The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time

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The distribution of gates producing the monsters attacking the city of Orbaume was mainly focused around the castle’s grounds, the nobles’ district, the commercial district, and the plazas where the Guilds were. Rikudou had deliberately chosen these locations so that it would be easy for Vandalieu to see the havoc wreaked upon the city.

But although there were relatively fewer gates in the residential and slum districts, there were still some gates there.

A monster with the upper body of an Orc and the lower body of a serpent appeared, crushing the dilapidated houses in the slum district.

“Monster! There’s another monster!” a young man screamed.

Two enormous people were approaching him from the other direction.

“What?! Where’s the monster?!” one of them exclaimed.

The young man screamed again in terror as he looked at the two. “An Undead! There’s an Undead here, too?!”

“We’re asking you where! Calm down and tell us, in an easy-to-understand way!” the other enormous person shouted.

The half-Orc, half-serpent monster let out a noise that was halfway between a roar and a hiss.

“Ah, over there!” the two giants said simultaneously as they turned around, spotting the monster.

“A half-Noble Orc, half-Gorgon, or something? Seems like it’d be delicious to eat with a drink!” said one of them – Godwin, the former king of the Majin nation inside the Boundary Mountain Range.

The young man fell over backwards in fear between the monster and the two enormous figures, and Godwin stepped forward to hide him from the monster’s view.

The monster made another strange scream as it bathed Godwin in its petrifying gaze. However, his dark blue skin did not turn to stone.

“Something like that won’t get through my ‘Status Effect Resistance!’ ‘Roaring Flying Fist!’” the former Majin king roared as his fist produced a shockwave that sank into the monster’s chest, shattering its bones and causing them to pierce its organs.

But perhaps the monster possessed an abnormal amount of Vitality, or perhaps its heart was located in a different part of its body; although it coughed up blood, it managed to swing at Godwin with its claws.

The other enormous figure – the ‘Sword King’ Borkus, hero of Talosheim – leapt forward. “Pork and snake meat, huh? Let me separate those! ‘Elder Dragon Slayer!’”

The monster’s upper body parted ways with its lower body. As the upper body flew through the air, Godwin caught it and snapped the monster’s neck, finally silencing it.

The lower body thrashed about, smashing the nearby rubble and stone pavement.

“What a lively lower body this is! While I’m at it, let me filet it into three pieces!” said Borkus as he swung his sword down at it.

“Let’s have Vandalieu smoke it for us later!” said Godwin. “Hey, human. Hurry up and evacuate! Can you still run?” he said to the young man who had just witnessed a fight so one-sided that it was questionable as to whether it could even really be called a battle to the death.

“A monster and an Undead are betraying the other monsters?!” the young man exclaimed.

“No!” Godwin and Borkus shouted together, finally realizing that the young man had been fearing them as a monster and an Undead.

“Yeah, sure, I’m an Undead, but look at this bow tie!” said Borkus, pointing at his neck.

“I’m wearing a collar as well, you know!” said Godwin.

Indeed, Borkus was wearing a bow tie, and Godwin was wearing a collar. But Borkus was three meters tall, and the right half of his skull was visible because it was missing its skin. Godwin was also three meters tall, with dark blue skin, a pair of twisted horns on his head, and a pair of membranous wings on his back.

Certainly, nobody could blame the young man for not noticing the items they were wearing on their necks.

“I’m a servant at the haunted mansion that the boy… I mean, the haunted mansion that Vandalieu lives in!” Borkus said.

“And I am Vandalieu’s familiar!” said Godwin.

The two of them told these lies with their chests thrown out proudly. Borkus had never been in Silkie Zakkart Mansion, and Godwin hadn’t yet been registered as a familiar at the Tamers’ Guild.

Rikudou’s vile attack had been on a greater scale than Vandalieu had anticipated, so the space-attribute Ghost Jane Doe had only just brought these two to the city today; it was the first time they had ever been to the city of Orbaume. They had put on the bow tie and collar after they were teleported here.

“R-really? S-so you’re not going to kill me or eat me?! Then save me, please!” the young man begged.

