Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 11

by Hiro Ainana

  A few explorers had collapsed with mortal wounds, so I used Magic Hand to sprinkle potions on anyone in range.

  “Master, should you really be doing something so flashy?”

  “Yeah, it’s fine.”

  Arisa seemed concerned that I was displaying my mysterious abilities way too much, since I normally hated standing out.

  But unless someone was watching from above like a god, most people would probably just assume somebody gave them a potion or someone used Healing Magic on them.

  “Woooo! I can still fight!”

  “Let’s bring these demons dooown!”

  A few of the dimmer bulbs among them promptly ran back into the fray, heedless of their own lack of strength, but I ignored them and looked around the area.

  General Erthal and the vanguard had already engaged in battle with the leading intermediate demon.

  Looking at it now, the intermediate demon was actually very big.

  General Erthal was a considerably tall fellow, but this creature was several times his size.

  My AR display showed that the demon, which had an insect-like black exoskeleton, was level 44.

  “Master, theeere?”

  Tama pointed at a lizard-like lesser demon lurking behind the giant slime, his elongated throat glowing red.

  That was probably where the napalm-like fire was coming from, then.

  He was being guarded by the other intermediate demon, a female eight-legged silver creature, so the explorers couldn’t get close enough to fight him.

  And even as I looked on, the lesser demon opened his mouth to fire again.

  “Waaah, we’re in dangerous danger, sir!”

  Pochi flailed in a panic.

  You think I’d let that happen?

  I produced a pebble from Storage and flung it right at the lesser demon’s glowing red throat.

  The pebble flew so fast, it nearly broke the sound barrier, bursting right through the demon’s neck.

  The impact caused a rather interesting reaction: The lesser demon’s throat ruptured, and napalm-like liquid gushed out, setting fire to the other demons around him.

  “Master, here comes another.”

  At Liza’s warning, I turned to see a lesser demon charging toward us.

  “DERIDERIDELYEEEEN.”

  The female demon, who had the lower half of a spider and the upper half of a humanoid praying mantis, let out a strange cry.

  Her four mantis arms were all shaped like swords and scythes.

  “Achilles Hunterrr?”

  “Take this, sir!”

  Tama and Pochi weaved toward the creature, slashing at her pivot legs.

  “Come forth, ‘Spellblade’!”

  Liza applied “Spellblade” to her Magic Spear and charged directly toward the demon.

  Not far behind her was Nana, her shield at the ready.

  The demon stopped in place, swinging at the group with her four blade arms.

  “Have a little Deracinator!”

  Arisa’s barrier blocked the demon’s arms, giving Tama and Pochi an opening to slash up her forelegs.

  The demon’s dark-gray breasts split into eight spikes, shooting toward Liza and Nana.

  “Orb-weaver spiders are not sexy, I criticize!”

  Nana’s bizarre shout was laden with her “Taunt” skill, so all the spikes turned to target her.

  With the added power of Flexible Shield and “Body Strengthening,” Nana was easily able to knock back the spikes, which stabbed deep into the cobblestone ground instead.

  “‘Triple Helix Spear Attack’!”

  Liza’s special move pierced deep into the chest of the demon’s spider body.

  “DERIDERIDELYEEEEN.”

  Without twitching an eyebrow at the demon’s shriek, Liza pushed her spear in deeper, with magic blades rotating around it in a helix that drilled even further through the creature’s body.

  “Take this!”

  Lulu shot with her Fireburst Gun, taking out one of the demon’s compound eyes.

  “…… Blood Blaster Ketsueki Bakusan.”

  Next, Mia’s Water Magic spell altered the demon’s blood, turning it into blades that expanded the demon’s wounds until her head exploded.

  This was my first attempt at blood-altering magic, which I’d thought of after hearing about the vampire-like Blue People, but I decided to tell Mia not to use it anymore.

  It was just too gory, and I didn’t want to have nightmares.

