Chapter 270 – Turmoil in the Magical Kingdom

“Benedict… you bastard. Have you forgotten the debt you owe for being taken in by His Highness?”

One of the Black Knights spat venomously as Elliot stepped forward, but the Black Knight captain silenced him with a gesture.

“Captain Ragnar…”

“He seems to have business with me. You all follow His Highness’s will.”

“Yes, sir!”

Elliot and Ragnar faced each other from a distance. Ragnar narrowed his eyes and smiled.

“I won’t speak of debts.”

“I didn’t think you would prioritize personal grudges.”

“It’s nothing of the sort. In the end, I simply stick with His Highness because I enjoy fighting. Though my subordinates admire me, the Vice-Commander is better at commanding group battles. And besides… I thought it would be interesting to see how much you’ve grown since then.”

Ragnar twisted the corner of his mouth happily as he said this and took a stance with his blazing longsword.

“I see…”

In response, Elliot… directed his cold gaze and ice rapier toward Ragnar. Then—from the side, a tsunami of frigid air came rushing in.

As if it were a signal. They stepped in from both sides simultaneously. Both kicked off the ground and closed the distance. In midair, ice and fire swords clashed, producing a sound like evaporation.

The audience chamber was covered in ice. While continuing their deadlock in the air, Ragnar laughed.

“This wide-range cooling magic is your sister’s! And you can fight in midair too? You’re full of surprises!”

“You’re a flame magic user. This magic shouldn’t affect you much.”

“That’s right. Entertain me, Benedict!”

“That is not my name!”

“Ah, that’s true!”

“Freeze…!”

A large Magic Circle shone in Ashley’s upraised hand. The Magic Circle converged into a pure white sphere of cold air, which she slammed into the ground. From that single point, the entire audience chamber began freezing over. Ice covered the floor, and from it, ice pillars shot up everywhere, piercing through to the ceiling. 7th Class Water Magic: Icicle Palace. A base defense magic that seals a wide area with ice. It was a spell with long duration that continuously transformed the effective range into a world of extreme cold.

“An ice practitioner! Quite skilled!”

“We can break the barrier with our miasma technique if we’re not interrupted! First, scatter the nuisances and crush that silver-haired girl maintaining the Defense Field!”

The Black Knights had identified King Eberhart and Princess Adriana as their targets. That was the command given by their master, Zadias.

King Eberhart had to be killed, and Zadias had to declare his succession to the throne. How to handle Princess Adriana and Princess Stephania wasn’t yet certain… at best, they would be confined or taken hostage, otherwise they would likely be killed as well.

But to achieve these objectives, they had to destroy the barrier spread throughout the audience chamber. To destroy the barrier, they ultimately had to eliminate the practitioner constructing the Defense Field who stood in their way.

So in the end, this was—the form of combat they excelled at.

The Black Knights formed ranks and simultaneously fired miasma bullets at Ashley in the heart of their defensive position. However—ice walls and ice pillars formed, blocking most of the miasma bullets.

“A blessing! The miasma bullets weaken at longer distances!”

“Deal with it using normal magic!”

Even if they changed their attack methods, the attenuation from the Defense Field still occurred. Ashley and the others in the defensive position effortlessly blocked the projectiles.

In return, lightning strikes, ice shotguns, light bows and arrows, sound bullets, and more came raining back at them.

Exchanging arrows at long range was ultimately just a warm-up. Neither side took damage thanks to the miasma shields, but—Ashley’s Icicle Palace remained active. Meanwhile, the temperature in the audience chamber continued to drop. Their breath turned white.

“So their aim is to freeze us with delayed combat…!”

“But wouldn’t they suffer in low temperatures too?”

“I doubt they’re unprepared.”

That Black Knight’s intuition was correct. With Tephra’s blessing active, the Icicle Palace that should affect both sides worked exclusively to the Black Knights’ disadvantage.

Then perhaps they could break through the defensive position with golems—but when they scanned the area, a chilling scene came into view.

—A woman fighting evenly with a giant golem, and the figure of a massive knight.

