Volume 2, Chapter 16 – The Despair Demon General

Fortunately, the camp was not too far from Oro City. Fia quickly glimpsed the city standing abruptly on the plain, its towering walls and completely black interior making one mistakenly think it was a giant beast in slumber.

With an elf’s superior vision, she could see a small hole had been blasted through a corner of the city wall. Judging by the bricks and stones piled outside, it had been broken from the inside out, likely a trace left by Norton when he broke out with Estelle.

Fia gradually slowed her flight.

“We’re almost there.”

“Mm.”

Estelle nodded in agreement.

Although Fia’s high-speed flight had terrified her at first, she had now gradually gotten used to it. Flying was not a difficult thing for vampires. With their wings, they could fly with the help of their wings and a spell called [Levitation], which reduced their body weight, once their magic reached the Second Tier. However, Estelle only had half a wing, so besides being carried by her father, Count Oro, and her sister Noreen, most of the time, Estelle could only watch other vampires soar in the air from afar.

Although Fia’s arms were much more slender than Noreen Oro’s, she gave Estelle a no less secure feeling. The flight was very stable; even with strong winds, it felt as if they were walking on solid ground. In this aspect, even the Fourth-Tier Noreen was no match for Fia.

Estelle looked down at the plain below. In the silent moonlight, the silver plain was dotted with orange-yellow flickers of light—the glow of campfires. They lit up one after another along the road, standing out conspicuously in the dark night.

Those who didn’t go to the camp to join up also survived.

“They’re still alive…” A whisper of relief filled her voice. Estelle looked up at Fia above her. “Can we go a little higher? I want to see the situation in the city.”

“Of course.”

Her purpose for coming here was to retrieve the [Siren’s Mirror], so she was going straight for the castle anyway.

The hands around Estelle’s waist tightened slightly. Fia slowly increased their altitude and accelerated—if the ascent was too fast, Estelle would show an expression of forced endurance due to the G-force.

In just a few minutes, Fia was directly above Oro City.

The ruined city unfolded before Fia’s eyes.

Centered around the castle in the middle of the city, it looked as if a meteorite had struck. A large crater, hundreds of meters in diameter, had appeared on the earth. The strange thing was that the castle, located in the center of the crater, had only partially collapsed. The rest of it still stood upright in the crater. Because the crater was sunk a dozen meters down, the castle looked as if it were protruding from the ground.

There were no remnants of man-made objects left in the crater. The shockwave from the explosion must have swept through it. The buildings around the crater had also been reduced to ruins. It was only further away that one could see buildings that were relatively intact.

Besides rubble, shattered stone, and collapsed roof beams, all that was left was the chaos Fia had seen before.

It was enough to fill the entire crater, forming a lake of sorts. Although there was no wind, Fia could see the lake writhing. And in addition to the chaos gathered in the lake, some chaos was hiding inside the city’s houses. Not only that, but the surface and interior of the castle also had black mucus slowly flowing over them; the entire city was contaminated with chaos.

It was worth mentioning that the moment she looked at the chaos, Fia felt as if she was being watched by countless eyes. It was as if she had been discovered by the chaos, but because of the distance, they could only quietly stare at her like predators in a jungle.

This is unpleasant.

Fia couldn’t help but click her tongue.

Are there still living people?

Fia quietly used [Wind of Exploration]. Due to the distance being too great, [Wind of Exploration] provided no feedback. But it was certain that the entire city was pitch black, without a trace of life.

It was hard to imagine there were any survivors in such an environment. On the way, Estelle had been full of hope, saying that her father and sister might still be alive. But judging from the current situation, that hope was slim. It was nothing more than a child’s naive hope.

In that case, the plan to return to the city for rescue tomorrow could be skipped. Since there were no living people in the city, there was no need to venture in and risk danger.

Fia couldn’t help but look down at Estelle’s expression. The latter looked grave, her gaze sweeping back and forth across the streets. A vampire’s night vision was much better than an elf’s, so they could only hope Estelle had found something.

A moment later, Estelle’s furrowed brows relaxed. She stared intently at the northwest corner, her face full of joy.

“There are still people over there! People are all gathered there!”

Following Estelle’s finger, Fia looked over, but the city was too dark for Fia to see anything. The only thing to say was that the buildings over there were relatively well-preserved, and the chaos had not gone over for some reason.

Fia switched to the wider range of [Mana Vision]. She could see that the arrangement of elements in the northwest corner of the city was more orderly than in other places. The elements seemed to be bound by something, unable to escape, and the density was much higher than elsewhere.

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There must be something there.

Because of that something, the chaos dared not advance.

“Do you want to go and see?”

Fia’s suggestion made Estelle look conflicted. The latter took a deep breath.

