“You... BASTAAAAAAAARD!”
She let out a roar that rivaled Rajas’s. It was a shout filled to the brim with anger. She blew away the tense pressure that had stifled the atmosphere, and slashed at the demon before her with her red light.
“Oh?”
As the red whirlwind approached him, Rajas flashed a fearless smile and stuck out his arm. The red sword slashes met with his arm, but didn’t cut through it. A black aura wrapped around his skin and clashed with Lefille’s power, causing a violent flash of white light like an explosion. Her strikes had been completely stopped by the power surrounding his arm. Rajas was unharmed. Lefille had made a solid attack and poured all of her strength into it, yet the demon had fended it off easily. Rajas then gave an admiring smirk and laughed.
“You’re quite good, little girl.”
“Of course! Did you forget this sword?!”
“Hmm, what’s this? Your sword, you say?”
“B-Bastard! Are you... Are you saying you don’t remember me?!”
Lefille was radiating intense rage. From what she had said, Suimei could infer that she had some connection with Rajas. As the demon began to stir, Lefille jumped back. She safely landed a ways off and corrected her stance. While she did, the demon squinted at her and scrutinized every detail about her. Just as Lefille had suggested, it seemed that he now remembered the connection between them and let out a loud laugh.
“Ah, FUHAHAHA! I see! I remember now, little girl! You’re that damned survivor from that time in Noshias, right?!”
“That’s right! You finally remembered!”
“HAHAHA! I was sure you would die on the side of the road, but to think you survived! Even after everyone else met such a pitiful end!”
“BASTAAAAARD!”
Rajas flashed another twisted grin, and Lefille broke into another assault. She had become drowned in her anger and forgotten herself completely. Perhaps it was because of that exactly, but her sword strikes had a power behind them now that could hardly be compared to the blows she’d dealt previously.
However, the demon was also quite capable. His arms wrapped in their black aura intercepted Lefille’s fierce barrage of slashes. In her blind rage, Lefille left herself open in the midst of her onslaught of attacks. Spotting that, Rajas made his move. In the small window of opportunity after deflecting her sword, he struck. A fist came barreling down on Lefille.
“Your movements are too monotonous!”
“Ah―”
Mesmerized by the fist coming for her, Lefille unconsciously let out a small gasp and stopped moving. It was bad. She had seen the aura pouring out of that arm fend off her attacks. If she was struck by that, even as a spirit, she would be in serious danger.
“Tch!”
Everyone else seemed to be frozen in place too. That meant the only one who could break Lefille out of this situation was Suimei. Clicking his tongue and letting out the bitterness he had been holding in, he used his magicka to forcefully pull Lefille’s body, which had locked up at the sight of Rajas’s incoming fist.
“Wha?!”
“Oh?”
Two surprised gasps rang out. One from the girl who’d just been saved, and the other from the demon who’d had his prey snatched away. There was a moment of relief between Suimei and Lefille when the immediate disaster was avoided, but it didn’t last long. Suimei had moved Lefille enough to get her out of the way of Rajas’s attack, but she was still within his grasp. Suimei had no choice but to insert himself between the two of them to defend her from another blow.
“Suimei-kun, you can’t! Get away!”
“You damn small fry! You dare stand before me?!”
Lefille’s shriek of a warning was drowned out by Rajas’s thunderous shouting that struck Suimei’s body like a shock wave. Bearing it, Suimei lunged at Rajas at the fastest speed he could muster. As he approached, he focused on Rajas’s movements. His shoulder moved first. He was intending to swat away Suimei with a single strike of his fist.
Seeing it coming, Suimei abandoned his plan to catch and throw Rajas. Even if he evaded and caught the strike, it would surely turn out poorly for him. So instead, he jumped. The demon’s fist came down diagonally towards the ground, and Suimei used it as a ramp to run up Rajas’s arm. Having accelerated the whole time, Suimei was already at Rajas’s shoulder by the time his arm was fully extended.
“Hmph―”
Standing on Rajas’s shoulder, he unleashed a stomp. Using all the mana he could gather in the time he had, he exhaled and struck with a single foot. The blow was enough that Suimei recoiled a bit, but Rajas appeared uninjured.
Shit, even a direct hit did nothing...
The stomp had echoed with a booming sound and the ground beneath the demon had caved in spectacularly, yet the attack seemed to have no effect. The smaller demons had easily been wounded by the adventurers’ swords and other weapons, so this difference in defensive power was truly irritating for Suimei. He was wondering if it was some kind of weird trick. Normally, a strike like that would split its victim in two from the shoulder down. He felt cheated that absolutely nothing had happened. As Suimei fluttered in the air while swearing internally, an agitated gaze locked on to him.
“You brat!”
Rajas swung his arm wildly. It wasn’t a focused strike, but it still had enough power behind it to destroy Suimei’s body five times over. He was once again in awe that Lefille traded blows with such strikes with her sword. As expected of a spirit, they were simply amazing.
“Via gravitas, fingito.”
[Gravity road, take form.]
As the attack rushed towards Suimei, he recited a quick chant. Using magicka, he sent his body—which was still hanging in the air—crashing into the ground instantly. Rajas managed to follow the movement with his eyes and kicked at Suimei.
