novelStory 4-8: 『Twin Guards』
| ← Ch.71 | Ch.73 → |
Story 4-8: 『Twin Guards』
By the three of us searching at high speeds, Leadred, Lily, and I reached the place underground where Messiah was.
Now that we've confirmed the presence of the person who rules over all demons, we were introduced to the two who went down to their knees a moment ago.
"I am the guardian of this place, Kayber. It's good to meet you, General." (Kayber)
"I am the second apostle of the dragonmen tribe, Ninya. I am called so in this world. Pleased to meet you, My Lord." (Ninya)
"Y-yeah..." (Daichi)
In their hands, Kei Bell carried a spear and Ninya a partisan.
Although his appearance was close to a human's, there was a line of scales on his cheek, and his ears were long. He had a short tail, too.
His first impression was like an energetic youth.
Ninya wore black open-finger gloves and an eye patch on her right eye.
They looked like brother and sister... but, there's no doubt about it, this kid has chuunibyou disease.
"... Is something wrong, My Lord? You are staring at me." (Ninya)
"N-no... I just thought your clothes looked cool." (Daichi)
"I pledge my lifelong allegiance!!" (Ninya)
Seizing my hand, Ninya shook it up at down. Since her tail was swaying left and right she was probably happy to be praised.
Because I'm a person who walked on the same road, I understood her feelings.
"You're liked a lot, Hero-sama." (Lily)
"Fuu... she's a comrade in tastes. Saying something like that was obvious." (Daichi)
"Looord...!" (Ninya)
Watching me talk with conviction, Ninya looked at me with starry eyes.
P-please stop it! Looks of reverence only pry open old injuries!
I looked towards Kei Bell and started talking with him to avert my eyes from her face.
"K-Kayber. Although rushing is bad, how should we undo the seal on Messiah? Please tell me." (Daichi)
"General. Messiah-sama isn't sealed. She's just sleeping." (Kayber)
"Sleeping...? How is that any different?" (Daichi)
"It's—"(Kayber)
"Messiah-sama is storing up magic. Since she ran out." (Ninya)
As Kayber tried to say that, Ninya stole the chance from right beside him. He slumped forward, feeling down.
"Messiah-sama used up all of the magic she had saved for the final showdown against Terias in the Human-Demon War—"(Ninya)
"Part of her magic was to summon General, in short to mount a counterattack, which is why Messiah-sama's magic is exhausted." (Kayber)
This time, Kayber retaliated with an interrupt. Ninya furrowed her brow.
... I see, these two are birds of the same feather huh?
"Yeah... even though those guys look like that they're close friends, so don't mind them. So Messiah is accumulating her magic. Do you know of crystal stone?" (Lily)
"The stone you can store magic into?" (Daichi)
The crystal that could store large amounts of magic that Yuina used to defeat Lily in the【Scorching Execution Ground】. For us humans, the quantity stored inside was incredibly dangerous, but it's probably just an insignificant amount for a god like her.
"That's right. As for this black crystal, Messiah asked Fantra to make it. She probably predicted that this would happen." (Lily)
Lily gave her point of view while staring at the girl inside the crystal whose eyes were closed.
"However, she is unable to move during it no matter what. That is why those guardians have protected her." (Lily)
"... Wait a sec. Wasn't Garfunkel attending to Messiah all the way to the end?" (Daichi)
When I asked about the difference in information from what I remembered, the two people who were quarreling told me the correct information.
"That's our dad, General." (Kayber)
"Garfunkel left the ordeal of protecting her to us when he died of old age." (Ninya)
"Then you two are his kids huh...? Who's the mother?" (Daichi)
"Dad regularly kidnapped humans!" (Kayber)
"Apostles born from humans and demons. We're the proof." (Ninya)
"Haah... So that's why you look more like humans than demons huh...?" (Daichi)
"That's right... Well then, what good does standing around talking do? Hero-sama's probably grasped these two's personalities." (Lily)
Winking at me, Lily changed the subject.
Most likely, that mean that it's not worth my time. Since it's true we have a busy schedule, I decided to go along with her.
"Yeah, no problem." (Daichi)
If anything, I'm more worried about their strength... though they are the children of a Six Demon General. Worrying about it might be useless.
"Then, I'll bring up the main subject. Do you two know what kind of situation is happening on the surface right now?" (Lily)
"It seems quite dicey. We've been going around on inspections, but we had to fight against many a believer. Of course, cutting to the chase, we dealt with them." (Kayber)
Proudly saying that, Kayber stuck out his chest. He beat the ground with the bottom of his spear.
As expected, these two had the strength befitting of being called guardians. There were no problems thinking about their war potential. Having said that, it would be bad to leave this place empty. The reality is that we don't know what will happen.
... Then we'll have them be relief for the surface members.
"... Kayber, Ninya. You two wait here. I will call for you later." (Daichi)
"Roger, My Lord!" (Ninya)
"As you say, General!" (Kayber)
The two had no objections and accepted my proposal.
I was able to confirm Messiah's circumstances.
I wonder what I should do from now on.
"... Alright. Then, we'll also head to the surface at once. We will rejoin with Shuri's group and recapture our home!" (Daichi)
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
"Good shot!!" (Tamaki)
"Uwaaaaaah!!"
