The battle in the temple intensified.
“Whoooa! Look out!”
“Die, monster!”
“Arrgh!”
“Eeh hee!”
The leeched ones were extraordinarily unnerving. But the Schultz warriors, led by Lade and Diane, didn’t hesitate. Lade brandished his gigantic greatsword, a blade that exceeded two meters in length. Diane swung her enchanted rainbow sword, mowing down the creatures one by one.
Lade always used the same style of swordsmanship. He specialized in speed, impact, and destructive force. Any of those qualities would be frightening on their lonesome. When he combined them all together, the strength of his massive blade seemed almost infinite. Even the leeched ones’ skin, covered in unnatural scales and stone, shredded apart like paper.
As for Diane, if Geo were to use Sense of the Adept to analyze her, she would probably be a Level 6 Warrior. In general, she was considerably strong, but her speed and muscular strength were lacking against monsters and nonhumans like the leeched. The fact that she could swing wildly and still cut down so many enemies was thanks to the power of her divine sword. It just needed to come in contact with its targets to kill them. The sword’s power, combined with her own courage and rage, upgraded her combat ability to a level that could equal any warrior of the clan.
“Damn you! Damn you, you accursed warrior!”
After losing most of his followers, the furious magemaster screamed at Lade. But he wasn’t going to stop at just screaming out abuses. When he put his hands together and pointed them at Lade’s massive, blood-drenched body, they shot a toxic-looking purple light, which transformed into a giant skull, twice the size of a human, with three eye sockets.
VWOMMM…
“Erk!”
This skull was known in conjuring as an evil spirit. The spirit, an incorporeal, disembodied force, wrapped itself around Lade’s massive body without suffering so much as a scratch from his blade.
Diane flicked her eyes toward him. “You okay, big guy?!”
“Haaah!” The magemaster cackled. “Yes! Evil spirit, suck his very essence dry! Leave him a dead, empty husk!”
For a moment, there was silence.
The magemaster was undoubtedly a powerful conjurer. If he used this evil spirit on a normal human, they wouldn’t be able to walk, or even move. They’d die a pitiful death within seconds.
But Lade was no normal human.
“Hrngh!”
The conjurer hesitated. “What?”
Lade kicked off the ground, still tangled up with the purple skull. Lunging, he closed the gap between him and the smirking magemaster.
It only took one swipe of his sword.
“AAAIIIIEEE!”
The magemaster had been cut clean in half at his waist. The severed pieces fell to the ground.
As his dreadful scream echoed in the temple, the glowing skull slowly disappeared.
✦ ✦ ✦
My experiment in the Twilight Wastelands was a success. Once I was satisfied with the result, I used Teleport to return to the guest house at the Stalwart Castle. I gave my report and also asked about the state of the castle in my absence.
First, it seemed that several spies had managed to infiltrate the guesthouse. I’d expected as much. I was relieved that they’d been unable to open the windows with Wizard Key. After being beaten by the Invisible Demons, they all ended up running away. According to Elisabel, they were from the intelligence brigade, direct reporters to the duke and his court sorcerer.
Regarding negotiations to build a trade route, Ild and Feivel had entered into discussions with some of the duke’s officials. This, too, was going smoothly.
“It seems that both the aristocratic faction and the military faction have given up on trying to assassinate us,” Elisabel told me, giving a quick report on the diplomatic situation. First of all, Agveil himself, who was part of the aristocratic faction and had previously given actual assassination orders, came to the guesthouse to apologize in person. He claimed that he would lock his mother Alaine in the Filsand nunnery. According to him, she was the mastermind behind everything. He said the duke had already agreed to this. The local nobility was in turmoil.
“My stepmother is in an awfully bad spot now, so things might work out. I mean, it seems like Agveil is realizing that he can’t hide under her skirt anymore.” Elisabel appeared more refreshed than relieved. I got the impression that the boy had been dragged along by his mother, and it would be better for him to distance himself from her a bit. But even so…
“Does he really think a simple apology would make everything better after trying to kill you…? I really don’t understand blue bloods.” As usual, Ted voiced the exact commoner’s opinion that I had in mind myself. Do you have your own magic medal hidden up your sleeve, Ted?
“This is what happens when powers shift,” said Elisabel. “It would be best if his intentions have truly shifted to match his words. We’ll see.”
Clara snorted. “As far as I could tell, Agveil just wanted to do something because he’s afraid of Margilus.”
Well, if our resident nobles said so, it must be true.
The other report was on the actions of the military faction. Their policy seemed to have changed to trying to invite me to their faction as Elisabel’s husband. One corner of the guest room was overflowing with their gifts (incidentally, we re-gifted Agveil’s own tokens of gratitude to everyone else that brought us packages).
“There’ve also been a great many beautiful women calling,” Ted said, somewhat envious.
“It seems they really want to entice you, Master Margilus.” Ild joined in, furrowing his brow. That was a problem. Well, as long as they didn’t intend to do us harm, I could probably just ignore them.
“And?” I asked Elisabel. “Did you think of a way to persuade the duke?”
She shifted her weight. “Yes. I will show you the final diplomatic negotiation ever executed by Elisabel Roney Filsandia.”