Chapter 20.1
Episode 20 — Red Winged Devil～ Part 1 ～
“Gah…, gu, uu…”
Kogane hit the wall and rolled on the floor as it was. The red winged devil turned his line of sight to Selena.
Selena didn’t falter, she didn’t become afraid and instead stared back at the red winged devil directly from the front.
“That investigation team’s survivor…. It is quite curious that you wandered in here.”
“Wh–who are you? Wh–what purpose do you have for doing this…”
She couldn’t be mistaken. Outside the defensive walls, while going on the reddish wasteland investigation, that devil appeared. The perpetrator who slaughtered magicians and knights in just a few moment and destroyed the investigation team. The strange circ.u.mstances here in this place where there existed heteromorphic beings that possessed both intellect and reason with capabilities of speech beyond that of a beast, for Selena was something incomprehensible.
“You’re going to be in trouble once everyone notices this. We are not alone. There are over 40 heteromorphic beings here in this labyrinth.”
This devil knows something. Selena intuitively realized.
There were over 40 monsters that lived a strange communal life in this labyrinth. Selena knew nothing about them, but even they seemed to not understand themselves well. They didn’t have even half of the knowledge on monsters that Selena knew as a matter of course. It was too unnatural for Kinogasa (Matango), a kind of living mushroom to not know about the hypnotic effects of spores.
The devil in front of them surely knew something about these unnatural circ.u.mstances.
However, whether the devil was friendly to them, that was obviously not the case, looking at what happened to Kogane.
The red winged devil approached slowly.
Given the power of the devil who destroyed the investigation team in just a few moment, Selena’s body would be torn apart in a blink of an eye. With her back pushed against the wall, she shrank herself.
At that time, a silver shadow came running soundlessly and jumped at the red winged devil from his flank.
“GURU~O~OU~!!”
“Muu…!?”
It grazed the devil’s right arm but he forcibly shook it off. The silver shadow danced in the air before landing lightly on the floor with its 4 feet.
Around 2 meters in total length. It was a silver wolf with beautiful silver mane around its neck. It was one of the monsters who lived in this community. Surely Inugami Hibiki. She remembered that it was a girl of werewolf race. However unlike the wolf that Selena knew of, her flowing coat of hair was beautiful enough to remind you of silver moon. Also, as far as Selena knew, beast-kins should not be able to take on such a perfect «beast» form.
The devil muttered.
“People like you b.a.s.t.a.r.d are mixed in. My good mood is spoiled.”
“GUU~U~U~U~U…!”
Inugami was exposing hostility toward the devil. He wondered if she came to help but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“GOAA~A~A~A~AA~!”
Furthermore, a giant ogre who came running down the corridor in order to back up Inugami punched the devil. The devil calmly caught his fist and muttered.
“The reincarnated ogre I heard in the story … doesn’t seem like it. It is a wild individual.”
“GUOOOO~!”
“It seems to be stranger than I thought. I’m looking forward to this.”
Immediately after catching the ogre’s fist, the devil threw the gigantic figure to the floor with all his might.
“Ze–Zeku-san!”
Zeku&
nbsp;quickly stood up and looked at Selena, pointing backward to the corridor. That was the direction of the dining room. He seemed to say to inform Ryuzaki and the others about this situation. Selena looked at Kogane rolling on the floor. As she felt a little hesitant about leaving him, Zeku stood to protect him this time.
Inugami as usual, didn’t seem to care about the situation over here, and repeatedly jumped at the devil. For now, Selena had no choice but to leave this place.
“…I got it. Please!”
Saying so, Selena started running at full speed toward the back of the corridor.
When the meeting finally started to show some cohesion, a roaring shock in the labyrinth echoed to the dining room. The present people exchanged glances.
“What…?”
Ryuzaki let out a puzzled voice. Noises spread throughout the cla.s.s.
Regarding existences that would attack this dungeon, his cla.s.smates had some ideas of their own. Wilderness worms, and the red winged devil, also known as a black knight with flaming wings just like that of a devil. With the enemy’s attack, the tension in the cla.s.s had risen all at once.
“I wonder what…. Is it a worm…”
Rin also spoke a few words.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t seem to be anything good though…”
“E–everyone! I–it’s serious!”
Right after Kyousuke answered, a girl rushed in to the dining room. It was Selena.
“Selena-san, what’s wrong?”
“Th–that! Red, winged! De–devil…”
With her words, noises in the cla.s.s got even bigger. Ryuzaki frowned. Sak.u.ma also anxiously stood up. Even during all this, Akai, while still tinkering with her nails as usual, glanced toward the edge of the dining room, looking for Kyousuke it seemed.
