Chapter 6: ──── The Mockery of Evil Flower Spirit Princess
With the leader of the demon soldiers, Gheorud, trapped in the chains of the black roses and unable to move, we hurried to the defensive wall.
We attacked the demon soldiers surrounding the defensive wall from behind, and at once we ran through them, not caring about our small disadvantage.
“Everyone, we’re not far from the village. Keep your guard up and go!”
When Gio looked back and encouraged his friends, they all replied with a valiant “YES!”
The strength of their unity can be seen in the small, brisk responses that come back to them when they strike.
The thorns and trees stretching from the ground are an obstacle to the demon soldiers, but they do not interfere with us, and the trees that were standing in the direction of our movement naturally retreat to the left and right as we approach and widen our path.
I kicked the trees, brushed off the thorns, and leapt at some of the Zelt that attacked us, and I fired up my magic.
“Listen to my voice, O Reason of Power, become many arrows and shoot at the enemies before me, Energy Rain!”
I held up my left hand and twenty arrows of pure magic power shot out from it towards the Zelt and the others through the air.
The darkness of the moonlit night draws a dazzling trail of glowing white magic arrows intertwining with each other, piercing every single one of the Zelt who had been leaping.
I was wondering how to enter the village from the barrier wall, which has no gates, let alone gaps, but as Gio approached the barrier wall, some of the roots of the trees that were intertwined with it unraveled and turned into footholds.
It’s a barrier, but at the same time it functions as a stairway or ladder for those on your side.
If this is the case, it makes sense that the gate doesn’t exist.
The wood elves led by Gio ran up the root stairs of the trees. But the demon soldiers in the vicinity swarmed and tried to interfere. It’s only natural.
For the demons, now is also the opportunity to break into the walled-in area.
I stopped and turned on my heel against the demon soldiers who were coming swarming towards the stairs.
I decided it was better to stall for a little while, but Christine-san and Serina, perhaps thinking the same thing as I did, were just lining up on either side of me.
No, let alone Christine-san, Serina would have just reflexively stopped because I stopped. But she immediately picked up on our intentions and increased her magic power.
If the three of us can strike a larger magic, it will buy us enough time to get everyone up to the barriers.
“Christine-san, Serina, let’s use this to release a stronger magic. Then we’ll retreat to the barriers too.”
I handed a stone from one of the bags I had tied to my waistband to Christine-san, which looked like a round white crystal that had been worked into a circle.
“A magic crystal stone. It’s a pretty high purity stone. Even in the academy one doesn’t see that often.”
As Christine-san said in a slightly surprised tone, it’s a special stone that contains magical power called a magic crystal stone.
It was dug and processed from the vein of magic crystal stone I created near the village of Berne when I was in my mother’s belly.
The magic power of the magic crystal stone can be used to replace it when using magic, and it also helps to augment the effectiveness of the magic itself.
“It has been available near the village since shortly before I was born. I’ve been wholesaling a good amount to other places, and it’s quite a bit of money. This one is for Serina.”
“Yes. Oh, is this the one that Doran-san had found in the swamp?”
“You’re right. Feel free to use it to your heart’s content.”
I give Serina an earth spirit stone. I picked it up after I fought off the earth spirit in the swamp where the Lizard’s settlement was located.
It turned out to be unexpectedly useful, but it would have been definitely better that such an opportunity didn’t come.
Serina grasps the crystalline body handed to her by me with both hands and begins to focus on fusing the power of the earth spirit spirit in the earth spirit stone with her own magical power.
Christine-san also passes her own magic power through the magic crystal stone clutched in her left hand and the long sword that also had the function of increasing the power of the magic exercise and catalyzing the correction of the magic formula. Then the silver hair was covered with a pale blue phosphorescence.
The trees that sensed our powerful magic power pulled back the surrounding thorns and tree roots underground. The obstacles that had been blocking the demon soldiers disappeared, and our vision opened up at once.
“Follow my command, O Reason of the Wind, O Wind”, bind thee free, change thee to countless blades, rage, Tornado!
