chapter 53
53 – Too Late for an Apology (8)
Laplus approached me with a graceful swing of his scythe.
His movements, which seemed like dancing, combined elegance and sharpness, making them beautiful in their own right.
However,
Despite this appearance, the power contained in his attacks was no joke.
-Boom!!!
‘Hmm… I expected it to some extent, but if I even slightly mistime my dodge, it’ll be all over.’
A single swing of the scythe was enough to literally shatter the ground.
In the game, breaking through obstacles or walls was limited, but now that it had become reality, there were no such constraints.
Laplus approached slowly, reducing the surroundings to ashes with each step.
Even I found it difficult to follow and anticipate his attacks, let alone approach…
No, to be precise, I didn’t even consider approaching. Instead, I simply dodged his attacks by stepping backwards.
-“Tsk… after appearing so strong, is this all you’ve got? What a disappointment.”
“…”
He mockingly clicked his tongue in disappointment,
However, I was solely focused on evading his attacks without even feeling the worth of responding to them.
And.
-“Pathetic fool, just die!”
With a burst of intense power, LaPlace swung his scythe with both hands.
The moment I saw that,
I instinctively began to form a confident smile on my lips.
And.
– Bam!!!!
“….Huh?”
A bullet pierced through his chest, just as it was about to strike with immense power.
The movements of that guy, who was about to swing his scythe with the power contained within, came to a sudden halt.
LaPlace, who usually envelops his entire body with powerful magic.
Even for him, bullets were ineffective, let alone blunt weapons wrapped in magic.
However,
As a seasoned water user, it was only natural for me.
I knew exactly how to exploit that guy.
His action of gathering his magic towards the scythe for an attack.
In that fleeting moment,
The disruption of the magic surrounding his body was his weakness,
And that was the only moment to land an effective hit on him.
With a cold smile towards him, I straightened the blood-stained sword.
“Disappointing, just die.”
– “!!!”
*
“Hihihihihi!!!!!”
– Bang!!!
A demon, with a terrifying sound, split into two.
Even though Nico succeeded in killing another enemy, her face did not brighten at all in that moment.
“hehehehe! Those guys are coming at us again!”
Even though she had hit them enough to give up counting long ago, demons were crawling out of the shadows once again.
Although the defense was being maintained thanks to the help of the guards,
the constant attacks from the demons were slowly wearing them down.
However, if they were to retreat from here, not only the Belsha Palace but also the residents in the surrounding area would be massacred by the demons.
Unable to even escape, they had no choice but to forcefully stop the demons in the situation that was gradually becoming more chaotic.
“Ugh…”
Nico unintentionally took a step back with a cry filled with despair.
At that moment,
the warmth of familiar people could be felt behind Nico,
the warmth of Jeanne and Gabriel started to be sensed.
“This…is stronger than I thought?”
“Um… I mean…”
Gabriel spoke in a tired voice, just like her.
They had been thoroughly prepared according to their master’s instructions,
But as they continued to face endless waves of enemies, they gradually reached their limits.
“Just hold on a little longer. For now, we can only trust the leader.”
“Sigh, well, I guess we should be used to this by now. It was a similar situation when we were in the Insomus.”
“Well… it’s true that Gelrod intervened at the right time back then… but isn’t this situation a bit too much?”
“It won’t happen. The leader will never disappoint us. That’s the kind of man he is.”
With those words, Gabriel dashed towards the enemies springing out of the shadows once again,
Seeing that, Janneu and Nico unknowingly formed a slight smile on their lips.
Gabriel, who had once had the biggest doubts about Gelrod when they first met,
Now trusts Gelrod more than anyone else, and that made them feel quite impressed.
“Well then… should we go again?”
“Alright, if you say so!”
With those words, the Devil Hunters gathered their strength and ran forward once more.
The demons, sensing their presence, tried to attack with a chill in the air.
That’s when…
-Kkaddduk!!
“!?”
“Huh?”
In the next moment, the demons crumbled to the ground as if collapsing, accompanied by a sound that seemed to crumble.
At this sudden phenomenon, the devil hunters were seized by confusion.
“Sisters!”
“Leona?”
“Ah… No, how did you get here…”
A voice that evokes more concern than joy, honestly.
However, as soon as they turned their heads to that place, their faces started to show emotions beyond relief.
Leona, accompanied by Napoleon and numerous soldiers of the Franz Kingdom.
They seemed like the royal defense forces, quickly organizing their formation and starting to attack the demons.
“We were a little late because we brought the nearby troops. This should be enough time to buy.”
“Now you can be at ease, sisters!”
Napoleon spoke in a solemn tone while Leona spoke with an energetic voice.
Their tones gave contrasting feelings, but at this moment, hearing their voices that made them all feel grateful, smiles formed on the lips of the three.
“Good! Then let’s do it till the end!”
*
In the bustling battles taking place at the Bershah Palace.
On top of a building far away, that person quietly observed the situation.
With blond hair and green eyes.
She had a striking resemblance to Queen Louise XVI.
An existence that had been guarding her empty seat as the queen’s surrogate until now.
She, who goes by the name Valoua D’Olivia, naturally fell behind during the process of Gabrielle entering Bresha Palace with the other devil hunters, due to the situation of “the real queen having escaped to a safe place.”
Thus, Dolivia found herself in a position of leisure, outside the battlefield where her life is at stake, observing the situation.
At that moment,
She began turning around, feeling the presence coming from behind.
“I never expected to be called out to a place like this, you’ve certainly grown up a lot.”
A man, struggling to his feet, ascended the rooftop.
Duke Okurian.
As Dolivia looked at him, a cold smile formed on her lips.
“There’s no other choice, is there? Unless it’s a time like this, we can’t have any contact. You must know that we can’t discuss what comes next unless it’s now.”
“…sigh, understood. We don’t have time to speak at length, so I won’t complain any further.”
With those words, the duke wiped away his sweat with a handkerchief.
Already, his plans had been thrown into disarray, and he was frazzled, but despite that, the duke went to great lengths to come to this meeting.
“So, how is everything going? Honestly, if you hadn’t passed on the information about Labyrinth, I would have thought you had left Pare temporarily… Is everything going smoothly according to our plans?”
“I can’t be completely sure yet. The queen has been handling things better than expected, and most of all, the abilities of Ellie and Gellad are not to be underestimated.”
“Tch, seems like those troublesome bastards. They even managed to make use of Labyrinth, but we still can’t guarantee success.”
The duke spoke in a disgruntled voice.
However,
Dollybi slowly raised her head and spoke in a quiet voice towards him.
“Don’t worry, no matter what, our opponent is Lafla. They are not a being that we can handle with their abilities, and above all, even if Lafla fails, there is another way, you see.”
“Another way?”
Dollybi’s words aroused curiosity in Duke Ocléan.
And then,
At her continued words, a smile as bright as hers began to appear on the duke’s lips.
“Don’t worry, in the end, it will be us who will be laughing.”