1083. Time Is Not on Your Side
Naturally, everything they did was a spell of enchantment. One might call it a power to bewitch people by combining innate abilities with magic.
In this way, they invaded the minds of fairies and witches. They
crossed the line without hesitation. Esther and Sinar could not subdue them immediately.
Instead, they turned their gaze to a distant spot, where they saw the demon standing just before Encred swinging its weapon. As
the creature reached into the air and pulled it out, the weapon was drawn straight out of mid-air, as if possessing some kind of wizard’s subspace.
The weapon in its right hand was a glaive, a long-bladed spear used for slashing. Whatever trick it had performed, a blinding golden light emanated from the blade.
The creature brought the drawn glaive down.
Bang!
The air burst, and a gust of wind surged around. Encred was not hit. He calmly dodged it. The Glaive struck the ground. With
a tingling sound, the spot where Sinar and Esther were standing shook as if there had been an earthquake.
Just because those two are fighting, do we really have to fight too?
Just then, the voice of the one standing in the center pierced my ears. No, it didn’t end there.
The seven succubi attempted Dreamwalking, a spell that enters a target’s dreams and rummages through their minds. “
Now, let’s find your true nature and strike up a conversation.
Can you resist our temptation?”
Their specialty was finding and inciting desires hidden deep within the heart, and manipulating human desires.
Dreamwalking—or “walking within a dream”—was an act that went beyond merely peeking into someone’s mind to interfering with their desires and actions.
Thus, the seven split into groups of three and four to make contact with the minds of the witch and the fairy.
“Show me. What is the true desire hidden within you?”
The succubus muttered. This was a trick that no one, not just Esther or Sinar, could avoid.
* * *
Except for Saxony, everyone was fighting. He did not step forward easily. After rescuing the hostages and pointing out Encred’s absurd dagger, he hid himself again.
‘aperture.’
He had no intention of dragging out the fight, so he was prepared to strike the devil from behind whenever necessary.
However, the moment he hid, the back of his neck stung. This was the sensation that occurs when someone detects him.
Saxon moved again. Assimilation was a given, and he changed his position while suppressing his presence.
Every movement was swift and stealthy. For instance, he made no sound when climbing down a tree and stepping onto the ground, and by moving along the shadows cast behind the trees by the dark clouds, his figure could not be seen even if someone were looking at the tree where he was hiding.
Yet, the stinging sensation on the back of his neck persisted. It was as if someone’s gaze had caught on a sixth sense.
“Are you trusting and waiting for someone to attack you from behind!”
That demon talks a lot. That is what he says while brandishing his golden glaive.
He is a fellow who shakes the ground and emits a tingling aura into the air. Saxon moved to dodge the energy he emitted.
Moreover, the person he was referring to as someone to strike from behind was me.
Just as he said, I had intended to try slicing his neck if I found an opening.
But this was a bit of a problem.
My neck kept stinging for that.
What could be the reason for this?
Something is targeting me.
The answer is simple. What could be after me? It can’t be an armored owl-bear.
Nor can it be the guys trying to hit on fairies and witches.
An assassin born and raised in the Demon Realm.
Well, he must be that kind of guy. Saxony immediately started playing tag. He started off on the receiving end, but he climbed a few trees to make a wide detour around Enkrid, who was at the center, and returned to his original position.
While he was moving using the trees, rocks, and terrain, two darts landed in his thigh and shoulder.
Paralyzing poison.
If it were ordinary poison, it wouldn’t matter since he has a resistance, but the luminosity inside Will’s body had activated.
The fact that such a reaction occurred meant that this poison was slightly different from what he had experienced so far.
Sachsen slipped his body between a rock and a tree larger than himself and pulled it out. Aside from the top of his head and the front and back, he was hiding his body, yet there were no separate attempts at attack.
I only look for moments when I have the advantage.
He possesses considerable patience, uses poison effective even against his own body, and is skilled at concealing himself to the point where he cannot be detected by his own presence.
This was a fact Saxon discovered after taking two darts.
To add to that, he would be full of intent to target his captain’s back at any moment if he were to back away.
