Chapter 405 – Obsession and Determination

The animals born from the book formed a battle formation centered around the black-mantled spellcaster.

…There are quite a lot of them. This must be preparation to prevent our escape and compensate for numerical disadvantage.

“…They have magical power but no life signatures, it seems.”

I couldn’t tell whether it was the book’s power or the black mantle’s own technique, but the animals’ movements didn’t feel like they had their own will. They weren’t familiars or magical creatures, but rather something controlled by spell formulas.

Do those Ink Beasts move in coordinated patterns under the caster’s control, or do they automatically perform predetermined movements through spell formulas with a single command? Or perhaps they could switch between both.

“Understood. Then we’ll handle the interception.”

Grace, Dullahan, and Ignis seemed to have chosen interception upon hearing my words.

They positioned themselves slightly away from the rearguard, blocking the front and sides. This was to avoid involving everyone in a chaotic melee with their heavy weapons, and to avoid directly confronting those people.

While their weapons were difficult to use with restraint, they could wield them to their heart’s content for intercepting the Ink Beasts.

“I’ll take the front, Sigritta.”

“…I’ll provide support.”

Black Mantle—the one controlling the book was Sigritta, while the one wielding the unusually shaped sword with blades on both ends was Marceska.

Sheila would likely handle Marceska who intended to advance forward. As Marceska kicked off a tree trunk and leaped, Sheila matched her movement, flying sideways.

“Your Highness Elham! Lady Auria! To my side!”

“Yes!”

“Mm-hmm!”

To counter their numbers, Ashley deployed her Defense Field. Marlene, Claudia, Rosemary, Irmhild, Seraphina, Auria, and Princess Elham. Centered around the defensive position, the rearguard showed a stance of protecting each other’s backs.

“…Go, all of you. First… deal with those who have come forward.”

And then—in response to Sigritta’s quiet voice, the animal horde began to move. They spread out above, below, left, and right to encircle us, but didn’t immediately attack the rearguard. They must be prioritizing encirclement to prevent escape.

Instead, beasts likely under Sigritta’s direct control spread out left and right while advancing toward Grace and the others.

Grace’s glowing red eyes narrowed, and her axe, shining with fighting spirit, roared as an eagle and wolf charging from above and below with staggered timing were each sliced cleanly in half vertically and horizontally. The moment they were cut, they returned to ink, vanishing into the void as black stains.

Each individual beast didn’t seem particularly strong, but there were many of them. And as expected, they were probably being coordinated by Sigritta.

Sigritta, having assessed the weight and speed of Grace’s attacks, furrowed her brows. The floating book’s pages turned, and the beasts’ movements changed. Rather than charging straight at the vanguard, they seemed to have chosen a tactic of maintaining subtle distances while attacking from blind spots.

“Lavigne!”

In response, Ashley and the others laid down a barrage to prevent them from circling into blind spots.

“They’re coming for us too!”

As if responding, part of the beast horde pressed toward the rearguard, but were swept up by the Wind Spirit summoned by Auria and slammed into the grove, then entangled by Claudia’s black thorns, rendered immobile.

Sigritta was likely aiming for the same thing as us. She immediately abandoned control of captured beasts, turning them into black stains. As if to replace them, she produced fresh ones from the book.

By simultaneously applying pressure and dividing our forces against both vanguard and rearguard, she seemed to be moving the beasts to maintain one-on-one situations, preventing Sion and Marceska from being attacked. In other words, she must be confident in one-on-one combat, which was exactly what we wanted too.

Marlene was also using her Saucer defensively, and Rosemary seemed to be gauging the situation while refraining from forcibly cutting through to Sigritta, instead maintaining distance and applying pressure to counter.

And then—Marceska, who kicked off the grove and charged in, clashed violently with Sheila who met her attack. The sound of weapons clashing rang out.

Marceska’s movements—were they like a dancing whirl? She spun her body and weapon like a top or windmill, wielding the dual-bladed weapon to unleash seamless slash attacks.

Sheila also engaged her, gripping her Pearl Swords still sheathed in both hands. When an upward-scooping strike came, Sheila deflected it with her right sword, then used the recoil to bring a blade down from above toward her shoulder. She intercepted with her left sword. Both were knocked back as if repelled. Sheila immediately reversed and charged, while Marceska kicked trees two, three times to change direction and face Sheila head-on.

Both seemed to be types who fought utilizing speed, rapidly exchanging blows while constantly shifting battlefields from air to ground and back. Apparently, she was tracking Sheila’s illusory movements visually. Whether she reacted to attacks from vanished positions due to sharp instincts or something like an Evil Eye remained unclear.

Sheila, perhaps to conserve magical power consumption, was also kicking off tree trunks to charge, same as Marceska.

“Not bad.”

“Amazing!”

Sheila’s brief words and Marceska’s somewhat cheerful voice.

