The Spearmaster and the Black Cat

“…Let’s see. To be honest, I’m afraid to be hated by you, but…just as you have guessed, I’m not a normal magul, or human, Viine. Of course, magul blood is flowing through me since I’m assuming this shape, but…I’m from a different race. It’s a new race called Light Demon Lucival, a combination of human and the demon species vampire, which is close to a dhampir, as it requires the intake of blood. ” (Shuuya)

“W-What did you say!?” (Viine)

Viine once again kneels down, her body trembling.

Then she slowly raises her face and looks at me.

Ooh, it’s not an expression full of fear. I feel a bit relieved.

Even if the right half of her face is hidden by the silver mask, I can somewhat read her emotions from the expression on her left face-half.

It’s not dread but an expression that looks like zeal tinged with mania, her fervent smile combined with her crazed eyes is hard to look at.

“I shall pledge my loyalty once again, Master…” (Viine)

Your eyes are moist. Girl, that’s the second time today.

I wondered whether I should retort with such a light joke, but I abstained.

Her face is showing her seriousness.

Once I consider those feelings, I’m very happy.

But, let’s also ask her about accepting my evil side.

“…You don’t hate me? Just like now, I prefer sadism and atrocity. I’m a blood-sucking monster, you know? You aren’t scared?” (Shuuya)

“I will absolutely never be able to hate my gentle master who is about to fulfill the annihilation of my family’s enemies and who has put his trust into me. Even if you were covered in the blood of babies up to your ears, even if you became the enemy of all Sorcery Nobles, I want to serve as your attendant. ” (Viine)

Pheew, I think those are her true feelings.

Truthfully, I was tenser than during the fight.

“…I’m overjoyed if a beauty like you, Viine, thinks of me so highly. ” (Shuuya)

Getting carried away, my fingers approached Viine’s face.

Gently, affectionately, unbeknown whether they are touching or not.

“Ah, yes…” (Viine)

Viine’s face is dyed red and her reaction is cute.

While shutting her eyes, she brings her face close to my fingers like a cat that rubs its face.

Uh, that’s somewhat erotic.

I wonder, at this rate, what will she do if I tell her to lick my fingers?

As I had my erotic delusion, there’s a retort from below my nether region.

Err, rather, there’s a sound from below the rubble.

It’s coming from right below where Helme had disappeared.

Once the sound became louder, the rubble was blown away and a hole appeared.

Helme appears from there in her slimy liquid state, returns to above the debris and transforms back into her human shape.

Even Rollo reacts with surprised blinking.

“Nyao—”

After purring a little, Rollo got down from my shoulder and peeked down the hole.

“Rollo, don’t go in yet. ” (Shuuya)

Once I caution Rollo, Helme, who had changed back into her human form, speaks up,

“…Your Excellency, there are still several survivors below the debris. ” (Helme)

“As expected, there were still some left, huh?” (Shuuya)

“What about their numbers?”

“Five large monsters and five people. All of the human shapes seem to be injured. One among them is a female dark elf that contains a large amount of mana in her body. ” (Helme)

Five large monsters? I suppose the human-shaped one with the big mana pool is the priestess?

I guess we hit the jackpot then.

“You did well, Helme. I will reward you afterward. ” (Shuuya)

“Yes! Thank you very much. ” (Helme)

The color of Helme’s face dyes red as she smiles.

“Viine, it’s just as you’ve heard. I feel uneasy about the monsters, but as expected, the central part of the mansion was below the debris here. A dark elf that possesses a lot of mana despite being injured. It’s very probable that it’s the Priestess. ” (Shuuya)

“Yes. It appears to be the Priestess Matriarch Phelemin Dao Langibad. But, as for the large monsters, maybe…” (Viine)

Viine seems to have an idea.

