Chapter 271. Kahar (5)
In under 20 minutes, Lotte really brought a giant wyvern. Ellos got frightened out of his mind when he saw the wyvern and refused to ride it, but as he said before, he was jumping into a dragon’s mouth. How could he give up now?
Suppressed completely by Lotte’s league, the wyvern obeyed her words absolutely. Even when Ellos got on, it was looking at Lotte. For the record, it seemed Lotte was okay with other women riding her as she let Licorice get on.
“Let’s go then.”
“Friend, I’m beginning to regret this.”
“Don’t worry, everyone says that at first.”
One large and one small, two wyverns flew up into the sky, drawing attention from many in the palace. I ignored their gazes and souted.
“Let’s go!”
[Grrrrruaaaa!]
Lotte flapped her wings with a spirited roar. Ellos seemed to have given up, as he also entrusted his body to his wyvern. In an instant, we left the palace and was soaring through the sky. There was nothing that could block our path.
“At this speed, we’ll enter their territory in ten minutes!”
“Got it!”
“Dear Husband, here.”
Entering the invaders’ territory meant that the dungeon’s inventory and messaging system would become unusable. I already told the guild members that I wouldn’t be able to contact them, so all I had to do was take out the items I needed from the inventory.
Licorice, who was taking this opportunity to hug me tightly, peeked her head over my shoulder and gave me a silk pouch.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the inventory subst.i.tute Dear Husband talked about. I’m good at s.p.a.ce magic, you know.”
“So this is…?”
“Yep. It should be able to hold about a thousand potions.”
“Great. Thanks, Licorice.”
A pouch this size was also easy to carry around. I happily took the pouch and began to move items from the inventory. At that moment, Licorice, who was watching me fixedly, asked.
“Dear Husband, will we be fine on our own?”
“Yep.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“… Okay, I trust Dear Husband.”
Licorice then went back to hugging my back. I was fairly used to it by now, but it was impossible to resist Licorice’s natural fragrance. My heart was beating faster.
“This is nice. I wish I can stay like this without having to do anything.”
“You’ll be able to, one day.”
I moved the remaining two Elixirs from my inventory and murmured.
“It won’t be long.”
Soon, I could feel that we had entered the invaders’ territory. My strength fell slightly, and I couldn’t open my inventory when I tried. Thanks to Lin’s bracelet, I didn’t feel too weak. It was really a supreme treasure. No, it was part of my body now.
“Shin, are you okay!?”
“I’m fine!”
Ellos shouted with his voice still shaking, and I replied nonchalantly. If Ellos was fine, everyone else would be fine too.
“We’ll pa.s.s over their castle soon!”
“Then we’ll have to prepare a gift.”
Along with my words, Licorice immediately began to chant. I also summoned two elementals and put them on standby. I looked down on the land from Lotte’s back. According to Ellos, the invaders were humans who called themselves invaders.
Because of their appearances which were identical to Edias continent’s inhabitants’, no one believed they were invaders when they first revealed themselves. Apparently, everyone thought they were from foreign lands. But when more and more invaders revealed themselves in battles against Edias continent’s people, and invaders who had infiltrated the continent made great achievements politically, people finally caught on. When Edias continent’s people found out, several countries had already had their societal values flipped by the invaders. Their methods were truly worthy of the name ‘invader’.
The invaders were specialized in magic, and many apparently wielded powerful magical tools. This was also the reason we didn’t fly too high. Each castle apparently had huge magical tools that shot down flying ent.i.ties above a certain alt.i.tude. They were more or less identical to antiaircraft missiles.
“They’re coming!”
The first thing I sensed was cannons installed on the castle’s walls. Even though no one was operating them, over two hundred cannons all turned towards us and shot magic bullets. They were weaker than antiaircraft missiles, but they were more than enough to turn a city into a beehive.
[Eit!]
Before anyone else did anything, Ruyue made a cute shout and spread her arms out. A giant transparent ice barrier appeared under us and easily blocked all the magic bullets. The ice barrier then shattered and fell. No, Ruyue had done it on purpose.
[Crush them!]
Ruyue’s voice strengthened the falling ice shards, and they ravaged the castle walls like a storm. The ice storm continued until about half of the cannons were broken or buried. At the same time, a loud siren rang out. Just when I was wondering whether they were having a defense training, thousands of people suddenly shot up from the castle.
“Enemies!”
“What squad are they from?”
“It doesn’t matter. Leave one alive and kill the rest of them!”
“They’re only two of them…?”
They really didn’t look that different than Paul, Ellos, or the soldiers and knights I’ve seen. I hesitated for a split second, but soon realized that they were all wearing something.
