The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 254

The magicians and goblins were escaping through the underground passage beneath the water mill.

This water mill was built higher than the water level to prevent it from being submerged when the river’s water level changed. Below it were shafts for power transmission and maintenance passages for servicing those shafts. They were escaping through those maintenance passages.

“There! Goblins!”

Camilla, who hadn’t yet entered the water mill, shouted while attacking the magician with her short bow.

“How amusing!”

The magician deployed a force barrier.

The arrows Camilla fired collided with the force barrier and stopped.

“How dare a lowly human woman ignore me? I’ll kill you.”

The magician glared menacingly at Camilla, who had attacked him. His yellow eyes, like those of a snake, gleamed with murderous intent.

However, Camilla scoffed.

“How dare you hurt my sister?!”

“?!”

Only then did the magician notice the familiar charms wrapped around Camilla’s arrows, and he was taken aback.

They were lightning charms used by the Northern Aragasa [a group or faction known for using lightning magic]. Were there any unexploded charms left? And they were wrapped around Camilla’s arrows?!

‘She picked up my charms and recovered them? No, they would have exploded if touched incorrectly. How can this mere woman handle my charms?’

While the magician was surprised by Camilla’s agility, the charms began to explode.

-Zzzzzap!

The charms exploded, and electric sparks engulfed the magician and the goblins.

“Kieeeek!”

The goblins screamed and collapsed. The electric shock also reached Izmilla, who was being carried by the goblins, and she woke up from the shock.

“Huh?!”

“Are you crazy?! Weren’t you here to save this knight?”

The magician clicked his tongue, deflecting the electric shocks with a barrier. He was a beast-man with a dog-like head but with the vertical pupils of a reptile.

“A Kobold, I see.”

Bernard formed a hand seal, and flesh and blood surged from the bodies of the goblins struck by lightning, shooting towards the Kobold magician.

However, the Kobold magician also formed a hand seal to counter it.

“Ohm!”

A shockwave spread out from the Kobold magician, scattering the incoming blood.

But then, Camilla’s attack came again.

This time, she fired stones with a slingshot.

The Kobold magician once again deployed a force barrier to block the attack, but for some reason, the stones Camilla fired pierced the force barrier and exploded in front of the Kobold magician.

A powerful flash and loud noise robbed the Kobold magician of his sight and hearing.

“Krak!”

“Oh?”

Bernard watched it carefully.

“It’s a magic stone. A mana stone.”

“Did we have those? When we joined the pilgrimage, all our belongings were confiscated during the body search. And there hasn’t been any place to get mana stones since then, has there?”

“It’s a secret.”

Camilla said, loading another stone into her short bow and firing.

-Thwack!

The stone hit the Kobold magician’s head, who was disoriented from losing his sight, and blood flowed.

“Ugh!”

The Kobold magician took out a scroll from his pocket and unfurled it.

His sight and hearing had not yet returned.

More than anything, he had lost his sense of balance from the shock, and he couldn’t escape just like that. If he moved his foot carelessly, he would fall to his death.

“Damn it! To make me use even this!”

The scroll burst into flames, and circles of fire began to appear in front of and behind the Kobold magician.

And from within those circles of fire, a giant monster the size of an ogre appeared.

“Ugh?”

“Everyone, be careful! It’s a demon summoning!”

Izmilla, who had regained her senses, warned them.

She tried to break free from the black steel chains binding her, but she couldn’t use her angelic powers.

Unable to move, she moved her free feet backward as the demon approached her.

The demon looked like a bear with its skin peeled off, with magical flames flowing and flickering over its exposed muscles, taking the place of skin.

Two barbaric and menacing horns protruded forward from its head. Lightning and flames were engraved on their surface like tattoos, indicating that it was not a natural creature.

The tail, which was connected to the end of the spine along its back, was made of bone without any flesh, resembling a torture whip used to flay the flesh of prisoners.

Flames spread on the floor every time the demon took a step.

“Ah, this one’s quite strong?”

Just looking at it made a primal fear creep in.

“It’s better to attack the summoner!”

Camilla fired her slingshot at the magician. The summoned demon shielded the magician with its body.

The stone fired from the slingshot hit the demon, but the flames on its massive body deflected the stone.

“It won’t even make a dent?”

Camilla groaned.

“Should I use it…”

Then, the demon’s horns glowed, and six burning coal lumps floated beside its head.

“Ah, that’s very powerful magic. I have no choice.”

Bernard grumbled, taking out a magic wand from his sleeve and manipulating it with graceful gestures as if drawing a picture.

Then, streams of water began to surge from the river.

-!!!!

The demon made an incomprehensible utterance to the humans, and the fiery coals flew towards them.

At the same time, the water streams that Bernard had drawn up also flew towards the fiery coals.

The six streams of fire and the six streams of water collided, intertwining and clashing like hydras trying to bite each other’s necks.

