17-7 The Spirits’ Shooting

And so, for the past few days, I spent all my time training the spirits and monitoring Balan.

X-Day would probably be when the emperor died.

I looked through the surveillance cameras from time to time, and the emperor’s condition already seemed like he could die at any moment.

I also grew nervous and kept monitoring the situation, reporting every little thing to His Highness Michael.

I would leave that side of things to him.

As for me, I had to dispose of that dangerous man Balan before the war began, if possible, secretly, no matter what it took.

Otherwise, he would come to me.

That dangerous man would come to the children at the Beast-Ear Garden.

The Albatross Kingdom had also quietly stationed soldiers to the west.

It was as if both countries were trying to outfox each other.

The other allied nations had also shared information, and their armies were ready to mobilize.

The enemy spies had probably grasped the situation too.

It happened at a time like that, when everything was truly on the verge of exploding.

That Balan moved.

I did not know why.

That cautious man left the imperial capital and headed alone toward the suburbs.

I hurriedly summoned the pilot spirits by teleporting them, satellite and all, to the Glass Garden.

I had kept those guys stationed inside the satellite units the entire time.

Since I was letting them eat as much mana as they wanted, they would not leave the satellites even if I left them alone.

It was also charming in its own way that other unrelated guys had shamelessly attached themselves to the satellites too.

This time, since the job request came from me, they apparently figured Jessica would not get angry even if they got a little rowdy.

Jessica was also receiving spirit usage fees and training fees from me this time, so she was not treating the spirits too harshly either.

I immediately launched one satellite and scouted.

Through the power of the spirits, an incredibly realistic image was projected large in the sky of the fantastical Glass Garden.

That place was… a grave.

Everyone had something precious to them.

It was an open place with no cover whatsoever.

There was only a single rough grave standing there all alone.

Balan stood there quietly, holding a bouquet, his head slightly lowered.

From above, I could not see the expression with which he was looking down at the grave.

Without hesitation, I launched every satellite with teleportation magic.

So that he would not sense their presence, I first teleported them far to the west before launching them.

Then I had them completely erase their presence and move at high speed straight into the sky above him.

When it came to that kind of trick, perhaps no one could rival spirits.

“Fire.”

Without hesitation, I moved to kill Balan.

I had no room to talk about whether it was cowardly or not.

The war was about to begin.

That was why this was the only chance.

This was the only place where I could kill this man quietly.

I went for it without hesitation.

Before the war began, I could not do it openly.

That was why I sniped him.

Five hundred kilometers above the sky.

From outer space, a celestial height much like the heavens, where he could never reach.

The Spirit Magic Satellite Cannon.

This thing did not possess vast destructive power, but it was an overwhelmingly cowardly technique that fired magic with excellent piercing power, capable of ultra-precise rapid shots.

It pierced through orichalcum, barriers, shields, magic armor—everything.

Though I called it a cannon, it might be better to call it an invisible needle beam.

It was a weapon adjusted so that the power of spirits could be used in that way.

It would not be an exaggeration to say it was something I could develop precisely because I could casually borrow spirit magic.

For the sole purpose of assassinating Balan alone.

This Spirit Magic Satellite Cannon turned already hard-to-detect spirit magic into a needle-thin hammer blow.

There was almost no human who could detect this without even knowing it existed.

Even a human with the Seventh Sense probably would not notice unless it was aimed directly at themselves.

However, a human with the Seventh Sense would not have come strolling out to a place like this at a time like this.

“If you are not there, it does not matter.”

People with the Seventh Sense were the kind of people who avoided bullets that way.

They would dodge with ease even while unaware.

As expected, the ability this guy possessed was not the Seventh Sense.

If it were, then he would never have been here right now.

Conversely, that was what terrified me enough to make me tremble from the core of my body.

He had this level of power without possessing “that blessing”!?

And on top of that, there was his overall ability as a titled S-rank adventurer.

I absolutely had to defeat this guy here.

If I hit him with something huge inside imperial territory, the Empire would notice.

I could not do that inside the Empire before the war began, but if I merely shot him to death quietly and silently…

You slipped up, Balan.

You, of all people, the wise general Balan, the one they supposedly called the Slayer of Wisdom.

To come strolling alone to such an open place with no cover before the war began.

Because the “rats” had been watching you without missing even the smallest moment.

There were even times when I watched you while so reluctant to go to the toilet that I leaked both ways.

Ah, that was exactly the case right now.

But the instant the spirits’ aim settled, that bastard Balan suddenly looked up.

At the same time, he gracefully threw away the bouquet in his hand toward the grave, and then, for no apparent reason, leapt from where he stood.

