Hyaku ma no Omo

Merea, like lightning, used his speed to move around quickly and pile up damage and lead the Mūzeg Practitioners Corps to destruction.
There was no longer anyone in that place who doubted Merea’s strength, or rather, they were even in awe of it.

「…what the hell is that!?」

The〈Fist Emperor〉who was fighting alongside Merea, suddenly noticed something.
Since there were only a few practitioners of Mūzeg leftover, the〈Fist Emperor〉turned his gaze towards the sacred mountain of Lidholm and saw a 『Golden Ship』 sliding down the mountain slope.

It was an extremely bizzare golden ship that was sliding down the slope with a crunchy noise and right in front of the ship, as if to stay ahead of the ship, a path of ice kept forming. It was rather simple to guess that it was made using a technique though, he had no idea who could have actually done it…

「Is it those twins!?」

He finally noticed.
From one of the window-like places on the ship, he could see two girls with huge smiles on their faces, looking like they were having a lot of fun.
They had their hands on the ground and from those hands, he could see technique patterns being invoked and that seemed to be how they were making the path of ice.

Along with that, from another window of the golden ship, he could see a man’s face as well, it was the〈Alchemy King〉Shaw.
Though he had told him to prepare a means to escape but he never expected it to be such a strange method.

That’s a horrible plan…

「Alright~, everyone get on! –Just 3 gold coins per person!!」

「You’re going to do business in this situation!?」

That’s also a horrible way of doing things…
He’s exactly what you’d expect a money-grubber to be like.

「I’ll put it on your tab!」

「It’s too expensive!!」

「In that case, please be killed by Mūzeg’s army at the base of the mountain or by the fanatics of the various countries of Saisalis!」

「We’ll definitely get on!!」

Having heard that, the〈Fist Emperor〉grabbed the hands of the Demon Lords in his surroundings and started running. One of the hands he grabbed was of the〈Flame Emperor〉Lilium.

「Eh?! Wai, what are you doing so suddenly?!」

「You don’t want to die right?! It’s a great chance to run away from the sacred mountain, get onto that ship!」

Saying so, without waiting for a reply, he pulled the girl’s hand as well as another Demon Lord’s hand that he pulled with his other hand.

As soon as the golden ship neared the battlefield, it started slowing down. The creation of the path of ice stopped and the golden ship started giving off a grating noise when it came into contact with the gravel.

「I’m begging you, maid-san! Make sure to catch this properly!」

The〈Fist Emperor〉yelled that and at the same time, he threw the two people at his sides.

From another window of the golden ship, the maid was gesturing with both hands as if to say, 「throw them quickly」.

During the time when they were creating those gravestones, he was well aware that the maid’s power was out of this world and thinking about the time that the ship could stay in that place, he realised that they had to be quick.

Since he had carefully aimed before he threw them, the Marisa was able to catch them skillfully and she quickly pulled them into the ship.

The〈Fist Emperor〉was ready to be scolded by the two people who he had basically treated like objects, though he knew that that was the best way he could have handled that situation.
After that, he went around grabbing and throwing various other people, who were nearby, onto the golden ship and then finally, he himself got onto the ship.

Most of the other Demon Lords seemed to be heading towards the golden ship. As if to encourage those people, the〈Fist Emperor〉yelled once more.

「If you want to run away then come over here! Actually, just come over here! For one reason or the other you guys want to live, that’s why you climbed the sacred mountain right?!」

As if to answer that shout, the Demon Lords running towards the golden ship, sped up.

The〈Fist Emperor〉then turned his gaze and called out to the white haired man, who was their savior.

「You get on as well! Merea!! You said you’ve never climbed down from the sacred mountain but now’s the chance! Come with us!」

He said it with the most force yet. That just went to show how much he seemed to care for Merea.

Merea was abnormally strong, from the last several minutes he had understood that. It could even be said that he was forcefully made to realise that.

However, there were still too many enemies. In a little while, they would be sieged by the main force of Mūzeg’s army as well as the other countries that were chasing after the rest of the Demon Lords.

As if being pulled by fate, the various Demon Lords all came from different directions and they all climbed the sacred mountain. But, due to that, that place was now surrounded by various forces.

There was no proof yet, that Merea was actually a Demon Lord, however there was the situation with the Funas (Future Stone) as well.

Above all,

–With that much strength, those countries would never leave him alone.

Whether it’s the Country of Mūzeg or the countries of Saisalis.
Since they all have the desire to seize power and abuse it, they were chasing after Demon Lords.
So they definitely wouldn’t leave him be.

After they get away from the sacred mountain, it’s fine even if he doesn’t stay with them but for the time being, he really wanted to save Merea.
Which is why, the〈Fist Emperor〉kept calling out to him, no matter how many times.

