If unleashing my magecraft at full power wouldn’t be enough to defeat it, then all I had to do was use that magecraft to augment my spellcraft instead. I was going to show this demon the full force of my ultimate attack. No matter how tough it was or how resilient it was to sword slashes, even an otherworldly demon still wouldn’t stand a chance if I struck it with overwhelming force. I had to defeat it!
I brought the two powers together. Enveloped in a mantle of purple magecraft energies, the spellcraft power burned like the blazing sun.
I was planning on striking it with an energy beam—the easiest type of attack to manifest, control, and kill with. I further amplified the destructive power of the swirling energies in my hand several times over.
A chill clearly running down his spine, the man standing behind the demon began to shout, voice shaky.
“Wh-What is that power?! How can you use both magecraft and spellcraft?! And we’ve seen you use godcraft as well... Just who are you—”
Before he finished his sentence, the demon, judging me to be a threat, kicked off against the ground and made a mad dash toward me. It must have planned to crush me before I could unleash my attack.
It swiftly closed in, raking with its claws that were keen enough to pierce straight through my body.
But its strike never reached me. The demon’s attack was clouded by panic, which made it simple to dodge—I merely had to turn my body to the side to avoid it. I continued charging my beam, focus not wavering for even a second.
How convenient that the demon had come near me of its own accord. At this distance, there was no way I’d miss. I was definitely going to kill it.
A shout tore its way out of my lungs, scorching my throat with its intensity.
“You’re dead!”
The burgeoning spellcraft energies fully merged with magecraft, transforming into a brilliant gold. Light flashed from the tiny sun floating in my palm, illuminating its path forward.
Heat, light, spellcraft, and magecraft... All of it savagely sliced through the air.
The beam’s circumference had been round in shape, so a column of light blasted through the forest ahead of me. The ground was gouged open, trees vanished, and the path of pure destruction stretched far into the distance.
Everything in the light’s path was obliterated. All that remained to witness the destruction were me and the Erebos acolytes who hadn’t been caught by it. The demon, struck squarely by the beam, had brilliantly evaporated into nothing.
“This is impossible... How is this happening? No human...should be capable of such power...” the man whispered before fading away. The Erebos acolyte who’d been standing behind the demon had also been caught in the path of the beam and obliterated. The remaining acolytes garbed head to toe in black, whom I figured were the man’s underlings, all fell to their knees in unison. They didn’t have the willpower to even run, much less put up a fight.
“Maybe I overdid it a little...”
I had poured every ounce of magecraft and spellcraft energy I had into that attack. While the demon had been impervious to my other attacks, this attack had scattered it to dust in an instant. All that might not have been necessary after all.
“No way, Huey! That was a great attack! You were so cool!” cheered Fouré.
“Not bad,” hummed Aruna. “I would not expect anything less from my magecraft.”
“Come now,” interjected Cult. “That attack was only made possible through spellcraft. Your magecraft was just a bonus.”
“What? The beam would never have been that powerful without my magecraft to augment it. Just admit that it was all thanks to my power,” snapped Aruna.
“No. I will not. Absolutely not!”
“Come on, you guys,” I laughed awkwardly. “Don’t fight here.”
Though enemies still remained in the vicinity, the goddesses followed their own tune as always. But I doubted the remaining Erebos faithful had any fight left in them. There were just a few things left to do. Forcing my exhausted body to move, I tied up the defeated acolytes one after another. They didn’t put up much resistance, so it looked like I’d successfully captured them all alive.
✦ ✦ ✦
▼△▼
Dragging the Erebos acolytes along, I returned to town.
The demon’s roars had echoed all the way to town, so the knights guarding the south gate were on the verge of panic, raising the alarm about nearby monsters.
The merchants and adventurers who were lining up to enter the city were also shaking in fear, afraid they might be attacked at any moment. To put them at ease, I lied, saying there had been nothing out in the forest. After all, I had defeated the demon, so it wasn’t totally untrue.
