Book 3: Chapter 31

「O……OOOOOO!」

What Kain heard was a howl that shook the forest.

A crushing sound reverberated, and the trees shook.

That was clearly the sound of battle.

「There’s no mistaking it……!」

Kain was convinced that his own senses were right, and ran.

At the place he continued running to, Kain saw something rampaging while destroying the forest.

Something humanoid that looked like it was made of hardened dirt.

However, it wasn’t the sort of thing that was called a Golem.

The humanoid’s faintly flowing surface reserved the Element’s trait of not having a definite form.

That’s right, it was most likely correct to classify that as an Earth Element.

It was clearly not normal, and even Kain was able to understand that this was what a 「powerful Element」 was.

And then, that Earth Element was currently in the middle of battle with something.

「……」

What was silently confronting the Earth Element, was a young girl that had a single long sword at the ready.

What covered her body was purple clothing that didn’t have a single stain on it. It had a form similar to a dress with a lot of frills.

The young lady’s hair was purple with light waves.

Her purple eyes that were reminiscent of amethyst gazed at the Earth Element in front of her.

「OOOO……OOOOOOOO!」

Together with a howl, a rock that was the size of an adult’s head appeared in front of the Earth Element.

And then, the rock that was fired at high-speed rushed at the young lady in order to crush her……however, the young lady wasn’t perturbed by that at all.

「Kuh……! I won’t make it in time……!?」

There wasn’t enough time for Kain to reach the young lady’s side.

Even so, Kain continued running with all of his strength.

After that young lady turned her gaze to that Kain for only an instant……Her mouth expressed a small smile, and evaded the rock that was approaching her with a magnificent step.

If those movements were to be compared to something, they were like a dance.

Matching her garments very well, they were elegant movements that could only be described as magnificent.

Having no signs of being bothered by the rock that smashed the ground, the young lady provocatively smiled at the Earth Element.

Filling the distance between her and the Earth Element with steps that looked like a dance, she unleashed a high-speed thrust.

However, the young lady’s attack was repelled by the Earth Element, and only the sound of a collision that went *giin* resounded.

After evading the fist that the Earth Element unleashed as a counterattack, the young girl fell to the back while making her beautiful steps.

「……Hey you! Are you alright!?」

Finally reaching her, Kain stood in between the young lady and the Earth Element.

Kain unsheathed the Hard Sword Tilnok from its scabbard, and glared at the Earth Element.

After the young lady showed an expression that said that she found that to be surprising, she expressed a thin smile.

「Yes.」

「I see……I’ll be backing you up but, do you have a problem with that?」

「……If I were to say that I did have a problem with it, would you leave?」

During their conversation, a cluster of rocks was formed in front of the Earth Element.

However, through an Attack Light that Kain fired, it immediately crumbled.

「I won’t leave, you know?」

「Ara, how selfish.」

「……I might be!」

Saying that, Kain readied the Hard Sword Tilnok, started running, and approached the Earth Element.

「O light……!」

Responding to Kain’s words, light magical power dwelled in the Hard Sword Tilnok.

With the Hard Sword Tilnok that emitted a dazzling light, Kain slashed at the Earth Element.

「U……Ruorururuu!?」

Maybe having felt a threat in that radiance, the Earth Element hurriedly evaded the sword.

Seeing that behavior, Kain expressed an expression of surprise.

「This guy……could it be that it has an ego!?」

Elements were close to being natural phenomenon.

If that were to have an ego, then that was no longer a mere natural phenomenon.

If spoken in terms of Mazoku, it was something close to turning into a Majin.

The Earth Element had achieved what should be described as an evolution.

However, Elements didn’t have souls to begin with.

They didn’t but……what if one had succeeded in taking in a seed of life by taking in other living creatures.

「An intolerable creature. A life that must not exist……It might be something like that, couldn’t it?」

As if reading Kain’s thoughts, the young lady muttered.

The young lady then unleashed a thrust at the Earth Element that tried to make an attack from Kain’s blind spot.

As expected, it was fruitlessly repelled, but it was enough to stop the Earth Element’s movements.

「……Sorry, you saved me!」

「Pay attention, got it?」

The young lady grinned.

Before Kain could reply to that, a vigorous voice resounded.

「Fire……Chaaarge!」

A spear clad in flames approached the Earth Element.

However, although it was grazed by it, the Earth Element evaded the spear with astounding evasive power.

「Kain, are you alright!?」

A Sword Spirit ran past as Seira readied her spear once again, and it unleashed a slash on the Earth Element.

As the Earth Element just barely evaded even that and tried to move into an attack, Ein, who had went around to its back, slashed the bottom of its neck.

「Tsk……!」

Seeing that her blade was fruitlessly repelled, Ein took some distance while clicking her tongue.