“―?!”
In the next instant, Suimei was behind Rajas. He’d slipped under his leg as he kicked, and thanks to the cloud of dust it whipped up, it seemed Rajas hadn’t noticed. Suimei wouldn’t have minded seeing the dumb look on his face when he realized he had disappeared. But the next thing Suimei knew, a loud crashing sound resonated through the air as the trees in front of the demon were uprooted from his kick.
Nearly everything Suimei could see was blown away. He really wished the demon would stop leaving everything to sheer strength. And in that brief instant where Rajas had yet to turn around, Suimei backed off. He was casually strutting away, keeping his distance to observe this demon who was like a storm of violence.
Suimei focused his sight on the back of the demon before him. His body was immense. His physique was a far beyond what even the most gifted humans with ideal genes could achieve. He exuded power, and his mana overwhelmed anything they’d seen from the other demons. And eclipsing all of that was his pitch black aura. It was coming out of Rajas’s body, but it was clearly something special. Rajas finally turned around and met Suimei’s gaze. Shaking it off like it was nothing, Suimei continued strutting to the side.
“Tch...”
Rajas let out an aggravated grunt when he saw Suimei toying with him. He followed up with an attack, and Suimei responded in kind.
“Contra caelum et terram.”
[Reversed heaven and earth.]
“Wha?!”
Using magicka, Suimei reversed up and down in the space surrounding him. This flipped Rajas upside down, driving his head into the ground. Of course, this wasn’t enough to hurt him. No, this spell was only meant to buy Suimei some time. And with those precious few seconds, Suimei leaped backwards and began weaving together the magicka he thought would be effective.
“Abreq—Tch!”
However, he was forced to stop his chant partway. As if the earth itself was attacking him, an avalanche of rocks blew up from the ground.
“Hah, mere lumps of dirt...”
Suimei scoffed in a cold voice that made even himself shudder, and swung his arm wildly at the incoming rocks. Coming into contact
with the magician who wielded the mysteries of the Kabbalah, they split clean in two, one after the other. When the earth settled down, an oppressive aura filled the air again.
It’s evil down to the core, huh?
Suimei concluded that Rajas was just that sort of creature. The power he wielded could only be described as evil. Its presence was enough to make one nauseous—a power that a human would never be able to wield. It was a power from another plane, from somewhere and someone else. As Suimei came to realize this, he once more stood before Rajas. Suimei had his hand in his pocket. Even though Rajas had just flown into a fit of rage at being trifled with, he now had a calm expression. It seemed the title of general wasn’t just for show; he at least had the composure to remain calm when necessary. Brushing off the dirt he’d collected when he met the ground, Rajas let out a scornful laugh.
“You’re quite good, boy. For a mage, you’ve got some real strength there.”
“Well, thanks.”
“But if you’re only able to put up this much resistance, it isn’t much of a fight.”
“Resistance, huh? From where I’m standing, it just looks like you haven’t been able to hit me. What’cha got to say ’bout that?”
“Hmph, shut it. You have no room to talk when you can’t muster enough power to even scratch me.”
Rajas shot down Suimei’s provocation with a laugh. It seemed that Rajas wasn’t going to be goaded by such a simple taunt. Lefille finally collected herself and took her place next to Suimei.
“Suimei-kun, be careful! This is only a fraction of his true power!”
“Aah, you’re saying he’s still not serious? Honestly, gimme a break...”
Suimei let out a deep sigh that seemed completely inappropriate for the situation. Really, he let his inner thoughts slip out. Seeing that Rajas was still perfectly composed, if what Lefille said was true, Suimei estimated that it was possible Rajas wasn’t even using half of his true power.
“If he wanted to, this entire area would be easily...!”
“Hey, what? He’s that dangerous?”
“That’s right. Your exchange of blows just now was nothing but him playing around. Don’t let your guard down.”
Suimei could see Lefille’s hands tremble as she gripped her sword. She seemed to be remembering something unpleasant.
“Heh, that’s how it is. A mere human mage shouldn’t get so cocky...”
“Tch!”
Rajas’s hideous aura suddenly swelled and cast a dark tension over the area. Lefille braced herself, and the anxiety showed on her face. If Rajas’s power was truly much more than this, it would certainly be bad for things to continue this way. Suimei had to defeat him before it was too late. And so...
“Archiatius over―”
When Suimei began his chant, the situation was turned on its head. Just as he thought Rajas was about to charge at them, he suddenly began laughing at Lefille.
“Heh heh heh...”
“What’s so funny?!”
“I just thought of something quite amusing.”
“Amusing, you say?”
Instead of a reply, Rajas flew up into the sky.
“I will take my leave for now.”
“Wha―?!”
“But remember, woman from Noshias, that damnable power you hold isn’t something we’ll just overlook. I’m going to gather my subordinates here in this land, but I’ll be back for you.”
“Your subordinates? Then...”
“This was but a single part of my forces. Compared to my entire army, it was nothing. This you should already know.”
Lefille was left speechless as Rajas continued.
“And you should give up any hope of making it out alive again. My soldiers are spread all throughout this area, and any humans we come across are cut down without mercy. To send a message, you know.”
