CH 199

Spear golem

***---***

After confirming the Gigas' reaction with Nero and Zeta-tachi, I returned to Volzard and reported the current situation to Klaus-san.

"Gigas? Even with the previous Griffon, and also the maximum outbreak of unprecedented scale, what's going on with that."

"I don't know about that, but Barshania is in a difficult situation, and I feel that it would be unwise to allow the Gigas to continue to build its territory."

"That's true. I don't know if other monsters will come across the sea, but if the territory of monsters spread, naturally humans will be deprived of places to live. Right now it's a problem in Barshania, but if it's something like a monster that destroys an entire city, there's no guarantee that it won't affect Volzard through Resenburg. Cooperate with Barshania to defeat it."

"Yes, I've been requested by Barshania, so I'll think of a powerful means of attack."

When I was about to return to my escort duties, Beatrice leaned over and hugged me.

Ou, maybe it's because I compared her to Seraphima, but I feel like Beatrice is growing up.

"Kent-sama, please be careful ..."

"Yup, I'll attack from the shadows, so it's okay. I'm heading out."

I hugged Beatrice cheek-to-cheek before slipping into the shadows and returning to my escort duties.

According to Gregory's prediction, it would take about a week for the Gigas to eat up the earthen domes, so it was hard to imagine that it would start moving before the Slavery Bolas were completed.

If I didn't have to worry about it moving, what remained was how to kill it.

When Zeta-tachi were threatening it, I tried to deploy a shield of darkness inside its body to attack directly, but perhaps it's because the Gigas had strong magical powers like the Griffon, or because it was clad in earth-attribute magic. Somehow, I couldn't deploy the shield as I wanted.

When it was the Griffon, I had Zae-tachi attack with throwing spears, but it might not be powerful enough to pierce the Gigas' rock-hard skin and inflict fatal damage.

"Hmm ... Is it a missile?"

[ What kind of weapon is a missile? ]

"Simply put, it's like a giant spear made with explosives."

After returning to the escort mission and arriving at the inn for the day, I asked Basten to stay behind and moved to the special training ground in the Devil's Forest to prepare a weapon that could defeat the Gigas with a single blow.

[ But, Kent-sama, there are no explosives here. Are you planning to bring it in from Japan? ]

"Nope, you need a permit to get a large amount of gunpowder in Japan, and unfortunately I'm not qualified to handle it."

[ Then, what are you going to do? ]

I pointed at the night sky as if to answer Reinhardt's question.

I've come here to look at it almost every day, but it's still an overwhelming starry sky.

[ The sky ... Is it? ]

"Yes, I'm thinking of raining spears from the sky and skewering it."

The strategy was quite simple. I was thinking of building a heavy, strong spear, and going 'Do~on' with the momentum of free fall.(TN:The SFX for bang or boom.)

[ It's like the 'Spear of Judgment' ... Kent-sama is finally in the realm of God ... ]

"God, rather ... Umm, what is that 'Spear of Judgment'?"

[ When a powerful monster that was uncontrollable by humans appeared, the high priest offered a prayer to the heavens and a huge spear fell from the heavens, defeating the monster with a single blow ... There is such an old saying. ]

According to Reinhardt, the story of the 'Spear of Judgment' was a so-called mythological legend, and it was a story long before the Kingdom of Resenburg was created, so it's unclear if it actually happened.

"What kind of shape did that 'Spear of Judgment' have?"

[ Well, according to legend, it was shaped like a long, thick arrow, with two wings in the middle and four wings in the back. ]

Reinhardt drew a line on the ground and drew the shape of the 'Spear of Judgment', but it looked like nothing more than a cruise missile.

"I see ... But, in my case, I'll drop it from above, so I guess just the four wings on the back is fine."

The shape was like a dart arrow that pierced straight from the sky.

The tip was sharpened into a spear shape to add weight, and then wings were added for balance.

"For now, let's make a model and experiment."

The actual spear we'll be using is for subjugating the Gigas, so it's planned to be about 10 meters long and about 1 meter wide at the thickest part.

I created a 1/100th scale model of the real thing with earth-attribute magic and applied hardening magic.

When I threw up the finished model, thanks to the weight of the tip and the wings on the back, it fell straight down with the spear part down and stuck in the ground.

"Then, let's drop this from the sky next."

I put out a shield of darkness about 150 meters above in the sky and dropped a model spear through the shadow space.