“Ko–Kogane-san has been done in…, now, Inugami-san and Zeku-san…”
“All right. Let’s go immediately.”
Ryuzaki said that and looked over the whole cla.s.s.
“For now, we don’t know what that «Red Winged Devil» is and what their purpose for coming here, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be a friendly existence. So I think we should intercept it, is there any objections?”
With his words, the entire cla.s.s fell silent. It seemed that no students was against it.
“OK. Let’s begin our counter attack. All the exploration members are to go to Inugami and the others’ a.s.sistance. The base staff wait here. Selena-san too, please stay here.”
“Eh, ah…. Y–yes.”
“Asuka, I want you to protect everyone here. Is that fine?”
“Nn. All right.”
Ryuzaki’s instructions were precise. It was hard to imagine he was the same person who had been rotting away in the corner of the dining room with eyes like dead fishes’ just a week ago. As Ryuzaki had said, the powerful combat group such as Sak.u.ma and Kagoi (Gargoyle) jumped out of the dining room, their other cla.s.smates also noisily followed after them.
It might have been quite a good timing for the attack to have happened during the cla.s.s meeting. At least, Ryuzaki’s leaders.h.i.+p was functioning properly. The will of the cla.s.s that had been falling apart was then barely in a state of maintaining unity.
All the exploration members were going to intercept the red winged devil, and in the dining room only a handful of base staff, Akai and Selena were left.
Team · Useless, Kyousuke group waited for the opportunity when every other cla.s.smates had already left, also went out of the dining room.
“Eh, uh, are Utsurogi-san and everyone going?”
Selena raised a surprised voice.
“Well, because everyone else is going…”
“We won’t be unreasonable. Well, thanks~.”
Kyousuke and Rin gently waved their hands while Akira left the dining room without saying anything. However, they headed toward a different direction than their other cla.s.smates.
“It’s not bad for the red winged devil to appear at this timing.”
Akira said after confirming that no one else was listening.
“That’s right~. Even if we reveal our ident.i.ty, nothing would be said in particular.”
“Now that the cla.s.s’ policy has been decided, it would be better for us to show our power rather keeping it hidden.”
“And so, let’s go with Full Cross.”
The words of such an Akira contained a little excitement.
When Kyousuke group went down the stairs leading from the base to the labyrinth area on the 1st underground floor, Gofunkawahara was already there waiting with a black armor and the dismantled Chibisuke. It was as fast as it could possibly go. Truly the skilled man, Gofunkawahara.
“Preparation completed. We’re going with Full Cross, right?”
“Ah, I’m relying on you.”
“Leave it to me.”
Gofunkawahara nodded and connected parts for the wings to Kyousuke. When the connection was over, Rin combined with the body, while Akira combined with the wings, then they put the black armor over it. Wearing armor was to prevent Akira’s flame from directly interfering with Rin’s body, damaging her. Because it was a metal armor, it wasn’t insulated, but that was still a lot better than being roasted directly by flames.
The black knight was completed in a few minutes. As named by Akira, Black Knight · Trinity Full Cross had a.s.sembled. Kyousuke closed and opened both hands to confirm the feeling.
“Ne~e, Utsurogi-kun.”
Rin’s words resounded in the head of the combined Kyousuke.
“What?”
“That red winged devil, what is it really?”
“Well.”
It was probably a question that everyone had, but of course there was no answer.
“The fact that Kogane has been done in and Inugami is fighting means that it is probably hostile, I only know that much. Afterwards it is about destroying Selena-san’s investigation team.”
“It’s strong, isn’t it?”
“There is no mistake there.”
Akira also indicated his consent.
“Her mother seems to be strong enough to destroy an army with one swing of a sword. It’s unknown whether the investigation team has such strong abilities, but the humans of this world may possibly have fighting capabilities to oppose monsters like us in close quarter combat.”
“That investigation team was annihilated, so well, it’s strong.”
Abilities, purpose, everything was unknown. However it was the same with the Wight King and wilderness worms. If it bore its fangs toward their cla.s.s, then they had to fight.
“Gofunkawahara, thanks for your help. I’m going ahead.”
“It’s fine. Well, I’m tidying up quickly.”
Gofunkawahara waved his hand, the black knight (Full Cross) lightly waved back and turned to the front. Then he kicked the floor, with six flaming wings acting as boosters, his body rapidly accelerated.