With those final words, Rajas turned his back to them and retreated with the remaining demons. Lefille made to chase after them, but...
“W-Wait!”
“Lefille.”
“―?!”
Suimei grabbed her shoulder. It was no use. Her eyes pleaded with him as if to ask why he’d stopped her, but he simply shook his head. When she realized the futility of it all for herself, the tension drained from her body.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry... I lost my composure quite a bit there.”
Lefille hung her head in shame as she replied.
★
Things calmed down a bit after the demons left, but Suimei’s next task was already waiting for him. He was to use magicka to heal those who were injured in the fighting. On paper at least, that was the reason he was part of this trade corps. There happened to be other mages who were able to use healing type magicka, so the work was finished unexpectedly quickly.
“Phew. That should be it for now.”
Suimei let out a small sigh as he finished treating the last person. Since he wasn’t a specialist when it came to healing, he was a little worried that his treatment was somewhat lacking, but seeing as no complications arose, his self-evaluation was a little modest. Taking a look at the people he’d treated, it seemed none of them were any worse for wear because of his care.
It’s getting awfully noisy over there.
But some distance away, Suimei could hear a loud voice. The source of it was clearly the other escorts and merchants, but he didn’t know what they were yelling about. Perhaps it was about what to do next. According to Rajas, his subordinates were already crawling in the area and would be gathering soon. The trade corps didn’t have any time to rest if they were going to get out of here safely. Surely they would want to leave as soon as possible.
If they were raising a fuss over preparations, it was possible there was some sort of trouble preventing their departure. Suimei decided to see for himself what was going on, and headed towards all the yelling. What greeted him when he arrived was an extremely tense atmosphere. Just what had happened that caused things to escalate so much? Wondering that as he got closer, he could see the escorts and merchants all surrounding somebody.
The one at the center of the circle was none other than the girl who’d fought bravely for their safety, Lefille. Normally, these people should all be thanking her for basically single-handedly defeating the demons. However, judging from the tension in the air, they hadn’t surrounded her to shower her with praise. And then, as if she was tired of it all, Lefille spoke out.
“What did you all call me here for? Is there something wrong? I believe there are more important things to be doing at a time like this, don’t you agree?”
As she attempted to push everyone away from her with those words and her expression, one of the adventurers stepped forward.
“Things to do, you say? Just what is it you think we should be doing?”
“Obviously we should be heading to a safe location immediately. If we don’t hurry, the demons will attack us again.”
“Attack us, huh?”
The adventurer’s words were filled with sarcasm, and Lefille replied to him in a strong tone.
“What? Do you have something you want to say? If you do, just spit it out―”
“Yeah, I do. The reason we were attacked is because you were here, right, miss survivor from Noshias?”
“―!”
“Tch, and you’re telling us to hurry... How shameless. This is all your damn fault! That we were just attacked, and that we could be attacked again at any minute!”
The adventurer was yelling, attacking Lefille viciously with his words. Compared to before, Lefille’s behavior became much more timid.
“C-Certainly that demon intended to kill me, but the fact that we were attacked...”
“Isn’t because of you? Can you really say that?”
“...”
Lefille was unable to respond to the adventurer’s accusation. The demon Rajas had targeted Lefille, only after she came at him. That meant the reason for the demons appearing here in
the first place still wasn’t clear. In that light, what the adventurer was accusing her of didn’t seem to be right. But at the same time, Lefille couldn’t say for sure that it was totally wrong. So in the end, she didn’t argue.
“That demon was chasing after you, right? He brought his army along just to take you out.”
“Th-That’s...”
“What? That’s what? If you have something to say, just try it. If you can, that is.”
Lefille was no longer able to say anything back to the adventurer pushing her into a corner, and hung her head in silence.
“Can I say something?”
“What?”
“Earlier when the demon was fighting Lefille, he said, ‘I remember now,’ right? That would imply the demon didn’t recognize her until after he got here. If he had been hunting her down, surely he wouldn’t have said something like that, right?”
“Th-That’s unrelated!”
“What? There’s no way it’s unrelated...!”
“He could have just been going on vague information. In that case, they wouldn’t necessarily know what she looked like, right? Isn’t that right?”
It was possible someone fitting her description had been reported in the area and the demons had come to investigate. It was possible that they’d only realized it was her after arriving. Suimei couldn’t argue with that much.
“Also, before we were attacked, remember what that woman said? She was sure it was demons! How could she possibly know something like that? It could have easily been monsters. Yeah, you get it now, right? She had to have known demons were coming after her!”
Suimei realized that this was the adventurer who had come to them to inform them of the attack in the first place. This man had been dubious of Lefille’s claim at the time as well.
“That’s a pretty skewed conclusion. Couldn’t it just be because she has a special sense for detecting demons?”
“Maybe. But can you prove that?”
“That’s...”
It was an extremely selfish question fully intended to railroad Suimei into conceding. Suimei had nothing more to say to anyone resorting to that kind of sophistry. One’s ability to sense the presences wasn’t something that could be proven to others. Even if there were a way to do that, this man was past the point of reason.
The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind! Volume 2 Page 15