Shinka no Mi

Chapter 113: A Surprising Encounter

「……To think you would say such ridiculous things as soon as you show up。The Hero’s Mentor?First Demon King?Hah。If you were going to lie, then you might as well have picked something more believable」

Zeanos and Lucius’ sudden arrival surprised Rodius, but he quickly regained his composure before going on to mock them.

「F-First Demon King…… You say……?」

「I-It’s a joke right?Hey……」

「But, that horn means without a doubt that he is one of us Demons。Be that as it may, to claim that he is the First Demon King……」

Aside from Rodius, all the other demons who heard what Lucius said received the shock of their lives.

While everyone else were in various states of shock, Rodius alone had an easygoing smirk on his face

「Hmm……Well, I can’t really blame you for not believing us。Hahahaha」

「……Hm。Seems like you two can’t understand the situation。I have no idea who you two are, but since you’re here, I’m going to have you two die for me」

After taking on the fearsome sense of intimidation that Rodius released, even Zerros and Zorua who were fighting the monsters were left shivering, and yet Zeanos and Lucius hadn’t even lost their composure.

「Fumu……Lucius-dono。Leave this one to me。I shall rely on you to take on the monsters」

「Hm?You sure?Leaving this one to you?」

「Of course」

On the other hand, listening to Zeanos talk about taking him on alone caused Rodius’ eyebrows to twitch in annoyance.

「……Looks like I’m being rather underestimated here。But unfortunately, both of you are going to die to the monsters before either of you can get a chance to face me!」

「G-GYAAAAAAA!」

「GAAAAAAAAAA!」

The monster horde started to move onto Zeanos and Lucius.

But when they did, Lucius’ alarmingly cold gaze seemed to pierce through the monsters.

「How noisy」

With just a few words, the monsters were forced into silence. No, their very charge was forced to a halt

It was the result of the monsters who had lost their ability to reason, listening to whatever instincts they had remaining.

Lucius nodded happily, watching the monsters movements come to a halt

「That’s right。Who’s a good boy?」

Every member of the Demon King’s Army, as well as the 【Valkyries】, and even Rodius, had their eyes wide open in shock

「……Impossible……The hell is going on……!?」

「Fumu、You’ll regret looking away from me」

「What!?　Gah-!」

Distracted by Lucius’ display of power, Rodius failed to notice Zeanos as he snuck up beside him and sank his rapier into his side.

Rodius tried to immediately make distance between them, but Zeanos denied him the opportunity.

「You’ve already――――lost your chance to attack」

Zeanos continued with a stream of attacks akin to raging tides

No matter how much Rodius tried to guard against him, the way Zeanos’ rapier moved was like a living creature, as it easily slipped through his defences to wound him.

「Impossible, Impossible, Impossible!?　That some who carries the power of the Demon God……that someone like me would……!?」

「【Demon God】?So what of it. I am a【Human】who has forced death itself to submit」

「W-What!?」

「――――There」

Taking advantage of that moment of hesitation, Zeanos pierced Rodius’ foot with his rapier

「GAAAAH!」

「Foe of mine, do you wish to still continue?」

Asked Zeanos, as he cleaned the blood off his rapier, with Rodius cowering before him.

This moment of complacency was one that only the strong were allowed, a position that Rodius had been in till now

But now, in reversal of his norms, he was the one who was being looked down upon.

「……This cannot be。This is something that cannot be……!　For us Apostles, those who have received the Demon God’s power within them, to be defeated is……!」

Rodius mustered up all his strength as he forced himself to stand, with countless knives materialising into existence around them.

On top of that, they were no ordinary knives.

They were all special knives, each imbued with various elemental attributes.

「DIEEEEE!」

The moment Rodius waved his arm, all the knives aiming at Zeanos flew towards him.

Calmly observing the knives, Zeanos jumped away from his current position, but the knives all turned and gave chase, without losing even a bit of their speed.

「These knives will keep chasing you until you’re dead……!」

「Fumu……」

While Zeanos was dodging the knives, he nodded his head once, and ――――。

「『Dark Hole』」

「What!?」

Suddenly, a jet-black chunk of space appeared in between Zeanos and the knives

The knives trying to get Zeanos were sucked up into the space, disappearing within it.

「『Dark Chain』」

「Wha-!?」

On top of that, Zeanos didn’t just stop there, but continued on to use another spell.

A jet-black chain extended from Zeanos, catching up to and restraining Rodius.

「My apologies。I was someone who was called the『Dark Noble』after my death。Death-attribute magic was my specialty after all.」

「Guh-!」

In spite of Rodius’ desperate efforts to unwind his restraints, the jet-black chain remained unyielding.

And just like that, Zeanos had silently taken Rodius, who had been struggling and floundering around on the ground, at sword point.