Frankly speaking, those fighting the golems were monsters. If caught in the crossfire, they would be crushed along with their armor regardless of whose attack it was. They could only be seen as exceptionally unfavorable opponents for the Black Knights. Since they were perfectly contained, there was nothing to be done, but the same went for the other side.

“…We’ll have to charge in, accepting the casualties. If we charge with miasma at full power, we can suppress the Defense Field’s effects to some extent.”

“Four of you charge in. The rest follow from slightly behind and provide covering fire. We’ll draw the enemy rearguard’s barrage! Charge in and crush them!”

“Yes, sir!”

Seeing that long-range attacks were getting them nowhere, just as the Black Knights advanced, Sheila and Dullahan emerged from the defensive position as if in response. But if they left the defensive position, that was exactly what the Black Knights wanted. The Black Knights fired miasma bullets while Sheila and Dullahan weaved through the gaps in the barrage. Both sides charged at ferocious speeds.

“Step aside, you beast-woman!”

A lightning-wrapped sword swung downward. Sheila leaped diagonally upward as if to avoid it.

The Black Knights tracked her with their eyes, trying to predict her trajectory to slam miasma bullets into her.

But with a right-angle turn that was natural for Sheila but seemed like mockery to the Black Knights, she crossed right before their eyes. The miasma bullets fired by three of them pierced uselessly through empty space.

As they reacted to Sheila’s movement and tried to follow her with their eyes—sticky threads showered down upon them. She wasn’t even looking in their direction. She fired them from diagonally behind with precise trajectories.

“Guh!?”

The Black Knight whose vision was obscured struggled to remove the threads stuck to his face, but they weren’t something that could be dealt with so easily. His left hand that touched them also got stuck, making the situation uncontrollable.

“Dodge it!”

“That’s impossible.”

Another man shouted to his comrade, but with his vision blocked and his left hand immobilized, there was no way he could react to Sheila and Dullahan’s movements. Covering fire risked friendly fire. Sheila’s matter-of-fact voice echoed, and the next moment, the hind leg of Dullahan’s steed kicked the Black Knight in the back of the head, sending him tumbling down. Even protected by his helmet, it couldn’t block the impact entirely.

“One down.”

“Don’t mock us!”

Enraged at the sight of their comrade falling with his eyes rolled back, they fired miasma bullets, but they couldn’t get a clear aim on Sheila who moved away in irregular patterns. Using ice pillars as shields, she would circle behind them and then fly out in completely different directions.

“What kind of movement is that!?”

“Verdgar’s Flight Technique!”

“Don’t force your aim! Roughly is fine! Fire across an area!”

“Do you think we’ll let you?”

As the rearguard tried to perform suppression fire with miasma bullets on Sheila, Irmhild’s light arrow grazed through their midst. When Seraphina’s Cursed Melody Amplification spread a high, clear sound, the Flight Technique was disrupted, causing the Black Knights to nearly fall for a moment.

Though they quickly recovered, the vanguard’s situation had already shifted by then. Saucers came flying in rapid succession—two, then three. They blocked with swords and deflected with shields, but then Sheila, who had vanished, circled around from the side and kicked a helmet flying.

“Guh!”

Perhaps because the Black Knights understood that Sheila would target gaps in their armor, they kept their sides closed and halted in midair, trying not to show openings. The logic was probably that they only needed to be wary of the threads. Swords wrapped in Fighting Spirit could be blocked with Fighting Spirit, allowing them to turn it into a contest of Sword Arts. Besides, Sheila couldn’t maintain the same movements forever. Her Vitality was limited, and using magic tools consumed Magical Power.

But—the kicked Black Knight had stopped moving. Dullahan’s massive sword approached without a sound and mercilessly swept through. Perhaps because it was enhanced by miasma, it didn’t bisect him, but it hit with enough force to crush him along with his armor, sending him flying.

He seemed to barely maintain consciousness, but of course he couldn’t avoid the mass of sound fired from Seraphina’s horn either. The Resonance Bullet shook his skull right through his helmet. It destroyed his eardrums. It disturbed his vestibular system and reaped his consciousness.

