Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (WN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: 31

14-31 . Water Peach Kingdom (4)

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Although I think Hikaru's flag-like line isn't the culprit, several Wyvern Riders from Rumooku Kingdom's area are coming here flying .

"Pihyororo~?"

"That sounds like a flute we've heard somewhere isn't it?"

The source of the sound seem to be the Wyvern Riders although we can't see them here because of the trees obstructing the view .

"Guaaaaa"

"Uuruururururu"

"Faooooooo"

I shift my glance toward the queer sounds, the tied kidnappers on the ground are writhing in agony while anguishing .

Parts of their bodies and faces are moving like different creatures, it's quite a horror .

"Uge, that seems dangerous!"

"Princess-chan, come here with your little sister! Keep a distant from these guys . "

Arisa screamed, the female adventurer urged the two princesses to escape with the adventurers .

"Hikaru! Take care of the wyverns . "

"Leave it to me!"

Hikaru kicks the tree and disappears into the sky .

She should be fine with that side .

"What about Tama~?"

"I'm counting on Tama to protect Arisa and the others . "

"Nin nin~"

Tama joins her hands in Ninja-style and runs to Arisa .

The kidnappers cut their binding while I was feeling grossed with the spectacle and stood up after becoming grotesque-looking .

I remember these figures .

They look like someone who has excessively taken Fiend Drugs .

The difference is the existence of the wriggling red rope-like light magic circles on their bodies--They're likely the human version of the [Red Rope Monsters] that attacked Shiga Kingdom's Royal Capital .

--What a bad taste .

I'm sorry for the adventurers who are holding their sword and wands in alert, but I'll deal with this quick .

I hate splatter after all .

I invoke the advanced force magic [Magic Arm] to immobilize the kidnappers, and drain their magic power all at once with [Mana Drain Thorn] .

This magic is a version of [Mana Drain] that works against many people at once, furnished with thorn-like light that grow in all directions as a visual .

The quantity of the MP drain is less than the original but it's more than enough for these guys .

The kidnappers whose magic power have been drained become mummy-like .

It's still better than being grotesque-looking but it seems they won't go back to their original figures like the people who were addicted with Fiend Drug .

--Nn?

The luminous points of the adventurers reflected on the radar are moving toward the Shadow Castle .

Come to think of it, that female adventurer undertook the job of carrying the [Magic Creature for Intelligence Gathering] into the Shadow Castle from the weaselkin huh .

She probably took Princess Rumia to open the barrier .

"--Master!"

When I turned around to Arisa's voice, I saw Arisa and the others being pulled by countless black hands toward barrier's beyond .

I immediately used space magic [Article Pull (Abort)] to pull them back, but it was canceled in vain .

--I forgot that this was a teleportation-prohibited area .

While regretting my foolish mismanagement, I moved to the foremost black hand with Ground Shrink and helped Tama escape from it .

It seems Holy swords can easily cut the black hands but they grow back every time they're cut so Tama couldn't escape from them .

I stretched my hand toward Arisa but tsunami-like shadow hands pushed me away, she got kidnapped together with the princesses and the others to beyond the barrier .

"Barrier~?"

Tama repeatedly hits the surface of the barrier that was closed before her .

Then, Hikaru came back while dragging beastkin people who seemed to be the Wyvern Riders .

"Satou, I've defeated them--wait, what about Arisa and the others?"

"They were taken by the shadow . "

Looking at the map, Arisa and the others seem to have been taken to the innermost room in the maze-like castle .

"Wait a minute, I'll use the barrier puncture magic--"

"There's no need . "

I stopped Hikaru's talk midway .

--Things like barrier, I'll just tear them off .

I'm being dominated with a slightly violent thought from the impatience of losing Arisa .

While doing self-analysis like such, I throw away my restrain and extend my hand at the barrier .

--Huh?

For some reason, the barrier doesn't reject me, my hand is slipping right through it .

Tama who's still hitting the barrier is still denied of entry .

I tried to pull Tama's hand and we could enter together .

"Hikaru, let's go together . Tama, wait at the rock with the carved seal board after you've delivered these guys to the knight . "

"Un, I got it . "

"Tama will wait . "

Hikaru agreed with my instruction, Tama nodded and talked with a stiff not-slow voice .

After patting Tama's head once to relieve her, I took Hikaru along beyond the barrier .

--Now, let's go help Arisa .

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"<<DANCE>> Claiomh Solais"

Hikaru uses Claiomh Solais to turn the Shadow Sentries blocking our way into dust .

I wonder if it's just my imagination, I feel that the Shadow Sentries are only attacking Hikaru since awhile ago .

Perhaps they remember about their fight with Hikaru a long time ago?

While getting distracted by that, we passed through the forest and arrived before the castle .

There's a cliff before our eyes and a pitch black castle towering over us on top of the cliff .

"They're coming again!"

Shadow Sentries are appearing one after another from the shadow of the trees and rocks .

It's like a spawn point with unlimited spawn, and even if a hundred of them appear, they're nothing but a hindrance since they're only level 30 .

Furthermore, they don't exist on the map until after they've appeared which is annoying .

--<<Remote Shining Javelin>> .

Just like the name suggest, homing spears that emit intense light defeat the Shadow Sentries .

Once I, who was ignored by the sentries, defeated one of the them, they seemed to deem me as an enemy and started to attack me .

"They don't give you experience, so we'd better use 『Light Net』 to catch them and leave them alone!"

"Got it . "

Following Hikaru's advice, I use several Light Nets to catch the pursuing sentries, stopping them .

Thanks to that, we successfully invaded the castle .

It seems Arisa and the others are in the innermost room of the castle, [Master Room], in fainted states .

I can't use teleport and Clairvoyance magic so I can only see them from the map's information .

