Book 9: Chapter 38

Mazenda’s hands swayed back and forth.

Eltrinde had no idea what she was about to do, but her intuition told her it was something bad.

Mazenda was currently well within range of Eltrinde’s sword.

But that didn’t put her at any ease whatsoever.

Instead, Eltrinde began going through her option in her head.

She had two means of attack. Either her beloved sword, or her Lattice Wand.

Eltrinde chose her beloved sword without hesitation.

While it was true that her sword wouldn’t ensure a killing blow any more than her Lattice Wand would, she didn’t like the feeling of knowing that she wasn’t able to finish the job with the one strike she laid with her sword earlier.

「O, Light!」

Light magic began concentrating into Eltrinde’s sword and activated as a Magic Sword of the light element.

Confident that she’d be able to cut through Mazenda even if she happened to use Attack Guard, she began to swing her sword to end this once and for all… only to stop herself right before she swung.

A crack could be heard.

In the middle of the air right between Eltrinde and Mazenda, a crack began forming.

The silver hand creeping out of the gap formed instilled fear into Eltrinde.

「Wha…?!」

「Yo, I’m back. How’s it been going?」

Following the silver hand coming out from the warped space was a figure clad in armor of the same silver.

It then struck with its sword with amazing speed… however Shironos had picked up Eltrinde and pulled her back the moment before the blade could reach her.

An uncomfortable sound let out as the blade hit the stone floor as the silver armored figure fully appeared in front of Mazenda.

「Phew… Some tactician you are, nothing went right at all!」

「Quiet. My plan was perfect. If it weren’t for this pain in the arse that showed up, everything would have proceeded as planned.」

Mazenda was speaking casually with the silver armored man.

It was clear to anyone in the room that the Alva-like way the silver armored man appeared meant that he wasn’t in any way a human, causing the Imperial Guard to grow unsettled and panic.

「L-Lady Mazenda… Who is that…?!」

「Oh, him? An old friend of mine, you could say. Don’t mind him.」

「Nice ta meet you!」

The silver armored man casually waved his hand in greeting.

It was then that Eltrinde spoke in a quiet voice filled with anger.

「…What do you think you’re doing, Mazenda? Do you really think you’ll be able to talk yourself out of this anymore now that you’ve brought that guy out?」

「Talk myself out?」

The questioned Mazenda had a blank look on her face for a few moments and then burst out into laughter.

「Oh, right. You see, the Chamber of Prayer Lady Narika is currently occupying can completely cut off any sound from the outside once its doors are closed, making it the perfect place for prayer.」

As Mazenda spoke, she rummaged her hand through her robes as if looking for something.

「Essentially meaning that it would be extremely difficult for anything that happens here to reach her ears…」

Mazenda pulled out a white mask-looking object out from her robes.

「Well, to put it simply… Lady Eltrinde. I will be having everyone in this room, including yourself, die here. It won’t be the most elegant way of handling this, but it’ll do in correcting my plans.」

「How dare you…!」

「Lady Mazenda?!」

As Eltrinde’s enraged shout and the Imperial Guard’s cries of fear rang out, Mazenda put on the white mask… and the very next moment, magical energy began to twist and warp around her.

Her blood that had pooled around her and splattered here and there from the battle earlier all began to get sucked towards Mazenda’s direction.

After it had all gathered at her feet, it dyed whatever white remaining on her robe red.

「Wha…?!」

「T-That’s…!」

While everyone was at a loss for words, what appeared to be black clouds began forming around Mazenda’s arms.

The black clouds engulfed her head as well, and then a red hood appeared that went over her white mask.

Red eyes shined from deep within that white mask.

It was hard to say whether there was even a proper face behind that mask anymore.

「…Now, then. Allow me to introduce myself again. I call myself the Staff Demon while in this form.」

「And I’m the Sword Demon. Anyway, hope to get along with you guys!」

The Staff Demon made an elegant bow as the Sword Demon once again casually waved his hand.

「Huh? Wha…? Y-You! What have you done with the real Mazenda?!」

The Staff Demon let out a snicker in hearing one of the Imperial Guard’s outcry.

「No no no, I am the real Mazenda. I didn’t switch places or anything, this is who I was from the very beginning.」

「Can we move on from this already, Staff Demon? It’s not like any of this stuff matters.」

The Staff Demon shrugged her shoulders at the Sword Demon’s impatient voice.

「Very well, Sword Demon. Kill everyone… however, leave Lady Eltrinde and the Imperial Guard with heavy wounds. As for the three left over…」

The Staff Demon turned her eyes to Shironos, Kain, and Ein.

