Chapter 122: Vol 7 – Chapter 20 – A Night No One Knows (Part 2)

“Tek here, even in a world without gods, there are a lot of Light Novels and games that have religious groups as the villains--but it seems that it is true here in a fantasy world.”

 

“Oi, you’re late. The ritual has already begun--I’ll open the door, so take your places, quietly.” A person who looks like a leader is scolding us with a rough voice, he is standing in front of the door that leads into the ritual room.

 

I slip in with the society members as we enter the room.

 

I’ve been considering this since I mixed in so simply, but--isn’t their security full of leaks? They don’t seem like a group that could manage to do such complex and secretive rituals as summoning Demons. Something about this is off--I wonder if someone is pulling the strings from the shadows.

 

Well, whatever--as long as they don’t threaten me, my girls, or Karina--yes I have added Karina to the list. I might add Menea, depending what way that goes.

 

There are probably only a few places where they can hold the ritual, so if I destroy this place--it is likely that the number of people attempting these kinds of rituals should decrease.

 

The room is wide. 200 meters in width, and 20 meters in height--and nearly 1km in length.

 

The nearly 200 men and women inside the room begin a long and complex chant.

 

There are three stone beds lined up on an altar, and three girls are laying, asleep. Magic Circle-like drawings are painted on their bare skin--they are completely naked.

 

“Summon the Holy Relics, take these unsullied girls as compensation!”

“ “ “Summon!” ” ”

 

It seems that I’ve arrived slightly late--and following the leader’s shout, and audience replies, the three executives beside the girls raise ceremonial daggers over head. Swinging them down towards the defenseless girls’ hearts.

 

The moment I see them begin raising their daggers, I rush out--my sudden acceleration smashing the people behind me into the solid stone walls. My speed is faster even than the arrow fired from the Holy Crossbow, but at this speed, I won’t make it.

 

Remote stun would be useful in a case like this, but Sky Drive is faster.

 

Pushing myself harder than I have since coming to this world, I suddenly feel like I’m running through water--and everything other than me seems to freeze in place.

 

I soon arrive in front of the executives and slapped the daggers from their hands.

 

>>Skill: Ground Shrink Acquired.

 

***

“Who are you?!” The society’s leader shouts at me.

 

But before anything else can happen, I spam weakened remote stuns, causing everyone to fall unconscious. It happens almost instantly, and no one can act before around 200 bodies lay sprawled out on the floor.

 

I’d like to collect the Short Horns, but I have to do something about the possessed girls first.

 

“Disturbing the ritual like this--what a boorish young man.”

“Yes, yes, Humans truly are inferior beings.”

 

Two Demons appear, breaking out of the bodies of the two possessed members--their skin splitting and slithering to the ground, like discarded clothing.

 

They are Upper-Ranked Demons, like the one in Seryuu City.

 

One has a red body with deer-like horns, but it doesn’t have wings. The second has a bronze body and cow-like horns, as well as two pairs of bat-like wings.

 

Both of the Demons are level 63.

 

“Good grief--he’s foolish beyond help. He dares to try and disturb our resurrection ritual.” One of the girls on the stone bed is sitting up--well, I say girl, but she is just the vessel for the Demon who hasn’t showed its true body.

 

Leaving aside everyone else, I want to try and save the sacrificial girls.

 

Using Ground Shrink, I pick up the two uninjured girls and carry them towards the exit.

 

“I won’t let you go!” The red Demon teleports in with a ripple of space.

 

Since both my hands are occupied, I restrain it with a storm of Remote Arrows.

 

“I’ll return it.”

 

The Magic I used is returned straight towards me.

 

Ooh, Space Magic!

 

I want to learn that!

 

I turn the Remote Arrows back towards the Demon, and in that instant, I arrived at the door--carefully placing the girls down on the other side of the door, I close it.

 

The red Demon behind me seems to be fed up with the Remote Arrows that orbit around it--I turn them every time it bends space to return them to me.

 

“Irritating!” The red Demon roars, causing cracks to run through the surrounding space, destroying the Remote Arrows. Thanks to Magic Perception, I can see the stream of Magic that appears microseconds before causing space to shatter like glass.

 

You are reading story Death March — Fixed at novel35.com

I quickly make sure that I have the ‘Hero’ Title, it’s displayed. I take Durandal out of storage, not Excalibur, not because I am unwilling--but because I’ve stored a dangerous amount of Magic Power into Excalibur when I was experimenting with storing Magic power. I’m afraid that I would collapse the Capital if I was even slightly careless.

