The Order’s Secret Weapon (8)

Kuntachi blocked the arrows flying at his older sister with his thick body. The arrows struck Kuntachi, but he wore thicker chainmail than before, so the arrows did not fully bury themselves in his flesh.

As the armor’s links snapped, the arrowheads pricked skin but failed to lodge, slipping back out. Then the talismans wrapped around the shafts unraveled, and electric sparks detonated.

“Gaaah!”

The electric sparks struck Kuntachi’s armor, and the lightning shock surged into his body. Camilla was not hit directly by the shock itself, but she still got thrown from her horse.

Azadine could detonate the arrows aimed at him out in front, avoiding any follow-up strikes from the electric sparks.

“You bastards!”

Azadine ground his teeth at the Northern Aragasa’s attack that had felled his subordinates. Then three more arrows flew at him.

These were talisman-wrapped arrows as well.

‘Those talismans are expensive, and they’re not holding back. Does the Northern Emperor have money to burn?’

Azadine scattered coins again, intercepting the incoming arrows. The arrows that collided with the coins exploded on their own, spewing electric sparks.

-Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon, Twilight!

Azadine’s afterimage absorbed the electric sparks in his place. Seizing that opening, Azadine smashed the watermill’s window and dove inside in an instant.

Attacks flew at him from both sides. Northern Aragasa operatives swung swords from either flank the moment Azadine approached, springing an ambush.

-Thud!

But as if he had anticipated it, Azadine knocked one away with a fist and the other with a kick.

It looked like light taps, yet the Northern Aragasa flew through the air, slammed into the mill’s shaft, and pitched forward onto the floor.

“Urgh!”

“Aaagh!”

Ribs broke and shoulders dislocated in a single blow.

No matter that they were Aragasa, they could not keep fighting with injuries like that. Just from Azadine grazing them, most of their combat capability had vanished.

“Oh, come on.”

Jan covered his face at the sight of his men getting handled by Azadine. And yet, it did not feel entirely bad.

His men had teased him endlessly about how he had once gotten beaten by Azadine and ended up moving together with him for a short while—so it served them right to taste Azadine’s bitterness too.

“We meet again, Jan.”

“Hey, let us make a living too. Isn’t this a bit much?”

Jan’s thick-skinned cheerfulness left even Azadine at a loss for words.

“Then I apologize. Jan. Vermilion Fortress needs talent, so I can at least make sure you have a way to eat.”

“And why would I go under you—someone treated like a nuisance even within the Rescue Knights Order—instead of the northern king who’s trying to become emperor?”

Jan understood very well what it meant that Azadine was a trainee knight—and that he had been exiled to the Chadra Plateau.

But Azadine remained calm and unbothered.

“The Northern Emperor was already a king. Meanwhile, I’m only a trainee knight for now—so if you come with me, you can become a partner in a great undertaking. How about starting as business partners instead of mere underlings?”

“Huh? That’s… kind of tempting. I knew you were someone who understands things.”

Jan was swayed by Azadine’s words.

“Then will you deal with me?”

“No, that’s… uh….”

“I’ve got a good plan.”

Azadine whispered to Jan in secrecy.

The mage and the goblins were escaping through an underground passage beneath the watermill.

The watermill had been built above the waterline so it would not flood when the river rose, and beneath it ran drive shafts to transfer power, along with maintenance corridors used to service those shafts. The mage and goblins were slipping out through that maintenance corridor.

“Over there! Goblins!”

Camilla, who had not entered the watermill yet, shouted as she attacked the mage with her shortbow.

“How amusing!”

The mage deployed a force barrier. Camilla’s arrows struck it and stopped dead.

“A puny human wench dares to slight me. I’ll kill you.”

The mage fixed Camilla with a vicious stare for daring to attack him. Yellow pupils like a snake’s gleamed with murderous intent.

But Camilla snorted.

“You dared to hurt my little brother?!”

“?!”

Only then did the mage panic as he noticed a familiar talisman wrapped around Camilla’s arrows.

A lightning talisman—the same kind the Northern Aragasa had used. Had some untriggered talismans remained? And now they were wrapped around Camilla’s arrows?

‘She picked up my talismans and recovered them? No—if she handled them wrong, they would’ve detonated. How can a mere girl handle my talismans?’

While the mage reeled at Camilla’s quickness, the talisman began to explode.

-BZZZZT!

The talisman detonated, and electric sparks engulfed the mage and the goblins.

“Kiiieeek!”

A goblin screamed and collapsed. The shock also traveled into Izmilla, whom the goblins were carrying, and she jolted awake from the impact.

“Hk—?!”

“Are you insane?! Weren’t you here to save this lady knight?”

The mage licked his lips as he redirected the incoming electric shock into a ward.

Though it had a dog-like head, a beastman with reptilian eyes and vertical slit pupils revealed itself.

“A kobold.”

As Bernard formed a hand seal, flesh and blood surged up from the goblin’s body that had collapsed from the lightning strike, then shot toward the kobold mage.

But the kobold mage also formed a hand seal to counter.

“Oom!”

A shockwave burst outward around the kobold mage, scattering the incoming blood and gore.

Then Camilla attacked again. This time, she fired a stone with a Shooting arrow.

The kobold mage spread the force barrier again to block it, but for some reason, the stone Camilla launched pierced the barrier and exploded right in front of him.

