Part 3 of 8
Besides, this is the first time I get a chance to watch others go at it instead of having to participate myself, so it still counts.
Just think of it like watching a movie, and maybe you’ll understand how I feel.
Plus, I’m seeing it in real life, not on a screen, so it’ll be even more intense.
According to the many books I read while I was killing time in the duke’s mansion, the key to major battles in this world is a category of spells called “grand magic.”
There are usually three steps to the skills for any given kind of magic.
With fire, for example, it’s Fire Magic, Flame Magic, and Inferno Magic.
To simplify things, we’ll call those “low,” “middle,” and “high.”
Each of these magic skills has a different spell for each skill level, right?
We’ll call the lower-skill-level spells “lesser,” the middle ones “intermediate,” and the ones you learn later on “advanced.”
Going by this system, the Black Spear spell I frequently used before my deification would be considered a “high-intermediate” spell.
So naturally, “grand magic” refers to high-advanced spells… Ha-ha, nah, I’m just kidding. Apparently, it generally means middle-advanced spells.
Are you wondering what about that is “grand”?
If the answer is yes, then your mind has been poisoned by power creep!
There’s practically nobody in this world who can even use high magic in the first place.
Even middle magic is pretty difficult for anyone but the most elite mages, so when most people think of magic, they think of low magic.
When I was throwing around high magic like crazy before I got deified, I was waaay outside the standards of the rest of the world!
From a human perspective, middle magic is already crazy dangerous, and even low magic can easily inflict a mortal wound if it hits you dead-on.
That’s just normal, apparently.
So destructive wide-range middle-advanced spells are basically the strongest kind of magic most people can realistically use.
Not only that, but they can’t just cast those spells whenever they want, either.
Since humans’ meager stats are generally well under 1,000, it’s very difficult for one of them to use a middle-advanced spell alone.
That’s where the Cooperation skill comes in handy.
Multiple people with the same magic skill can use Cooperation to work together and complete a single spell.
It’s basically a team-combo attack! Is that cool or what?
So then the resulting grand magic crushes the enemy forces and causes catastrophic losses!
Except obviously, the enemy isn’t just gonna sit there and voluntarily take a thrashing.
Thanks to the effects of Wisdom, my magic-casting speed was super-fast, so I could fire off middle-advanced magic in no time at all. But that was just me.
Since humans have to use the Cooperation skill and work in groups to even stand a chance of casting that kind of magic, obviously they can’t do it very quickly, either.
It takes time to construct the spells, and the huge amount of energy it emits practically screams, HEY, GUYS, WE’RE ABOUT TO USE GRAND MAGIC!
So when the enemy sees signs of grand magic, obviously they come running to try to put a stop to it.
And casting spells is finicky even at the best of times, so the slightest interruption can easily wreck the whole process.
To sum things up, grand magic can cause huge damage to the opposing troops, but it’s far from easy to pull off.
In battle, it’s super-important to try to hit the enemy with grand magic while preventing them from using it on your side.
Which means that in a siege, where the defenders are protected and can use grand magic at will, the attackers are at a considerable disadvantage.
How will Deadbeat, who’s leading Balto’s troops, deal with that situation?
That’ll be worth watching.
Oh man, I can’t wait.
But as I lay eyes on the battlefield, brimming with anticipation, my expression quickly turns serious as I see the situation unfold.
Um, excuse me?
What’s up with this one-sided game?
The walls that the rebel earth mages worked so hard to make are getting blown to bits by a bunch of explosions.
Grand magic?
Yeah, no.
This is all the work of just one person.
As I watch, a single sword goes flying into the wall.
Next thing you know, there’s a huge hole there.
Balto’s soldiers swarm right in.
The walls might as well not exist.
As you may have guessed, the one responsible for blowing up all these walls is none other than Mr. Oni, with the help of his overpowered magic sword–creating cheat skill.
The skill in question can even create exploding swords.
So bombs, basically.
Which is why the defense walls are going KABOOM.
The swords are powerful enough to blast a hole in the wall, and all you have to do is throw them to cause massive damage, so the rebel army can barely put up a fight.
If it was slow-moving grand magic, at least they could try to stop the casting, but all Mr. Oni has to do is chuck a single sword.
I doubt they have many archers with the skill to shoot the swords out of the sky at high speed, and even if they could, the next one would come flying in a matter of seconds.
Those guys are royally screwed.
Man, Mr. Oni fights dirty.
I thought having his Wrath skill sealed by Vampy would slow him down, but I guess he can still use everything else freely.
Including his magic sword–making skill.
And while losing the Wrath skill means his stats are lower, I remember Vampy saying his physical attack skill in Wrath berserker mode was over 20,000.
And the effect of Wrath multiplies your stats by ten.
Which means even his base physical attack skill is still over 2,000?
That puts him on a fundamentally different level from any ordinary demon.
Stats in the 1,000s, and the cheat-like sword-making skill, which is probably a special reincarnation ability.
He might not be quite as powerful as the likes of Ael or Mera, but he can still hack and slash his way through an army like nobody’s business.
Yeah, okay. I was a fool to expect an evenly matched siege battle.
This is the problem with cheaters…
“Tch. What’s taking so long? He still hasn’t broken through? Is he even taking this seriously?”
Apparently, Vampy isn’t impressed by Mr. Oni’s efforts.
Wow. He’s single-handedly busting down their defenses, and you’re still not satisfied?