  “DERIDELYEEEEN.”

  The demon’s humanoid upper half slumped lifelessly, and the spider lower half split open to reveal giant fangs.

  “……. Here comes a hot one!”

  Finishing her chant, Arisa shouted to the rest of the group.

  “A knock back with a shield bash, I declare.”

  Nana struck the spidery demon with her shield, forcing her backward, then leaping away from her.

  Liza put some distance between herself and the demon with a nimble backstep, and Pochi tumbled to the side from her in somersault-like motions.

  Somehow, Tama was already standing by my side.

  She’s like a ninja.

  “Blast Shot Goukadan!”

  Arisa’s intermediate Fire Magic spell shot straight into the demon’s mouth, incinerating her from the inside.

  Yet even after an attack like that, the demon’s health had gone down by only about 40 percent.

  I guess demons are pretty tough, even the lesser ones.

  “Lulu, aim for the core.”

  “R-right!”

  Arisa’s attack had revealed the demon’s core, at which Lulu fired a shot.

  “Blocked, huh?”

  “Yeah, she must have some kind of barrier.”

  Right before hitting the core, the Fireburst Bullet had bounced off some kind of protective red light.

  I flicked my wrist, tossing a small stone at the core.

  The same light appeared and shattered the stone, but its fragments didn’t lose all their momentum, so a spray of stone pieces wound up splintering the core.

  “Up in smoooke?”

  “She turned into a cloud and disappeared, sir.”

  With her core destroyed, the demon turned into a black cloud and vanished as usual.

  Tama and Pochi seemed disappointed that there was no corpse left.

  It was good that they were so willing to eat monster meat and all, but I definitely couldn’t eat anything that was half-humanoid anyway.

  “Mister! Look out!”

  Someone called from behind me.

  Nearby, I saw a garnet-badge explorer spurt blood and collapse.

  I couldn’t see what he’d been fighting.

  “He can turn invisible!”

  A middle-aged man shouted a warning as he ran over to rescue the fallen explorer.

  Maybe it’s sort of like the chameleon plunderer from the labyrinth?

  I drew my fairy sword, slicing through the invisible demon with a single slash.

  “GUHEOOOOH.”

  The demon let out a dying howl as he turned into black smoke and vanished, leaving behind a softball-size core.

  “You never cease to impress, master.”

  “Buenooo?”

  “You’re amazingly amazing, sir!”

  “My highest praise to master, I declare.”

  Okay, let’s save the flattery for after the fight is over.

  It wasn’t that hard to figure out where he was anyway, since he had shown up on my radar and had an AR display next to him.

  “Damn, how’d he do that?”

  “He felled a demon in a single blow!”

  I heard people murmuring in amazement behind me.

  Deciding to save my excuses for later, I settled on a wave of thanks to the person who’d given us the warning.

  “Next ooone?”

  “Let’s keep it up!”

  We made our way toward General Erthal, taking down lesser demons as we went.

  I was concerned that there
would be more casualties if I used this as an opportunity for the girls’ training, so I snuck in my own attacks with theirs to keep the fights short.

  “Who in the world are they?”

  “They’re all women and kids, but they’re just as strong as Jelil or Zarigon!”

  “You don’t know? They’re the guildmaster’s favorite party.”

  “I thought he won her over with booze and snacks, but he’s actually really strong!”

  The explorers chorused in amazement as they watched our fight.

  All of them were riddled with wounds; even the ones who were higher level than the demons were severely injured.

  I guess demons are a lot more difficult than normal monsters.

  “Here, please use this. It’s a magic potion.”

  “Wh-what is a maid doing here?”

  “I…owe ya one.”

  I had Lulu distribute magic potions to anyone who looked close to death.

  They were watered-down potions that I’d made to hand out, but they would serve well enough as first aid.

  Unlike before, these explorers were pretty close, which was why I refrained from using Magic Hand to give out potions this time.

  “Watch out! Behind you!”