“What is it? Do you know anything about the monsters?” (Shuuya)

“Yes, I happened to hear rumors that high-ranking Priestesses have blessings given to them by the goddess which allow them to use secret, mystical spells that make use of majin tools to crossbreed low-classed, male dark elves with monsters…” (Viine)

Uwaah, she’s saying that they’re a unification with monsters?

“Do you know what kind of monsters they are and what attacks they use?” (Shuuya)

“No, I can’t imagine at all. I didn’t corner a high-ranking Sorcery Noble until now. ” (Viine)

“Your Excellency, they are grotesque monsters with the lower body of scorpions and the upper bodies of praying mantises. ” (Helme)

I see, Helme did spot them.

Scorpion and mantis…if I make a guess, they will attack with their multiple feet or their two sickles?

“Okay, scorpion and mantis, huh? …I will go first for caution’s sake. Viine, Helme, Rollo, come down after me. We will enter through this hole. ” (Shuuya)

“Yes!” (Viine)

“Leave it to me. ” (Helme)

“Nyao. ”

The accumulated debris in the hole became a pseudo stairway.

That happened after a big sculpture broke down into chunks.

I descend the rubble stairway within the swirling, fine dust.

I mostly grasp what kind of place this was…

The magic source responses get closer.

Originally, it was a huge hall?

Going by the crumbled sculpture, the remains of the collapsed, colored wall and something that appears to have been a chandelier, it might have been a huge audience hall with a high ceiling.

It seems to be a 30-meter drop from here.

Just as Helme said, large monsters loitered around in the underground space.

Their shapes just as she described.

Though, faces of dark elves protruded from right in the center of their torsos.

Just as Helme and Viine mentioned, they are crossbreeds between monster and dark elf.

Those large monsters paced around through the underground space that was locked up by the rubble while acting as if they owned the place by making use of their huge bodies.

The monsters are removing the rubble by cutting it with the blades of their two mantis arms.

Those blades look sharp.

They are cutting through the rubble as if slicing butter.

However, it doesn’t seem like they are recklessly rampaging around.

Once I look at the place where they are removing the rubble, they are working to restore a passage after having received an order?

However, I see a single monster located at a hollow in the right corner not moving.

Ah, are the female dark elves over there…?

The dark elves are gathered below that unmoving monster in order to defend themselves.

The large monsters on this side are a nuisance for going to that right corner, aren’t they?

I look back.

“Rollo, Helme, Viine, first we will get rid of the four moving monsters. I will kill the one cutting the rubble in front. You guys will deal with the ones on the left and right. ” (Shuuya)

I give directions while adding finger gestures.

“Understood. ”

“Nya. ”

“Yes. ”

I immediately jump down from the mountain of debris.

First comes the monster in front.

In the middle of falling, I raise my left hand towards the monster and fired at it.

The chain travels straight ahead through the air, targeting the monster’s head.

It easily penetrates the praying mantis’ head and coils itself around the monster’s upper body while piercing through it.

However, even after having its head penetrated by the chain, the monster was still alive.

It tries to cut the entwining chain by swinging its sickles up and down in order to escape.

But, without a single scratch from those sickles, the chain tightens its hold on the monster’s upper body.

Using the momentum of contracting the chain towards the Factor mark on my left hand during the fall—

Meanwhile, I focus on my muscles.

While twisting my back, I ready the Magic Halberd slanted up over my shoulder and approach the monster in one breath.

The instant it entered the range of the halberd, I canceled the chain.

Then — using the gravity of my fall — I swing down the Magic Halberd, releasing a .

The large monster receives the of the striking red axe blade and its right shoulder is split to the left and right as if cutting a roast. The red axe blade even reached the base of the lower body.

A blue flower of cleaved internal organs blooms from the torn torso like a gorgeous bouquet.

“Geeeeh!”

As the male dark elf’s head was cut apart, the monster screams in agony.

I land while pulling out the Magic Halberd.

A crashing sound reverberates as the large monster falls to the ground.

The other monsters turned around all at once.

