Chapter 26 - Seeds of Malice

Chapter 26 - Seeds of Malice

"Hah, haah..."

In the gorge.

Yuru, who had blasted away half of the swarming Yapheon soldiers, was panting heavily.

"Keuk-keuk-keuk."

The remaining Yapheon soldiers surrounded her, their faces tense.

She looked at them and muttered.

"Hey, you fools."

A magic circle formed again before her.

"Do you think you can defeat me?"

Most of her magi had been depleted.

But she was the pinnacle of the Blue Magic Tower—no, of the magic world itself.

"This much is nothing."

It didn't take much magi to kill a human.

Moreover, dealing with mere soldiers, who were not even in her league, was easy.

"Why? Did you think you just had to not give me a break?"

The soldiers of Yapheon hesitated, as if they had charged, thinking they could win by exploiting her depleted magi, and only realized it was futile after half their ranks were annihilated.

"You'd better not think about running away."

Yuru, having missed Clay, her eyes were wide with rage.

"I'll kill all of you here..."

Thud!

It was then.

Yuru instinctively turned her head at the sudden tremor.

Thud! Thud!

The Yapheon soldiers followed her gaze.

And at the end of their gaze was,

"Blasphemous."

A single knight in golden armor, wielding a greatsword emblazoned with a cross.

"Th-That's...!"

"A Guardian Knight!"

"We're saved!"

Guardian Knights.

Those selected from among the strongest in Holy Power within the Holy State Alliance and trained to be the best knights.

They possessed the abilities of a Grand Swordmaster, the pinnacle of swordsmanship, as a fundamental skill, and were God's Warriors who had managed to transform Holy Power, which was almost impossible to use as a weapon, into sword energy.

"As God's will resides within us."

The knight, wearing a helmet that concealed his face, raised the hand holding the greatsword.

A cross was engraved on his gauntlet.

As if it distinguished him from other ordinary knights.

"How dare you commit such unforgivable acts?"

"..."

Yuru erased the magic circle she was drawing in front of her and glared at him.

'A Guardian Knight.'

A front-line member of the Holy State Alliance's 'Knights of Light'.

Their strength had already been proven, to the extent that they were responsible for guarding Hero Clay.

'But...'

Even they could barely manage Clay when acting as a group.

Although not at the peak of Clay's power, Yuru was the pinnacle of the magic world.

'I can handle him.'

If it was just one Guardian Knight, she could definitely deal with him herself.

"You must think you can defeat me."

However, as if he had seen through her thoughts, the Guardian Knight said in a gentle voice.

"If you were in your normal state, that wouldn't be a wrong thought, but isn't it different now?"

He slowly moved forward.

His armor was so heavy that the ground vibrated with each step he took.

Thud, thud!

The sound drilled into Yuru's ears again.

Her expression twisted as if she had swallowed a bitter medicine.

"I am Maial of Yapheon, the twelfth Guardian Knight of the Holy State Alliance."

Maial.

She had heard that name before.

"The lowest."

As the youngest of the Guardian Knights.

"You, the lowest of the Guardian Knights, came to face me?"

"Foolish."

Maial rested his greatsword on his shoulder and sneered.

"I didn't come to face you."

He extended his hand forward, pointing at Yuru.

"I came to punish you."

"Kh, hah!"

Yuru suddenly burst into laughter, turned her head, and then looked at Maial with twisted eyes.

"Try it."

"Hm?"

"I said, try it."

Yuru opened her palm.

"Collectio."

Magi gathered into her hand as if being sucked in.

"Conglomeratio."

Then, as she cast the spell and clenched her fist, the magi condensed into a single point.

"I've wanted to cut you all down anyway."

Before his execution, Clay had been held captive by several Guardian Knights.

No, saying "several" was even incorrect.

Because the entire Guardian Knight order had been clinging to Clay.

"You were blocking the way, so I couldn't even think about it."

But if it was just one, it was a different story.

"I'll show you what a big mistake you've made."

Aspiratio.

Muttering that, Yuru opened her palm again.

A sphere of magi, now as small as a dot, slowly moved from her palm towards Maial.

"What's that?"

"Is her magi all gone?"

"If so...!"

It was when the soldiers, seeing the seemingly weak magi sphere, raised their spears and swords again.

"Get out of the way!"

Maial pushed aside the soldiers who were bravely trying to rush forward and charged.

Clang!

The tip of his swung greatsword touched the magi sphere.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

Cut, pushed, or crushed.

The magi sphere, which should have been any of those, struggled against the greatsword as if fixed in place.

"Wh-What is that?"

The soldiers' astonishment.

The magi sphere continued to slowly move forward, pushing Maial's greatsword back.

"Stop it."

Yuru bit her lip and said.

"Just try."

Blood trickled from her mouth.

She was continuously pouring power into the magi sphere.

Condensed magi.

It was a time bomb.

The ignition button had already been pressed through the emission spell.

"If you can't, we all turn to dust."

The maximum firepower magic, using all the magi scraped together from her body.

Instead, once released, it was a so-called suicide bomb that could no longer be controlled.

"How foolish!"