Aiming at the demon soldiers who had no shields to protect themselves, Christine-san unleashes a powerful wind vortex.
The advanced wind-attribute magic exercised by Christine-san is, as the name suggests, one that generates tornadoes.
The wind that gouges the ground and rolls up the earth and sand is like a dragon whirling around with its long body, stirring the atmosphere and rising to the heavens. The whole body of the demon soldier is being torn to shreds by the blade of the wind that is generated at the same time.
The magic that I and Christine-san use is called logic magic, which interferes with physical and spiritual laws to cause certain phenomena, but the spirit magic that exchanges intentions with spirits, who are residents of other worlds, often does not involve the exercise of specific chanting or magic formulas.
“O spirit of the earth! My enemy is your enemy, turn your body into a sharp spear!”
If you are dealing with a high-ranking spirit, a great spirit or a being called a spirit king, you may need to chant or perform a ritual, but if you are borrowing the power of a less high-ranking spirit, you can activate it with simple chanting like Serina did now.
To Serina of Lamia, who is an earth element expert, calling on the earth spirit is her forte, and with the help of the earth spirit stone, it would have been even easier.
The ground rises slightly, and after the sound of the heavy rumbling of the earth, countless spears so thick that about three adults are needed to hold it, extended from the ground.
The demon soldiers are either pierced in the head and body by the spears that are rapidly extending from underneath their feet, or crushed between the spears and the spears, or smashed from multiple directions.
The upheaval of the earth that Serina had caused was also responsible for building a wall to block the advance.
” The two of you do it with gusto, but I can’t afford to lose either. Follow my voice, O Reason of Power, Gather, Gather, Detonate and Shatter, Explosions!”
Aiming at the demon soldiers who escaped from Christine-san and Serina’s magic, I unleashed a spell that created an explosive phenomenon in the designated area.
The vast amount of magical power extracted from my soul is concentrated at the tip of my left hand that I held up, and takes the shape of a glowing white ball of light that is compressed enough to be visible.
The light ball is emitting a caustic light like a small sun at the tip of my left hand. I fired the eye-collapsing ball into the middle of the demon soldiers.
The ball of light that lands on the ground causes an explosion in the area of the remaining demon soldiers, just as the name implies.
For a moment, a roar so loud that the surrounding hustle and bustle, the crying of the wind, and the rustle of the trees could no longer be heard, and the impact that propagated through the atmosphere struck our entire bodies.
The demon soldiers engulfed in the explosion turned into black shadows in the white light and danced like threadbare puppets, only to collapse into pieces from the impact.
After the light and impact of the explosion had subsided, there was not a trace of the demon soldiers’ presence. The terrain was unchanged, as I adjusted the explosion to keep the surrounding trees from getting caught up in it.
The three spells each came to an end. Even as my gaze drifted from left to right, I didn’t see any demon soldiers. For the time being, this was enough to buy us some time.
We looked at each other to confirm that we had accomplished enough, then turned around and ran up the stairs in the trees behind us at once.
Gio, who was waiting for us on the barrier, looked at us with a dumbfounded look on his face. Come to think of it, is this the first time I’ve fought in front of Gio?
It seems that seeing the power of the magic we unleashed, even with the assistance of the magic crystal stone, there is no doubt that our strength has been revised upward in Gio’s mind.
“You guys look like the kind of impersonators I would want to rely on.”
“We wanted to show you that we can be counted on,”
Seeing me answer that, Gio put his hand to his forehead as if he had a headache and shook his head from side to side without effort. I don’t understand what Gio wants to say and how he feels.
As for Christine-san and Serina’s magic, it was more powerful than I thought it would be.
When the three of us saw the three of us coming up the barrier, the young Wood Elf who had joined us on the barrier asked Gio about our identities.
“Gio, who are they? Looks like they’re from outside…….”
Considering the actions we just took and the fact that we’ re a group consisting of a human and lamia, they probably know we’ re not on the side of the demon soldier, but that doesn’t mean they have enough basis to judge us as allies, so it’s a natural question.
“They came to investigate the forest. They’re also the one who helped Mar and they are on our side as well. And about their powers, as you have seen it earlier.”
