Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 190
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Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 190
44. Center of the Incident (6)
A trap set with far too much care.
The enemy struck as if they had been waiting for the leadership to gather.
"Damn it, is this the Grand Duke Lawrence's doing?"
This was not a method befitting the Holy See.
That was why the suit-clad man Grandal judged that Adrian was behind it all.
Such cunning schemes were known to be Adrian's specialty.
Selin and her companions, who had been told beforehand that Adrian had met with Saintess Sylvester, nodded in agreement, but the merfolk man, who knew nothing of that fact, could only furrow his brow.
"I'm going back."
But the merfolk man chose to flee first rather than argue with them.
If he were caught here with the demon worshipers, he wouldn't even be able to deny it.
He ran toward a small hole in a corner of the underground cavern connected to the river and squeezed his body through it.
The hole was barely big enough for a person's head, but the merfolk, as flexible as a cat, slipped through without difficulty.
"What do we do?"
When the merfolk who had been sitting at the round table fled without looking back, Selin asked her companions with a baffled expression.
The dark-skinned man, as if to say why even ask, knocked his fists together.
"The Saintess and the Holy Son must be among them. Kill those two bastards, and the rest are just a rabble."
Overconfidence.
But they possessed the skill to back it up.
Selin seemed to share the thought and nodded.
"I agree. When else will we get to fight them all in one place? They've made a mistake."
Unlike those two, however, Grandal and the androgynous-looking figure shook their heads.
"No, we retreat."
"What? Why!?"
"Thanks to Selin, they've seen that our combat strength is nothing to scoff at. Yet they still launched a surprise attack that means they're fully prepared on their end too."
"Grandal is right. There's no need to risk total annihilation."
Two arguing for battle, two arguing for retreat.
Their opinions clashed, but Selin and the dark-skinned man readily yielded their stance.
Even if they didn't like it, they had never lost out by listening to the two who opposed them.
"Nothing we can do then."
The four approached the cavern's only entrance.
"What about teleportation?"
"It's blocked. Still, they won't get here anytime soon."
Fortunately, the path leading to this cavern was like a maze, so the enemy would inevitably waste a great deal of time reaching them.
They judged the success rate of their escape to be plenty high.
"My lord!"
"Sir Grandal!"
As they walked along the corridor, the four's retainers emerged from all directions and joined them.
Thanks to that, the number of demon worshipers quickly surpassed thirty.
And so, they picked the least conspicuous of the maze's many exits and slipped out.
"Hah..."
The place they escaped to was a small ravine along the Styx River.
But what was this?
The humans, who should have been struggling to find them, were camped out in the ravine.
The visible Holy Knights and priests alone numbered at least five hundred.
They appeared to be better armed and stronger than the clergy Selin had killed last time.
But the real problem wasn't the rank-and-file Holy Knights and priests.
"Saintess Sylvester, Holy Son Avis, and even the cardinals."
At the center stood the Saintess and Holy Son, leading 7th Circle priests with cardinal titles and Master-class Aura Holy Knights.
And that wasn't all.
Beside the Holy Son and Saintess stood an extremely handsome man.
The demon worshipers narrowed their brows at the sight of him.
"Looks like we've been dancing in the palm of the Grand Duke Lawrence's hand."
Grandal, the de facto commander who had planned their operations, gathered intelligence, and issued orders to his comrades, asked Adrian with a deeply subdued gaze.
"So the explosion was that a trap to lure us out?"
"Correct. There was no reason to make a fuss without knowing how the place was laid out inside. Nor was there any reason to abandon the advantage of numbers and fight you in a cramped space."
"How did you know we'd escape to this place?"
"I didn't scout this location in advance. I simply followed your movement route."
"You tracked us? How? We already discarded the fake Holy Relic."
"We treated that fake Holy Relic with a special process. So we could easily track the location of anyone who touched it."
"Such a technique exists?"
"You're experiencing the results firsthand right now, aren't you?"
To be precise, it was the result of utilizing Myriad Mirror's ability, but Adrian saw no need to reveal the truth.
After all, there was no way for them to verify whatever he said.
At that, one of the demon worshipers a dark-skinned man sneered at Grandal.
"There's a bastard even worse than you over there."
Grandal let out a deep sigh, and as he drew a longsword from his subspace, everyone prepared for battle.
