Midnight in Valentine (14)

“…The imperial forces are moving urgently.”

Yuriana murmured.

At her voice, Jean Saturnus and Rubila, who were beside her, turned their heads simultaneously.

“The troops are moving?!”

Jean, who had been in contact with Yuriana and was waiting for an opportunity, asked back.

“No doubt about it. The Princess must have made a move.”

Rubila murmured with a voice full of conviction.

“This many troops converging on one location, there’s no other explanation.”

Toward Rubila, who spoke as if about to dash out immediately, Jean murmured.

“…I understand your feelings, but we must be cautious. It could be a ploy to lure us all out, including Princess Yuriana.”

At Jean’s words, Rubila frowned and sighed.

“What about Lord Barry?”

“He’s operating separately.”

Jean answered.

“Although I freed him from brainwashing with my Sacred Law, there might still be some unknown spells cast on him. They might be eavesdropping on our conversation through him.”

“…”

“But what changes if we just stay here?”

Rubila said.

“If it’s a trap, let’s fall for it. How many troops can be immediately mobilized within the Empire anyway?”

“But if the Demon King’s Army’s forces directly… or if Aslaksha herself comes, the story changes completely.”

“You needn’t worry about that, Lord Jean.”

Yuriana answered Jean’s concern.

“I’ve found Aslaksha.”

“Is that true?!”

Jean exclaimed in surprise.

“Your Highness, please dismiss your shadow puppet quickly! With her skill, she could reverse-track your…”

“No, there’s no need to worry about that.”

Looking at the alarmed Jean, Yuriana calmly shook her head.

“Evangeline and Oscar are with her.”

“Lady Evangeline…?”

“It seems they’re confronting each other. That’s probably why the imperial forces are moving.”

At Yuriana’s words, Rubila stood up and said.

“The answer is clear.”

“…”

“Let’s join them, Your Highness.”

-Kwaaang!!

In the middle of the night with a bright full moon, in the wilderness at the Empire’s border.

As the brick-laden ground erupted, two shadows rose from the thick cloud of dust.

The greatsword wrapped in fierce blue aura relentlessly pounded the raw mana emanating from Aslaksha’s fingertips.

“Your skills seem to have rusted considerably, Princess Knight.”

Aslaksha grinned and waved her hand in the air as if shaking off her fingertips.

The mana concentrated at her fingertips scattered all at once in the air.

The mana fragments, which had been glowing with blue light, soon drew a massive magic circle in the air.

Through the smoking magic circle, suddenly a large lizard’s maw protruded with a pop.

“Burn and devour, Salamander.”

“KAAAAAAAA!!!!”

The Salamander opened its mouth wide, screaming. At the heat gushing from inside its throat, Evangeline reflexively frowned.

-Kwajijiijik!!!

Simultaneously, with a thunderous sound, the pitch-black sky turned bright white.

Toward the Salamander stretching its neck as if to bite Evangeline, a beam of white light struck down vertically.

“So annoying. Oscar, was it?”

Aslaksha clicked her tongue and murmured.

The Salamander, directly hit by lightning that struck with enough force to crush its skull, died with its mouth still wide open, charred black.

The corpse of the Salamander, now just a head, scattered like ashes in the wind.

“Well, at least you’re not completely hopeless. Is it because it’s just an avatar?”

Oscar, despite sweating coldly, deliberately grinned and provoked her.

Aslaksha silently frowned and extended her other hand toward Oscar.

An incantation flowed quickly like a whisper from between her half-closed lips, greedily sucking in mana from the air.

“Do you overestimate your talent and act recklessly, young mage?”

A massive amount of mana gathered at her fingertips, and Aslaksha once again scattered her hand in the air.

Five magic circles of the same specifications as the one that had summoned the Salamander earlier simultaneously adorned the air.

“…”

Oscar, who had been putting on a brave face while sweating, blankly looked up at the sky with wide eyes.

Five Salamanders, their heads protruding from the magic circles, simultaneously opened their huge mouths toward him.

“Let’s see if you can block this too.”

At the tremendous heat felt from inside their throats, Oscar reflexively shut his eyes tightly.

-Seogok.

A thin line imbued with a soft blue light cut through the air.

“But focusing only on that side won’t work.”

Evangeline murmured smugly.

With a single sword strike, all five Salamanders became corpses with only heads, scattering in the wind.

Immediately afterward, Evangeline leaped toward Aslaksha.

-Jjeoeoeng!!

The greatsword wrapped in sword energy fiercely struck the protective barrier. With a crunching sound, cracks ran across Aslaksha’s barrier, and Aslaksha’s expression contorted for the first time.

“…I was careless. I didn’t expect reinforcements outside.”

Looking toward Cardinando, who was captured by Delphina’s group, Aslaksha muttered in an irritated voice.

“Did you think I came alone?”

-Kaddeuk…!

With her greatsword pressed against the mana blade extending from Aslaksha’s fingertips, Evangeline retorted with a grimacing face.

“Logically, if a hole had been punched right through my body, I would have died without at least one person helping me.”

“…I know that you’re not the kind of human who would die from something like that.”

At Evangeline’s excuse that wasn’t an excuse, Aslaksha scoffed as if it wasn’t funny at all.

She who had ‘watched’ every battle of the East Continent conquest without missing any, knew.

What kind of knight the woman before her was.

A wolf-like woman who never let go of prey once she had bitten into it with her teeth.