If he tries to pull away even slightly, the direction of his murderous intent changes.
Is this a provocation?
In that case, it was a truly appropriate and good move. Saxony knows that one should not fight on land advantageous to the enemy. It is a truly bad situation, both tactically and in an assassin’s fight.
What should be done if the battlefield is not to one’s liking?
Change it.
To land unfamiliar to both of them.
Saxon moved ceaselessly, then drew his short sword and swung it at a tree.
Bang!
The wood bit the blade. It had a texture that seemed unlikely to be cut by an ordinary swing. It felt more like striking a rock than wood.
Saxen tightened his grip on his arm and waist and split the wood. Crunch, the tree tilted to one side as it was cut more than halfway. The tree fell,
scattering the pouring rain in all directions. Bang! The ground shook and vibrated. There
must have been a significant opening as he felled the tree, yet the guy who threw the dart didn’t attack at all.
It would have been better if he had. Then he would have taken care of one of them.
He then chopped down the tree next to it. It would have been much easier if he borrowed an axe from that barbarian, but would he have the time for that now?
bang.
Another tree fell. The ground groaned, and even amidst the fighting over there, a gaze glanced this way.
Saxon gave up on hiding. For the time being, he couldn’t be greedy enough to throw a dagger at the back of the demon fighting the captain.
After all, Rem and Dunbakel were dealing with the main army raised by the demon, and they were each engaged in their own battles.
Saxon cut down six more trees, briefly regretted not bringing Audin and Theresa, and then picked up a few rocks to throw.
I could just have those two do it.
It was a monstrous strength hard to imagine given his slender frame, but upon closer inspection, Saxon’s body possessed a remarkably high muscle density resulting from years of training. Considering he was handling a knight-level Will, this level of strength was only natural.
After clearing the surroundings, Saxon let out a deep breath and pulled back his hair, which was matting against the pouring rain, to tie it up.
The daggers he had held in his hands had vanished before he knew it. With a simple flick of his hand, he had already sheathed them at his waist and into the scabbards beside his thighs.
Should he cut his hair a little when he returned? He couldn’t. Not as long as Jenatrice liked his long hair.
Don’t go out prepared to die.
He recalled what she had said before leaving. Would the journey to hunt demons be easy? Of course not.
Saxon chose his footing. The uneven ground was cluttered with sharp stones and tree stumps that hadn’t been cleared away. He picked one of the stumps he had cut down and sat down.
Now, there was nowhere to hide around. What was he going to do? The next step for an assassin assimilated by magic was to still act cowardly. The fellow kept his distance and waited in hiding.
There was no sound, no presence. The only sensation was a faint whirlwind cutting through the air. Saxon turned his body.
A dart whizzed past his chest.
Looking closely, the dart had a peculiar shape. Should he call it a long needle? There was no sound, and almost no momentum could be felt.
It was very similar in shape to the one he usually used.
Exactly.
Silence Dagger.
I was convinced that this guy had learned his lesson properly.
I had thought the one targeting me was an assassin monster raised by the guy fighting Encred, but that was not the case at all.
He is an assassin.
He was a man who had refined his skills through years of experience, going beyond mere formal training.
He didn’t care about Will’s purity or anything like that; he was a man devoted solely to the act of killing.
Even a knight is human. If a sword goes into his throat, he dies. Wrapping his neck in iron armor, one of the techniques used by Will? Then a blade capable of cutting through just that would suffice.
Saxon recalled the few artifacts in his bosom, then dismissed them. He had brought all sorts of items to kill the demon, but this was not a man to be dealt with relying on mere objects.
As he thought quietly, he could roughly see the tactic the demon had devised.
Distract with the army, and take a life with an assassin.
It was his tactic. But did he get caught while attempting an assassination?
The guy throwing the darts deliberately targeted me first. And that was correct. If he had targeted someone else first, I would have slit his throat long ago.
In any case, Saxony confirmed one fact.
He’s not just one guy.
They act as if there is only one of them, but there were at least ten of them acting as assassins. Even if our senses are slightly dulled inside the Mirror of Illusion, we never make the mistake of losing count.