"Ha!"
And as Selin, who let out a snort, unleashed countless swords into the air from her embrace, the battle began.
* * *
[Selin Viola / Dark Sword Mage]
-Grandmaster-class Dark Knight, 7th-circle Black Mage
[Grandal Magnus / Dark Crusader]
-Grandmaster-class Dark Knight, Dark Priest
[Gark Edil / Dark Crusader]
-Grandmaster-class Dark Knight, Dark Priest
[Romanti Harman / Necromancer]
-8th-circle Black Mage, Necromancer
Frowning, I checked their combat capabilities through Myriad Mirror to assess the enemy's strength.
Because every single one of them was a hybrid possessing two combat abilities.
If these bastards decided to go all out, bringing down an entire nation wouldn't even be a challenge.
'Is that even possible?'
I'd heard demon worshipers grew stronger quickly, but this was just beyond common sense.
Especially that Selin Viola, who wielded a hundred swords she was both a Grandmaster and a 7th-circle Archmage.
If not for her black mana, she had a pretty face too anyone would think she was the protagonist.
Quite stylish for a villain, don't you think?
And among the subordinates following them, there were no small number of Aura Master-class Dark Knights and 7th-circle Black Mages either, so the overall quality was extremely high.
I had to realize anew just how dangerous demon worshipers were.
"We have the advantage in numbers, but victory won't come easily. Especially those four their multiple abilities feel intricately mixed together. Be careful."
I advised the Holy Son and Saintess.
The two nodded in acknowledgment.
"Die."
The opening strike came from the Magic Swordsman Selin Viola's swarm of Sword Aura blades.
She launched a hundred swords blades that moved like a single organism, fake constructs forged by magic, but each one swiftly and precisely coated with Aura Blade at the point of impact, making every single one as good as the real thing.
But "as good as the real thing" ultimately means it isn't real.
"Flame Storm."
At my gesture, a massive blaze surged up and swallowed Selin's swords whole not her troops.
Flame Storm is a 7th-circle spell, but due to my higher realm, it had become a beyond-7th-circle spell.
The intense flames instantly melted away the swords that were merely flying via Fly magic except for the four true Sword Aura blades that had Aura Blade layered on them.
'Dealing damage to the enemy while individually contending with a hundred swords isn't easy. So just make the hundred swords the attack target instead.'
That was one of the strategies I'd devised against her.
When Selin's attack was so easily blocked, the demon worshipers' camp looked at me with shocked expressions.
Surprisingly, only Selin curled her lips upward and judging by her lack of fluster, she must have known this kind of counter was possible.
"Red-haired girl, want to play with me?"
I crooked my finger at Selin, whose eyes met mine, and she let out a sneer before nodding readily.
Since she had already declared beforehand that she would take on me and Arcia, no one interfered even as I moved away from the group with Selin.
"What? 2-on-1?"
Naturally, I was with Arcia.
Selin spoke in complaint, but not a shred of unease showed on her face.
"Does it look a bit cowardly after all?"
"No, I'm just wondering if the two of you will be enough."
A reply full of confidence came back to my question.
Quite a dashing display of arrogance, wouldn't you say?
I moved very far from the main camp.
At that, Selin twisted her expression.
If she managed to take us down, it was a perfect position to flee.
In other words, my action meant I wasn't keeping defeat in mind at all.
-Phat!
But as Arcia's and my equipment transformed and swapped in a flash of light, her eyes went wide.
I drew the Holy Lance, a Magic Staff woven into a robe coated with Orichalcum, while Arcia swapped her previous Force equipment for the newly crafted Adamantite and Orichalcum gear.
My gear was impressive, but Arcia donning full Adamantite armor with twin Adamantite swords and twin Orichalcum swords spread like wings across her back, and now drawing her Holy Sword radiated a presence that was second to none.
The equipment she wore alone was worth the Empire's national budget.
And as I cast an 8th Circle Hellfire and aimed its tip at Selin, her expression shifted.
"What the hell are these monsters?"
That was the remark that slipped from her lips.
"Too much talk, wasn't there?"
I gave her a cold smile and gifted her the Hellfire spell.
A black flame that shot straight in a single line.
And right behind that black flame, Arcia charged forward ferociously.