「Come with us!! Get on the ship!!」

The Demon Lords kept jumping onto the〈Alchemy King〉Shaw’s golden ship, one after the other.

The only ones left over were the ones fighting at the frontlines, Merea and next to him, the〈Sword Emperor〉Elma.

However, suddenly, the〈Fist Emperor〉heard an unpleasant voice. The voice sounded from the opposite direction to where Merea and Elma were.
It was exactly diagonally behind the ship.

「There they are!! After them!!」

That was the voice he heard.

–They’re close….!

And the voices that replied to that,

–Crap! They’re too many!

Having such thoughts, the〈Fist Emperor〉quickly went to another window and looked out.

「…Damn it!」

Black armour, black armour, black armour.

It was the black of the military color of Mūzeg’s army.

They could see that it was the infantry division of Mūzeg’s army, which was wrapped in that unpleasant black that made it seem like it would attract blood.

Just one look was enough to tell that, unlike the practitioner corps from a while back, the number of soldiers were way too many.

「Twins! Accelerate now! Immediately!!」

The〈Fist Emperor〉smacked his fist against the edge of the window and with impatience ordered the twins.
Two soldiers had broken off from the army were trying to approach the golden ship at a great speed.
The〈Fist Emperor〉reflexively blew those soldiers away but they were immediately replaced by more soldiers.
They couldn’t afford to decelerate anymore. These weren’t enemies who they could win against.

–We have to get out of here in one spurt.

The other Demon Lords started to intercept the soldiers who were getting close to the ship. The〈Fist Emperor〉left the soldiers to the other Demon Lords and immediately went back to the side where Merea and Elma were fighting.
Merea and Elma had just finished beating up the last soldier on their said.

–Make it in time!

The golden ship was steadily accelerating.
If it went any faster than this, then no matter even if he showed the speed of lightning, Merea may not be able to catch up to the ship.
It was, after all, a descent with no proper path leading down.
Compared to the ship which was able to slide down easily, at a great speed, it was near impossible to run down the slope since there were no decent footholds.

While he was thinking that, Merea turned around. His red pupils look right at him.

「Come on!!」

He yelled out one last time.

–He noticed.

Merea moved.
He turned around one last time, made sure that none of the soldiers of the practitioner corps were there and then quickly grabbed onto the hand of the〈Sword Emperor〉Elma, wrapped the white lightning around themselves and ran towards the golden ship at full speed.

「Uwaa」

Elma’s surprised voice could be faintly heard.

The golden ship started inclining greatly as it sped up suddenly. The golden ship slipped down the path of ice.

Merea ran at a frightening speed and reached next to the speeding golden ship and while running, he held Elma up.
The〈Fist Emperor〉quickly grabbed hold of her and pulled her onto the ship.

Next he,

「Hold out your hand!」

Merea raised his hand.
The golden ship was sliding down at a strange speed.

While Merea was running parallel to the ship, it was rather risky.

「!! Oi!!」

Merea ended up tripping on something.
There was a good reason to it, they were descending on a strange slope.
Over and above that, he had wrapped himself in lightning and was using that to speed up.
The very fact that he managed to get that far, climbing down the mountain while holding onto Elma was in itself quite a miracle.

In that moment, the〈Fist Emperor〉thought that moment as the single biggest blunder that happened during this escape.

◆◆◆

The ship was accelerating.
Merea had stalled.
It was hard to think that he’d be able to make it now.
The〈Fist Emperor〉was worried about Merea like he would about himself and ended up feeling extremely impatient. Because of that, the situation in front of him seemed like it was developing at an annoyingly slow speed.
It really was an irritating slow motion.

While falling forward, Merea fixed his posture with an amazing speed and ability.
Though, because of the sharp slope of the mountain side along with the way he fell forward, it looked like he had fallen down flat.

The right leg Merea used to fix his posture, left a crater on the ground.
A mysterious leg strength.
An enormous stepping power.
Over and above that he started speeding up again, however,

–He’s getting farther away.

Merea’s figure was getting smaller.
Slowly, gradually, steadily.
Stalling for that one moment had opened up a huge gap between them.
The〈Fist Emperor〉, while feeling impatient, turned towards the twins.

「Oi! Can you slow down?!」
「Ca, can’t do it!」 「The slope is too steep!」

Like the twins said, the golden ship seemed like it would keep moving even if they stopped making the path of ice. That was how steep the slope was.
Coupled with the speed it had already picked up because of the path of ice, this was no longer a situation where it would come to a stop just because they stopped creating ice.

The〈Fist Emperor〉felt a twinge of despair and once again turned towards Merea.
As soon as he did that, he had a strange feeling when he looked at the faraway figure of Merea.

「What is that…?」

Though his figure looked small but on his back, it felt like he could see huge white wings growing.
It looked as if the wind was surging around him and gave him a very marvelous appearance but those definitely looked like wings.