105 - Chapter 31: The Demon King's Bag of Wisdom ~The Elf's Dual Pistols and the Scent of a Far-off Showa Era~
"Bwahaha! Curse you, you fallen dragon! You're a million years too early to think you could absorb me!!"
Exploding the mucus clinging to himself with magic, the True Ancestor vampire burst through the wall of flesh and emerged into a cavity.
Though parts of his body were being melted, Beosteral didn't seem to mind, weaving a black cloak of mana to drape around himself. His wounds were hissing and smoking, looking as if they were being dissolved by gastric juices, but in reality, it was rapid regeneration.
By the time he placed his palm against his chin and shook it from side to side, cracking his neck with a series of pops to check his condition, all his injuries had already fully healed. As always, he possessed an absurd, excessive level of durability.
Now then, it was time to bid farewell to this fishy place, he thought, and just as he began to walk, he spotted a familiar figure at the edge of his vision.
"Hm. Oh, if it isn't my ally. ...You aren't dead, are you?"
It was Gardel. Most of his body... specifically his limbs... had been melted, but his torso and head remained, and he was still breathing faintly. However, he was beyond half-dead, he was on his last breath. It was obvious that he would pass away not eventually, but within minutes.
Seeing this, Beosteral thought.
Even in the dark magic Beosteral excelled at, there were healing formulas equivalent to rescue magic, and he could use them, of course. However, they weren't particularly convenient, and most were specialized in assisting the natural healing power of the caster and the target.
There were regeneration formulas, but they lacked the output to regenerate lost limbs. At most, they could handle lost fingers, regenerating entire limbs was the domain of healing specialists.
Furthermore, Beosteral was a True Ancestor vampire, and since his own regeneration relied on racial traits, he was unskilled at such detailed techniques.
In that case, there was only one way to save Gardel, but...
"Against his will, huh."
That wasn't Beosteral's will. It would go against the life... the way of living... of the man known as Gardel Vertex. His wish was to perish as a loyal vassal, even if he failed to gain the understanding of his lord. He intended to let his life become nourishment for his master's growth and entrust the future of the country to him.
If that were the case, saving Gardel here would be nothing other than defiling his decision.
Even so.
"It can't be helped. There are things even I cannot compromise on. I had no intention of creating subordinates, but... I am an ally of the farmers, after all!"
Muttering this, Beosteral brought his face close to Gardel's neck and sank his fangs into the artery.
A nauseating taste of iron. Feeling a rejection so strong it almost overrode his instincts as a True Ancestor vampire, he did not swallow. Instead, he stirred mana and saliva in his mouth and sent it back into Gardel's bloodstream through his fangs.
Immediately, Gardel's body jerked and trembled violently. Despite being unconscious, his eyelids flew open, and his pupils dilated and contracted repeatedly. The next change was the regeneration of his lost limbs. Just as with Beosteral moments ago, they regenerated with a hissing smoke, as if time were flowing backward.
Vampirization... it was the manifestation of the absurd regeneration ability granted by becoming Beosteral's subordinate.
"Pah, pah. Blood tastes as barbaric as ever. I truly wish I never had to taste it in my life."
With a sour expression, Beosteral wiped his mouth with his sleeve and spat to mask the taste as much as possible. By the time the taste of blood had faded slightly, Gardel's limbs were completely regenerated, and he was sleeping with quiet breaths. His ally's non-human life was about to begin, but now was not the time for such thoughts.
"Now then, I'd like to escape this creepy place as soon as possible... but I wonder where I should go."
Taking a breath, Beosteral hoisted Gardel onto his shoulder and looked around. He didn't understand everything, but he remembered being swallowed by a giant creature that seemed to be Alberstein. Thus, he deduced that this was inside its stomach.
If that were the case...
"Well, I'll just blast my way through and I'll eventually get outside!"
Deciding that thinking was a waste of time, he unleashed dark magic.
"Nufuhaha! Tooo...!!"
