Demon King

Dwarves – 6

There was a great deal of pressure to just travel through the country. I spent more than half of my mana just traveling to Incheon from Seoul, even after my evolution, and my mana recovery increased. If I pushed myself too hard, I would end up in a situation where I couldn’t cope. But that didn’t mean I could relax and move slowly. A lot of dwarves were tossed into Earth after the Devil’s Night, after all. I had no way of knowing how many appeared in each region of each country, or which ones were in the most danger.

I had no intention of giving up, though. I had to save as many and as quickly as possible before humanity’s perception of dwarves as an enemy formed. That would only be followed by an all-out war with the Elakatra. It was impossible to do on my own, but I also couldn’t let it weaken my resolve. All I could do was borrow the power of others.

“That’s a valid conclusion.” Rain nodded.

“It’s important to grasp your own strength. Recently, I felt as if you were trying to avoid relying on us, so I’m rather pleased you are.”

“I didn’t want to until the end if possible. I’m prepared to pay a fair price.” The problem was that I didn’t think the price would be fair, but I needed him to lend me his strength. Rain smiled bitterly as if he read my thoughts.

“There are many ways, but these are the most effective.” He brought out two artifacts: a compass and a bracelet.

“Neither of them can be used permanently. They are more a collection of magic rather than an artifact and will disappear after they fulfill their role. However, they both have exceptional abilities.”

“That’s what I’m looking for.”

“The two will cost you three-hundred and fifty-thousand gold.”

“Go, take it..!” He smiled brightly and, without any mercy, took all of the gold. His ability to steal everything like a phantom in the night was really scary. How great could these disposable items be for him to make me pay so much? I picked them up curiously.

“Even if you appraise them, you won’t get any information. As I said, they have an exceptional ability.” I could only retrieve their names, but no information on their abilities as Rain said. One was the Spirit of Record, and the other the Spirit of Breath.

“The Spirit of Record will pinpoint and guide you to the dwarves. Your lifeblood will replenish its mana.”

“The other?”

“That is…”

“Hm?” I looked at the bracelet in my hand; Rain held an identical one. Before I could consider it, L appeared and snatched it away from me.

“You…?”

“I don’t like the idea of Fate taking your mana.”

“I see.” Rain smiled and took a step back.

“Then, I will take over your work in the meanwhile.”

“Please. And tell A to stop coming back. The collaboration between Fate and I will be perfect.”

“If I pass that on to him, he will probably cry.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“…I see. Then, Fate, good luck.” I wanted to know what the two were talking about, but Rain gave me a bow, and I stepped back. Only L and I remained, with Solas sitting on my shoulder.

“Is that a mana delivery device?” I pointed at the bracelet L held with a happy face.

“Correct.” She put the bracelet on her wrist, which clashed with the dress she wore. But since she was the one wearing it, she pulled it off as if it was made for her from the beginning. Such an absolute beauty she wielded.

“The duration is not long, and it has no amplification ability. It is a trash-like artifact that passes mana from one side to another. But, if you share it with me, that story becomes a little different.”

“Well…” L’s mana was hard for me to grasp, even now. Her resilience was beyond my imagination, too, so with her backing me, I would surely never run out of mana.

“It may be a little burdensome on your heart. Can you withstand that much?”

“Don’t worry about it.” I responded cheerfully and clapped the other bracelet on myself. L immediately tested me, sending an overwhelming amount of mana straight through the bracelet, but fortunately, my body didn’t explode. I took control of it with my own mana, rotating it through my body. I could change it to magic, and then just convert it back to mana if it became too much.

“It seems to be balanced enough.” Satisfied, she stopped delivering mana to me.

“You said you were busy, so start right now. Don’t use this bracelet in battle. It’s not stable.”

“I’ll be back.”

“…Alright.” I didn’t know what I said, but L opened her eyes wide briefly then replied with a small smile.

I arrived above ground, immediately filling the record with mana. The needle rotated quickly but eventually began to slow down. The bracelet was recovering the mana I had spent, which was excellent. I was about to cross entire countries with Ubiquitous. I would be engaging in an operation to track the dwarves nearest to me and quickly bring them to the underground. Since I had only one of each artifact, I was alone in this mission. Except for Solas, of course.

