Kuro no Maou

I jumped up the moment my consciousness came back.

I had almost tied my battle with Cyprus and I feel like I saw Lily’s face in the end......no, before that let’s confirm the situation.

In front of me was the highway leading to the faraway Gallahad Mountain ranges and the black figure beside me was,

“How did it go, Fiona?”(kurono)

“It’s all fine. Everything’s over.”

The witch gave the answer with her usual expressionless face.

Everything’s over, that means for the time being, the danger should have receded. I feel relieved.

“How long was I asleep?”(kurono)

“Around 30 mins. Just now, the last of the light golems was defeated and the enemy force has been annihilated.”

As I looked around, the remains of the light golems, who wore the just-for-show armour, were lying around all over the place.

The adventurers who defeated that doll squad were quickly fixing their carriages rather than wasting time to enjoy their victory. Some were dealing with the barbed wire spread on the highway and were trying to deal with the problem.

“I should also go and help.”(kurono)

We have been unexpectedly delayed already, we should quickly move away from here before the Crusaders come attacking.

Although I tried to get up, I couldn’t muster strength inside my legs and had to use the tree on which I was leaning on to get my body up.

“Your wounds have been healed by the Fairy’s miracle drug but it doesn’t bring back your magical energy. It’d be wise to not move about too much.”(Fiona)

“So it seems. Shit, draining me like that, that bastard.......”

I was feeling no pain but my body was filled with lethargy and fatigue and it was difficult just to move my body.

Magical energy is an energy vital to sustaining life. If you lose too much of it, you’ll get the same symptoms as losing excessive blood.

It’s really pathetic but in such a condition, I can’t help anyone and will only end up being a hindrance. I should just wait here and restore my energy.

But I’m really lucky that my wounds have healed up. Because, my [Baphomet’s Embrace] is currently completely in tatters.

It had been cut apart by the mithril sword, and the arm section bitten off by the [Crime Eater], which made the sleeves only half now.

If it had been damaged even a little more, it would have completely lost the demonic energy residing inside of it and would not have been able to regenerate back to normal.

Even if it was a magic item, if it was destroyed too far, nothing could be done any more.

While thinking that it would take some time for the robe to restore back to normal, I once again sat back near the foot of the tree and talked to Fiona.

“What happened to the experimental squad? Were they all killed?”(kurono)

“I and Lily-san took down 9 of them. Their ability equal to that of a rank 3 team but after Lily-san’s [Mind Jammer] activated, it became too easy.”(Fiona)

I guess they really were completely dependent on telepathy for coordination. Since they don’t have any personalities, it’s only normal that they couldn’t adapt themselves after their communication was jammed.

“But still, you guys did well actually activating that. Or rather, wasn’t Lily using her DP?”

“Yes, I used defensive magics to give Lily-san enough time to activate her DP.”

She said that so easily but isn’t that pretty damn amazing? At least it’s a tactic impossible for me who can only use Black Shield.

“The majority of their squad was mixed up with the light golems and were fighting with the adventurers. Since Kurono-san took down their leader, they all retreated.”(Fiona)

“I see, if they retreated then, well there’s neither any reason nor enough power to pursue them. It’d be better to just leave them alone. So, how’s our damages?”

“There were no casualties.”

That’s actually very unexpected. No well, it’s a really happy thing that no one died but considering the enemy’s abilities I was prepared to face some casualties.

“Were the ones mixed up with the light golems that weak?”(kurono)

“No, it seems the enemy was trying to capture us. The adventurers who were defeated had been injured but had only been restrained after making them faint. When they retreated, they left them so we were able to save those adventurers.”

“Now that I think about it, that guy did say something about a mission......”

Probably, they would have been experimented upon like me.

Now that they have occupied Daedalus; it disgusts me to think like that but they should have lots of ‘demons’ to use for such purposes.

But even then they tried to capture us all the way here; does that mean they wanted some strong ones like the adventurers?

“un, that’s more or less correct.”(lily)

“Lily!?!”(kurono)

The one who suddenly answered by internal monologue was, as expected, the girl Lily.

“Oh Lily-san, are you done tort—-interrogating him?”

Wait, wasn’t an extremely dangerous word about to leave her mouth? Was it just my imagination?!

“I heard everything I wanted to hear.”(lily)

Lily answered with an elegant smile but her eyes had a somewhat sharp light inside it.