The situation uncontrollably worries me .

"Ichirou-nii, Arisa would be fine, you shouldn't get impatient . "

"Yeah, I'm just worried if Arisa would go too far . "

I replied Hikaru with a light tone somehow .

Still, my mind was able to calm down somewhat from the conversation .

We quickly advance the path after thanking Hikaru .

With Arisa's current ability, she should be fine even against a demon lord, but I can't say that out loud .

Some god or great demon lord feel like they'd appear if I do that .

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"--Hikaru, let's stop a bit here . "

I let Hikaru who's breathing roughly to rest, take out an accelerated magic gun and annihilate [Shadow Sentries] and some mixed level 50 [Shadow Knights] with [Holy Bullets] .

The bullets hit the wall and got repelled while leaving sound like when you drop waterdrops at hot oil .

. . . . Stopping holy bullets huh, that's quite a sturdy wall .

Still, on top of the increasing enemy level, their spawn rhythm has increased too .

We're just wasting time if this keeps on .

Arisa and the others are not injured for the time being, but on top of not knowing the other party's objective, there's no guarantee that they will keep being safe .

Wonder if I can make a short cut somehow?

I took out a small white knife from Storage and cut the wall with it .

--Yup, looks like it'll go well .

"■■■■■■■■　■■　■　■■■ . . . . . "

Next, I point a wand made of [True Silver] that has good magic accuracy diagonally toward the wall and begin to chant the forbidden spell of destruction magic [Banishing Perforation] .

"Ichirou-nii, the wall here can't be broken you know . The child who came with me in the past said that it had 『Non-Destructive Element』 . "

I lift the corner of my mouth to reply Hikaru .

We'll see the result soon .

The forbidden spell consumes magic power that equals the Meteor Shower's .

I can't afford the chance of Arisa and the others getting injured so the target's direction is the opposite of them .

" . . . . ■■■■■■■■■ Banishing Perforation . "

A collapsing phenomenon from the concept of [Destruction] that can't be comprehended by the science I know is slowly destroying the wall .

Judging from the preface of the spell code, it seems to be a spell that recreates the power of dragon fang that [Penetrates all] .

--Still, the control of the magic is difficult .

If I lose focus, the power of [Destruction] might even erase me as the user .

I maintain the wand that feels like it'll fly off with my physical strength, enduring until the spell ends .

The wall in front of me has been erased, and many walls beyond it are also bored through .

In the end, it seem to even reach the sky .

"Uwah, you really destroyed the wall . "

Hikaru muttered in astonishment .

I drink a magic potion and calm my rough breath .

This was a test to see whether the wall could be broken with magic, but I used a white knife made from the remain of the black dragon's fang to test whether it could be broken itself .

"Now then, time for the real thing . "

I use [Banishing Perforation] once again in order to create a shortcut in the maze-like corridors .

Unfortunately I couldn't pierce through the target location .

Judging from the sensation, it seems the area surrounding the [Master Room] is protected by an Anti Magic type of barrier .

"Let's go . "

"Un, let's!"

Together with Hikaru, I jumped into the hole created by the [Banishing Perforation] .

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"Tubes? Hikaru, do you know what is the facility here?"

"U~n, I didn't reach here when I came before so I don't know . "

After entering the door at the end of the hole, we came into a room full of glass tubes that looked like the ones used to create homonculus that I saw in the Royal Capital .

Among many of them, one has some kind of liquid with something floating inside .

"--But there's no mistake that this is an important facility isn't it . "

"That seems to be the case . "

Shadow Knights appear in every direction of the room--and they're strong at level 99 to boot .

Hikaru might get hurt if I don't fight them seriously .

--Eat this .

I cut down the Shadow Knights with the advanced light magic [Photon Laser] .

I understand from the fights so far, these shadows are weak against light magic indeed .

--This is bad .

The Photon Laser that hit the wall was reflected and cut down the unexpected facilities .

Glass pieces are scattered, black sparks paint the space .

"Ichirou-nii, behind you!"

A Shadow Knight is closing in even while breaking down into dust .

I fill the holy sword Durandal I have in hand with magic power and imitate the light magic finisher that hero Hayato showed once before .

--<<Shining Blade>> .

The shock wave produced by Durandal annihilated the Shadow Knight like an ink dropped into water .

"Ichirou-nii, you overdid it!"

Glass pipes and equipment as tall as a person are breaking one after another behind Hikaru who's running toward the exit at full force .

Looks like they're broken by the after-waves of the light magic and the finisher .

The one with something floating inside is protected by Flexible Shield so it's safe . I collect the pipe into the Storage as is .

I'll check the inside after we've saved Aria and the others .

While deploying wind magic protection to evade the dust, I follow after Hikaru .

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"Arisa!"

After kicking a monochrome door that's as tall as a person, we came into a place that looked like a throne room .

It appears the level 75 [Great Shadow Knight] that were endlessly spawning just before aren't appearing in this throne room .

This place is filled with serene atmosphere .

And, Arisa and the princesses are sleeping on the gigantic 10-meter tall thrones on the back .

I reach it in one leap with Flash Drive and wake Arisa up with wakening magic .

"Ehehe, Satou"

The half-sleeping Arisa hugs my neck, I stop her from stealing my lips by pining her forehead .

"I'll do as many kisses as you like later, just wake up quick . "

"Fue?　--Eh, Master?"

Arisa who was laughing nihe nihe with half-asleep eyes woke up and got back to her sober face .

Apparently she didn't hear my statement earlier .

"I'm sorry, I've become a drag . "

"It's fine as long as you're safe . "

I can manage somehow as long as she didn't die .

On the other hand, I noticed that Hikaru who's under the throne seemed strange .

"Ichirou-nii, look at that!"

Hikaru points at-- .