「…Kill them just in case. It’d be best to thoroughly remove any possible chance of another miracle occurring.」

「Got it, leave it to me. I won’t let a single one of them get away.」

At the same time he said that, the Sword Demon’s figure vanished.

At the very next moment, he appeared in front of an Imperial Guard and cut him down, filling the room with cries and screams of horror.

「Wha…?! Mazenda! Are you planning on getting rid of all the evidence here?!」

「I don’t plan on explaining every little detail to you, Lady Eltrinde. Seeing as you aren’t heading for the Sword Demon, could it be that you’d prefer if I’d be the one to kill you? I’m afraid I’m not the best at performing clean deaths, so I hope you’ll understand.」

「…Hmph, well aren’t you confident?」

Eltrinde glanced at the battle occurring behind her.

While the Imperial Guard was managing to engage against the Sword Demon, they were having difficulty operating as normal due to the unsettlement they felt from the situation.

On the other hand, the Sword Demon was acting as if he was just playing around.

「Kuh… Ein, we have to stop that Sword Demon guy!」

「…Right. I suppose we can leave that masked freak alone for now.」

Ein and Shironos nodded at each other, and then Ein pushed at Kain’s shoulder.

Possibly taking that as the signal to engage in combat, Kain shouted towards the Sword Demon.

「Stop, I’ll be your opponent!」

「Huh?! Who the hell are you?!」

The Sword Demon turned around and charged at Kain.

「Attack Light!」

「You call that an attack?! O, Water!」

Kain’s Attack Light was cut apart by the Sword Demon’s water element Magic Sword, proceeding into a sword fight between the two of them.

The Sword Demon was at least befitting of his name, as he skillfully dealt with Kain and Ein’s swordplay.

Eltrinde wasn’t able to fully grasp how strong Kain and Ein truly were, but she was at least able to tell that they were stronger than the average person.

The Imperial Guards that were still able to move were also looking for their chance to jump back into battle.

Time can still be bought right now.

「You’ll be the one to die, Mazenda… O, Light!」

Once again, Eltrinde’s light element Magic Sword activated.

「Kufu, do you truly think you can defeat me? Not to mention, is that white knight over there just for decoration?」

Responding to Mazenda’s gaze towards him, Shironos chuckled from under his helmet.

He then put himself between Eltrinde and Mazenda and the ring from his clashed sword could be heard.

「My, my… And here I was holding back as to not disturb the proper way of things too much.」

「What are you saying? You call barging into here and making a mess of things ‘holding back’?」

After snapping her fingers, a crack appeared in the air next to the Staff Demon from which a single Alva appeared.

The more muscular than usual Alva stood in position in front of the Staff Demon, to which the Staff Demon issued an order indifferently.

「I don’t expect you to defeat them. Just buy some time.」

「Understood. Behold the power of Gorazu Gurahzo.」

The very moment after Gorazu Gurahzo bore its shining claws while declaring that, he was cut in half from top to bottom by Shironos’s sword.

Gorazu Gurahzo dissipated into black clouds without even getting the chance to let out a dying cry.

While Eltrinde was at a loss for words at the sight, the Staff Demon didn’t appear to especially care.

「I see. I suppose it was right of you not to expect much from it.」

「S-Shironos! Above you!」

A ball of fire was heading down towards the Shironos who spoke ironically.

「Magic Guard – Fire!」

Eltrinde plunged towards Shironos in a rush and deployed a red half-transparent shield around them.

The ball of fire exploded at the surface of the barrier as Eltrinde looked up at the ceiling while holding on to Shironos’s back.

「Damn it…! Alva reinforcements have been showing up even over there?! Magic Guard – Aqua!」

Noticing the several Alva that had appeared near the ceiling letting out numerous water bullets, Eltrinde swiftly shifted her Magic Guard.

Shironos looked up at the raining water bullets in annoyance and let out a small sigh.

「…Now then, what’s to be done about this? If I don’t use my magic right, I just might end up breaking the ceiling.」

The room above them was the Chamber of Prayer.

If the Chamber of Prayer were to fall apart, Narika’s life would be at risk.

Shironos did not particularly care for Narika, but it wouldn’t exactly do to get on Eltrinde’s bad side from something like that.

In any case, Narika needed to stay alive for the time being.

That said, the options he could take were extremely limited.

Shironos was one of the more elegant Mazokus, but even he didn’t have any abilities that were weak enough not to endanger the facilities surrounding him.

「I suppose I’ll just have to do what I was originally here for.」

Shironos muttered those words as he looked at the chanting Staff Demon.

He had never heard the words coming from the Staff Demon’s chant before, but judging from the length of it, he was sure that it was quite the dangerous spell.