“Gio~ We can’t afford to waste time on anything else. We have to hurry, or Diadora-san will be in danger.”
“Brother, Doran-san, we have to get to the north side quickly. I wouldn’t worry about Diadora if it was one on one, but there are three strong and big ones besides that Geo something or whatever he’s called!”
Marr and Fio were right. From my point of view, even when dealing with those from the demon world who can’t show their full strength, the power of that Black Rose Spirit called Diadora is not inferior.
But behind the demon soldiers that have been deployed to the north, there are three that are at least as powerful as Gheorud. If they come forward, the current situation will easily be reversed and shift to the side of the demon world.
At his sister’s words, Gio’s temporarily loose expression tightened and he immediately called out to the others around him.
“Jien, protect this place. We’ll keep heading north. Doran, Christine, Serina, I’m sorry, but we are counting on you.”
I nodded back to Gio, who was still hesitating after reaching this point, with great confidence. With this kind of attitude, this young man’s debt would be lighter.
“Yeah, you can count on us.”
Christine-san and Serina, as well as me, each nodded back to Gio, clearly and emphatically.
† † †
—3rd person PoV—-
As Doran and the others moved towards the barrier, the Black Rose Spirit, standing on the northern barrier against the darkness of the night and the light of the moon, looked down arrogantly at Gheorud caught in thorns, and moved her lips, wet with intense red, a few times.
Lips as glossy as the hollowed out petals of a rose spun words that were laced with an extreme coldness equal to the gaze.
“Trampling the plants and flowers, damaging the trees, crushing the insects, killing the beasts, taking the lives of the people of the forest, defiling the forest…… your sins are too numerous to count.”
At Diadora’s cold words, Gheorud chuckled in a cracked bell voice with comfort.
“Huh, sin you say? To you, that’s a sin. Weakness is a sin if you ask me. If you don’t want to be killed, kill your enemy before you get killed. They were killed by us because they were weak and helpless. What is the sin but being weak? Do those on this side of the earth not know such things, this is a terrible laughingstock. Hahahahahahahaha!”
Despite the fact that his entire body was trapped, he was fearless and bold, as if he didn’t feel his life was in danger at all.
A swooping light dwells in Diadora’s black eyes.
With a squeak, the black rose’s restraints tightened, and the armor of Gheorud’s upper body creaked with a sound like a scream. The amount of black blood flowing from the beast’s lower body increased dramatically.
It’s not just the scream, though, as the rock-crunching sound escapes from the mouth of Gheorud’s teeth as he grits his teeth to endure the pain inflicted on him.
“Are all members of the demon world like you? Let me remind you of the sin you mentioned. You are so weak that even I can destroy you.”
Saying the words in return for Gheorud to say that weakness is a sin, Diadora swiftly raised her right arm into the sky.
With the movement of the arm as if pointing to the moon in the sky, behind Diadora – there was a huge shadow that swiftly lifted the sickle neck from inside the defensive wall.
It looked like the shadow of a giant snake or dragon that would swallow Diadora in one fell swoop, but what was exposed under the light of the moon was a countless number of intertwined thorns.
These thorns also had countless black roses blooming in places, and there was no doubt that Diadora had used her power as a black rose spirit to create them.
The tips of the intertwined thorns are as sharp as sharpened spearheads, overflowing with Diadora’s magical power, and rising with mischief.
The hatred and anger swirling fiercely in the heart of Diadora, as well as other inexpressible emotions, create a power beyond the ordinary, giving this beautiful black rose spirit a powerful negative power.
“It’s unpleasant just to be in the presence of beings like you. It was your sin to come into this world.”
The great spear of the black rose runs through the atmosphere as Diadora’s ciliated hand, which had extended to the moon overhead, swung down mercilessly as if ordering the execution of a beheading.
Even the strongest inhabitants of the demon world will not be safe from this blow. If that attack hit Gheorud an enormous hole would be made in the chest of the armor that protects him, and a large black blood flower would bloom.
