48. The divine sound

　Gilbert, Lionel, and the mercenaries slowly approached the pile of reddish-black ‘Undead mud.’

“If it was originally slime, it should be slow-moving, but it could be …… mutated, so be careful.”

　Carefully measuring the distance, the first thing they aim for is the area where part of the armor is exposed. As they got closer, they could see that mixed in with the slime were what appeared to be the crumbling bodies of several other magical beasts. 

“Did they cannibalize each other while they were still in the process of turning ……?　Or are they assimilated with that…?”

　The mercenary muttered his questions as he closed the distance, keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings.

　Even though he got close, there was no sign of an attack, and at first glance it just looked like a lump of muddy water. For the time being, In order to rescue the person who was being swallowed, he aimed his blade at the mud and started to carve it away.

“The cut part seems to disappear somewhat, but I wonder how long the blessing will last.”

　Lionel took a glance at the sword he was holding as he shaved the mud away.

　On the other hand, Gilbert’s battle axe has a much wider range of destruction. But, taking into consideration the impact on the people being consumed, he stood a little distance away from Lionel and the others to cut down the undead slime.

　He pulled the knight’s body out, gained some distance, and dragged him away, then handed him over to the priest behind him. He repeated this process as he could see several people who had been swallowed up.

“He’s breathing! Can you carry him to the carriage?”

　The clergyman administered some simple healing, and the young knights of Ziemeld worked together to lift the rescued knight onto their shoulders. The young knights had a look of mixed relief and confusion on their faces.

　Keeping a distance from Gilbert and his group, who were prioritizing the rescue, Dolph and his group prepared the carriage to move at any time while also protecting the rescued knights.

“if things go south, we will immediately retrieve Gilbert and the others and flee, so make sure to keep an eye on our escape route at all times. Also, Barbara, Flora, please get out the spare cloaks, we’ll use it to protect the survivors.”

　Dolph had a grim expression on his face as he gave out instructions to the people present while watching Gilbert and the others in the distance.

“I’ve placed another wide-area barrier as close as possible. It’s a simple one, but if we can escape that far, we should have some time to spare.”

　Priest Sydney said this to Dolph, then with a bitter look on his face, he turned his gaze to the old knight prostrating himself near him.

　The old knight Clark was crouching, his head on the ground, shivering. When he finally raised his head, he found his eyes following Gilbert, who was fighting in the distance.

“Sorry… I’m sorry… We, we… we are …… for the …… cause.”

　His voice, trembling and occasionally broken, was gravelly and rang with fear, terror, and regret.

　Sydney, the priest of the Western Great Church, stood beside the old knight with a grim expression on his face.

“The fact remains that many of Ziemeld’s knights swear allegiance not to this country or its people, but to the ancient royal line of Ziemeld. There is no point in condemning their pride, but beyond that belief now, is what you truly desire there?”

　Priest Sydney’s voice was filled with a quiet anger.

“… no longer… no longer…not anymore…”

　The old knight muttered this while trembling, and unsheathed the sword at his waist. He placed it in front of  himself as he knelt, with the hilt facing away from his dominant hand, as if to keep it away from him.

　It is a gesture of surrender by a knight of the old country.

　The strange incident occurred around the time several knights were rescued.

　As they were digging their way through the muddy mass, one of the knights regained consciousness. His armor was superior to the other knights and he appeared to be of the captain’s class, but most of his body was still buried in the undead slime mud.

　Already the blessings of the weapons Lionel and the others held had worn off, and they could only dig into the mud, which was taking a long time. 

“…You guys, what are you doing… The operation has failed… Run… your feet.. under you… We made a mistake…”

　After a few broken words, the man lost consciousness.

“Feet ……?”

　The word “feet” caught Lionel’s attention, and he looked down at the ground around him.

　Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the ground was heaving distortedly.

“…This is bad! We need to create a barrier underground as well!!”

　Lionel shouted to the priest, who immediately placed wards around their feet.

　On the other side of the barrier, giant earthworms and snake-like undead creatures comes thrusting out of the earth.

Sensing the anomaly around Lionel and the others, priest Sydney also set up wards in the earth, but was a step too late as a large mound of earth appeared right next to Dolph’s carriage. The protrusion that came up was small compared to the others, but still about the height of a child.

　It immediately went toward Barbara, who was taking off her coat at the carriage door.

“……!　Barbara-san!!”

　Flora quickly grabbed a pot from the carriage and slammed the bottom of the pot against the worm-like undead beast with all her might.

　With a thump and a dull thud, the thing that was about to strike at Barbara crumpled over and fell backwards.

　Shaped like an earthworm, it was crushed by the bottom of the pot, and from where it was struck countless small lights flashed, before  it crumbled and vanished.

“Flora-san…!?”

　Gilbert, who looked toward Flora and the others as quickly as he could while dealing with the undead monsters that were thrusting out of the ground, his eyes widened at the sight that had just occurred. His arms were still swinging his battle-axe, but his mouth was also hanging open.

“……Flora, you’re quite good,……!”

“Oh, I was making holy water in that pot, …… I guess the blessings must have soaked in quite a bit,…….”

　Lionel, the mercenaries and the clergy were all stunned as they prepared to retreat.

　Despite the situation, Gilbert couldn’t help but laugh.

“…Flora-san, even though you look like that, you have a lot of guts….”

　Then he checked his surroundings and stared at the muddy pile of undead slime in front of him.

　─ ─ Strangely enough, when I’m with Flora, I don’t feel like I’ll lose. I know I shouldn’t be reckless, but …….

　All he could think about was what what’s going to happen in this situation. Even if they evacuate now, there is a limit to the priest’s warding.  And it wasn’t like he had enough time to come up with a plan.

　There are still residents in the capital. It’s why he wanted to reduce them as much as possible.

“Gilbert!　You too, retreat into the wards, we’re retreating!”

　He could hear Lionel shouting.

“……!! Gilbert!!”

　Once again, Lionel’s yelling, mixed with impatience, rang out.

　The ground around Gilbert began to rise up in multiple directions, blocking off all sides, and a giant undead earthworm and a mass of undead slime each came at Gilbert, covering him.

　Gilbert raises his battle axe.

　From the sky covered in dark clouds, a pillar of light descended vertically towards the earth, like a slicing sound. At almost the same time, a roar echoed, shaking the earth.

　Lightning struck straight at the battle-axe that Gilbert had raised, and it looked as if Gilbert had slammed the battle-axe into the ground along with the lightning. A pure white flash blinds him.

　By the time Gilbert’s vision returned after the blinding flash, everything around him, including the Undead magical  beast and the undead slime, had disappeared.

　The rain had stopped without anyone noticing, and where there had been a pile of reddish-black “Undead mud”, only a few clods of dirt remained.

“Is this …… within our expectations?”

　Priest Sydney asks Dolph in a hushed tone.

“…No. I’m currently trying to think of an excuse to cover it up. If you have any good ideas, let me know.”

　Dolph laughs, wondering what’s going on.

　Gilbert looked around anxiously, then he sees Lionel and Flora, jump out of the carriage and rushto him.

　Gilbert’s battle-axe still glowed with lightning, and a relief of Ivy had somehow been engraved on the blade.

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter