Volume 7, Chapter 32 – Respective Battles

With the help of a rope, Yisi’s group descended the vertical cliff to a protruding platform. Although it was important to help the elf Nana, rushing in and beating people up without understanding the situation could easily lead to a misunderstanding.

The platform was less than twenty meters from the tenth floor where the conflict was taking place. By concentrating, they could hear what the people below were saying.

“This cliff… it looks like it was just formed recently. There are still traces of magic on it. Was it created artificially, not naturally? A magic circle? Or a monster?”

Crushing the damp soil between her fingers, Edith frowned slightly.

“There’s a big bug down there…”

Following right behind Edith, Mary pointed to a giant worm in the hall that seemed to be growing out of the ground, its upper body swaying. Its milky-white segmented body and its lamprey-like mouth, filled with fine teeth, were physiologically unsettling.

“That’s… a demon.”

“A demon?”

Laxy’s low comment made Yisi tilt her head. She then shifted her gaze to the [Omniscient Map]. The giant worm Mary was talking about was a monster called an [Excavator]. From the way it was voraciously chewing on the surrounding soil, it was likely a creature similar to an earthworm that could move freely through the earth.

“All demons should be purified. The existence of the Excavator will allow demons to become all-pervasive. In the absence of a Fourth-Rank Angel, I shall act in their stead. My lord, give the order.”

Narrowing her eyes, Laxy stared intently at the Excavator with a gaze mixed with hatred.

Was there a war between the Kingdom of God and the Demon Lords in the past?

The Kingdom of God was the representative of the Goddess. If a Demon Lord dared to attack the Kingdom of God, it would mean that the Demon Lord’s power was comparable to that of a god. If that were the case, the Goddess’s power was a bit too weak. Although she had not fought the Earthen Demon Lord Tartaros, she could judge from the magic fluctuations she had felt from the black hole that Tartaros was not stronger than her. Since the Goddess bore the name of a god, she should at least be an omniscient, omnipotent existence whose power could not be measured by levels.

“Laxy, wait. Do you recognize that group of people next to the Excavator?”

Next to the Excavator, there were about twenty people in uniform, who looked like they were guarding it. Their levels ranged from twenty to thirty. Since their attire was very religious in style, Yisi subconsciously thought of the Demon Lord cults that often appeared in various works of fiction.

Laxy shook her head.

“No.”

“The situation below is starting to look bad.”

Camilla’s reminder made everyone look at the cornered elf Nana and her group.

There were a total of three factions below the cliff, but two of them had formed an alliance. Besides the two groups of about twenty people each—Nana’s elf group and the religious faction—there was also a third force composed of several dozen adventurers. However, the adventurer team and the religious faction had formed a pincer formation, trapping Nana’s group at the base of the cliff. By the time Yisi had been talking, Nana’s party had already fallen into a desperate situation.

The adventurers who were initially cornering Nana were only about as strong as her group. Even if they fought, it would be difficult to determine a winner. But because the religious faction was able to command monsters to join the attack—specifically, the monsters known as Steel-Blade Bees—Nana’s side was losing ground, with one person falling every so often.

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“Nana, hand over the bow in your hands and give up. We’ll let you go.”

A male beastman with ox horns on his head tried to persuade her to surrender in a low growl. But Nana just drew back the red bow she had used against the Frost Spider yesterday, aiming at the densest part of the Steel-Blade Bee swarm.

“You think we’d believe you, you traitor, Teni! By collaborating with the people of the Divine Religion, you’ll sooner or later be thrown away like pawns once you’ve served your purpose!”

“Hehe, even if we are pawns, we are willing pawns. At least after this job is done, the Orichalcum-grade weapon in your hands will be mine.”

“Nana, don’t waste your breath on him. If we hand over our weapons, we’ll be at their mercy.”

“Lord Dominic will come to help us sooner or later!”

“The traitor must pay for our fallen brothers with his blood!”

“Hraaaaaaah!”

Inspired by their comrades’ words, Nana’s group began to fight back desperately with their backs against the wall. To avoid casualties, the beastman and the religious faction loosened their encirclement slightly. However, this state of affairs lasted for less than a minute. As the religious faction commanded more and more monsters to join the battle, Nana’s group was quickly bogged down again.

“Master, let’s hurry down and help Miss Nana…”

“Okay. Camilla, you all take care of the adventurers and the monsters. Laxy and I will deal with that Excavator.”