“What do you mean......by interrogation?”(kurono)

“I just asked some things from that man called Cyprus. Information gathering is also very important you know?”(lily)

“I didn’t really think that he’d explain everything very easily though.”(kurono)

“That’s, well, I just used my amazing telepathy a ‘little’, get it?”(lily)

She smiled as she winked towards me.

What exactly does she mean by ‘little’; she seemed to be not inclined in explaining so I decided not to pursue it either.

“Anyway, to explain in short, they were a squad deployed to capture strong people like us as experimental subjects. It seems it was some sort of a secret so they were pretending to be a mercenary group to mix in with the Crusaders and were looking for good ‘subjects’.”(lily)

“Was it the same mercenary group that tried to attack us straight the day before yesterday?”(kurono)

“Yes, it seems it was done to get rid of the adventurers mixed in their merc group and then use that battle as an excuse to withdraw themselves from the Crusaders forces.”

I did think that it was a useless attack but I see, so there was reason like that behind it.

The Republic’s adventurers who were trying to make it big were really pitiful. We were the ones who actually killed them though.

“Also, by breaking through the forest with small numbers with brute force and summoning a large amount of light golems, they made it look like we had been surrounded in Alsace and made us retreat. After luring us this far, they would attack us where the Crusaders couldn’t see.”(lily)

“And we completely walked right into their palms........how pathetic.”(kurono)

Although I’m glad that we were able to repel them off brilliantly like this, if we had been captured, our fates would have been far worse than death.

And that would apply not just to me but to all of my comrades as well. Although it’s a bit late, but it still is quite a frightening thing to imagine.

“By the way Lily-san, did you get any other info? For example, about the organisation that built these Experimental bodies etc?”(Fiona)

Organisation, is it? It must be a disgusting group of worthless people but now that they have appeared in front of me like this, I need to know as much as I can about them as well.

“The organisation is called the White Sacrament. Its founder and the person in charge of these experiments is Bishop Judas. The human experimentation that Kurono went through was one part of the plan called the Holy Soldier project. I was able to find out these three things clearly.”(lily)

I see, it’s a pretty easy to understand composition.

Bishop Judas must be that proud-looking geezer that didn’t wear a mask back then. Cyprus also knew my face and told me that I should ‘ask that geezer in Elysion’ as well.

The founder and the person-in-charge eh? If, If that man came inside my reach, I will definitely kill that geezer at all costs.

But, the Holy Soldier Project, are we supposed to be the soldiers of God?

“Selfishly calling us here and making us into pawns of God, those fucking bastards.....”

White Sacrament, Judas, alright, I’ll remember them.

Right now, I don’t have the strength to stop you bastards from continuing the experiments but still, one day definitely I’ll make you pay for playing around with our lives.

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Inside the forest, a single corpse was sprawled along the ground.

At a single glance, it looked like a burnt corpse but everything above the eyes had been completely blow away so it was difficult to tell whether the cause of death was the fire or due to the head being blown off.

And except the one who did this, nobody else knew the actual answer.

“Wow, you really were killed in such a flashy manner Cyprus.”

Or so it was supposed to be.

A figure looked over the corpse that once belonged to a man named Cyprus.

“That fairy looks cute but totally lacks the screws in her head. It looks like an act done by an Executor of the inquisition, right Tsumiki?”

Blonde twintails and a slender waist. Both the armour on her body and the weapon on her back were meagre ones. She was the girl who only looked like a newbie adventurer, Ai.

Even in front of the cruelly slaughtered corpse, Ai kept on smiling and talked to the black cat Tsumiki beside her.

“She had used a low level fire intentionally to slowly and carefully grill him. On top of it, the nails stuck to his head also had [Pain Increaser] and [fainting obstruction – Wake Up] activated as well. Not to mention that she had also used heal magic so that he didn’t die too quickly. I guess it’s normal for the corpse to turn out like this. Well, in this case he simply reaped what he sowed, divine retribution, something like that.”

Ai gave her thoughts about the torture show that had continued for around 20mins but the cat Tsumiki only gave a *nyaan* sleepily.

But without minding her cat, she continued talking.

“fufu, then let’s stop with my ‘Binding play’ here and I should go and greet that devil and the fairy—-“

Ai touched the silver bracelet on her hand that was the most valuable looking equipment in her possession.

“—–Seal Unlock.”

Along with her words, the silver bracelet broke off and was removed from her slender wrist.