Also, I thought you hated Mr. Oni. So why are you mad that he’s not doing as well as you expected?
I just don’t get Vampy at all.
Is this one of those situations? Y’know, where you get mad when your rival lets you down?
What’s next? Is one of you gonna start spouting lines like Now things are getting interesting! or whatever?
Man, I just don’t get these battle-crazy bozos.
Why can’t they be peace-loving pacifists, like me?
Hrmmm.
Then again, if this keeps up, I’m not gonna have to do anything after all.
At a glance, there doesn’t seem to be any suspicious movement on the battlefield.
Aside from Mr. Oni’s rampage, all I see is magic flying back and forth, rebels desperately trying to stave off the soldiers storming the walls, and other scenes you’d expect during a siege.
Although I guess the “magic” part makes this a little less than ordinary.
The rebel army guys in the robes who are lobbing spells seem relatively strong: They might actually be winning this magic shoot-out.
That’s partly because they’ve got walls to protect them, but it also seems like their individual soldiers are pretty powerful.
They’re outmatching Balto’s magic soldiers in both speed and firepower.
No wonder they’re wearing robes: the universal sign for Look, I’m a wizard!
But that’s the only front where Balto’s guys are at a disadvantage. Otherwise, they’re busting through the enemy defenses thanks to the holes Mr. Oni made in the walls.
No matter how hard these robe guys try, they’re not gonna be able to turn the tide.
In reality, they’re only a little strong compared to an overpowered cheater like Mr. Oni.
Hrmmm.
Yeah, pretty sure we’re gonna win this.
Maybe I was worried for nothing after all?
Don’t get me wrong—nobody would be happier than me if it turns out to be my imagination.
Like, why would I want a feeling of imminent disaster to pan out? Ha-ha-ha.
…It usually is right, though, is the thing.
I look away from the battlefield for a moment and focus on a certain other point of interest.
The general of the rebel army is holed up in a room somewhere in the lord’s mansion, talking to no one by the looks of it.
He must be freaking out, ’cause he’s really babbling.
“So please send reinforcements right away. You can use that teleport gate, can’t you? Even a small amount would help. At this rate, the whole town will fall!”
Sweet. Signal intercepted.
Of course, I’m eavesdropping by way of one of my mini-mes, hidden in the area.
Only an idiot would pass up a chance to listen in on the general’s communications with one of these convenient little guys.
I’ve had my clone shadowing him around for daaays.
But since he has such an important role, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that this dude somehow sensed that he was being watched.
He’s been extra careful, so I haven’t been able to catch him red-handed just yet.
After all, in this world, it’s common sense that skills and stuff make it easier to do spying and that kind of thing than it was in our world.
What I’m doing isn’t technically a skill, but I am still spying on him with a clone.
He’s been vigilant so far, but I guess now that his back’s against the wall, he can’t afford to worry about that kind of thing.
Anyway, sounds like he’s requesting reinforcements.
This “teleport gate” thing sounds important, but what’s really got my attention is the thing in his hand.
Pressed against his ear is something that looks exactly like what we’d call a cell phone back on Earth.
A magic tool? Yeahhh, I don’t think so.
Yes, there are “magic tools” that can replicate the effects of skills.
To make them, you need a skill called Ability Conferment, which allows you to imbue an object with a skill.
So in theory, that cell phone–looking thing could be a magic tool with the Fartalk skill or something.
Buuut…
That would be a little too convenient, wouldn’t it?
Yeah. That can’t be anything but an elf-made machine.
It’s not made with a skill, but it’s at least as powerful as a magic tool, I’m sure.
Only the elves could manufacture something like that.
Which means that most likely, the person he’s using that phone to talk to is…an elf.
Yep. We’ve officially got trouble.
Has there ever been a time when something involved the elves, specifically Potimas, and it didn’t end up becoming a dumpster fire?
Nope, I don’t think so!
I think it’s already safe to say that my bad feeling was right on the money.
Ughhh.
I can’t help heaving a huge sigh.
Getting involved is a pain, but it’ll end up being even more of a pain if I don’t do anything.
Guess I better pull myself together and take care of this.
At the moment, there don’t appear to be any suspicious characters in town.
That’s just based on a quick glance, so I could’ve missed something, but there certainly weren’t any big groups up to no good.
And there didn’t seem to be any major baddies mixed in with the defenders, either.
If Potimas decided to really insert himself into this war, even the overpowered Mr. Oni would have a hard time against those far-more-overpowered machines.
Seems safe to assume that Potimas’s guys aren’t here yet.
Which means my next order of business is the teleport gate that guy was talking about.
A teleport gate is a magic circle imbued with the power of Spatial Magic. It’s a kind of tool, not a machine.
You set up linked magic circles in two different places, and it connects them by way of teleportation.
You can go to only a specific place, and you can’t move that location, either.
The spell it’s based on, Long-Distance Teleport, can take the targets anywhere the mage using it has been to before, so it’s a lot less useful by comparison.
But Spatial Magic users are actually really rare, so you can’t just put them to work whenever you want. On top of that, teleporting multiple targets at the same time can be pretty taxing depending on the mage’s abilities and MP and stuff.
A teleport gate, on the other hand, can be used by anyone as long as it’s provided with MP, and it can teleport even large amounts of people.
They have their disadvantages, but teleport gates are very useful when it comes to connecting important locations.