「Unfortunate, is it not?That your little happy hour has ended.」

「D……Damn it aaaaaaaall!」

――――And just like that, Rodius was taken prisoner。

◆◇◆

『Kuh-!　With these numbers……Just how many do we have to kill to finally see the end ……!』

Any and all monsters that approached the 『Black Paladin』were burnt to ash by his 【Dark-Flame Magic】

【Dark-Flame Magic】 was a unique attribute of magic possesed solely by the『Black Paladin』、and it had a unique perk of being helpful to any allies, something normally not within the realm of fire-attributed magic。

It contained plenty of spells that were more powerful than normal fire-magic, but the 『Black Paladin』’s strong point was his ability to make full use of that supportive quirk.

『Mu, Elmina-sama!【Dark Flame’s Protection】!』

The 『Black Paladin』cast his spell on Elmina, who entered his field of vision.

When he did so, dark flames appeared, wrapping around Elmina’s body

「『Black Paladin』! Thanks!」

『I need not your thanks』

「But still……These things really just keep showing up non-stop!At this rate both our stamina and mana will be depleted……」

Clad in both black flames and a vest of lightning, Elmina sliced the dragonoid monster clean into halves, with her hand blade.

The other S-Class adventurers had already lost the composure they had at the start, and their expressions betrayed how flustered they were starting to get.

After all, they weren’t facing weak, helpless monsters, but full on S-Class monsters.

At first glance they may have appeared to have been easily dealing with the monsters, but they were fighting very carefully, eking out victories with the slimmest of margins, at a level that ordinary people would never be able to tell.

Because no matter even if they had the highest possible defence, just receiving one good strike from S-Class monsters would render them injured beyond recovery.

Even the Magic Division lead by Florio, who had only been providing cover fire for the S-Class adventurers and the【Abyss Schwartz】from behind, were starting to see signs of mana exhaustion

There was always an end to everything.

But, they could not even see a vision of themselves reaching the end of this wave.

――――And for such a group of people, an unexpected source of reinforcements arrived。

「――――Garus!I’m leaving it to you to rotate around the areas where the defences are thin!Anna will cause as much confusion amongst the monsters as possible, and Liliana will handle the monsters which physical attacks are ineffective on!」

「Ou!Leave it to me!」

「I’m heading out!」

「Roger!　『Flame Rain』!」

「Eh?」

And so arrived Abel’s party, whose members were formerly known as Heroes for their actions.

Surprised by the sudden appearance of reinforcements that they’d never seen before, not just Elmina, but all of the members who were fighting there had shocked looks on their faces.

Paying them no heed, Abel cut down several monsters who had been around him, before heading to find other monsters to take down one after the other.

Garus, who wielded his massive shield, thrust himself between the soldiers who had been rendered immobile and the horde, using his shield to clobber the monsters.

Anna used her bow and throwing knives to gather the attention of many of the monsters in the horde, throwing their movements into chaos.

Liliana followed Abel’s instructions, using her magic assertively to occasionally bury any physically-resistant monsters with extreme prejudice.

With Abel’s party’s inhuman ability to exterminate monsters, the horde was visibly starting to lessen.

「 I’m tellin’ ya, this ain’t nearly as bad as dying, or bumping into Seiichi……!」

As Abel continued cleaning up the monsters with a wry smile, a treasure chest with limbs growing out of it suddenly spoke up

「……Should I, lend a, hand?」

「Hm?Nah, we’re more than enough!We’ll leave the protection of Seiichi’s parents and the others to you!」

「……Got it」

The treasure chest assented, backing off to defend Mary and the other non-combatants nearby.

In reality, Seiichi’s father, Makoto, who the treasure chest was guarding, was muttering to himself as he observed the scene before his eyes.

「……We already saw many creatures that didn’t exist on Earth on the way here, but to think even dragons exists……」

「It’d cause quite a big scene if they appeared on earth wouldn’t it」

「Umu……From what I can see, these creatures are what they call monsters?They’re very likely to aggressively attack humans. Which reminds me, wasn’t the meat from the creature that Zeanos and the others caught monster meat?」

「Seems so. I was wondering what kind of odd flavours their meat would have, but it was quite normal」

「It’s rather dangerous, but that’s this world’s culture」

「Eh……I wonder how good Dragon meat would taste?」

「I’m interested in that too. Let’s ask Abel to get us some later」

Even though it wouldn’t be strange if they had collapsed seeing the scene before them, Seiichi’s parents continued to take things at their own pace, to the point that even the treasure chest wonder internally if the two of them were more than just “some important figures”

In truth, Zeanos’ maid Mary, and the ordinary florist Natalianna were dreadfully frightened by the sight before them.

While the treasure chest continued to misunderstand them, the two of Seiichi’s parents shared a look as they watched Abel fighting random Monsters

「Hey……」

「Eh, that monster……」

「? Is there, problem?」

Asked the treasure chest, confused by their reaction.

In return, Makoto replied to the chest with a question of his own.

