Chapter 97 - Ambush

Two men were watching the village from a distance.

"So that place is Hestia village."

"Yeah."

"Can it really change this much in just a few months?"

The large man expressed his surprise.

The far east, where no one dares to set foot.

Seeing a proper village being built on that land, especially so close to the border, brought about a renewed sense of emotion.

"Didn't they say just a few years ago that it was impossible for a new village to take root on this land?"

"It is impossible. That's how poor the perception of the far east is."

"How is that even possible?"

"You can only say he has great resourcefulness. With the full support of the Pascal trading company, the declaration of an alliance from Iorga's side, and the southern Halim region joining in, isn't it as if he has performed alchemy?"

"Alchemy... Well, since it's a place where money gathers, calling it alchemy is not an exaggeration."

Transforming such a barren wasteland into a place overflowing with gold was beyond surprising.

"And all of it was accomplished under the name of Ferda Valdrova."

"He is a dangerous figure. If he continues to expand his power like this, it will become a problem for our plan."

"Hmm..."

The man silently looked down.

The large man, who was watching his back, suggested.

"How about we reveal ourselves even now?"

"No. That doesn't fit our plan."

He gave a sharp answer with cold judgment.

"From the start, what we need is Valdrova's isolation. What would happen if we step forward openly and destroy Hestia village?"

"Wouldn't they lose their unifying force?"

"No, they would unite. Just like during the Dragon-Demon War."

The Dragon-Demon War.

Hearing those words, the other man's excitement also subsided.

For Demons, there is no event as humiliating as that one.

"To humans, a cause is a terrifying thing. Humans have gathered under the name of eradicating evil before. Even now, when only remnants remain, they are in the midst of trying to eradicate us as well."

"Right."

"So we must leave them be. So that their descendants lose their vigilance against Demons."

The man muttered as if reciting poetry.

"What rusts a sword is peace, what makes a castle wall old is peace, and what dulls a human is also peace."

The large man also agreed with that plan.

However, unable to do anything about the anxiety settling in his chest, he ended up throwing a question at him.

"Still, wouldn't their power grow if we leave them be?"

"Of course. That is also something we cannot overlook."

Ruining things now would ruin the bigger picture, but staying hidden like this would only add strength to their unifying force.

Everything began with Ferda Valdrova accepting the engagement.

"So it wouldn't be a bad idea to throw a few seeds, would it?"

The man revealed the fingers hidden inside his robe.

His fingers were extremely thin and white.

Those fingers drew a vertical line in the air.

Then, a rift shimmering with various colors opened in front of him.

What revealed itself from within was a wolf.

Grrrrr...

No, they were demonic creatures in the shape of wolves.

They slowly came out of the rift one by one and stood in a line.

They all had eyes that had lost their reason, but they were obedient.

They waited like puppies serving the man in the robe as their master.

The man commanded in a polite tone.

"Please sweep them away."

Bark! Bark!

As soon as they heard the man's command, the demonic creatures dashed out.

These beings, filled solely with the malice to destroy, ran toward Hestia village.

* * *

"Wartime situation! Assemble all troops and inform the adventurers! I repeat. It is a wartime situation! All officials are to evacuate the residents, and soldiers capable of fighting are to gather!"

Isabella, who held authority as the commander in emergencies, shouted.

"What is the number approaching?"

"It's 15 of them."

"15 of them..."

Isabella was busy sending sound transmissions for the assembly.

In the midst of that, Erica kept her mouth shut and looked down at the floor.

'It's strange.'

She stepped back a bit to look at the situation from a broader perspective.

'A sudden appearance of demonic creatures. And 15 of them, at that.'

The recent incidents and situations.

And, though it might be somewhat far-fetched, she didn't hesitate to make leaps in logic as she searched for the most fitting answer to this situation.

'Perhaps...'

Erica looked at Isabella and spoke.

"Bella! You'll be fine without me, right?"

"Are you not going to participate in the battle?"

"There has to be a mastermind behind this invasion of demonic creatures. I intend to find that mastermind."

Five sound transmissions were constantly piercing into Isabella's ears.

She scowled heavily and answered with a fierce glare.

"The children of the great Iorga are watching your back. Please do not worry."

"Thank you."

Erica calmly grasped the situation and cast a magic circle.

Unlike ordinary humans who drew a single magic circle, five circles were revolving around her.

That was the latent power of Erica, the renowned master of the Blue Eye Tower and the leader of the Blue Dragon spawns.

Multi-casting.

She could chant two magic spells at once and prepare five magic spells.

Erica manifested the first magic circle.

"Go, and become my eyes."

