"Don't interfere, he said..."
...just before I could protest that there was simply no way I could do that.
"!"
Countless magic bullets rained down, aimed at the three who were present.
Ermes and Lucius were calm and composed. Herc raised a look of surprise, yet still constructed a barrier to block them.
Karma idly prepared his next attack. Ermes was bracing for the opponent's assault while searching for his next move, when a voice rang out.
"Hey. You—don't tell me—
you actually showed her?
—the magic—to that person?"
"Going by that tone, it seems you were already well aware of their abilities. Yes—the
Magic Bullet Archer,
and the
Messenger of the Faceless.
Beyond that, I've been fighting with just this spell alone."
"Tch—what a pain."
Herc clicked his tongue in irritation. Without another glance at Ermes, he fixed his eyes solely on Karma and spoke.
"Hey, Liliana's adjutant. If the 'magic' I've heard about in rumors is real, then under no circumstances should you fight. Your ability to wield multiple Bloodline Magics makes you the worst possible match against that one."
"..."
"No, that doesn't even matter. ...You over there—you're Frodaite's brother, right? Don't interfere either. I've told you time and again—that one is my prey!"
So she cut off her words — and this time, dodging the magic bullet Karma fired at her again, she charged straight at Karma alone, just as she'd said.
"Your Highness Helke!"
Ermes called out, pleading for her to stop.
The reason went without saying... because there seemed to be absolutely no chance of victory.
He didn't know the specifics of First Prince Helke's magical abilities. But factoring in his standing within the Royal Palace and the kingdom's values... there was no way he could be "above Aster."
If that was the case, it was hopeless. Unless he had grown tremendously since Aster's fall... no, even if he had, he still wouldn't be able to hold his own against that monster one-on-one. If he could have, the succession war would never have happened in the first place.
But that raised one more simple question.
From the way the First Prince spoke, he must have crossed blades with "that one" before this as well.
......
How?
?
To confirm this for himself, Ermes maintained his battle stance and moved in to observe — and right before his very eyes, Helke... showed him the reason in the most unmistakable way possible.
"—
Twin Serpent's Twig
!"
"!"
At the same time he amplified his magic power, what Helke drew was... a pair of staves adorned with serpent-and-wing motifs. Ermes recognized them at once — yes, the very ones his brother Kris had used when Ermes once faced him, the kind that dramatically enhanced basic magical performance
Ancient magical tool
.
"
Abyss Magic
,
Saint of Thin Snow
,
Heavenly Sound of the Performance
!
He took out tools in the shape of a stone tablet, a waistband, and a necklace, and equipped them.
From their design and the magic power he felt...
"Don't tell me... all of those are...
Ancient magical tools
?"
Ermes agreed with the words murmured by Lucius next to him.
As if to prove that, immediately after, the Bloodline Magic released by Herk, "
Great Serpent of the White Stillness
". It was unleashed with power far greater than the first one he fired.
...I see, he thought.
Against Karma, if he just fired off half-hearted magic, it would be copied immediately and only boost the opponent's power.
If that was the case, he had to match it with a single magic. However, the opponent possessed an extraordinarily high magical aptitude biologically, and would use any magic with better performance than him.
Therefore, in order to bridge that gap--
the opponent
Copy
Cannot
Of a magical tool's
power
the performance gap
fill
.
That is what Herc is currently doing... and
ancient magical tools —
this is the anti-Karma countermeasure that only members of the royal family who possess vast quantities of can carry out.
...But at the same time, he understood.
(--The other side isn't naive enough to be handled by that alone)
Ermes and the others had only faced Karma for a brief time, yet the gap in their opponent's power was so vast that they could still comprehend it — could understand it all too well.
After all, the very stage of their existence as living beings was different. Even if
ancient magical tools —
it was not the kind of gap that could be filled by relying solely on them.
...And besides, there was one more thing.
Ancient magical tools —
were certainly powerful. The user could unconditionally enhance their magical abilities to some degree.
--But in this world, such things always came with a price.
In the case of magical tools, the price for granting the user forced abilities is... to put it bluntly, it demands a tremendous amount of strain.
Essentially, they're devices that boost your abilities while destroying your own body. For short periods it's not a problem, but... prolonged use could deal serious damage to the body.
And then.
"I told you I'm bored. ...Since we're at it, let me try out some new magic a bit more, won't you?"
"—!"
Helk, who had been relentlessly bombarding them with the sheer power of magic, grimaced and clutched his head. ...It seemed that he had already been continuously using multiple
ancient magical tools
up until now.
Kalma didn't miss the slight opening in his loosened offensive and broke free. Closing in at once with the magic bullet she had first reproduced upon seeing Ermes and the thrust of her enhancement magic, she unleashed a devastating fist that no one could have imagined from her slender body, aiming to crush Helk's head—
—At that moment, the two who had finished their observation, analysis, and recovery rejoined the battle.
