Chapter 105: The Demon Queen's War (02)

The Demon Queen had declared her war. She didn't waste a moment to attack us.

Thinking that we could react to her attacks was my mistake. While she herself is not fast by any means, her magic certainly is.

Bolts of lightning started coming out of her body, and as I was the closest to her, I ended up being the target for her attack.

I barely had time to jump back, but avoiding it would be impossible. Seeing how the lightning coming from her body was enough to make the house crumble into a fire, I could only hope that somehow this one was weaker.

Given that I was still alive after that, I thought luck had been on my side but the image in front of my eyes contradicted that greatly.

A thick wall of ice had been formed, though something had pierced a hole through it.

Anna and Licia were right in front of that wall, the first was on her knees, seeing how burned her body was, it was obvious that she had been hit with the lion's share of that magic. Thanks to her defense status, she was still holding on to consciousness, but the same could not be said about Licia.

She had her arms open in an attempt to make her body as big as possible. The ice barrier was probably her work also.

She only mustered enough strength to take one last look at me before saying she was sorry and falling down.

With the house burning, everything was a chaotic mess, and my head was no different.

However, I knew I had to do something, so I grabbed Licia and ordered Mia to bring Anna out as we all evacuated.

It would've been incredibly nice if the demon had died inside the fire hell she had created, but sadly, the one that flew fast enough to break through the ceiling couldn't be anyone else other than her.

As she started to descend, she stood just a little higher than the house, with the fire still burning the remains, it was the truest picture of a demon.

Claire: "Should've stayed inside, the fire here is way worse."

Upon seeing what had happened to the others, it was obvious that Claire wasn't going to let this girl get away with what she had done. Much as I'd like to admire the power and quantity of magic she was throwing, taking care of Licia and Anna took precedence.

While running to create some distance between us, I started spamming the potions banner in order to get something to heal the girls.

We could also head to Mia's place where the potions were stored, but I didn't want to take her away from the fight as she was probably our strongest fighter.

It took me 15 out of the 65 tickets I had stored thanks to receiving 40 today, but I managed to get a health-restoring potion for both of them.

Since Licia was unconscious I had no choice but to forcefully make her drink it, Anna on the other hand still managed to drink it on her own.

Anna wanted to join the fight as soon as she finished hers, I thought that would be extremely reckless of her, but I couldn't argue. Given Licia's state, I still had to hide her somewhere.

In order to not waste the time Claire was buying for us with her bombardment, I had Mia and Anna make their way back, and after getting Licia to a safe location, I came back to help them.

The girls were doing their best, against a normal opponent, hell, even against a high ranker, I believe they would've won.

Mages spend their mana as a resource for fighting. Thus, they are different from swordsmen in that, once they've fought for a long time, or have done too much, they will be out of options.

Now, the same could be said for an archer, but Ellie carries infinite arrows with her thanks to the quiver I gave her.

Thus, given the speed and accuracy of her shots, plus the effects they give the enemy upon making contact, she is by far the most annoying for a mage to deal with.

And it was clear the effort the Demon Queen had to put in order to counter every one of Ellie's arrows, had she stayed using her lightning attacks, in the small time frame it took her to cast one, Ellie would've shot her a dozen times.

As such, she started using fire magic to intercept and burn the arrows before they met her.

Ellie's magic is passable, but even while reinforcing her shots with it, against one devoted to magic, she wasn't going to win.

It was good that she was most definitely taking a lot of the queen's mana, but that came to an end.

Demon Queen: "Hm... you are weaker than I thought at first glance... I have to be careful, or else, I'll be losing precious pawns here."

Still, there were a few options available.

I used a chunk of the remaining kingdom points I had to grab Claire's fire magic.

As always, it was hard to control, but Bea seemed to be doing a good job at it.

If before she could deal with the Demon Queen for a few minutes, I was hoping with this she could handle her for at least ten.

I gave Anna the mission of protecting Bea, while I tried to distract the Demon Queen with my own magic.

It was a tough request, but Anna didn't flinch and did her job guarding Bea for as long as she could.

There were many attacks that Bea couldn't block, and Anna took all of them. A few she could deflect or block with her sword, but after a while, it ended up being too much for her.

She fell while maintaining the grip on her sword. A small obstacle in the path of anyone trying to harm those behind her and a final act of defiance.

Only Bea and I remained, but we weren't going to last for long.

The Demon Queen focused all her efforts on Bea, who undeniably had become the biggest threat to her.

Or so I thought.

Demon Queen: "Your control over Arcanum is impressive, were you a demon, I'd be quite entertained by now. The more your mana reserves drop, the more Arcanum you apply to balance firepower while diminishing the mana usage. But are you sure you can keep going like this?"

Bea: "Haah... Shut up... you... talk too much..."

So she has been using it all this time, even though I explicitly told her not to do it. If we manage to survive this, I'm going to have to apply an order to her.

Demon Queen: "Well, fun as it was, it seems I'm quite lacking in demonic power compared to the past, I'm going to need it for the future, so forgive me for ending this now."

She invoked the same lightning bubble as last time, except that it wasn't around her body this time. There was one on each side above her shoulders, their color a darker blue than before, and sparks kept flying out of them.

I couldn't do anything as those two flew at an incredibly fast speed toward Bea.

But then...

A monstrous blob with one eye and tentacles sprawl from within, alongside a tiger made of clouds appeared to block her attack.

This wasn't something I had seen before. They weren't monsters I recognized, but what else could they be?

Demon Queen: "You... did you purposefully distorted one of your memories just to sacrifice a unique horror never before seen in order to summon it as a concept with your Arcanum? That's... amazing."

I wouldn't say it like that.

Whatever this trick Bea pulled was, it was the last one for her. Blood started spewing out of her mouth, and she fell face first toward the ground.

While these things were strong... they were on the level that our party could probably handle...

To a Dmeon Queen that didn't need to hold herself back... they weren't all that powerful.

It made me able to catch a glimpse of her true power for the first time though, as she started spamming then with the same lightning bolt that took down Anna and Licia.

After a dozen of them, even these things couldn't fight anymore, and they simply disappeared.

Demon Queen: "A shame. The shock seems to have been too much for your brain... I guess it's just me and you now, king?"

It would seem that way but.... the footsteps behind me contradicted her theory.

Once again, I wouldn't be alone in my struggle against this demon.