“Did you think you were safe just because you’re protected by armor?”

“That makes two.”

“You bastaaaaaard!”

Ignoring Sheila and Dullahan, one of them desperately squeezed out all his miasma, wrapped it around his body, and forcibly charged into the defensive position. The remaining vanguard was frantically trying to track the movements of the Saucers dancing around, Sheila’s circular trajectories, and Dullahan’s location, leaving no room for counterattacks.

But the Black Knight who charged into the defensive position—that was as far as he got.

“Too bad. Farewell.”

Claudia’s Teleportation Magic activated from the side. He was transported to the first basement hall of the labyrinth where the fully-equipped Verdgar Knight Order was waiting. One Black Knight against the Verdgar Knight Order who had experience fighting Half-Demons. The difference in combat power was insurmountable.

“What was that just now!”

The watching Black Knights raised bewildered voices. One of their comrades had vanished from the spot.

Annihilation? Teleportation? At any rate, it meant that even solo forced breakthroughs weren’t permitted. The moment the last vanguard was distracted by his comrade’s disappearance, sticky threads were pasted to his back, and through the threads, Marlene’s Lightning Strike reaped his consciousness, sending him falling down.

Then Sheila and the others turned toward the rearguard. They raised their swords to meet them, but they didn’t come straight on. They scattered left and right.

Before they knew it—the number of opponents had increased. Sheila, Irmhild, Dullahan. Countless Saucers dancing everywhere. The ice statues created by Ashley and Lavigne were covered by illusions created by Marlene. They traced circular dances as if to surround the remaining Black Knights.

“Th-this can’t be…! What are these people…?”

“Why… are we so helpless…?”

Meanwhile, the temperature continued to drop. It was no longer just cold—but had transformed into pain, an extremely low-temperature hell. Even the sensation of gripping their swords was being stolen away. The sounds they heard became jumbled, distant and near… Even knowing they were illusions, they could no longer distinguish between real and fake. The Black Knights could only gaze at the scene before them, shuddering at their own situation.

“Let’s go.”

As if taking Ashley’s area magic as a signal, Grace charged into the black golem. Her opponent had a massive frame surpassing Ignis. Precisely because of that, Grace’s movements were several times faster.

Moving at arrow-like speed that left no shadow, Grace easily slipped into its guard. Using her momentum as she passed by, she slammed her axe into an unarmored part.

“This is—”

A sensation unlike anything she’d felt before. It sank in only as much as the force of her strike, then the golem’s body itself pushed Grace’s axe back with absurd elasticity.

She was knocked backward. There, the black golem’s straight punch roared as it approached. Grace met it head-on. When she struck it aside by slamming her axe from the side, the golem’s arm bent like a giant tree flexing. But that was only momentary. It just flexed, then returned to its original shape with added momentum.

The problem wasn’t the armor it wore, but what lay beneath. The black golem’s body itself possessed extraordinary elasticity, making it impervious to both slash attacks and strikes. That was its characteristic. The armor on its arms, legs, and body wasn’t for defense, but for offense. They were nothing more than blunt instruments to tear apart and crush opponents.

It flexed its arm to build momentum, then unleashed attacks as if the flexing giant tree had become a whip.

She intercepted with her Fighting Spirit-wrapped axe. Undaunted by the ridiculous difference in size, she knocked aside each of the golem’s blows, slipped through, and delivered Fighting Spirit-infused slash attacks. But even those didn’t work.

“…I see. The Magic Kingdom’s golems have quite unusual abilities.”

Grace frowned slightly, looking somewhat displeased.

Meanwhile, the white golem—was putting on quite a show against Ignis and Rosemary.

It didn’t possess the extreme elasticity of the black golem. But attacks didn’t penetrate. Even when they hit, there was no response.

Ignis’s War Hammer roared as it struck through the white golem’s flank. But then a pale blue wave of light ran across its entire body—soon that light gathered in its fist and was fired as a magic bullet.