Still, this is kinda weird.
Like I said earlier, there are very few people who can use Spatial Magic.
And you need the Ability Conferment skill to make a teleport gate.
That skill is actually fairly rare, too.
There are more people who can use it than Spatial Magic, for sure, but what about people who can use both? That’s gotta be super-duper rare.
How rare? Enough that the ones who do exist are almost always under the strictest of government care.
Talk about a living national treasure.
And even then, they supposedly make only a handful of teleport gates in their lifetimes.
This is all information that I read in books, by the way.
From what I hear, there’s no one in the demon territory who can make teleport gates right now.
In fact, a suitable candidate comes along only once every hundred years or so, if even that much.
So teleport gates are convenient, but they’re not particularly commonplace.
If they existed all over the place, it’d cause a transportation revolution.
It took our little group a few years just to get from the south of this continent to the demon lands in the north, remember?
If we’d had a teleport gate, we could’ve covered that distance instantly, which would have changed everything.
…Hmm? Wait a minute.
I could probably make teleport gates, couldn’t I?
My spatial conjuring can re-create Spatial Magic, and I did have the Ability Conferment skill before I was deified, so…it’s not crazy to assume I should be able to reproduce it, right?
Hrmmm. I don’t even need to limit that to teleport gates, do I?
If I wanted to, couldn’t I make stuff like magic bags that store items in another dimension, Chim**ra Wing–like escape items that teleport you to a particular place, and stuff like that?
Whaaaat?
Hmm. Okay, let’s put that aside for now.
The issue at hand is that the lord here was saying something or other about one of these super-rare teleport gates.
The existence of a teleport gate alone is a huge tactical advantage, so nations always know exactly where they are and keep them under careful control.
If this one’s not on the books, does that mean it was made without permission?
And judging by what the lord was saying, it seems connected to someplace in the elf territory.
And this gate is somewhere right inside the town?
Hrmmm.
What to do?
Not only that, but what is he going to do?
It’s not really much of a question why Potimas would be conspiring with this guy.
Stirring up a rebellion and doing even a little damage to the Demon Lord’s side would be enough to make him happy.
The rebels would take the lead and the elves would just help out a little bit on the side.
He probably knows full well they’re going to fail, but the elves won’t sustain major losses either way.
Knowing Potimas, he’d take any chance he can get to harass the Demon Lord. This sounds exactly like something he would do.
But a surprise attack on the rebels probably throws a big wrench in his plans.
The rebel army is gonna get crushed without causing the Demon Lord any trouble at all.
What would Potimas do about that?
…Maybe he won’t do anything?
It would take a lot of effort to recover from this situation now, even for Potimas.
And if he did that, the Demon Lord would know he was involved.
Potimas’s goal was probably to work quietly behind the scenes to enable the rebel army, so acting openly here would be less than ideal for him.
He’s a huge coward who likes to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike when his enemy’s back is turned, y’know?
He won’t want to deal with this situation with brute force.
If he was going to take that route, he could’ve done it by now instead of using roundabout methods like supporting a rebellion.
Putting myself in the shoes of that rat bastard Potimas, his next course of action would probably be…retreat.
At this rate, all he’s gonna do is lose a bunch of pawns.
He doesn’t mind sacrificing pieces, but I bet he’s the type who hates wasting resources for nothing. Still, he won’t take a risky gamble when he doesn’t stand to gain anything in return.
He’s more likely to abandon a sinking ship and try to hide the fact that the elves were ever involved.
Which means his next move is probably demolishing the teleport gate.
They’re rare and valuable, but only when both ends are in friendly hands.
If one teleport gate gets captured by the enemy, then they could easily use it to infiltrate whatever’s on the other side.
I doubt the teleport gate in this town leads straight to the elves’ main base, but it’s gotta go somewhere.
If he wants to avoid the risk of that place being attacked, his only choice is to break the teleport gate, wasteful or not.
Looks like they’re just going to withdraw on their own without me having to do anything.
The one thing is that Potimas will have to destroy that teleport gate.
He probably doesn’t want to do that, so there is the slight danger that he’ll pull some last-ditch effort on his way out.
If he does, I’m guessing his target would be Mr. Oni, who’s super standing out right now.
All right. I think I’ve got a good idea of what Potimas might do.
Which means my top priority should be protecting Mr. Oni.
He’s definitely strong compared to the demons, but Potimas could still assassinate him.
I’ve got to give him some cover, or he might be killed.
In the worst-case scenario, Mera or Ael might get hurt, too.
I doubt Ael would get killed, but it’s Potimas, so you can never be too careful.
Balto and Deadbeat… Eh, I can afford to lose ’em if I really have to.
Although I’d rather not, since they’re important demons and all that.
…Hrmmm, but this isn’t all that exciting, is it?
Potimas has given us tons of grief over the years. Wouldn’t it be nice to lay the hurt on him for once?
I’m sure his real body is still hiding in a bunker somewhere, so it isn’t like I can inflict much in the way of serious damage, but still.
I bet it would piss him off if trying to mess with the Demon Lord backfired really badly.
Yep. Plus, it’s no good to be on the defensive all the time.
We gotta keep him on his toes once in a while.
Sooo where’s that teleport gate? Oh, found it.
Combining Clairvoyance with x-ray vision, I discover the teleport gate in the basement of the lord’s manor.
It’s a hidden room, which is why my clones didn’t find it.
It doesn’t look like it’s been broken just yet.
Although I guess it’s possible that the one on the other end has been broken, in which case there’d be nothing I can do.
Still, it’s worth a try…
Downing the rest of my tea, I stand up.
“Making your move?”
I nod at Vampy’s question, then realize I have no idea what I’m going to do about her.
It’d be really dangerous to let her come with me, since I’m about to enter enemy territory and all.
Which means I should ideally leave her here, where she can look after Mr. Oni and company.
The only problem is how to convey that request to her!
I hesitate for a minute, then use Illusion to make an image of Mr. Oni appear on the table.
Heh-heh-heh. Yeah, I’ve learned some cool new tricks.
Illusion is originally Heretic Magic, but that spell works directly on the target’s brain, forcing them to see something that isn’t there. This, on the other hand, makes a real image appear in midair, so the underlying principle is totally different.
At first, I tried to re-create the Heretic Magic method, but it was too damn hard, so I switched to this.
Heretic Magic’s crazy, dude.
Vampy and the puppet spiders stare at the Mr. Mini-Oni on the table.
Bwa-ha-ha. Pretty awesome, right?
Okay, enough gloating for now. I add a mini-Potimas to the image, attacking Mr. Oni.
Then I add Vampy and company beating Potimas up.
And thus Potimas gets smashed to a pulp and dies. The end.
“Hrmmm, okay. So what are you saying? Potimas is here, and he’s after the kid? And you want us to put a stop to that?”
You’re quick on the uptake!
I nod again.
“And what are you going to do in the meantime?”
Nrgh. That’s too hard to explain.
It’s, um, you know.
A lady has to have her secrets.
I press my finger to my lips to avoid the question.
“Excuse me? Are you planning on keeping me in the dark again?”
I guess that’s not good enough for Vampy.
Uh-oh. She’s already getting mad.
C’mon, really? Is it just me, or are you being way too short-tempered lately?
And also, when did I ever hide stuff from you?
Besides, you really expect ME of all people to give a lengthy explanation right now?
We’re not screwed just yet, but it’s not like we’ve got tons of time to drag our feet, either.
If you’re gonna make childish demands at a time like this, then I’m the one who’s gonna get pissed off.
“““…!”””
“Huh? What the—?! What are you doing?! Hey!”
Evidently sensing my anger, the three puppet spiders grab Vampy and scurry away.
She’s thrashing around, but they expertly restrain her and run off like experienced kidnappers.
They might look like little girls, but they’re spiders on the inside.
Bound and gagged with spider thread, Vampy has no chance of escaping.
I wave at her as they retreat into the distance.
She’s glaring at me furiously as she gets carried off, but she’s the one who decided to follow me in the first place.
Just take out that stress on the rebels and elves, please.
Once I’ve waved off the Little Girl Squad, I clear the rest of the tea and snacks off the table.
If I send them to the alternate dimension where I store my clones, they’ll happily eat it all for me.
Look, it’s not good to waste food.
All righty, that should take care of things here.
As long as nothing crazy happens, the reunited four puppet-spider sisters should be able to tackle just about anything around here.
Plus they’ve got Vampy, too.
It’s about time I get to let loose and strut my stuff.
I teleport myself to the hidden room with the teleport gate.
I’ve never used a teleport gate before, but I’ve already confirmed that I can still use magic tools post-deification.
I just have to turn MP into energy and channel it into the power source.
In fact, MP itself is basically a kind of energy.
They’re just the same thing with different names, so it’s easy enough for me to operate a magic tool.
Which means if I just feed energy into this teleport gate, it should transport me to the gate it’s connected to, as long as that one hasn’t been broken.
I touch the teleport gate and channel some energy into it.
When I feel it respond accordingly, I’m tempted to smirk like a villain.
I’m not going to, though.
I supply the teleport gate with energy and activate it.
I’m used to teleporting.
But unlike when I do it myself, it feels a little weird this time.
Maybe it’s like how you don’t get carsick when you’re driving, but you might when someone else is behind the wheel.
Come to think of it, being teleported by someone else is like being forcibly thrown to a different space, so I guess it makes sense that it might feel a little weird.
I never realized that, since I’ve always teleported myself around without a problem.
If I did it a bunch of times in a row, would I start to feel sick?
Well, I guess I could cause that just by messing with space a little.
Anyway, while I’m thinking about that stuff, I arrive at my destination.
“I’ll head over there now, but don’t expect too much in terms of reinforce…ments…”
As soon as the view in front of me changes, I lock eyes with a man from across the room.
That might sound like the beginning of a love story, but no, we’re mortal enemies.
Before my eyes is Potimas, frozen in surprise with a phone-like object held to his ear.
When something unexpected happens, people’s thoughts stop for a moment.
I guess Potimas is no exception.
Good to know.
“……”
“……”
Take this! Beat-you-to-the-PUNCH!
“Guh?!”
I’LL DO WHAT I CAN
Ever since I first opened my eyes in the demon realm, my life has been very peaceful.
I’ve yet to experience any inconveniences, in part because I’m staying in a particularly wealthy duke’s mansion.
Back in the goblin village, it was all we could do to scrape by from day to day while the warriors put their lives on the line to bring back food for the rest of us.
Compared to that, having easy access to any food or supplies I might need at any time feels unbelievably luxurious.
