3 bar menu

Chapter 138: Aun vs Brakylls ②

「Tsk, that hurts……. Astrue, you damn arrogant idiot. There is someone in the human race who can compete with us demons after all, isn’t there?」

「Are demons only at this level? I’m still only using half my strength, you know?」

「Huh? Me too!」

「In that case, I’m only using 30%.」

「What do you mean “In that case”! Don’t get carried away just cause you hit me once.」

As we were exchanging as such, blue sparks lit up the night sky along with a loud explosion from outside the city.

「What is that… That’s not Astrue’s magic…」

Is that Kinu’s magic? Let’s check in with telepathy.

≪Kinu, can you hear me?≫

≪What’s wrong? I’ve cleaned up over here.≫

≪Oh! So that magic was your’s after all!≫

≪Nn. I’ll explain the details later, but for now, just try asking the demon you’re facing about “Onimeshu”.≫

≪Onimeshu? Is it related to the demons?≫

≪Astrue blurted it out. It seems to be related to Zoa.≫

≪Okay. I’ll try probing him.≫

Even though I said that, how am I supposed to start?

Will he really talk about it so easily?

Hmm, judging from Kinu’s tone earlier, is it possible that Zoa belongs to the Onimeshu, and these guys belong to a different organization?

「Hey, you’re called Brakylls, right? I have something I want to ask you.」

「Ah? Do you normally ask questions to the enemy during battle? And how the hell do you know my name?」

「That’s what the female demon called you at the Imperial City Conference Hall. I have a good memory.」

「Oh, at that time… For now, I’ll just listen to your question. Whether or not I answer depends on the question.」

「I want to know more about the Onimeshu. I also want to know where Zoa is currently.」

「Z-Zoa!? Moreover, the Onimeshu… How do you humans know that name!」

「Answer my question first, then I’ll answer yours too.」

「Tsk! The Onimeshu are a demon organization that has a hostile relationship with us. Zoa is one of the executives of that organization.」

「Why are they hostile towards you?」

「It’s your turn to answer my question, right?」

「Well, there was a time when Zoa and my comrades got into a fight. So that’s why we’re also in a hostile relationship with the Onimeshu.」

「Those guys are hostile towards humans? That doesn’t… Oi! What happened to Astrue? Telepathy doesn’t connect to her.」

「How would I know about that? Perhaps Kinu defeated her?」

「Shit! This is the end of the chatter! I’ll quickly kill you and carry out my mission.」

Demons can also use telepathy? That was unexpected….

I almost got more information out of him, but it can’t be helped. It seems that I have no other choice but to catch him alive and force him to spill out the information.

Guessing that Astrue was defeated, Brakylls’ mood changed. Up until now, he had been underestimating me as “just a human”, but with Kinu defeating Astrue, he must have changed his perception towards me as “a presence which threatens demons.”

In his hand, he held a spear that he probably took out of his magic bag. And that spear was a red rarity weapon called “Frost Spear” according to the Appraisal skill.

「I’ll end this in an instant!」

He rushed forward with a clearly different movement and continuously thrusted his spear at me. I managed to defend and dodge the attacks with my magic barrier while also sidestepping in between, but he was able to follow my movement even with a double buff. Perhaps Brakylls was also stacking buff skills. However, I still had some leeway. It seems that my stats were superior.

I jump to evade a side sweep spear attack. Taking advantage of the end of his attack, I circled around to his side with [Sky Dash] and placed my hand on Shiranuemaru’s hilt.

Right then… the corners of Brakylls’ lips curled up.

「I got you now!」

The magic he cast with one hand pointing at me was an iron cage which surrounded me. It seems that he purposely displayed an opening and aimed to counter my counterattack. But it is still too naive…

「That’s my line. [Gates of Everlasting Darkness].」

I instantly moved to Brakylls’ rear with dark magic, destroyed his magic barrier with mana-enhanced Shiranuemaru, and with that momentum I cut off one of his wings and an arm.