It looked like blown-up muscles, and artificial mana circuits ran around them. If I didn’t recognize them, I would bring shame to the Power Basilisk that gave me my Evil Eyes. Right, what they were wearing were powered suits. Plus, I could feel a strong scent of mana from their bodies. There were this many powerful people in a single castle… I wondered how people of Edias continent survived until now.
“Ruyue, just kill them all.”
Of course, since they were aiming for our lives, I couldn’t be merciful.
[I can kill them?]
“Yep.”
[It’ll be hard in this form, so I’ll materialize!]
Ruyue spun in a circle and materialized into a mature beastgirl form. The enemies looked surprised, but they soon shot magic attacks towards us.
“Shin, their mana is different than ours! They can absorb our mana and a.n.a.lyze them, and grow resistant to our attacks!”
“What, are those guys Book Walkers’ descendants?”
All the invaders I met in foreign worlds had strange abilities. Dealing with Earth’s two worlds’ enemies was annoying, but it seemed other worlds didn’t have it much better.
“Ellos, they can’t share the mana they collected with each other, right?”
“Uh, no, nothing like that.”
“Ruyue, you heard that, right?”
[Un!]
“I’ll go first!”
Before the enemies’ attacks reached Ruyue, Licorice shot the magic she had prepared. Huge flames erupted and ravaged the invaders’ front lines.
“Kuaaaaak!”
“They have a powerful magician!”
“d.a.m.n it, such a large mana in just an instant!”
“Counterattack!”
In truth, she just had it prepared.
Following Licorice, Ruyue reached out with her hand and blocked all the magic attacks.
[I don’t like their magic power. It’s not pure.]
“It must be their racial trait. Wipe them!”
As if she was waiting for these words, Ruyue kicked off the air. From her hands, white large ice claws rose up and glistened against the sunlight threateningly. The enemies seemed to have expected Ruyue to close range fight, as they fluidly changed their formation. Ones wearing full-body powered suits then came up front.
“They’re advance guards of the continent’s allied force! Don’t let them enter the castle! Kill them here!”
“Come at me, little gi…!”
Ruyue’s claws quickly decapitated them.
“Strong!”
“d.a.m.n it, call for reinforcements!”
If reinforcements came, it would become more annoying. I held up my crossbow and sniped the ones who left formation to call for reinforcements. With the power of Lightning G.o.d, each crossbow bolt pierced the enemies as miniature lightning bolts. My crossbow, Perfecter Hunter, could consecutively shoot hundreds of bolts. After killing the one who left to call reinforcements, I began to snipe the supporting troops in the back. Because of how much they resembled humans, I couldn’t help the ill-feeling I got whenever I killed one.
I murmured shortly.
“At least I’m getting used to it.”
“You can use crossbows too?”
“Just as a spare.”
“A spare? With this destructive power…?”
Ellos murmured with a dumbfounded face. All the while, the number of invaders was decreasing. The bodies of the deceased fell from the sky and into the castle. These men probably had families and friends to protect too.
However, co-existence was impossible. We had to kill them, and they had to kill us. The only thing we needed from them was knowing their combat capabilities and weaknesses.
Even so, it felt like I was the one invading them. With how easy this fight was, I wasn’t gaining anything from it either. I was only wasting time and feeling uncomfortable. I shouldn’t have listened to Ellos and gotten scared of these antiaircraft missiles.
“Let’s just raise our alt.i.tude. We don’t have time to waste like this.”
“But their magical tool is frightening. No matter how high we fly, it’ll reach us.”
“We can just outspeed it. Even if we can’t, there are other ways to block it. Licorice, help us clean this place up.”
“Got it.”
The magic Licorice prepared wasn’t just the flame magic. When she reached out with her hands, strangely white clouds rose up from her arms and swept over the enemies. Soon, they trapped everyone in the area, including Ruyue. Ruyue then released freezing energy at full power.
[Die!]
In an instant, the clouds froze with cracking sounds. Ruyue then dematerialized and left the clouds. The giant ice lost its ability to float and began to fall. Licorice smiled proudly.
“Now that’s an excellent attack. How is it, Dear Husband?”
“Amazing.”
I made a wry smile and patted Licorice. Ellos asked a question with a blank expression.
“You.. Just what have you been doing until now?”
“Not much, just fighting monsters and evil villains… I also visited other worlds a few times.”
Of course, I didn’t tell him I defeated worlds’ enemies three times. It was Lin who killed one of them, and the other two barely counted as worlds’ enemies. In truth, they were more like the world’s enemy’s underlings. What I told Ellos was more than enough. I could see his eyes shaking severely.
“Really… You…”
“Let’s go, Ellos. From now, we’re going higher and speeding up. Let’s reach Peruta Mountain Range in a day!”
I cut him off and shouted.
If I let him finish, I felt like it would make me unhappy.