“It’s too late, you slowpokes.”
“Gah!”
Caim had thrust his hand like a sword in the nearest mage’s throat. Blood gushed from the wound, soiling the ground.
“You failed as mages the instant you let me get so close to you.”
Allowing an opponent to approach was a fatal mistake for a mage—an enemy could hit them before they were able to activate their magic, after all. Unlike Caim, who could fight both at long and close range, mages who specialized in long-ranged combat were doomed once their opponent had closed in on them.
“Get crushed,” Caim declared, grabbing the heads of two mages with his hands and smashing their skulls together, smashing them like eggs. “I heard you were elite mages, but you’re pathetic. Guess people who use magic really are weak once you get close enough.”
“How could youuuuuu?!” The other mages grew furious at seeing three of their comrades killed. They attempted to cast their spells, but Caim was faster. He closed in on the next mage and swung his arm.
“Seiryuu.” Caim cut the mage’s body in two with a blade of condensed mana, not giving them enough time to use their magic.
“We need to stop him! Don’t let him just do whatever he pleases!”
“Instead of giving orders, how about trying to do it yourself—if you can, that is!” Caim provoked them while skewering another mage.
To be fair, the Ladies of the Lake weren’t weak. In fact, they were some of Arthur’s best subordinates. They possessed great talent, and they had been trained by Merlin the Great Mage herself. They were truly a group of elite mages.
Yet, in the end, they were only “normal” prodigies. Even ten of them put together couldn’t compare to Caim, who far exceeded the bounds of mere natural talent. Caim was an unprecedented monster who had inherited the martial prowess of the Master Pugilist, the greatest martial artist of this era, and the mana of the Poison Queen, the daemon feared as a calamity.
Caim killed yet another two mages, meaning that fewer than half of the Ladies of the Lake remained. Their defeat was imminent, and yet they didn’t give up.
“We’ve got no choice!”
“Indeed—let’s drag him to hell along with us!”
The last three mages then pulled out their trump card. Bloodred geometric patterns appeared on their bodies, shining brightly.
“I won’t let you!” Naturally, Caim didn’t just stand and watch—he extended the length of his condensed mana blade and decapitated the remaining mages in one swing.
“It’s...too late...”
“The pact...was sealed...”
“Glory...to the empire...”
Even separated from their bodies, the mages’ severed heads began to laugh.
Caim frowned, and the next instant, black smoke gushed out of their corpses. It came from the wounds in their necks, then gathered in the sky, forming a humanoid figure.
“The pact has been sealed. I shall grant your wish in exchange for your souls,” three voices announced in unison as the black smoke dispersed to reveal a three-meter-tall humanoid figure with three goat heads, a hairy, muscular body, and an ominous aura—a demon. It had been summoned from a different dimension by the mages before their death, at the cost of their souls. “As per the contract, I shall now exterminate you, their enemy. Listen, pitiful and diminutive human. If you don’t want to suffer, then obediently surrender your life to me.” The three-headed goat demon sneered, calmly crossing its arms as it looked down at Caim.
However, Caim only stared at the demon curiously with deep interest. “Oh... I heard it was possible to summon demons with magic, but this is my first time seeing it. It’s pretty interesting.” Caim wasn’t intimidated in the slightest by the demon’s horrible appearance and evil aura. “It’s said that you guys live in hell or the demon world or whatever, but is that true? Does the afterlife really exist? Also, what do you do with people’s souls? Do you eat them? Are they tasty?”
“...Have you lost your mind from fear? You humans are so weak,” the three goat heads said, snorting. Then the demon raised its left arm and created a bright red fireball above its human-head-sized palm. “Burn in hellfire, you ignorant hu—”
“Poison Shot.”
“—man— Gah?!” Caim’s toxic projectile had hit the demon’s fireball and made it explode. “What are you doing, you puny human?!” the demon screamed, enraged. One of its heads had been burned in the explosion. Unfortunately for it, Caim wasn’t done.
“Purple Poison Magic—Nidhogg!”
“What?!” The demon was taken aback by the purple dragon that emerged from Caim’s hand and coiled around its body. The demon tried to grab the dragon to tear it off, but as it was made of gas and lacked a physical form, the demon’s hands couldn’t grasp anything. “Damn it! Get away from me!”
“Give up. It’s already over. You were way more boring than I expected...” Caim leaped back to gain some distance from the demon, then snapped his fingers. This created a spark that ignited the gas in the air, and the flames spread to the poison dragon. “Poison Flare!”
“Gaaaaaaaaah!” The demon was immediately engulfed in fire. The dragon had been made of highly flammable gas, and the combination of Caim’s spark and the demon’s hellfire had produced a massive explosion when it had ignited. “That’s impossible... J-Just how...?”
“Your stupidity’s the impossible thing here. Being defeated so easily after disparaging humans like that? Pathetic.” Caim looked down on the demon, exasperated. The creature had lost most of its body in the explosion. Only its heads and torso were left, lying on the ground. As it was still alive in such a state, at least its vitality was impressive. “I thought demons would be way stronger than this, but in the end, you’re not that different from orcs and wyverns. But is it just that you’re weak and stupid, or are all demons like this?”
“You...little... I shall remember this...human...!”
“Don’t care. Die.” Caim swung his arm and bisected each of the demon’s heads with his blade made of condensed mana, ending its life.
The demon’s remains turned into black smoke that scattered in the wind.
Some time later, Caim had just finished explaining what had occurred to Count Atlaus.
“...And that’s what happened. In short, a group of mages was after you, but I took care of them.”
“I see...” Count Atlaus nodded in understanding. “You have saved me once again, and you have my gratitude for it.”
“You’re here to help Millicia, aren’t you? I should be the one thanking you, in that case.”
“There is no need. We don’t want war with our neighbors, so we would have sided with Prince Lance in the end. Princess Millicia only gave me the push needed to steel my resolve. I am deeply grateful to her.” Count Atlaus paused for an instant, then continued. “Incidentally, how did you find out that mages were planning to kill us?”
“It’s all been part of his plan... He plays the fool, but the man we’re trying to make the next emperor is actually a clever fox. You can’t let your guard down around him.” Caim shrugged and gazed toward the eastern sky in the direction of Berwick with a pitying smile, thinking of the poor fool who had been outfoxed.