Shironos would likely be able to charge in without worrying about getting injured too much, but seeing that he had to protect Eltrinde as well, that wasn’t an option.

But the situation would only get worse at this rate. He had to do something about the Staff Demon as soon as possible.

「…Lady Eltrinde. I am about to be a little reckless right now, so please maintain your Magic Guard deployment.」

「Huh? O-Oh, okay.」

「Much appreciated.」

Shironos looked down on his shield as he said that.

He raised up his shield known as the White Shield Restoria and made a declaration.

「…Trance Shield Saucer.」

The curved surface of his shield transformed into one that was flat and round.

After readying the shield, he threw it with force.

A sound reminiscent of a beast’s roar could be heard as the flying shield headed towards the chanting Staff Demon.

「Ngh….guh?!」

The unexpecting Staff Demon interrupted his chanting and deployed an Attack Guard.

An intense impact could be heard as the shield bounced off the barrier and flew back into Shironos’s hands, to which he threw out once again.

「Ohhh?!」

It was too fast to dodge, and it was too strong to withstand a hit from.

As such, the Staff Demon clicked his tongue in irritation knowing that he had no choice but to interrupt his chanting again.

「Grr… A throwing weapon?! You hid something like that under your sleeves?!」

「A-Amazing, Shironos! But we won’t be able to break through like this… Is it possible to enchant it with Magic Sword?!」

Shironos made a wry smile without letting down his assault.

「…Unfortunately, it’s already enchanted with magical energy. If I was to enchant it with Magic Sword… or Magic Shield in this case, it’d end up returning to its original form.」

「I-I see.」

「It typically isn’t a technique to be used too often, as it heavily lowers my defensive capabilities… you see?」

Eltrinde made a disappointing looking face to Shironos’s words, but seeing that the Alva above them were this time about to send out wind bullets, she quickly switched her Magic Guard.

「B-But at this rate, that Sword Demon is going to…!」

「Right… Well, there’s no doubt about that. It certainly is a problem. If only I was able to kill the Staff Demon with my shield… Well, I’m at least able to stop her from chanting, so that’ll buy us some time while we wait for reinforcements.」

Eltrinde was reminded of Vermudol and Ykslaas as Shironos said that.

「B-But, I believe they’re probably being held in their tracks as well right about now…」

Narika’s army included strong individuals such as the captain and vice-captain of the Shields of Light, as well as the captain of the Staves of Light.

Seeing as they weren’t here right now, it was likely they headed towards the direction Vermudol and the rest.

Even though they might be stronger than the average person, they would likely still struggle against the captains.

In that case, they had no choice but to deal with the enemies here with the men they had on hand.

As Eltrinde was caught up in thinking about how exactly that would be possible, a crack could be heard.

「Wha…?!」

Noticing the sound and turning around, she came across a crack that had appeared in the air right next to her… and an Alva peeked out from the warped space.

「Y-You…!」

While still keeping her Magic Guard deployed, Eltrinde swung her sword.

But the Alva was easily able to dodge her weak swing and proceeded to grab onto her shoulders.

「Kuh, not good…!」

「Kufufu, is Lady Eltrinde that important to you?」

The Staff Demon pointed her staff towards Shironos who had stopped his attack.

「Behold the grave the earth has bestowed upon you… Gran Rock Lance!」

「Kwah?!」

Shironos barely managed to dodge the lance of stone that broke out of the ground with incredible force.

However, his helmet flew off from it barely nicking him.

「S-Shironos! …Damn you!」

An Alva that flew down from above grabbed onto her arm that was about to use her Lattice Wand.

Even someone like Eltrinde wouldn’t be able to throw off the Alva, who had been gripping onto her with the strength of the Mazoku.

「Lady Eltrinde!」

「Whoa now, Wind Bomb!」

The Staff Demon stepped in between Shironos and Eltrinde who had been blown away by wind magic.

「…Goodness, you sure caused me some trouble. Pardon the brashness, but I’ll be making sure you won’t be moving around anymore.」

Having both of her arms pinned down by the Alva, Eltrinde bit her tongue in frustration.

Now that it’s come to this, I’ll just have to create an opening for everyone with my magic even if it means I’d have to sacrifice myself…

As Eltrinde thought that, the heads of the Alva who had been pinning her down flew through the air.

At the same time, something bounced off the Staff Demon’s Attack Guard.

「Uwoh…?!」

A single man was looking at Mazenda who had raised her voice in surprise.

「…Hmph, you really are quite the cautious fellow.」

Standing between Eltrinde and Mazenda was a knight clad in blue armor wielding two swords, Brutus.