At that moment a multi-staged attack of Viine’s arrows, Rollo’s tentacle bone swords, and Helme’s countless ice lances hit the large monster on the left.

The monster, which continued to receive a barrage of ranged attacks, quickly collapses to the ground, causing a very loud sound.

The remaining monsters escape towards the right corner while moving their scorpion feet without hesitation and joined up with the monster that didn’t move from the start.

The three monsters adopt a stance of protecting the injured female dark elves by forming a wall.

I closely observe those dark elves.

The one in the middle is probably the Priestess Phelemin.

She has a helmet, which depicts snake figures on her head and wears a robe like those worn by priests.

However, it’s bloodstained.

It seems her head and abdomen are injured.

While standing by supporting her body with the long wand in her right hand, she glares at us invaders.

The other dark elves, who wear vermilion protective gear, seem to bear similar injuries.

Seeing that the enemy has injured people, it’s extremely unlikely for them to come out to the front.

I guess we will advance in a group and apply pressure on our opponents.

I notify my comrades.

“—The enemy has gone defensive. Come. ” (Shuuya)

“Nn, nyaon. ”

Rollo reacts in a split second.

She transforms into the Horse Lion on the spot and closes in on me while leaving Helme and Viine behind.

“Rollo-sama! You are too fast—” (Helme)

“—I’m coming right away. ” (Viine)

The two ran up to me as if chasing RollodeenHorse Lion.

“As you can see, the enemy is gathering over there. We will get a bit closer. ” (Shuuya)

“Yes. ” (Viine)

“Your Excellency, let’s annihilate the enemies’ butts. ” (Helme)

“Nn, nya. ”

After taking a look at the enemy group, Helme and Viine each give a reply.

Was RollodeenHorse Lion curious about Helme’s words about doing something or another to butts? She turned her face towards Helme’s butt and sniffed the smell.

“Kya! Rollo-sama!” (Helme)

“Nn, nyao, nya. ”

I don’t know what she’s saying, but I guess it’s something like “It doesn’t stink nya”?

It’s probably that as it hasn’t caused a flehmen reaction?

After smiling at that scene, I start walking while in the lead.

Rollodeen follows on the right, Helme behind me on the left, and Viine behind me on the right.

“—Don’t come any closer! Who are you people!?”

One of the female dark elves shouts.

Blood was running from her head and one arm was bound with bandages.

As I was told, I stop on the spot and interact with her while smiling.

“Who I am, huh? I’m a man, just as you can see, though?” (Shuuya)

“Wh-!? M-Magul…”

“A-A male magul, you say…”

“It’s true. His ears are short and his face is flat!”

The five female dark elves, including the priestess, who checked my face, become noisy.

“Shut up with the magul, magul, okay? You’re right. My appearance is that of a male magul. I’m bothered by that, but either way, the one in the middle is the Priestess? Your name is Phelemin?” (Shuuya)

“How rude! The likes of a magul is—!”

The dark elf with the blood running down from her head shouts while showing a fiendish expression.

My words apparently incurred her anger.

She headed my way while holding her weapon at the ready.

“Mizure—don’t. ”

The Priestess tries to restrain her with words, but the dark elf called Mizure goes right ahead while ignoring her.

Running through the gaps between the monsters, she tried to stab my chest with the straight sword in her hands from a slouching stance.

I walk while casually casting the spell 《Ice Ball》 in my mind.

The ice bullet forms in a teardrop shape and pierces the top of the dark elf’s foot.

“—Guh! M-Magic?”

Only her forward-bent slouching posture is thrown off balance without her falling down.

However, she stops moving.

Accordingly, I also adopt a forward-bent posture and release a battlecry.

Closing the combat distance in a flash, I stab the magic spear through the spear’s range in a twisting motion and activated .

—A spear technique clad in the darkness attribute that exceeds .

The red spear that was thrust out with a furious spiral motion hits Mizure’s chest, tears her torso to pieces with its dreadful rotation, as if her upper body is caught in the spin, and blows her away.