Ein specialized in the sword, but she couldn’t use a Magic Sword, and attack magic wasn’t a strong point of her’s either.

In other words, Ein didn’t possess an effective method of attack against this Earth Element.

「So its defensive power has been raised to a huge extent. What a troublesome opponent.」

The Attack Fire that Rokuna fired made a violent explosion on the Earth Element.

「OOOO……Ruarururuu!」

The Earth Element raised an anguished voice, however, by making some of the magical power that it amassed burst, it blew away the fire that covered itself.

「……Hーn, you’re pretty good.」

After saying that sounding impressed, Rokuna was about to cast even more magic……then came to a complete stop.

「Ah, crap. There’d be no meaning to this if I do itー.」

She could use any amount of magic to defeat that Earth Element, but she wouldn’t achieve her objective like that.

If it was this sturdy, it would surely become a good guinea pig for Summon Magic.

Thinking that, Rokuna shouted.

「Sharon, listen to me carefully! This guy’s movements are fast and its solid……However, that isn’t all!」

「Eh, wh, what do you mean?」

「Heeh……」

Kain was surprised by Rokuna’s words, while the purple young lady raised a voice of admiration.

「That guy is a fusion of Earth and Wind! It should be reading movements to a certain extent with wind! If you have a guy that uses Wind, then summon them!」

「I, I can’t do that!」

「Why not!」

「I, I. I can’t call out anything but things of the Water Element!」

Hearing that, Rokuna realized.

In the data of Sharon’s Adventurer card that Vermudol said he saw, she had heard that she had this kind of technical skill.

God of Water’s Divine Protection.

「……So that’s how it is.」

A God’s Divine Protection──That was the key.

Summon Magic was in other words magic to manifest a god-like existence.

The Sword Spirit and Bow Spirit were either retainers of the Gods, or a fragment of the Gods’ power……In short, this is how it would turn out.

To use Summon Magic, a contract with that god-like existence would have to be formed, and some compensation would be required.

In the case of the Sword Spirit, it was magical power in order to create the sword, and in the case of the Bow Spirit, it was magical power arrows.

Those portions of magical power would be seized within Sharon as compensation that was determined in the contract.

Since the compensation was too heavy with the magical power amount that mankind possessed, that was the reason why Summon Magicians couldn’t use Elemental Magic very well.

The reason why they couldn’t summon the God itself is most likely due to reasons such as a limit to their magical power amount and the compensation, that is what Rokuna had concluded to.

However, the magical power problem could be cleared if it was Rokuna who was a Mazoku.

All that was left was the divine protection but──this was something she couldn’t do anything about.

Either she had to think of a way to obtain a divine protection……Or, she had to get someone that possessed a divine protection to use Summon Magic.

I wonder if Vermudol has one……is what she thought, but after thinking that she couldn’t allow Vermudol to use magic where even the compensation was unknown, she reconsidered.

And then, Rokuna was about to be submerged into her sea of thoughts, but she remembered that they were in the middle of battle and restrained herself from doing so.

「……If you reaーlly can’t do it, then tell me! I’ll go ahead and blow it away with the forest!」

Since it would put an end to it with a single attack if it were an attack that the humanoid Earth Element couldn’t avoid even if it read the wind or something, that was the easiest way to do it.

However, Kain and the others hurriedly shook their heads sideways.

「It, it’s fine! Please leave it to us!」

「Really?」

The young lady giggled as she watched Kain vigorously nod.

「……Well, I suppose it’s about time to conclude this.」

「Eh?」

Hearing the young lady’s mutter, Kain turned around.

After turning her sword towards the Earth Element, the young lady made a clear declaration.

「……O darkness.」

Darkness dwelled in the young lady’s sword.

Since Darkness Magic was once suspected of being a connection with the Mazoku, it was a magic whose users had completely disappeared.

Even now, there wasn’t anyone that would voluntarily use it.

The thing that the young lady had manifested was a Darkness Magic Sword, which could be said to be the height of Darkness Magic.

「So you were a Magic Swordsman……」

「That’s right. More importantly, we’ll attack it all at once.」

「Eh? ……Ah!」

Hearing the young lady’s words, Seira shouted sounding as if she realized it.

「I see. If we attack from different directions, then it can’t avoid everything!」

「That’s only if the opponent doesn’t fly, though?」

Seira flinched for an instant at the young lady’s words, but immediately moved to the Earth Element’s back.

Maybe because the Sword Spirit also understood that, it took up a position in a different direction than Kain and Seira.

「Let’s go, everyone!」

Having no way of avoiding the attacks that came from multiple directions that were unleashed simultaneously with Kain’s shout, the Earth Element returned to being a lump of earth while raising a voice that resembled a scream.