Maial exclaimed.

"If you do this, you'll be caught in it too!"

"No."

Yuru grinned.

"You'll do something about it, won't you?"

"!"

Yuru didn't think the Guardian Knight wouldn't be able to deflect her suicide bomb.

On the contrary, she thought it was possible.

A Guardian Knight was not such a flimsy being.

"You'll have to spit out all your Holy Power too."

It was impossible for Yuru, whose physical condition was not normal anyway, to face a Guardian Knight.

So, she chose this.

Mutual destruction or coexistence.

"Such cunning..."

Maial put strength into his arm.

"But that will prove to be a misjudgment."

SKREEEEEE!

Maial exclaimed, suppressing the about-to-burst magi sphere with Holy Power infused into his greatsword.

"I will annihilate this and cut you down!"

KAA-AAAAAAAH!

The magi sphere was crushed as if screaming.

BANG!

It was just as Maial completely shattered the magi sphere with his greatsword.

"Did you really think that was it?!"

Yuru, who had seemed to be spitting blood, suddenly leaped forward and reached Maial's front.

"This is the real one!"

Her other hand, which she had hidden behind her.

Another type of magi bullet she had concealed was pushed from her hand and collided with Maial.

"!"

More precisely, with the side of the greatsword Maial had raised.

KWA-AAAAAH-AAAAAAAH-AAAAAH!

"AAAH-AAAAAAH!"

In an instant, the soldiers were flung in all directions by the enormous blast.

"Save meeee!"

"GUUH-AAAAAH-AAAAAH!"

Screams spreading everywhere.

Yuru and Maial glared at each other, paying no mind to the receding soldiers.

"As expected, it was just as I thought."

Maial opened his mouth.

"I'm sorry, but,"

He broke her with a single sentence.

"I already heard about you from Clay."

"What?"

"Your ruin will be his malice."

At that moment, Maial took a step forward while looking at Yuru, and at the same time, cut down the magi bullet.

♧

"Clay."

Leaving a confused Neville in the lounge for a moment, Beatrice approached Clay, who was standing alone by the window.

"Did the conversation go well?"

"Perhaps."

The choice Neville made between his position and his conviction was an obvious answer.

"He wasn't the type to even cling to that Crown Prince position."

However, he couldn't readily agree with Clay's intention to become an enemy of humanity.

"It'll be alright, though."

Whether he liked it or not, just by coming this far with them, Clay had plenty of ways to use him.

"Wasn't he someone you cared about?"

"I won't harm him. But now is not the time to ask for cooperation."

Use what can be used.

Clay now had no qualms about such actions.

"Yes, I trust you'll handle that part yourself."

His plan was thorough.

'Even Guardian Knights are moving.'

To deal with Yuru, he had sent a carrier pigeon right after entering the gorge.

That carrier pigeon was a report that Yuru was in the gorge.

This could have been dangerous for him too, but Clay said not to worry as he had already timed it.

And as planned, he extracted Neville and left Yuru to them.

'I remember everything.'

Clay knew very well how humans operated and what their spheres of activity were.

After all, he had practically led humanity.

"Beatrice, there's something I need to confess."

"Hm? Confession?"

Beatrice tilted her head.

"You're not trying to make a confession now, are you?"

"Something similar."

Clay said quietly.

"I had already betrayed humanity before I died."

At his words, Beatrice showed a flustered expression.

"Did you really cooperate with the Previous Demon King?"

"No, it wasn't like that."

His betrayal of humanity, or rather, his decision to betray them, was precisely just before his death.

"Everything would have ended with death, but I couldn't just die like that. What I experienced felt so absurd. I was wronged. Truly."

He clenched his fists tightly.

"So I sowed seeds."

"Seeds?"

"Yes."

He had been imprisoned, under close surveillance by those dispatched from the Holy State Alliance.

Everyone's attention was on him, so no one thought Clay could escape.

That thought was correct.

However, there were things he could do precisely because he was surrounded and couldn't escape.

"Anyway, everyone thought I was just going to die."

So, to satisfy their curiosity, he spoke to everyone who visited him before his execution.

It was like a last supper.

He gathered various pieces of information from those whose guard was down and, conversely, left behind embers of discord.

"It was a moment when I could truly say anything. To many people who maintained the balance of power in this world."

Their true thoughts, plans, interests, and other trivial things.

He heard it all.

"I didn't just gain something. Because everyone believed I would surely die, they didn't take my last words lightly."

He gave them warnings he didn't mean, so that everyone would suspect and be wary of their surroundings.

So that one day, they might crumble.

"...So you had already quit being a Hero then."

Beatrice looked at him with a pitiful expression.

"More than just quit."

He raised his gaze, remembering what happened in the gorge.

"I spread their weaknesses everywhere, so that the hypocrites who enjoyed my execution could kill each other."

"Weaknesses?"

Beatrice, who had a question mark on her face, let out a short sigh of realization.

"So Yuru was the same, too."

Clay didn't answer.

But his silence was likely an answer in itself.

"Beatrice."

Clay was now preparing to move forward seriously.

"First, let's take the holy artifact from Yapheon."