  One of the explorers who was drinking a potion stopped and shouted.

  A big, bearlike lesser demon was charging at Lulu’s back.

  Of course, I’d already noticed his proximity, but I just watched with Magic Hand at the ready.

  Realizing that she didn’t have enough time to grab her Fireburst Gun, Lulu chose a different course of action.

  “Hi-ya!”

  With a cute little squeak, Lulu sent the bear demon flying through the air. It was one of the moves she’d learned in her self-defense courses in the elf village.

  Even the bear demon seemed surprised to be thrown by the delicate Lulu; he hit the ground looking as if he had forgotten to counterattack.

  “Damn…”

  “That’s one hell of a strong maid.”

  “Maybe she’s no ordinary maid, y’think?”

  “Well, what is she, then?”

  “She’s gotta be the legendary Maid King, strongest of all the maids!”

  The surreal scene had apparently made the explorers lose their senses a bit.

  That was all well and good, but I thought Lulu should be called a queen, not a king.

  “GUROROROWN.”

  The bear demon roared with rage.

  “That’s our next target!”

  “Got it!”

  At Arisa’s command, the beastfolk girls rushed the bear demon.

  Lulu quickly grabbed her Fireburst Gun.

  Noticing the explorers staring at her, she drew back nervously.

  “E-erm…”

  With a quick curtsy, Lulu dashed back toward the rest of the group.

  “We better step it up, too.”

  “Let’s show ’em what us veteran explorers are made of!”

  “““Yeah!”””

  Their spell of insanity seemed to be over.

  It was good to be enthusiastic and all, but I wished they would value their lives a bit more as they fought.

  “That all you got, old man?!”

  “Your Excellency!”

  From the front lines of the battle, I heard a loud clang and the raspy shout of the captain.

  I dodged the demon that was blocking my vision, leaving my companions to finish him off as I ran forward.

  From the look of things, General Erthal had gotten into trouble while we were fighting off this demon.

  I guess Sebelkeya’s and my defense magic wasn’t enough to keep him completely safe while fighting an intermediate demon.

  “I won’t let you!”

  “Outta the way, small fry!”

  The labyrinth army captain rushed to protect the general with his shield, but the demon with the insect-like exoskeleton kicked him away.

  Dozon had already been blown off the battlefield and was in the middle of being healed by a lovely priestess.

  “Found you, Pendragon.”

  The demon looked straight at me as he spoke.

  For a demon, his speech was surprisingly normal and fluent, without any weird sentence endings.

  “Sorry, I don’t have any demon acquaintances.”

  I spoke lightly, buying time for General Erthal to drink a potion.

  While I was at it, I opened the map and inspected the demon’s detailed information.

  I’d checked only his levels and special skills before.

  “Have you forgotten my face already?”

  With a crunching sound, the exoskeleton helmet opened to reveal a humanoid face within.

  The features were human enough, but the skin was a dark red that was almost jet-black, so he didn’t appear to be a human in armor.

  However, that face did look familiar.

  “…Ludaman.”

  The Plunderer King Ludaman sneered triumphantly.

  I scanned the information in my AR display.

  His race now read Demon, overlapped by Demonic Human, but his name field still said Ludaman.

  This was merely a guess, but I’d be willing to bet that a lackey of Yellow Robes—the yellow-skinned demon—had given him a short horn or long horn to turn himself into a demon.

  The other ones’ races had only indicated Demon, and they didn’t have names.

  I contemplated all this in less than a second, then started searching my map for the culprit even as I prepared for battle.

  No likely suspects caught my eye. The green-clad noble was nearby, but he appeared to be in the giant slime’s stomach.

  I didn’t see anyone else, so I decided to just ask.

  “So when did you quit being a human and turn into a demon?”

  “Just a few minutes ago.”

  Ludaman turned his right arm into an ax.

  That’s pretty impressive.

  “Who gave you the horn?”

  “I’ll tell ya if ya beat me.”