The opponent might still think we are well hidden, but we were not.
If there is nowhere to hide, I will find a place to hide.
Even if the presence is perfect, if there are only a few places to physically hide, it is possible to guess.
If it is possible to guess.
By staring intently at that spot, one can sense a presence through intuition.
Saxon caught his breath and let his hands hang low. Although he was holding no weapon, the enemy still did not approach in the slightest.
A moment later, darts and thin blades rained down—fewer than raindrops, but more numerous in localized numbers.
Saxon, the target of hundreds of projectiles, lowered his head, looking like someone who had given up everything, including his own life. He looked like someone who had been cornered and finally let go.
* * *
The golden light stung his eyes, but Encred did not even blink.
The ground shook as the glaive struck the floor, and vibrations traveled through his body. To be precise, a stream of the demon’s will was oppressing him.
It felt as if someone were grabbing his shoulders and pressing down.
‘refusal.’
He murmurs to himself. The energy suppressing his body vanished as if scattering away.
As Enkrid raised his head, the demon glared at him as if to kill him, then reached into the air with his left hand and pulled.
Just like before, he drew a new weapon from the void, but this time it was a chain sickle.
He lowered the glaive in his right hand diagonally downward and spun the chain sickle in his left hand above his head with a whooshing sound.
Specialized in mid-to-long-range combat.
It was the devil’s tactic. Encrid held the sword at an angle pointing upward and stared at the devil. Before he knew it, the creature’s body had grown to more than half the size of Audin. Its
body parts had gradually transformed until they became fixed in their current form, which meant Encrid had to tilt his head slightly to see its eyes. In any case, when their eyes met like that, the devil spoke.
Beg to be killed, please just beg to be killed. This is my last act of generosity.
Encred did as he wanted.
“Kill me. Please, just kill me. Since I’m going to die of old age anyway, please wait until then.”
Veins bulged beneath the 멋들어지게 curved golden horns. Blood flows even in a demon’s body. Black blood instead of red.
That is why his blood vessels thickened as he became aroused.
Fine, die.
The demon swung its glaive once again. As Encreed countered and slashed Oneul upward, the creature pulled its right hand back and brought down its chain sickle.
As they instantly entered a world of silence, the chains wrapped around Oneul. Encreed knew that drawing his sword here would mean giving the opponent the upper hand.
So, he endured, even knowing his sword was being entangled in the chains.
Instead, while still gripping Oneul, he sheathed Will into his sword.
Thin and slender.
Light as the wind, yet hard as steel.
I am changing Will’s nature. To be precise, I controlled multiple layers of properties and overlaid them in an instant.
If you delve into Ragnar’s previous technique, “Severing Anything,” this kind of property change was actually necessary.
If you develop that a little further and refine it finely, it results in this.
Encred-style cutting.
It is a blade that cuts everything it touches.
Zzz
Today’s blade holds a blue light. It is a blade that holds the light of dawn. Encred tightened his grip on his arms, raised the sword, and then pulled it out with a slashing motion. The chain wrapped around the sword was cut with a chichichichiching sound.
Hiss.
The rainwater vaporized from the frictional heat and spread like mist. Encred took two steps back the moment he drew his sword.
It was because a glaive had silently passed right where he had been standing.
Seeing the glaive swung without a sound, it was a strike that revealed the man’s insidious nature.
“Should I cut this?”
The demon spoke and pulled his scythe. As if alive, a long black thread emerged from within the severed chain and tangled together.
Watching this, Encred thought.
When it cuts, the chain sickle stops for the duration of two breaths.
It was a simple fact, but knowing it made a huge difference. Especially when fighting like this.
“Everyone who came here is going to die. It is because you dragged them all the way here. And did you think I tricked you? Huh? Huh? Huh? How could I! I let myself be fooled. I wanted to cut off your head and smash it for daring to pull such a stunt!”
This bastard was just faking his excitement. His eyes were still cold. Encreed answered just as the devil finished speaking.
“You won’t die.”
“……What?”
“Time is not on your side. Devil.”
“They will win.” Encrid said with such conviction.
