Chapter 98
The Warp Demon
“Tower Master Erika.”
“Regent Valdrova.”
“Are your internal injuries severe?”
Ferda did not look directly at her.
It was to preserve her dignity as a Tower Master.
Erika forced strength into her eyes and straightened her posture.
“Not severe enough to hold you back.”
“Understood.”
Ferda gave a brief nod and assessed the enemy’s strength.
There were wyverns beating their wings, a massive man, and another man who was relatively smaller.
The smaller man stared at Ferda and spoke.
“You must be Ferda Rosnova. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
Ferda corrected him.
“Valdrova.”
“You were raised by House Rosnova, yet you struggle so desperately to deny your roots? How unsightly.”
The man sneered.
However, Ferda was no novice who would be swayed by such provocation.
“Wolf monsters are pouring into Hestia Village, and there are wyvern monsters here. Seeing how freely you unleash monsters wherever you please, I suppose you were also responsible for what happened in Halim?”
“That is correct. Are you not grateful?”
“Why should I be grateful to you?”
“Did you not distinguish yourself greatly in Halim and even obtain a branch of the World Tree struck by the Heaven-Defying Lightning?”
The man casually recited a fact Ferda had revealed to no one.
Ferda refused to be shaken and instead provoked him.
“That sounds like a defeated dog consoling itself.”
“Haha! When you put it that way, I suppose you are right. It is true that I underestimated both you and those around you. Even though I fought with the sole intention of killing Chancellor Bernard, I still failed.”
“Do you intend to target him again?”
“Regrettably, there is no longer any need. What I wished to destroy appears to have already fallen into your hands. So you may rest assured.”
“Why would you think I would believe a word you say?”
“Why else? I am already standing above you. I have no need to lie. For instance…”
He swept a mana-infused finger broadly across the ground.
A gust rose, sweeping away the fallen leaves and carrying them into the air.
“I could pretend not to notice even such a shallow trick as this.”
The ground was cleared, revealing what had been hidden beneath it.
The shadow stretching from beneath Ferda’s feet was chanting a spell.
“What a truly laughable technique.”
Snap!
The man flicked his finger.
At the same moment, an explosion erupted where the shadow hand had been.
Boom!
The shadow hand shattered and dispersed.
“Mm!”
Outwardly, the attack did not appear especially lethal, but the reality was different.
Had it struck a real hand, it would have torn through mana protection and armor as though they were sheets of paper.
“Oh?”
The man appeared intrigued.
“I heard that Barbatos’s shadow arts can be controlled like one’s own limbs, but because they reproduce the senses of those limbs exactly, their pain is also transmitted as though they were real. Yet instead of reacting as though your hand had been severed, you withdrew it as if merely burned.”
The man was analyzing Ferda.
Ferda neither answered nor reacted.
Instead, just as the man had examined him, Ferda attempted to identify the magic he had used.
‘What kind of magic was that?’
Ferda recalled what had happened moments ago.
The apparent explosion that occurred when the man flicked his finger.
No.
It had not been a simple explosion.
At first glance, it resembled one, but it was not an explosion at all.
‘It was…’
Ferda focused on the scene.
He slowed it down in his mind, dissecting it frame by frame as he vividly reconstructed its movements.
‘It was magic that distorted a fixed point rather than causing an explosion.’
For a fraction of a second, space had warped as though being sucked toward a single point in midair, then released.
‘Magic that destroys objects by distorting a point in space.’
Once he could describe it clearly, Ferda realized its identity as well.
Only one being was capable of wielding such magic.
A name that had vanished into a forgotten corner of history.
“You are the Warp Demon.”
The Warp Demon.
At the mention of that name, the man expressed admiration.
“Oh? You discerned my identity after seeing it only once?”
Erika, despite being Ferda’s ally, was equally astonished.
She had naturally realized that the enemy was a Noblesse-class demon, but she had not identified him.
That was only to be expected.
The Warp Demon was not supposed to exist.
“If you are truly the Warp Demon, you were the first Noblesse-class demon to be killed by the Hero, were you not?”
The man readily admitted it.
“That is correct. The demons of that era had no sense of caution toward humans. As a result, I was killed pathetically by the Hero.”