But I can’t keep living off their generosity forever.
After letting Wrath control me and fighting nearly to my death, I’m lucky to have regained my senses and control over my life.
So I want to use the life I’ve been given to do whatever I can, to the best of my ability.
I enlisted in the army with the help of Miss Ariel, the Demon Lord, to put my power to use.
It seemed like the fastest way to start earning a living, and since my combat strength is all I have going for me right now, it’s the perfect occupation.
And so I left my freeloading lifestyle in the mansion behind and went off to join the army.
I’m definitely still strong enough to be of use. Even after Miss Sophia sealed off my Wrath skill, my base stats are apparently still quite high. On top of that, I have the advantage of the magic swords I can make with my Weapon Creation skill.
And the army commander, General Bloe, seems to like me for some reason, so I’ve been able to fit into the army pretty well.
But there’s still one challenge I have to tackle.
“Grand magic. Block, long-distance, throw.”
“Grand magic. Block, long-distance, throw.”
One of my fellow soldiers says the words slowly, and I repeat them in the same way.
What am I doing? Learning the language.
I’m still a long way from mastering the demon language, which is what everyone speaks here.
I was born in a goblin village.
So naturally, I speak goblin language.
While I was being held captive by Buirimus, I learned human language, too, but demon language is different from either of those.
And it’s difficult to serve in the army when I can barely hold a conversation.
There are some demons who can speak human as well, so I can communicate with them, but I should really learn the local language.
During my time in the duke’s mansion, the kindly staff tutored me in demon language, so I’ve reached the point where I can at least follow a basic conversation.
But I still haven’t learned all the military jargon.
Since I’m in the army, I need to learn the names of common battle formations, strategies, and things like that.
A few friendly soldiers have been teaching me military terms in demon language whenever we have free time.
I didn’t think it would be that easy to memorize them, but I figured I had to start somewhere.
All things considered, I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised.
“That should do it for today. Seems like you’ve learned a majority of the most common orders at this point, yeah?”
“I think so.”
My fellow soldier addresses me in demon language, and I respond in kind.
My pronunciation still needs work, and I struggle with long sentences a lot more than simple responses.
But as far as listening comprehension goes, I can more or less understand what people are saying, even when some basic military terms are involved.
I’m shocked by the speed of my own learning. This happened when I first picked up conversational words, too.
There are a few factors that have helped me learn demon language in such a short period of time.
One of these is the Memory skill.
As the name implies, it’s a plain yet useful skill that improves one’s memorization abilities, which is incredibly useful for learning. If you can memorize what the other person is saying word for word, you’re already well on the way to becoming more familiar with the language.
My ability to remember things surprises even me.
If my memory had been this good in my previous life, I can’t help thinking that tests and classes would’ve been a whole lot easier.
I was only ever able to speak English to the extent that they taught us in school, but now I’m multilingual, quickly raising my fluency in multiple languages.
I guess you never know what life’s going to throw at you.
But those memories of my previous life are also part of the reason I’ve been able to learn demon language so smoothly.
Knowing different languages, like Japanese and English, comes in handy even in this fantasy world.
Since we learned concepts like “subjects” and “predicates” in Japanese class, then applied those to a grammatically different language like English, I can use that experience to learn these otherworldly languages as well.
Tackling a language without any formal classes really makes me appreciate how advanced the Japanese educational system was.
And the similarities between the demon and human languages are probably the other big reason.
They have similar grammar, and certain vocabulary words overlap as well.
Coincidence? Probably not.
Considering the origins of demons and humans, I’d be willing to bet that they used to share a single language that eventually branched off.
Or maybe a few different languages mixed together and eventually unified into the ones that are around today.
Now that I think about it, the demon language probably has a long and storied history.
“That reminds me, I heard Lord Bloe has been studying the human language in earnest lately. Though I’m told he’s not getting very far.”
While I was busy musing about the history of languages, the soldier recaptured my attention with a casual remark.
I can’t help grinning, since I have a feeling I know what that might be about.
General Bloe must have really hated having to ask Miss Sophia to translate for him.
I won’t tell anyone else that, though, since it’s a matter of the general’s pride.
Besides, that situation was my fault in the first place, and I still feel a little guilty.
“Oh, we’re getting close.”
My fellow soldier points up ahead.
Following his gaze, I see some sort of wall off in the distance.
“They raised a damn wall. Guess our enemies are hoping to ride out a siege.”
Our army is currently on the move.
We’re marching toward a northern town, where a rebel army is believed to be hiding out.
And now, there’s a wall around the town that was never there before. That’s as good as confirming the rumors.
“Looks like this is gonna be a tough battle.”
The soldier looks nervous.
I’m actually a little nervous myself, since this is my first battle as part of the Demon Lord’s army and my first since my Wrath skill was sealed off.
“Charge! Chaaaarge!”
The captain’s voice bellows, nearly drowned out by the sounds of battle and violent war cries.
Tension saturates the air and prickles at my skin until a powerful wave of heat flies toward us as if to sear it away.
It’s an inferno, strong enough to burn away life itself.
The soldiers are putting everything on the line in this battle, stealing each other’s lives.
Enemy soldiers go down under the sword swings of my allies, and comrades I’ve gotten to know fall to the ground bleeding, then stop moving entirely.
I never experienced such a hellish sight in my old life.
And yet…
“…Is this all?”
