CH 226

226 – The Holy Sword of the Tower, The Black That Is Clad in Red

During the short time that it took me to approach her.

An intense battle was going on.

After Astrea parried Wraith’s downward swing, Wraith didn’t try to attack Astrea again, instead, he immediately went toward Fran.

He destroyed the lump of earth that restrained Fran and surrounded Fran with his Magical Energy.

「Wraith…」

Fran’s anxious voice.

Wraith used the Magical Energy he had managed to regenerate while fighting to save her from the Invisible Pressure. It’s no wonder she’s concerned.

But Wraith laughed.

「Don’t worry. This is the strongest we’ve ever been.」

Wraith had always cared about his comrades, but now he wasn’t as impatient as he had been during the raid battle.

To win without abandoning his comrades. This is his ideal.

He said that to tell her that they would be closer to victory if Fran could move rather than him regenerating his Magical Energy.

「Yeah…」

If that’s the case, then all I have to do is make it a fact. It was as if Fran’s determination was conveyed until here. 

「Your sword-handling skill is more polished than in the video I watched previously.」

「Well, I can’t just use flames all the time. Swordsmanship is so useful in situations like this.」

「That’s a good idea.」

The two of them are clashing their swords against each other, but their speed is too fast.

Only the sounds of the metal colliding made it possible to understand that they were attacking each other.

Even while fighting, Astrea was cautious of her surroundings.

I paid attention to the movements of my comrades by sensing their Magical Energy.

Lark is carrying Lily on his back and he’s about to join Josh and Melania.

In this situation, there is little benefit in releasing Invisible Pressure to reach the four people who are far away from her.

Well, she might earn 40 points, but it’s not something she should do in front of such opponents.

She is a knight.

Her priority should be to appear unyielding, prove her strength, and win.

The reason she attacked me was that she changed her priorities. She is seriously trying to win.

If so then… It’s here!

She’s not just trying to hinder Bella.

A cone of earth protruded from the ground, trying to skewer me.

Though it takes more thought and Magical Energy to create this compared to a lump of earth, she still chose to do it.

I cut off the top half with my Holy Sword and jumped over the rest.

「You responded even before it was created… you seem to have sensed the Magical Energy.」

Astrea’s voice.

Alba’s blow that was meant to protect me caught me off guard, but if I sharpened my senses based on the premise that I am being targeted…

「Payback.」

Fran’s fist drew near Astrea.

「Unfortunately, I can’t receive it.」

The Destroyer’s fist pierced the space where the opponent was just a moment ago, but that opponent actually…appeared on top of her arm.

Did she jump as she reduced the gravity on herself and then landed on top of Fran’s huge arm?

She touched Fran’s arm.

「It’s a little heavy, isn’t it?」

Fran’s arm dropped toward the ground as if it was being pushed.

Is she intending to increase the power of Invisible Pressure that was offset by the struggle of Magical Energy and put her under its influence again?

「Wicked, evil.」

「I’m surprised.」

Fran forcibly lifted her arm and Astrea’s body was lifted into the air.

No, it seemed that she herself jumped.

Fran pursued after her.

Astrea tried to reduce the gravity on herself to escape further upwards, but as she was upside down in midair, Fran’s arm grazed her left arm.

That was it, but that was more than enough.

The resounding dull sound told me that Astrea’s arm was broken.

「So this is a Destroyer, that was brilliant.」

The impact of the graze caused Astrea’s body to fall down with great force. However, she skillfully took a stance in the air, deflected Wraith’s thrust that was aimed at her, and threw her Holy Sword toward Fenix.

Just like the four knights that were sent off the field, her fight has already disregarded the general knight combat techniques.

By the time Fenix deflected the Holy Sword, she had already landed.

Wraith knocked the Holy Sword to the side without trying to attack her again.

After his thrust was deflected, Wraith wielded his Holy Sword to make a horizontal slash.

Eventually, the attack…sliced through the ground. 

「Hmm, all of you are really interesting. Just like a certain Chief of Staff.」

Wraith had a smiling expression, but he seemed frustrated.

I’m not sure how to describe this. It’s kind of like a distorted pillar of earth. No, it can’t really be considered a pillar though.

Even though I think that this is an absurd expression, it looked like a tower of earth.

She created an enormous tower of earth beneath her feet just before Wraith’s horizontal slash.

It was big enough that we had to raise our heads to look up at it and huge enough to hold several people if it were a building.

A cloud of dust fluttered and the visibility was slightly worse.

「But the amount of Magical Energy consumed is too much, especially if she only cast that to gain some distance between us.」

Fenix was right.

However, the moment the point of contact between the tower and the ground was cut off, I suddenly understood what she wanted to do.

「A Holy Sword!」

The two of them immediately understood and were surprised.

The Holy Sword became useless because it was deflected by Fenix.

That’s why this time she’s planning to use this tower as her Holy Sword.

The tower floated softly. This is due to gravity reduction.

「…The downward swing of a Holy Sword with the size of a ridiculously large building. I guess I’ll leave this to Fenix since he’s older than me.」

「If nothing is done, Miss Fran and Lem will get sent off the field. Aren’t you supposed to protect them since you are their leader?」

They are still cracking jokes even in this situation.

