Chapter 97: Assault
Two men were observing the village from afar.
“So that is Hestia Village.”
“Yes.”
“Can it really change that much in just a few months?”
The burly man expressed his surprise.
The far east, a place where no one dared set foot.
And even closer to the border, seeing a village standing normally on those lands gave him a strange feeling.
“Didn’t they say that until a few years ago it was impossible for a new village to take root in this land?”
“It was. The perception of the far east is just that bad.”
“Then how did they accomplish this?”
“There’s no choice but to admit they have skill. The full support of the Pascal Guild, Lorga’s declaration of alliance, and even the southern region of Hallim joined them. Isn’t that practically alchemy?”
“Alchemy? Well, considering how money is flowing there, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it that.”
It was not merely surprising.
They had transformed that wasteland into something resembling a gold mine.
“And all of that under the name of Perda Valdrova.”
“He is a dangerous man. If he continues expanding his power like this, the plan could be affected.”
“Hmm……”
The man silently observed the village.
The burly man, watching his back, made a suggestion.
“What do you think about appearing now?”
“No. That does not fit our plan.”
He answered coldly, as though cutting with a sword.
“From the beginning, what we need is Valdrova’s isolation. What do you think would happen if we openly appeared and destroyed Hestia?”
“Wouldn’t they lose cohesion?”
“No. They would unite even more. Just like during the Demonic Dragon War.”
The Demonic Dragon War.
Upon hearing those words, the burly man also calmed his excitement.
There was no greater humiliation for demons than that incident.
“That thing humans call a just cause is terrifying. Once, they united under the name of exterminating demons. Even now, when only remnants remain, they still continue trying to exterminate them.”
“True.”
“That is why we must leave them alone. So that their descendants lose awareness of the demonic threat.”
The man murmured as though reciting poetry.
“Peace rusts swords, peace wears down walls, and peace also makes humans foolish.”
The burly man nodded at that plan.
But he could not rid himself of the uneasiness weighing on his chest and eventually asked.
“Even so, if we leave them alone like this, won’t they continue increasing their power?”
“Of course. That cannot be ignored either.”
If they destroyed them, they would ruin the greater plan.
But if they remained hidden, they would continue strengthening Perda’s center of gravity.
Everything began when Perda Valdrova accepted the engagement.
“So perhaps it would not be a bad idea to plant a few seeds.”
The man revealed a hand hidden beneath his robe.
His fingers were extremely thin and pale.
Those fingers drew a vertical line in the air.
Then, before him, a shining crack full of colors opened.
And from it emerged wolves.
— Grrrrrr……
No.
They were monsters shaped like wolves.
They came out one by one from the crack and lined up.
All of them had eyes devoid of reason, yet they were obedient.
They waited like loyal dogs recognizing that hooded man as their master.
The man gave the order in a polite voice.
“Lay waste to it.”
— Grr! Grr!
The monsters charged forward the moment they heard the order.
Creatures filled only with destruction and malice began running toward Hestia Village.
***
“War situation! Gather all soldiers and notify the adventurers! I repeat! We are in a state of war! All officials evacuate the residents, and all soldiers capable of fighting gather immediately!”
Isabella, who possessed authority as commander during emergency situations, shouted loudly.
“How many are approaching?”
“Fifteen.”
“Fifteen…”
Isabella was busy sending magical communication messages to gather forces.
Meanwhile, Erika remained silent while observing the ground.
‘This is strange.’
She mentally stepped back and viewed the situation from a broader perspective.
‘A sudden monster appearance. And fifteen of them on top of that.’
The recent incidents.
The current circumstances.
And even exaggerated hypotheses.
Without hesitation, she searched for the answer that best fit the situation.
‘Perhaps…’
Erika looked at Isabella and said,
“Bella! Will you be alright without me?”
“You do not intend to participate?”
“There must be someone responsible behind this monster invasion. I’m going to find them.”
Five different magical communications continued entering Isabella’s ears nonstop.
She frowned and replied harshly.
“The children of great Lorga are guarding the rear. Do not worry.”
“Thank you.”
Erika calmly analyzed the situation and deployed magic circles.
Unlike normal mages, who could create only one, five circles revolved around her.
That was Erika’s true capability, the famous Blue-Eyed Tower Master and leader of the Blue Dragon Spawn.
Multicasting.
She could chant two spells at the same time and prepare five spells simultaneously.