Gheorud had no longer any means to resist. Diadora and even the wind, which was frightened by the miasma of the demon world, and also the moon, which was watching this night’s fight to the death, must have thought so.
At that time, a cheerful and lively voice sounded from somewhere.
“Haha.”
A figure dances in the night sky as lightly as the petals that dance in the wind. A petite, that is, the shadow of a girl in her mid-teens who looks like a bud before it blossoms.
The silhouette of the black shadow lands on the tip of the great spear of the flying black rose, and as soon as she touches the spear with her red gloved fingertips, Diadora’s magic disappears like a mist.
The great black rose spear rapidly loses its power from the tip, losing its freshness and crumbling away as it withers and withers away.
Seeing the blow with all of its power crumbling, a crack appeared in the mask of coldness that had been covering Diadora’s beautiful face.
“You’re too careless, Gheo?”
The small figure kicks the crumbling great spear and flies through the air again, and then leaps to Gheorud’s left shoulder, which is still bound.
The figure’s true face is exposed on top of Gheorud’s shoulder pad.
The softly curved contours, lips reminiscent of tiny flower petals, and dull eyes are lovingly arranged, and at first glance it seems as if the most dainty image of a young girl that people have in mind has become a reality.
However, the magic that rises from the red-black dress that looks like dried blood and the slender body wrapped in it is enormous, and it sends a chill down the spine of those who see it, like an ice spear.
The eyes are beautiful like the yellow ball, and yet they seem to contain all kinds of corruption.
The mockery against all of the life on the earth is drifting there. And asking what’s with all that anger and hatred that scorches your heart, Diadora? Her eyes looked as if she knew that she was playing with the question.
“Hmph! Rafarasia, I could have managed on my own without your help.”
Gheorud replied to her.
It seems that the name of this demonic girl is Rafarasia.
Rafrasia, whose red hair, long enough to reach her thighs, was parted into four parts at the nape of her neck and tied with a black ribbon, tilted her head slightly at Gheorud’s words.
“Oh, come on, don’t be such a wuss. But since it is your role to take the lead and cause pain, I will only make fun of you. As expected, you’ve done your part.”
When Rafarasia’s fingertips touched the black rose that was restraining Gheorud’s entire body, the exact same phenomenon as before occurred, and the thorns immediately turned to dust.
Having been freed from his restraints, Gheorud lightly shuddered while falling from the air to the ground, and swept up the remnants of the black rose that clung to his body.
How he would have escaped the Black Rose’s restraints if it weren’t for Rafarasia’s help is something only Gheorud knows, but his eyes, laden with a deadly light, glared at Diadora for humiliating him.
For a person that doesn’t know how to defend themselves against magic, it was a demonic gaze that would cause them to swoon on the spot or worse, fall into madness.
“It is my role to make the enemy bleed before anyone else and declare the beginning of the war with their blood and lives. This is not something you can decide for yourself!”
“You’re the only one who thinks so. Geren and Georg all think the same way I do. Huh, that black rose sister has been looking at us with scary eyes since just now. Is there anything you want to say?”
Diadora’s gaze shifted from Gheorud to Rafarasia. It was clear at once who this Black Rose Beauty recognized as the strongest enemy.
As if Gheorud was no longer in her eyes, Diadora’s voice continues to grow cold as her eyes are set on the mockery that Raffrasia brings up.
“It’s you. The evil spirit who couldn’t get enough of taking lives and sipping while inflicting endless pain is …….”
Just barely, Diadora’s white teeth made a sound. There was a different kind of rage and hatred there than the one that was directed at Gheorud and the others.
“What are you talking about? There are so many things that come to mind, I don’t even know which one you’re talking about. You mean the water lily spirit that wilted and screamed? Or are you talking about the spirit of the dragon bile that rotted away while muttering a plea for help? Or are you talking about the white lily spirit that Zelt had chopped up?”
Each time Rafarasia mentions her deeds one by one, the flames of hatred erupting from Diadora’s entire body flare up even more intensely, and the black magic power changes to a darker and deeper hue.
”Ah,” muttered Rafarasia, her small hands meeting in front of her chest and a glorious smile on her face.
