Chapter 8
AS WE APPROACHED the Schultz refugees and the pursuing daemon army, I saw a familiar figure. A strange warrior riding a phantom horse was fighting off the daemons who were chasing them.
The daemons screeched as they rushed in to attack, crushing their fallen allies. Lade fully utilized the maneuverability of the phantom horse, moving in all directions throughout the army of daemons, his massive blade cleaving left and right. All by himself, he noticeably slowed their advance.
It looks like I made it just in time…
“Greee!”
“Gi-gi-giii!”
The swarm was mostly made up of imps. They were small—only about one and a half meters tall—with pitch-black skin that looked like it had been painted on. Their large, hateful, glaring eyes simmered with golden malice. No matter how many times I saw them, they were no less horrifying. I guessed that the number of imps swinging makeshift axes, spears, stone clubs and rusty swords was somewhere between five hundred and one thousand.
They were too close to the refugees for me to use Meteor to blast them, and even if I could eliminate some with lower-firepower spells, it would eventually lead to casualties.
We flew right above the refugees. I saw that Reyha, Diane, and the Schultz warriors were in the back, acting as leaders.
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“Reyha! Hang on just a little longer!” I called out while flying over their heads.
“Huh? Got it!” She gave me a strong, firm reply. They did really well without me…
“Wha?!”
At the end of the long line of Schultz clanspeople, there was one large, young white man who, like Reyha, was clearly not a member of the clan. He was carrying an elderly woman on his back and a pulling a crying child with one hand, running unsteadily.
“Ahhh!”
“Heeelllp!”
One of the daemons suddenly pounced on the young man. “Greee!” The tip of its spear possessed a dull, menacing glow.
“Oh cra—!”
“Graaah?!”
Lade leaped off of the phantom horse, and his large sword cleaved the daemon in two. Reyha wasted no time pulling its arm off the boy. “Run!”
“Ah-gaaah!”
The imps attacked the dismounted Lade like a muddy stream. There was no strategy. They all just wanted to be the first to sink their weapons into dreadful human flesh. It was this single, blind obsession that drove them.
“Gi-gyah!”
“Gurgh?!”
But the pitch-black, muddy stream was unable to touch the giant warrior. Lade stood like a boulder against the tide. He spun his gigantic sword around, and the moment any daemons got close, they were immediately cut down.
But no matter how strong he was, there was a limit to how much one human could do alone. Several hundred daemons slipped past Lade on his left and right sides and rushed the Schultz people.
But that’s when the spell I’d just charged took effect.
“Graaah!”
There was a double roar that pierced our eardrums. With an explosive rumble and a blast wave that shook our bodies, two pillars of fire fell from the heavens.
“Graaah!”
“Gu-kyaaah?!”
I’d used Create Monster: Any to create two large, red dragons in the sky. The pillars were their burning breath. Just as the name of the spell suggested, it allowed a magic user to make any monster they knew out of thin air. However, the total level of all monsters made could only total the level of the magician. I thought that two Level 18 dragons would be better in a situation like this than one massive dragon over Level 30. I was right.
“Grooo!”
The two dragons flew around freely, burning dozens of imps at a time with their breath. Thanks to them, the swarm of daemons was rapidly dwindling. Needless to say, I ordered them to attack, focusing on those closest to the refugees. Thus far, the refugees had remained unscathed.
They actually seemed to gain distance, while the daemons were in disarray.
I personally eliminated the daemons that were lucky enough to avoid the dragon attacks and headed toward the refugees, using Fireball and Mana Bolt.
I looked around. “Is that all of them?”
Around the time the thirty-minute Create Monster: Any expired, the entire daemon swarm had been burned to charcoal or cut in half. Not a single one was left. I didn’t see any trace of other daemons nearby, either.
We went up next to Lade, covered in daemon blood. I dismounted the phantom horse. “Great work back there.”
“I only did what I always do.”
“Owww-ow-ow-ow…”
Agveil, meanwhile, looked like he was going to be sick. Although, it wasn’t like I was ungrateful to him. The entire reason I’d been able to attack the daemons from the sky was because he’d done so well controlling the phantom horse. I didn’t know if flying horsemanship was exactly the kind of experience the duke had had in mind, but it was probably valuable for Agveil all the same.
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When we caught up with the Schultz clan members who’d gone ahead, they were resting a little bit off the path. Actually, they were lying flat on the ground, probably collapsed from total exhaustion.
As soon as Reyha noticed us, she ran to me at incredible speed and knelt.
“My lord! Thank you so much for going to such trouble for us! This whole situation is all my fault. I should have prevented the daemon nest’s emergence. If it wasn’t for my failure, this legion would never have appeared.”
“It’s fine, Reyha. I’m just glad you’re okay. You did a great job.”
I hadn’t heard the details yet, but I was glad that she and Lade were safe now. Then, I approached the Schultz clan, waving my arms so they would know I was friendly, when…
“Aaagh!”
“Beelzebub!”
“It’s Beelzebub! He who calls forth dragons! Aaah!”
The refugees were mainly women and the elderly. They all prostrated themselves toward me with their foreheads to the ground.
“I’m not Beelzebub. I’m a wizard. A wizard!”
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“Words alone can’t express my thanks. I can’t believe we were rescued by a true hero!”
The young man at the end of the refugee line just happened to be Balzard, firstborn son of the duke of Filsand. It seemed Diane’s team hadn’t killed him, only captured him. Could you call that coming back from the dead? Either way, it was a big deal for the family of the duke of Filsand.
“Beelzebub. Please bestow unto us, the Schultz people, descendants of the Divine King, your protection…” The man prostrating himself to me next to Balzard was the Schultz patriarch, Luthras.
The other Schultz people were exhausted from the flight from the daemonic legion and were lying on the ground a short distance away. Surrounding me were Lade, Reyha, Balzard, Agveil, and the patriarch.
Diane, so energetic the last time I’d seen her, was now milling about with the other refugees in a daze.
“Brother…you’re alive.”
“Agveil, I never imagined you would come for me!”
It was a reunion between brothers, one of whom was thought to have died in battle. Balzard hugged Agveil, tears in his eyes. Agveil was slender and delicate compared to his older brother’s strong build, and he had a complicated expression on his face. It must have been awkward to find his brother well after trying to assassinate his sister in order to become the sole successor.
“How are father and mother and Elisabel?”
“I’ll…explain later.”
“I-I see. But you all must have been worried. I can’t wait to see everyone.”
“Everyone will be surprised by how thin you’ve grown.”
As far as I could tell from his tone and expression, Balzard was genuinely concerned about his family.
Could this really be the son of the duke? He probably took after his mother, the duke’s former wife who passed away. While I was thinking to myself, I noticed Agveil’s face soften as he spoke to his brother.
Perhaps Balzard was the glue that held Filsand’s ruling family together.