A steam explosion occurred, and a loud roar echoed.

‘This guy. He’s not just a simple blood mage?’

Camilla was taken aback by Bernard, who was calmly exchanging magic with the demon.

“Blood and water are similar, you see.”

As Bernard said this, a sphere of water formed around him, drawn up from the river.

The demon’s horns glowed, and flames rose from the front of both horns, then a powerful beam of fire shot out in a straight line.

Bernard shot out a stream of water from the sphere of water, countering the fire beam cast by the demon.

Each time the water stream and the fire beam collided, the water boiled and steam poured out.

“Kuh! What are these things?”

The magician, who had finally recovered his sight and hearing from the flash and shock, was surprised by Bernard’s power, which was evenly matched with the demon.

He was about to cast a spell to join the fight…

“Ah, that’s not going to work.”

-Thwack!

Suddenly, a large longsword pierced through his back and out his chest.

Azadin, who had emerged from the mill, had ambushed the Kobold magician with his ceramite longsword [a type of advanced ceramic material used for weapons].

“Kuh-ack!?”

Azadin lifted the sword that had pierced the Kobold magician.

-Crack!

The ceramite longsword cut through the Kobold magician’s ribcage and came out. Blood poured out like a fountain, and the Kobold magician collapsed.

The lungs spilling out from the severed ribcage indicated a fatal injury.

-Grrr!

The demon growled as its summoner’s life was cut short, then created a circle of fire on its own and walked through it.

“Azadin!”

“Everyone did well. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, thanks to you.”

Camilla glanced at Bernard.

Even after using such magic, Bernard wasn’t sweating much, just coughing a little as usual.

“Umm. Y-you guys are amazing.”

Izmilla raised herself up while still bound by the chains.

“Black steel chains?”

Azadin tried to loosen the black steel chains that were binding her.

There were no locks, just the chains wrapped around each other by friction, yet Izmilla was completely immobilized. It was amazing.

Azadin grabbed the separated black steel chain in his hand and swung it, then threw it at a nearby wooden pillar.

With a whoosh, the black steel chain wrapped around the wooden pillar and stayed there.

When he tried to loosen it, it didn’t come off easily.

“Quite a good chain, isn’t it?”

Azadin realized that this black steel chain was a great treasure.

It could immobilize a Celestial [a being of great power, often associated with angels], and it was easy to use since it wrapped around things just by throwing it.

‘The enemy might have more of these, so I need to be careful too.’

Azadin took the black steel chain and turned to Izmilla.

“Well then… I’m glad you’re safe. Lady Izmilla, can you explain what happened?”

“Ah, Sir Azadin. Thank you for your help. If you hadn’t been here, I would have been kidnapped without a chance.”

“You’re an angel, right? Created within the Rescue Knights.”

“Embarrassingly, I take the form of an angel, but I’m not a complete angel. My identity is a top secret even within the Rescue Knights, so I shouldn’t have revealed it…”

“It’s better to reveal yourself than to be captured. Don’t worry too much about revealing your identity in front of so many citizens of Fireglyph. It was unavoidable.”

Azadin said shamelessly.

“Ah, what I meant was that I was worried about whether I could reveal the secret to Sir Azadin. But yes, since the citizens of Fireglyph already know.”

“Right. It’s such a big secret, huh? But the enemy predicted your power and abilities and even brought this equipment, so they already knew. Is that secret okay? Isn’t it known to all of Hybris [likely a kingdom or region]?”

Azadin showed the black steel chain.

In addition, he searched the Kobold magician’s belongings and diligently collected magic charms, a staff, and money.

“The enemies approached us under the pretext of the murders in the city. And there were also doppelgangers. And the Northern Aragasa too. Ah, come to think of it, what happened to them?”

When Izmilla asked that, everyone looked at Azadin.

Azadin shrugged.

“They escaped.”

‘He let them go.’

Everyone thought so, but they didn’t question him.

No, it was more accurate to say they couldn’t question him.

Those who knew how terrifyingly skilled Azadin was didn’t want to question him over such a trivial matter.

However, Izmilla was bewildered.

“What? They took my sword. It’s a ceramite longsword. I can’t lose it.”

“Luckily, I got your sword back. Wait a moment.”

Azadin said, and then he dusted off his hands. Then, Izmilla’s ceramite longsword fell from the sky with a thud.

“Huh?”

“……”

Bernard chuckled at the sight.

Zan, the squad leader who had been hiding nearby, had thrown Izmilla’s ceramite longsword at Azadin’s command.

“What did you do?”

“It’s my magic. Here you go.”

“Magic? This is?”

“It’s the Emperor’s magic, so you wouldn’t know. Don’t ask for details. It’s classified.”

Azadin glossed over it, but Izmilla really believed Azadin. This was the second time Azadin had appeared and saved her in a crisis. To doubt Azadin in this situation would be incredibly ungrateful, so Izmilla decided to trust Azadin completely.