Volume 8 Chapter 12 The Spreading Secret
"What's with you... Ah! I see! Are you the escorts for those 2? But I don't smell any sorcery from you. Just relying on martial arts to protect them? Hahaha! What a waste of effort."
They grinned and surrounded the Ice Warrior.
"Hey, it's no big deal to loot, violate, and kill a little. How about we betray them and enjoy ourselves together? There's nothing to worry about in this world. Let's enjoy each moment, shall we?"
While saying so, they swung the weapons they had hidden behind their backs.
"In trouble because of betrayal, huh? Hahaha!"
"―――."
The Ice Warrior flashed his spear at them.
They probably didn't even see it. They noticed the Ice Warrior's flash a moment too late. And by the time they realized it, it was too late.
Half of the attacking village demons experienced a separation between their upper and lower bodies.
"――――Huh?"
The ones who raised their voices were the ones who narrowly avoided being caught in the spear's flash. Or perhaps they were fortunate enough to escape with just a scratch.
With a delayed reaction, the blood of the village demons sprayed up like a fountain. The surviving village demons stared at it in a daze.
"W-What? No way. Hey, I didn't see it. What was that?"
"He didn't use sorcery, did he? Does that mean it's pure skill? Just a skill, and this happened?"
The surviving demons exchanged glances with each other. While observing them, the Ice Warrior noticed that they didn't pay any attention to their fallen comrades.
―――I see, so this is what it means for demons to come back to life. They don't hesitate to die. But when faced with extraordinary strength, do they instinctively feel fear?
The Ice Warrior observed and gathered information. It seemed that the demons had finally started to be cautious, as they traced their bodies with their hands to unleash sorcery.
However, the outcome was the same.
Despite being able to revive, for the Ice Knight, a single knight of gold rank, demons were not worthy opponents.
"You dared to defy meeee!"
A single demon engulfed in flames charges. Ice Soldier looks at the iron-strong tip of its ice spear and realizes that it's probably some wicked sorcery invincible against living targets.
But whatever, right?
Ice's third magic, the ice armor, is way more invincible.
'Cold Armor'
The demon basically has a silver rank's worth of power. About the same as Windy.
That means against Ice's armor, it's gonna have a hard time getting through.
"Gah! Wh-What the...!?"
The fire demon that touched Ice Soldier's ice armor instantly froze over, losing all its flames and becoming a block of ice. What little momentum it had left carried it to the ground, where it shattered.
Seeing this, demons began to cry out, "Wh-What did you just do!?" and "Oi, it's frozen solid." Ice Soldier brandishes their spear, not giving the one they just killed so much as a glance as they step forward.
The demons flinch in front of them. They exchange looks, trying to figure out what to do.
"This...which way..."
Ice Soldier can't help but feel a sense of discomfort.
What does he mean by 'which way'? Is it like, they're in danger so they have to figure out how to fight back, y'know, like that kind of deal?
The only thing they can think of is something to do with their circumstances. Demons' lives probably aren't worth much, but even so, do they have some kind of secret more important than their own lives? Something like that...for mere villagers?
Ice Soldier reports back to Ice. They wants her orders on what to do next. For once, it takes her a little time to respond.
And then she says.
'Should I ask Wade-kun for help?'
In that same moment...
The whole place shakes.
The one Ice was talkin' to bursts out from a nearby house. He grabs hold of 2 demons and pins them down without killing them.
"Gaaah!" "Kah..."
He grabs them by the necks and smashes them into the ground. He does it with gravity magic and Anahata Chakra mixed together, which is a crazy strong combination that's almost impossible to beat.
"Yo. You guys welcome us with nice smiles and then try to kill us in the night? You into some kinky stuff, huh? Huh?"
Confirming the unconsciousness of the 2 village demon villagers, he stood up. With these 2, interrogating them should be enough to extract the secret. In other words, the other village demons are no longer needed.
"I finally got to be with my wife, who we've been apart from recently, and you had to come and ruin it."
Upon hearing his remark, the demons looked at him with a perplexed expression, unsure whether to laugh or be afraid. But their bodies were honest. Like a frog stared down by a snake, they didn't avert their gaze from him.
"And on top of that, it seems like you're hiding something. Well, I'll make sure to expose that secret."
As he said that, the demons immediately became agitated. Trembling, their eyes started to turn bloodshot as they looked at him.