If anyone else had heard the words that slipped from my mouth, I’m sure they would seem very cold.
Maybe coldness is a fitting attitude for the battlefield anyway.
But to me, my own muttered comment sounds a little disappointed.
Even as I process this, my body doesn’t stop moving.
I use Spatial Storage, an item box–like Spatial Magic skill, to produce magic swords I’ve stored inside.
My Wrath skill may be sealed off, but I can still use the Weapon Creation skill I was born with and the countless skills I’ve learned and honed since.
Along with practicing demon language, I’ve been raising my Spatial Magic skill level and mass-producing magic swords.
I was worried about whether that would be much use, but now my worries are gone.
I throw one of the swords; it gets lodged in the wall, then explodes.
Because it was magically constructed, the wall looks far sturdier than one might expect from its hasty construction.
But it crumbles under the immense force of my magic sword’s blast.
Then my fellow soldiers charge in through the newly created breach, breaking through the enemies’ defenses.
I guess my magic swords work well enough here. Actually…instead of “well enough,” it might be more accurate to say they’re excessive against these opponents.
The destruction of the wall and many of the rebel soldiers behind it is proof enough of that.
…I never expected my simple, mass-produced exploding swords to be this useful in battle.
I guess I’m a lot stronger than I realized.
I did notice some signs during my training in the army, but I didn’t think that the difference would be this great.
When making the mass-produced exploding swords, increasing the number I make simultaneously reduces their individual effectiveness.
The strength of the magic swords crafted with my Weapon Creation skill is based on the amount of MP used to create them.
Obviously, the strongest magic sword I can create right now would be made by pouring almost all of my available MP into a single blade.
In comparison, I made the mass-produced exploding swords in my spare time simply because it seemed like a good use of my MP Auto-Recovery skill.
And yet, those casually made objects are playing a huge role in this battle.
The exploding swords aren’t weak, of course.
Since they take the potential of a magic sword that would normally be used until it breaks and expend all that latent energy at once by self-destructing, they’re quite effective for the relatively modest MP investment.
And it does take time to create them, but unlike magic spells, there’s no cooldown period after I use one since I can whip another one out right away. Thanks to this, they can quickly win me the upper hand in battle.
But even with those advantages, I never imagined that my mass-produced exploding swords would be this effective.
They couldn’t lay a single scratch on the beautiful yet hardy scales of that dragon, and I couldn’t even get them in range of that small yet blindingly fast powerhouse of a girl.
Vague memories of battles from when I was a slave to Wrath flash across my mind.
I can’t remember every detail, but I do get bits and pieces from time to time.
And I remember the strength of those opponents, too.
Because of those memories, I assumed that having Wrath sealed and my strength considerably suppressed would mean that I was now weak.
But I guess I have to change my perspective on that.
It’s not that I’m weak.
They were just too strong.
And in general terms, it appears that I’m more than above average, even in my weakened state.
Since I was so worried about how well I’d be able to fight in my current condition, I guess it’s inevitable that I might be a little disappointed by this almost anticlimactic development.
And that’s not the only reason I’m disappointed.
I take out another exploding sword, fling it at another wall, and watch it explode.
The wall crumbles, and the rebel army soon concedes more ground.
But they’re not just giving up without a fight.
I notice some of my fellow soldiers suddenly suffer desperate counterattacks.
Right in front of me, I spot one of the soldiers who was teaching me words in the demon language on our way here.
He’s lying facedown, a blade sprouting out of his back, never to stand up again.
He’s dead.
Even in this world, with its RPG-like system, or perhaps because of that very system, there’s no revival spell to bring people back to life.
Once you die, that’s it.
My fallen comrade will never come back to life.
But I’m not as shaken as I thought I’d be.
We literally broke bread together, and he even took the time to teach me, yet my heart is barely moved by his death.
I’m not sure if I should be glad that I don’t feel much of anything or disturbed that I’ve become so unfeeling.
I’m definitely a lot colder than I was in my previous life as a human. Come to think of it, I even had more empathy back when I was living in the goblin village.
Taking a life no longer gives me pause, and I barely feel any shock if someone I know is killed.
It’s not that I’ve abandoned my emotions completely.
I think I’ve just accepted what it truly means to live in this world.
Although that doesn’t necessarily mean that I know what exactly I should be doing.
“I’d better focus on this battle for now and worry about that later.”
It’s never a good idea to let yourself get distracted in a battle, even if it’s lackluster.
Reminding myself of that out loud, I scan the battlefield.
At a glance, it seems like one particular clump of defenders on the wall is putting up a lot of resistance.
Countless spells fly out from behind that section of the wall, causing massive damage to any soldiers who try to approach.
It’s immediately obvious that their power and coordination are leagues above the other rebel forces.
Those must be the rebellion’s core magic users.
In the other areas, our forces are steadily advancing through the breaches made by my exploding swords.
It’s only a matter of time before the walls fall completely.
Rather than continuing to hammer those areas at the risk of harming my allies in the process, it’s probably best if I focus on the area they can’t get into.
I produce a new exploding sword from Spatial Storage and throw it at the enemy position that’s still putting up a fight.
There’s a fair amount of distance between us, but with my status and Throw skill level, it should reach without a problem.
But as the sword flies through the air, a spell flies from behind the fortifications to intercept it, and it explodes before it can reach the wall.
Damn. If it had gotten just a little bit closer, the blast would’ve caused considerable damage to the wall.
