The Legendary Spearman Returns

Some of the survivors were beginning to edge away from the portal despite Jack’s warnings. If they moved from their positions they would immediately cease to supply their vitality to the dimensional gate.

-What in the world are you doing!? Don’t tell me you believe his sugar coated words!

The menace in Jack’s voice made the survivors flinch.

“B-But the emperor and the empress mother also—”

-There will be no social classes in our new world to begin with. The prince has chosen a temporary measure out of fear of the nobles because they’re the people in power, but we can start from perfection!

“What’s the use of a new world when you’re dead?” Anna scoffed. She pointed at the piles of corpses, stirring the survivors’ primal fear of death. Most of the survivors were teenagers who had long lives ahead of them.

“I-I’m going to go back.”

One of them changed his mind, a boy who was around fifteen years old. He was already far away from the gate and escaped the range of the gate’s magic circle completely in a few steps.

The boy immediately took off running. “I don’t want to die! If the continent isn’t going to fall, I-I want to be with my fa—!”

He never got to finish. The moment he got ten meters away from the magic circle, the boy vanished in a column of lightning—a magic trap.

“...Ugh.” The boy coughed out black smoke.

It turned out that Jack had kept the forest’s monsters on standby because Jack quickly brought in a black ogre to smash the boy’s head.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The survivors screamed.

“How dare you!” Cain roared, already bristling with murderous energy.

-Stop! Keep in mind that I can fry the rest of these brats.

“Damn you...!” Cain gritted his teeth.

The survivors went pale.

-Do you get it now? You’ll never be free from me! Never!

“D-Don’t kill me.”

“Uuuuungh. Hic. Mom...”

“I want to go home! Let me go home!”

All of the survivors broke out in tears. Although he was discarding his justification, Jack had no other choice; he was going to lose all of his sacrificial offerings he’d gone through so much trouble to gather and now he had to worry about his life.

But the rasp of metal against leather as someone unsheathed their sword made Jack’s lips tremble.

-Who is it! You don’t care if all these kids die?

Kireua was the one who drew his sword.

“You won’t be able to kill them,” Kireua said as he walked toward the lich.

-You cocky shit! You think I won’t do it?

Even though fierce lightning cracked around Jack’s hands, Kireua’s feet kept moving.

“No, you won’t be able to kill them,” Kireua repeated, shaking his head.

-I can see what you’re thinking right now, but my answer is no. Although it’s true that gathering them was difficult, I can get all the sacrifices I want. There’ll be plenty of children who will share my cause!

“Then do it,” Kireua sharply replied.

Cain stared at Kireua, astonished. The survivors and the nobles and their troops were equally unsettled by Kireua’s apparent about-face. Kireua didn’t seem to care what was going to happen to the survivors—it wasn’t just contradictory, he seemed downright psychotic.

“I became certain after seeing how the child died just now.” Kireua glanced in the boy’s direction.

-...What?

“Jack Steropes, you could have killed the boy earlier if you wanted. Letting him run that far only perturbed the other children more, but you only took him out after he’d completely left the range of the magic circle.”

Anna clapped in realization. “I see what’s happening right now!”

“You do?” Cain asked.

“The gate leads to an entirely different dimension. No one has tried to build—no, no one has even thought about trying it, so there’s no way that the magic circle was easy to make.”

Cain’s eyes widened as he listened. “In other words...”

“That damned lich can’t move easily either. Any spell he uses in the magic circle’s range could disrupt the magic circle itself and ruin the gate completely!” Anna shouted.

The demonic power around Jack fluctuated wildly, belying his unease—Anna’s analysis was very accurate. It was only through a concerted effort that Jack remained outwardly calm.

Kireua lit his sword with the ebon flames.

“The moment you harm any of those children, I will cut that portal in two. That’s the last thing you want, isn’t it?”

Jack stayed silent for a long time before his manic laughter echoed in the forest.

-...Ha. Hahahahahahaha! Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious! You know, I’m the one who should be saying that, actually.

“Are you now?”

-Yeah. Go on. Do it. I’m sure you won’t believe me even if I explain. Protecting the portal isn’t the reason why I’m avoiding using magic.

Kireua frowned. It didn’t seem like Jack was bluffing, based on his composure.

Kireua’s eyes narrowed. “What are you on about?”

-It’s the same with any portal. Can you physically destroy a complete portal?

Kireua didn’t believe him because he could see the magic circle. It was similar to the Magic Tower’s warp gates in major cities, not the portals that mages above Seventh Circle could create.

These warp gates were the Magic Tower’s masterpieces, made from thousands of mana stones. A simple, low-level mage could transport people freely between cities—but, of course, that wouldn't be possible without a warp gate.

-You’re an open book. This is the problem with knights. They aren’t capable of critical thinking.

Kireua cocked an eyebrow at Jack. “...Of course I’m skeptical. If it was finished, there’d be no reason for the magic circle to still be visible and you wouldn’t need to be so careful around it.”

-The magic circle isn’t there to maintain or complete the dimensional gate. It’s to absorb more vitality and improve the gate even further.

“What?”

Jack smiled slyly.

-All else aside, I’ve gone through a great deal of trouble to bring these people here. They’ll be dissatisfied too if they were to die before being of any use building the gate.

An incredibly cold demonic power poured out of the magic circle.

“Arrrrghhhh!”

“S-Save me! Help!”

“I can’t... ugh! I c-can’t breathe...!”

The survivors clutched their necks or pounded on their chests and screamed. Some of them clawed at the ground until their fingers were bloody but they didn’t notice it through the suffocating feeling tormenting their bodies.

Kireua sprang forward, unable to watch them suffer any longer. He swung his flaming sword toward the magic circle, but his attack was quickly blocked by a magical barrier that appeared over the magic circle.

His actions had terrible consequences. To his horror, Kireua was forced to watch a boy—who was fifteen years old at most—crumble into dust.

-I warned you, didn’t I? Tsk, you’ve made me waste one of my sacrifices.

“...You bastard.” Kireua gritted his teeth.

-People with trust issues tend to do themselves in before believing what other people tell them. Just watch. The wheel of fate has already passed the point of no return.

Kireua watched the magic circle surge with ever increasing demonic power. The survivors visibly aged with every breath as the portal became more and more vivid.

-This is it!

Jack couldn’t contain his excitement any longer. After draining over a thousand people’s vitality, the end was so close!

Kireua changed his plan and attacked Jack instead.

-...Mmm.

Jack grunted. Kireua had struck the barrier with his aura, cracking it, but the lich just sneered at him.

-Killing me now... won’t stop the wheel of fate. The Human Realm will fall, and everyone on the continent will come here to escape. I’ll be forever remembered as their savior! Besides... you can’t kill me anyway. My phylactery is already beyond that gate.

Kireua had to break his silence.

“You... already sent your phylactery through the gate?”

-Yes, that is why I’m certain the other dimension exists! My phylactery has passed through the gate, but I’m still alive, as you can see!

Kireua had no way of verifying Jack’s words, nor was it even important right now. He still had to free the survivors, but he was at a loss as to how to do it.

However, fate conspired to alter the circumstances.

-That looks yummy.

“What?!” Kireua’s eyes flew open in shock. At first, he thought he was mistaken because it had been so long since he had heard Coal’s voice.

-Can I eat it, Kireua?

Kireua felt like crying. He’d never imagined that he would be so happy to hear Coal’s voice.

‘Yes, you can,’ Kireua was quick to reply. ‘No, please eat it. I’m begging you, Coal.’

-Okay! But there is a problem.

‘What problem?’

-If I eat it, my tummy will explode too.

Coal’s words hit Kireua like a bolt of lightning to the face.