Chapter 665 - Chapter Seven: Above the Demon Lord's Temple ④
Just in case, I had the Priestess and Fiona merge.
"Henry-sama, excuse me. Please show me your sword. The blade part."
I illuminated the silver sword he drew with a Firefly and looked at it very closely.
I solidified the image firmly. I managed to make a rod when fighting the Kraken. Now I am a full-fledged ultra-high-level. If I have confidence, I can do it. I should be able to.
It won't go well from the start. In fact, the first thing I made was something like a board. I'll need practice. Since I can't hold my breath at full power, I practiced several times at a basic level. On the fifth try, I made something close to the image, so from there, while comparing it with the sword, I adjusted the length, adjusted the width, adjusted the shape, and turned it into a sword. Having held that image firmly and telling myself I could do it, I released it at full power on the sixth try. I can correct the fine details later.
"Light!"
When I released it while staring intently at the sword... a sword emitting light was created!
"How is it!"
I handed it to Henry-sama. Everyone was surprised.
How's that! Even if I look like this, I'm ultra-high-level.
"Ho ho. It's nice and light. I can't feel any weight at all."
He's swinging it around with a swish-swish.
"L-Let me see!"
That vibe is the Priestess.
Eleanor-sama took it in her hand.
"I-It's light."
I thought so, I thought so. It's much lighter than silver.
Harold-sama was also looking at it in his hand.
"There's no sharpness to the edge. Since it has no weight, this won't cut anything. Won't it break?"
He's touching the edge with his fingertip. I messed up. Since I've never held a real one, I didn't know. Even for knives and kitchen knives used in cooking, I left it to Matilda and Bonnie.
I asked to touch Henry-sama's sword. A sensation as if it would cut just by touching it remained on my fingertip.
I reproduced the sensation that remained on my fingertip on the edge of the Light sword. From the tip to near the base, and it's double-edged. There's a groove in the middle of the blade, but since I was told it's unnecessary if the opponent is stone, I omitted that. Instead, I concentrated on increasing the sharpness of the edge part.
"H-How is it?"
I'm quite tired. Did I concentrate too much?
"Hmm. It looks usable."
"It looks like it'll cut."
Yes! I got the passing grade from the two former heroes. Let's try what we can.
"So we'll cut the stone with this."
"No, not yet. I'll strengthen it with Holy. As it is, it'll probably bend."
This is the point. Since I'm the only priest, it'll be scrolls, but I should be able to strengthen it with several Holy Lances.
Eleanor-sama, sensing this, brought out two of her own. When she instructed Will and Bonnie, it became eight in total, and Harold-sama added two more. As expected of royalty and high nobility. They're usually penniless, but they do it when it counts. With ten, it can be strengthened considerably, and the hand holding the sword shouldn't get burned.
When we all fired Holy Lances at once toward the light sword Henry-sama held high, the sword shone even more brilliantly.
Will had one Defend scroll, so she tried casting it just to see. I didn't really know, but according to Henry-sama, who did a practice swing, it became harder. Fortunately, it seems to have improved.
According to Henry-sama, a sword needs both softness and hardness, but I don't know the balance. I'll try experimenting with Matilda next time.
"Then, shall we try?"
When Henry-sama took a stance with the light sword, which had become quite hot, he slashed at the wall with speed invisible to the eye.
"Kiiin!"
Along with a sound that made my spine tingle, a huge crack... or rather, a single line ran diagonally.
It cut!
It broke through the reinforcement by magic. As expected of the sword of light.
"I've never seen anything cut this well."
"Umu. Even a sword made by a dwarf might find it difficult."
The two former heroes were staring at the light sword.
"It's a wonderful piece of work. The feel is good too. However, the sharpness is a bit too much."
Eh? Is that how it is?
Henry-sama said that because it's light, he can produce speed. However, because it cuts too well, it's not enough to break the wall. Since it has no weight, he said it's better if it doesn't cut just a tiny bit when slashing and breaking things like walls.
I didn't know that at all. It's not that I can't adjust it, but if I aim for the optimum, how much time will it take...
"Then, shall we use Dark? Let's attach a club made of Dark to the tip of a spear and swing it around. After Henry-san puts as many cuts as possible with the sword Jeanne made, we can just bash it. Things that can't be done because they're too precise can be done if you do them roughly."
