The Men of the Kingdom Part II

by Kugane Maruyama

  Barricade, ha. They had never had a wall.

  The demons came over the broken obstacle and began surrounding the guards.

  Quiet sobs could be heard—the crying of people who knew they would die.

  Next came the chuckles of the demons—laughing at the foolish humans.

  One guard, looking up at the night sky as if making an appeal to the gods, saw something unexpected.

  It was a strange party, approaching at high speed. Two people were carrying a warrior in raven-black armor. The warrior’s crimson cape fluttered out behind him, and in either hand, he carried a huge sword.

  “Toss me!”

  Despite the distance, the guard had the feeling he heard a shout.

  It turned out to be true, since the two flying people let go. The warrior accelerated, as if an unseen power had given him a shove from behind, and descended to the ground in a gentle arc. He glided smoothly along the road as if friction didn’t slow his movement, cutting down a hellhound in his path before finally coming to a stop.

  It was such a dramatic entrance that allies and enemies alike stopped what they were doing. His voice carried much better in the silence.

  “I’m Momon, an adventurer. I’ll take your place. You guys can fall back.”

  At first, they couldn’t understand what the dark warrior was saying, but the barking of several hellhounds brought them back to their senses. He was their long-awaited backup.

  “Hellhounds… Just these? Even double this wouldn’t have been very many.”

  The hellhounds attacked from every direction to brutally slaughter the dark warrior Momon. They encircled him completely, not leaving a single gap.

  If he used his swords to block, some would get around, bite into him, and rip him apart. If he sliced through them, the remaining ones would leap at him. He’d get bodychecked by the hellhounds, his stance would crumple, and he wouldn’t be able to evade their next assault.

  This assault was practically the definition of attacking with sheer numbers.

  It was no wonder the guards’ expressions were all so pained. But they had no idea what the truly strong were capable of.

  A giant sword arced through the air, causing a massive gust of wind.

  Everyone with eyes fell speechless.

  It was a single slicing attack. An ordinary person would have been able to cut through one enemy at most. But because of who was holding the sword, this slice could surpass the ordinary.

  Four of the hellhounds that had seemed invincible to the guards fell onto the road in pieces.

  But perhaps because he’d swung as hard as he could, Momon’s body was leaning off-balance. There were still unharmed hellhounds remaining. If he wasn’t centered, he wouldn’t be able to evade their follow-up attacks.

  He may have been wearing tough armor, but the hellhounds’ fangs were sharp, and they had claws that could rip up iron. There was no way he would get away unscathed if so many attacked him at once.

  The guards imagined the adventurer who had come to save them covered in wounds.

  But that was too hasty a conclusion.

  Momon didn’t even try to force his listing body back but instead leaned into the flow to whirl around. His crimson cape fluttered behind him, creating a blazing swirl. With the nimble movements of a dancer, he planted his feet again, and his great swords howled as he swept them from left to right.

  He sent the remaining hellhounds tumbling down the street. None of them could move properly anymore.

  “In just…two slashes?”

  The guard’s murmur spoke for everyone. Having witnessed such a feat, what other words could possibly come to mind?

  “So what’s left? An overeater and some gazer devils? How boring!”

  Leaving the guards with that murmured remark, Momon strode toward the demons. He might as well have been taking a stroll in a park, he was so unguarded. Normally, someone would have called out to stop him, but after what they’d just seen, no one felt it was necessary.

  The role of ordinary people was to watch the powerful warriors go.

  Perhaps unable to withstand the pressure of Momon’s casual approach, the gazer devils emitted strange screams and attacked.

  A single blow.

  Sliced-up bodies flew every which way.

  Momon’s feet kept moving all the while. He continued his casual stroll as if he was walking through an empty meadow, as if the devils had never existed.

  “Whoa…”

  It most likely wasn’t in reaction to the guard’s voice, but the overeater opened its mouth—wide like a snake about to swallow its prey whole. Something like a flame flickered deep inside. The agony on the human faces in its body intensified. It was about to belch a scream of souls.

