BA-GOOM!
“Whoooa!”
“Eeeek!”
From the command post, the court sorcerer Nathan could clearly see the eight meteors rain down on the center of the daemonic legion.
Eight giant fireballs were generated in the spots where the meteors fell. The command post was drowned in the roars of impact. The command post, situated high above the robust main gate, shook violently while Nathan and the other officials struggled to keep their balance.
“S-so those are Margilus’s meteors…” It was rare for the cool-as-ice duke of Filsand’s voice to waver. But in this case, Nathan thought it was amazing he managed not to scream. The only one with a calm look on her face was the sorceress from the wizard’s entourage.
“L-Look. The massive daemon…”
“What incredible sorcery…”
Even without the commentary by the officials and duke’s guard, everyone could see it for themselves. The enormous body of the supermassive daemon that was approaching the main gate had been cut nearly in two. Its torso rolled back from the point of impact. There were a number of holes in the swarm of daemons that had covered the earth moments ago, craters present where monsters once had stood.
“W-wizardry. Can magic do this much…?” Nathan murmured, trembling with fear.
He had experienced the terror of Geo’s dragon firsthand. He remembered being startled and frightened at that time, but it was nothing compared to the shock he felt this time. It wasn’t just the sheer strength of the spells that impressed him, as it did the duke and his officers. They’d told Nathan he was gifted at the Academy of Sorcery. For a while, he’d believed he was one of the greatest magical talents in the world. He could fully appreciate now the sheer breadth of Margilus’s wizardry. Geo wasn’t just some one-trick pony who could summon dragons, but instead possessed a variety of terrifying techniques.
“I-I think that my best fire-elemental spell would only manage half the power of one of his meteors…and it would use up almost all my mana in a single go…” As a sorcerer, he couldn’t help but think in terms of comparison with his own sorcery.
Sorcery was normally activated by consuming mana. For example, the mana capacity on Nathan’s sorcery frame would be reckoned at 522 mana points. That meant he was in the top percentile of sorcerers in the world. The amount of mana consumed by his strongest sorcery skill, Valvord Galeiza—the Arcane Thunder Spear—was about 300 MP. In other words, using Valvord Galeiza would make his MP drop from 522 to 222. That meant that he could only use two or maybe three medium-ranked sorceries thereafter.
And judging by what he’d just seen, his highest-ranked sorcery wouldn’t be even half as powerful as Meteor. (Though to assuage his ego, Nathan reminded himself that his Valvord Galeiza was powerful enough to kill a gigant in a single blow). If he wanted to pull off the same effect as what Geo had just done, he would need MP of at least 4,800.
“I just…can’t believe that one human could have almost 5,000 MP.” Even the most powerful sorcerer Nathan knew, the grandmaster of the Sorcerers’ Guild, probably only had 1,000 MP. Nathan shook his head, defeated by the out-of-this-world abilities of someone he had once foolishly challenged to a duel.
“Hey, the giant daemon!”
“It’s moving… D-did it regenerate?!”
“And there are still daemons left… A lot of the gigants survived.”
“Now we’ll see how long the knights and infantry can fight them off…”
The internal organs of the knocked-down supermassive daemon were spilling out, and they could see its red muscles swelling. It didn’t quite happen in a flash, but there was new flesh growing steadily. Given a few hours, it might completely regenerate.
Furthermore, while the meteors’ force was amazing, it just wasn’t enough to defeat ten thousand daemons. It was only effective in defeating or incapacitating about two thousand. The remaining daemons were unscathed, and after about ten seconds of confusion from the impact of the meteors, they were fully recovered. Even daemons with injuries that would have rendered human soldiers immobile dragged their bodies onward, heading for the Filsand army that was guarding the castle gate.
I could do something about that gigant with my sorcery…
if the remaining sorcerers and soldiers could just hold them off… No, impossible. There’s no winning this!
Nathan screamed silently, within his heart.
Pyooom!
Eight more meteors passed overhead and dropped onto the daemonic legion.
“Whaa?!”
“Aaagh!”
Not even thirty seconds had passed since the first attack. The exact same scene of eight fireballs burning up the daemonic legion repeated itself right before the human soldiers’ eyes.
The difference this time was the number of surviving daemons. The supermassive daemon that had started regenerating had now disappeared without a trace. Half of the gigants—some twenty-five or so—were also gone. Even more of the imp and fiend brigades had vanished, too.
“I-I-Impossible! It’s impossible!”
Nathan’s apprentice watched him hold his head and cry out.
The other sorcerers and the duke’s guard were in the same state. The officials who were not familiar with sorcery or battle were simply happy to see things go their way.
“This means that he must have at least 10,000 MP,” Nathan’s apprentice gasped. “Surely that can’t be possible!”
“I-If Lord Margilus wanted, he could easily destroy this Stalwart Castle,” another sorcerer murmured.
“A single castle? No, he could obliterate an entire country…”
There was silence.
Nathan wanted to rant and rave like his subordinates. But his sense of responsibility as the court sorcerer forced him to think rationally, if only barely.
I have no choice but to admit it. This is something completely different from sorcery. Is it even magic? It is some sort of artifice or thaumaturgy based on a different principle than mana?
Nathan had been able to sense mana as far back as he could remember, and he’d grown aware of his sorcery frame as soon as he started training. The conclusion this exceptional man came to was that Margilus was such an anomaly that he didn’t even walk on the same earth as the rest of them.
“M-m-more meteors!”
Just when it seemed Nathan would completely lose himself in his thoughts, a third round of meteors flew overhead.
“N-nothing could surprise me now…”
The court sorcerer did everything he could to maintain his honor. Ten seconds later, when the fourth round of meteors flew in, all he could do was laugh.
But ten seconds after that, he would take back his comment about not being surprised.