The Priestess offered a helping hand. It might be good. Since it's for hitting, it doesn't need that much hardness. The same level as a shield would be enough.
As a result of the consultation, the ultra-high-level Lyudmila would make the club, and while the Priestess supported it on Will's spear, they would fix it by winding it round and round with Harold-sama's silver thread. The one swinging it would be Will, merged with the Priestess.
"I'll do it with my spiritual pressure (T/N: A reference to the manga 'Bleach') put into it."
I don't know the source of the Priestess's joke, but it's probably fine since it was well-received by the delinquent old men.
"Then, shall we do it!"
"Yes!"
"Anytime is fine."
Pale blue flames erupted from Will's body.
The pale blue flames reached the Dark club at the tip of the spear, and a club emitting blue-black flames was completed. Perhaps if Mold could be used, it could have been strengthened, but there's no user. Instead, she strengthened it with the spiritual power of a ghost. Being dark magic to begin with, how should I put it, a quite impressive club was completed.
"In good shape, in good shape. After all, I absorbed spiritual power back there. Power is surging!"
With a grunt of breath, the pale blue flames rose quite high and spread as if burning the ceiling. It's on par with the combined technique of the Queen of the border and the Lord we faced once upon a time.
"Amazing..."
Fiona, who knows the full power of the Queen of the border, gasped.
Is the current Priestess that amazing?
"Alright!"
Fiona was making a guts pose. She had absorbed it herself. She must have a similar feeling.
"Uoryaaaaaaa!"
First was Henry-sama.
He slashed with speed invisible to the eye... or so he's probably doing. Looking from behind, he just looks like he's jumping sideways from left to right toward the front wall. When he landed, shadows, or rather afterimages, were flashing in front of his body, so I think he's slashing. As proof, long lines were appearing one after another.
Next was the club team.
"Then, here we go."
"Let's do it!"
This time, it's a one-person-two-roles act with quite different characters, but let's say they're complementing each other.
"Seiya!"
When Will swung the spear with the club attached wide, along with the shout, she slammed it against the wall with a gwan!
Cracks like a spider's web appeared with a bishi-bishi. It looks like it'll work.
"Seiya!"
This time it was a side blow.
The center of the spider's web began to shatter, and fragments flew.
"Seiya!"
One more hit.
The center part began to crumble with a gara-gara.
She repeated it four, five, six, seven times. The middle part was crumbling and deeply gouged.
"This is the finish! Uooooooo!"
For the eighth time, she held the end of the spear with both hands and swung it bun-bun over her head several times, and at the same time as she stepped forward with her left foot, she dropped her hips as if sinking and went to bash it.
The blue-black flames that were trailing in a circle accelerated all at once toward the wall.
"Dokan!"
A roar similar to an explosion echoed, and along with the sound of the wall crumbling gara-gara, thick dust billowed up.
"Did we do it?"
At Harold-sama's voice, I opened my eyes. A large hole was opened in the wall that Henry-sama and Will had challenged. It was a good thing the room was large and reinforced with magic, but if it had been the size of a small shrine, the ceiling might have collapsed. That's how brilliantly it was crumbled. A large amount of rubble was rolling on the other side of the hole.
Since it was dark beyond the wall, I had Henry-sama hold the light sword he was carrying over his head like a light source.
"There's nothing."
Indeed, there was nothing. Only a white stone-paved floor could be seen. Beyond that was pitch darkness. Henry-sama also looked at a loss. It might not have been necessary to go through the trouble of breaking it.
She put the spear with the Dark club outside the room, but nothing in particular happened.
Harold-sama threw a fragment of the wall, but it just rolled koro-koro on the floor.
"Hmm. It seems to be fine. I'll go take a look for a bit."
Saying so, he went outside taking Bonnie with him. He's looking around, but there seems to be no particular danger. Just when I thought he turned left, he came out from the right. He must have done a lap.
He's beckoning us to come, so we all go out of the room.
Where we are is like a stone-paved square. It's surrounded by a semi-circular black mist. Even though there are no lights, the white stone pavement can be seen. The room was darker. It's about twenty or thirty paces to the mist.
Just in case, I released Dark and Light alternately at full power, but there was no change.
"Isn't this place the opposite side? Until now, we were inside a stone box made within it."
It's probably as the Priestess says. We all did a lap around the box, but it was the same. I feel like we're back to square one.