A powerful flash and thunderous roar stole the kobold mage’s sight and hearing.

“Gaaah!”

“Hoh?”

Bernard watched closely.

“Did you have a mana stone? When you joined the pilgrimage band, your belongings should’ve been confiscated in the body search. And after that, there wasn’t anywhere you could’ve been resupplied with mana stones.”

“Shh. It’s a secret.”

Camilla said that, hooked another mana stone to her shortbow, and fired again.

-Tap!

A stone struck the kobold mage’s head as he panicked in blindness, and blood ran down.

“Urgh!”

The kobold mage pulled out a scroll from his robes and unfurled it.

His sight and hearing still had not returned. More than that, the shock had robbed him of balance too—he could not simply run. One wrong step and he could fall to his death.

“Damn it all! You’re making me use even this!”

The scroll flared, and circles of flame began to draw themselves in front of—and behind—the kobold mage.

And from within them, a massive beast the size of an ogre began to emerge.

“Ah?”

“Everyone, be careful! That’s a demon summoning!”

Izmilla, regaining her senses, warned them.

She tried to undo the Shadowsteel chain binding her body, but she could not draw on her angelic power.

With her unable to move, the demon stalked toward her as she tried to retreat on the one foot that could still shift.

The demon resembled a bear flayed alive—magic fire flickered and flowed over its skinless muscles.

Above its head, two savage, threatening horns thrust forward. Lightning and flame were etched into their surface like tattoos, declaring it no natural creature.

Its tail, extending from the end of a spine running down its back, was nothing but bone—like a torture whip meant to strip flesh from prisoners.

Each step the demon took spread fire across the ground.

“Ah, that’s pretty strong.”

Just looking at it made an instinctive dread crawl up her spine.

“Better to hit the summoner!”

Camilla fired a stone from the Shooting arrow at the mage. The summoned demon shielded the mage with its body. When the mana stone struck the demon’s flesh, it melted away on the spot.

“It won’t even bite?”

Camilla groaned.

“Do I have to use it….”

At that moment, the demon’s horns began to glow, and six chunks of burning charcoal floated up beside its head.

“Ah, that’s extremely powerful magic. Can’t be helped.”

Bernard grumbled, then drew a wand from his sleeve and guided it with fluid motions, as if painting in the air.

A column of water began to surge up from the river.

-!!!!

When the demon uttered something incomprehensible to humans, the flaming charcoals shot forward. At the same time, the water streams Bernard raised surged toward the charcoals.

Six strands of flame and six strands of water collided, tangling and clashing like hydras trying to tear at each other’s throats.

A steam explosion erupted, and a deafening roar shook the air.

‘This guy isn’t just a blood mage…?’

Camilla was thrown off by Bernard trading spells with the demon as if it were nothing.

“Blood and water are similar enough.”

As Bernard said that, river water drew upward, forming a sphere of swirling current around him.

The demon’s horns flared, flames rose before both horns, and a powerful beam of fire shot straight out.

Bernard fired water streams from the sphere to meet the demon’s beam head-on.

Each time the water and fire collided, the water boiled and steam poured out in torrents.

“Urgh! What are these people?!”

The mage—finally regaining sight and hearing after the flash and shock—stared in disbelief at Bernard’s power as he traded spells on equal footing with the demon.

He tried to chant and force his way into the fight—

“Ah, that would be a problem.”

-Thunk!

A huge longsword suddenly burst through from his back to his chest.

Azadine, now out from the mill, had ambushed the kobold mage with a ceramite longsword.

“Ghk—?!”

Azadine lifted the sword that had impaled the kobold mage.

-CRUNCH!

The ceramite longsword tore through the kobold mage’s ribcage and withdrew. Blood sprayed like a fountain as the kobold mage collapsed.

With lungs spilling out from the severed chest cavity, it was an injury no one could survive.

-Grrrrr!

As the summoner’s life ended, the demon growled, formed a ring of flame on its own, and walked beyond it.

“Azadine!”

“Good work, everyone. Are you all right?”

“Yeah. Thanks to you.”

Camilla flicked a glance at Bernard. Even after using large-scale magic, he did little more than cough lightly, as usual.

“M-mm. I-it’s incredible. All of you.”

Still bound in chains, Izmilla pushed herself upright.

“Shadowsteel chain, huh?”

Azadine examined the Shadowsteel chain binding her body and undid it.

There was no lock—just the links wrapped and rubbed together—yet Izmilla had been unable to move at all. It was astonishing.

Azadine held the separated Shadowsteel chain, swung it a few times, then threw it at a nearby wooden pillar.

Whip! The Shadowsteel chain coiled around the pillar and stuck fast. Even when he tried to pull it free, it did not come loose easily.

“A pretty good chain.”

Azadine realized this Shadowsteel chain was an extraordinary treasure.

It could bind a Celestial so she could not move, and it wrapped around targets just by being thrown—making it convenient to use as well.

‘If the enemy might have more of these, I’ll need to be careful too.’

Azadine pocketed the Shadowsteel chain and turned back to Izmilla.

“All right then… I’m glad you’re safe, Sir Izmilla. Can you explain what happened?”

“Ah, Sir Azadine. Thank you for your help. Without you, I would have been kidnapped without being able to do anything.”

“You’re an angel, right? One made within the Rescue Knights Order.”