Chapter 48

The first thing Turan thought of when he saw the dwarves in person was a mole. Their half-crushed eyes attested to their blindness, their pointed noses and front teeth jutted out, and thick hair covered their stocky, muscular bodies.

The ugly creatures pouring out on every side aimed the menacing magic tools he had seen in the earlier illusion at Arabion's army and shouted. Though, judging by the lack of mana in his Holy Relic's senses, they did not seem to be actual magic tools.

"Deemuns! Kill 'em!"

["Kill 'eeeeem!"]

Their characteristically slurred cries were accompanied by a hiss of escaping air, and countless metal fragments swept toward Arabion's army. Unlike the previous attack, which had caught them utterly unawares, they now knew what those weapons meant. Each raised a defensive magic tool to shield themselves or ducked into cover.

"Agh!"

"Are you all right?"

"It won't kill me!"

Only three or four had died, with roughly twice that number wounded. At the head of the column, Turan activated his guardian magic tool and took five or six metal fragments, gauging their power.

'At this strength... taking one without protection would hurt quite a bit.'

A blow deserved a blow in return. This time, Arabion's army counterattacked with magic. First came a white flash from both of Maysa's hands at the front, engulfing the dwarves.

["Kyaaaaaagh!"]

"Deemun! Deemun!"

Only those at the edges of the spell's range screamed. The dwarves in its center had already burned to death without so much as a squeak. Considering that most knights' magic could not even harm their bodies, that gave some indication of the immense mana behind the lightning. Had she weakened it and spread it farther, perhaps she could have swept away thousands of ordinary humans in a single blow.

The Arabion nobles followed, along with nobles of other bloodlines, each attacking the dwarves with powers suited to their abilities.

"Kill them all!"

"Filthy mole bastards!"

Fire, lightning, light, spikes of ice, and boulders rained in every direction, crossing the unceasing hail of metal fragments.

The Dark Elves, the very reason Arabion's army had come here, joined the battle as well. One Dark Elf man stood tall and lanky above his kin. Judging by the silver crown on his brow, he appeared to be the self-proclaimed Wraith King.

"It's the Wraith King!"

"Lady Maysa!"

As if answering the shout, Maysa immediately hurled lightning at the Wraith King, but a dozen or so wraiths appeared before him and took the blow, their entire bodies burning. He then released beast- and human-shaped wraiths one after another to swarm Maysa. Their numbers and power were on an entirely different level from those of the wraith sorcerer Turan had fought before.

The other wraith sorcerers likewise summoned their wraiths and sent them charging at the human army. Perhaps because most had been born from Arabion's wizards, all the human-shaped wraiths were wreathed in lightning and wind.

[Kiiill... yooou!]

"Stop them!"

As the wraiths threw themselves at the nobles a dozen or so at a time, their eerie voices echoing, the knights blocked their path to buy time. Amid the confusion of the two sides clashing, Turan used his Holy Relic's senses to pinpoint the wraith sorcerers.

'First target... that one.'

After several rotations to build up sufficient mana, his stone cut across the battlefield and struck a wraith sorcerer squarely in the head. Like the sorcerer Turan had fought before, this one had wrapped himself in a wraith. Unlike before, however, Turan's stone pierced it with ease and shattered his head in an instant. The difference lay in the amount of mana behind it.

Protected by the knights, Turan smoothly smashed a second head, then a third, before reaching into his High-Capacity Pouch for another stone. He had packed it with stones shaped into eggs using earth-alteration magic, so he was unlikely to suffer a shortage again.

[Rooooar!]

Just then, three beast-shaped wraiths sprang at him from the side. Had someone noticed his repeated sniping? Turan immediately accelerated his thoughts and drove his sword into the head of the bear-like one.

[Graaagh!]

Although physical attacks were not particularly effective against wraiths, it writhed and rolled across the ground as though in agony. He could see the stabbed wraith's mana structure collapsing.

Given enough time, he would have liked to satisfy his curiosity about how this was possible. In the midst of battle, however, he simply conjured fire and reduced it to ash. Then he hurled another stone at the sorcerer who had sent them, smashing his head.

"Diiiiie!"

Before he could catch his breath after another kill, the dwarves who had been firing magic tools from afar rushed him. There were seven in all. Smaller than humans and grotesquely shaped, they charged with a speed at odds with their ponderous-looking bodies, swinging spears. More precisely, they were the metal-firing magic tools with blades attached.

"Gack!"