[ Kent-sama ... It was swept away ... ]

"Yup, it went somewhere ..."

The spear was swept eastward by the wind in the sky.

Right now, it was dropped from about 150 meters above the ground, but I was thinking of dropping it from about 3 kilometers above the ground, so it was probably impossible to hit it at this rate.

"But it's okay, I'm thinking about countermeasures in case something like this happens."

Using earth magic again, I made a model of the spear.

The shape was almost the same as the first one, but there were two joints on the shaft.

"Jaja ~ an! Spear Golem!"

[ Hohou, you did well to think that, Kent-sama. By moving that axis, you can control the direction in which it falls. ]

"That's right. I added two joints with a 90-degree shift, so I can freely change its direction."

When I tried while holding it in my hand, the joints moved smoothly and as expected.

This time, it was dropped from a place about 200 meters above the ground, higher than before.

[ Kent-sama ... It flew off somewhere ... ]

"Yup, that's right ... Come to think of it, if you let it go from your hand, it will spin around and you won't know which way to move it."

I thought it would work this way, but when I moved it, it seemed to be in the opposite direction, and the model of the spear was blown away by the wind.

The free-fall guidance system should have solved everything, but my assumption was too naive.

[ Kent-sama, wouldn't it be fine if you used the shield of darkness? ]

"A shield of darkness ...?"

[ Sending the spear to the sky is from a shield of darkness that was sent to the sky through the shadow space, right? In that case ... ]

"I see, put out a shield of darkness where it fell, and use another shield of darkness above the Gigas' head to go out without losing momentum."

This time, I made a 1/50th size spear and dropped it from 200 meters above the ground so that it wouldn't be easily blown away by the wind.

Since it had been doubled in size, it should have been heavier than it was at first, but a strong west wind seemed to be blowing around 100 meters above the ground, and the spear drifted eastward.

Ascertaining how it was drifting away, I caught it with a 10m diameter shield of darkness, and launched it from a similarly 10m diameter shield placed 5m above the training ground.

With a thumping sound, the spear was almost buried in the ground.

"Alright! This should be fine."

[ Kent-sama ... This is no good ... ]

"Ehh, why is that? I don't think the power is a problem ..."

[ The shield is too big ... It won't hit ... ]

"Ahh! I see ... That's right."

If you use a shield with a diameter of 10 meters to catch a 1/50 size model, the diameter of the shield will be 500 meters for the actual thing.

With a range of 500 meters in diameter, if you don't know where it will fall, there is a risk that it will hit not only the Gigas but also the Barshanian soldiers.

In order to reliably hit the Gigas, the diameter of the acual shield of darkness should be about 3 meters, preferably about 1 meter.

For that reason, the shield of darkness that captured and has the model pass through must have a diameter of 2 to 6 cm, and must be large enough for the model's spear to pass through.

It's impossible to pass through such a small shield of darkness all of a sudden, so I tried it with a diameter of about 50 cm, but I couldn't catch the spear at all.

Just when I thought I had finally caught it, it hit the edge of the shield and the spear fell apart.

"Hmm ... I thought it would be easy, but it's more difficult than I thought."

[ Kent-sama, ask the Barshanian soldiers to withdraw. How about raining rocks like when you killed the Orcs? ]

"Hmm ... I think that Barshania is the main character in this time's subjugation of the Gigas. I helped them to obtain the Slavery Bola, but the Barshanian soldiers would still want to subdue it with their own hands, so it's no good. Even so, I want them to think that 

This time, the City of Leinef had been destroyed by the Gigas.

The people of Barshania must have a strong desire to get revenge on their enemy.

I will handle the Slavery Bolas, but if possible, I would like the people of Barshania to kill the Gigas.

What I'm preparing is a means to prevent the Gigas from escaping and surviving when the people of Barshania run out of options.(TN: ...)

"Isn't it just a spear, if it's Nero, it will definitely appear where you aim."

"Ehh? Oh, I see! There was that option!"

"Nya? Is it Nero's turn, nya?"

"No, I have to have Nero do another job, so I'll prepare the spear after all. I've come up with a way to make it hit."

Based on Nero's hint, I made another 1/50th scale model of the spear, drew a three-ringed target on the ground of the training ground, and aimed at it while dropping the spear from 500 meters above.(TN:A target like that at an archery range.)

