248 - - CHAPTER XXIV -- Behind-the-scenes Comedy

◆magician ◆

"Well, it looks like it's working."

He senses that the device he has brought to the sanctuary has worked, and he can't help but smile.

"It's good to see you."

Yes, it's a good one.

The Holy Land is a very important spiritual pillar for the humans, and attacking and destroying it was an unavoidable problem for us in order to rule this world.

However, the boundary of the sacred place was so strong that it was difficult to attack it by force from the outside.

However, however...

"If the wards are strong, we can use the humans to destroy the sacred place from the inside.

To this end, we have disguised ourselves as human priests and have spent a long time stimulating their greed and corrupting their organizations.

And by providing various kinds of assistance to satisfy those desires, we have gained the position of senior priests and invited our brethren to join us on our pilgrimage.

"Unlike the boundaries of the Holy Land, the human race is now weakened. They are so weak that they do not even know that we have infiltrated."

He then gave them a powerful, but even the user-destroying magic item to destroy the sanctuary.

"d*mn you, humans, perish in your own greed!"

The first time I saw a man who was not a member of the group, I was surprised to see him.

"Now for the last spurt!　Let's all do our best!"

I cheer for everyone as I position myself at the tail end of the group.

Because I built this facility, and I know where the tricks are.

It's not fair that I'm in the lead because I can easily clear all the traps.

That's why I have everyone who is new to the ordeal go ahead of me, so that there is no unfairness.

Well, it's simply for my self-satisfaction.

Megli is in the lead.

He is increasing his speed by strengthening the wind attribute, and avoiding traps with his experience and knowledge.

He sometimes misreads them, but he manages to avoid them with his speed-enhanced legs.

Liliela is the next to go.

Liliela seems to understand that she is not as good at detecting traps as Megli, so she is daring to give the lead to Megli so that she can check the traps.

However, there were times when traps that did not react when Mr. Megli was moving forward attacked Liliela by a time lag.

Against such traps, Liliela freezes the moving parts of the traps with ice magic to slow down their movement, and then she avoids the traps by gliding with ice magic.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Third was Gyro-kun.

Gyro-kun was running at high speed, emitting flames from his back, elbows, and the backs of his legs to generate thrust to propel himself forward.

Although it consumes not a little magic power, his explosive rush is no less than Megli's wind magic.

However, he didn't seem to be paying much attention to the traps around him, and was often hit by them.

"Ouch!　...... but I won't lose!

But Gyro-kun got up with his indomitable fighting spirit and pushed forward again.

"Whoooo!"

Well, it's not exactly what the facility was designed to ...... but since we're using it for a pilgrimage this time, I'll let the details slide.

The fourth one is Mina.

"Woohoo! ...... Okay!"

Mina keeps a steady pace, watching everyone ahead and avoiding traps.

Furthermore, it seems that Mina is timing her traps by enhancing her eyesight with physical enhancements.

And by enhancing her defense and speed with physical reinforcement as well, she has gained enough movement to avoid the traps, though not as much as Gyro and the others, who are warriors.

This is a solid strategy.

I would say that Mina is the one who is attacking this facility the most correctly.

"Whoa!

Fifth is Mr. Norbu.

Nolbu had been hit by the traps many times before, but each time he was moving forward without being blown away by the improved defense by the enhanced attributes and the connection between the ground and his feet by using the earth magic.

Slowly but surely, he moved forward.

The way they move forward showing their ability to withstand attacks from the enemy is the opposite of Mina's, but it proves that they have trained their defenses to withstand the traps that they expect the enemy to attack.

"Hee!

And last but not least, we have Tracy.

Tracy is somehow managing to keep up with everyone using her body enhancement magic.

Like Liliela and Mina, she doesn't have enough time to check the traps while keeping an eye on the others, so she is just barely avoiding them.

"Ugh!"

They are sometimes unable to dodge, but they are somehow able to withstand the defensive effect of the body strengthening magic.

"High heel!

And as the damage accumulated, she was able to heal herself to keep going.

Yes, I gave her a lecture on magic other than body strengthening magic, because she doesn't run when she eats, and it worked.

I was surprised that Tracy didn't have much training in recovery magic.

I talked to them, and it seems that due to the small number of priests, they had to spend too much time dealing with the congregation and not enough time for their training.

Hmmm, this is the downfall of the temple of the Lord God.

So, we must win this trial trip and make a name for ourselves in the holy city that the temple of the Lord God is still alive and well!

Then the congregation of the Temple of the Lord God will increase and Tracy and the others will have enough time to focus on their training, although it will take some time.

"Tracy, we are so close to the finish line!"