 

Durandal’s performance is a little worse than Excalibur, but it’s exponentially better than Gjallarhorn, so it should be fine.

 

“Oh, oh? I thought it was a rat--but it turns out that you’re a hero.” The bronze Demon is approaching while munching on something.

 

The altar and its surroundings have become a bloodbath.

 

I put off dealing with the red Demon for later, and go to kill the bronze Demon first--some of its Skills seem like they could cause me problems if I’m not careful.

 

Using Ground Shrink, I move as though teleporting towards the bronze Demon, slipping close to its chest, I cut--

 

Tremendous pressure overwhelms me.

 

>>Skill: Gravity Magic: Demon Acquired.

>>Skill: Gravity Resistance Acquired.

 

Still, I endure the high gravity, my speed barely slowing as I swing my sword--but just before the Holy Sword touches the Demon, I stop and jump backwards.

 

“The current Hero is weak, instead his intuition is sharp!”

“If he had finished that cut, his body would have been split in two. Almost--”

 

It seems that they’ve set some kind of trap Magic.

 

It may have been slightly dangerous if my Danger Sense didn’t ring--they may not be able to injury me…but I can definitely damage myself.

 

I randomly launch Remote Arrows, and hit the bronze Demon from unplanned angles--attacking without deliberate intent…well, something like that. I learned about it in a Light Novel, one about a guy who can trace killing intent back and kill the person in return--the only way to beat him is to never direct killing intent at him while attacking.

 

The Trap Magic must have been a little simpler than I thought--all it did was cause the Remote Arrow to invert, causing its damage to destroy the Arrow instead of the Demon.

 

Damage reversal, huh.

 

I suddenly feel a slight pull on my body, originating from the red Demon. When I look at the log, it seems that the red Demon used a Magic called Drawing.

 

>>Skill: Space Magic: Demon Acquired.

>>Skill: Space Resistance Acquired.

 

I quickly level-up and activate the Space Resistance Skill.

 

“The Magic isn’t too effective, even though his level is low.”

“Is that an excuse for your senility?”

 

Their attention is turned towards each other now.

 

Making full use of Ground Shrink and Sky Drive, I rain down Short Stuns in as many directions as I can. As I expected, they begin to turn back--the bronze Demon is in the way. When they hit the bronze Demon, the shot is inverted and sent back to the red Demon.

 

That wasn’t part of the plan--but it looked cool.

 

Of course, they only received very little damage.

 

However, that’s fine--the chance I got in the instant that he bent space to reflect the Magic. I swung Durandal as quickly as I could. When the blue glow from Durandal melted into the darkness, the red Demon becomes pieces of meat, falling to the ground with a wet splat. I take some Dragon Scales out of storage and crush them, sprinkling the powder onto the meat, causing it to incinerate--unable to be revived.

 

>>Skill: Flash Slash Acquired.

 

***

“This is strange.”

 

Taking the moment when the bronze Demon is stunned, I take out the Holy Crossbow and Holy Crossbow Bolt, and shoot it. The bronze Demon tries to repel it, using its hand--in which a jet black spiral has appeared.

 

“Avoid it!” The possessed girl shouts, causing the bronze Demon to incline its upper body, trying to avoid the bolt--but it failed, and its upper body is ripped into many pieces.

 

Annihilated.

 

I originally planned the bolt to be a mere diversion, but it’s unexpectedly effective.

 

I cut the bronze Demon, using Flash Slash, to test the Skill.

 

“This is, splendid. I have to apologize for thinking you’re a small-fry hero. No, I ought to thank you for destroying my courtiers.” The naked girl is sitting on the edge of the stone bed, with one knee drawn up--that’s really not a good position.

 

The girl stands up, beginning to spin words in a clear voice, almost as though she’s an actress on stage, “The time of my revival has come. Oh Humanity fear it! Today, at this time--the world shall begin its journey into ruin!”

 

This should be the place where I shudder in fear--but because of her bouncing and spinning while completely naked--well, it’s not scary.

 

Now then, it looks like round two begins.

You can find story with these keywords: Death March — Fixed, Read Death March — Fixed, Death March — Fixed novel, Death March — Fixed book, Death March — Fixed story, Death March — Fixed full, Death March — Fixed Latest Chapter