“Then how are you alive?”
“It is simple. At the time, there was only an overly passionate Hero. Neither you nor Erdes were there.”
He meant that the Hero had lacked the caution and meticulousness of a mage.
There had been room left for resurrection.
“To think… I never imagined that demons would prepare for the distant future and wait this long.”
“Indeed. I had no particular desire to reveal myself either. Unfortunately, circumstances left me no choice.”
The Warp Demon’s eyes turned toward Ferda.
“Something has become an irritation.”
An irritation.
Those words should have conveyed displeasure.
Yet the Warp Demon’s lips instead twisted upward.
“Do emotions become warped when one turns into a demon? You seem unable to tell when you ought to smile.”
“Demons also experience joy. It is simply different from the emotion that drives creatures like you to cling desperately to trivial things.”
“Is returning everything to nothingness truly so great?”
At Erika’s question, he nodded as though the answer were self-evident.
“It is His great will, and therefore my greatest joy.”
“Then hurry up and disappear. You can greet those who went before you.”
Crackle!
A streak of light shot toward the Warp Demon.
However, it failed to pierce his mana barrier and ricocheted away.
It was a Lightning Bolt fired from Ferda’s hand.
“Did you truly intend to kill me with something like that?”
“No. The moment I saw that the Tower Master’s magic had no effect on you, I knew it would not work.”
Realizing something from his words, Erika turned her head toward Ferda.
“…Were you watching me?”
Her expression carried a trace of resentment, as though asking why he had not come sooner to help.
Ferda, however, had his reasons.
“You were preparing to obliterate the entire area. How could I approach without first assessing the situation?”
“Th-that is true, but…”
“Were you out of your mind? Did you truly intend to blow away an entire section of the principality?”
When Luri complained, Erika fell silent.
In her severely injured state, she had allowed her emotions to get the better of her.
“You look quite pleased with yourself now that you believe you have assessed our strength. However…”
A subtle smile appeared on the Warp Demon’s face.
“I have no desire to fight you. Why do we not part amicably here?”
“This is territory belonging to the principality. You wreak havoc as you please, and now you intend to flee?”
“Hmph. In that case…”
He swept a finger through the air.
“Try stopping us.”
Another rift tore open and disgorged what lay within.
It was a familiar sight to Ferda.
Unlike what had happened in Halim, however, the numbers were completely different.
Five rifts opened throughout the area, spewing out the creatures inside.
Some turned toward Ferda and his companions, while others redirected themselves toward Hestia Village.
At the same time, the Warp Demon and the large man attempted to throw themselves into the rifts.
With Ferda barely able to move at present, there was no way for him to prevent their escape.
No.
Perhaps Luri could do it.
She was a child of the Silver Dragon, renowned for possessing the greatest speed.
However, if Luri pursued them, the countless monsters would continue toward Hestia Village.
It was uncertain whether the people in the village could handle all of them.
“Lord Ferda.”
Luri looked up at him.
Her eyes, as though awkwardly concealed behind a poorly fitted mask, seemed lost and uncertain where to turn.
“Go. Protect what your master wishes to protect.”
“And your safety, Lord Ferda?”
“Do not worry. I am here.”
Although she had suffered severe internal injuries, the ring of water surrounding Erika remained perfectly steady.
“Understood.”
Luri lifted her axe and spread her wings.
Boom!
A violent gust surged forward without restraint and crashed into the monsters heading toward Hestia Village.
A silver flash darted through the forest.
Wherever that light passed, only brutally butchered corpses remained.
“How many should I handle?”
“I can manage them all by myself.”
“Then I will only watch your back.”
Their opponents were monsters that had lost all reason and were driven purely by instinct.
Each individual strike was threatening, but their attacks were simple.
The simpler an attack, the easier it was to read.
Erika’s droplets readily identified their vital points and pierced through them.
‘So this is Iorga’s magic.’
On the surface, the water appeared endlessly gentle.
Yet once it left her hand, it became harder and deadlier than any metal.
It did not merely pierce its targets.
The rotational force contained within each droplet twisted and ruptured the body from the inside whenever it passed through a vital point.
Even while facing many enemies, Erika wasted nothing.
Every monster was slain in a single blow.