I feel like there's only one path left.
"We have no choice but to go through that mist to the other side."
As I thought, it comes to that.
"Hey, Jeanne. Are we going beyond that mist?"
Lyudmila asked anxiously. She pulled my sleeve, so we moved a little away from the others.
"There might be no other way."
"You should stop. I have a very bad feeling about it. It's scary."
"You have a bad feeling?"
"Yeah."
A bad feeling. Lyudmila has had a strangely sharp intuition since she was a little girl when her abilities were sealed. Now, although she's still growing, her abilities have been released. She might have sensed something.
"Eleanor-sama, excuse me, do you have a moment?"
"What is it?"
Eleanor-sama came. The Priestess, who is merged with her, is also with her. Of course, Fiona, who is merged with me, is also there.
"We should be cautious about going beyond that mist."
"Why?"
The Priestess was the one who replied.
"Lyudmila says she has a bad feeling."
She fell silent for a moment.
"I see. If Lyudmila thinks so, it might be dangerous."
I've told the Priestess that Lyudmila is a Vampire Quarter. It's because she noticed Lyudmila wasn't just a human during a banquet. Thinking it better than hiding it poorly, I confirmed with Eleanor-sama and Lyudmila, and after making a Vow of Silence, I told her about Lyudmila's background.
"Then, what shall we do? I could go out scouting, knowing it's dangerous."
"Let's think about that a little more before we do."
"Ah, that's right. What was the third experiment Jeanne mentioned?"
Now that I think about it, there was such a thing. Actually, there were only two I wanted to try, and I just added one I thought of on the spot to get the Priestess's attention.
"The third one, I'm not very confident about..."
"You say that as if you were confident about the two we actually did."
I have no comeback for that.
"So, what is it?"
"Um, I was wondering about simultaneous activation of Light and Dark..."
"Simultaneous activation?"
"Yes. The Priestess and I merge and release them at the same time."
The source of the idea is Testament. The harmony of light and darkness. Since it's harmony, there must be no order. And I think there must be no difference in strength.
The Priestess is high-level, but she powered up by absorbing spiritual power. It might work. Besides, this place was probably made by the Demon Lord. And considering the circumstances so far, there's a possibility the Demon Lord can use both light and dark magic. I don't know by what method, but at least, if the Priestess and I merge, we might be able to do it.
"Is it possible?"
"It's an experiment because we don't know, right?"
"That's true too."
It seems she agreed. Lyudmila also smiled and took my hand.
"Then, I will give the signal, so you two please shout in unison with it."
Everyone was connected by a single rope. At the front was Eleanor-sama merged with Fiona, and second was me merged with the Priestess. Below that, Lyudmila was in the middle, and Harold-sama and the bowl user were at the very back, prepared for when we were thrown into the air.
The Priestess merged with me and put her head out from my right shoulder to shout. We raised both hands and prepared for full power. Since it's a sudden performance, we don't know what will happen, but surely it won't explode. In fact, the sword of light and the club of darkness were able to coexist.
"Then, here we go. Three, two, one, now!"
We shouted at the same time. I was Light, and the Priestess was Dark. Since we both raised our hands, we were both at full power.
When we actually released it, a two-colored vortex of white mist and black haze was created between our hands raised above our heads.
So it becomes like this...
The vortex grew larger and larger, growing like a Prominence.
DOOOOOOOOON!
Suddenly, a sound like the earth rumbling echoed, and my vision blurred.
At the same time, it became pitch black. We did it!
I felt the sensation of my body falling, and for a moment, I felt a chill.
It's bright! I can see the forest! We escaped!
Just as I thought that, the Priestess and Fiona released pale blue flames from their whole bodies, and the falling speed decreased. Naturally, Eleanor-sama at the front was at the very top, and Harold-sama, who was at the very back, was at the very bottom.
"Wind Barrier!"
Voices could be heard from above and below. At the same time, we fell into the bowl in order from the bottom with a dosa-dosa. The bowl tilted, and as soon as we fell, it slid backward.
"Gueee!"
I could hear the scream of Harold-sama, who was pinned underneath. I did cast Defend to make it hard, but he can still feel pain. We planned to make a long bowl and fit everyone in a line, but because it tilted from the weight of Harold-sama and Henry-sama, it didn't go well. After all, it's the first time. As expected, experiments are difficult.