"Tch!"
Realizing this was no situation to take lightly, Selin hastily unleashed new swords from her subspace.
This time, they weren't steel they were full Mithril blades, enchanted with various resistance spells.
-KWAANG!
Her Sword Aura, coated in Aura Blade, canceled out the Hellfire in midair.
But the hellish flames erupted into a massive explosion, and as Arcia's arm burst through the blast that shook both sight and senses, swinging the Holy Sword, Selin could only hurl herself backward in a hurry.
Then she swiftly sent all 100 swords flying into the air.
-PAPAPAPAK!
As if to say the same trick wouldn't work twice, the swords spread wide at even intervals and flew viciously, surrounding Arcia as they closed in.
Compared to attacks in a cramped space, these might be easier to dodge, but the different aura and different speed made each one no less formidable.
Selin's all-out attack was, in a word, like light itself.
"What?"
-KWAANG!
Yet her attacks failed to land a solid hit easily, and instead, she nearly got her abdomen pierced by Arcia's Sword Aura.
"Ugh!"
She barely managed to block Sword Aura with Sword Aura, but whether due to the difference in material strength or the holy attribute of Orichalcum, her sword bent at a right angle and dealt a considerable blow to her abdomen.
Taking two steps back, Selin hardened her expression and voiced her complaint.
"That item advantage is outright cheating."
Selin's strategy, part two predicting attack trajectories through pattern recognition.
Thanks to that, we managed to keep our bodies intact even amidst the terrifying wave of swords.
And then came Selin's strategy, part three.
That was sheer gear power.
Crushing with the strength of money.
"Gear power is a skill too."
"Damn rich bastards."
I could swear I heard Blake's lament from somewhere or am I imagining it?
Somehow, I feel like Blake would say this wasn't the kind of victory he'd hoped for.
* * *
Not just Adrian + Arcia's fight against Selin every battle was raging fiercely.
"O God! Judge the evil that stirs chaos upon the world!"
"Damn fanatics!"
But fierceness didn't mean the battles were evenly matched, because the Holy See's forces held the upper hand in power over the demon worshipers.
Watching the enemies steadily suppress their strength, the demon worshipers could only panic.
-KWAANG! BANG! KWAANG! KRACK!
Yet if one had to name the person feeling the most bewilderment right now, it would without a doubt be Selin.
Because her battle, contrary to her own expectations and likely Blake's expectations, who had stoked this fight from behind was flowing one-sidedly.
And that, with Adrian and Arcia dominating overwhelmingly.
"Kuh!"
With the Hellfire exploding at close range, Selin took the full brunt of the shockwave, getting flung backward as she spat blood.
She staggered to her feet, and when she raised her head, what met her eyes was a pitch-black shield.
-KAAAANG!
She, who had barely risen, was sent flying again by a shield charge.
Thanks to that, Selin lost her finesse in Sword Aura control, and whatever grandeur she had at the start was nowhere to be seen she kept getting pummeled from then on.
"Heh. Heheheh! Hahaha!"
But why was it?
The more they struck her, the more Adrian and Arcia felt a sense of unease.
And then Selin, as if she'd gone mad, suddenly burst into laughter.
"You two are impressive. You deserve that confidence."
-Chrrarararak.
With a Pierrot-like smile that was anything but sane, even more swords began pouring out of her subspace.
"What the hell?"
The number surpassed 100, then reached 200, then 300, then 400.
If only those countless swords had been mere bluster but they all rose into the air at once, and Arcia and Adrian's faces were painted with shock.
It meant they weren't the only ones who usually hid their true strength from their opponents.
"Fun. You two are fun."
Selin's blood-red eyes flashed as she rose to her feet and reached her hand out somewhere.
Then, wisps of black smoke drifted over and wrapped around her, and in an instant, all her wounds were healed.
They had misjudged the enemy's true power.
This was true not only for Adrian and Arcia, but for Blake as well.
"Blake, you damn bastard."
Adrian, without meaning to, cursed Blake, who had egged this fight on.
There was no helping it.
The situation had changed so abruptly that the sense of crisis had grown that much greater.
But Adrian didn't know.
That a pair of silver eyes was watching him from afar.
"That bastard just cursed me out, didn't he?"
It was Blake himself.