He was just an ordinary civilian. Given the situation, he didn’t have the perceptiveness or mental strength right now to notice how suspicious their story was.

“As I said, you should run to the commercial district – Hmm, never mind. That won’t be necessary,” said Godwin, suddenly looking up above him. “Hey, kid. Do you like the sky and ships?”

“Huh?” the young man uttered in confusion.

Godwin grabbed him and picked him up with one hand. “You love them? That’s great! Here you go, then!”

“W-what the hell?!” the young man shouted, and a moment later, he screamed as he was hurled upwards.

But he was quickly caught by a Gehenna Bee – a monster that looked like a cross between a bee and a woman.

The Gehenna Bee made a series of clicking noises. (One civilian secured! Resistance is futile. You have only one choice. Be rescued by us!)

The young man continued screaming as the Gehenna Bee carried him off to a ship that was sailing through the sky. Because Gehenna Bees were incapable of human speech, he believed he was doomed, unable to understand that he was being rescued.

The flying ship, Cuatro, creaked as he flew around the skies above the residential and slum districts as an airborne evacuation shelter. He had come to Orbaume for the same reason as Borkus and Godwin.

Naturally, the people were astonished to see a flying ship. But because they could only look up at it from above, they didn’t realize that he was a ghost ship – in other words, an Undead. They mistook him for some kind of advanced Magic Item owned by a duke or a Church. He was also engaging the flying monsters with objects fired from tubes, so the people saw them as a symbol of hope.

A collar had been placed on the ship’s figurehead to show that it was a familiar, and both sides of the hull bore Vida’s holy symbol and the family crest of the house of Honorary Countess Zakkart (the national symbol of the Demon Empire of Vidal), further providing the people with reassurance.

The Four Dead Sea Captains were calling out to the people, their voices amplified by a spell.

“Everyone, we are a ship of the house of Honorary Countess Zakkart. We shall conduct rescue operations.”

“We request that you do not run away in fear, resist, or attack us.”

“You bastards, we ain’t… I mean, everyone, we are not your enemies.”

“We are harmless… A Storm Dragon just came out of one of the gates! There are no survivors nearby, right?! Beam of light, fire!”

Before the people had enough time to be confused by these declarations, the Gehenna Bees that were providing communication with ground level and delivering evacuees were flying down and carrying them into the sky.

“Alright! Now then, let’s get onto the next one. If we don’t hurry up and finish the evacuation, we won’t be able to fight the enemies’ boss!” said Godwin.

“Come to think of it, where’s your daughter Iris?” Borkus asked. “You didn’t bring her with you?!”

“Iris stayed behind with Budarion and the others to keep the inside of the Boundary Mountain Range safe,” said Godwin. “She’s the Majin king now, after all. Talos is doing the same for your country, right?”

Vandalieu had brought forces from the Demon Empire of Vidal into Orbaume, but he had also considered the possibility that the nation would be attacked in their absence.

Thus, he had not brought Godwin’s adopted daughter Iris, King Budarion of the Noble Orc Kingdom, the Sun Giant Talos, and many others… though another reason was the possibility that Budarion would be mistaken for a monster that had come out of the gates and be attacked by the adventurers of Orbaume.

It was strange that the Noble Orc Budarion was a bad idea to bring here, but the Undead Borkus was fine.

However, it was also because Rikudou, the one who had created the Dungeon, had made sure that it would not spawn Undead or bug-type monsters that might be tamed by Vandalieu.

“What about your companions, then?” Godwin asked.

“Ah, come to think of it… Hey, half of one is over there!” said Borkus, pointing at a spot where the lower half of a woman’s body was fighting.

This detached pair of legs, which possessed both tremendous strength and elegance, moved like a flash of lightning as it delivered a roundhouse kick to the side of the face of a bear-like monster, which roared in pain as it was sent flying into a mountain of rubble.

From behind the bear-like monster, a monster resembling a leopard leapt forth to try and tear at the female legs with its claws, but they avoided its attack with an agile movement, as if they were dancing. A moment later, it performed a kick in retaliation.