  The wailings of the expiring souls it had eaten caused the living to writhe in agony as their spirits withered.

  But before the overeater could finish—bam—it went flying.

  Momon had hurled his huge sword to cut through the demon’s head, and the monster fell to the ground.

  “They’re no problem as long as you kill them before they scream,” Momon said simply and pulled his sword out of the corpse.

  It took less than a minute. The apparently unbeatable demons were annihilated.

  The guards cheered. Their voices rose in the soulful roar of those who had escaped death.

  Bathing in their surge of joy, Momon spoke to them quietly. “The adventurers should be mounting a counterattack operation soon. Hold this location just a little longer… Well, the demons were routed, so I doubt they’ll attack again here for a while. Nabe, Evileye, if you please.” The two casters landed and then lifted him up. Momon left the guards with a final call from the air. “I’m going to hurry on to subdue the enemy mastermind. Until then, protect the citizens behind you. I’m counting on you!”

  They sighed as they watched the party fly away.

  With such an amazing hero telling them to do so, it would be shameful if they didn’t defend this line with their lives.

  “Hey, rebuild the barricade! We need to keep holding them back. Don’t even think about what will happen if they break through!”

  5 Late Fire Moon (September) 3:44 AM

  The second charging squad, comprised of adventurers who were mythril rank or higher, began advancing with Lakyus at the front and Tina at her side.

  At Lakyus’s departure, she had been asked more than once to reconsider. People said that someone who could use resurrection magic shouldn’t be on the front line. But whether she went or not made a huge difference in the force’s strength. Momon’s confrontation with Jaldabaoth was what they really needed to be prioritizing, so she couldn’t very well hang back.

  The group avoided following Momon by entering via a different street and headed for their primary objective, the place where the guards were supposed to have erected a barricade, but what they saw when they arrived was a road dyed red, the scene of a brutal slaughter, strewn with scraps of flesh. Of course, the barricade had also been completely destroyed; there was no sign of it.

  The adventurers noisily bunched up and proceeded farther in, but they didn’t even make it thirty yards before entering combat with a group of demons that came out of a side street.

  As soon as the battle started, the adventurers, who were individually stronger than the demons, were ahead.

  But the tables gradually turned. The cause was the numbers that outweighed the adventurers’ individual strengths. There were so many demons, it felt like every single one in the region was there.

  “Don’t fall back! Keep pushing!” Lakyus shouted after casting support magic on everyone. Of course, none of the adventurers was falling back. They knew how important this operation was—they weren’t about to retreat.

  Evileye’s role was to stay close to Momon and intercept anything getting in his way, and their mission was to keep the demons at bay by keeping the pressure on.

  In that sense, clashing with this many head-on was the greatest sup
port they could give to Momon. The longer this battle raged, the better the chance of success for him and Evileye.

  Shouts and swords rang out. Spells went flying, skills were activated, Fire Breath burned people up. All the sounds overlapped.

  Lakyus checked the status of the battle and grimaced. The murmur of one adventurer had lodged itself in the back of her mind: The demons are gradually getting stronger.

  Could it be that a gate to whatever world the demons live in has opened, and stronger and stronger demons are being summoned through it? Could this wall of fire be a border? What will happen if time keeps passing like this? Even if we defeat Jaldabaoth, will the capital go back to normal? Could this all be for nothing?

  “Nonsense!” she scoffed and banished the countless worries from her mind.

  You don’t know anything until you try. That was why Lakyus swung her sword.

  “Fire!”

  One of the Floating Swords hanging in the air near her shoulder moved straight up and launched according to her order. The sword ripped through the sky and pierced the open mouth of a hellhound leaping to attack. The hound’s corpse vanished without a trace.