The various magics Rosemary fired to support Ignis yielded similar results. The moment they touched the white golem’s armor, they were absorbed as if sucked in, replaced by waves of light running across the armor surface, then converted into counterattacking light bullets.

“Absorbing magic and impact—. Converting it into magical power and transforming it into attacks… I see. Quite efficient.”

Rosemary maintained some distance from the white golem, evading the magic bullets while observing the golems.

Both were probably created with the assumption of suppressing the Silvatoria Knight Order and magicians. Using overwhelming defensive capabilities as a shield, they would trample and annihilate with mass. Making them impervious to both magic and strikes.

With Theodore as an exception—it would be difficult for anyone but Grace or Ignis to properly face them.

The white golem and black golem. Should they switch opponents? No, they should each continue as they are.

Just as Rosemary finished that calculation, the white golem that had broken through Ignis attempted a body slam. Leaping back, she extended a magic thread to Ignis. Pulled by the connected Ignis, she changed trajectory and escaped danger.

The white golem crashed into the wall. It converted that impact into magical power. It fired a magic bullet aimed at Ignis. Ignis shattered the magic bullet head-on with his War Hammer.

The clash between Ignis and the white golem. Merely crossing weapons was equivalent to letting the white golem prepare its next shot. The magic bullets fired incessantly at Rosemary. It lowered the power of each shot and fired them from its fingertips. Deflecting them all was difficult. Ignis moved into the line of fire to become his master’s shield, shooting them down with his hammer and fists.

But those were forced movements. While Ignis’s movements were restricted, the white golem’s fist caught him.

The power wasn’t that great. Because it was converting its own strikes. But magic bullets from point-blank range were different. A direct hit. Ignis was forced to step back. There was nothing wrong with Ignis himself, but… she had no intention of testing how durable the Doll was.

Rosemary frowned with displeasure. Using Puppet Strings was probably inadvisable too. Because the moment they touched, they would excessively drain her magical power.

The Black Golem charging toward Grace—crouched deeply as if gathering momentum, then launched itself forward using elastic force like a bouncing ball. Even when Grace deflected it with her axe, it flew straight toward her like a rebounding sphere. It spun its body, tearing through the air with its armor. It didn’t matter if she dodged. Just as it shattered one of Ashley’s ice pillars, Grace released her axe. The chain wrapped in fighting spirit coiled around the Black Golem’s body, and when Grace pulled, their movements reached a stalemate.

“Don’t think you can hold back Luvanche and Spaela alone forever! I’ll crush you all soon and offer those clever little girls as blood sacrifices!”

Zadias roared as he assessed the battle situation.

“Hmph…”

Rosemary scoffed at his words.

Indeed. Zadias’ judgment that the situation was favorable based on the Golem’s fighting style—was correct in one sense.

Grace facing the Black Golem… even with regenerative abilities, couldn’t match a pureblood vampire. So even one direct hit would tip the scales heavily in the Golem’s favor.

What about the White Golem and Ignis? In terms of strength and armor… basic comparisons would favor Ignis. However, Rosemary, who appeared to be its master, was a mere human. The only question was how to break through Ignis and attack Rosemary waiting behind it.

But. Even so, the expression beneath Rosemary’s feathered fan remained unchanged.

“—What a nuisance. Isn’t that right, Grace?”

“Absolutely. Opponents that can’t be dealt with using an axe… I despise them.”

While handling the Black Golem’s chain attacks resembling a storm with just one axe wrapped in fighting spirit—Grace also showed a faint smile. Her crimson glowing eyes and fangs peeking from the corners of her mouth.

“But their power source… appears to be perfectly ordinary magical power.”

“They’re not even living beings to begin with. What does it matter?”

Saying this, Grace and Rosemary briefly exchanged glances and laughed.

The chain entangled with the Black Golem. And the magic threads connected to Ignis. Changes occurred in each.

The chain absorbed magical power, while the magic threads supplied it.

With incomparable explosive speed, Ignis stepped forward. It hooked its claws into the armor and lifted the White Golem’s massive body using the momentum.

“That’s right—. If they’re not living beings. If it’s not blood, it doesn’t matter—but even so, I truly despise it.”