‘And yet even someone like her was driven into a corner by the Warp Demon…’
Viewed calmly, it was not that they had allowed the demons to escape.
It was no different from the demons having chosen to release them.
Eventually, even the last charging monster was eliminated.
Erika sensed the surrounding life once more and confirmed that the area was safe.
“Haa…”
Then she collapsed to the ground.
She had possessed no余裕 at all.
“Are you all right?”
“My life is not in danger, but I will need to concentrate on restoring my mana for several days.”
“Can you stand?”
Ferda extended a hand.
“Thank you.”
Erika took it.
His hand was calloused, unlike that of a typical mage.
Erika had touched this man’s hand before.
At that moment, something flowed along Ferda’s hand and entered hers.
Erika knew exactly what it was.
It was the same mana that had once humiliated her.
“Hyaa!”
Erika jolted in shock.
She immediately released Ferda’s hand and dropped back onto the ground.
“…What is wrong?”
Her face turned bright red.
What do you mean, what is wrong?! The moment you grabbed my hand, you tried to pour mana into me again! You shameless pervert! You were trying to do something indecent to me again!
She wanted to shout those words at him, but she could not bring herself to do it.
Ferda genuinely looked as though he had no idea what had happened.
She was certain that speaking up would only make her look like a fool.
“N-nothing! I think it would be better for me to circulate my mana here. Please watch the surroundings.”
“Understood.”
Erika crossed her legs and closed her eyes.
The circuits within her body began to turn, accumulating mana in rhythm with the beating of her heart.
Within the darkness behind her eyelids, the battle from only a few dozen minutes earlier replayed itself.
‘To think that man was the Warp Demon, one of the Demon King’s Seven Calamities.’
The Seven Calamities.
They were legion commanders who stood at the very peak of the Noblesse class, directly beneath the Emperor-class Demon King.
Even after exchanging several moves and sensing his mana, Erika had failed to recognize him.
She had only realized that he was Noblesse-class.
There had been no helping it.
She had been driven onto the defensive and had needed to devote her full attention to the battle.
She had possessed no leisure to determine his identity as well.
Yet even that excuse brought her no comfort.
She was a mage once known as the Wisdom of the Twelve Heroes.
She had already fought the other six Calamities and had even found ways to overcome them.
‘And Regent Ferda recognized him after seeing only a single attack.’
He had identified the demon’s true identity after enduring only one strike.
Denying it would not make that fact disappear.
‘And I was overwhelmed in mana as well.’
She had not been fully prepared, but there was little room to debate which side had been superior.
Had Ferda and Luri not appeared, and had she continued fighting that man, could she truly have won?
‘Damn it.’
She inwardly chewed over her frustration.
Since the battle had never reached its conclusion, she could not know for certain.
Even so, it was difficult to ignore the sense of helplessness she had felt.
And then—
‘I am so embarrassed I could die.’
The fact that she had panicked and screamed all by herself was even more painful than the agony of her twisted internal organs.
Erika bit her lip and repeatedly struck her thigh with her fist.
‘You idiot. You complete idiot! Why not just die already?’
Ferda watched her endure what appeared to be intense pain and thought,
‘Her internal injuries must be far worse than she claims.’
A short while later, someone flew toward them.
Luri returned, carrying the vicious axe she had taken with her.
“All the monsters heading toward Hestia Village have been eliminated. I am told the situation in the village itself is also being resolved without requiring additional assistance.”
“Well done.”
“It is not over yet. The monster corpses still need to be disposed of.”
“Burnell will be pleased.”
The forest was filled with monster corpses.
Their green blood and purple flesh gave off an unnatural and ominous impression amid the surrounding nature.
“I will clean up this area.”
The one who spoke was Erika, still sitting cross-legged.
“There is no need for you to do that.”
“There are too many of them, and some areas may become contaminated if they are not cleaned thoroughly. Magic is necessary for something like this. Once I circulate my mana a little longer, I should recover enough to handle the cleanup.”
“Understood. Then I will leave it to you, Lady Erika.”
It seemed that the incident had finally reached its conclusion.
But it had not.
Boom—!
A tremendous impact rang out.
The source of the sound was none other than Hestia Village.