Book 5: Chapter 30

The sound of a sword attacking a sword, and the sound of defending resounded.

The two Magic Swords clashed, and one of them was repelled.

After the offense and defense, the master of the sword that was repelled took some distance together with a tongue click.

「……Kuh! What is up with you. Your sword technique is weird!?」

Ykslaas shouted in irritation.

From the point of view of Ykslaas who was the one attacking, Gordy’s sword technique was extremely strange.

In terms of speed, Ykslaas was definitely winning. Her sword that was driven in with a speed that it couldn’t be visually seen, normally, it shouldn’t be defended against.

But what about now. No matter how she slashed from any angle, Gordy would soundly react to it.

Moreover, she didn’t simply react to it. She would ward it off, and repel her.

Despite that, there was no follow up attack from Gordy, and she persistently stuck to defense and did not separate from Vermudol.

Being told that it was strange, Gordy displayed a difficult expression.

「My sword is a sword of protection. It is troubling for it to be called something like that though.」

Hearing that, Ykslaas clicked her tongue.

That wasn’t the problem. Why was Gordy able to react to the current Ykslaas?

For the current Ykslaas, she had her trump card, the Unique Magic──「Reinforcement Magic」 casted on herself.

Since her originally high Majin abilities were strengthened, there shouldn’t be anyone able to stop her.

In actuality, Gordy probably wasn’t seeing Ykslaas’s movements. Yet, why was she able to react to them?

That is what was irritating Ykslaas.

She then thought “……However”.

To begin with, Ykslaas’s objective wasn’t Gordy. Since it was certain that she couldn’t see her movements, she just had to break through even if she had to do it by force.

Thinking that she should be able to do that, Ykslaas ran.

Filling the distance, she slashed at Gordy just like that from a low position.

Aiming for the instant Gordy would try to react, Ykslaas forcibly stopped her sword’s movements and jumped.

Jumping past Gordy just like that, she landed right in front of Vermudol──that’s how it should have been.

「Kuah!?」

The moment she tried to jump past Gordy, Ykslaas had her foot grabbed, and was tossed away.

「……Fumu. I will not let you pass. More importantly, I would recommend that you quickly give up.」

「Kuh……!」

Facing Ykslaas who had quickly recovered her stance, Gordy readied her sword.

Seeing that situation, Vermudol expressed a smile of satisfaction.

As a matter of fact, there was proper trick to Gordy’s super reaction time.

If any sort of movement was made, a fluctuation in the atmosphere would be made just from that. The brilliance of the sword and the shadow that was casted, the sound──Everything would would leave behind all sorts of information just by existing there.

Gordy sensed that with her extraordinary senses.

How fast or sharp they tried to move didn’t matter. It was because everything was already seen through by Gordy from that initial action.

By putting this together with Gordy’s protective sword technique, she was able to put up an iron wall defense.

In order to make it so that Gordy couldn’t see through her, she would have to falsify the sound and wind, the light, and the shadows.

Then again, there was also the weakness that Gordy’s super senses could only be displayed when she was devoted to defense though.

However, that didn’t matter right now. It would be Gordy’s victory if she continued defending.

The more time that passed, the more Ykslaas would be at a disadvantage.

Naturally, Ykslaas also understood that, and that is why she continued searching for a method to break through past Gordy.

She would be able to forcibly break through if she used magic that had a large amount of power, but as expected, she couldn’t invoke that at this distance.

Even if she was able to invoke it, it was very likely that Vermudol would defend against it.

In other words, in order for Ykslaas to outmanoeuvre Gordy, she would require a conclusive hand to play.

「What’s wrong, have you given up?」

「What a funny joke.」

Having nothing left to lose, Ykslaas tried to invoke magic──however, at that moment, an impact assailed the Demon King Castle.

The floor and the ceiling started to crumble, and rubble came falling.

「Wha……!」

As expected, Gordy was also shaken up by this situation, and she turned around to check on Vermudol’s safety.

But, Ykslaas wasn’t shakened by it.

Bale Killer──It was because she had certainly heard those words.

Even if Vermudol’s group was unable to understand, Ykslaas knew.

Brutus invoked Bale Killer, and destroyed the Demon King Castle with his giant build.

The moment she heard Brutus’s words invoking it, she was able to understand that it would turn out like this.

