The people of the Schultz clan finally managed to calm down a bit. We would probably end up camping here tonight. Neither the patriarch nor Diane had any sort of plan for what to do after tomorrow. According to Reyha’s report, while they’d been able to defeat the leader of the daemonists in the Holy Precincts, they’d been unable to stop Cher from morphing into a daemon nest. That daemon nest was so huge that even Lade had never seen anything like it. It had instantly generated a swarm of hundreds of daemons.
“But what is the King of Daemons? Is there someone like that controlling the daemonists from somewhere?”
That piece of information from Reyha was the most shocking detail. I didn’t know what it was, but we had to defeat it… But there was something more important I had to do now.
“Before we do anything else, let’s destroy the daemon nest.”
“That nest must still be producing daemons. Margilus…you’re the only one who has the power to destroy it.”
I was silent, surprised by Lade’s gentle words. He prioritized hunting daemons over everything, and he was entrusting this task to me.
“Impossible! There’s no way any human can take that thing on,” Diane cried out. The face of the once-fierce warmaster was now in a terrible state of despair and exhaustion. She was probably completely depleted after desperately leading the Schultz people and warriors this far, narrowly escaping death. “Unbelievable,” the silver-haired girl went on, beside herself. “How could the Holy Precincts be ruled by daemonists?! And Ma… How could Ma… That…”
Both the Schultz people and the Filsanders around her looked pained by the girl’s pitiful state. Me, too, of course.
“Ma didn’t even see me! The only thing she could think of was her hatred for my Aunt Shayla! What have I been doing…? What have I been fighting for…?”
When Diane had left our camp before, Elisabel had prayed that Diane would be able to “protect what’s important, even if it’s only important to her.” To think that it would end so badly. I wanted to do something to help her. But what could I say to a young girl that I had barely ever spoken to before?
“Fool!” It was Reyha who sharply scolded the girl lying on the ground, her voice like the crack of a whip.
“Huh?!” The girl looked up, bleary-eyed.
“Before crying and feeling sorry for yourself, you need to repent! If you hadn’t gotten in the way, Lade would have prevented the nest from forming!”
Diane whimpered.
Wasn’t this cruel? Sure, from what I heard, if Diane hadn’t defended Cher, Lade would have killed her and probably prevented Cher’s metamorphosis.
“Repent…? How? Destroy the nest? I can’t…I don’t have the strength.”
The nest I’d destroyed before had terrifyingly strong attacks. Even Lade had passed the baton to me on this one. It would be impossible for Diane to handle.
“That’s not what I’m saying. There is only one person in this world who can do that. Only the great wizard, my Orly, Geo Margilus. You will guide him to the nest in the Holy Precincts.”
“Huh?”
She was right. If the Holy Precincts were a hidden village, it would be tough for me to search for it on my own. But I’d already planned to ask Reyha to take me…
Well, she must have her reasons. It might be good to help break Diane out of her helpless and desperate state.
“Diane, will you lend me your aid?”
She didn’t answer right away. She looked up at me with her tear-stained face. Those eyes that were once so full of energy now looked dark and empty. That’s how deep her despair was.
“I will definitely destroy the nest and save the Schultz people. But I need your help.”
“Yes…” Diane looked from me to Reyha and back again. At last, she nodded weakly. “I’ll do it.”
✦ ✦ ✦
I had Lade and Reyha continue guarding the Schultz people while Diane and I departed on the phantom horse. With the speed of my flying mount, we should be back by sunrise.
“When I was a kid, my Ma always said, ‘I was supposed to be a princess, shining in the capital of Filsand. My sister Shayla stole that from me.’ Now that I think of it, my Ma was already beyond caring about me way back then…”
“I see…”
Diane, straddling the back of the saddle on our flying phantom horse, kept on talking, pausing at times. I couldn’t think of anything to say to this girl who was had just witnessed such a horrible tragedy, so I steered the phantom horse and just listened to her.
“That’s why I always wanted to take Ma back to Filsand someday…”
“Hmm…”
She was a great kid. She’d been fighting for her mother’s sake, all this time. And if it had gone this far, then that meant that the magemaster had probably gradually infected her with daemonic influence ever since the Schultz clan had been run out of Filsand. He’d then divided the warriors from the civilians, and while instigating conflict with Filsand, prepared Diane’s mother as the Daemon Calix…the Epicenter. Capturing Balzard and Elisabel was also probably part of that plan. It was just completely diabolical.
“But in the end, I wasn’t able to help her, either…”
“Then avenge her.”
“Huh?”
“We will avenge her, Diane. The daemonists are trying to create an infinite number of daemons through that daemon nest. Destroying that nest will avenge your mother. I promise you, I’ll do it. No… We’ll do it. We’ll avenge your mother together.”
Was this appropriate to say to a girl when she was so traumatized? I had no idea. But I couldn’t think of anything else.
“Old ma—Margilus? You… Ahh…!”
Diane let out a little yelp.
“It’s in the shadow of that mountain! Right behind that peak are the Holy Precincts!”
✦ ✦ ✦
I reduced the altitude of the phantom horse as we entered the valley between the rocky mountains. The Holy Precincts were supposedly just past the valley. But…
“What the hell…”
“We’re too late…”
The valley was filled with daemons. There were imps, fiends, gigants…and a massive, dark daemon that I’d never seen before. The land was flooded with them. They looked like a black, living carpet. This was easily the largest swarm of daemons that I’d ever encountered. It really was a daemonic legion. I couldn’t count the exact number correctly, but compared to the duke’s army of three thousand that I’d seen that afternoon…there might have been twice as many.
Thanks to the cover of night, they hadn’t noticed us flying in the sky. But there was still a bigger problem.
“Even if we blow these guys away, as long as the nest is still there, they’ll keep proliferating…”
The problem was the limit of how many spells I could use per day. And I had used up a considerable number of spells fighting in the previous battle. For now, I had to prioritize destroying the nest. I followed the line of daemons, heading toward the Holy Precincts.