"Yes, yes!"

Finally, Ms. Tracy reaches her goal, the sacred object.

Everyone was already there, waiting for us.

""""Goal!

"Congratulations, Tracy!"

"Oh, thank ...... you, thank ...... you."

An out-of-breath Tracy slumps down.

Now that we have reached the goal, what do we do now?

I looked at the priests of the sanctuary who were waiting for us at the goal, and they looked at us puzzled for some reason.

They looked at us puzzled for some reason.

"Hi!

The priests jumped and shook their bodies as if they were jumping.

"Ah, yes, thank you for your hard work, Lord God's temple staff ......."

"For those of you who have passed the ordeal, uh, we're going to pull out these sacred objects: ......"

The priests then lead us to the pedestal where the sacred artifact is enshrined.

"I thought the temple of the god of war or the god of business would win. ......"

"I didn't think the temple of the Lord God would win. ......"

I was muttering secretly, thinking that people at a distance couldn't hear me, but those of us who were still activating our physical enhancements could hear me loud and clear.

Tracy was too exhausted to hear, but it was probably a good thing that she didn't hear us, since she probably didn't feel good about being surprised that her temple won.

We pretend we didn't hear her say that and turn our attention back to the pedestal on which the sacred artifact rests.

There, a magnificent sword rests. ......

"Hmm?　Is that ......?"

I felt a strange sense of déjà vu as I saw the sacred artifact up close for the first time.

It was shaped like a sword, but the blade was flat, not smashed, and there was no blade from the beginning.

On the contrary, the sacred artifact was decorated with uneven surfaces and ornaments, and did not look like it could be used in a real battle.

It's no wonder.

It's a control device for the defense equipment used to protect the entire facility.

Yes, it was literally the master key to the defense system of this facility called the sanctuary.

Yes, the one that looks like a weapon was a request from the princess who received this facility as a gift from her father, the king.

She told me to make a cool key, because a simple key is not cool.

But why is this one being treated as a sacred weapon?

"Please take it in your hand."

I was told to take it in my hand. ......

"""""......"""""

What do we do with each other?　They look at each other and say, "I don't think I can hold this," but they all look a little uncomfortable.

Oh, only Gyro-kun wanted to hold it, but Mina stopped him.

So all that's left is ......

"Ms. Tracy, please take it."

I guess this is the place to give it up to Tracy, who is an official participant in the Temple of the Lord God.

We're just helping out.

...... Yeah, it's not because we want to show off, you know?　Really?

"Huh?　What?"

Tracy looks at me with a startled look on her face when she suddenly speaks to me.

She said, "That's it, I think you need to hold that when you get to the finish line.

"Oh, I see. ...... that's good."

"Are you okay?"

I support the staggering Tracy and take her to the sacred object.

Well, it's a master key up close.

What's that?　But if you look closely, you can see that this master key has run out of magic.

Is this a built-in magic stone that has run out?

Well, as I recall, this device is supposed to be able to be charged directly by the person who has the right to use it, in case of emergency.

The defenses of the sanctuary will only work minimally as it is, so let's secretly recharge the batteries.

I pretend to support Ms. Tracy while I charge the sacred artifact she received with magic power.

Then, a jewel that shows the replenishment of magic power begins to shine.

"What in the world is this?

The priests shouted in surprise as the sacred artifact began to glow.

"What?　What is it?

Tracy is puzzled by the priests' sudden reaction.

"It's all right, Tracy.

After all, it's just filled with magic.

Don't worry, the filling completion emission will go out soon.

I was about to ...... but the light of the sacred weapon didn't disappear and the glow spread to the whole blade and the red and blue light started blinking alternately.

"What?　What?　Is this really safe?

"Is this reaction ......?

I believe this was the mode of the light to put the facility into full interception mode!

But why did it suddenly switch to full interception mode?

Ah, maybe someone activated this mode before the magic power ran out, and it was in standby mode with the command entered when the magic power ran out!

If this is the case, it will go into the super-attack mode for the demons and go to ...... and then go to ......

"Is it a problem if it is?"

Well, if you think about it, even in this mode, it's only demons and monsters that oppose us, and we don't fight against humans, so it's no problem.

After all, the highest authority of this facility is the owner, the princess. I set the attack targets to only demons and monsters so that they won't attack humans by accident.

The warding would be enough for hostile humans.

There was no need for us to panic.

While I was feeling at ease like that, I heard a loud noise and felt a strong magical power emanating from outside the building.

Yeah, was there a demon nearby that would react to the alarm system?

For now, let's set the mode of the sacred artifact to normal alert.