The mana condensed in the magic circle scattered in all directions as dozens of blue sparrows.

Imbued with motion detection magic and mana detection, they tracked down anyone exhibiting suspicious behavior.

Befitting her title as the Blue Eye that monitors all magic, there was no one who could escape that pursuit.

The sparrows, which had spread past the village to the dense forest in an instant, caught something in their eyes.

"Found you."

Erica immediately cast one of her prepared magic circles on the ground.

It was a teleportation magic spell.

She set the coordinates in an instant and dropped down above the blue sparrow that had triggered the detection magic.

What had only been visible as a form of mana began to appear clearly to the naked eye.

Erica did not hesitate at all.

Because she had decided to treat those who unleashed demonic creatures as Demons without exception.

She immediately unleashed the prepared magic circle toward the visible target.

"Bending Time."

A high-level magic spell that made time at a designated point infinitely slow.

For a mage of Erica's caliber, it was even possible to stop time completely.

Everything affected by that magic stopped right there.

What remained were two magic spells.

By fusing those two magic circles, a new form of geometry was created.

That bizarre magic was something only Erica could wield.

Elemental Demolition.

It was a destructive and barbaric magic spell that utilized the repulsive force between two conflicting elements to blow away everything in the area.

It was destructive to the point of seeming excessive, but Erica didn't mind at all.

It was not lacking for the Demons who once tried to conquer the continent, showing her resolve to leave no leeway for their remnants.

However, the sixth sense of Erica, who was preparing the magic, sharpened.

The developed five senses of a dragon spawn.

Among them, there was something in her field of vision that reacted sensitively.

'Impossible.'

Time was literally stopped.

If it was within the range, nothing there should be able to move.

However, she did not blindly trust her own rational judgment.

That was the correct answer.

From within the space where time should not have been flowing due to Bending Time, something came flying in this direction.

A large, black object with a ferocious face reached out a hand the size of a cauldron lid.

As soon as Erica saw that hand, she had a gut feeling.

The moment she was caught by that hand, she would die helplessly.

The ferocious hand grabbed her leg.

No, what it grabbed was the spot where an afterimage remained.

She had already escaped that danger with a teleportation magic spell.

Erica landed on the ground and corrected her posture.

Rather than thinking about preparing a magic circle, analyzing what had just happened came first.

'Was the time-stopping magic neutralized?'

The trembling of the leaves and the crawling bugs were all stopped there, having lost their color.

The magic was still in effect.

But there was only one thing moving within that space.

The man wearing the gray robe.

Only that man was ignoring everything and looking at Erica.

'How is that possible?'

To thwart Bending Time, it was standard to cast a resistance magic spell.

But even up until the moment it activated, there was no resistance.

Everything had stopped and was in a defenseless state.

Because of that, Erica had tried to land a decisive blow.

How could he move alone within a stopped space?

"You seem quite surprised."

The man's real voice rang clearly in her ears.

"Even though you, a descendant of the great Iorga and the wisdom of the 12-member expedition, are not facing Demons for the first time."

The man's voice sounded mocking.

Erica gathered her wits and showed a resolute demeanor.

"I know, right. I'm surprised that there is still something to surprise me."

"That is good news. It means we haven't regressed."

A moment later, the large man who had flown up into the sky landed on the ground.

THUD!

The tremor in the ground was as deep as his heavy mass.

The man stood behind the robed man while kneeling.

The robed man asked him without looking back.

"Did you fail to catch her off guard?"

"Her situational judgment was faster than I thought."

"Isn't that obvious? Our opponent is one of the 12-member expedition and the master of the Blue Eye Tower anyway; it would be stranger if she were defeated helplessly."

The eyes of the man hidden in the robe were briefly visible.

The black pupils shining like obsidian and the red irises.

The composure and contempt contained within them provoked Erica's deep anger.

'I should kill them all...'

Contrary to her feelings, reality was not so easy.

The price of failing while casting a high-tier magic spell was too great.

Due to the mana backlash, she hadn't merely lost mana; the mana inside Erica's body had been completely scattered.

'It can't be helped.'

She would put aside human magic for a moment.

Erica carefully moved her hand behind her back.

The canteen fastened to her belt.

It was to open the mouthpiece of the canteen.

POP!

As soon as the mouthpiece opened, the contents inside swam along her fingers.

The full water formed a ring that wrapped around her.

One of the large man's eyebrows shot up.

"What's with the ring of water?"

"Iorga is the Aspect of Water as well as magic."

"Hmph, what could you possibly do with mere water?"

As the large man scoffed, Erica thrust her hand forward.