But I guess it wasn’t a total loss, since now I know that there’s a mage over there skilled enough to intercept my exploding swords in midair.
Whoever they are, they must be powerful in their own right.
But there’s no way they can measure up to the old mage I encountered in the human realm.
And I’ve gotten a lot stronger since I met that old mage, so I don’t feel very threatened by these mages.
Still, now that my Wrath trump card is off-limits, I can’t let my guard down.
It’s all too easy to lose your life in this world.
So I have no intention of holding back, even if it ends up being overkill.
I take out two more exploding swords and throw them both at once.
Then, while they’re still in the air, I start running toward the wall, pulling out yet another exploding sword while on the move.
It’s not easy to use Spatial Storage while moving, but it’d be a waste of the many swords I have in storage otherwise.
Luckily, unlike other Spatial Magic, Spatial Storage is relatively easy to use, so I’ve managed to master it with practice.
It does still take a while to get the magic swords out, though, so it leaves me open to attack for a moment.
My ultimate goal is to be able to produce magic swords from Spatial Storage as quickly and as easily as breathing, but it’ll be a long time before I can accomplish that.
Still, in this situation, I’m not too worried about such a brief vulnerability.
The two swords I threw before are hit with counterfire before they reach the wall.
They must be more cautious after the first throw—even though I threw two swords this time, they shot them down while they were still much farther away from the wall.
But that’s all.
They’re not coming after me personally as I run toward the wall.
I keep throwing more swords as I get closer.
Producing two swords at once and throwing them as I’m running would be a little too difficult, so I’m just doing one at a time.
That might not seem like much in theory, but the more time passes, the closer I get to the wall and the shorter the distance my swords have to fly.
And a shorter distance means less time before my exploding swords hit their mark.
In other words, there’s less time for the mages to shoot them down.
Magic takes time to cast, and it must require a lot of concentration to aim spells at a flying target.
While they have to take the time to carefully cast the spell and aim precisely to intercept my swords on their flight path, all I have to do is throw as soon as I have another sword in hand. It’s plain to see that I have the advantage.
I need to use Spatial Storage, too, so it’s not a huge advantage, but since the rebel army also has to deal with soldiers besides me, even that small difference can prove fatal.
Sure enough, as I throw more swords, the responding fire slows down, until finally one of them explodes very close to the wall.
It’s not a direct hit, but it’s close enough that the shock waves leave some faint cracks in the wall.
And I’m sure the rebels fighting inside the walls have taken even more damage.
The blast probably sent a shock wave through the firing ports they were shooting through, and I’m sure hearing an explosion at such close range will affect their ears.
That should cause no small amount of chaos.
It’s not a fatal amount of damage, but for mages who need to concentrate on their spells as much as possible, it’s definitely a big problem.
And I’m not kind enough to let an opportunity like that slip by unnoticed.
The next magic sword I hurl hits the wall without any interference and explodes.
The wall comes tumbling down, and the rebels who were behind it get caught in the explosion.
By the time the dust clears, I’ve reached the place where the wall once stood and charge inside, my magic swords made for close combat in each hand.
Unlike the single-use exploding swords, the swords I’m currently wielding were infused with as much MP as I could muster.
There’s a flaming sword in my right hand and a sword crackling with electricity in my left.
By feeding MP into them, I can instantly produce fire and lightning attacks at least as strong as the explosions, or stronger, and control those effects at will.
And of course, mages are rarely good at close combat.
My magic stats are actually higher than my physical stats, but that’s just a natural result of the huge amount of MP I use for my Weapon Creation skill.
My real strength lies in using the magic swords I create with all that MP to execute attacks more high-powered than magic in close combat, at least by my own analysis.
As long as I can get close enough to the opponent, my victory is all but assured.
I quickly scan my surroundings, ignoring anyone killed in the blast or too wounded to put up a fight, then charge at whoever’s nearby who looks relatively healthy.
“Graaah!”
“W-wait?!”
The hooded figures fall beneath my blade, putting up little resistance.
I guess a robe is a reasonable thing for a mage to wear, but it’s not like wearing armor in this world lowers the effectiveness of magic or anything.
Some of them are indeed wearing armor under their hooded robes.
But for some reason, they’re all hiding their faces.
This strikes me as strange, but I just keep moving forward, slashing all the while.
It’s only when I send the head of one of the hooded men rolling to the ground and see his face that I realize who they are.
To be precise, it’s the ears that tip me off.
“Elves?”
Unlike humans or demons, the man has long, pointed ears.
From what I’ve heard, that’s definitely a trademark feature of elves.
I don’t know a lot of the details, but I do know that the elves are enemies of the Demon Lord, Miss Ariel. I unexpectedly fought some of them myself while I was half-controlled by Wrath.
So why are the elves fighting alongside the rebels here?
I’m not sure what’s going on exactly, but it doesn’t change my mission.
Defeat the enemy. That’s all.
Just then, I hear a voice that stops me in my tracks.
“Iijima!”
It’s my name from my old life, the one I thought I’d left behind.
“Please just stop!”
My hand freezes, still raising my sword above my head.
A small figure pushes her way in between me and the hooded man I was about to finish off.
With her hood removed, the person between us looks like nothing more than a little elf girl.
No, that’s exactly what she is.
In fact, I think I remember seeing a girl like this when I stumbled upon a band of elves in the human territory and slaughtered them, thinking they were human mercenaries lying in wait to kill me.
