As things stood, Rod, May, and Aleah were in danger. Willing to risk being attacked by the Demon Queen from behind, Claire and I moved to turn and run, but we were stopped short by a peculiar proposition.
“Why don’t we leave them be and watch?” the Demon Queen asked. “I won’t make a move, so long as you don’t make a move either.”
“Why should we trust you to keep your word?” Claire asked.
“Why should you not? Think of it as an opening act before the main show, Miss Claire. Besides, the only reason I haven’t destroyed your trump card over there already is pure whim. You have no chance of breaking my barrier without it, right?”
“Why you…!” Claire seethed but hesitated at the offer. She wanted to throw herself toward her daughters right this instant, but that ran the risk of earning them the Demon Queen’s ire.
“Miss Claire, let’s do what she says for now,” I said.
“Rae…”
“Let’s try believing in Rod and our daughters.”
She bit her lip and reluctantly lowered her magic wand.
“How about I destroy that bothersome toy first?” Socrat said, laughing with the mouth of a human and the face of a hornet. He pointed at the Focalizer with a mantis arm.
“Not on our watch!” May said.
“We won’t let you!” Aleah said.
The twins readied their weapons, but someone stepped forward from between them.
“Stay back, you two. Let me handle this.” And who could it have been other than the spiky-haired, confident, and arrogant Rod? In his hands was a longsword. If one looked closely, they would see the magic stone embedded in it, presumably to allow it to double as a magic wand.
“Come to me!” Rod yelled as he summoned his soldiers of flame, the Flame Troops—his signature spell. His magic aptitude was only medium, but he made up for it with his phenomenally huge reservoir of magic. His default tactic was to overwhelm his opponents through pure quantity, just as he had against Misha in the Academy Knight test back at the Royal Academy. One after another, he continued to increase the number of flame soldiers at his side.
“Hmm… Your measly toothpick and pathetic army shall not even scratch my body,” Socrat said.
“Oh, yeah? We’ll see about that.” Rod sped forward, leaving a faint afterimage behind him. The next instant my eyes recognized him, he was about to slash down on Socrat. He wasn’t at Dorothea’s level, but he was still fast.
“Humph. Pointless, I say.”
With a sharp, metallic clank, Rod’s sword bounced off of Socrat’s skin. A scratch was left behind, but it was dreadfully shallow.
“You’ll be the first to die, then.” Socrat’s mantis arms slashed at Rod.
Rod met them in the air with his longsword and fluidly diverted their trajectory. “This is one of Yu’s techniques. Don’t think I’m some idiot who only knows how to brute force things.” He smiled bravely and took advantage of Socrat’s momentary imbalance to run up the latter’s arms, flipping upside-down midair and striking at Socrat’s neck.
“Hmm. Mere child’s play.” Without even bothering to fix his posture, Socrat allowed the blow to connect. Another sharp clank resounded as Rod’s sword bounced back.
“Daaamn, you’re tough. This sword’s been passed down in my kingdom for generations, you know?” Rod complained.
“If you wish to cut me, prepare a sword as powerful as that empress’s—and the skill to match.” Aiming for the moment Rod landed, Socrat swung the front legs of his lower insectoid body.
Rod fluidly deflected the strike again.
“You’re quite the annoyance for a weakling,” said Socrat. “The truly powerful have no need for technique and cunning.”
“I feel exactly the same way. This style doesn’t suit me much, but I’m not really being left with much of a choice.” Rod took some distance from Socrat. Even though their exchange of blows had been brief, sweat dripped down Rod’s forehead. His nerves were clearly taut, and his focus strained.
“Are you finished playing yet? I’d like to proceed with killing you,” Socrat said.
“Hey, hey, what’s the rush? Let’s enjoy ourselves some more.”
“Sadly, I see nothing enjoyable in this. I’d very much like to finish this task and be off to my afternoon nap.” Socrat yawned.
“You’re quite different from Platos. He was a bit cynical, but he always took his job seriously.”
“That’s because he was an earnest man simply wearing the guise of a wicked one. His loyalty toward the Demon Queen and his thirst for the great nothingness were far greater than most.”
“Greater than even you, I take it?”