"You... so you really were one of those probing bastards. A lackey of that damn lord..."
"...A damn lord...?"
Upon hearing that, it was the person that the village head and Mudi were talking about. The village head tried to cover it up by saying, "He's an amazing person," and Mudi said, "This artillery is from a high-ranking devil, probably the lord's."
Are the village demons and lord devils in conflict? He doesn't know. But that's something he can ask the village demons.
When he signaled with his eyes, Ice's ice soldiers lifted the 2 villagers in my place. They retreated cautiously and went inside the house.
Upon seeing that, all the village demons had a drastic change in their expressions.
"Everyone! This is where we die! Die here!"
"Yeah!"
"Oh? You guys have more backbone than I expected. Alright, let's do it――."
Just as he smirked and prepared himself, several of them shattered the head of a single demon.
"Huh?"
He was taken aback. Was there a split among them right after that statement? That was the moment he thought.
Inside the demon's head, the runes shimmered. Immediately after, a blast erupted, centered around the demon whose head had been shattered.
"―――――What!?"
In the explosion at point-blank range, powerful enough to kill him once, Wade instantly revived and hurriedly made his way to the second floor of the house where Ice was waiting.
Or rather, in the momentum of the blast, he broke through the wall himself and embraced Ice.
"H-huh!? Wade-kun...? ."
"Don't talk or you'll bite your tongue!"
As he said that, he summoned the Durandal he had left in Ice's room and used it as a temporary wall. Compared to the rubble houses around, Durandal was much more durable.
Durandal spread out in a dome shape around us, shielding them from the approaching explosion. After a few seconds, he checked to make sure the shock had settled, then he asked Ice,
"What's the situation outside?"
"...Um, ah, watch out... This house is..."
As Ice said that, the ground beneath their feet collapsed. He scooped Ice up into a princess carry and landed on the ground below, all while shaping Durandal back into its sword form.
The scene before them was beyond tragic. Every single villager demon was dead. The 2 we had left for interrogation had also been killed in the explosion, along with the ice soldiers.
Just as he realized this and grimaced, Ice uttered,
"Something's... off..."
"Huh?"
Ice said that and walked up to the 2 dead demons lying in the wreckage of the collapsed house. She reached out and touched their limbs, which had been torn off, confirming that they were definitely dead, and she gasped.
"Ugh...!"
"Whoa, that's a terrible smell... No, wait, what is that smell? It reminds me of something..."
"...I think it's Toxy-chan's poison magic."
"Wha? What does that mean?"
Ice looked at him. Her eyes told that she already knew. That meant he just needed to think about it and he would figure it out. He calmed my mind and came up with his theory.
"...Could it be... the opposite? Did they die from poison instead of the explosion? And the explosion was simply to make it look like they died from the explosion? If that's the case, then the one who poisoned them was..."
"Yes... I think they swallowed poison pills hidden in their molars before we even attacked, so that they could die at any moment, every day of their lives..."
So when did they die? Was it at the moment they were being restrained, when they realized they were outmatched and swallowed the poison? But then, why the explosion? It couldn't have been to distract them from interrogating them.
Wade thought. He thought and... he understood.
"It's a signal. It's a signal to the entire village that an unbeatable foe has come to uncover their secrets."
"Ice Create!"
Ice releases a large number of ice birds. The ice birds swiftly fly around, entering the houses of the village. In less than 2 seconds, Ice bites her lip.
"...Wade, it seems like everyone in this village has already committed suicide by poison."
"―――Seriously?"
They may have been demons, but weren't they still villagers? How could ordinary villagers commit group suicide so easily? What kind of fools would go as far as looting?
He shudders. When he looks at Ice, he's silent, carefully inspecting the bodies of the demons with a composed look. In other words, this is the real Ice, no longer pretending to be cute.
Wade sigh, "Phew..." and then start walking, "I'll find a new place to sleep tonight, and hunt some monsters for dinner."
"Yeah... be careful, okay?"
"Sure."
As he nods, he thinks about the words "be careful." He used to hear them a little bit before. He hardly hears them these days. The reason is obvious: his strength. He doesn't die easily.
But Ice, who knows that, said it.
He thinks to myself.
"Nilfheim is scary."
There's a mystery in this land. Some kind of unknown mystery.
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