“Good grief. Does Marceska… properly understand our objective?”

Sion, facing me, seemed to frown at Marceska’s behavior… but didn’t take her eyes off me.

“If you have an objective, I’d really like to hear it.”

“I said I wouldn’t answer.”

When Sion swung her sword through the void, crescent-shaped trajectories remained suspended in place. Leaving only the slash trajectories behind, Sion simultaneously flew diagonally upward right. Kicking off a tree, she sharply changed trajectory and charged.

Then, the next instant, the crescent slashes remaining in the air also came at me with slight time delays.

I dodged the incoming slashes from above. Naturally, both the main body and slashes would strike where I had been moments before—but Sion caught the slashes she had supposedly launched earlier with her blade, changing their trajectory and launching them again toward me directly above.

I spun my body to dodge the incoming slashes. Though they looked like slashes, their nature seemed closer to strikes, perhaps because she was using the back of the blade. The one I avoided snapped branches and pierced through the canopy.

While dodging, I kicked off a Shield and charged toward Sion. Sion also charged to meet me in close combat.

We crossed paths, slamming Ouroboros and the back of her sword against each other. Braced upside down with my Shield, I knocked Sion away. Sion’s eyes visible through her hood gap widened, but she rode the momentum of my repelling motion, jumping backward. Then kicking off a tree, she rebounded sideways while launching slashes like before.

Though called slashes, they differed from fighting spirit types. Magical power. Yes. They gave the impression of solidified magical power with some strange wavelength being launched directly. They might be similar to Irmhild’s Light Arrows. If so, whether it was safe to take their properties head-on was questionable.

Assuming they had some additional effect, it would be better to handle them without making contact whenever possible. Without blocking with my staff or Shield, I avoided them by the narrowest margins while pursuing Sion.

“What strange movements!”

Sion said this while deploying a Shield at her feet, stopping firmly in place.

I thought she might be capable of the same aerial mobility methods as me—but that must have been improvised mimicry. Perhaps due to unfamiliar control, Sion’s body sank slightly along with the Shield.

Not missing that opening, I swung Ouroboros down from a high stance. Sion blocked with her sword held horizontally. Had she already applied the Shield control? Her sunken body was firmly fixed in place. And so—we remained suspended in midair, exchanging slashes and strikes.

When I deflected a diagonal strike with Ouroboros held obliquely and launched a roundhouse kick toward her neck, Sion showed a stance of meeting it with her left fist concentrated with magical power, as if to swat it away. Just before impact, I deployed a Shield on my kicking leg and collided with her left fist. Upon impact, a Magical Shockwave erupted from my kicking leg through the Shield.

“What!?”

Sion’s left fist was knocked away. Using the recoil of being knocked back myself, I unleashed an upward-scooping strike with Ouroboros. But Sion also matched me, performing a midair somersault. Evading by a hair’s breadth, she kicked off a Shield and flew toward a tree trunk.

Had she learned to manipulate Shields as footholds already? Impressive Sense and motor skills. While I couldn’t gauge her magical power scale and output, her control ability seemed quite high. And it appeared none of the three possessed the same Flight Technique as demons.

Weaving through the grove, we repeatedly rebounded off tree trunks and Shields, clashing staff and sword.

“Go!”

Distance opened momentarily. When Sion clenched her fist, the numerous slash trajectories she had left in the air turned into shockwaves and flew at me from all directions.

So she could leave as many as she wanted and launch them in any direction. I launched a rock mass toward the front—where Sion was—to cancel them out. Breaking through the scattering fragments while deploying Shields, I took the shortest path. The slashes coming from left and right immediately behind me collided and exploded.

Sion flew backward while deploying an unfamiliar Magic Circle. And then—Sion’s body split into two, flying left and right. Not a Mirage Body. One was Sion’s main body. The other was Sion’s shadow. Not an illusion like Mirage Body, both had substance. The tree trunk kicked by the shadow shook. Drawing an acute trajectory, it rebounded. Charging in as if to pin me between them.

“Nemea! Capella!”

With a roar from the Chimera Coat, the lion and goat leaped out to intercept the doppelganger. I met the main body head-on. I blocked Sion’s slash with Ouroboros. It wasn’t a slash that could be stopped one-handed, but I simultaneously deployed Shields to support Ouroboros. With Sion’s movement stopped from taking the blow head-on, I fired low-level wind bullets at point-blank range.

“Khh!”

Sion caught that with her free arm—and was pushed down backward with her whole body. The shadow also retreated belatedly.

The shadow magic seemed to be a fairly advanced spell formula. Between controlling the shadow and the suspended slash waves, plus Shields for offense and defense, her parallel magic processing must have reached its limit.

