The Spearmaster and the Black Cat

The black-haired vampire said, “I thought I’d nab that silver coffin while the things up there were heated, but I guess that was too optimistic.”

“Nn, who are you?”

“That doesn’t matter――”

They were in the middle of talking, but without giving a damn about that, I <Threw> Arost――

Yet, the vampire was able to easily dodge it.

“This is a light-based spear!? Oof, how damn scary! I really don’t wanna fight the spearmaster. So, sorry for disturbing, ‘kay? Don’t worry, I won’t show up anymore――”

Immediately after he entered the shade of a tree behind him, he disappeared as if melting into the darkness. His magic source response vanished, too.

“Shuuya, everything is fine except for the guy that disappeared just now. I knocked down everything with Sergelon.”

“Aye.”

“I’ve also contacted Rebecca, so that side will be alright, too.”

Eva used her <Mind Force> to pull Arost out of the ground and move it to me. The people we saved had gathered behind her who was speaking to me with a smile on her lips.

I nodded while returning a smile. Then I looked at the former flight passengers as I grabbed Arost and erased it. I spotted Sana and Hina. They had positioned them in front of the group so as to protect the passengers.

As soon as Matabe confirmed that the enemy was gone, he moved back to his position of protecting Eva’s rear.

I’m worried about that black-haired vampire, but…it doesn’t seem like he’s going to come back again.

“Sana, Hina, wait here for a bit together with Eva――”

After telling them so in Japanese, I shifted my eyes from the place where the vampire vanished to the sky. While watching the night sky where the extreme battles were still raging, I leaped. Given that Rollodeen, who had been spitting her fire up there all the time, came close, I jumped on her back. With Rollodeen’s tentacles coiled around my legs, waist, and neck.

“――Your Excellency, we fought as well!”

“Please take a look!”

Just as the Burning Knights hoisted up their shields and sword which were dripping with blood…the corpses of a humanoid demon with huge, black wings that were connected from his back to his arms and two-headed, bulky demons fell atop Rollodeen’s broad back.

The corpses were completely dried up. It looks like Rollodeen has sucked out all their blood. She appears to be in the mood to give the demons, which she defeated with her tentacle bone sword, a ride on her own back.

“It seems Spirit-sama has taken down some as well.”

“Mugu-class demonic beasts have been dropping after getting turned into frozen sculptures, too.”

Just as the Burning Knights were talking, Helme flew back towards us. She was dragging a female knight, who had her limbs bound by glittering, shining strings, behind her.

“Did you catch her?”

“Yes.”

Helme was emitting a nice scent as she landed on Rollodeen’s back. At her feet…was the spirit world knight. She was lying on Rollodeen’s back while wrapped up in her fluffy, black fur. The magic swords in her hands with its Demonic Eyes and the protector around her splendid thighs were also being pinned down by the strings of <Lapis Lazuli Flower>. The knight was wearing magic armor with an elaborate design.

Marvelous! Her breastplate followed the shape of her boobs! And the tasset, which continues all the way to her back protector, is flexible.

But, currently she was revealing an indescribably weird face, apparently feeling very good. Exactly because she was a beautiful demon with long and narrow eyes as well as long eyelashes, her current expression looked quite amusing. Moreover, with her wearing a classy face guard which covered a part of her cheeks, her weird face tood out even more.

Even so, it’s undeniably a lovely face. I feel like inspecting her face from much closer.

“Nnn,” Rollodeen rumbled lowly as if retorting my thoughts.

She was on her back, but Rollodeen apparently could pinpoint the knight’s precise location through her shared senses with me. She twined her tentacles and fur around the knight’s entire body. In the end, she finished a human-shaped jail made out of black tentacles and fur. Or rather, it looked like an iron maiden that only allowed the face to peek out.

Rollodeen played around by tapping the knight’s cheeks with the pads of her tentacles.

“Spirit-sama, why did you catch the enemy alive?”

“You can’t tell, Zemetas? It looks like you still have a long way to go as His Excellency’s retainer.”

“You judged her to suit my preferences, didn’t you?”

“Hehe, yes.”

Even while saying so, Helme’s eyes were…directed at the knight’s butt.

At that point, Rollodeen meowed before spitting fire again. She was cleaning up what remained of the eyeball-shaped demons.

While touching her rein tentacle, I confirmed the location of my reliable comrade Kisara. She was using her crows. The battle against the rose-crowned demon, which had been unleashing many whips, was heading for its conclusion.

With Rotalz also joining the battle, the demon retreated. The way of its retreat, however, was praiseworthy. Smaller whips fanned out from the main whip, then they ballooned up like a jellyfish when drawing wind into itself, before deflating that swelling to advance by emitting wind. It was a movement method based on wind force.

It had already distanced itself quite a bit.

As I was watching that fight, the huge black rabbit, now covered with injuries all over, approached. The demon with the centipede cap and the demon with the multiple caterpillar legs, who fought against him, were nowhere to be seen.

“I shall return to Vaa-chan.”

“You have my gratitude for backing us up. Thanks.”

“…Humph, so you’re a guy who knows when to bow your head to me. I guess that’s why Varmina-sama has taken a liking to you.”

“You say so, but I won’t sacrifice any women for you.”

“…No need to spell it out. But, Vaa-chan truly intends to win you over to her side, you know? And today’s battle should have told you her wish to make you her spirit world knight. Anyway, I’m tired. See you――,” said the Shaysad while making his fur tremble, and then separated from us while regenerating his body.

“Leaving Shaysad aside, the monster that summoned the elephant nose was incredible…lightning had pierced the sky…and the one clad in darkness over there is Hoffmann…”

“The elephant nose, who gave the Wave Gourd to His Excellency, certainly moved in an abnormal way…and you can’t underestimate the forces of the divine domain either.”

“Your Excellency, we weren’t overly useful…”

Helme and the others didn’t pay much attention to Shaysad. Rather than that, they seemed to be more interested in the ever-changing battlefield in the sky, albeit that was only reasonable.

“Don’t mind it. You slaughtered the demon on Rollo’s back, didn’t you? Instead, please tell me about Zebal.”

“Zebal is one of the demonic marquis who owns a great number of knights. I have heard he’s a strong warrior who succeeded in securing territory in the Spirit World by successfully breeding gigantic mugu classes.”

“Demonic Moth King Zebal possesses moth-patterned wings on his back, or so they say.”

Hooh, moths, huh? Does he have some kind of connection to Demi-Goddess Golgonshura? Don’t tell me he’s aiming for the silver coffin below or some such?

“I see. Thanks. For the time being, we’re going to leave the Time Tapir, Hoffmann’s gang, and the divine forces alone. They also started to distance themselves from our location.”

After the human monks, who called themselves priests, joined in, Hoffmann’s side was getting overwhelmed. It was pretty clear when looking at his retreating battle.

“Shuuya-sama――”

“Yo, the demons in that part of the sky are gone. But, that skull bastard is…”

It was Kisara in her pretty, sleeveless witch outfit and Rotalz with his broken horn. However, even after stopping, Rotalz remained vigilant while watching right above us. He was preparing to fire his usual scattering beam.

The skeleton mage Hazes was floating right over our head on the right side. Next to him was also the flame-engulfed kid. It pointed with its rapier-shaped flames at us.

That kid seems to be bothered by Rotalz’s presence. Probably because of all his pixelated farts…

Even Rollodeen, who was carrying us right now, understood the kid’s feelings as she was repeatedly looking at Rotalz’s farts.

I don’t feel like understanding what they find so interesting about them…however, it’s inevitable as Rollo has been influenced by it as well. Since it’s a physiologic phenomenon, complaining about it wouldn’t help much…

“Shuuya-san, we’ve finally prepared an environment allowing for a talk.”

“Right? Right?” The kid’s high-pitched voice chimed in immediately after Hazes politely addressed me.

“Ryanryan, go back for now.”

“Ryan――”

The flame child, which seemed to be called Ryan, contracted into the wand held by Hazes as if being absorbed. Hazes’s voice somehow had a timber like that of a middle-aged guy.