The spear was stuck in the middle of the target, and the back wings were buried in the ground.

[ As expected of Kent-sama ... The realm of Gods ... ]

"For the time being, it seems that the model will be fine, but if possible, I would like to prepare and test the same thing as the actual product ..."

The actual spear was about 10 meters long, about 1 meter in diameter at its thickest part, and looked like a gigantic dart arrow with four tail wings attached to the rear.

The material was earth, but I had the earth-attribute Zeta-tachi do their best to cast hardening magic on it.

It probably weighed more than 10 tons.

[ Kent-sama, are you going to do a test with this? ]

"Yeah, that's what I intend."

[ I feel like the influence on the surroundings is too great here. Why don't you try it on the beach where you went to dispose of the dead Orcs? ]

"That's right, it looks like the visibility would be better over there."

I had the completed spear carried to the shadow storage and moved to the beach where I went to dispose of the dead Orcs.

When I moved to the coast, a strong west wind was still blowing.

In this case, even if it's a heavy spear, it looked like it was going to fail if I didn't calculate that it would be swept to the east.

[ Kent-sama, what are you going to do about the target? ]

"That's right ... I wonder if that big piece of driftwood is fine."

Affordable driftwood had been washed up on the beach overlooking the cliffs.

I checked the procedure again and did image training before the test.

After confirming the position of the target driftwood, I prepared to launch a shield of darkness about 15 meters above it.

Underneath the spear placed in the shadow space, another shield of darkness was deployed, connected to the sky far above and dropped.

Immediately after catching the spear that was falling at a tremendous speed with the shield of darkness, the ground shook with a tremendous impact sound, and sand was blown up into the sky.

I hurriedly retreated into the shadow space, waited for a while, and when I fearfully came out to the surface and looked under the cliff, I saw a crater with a diameter of over 50 meters.

"Uwaa, the Gigas will be smashed to pieces with this."

[ Buhahaha, as expected of Kent-sama, the power is worth of the name of Maou. ]

[ It's no longer a Maou ... It feels better to call him a Majin ... ](TN:Bit of wordplay here, Majin '魔神' is the Kanji for Devil/Demon 'Ma' and God 'Kami'. So he's calling him a Demon God instead of a Demon King.)

"No, no, even a King is too heavy of a burden, a God is absolutely impossible."

[ Kent-sama, it looks like your aim is perfect. ]

"That's right, I've got the prospect of hitting the Gigas as well."

Nero gave me the hint to shoot from a small shield of darkness.

First, create a spear as an earth-attribute golem and disconnect it.

Next, connect the magic link as a dark attribute golem and summon it from the shield of darkness above the target.

With this method, no matter how big the shield of darkness is, it can be shot from a small shield of darkness.

After that, in order to adjust the power, I adjusted the height of the drop, the size and weight of the spear itself, and completed something that I was satisfied with.

[ Well, Kent-sama, tomorrow we're going through Rivarre Pass. Go back soon and take a rest. ]

"That's right, I don't think bandits will appear, but being careless is a great enemy."

The day after I went to Barshania to scout the Gigas, it was finally the day we crossed the Rivarre Pass.

When I came to Bakkenheim, it was the Gigawolf Bran who was pulling the cabin, and after finishing the bandit subjugation, I went to Japan to treat athletes Fukuzawa and Kanbayashi, so it was my first time crossing the pass.

Rivarre Pass was a strategic point connecting the major cities of Landshelt, Volzard, and the Kingdom of Resenburg.

The roads were well maintained, but the places where sheer cliffs were carved and the winding uphill roads were tough on the horses that pulled the carriages.

You had to carefully observe how the horses breathed and how they sweated to decide how fast to climb the mountain pass, which was an opportunity for the driver to show off their skills.

There were spaces here and there on the pass where horses could park and rest, but the number of carriages that could be parked was limited because of the limited space available on the pass road.

For that reason, it seemed that there were cases where they couldn't take a rest at the place they had planned, and it will come back around later, causing the carriage to get stuck.

"Johannes-san, please let me know if it gets tough on the horses. I can move the luggage to my shadow storage to make it lighter, and Takayama will run on his own feet."

"Okay, it's fine now, but if an accident happens, I'll ask you."

"As for Takayama, you can let him run even if there is no accident."

When I was discussing emergency protocol with Johannes-san, the window of the cabin opened and Takayama showed his face.