Of course, this idiot had no way of knowing that this action would become a breakthrough... and a massive nuisance... for those fighting hard on the outside.
●
Meanwhile, in the great cavity beneath the royal capital... Geoglyph and Latia, who were waiting for the right timing while accessing the Spirit Tree Seikaleim...
"Dwowawawa! H-Help me!!"
Seeing Io falling from above along with a multitude of skeletal dragon soldiers, they realized what was happening.
Inside the royal capital, skeletal dragon soldiers born from Alberstein's scales were overflowing. One group must have entered the passage leading here and collided with Io, who was trying to escape. Since he had declared himself a non-combatant, there was no way he could fight and scatter them, so he had simply turned around and come back this way.
Bringing the skeletal dragon soldiers with him.
"Ah, geez, and I'm in the middle of something too."
"Leave this side to me!"
As Latia drew her magic gun from her waist with a click, Geoglyph looked at the number of skeletal dragon soldiers falling and thought.
(At a glance, two to three hundred... no, there are probably more following. A single magic gun might be tough.)
The ammunition for the magic gun he gave Latia was formed from mana, so it was effectively infinite, but there was only one muzzle. Considering the DPS, it was a bit worrying.
Therefore.
"It can't be helped. Lati!"
"This is...!"
Geoglyph threw another magic gun, which he had taken from his storage magic, to Latia.
"I made it in my spare time on the way. Your birthday is this month, right? A bit early, but it's a present."
"Geo...!!"
"Oops?"
Overwhelmed with emotion, she hugged him from behind. Geoglyph, with both hands still directed toward the Spirit Tree, gave a wry smile and tried to speak, but...
"S-Stop flirting and please help me!!"
He was immediately pulled back to reality.
"What is that person saying, coming back with a skeletal dragon soldier train? Honestly."
That said, Latia was the only one who could fight properly in the current situation. If he could at least confirm the situation above and the total number of skeletal dragon soldiers avalanching down, Geoglyph could join in and annihilate them quickly, but as long as it was unpredictable, seizing control of Seikaleim took priority.
Hence.
"Then, I'm counting on you to watch my back, Magic Bullet Sharpshooter."
"Leave it to me. Yes, I remember the catchphrase you taught me perfectly."
When he praised her to boost her mood (or rather, egged her on), she perked up her ears and showed a determined face. Then, she opened the cylinder of the magic gun once.
"Light Attribute Enchant [Enchant Wisp]."
With a mutter, she closed the cylinder with a flick of her wrist. Then, she held both magic guns, opening her arms to take a stance.
There was nothing at the tip of those muzzles, and it didn't look like she was aiming at any enemy, but...
"O spirits of light, lend me your strength [Awakening]."
With that mutter, spheres of light appeared throughout the great cavity. They also appeared at the tips of the muzzles she held.
And then.
"Trigger... Happy!!"
Simultaneously with the catchphrase (signal), Latia fired her guns wildly toward the spheres of light.
Beams of light erupted from the magic guns, and it seemed they would hit Io, who was falling from the sky, but...
"Hie... eh?"
The suddenly appearing spheres of light blocked the beams, changing their angle and protecting him.
That wasn't all. With hard clicking sounds, the beams being fired wildly were blocked and their angles changed, guiding them toward the skeletal dragon soldiers. Every single shot of the barrage was guided, penetrating and reflecting over and over, creating afterimages like a lattice cage of light.
It was a spirit-based ricochet.
Magic guns have an attribute enchantment ability. While it requires using a compatible magic stone or incorporating attribute magic or spirit arts as Latia just did, it is a multi-action function that can adapt to any environment.
In addition, utilizing the spirit trait that allows a certain degree of interference with other formulas of the same attribute, she was performing a curved shot by bouncing light-attribute magic bullets off the spirits of light.
As a result, a hellscape resembling a bullet-hell shooter unfolded in the air of the great cavity.