But the leopard-like monster snarled as it nimbly avoided this attack.

“‘Lightning Spear Strike!’”

A bolt of lightning shaped like a spear struck the leopard-like monster as it let its guard down, and with a short scream, it fell still.

“We’ve mostly finished with our evacuation. What about you guys?” asked the one who had cast the spell – the ‘Tiny Genius’ Zandia, who was Borkus’s party member and second princess of Talosheim.

“I have no idea,” said Borkus.

“There aren’t any more that we can see, anyway,” said Godwin. “If there are more, they’d be underground, or…”

“The people who belonged to the criminal organization that were guided by the kid are pretty familiar with this area, and they guided the people to evacuate, so there aren’t any more left around here,” Borkus said.

“I see. What about over there?” asked Godwin.

“I just took them to safety,” said the other woman – not the detached pair of legs, but the upper half that came flying down from the sky… the ‘Saint of Healing’ Jeena.

Due to the reconstruction surgery performed on her after she became an Undead, her upper and lower body halves were capable of acting independently of one another.

“We can leave the rescuing to the Gehenna Bees, can’t we? I’m sure they’re better received among the humans here than us Zombies,” said Borkus.

“That doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case,” said Jeena. “There were some people who insisted on running away, but we used ‘Familiar Spirit Descent’ to summon a familiar spirit of Vida-sama, and they calmed down enough for us to take them away.”

“Unlike you, Borkus, we don’t look like Undead at a glance. ‘Familiar Spirit Descent’ and transformation equipment are apparently reassuring sights for people who live in this city,” said Zandia.

Unlike Borkus, who had half of his skull visible, it was difficult to tell that Jeena and Zandia were Undead just from a glance. By using ‘Familiar Spirit Descent,’ a Skill that summoned familiar spirits of the gods upon themselves, as well as transformation equipment, which had been gaining recognition in Orbaume, they had successfully calmed the people down and gained their trust in a smooth manner… though Jeena’s true nature was revealed the moment she separated her upper half from her lower half, and the people’s final destination was Cuatro.

“Then I suppose we should use Magic Items to check whether there’s anyone trapped in the rubble, and once we’re done with that, let’s go to help more people elsewhere,” said Jeena.

“Yeah! Let’s get this over with!” said Borkus.

The four of them worked hard in the slum district, at the cost of causing the people a great deal of mental stress, but although the buildings of the slum district were a chaotic mess, this was only a tiny part of Orbaume.

On the other hand, the residential district was bigger. Only ordinary civilians lived there, and there were almost no city guards or knights. However, there were few gates relative to the size of the district, and once the monsters were suppressed and the residents were guided to evacuate, the evacuation would proceed more smoothly than in other areas.

On the main street of the residential district, monsters were fighting one another. However, while the monsters on one side were roaring fiercely, the roars of those on the other side, while loud, were monotonous.

The people who had managed to escape to this place watched this scene with despair on their faces.

“It’s no good! The monsters over here have started killing each other!”

“But where are we supposed to go, then?!”

A helping hand – countless helping hands – came from the skies.

“OOOOOOOHN!” groaned Knochen, the aggregation of flying bones, as he descended to save the screaming people.

“AAAAH!”

“NOOOO!”

“SAVE UUUUUS!”

“WE’RE DOOOOMED!”

Knochen rescued the people one after another, but unlike Sam and Cuatro, he did not have any particularly livable areas. With his Rank increasing, he had become a Bone Dystopia Dragigas, but bones were still bones.

Thus, he was protecting the people he rescued while swiftly delivering them to the shelters built by Vandalieu. He was sometimes mistaken for a monster… or rather, the adventurers and city guards attacked him because they recognized him as a superior race of a monster that would normally be designated for extermination. But he took no notice of them.

Once Knochen carried the people to safety, the monsters letting out monotonous roars – the Demon King Familiars – stopped positioning themselves as shields to block stray projectiles and began fighting properly.

“Well then, I shall go to defeat the monsters beyond this gate. Excuse me, me,” one of them said.

“Go on ahead, me. I will catch up to you soon,” said another.