  Lakyus glanced around and saw that they were completely surrounded. They’d ceased advancing some time ago, and the multilayered ring of enemies around them showed no sign of thinning. All she could do now was slash her sword and fight.

  The vanguard put away their chipped and broken weapons and readied their spares. Casters who had run out of magical energy began casting with scrolls and wands. They were running out of resources.

  Orichalcum-rank adventurers formed a protective circle around the wounded mythril-rank adventurers who were completely out of magical energy, but still…

  This is bad… At this rate, we’re going to be worn down to nothing. It’s still not over? Haven’t you beaten Jaldabaoth yet?

  Hearing a scream, she whipped her head around and saw an adventurer crumple under the fierce blow of a demon.

  “Tch!”

  Faster than Lakyus could charge, Tina leaped at the enemy to plug up the hole that had formed.

  The adventurers behind the injured warrior dragged him in. He wasn’t dead, but his terrible condition was obvious. The fact that no one cast a healing spell illustrated how much magical energy the priests and other faith casters had already used up.

  All we can do is pull out…

  If the balance shifted, they would be swallowed up in an instant. Lakyus couldn’t let them die. She needed to take action with an eye on what they would do in the event Momon was defeated.

  It was nearly impossible to retreat with a completely exhausted body. They needed to fall back while they still had a bit of energy remaining.

  “Wi—!” She was about to shout Withdraw! when she gasped at the sight of a grotesque demon dropping softly out of the sky.

  It was nearly ten feet tall. It had a muscular body, but it was covered in reptilian scales. Its snakelike tail writhed.

  Its head was the skull of a goat. Pale-blue flames blazed wildly in its gaping black orbits.

  Its arms were thick, and in its hands, it gripped a gigantic maul.

  It spread the bat wings that had been folded up on its back. When it beat them, a cold wind blew, and soul-crushing fear assailed Lakyus. Since she was protected by fear-resisting magic, she didn’t panic, but this demonstration was enough for her to see that this demon was far stronger than the ones they’d fought so far.

  Sweat oozed out of her pores.

  “Oh no…”

  If she hadn’t been short on magical energy and team members, she probably could have won somehow. If she had been able to look up information about their opponent before the battle, she would have no doubt been victorious. But under the current circumstances, she had virtually no chance. First off, Evileye, who possessed a vast amount of knowledge and could use powerful magic, was gone. Gagaran, who would block the enemy’s weapon and counter, wasn’t there, either. Tia, who could deftly evade the enemy’s attacks and make an aggressive strike with her ninjutsu, was also missing. There were only two of them present, and they were exhausted.

  When she looked at Tina, the response was a ready nod.

  Just as Lakyus, gripping Demonic Sword Killineiram tightly, was about to stride toward the demon, a nearby orichalcum-rank adventurer grabbed her shoulders and shouted, “We’ll hold it here! You should run!”

  Lakyus was caught off guard.

  He rapidly continued, “If you survive, you can use resurrection magic on us, so you have to make it back even if the rest of us don’t—for yourself and the people you could bring back to life!”

  The man’s honest face and his chivalrous grin were overflowing with the charisma expected of an orichalcum-rank adventurer. All the sympathetic adventurers nodded.

  Objectively, what they said was correct. She could do more by staying alive and reviving those who fell here instead of risking her life to buy time.

  “I heard resurrection spells take tremendous resources, but please do it on the house for us!”

  “Isn’t the princess paying?!”

  “Let’s make the nobles pay! They should at least put up some cash!”

  With the relaxed bearing of people on their way to a picnic, a handful of adventurers left the circle. There’d been no gesture or wink. As if they had come to a collective decision, they moved in perfect harmony with one another to stand before the demon.

  Seeing the cheerful attitudes of the ones who had resolved to face this life-or-death battle, Lakyus bit her lip and turned her back.

  “Break through! Summon all your strength! After this, all you need is the energy to run!”

