“Tio, did you see that disgusting demon anywhere?”
“Tio-san, where’s that bastard hiding?”
“You two... I understand how you feel, but Princess Liliana seemed quite happy when you offered to go with her... Are you sure you should have abandoned her so casually like that?”
“Who cares about that.”
“There’s no time to waste now.”
Yue and Shea didn’t feel the tiniest bit of remorse. I suspect this is Master’s influence. When it came to people they didn’t care about, the two of them could be quite blunt.
Yue and Shea started scanning the army of monsters, looking for Freid Bagwa. Just then, they received a telepathic transmission from Hajime.
“Hey, Tio! Get over here!”
“Whoa!? Master? What’s wrong?” Tio was surprised by the urgency in Hajime’s voice.
“I’ve got a really dangerous enemy to deal with here. I need you to take Sensei for me. I can’t fight at full strength while protecting her.”
“Understood! I will head over immediately!”
If Hajime was up against someone that required him to go all out, Tio knew there was no time to waste. She instantly transformed into her dragon form and shot up toward the Divine Mountain.
“Hajime, be careful.”
“Hajime-san, don’t you worry! Yue-san and I will take care of that stupid demon for you!”
“O-Okay? Weren’t you two with the princess— Holy shit! Crap, I can’t really talk right now! I don’t know what you two are up to, but don’t die, alright?”
Hajime was curious as to what Shea and Yue were planning, but he was a bit preoccupied at the moment. He cut the transmission and focused on his own fight.
Yue and Shea hesitated. If Hajime was having a hard time fighting, then maybe the optimal choice was to run to his aid instead of staying down in the city. Even if he wasn’t fighting at full strength because he had to protect Aiko, few enemies could match him.
“Yue-san, what do you want to do?”
“Hajime’ll be fine. He has Tio with him. Let’s get that demon. If we don’t kill him, he might destroy some of the other labyrinths’ magic circles.”
Indeed, that was the other reason Yue had decided to prioritize killing Freid. She wanted revenge of course, but she also knew she couldn’t let any other user of ancient magic run free.
It was possible that he already knew the location of the labyrinth inside the Divine Mountain. In which case, if he cleared it first it was possible he’d destroy the magic circle afterward like he did in Gruen.
From what they’d learned in the other labyrinths, Yue knew that, given time, each labyrinth would restore itself to its former state. Even the monsters in it would automatically return. However, there was no telling how long that might take.
That was why she didn’t want to give Freid a chance to destroy the Divine Mountain’s magic circle. And the best way to make sure he couldn’t do anything would be to kill him.
Though her main driving force was still revenge. Keeping the labyrinth safe was maybe 10% of the reason she was here. Two of the black eagles spotted Yue and Shea, and swooped over to them. They were around three to four meters long, and made for quite a fearsome sight.
Shea pulled out Drucken from her Treasure Trove and calmly fired an explosive slug at one of them.
Yue snapped her fingers, and a barrage of wind blades rained down on the other.
The two eagles were turned into mincemeat. One had its head blown off from the bullet’s explosion, while the other was chopped to pieces. Their broken corpses fell to the roofs of the houses below.
Chances were the people living in them were awake now, if they hadn’t been already.
The other flying monsters took notice of the pair and began circling them. A good third of them had demon riders on them.
They kept their distance, wary of the power that had brought two eagles low in the span of a few seconds. However, when they realized they were facing a little girl and a rabbitman, they scoffed. Throwing caution to the wind, they began chanting spells.
Naturally, they didn’t think Yue or Shea could fly. Regardless of what tricks they had up their sleeve, the demons doubted the two girls would be able to withstand a concerted barrage from above.
In all honesty, Yue and Shea had no interest in defending the capital. Their only target was Freid Bagwa. However, that didn’t mean they would ignore enemies that attacked them.
Just in case, Shea tried to negotiate.
“We’re not your enemy~ We only fought back because those things attacked us first~” Of course, the demons simply thought they were being made fun of, so that didn’t stop their chanting.
Thinking these two girls weren’t even worth their time, a number of the demons flew off to look for other prey. A second later, they heard a loud roar and a series of screams.
“Wh-What is that!?” The demons turned around to see a dragon made of lightning devouring their comrades and their mounts one by one. They could hardly believe their eyes.
“H-Help—” One of the demons managed to escape the slaughter and flew for dear life toward his comrades, but before he could reach them, something blew him to pieces.
Shea’s explosive slug had made mincemeat out of him.
The demons who’d gone on ahead gazed on in horror as chunks of demon and Ash Dragon flesh rained down on them.
The demons stiffened and quickly prepared to guard against the next attack. They cast their gaze about, looking for the two girls who’d obliterated their comrades.
They were so terrified that they forgot to even blink the sweat out of their eyes. Still, they spotted Yue and Shea relatively quickly. However, the two girls weren’t chasing after the demons. In fact, Yue and Shea were completely ignoring them. Like before, they scanned the horizon, looking for something.
Their demeanor made it clear to the demons that they weren’t even worth these girls’ time.
