Kuro no Maou

“Shit! Hurry up and stop it—–“

On the roof of the enemy’s fort, nicknamed the black box, a giant fireball appearing could be seen by every Crusader spread out on the shores of Rone river.

It was shining and radiating a golden light brighter than gold itself, but it could only be recognised as a ball of fire.

They obviously understood that that this 5m diameter ball of fire was an attack magic aimed towards them.

They were on the other side of the river, they had no way to stop this attack but they didn’t have the time to run away either. The only choice left was to defend.

“الجدران بيضاء ناصعة توسيع نطاق الحماية لمنع—- [Lux Wall Defen]”

The numerous magician squads were already at the riverside or on the rafts.

After becoming alert from the enemy’s long range attack, they had already deployed defensive magic. They deployed numerous defences to face against this overly large fire ball.

All the heavy knight squad and the magician squad had been covered inside the defensive magics, at that moment, the fireball moved.

Due to the incredible heat it possessed, the air around the fireball was shaking and it looked as if space itself was being distorted by that fireball.

But, its speed as it made a parabola while flying towards them was extremely slow.

“Now’s our chance, shoot it down!!”

One of the magician squads rapidly attacked the approaching fire ball with Ice Sagita.

Ice and cold air became a blizzard as it approached the fireball.

But, each and every one of them was extinguished before they even reached the fireball. Due to the overwhelming heat, the fireball wouldn’t stop from being attacked by just 10 or 20 ice magic.

“in, incoming——“

Finally, the fireball dived inside the centre of the squads positioned on the river shore.

With so many magicians, their defences were perfect.

Some of the soldiers who unluckily couldn’t be covered with shields might die but the magicians and the heavy knights placed at the centre of the defensive shields would not even get injured, let alone die.

No matter how big it was, it was only one fireball. Yes, the enemy’s attack was only mere one attack.

There’s no way they wouldn’t be able to defend against it. There’s no way their shields would be broken through.

But,

“Oh, G, God, please grant us——–“

The ball of flames that approached from the sky felt as if the sun itself had fallen down on them.

If the sun was actually falling, then humans could not do anything about it in the first place.

While praying to their God, they finally understood that death was inescapable.

And thus, the [Golden Sun] burned everything there to nothingness.

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“Wh, what the hell is that!?!?!”

After the light and blast waves had subsided, Norz finally became aware of the scene in front of him.

The scenery near the riverside had changed in a matter of seconds.

The cornerstone of this occupation army, the heavy knight squads and the magician squads, and numerous soldiers were supposed to be positioned over there. But there was not even a shadow remaining there.

The change didn’t stop with just the disappearance of the squads. The terrain itself had been changed.

A crater had been created over there as a proof of the destruction that had just occurred.

The water that supposed to be flowing there had completely disappeared and now finally water flowed in with surging waves from upstream to cover the area without water once again as if the river had forgotten to flow for some time.

Soon, the flow of the river calmed down once again, but, the disappeared soldiers didn’t come back. There was no way they could have.

“What’s going on? With just one attack, something like this——“

The troops had already experienced the nightmare of losing one whole squad instantly once.

But this time, they had lost much more troops at the same place. Norz could not have predicted this.

No matter how strong their opponents were, after all they were nothing more than some few demons holding up inside one rural village. They, who were not even a part of an army, should not have possessed a first class magician squad or an Ancient Weapon either.

Nevertheless, for such a high level annihilating attack to be fired on them; not just Norz, no soldier could have predicted that.

“Please, calm down a bit first.”

A cool voice struck Norz’s mind that was in chaos.

“Sister Sylvia.....why are you here?”

“I’m the vice commander after all, it’s not weird for me to come to the front lines right? Rather than that, you should quickly give new orders or you’ll be unable to cope with it.”

“umu.......yes, it is as you say.”

Shaking his head, Norz forcibly calmed himself down.

He wasn’t the only one who was shocked by what they saw, the troops were the same. If he didn’t give orders quickly, they would be unable to take the offensive once more.

“Quickly retrieve the injured! That fireball was probably the enemy’s trump card, they wouldn’t be able to use it consecutively!!”

On his orders, the soldiers who were dumbfounded began to move in a panic once again.

“Deploy a new squad! We have taken severe damage but we haven’t been annihilated! The attack will continue as planned! Make preparations for the magicians and the Heavy Knights to cross the river!”

“”YES!!””

After he saw the soldiers who had taken orders scatter in different directions, Norz finally recovered his composure as well.

“Damned demons, don’t think we would fall back from something like that!”

“Yes, if we fall back now then we’ll be doing exactly what they want. Since they didn’t use this attack the last time, this attack must have been their trump card as you had said.” (Sylvia)

“Aa, we still have more than enough troops to attack them. If we according to the plan, there will be no change to the fact that we’ll capture Alsace.”

Just like last time, they had taken a severe blow at the beginning but it was still not enough to change the course of battle.

The Crusaders still had a great amount of infantry, magicians, heavy knights, Pegasus Knights, Cavalry etc. to easily complete their task.

Although, this battle had already become a humiliation for Norz which he’d never forget.

“.......but, I will not tolerate a loss. Definitely, I’ll stab our God’s great flag on that annoying black box.”

