Konrad watched the undead collapse as the mana drain stopped.
The plan—risky as it was—worked, but the cold didn't disappear immediately.
Nor did the town rebuild itself. Halaima was in shambles, frozen, covered in ice and corpses.
And here he tried to take over without bloodshed.
"At least it's over," he argued, trying to steady his footing.
He had his job cut out for him.
Stella passed out in his arms, and she was heavy. He held the tall woman while his nose was bleeding, and his head spun, while he stood atop an ice pillar—
"I take that back. How the hell am I going to get down?"
Nobody answered. The floating, colorful orbs remained silent. They drifted away as the immediate crisis was over, unhelpful as ever, fading out of existence.
The best he could do was to reuse an earthen pillar he had created.
And he had to hurry with it, scraping the barrel of his mana reserves.
He still ran hundreds of his Isekai Microwaves, so that the Blood Moons wouldn't freeze to death. They did great, forming that circle for his spell, but—could they catch him if he fell?
He could only hope that they were all still alive.
Looking down—a bad idea, by the way—the only movement he saw was a carriage speeding towards the town's gates. Church reinforcements? The king's steward?
It was still too early for the latter. And a single carriage to bring in reinforcements?
Either way, they were coming in hot in a strange zigzag pattern.
"I'll worry about them once I'm down," he decided, bending the nearby tower he had created.
If only he weren't dizzy from the strain and the blood loss from his nosebleed.
Or, you know, if he saw where he'd put his feet, the necromancer obstructing everything. If he had the mana, he could've improvised a lift, but he had to make do with a staircase.
A steep, slippery, cold one, spiralling down three hundred feet.
Yeah, bold dreams. It was easier to defeat the executioner than to keep himself balanced. In no more than five steps, he slipped, his vision blurred, and he lost control.
The next thing he knew, he was falling, clutching the tomboyish girl in his hands.
A lame way to die, and he had almost no mana left. No spell to dampen his fall, either.
He lacked defensive magic, wind runes, and most of his sanity—
"I hope you made that snow deep enough," he gritted out, squeezing the woman, and his eyes shut. He was too exhausted to panic, or even comprehend what was happening.
The fuzzy warmth surrounding him didn't register until the very last moment, either.
Nothing but the whooshing of the wind, distant shouting, and the panting of the horses reached him. Then a yell, closer than the rest, a female's voice he recognized, and—
SLAM.
Not a bone-crushing fall, but it also wasn't something pleasant.
If anything, the impact felt like it didn't stop his fall. It spun him around, sure, and stung his face like a slap. Not a brutal, gauntleted one, but from a tiny palm, with an impossible force.
Konrad opened his eyes, expecting Stella to have woken up, but instead, he saw flames.
Or a flame-like mane. Anger in hazel eyes, and many, many freckles.
They all surrounded a pretty, but twisted face.
The face of a demoness, he was both happy to see and scared him shitless.
"Are you out of your meow-nd?!" Lily demanded, then snapped her fingers, and Konrad sank into the snow. From one foot high, not three hundred.
"Considering you said he'd stand no chance against the necromancer—"
He recognized that voice, too—and a blue dress. Gabrielle stepped out of her carriage, dusting herself off, trying to look annoyed. But even in this state, Konrad saw something strange.
Relief. An expression he only saw on the archangel's face once.
And before he could comprehend how they've gotten here, a purple and silver whirlwind hit him in the face. It was intense—but the impact was much gentler than the slap before.
"Master," Eyna breathed into his ears, her body soft and warm.
She wrapped her arms around him as much as the slender but tall body in his lap let her.
The whole band was here. But Konrad couldn't connect the dots between them and the speeding carriage yet. He needed rest, peace, and quiet—
"So how did you defeat her?" Gabrielle demanded, standing over him, denying them all.
She eyed the blonde executioner, tapping Stella's hips with her feet.
"I didn't," Konrad whispered, too weak to speak with his full voice. "I've only blocked the mana and restrained her with the transmutation bracelet. A temporary solution—"
"Oh, I can make it permanent," Lily claimed, taking a threatening step forward.
"No killing her." The angel pulled her back, redirecting the fuming demoness. "We had an agreement with the spirits, remember?"
"Who cares?" the ginger snapped. "Told nya, if Konny's in danger, I'm gonna—"
"Please stop arguing," Konrad pleaded, his voice rough and tired. "I had enough of that already."
The two girls—already at each other's throats—stopped, looking at him with a faint blush.
"Man, I thought we'd all freeze to death." Welf appeared, picking that moment of silence to appear with the Blood Moons and Vargas in tow. Forty tribesmen, some bloody or blue, but—
No casualties.
Konrad let out a shaky breath, his eyelids getting heavy.
And the girls were heavy, too.
Stella and Eyna were still weighing him down, and now a third one jumped on him as well.
"You have to be kidding me," Lily frowned, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Do you have no age limit whatsoever? I don't mind a harem, but that's a kid."
His eyes snapped open, curious and flustered about what the hell the ginger was talking about.
On top of Stella1s and Eyna's pile, a blonde child appeared.
"Brigida?" he grunted, struggling under their combined weights. "She's not—she tried to kill me a few minutes ago. What the—she hadn't said a single word—"
No matter how much he tried, he couldn't push the tangle of limbs off him. He couldn't move, either, and this time, it was Lily's turn to shoot lightning at him.
His luck was that she didn't use her mana, only her eyes, but if they could kill—
No, they more than likely could.
"Of course, she didn't talk. She's a mute," the demoness claimed, angry and pouting.
"And she's only grateful for becoming free," Gabrielle added. It was obvious that she read her mind. Well, it did explain a lot of things. "The Inquisitor threatened to torture her parents."
"By the way, where is he?" Lily asked, looking around in the ruined town, still fuming.
As if on cue, Vargas grabbed the Inquisitor, kicking him forward, then pushing him down to his knees. The petite ginger smirked, cracking her knuckles, approaching him instead.
"Good. I need someone to help me release the tension," she said, her grin becoming scary.
"Mhm, neither the spirits nor the saints claimed him," the angel nodded. "Go ahead."
"Hold on," Konrad groaned, taking the brunt of Lily's glare again. "I don't care if you torture him, but make sure he survives. When this is all over, we'll need a convenient scapegoat."