He performed a deep bow as if to show me the top of his skull head. He had the appearance of a skeleton, but with his polite manners, he was close to a Japanese person in atmosphere. I ended up feeling affinity towards him.

After lifting his head, he slowly descended towards us.

“Shuuya-sama, who is this skeleton mage?”

“Ah, his name is Hazes. He’s a subordinate of Shiki, who’s commonly called Collector. Shiki is an apostle of the Twilight Queen and lives in Pelneet, making Hazes over here someone connected to a kin of Twilight Queen Lebra.”

“A Spirit World Goddess’s…please excuse my rudeness then.”

Kisara instantly stored away the filaments of her witch spear. Then she positioned the spear so that it aligned with her slender leg.

“No, do not mind it. By the way, who might you be? Earlier you allowed me to witness a unique fighting style that combined spear and voice, but I could tell that you are fairly powerful. But, as a bloodkin-sama of spearmaster-sama…”

Hazes stared at Kisara with the Demonic Eyes in his eye sockets. Kisara reacted to Hazes’s appraising look with a beautiful smile.

『I don’t particularly mind you looking at me. But, you do know what’s going to happen if we fight, right?』 is what I felt her blue eyes were saying through her black mask.

And then she cast a fleeting glance at me. I felt like she was confirming with me whether it was okay to reveal information about us. That’s why I nodded. Kisara nodded back at me.

“…I am not a bloodkin yet. My name is Kisara. One of the Four Heavenly Witches, and the wielder of Damo’Anun’s Witch Spear.”

“One of the Four Heavenly Witches…how rare.” Hazes nodded after muttering with an unreadable expression. “Then, except for Spirit-sama and the skeleton knights, the bloodkin is the one below.”

Hazes inclined his jaw downwards. He’s probably looking at my <Head Servant Leader> Eva. He had seen Eva when she visited Shiki together with me.

At that point, I looked at Kisara, “That’s right. Kisara isn’t a bloodkin yet.”

“Is that so? But, a witch spear…I judged that it’s an item which Shiki-sama would be interested in, but…”

A cackling escaped from deep inside Hazes’s skull.

“Even if you might be connected to Queen Lebra, you’ll get destroyed if you run your mouth too thoughtlessly, you know?” Kisara started to talk in the same way as when she met me for the first time, making sure to get ready as a witch.

“…Haha, forgive me. ――Anyway, I have a message from Shiki-sama for you.”

Hazes moved in a way as if retreating half a step, and turned his skull in my direction.

“What is it?”

“Okay, it is as follows: 『I hear you have been officially recognized as master of the Sea of Trees by Twilight Queen Lebra-sama, Shuuya-sama. The land, tools, and place where the demi-goddess was sealed are valuable… Hehe, the apples are delicious, aren’t they? If you add pure water to the apple juice, you’ll obtain a drink with an exquisite taste. Oh, in addition, now that Light of the Yellow Bird left the labyrinth, we’re lacking personnel over here…if you’re still interested in labyrinth exploration and item collection, please come back by all means. Moreover, the eternal queen, Twilight Queen Lebra-sama expressly appeared “while scolding me” as she “wants to meet you”…』. The tone towards the end was blurred with anger…”

She’s angry? Or jealous? I don’t know, but she knows about the apples? Did she see them before?

“Okay, I have finished my task with this, so I shall take my leave――” While cackling once more, Hazes melted into his mantle.

A black umbrella sporadically appeared, moving away from us. Is that guy also able to transform into a black umbrella?

“Okay, for starters we’ll go back down, join up with Rebecca’s group, and then pull back.”

“Okay, I shall return into your eye, Your Excellency.”

“Roger.”

“The battle between Hoffmann and the divine forces is out of sight by now.”

While confirming how Helme appeared as a tiny version at the edge of my sight, “――Yeah. Also, I’m planning to salvage the remains of the aircraft, but could you help me together with Rotalz and Rollo?”

As might be expected, something so big won’t fit into my item bag. Well, I’ll try to stuff it in later, though.

“Yes, we will help. Rotalz.”

“Sure, count on me.”

We descended to the place near the lake. I still haven’t told them about Matabe, the semi-transparent warrior, but oh well, I think it’ll be alright.