The Excavator was nearly level 40. Although its movements were clumsy, and Pepe, with her agility, could probably handle it easily, getting hit by it could have devastating consequences. There should be a limit to her companions’ level-jumping challenges.

Casting [Art of Levitation] on Camilla’s group to lighten their bodies, Yisi’s party of seven split into two and jumped down from the platform.

Camilla shouted down to the endangered Nana.

“We are the adventurer party, Margaret! If you want to be rescued, cooperate with us!”

“Margaret? I’ve never heard that name, but thank you for your help! We will reward you handsomely when we return to the surface!”

“Look over there! Isn’t that an angel? It’s Lord Dominic!”

“Lord Dominic sent people to help us!”

The adventurers’ misunderstanding made Camilla frown, but she did not express her displeasure verbally.

“You all focus on the adventurers. Leave the monsters to us.”

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“Alright!”

As if understanding the conversation between Camilla and the adventurers, the commanded monsters separated from the adventurers and turned to confront Camilla’s group of five.

The monsters commanded by the religious faction were all Steel-Blade Bees. Thanks to the time Yisi had given her to observe the battlefield, Camilla already understood the characteristics of these fist-sized monsters—they had bodies as hard as steel and sharp wings. Although their only attack method was ramming, even a slight graze from their wings would leave a gash on the skin deep enough to see bone.

“Their flight patterns are too simple. □□—[Slowing Wind].”

A cyan-colored magic power instantly swept over the hovering Steel-Blade Bees. In just a few breaths, the bees, as if pressed down by an invisible hand, suddenly dropped a short distance.

[Slowing Wind] normally only slightly reduced the target’s movement speed. But against a monster like the Steel-Blade Bee, which had to flap its wings to fly, slowing down its wing speed, while not enough to ground them, was enough to make them lose the agile advantage of flight.

“Tiffany, use a holy-type slowing spell! Buy me some time!”

“Okay.”

“I’m going in too! He—ya!”

If she were to fight the Steel-Blade Bees with her shield in her usual manner, it would feel like trying to swat a fly with a cannon. Mary unexpectedly changed her attack method. She gripped the sides of her shield with both hands and poured strength into her arms. The moment the golden pendant on her chest began to shine, she threw the cross-shaped shield, which was as tall as she was, at the Steel-Blade Bees like a boomerang.

The golden-glowing cross shield became a spinning circle the moment it left her hands due to its high speed of rotation. It first traveled along the edge of the hall at a dangerous angle, almost but not quite touching the walls. Then, just as it was about to hit the far end of the hall, its forward momentum gradually slowed. When its speed had decreased to a near standstill, the shield suddenly spun back with even greater speed than before, skimming over the adventurers’ heads and coming at the struggling bees from behind as they tried to regain altitude.

Shh-shh-shh-shh.

Like a lawnmower cutting through grass, or an eraser rubbing across paper, even if a Steel-Blade Bee was only caught by a single leg in the spinning shield, its entire body would be ground into dust along with it. By the time Mary embraced the returning shield—she herself was nearly sent flying by its inertia—an unfillable gap had appeared in the dense swarm of bees. Without exception, all the bees in the shield’s flight path had been annihilated.

Yisi was dumbfounded.

“…Was that the parting of the Red Sea?”

Mary had never shown her such a skill before. With her personality of never hiding anything, the shield-throwing skill must have been something she had just learned on the spot. After receiving the king-shaped golden pendant in the Ymir territory, Mary had grown in all aspects, including her Fallen abilities.

Before, although Mary knew how to use any weapon she picked up, her handling of them could only be described as ‘proficient’. After obtaining the pendant, that proficiency had become ‘mastery’. If one didn’t keep their distance, not even Camilla would be a match for Mary.

“No way!? Did I see that right? Was that a shield? Was it really a shield? No matter how you look at it, it looked like the third-tier spell, [Chaotic Annihilation].”

“The shield must have a secret. Just like Nana’s bow, it’s an Orichalcum-grade magic weapon.”

“But shouldn’t a shield enhance defense? What the hell was that terrifying thing just now?! I almost suffocated when it flew over my head. My neck is still cold.”

“I’m definitely not making an enemy of a little girl like that…”

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The resting, injured adventurers couldn’t help but swallow their saliva. Because Mary’s last attack was so shockingly powerful, both Nana’s and the beastman warrior’s parties had slowed down their attacks, forced to divert their attention to glance at Mary and the hall from time to time, fearing that the same attack would come flying at them.