「Hey there, treasure chest。Do you think you could bring us to where Abel is right now?」

「……Eh?　Possible……But, dangerous」

「We’re fully aware of that」

「……Have to go, no matter what?」

「Yeah。It’s something important」

「……Got it」

Mary was already surprised by Makoto’s request, but the treasure chest’s agreement further added to that surprise.

「B-But it’s dangerous!Why would you put yourself in such risk!?」

「Mary, we’ll be fine。The treasure chest did say it was going to protect us as we go」

「But you know that there’s no guarantee it’ll be able to that right!?」

「We understand. But, this is something we can’t afford not to do」

Pacifying Mary, who was trying to stop them, Makoto and Kasumi headed towards where Abel was, with the treasure chest guarding them.

Speaking of Abel, he was in the midst of fighting those same monsters, praying to find an opening.

Furthermore, since there were two monsters, Abel himself looked like he was going to get sandwiched by them.

「These damned things……I can’t see an opening……」

「Abel-kun!」

「Eh?　……Wha- Makoto-san!? And even Kasumi-san……It’s dangerous here, please turn back!」

「We understand that. But, You’ll have to forgive us just this once」

「What?」

Abel was careful not to let his guard as he conversed with Makoto, while Kasumi started talking to the monster that he was fighting.

「The two of you――――You’re Saria’s parents aren’t you?」

「Eh!?」

「W-What?」

Both the treasure chest and Abel were shocked by what Kasumi said.

「Isn’t Saria……That girl that’s always by Seiichi’s side? There’s no way that could be tr――――」

「……You know…… our daughter……!?」

「Seriously!?　Wait, you can speak!?」

The monsters that Abel was fighting―――― the【Kaizer Kongs】, had the same shocked expression as they looked at Kasumi。

「Yes, she’s with my son right now」

「……Lying…… Not seem like it……」

「Ara?You can tell if someone is lying?How convenient～」

It wasn’t exactly the time or place to talk about convenience or whatsoever, but the only thought that crossed Kasumi’s mind was how convenient that special skill was.

「Wait wait wait!I’m going to be bothered if you just carry on the conversation like this!? Eh, so what’s going on?Are you saying that Saria’s a monster!?」

「You didn’t know? Look, the way her eyes wrinkle is just like Saria’s!」

「Her eye wrinkles!? Wait, that one’s a female!?」

「Yes, problem?」

Replied the Kaizer Kong in front of Abel, exasperated by the fact that he was asking questions with very clearly obvious answers.

Then, the other Kaizer Kong, who had been silent till then, spoke up.

「Umu、I the male」

「Yes, I know. You must be Saria’s father, right?」

「I CAN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE!How do you tell them apart, Kasumi-san!?」

「Instinct?」

「Why are all of the members of Seiichi’s family weird!」

And while Abel was shouting away desperately, Makoto calmly continued.

「In short, we noticed that these two were Saria’s parents. So we came down to stop you 」

「No, but if that’s the case then……I’d never have thought to distinguish between each of the monsters I face, but……Well, whatever。So?What about you two?Still wanna fight?」

Asked Abel, with an earnest look on his face, and the pair of Kaizer Kongs also replied with the same earnestness.

「No, we stop。Can’t hurt daughter’s acquaintances。Besides, it seems like brainwashed。Only snapped out of it when hear【Saria】’s name」

「Brainwishing?　What exactly do you mean by th――――」

「GUOOOOOOOO!」

Before he could finish his sentence, Abel was interrupted as other monsters from the horde attacked him.

「Tsk!We won’t be able to have a decent conversation here……Makoto-san!If you’re done with your things here then head back to where Mary and the others are!And regarding these two……people? Creatures?Ah whatever!In any case, we’re not gonna fight each other anymore!」

「Good point。It’d be bad to keep you up any longer, so the two of us will head back」

「You’re right。……Ah, hold on!Abel-san, could you bring back some dragon meat on your way back later? We’d like to have some of it to eat～」

「You really are really carefree aren’t you!? A-Ah, I got it!I’ll try and do something about it!」

「Thanks!Well then, let’s head back」

「……Do your best」

The treasure chest left him a few short words of encouragement at the end, before leaving to take Makoto and Kasumi back.

Confirming that they had left, Abel called out to the two Kaizer Kongs that had attacked him earlier.

「The two of you, since you said your brainwashing has come undone, can you help me out a little here?」

「Leave to us。Oh, and by the way, name is【Sunny】」

「Mine 【Adramelech】。Call me that」

「The hell is with that cool-sounding name!?」

「?Almost all monsters have same names?」

「That’s news to me!」

Even as Abel continued to retort on these weird things, he managed to take down the other monsters with the aid of the two Kaizer Kongs that were Saria’s parents.

As a result, the combination of Abel of and the Kaizer Kongs proved to be decisive move that allowed them all to safely defeat the rest of the monster horde.