Even when she heard that the woman’s temperament had greatly mellowed due to mental aftereffects, it was hard to believe.

‘But, you never know when that true nature will emerge.’

Aslaksha readjusted her stance.

She couldn’t afford to lose another precious avatar after all.

Aslaksha steeled her resolve.

‘I’ll finish this before Scabbard arrives.’

“I’ll finish this before Scabbard arrives.”

Evangeline suddenly murmured. Toward Aslaksha, who opened her eyes wide in shock, Evangeline smiled bitterly and said.

“…That’s what you’re thinking, surely.”

“…”

“Nice expression.”

Evangeline clapped her hands and let out a small laugh.

“This is the second time I’ve seen you surprised, isn’t it?”

Evangeline adjusted her grip on her sword with a sneer. She held the hilt so firmly that her hand turned white, to hide her trembling fingertips.

Instead of answering, Aslaksha turned her head to glance behind her.

Upon seeing Cardinando struggling against Delphina’s group, Aslaksha audibly clicked her tongue and turned her head away.

“Useless guy.”

With that murmur as a signal, crackling electricity spurted from both of Aslaksha’s fingertips.

Toward the electricity surging like a living anaconda, Evangeline swung her greatsword.

-Jjeojeojeojeojeojek!!!

The greatsword, rippling with blue light, split the rampaging electricity in half.

Aslaksha’s momentum faltered for a moment, and at that instant, Oscar, who had been continuing his incantation behind Evangeline, stepped forward.

“…Deep green of the dark night, swallow blood instead of sunlight.”

-Kwadeudeudeudeudeuk!!!

Oscar’s hands, filled with a massive amount of mana, touched the ground. Like footage shot with a high-speed camera, sprouts instantly broke through the ground and grew into giant plant stems.

Dozens of giant plant stems charged toward Aslaksha, rampaging like animals. Aslaksha quickly twisted the circuit constructing her lightning magic to respond.

The mana, which until just before had been of lightning attribute, instantly changed its form to flames. Flames that suddenly arose in midair engulfed Oscar’s plant stems, burning them black.

-Hwareureureureuk!!

As fire spread to the plant stems laden with moisture, black smoke filled the sky.

“…”

Aslaksha silently looked at the black smoke filling her view.

“What a shallow trick…”

Murmuring quietly, Aslaksha slowly concentrated mana in both hands.

To be able to respond immediately to any unexpected attack.

This was preparation she didn’t need to make in her combat avatar state, which was always protected by dozens of layers of automatic calculation barriers and counterattack control formulas.

‘Indeed, it’s quite inconvenient not being a combat avatar.’

Of course, even in this state, she wasn’t confident she would lose even if she were to face several elder-level mages loaded on a cart…

But her opponent was none other than Evangeline. One of the strongest individuals on the human side who had succeeded in cutting the neck of a combat avatar that could exert nearly 100% of its power.

With her current infiltration avatar, the odds of winning were indeed uncertain.

‘Right. The important one is Evangeline. That fellow called Oscar or whatever is not even a hindrance.’

Aslaksha deliberately repeated to herself. But for some reason, a strange uneasiness kept troubling her.

Aslaksha forcibly shook her head at the ominous premonition that she should be careful of that blue-green young human.

Immediately after.

-Kwaaaa!!

Breaking through the black smoke, a huge dragon’s maw charged toward Aslaksha.

It was a shape of a dragon’s head created by weaving together numerous plant vines.

Each tooth protruding inside the mouth was of an overwhelming size, large enough to dwarf Aslaksha.

“…Ha!”

Seeing that, Aslaksha finally burst into ridicule.

“Is this it? Is this what you spent so much time preparing?!”

Grinding her teeth with a “ppudeuk” sound, Aslaksha shouted.

“Seems like you’ve underestimated me quite a bit!!”

From Aslaksha’s outstretched hands, flames rose more violently.

That wasn’t all. Around her hands, blue lines extended to form circles and complex patterns.

She had drawn an amplification magic circle in just a few seconds without any medium like paper, which ordinary mages would spend hours creating.

“Let me burn you to ashes along with that pathetic wooden model!!”

A fiery storm with physical destructive power swirled fiercely around Aslaksha.

The green dragon charging toward her staggered in the wind, then shattered and scattered, burning up completely.

Flames even larger than the imperial palace filled the surroundings.

“…I don’t know if you can hear me, Oscar.”

Aslaksha said quietly.

“If you thought you could win because your opponent wasn’t at full strength, let me tell you. You’re far from it.”

Aslaksha criticized in a murmur.

“You are weak. Compared to Evangeline, your existence is not even a threat to me.”

“…You’re right about that.”

But when an unexpected response came, Aslaksha frowned deeply.

Inside the fiery storm, surrounded by a mana barrier just barely enough to protect one person, Oscar was looking up at Aslaksha with a disheveled appearance.

“As expected, though not surprising, a corps commander of the Demon King’s Army is stronger than I imagined. Indeed, to stand beside my fiancée, I must strive much harder than I am now.”

“You seem quite fine. Shall I burn you to ashes along with that barrier?”

Aslaksha said, raising flames in both hands.

“Well, still.”

Oscar, who had been gazing at her intently, added with a somehow relieved expression.

“I’m glad I was able to help, if even by a hair’s breadth.”

“What does that…?!”

-Seogok.

At the same time, a bluish sword strike soared from below.