And with that, the Demon King Familiars disappeared beyond the gate, beginning with the ones who had defeated the monsters they were fighting against.

Fierce battles were taking place all across Orbaume, and that was also true below the feet of Vandalieu and his companions in the sky… in the grounds of the royal castle.

The Six Phalanxes of Orbaume, the knights, and the mages of the royal court were handling the gate that had suddenly appeared in front of them in a disciplined manner.

“Your Majesty, please get back!” one of them warned.

However, the monster that emerged from the gate with a deafening roar was one that was beyond their imaginations.

“An Adamantite Hedgehog?! Kill it before it fires its needles!” one of the men shouted. freewebn(o)vel.com

It was an enormous hedgehog, larger than a carriage, with countless needles on its back. The Six Phalanxes of Orbaume, and the rest of the men, broke out into a cold sweat at the mere sight of it.

The Adamantite Hedgehog had more than ten thousand needles on its back. If it fired them all at once, no ordinary knight would be able to withstand such an attack; they would be riddled with holes along with their armor, unable to even serve as a meat shield.

Adamantite Hedgehogs were only Rank 9. The Six Phalanxes of Orbaume, who possessed strength greater than the average A-class adventurer, would not be defeated by such a foe.

But the roars of other monsters were rising from all around them.

Defeating the Adamantite Hedgehog while fighting the rest of the monsters and simultaneously protecting the king and the other non-combatants would be almost impossible.

“Damn it! Spare nothing! Fight as if your life depends on it!” commanded the knight who had been granted the divine protection of Rubicante, the God of Heat Hazes. “‘Familiar Spirit Descent!’”

“‘Transcend Limits! ‘Transcend Limits: Magic Sword!’” one of the Six Phalanxes roared.

The Six Phalanxes of Orbaume and the knights who had been chosen as potential heroes summoned familiar spirits upon their bodies and activated Skills such as ‘Transcend Limits’ to temporarily increase their Attribute Values and the power of their magic swords, then stepped forth to face the monsters.

The Adamantite Hedgehog died in an instant, its head crushed by an axe and its heart pierced by a spear, before it could fire its needles.

A Lava Giant, whose entire body was covered in molten rock, was submerged in the do-or-die water-attribute spells of the royal court mages.

Rubicante’s chosen potential hero was successfully holding back a Mythril Golem, and it looked like he would be able to defeat it with a little more effort.

Over a dozen other monsters were either falling immediately or were on the verge of being defeated.

However, the gate that would likely distract Vandalieu the most, the one right beneath his feet, was producing monsters at a higher pace than the other gates.

“There’s a second Adamantite Hedgehog!” someone shouted in warning.

The newly emerged Adamantite Hedgehog was in a state of excitement from the smell of the monster blood that drenched its surroundings.

There weren’t enough men, and nobody would be able to stop it from firing its needles in time. The Six Phalanxes of Orbaume made the necessary but cruel decision to at least protect the king, the marshal, the prime minister, and the other important figures.

Prime Minister Tercatanis clicked his tongue in frustration. “I can’t watch this any longer!”

“P-Prime Minister?!” someone shouted in alarm.

A moment later, Tercatanis leapt forward with such force that his foot left a deep crater behind, closing the distance between himself and the Adamantite Hedgehog that was a moment away from firing its needles. He drew a black sword and emanated a tremendous bloodthirst as he performed a martial skill.

“HAAAH! ‘Hundred Million Killing Moon Flash!’”

The Adamantite Hedgehog roared as it unleashed its needles. But before this rain of death could come pouring down upon the prime minister, the Six Phalanxes of Orbaume behind him, and the civil officials and court ladies they were protecting, the prime minister’s arm moved like a countless number of whips, creating a storm of black sword strikes that struck every single needle out of the air.

“‘Decapitation!’”

In a single instant, countless clanging sounds of blade against needle echoed out, and a moment later came the sound of bone and flesh being severed. King Corbitt and the others were unable to even perceive the movements of the prime minister’s sword.

“Y-you are not Urgen Tercatanis!” King Corbitt exclaimed. “Who the hell are you?!”