His light, single movement even looked elegant.

The magic bullet gouged out the ground at his feet in vain.

Tch, so this monster really did dodge the first strike of this impossible surprise attack that easily.

Normally, a miracle like dodging something you could not even imagine should have been absolutely impossible.

To think he responded so beautifully to the concept of a “satellite weapon,” something that did not exist in this world, and survived.

What kind of cheating was that bastard doing?

But no matter how much he dodged, it was useless.

I would let you sleep there with the person precious to you.

It seemed you had even prepared your own farewell bouquet.

Balan avoided the bombardment with movements no human should have been capable of, but lines of fire were mercilessly fired one after another into where he would move next.

He dodged those too with unbelievable movements, but the ones firing on my side were not human either.

As expected, using spirits had been absolutely the right answer.

With the current performance of my golems, I would never be able to finish this guy off.

The spirits fired lines of death at him competitively, as if they were playing a video game.

It was a shooting ability that no human could ever possibly possess.

From five hundred kilometers above the sky, they could search for an enemy who should have looked no bigger than an ant on the ground in real time, completely without any delay.

They could watch it as if it were a TV game screen, and no matter what movements he made, they could aim at impossible speed—literally an inhuman skill.

Even I probably could not escape unless I teleported.

If they blocked teleportation with their unique spirit magic, even I might have no move left.

Those guys were insanely good at putting up all kinds of barriers.

Well, there was also the option of shooting down the satellite itself with magic like an auto-tracking laser, but I had no confidence it would actually work.

Even that might end up being blocked by magic.

I was truly glad these guys were on my side.

I should really treasure the spirits’ blessing.

And even Balan, incredible as he was, finally could not dodge completely.

He probably had no idea what was being done to him.

He had not deployed a shield.

He was probably pouring all his mana into means of escape.

Most likely, he had sensed that deploying physical shields or magic shields would be pointless.

Smart.

Correct.

But die for me.

And then, he was finally caught.

I could tell.

The moment of checkmate.

Even though I was only watching the image from a distant place.

Before it happened, I understood it, not by logic.

There.

Next.

It would end with the next shot.

Surely, even if I were the one being targeted, I might understand the moment of my death.

However, in my case, I would probably “avoid that situation itself in advance.”

Even unconsciously, that was an ability that made such a thing possible.

That was what the Seventh Sense was.

When I was attacked by bandits, I had probably deliberately been in that place.

And the Seventh Sense had put me to sleep without setting an alarm.

Conversely, when necessary, it sometimes woke me up with a sudden feeling.

It had surely done that so I could obtain a means of entering the town.

In that instant, he wrapped himself in what seemed to be his prized skill, a scorching armor, and tried to deflect the attack, but it easily pierced through it.

For a moment, Balan had a look on his face as if he could not believe it.

He stopped moving just like that, but the next moment, he spun around and collapsed.

With a large hole opened in his belly, he was breathing roughly.

His internal organs had been completely destroyed, and perhaps the impact of the hit had left the nerves throughout his entire body in a mangled state.

It was strange that he was still alive at all.

Even he, incredible as he was, probably could no longer move even slightly.

The large amount of liquid overflowing from there showed how short the candle of his remaining life had become.

Though it was an extremely thin needle beam, a defenseless human body taking one hit from it would suffer enormous damage.

It was close to the damage an ordinary person would take from being hit by the overwhelmingly powerful, two-stage-speed machine-gun shell fired by a supersonic fighter jet.

The fact that he had not died instantly was worthy of praise, as expected of an S-rank adventurer.

He chanted recovery magic, and then, squeezing out the last of his strength, used a potion, but the wound was not repaired.

There, that learned man finally seemed to realize it.

A spirit’s attack was, in a sense, close to a curse.

The power of spirits became a blessing toward allies, and had an effect equal to a curse toward enemies.

In other words, he understood that I, the one called the Spirit Demon King, was attacking him.

Against Balan, the hateful enemy who had tried to attack the Rainbow Fals they worshipped, the spirits likely did not possess even a fragment of mercy.

I had also ordered them to finish him no matter what.

“Do it.”

I ordered without hesitation.

Likewise, the spirits had no hesitation whatsoever.

The spirit-magic shells, which pierced through any ordinary defense regardless of whether it was physical or magical, poured down like rain from the ten satellite units and smashed Balan’s body to pieces.

There was probably no longer anyone in this world who would know what had happened here.

The traces were far too slight.

When that fierce shooting from the super-high sky stopped, the figure of the legendary adventurer called “Balan of Scorching Heat” was nowhere to be found.