"Kokubu, I can hear you, rather, you can move easily, you should get off."

"What are you talking about? Wouldn't you be in trouble if I wasn't in charge of the escort?"

"No, if your genus are here, Kokubu will be ..."

"I'm necessary! Because I'm really necessary."

Seriously, can you please stop calling me like an extra for my genus.

Just a moment, just for a moment, because it's not like I'm unaware that it's actually like that.

Johannes-san drove the carriage while observing the condition of the horses and resting early.

The Volzard Family's carriage successfully climbed the Rivarre Pass.

We took a slightly longer lunch break at the rest area near the top of the pass.

"Hey, Takayama, it's time to get to work. Give the horses water and fodder."

"Kokubu, you were just sitting today, too, get to work."

"What are you talking about. Even though you were sleeping in the cabin."

Today, unlike yesterday, there was a cloudless blue sky, but perhaps because we came up the mountain pass, the air felt tense and cold.

"Uwaa ... It's a superb view."

"Kent, over there is the direction of Volzard."

From the resting place, we could get a good view of the distant scenery, and in the direction Augusto-san was pointing, there was a place that seemed to be pastures and cultivated land, and beyond that, the green belt that even looked black was probably the Devil's Forest.

"As expected, we can't see the city of Volzard, but according to the story of an adventurer who spent the night at this resting place, the faint light can be used to locate Volzard."

"I see, the city lights stand out because the surroundings are pitch black. I'll come and see it next time."

"Really, if it's a place Kent has visited once, you can easily go there. I envy you."

"The sea at night is also amazing. There are fish that will surprise you."

Augusto-san seemed to have been intrigued by the story of the giant fish I witnessed previously.

"If such a fish really exists, I'd like to see it."

"If it's time to subjugate a large number of monsters and dispose of their corpses ... Ahh, but it's hard to get to the coast."

In order for Augusto-san to reach the coast, he must go through the Devil's Forest from Volzard, cross the river into Resenburg, and continue on a path with no road.

Since he was the heir to the Lord of Volzard, it would be difficult for him to easily go to another country.

After all, I felt that the Feudal Lord Family was bound by various ties.

The Volzard Family's carriage had crossed the pass smoothly so far, but it was stopped shortly after it started running after the lunch break.

The carriage that was supposed to have taken the lead after finishing its rest earlier than us came back.

"He ~ ey! There's a big fallen rock ahead and we can't get through. Well, it's impossible for one or two days. If you don't turn back early, accommodations for tonight will run out."

"Alright. Thanks for the info."

When Johannes-san raised his hand and signaled, the returning carriage called out to the carriage behind and went back the way it came.

A carriage came back from behind them and said that it would not be possible to pass at all, and turned back.

"Johannes-san, could you please move in front of the fallen rocks?"

"What are you going to do? Do you intent to restore the road?"

"It depends on the situation, but my genus are excellent."

"Kokubu isn't needed after all, are you?"

"Takayama, you're noisy!"

Even though he doesn't do anything escort-like to the extent that he takes care of the horses, he's really starting to say unnecessary things.

The site of the fallen rocks was at the back of a curve that seemed to enter the mountain surface, and the road was buried for about 30 meters by fallen rocks and earth and sand.

Below the road was a steep cliff about 40 meters high towards the stream after a slope about 15 meters wide continued inside the curve.

The largest fallen rock was more than 10 meters high, and the rock surface must have peeled off and fallen down.

"This is ... It certainly won't be possible to pass in a day or two."

"No, no, Johannes-san, we also have experts in civil engineering."

[ Kent-sama ... A carriage got involved ... ]

"Ehh ... Ahh, it's true!"

A carriage, apparently caught in the fallen rocks, was barely caught at the edge of the slope.

The connection between the horses and the cabin was broken, the horses were nowhere to be seen, and the person on the coachman's stand must have been thrown off.

The expensive-looking cabin with the coat of arms was also broken in various places, lying on its right side, with the wheels barely caught in tree roots.

It seemed that there were people on the other side of the landslide who had noticed, but there was a sheer cliff on the other side, and it seemed that they could only look at it from above.

"Reinhardt, support it!"

[ Understood. ]

For the time being, I placed a shield of darkness below the carriage and had Reinhardt support the carriage from there.

When I dived into the shadows and looked inside the carriage, I saw two men lying unconscious.