Right nearby. While continuously parrying the Black Golem’s attacks, Grace spoke. Contrary to her words, she felt a violent impulse welling up inside herself. Her lips formed a ferocious, splitting smile.

Through the chain wrapped in fighting spirit. A pale light was drawn from the Black Golem toward Grace’s hand.

Energy Drain. Stealing the magical power that served as the Golem’s energy source, absorbing and assimilating it as Grace’s own magical power—. One of the vampire’s fundamental abilities. Enhanced by her Moonlit Dress, she could use it anytime.

The reason she normally didn’t show this ability… was simply because she hated it. And because she had no need to use it. That was all there was to it.

Seeing this, Rosemary laughed.

“Conversion creates significant losses and is inefficient. Even my enhancements to Ignis are like that. Now—. I wonder how much power this Golem can withstand?”

While still holding the White Golem overhead. Without any warning, destructive power was unleashed. Rosemary’s Pile Bunker, charged with all her magical power, was fired at maximum output.

A deafening roar and explosive wind. The pile shot out with tremendous force slammed into the White Golem’s abdomen.

Absorption—couldn’t keep up. Piercing through the magical conversion armor, boring a hole through the Golem’s main body and spreading cracks. The explosive wind magic released inside further widened the cracks. As the Pile Bunker was withdrawn, Ignis’s War Hammer coming from the side caught the Golem.

A distinctly different, dull sound compared to before. Cracks spread rapidly from the pierced hole—and the White Golem shattered in two from the torso.

“Fufu, ahaha! Aha-ha-ha—!”

Meanwhile, the fate of the Black Golem that had its magical power drained was equally miserable. The elasticity it maintained by consuming magical power was lost, and whether it extended its right hand or left hand, Grace’s axe—accompanied by roaring laughter—chopped them to pieces, scattering fragments.

Pulling her other axe back to hand and stepping forward. A jump. The axe wrapped in fighting spirit left behind black lightning-like afterimages as it cleaved the Black Golem from head to waist in a bamboo-splitter motion.

It didn’t end. Grace didn’t stop there.

Her feelings toward Theodore and Lisa. Her emotions toward Zadias and the Black Knights. The self-loathing from being forced to use Energy Drain. All these fueled Grace’s destructive impulses.

Almost simultaneously, she grabbed the shattered arm of the White Golem dancing through the air and, using centrifugal force, hurled it outside the audience chamber.

Where it landed—was the airship. The crew remaining aboard had moored it alongside the audience chamber, ready to retreat or fire at a moment’s notice.

They didn’t even have time to fire. The White Golem smashed through the airship’s side and crashed inside. Following that, beams of light from the White Golem’s still barely functioning arms pierced through the airship from within.

Whether that—caused any fatal damage to the airship. As if sinking to the ocean floor. The airship began descending—at a slow pace—toward the castle’s courtyard.

——The gleam of ice and the afterglow of flames intertwined and clashed. Neither yielding, they struck sword against sword. The disadvantage of mass due to using a rapier was compensated for with enveloping ice.

Ice spears and fireballs fired at close range while swords clashed. Evaporated ice turned to mist, and from the mist, ice shotgun pellets were fired, which Ragnar extinguished by enveloping himself in flame armor. Their respective specialty techniques interfered with each other, preventing either from becoming decisive.

Ragnar blocked Elliot’s slash attacks with a Miasma Wall. As he flowed with the attack to reposition himself and showed a stance to strike, Elliot fired water blades toward his back.

“Tch!”

Intercepted with a Flame Sword. But unlike ice, water blades couldn’t be completely blocked. They caught Ragnar’s helmet.

Speaking of Elliot, using Ashley’s created ice pillars as footholds, he flew sideways before creating distance and turning back around.

Ragnar tore off his helmet. Fighting Elliot with the helmet’s visor would limit his vision. That’s why his reaction to the water blades was delayed.

“Is this payback?”

Ragnar bared his teeth, pointed at his own face with his thumb, and looked toward Elliot.