An ordinary noble would have retreated and cast spells from behind a shield of knights. Turan, however, had a well-trained body, powerful mana, and combat skills. He nimbly dodged the first attack and crushed the dwarf's head with a kick, cut the second one's throat with his sword, then drove his elbow down onto the third one's skull as it closed in.

In the meantime, the others stabbed his back and flank, but his guardian magic tool kept the wounds to mere scratches.

"Hard?"

"Deemun... won't go through..."

Apparently baffled by their ineffective attacks, the dwarves muttered in their clumsy speech, only to be reduced to pulp by a blow apiece from his sword and fist. The last one carried a slightly different-looking magic tool, from which flames suddenly erupted.

"Ugh!"

Turan swiftly increased the power of his guardian magic tool and thrust his sword through the flames into the dwarf's head. The heat was considerable; without his fire-resistance ring, he thought he might have suffered minor burns.

'What on earth gives it this much power without any mana... That might have been dangerous for me once. Is it really a magic tool?'

He was now among the strongest of nobles, which was why he could slaughter them so one-sidedly. Before meeting Asiz, he would have been in danger. As if to prove it, a thunderous bang sent a young noble tumbling.

"Young Master! Young Master! Are you all right?"

"Haaah..."

Whatever had struck him had caved in his chest, apparently crushing his ribs. Turan turned and saw what looked like an enlarged version of the dwarves' magic tools. He hastily conjured and fired several fireballs. With a deafening roar, a mass of steam erupted from the weapon and engulfed the dwarves.

"Aaaaaagh!"

"Hooooot!"

Turning back to the fallen noble, he was surprised to find him healing his own injuries. Shouldn't a noble of the Healer Bloodline have been protected at the very heart of their formation? Looking around, Turan realized that their formation had long since collapsed.

'Well, there's no one commanding us... Even I've been swept up in the fighting and doing whatever I please.'

Their captain, Maysa, was facing off against the Wraith King, while Vice-Captain Kadram was tied down by three quite powerful wraith sorcerers. Naturally, with no one directing them, Arabion's soldiers had become tangled up with the dwarves and Dark Elves, each fighting as they pleased.

That did not mean the battle was going against them, of course. The Dark Elves and dwarves who made up the bulk of the enemy force were already being swept away, and only a few wraith sorcerers remained. Just then, an immense bolt of light struck in the distance, signaling the battle's end.

* * *

"Whew..."

Unlike other nobles, who simply unleashed their bloodline abilities, Maysa Arabion fought with all manner of magic, as befitted a genius. Ordinary Dark Elves who interfered from every direction met spikes of stone formed by instantly reshaping the earth. When dwarves approached, she clapped and amplified the sound to assault their sensitive hearing. When large wraiths attacked, she lifted herself slightly off the ground and moved on the wind to evade them. All the while, she kept driving electrical bolts into the wraith sorcerers, wearing down their defenses.

Even the occasional attack that slipped through this system could not inflict a fatal wound. The clothing covering her body was a top-tier defensive magic tool that the head of House Berg had spent two full months creating.

After a prolonged struggle, Maysa burned the wraiths to death and called a bolt of lightning down onto the Wraith King's head. Just as even the strongest wizard was merely human without mana, even a powerful wraith sorcerer was merely a Dark Elf without wraiths. Only the silver crown remained on the charred corpse.

'Ah...'

The moment she confirmed her hard-won victory, a familiar dizziness swept through her head. It was a warning from a body growing weaker through malnutrition. As she staggered, someone caught her wrist and steadied her.

"Are you all right?"

Realizing that her supporter was Turan, the young man with gray hair and eyes, Maysa sighed in relief. He was the first person she had ever met whose talent matched her own. And whether he truly did not know his bloodline or was concealing it... he was someone who had cared for her when she was defenseless, rather than killing her.

That alone was enough for Maysa to trust him deeply. At the very least, he was more trustworthy than the scum who had killed her mother and younger sibling, then threatened her as well while trying to pin it all on Zahar. Maysa desperately needed an ally outside her house's influence, no matter what.

"I'm fine. I just felt a little dizzy... How is the battle going? I was too focused here to look."

"It's nearly over."

As he said, the fighting was drawing to a close. While the dwarves and Dark Elves were being slaughtered one-sidedly, some knights had even begun recovering human bodies. Soon, an Arabion noble approached Maysa to report, the excitement of battle still on his face.

"A resounding victory, my lady!"

"Our losses?"

"We're still counting, but they should be less than a quarter of last time's! We've confirmed two nobles and roughly thirty knights dead!"

"Why did the two nobles die?"

