Ch 26

The war situation was not so positive for me. It was good that the summoned krakens had disrupted the sea blockade line, but it was quickly being resolved by the five elders on the sea. As expected, the elders couldn’t be dealt with using just three krakens. Still, it was worth it just to find out the number of elders waiting at sea. In addition, the magic circles that I had distributed through Milion as insurance had succeeded in activating, but it wasn’t perfect. Certain ones, roughly twenty percent of them, had been torn down, so it seemed like my senior disciples had come. They had done a good job tearing down so many in such a short period of time.

"Still, it seems like it’s still barely within the allowable range."

It seemed the magic circle had only activated properly because I had a bad feeling and had asked Lancelot to investigate. If the magic circles hadn't activated, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything, and I would have been taken back to the village.

"Why are you distracted, Small Chief!?"

"Who’s distracted!?”

I deflected Elder Python’s attack with my Holy Sword.

"Keuk! Uwack!”

I vomited blood. I was almost completely depleted of mana and was pushing myself through it. It seemed that the shock continued to accumulate in my body as I continued to deflect attacks from all directions, which resulted in internal injuries. No matter how hard a rock was, it was bound to crack from the inside if it was continually hammered. It was strange that I hadn’t vomited blood and collapsed earlier, because the elder’s attacks had the power to tear down mountains and divide the sea.

"Hahaha! It seems you are starting to hit your limit!" Elder Python cheerfully laughed.

I smiled bitterly and gestured towards the seven elders covered with wounds. "Isn't it the same for you all?"

From the time thirty elders remained, they had to deal with my magic at its full strength, so no one was fine. As many internal injuries I had suffered, it wouldn’t have been strange if they were also on the verge of collapsing.

"But where did Uncle go? We fought together until the middle of the battle."

Elder Hera answered, spitting out a clump of bloody phlegm. "Hermes went to work because the ministers are flustered. After making such a fuss, shouldn't at least one person talk to the Republic?"

"Uh, you have to say something that’s believable. What other orders did my sister give for Uncle to pull out?"

The elders facing off against me didn't say anything.

"Whether you like it or not, it's the final battle now!" I grinned and grabbed my magic wand and chanted the final incantation of the magic circle in Milion.

"Trick or treat! I declare Halloween here!"

A huge magic circle emerged in the sky, and various phantoms I had engraved on the circles in Milion began to materialize. At the same time, the mana stones scattered all over the place were purified by the magic circle and filled my mana. When I recovered in an instant, the elders lost strength and shouted in disbelief.

“T-that monster!"

"What kind of monster did Elder Mirpa raise?"

Unlike the elders who were freaking out, I remained calm. I clicked my tongue in disappointment, it was much less efficient than I had wanted because a lot of the magic circles had been torn down. According to my plan, all of my mana should have been filled up, but given that it was now only half full, it seemed that the part that my senior disciples removed was mainly related to the recovery of my mana. My exhausted physical strength and internal injuries remained, but now they were within an allowable range.

I smiled at the elders, "It's a good night to play tricks."

The materialized phantoms I created engulfed the city.

* * *

Hestia was in awe as she looked at the army of bizarre and terrifying phantoms of giant ghosts and ghost ships flying through the sky, and what looked like disks with wings and countless eyes.

"As expected, Den knows how to fluster an enemy better than anyone.”

If these were just soldiers, the Republic’s army would have responded. But the bizarre things floating through the sky were enough to fluster even trained soldiers. Even the military that was supposed to calm down and evacuate citizens was in confusion, so the city was in total chaos. Hestia speculated that Denburg had received four benefits in total from activating the magic circles. The first was the incapacitation of magical power using their wide and strong mana field. The second was using the confusion in the city to interrupt the movement of elders waiting in the city center. Third was the strengthening of his own power by using the materialized phantoms as an army. Fourth, by causing confusion, the Republic’s army would be prevented from intervening as he fled from his pursuers.

Caldra shouted at Hestia, "Is now really the time to be so amazed?! Leader! Won’t it interfere with the operation if we let things continue like this?

Hestia smiled and nodded, "Yes. At this rate, it may be a little difficult to surround him using the Republic’s army, as planned."

It was a great pity for Hestia that she couldn’t use the Republic’s army. The Denburg Capture Operation, that Hestia had established, was primarily to neutralize Denburg's insurance, weaken him using poison and a curse, and then overpower him with thirty elders. She had figured that she would have succeeded in the first attempt. However, if the first round failed, she planned to fight another round with fifteen elders, and if that failed, the third option was to surround the exhausted and injured Denburg with the Republic’s army. The fourth and final plan was to face off with him using five elders on the sea blockade, along with the navy. However, Hermes, who had the authority to order the start of the operation, sent a start signal even before everything was ready. Of course, Hestia didn’t have any intentions of blaming her uncle. They had already considered the possibility that her clever brother would start moving earlier than planned.

"What are you going to do? Four madosas, including me, can't use our full strength, and on the sea, they won't be able to come here right away due to the phantoms that Junior Disciple summoned.” said Palson.

Hestia agonized over what to do. The pursuit team was still at an advantage, but the gap had narrowed a lot due to the magic circles. If she made a mistake here, their advantage could be overturned at once.

"How is the power of the materialized phantoms?" asked Hestia.

"Each individual one is nothing much. There are about three of them that we should pay attention to."