I’m glad to see that they are on good terms.

「Fenix!」

Finally, I was able to meet up with Fenix and the others.

Fortunately, she was high up in the sky, and it would be difficult for her to see us through the cloud of dust.

「Give me a hand.」

「Yeah, what do you want me to do?」

I said.

「For now, give me your mantle.」

I explained the strategy in a whisper, then we immediately started moving.

I also explained the strategy to Wraith.

「Nice to meet you, Senior Bella.」

「…Yeah.」

「Let’s work together to freeze it and stop that ridiculous Holy Sword.」

「…Yeah.」

「Can you keep up with me? If you can’t, then I’ll match your speed.」

「I can do it. Now that Lem has shown his strength, I also have to show the value of my existence. I have to show that I’m skilled enough to have joined the Fenix Party as his replacement. Besides…」

「Besides?」

Bella said in a monotonous tone.

「I’m a little older than you, so I can support you, Wraith.」

「Aha. That’s nice, well then, I’m counting on you, Bella.」

Fran is standing beside them.

With this, the preparations are complete.

◇

A knight must not be defeated.

Because if a knight is defeated, he cannot protect the people.

Even if the battle is fought by using Avatars, so no one will get hurt, defeat is still a heavy blow.

The audience is also the people. How can I possibly reassure them if I show them the moment when a knight is defeated?

It doesn’t matter whether the opponent is a Human or a Demi-Human.

The Knights Order will defeat any criminal.

I have to show that I’m strong so that I can reassure the people.

The Black Sorcerer Lem.

I have never seen a Black Sorcerer of such caliber before.

It’s to the point that I’m not sure if I can simply call him a Black Sorcerer.

That amount of Magical Energy, I see, he probably did the same training as me, but with Black Magic.

His excessively subtle Magical Energy manipulation is the result of effort and he achieved that efficacy of magic by repeatedly casting magic on himself.

However, I will make him, the Contractors of the Four Great Spirits, and the others get sent off the field with this one attack. 

This is a large-scale attack that causes a lot of damage to the surrounding area, which is uncharacteristic of a knight.

It is an attack that can never be used in the city and its utilization is restricted.

I have to go this far because they are such strong opponents.

And they are not the kind of people who would give up after seeing this.

Did you come just as I expected?

A figure clad in flames approached me after he forcibly separated the cloud of dust.

「The Flame Hero… it seems you have already gathered enough Magical Energy to approach this place.」

He flew straight here.

I’m feeling a sense of discomfort.

What exactly did I unconsciously perceive?

He still didn’t stop even after receiving the gravity amplification.

He still had enough Magical Energy to offset this additional gravity amplification?

He might be someone that is not inferior to Sir Lem…!

「So, it turns out that he’s not Fenix.」

I was late at noticing this fact because of the numerous flames he was clad in, he was also wearing Fenix’s mantle, and I couldn’t clearly see him until he was on the verge of getting out of the cloud of dust.

The real Sir Fenix may be coming, so I have to stay vigilant.

However, I would be grateful if Sir Lem came to where I am directly.

He has tremendous ability as a Black Sorcerer, but he won’t be able to handle close combat since he has no aptitude for it.

He makes up for it with ingenuity, but how far can he handle it in midair, especially when he’s flying by using someone else’s magic?

And his Black Magic.

I will no longer underestimate it.

I will attack him to the best of my ability.

I used Earth Magic to create a sword and temporarily transferred the Spirit’s blessing to it.

The Spirit complained when I requested him to do that, but he quickly did the task.

The giant lump of earth was kept afloat.

It hurts to have my left arm injured, but fortunately, my dominant arm is on the right.

I directly stopped his sword.

Then he cast Black Magic.

He won’t have enough time to break through my Resist. He will probably try to exploit any openings I have.

He will try to aim at the opening where humans tend to unconsciously have a sparse amount of Magical Energy deployed there, the eyes.

「…!」

I felt a huge amount of Magical Energy and defended against it.

Then, when I finally realized that even this was part of his plan, the Holy Sword of Fire was already right before my eyes.

◇

Astrea is wary of me.

If she fails to crush me from a long distance, she will definitely try to defeat me at a short distance.

If she could read through what I’m aiming for, block it, and then swing her Holy Sword at me, it would be over.

In fact, that’s what was supposed to happen.

If it was my Black Magic that struck her in the eyes.

Actually, it wasn’t.

That was…Bella’s Magical Energy.

I was running in order to call out to her in the middle of that battle.

After that, I tried to prevent Astrea from reading through my plan by having Bella take a defensive stance along with Wraith.

Bella was originally proficient at manipulating Magical Energy and her various applications of the ice attribute are also wonderful.

Even if I requested her to manipulate only the Magical Energy, she did it very well.

The Scales of Justice used a considerable amount of Magical Energy to offset the Magical Energy of the Frost Hero.

This time, I struck Black Magic toward her eyes.

In order to seal Astrea’s extremely troublesome way of thinking…I cast Blank on her.

The flames that sent me into the sky went out.

That’s fine.

Concentrate all of your remaining Magical Energy into that one strike.

「Go, Fenix.」

The Hero who lost his mantle, but is still clad in red, swung his burning Holy Sword.