"One was hit by a large magic tool, and the other fell to a wraith. Um, but, my lady..."

"What is it?"

Following his gaze to her side, Maysa turned her head. Only then did she realize that she had been leaning on Turan as though it were perfectly natural.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I completely forgot."

"It's all right."

Turan almost said that she was so light it hardly mattered, but stopped himself. It would have sounded like mockery of her emaciated body. Standing on her own, Maysa resumed giving orders as though nothing had happened.

"Don't forget to take a few alive. Especially the dwarves. Pick ones that look a little clever."

"Understood."

"Find out whether they learned to use those magic tools themselves or someone taught them. Collect all the intact magic tools, too."

After the noble departed with his orders, Turan watched Maysa holding her head, apparently still dizzy, and asked a question.

"I heard those were relics of the ancient dwarves."

"Did Keorn tell you?"

"Yes."

"That's right. Long ago, the dwarves weren't blind as they are now, and they were apparently skilled enough with their hands to make things like those. Now they're little more than beasts."

"Did the gods make them that way?"

Startled by Turan's words, Maysa turned to him. That idea would never have occurred to an ordinary worshipper of the Freyans. Had she not read about it in her house's secret library, she would never have dared imagine it herself.

"... Why do you think that?"

"I learned by chance some time ago that the gods could create entirely new living creatures if they wished. Naturally, they could also blind them or make them stupid."

"Don't say that to anyone else."

Turan nodded and gazed steadily at Maysa. Her words had confirmed his conviction that the great houses harbored many secrets about the gods.

* * *

A short while later, having finished clearing the battlefield and tending to the wounded, Arabion's army first set about assigning credit and rewards. The Dark Elf and dwarf corpses were no better than rubbish and would all be burned, but the mana of the wraiths and fallen wizards had to be absorbed on the spot. In particular, the bodies of the wizards lost in the previous battle, which had been hidden deep in the canyon, would soon become wraiths unless dealt with quickly.

"First, Maysa. You defeated the Wraith King, so you take first place, but..."

"Never mind, Uncle. Small fry like these won't do me any good."

"I suppose not."

The stronger a wizard became, the harder it was to grow using low-quality mana. Powerful though the Wraith King's wraiths were, they meant little to a wizard on Maysa's level.

To grow any further, she would have to absorb the power of wizards or monsters equal to or stronger than herself. She could slay several mythical-class monsters, or absorb her father's mana at his funeral after the current House Head died. Either way would easily take a hundred years.

"Then, since it's difficult to sort out everyone else's contributions, we'll have to distribute it according to mana capacity and severity of injuries. I've already reached my growth limit, so it won't do me much good either. Next in line is..."

"Then I'll give Turan the wraiths I killed."

A stir ran through the Arabion nobles at Maysa's words. Only a wizard as mighty as her could call them small fry. To ordinary nobles, the Wraith King's wraiths were nourishment that could increase their mana dramatically in an instant. And she was giving the right to absorb them to a mercenary outside the house, even if the heir had brought him personally?

Since nothing of the sort had been mentioned before the battle, they had naturally assumed he would not receive a share of the mana. They could hardly help feeling blindsided. Had they known Turan would take part in the distribution, at least half the nobles would have opposed his involvement.

"Didn't you stipulate that he wouldn't be allowed to absorb mana when you brought him? No, surely you didn't offer mana as his reward?"

"How else could I have brought in someone that skilled? Besides, I'm only giving away what would have been my share, so there's no problem."

"Even so, that's a different matter... You should at least have told us beforehand."

Kadram sighed, then approached Maysa and whispered.

"Think carefully, Maysa. It's only been a few hours, and there are already rumors that you've fallen for that man and lost your judgment."

"Thank you for your concern, but it isn't like that."

They stared each other down for several seconds, but in the end Kadram shook his head and backed away first.

Turan was allotted the six strongest of the Wraith King's wraiths. Even so, they had all burst apart at a single attack from Maysa, so they would not give him much power. At his level, however, any opportunity to grow counted as a reward.

"Then let us begin absorbing the mana."

With a bitter smile at the fierce hostility boring into the back of his head and the sharp looks from the three others absorbing mana alongside him, Turan absorbed the mana of the wraiths, now reduced to ash. Since one of them had been an Arabion noble, he had secretly buried the Mimic Holy Relic underground. Some of the absorbed mana splitting away would surely have been noticed.

One, two, three, four, five...

Turan's eyes narrowed as he absorbed the last, sixth wraith's mana. Perhaps he had imagined it, but for some reason, he thought he heard something clunk inside his body.