Chapter CLXXVII - Fireworks Escape (part 2)

A shout can be heard from the skies as tens of carriages started to land on the ground within the barracks walls.

Emily slowly floated down, and behind her was my whole team. They brought with them seventeen carriages, and Emily was the one who carried all of them here.

Everyone was amazed by the sudden appearance of floating carriages and people. They all applauded, and Emily bowed herself before the villagers.

Meanwhile, I'm slightly confused.

"… Just this much? We might need more than this."

I said to Fran who is approaching me. Everyone else is busy complementing Emily, that Fran can just walk past them silently.

"There's a limit with how many carts Emily can bring. We also don't have that many to begin with, and we had to borrow them from the knights. Besides, you can help out, can't you?"

"… it's difficult…"

Fran laughed, and she turned to the princess behind me.

"Looks like you made it."

Fran said to the princess, and Lescia chuckled. She then lifted her chest up and placed her fingers on her face.

"Hoho, of course! I am that great, after all! Though, this guy is just a dead weight."

Lescia proudly said while tilting her head at me, and I had enough once again.

"Hmmmmm~...….? By the wa~y, I feel like getting payback for that cheek-pull you just did."

I said while lifting my hand where all my magic energy went. Lescia immediately held both of her cheeks to protect her. She shook her head multiple times, while I nodded multiple times in reply.

"… Guy?"

Fran suddenly said out of the blue, which made the two of us shocked.

"Ah, I meant gal!"

Fran then tilted her head, and turned back to me. She didn't say anything, because she then turned towards the villagers.

As the villagers were boarding the carriages, I gave Lescia a very disappointed glare.

"Sorryyy, geez! It's a small mistake!"

"… Very small indeed."

I let out a sigh and turned to see how the others were doing. The villagers are boarding the carriages one by one, slightly confused as to how they will leave this place with these horseless carriages.

How will Emily even carry all of the rest of the villagers…?

Oh. She will be relying partially on me.

In the end, there are still around a hundred villagers that didn't get the carriages. Emily turned to me and nodded.

I let out a sigh as I lifted both of my hands.

Tons of magic energy are pouring in, and everyone can tell I am not doing half-hearted magic casting. The amount of energy definitely alerted the entire kingdom, after all it was not a simple amount.

VWOOOOOOM!!!!

A giant lump of shadow suddenly emerges on the large field in front of me. Slowly, the shadow took form, and the bottom part split into two very long legs.

The giant legs are around fifty meters high, and there's a flat ground on the top for the villagers to stand on. The legs can be seen from all over the kingdom due to how tall it was, but that's not the point why I made it that tall.

After perfectly making the shape, I formed a giant shadow platform to lift the villagers up and quickly shouted at them.

"Come on, all of you. Hop in!"

They all heeded my shout and walked into the shadow platform. Seeing that the platform had no railings made them anxious, but then I closed the walls around them and formed a perfect black box.

The black box was raised all the way to the top like an elevator, being pulled by a long shadow rope from the top, and it arrived on the hips of the legs. I have made a small room inside the hips with windows on the walls so that the villagers can look outside from fifty meters up.

"Now, that is creative!!"

Lescia shouted while I focused on keeping this giant leg form.

It really isn't, let's be real here. 

True creativity would appear when I make like a giant gundam out of shadow magic, but that will take a massive toll on my head. Just a pair of giant legs alone already gave me enough headache…

The bigger the shadow magic, the larger the concentration. But, details multiply the amount of concentration.

To easily describe, making a straight-out-of-movie gundam is going to be fifty times harder than making a simple slender pair of shadow legs, due to how big and how detailed it is.

As for why I made long legs instead of anything else… Well, I don't want to steal the theme of 'Flying' from Emily.

The villagers will literally 'walk away' from the kingdom. It's going to look so stupid from afar.

After the villagers were already secured, we started moving. The carriages on the ground started to float from Emily's powerful wind magic, and it flew upwards.

The gigantic shadow leg also started moving. It stepped on the roads and tried to dodge the buildings while trying not to step on anyone. After the fifth step, our giant long legs arrived on the castle walls, that is around the same height.

This is the reason why I made the legs so tall. It was so that it could leap above the castle walls, which are already fifty meters tall.

I raised the length of the leg, and the giant legs became twice as tall. The legs easily hopped past the walls, and continued walking outside the kingdom.

Meanwhile on the ground, I turned to Lescia with a grin.

"All right, we should get going too."

"Huh? How will we-Hua!!"

Lescia squeaked as I pushed her closer to me. I grinned at her and opened my shadow wings.

"Hold on tight."

"Try not to go so qui--iiiiick!!!"

