Kuro no Maou

The dazzling shot of light makes my field of vision disappear . But I keep my aim firm and straight, shooting the light of destruction at the cockpit that Lily has pointed me to .

Until the very moment the tip of the lightning that burst through the sky in a straight line pierced through the golem’s large build, I could see what was happening . The flash of light that resulted after that turned everything to white .

“...Ugh!”

The recoil is worse than what I had anticipated . My arms, no, my entire body seems to be shaking . And my feet feel like they’re floating, almost as if I had been blown away .

Now I understand why the Greed-Gore had used iron sand to anchor its feet to the ground . This feeling of being blown away by recoil... Regretting my own thoughtlessness, I somehow recovered my strength and managed to press on .

The firing itself took about a few seconds, but it felt much longer to me . By the end of it, I had lost control of it, and the burst of lightning strayed off into the sky . But I was certain that it had been enough to finish off the half-functional golem .

“Hah... How did it go...?”

The flash had only blinded me for a short moment after I finished shooting . After I recovered my vision, I could see the wreckage that had become of the ancient golem, whose upper body was now gone . Making a shrill sound, the remains of the golem plunged on the snow .

With a thunderous tremor, the steel giant had collapsed to the ground . One down .

“So it took three attacks to defeat it, huh?”

“There was no other way, after all, it wasn’t made out of mere steel . ”

On top of being armored with ancient metals that cannot be refined in this day and age, it wouldn’t be strange if it had been reinforced with a spell such as ‘Harden’ . That single golem was probably sturdier than a small fortress . A single person should not be able to take one of these down on their own .

Even if they didn’t know about that, Lily and Fiona weren’t talking like they had just brought down a gigantic ancient walking weapon . How should I put it? They seemed almost unimpressed . Me? I was secretly thinking to myself, “Hey, we really did it! Awesome!” . It was a bit embarrassing .

“... Well, what do we do next?”

Creating an unthinkable atmosphere, I coolly asked that question to the two of them . By the way, I didn’t have a plan . The only thing I could come up with as a next step was a basic idea of getting inside one of those golems, which cannot even be considered a proper strategy .

“Kurono, I have a great plan . ”

The expressionless Fiona raised her small hand and said that, completely brimming with confidence .

“If things go on like this, the remaining golems are going to reach the walls . ”

All we had accomplished so far was destroying a single golem . Before the threat of these golems, the castle walls had already withstood their fair share of attacks... but naturally, they wouldn’t be able to stop the golems’ marching .

The golems mercilessly continue their heavy march . It would have been better if their huge bodies had been burned or cracked to some extent .

Even though we may not speak as full of confidence as Fiona, everyone here can guess that the ancient golems will arrive at their destination .

“That’s right . They don’t have any weapons there . At this rate, these golems are going to tear the walls apart . ”

It’s an easy and straightforward offensive, but with their size, a simple punch can wreck entire buildings . We should see them as tools with enough destructive power to tear down the castle walls .

“We’ll have our chance as soon as the golems reach the walls . ”

“I see, we stop them at the walls at the last minute, right? And then?”

“Then, we jump on the golems . ”

“... And then?”

“And then with a ‘bang!’, the golems go ‘boom!’”

There you go, a perfect strategy . Fiona’s seems to hear her own voice coming out of her heart as she puffs up her chest in self-confidence .

How should I put it...? I can’t help but feel Fiona is sometimes more muscle than brain . In fact, I wonder if she’s even more of a crazy warrior than I am .

“... Listen, Fiona... that’s hardly a ‘great plan’ . ”

“That’s right! It’s pure genius, right?”

“Umm... not like that . It’s actually the other way around . ”

Why did she think I was complimenting her? Nevermind, now there’s no time to tell Fiona that we’re not understanding each other .

“Hey, Lily, what do we do? The golems will reach the castle walls any minute now!”

“Yes, but it’s all right . I’ve just come up with a great plan myself . ”

“Oh, I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Lily...!”

As I was starting to give my words of praise, a voice urged me to wait . Needless to say, it was the Great Magic Teacher’s voice .

“Umm, Kurono? What about my plan?”

“I’m sorry, Fiona, but we’ll have to leave it as our last resort . ”

“After trying what?”

“Anything at all . ”

“I see . Well, if you put it that way, I guess it can’t be helped . ”

The misguided Fiona, who had actually thought that she was onto something with that ‘plan’ of hers, looked at me expectantly as she dropped the topic .

Oddly enough, the conversation continues rather smoothly . I still fail to understand Fiona’s plan .

“So, Lily, what’s your plan?”

Responding to my enthusiasm, Lily gives me a cute smile, trademark of a beautiful girl from another world . Then replies,

“Well, I’m planning to jump on the golems too . ”

“What? Not you too, Lily!”

“Hehe, don’t worry, Kurono . I haven’t finished . ”

“So you’re not planning to give it a good ‘bang!’?”

“That’s right . My plan is a little more concrete than that . Unlike you, Fiona, I won’t betray Kurono’s expectations . ”

“I’m sorry? When exactly did I betray Kurono’s expectations, Lily?”

The nonchalant Lily continued talking to the now clearly dissatisfied and offended Fiona .

“First of all, wouldn’t it be better to close your eyes and ears before I explain?”

“Oh, I see...”

Lily suddenly started suggesting things as if shooting flashing and acoustic bullets from her mouth at the same time, but both Fiona and I nodded to show that we could understand her without asking for too much of an explanation .

“Ah, that awesome thing will be released soon . ”

As a matter of fact, some strong magical power has been making me feeling goosebumps on my back for a while now .

Looking behind, I can see the giant castle tower of Galahad Fortress and its four defensive towers, so tall that they seem to pierce the heavens . A tremendous flow of magical power is concentrated to the top of the towers, whirling intensely like a tornado .

In short, the Spada Royal Palace’s sorcerer seems to be trying to deliver a single blow with all of his might . This is definitely the Spada Army’s ultimate attack .

“No wonder, the real fortress is on a whole different level...”

If only Alsace Village was equipped with one tenth of that defensive power... I slowly closed my eyes while thinking such useless thoughts, feeling an immense amount of magical power instantly exploding in the sky .