“Okay, you mean the red rose spirit that I slowly sucked to death as she cried, ‘Diadora, help me Diadora,’ right? It’s like the same rose spirit as you, and maybe you’re Diadora?”
“Yes, I am. I am Diadora. And all those you killed were my friends and family. And how dare you!”
Diadora’s hatred burns with a fiery fire that seems to burn everything in her eyes. Rafarasia met her gaze, and her mockery deepened as if it couldn’t be any more amusing.
“Hahaha. Ahhhh~ You’re mad at me for something stupid. Even though you are both flower spirits, you’re still opponents of each other’s prosperity, right? You should be happy that you have fewer enemies. Or~Be~tt~err~~, shouldn’t you have one word of thanks for me?”
That was the end of Diadora’s patience. The black emotions that welled up in copious amounts from the hole in her heart were colored with murderous intent and rushed to Rafarasia.
“Only you, I will never forgive you!”
The black hair of Diadora rises in the air, and countless thorns sprouting from its hair, which undulates like a black sea, burst out of it.
Yet Rafarasia’s smile deepened into a distorted smile, and as her thin left hand was held out to grasp into air, something like a mist of blue light seeped out of it.
As soon as the quickly increasing amount of mist touched the whip of thorns approaching Raafrasia, the whip of thorns sucked all the magic, moisture, or vitality out of it and crumbled like dust.
“You need to learn as much as possible. I too am a flower spirit. But I’m not a flower spirit like you, who blooms in a paradise on earth. I’m Rafarosia, the evil spirit of the demon flower that can only bloom by sucking blood or life. All lives are merely a sacrifice for me to bloom beautifully. You know, just like this?”
“What is this?!”
When the mist that overflows from Rafarasia’s left hand touches the earth and the wind, in the blink of an eye, the earth and the wind are sucked out of magic and life.
This is the work of a demon that sucks up all the life that makes up nature.
While sucking the life out of everything, the fog approaches at a terrific pace towards Diadora who was standing on top of the barrier of trees.
When Rafarasia’s fog touches it, the barrier wall, which was closing the large hole in the georudo, loses its freshness and dies before you can even see it.
When the fog came to her own feet, Diadora lightly kicked the protective wall and threw herself into the air.
Then, in the midst of her leap, she snapped the whip of thorns out of her black hair again, forcing Rafarasia to attack her from all sides.
“I’ll say it again, have you not heard of the word learning? No matter how many times you try, it’s always the same thing.”
A small sigh spilled out of Rafarasia’s small lips.
This sigh, as if it were melancholy, was filled with nothing but contempt for the fact that the cornered Diadora had repeatedly attacked without interruption.
This time, blue light poured out from not only Rafarasia’s left hand, but also her entire body, exhausting and withering Diadora’s thorns that were only a few steps away.
“Haha, thank you for the delicious meal.”
Even so, Diadora continues to challenge Rafarasia by extending new thorns from the edge of the thorns that wither.
These thorns would regenerate indefinitely as long as Diadora’s magic power lasted, but if she consumed them like this, no matter how powerful the spirit of the black rose was, she would quickly use up all her power.
Rafarasia’s mockery towards Diadora’s repeated acts of futility only deepened.
Rafarasia was only sucking Diadora’s magical power from the thorns, so she wasn’t consuming any power at all.
“Although waiting for your power to run out seems to be the easiest way to go, waiting is also boring, so I’m going to suck your life directly from you. Your beautiful black hair, white skin, and red lips will all dry up and shatter. Isn’t that horrible?”
With that, Rafarasia took a step toward Diadora.
The Evil Flower Spirit Princess, who has a heart of ruthlessness that refuses to value any life other than her own, was going to suck the life out of the Black Rose spirit without any mercy.
In contrast, Diadora, as a last stand, unleashed a bundle of thorns, though not as large as the great spear aimed at Gheorud, but with the dropping momentum to skewer Rafarasia’s face.
“Muu, what a trivial thing ……?”
She thought that the thorns would just wither and die as before, but this time it was a little different.