Erika activated the first one.
“Go. Become my eyes.”
The energy gathered within the magic circle transformed into dozens of blue sparrows that flew off in all directions.
Those birds, imbued with movement detection magic and mana detection magic, began searching for suspicious individuals.
Just as her title implied, Blue Eyes that monitor all magic, no one could escape her tracking.
The eyes of the sparrows spread beyond the village and reached the dense forest.
Then they detected something.
“I found them.”
Erika immediately deployed another magic circle she had prepared beforehand.
It was teleportation magic.
She instantly fixed the coordinates and appeared directly above the blue sparrow that had detected the target.
What she had previously perceived only as a magical form could now be clearly seen with the naked eye.
Erika did not hesitate.
Anyone who released monsters would be treated as a demon.
And because of that, she immediately activated the spell she had prepared.
“Bending Time.”
A high-level magic that infinitely slowed time at a specific point.
At Erika’s level, she could even stop it completely.
Everything affected by the spell froze in place.
Two spells remained.
She fused them and created a new magical geometry.
A strange spell that only Erika could use.
Elemental Demolition.
A brutal and destructive magic that used the repulsion of two opposing elements to erase everything around it.
It was absurdly destructive, but Erika did not care.
She would not leave even the slightest opening for the demonic remnants that once tried to dominate the continent.
However, just as she prepared the spell, her senses reacted violently.
The sharpened senses of a Dragon Spawn.
And within her vision, something was reacting.
‘Impossible.’
Time was literally frozen.
Nothing inside the area could move.
But Erika did not blindly trust her own logic.
And that ended up being the correct decision.
Inside the space where time should have been stopped by Bending Time, something was coming toward her.
An enormous black figure with a fierce face extended a gigantic hand.
The moment Erika saw that hand, she understood something.
If she got caught, she would die without being able to do anything.
The monstrous hand grabbed her leg.
No.
It only grabbed the place where her afterimage remained.
Erika had already escaped using teleportation.
She landed on the ground and regained her stance.
Before thinking about preparing another spell, she first analyzed what had happened.
‘Did they nullify temporal magic?’
The leaves, the crawling insects, everything remained frozen and motionless.
The magic was still functioning.
But there was one single exception.
A man in a gray robe.
Only he completely ignored the spell and looked at Erika.
‘How is this possible?’
The normal way to resist Bending Time was to deploy resistance magic.
But until the very instant it activated, there had been no sign of resistance.
Everything had been frozen and vulnerable.
That was why Erika had attempted to deliver a decisive blow.
How could he move freely inside a frozen space?
“You seem very surprised.”
The man’s voice echoed clearly in her ears.
“To think that a descendant of the great Lorga and the Wisdom of the Twelve Expeditionaries would be so surprised by a demon.”
The man’s voice sounded mocking.
Erika regained her composure and calmly replied,
“That’s true. I’m surprised to discover there are still things capable of surprising me.”
“That is good news. It means we have not regressed.”
Shortly afterward, the enormous figure that had leaped through the air landed on the ground.
Booom!
The impact was as heavy as his own mass.
The man knelt behind the hooded figure.
Without even turning around, the hooded man asked,
“You failed the surprise attack?”
“She reacted faster than expected.”
“That is normal. After all, the target is one of the Twelve Expeditionaries and the leader of the Blue-Eyed Tower. It would be strange if she died defenseless.”
The eyes hidden beneath the man’s hood became slightly visible.
Black pupils shining like obsidian and red eyes.
The calmness and contempt contained within them stirred Erika’s deep fury.
‘I should kill them all…….’
But unlike her desires, reality was not so simple.
The price of failing to cast high-level magic had been too great.
Because of magical backlash, she had not only lost mana, but even the mana within Erika’s body had dispersed.
‘There’s no choice.’
Set human magic aside temporarily.
Erika slowly moved her hand behind her.
The canteen hanging from her belt.
She was going to open it.
Pop!
The moment it opened, the contents inside began swimming along her fingers.
The water formed a ring around her.
One of the giant man’s eyebrows rose.
“A water ring?”
“Lorga represents not only magic, but also water.”
“Hmph, and what can you do with a little water?”
When the giant mocked her, Erika extended her hand forward.
Part of the water ring became a droplet and floated above Erika’s palm.
“I can do something like this.”
