I follow her gaze and see lots of people…? Ah! Isn’t that Jasper and the rest? Jasper the Trembler is leading the villagers to us.
“Wh-Why?! What are you all doing?!” Laurent cries when he sees the villagers staggering toward us. “Return to the evacuation area! It’s dangerous here!” he pleads, but his voice doesn’t reach them as they amble slowly in this direction like zombies.
The way they’re acting has to be the work of Sereniel’s Bewitch…! Bewitch can temporarily take over the mind of the person it has been cast on. Complex commands don’t work well, but it’s possible to make them obey basic orders.
Magic users like Laurent and I have a high resistance to spells, but normal people without any magic are highly susceptible to it. Right now the villagers are only under the influence of Bewitch, but if she casts another spell to completely take over their minds, they will happily obey the order to kill themselves.
I disengage the Inferno Prison. How could I not? My grand spell will absolutely hurt them.
“I’m glad you’re perceptive, Elle. Come now, my precious henchlings, capture foolish Elle and her friends.”
Upon Sereniel’s orders, the villagers rush at me with glassy eyes like they’re sleepwalking.
Scary! Their zombiness is frightening!
What can I do? Summon an ice wall to block their path? No, that won’t work. Jasper and the rest are like puppets without a mind of their own. They don’t have the wherewithal to avoid obstacles and will ram right into the wall without minding the injuries they might get.
I don’t want to hurt the people I care about!
Laurent steps between the villagers and me and begins chanting a spell.
“Laurent, don’t,” I stop him. “I don’t want to hurt them.”
“But—!”
“Please.”
“If that’s what you want,” he quietly concedes and lets Jasper capture us without resisting.
I’m sorry, Laurent. I swear I will save you and the others. I glare at Sereniel for forcing me into this dilemma.
“So Laurent’s defenses weren’t enough to protect them after all… Your telepathic magic is still a cut above the rest.”
I hear Julius’s levelheaded voice.
How? I thought he was fighting Regulus?! I look over and find Regulus on his knees at Julius’s feet.
Seriously?! It’s over already?! That was fast! I know Julius is the strongest of the Four Grand Magi, but couldn’t Regulus have tried a little harder?!
“Regulus, you dolt! How could you let yourself be beaten so fast?!” Sereniel complains, in just as much shock as me.
Regulus lifts his head. “Yeoch. I give, I give. Julius moves around like a whippersnapper and I accidentally twisted my ankle tryin’ to catch up. I haven’t fought like that in a long time, so my lower back gave out…”
He looks a lot older to me when he says that…
“Oh my Demon Lord! You’re utterly useless! Not that it matters. I’ve already got Elle. I can do this on my own,” Sereniel snips and looks Julius over. “Don’t get any funny ideas, Julius. You’re smart enough to see who has the upper hand. I have hostages. You care about these country bumpkin Gaeans, right? They’re my pets now. They’ll dance to whatever tune I play.” She sneers with cherry red lips.
“You seem to be acting under a misconception, Sereniel. You think these Gaeans mean something to me?”
I’m startled to hear him say that to her with such a coldhearted gleam in his eyes.
“H-Hey! Where did that come from, Julius?! I won’t let you off the hook if you hurt Canna and the others!”
Julius glares at Sereniel without responding to my shouts.
Ignored! Julius just ignored me!
“I see. You’ve always been that kind of man, Julius… What’s your game that you felt the need to drag Elle into this with you?” Sereniel asks, panic edging into her voice.
“My game? I have none, but being hunted by the Demon Lord is a nuisance. I’ll spare your lives if you forget you ever saw me here.” Julius flashes an indomitable smile.
What the heck?! What’s gotten into you, Julius?! That’s totally a line from the villain playbook!
“Lady Elle, Master Julius has a plan,” Laurent whispers to me.
What? A plan? When I wonder what that is, the hands holding me in place loosen their grip.
I activate Analyze in my right eye and watch as various magic circles appear and disappear around the villagers. Could this be a spell to deactivate Sereniel’s Bewitch? There are too many circles flickering in and out of view to distinguish their code, but it seems like Julius is trying to regain control of the villagers from Sereniel.
Ugh! The circles are changing too fast for me to parse!
Sereniel is too focused on Julius to notice.
The twinkle of a sound mind begins to return to the villagers’ empty eyes.
“Wha…? Where am I? Lady Elle?”
“Jasper! You’re back!”
The rest of the villagers recover in the same way. Sereniel’s beautiful face scrunches in a grand scowl when she notices a little too late that everyone has regained consciousness.
“H-How did that happen?! I can’t believe it. My Bewitch was deactivated? When did you do that…?!” Sereniel roars with a start.
When did he do it? In the few moments since Mr. Strongest Grand Magi has been chatting with you, that’s when. There’s too great a strength gap between Julius and the other Grand Magi.
The undeniable top dog of the Four Grand Magi lifts his lips in a goading smirk.
“Don’t think you’re the only one capable of using telepathic spells, Sereniel.”
“Grr…Julius!” Knocked off guard by an unexpected counterattack in her own specialty, Sereniel stares down Julius, her face redder than her cherry lips.
“Laurent, gather Elle and the villagers in a circle and create a powerful barrier around them that will block out telepathic spells. Copy the exact same circle as the ones I just used. You’re up to the challenge, yeah?” Julius tells Laurent, who had stepped out to protect the villagers.
Julius makes it sound easy, but how does he expect Laurent to copy the circles he had appearing and vanishing every few seconds? There’s no way a novice sorcerer like Laurent can pull off a barrier like that! Silly Julius! It’s not nice to assume other people can do something just because you can!
Laurent promptly nods, despite my misgivings, and replies, “You’ve got it, Master Julius!” He chants the spell, activating the circle in the sky above us.
Right. I forgot. Laurent is a genius…
In a matter of seconds, he creates a barrier and leads me and the villagers into it. Then he continues chanting to strengthen the barrier.
I-Is it just me or am I the only one not doing anything useful? It’s all because Julius’s powers are too much of a cheat… He doesn’t even spare an ounce of mercy for his former allies.
I kinda feel like I should side with the other Grand Magi because they were defeated so easily; they need someone else to even the odds.
Julius is managing this bad situation with his quick thinking. He ruthlessly captures Glasses before he can sneak away and deploys a gravity spell that brings the three idiot Grand Magi who dared invade Elle Village to their hands and knees.
“So who wants to tell me how you located this village first?” Julius looks down his nose at his former allies crushed against the ground.
“Didn’t you ever learn to respect your elders?” Regulus painfully hisses through his teeth with his forehead pressed into the dirt.
“Oh? Are you going to teach me about respect, elder?” Julius says drolly as another pained moan rips from Regulus’s throat.
He probably increased the weight bearing down on them. I hear cracks and pops coming from Regulus. No mercy. Julius shows no mercy. He doesn’t spare even an inkling of leniency for the people he used to fight alongside!
But they deserve it. After all, these bothersome Three Grand Magi committed the grave sin of obliterating half of my precious Elle Village!
“Ahhh. Don’t put any more pressure on us! That guy in the glasses called Clark discovered your location! Regulus and I don’t know anything about it!” Sereniel confesses, at the end of her rope.
“Hey! Sereniel! It’s horrible to sell out your colleagues!” wails the four-eyed weakling.
Sounds like Glasses here is the culprit. Julius’s icicle-sharp gaze stabs into Clark.
“I see. You’re the one? How did you pinpoint this location?”
“Eek…! I didn’t do anything…special…,” Clark blurts out in a feverish haste.
In the manga, Clark’s magic skill set was making homunculi and controlling them.