And didn’t she call my name that time, too…?
I was barely lucid because of Wrath’s control, so I had assumed it was an illusion or a daydream, but I guess I was wrong.
“Who are you?”
I point the tip of my sword at the elf girl as I address her in Japanese.
Since she knows my old name, I have a rough idea of what might be going on here.
It’s just a question of which one of them she is.
“Okazaki… Kanami Okazaki.”
She answers in fluent Japanese.
I can tell from her pronunciation that she must be a native speaker.
Which means…she’s the real deal.
A reincarnation from Japan, just like me.
And her name is the same as our class’s homeroom teacher.
“…It’s been a long time, Ms. Oka. Although this isn’t how I would have liked to be reunited.”
I keep my sword pointed at my teacher as I speak.
“Wh-why are you doing this?!”
What an absurd question.
“If anything, I think I’m the one who should be asking that question. Why in the world are you supporting a rebel army and interfering with the order of the demons?”
I can’t figure out why these elves are helping the rebels, nor why Ms. Oka would be with them.
I guess I do understand why the rebels are angry in theory, but since I know the secret of Taboo, that’s little more than a laugh to me.
Miss Ariel is doing what’s right for this world.
I’m sure it seems like the height of insanity to those who haven’t discovered the truth, but Miss Ariel knows exactly what she’s doing and acts with firm conviction and determination.
That’s why I’m willing to crush the rebel army without a moment’s hesitation.
“I’m…fighting to rescue the reincarnations who have been kidnapped by the Demon Lord.”
“What?”
I knit my brow, genuinely confused by what my teacher is trying to say.
Reincarnations, kidnapped by the Demon Lord?
As far as I know, the only other reincarnations in the demon territory are Miss White and Miss Sophia.
But best I can tell, they’re both working with the Demon Lord of their own accord, certainly not being held captive.
How did Ms. Oka misunderstand things so wildly?
“You too, Iijima… Please forget about all this and just take my hand. The elves are protecting the reincarnations. Everyone else is there, too… You won’t need to do such awful things anymore. So please come with me.”
Ms. Oka reaches out her hand to me.
I feel like she just presented me with a lot of important information, but I can analyze all that later.
Right now, there’s something I have to say.
“I’m not sure what false impression you’re under, but I’m here of my own free will. And I have no intention of taking your hand.”
Ms. Oka looks up at me with her eyes widening in shock. Evidently, she didn’t expect me to refuse.
“I’m fighting because of my own convictions, not because anyone forced me to. It’s what I believe is the right thing to do. I don’t feel any shame for my actions.”
Ms. Oka shakes her head slowly, as if she doesn’t believe what she’s hearing. Her face is turning pale.
“Let me ask you a question instead. You said I’m doing ‘awful things,’ and yet, here you are doing the very same. Can you really reach out to your student with those bloodstained hands, claiming to offer me help?”
At that, her eyes get even wider, and her face loses all color completely.
It’s true—by joining the rebel army, that’s exactly what she’s doing.
The elves in her little unit have caused no small amount of losses to the Demon Lord’s army.
I don’t know if Ms. Oka herself has been fighting, but judging by her reaction, I’m guessing she wasn’t just standing around watching.
She claims she’s doing this to protect her former students, yet she’s participating in a battle that’s claimed the lives of countless unrelated soldiers.
Can you really call that just?
“Ms. Oka.”
As I address her in a low voice, her shoulders tremble to an almost comical degree.
“If you can’t even deny that, then I most definitely won’t take your hand.”
Still, even I’m not heartless enough to want to cut down someone I know from my former life.
I guess I’m not quite that determined yet.
Feeling as if I’m in no position to lecture Ms. Oka, I open my mouth to concede the fight.
But then my body is suddenly blown backward.
“Huh?!”
I don’t understand what just happened.
But something on my right, from the direction of the wall, must have attacked me.
At least, I assume so from the fact that my right hand is broken, and a dull pain is radiating from the right side of my ribs.
I’d been trying to keep an eye on my surroundings even as I conversed with Ms. Oka.
I would never let my guard down on enemy ground, even if I ran into an old acquaintance.
So if something was able to damage me like this in spite of my caution, they must have sniped me from someplace I couldn’t detect them, or else they’re considerably skilled.
Either way, whoever it was is definitely a threat!
I manage to right myself in midair and land on my feet instead of falling.
Without even looking, I launch a lightning attack from the sword in my left hand in the direction the attack seemed to have originated, hoping to ward off any follow-up attacks.
As the lightning spreads outward, just as destructively powerful as one of my exploding swords, its light illuminates several hooded figures.
Ms. Oka is shouting something, but it’s not in a language I understand.
All I see is the person she protected from me earlier grabbing her from behind and dragging her away. With her small frame, there’s nothing she can do to escape from the large man carrying her with her arms pinned behind her back.
To be honest, I don’t really want to let her get away, but it doesn’t look like I’ll have a chance to pursue her.
The hooded figures in front of me seem very different from the elves I was fighting before.
The attack from my lightning sword doesn’t appear to have harmed them at all, so they must be pretty powerful.
I could be in trouble here.
Then the hooded people get blown away.
If I wasn’t on a battlefield, I would be rubbing my eyes in disbelief.
All of the hooded figures just got sent flying.
Part 3 of 8