That is why Ykslaas ran.

Taking advantage of the opening on the shaken up Gordy, the impact of the collapsing Demon King Castle, the sound, she covered up everything and ran.

Having arrived right before the eyes of Demon King Vermudol in an instant, Ykslaas swung her sword at Vermudol faster than Gordy could run over when she noticed her.

A transparent wall──an Attack Guard had already been deployed between Demon King Vermudol and Ykslaas.

But, Ykslaas gloated saying “it’s futile”.

Ykslaas poured magical power into her sword. With just that, her sword──the Imitation Holy Sword, Lufil Sword emitted a thin golden brilliance.

Having turned into a golden sword, the Lufil Sword easily cut through Vermudol’s Attack Guard, and swooped down on Vermudol.

It would definitely kill him. Ykslaas was convinced of that.

But, it didn’t turn out like that.

「……Destroying a person’s castle like that. It’s turning back into ruins, isn’t it.」

The sword clad in a dark brilliance──the Bale Blade that was in Vermudol’s hand had stopped Ykslaas’s Lufil Sword’s blow.

「Sorry. Gordy is my sword teacher. I am extremely inexperienced, but I can at least defend against such a large swinging attack like this, you know?」

「……It isn’t that sort of problem!」

Ykslaas tried to swing her sword once again, but then received an intense roundhouse kick from Gordy who had caught up to her, and collapsed onto the crumbled floor.

「It isn’t, that sort of problem?」

Being told that, Vermudol thought about it.

Come to think of it, there was something strange about the Magic Sword that Ykslaas invoked earlier.

At a glance, it looked like it was a Light Magic Sword, but it felt similar to the Magic Sword that Vermudol’s Bale Blade invoked.

「……Ahh, so that’s what you mean. It was an attack that bundled all elements together.」

That’s right, what Ykslaas had invoked was a simultaneous activation of Magic Swords of all of the elements. It was an inferior version of the Composite Magic Sword secret technique that was the Hero Ryuuya’s specialty, an imitation of God Blade (Beheading Evil Sword). Originally, it’s a sword technique that be invoked because it was done through the Holy Sword that controlled the power of the Gods, but although Ykslaas’s Lufil sword was an inferior version of it, it was able to invoke it.

For magic or Magic Swords that only had a single element to them, it was possible to negate them with the opposing element. However, to oppose a Magic Sword that possessed all elements, there was no other choice but to use the same technique.

Fortunately, since Vermudol’s Bale Blade was able to invoke a Bale Magic Sword which included all elements, it was able to oppose Ykslaas’s attack.

「Looks like I need to give Margaret a more proper reward for this……」

While feeling gratitude to Margaret who completed the Bale Blade before this time today, Vermudol looked down at Ykslaas who was trampled down by Gordy.

The Lufil Sword had already separated from Ykslaas’s hands. No matter how fast Ykslaas would try to move, she would surely find it difficult to escape from this situation.

「Now then, you’ve finally run out of hands to play, right? Your knights too, my Maid Knights will suppress them soon……Acknowledge your defeat, Ykslaas.」

「……I don’t want to.」

Seeing Ykslaas glaring at him, Vermudol lamented.

「I see, so you don’t want to. That is troubling. You are quite something to be able to say that in this situation.」

「That’s right. Even if I were in your position, I would also recommend submitting.」

「Hou. In that case, why won’t you submit?」

「Ara, something like that is simple.」

When Ykslaas said that, she expressed a daring smile.

「As long as I have hands left to play, I won’t give up on destroying you. In other words, that’s how it is.」

And then, Ykslaas’s magical power swelled up all of a sudden.

「……Bale Killer!」

A large-scale magical power explosion occurred with Ykslaas as the center.

It blew away the collapsed walls, and enveloped the vicinity with a fierce force.

「U……AH!?」

「Kuh……Gordy!」

Vermudol quickly pulled Gordy, who was blown away, into his own barrier, then focused on Ykslaas who was at the center of the explosion.

While holding onto Gordy, who received the impact upfront, in his arms, Vermudol readied his stance so that he would be able to deal with the change that would surely happen next……however, he ended up being astonished in the next moment.

Violently rampaging magical power.

It was because what could be heard from the center of that──was Ykslaas’s screams.