A portion of the water ring turned into a water droplet and floated above Erica's hand.

"I can do something like this."

At the same time she flicked her finger, the water droplet became a bullet and flew in a straight line.

The large man reached his hand forward to block the water bullet.

"Ugh?!"

The pressurized water bullet cleanly pierced through, even boring into his heart.

"Keugh!"

It pierced through his chest and then his back, flying in to even pierce the young man standing behind him.

However, it failed to pierce the mana barrier wrapped around his body and bounced off.

"Kugh... What the hell is that? To think a mere water droplet..."

"Didn't I tell you? Iorga is the Aspect of Water and Magic. Let alone that this is magic wielded by their leader, it's natural that it pierces your skin."

"You should've told me that sooner."

"Didn't you prefer to feel things for yourself?"

The large man's face could not hide his surprise.

However, the one who was even more surprised was Erica, who saw the two of them calmly having a conversation.

'I shot that with the intention of killing both of them...'

Her water droplet boasted lethal power.

When it pierced his heart, he should have been twisted by the rotational force and water pressure and blown to pieces.

Furthermore, even for a Demon whose body was several times stronger than a human's, a fatal wound was unavoidable.

However, the Demon who had been pierced treated it like a minor injury, as if he had just been pricked by something, and jumped right back up.

'On top of that, it didn't even pierce the Demon behind him.'

That was the level of the mana barrier simply wrapped around his body.

'To think they're at this level even as Demon remnants.'

At least Noblesse-class.

And a Noblesse-class that is close to Emperor-class at that.

Now that both Bending Time and Elemental Demolition had failed, there was nothing more she could call a viable method.

'I have no choice but to retreat for now and come back prepared.'

She cast a teleportation magic circle.

The magic circle manifested and wrapped around Erica's body.

However, her body did not teleport.

"Cough!"

Instead, blood spurted and poured from her mouth.

She staggered in pain, coughing up blood without knowing why.

'It feels like my internal organs... are twisted.'

She knew what that side effect was.

It was a phenomenon that occurred when casting an imperfect teleportation magic spell.

'I manifested the magic circle incorrectly?'

That was impossible.

Erica had lived for over a thousand years and had used teleportation magic hundreds of thousands of times alone.

Erica had mastered it to the point where she could draw a teleportation magic circle in her sleep and transport herself somewhere.

'If that's the case, it means that man used some trick.'

She had fallen for it like a fool.

Erica glared at the man with a resentful expression.

"Did you think you could leave as easily as you came in?"

A deep smile could be felt in his voice.

Whether to act enraged or apathetic, she had to do something, but she could only lean forward and let out groans.

"Since the Tower Master gave me such a passionate greeting, I suppose I should return the favor."

He raised his finger from inside his robe.

His hand was not black, but pure white.

That finger pointed forward and drew a vertical line.

A rift of various colors appeared and spat out its contents.

Krrk.

Krrk.

They were demonic creatures modeled after wyvern monsters.

They flapped their wings and rose into the air.

Their numbers exceeded twenty at a conservative estimate.

An infinitely despairing situation for the cornered Erica.

The man's finger pointed at Erica.

"Please end her life."

SCREECH!

The wyverns all flew toward Erica at once.

It was then.

A heavy gust of wind swept toward them.

An object large enough to block Erica's field of vision became a barrier.

The wyvern demonic creatures that had flown in died from a single blow.

THUD!

Dirt and dust soared into the air as they were smashed into the ground.

Erica opened her eyes and looked at the object.

It was an axe.

A battle axe with a blade so large it looked as if a giant would use it.

Erica knew the owner of that axe.

A petite stature that contrasted with her wielding of the ferocious axe.

However, a silver-haired girl with martial arts skills exceptional enough to hold the title 'Nightmare of the Frost Giants'.

"Hello, Lady Erica."

It was Luri Silverwind.

"I heard you visited the territory, so I came rushing over to see you, but was my interference unnecessary?"

Erica wiped the blood from her mouth with her index finger.

"I have shown a disgraceful sight to Valdrova's maidservant."

"It doesn't matter to me. But from now on, it would be better for you to tidy yourself up a bit."

There was no need to express deep questioning toward Luri's words.

Because she soon felt the presence of someone walking over to this place.

A pitch-black suit, gray hair, and blue eyes.

He was tall, but his slender figure caught the eye at a glance.

Yet no one could think of him as weak.

Since his eyes were directed at the enemy without the slightest waver, it was as if he were backed by the force of a massive army.

Ferda Valdrova.

He stood next to Erica with an imposing and majestic presence.