章 47: Chapter 47. Assassination Squad, Presence of the Demon King
"A clear shot! Good! Now let's finish the job!" A man called out within the forest after seeing the carriage receive a direct hit from an explosive fireball and flip to the side.
""Yes, sir!""
The members of the assault squad rushed out from within the forest with blades in hand, following their leader.
However, the magician that fired off the Explosion spell hesitated as he frowned. 'Why was my explosion so much weaker than normal?...'
But the other members of his squat already rushed out.
Seeing this, he didn't think much of it and hurried after them.
Apparently, the carriage was reinforced against Fire Magic. Even still, whoever was inside would be in a critical condition. This kind of unexpected artillery strike is truly ruthless and impossible to defend against for anyone but the strongest swordsmen.
Especially if it was just a kid, he might already be dead.
…
[Seraphim's POV.]
The explosion that happened forced me to reflexively close my eyes. My ears began to ring from the loud sound.
At the same time, I was sent tumbling to the side together with Sylphy in my arms.
"Aaaaaah!"
While I tumbled, I heard Sylphy's muffled scream and my barriers receiving damage. I forcefully maintained the two spells around me, the stacked-up Magic Shield and the Telekinetic Shield beneath it, and tightly held Sylphy and my wand close to me.
"Ugh." I let out a gasp as I hit the ground.
I kept my eyes closed while curled up on the ground. I could feel pressure on the telekinetic barrier.
While I subconsciously maintained the two defensive spells that received a major hit, my cancious brain thought about the situation - it seemed that there was rubble on top of us.
I opened my eyes, looked upwards and saw exactly that - the remains of the carriage laying on top of us, inches away from my face.
After my situation fully dawned on me, my heart beat began to continuously beat quickly.
Then there was a voice.
It seemed to be Gilbert, he called out something, but my ears were still ringing.
I was already prepared for these kinds of situations, so even though my mind was frozen, I still began to use Telekinesis to push away the debris and then clumsily crawl out.
By the time I crawled out from the carriage and got up slightly, I saw Gilbert facing a group of six armed men that approached us, clearly with bad intentions.
The other group seemed to be briefly hesitating while saying some things, but my ears were still ringing, so I couldn't hear them.
They seemed surprised, perhaps because I was unharmed.
At the back of the group there was a man in a robe that was muttering something while the others waited. "May this small, smoldering fire call forth a…-"
"Disturb Magic!"
Before I could think, I shot out my left hand forward and disrupted the flame that was forming at the tip of the man's staff.
Seeing the gathering flame become distinguished, the enemies seemed surprised.
However, this stalemate lasted only a moment.
"Kill them!"
One of the men shouted out, and the group of swordsmen directly rushed out at us without giving me even a chance to gather my thoughts.
"Damn it!"
Seeing the several swordsmen rush at us, there was only one thing on my mind - I have to stop them!
I sent out my mana and aimed to remove the effects of gravity in the area in front of me.
No spell, just magic manipulation.
"Aah? What?!"
"What the hell?!"
"What is going on?!"
The attacking men began to shout out in confusion as Zero Gravity affected their movements.
As after hitting off the ground as they ran, many began to slowly and inertly float upwards and forward while flailing their limbs around in a panic with shocked faces.
'Caught them. Almost all of them…' I inwardly thought.
The only person not caught in the radius of my Zero Gravity Field was the magician.
Just as I felt the situation was under my control, I noticed one of the men throwing a dagger at me.
My eyes shot wide open in a panic.
I thoughtlessly quickly canceled my magic to stop the dagger with Telekinesis.
This, however, turned out to be pointless because Gilbert simultaneously stepped forward and deflected the thrown dagger with his sword.
On the other hand, the swordsmen all dropped back to the ground as the effect of Zero Gravity was lifted.
"What was that?"
"Attack!"
As the enemies rushed out again, I wasted no time and hurriedly recast Zero Gravity Field, instantly controlling most of their movements.
Immediately after, I followed this with a Negative Gravity Field.
From the state of zero gravity, I rapidly began to reverse the effects of gravity, making the enemy swordsmen fall in the direction of the sky head-first at a high speed.
"Throw your weapons!" One of the enemies called out.
By the time the assassins noticed what was happening, the distance between us already grew to nearly thirty meters as they rapidly accelerated.
Gilbert shielded me with his much larger half-armored body, deflecting one of the thrown swords.
However, all the other swords and daggers went completely off course, being thrown around in random directions with not even a slight chance of hitting the target as if the assassins were drunk and had their sense of direction completely messed up.
It was good so far, but the moment my enemies reached the thirty meters mark as they flew up, they had already left the area of my magic.
Seeing the swordsmen lose their velocity and slow down their ascend, I quickly switched gears.
From a Negative Gravity Field, I changed the area below them into a High Gravity Field with the gravity roughly fifteen times stronger than normal.
If I had less shame, I would call this move: [Gravity Magic: Presence of the Demon King].
As the six enemy swordsmen began to fall down like a thrown-up ball, they entered my High Gravity Field and began to hurdled down at a high speed as if hit by a wind hammer or were sucked into a vacuum in the direction of the ground.