But that one attack had consumed eighty percent of Mary’s magic power. Having left the front line to catch her shield, Mary could only shout to warn them of the approaching Steel-Blade Bees.

“Miss Camilla, the bees are angry!”

“Yes, don’t worry. □□□—[Breath of Light].”

Following Camilla’s [Slowing Wind], Tiffany also used a holy-type slowing spell. However, when the same negative effect was stacked, the effect would be halved—this was a law in this world, similar to a physical law. Therefore, the enraged Steel-Blade Bees only descended a short distance and still dove towards Mary from the air.

“Refina!”

“Yes!”

A layer of earthy yellow light covered the spiked gauntlets on Refina’s hands. She crossed her hands and made a motion as if to catch Edith’s body. Then, Edith spread her wings and used Refina’s hands to leap into the air. From an angle above the Steel-Blade Bees, she sprinkled a layer of blood mist downwards. As the blood mist fell into the clustered swarm, Edith reversed her grip on Gungnir, beat her wings forcefully, and, with the momentum of crashing into the ground, dove headfirst into the swarm.

Then.

[Blood Burst]

BOOM! BOOM!

The spreading blood instantly turned into the most violent of explosives. The entire swarm engulfed by the blood mist was reduced to severed limbs. Even the few Steel-Blade Bees that had managed to escape were thrown off balance by the shockwave of the explosion and could no longer launch an attack on Mary.

Flapping her wings to land back on the ground, Edith straightened her slightly disheveled black formal dress and looked at the chanting Camilla with a provocative gaze.

“My dear sister, it’s your turn.”

“You don’t need to remind me. Freeze—[Lament of Frostfall].”

Kaka-kaka-kaka.

Only when the freezing sound rang out did people realize that a white, icy mist had long since risen around them. And now, this white, icy mist condensed into the palm of a giant, which lunged at the Steel-Blade Bee swarm with a grasping motion.

The moment the two made contact, the Steel-Blade Bees fell to the ground one by one—not because they were slapped down by the hand, but because their wings were frozen, forcing them to crash. Then, the icy mist on the ground surged upwards, turning the bees into one frozen specimen after another.

“That vampire lady and the magic chanter lady are amazing too!”

“I think the vampire lady is more amazing. Although the magic chanter’s magic is incredible, I saw her drink a potion. It must have been that potion that strengthened her magic.”

“But didn’t the vampire lady also use her companion’s help to jump into the air? We would have died from that explosion just now, right?”

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“You think the magic wouldn’t have killed us? Besides, that cold look of the magic chanter lady is exactly my type. The magic chanter lady is more amazing!”

“The pureblood lady has more of a ‘queen of the night’ feel. A queen is of course more amazing than a magic chanter!”

“Exactly, exactly. I want to be stepped on by the pureblood lady.”

The abrupt comment plunged all the adventurers into silence. As if ashamed of their companion’s remark, the resting, injured adventurers all changed the subject in unison.

“Ahem… I’ve rested enough. Damn traitors, I’ll make them regret their betrayal!”

“Hey, why are you standing up? Didn’t you just say you were about to die?”

“How could I lose to these little girls! I’m full of energy now! Hraaaaaaah!!!”

It seems these adventurers have been a little too stimulated by Mary and the others.

Silently retracting her gaze, Yisi landed together with Laxy. Unlike the [Flight] she used, Laxy could fly entirely with the angel wings on her back.

Noticing their approach, the dozens of people in black religious attire stopped commanding their monsters and instead formed an arc to face the incoming Yisi and Laxy.

“This is as far as you go, you foolish believers of the demon.”

With a flick of her rapier, as if to shake off the blood, Laxy’s wings caught the eye of the religious faction, causing them to waver.

“…An angel?”

“It really is an angel. The information provided by those ruffian was correct.”

“We should contact the Bishop.”

Ignoring their words, Laxy lowered her head slightly to Yisi.

“My lord, please grant me the right to purify them.”

“Yes, permission granted. But do not kill them. They might provide unexpected information.”

“Yes.” A look of joy on her face, Laxy looked up and faced the men in black, spreading her huge wings behind her. With a look of utter disdain, like a judge, she raised her rapier high. “—[Sacred Fire].”

The moment the weapon accepted her magic power, the rapier instantly emitted a dazzling light as bright as day.