at us with shocked eyes.

“H-how did you break that wall…!”

“Our alchemist is extremely capable.”

I charged forward and cut down their waists with my halberd.

The demons that had filled the surroundings were finished with them.

“We seem to have come quite a way, how much further do we have to go?”

“Hold on, I’ll check right away!”

Vanilla said as she projected what appeared to be a map in the air.

It was a map of the castle interior, created based on information provided in advance by the Princess faction.

And we were advancing as Vanilla compared our position to the map.

“There’s still some distance, but we just need to keep going this way.”

“Let’s go.”

I felt we needed to move faster from now on.

With Chris, who was essentially the ultimate counter to demons, we had been able to deal with enemies without much trouble so far, but seeing traps being activated and commanders appearing meant the enemy was starting to respond to us more actively.

Especially since their commanders kept dying, the enemy wouldn’t continue to approach us in the same way.

‘They won’t let us roam freely inside forever.’

It was time for a more notable enemy to appear.

And as if someone had read my thoughts, the sound of destruction began to echo from ahead.

“‘Protect the lambs!'”

Chris immediately created a golden shield with holy power, and something heavy pounded against it.

That something then crashed into the ground with a massive thud.

“…A mace.”

“Ah, I’ve seen this one before.”

Vanilla said, staring straight ahead.

As I also looked forward, I heard a sound like the floor being smashed.

Realizing something was charging toward us, Chris quickly adjusted the position of her shield.

Just as the golden shield was thrust toward the source of the sound—

“BUOOOOO!!!!”

“Huh, from below?!”

With Chris’s startled cry, the ground shattered.

Gigas and Sia quickly evacuated Eve and Sera to safety.

I swiftly grabbed Chris and Vanilla who were falling with me.

“Kay!”

“Mr. Kay!”

“Go ahead!”

I shouted back to Eve and Sera who were calling out to me, then quickly adjusted my posture to land on the ground.

Soon, Chris and Vanilla who had been in my grasp thanked me.

“Th-thank you.”

“Ahem. I let my guard down.”

They both stood up, placing their feet on the ground.

Then I turned my gaze to look at the one who had destroyed the ground earlier.

“This one’s a bit more notable, isn’t it?”

“It’s General Minos.”

Vanilla said with a frown.

“You know him?”

“Of course. He’s the strongest among the minotaurs.”

Vanilla added quietly after saying that.

“I remember he became the new Legion Commander after us.”

He was indeed the largest minotaur I had seen so far.

And perhaps to show that he was in a different class from the others, he was covered in what looked like extremely thick heavy armor.

As I was thinking how remarkable it was that he could move in such armor, he pointed a mace at me, identical to the one that had been thrown earlier.

“White Dragon. Found you.”

“There seem to be a lot of people looking for me today.”

I replied while raising my halberd to prepare for battle.

Minos bared his teeth and grinned.

I had thought it would be difficult to read his expression with a bull’s head, but it was surprisingly easy to distinguish. As I was thinking this, his mouth opened.

“Let’s fight.”

Without further words, Minos swung his mace.

I caught the mace with my halberd.

Thinking it was a heavier attack than expected, I twisted the halberd to deflect the mace to the ground.

“Mr. Kay, let me help…”

“BUOOOOO!!!!”

Minos roared at Chris who was quickly trying to assist.

Of course, Chris only slightly frowned and continued preparing a holy spell to help me.

And as if to interfere with her, a loud voice sounded from the side.

“Do not, interfere!”

“Ah?!”

Two minotaurs, not as large as Minos but bigger than the average ones, charged at Chris. They must have been hiding here already.

As the opponent swung an axe, Chris was forced to abandon supporting me and created a shield to block the axe.

Then I saw Vanilla swinging a staff crackling with electricity to drive the two minotaurs back.

“Chris, be careful!”

“Don’t look away!”

As I focused on Chris, Minos raised his fist in anger and swung it at me.

I momentarily let go of my halberd and twisted my body to avoid his fist.

-Whoosh!!

The sound that tore through the air was certainly terrifying for a mere punch.

But the attack had already missed.

I grabbed the halberd I had briefly let go of and raised it toward the opponent who had left an opening due to his large attack.

I intended to split his jaw.

-Clang!

He immediately turned his head and blocked the halberd with his horn.

A fine powder-like substance fell from his horn, but the halberd couldn’t penetrate any deeper.

“So the horns aren’t just for show.”

“BUOOO!!!”