  No sooner had she yelled than she herself was charging into the demon mob with Killineiram. For defense, she could depend on only magic and her armor now. She would abandon herself to the most extreme extent possible and carve a trail of blood.

  She gritted her teeth against all sorts of pains—her flesh being gouged, hard objects stabbing at her—and endured it. She considered her health calmly and waited till the last second before casting a silent healing spell. Lakyus had to make it back alive, but if she didn’t throw herself into battle here, they wouldn’t break through.

  “Hrrrraaaagh!” She poured the majority of her remaining magic into Killineiram. The sword sparkled bright, like the twinkling of stars, and the blade grew.

  “Super Art: Dark Blade Mega Impaaact!”

  A pitch-black explosion raged to the side as she swung. The low-level demons were swallowed up by the burst of neutral energy and disappeared one after another.

  It hadn’t actually been necessary for her to shout the move’s name. It was super-effective, and yet…

  “Not even…close?”

  The scene before her tired eyes was a thick wall of demons, albeit low-level ones. She’d blown away so many, but the hole was already filled.

  Is it even possible to break through? The creeping anxiety annoyed her, and she swung Killineiram, whose blade had gone back to normal size.

  Just then, behind the demons, she saw a metallic flash and heard a man roar.

  “Sixfold Slash of Light!”

  The six cuts sliced into the demons.

  “Sixfold Slash of Light! Flow Acceleration! Hrgh!”

  Seven demons fell in pieces like butter under a hot knife. The other monsters stopped what they were doing and shrank from the sharpness—it seemed like there was nothing Razor Edge couldn’t cut.

  “Crush them!”

  At Gazef’s shout, spears behind him came forward in a synchronized thrust.

  There was no mistaking those steely gleams. Behind him were more than a few dozen—countless—spears, thrusting forward to pierce the demons. The knights and soldiers who had been defending the castle, an army of several hundred, flooded the street.

  The demons recoiled from the military force double their size, loosening their circle around the adventurers. A jubilant cheer went up, and the battered adventurers b
egan retreating under the protection of the soldiers.

  “What is Captain Stronoff doing here?!”

  I thought he stayed behind to defend the castle and the royal family! He must have heard her question, because he turned to face a specific direction.

  When Lakyus followed his gaze, her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

  An old man was standing there under the protection of four priests and four arcane casters. On his head was the crown that, of all the people in the kingdom, only he was allowed to wear. And he was clad in armor.

  The king, Ramposa III.

  This is way too dangerous.

  Yes, he was wearing armor, but some of the demons could pierce steel like it was nothing. And he may have had guards, but there was still the possibility that area-of-effect spells could break through their defenses and hurt him. An ordinary human like the king would probably die instantly if he was caught in an area-of-effect spell. Lakyus had resurrection magic, but there was no way he would be able to withstand the loss of life force that accompanied the resurrection process.

  “This is what His Majesty said: ‘Are you fellows supposed to protect this castle, this hunk of stone, or me?’ There could only be one answer. Our duty is to protect the king! So our battle takes place here! Charge!”

  An earthshaking battle cry went up, and the army made a daring offensive.

  It was the numbers against numbers in a violent clash. The moment it looked like they would stage a comeback, an orichalcum-rank adventurer went flying into a wall, painting a bright-red flower.

  “Oooooooonnngh!” A giant demon howled as if to say, Come at me, and the soldiers froze.

  There were some monsters that couldn’t be beaten with numbers.

  “Captain Stronoff! Lend us your strength!”

  “You got it.”

  Lakyus’s eyes widened when she heard the voices that joined the fray next.

  “Hup, hold on! Think you might need help from a previously outstanding warrior?”

  “There’s also a ninja who plans on being outstanding in the future.”

  She would never mistake those voices, but she couldn’t believe it. Shocked, she shouted, “Gagaran! Tia!”

  The two familiar faces slowly came into view. They had their usual gear equipped and looked ready to fight at any moment.