Book 7: Chapter 5: The Strength of the House of Ernol

“…Hm? Eh!?”

We were attacked with magic from all sides when we teleported to the forest near Sanctum, so I hastily activated a magical barrier and blocked it.

The spells were probably not directed towards me.

A man and woman stood right in front of me when we teleported. 

I just got involved when they were attacked.

Since I was already in this situation, then might as well protect them both, too.

That girl was also familiar to me.

I forgot to activate the people-sensing ability of my teleportation magic circle.

I was too excited to consult the Creator God regarding the plans for managing the dungeon, and besides, the target place was in the woods far from the Holy City, so I was complacent.

However, the guys who attacked were not people, so the teleportation circle didn’t detect them either.

Hmm, my teleportation circle still had room for some improvement, I guess.

I should make the presence-detection automatic at the very least.

Well, everything turned out okay since I managed to save a friend through sheer luck.

“W-who are you guys?”

The guy donned in knight garb asked me.

If you were a knight, then you should introduce yourself first before asking people for their names. Wasn’t that the code of knights in this world?

Well, I should cut him some slack, since they seemed to be in dire situation , after all. 

“I’m Halt Ernol. Glendale’s Sage.”

“S-Sage!?”

I recently took on introducing myself as a Sage.

I could also show the occupation part of my status board as part of my explanation, if needed.

If I became famous, it would be easier for me to get commission requests once I established my clan.

If the other party was an influential person, there was a higher chance that they would pay handsomely for their requests, so I was trying to tout my sage occupation.

If my memory served me right, the beauty who had collapsed in a heap and was being protected by the knight was the Saint of Sanctum.

The saint was the most prominent person in the Holy City, so it would be my best interest to be chummy with her for the future development of our clan.

I knew this beauty was the Saint — or should I call her Seira, because I already met her a hundred years ago with Tina.

If I was  not mistaken, didn’t we stop a stampede that attacked the Holy City?

So it was true that a Saint never aged for a period of time — Seira was still as beautiful as the first time we met her.

We became friends before, so I also contemplated calling out to her, but I changed my mind. My appearance had already changed, so there was no way she would know it was ‘me’.

Anyway, let’s deal with these warlocks first.

“Halt-sama, this is —”

“Whoa, seems like there are nasty guys here, meow.”

“They are probably warlocks, I guess. Should I kill them?” (Youko)

“We can also do that!” (Mai and Mei)

“I…I don’t think I can do that.” (Luna)

“Then, please aid me with your auxiliary magic.” ( Leaffa)

“Oh, in that case then leave it to me!”

Everybody emerged from the teleportation circle just when I was thinking about what to do with those two.

I forgot to stop everyone from teleporting, so they came here even though there were warlocks in the target place.

Youko, Mai and Mei were overflowing with bloodlust.

Youko already reached her peak, while Mai and Mei were already at par with the Spirit Kings, so they wouldn’t lose against those warlocks, for sure.

I also wanted to watch their power, too.

“Alright, then I’ll leave those warlocks to Youko and Mai, alright.”

“Got it!”

“Roger!”

“Leaffa, shoot them down if they try to escape. Luna, support her.”

“Yes!”

“I understand!”

“I don’t have anything to do?”

The Divine Beast Shiro had wrapped himself on my neck like a muffler, but he unfurled himself and moved towards my shoulder while asking me.

“I’m going with Mai and Mei, so Shiro, you go with Youko.”

“Alright.”

Youko was probably fine on her own, but it was better if Shiro joined her just in case.

“Tina, Merdie and Hakua, protect those two.”

“Yes, I understand. Everyone, please do your best.”

“We’re the defense corps, meow!”

“Okay, we’ll protect them!”

The three girls were tasked with  protecting Seira and the knight from the battle.

Youko’s tails materialized, and she entered her battle mode.

Mai and Mei also transformed into their spirit figures.

Our lineup was complete.

Alright, should we go for the kill?

I dissolved the magical barrier.

The warlocks started to attack at that instant.

“What are you bastards doing here!!!”

“You’re in the wa— ugh!?”

Mai was clad entirely in fire as she rushed with unbelievable speed towards the warlock on the right side, then punched his face.

The warlock was blasted off —

A water sphere that was three-meter tall swallowed him up.

It was Mei’s water chamber.

“Bye bye.”

Mei pointed her outstretched hand towards the sphere, then she squeezed her fist into a ball. The water globe was compressed into the side of a candy in an instant.

Even if he was a warlock, he would still die if he was trapped inside that sphere of water.

However —

“No way, he escaped!”

“D-don’t %^@8 with me!!!!!!!”

The warlock managed to escape from the water chamber somehow even if his right leg was crushed. He flew from the sky and attacked Mei.

Mei didn’t even flinch, and just stared at him as he charged towards her.

She saw her sister who would protect her just behind the warlock.

“Don’t you dare — mess with — MY SISTER!!!!!!!!!”

“ —!?”

Mai was already high above the warlock, and she swung the ultra-hot lump of fire towards the warlock.

“I-imposs —!!”

Mai’s flames burned the warlock to charcoal.

Warlocks’ ability to regenerate was actually superb, and they could even regenerate their lost limbs in a blink of an eye. However, it was rendered totally useless. As expected, even a warlock didn’t stand a chance against Mai’s fire since she was already at the level of the Spirit Kings.

“Wha-wha….”

“Hey, do you still have the time to look away?”

“—!?”

The warlock had been utterly stupefied, but when Youko spoke, he whirled around with eyes wide open in shock.

Youko had compressed an atrociously colossal amount of mana into spheres, and they were floating above each of the tips of her tail. She aimed all of them towards the warlock, and was on the verge of releasing them. 

“Farewell.”

Youko gathered all her tails in front of her, and she fired a beam of light from there.

“Tsk!!”

The warlock managed to evade it.

He controlled all the corpses of the bandits and gathered them to form a shield so he was able to dodge Youko’s beam.

But, it wasn’t perfect, and he still lost his right arm.

“B, bastards….sooner or later you’re going to pay for this!!!”

The warlock tried to escape using teleportation.

There was no way I would allow that, of course.

“—Huh? W, why!? Why doesn’t the portal open!?”

“My teleportation magic circle warped the space, so it offset and blocked yours.”

“That’s impossible! You’re just a puny human, so there’s no way you can do that!!”

Even if you said that, I already did it, so it couldn’t be helped, right.

“Argh!”

The warlock’s attempts to teleport were futile no matter how many times he tried, so he gave up on that. He spread his wings and tried to fly away.

However, those wings were instantly shot down, and he rolled on the ground before me.

Luna already passed Level 100, and she poured all she had to support Leaffa, who then used her magic to shoot the warlock down.

“Welcome back. Why don’t you… just give up?”

“S, S, $Q@#&*E!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The crazed warlock tried to assault me.

Out of instinct, he probably tried to stop the magic I prepared overhead from being activated.

But he was too late —

“Holy Lance!!!”

My nominal light pillar that was 10 meters in diameter crashed on the warlock.

The warlock dissolved in thin air, without a chance to cry out in agony.