  Ludaman sneered nastily.

  Clearly, he had no intention of answering my questions.

  “I’ll be killin’ ya nice and slow for all the trouble ya caused me.” He licked his lips. “I’ll crush yer arms and legs so ya can’t move, then kill those kids and ravage those women in front of ya, one by one.”

  Okay, he’s dead.

  Ludaman’s taunts caused dangerous thoughts to run through my mind.

  “…Could I give you one piece of advice?”

  “Hunh? If ya wanna beg for yer life, go right ahead.”

  “You should probably keep that face mask closed.”

  Suddenly, Mia’s Blood Blaster spell burst through Ludaman’s face.

  “GUUUUUH!”

  I guess demons still feel pain.

  “I’ll kill ya! I’ll kill ya dead, Pendragon!”

  “You sure about that?”

  General Erthal and the captain seemed to have recovered.

  I turned to look for Dozon, but he and the priestess were nowhere to be seen.

  “Master!”

  Arisa contacted me with the Telephone spell.

  “The slime’s making its move. It isn’t going anywhere, but it’s using its tentacles to grab dying people and pull them in.”

  I used “Parallel Thoughts” to keep talking to Ludaman while looking at the semitransparent slime.

  The outlines of several dozen people were visible inside it.

  Checking my map’s detailed information, I found that most of them were still alive.

  Strangely, when their health bars were nearly depleted, they would recover a certain amount.

  That must be the slime’s “Life Regeneration” skill at work.

  As for the reason, the race-specific inherent ability Miasma Production in the slime’s AR made it all too clear, along with the agonized faces of the people inside.

  It was probably using their pain to produce more miasma.

  “Eyes on me, bastaaard!”r />
  The glowing black ax swung down toward me, but I parried it with my fairy sword.

  Experimentally, I tried producing “Spellblade” only on the area of the blade that was making contact with the ax in order to protect it.

  Manipulating the magic was difficult, but it cost less power than regular “Spellblade.” Not by much, though.

  “GRAAAH!”

  Ludaman followed up the slash attack with a flying kick, so I jumped aside.

  Then the rest of my group entered the fray.

  “Achilles Hunterrr?”

  “Slash, sir!”

  As usual, Tama and Pochi leaped in to slash at Ludaman’s legs.

  At the same time, Liza jabbed her spear at his thigh as he tried to kick them away.

  “Look out!”

  The short demon tail that had grown on Ludaman’s backside split into two, trying to pierce Pochi’s and Tama’s heads.

  I quickly used Magic Hand to stop them, but it turned out that I was just being overprotective.

  “Emergency dooodge?”

  Tama pushed Pochi down, the impact moving both of them out of the way of the tails.

  The spikes jabbed into the ground instead, sending rock and dirt flying everywhere.

  Meanwhile, Liza continued attacking Ludaman with her spear.

  He dodged her thrusts with a short jump, then aimed an overhead kick at me in midair.

  Perfect.

  I let the kick hit me head-on, sending me flying toward the giant slime.

  “““Master!”””

  My friends’ distressed cries pained me, but I’d done this on purpose.

  “Are you all right?”

  Arisa contacted me via Telephone.

  “Yeah, of course.”

  “Okaaay?”

  “Thank goodness, sir.”

  I could hear Tama’s and Pochi’s voices, too.

  Just as I was about to apologize for worrying them, I crashed right into the giant slime.

  Obviously, I didn’t want my clothes to dissolve, so I activated “Magic Power Armor” to protect myself from the corrosive slime.

  “I switched to the advanced Space Magic spell Tactical Talk, since I figured it’d be more convenient during battle.”

  “Good thinking.”

  Praising Arisa’s quick wit, I checked my radar.

  There, I saw Liza’s marker running toward me at full speed, only to stop and head back to the others.

  I guess I’d really worried them.

  “Master, requesting battle instructions.”

  I examined the other lights on the radar.