「Guwaaa!!」

「Seriously, you’re not as much of a big deal as I thought.」

「W-Who the hell are you really! More importantly, you use dark magic too!?」

「Ha, I’m not gonna tell you that, obviously.」

In truth, dark magic is actually quite useful.

Although it consumes more mana than the lightning attribute, it can not only catch the opponent by surprise, but can also be used for emergency evasion like a second ago, as you can move as if you’re teleporting if it is a short distance.

Mare taught me only [Shadow Movement], which was a magic that only allows you to move through literal “shadow”, but I improved upon it and created a magic called “Gates of Everlasting Darkness”. I can create a gate anywhere and am able to instantly move to that location. The applications of magic I learned from Quereble were bearing fruit.

I still need more practice as I can only move within a visible range of 5 meters around me, and the scenery changes instantly after I move, so my mind gets confused. However, I was convinced that this skill has the potential to accomplish more the more I get used to it.

Now that I’ve cut off his wing, he can’t even fly away anymore.

「Now then, I’ll have you tell me everything you know.」

「To think there was a human stronger than a demon like me… Damn it, we were so close.」

「I’m curious about a lot of things, but first, let’s talk about the Onimeshu.」

「Tsk, it can’t be helped… The Onimeshu are a different faction of the demon race that is hostile to our demon king’s faction, “Satanas”. They herald the absolutely ridiculous ideal of coexistence with humans…」

「There are factions even among the demon race? And coexistence with humans?」

「Yeah, they’re a foolish bunch. Humans don’t even think about coexisting with demons in the slightest.」

「That’s because humans don’t have enough information on anything… By the way, Zoa belongs to the “Onimeshu”, right? Then why did he fight with my companions?」

「I don’t know about that. All I know is that Zoa killed Grampals, who was hiding in the Arto Kingdom.」

Hmm? “Grampals” is the name of the demon that Bride shouted during the ranking battle, right?

So Grampals didn’t appear even when the Bride screamed for him because Zoa defeated him? If that’s the case, then why did he end up fighting Kinu and Shinku… I seriously don’t understand. I’ll have to think more on this later while sharing information with Kinu and the others.

「Well then, next question. What is the purpose of your faction, the “Satanas”? Resurrection of the Demon King?」

「The Demon King will be resurrected in 5 years without us doing anything. What we are doing is the preliminary preparations so that we can take control of the Sphin Continent after his resurrection… It’s like a bonus, so to speak. That’s why even if I die now, nothing will change. Besides, once the Demon King is resurrected, it will be the end of both the Onimeshu and you humans. Serves you right…」

So the Demon King will be resurrected in five years, huh… I can think up various countermeasures just by knowing the approximate time.

「There are still many more things I want to ask you, but I’m gonna arrest you for now.」

「Fuhaha… Did you not consider why I was throwing out all this information?」

「……What?」

「I was just buying time. It’s frustrating to run away with a loss, but… just knowing that there are Irregulars like you is enough. See ya!」

「Huh!? Wait!」

The shadow at Brakylls’ feet enveloped his body in a spherical shape.

I immediately fired a lightning spear, but there was no impact. When the shadow sphere disappeared, Brakylls was completely gone.

「Shit! I let my guard down!!」

I never thought that Brakylls could use dark magic. Now that I think about it, there was a hint of that in the conversation, and also the fact that he tried to fight within the city was probably so he could use the shadows cast by the magic lights. In addition to that, his non-verbal magic activation. I should have gotten the information after I had completely captured him. It was a mistake on my part…

However, judging from how much he was bleeding, the wound must have been quite deep. So he probably couldn’t have gotten that far… I have no other choice but to relay the information to the others, and search for him together.

≪I’m sorry. I let the male demon called Brakylls escape. I cut off one of his wings and his right arm. He was bleeding profusely, so there’s a high chance that he’s still hiding within the Imperial City. Kinu, Shinku, Drake, please help with the search.≫

≪Nn, okay. I will return to city immediately.≫

≪I will start searching now.≫

≪Alright! I’ve already defeated Orthros, so I’ll look for him from the sky!!≫

After that I shared information with Ruzark and Zen, and ran around the imperial capital under the night sky.