All he could tell was that the prime minister in front of him, whose arm was still twisted in an unnatural angle and whose entire body was now drenched in the blood of the Adamantite Hedgehog, was not the real prime minister.

Isla, who had used ‘Transformation’ to disguise herself as the prime minister, revealed her true form to the king and his subjects with a low laugh. “Indeed, I am not.”

“A-a Vampire?! Why is there a Vampire here?!” King Corbitt screamed.

“What have you done with the real prime minister?!” demanded Jetavo, the Foreign Affairs Minister.

“We have taken the real prime minister into our custody. We will hand him over to you later, so you can question him or torture him or do whatever you like,” Isla replied as she put her elbow joint back into place with a gruesome clicking noise.

“W-what?! What do you mean by… No, more importantly, seize this villain and–” Jetavo began.

“Foreign Affairs Minister Jetavo! Now is not the time for that!” Marshal Dolmad said, interrupting Jetavo’s orders to the knights and bringing him back to his senses.

There were still monsters coming pouring out of the gate. They couldn’t spare the time to capture Isla.

King Corbitt also came to the decision that now was not the time to be fighting against Isla. “Ordinarily, the crime of disguising oneself as a noble – the prime minister, no less – would be one that I cannot overlook. But by my authority as the king of this nation, you will not be questioned for this. Vampire-dono, would I be right in assuming that your objective is to ensure our safety? If so, I would like you to continue doing so.”

“That is the wisdom I would expect from a king, Your Majesty,” said Isla. “Vandalieu-sama’s allies will arrive soon to rescue you. We shall have the non-combatants and those without the skill to fight against these monsters evacuate via the transport provided. However, those who do have the skill to fight must carry out our requests.”

“Your requests?!” repeated one of the Six Phalanxes of Orbaume in disbelief and rage. “We obey none but His Majesty the king! Taking orders from an honorary countess’s son is preposterous–”

“Vandalieu-sama’s requests are to defeat the monsters that are filling the streets of Orbaume and to help rescue and evacuate the people,” Isla interrupted, ignoring him without so much as a glance thrown his way. “What say you, Your Majesty?” she said, continuing to direct her gaze at King Corbitt.

Marshal Dolmad, Foreign Affairs Minister Jetavo, and everyone else were unable to advise King Corbitt on how to answer Isla’s question. Marshal Dolmad was particularly undecided, as he had noticed that Isla’s strength was equivalent to that of the Six Phalanxes of Orbaume… or even greater.

It was possible that the requests mentioned by Isla were a ploy, pretending to ‘evacuate’ King Corbitt and the rest of the nobles to capture them and separate them from their allies who could fight, such as the Six Phalanxes of Orbaume.

But the current situation was difficult to describe as safe. If monsters beyond what the Six Phalanxes of Orbaume could deal with were to appear, or the battle between Dark Avalon, Vandalieu, and the Five-colored Blades moved from the skies above to ground level, they would be finished.

And the prime minister, who would normally be the one to provide King Corbitt with his opinions in situations like these, was currently missing.

“… Very well. At the very least, I can say that I don’t know a single place in Orbaume that is currently safe. Six Phalanxes of Orbaume, once we have evacuated, fight for the sake of the people,” King Corbitt ordered.

And so the king’s decision was made, while everyone else was still pondering. Even Corbitt himself didn’t know whether he had simply given up on thinking or whether he had decided that now wasn’t the time to be making decisions slowly.

It seemed that Knochen and Cuatro couldn’t be seen flying around the sky due to all the tall buildings around them, including the castle. If they had been visible, King Corbitt might have realized that they were the safe locations they would be evacuated to and agreed to this plan more firmly.

“But it is you who has insisted on this,” King Corbitt said to Isla. “If this incident is not dealt with properly, your master will come under much criticism.”

Isla laughed. “If this incident is not resolved, that will be the least of your concerns, Your Majesty, as your capital will be lost. And I am sure you will learn Vandalieu-sama’s true power soon.”

“H-he still has more?!”

A moment later, Sam appeared from his sub-dimension to carry the king and the other nobles to safety.