“Me…? Yes. I’ve lived far too long to devote myself to either. I lack Platos’s zeal.”
“Is that right? Guess not all demons are the same then,” Rod said with great interest. His guard didn’t relax one bit, however.
“Let’s leave the chatter at that. I will have your head.”
“Try me.”
Socrat leisurely charged toward Rod, trying to bulldoze his target with his body like he had during the failed assassination on the pope. His speed wasn’t too great, given his large frame, but to dodge would be to leave the Focalizer to be crushed. So instead, Rod took the charge head-on.
“Hraaaaaah!” he yelled, taking the brunt of the charge with his sword and bracing. Socrat’s weight pushed him back.
“Inadequate,” Socrat scoffed. “I still have many free arms and legs to use.”
“Nngh!” Rod was sent flying. He successfully withstood the charge but couldn’t defend against the front leg of Socrat’s lower half. The attack was simple, but it carried the force of an oncoming truck. Coughing up blood, Rod tried to prop himself up, but his sword had snapped in half.
“You’ve persisted well, but this is it. Now should I return to what I came for?” Socrat looked at the Focalizer. May and Aleah stood before it, blocking the way.
“May, Aleah, run!” Claire shrieked.
But the girls stubbornly remained.
“Such laudable bravery from such young children. But you’re only hurrying toward your deaths.” Socrat calmly approached and raised an arm.
“Hey, hey, I’m not through with you yet, you know?”
Suddenly, something exploded, knocking Socrat’s body back some ten feet. May and Aleah were unscathed.
“So you still breathe,” Socrat sneered.
“Like that would kill me. A man can’t look lame in front of the girl he’s into, you know?” Rod flashed a suave grin.
“What can you do? Your magic did not harm me, only forced me off balance at—”
“With only that little blast, sure,” Rod interrupted with a shrug. “But what if it were a hundred times stronger?”
“Hmm?”
“You really haven’t realized yet?”
“What do you mean?”
Rod pointed straight up.
Socrat looked up and saw hundreds, perhaps thousands of Rod’s Flame Troops in the air. “Y-you…! You were buying time for this?!”
“Bingo.” Rod had shown off his Flame Troops at the start and let Socrat conclude they’d be too weak to do anything, then drawn his attention with close-quarters combat while continuing to summon his Flame Troops in the air. Everything had been planned from the start.
“The powerful have no need for technique and cunning, you say? Nonsense. Technique and cunning let the truly powerful stand above the rest!”
“Never!” Socrat hurriedly rushed forward to attack Rod, the caster. But as I mentioned earlier, Socrat’s large frame was by no means fast.
“Fire Squall.” Rod’s outstretched, skyward arm fell to point at Socrat. The Flame Troops, too numerous to count, began to fall, one after another.
“Grooooagh?!” They rained down on Socrat, exploding in rapid succession. Each one had the force of a slightly powerful fire bullet, but the sheer numbers were the true terror. If one looked closely, it would seem as though they were even aimed at the places where Rod had cut Socrat with his sword.
“How could I be defeated by such lowly magic?!” Socrat shielded himself with his arms, but he couldn’t stop Rod’s assault. “Guaaaaaaah…!”
Gradually, Socrat’s death cries were drowned out by a blanket of fire. The rain of Flame Troops continued unabated for some time. Eventually, the flame and smoke cleared, and not a trace of Socrat remained to be found.
“Whew… I’m exhausted.” Rod flopped down on his behind, understandably tired.
“Master Rod, you did it!”
“Most impressive, Master Rod!”
The twins ran up and hugged him.
“Heh heh, did I look cool?” he asked.
“Yes, almost as cool as Mama Claire!” May said.
“Just about as cool as Mother Rae!” Aleah said.
“Heh heh, that right?” He briefly paused at their response, but took it all in stride with a wry grin. However, his grin soon faded. “What?!”
“You were careless, boy,” a hoarse voice said from the direction of the Focalizer. A body with a metallic luster stood there, regenerating bit by bit. “As I said, the truly powerful have no need for technique and cunning. Unfortunately for you, I’m a weakling—who uses cunning.”
As Socrat said that, he slashed down on the Focalizer with a mantis arm.