Lucius caught Kalma's fist with his sword, and in that opening, Ermes fired a magic bullet straight into the line of attack. They managed to temporarily disengage from the spot and protect Helk.
"What are you doing! I told you not to interfere—!"
"My apologies, Your Highness Helk."
Helk bristled and lunged at her, but Ermes remained calm.
"This is a battlefield. Words like that—
save them for when
you've become
strong
enough
to stop me."
"Please, go ahead."
"I agree with what Ermes said. At the very least, that boy is an enemy we must defeat as well. Please forgive us for inserting ourselves uninvited."
"......!"
Neither of them had any inclination to soften their words just because the other party was royalty. Helck hung his head in frustration at their utterly unreserved remarks.
...Moreover, having a powerful existence that viewed Karma as an enemy join the fight at this point was welcome—though calling it "reinforcements" might be going too far.
With this, they didn't by any means think they could win with three on their side, but at least they had assembled a proper fighting formation.
Now all that remained was finding a path to victory... or so both of them thought.
At this point, both of them—had forgotten, trapped by the preconception that "their opponent was a Monster."
"Hmm... I'm starting to get a kinda bad feeling about this."
Having blocked Ermes's magic bullets and regrouped, Karma spoke with an unreadable expression and a flat tone.
"Three on one, huh? I probably can't take all of you out in one shot... and it looks like a lot of my allies have been taken out too... Also, there's probably something really dangerous to the east. What is that? Flying in the sky? One of your allies? If that thing gets here, that'd be pretty bad."
Using her extraordinary magic power detection to fully grasp the surrounding situation as well as Rose—
She then smiled sweetly and clapped her hands together.
"—Alright.
Let's run away.
"
"!"
"Wha..."
At first glance, it might seem like the natural decision.
But—still, for the two of them, it was a declaration far too surprising.
……The monsters are running away?
Those incarnations of killing intent toward humanity.
The kind that appear everywhere, and the moment they catch any trace of human presence, charge in without question, driving forward with relentless obsession to slaughter.
To flee before humanity—such a thing was utterly beyond them.
"Yeah, I've pretty much figured it out. You guys are really strong... the strongest I've ever faced, and if I let my guard down from here, I'll definitely lose.
So...
I'll properly
with my companions,
think about how
to kill
every
last one
of you—
and then come back."
And then—it realizes.
Rather than simply charging at humanity without question, as it always had—
It has learned to retreat. Learned to fall back—a being that has gained the intelligence to wield the tactic of "withdrawing now in order to kill next time."
What kind of threat it will become from here on out...
"—!"
"Ermes, match my timing—this one is—!"
We can't let this one get away now.
In an instant, both of them reached the same conclusion and moved to give chase—
"See ya~"
—only for Karma to murmur in a completely deflated tone. Yet his method was anything but sloppy. Using a composite Bloodline Magic stolen from Ermes, he generated an absurd level of thrust and vanished from the scene in the blink of an eye.
They could pursue.
But they could never catch up. Even if they managed to track him all the way, the place they'd next have to face him would almost certainly be his home base—somewhere still crawling with Monsters. There was no way the two of them could take on Karma in a place like that and come out on top.
In the end… there was nothing to be done except let him go.
"…………"
"…Let's shift gears, Ermes-kun."
Far too many things had happened, one after another.
But all the same, the battle had finally eased up. Told as much by Lucius, Ermes accepted that there was nothing more they could have done back there and switched his train of thought.
"…You're right. At the very least we succeeded in driving off the Monster, and I can sense through magic power detection that the others are pulling out in sync with his retreat. Considering how dire our situation was at the start, I'd say that's not a bad outcome."
Letting Karma—the linchpin on the other side—escape while he'd already gotten a read on their strength was a bitter pill to swallow… but that cut both ways. They could regroup with the rest of their companions, figure out how to take him down, and come back for a rematch.
…Well, even if they did all that, the problem was that no clear path to victory presented itself.
On top of that—Ermes cast his gaze to the side.
"D-Damn it…!"
Having stumbled into an unexpected reunion, First Prince Helck was staring daggers at the direction Karma had fled, his frustration utterly genuine. The moment he noticed Ermes and the others, though, he gritted his teeth and immediately bolted.
…For a brief moment, they considered whether to give chase.
But right now, there were far too many other things to do, far too many things to think about.
"Shall we head back to Lady Lili?"
"Indeed. We need to sort through the information and align on our strategy going forward. ...Especially this time, we've got a mountain of things to do."
What was that Monster — what kind of being was it? How long had this situation been going on, and before that, why had such a being never shown itself on the surface?
And then... the First Prince Helmuth — or rather, the Royal Family. How were they involved?
...It was still before the decisive battle at the Royal Capital, yet it seemed they were about to run into yet another absurd difficulty.
With his resolve set, Ermes returned to camp alongside Lucius.
Next time: mysteries, summaries, and the reveal of new information.
With the first battle concluded, we now enter the conquest phase. Stay tuned!