A part of the blown-away upper body clashes against a large monster in the back and her entrails are scattered.

Blood gushes out from the lower half, which tragically exposes the spinal cord, and it collapses feebly.

…what terrifying power.

“Now then— Will the rest of you, including monsters, take me on?” (Shuuya)

While kicking the lower half of the dark elf aside, I lean the Magic Halberd against my shoulder and speak in a provocative way.

“…”

All of them, including the Priestess, are shocked after seeing the battle just now.

Even the monsters, who protect them like a wall, seem to feet fear and back off a bit.

“You heard me, right?” (Shuuya)

“…Yes. ”

The priestess answers quietly.

“I will ask once more. Are you Phelemin?” (Shuuya)

“…Yes. I’m Phelemin Dao Langibad. ”

Bingo.

Going by the clothes she’s wearing, that seems to be the case after all.

“Viine, you heard her, right?” (Shuuya)

“Yes. ” (Viine)

I informed Viine in the back while staring at the priestess, the target.

Viine walks up and comes next to me.

“I am the former second daughter of the 【12th-ranked Sorcery Noble Azmail Household】, Viine. You are the enemy who destroyed the Azmail family, so I will have you die in this place. ” (Viine)

While holding her bow in one hand, she points the arrowhead of an arrow, which she holds in her other hand, at the Priestess Phelemin.

“Kuu…a survivor of the Azmail family? No way! For you to have survived the above-the-cover world and returned to the underground city accompanied by a magul…” (Phelemin)

The priestess talks with a mortified expression as if she had swallowed a bitter bug.

“Haa? Puhahahaha—-for you to not understand even after having witnessed Master’s power in front of your eyes…you have sure fallen low for a Priestess. ” (Viine)

Contrary to her usual manner, Viine laughs loudly.

And then, while squinting, she nocks the arrow into the bow and pulls the bowstring.

It was a posture allowing her to shoot the arrow at any time.

“…A magul as her master, she says?”

“Unbelievable…”

“But, he defeated that Mizure with one blow…”

The other dark elves talk like that while showing unrest on their faces.

“First up are the surroundings, I suppose. I will finish them off since they are a nuisance, okay?” (Shuuya)

While asking so, I fire .

The target is not the female dark elves, but the scorpion feet of a monster that’s a hindrance as it acts like a wall.

The chain pierces the scorpion feet of the monster standing at the very front like a living snake and twines around those feet.

I flash towards the monster’s feet while contracting the chain towards the Chain Factor like the power plug of a vacuum cleaner.

I hold the Magic Halberd sideways and sweep the monster’s feet, mowing them down in one go.

Next, I focus on the muscles in my whole body while advancing towards the adjoining monster.

At the moment I close in on the monster with the hand holding the Magic Halberd pulled back, I send a blinding thrust out with the halberd while invoking .

The red flash seizes its scorpion legs.

The legs are severed, burning, and are flung into the air as if performing a dance.

However, apparently having chosen its target the moment after I unleashed my skill, the unhurt monster on the left side swings down its sickle.

Tilting the buttof the Magic Halberd upwards in a hurry after I had fully swung to the side, I stop the monster’s sickle.

—However, the monster has two sickles.

The other arm is smashed down next.

I don’t panic. I turn my eyes towards the approaching sickle—

I measure the timing while unsummoning the Magic Halberd and make a backflip then and there.

Receiving the in-motion sickle with the sole of my violet Evil Dragon King Greaves, which I’m wearing on both feet, I block the blade as if kicking it away.

After landing from the flip, I resummon the Magic Halberd into my right hand while stepping in with Magic Combat Steps and turn around explosively.

I powerfully swing the Magic Halberd sideways while rotating half of my body towards the huge monster that attacked.

The big red axe blade sunk into the thick torso of the monster.