If we don't change the mode, when a demon or a demon comes close, it will enter into the unrelenting "Destroy Mode" and attack all the demons in the vicinity, which is annoying.

As soon as the settings of the sacred artifact were secretly adjusted, the luminescence of the sacred artifact became gentle, and the light disappeared silently.

"It's gone. Thank goodness. ......"

Tracy, who had been startled by the sudden luminescence, let out a sigh of relief when the light of the sacred artifact was finally subdued.

"Oh, oh ......, it's a miracle."

"This is the first time since the beginning of our pilgrimage that a sacred artifact has shined!"

On the contrary, the priests of the holy place who were watching this scene were very excited to see the luminescence of the sacred artifacts.

Ah, now that I think about it, these are researchers, aren't they?

No wonder they are so excited when they encounter a phenomenon they have never seen before.

"This must be because the sacred artifact recognized this person!

"Oh!　In other words, this is the rightful successor of the six young men, the one who unites the followers in the service of the gods!

What?　Huh?"

"""""The saints are back!!!"""""

Priestesses surrounded Ms. Tracy and shouted with excitement.

We quietly move away from them as we watch the scene.

◆Magician...

Soon, soon will come the doom of mankind.

The poisonous mist created by the jewel has obliterated many of the humans inside, and at the same time, the large golems summoned by the treasure are rampaging about, destroying the anti-intruder defenses.

Then the flames and storms consume the surviving humans and burn the entire sanctuary complex to the ground.

Finally, the last stop, an explosive spell to destroy the sacred site, blows it to the ground from the inside without a trace!

"d*mn, I can't wait to see the humans perish due to their own greed!"

Hahahahahahaha""""""

Now, let's show them the moment when our long years of darkness come to fruition!

"Ha ha ha ha ...... hmm?"

At that moment, I felt a strange glow of magic.

"What's wrong?"

"No, I thought I just saw something glow. ......?

It wasn't just my imagination.

We found that our vision was enveloped in a blinding light.

What?

And then we recognized the light and vanished without realizing our own mortality.

◆Mofumofu◆

I am Mofumofu, the beast of all beasts. ...... Well, okay.

I'm very busy right now.

After all, the masters are having a good time doing things I don't understand.

It's kind of funny to see a human blow up.

However, I'm bored because there are no tasty-looking demons.

...... so I went outside.

Hmmm, the air is so good when the master is not around!

Because if you accidentally stay with him, he'll put you on a diet!

Besides, there's something about that smell that tastes so good.

Mmm-hmm. Is it this way?

That's when it happened.

Suddenly an unknown shock wave hit me from behind.

What?　What?　Did someone or something attack me?

The range of the shockwave is so wide that it is impossible to avoid.

It's unavoidable, I dare you to take it!

I will use my body strengthening magic to fortify my body.

Come on!

But surprisingly, the damage was not great.

It was a miracle that they could get through my physical reinforcement, but there was no need to be concerned about this level of damage.

The question is who attacked me.

I stay vigilant and search for signs of my surroundings.

Kun Kun Kun ......

...... but the enemy did not attack at all.

Hmm?　Are they waiting for me to lose focus?

I continue to sense the enemy, but there is no enemy response within my range of detection.

Kun-kun-kun-kun: ......

Is this a ...... escape?

Does it mean that he realized his disadvantage by not being able to get through to me and fled before he knew my position?

Or was I not the target?

Such a wide-range attack would have consumed a lot of magic power, and it would have been too inefficient to aim only at me.

Then, it might not have been aiming at me.

I mean... ......

Something smells very tasty from a while ago. ......

Well, let's put aside the enemies who won't attack us forever and go check the source of this smell.

Fortunately, the source of the smell seems to be in the vicinity.

I climb up a nearby hill.

Well, here I have a panoramic view of the place where I was just now with my masters.

The master of the smell is up ahead, probably at the top of the hill.

I move at high speed from shadow to shadow, trying to hide my presence.

As king, I have no need to move while hiding, but this is a hunt.

Then there is a manner of hunting.

I suppress my arousal at the scent with borrowed instincts and reach the summit.

There I saw ......

"""......"""

It was a good-looking witch's feather.

Whoo-hoo!　It's a witch!　It's a nice feather, too, and it looks like it's well feathered!

Hmm, I don't know why, but they're all dead.

But they look fresh as if they had just died.

And there's no sign of the vanquishers.

The lack of gnawing marks suggests that whoever killed these demons left without even taking a bite.

What a waste!

It's not a good idea to be wasteful. Because it's a waste!

So I shall enjoy these demons.

We must eat it quickly, because it mustn't lose its freshness.

So, I'm off!