Chapter 1004: I Can Do Nothing
Endless gray fell from the sky.
It scattered evenly across the land and sea.
New Mors continued to emerge from the ocean's surface, while countless more swarmed from all directions outside the city.
Even so, the horde of Mors was completely held back beyond the city walls!
That was because the Child of Prophecy and their companions were confronting the Great Calamity!
These words, circulating throughout the city, became the fairies' lifeline.
The eastern gate was guarded by Eiji and Muramasa.
The western gate was shielded by a massive barrier, where the pleasant resonance of demonic strings never ceased. Flames licked out from the magical scripts, incinerating wave after wave of Mors.
"Feels like there's completely no need for us here, huh?"
Little Da Vinci scratched her cheek.
Grimm and Tristan were so active that she and Habenyan had nothing to do.
No, to be more precise, Grimm's magecraft was overwhelmingly effective. The waves of Mors might as well have been marching to their deaths, burned away by the scripts engraved between heaven and earth.
"Stop talking nonsense! The problem is magical energy! My magical energy is burning up as fast as these flames!"
Grimm shouted at Little Da Vinci while busy maintaining the barrier.
"There are too many of them! Their numbers show no sign of decreasing!"
Tristan plucked his strings, slicing apart any Mors that slipped through the net.
His fingers moved so fast they left afterimages, and faint sweat beaded on his forehead.
"If even this less pressured western gate is so difficult, I can't imagine what the eastern gate must be like!"
"It seems to still be within their capabilities!"
Little Da Vinci pulled out her homemade telescope that could see clearly even twenty kilometers away, gazing toward the eastern gate.
The tactic of gathering Mors using ice pathways and eliminating them all at once made her eyes light up with admiration.
The number of Mors over there was nearly double what they faced here!
Under such circumstances, they could still defend the gate so firmly. It was no wonder she had stationed Eiji—the strongest among them—at the more pressured eastern gate.
"What's that?!"
Little Da Vinci suddenly exclaimed.
"What happened?"
The idle Habenyan looked over at her.
"Mors!"
Little Da Vinci said with unusual tension.
"Mors have appeared inside the city! And they're everywhere—east, west, north, and south!"
"What!"
Tristan's expression changed.
"Weren't the Mors only supposed to appear outside the city?"
"Exactly! That was the premise of our operation!"
Little Da Vinci bit her fingernail, her face turning grim.
"But our understanding of the Great Calamity is severely lacking. We made the mistake of empiricism—thinking that since we'd only encountered Mors in the wild before, they wouldn't be born inside the city. This was my misjudgment!"
"This isn't the time to assign blame! The key is to find a way to compensate!"
Grimm floated lightly to their side, his expression turning extremely serious.
"I'll find a way to hold out here. Even if I can't eliminate all the Mors, I'll at least protect the gate. You all go into the city!"
"Can you manage alone? Should I stay too?"
"Don't underestimate me! I do possess part of the Wisdom God's power! Just defending the city gate is more than enough for me!"
Grim showed a proud smile and decisively rejected Tristan's proposal.
"In that case, I'll leave this place to you!"
Da Vinci-chan no longer hesitated, firmly making up her mind.
She, along with Habenyan and Tristan, rushed toward the city engulfed in smoke and flames.
"Stop! Don't come any closer!"
The once peaceful forge, which had been tranquil until moments ago, echoed with desperate cries.
Black ash fell from the sky, transforming into squirming, dark aberrant lifeforms that reached out with their sinister claws toward the few fairies in the forge.
The earth fairy screamed in terror, but it was to no avail.
Under the touch of the Mors' tentacles, his body was rapidly tainted by the dark curse, gradually losing its original form.
Soon, the screams faded, replaced by a new Mors.
Then, the previous Mors approached.
It slowly assimilated the fairy-turned-Mors into its own body.
The size of this Mors visibly swelled!
Such scenes could be seen everywhere in Norwich at this moment.
Fairies on the streets panicked and fled like headless flies, only to be overwhelmed by the tide of Mors swarming in.
Fairies hiding in their homes barred their windows and doors, but the black ash seeped through every crack like mist, infiltrating their rooms, transforming into Mors, and devouring the household heads.
The entire city functions of Norwich were rapidly collapsing!
Meanwhile, the lord Spriggan remained comfortably in the vault city, delightedly watching the fairies die one after another.
"This house is now public property, ah, and this park too..."
He was even inventorying the land that would soon become his wealth.
Even if Mors appeared in the vault city, they were promptly stabbed to death by the human guards he had hired earlier.
"Quite the hard work, travelers from afar."
He watched the city with an amused expression.
From his vantage point, he could see Gudao and Mash rushing around putting out fires.
"But no matter how hard you try, it's useless. The prophecy has long revealed the outcome..."
In the city.
"Mash!"
"Yes, Senpai!"
Under Gudako's command, Mash lifted her cross shield and mercilessly slammed it into a Mors, saving an earth fairy.
"Ritsuka! Mash!"
Da Vinci-chan, noticing the commotion, hurried over to join them.
"Mors are everywhere! What should we do now?"
"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do at this point. We can only do our best and leave the rest to fate!"
Da Vinci-chan shook her head.
By now, hundreds of Mors had emerged throughout the city. It was impossible to save everyone; they could only rescue who they could, one at a time!
"...I understand. Let's split up then!"
Fujimaru Ritsuka gritted her teeth and made the resolute decision.
Watching lives vanish before her eyes was naturally painful.
But there was no room for grief or anger now. Since the situation was beyond saving, they should focus on doing their best with what remained!
In the past, she might have raged helplessly, but after experiencing so much, she had grown accustomed to it.
The group quickly dispersed, rushing to all corners of the city, doing their utmost to save living beings from the Mors' grasp.
Elsewhere.
"Child of Prophecy! Lady Child of Prophecy! Save me! Please, save me!!"
Artoria stood amidst the crowd.
She stared blankly, watching helplessly as one after another of the faeries—who had just been kneeling and begging for her help, treating her as their lifeline—perished under the claws of the Mors.
The explosives were all used up, and Merlin's magic—that joke of a thing—was utterly useless in this situation!
There was nothing she could do.
With her abilities, even a single Mors would be a tough fight, let alone so many of them right before her eyes, all while trying to protect the defenseless faeries in the Mors' grasp.
"Someone like me really can't do anything at all..."