Considering that a kid like me had returned from the forest entirely cool and composed, peace was eventually restored. But, of course, they had to question me about the Erebos acolytes I’d dragged back to town. I made up a story I hoped was reasonably believable, stating that they’d attacked me, so I just returned fire. Then, promising to bring the acolytes before Claus, I entered town proper.
They knew Claus trusted me, so they didn’t question my story, nor did they detain me. I was allowed through the gates without a hitch and headed back toward Claus’s manor with the acolytes in tow, ignoring all the stares I got from the townspeople.
“The Erebos acolytes were planning on attacking the town?”
Upon arriving at the manor, I brought the tied-up acolytes before Claus. Briefly explaining the unrest caused by the curse, I also told Claus about the summoned demon and the acolytes’ plans. After I finished, Claus fixed an ice-cold gaze on the Erebos acolytes.
“You dared to harm my people! And you even cursed Rose...”
The air was downright frosty. I thought he might even draw his sword. Well, even if he brought his sword down on them, I could heal their wounds, so I chose not to interfere and simply watched. But contrary to my expectations, Claus calmed himself, releasing his welling anger in a deep sigh.
“I can heal them if they’re wounded,” I said, with a metaphorical wink and a nudge. I understood very well how it felt to see one’s family hurt. But Claus shook his head.
“No. As the governor of these lands, I mustn’t give in to anger. You saved Rose, after all, so all’s well that ends well.”
“All right.”
He was a much better person than I was, considering I’d let my anger get the better of me and unleashed untold amounts of destruction through my augmented spellcraft. Guess I wasn’t cut out to be a lord—not that it was a big surprise or anything.
“I simply calculated that it was more important to extract information from them than it was to get revenge. Neither of these options are respectable ones.”
Claus stood from his chair and drew his sword. Stepping toward the Erebos acolytes, he pressed the tip of his blade against an acolyte’s neck.
“Now, that being said, I’ll give you lot a choice. You can choose to suffer, or you can give me the information I want. Which is it?”
“Kill us! We’ll never sell our people out!”
Claus sighed. “Well, I expected as much.”
He lowered his sword.
I figured it wouldn’t be that easy, but at least their devotion was commendable.
“I’ll send you to rot in prison, then, and I’ll personally question each and every one of you. We’ll see how you withstand pain.”
One of the acolytes gasped, but though Claus’s threat had clearly shaken them, they still refused to speak.
Clenching their jaws tight, they stubbornly glared at Claus, murderous anger in their eyes.
Then, something strange and entirely unexpected happened.
“Gah!”
One of the acolytes began to cough up blood.
Soon, the others followed suit one after another, writhing in agony as blood poured from their mouths.
“Wh-What’s going on?!”
“A curse!”
First to notice the spellcraft energy, I hurriedly cast a blanket of godcraft healing over them, but I was too late. Before I could break the curses, the Erebos acolytes had breathed their last.
Lying lifeless on the ground, their faces were twisted in sorrow—but somehow, a glimmer of joy shone through.
“Damn it! After you’d gone through so much trouble to capture them,” cried Claus.
“A curse must’ve been cast on them in advance, or maybe one of them had an artifact to do it.”
If it was an artifact, it had clearly been undetectable until activated. They’d been meticulous in their plans.
“Apologies, Hisui. I’ve gone and wasted all your effort.”
“No, I couldn’t stop the curses in time either. This was unfortunately inevitable.”
No one was at fault here—except for the person who’d cast the curse in the first place.
“I’ll have the bodies taken care of. You must be tired, are you not? Go and get some rest.”
“Thank you, Lord Lycoris.”
Taking him up on his suggestion, I headed back to my room as Claus dealt with the aftermath.
If I’d borrowed Fouré’s power, I could probably have brought the dead acolytes back to life, but I didn’t want to do that just to have them suffer lashings in prison. It’d break my heart to use Fouré’s power for something like that, and they weren’t likely to spill their secrets anyway.
As I trod down the long hallway, relief flooded through my body.
The case of the curse was finally closed.