Their nervousness turned into anger. These girls had slaughtered the demons’ friends, and they’d done so with the same casual indifference that one would swat an insect. They had walked all over the demons’ pride.
Blood boiling, they charged at the two girls.
“You fucking biiiiiitch!”
“Uwoooooooooh!”
“Dieeeeeeeee!”
Despite their rage, they maintained formation. It showed just how well-trained these demons were. They simultaneously unleashed magical attacks from all four directions. Demons were far more skilled at magic than humans were. Normally, a barrage like that would be a death sentence for anyone. However, Yue just sighed. Then, she waved her finger like a conductor’s baton.
“You should be able to tell the difference in our skill.” Yue’s thunder dragon coiled about her, protecting the two of them from the demons’ magic.
It then opened its maw wide, and the demons nearby practically flung themselves into it. At least, that was how it looked.
The demons on the other side tried to cast a barrage of piercing spells, but before they could a section of the dragon opened up and Shea shot out of it, charging straight at them.
“Tch! Flame Bullet!” One of the demons cut his chanting short and instantly cast a beginner-level spell to try and hold Shea back. Countless tiny balls of flame hurtled toward the bunny girl.
Shea fired Drucken and used its knockback to adjust her trajectory, easily avoiding the barrage of fire. She then swung Drucken in a wide arc, aiming for three demons who were in the middle of chanting.
“Take thiiiiiiiiiiiis!” Shea freely manipulated the hammer’s weight, making it weigh over four tons at the moment of impact. Thanks to her improved body strengthening abilities, she could still swing it easily despite the weight.
The demons never stood a chance. They were ground to a pulp, and the spines of the monsters they were riding on shattered. Monster and rider alike barely had time to scream before they died.
Shea then lowered her and Drucken
’s combined weight to under five kilograms and used the recoil from its shotgun blast to shoot up into the air.
At the same time, she switched Drucken into barrage mode and fired an explosive slug at the remaining demon who’d shot the fireballs at her.
“Get blown to the other side of next week!” The force of the bullet sent the poor demon blasting off to the moon.
Shea poured mana into her Aerodynamic enchanted boots and created a light blue mana platform for her to stand on.
She tapped Drucken against her shoulder and surveyed her surroundings. This cute bunny girl had quickly become the demons’ worst nightmare.
A short way away, Yue faced the final remaining demon. He charged in a glorious but futile suicide attack.
“You damn braaaaaaaaat! This is for my friends!” Even if it meant his death, he wanted to get at least one hit on this girl.
Yue stared coldly at him.
“You’re three hundred years too young to call me a brat.” The demon had aimed for the moment Yue’s dragon had devoured another one of his comrades. He was confident it wouldn’t be able to turn in time. He sneered, certain he’d be able to stab her in time. When he was mere meters away, however, a blade of wind chopped his head off, and he plummeted to the ground.
Lamenting the waste of time, Yue returned to searching for Freid.
Shea alighted next to her, Drucken still resting on her shoulder.
“They totally thought we were fighting for the kingdom, didn’t they?”
“Yeah. Well, whatever. If that’s what they want to think, then just let them.”
“You really don’t care about them, do you? Well, I guess I don’t either.”
Despite their best efforts, they were unable to locate Freid Bagwa among the horde.
Yue began to worry that he’d located the entrance of the labyrinth and teleported there already, but just then—
“Ah!? Yue-san!”
“Mmm...” The moment Shea called out, Yue leaped off the clock tower.
A second later, an egg-shaped portal opened up, unleashing a barrage of aurora-colored light.
The light enveloped the clock tower, obliterating it. And it didn’t stop there, either. Eventually, it swallowed up all of the houses and buildings in its path.
“As I suspected, you do have some form of clairvoyance. How troublesome...” They turned around to see the foe they’d been searching for, Freid Bagwa. He was riding his white dragon.
He looked rather irritated that the two of them had managed to dodge his surprise attack so easily.
As Freid fully emerged from the portal, a hundred Ash Dragons and their demonic riders surrounded Yue and Shea.
There was a thunderous crash, and part of the city’s outer wall crumbled away. Demons and monsters swarmed into the city. A number of squads broke away and started running toward Freid.
It looked like Freid wanted to make sure he finished the girls off for good.
“To think you actually survived. That man’s tenacity is something I should not have underestimated... He’s dangerous. In order to defeat him though, I shall have to make sure his comrades, you girls, die first.” Yue and Shea grinned fearlessly at him. They spoke the same words that Hajime had said a few seconds ago, eight thousand meters above them.
“I’d like to see you try.”
“Just try and kill me!”
The army of monsters and demons all attacked at once. Flaming javelins hot enough to scorch the very air, jets of water powerful enough to cut through steel, blades of wind sharper than swords, blocks of ice larger than boulders, dark gray spheres filled to the brim with petrification magic, and bolts of crackling thunder all hurtled toward the two girls.
Finally, a massive aurora trailed behind all the other spells.
There were forty demons, and more than a hundred monsters. Their attacks flew in from every conceivable direction.