Norz who was burning with anger inside, gave orders for attack as soon as the preparations were done.

No matter how many casualties may arise due to the demons’ resistance, today he will definitely not retreat. He will win today, he swore to his God.

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“Is everyone alright?”

I had already estimated that Fiona’s [Golden Sun – Aur Soleil]’s aftermath would reach even our protective wall so we had already deployed numerous defensive magics with a wide range beforehand.

Soon reply’s indicating their well being came back to me.

And looking through the surroundings, there doesn’t seem to be anyone that’s injured either. It seems, we were able to keep through it perfectly.

“Amazing......the enemy squad that had been there till now has completely disappeared.”

I completely agree with Irina’s comment.

I had seen it before already, but still I was surprised once again.

“Yeah, it destroyed through shields and armour as if they didn’t even exist.”(kurono)

The magicians and the heavy knights that were approaching here with rafts just a few seconds back have completely disappeared.

It did fall directly in the middle of the enemy group after all, I don’t even need to know what happened at the centre of the explosion.

“But, it seems the enemy is still eager to attack.”

Once again, the soldiers started coming to the river side.

And maybe because they were cautious of getting sniped, defensive magics have been deployed as well as they floated the rafts to cross the river.

“So it’s a war of attrition from her onwards, right?”(irina)

“Yes.”(kurono)

The enemy still hasn’t lost all their magicians and heavy knights.

We had decreased quite a lot of their numbers but still they have enough numbers to defeat us.

“Today will be the biggest turning point.”(kurono)

“yes, let’s work hard.” (irina)

My heart calmed a bit as I saw Irina smile.

Ah, I calmed down, meaning, I really must have been nervous till now.

But it can’t be helped. After all, today a lot of lives will be lost and I knew that.

But,

“That’s right, we need to work hard—-“

Mine and everyone else have already hardened their resolves.

“—–are preparations over?”

As I looked back, The assault team had already gathered with Vulcan at its head.

“Yeah, we are all ready.”

The ones we are going to face off now are the enemies with the strongest defence, the heavy Knights.

They were also elites like the Pegasus Knights that had splendid equipment.

We can’t stop them like we did with the infantry soldiers. Since they have high level of defence, our crossfire won’t be able to deal with them.

Thus, the best way to kill them would be to attack them personally and cut them apart.

“.....Lily, Fiona, can you hear me?”

“Un!”

“yes.”

Using telepathy, I connected with those two.

“Fiona, you did well, leave the rest to us and take a good rest.”

“I’m glad I was of use.”

She must be currently being transported to one of the beds in the guild.

It’ll take some time for her to get up even with the use of magical energy restoring potions.

“Lily, if the Pegasus Knights come, I’ll be counting on you again. But please don’t be reckless and return back before your ‘Divine Protection’ runs out.”

“Un, I’ll be fine!”

“Alright, then, I’ll go on ahead.”

“Yes, take care, Kurono-san.”(Fiona)

“Take care!”(lily)

After getting the boost from their voices, I was already standing near the front gate.

In my right hand was the [Cursed hatchet Hararetsu] and in my left was [Black Ballista replica]. And inside my shadow were countless blackened swords hidden.

“Let’s go!”

As I shouted, I jumped outside the front gate with the assault team.

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Arrows, lightning, fire, ice, rained upon the Crusaders who were crossing the river.

But it didn’t reach the heavy knights who were on the rafts.

Only those highly skilled warriors who had mastered magic as well as martial arts were allowed to wear this Full Plate Mail armour.

There was no way, a long range attack of that level would be able to injure them.

“Looks like it was true that that giant explosion was the demons’ trump card.”

“Yeah, those guys from the second squad were really unlucky. There’s no way anything could live after getting hit by that.”

“Let’s take revenge for them and at the same time, the glory they were supposed to have as well.”

Since they believed that the demons had run out of tricks, they were fairly composed.

“Look, those demons have come out themselves.”

In the direction one of the knights pointed, with a black robed man in the front, there was group of various races with differing equipment.

Even if they were of a different race, they could easily infer that those demons were adventurers.

But, that group of adventurers had been able to keep the soldiers in check on the first day, that too without getting any casualties. They were a truly skilled group.

Each and every heavy Knight here knew that this time the adventurers target was them.

“Say, isn’t that man in the black clothes in the front, the rumoured ‘Devil’?”

“yeah, no doubt about it. There is only that skeleton in black clothes on the front lines other than him or so everyone said. Since a human’s wearing that, no doubt that he’s that bastard Devil.”

“hehe, so let’s go ‘exorcise’ that Devil.”

Since he was wearing a helmet, his face couldn’t be seen but no doubt he was currently smiling.

“Alright, get down from the rafts! Take formation, we’ll scatter the enemies in a single attack!”

As per the orders of the squad commander of the 3rd heavy knight squad, the heavy knights jumped down from the rafts into the shallow areas of the river.

Even with the river’s flow, the heavy knights perfectly took their formation and prepared themselves to attack the approach demons.

“Let’s go! We’ll kill the evil demons and raise the honour of the knights!!”

Raising their halberds, the heavy knight squad, covered in full plate armour and protected by tower shields, raised their war cry and took their first step in order to trample over the Alsace’s defensive line.