A single thorn in the center of the bundle reached Rafarasia just before it was about to wither, and like a white porcelain vessel, it grazed her white cheeks and carved a single bright vermilion line on them.
For a moment, a truly insignificant pain struck Rafarasia. But Rafrasia was stricken by a more mental shock than that, and with trembling fingers, she scooped up the red blood that had begun to seep into her cheeks.
“Blood, my, blood. I’m wounded…….”
Diadora smiles at the sight of Rafarasia looking at her bloodied fingers, her whole body shaking as if she were suffering from a fever.
“A beautiful rose has thorns, as they say in the old days, don’t they? Remember it well. You will only remember it for a short time, though.”
To make the real-life one reach Rafarasia, she kept firing with the assumption that she would wither to death, and as a result, she succeeded in wounding Rafarasia, albeit only slightly, as Diadora had planned.
In response to Diadora’s delighted voice, Rafarasia’s body shook with a great jerk, and the incomparable murderous intent swelled up at once from her, and a blue life-sucking fog overflowed from her entire body.
It was as if Rafarasia had turned into a burning blue pillar of fire.
“I can’t allow it, I won’t allow it! You have done an unforgivable thing for a mere black rose spirit from this side to hurt me. I’ll suck you to death without even having to feel the pain!”
The wind containing serious killing intent released from Rafarasia struck Diadora’s entire body, causing her black hair to be in great disarray. However, Rafrasia was not the only one whose body and mind were being scorched with anger and hatred.
Black magic power overflows from Diadora’s entire body as well, as if in response to Rafrasia. With a fresh magical power and vitality as if she had not been fatigued from earlier at all.
“Oh yes. But I don’t give a damn about your anger. It has already decided that it will kill every last one of you. Bark all you want. Soon you will be a silent wreck.”
Amidst the white moonlight, the power of the blue and black frenziedly engulfs everything around it.
It was truly a spark. Fearing that this would be the beginning of a battle between the two sides, the clouds did not block the moon, and the wind was afraid to flow.
A third party, Gheorud, who had been watching from the sidelines, was the one who initiated the battle.
” EEEE, you talk too much, Rafarasia! I’m going to stab her to death with my spear.”
“Hey, GEO, don’t you know, she’s mine to handle?”
Gheorud who was numbed before exploded the power stored in his four legs and turned into a huge red dead wind, closing in on Diadora.
As he declared himself, he thrust his right arm, which had turned into a spear from the elbow to the tip, forward and aimed clearly at the center of Diadora’s chest.
“Let me put you out of your misery.”
Even with Gheorud’s intrusion, Diadora’s will to fight did not waver or wane, but no matter how inexhaustibly she was energized by her black emotions, obtaining victory against these two bodies is extremely difficult.
Not wanting to allow Gheorud to slaughter Diadora, Rafarasia kicked the ground with her bright red shoe-clad feet. Despite the appearance of a slender girl, her leg strength is fast enough to overtake a panther running at full speed.
“Die!”
“I’m the one who’s going to kill her.”
With a buzz, Diadora’s black hair once again undulated like a stormy sea, and the whip of thorns leaned on her sickle neck like a number of snakes.
But a compressed air cannonball flew at the speed of sound above Diadora’s head and struck the spear and Rafaraia mercilessly while emitting a tremendous shock wave.
“Hooo!?”
”Hey, that’s unfair …… Kyaaaah!”
Gheorud’s two rear legs, prevented by the air cannonball, leapt up significantly, but barely escaped a forward roll.
Though Rafarasia blocked the air cannonball with the blue fog of absorption, she was hit by a direct hit from the 【Energy Bolt】 that continued to attack her.
Realizing that it wasn’t spirit magic that the Wood Elves were dealt with, Diadora looked back with caution towards Gheorud and Rafarasia.
In the deep darkness, there was Doran’s figure, holding up his left hand.
Doran, who had rushed in from the southwest defensive wall, had sensed Diadora’s predicament and exercised two magics in succession.
For a brief moment, Diadora’s and Doran’s eyes met with each other.
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