I threw the Claria's Religion follower whose arm was frozen and was unable to move. Before it landed, Yuuma pulled his fist back and waited.
"Sei-!" (Yuuma)
The force of the hit sunk into the believer's cheek, a clean hit. The body hit the try and fell down.
"Then, I'll go next-!" (Tamaki)
"Hii-!?"
I froze a believer behind me so they couldn't escape. Foreseeing their miserable end, the believer grew frightened; though that was of no concern to me.
Seizing their feet, they were thrown the same way as a moment ago.
"Eiyah-!" (Tamaki)
"Ogoo!?"
"Oooh, Home Run!" (Tamaki)
Throwing the new believer (ball), I pretended to look high into the sky.
Getting tired of seeing everyone do the same thing repeatedly, Shuri-chan has recently been trampling on believers to vent some stress.
"Wind Slice!" (Shuri)
"Ebu-!"
Fired from point blank, the wind blade cut through the believer's chest. Killing things at a ratio of one hit per kill.
"Emperor of the Wind! Cut through those who oppose my rule of right! The rule of the royalty that spew forth storms! Form upon! Turn everything to dust, and return them to the earth! Berserk Tempest!!" (Shuri)
This is the end. The bodies of the large amount of men and women who tried to surround her were cut to pieces by the raging wind and dropped dead.
"Nanamin! Recovery!" (Tamaki)
"Kay~" (Nanami)
Furthermore, even if we use Emperor-class magic, Nanamin could restore our magic with her special ability, Smile of the Goddess.
As you would expect of the Murdering Demon.
Looking the other way, it was pretty quiet. If Shuri-chan's style was like a steamroller, Arianne-san and Selen-san fought like skilled adventurers.
"Selen!" (Arianne)
"... Roger." (Selen)
That's all. With that alone, the two people displayed perfect combination.
"Hayah-!" (Arianne)
Going first, Arianne-san kicked upwards. At that moment, Selen stabbed a knife into the top of the believer's foot from below his line of sight.
"Ee-!?"
Now he concentrated on the ground, loosening his attention towards above.
"You're defenseless!" (Arianne)
Therefore, she easily gave him a strong axe kick. Furthermore, she rolled the man that was slouching forward and threw a dagger.
"You noticed-!?"
It stuck into another believer that was hiding their approach. Immediately rushing up to him, she pulled out her dagger and slashed his carotid artery.
"M-merciless..." (Selen)
"Of course. Since we are now on Katsuragi-sama's side!" (Arianne)
"... A straight line to rich people." (Selen)
"Honestly, you two!" (Yuuma)
Yuuma-san was probably also enjoying himself.
I threw three more believers towards him in rapid fire, which he then punched with his fist.
"... Ah, that was the end huh." (Tamaki)
When I went to replenish the amount of balls again, there was no one there anymore.
The cleaning up was over.
"I'm done over here!" (Shuri)
"We're also finished here!" (Arianne)
In other words, the three voices meant we had succeeded in recapturing our home.
"Hah... I'm worn out..." (Tamaki)
I sat down in place. Everyone else also seemed to take a break.
"Good job." (Miare)
"Good job everyone." (Fuuko)
Almost simultaneously, Miare and Fuuko who were keeping company with the opponents in the house came out with drink trays.
"Good job to you too. You were okay with two people?" (Tamaki)
"Yeah. Miare-san took care of most of them." (Fuuko)
"I just disguised myself as one of them, then took them by surprise? Something like that." (Miare)
In a flash, she suddenly turned into a Claria believer, and right after turned back into Miare.
I see... I couldn't tell the difference at all. If it's like that you could fool your partner's too huh.
"Though, we have to clean up later... it's very messy inside." (Fuuko)
"We couldn't do anything about it. It's good just being able to secure a place to rest." (Miare)
"That's right, Miare-san. Ah, I'll give these to everyone." (Fuuko)
Cutting off the conversation, Fuuko walked over to Shuri-chan's group. Miare followed after her.
Pouring water from the clear glass, I also took a gulp. A cool feeling passed through my throat, permeating through my sweaty body.
"... About this time, Daichi should be meeting..." (Tamaki)
While thinking of him, I muttered and looked up into the blue sky.
Then, Nanamin looked at me from above, interrupting the view.
"Yui-chan~, good work." (Nanami)
"Yeah, you too." (Tamaki)
Celebrating success with Nanamin, she sat down next to me and we lightly hit our glasses together.
"Cheers!" (Nanami)
"Even if you say that, I don't have any left huh. I drank it all since I was tired." (Tamaki)
"Can't be helped. Since it was Yui-chan doing the work, I only healed people." (Nanami)
"No, it's nothing like that. If Nanamin weren't here, Shuri-chan would have had a rough time... It's really strong, your『Special Ability』. It can restore both stamina and magic?" (Tamaki)
When I asked that, Nanamin turned to smile at me.
However, it was different from normal.
Rather than smiling at me, it was like she was smiling at someone far away.
"That's right. It can save everyone, it was wasted on me... And—"(Nanami)
"Wai-, Nanamin? You're acting strange." (Tamaki)
"—Terias-sama gave it to me, my only treasure." (Nanami)
It sounded muddy, a dull voice.
At the same time I sensed a dangerous feeling from my close friend, I heard Selen-san scream.
| ← Ch. 71 | Ch. 73 → |