“Unbelievable. That there are people like this in the outside world…”

With distance opened… Sion sheathed her sword and secured it with the clasp. Not that she had given up. She maintained her stance. The moment she realized the shadow wouldn’t be effective even if properly controlled, she dismissed it.

The reason for sheathing her sword was clear. Blade, back, tip. If she didn’t use all of them, her slash directions would be limited, thus restricting her Sword Arts too. When dealing with adventurers, strikes with the back of the blade must have sufficed. So from here on out, this could be called Sion’s full power.

Sion’s expression was utterly serious. Persistence or conviction? These types could never be taken lightly. Because you never knew what they might do. What… drove them to such extremes?

“I’d like you to at least tell me the reason.”

“…People from Nahalbia… letting everyone meet them would only make them sad. So, you must go back.”

“Is that what Sion’s master said?”

“I told you. We’re doing this on our own.”

I see. Though she said they stole memories, those weren’t Sion and the others’ possessions either, but items owned by the sinners. So for Sion and the others, it was a last resort, and they hadn’t chosen not to use it on the adventurers they drove away—they couldn’t use it.

“Even if you hear that the King of Ignorance is secretly maneuvering to revive the demon lords’ alliance?”

“King of Ignorance…? Who is that?”

Ah. That must be our side’s name for him.

“The one who destroyed Nahalbia thirty years ago. But we also know the sinners are bound to the forest for some reason. So they must have parted ways with the King of Ignorance. Truly… we didn’t come here to harm anyone. There’s no reason for us to deliberately pick a fight.”

When I said that, Sion closed her eyes.

“We just don’t want those people getting dragged into battle.”

So that was the reason. They had been protecting them all this time. Unless they were certain our words were true, they couldn’t let us through. Then—

“Actually, hearing the circumstances through Sion and the others would be fine too.”

“If we lose, I promise.”

“And if you win?”

“We’ll convey the necessary information and only erase unnecessary memories, inconvenient memories. The method… we’ll think about it when the time comes.”

…I see.

“Understood. I promise.”

If they had something they were trying to protect and had been acting all this time, merely losing probably wouldn’t make them give up.

But unfortunately, we couldn’t back down either. Even if the information was inconvenient for the sinners, it might be absolutely essential for us.

And Sion and the others would likely try to protect them at all costs, right down to the wire. So we couldn’t relinquish the initiative.

Sion, having taken distance and assumed a sword stance, took a deep breath. Then she looked straight at me.

“Here I come—!”

“Come!”

Sion kicked off a Shield and charged at maximum speed along the shortest path. I met her head-on without retreating.

High-speed slash combinations and thrusts following the slashes. A ferocious speed exceeding even before. The blade tip grazing my bangs. The sheath thrusting just beside my tilted head’s cheek.

While refining magical power within my body, I exchanged blows with Ouroboros. If we overshot, we immediately reversed, rebounded, and clashed. Leaving numerous Shields among the trees while scattering low-level magic bullets and slash waves. We laid down barrages as if reading each other’s moves while passing at high speeds, hindering the opponent’s movements while charging forward.

“Shadow!”

Sion’s roar. A Magic Circle deployed, and part of the doppelganger—specifically, just the sword-gripping arm—emerged from Sion’s body. It delivered a sweeping strike. I blocked it with Nemea’s Claw. From the opposite direction, Sion’s main body’s sword approached. I also met it with a sweeping strike from Ouroboros drawn far back. Just before impact, Sion gritted her teeth and released her sword, having the shadow grapple Nemea.

She was prepared to take a torso-slicing strike from Ouroboros—a suicidal sacrifice. She must have intended to suppress the movements of the Chimera Coat and Dragon Staff. I too deployed a Magic Circle.

Slash waves came charging at me from the grove with staggered timing. Sion’s open palm also glowed with magical power. Sion’s aim was clear. She planned to stop my movement, pour slash waves from all directions, and carry out an attack willing to self-destruct.

Intersection and impact. Explosions from colliding slash waves. Both Sion and I had stopped moving.

Swaying unsteadily, Sion’s body collapsed. I caught her falling body.

The strike from Sion’s main body was stopped by multiple Shields. Conversely, my palm strike—having released Ouroboros—had caught Sion under the chin.

Sion’s Failure was attempting to directly touch me to stop my movement. Using that opening, I employed short-distance teleportation to evade simultaneous attacks from all directions by both of them. Simultaneously with the teleportation, I drove in a Palm Strike and reaped Sion’s consciousness.

“Sion!”

“I’ll go!”

Seeing Sion’s defeat, Sigritta and Marceska’s expressions changed dramatically. Sigritta tried to charge toward me astride a pegasus she had created from her book, but—

“Stop!”

A loud voice shook the air.

“I came to see what all the commotion was about… Sigritta, Marceska. You have lost. Stand down.”

Among the trees of the forest stood a white-haired woman holding a Khakkhara.