The moment she snapped her fingers, the droplet shot forward in a straight line like a bullet.
The giant extended his hand to block it.
“Ugh?!”
The water-pressure bullet cleanly pierced through his body and even perforated his heart.
“Kuagh!”
It pierced through his chest and exited through his back, even flying toward the young man standing behind him.
However, it failed to penetrate the magical barrier covering his body and bounced off.
“Kuugh…… what was that? It was barely a drop of water…….”
“Didn’t I say it? Lorga represents water and magic. And on top of that, it’s magic used by its leader. It would be strange if it failed to pierce your skin.”
“You should say those things beforehand.”
“Aren’t you the type who prefers feeling it firsthand?”
The giant showed an expression of absolute astonishment.
But the one who was even more shocked was Erika upon seeing those two conversing so calmly.
‘I fired with the intention of killing both of them…….’
Erika’s water droplets possessed devastating power.
When they pierced the heart, the rotation and pressure of the water should have completely shredded it.
Even for a demon far more durable than a human, it was impossible to avoid a fatal wound.
But the demon who had been pierced simply treated it like a minor injury, as though he had merely been poked somewhere, and stood back up again.
‘And it did not even penetrate the demon behind him.’
That simple magical barrier surrounding his body already possessed that level of power.
‘And they are merely demonic remnants, yet they possess this level.’
At minimum, they were Noblesse class.
And one close to the Emperor level.
Now that both Bending Time and Elemental Demolition had failed, Erika no longer had any real means of fighting.
‘There’s no choice except to retreat and prepare better.’
She deployed a teleportation magic circle.
The circle activated and enveloped Erika’s body.
But she did not teleport.
“Cough!”
Instead, blood burst from her mouth.
Without understanding what was happening, she began coughing blood and staggering in pain.
‘It feels like my organs are twisting.’
She knew perfectly well what kind of side effect this was.
It occurred when an imperfect teleportation was executed.
‘Did I make a mistake while forming the magic circle?’
Impossible.
Erika had lived for over a thousand years and had used teleportation magic hundreds of thousands of times.
She was so proficient in it that she could draw a magic circle and relocate somewhere else even while asleep.
‘That means that man manipulated something.’
She had been miserably deceived.
Erika looked up at him with an expression full of fury.
“Did you really think you could leave as easily as you entered?”
A dense and mocking smile could be felt in his voice.
She wanted to grow angry or respond coldly, but she could only bend forward and groan.
“Since the Lady of the Tower greeted me with such enthusiasm, I suppose I should respond as well.”
He pulled a finger out from inside the robe.
His hand was completely white, not black.
That finger pointed before him and traced a vertical line.
A multicolored crack opened and expelled what was inside.
— Krrrk.
— Krrrk.
They were demonic monsters shaped like wyverns.
They beat their wings and rose into the air.
There were more than twenty at minimum.
For Erika, cornered as she was, it was a desperate situation.
The man’s finger pointed toward her.
“End her life.”
— Kieeet!
The wyverns all charged toward Erika at once.
It was then.
A heavy gust of wind descended upon them.
An object so enormous that it completely blocked Erika’s vision appeared like a barrier.
The wyverns died in a single blow.
Boom!
As it embedded itself into the ground, a violent cloud of dust rose up.
Erika opened her eyes and saw the object.
It was an axe.
A gigantic war axe, as though it had been made for a giant.
Erika knew the owner of that weapon.
Unlike that brutal axe, its bearer had a small figure.
But she was a silver-haired girl with martial abilities so outstanding that she possessed the title “Nightmare of the Frost Giants.”
“Greetings, Lady Erika.”
It was Ruri Silverwind.
“I heard you had visited the territory and came running immediately, but was it perhaps an unnecessary intrusion?”
Erika wiped the blood from her lips with her index finger.
“I showed a disgraceful appearance to Lady Valdrova’s maid.”
“I do not mind. But I think it would be better if you paid a little more attention to your manners from now on.”
There was no need to deeply question Ruri’s words.
Because they immediately sensed someone approaching.
A suit black as night.
Gray hair and blue eyes.
He was tall, though his figure had a slender and delicate appearance.
However, no one could consider him weak.
His eyes remained fixed on the enemy without the slightest tremble, as though an army of ten thousand men marched behind him.
Perda Valdrova.
He majestically positioned himself beside Erika.
Haimiya_cutie.
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