“N-no… we should go to the castle to get the [Siren’s Mirror] first, and then come back here. Maybe… maybe the chaos hasn’t gone there because my sister and father are over there. So we don’t have to worry for a while.”

“Then let’s hurry. Where in the castle is the [Siren’s Mirror]?”

“In my mother’s old room. Counting up from the ground, it’s the third floor, with a balcony on the left side. If I remember correctly, the [Siren’s Mirror] should be on the dressing table.”

“Okay.”

Quickly locating the room that matched Estelle’s description, Fia took a deep breath, and then couldn’t help but tilt her head slightly—she was about to remind Estelle to hold on tight, but the scent that filled her nose made Fia frown. It was a scent she had smelled before, but she couldn’t remember where. Although it was a bad time, the inexplicable sense of familiarity made Fia ask.

“Estelle, your… perfume smells a bit strange.”

“Eh?” Estelle, who had just tensed up, froze, then her face flushed red. She wriggled, trying to make Fia’s grip less tight. “W-what are you talking about! I never use perfume. We vampires can control our sweating, so we don’t have body odor, and we have no use for perfume!”

“Is that so?” Fia didn’t let it go, showing a look of disbelief. If she didn’t think it was perverted, Fia would have leaned in to sniff Estelle’s golden hair. “But I do feel like I’ve smelled this scent somewhere before. It feels familiar.”

“It’s not our first time meeting. It must be that your mind has forgotten, but your body still has the muscle memory. Enough, stop with this rude talk. Are you a pervert?”

“…Fine. But you have to hold on tight. The chaos has noticed us, and a fight is unavoidable.”

Just as Fia said, as she slowly lowered their altitude, the chaos in the castle and the lake began to writhe and gather in Fia’s direction.

Estelle looked down at the castle below, her young yet charming face filled with worry.

“A fight… will you be okay? Although I’ve never fought those black monsters before, I have heard from Norton’s description how difficult they are to deal with. Don’t take any risks. The Claire you like would surely not want to see you get hurt for her.”

“Of course I’ll be fine.” Fia curled her lips. “If you want, I can make all the chaos in the city disappear right now.”

Estelle immediately turned her head, looking shocked.

“Is it that simple? With a forbidden spell? If you can do it, then do it now—”

“The price would be the entire city disappearing without a trace, and everything within dozens of kilometers would be flattened by the shockwave… It might be even further than that.”

The last few times she had used [Orbital Beacon Bombardment], she hadn’t yet mastered these spells. From her initial attempts, [Orbital Beacon Bombardment]’s power was determined by how much attention she invested in it. Now that she had mastered the secrets of magic, a new use of [Orbital Beacon Bombardment] would definitely be much more powerful than before.

Speaking of which, she still hadn’t used [Hypercomputation] to enhance [Orbital Beacon Bombardment]—could something like that even be enhanced? Also, [Hypercomputation] was something that ran automatically without her needing to actively use it. If it could be enhanced, it should have been already, right? Or did [Orbital Beacon Bombardment] just not work that way, or require her to actively correct [Hypercomputation]?

There were too many things involved, so Fia decided to try it later. She had promised to show Anastasia her grand magic anyway, so she might as well try it then.

Fia’s addition made Estelle’s expression freeze.

“Uh, let’s not do that, then. Using a forbidden spell always comes with a price. I don’t want to owe such a huge favor, not to mention it would destroy the city. That would truly mean starting from scratch.”

“I didn’t plan on doing that either. If Estelle had agreed, I would have been the one in trouble. I’ll count to one, then we’ll go down. Get ready—one!”

“Hey—!”

Her voice was left behind as she disappeared in a dive.

When she reappeared, Fia was on the third floor of the castle, on the left side.

Before the chaos attached to the wall could react, Fia used [Torrent] to wash it all away. Then, with a giant arm created by [Telekinesis], she grabbed the chaos blocking the balcony and threw it into the air, destroying it with one hundred and twenty fireballs from all directions.

A huge explosion sounded behind them, but Fia had no time to watch the fireworks.

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[Illumination]

If the explosion of [Fairy Fire] only made the night sky flash for a moment, the current [Illumination] turned the entire night into day.

The room behind the balcony was instantly revealed to Fia.

Without hesitation, Fia plunged into the room with Estelle.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The chaos inside the room also failed to react to what had just happened. At this moment, Fia had already sealed off the balcony and the door with a double wall of [Ice Bullet] and [Telekinesis]. Then she condensed a spatial hand again and, like a person cleaning a spider web, grabbed all the chaos in the room and slammed it to the ground, turning it into ashes with [Fairy Fire].

From the dive to now, less than three seconds had passed.

The reaction speed, which exceeded the limits of all living things, was something not even chaos could keep up with.