"Aah-!!!"
"Gah-!!!"
Panicked shouts were heard, but in the next moment these were cut off as the six assassins slammed against the road's ground, akin to tomatoes thrown with full force against concrete.
With the brief sound of countless bones being broken and skulls smashed, blood splashed out in all directions.
It was a gruesome sight.
At a glance, no one survived as the six swordsmen were turned into a bloody pulp. The men that wore armor had their chest plates squashed flat.
Even though what they hit was just hardened earth off the forest road, it looked as if they hit concrete after falling from a skyscraper.
I looked at that scene coldly, my heart quite shaken. That single move was far more brutal and effective than I ever expected.
"Aaaaagh!…"
I turned to the side as I heard a girl's voice and saw Sylphy clutching her knees as she dropped and squatted on the ground, tears streaming down her face. She was shaken and terrified as she looked toward the ground wide-eyed.
"A Demon God! He's a Demon God!..." The remaining magician muttered in fear before turning tail with a panicked face and beginning to run away.
Their assassination squad included a North Saint and also Advanced Rank swordsmen, but all of them were easily turned into a bloody pulp by that demonic child's strange magic!
Not only this, but he could even completely cancel his spell with a casual move! He even survived a direct explosion of an Advanced rank spell unscathed while the carriage was turned into rubble!
What else could he be but a reincarnation of the Demon Magic God?!
"Stop right there!"
Gilbert, previously also shaken, rushed out to chase after the fleeting mage.
Seeing the assaulter, the magician pulled out a scroll from his pocket and aimed it at Gilbert. In an instance, air began to condense in his hand and then a blast of wind shot out.
"Tricks!" Gilbert easily cut down the magic spell and continued his chase.
He soon caught up to the magician and kicked his leg, visibly breaking it in one powerful blow.
"Aaaah!" The magician let out a loud, pained groan as he tumbled to the ground.
Standing above the magician, Gilbert aimed his swords down at him and said, "Give up! You're done!"
The magician looked up at Gilbert and the blade aimed at his neck, and gulped. Once a swordsman had caught up to a magician, it was game over. There was nothing he could do.
Scrambling back, he called, "P-please don't kill me!!! I'm just a mercenary! I'll tell you everything!"
Gilbert looked back at us as if to confirm we're safe, then backed down at the magician. Placing his sword directly against the man's neck, he stared at him and asked, "Why did you attack us? Who hired you?"
"... It was the Notos! The leader of our squat was from the Notos house! He wanted to kill that Demon Child… I mean, that boy! He was our target!" The magician pointed at me, his finger shaking.
I slightly frowned, thinking, 'The Notos?... So it was Philemon in the end.'
"I see, so it was the Notos… You can take a nap now," saying so, Gilbert punched the side of the magician's chin, knocking him out.
…
After capturing the magician, Gilbert dragged him back, pulled out some ropes and tied up our prisoner.
In the meantime I used water magic to put down the fire of the burning carriage and stop it from reaching the two horses that pulled it.
The horses were also hurt in the explosion from the shrapnel and due to being dragged by the tug lines when the carriage tumbled, but they survived and I managed to recover them to full health using Healing Magic.
After I cut off the tugs and healed the horses, Gilbert helped me to tie them to a tree, then looked at me and said, "I'll now search the bodies of the assassins. You can take care of Miss Sylphiette. You don't need to see me do that."
"Mm…" I replied noncommittally and returned to Sylphy who was still terrified after what happened.
After reaching Sylpyh's side, I expressionlessly watched Gilbert begin searching the bloody corpses.
I began to think.
Notos Philemon Greyrat - he was my most likely suspect from the start, so I wasn't surprised by what the magician said.
I had no way to tell whether Hitogami was involved, but he didn't need to because I'm Philemon's natural enemy.
And although the situation was now under control, I still felt a deep chill in my heart and I was still shaken.
If only I wasn't warned by Lia who was scouting ahead and didn't put up magical and physical shields beforehand, I would have already died. This single assassination attempt came closer to taking my life than any of Hitogami's schemes against Rudeus's life in the novel.
It was terrifying.
It was very easy to lose life in this kind of medieval fantasy world. A single trap, a single explosion or a single poisoned meal could easily kill a magician no matter how powerful they are.
In truth, it was a miracle or just pure plot armor that Rudeus hadn't died a thousand times in the novel while eating out in random restaurants, traveling around and living his carefree life.
Thinking all this, I looked back at the wrecked carriage.
Sylphy, Gilbert and I were unharmed, and so were the horses. But it couldn't be said that no one from my side suffered.
My familiar owl, Lia, died.
When the explosion happened, she was ripped to shreds.
I tried to heal what remained of her body, but it didn't work.
I let out a breath. 'What a shame…'
After hesitating for a while, I left Sylphy's side and approached Gilbert. "Gilbert."
"Yes?"
"I'll take one of the horses, Sylphy and go check up on my family."
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(AN: There is no deadline/scheduled time for the next chapter. I feel I need a break from this)
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