With a bull-like roar, he twisted his head sharply.

This caused my halberd, which had been stuck in his horn, to fly out of my hand and land far away.

As my weapon left my hand, he laughed loudly as if certain of victory.

“White Dragon, die!”

He swung his mace.

I could see Chris looking at me with alarmed eyes.

The mace slowly approached my head.

“Got you.”

In the next moment, I activated the Crimson Lightning.

I activated it for an extremely short time to avoid straining my body, causing just a slight spark.

Simultaneously, I quickly twisted my body to avoid Minos’s mace, then climbed onto the mace and up his arm to his head.

“BUO?!”

To his eyes, it must have looked like I suddenly accelerated and avoided his attack.

I could see his eyes widening in surprise.

Then I reached out and grabbed the horn where my halberd had briefly been stuck.

And I broke it with all my might.

-Crack

“BUOOOOO!!!”

As the horn broke, he roared in pain.

He began wildly swinging his arms to shake me off.

I drove the sharp end of the broken horn into his arm.

Then I swung the halberd that had returned to my hand to strike his other arm.

The armor covering his arm began to collapse with a cracking sound, and the mace fell from his hand.

-Thud!!

The heavy mace embedded itself in the floor.

I immediately jumped off his body, kicked the mace up into the air, and grabbed it.

Then I threw it with all my might at his face.

“BUOOO!!”

Even while shaking his head in agony, he deflected the mace with his remaining horn.

Without hesitation, I threw the halberd I was holding in my other hand.

As he turned his head to deflect my halberd, he exclaimed in shock:

“Two halberds…?”

The first halberd that flew broke his horn.

The second halberd struck Minos’s head before flying backward.

And I had two halberds in my hands.

“It’s over.”

I changed the two halberds into swords.

Then I drove them into the neck of the staggered Minos.

I pulled the swords, one in each hand, slicing through Minos’s neck.

His head, filled with pain and shock, fell to the ground.

And Minos wasn’t the only one who fell.

“Ha, mere small fry!”

“Mr. Kay, are you alright?”

The minotaurs who had been keeping Chris and Vanilla at bay were now lying on the ground.

Judging by their scorched and torn skin with no response, they were definitely finished.

And Vanilla asked me:

“What’s going on? Why do you have two weapons?”

“It’s something I discovered during my recent research.”

As I told Vanilla this, I concentrated, and one of the two swords disappeared, transforming into particles of light.

The remaining one changed back into a halberd as I said:

“It’s a change that occurred thanks to Chris’s holy power.”

As Chris’s holy power was used as a material, quite interesting functions had been added to my weapon.

One of them was that by using Chris’s holy power, I could create multiple weapons with the same strength and sharpness as sacred relics for a certain period of time.

The drawback was that Chris’s holy power needed to be charged in the sword to use it, but since I could just take her holy power if she was nearby, it wasn’t really a significant disadvantage.

“Seems like you could have beaten Minos without that anyway.”

“It would have taken a bit longer, I think.”

After replying to Vanilla, I quietly asked:

“More importantly, I’m worried about Eve and Sera. Do they have a map?”

“That Sera girl has one. With Sia and Gigas there too, you don’t need to worry about them.”

If Sera has it, there’s probably nothing to worry about.

Then it would be best to meet up at our original destination.

“Guide me from here to where the Soul-Absorbing Formation is.”

“Are you sure?”

“If we try to go up and meet them halfway, we’ll just waste time, and I told them to go ahead when we fell.”

“I wonder if they heard you properly?”

As Vanilla said, it was questionable whether they had heard me correctly.

But…

“It’ll be fine.”

I was certain they would understand how I would move and act accordingly.

“They’ll definitely think that instead of trying to meet up by going up halfway, I’ll attempt to rendezvous at the Soul-Absorbing Formation.”

“I hope they stay safe.”

I nodded in agreement with Chris’s words.

Vanilla, who had been checking the route on the map, called out:

“Looks like we’ve come down quite a bit. Let’s go.”

“You don’t seem injured, but… just in case, should I carry you, Chris?”

“Yes!… No, I’ll run on my own!”

Chris, who had reflexively answered with a reddened face, quickly waved her hands to retract her statement.

Vanilla looked at her as if she found her pathetic.

Then, as if to ease the slightly awkward atmosphere, Vanilla cleared her throat once and said:

“…Let’s go, White Dragon.”

“Right.”

Soon, the three of us began running toward our original destination, leaving behind the bodies of the minotaurs.