Although her actions were a bit too violent and made the things in the room messy, considering the chaos had already made a mess of the room, Fia’s actions were nothing to be concerned about.

“Hah.”

After using [Wind of Exploration] and [Mana Vision] to check the stone room and confirm there was no danger, Fia let go of Estelle, who was a little taller than her.

“Alright, where is the [Siren’s Mirror]?”

“Ah ah…” It was obvious she hadn’t yet caught up. After leaving Fia’s embrace, Estelle’s legs were a little shaky. It wasn’t until Fia helped her up again, and a few seconds had passed, that she came back to her senses with a blank look. “Huh? We’re already here? What just happened?”

“I was worried that the chaos in the lake below would rush over, so I had to use the fastest method. Are you okay? The chaos outside has already reacted, so we have to hurry.”

Saying this, Fia made a shushing gesture, signaling for Estelle to be quiet. And things were just as Fia had said. The chaos outside was already pressing against the thick ice wall formed by [Ice Bullet], making a sizzling sound like ice meeting fire.

Her one wing immediately tensed up, and Estelle’s expression became serious. She looked around the messy room. Under the corrosion of chaos, most of the things in the room, like the bookshelf, bed, and tables and chairs, were incomplete. Only weapons mixed with magic metals like mithril and orichalcum were still intact.

“The [Siren’s Mirror] is a silver brooch. It was a treasure begged from a god by the founding emperor, so it won’t be easily corroded by chaos. If it’s not on the dressing table, it must be somewhere else in the room. Look in the corners.”

“Okay.”

Maintaining the dimmed light of her [Illumination] spell, the two of them began to search for the Siren’s Mirror in the room, which was filled with scattered books and personal items.

Initially, Fia was worried that her overly violent actions would displease Estelle and that she would think it was disrespectful to her mother. But seeing Estelle kick over a bed, Fia abandoned that thought. According to Estelle, her mother’s belongings had already been moved to the underground treasury for safekeeping. Everything left here, except for the Siren’s Mirror, were all replicas.

Amidst the sound of chaos corroding from the outside, the two inside the room searched silently and quickly, not even missing the space under the rug.

Five minutes passed.

Fia remained lying on the floor, her head almost level with the ground, checking the space under a cabinet. She and Estelle had searched most of the room. The space under the cabinet was one of the few places that had not yet been checked.

“It’s not here either. Estelle, on your side—”

Bang!

The entire room shook violently without warning, as if someone had smashed through the wall. A huge explosion sounded in Fia’s ears.

It wasn’t on her side.

It was Estelle!

“Who are you!”

When Fia turned around, Estelle was crouched low, her eyes vigilantly staring at a third person in the room. The wall next to Estelle had a large hole, as if a cannonball had been fired through it. Fia could easily imagine that Estelle had narrowly escaped death.

“Your reaction is not bad. For an imitation that’s not even a bastard, your strength is decent.”

Although the voice was male, it was extremely sharp. The attacker calmly sized up Estelle.

He was about two meters tall, slender and lean. He had a human appearance but no facial features. His whole body was the same black color as the chaos, and his limbs were shaped like straight blades. The faint sense of sharpness he gave off suggested that with a single swing of his hand, he could sever anything.

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I’ll assume he’s a Darkborn. Wait, he’s here!

Fia thought this as she discreetly used [Telekinesis] to condense a two-meter-long blade and slashed it towards the back of the humanoid.

In the next second.

A jarring clang of metal on metal rang out.

Before the blade could hit the humanoid’s body, he raised his own black, blade-like arm to block the attack. During the collision, the humanoid’s arm only trembled for a moment before quickly stabilizing.

His strength is not to be underestimated. The humanoid didn’t want Estelle’s life from the start, or else Estelle would have been injured already. His strength is several tiers higher than Estelle’s.

While evaluating him in her heart, Fia moved along the wall, quietly getting closer to Estelle.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. The Fourth-Tier spell [Invisible Sheath Sword]? Black hair and red eyes, is that the Eldest Princess of the Elf Kingdom, Dofilia Alexia Yushir? Hiss—you also have the scent of Radric and another strong person on you. Interesting. I was just wondering who caused such a commotion. I didn’t expect it to be the Eldest Princess of the Elf Kingdom. A Seventh-Tier magic caster, though difficult to deal with, it’s a pity. I am the nemesis of magic casters. You can’t escape now.”

“Answer me, who are you!”

Completely disregarding the humanoid’s long speech, Estelle angrily rebuked him.

The humanoid continued to speak leisurely, as if he really was not nervous. He spread his blade-like arms, looking helpless.

“Me? The Despair Demon General under Lord Absolute Evil. Is that enough?”

