Chapter 1140: Relic?

Maleficent’s blood circle summoned a humanoid demon, whose body was pitch black all over.

The demon’s arms and legs seemed unhealthily thin, but his fierce eyes gave off an impressive aura. The white pupils and black schlera proved his demonhood, and his well-rounded face maintained a belligerent smile.

Yet strangely enough, he did not seem to be the warrior type. The way he stood suggested he did not have a high level in any physical combat skills. Perhaps he was focused on magic instead?

In other words, it was doubtful if this demon could support the adventurers all by himself.

Seems about as strong as a Rank B Adventurer. Or so I thought, but the demon’s real strength lied elsewhere.

「Uroooh!」

The demon thrusts his hands forward and bellowed, as several Dullahans in his line of sight ceased movement. Immediately, the headless knights in red armor crumpled to the ground like puppets with their strings broken.

「While this one is not much of a fighter, his anti-undead abilities are impressive, as you can see. With Forrund-dono’s assistance, they should be able to handle a horde of about 1000 or 2000 easily enough.」

I’m still not convinced of the demon’s strength, but we have no choice but to trust him. Even as we spoke, flame magic continued flying from the fort and striking down our allies.

For a moment, I considered simply pushing through the Dullahans and continuing our retreat. However, taking down some of Raydoss’s strongest forces will be much better in the long term.

Besides, they’ve killed so many adventurers. Fran definitely wanted to avenge them. I can share the feeling, though she’s way more motivated than me.

（Master, it’s time!）

『Yeah, let’s go.』

「Maleficent. Are you still taking Persona?」

「Yes, of course I will.」

「…」

Maleficent was cradling Persona like a baby in his arms, yet the girl still nodded her head. I was wondering if she’s okay in her current condition, but I guess she’s fine if Maleficent says so.

「Okay. We’ll ride on Urushi’s back!」

「Really! Thank you very much!」

「…」

Persona got on Urushi’s back first and started clinging onto and ruffling his fur. Judging by the slight smile on her face, she was having a lot of fun. She may be better off than I thought.

「Please wait, my priestess! Allow me to join you!」

「…Fine. Go sit behind Maleficent.」

「Understood!」

「Eh. You better not poison me, okay?」

「Of course. Well, I can’t do anything about the smell, so you’ll have to deal with that yourself.」

Avenger doesn’t seem to care much for anyone aside from Fran. Also, he does kinda smell like rotten flesh due to being a ghoul.

But letting him ride Urushi alongside us is the only way. Maleficent just has to deal with it.

「Ugh. Persona, we’re doing a full cleansing after this.」

「…」

「Forrund, Donad, we leave the rest to you.」

「Got it.」

「Yeah, you better take good care of the fort! Just don’t push yourself too hard. Surviving is the most important part of an adventurer’s job!」

「Nn!」

Urushi rushed toward the fort without any attempt to hide himself, since we’ve already stood out way too much. They know we’re coming either way.

In that case, we might as well come knocking on their front door.

As expected, all the flame lasers started targeting us instead.

That should reduce the burden on Forrund and Donad considerably.

『You got this, Urushi!』

「Woof wooooof!」

「You can do it!」

「…」

With the support of the girls pushing him forward, Urushi accelerated even faster, dodging the lasers with evasive maneuvers.

The barrage of lasers only got more and more intense, proving our opponent’s impatience. However, we were fine thanks to Urushi’s speed and barriers from Maleficent and me.

Urushi weaved nimbly through the countless flaming lasers and explosions decorating the sky.

（Master, what now?）

『Hmm… They’ve lost all their barriers.』

I attempted an attack at the fort, and it went through without getting blocked. The fort’s defensive mechanisms must be in poorer shape than I thought.

『Then we go straight for the captain of the Carmine Flame Knights. To the roof!』

「Woof!」

Urushi dodged another serious of violent blasts, landing on the roof. A young man stood there, staring at us with gritted teeth. Now that we’re face to face, his resemblance to the vice-captain Ioneth became incredibly apparent.

Seems like appraisal works. The Red Knights are mainly assigned to combat monsters and beasts, not foreign invasions. Thus, it seems they never took precaution against the possibility of being appraised.

Putting it simply, he was incredibly strong. He had over 1000 mana, Flame Magic level 9, as well as many skills useful to a sorcerer, such as Chantless and Parallel Thinking. Not to mention his Sword Mastery at level 7.

He’s as good as any Rank A adventurer based on his stats alone.

That said, what really stood out about the man was his equipment. The strange metal weapon in his hands radiated a very aggressive aura of mana.

It appeared to be cylinder about two meters long, with a handle, a firing hammer, and a trigger. Practically a gun. Well, maybe a more futuristic version of a gun? Like the laser cannons you would see giant robots blasting each other with in science fiction works.

The weapons’s name certainly did not seem to fit in a fantasy word like this one. My appraisal said the full name was “Flame Magic Regulation Device, Carmine Flame”.

The skills were listed as: Bombardment, Flame Control, Flame Amplification, Flame Absorption, Effect Sharing, ■■■■. The weapon itself acted as a powerful laser cannon, but it was also capable of sharing various skills with the wielder’s subordinates.

Moreover, the ■■■■ part looked incredibly disturbing to me. Sophie had Divine Sword Release hidden like that when I looked at her stats before.

This can’t possibly be a divine sword, right? Yeah, it must be that “relic” thing we’ve heard about.

Before we could speak, the man pointed his gun at us with its muzzle glowing red.

「Die!!」