“Speed and stealth.”

“Myu.” I was able to clear my mind by talking to the little guy. The compass stopped spinning, and I could feel a huge flow of mana connecting me to my target. It wasn’t of a level I could sustain alone.

‘But with a couple more evolutions, it may be possible.’ I jumped through the shadows, having already changed my appearance with my illusions, covering my body with a thick robe. I arrived in a place not all that different from Korea, although the situation was quite different.

“Kill it!”

“Guys…!”

“Give up!” Humans, dwarves, and a couple of elves were engaged in battle. The humans were pointing their swords at the elves, and the dwarven hammers at the humans. The three elves were facing both sides at once. Several dwarves already laid on the ground dead, amongst several humans. The scene in Incheon would’ve resembled this had I not intervened. I could even see several humans with the soul of a monster.

My thoughts were short, and my actions quick. No one noticed me as I stepped forward with the power of Reaper. Solas jumped from my shoulder and moved through the air.

“Hm?” One of the Elakatra was sensitive to me, his ears twitching. I calmly waited for my moment, however. Reaper couldn’t be found by anyone. As long as my conviction was absolute, my sword could proceed with no issue. I counted one, two, then three, and struck. The elf collapsed.

[You gained 2,984 experience.]

[You received 193 gold.]

[You gained 2,531 experience.]

[You received 205 gold.]

Solas attacked the other strongest elves at the same time I killed one, both falling at once. Silence overcame the battlefield.

“Who are you?!” The only elf left shouted angrily. He was the weakest of them, however, and he couldn’t pinpoint our location. He fired off several blasts of mana around him, but that wouldn’t work against higher-level individuals. Moving fast, Solas launched a transparent web and ran through the air. It exploded against the mana shots, confusing the elf, as he fired out a web to kill the elf. Solas’s flowing movements were undeniably beautiful.

[You gained 2,109 experience.]

[Level up!]

[You received 174 gold.]

“Huh?!”

“The elf…!” The humans began to stir; to them, the elves had been untouchable. But now that those untouchable entities had been killed, they were overcome with fear. Some of them ran toward the dwarves instead of away, however.

“Shit…!”

“Kill them!” Those were the people overtaken by soul monsters. They were trying to use their magic to kill the dwarves.

“Myu!” Solas’s valiant cry rang out, a thick web blocking their attacks. The mana collided with his web and exploded, causing the ground to vibrate. While that happened, I activated Belkena Spell and Lunatic Trickster at the same time, using wind magic on the dwarves. It was a knockback technique to move them where I wanted. The dwarves, even though they were above level 150, couldn’t resist it. They rolled back, eventually uniting in one place. The eyes of those who harbored anger shone darkly, but the door to the underground was already opening.

[Solas, please clean up.]

[Myu!]

“Unbelievable.”

“The humans?”

“I feel a familiar energy…” As their surroundings suddenly changed, the dwarves were on-guard with weapons at the ready. But I didn’t have time to explain everything to them.

Only

“There are other dwarves there!”

“Where the hell is this? Did we return to the underground?”

“Other dwarves are here? Hey, everyone come here!” I followed them into the underground, asking Alec to explain the new environment and my proposal to them. During that time, Solas had annihilated the possessed humans and immobilized the rest.

“Myu.”

“Good job…but…” I looked around at the cold corpses of humans and dwarves alike. It would’ve been nice if it all went smoothly, but it happened so quickly.

‘The union between humans and dwarves will be difficult.’ It really had nothing to do with me, but the humans ended up making a mistake like this. I eras traces of Solas and myself before we left, activating the record once we were done tracking down the next group.

For the next thirty-eight hours, I moved, battled, and evacuated dwarves. I had killed fifty-six Elakatra and rescued four-hundred and forty-eight dwarves by the end. There were five-hundred and eighty-seven confirmed dwarven casualties and nine-hundred and thirty-eight on the human side. There was so much blood flowing that I wasn’t sure I could properly block the elves’ machinations.

But I had succeeded in keeping my identity secret and forming an alliance with the dwarven survivors.