“Despair Demon General…”

As if hearing something extremely terrifying, Estelle’s blood-red eyes suddenly shrank.

What is that?

A question arose in Fia’s heart. She subconsciously used [Wind of Exploration] to scan the creature who called himself the Despair Demon General. [Wind of Exploration] reported that the Despair Demon General was only at the Sixth Tier.

I thought he was an opponent on the level of Claire. It turns out he’s only this strong.

Fia’s expression became subtle. She took a step forward and stood in front of Estelle. Estelle’s soft voice immediately sounded from behind Fia.

“He’s a Darkborn. Lord Absolute Evil has a total of seven demon generals, each one of them is extremely powerful. I am no match for him. Be careful. The Despair Demon General is skilled in mental magic and close combat. He has always been known as the mage killer. And his current appearance is completely different from the Despair Demon General I know. He has become stronger than what people described. Do you… have any close-combat ability?”

“Mm.”

“Take this.” Estelle bit her finger, and the flowing blood condensed into a blood-red scissors as tall as a person. It seemed to have cost her a great deal of effort, as the color of blood on Estelle’s face faded rapidly, and her face became extremely pale. “As long as I’m not dead, it won’t break. I’m entrusting it to you.”

“Are there no side effects?”

Like if the weapon is severely damaged, the injury would be transferred to Estelle or something.

“No. The transfer of power is one-way. Only if I’m injured will the weapon be damaged. This is a pure-blood’s ability—I have no more strength left. He is probably the mastermind behind this disaster. I’m begging you, kill him.”

“Mm… I understand.”

Although she felt that she didn’t need a weapon to deal with the Despair Demon General, since Estelle had already made one, she had no choice but to take it.

Taking the blood-red scissors, Fia swung it casually. The scissors were much heavier than she had expected, but their sharpness exceeded any weapon Fia had seen on the World Tree Continent.

“Have you finished your last words?” Standing five meters away from Fia, the Despair Demon General said leisurely. “You can take your time to talk. I have always been merciful to those who are about to become corpses.”

“Cut the crap. I have two questions for you.”

“Ask away.”

“First, did you cause the magical disaster here?”

“Yes and no.” A hint of playfulness and mockery was added to the Despair Demon General’s voice. “Hehehehe… you can ask your second question now.”

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It seemed the Despair Demon General had no intention of answering that question.

“Second question, did you take the [Siren’s Mirror]?”

“Of course. I will not allow an item that can threaten me to exist in this world. An item that can completely block mental magic is too much of a threat to me. But I haven’t had a chance to destroy it yet. Do you want it?”

Saying this, the Despair Demon General held out his hand, and with the writhing of black mucus, a silver brooch gradually emerged from within his arm.

“Then I won’t be polite.”

Fia’s lips curled up.

The reason I let the Despair Demon General talk so much was entirely because I was worried that a battle would destroy the room, making the already hard-to-find [Siren’s Mirror] even more difficult to locate.

But now, she no longer has that worry.

Without using the blood-red scissors, Fia used [Telekinesis] to create a giant cube that filled most of the room on the side of the Despair Demon General. With the force of a battering ram, it slammed heavily into the Despair Demon General’s body.

The intense force pressed the Despair Demon General’s words back into his throat. He was like a piece of paper in a storm. Amidst the roar of the crumbling wall, he was easily slammed out of the room by [Telekinesis].

Fia pursued him with [Flight].

In the open air with an excellent view, the Despair Demon General was nowhere to be seen. He had merged with the night.

[Illumination]

The world was turned into a day.

But there was still no sign of the Despair Demon General.

He couldn’t have escaped. Did he hide?

Fia then used [Wind of Exploration] to search for the Despair Demon General’s figure. Soon, she found his location.

Perhaps using an invisibility spell to make himself unseen, the Despair Demon General was quietly approaching Fia from the front. His presence was completely undetectable to the naked eye.

An invisibility spell?

In that case, I won’t hold back either.

Fia took out the [Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea] from her pouch, put it on her waist, and likewise dissolved into the air.

With his target suddenly disappearing, the Despair Demon General immediately stopped.

A moment later, a voice of approval echoed around the castle.

“Worthy of being called the Elf Kingdom’s number one genius, the elf princess. You found my secret so quickly. But don’t you think this is a bit too boring? Neither of us can find the other.”

“Is that so?”

Fia’s voice came from ten meters to the Despair Demon General’s left.

“Over here!”

The Despair Demon General immediately swung an attack at Fia. To Fia’s surprise, the demon general’s arm suddenly extended as he swung it. A slash that should have been too far to reach her became just long enough to hit her.

However—

[Firestorm]

A powerful white light flashed from under the Despair Demon General’s feet.

Translator Note

fightttt!!!!