The wound Elliot inflicted on Ragnar was aimed at roughly the same location—though not exactly—as the burn scar on Elliot’s face. It had slipped through the helmet’s gap, leaving a cut on his cheek.

“I merely thought I could take your right eye through the helmet’s gap. If I couldn’t finish you, it’s meaningless.”

“Kuku! I like you! Not finishing me off was the right choice!”

Ragnar laughed, then stepped forward with a longsword in his right hand and a flame whip in his left. Elliot enveloped his entire body in ice armor to counter the whip’s irregular trajectory.

In aerial combat, the advantage likely lay with the more experienced Ragnar. However, Ashley had erected numerous ice pillars as obstacles, preventing him from utilizing his mobility effectively.

In contrast, Elliot’s movements were reflexive—repeating minute jumps while controlling Levitation from shield to shield. Since he moved while killing inertia, obstacles didn’t bother him much.

As a result, the advantage-disadvantage gap wasn’t that significant, and they fought while rapidly changing locations—in the air, on the ground—neither particular about their battlefield.

Crossing swords as they passed each other, clashing Miasma Shields against ice shields. Forcefully kicking each other away, striking when off-balance. Bouncing away to disengage. Turning around for slashes and thrusts. Flames and ice blades grazing cheeks. The flame whip approaching from unexpected directions, while Elliot’s widely dispersed ice thorns entangled it. Their magics interfered with each other, exploding into steam.

“This won’t get us anywhere!”

The extreme temperature difference between heat and cold. Shattering ice blocks. Scattering sparks. Swords growling as they sought to take each other’s heads. Parrying, clashing, pounding each other with magic at close range.

When both were repelled, Ragnar deployed a Magic Circle. A giant sphere of fire swelled above his head. In response, Elliot also deployed a Magic Circle.

Ragnar’s magic completed a moment faster. He unleashed the great fireball forward. Elliot’s ice blocks, fired slightly later, collided head-on.

A momentary stalemate, then one side prevailed. Ragnar’s magic won due to its momentum. Shattering the ice and scattering explosive winds in the fireball’s path. The blast flames and ice shotgun pellets swallowed Elliot as he crossed his arms to defend.

Ragnar charged through the explosion. Swinging his blazing longsword as if to behead Elliot.

A hard impact. When he completed the swing, an ice helmet went flying through the air.

“Wrong—!?”

What remained was just a shell. Only the ice armor Elliot had been wearing. Elliot had shed the armor from the back and escaped, now charging from Ragnar’s left side with wind-like speed. The rapier carried not ice, but fighting spirit—!

“Tch!”

Thrusting his left palm toward the incoming rapier, he created a Miasma Barrier. Elliot’s rapier, wrapped in blessing and fighting spirit, pierced through the barrier and skewered Ragnar’s left palm.

As if he’d anticipated this, Ragnar clenched his already-impaled left hand and raised the sword in his right. If Elliot dodged, he’d follow up with a Miasma Slash. At this distance. With his weapon trapped and in his flesh body, Elliot had no way to avoid it—!

“Got you!”

But Elliot stepped forward instead. Taking the base of Ragnar’s descending blade—with his shoulder—killing the slash’s force, stopping the blade with bone. Completely disregarding everything, he released his rapier and grabbed the wounded palm with his bare right hand.

“Rotten Blood!”

“Gah!?”

From the wound on his left hand. An indescribable numbness and something like terror spread throughout his body. An intense interference that allowed no resistance. He couldn’t even swing his longsword, let alone hold it properly.

“A reverse healing—spell…? Kuku, for a technique used by a magic knight known for purity, that’s pretty filthy…”

“It’s a spell formula my sister taught me. I won’t permit mockery.”

A massive block of ice formed around Elliot’s clenched right fist. He’d released his rapier when using Rotten Blood. Indeed—against armored opponents, this was more reasonable than slashes or thrusts. Especially since his opponent was poisoned—.

The ice fist was unleashed. Smashing through Ragnar’s chest, the shattered ice fragments striking his face along with the impact. That was all—Ragnar’s consciousness faded to black as he plummeted downward.