We flew at high speed, following the villagers. Seeing that gigantic shadow pair of legs walking on the forest alongside the tens of flying carriages, made me believe that this is actually some scene that came out straight from a fantasy land book.

The flying carriages, the giant walking long legs made of shadow, and finally us flying not too far behind them.

"God, this is so cool…"

Lescia mumbled while being in my arms. I carried her like a princess while flying in the air, following the others. We often looked down to see the civilians of the city shouting at us, and Lescia would often wave at them, even though they probably can't see it because we are moving a little too fast.

"The best of my life…"

Lescia mumbled while being in my arms. She turned her gaze to me and grinned.

"The goddess said that… after I met the hero, I will see the best moments of my life."

Understanding what she meant, I simply chuckled.

"I am… also living the best of my life."

The two of us continued flying in the air romantically as we followed the giant shadow legs and flying carriages.

Meanwhile, Fran and the others stayed behind so they could free the villagers that got taken in confinement. Emily will return there to grab them after dropping the carriages on the village.

We finally arrived at the village and we dropped the villagers. The carriage slowly floats down to the ground, while the shadow legs slowly get shorter and shorter until it becomes merely a circle shadow platform.

I can feel that controlling those giant legs alongside flying was quite a strain to my brain, but Emily wasn't in a better condition. After dropping the carriages, she fell to her knees and her head was sweating madly.

I quickly ran to her after placing Lescia on the ground, and I tried casting healing magic to make her feel better. But in the end, the fatigue is what frying her, I couldn't do much with healing magic.

"You all right?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine..."

She said as she wiped the sweat from her head. I simply nodded and turned around towards the direction we just came from.

"Stay here. I'll be the one to pick up the others."

I turned to Lescia and nodded, then I flew at high speed back to Veldon.

When I arrived at the barracks, the spot had already turned to a battlefield. A lot of knights and rankers have already arrived at the barracks, and they are all facing my team.

Jonus' flames can be seen splitting the two sides, but it will die out soon and the fight will start again.

I landed behind Fran and the others, and they quickly noticed me.

"Captain!"

"Okay. We are leaving."

I turned the entire area black as a large black dome covered everyone. 

Slowly, the black dome was lifted upwards until it finally grew two large wings on the outside. The black sphere then began to shape into form, until finally forming into a dragon.

Seeing the black shadow dragon, the rankers and knights shielded their thoughts of attacking us. The wings started to flap, and the giant shadow dragon is now flying in the dark night skies. It left the rankers and knights at the barracks as it took us back to the village.

Victory has been served for us. Everything, thanks to our superior planning.

Meanwhile, in the tall building in the king's room, the armored knight lady is giving the king the report on what happened in the barracks. The king threw the glass he was drinking on to the ground with his hand, and he turned to the knight lady with an angry face.

"You let them escape!? They are the only thing keeping Mazino on a leash!!!"

Hearing the king's squeaky face makes him not fearsome at all, but the knight lady can't help but feel ashamed. She bowed even lower and apologized.

"Apologize, my king... They had some… talented warriors."

"And so do we!! We have rankers on the spot, why can't they capture them!!?? Huaaa!!!!!!"

The king began to go crazy on his own bed. His wives watching by the walls are scared of his sudden crazed behavior, and they all stood far from him as he wrecked his own bed.

"Curse you, Bestall Mazino!!! Curse you all!!!"

The king screamed as he tore a pillow in half using his last hand and his teeth, spreading the insides everywhere. That was a really high quality pillow, but due to its softness, it was so easy to be ripped in half.

The king then became exhausted, and he walked back to the knight lady. He lifted her chin, and spoke merely a centimeter away from her eyes.

"Tell everyone… to fortify… 

We… are going to war."

Hearing that, the knight lady's eyes became wide. But she has to do what he says, because it's a command from the king.

"As you command… my king…"

The knight lady then stood up and slowly left the room while stepping back. The king then stared at his last hand. He gripped it hard, and turned around to his wives.

"Leave!"

The wives then ran quickly and left the room.

The king closed the door, and used the space ring to spawn a specific item from inside. A single item came to his palms, and he poured in some of his magic energy.

The device lit up, implying that the connection has been established.

"Everything is done. It was all according to plan. Mazino did exactly as you said."

The king of Veldonia said to the device, and a static voice can be heard from the device. It was heavy and fearsome, and it replied almost immediately.

"Very good, Mejon. Now, just try not to lose while we are preparing… and you will receive everything."

"As you command… Lord Demon King."

Mejon turned the device off and he inserted it back into his space ring. His eyes were brimming with hatred, and he lifted his hand high.

"Too bad, Mazino… No matter how much you squealed…

This time, you will lose."