The spells melded together into a storm of deadly magic. Still, neither Shea nor Yue seemed the least bit worried. In fact, they didn’t even try to dodge. Most of the demons assumed they’d just given up. Freid, however, had an ominous premonition. He hurriedly pulled his dragon up and away.
“Cosmic Rift!” Yue cast her spell.
Two shimmering portals appeared in front of the aurora. Freid narrowed his eyebrows. Since the two portals were right next to each other, even if the light went into one, it’d just come out of the other and hit the girls anyway.
Freid’s mistake had been assuming that Yue had summoned only a single pair of portals. This was because summoning a single pair at once was the most he could do.
Because Freid was distracted by the two portals in front of the girls, he noticed only too late that there was yet another portal behind him.
“Blast— Everyone, run!” Yue and Shea disappeared inside the first gate, while the second swallowed up the aurora and spat it out behind the demons. Freid shouted out a warning, but there was no time for them to escape.
Freid was able to fly out of the way in time, but most of his army was decimated by the deadly aurora.
“How dare you make me kill my men. I underestimated you... I should have predicted that you would be able to open multiple gates at once.” Through his anger, Freid felt a burgeoning seed of fear. Yue was capable of far more impressive feats of magic than he was, even with the same spells.
He was curious as to how Yue was capable of casting spells without any incantations or magic circles, but his priority was to find out where his opponents had disappeared to.
“Freid-sama! Over there!” One of his men pointed at the outer wall. Yue and Shea were standing atop it. They hadn’t wanted to fight in the city because there was a possibility innocent citizens would get caught up in the battle. Furthermore, they knew he wouldn’t call off the entire invasion to chase them down. This was a challenge. If he wanted them, he’d have to fight them without his whole army.
On the other hand, if he left them alone he’d be leaving his rear vulnerable to attack.
Freid knew he couldn’t just ignore them. He homed in on them with his Farsight and saw Yue and Shea hold out their hands and curl their fingers back, as if to say “bring it on.”
The demons were livid. Not only were they being belittled by a bunny girl and a girl shorter than a kid, it was clear they were confident the demons wouldn’t even pose a threat to them. Though they were few in number, demons were confident that they were the strongest creatures in the land. They took pride in that, and seeing that pride trampled over enraged them.
“You little bitch!”
“You’re just a filthy little beast! Don’t get so full of yourself!”
The demons spat out curses and charged. Still, they didn’t rush forward blindly. They were wary of Yue’s powerful magic, and sent the monsters first as shields. Many of the monsters and demons on the ground fired off attacks at Yue as well.
Shea had an unbelievable amount of explosive slugs stored inside her Treasure Trove, so she knew she didn’t need to hold anything in reserve. She fired off bullets one after another into the hordes of enemies.
Pale blue shockwaves of mana exploded all across the battlefield, bringing death to anything they touched.
All that remained in their wake were crushed corpses.
In order to stop Shea’s mad rampage, Freid’s white dragon and the Ash Dragons all fired their breath at her.
Even Shea, with her body strengthening, wouldn’t come out of such a concentrated attack alive. However, she wasn’t the least bit worried.
“Spatial Severance.” Yue summoned a black sphere in front of Shea.
The super-dense black hole bent the trajectories of the dragons’ breath, and absorbed them all.
“Ngh, you used that before too. That must be ancient magic which I have yet to acquire. Listen up, men! I’ll take that blond mage! The rest of you must strike down that rabbit girl! Keep them split up and don’t let them coordinate attacks!”
“Yes, sir!”
She tried to swat him out of the way, but a number of other demons attempted the same thing, making it difficult. And so, she instead used Drucken’s recoil to leap out of the way and swung her hammer in a wide arc, blowing them all away.
Another wave of demons shot at her, and this time she knew she wouldn’t have time to dodge, or counter, so she held Drucken aloft and took a defensive stance.
She pressed one of her hammer’s many triggers, and a round shield popped out of the end with a metallic clunk.
“I’ll kill you even if it costs me my life!” The blond-haired demon who rushed at her spat that out with such vehemence that Shea doubted it was just rage at his dead comrades that fueled him.
Shea was steadily pushed back, further and further away from Yue. She toyed with the idea of increasing her weight and temporarily retreating to the ground. Before she could though, a portal opened up behind her.
She glanced over and saw Freid ordering wave after wave of demons and monsters to keep Yue occupied while he cast another teleportation spell.
“Yue-san! I’m sorry, but I can’t get back to you!”
“Yeah. That’s fine. I’ll kill this guy for you.”
Just before she was pushed through the gate, Shea saw Yue give her a thumbs up. Shea smiled back at her friend with any sense of worry she was feeling draining from her face.
The demon attacking her snarled. He hated being ignored, especially when he was right in front of her. Shea let herself be pushed back by the enemy, and fell through the portal.
“That grinning face of yours makes me sick. I’m gonna rip your limbs off and drag your corpse in front of your friends.” That was the first thing Shea heard as she stepped into the air on the other side of the portal. It appeared as though this demon in particular held a grudge against Shea. She tilted her head as she looked at him.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 6 Page 6