Since I didn’t use a skill, it stopped halfway. Accordingly, I put more strength into it and forced a complete swing in order to cut the torso apart.

“Gyoba!”

The instant the dark elf face located in the middle of the torso was cut as if being crushed by the red axe blade, it raised a strange voice.

There’s still — more.

I rotate my body to the side by using the toes of my foot as an axis, handling my body like a spin top.

The Magic Halberd, which I had swung through the monster’s torso, finishes into a full revolution at that point.

I make the red axe blade, which I scooped up from below, directly hit the torso of the monster a second time, causing it to spurt out blood.

The huge monster’s body is blown away like a golf ball after a driver hit the sweet spot.

While scattering the blood, which is gushing out from its large, spiral cut, the blown-away monster crashed into the wall of debris.

The monsters, whose balance crumbled after having their feet cut off, were each finished off by Viine’s arrows, Rollo’s tentacle bone swords, and Helme’s ice lances.

All the monsters, who stood in our way like a wall, were annihilated in the blink of an eye.

Only the dark elves are left now.

It smells a bit. I guess it’s the iron stench of blood.

The sound of blood evaporating from the red axe blade is audible.

After blowing off the gore on the Magic Halberd by swinging it around, I glared at the priestess.

“…W-Wait. If you kill me, you will anger the Goddess of Magic Poison, Misea-sama…to say nothing of a magul having gone on a rampage up to this point. Even the Goddess-sama should be enraged about that…” (Phelemin)

The Priestess Phelemin takes something like a hand-mirror into her left hand and shows it to us with a frightened expression.

There’s nothing projected in that mirror.

Or is it only us who can’t see it?

“…Did that goddess of yours protect your big mansion?” (Shuuya)

“…”

Silence.

I cast magic without a care.

I activate the intermediate water spell 《Ice Arrow》.

Targeting a dark elf with injured legs, an ice arrow, as thick as a human’s arm, plunges forward while cutting through the air.

The spear-like, white, shining arrowhead pierced the dark elf’s face.

The ice arrow goes straight through her head and runs into the debris wall behind her.

At the same time, I activate two in a row.

The two light spears penetrate the chests of the two dark elves next to the priestess, leaving through their backs.

The two dark elves spit blood and the rest of their vitality quickly fades from their faces.

The last one remaining is just the Priestess.

“Viine, she is yours. ” (Shuuya)

“Hiiii, don’t fuck around with meee! Don’t come any cloooser!”

Probably because of the fear from becoming the last one left alive, the Priestess goes crazy and wildly swings her wand and hand-mirror.

“It’s my humble pleasure! Priestess Matriarch of the 【Fourth-ranked Sorcery Noble Langibad Household】, Phelemin Dao Langibad! Prepare yourself—” (Viine)

As Viine declares her challenge with a wholehearted yell full of fighting spirit, she starts to rapidly fire one arrow after the other, each one carrying her emotions.

“Gueh! O-Ouch! Guueeh! Misea-samaaaaaa, a miracle, right now right here—” (Phelemin)

First one, then two arrows stab her torso, several arrows pierce her legs, and finally a single arrow hits between the Priestess’ eyebrows.

The Priestess dies with her eyes becoming bloodshot.

“Viine, we still haven’t found the eldest and the second daughter, but are you satisfied with this?” (Shuuya)

I ask while turning towards Viine who was behind me.

“…Yes. I killed my enemy…Mother, Elder Sister…” (Viine)

Viine sobs while shedding large tears.

Her voice gradually becomes louder and she begins to cry as if screaming.

It seems to be a waterfall-like flood of tears.

…I bet it’s something to cry about.

She wandered the surface for many years while continuing to desire revenge for her family.

However, that wish didn’t come true.

—Aren’t you happy?

The instant I extended an arm to comfort the crying Viine — I sense a tremendous magic source.

It came from the place where the corpses of the priestess and the other dark elves were lying.

What’s up? The magic source is expanding at an explosive velocity?