That instant, her normal looking atmosphere instantly changed.

If a third party was here at this moment, he would have felt as if the air or the scenery had changed.

She who was suddenly releasing an immense amount of presence finally showed a change that could be visibly seen.

Sparkling, hazy silver aura rose from Ai’s body.

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.

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After removing the black barbed wire that had been probably created by the experimental bodies with black magic, and by the time everyone prepared to depart with the carriages, I had also become able to move around freely.

We had wasted quite a lot of time here but there were still no signs of the Crusaders approaching us from the back.

It’s still unknown how much time it would take for them to catch up with us if they start pursuing us seriously so we need to create as much distance as we can or I won’t be able to stay relieved.

Also, in the previous battle, although there were zero casualties, there were quite a lot of injured ones. Actually, the ones without any wounds were the rarer ones.

I’m glad everyone had prepared their carriages for the purpose of escaping each and every one. For the time being, we could move as long as we could lay them inside the carriages.

“Alright, everyone is ready right?”

Then let’s depart, the moment I was about to shout that and get on my carriage,

“——Everyone get down! Black Shield!!”

As I shouted at once, I deployed defensive magic at full strength.

That’s because spears of light came down raining on us from the sky, no they should be called pillars of light.

What the hell is that? Were there still enemies hiding there? Rather than that, if those giant and thick things exploded as well, shit, it’s like a goddamn missile!

“صخرة على نطاق واسع لمنع الجدار—-[Terra Wall Defan].”

From behind me, a high speed chant was heard. Fiona, is it?

Even faster than I realized that, a defensive magic much better than mine appeared as the earth rose like a intermediate level wide range defensive magic.

With tremors like a small earthquake, a cliff rose right in front of me.

It’s not an actual cliff but it was big enough to feel like that. It’s width was enough to perfectly cover the highway to both the sides.

The moment that a much larger than normal [Terra Wall Defan] was completed, the pillars of light finally arrived.

*GAGAGAGAGA——–*

The row of light pillars struck the cliff’s surface from above.

The Terra Wall Defan was made of stiff and sturdy rocks but the pillars of light stabbed through it as ignoring the wall.

The pillars of light seemed as if they would completely pulverise the wall but contrary to expectations, they stuck on the wall like the steel frame on a concrete block.

“.......they won’t explode right?”

The moment I said that, as if remembering it, a rumbling sound came as the cliff began to crumble.

A large amount of rocks scattered on the highway and only the pillars of light stuck on the ground remained.

They lined up in a grid pattern to seal off the highway.

Maybe this might be a derived version of a light type defensive magic.

But that doesn’t mean I can let down my guard. They might explode the next moment. Or maybe these were meant to stop us and now attack magic would come flying towards us.

“Ah, sorry, you don’t have to be so alert, you know?”

Suddenly, the nonchalant voice of a girl came.

The tone of the voice was like it was meant to spoil our vigilance and alertness. Though, of course, not a single one among us did that.

“......Who is it?”

Since the voice came from beyond my shield, she must be standing in front of me.

If I were to believe her words, it seems the enemy doesn’t intend to attack me instantly.

Resolving myself, I removed my shield and looked at the enemy in front of me.

“Nice to meetcha, I’m Ai!”

On the other side of the grid made by the light pillars, a single girl was standing.

Her shining blonde twintails gave her a slightly childish look but they really suited her round blue sparkling eyes and cute face.

Her armour included a simple leather breastplate, boots and gloves and beneath it was a thin shirt and a miniskirt. It really didn’t look like it had any magical enchantments or effects.

She really looked like a newbie adventurer from every angle but from her small body,

“No, no way......”

I can never forget, it’s the same silverish aura that was enveloped Sariel which was created from her thick white magical energy.

But this girl was definitely not Sariel.

But still to have that aura means,

“.......an Apostle?”

The girl, with a wide smile that might make one remember of a sunflower, answered.

“Yup. I’m the 8th Apostle Ai!” [T/N:Ai uses ~ desu a lot at the end of her sentences when she’s acting cute.]

She named herself as if it was a light joke.

But that’s impossible, it can’t be, such words of refusal didn’t hold any meaning in front of that silver aura.

Right, I should just accept it that the impossible has now become possible. The worst case where an Apostle has appeared.

“Now then, Devil-san, wouldn’t you keep me company for a while?”

And thus, the 8th Apostle Ai stood in my way.