"Then ignore the phantoms and ask Uncle to request the Republic’s army, as we planned."

It was necessary to mobilize the Republic’s soldiers, if nothing else. The usual Denburg could get away from hundreds of thousands of soldiers. However, it’d be a different story after a series of intense battles where lowering your guard for just a moment could lead to death. No matter how great of a madosa he was, he’d have no choice but to use a huge amount of stamina and mental strength to escape the siege without ‘killing’ the weakling army.

Caldra questioned Hestia's instructions. "With all this commotion, will the Republic lend us their army so easily?"

"We don't need all of them. Just enough to surround the harbor is fine. If we persuade them that the monsters flying in the sky are just a prank that our magicians are pulling, it should work."

If it was the Denberg she knew, he wouldn’t attack any citizens with his materialized phantoms.

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"Let’s shoot all the signal bullets we have as a bonus, like fireworks. Then it’ll really look like a prank." said Hestia.

"It would be a nice touch to announce that it is a Crow tribe festival through a public broadcast. We could even make flower petals fly all over the place with illusion magic." suggested Palson.

"Will that be possible even with the mana field?” Hestia asked delightedly.

"I can't do a full-fledged magic battle, but I can do little things like that as much as I want!"

Those were the words of a person who had become an elder despite learning magic.

"Then I'll trust you and leave you to it. Let's go straight to the next step."

At Hestia's command, Palson brought out a bird-type alchemic life form. It had originally been designed to be used as a hunting aid in Olympus Forest, so it moved easily through the mana field. Looking at the white bird flying away, Hestia smiled. She had the same playful smile as Den.

* * *

"Ah, it's green."

Arwen, who was waiting for Denburg's next instruction on the sea, was looking at the scroll book when she saw the light shining at the port. Meanwhile, Arietta spotted something approaching like a water swallow, splashing in the distance.

"Two men, Crow tribe." she said.

Arrieta sensed that the people approaching the ship were Crow tribe elders. After infusing mana into her great sword, she swung it with all her might.

Boooom-!

The overwhelming mana from the sword temporarily split the sea and created a massive wave spanning several meters.

"Ahhhh!"

Hillis and Arwen held onto the railing so as not to fall off the rocking boat.

An old man jumped over the wave and stood calmly on the fluctuating sea with a huge sickle on his shoulder. "Hahahaha! Gosh! I was regretful that I couldn't deal with the small chief, but I didn't know there would be another person who makes my heart flutter like this."

"It seems we are seeing each other again. Did you say your names were Daphne and Aurelius?"

Arrieta recognized the Crow tribe elders, who she had seen briefly from the frontline military base of the Demon’s Territory, Valhalla.

"Oh, do you know us? I'm sorry, I don't remember." said Aurelius.

Arrieta smiled and shook her head. "You don't have to be sorry. I only briefly saw you in Valhalla."

"Valhalla… Oh! You were the blue-haired lady with the small chief who went to catch the burning bird!" exclaimed Daphne.

Arrieta nodded.

Daphne smiled brightly, feeling the aura that Arietta was releasing. "Wow, if I had known you were this strong, I would have said hello earlier.”

“Can’t we just say hello now? What brings you here?"

Aurelius sighed disapprovingly. "Unfortunately, our leader told us to take the small chief's friends hostage.”

The old warrior had no qualms about taking hostages. It was a basic strategy to exploit an opponent, and it was common sense to catch the young first during a hunt, in order to gain some control over the movements of the prey. However, it was regrettable that the small chief would not be able to fight with all his might if they captured hostages.

"Oh, that's pretty straightforward," said Arrieta, amused.

Daphne shrugged. "Oh, of course, our leader told us to politely bring them in, but isn't that the same thing?"

"That's true."

"Well, I think a lively girl like you would be more fun than the old Small Chief, so I should be grateful!"

As the two elders began to emit martial aura, Arrieta also smiled happily. "This is great! How long has it been since I've been in a real battle?!”

The last Holy tribe member to inherit all the power of the tribe burned with fighting spirit.

* * *

"Ha-a, ha-a, twenty-six with this."

I breathed heavily as I turned an elder into a tree and sealed him within.

"Gasp! Gasp! Gasp!”

Elder Hera and the remaining three elders were breathing too heavily to speak, and looked at me like I was a monster. Elder Hera managed to catch her breath enough to complain. "Sssp, if I were, phew… twenty years younger!"

The level of the elders increased as they grew older, but their stamina couldn’t support their development after their prime. Even the Crows didn’t have infinite stamina once they became old.

"Twenty years ago, you would have lacked the experience that you have now." I said.

‘And I'd still be in my mother’s stomach.’

"Woo-hoo… That’s true, too. I envy your youth, Small Chief. With that vast amount of mana, you must age slower too.”

"Well, I suppose so."

With a grin, I looked out at the city. Colorful petals were scattered about, and the Crow tribe’s emergency signals shot out like fireworks. Hearing the sound of the broadcast from afar announcing that this was a surprise festival for the Crow tribe, I shook my head. The confusion I had caused with the phantoms was likely half as effective as it could have been. There weren't many people in the world who could read my thoughts and improvise to handle the situation like this.

"I'm telling you, she’s really like a ghost." I lamented.

I looked around at the elders, who had gathered in a group of fifteen to surround me. Among them was Hestia noona, riding Blackie. She smiled and replied to me, "Oh? You’re one to talk."