Not satisfied with that, Latia poured mana into the magic guns to reload and fired immediately. She added more lines of fire, increasing the density of the barrage and steadily closing off any place to escape.
Geoglyph, who was following the skeletal dragon soldiers being literally ground to powder as they fell, thought to himself.
(Using spirits as reflectors for curved shots to create a bullet hell... isn't that cheating in a confined space...?)
That aside, dual pistols for an elf is just pure romance! He was secretly excited. This man was also quite impossible.
Just as he thought he wouldn't have a turn and turned his consciousness toward Seikaleim, he suddenly felt a disconnection of power from the Spirit Tree he was accessing.
"Ah. The path was cut. I wonder if Marie did something."
No.
In reality, it was the result of Beosteral, who was thoughtlessly and inconsiderately unleashing dark magic to escape from inside Alberstein, happening to destroy the organ responsible for transmission and reception.
Naturally, Geoglyph had no way of knowing this and decided to concentrate on his own work regardless.
"Hmm..."
However, he hit a wall immediately.
(For now, I've created a detour and stepped down the voltage via a bypass, but I can't isolate just the transmission and reception function. If I don't stop the function here, Alberstein will just reconnect, so I have to crush it quickly... ah, no. I need to make an additional resistor or it'll short-circuit from excess mana. I've already connected things all over the place, so just rewiring it won't work... what should I do?)
While managing the circuit diagram in his head, Geoglyph faced a physical problem. By stopping the function of the transmitter-receiver, the mana being used there would have nowhere to go, so he needed to find a way to contain it.
In the case of magic tools, reconfiguration is possible during the design stage, but Seikaleim is a plant... in other words, it's already a finished product. He was rewiring the internal connections while it was still running without dismantling it, and he certainly didn't have any additional parts on hand.
In that case.
"Alright."
Finally making up his mind, Geoglyph imagined the action, swinging the Sovereignty of the Night Sky in his hand down toward Seikaleim several times.
Yes, the cut is 45 degrees to the right. My grandmother in my previous life used to say that most broken appliances are fixed this way.
And then.
"Seiya!!"
As a result of striking with all his might and the Demon King's mana at full power, the trunk of the Spirit Tree went bonk and dented.
It looked like that on the surface, but inside, a greater effect was produced. A distorted circuit was created in the dented part, which acted as a resistor to dissipate the excess mana, meaning it no longer short-circuited even after the transmission and reception functions were stopped.
"Yeah, this hand really is the best."
Nodding with a satisfied face at the result, Geoglyph stopped the Spirit Tree's transmission and reception functions, and with this, the Spirit Dragon Alberstein lost its inexhaustible healing power.
●
And inside Alberstein's stomach... Marianne and Shannon, who were descending the narrow esophagus as if going down a spiral staircase on Ipos, encountered someone along the way.
"Shannon!"
"Lumilia-sama!"
They joined Lumilia, who had become a palm-sized fairy and was ascending toward Alberstein's mouth.
"Thank goodness, I'm glad you're safe..."
"Shannon..."
"This is just too precious...! I'd like to say that, but w-we don't have time for that right now! Ipos! Ascend!!"
Shannon hugged Lumilia in relief, but Marianne, seeing the gastric juices rising like a geyser right below her, following Lumilia, made a face and immediately gave orders to Ipos.
The shadow swallow mascot [Ipos] followed its master's instructions, flapping its wings to ascend, but the rising gastric juices showed no sign of stopping their momentum. On the contrary, they were accelerating.
"What a nuisance of a reflux esophagitis this is!?"
They had no way of knowing, but this was because a certain True Ancestor vampire was rampaging inside the body.
The interior of the ailing Alberstein was taking the reflex action of vomiting gastric juices, so rather than reflux esophagitis, it was now just plain vomit.
Ipos, also hating the idea of being covered in vomit, flapped its wings with a desperate expression to escape.
And then.
"! We're breaking through...!"
At the end, finding the blue sky and sunlight through Alberstein's palate, Ipos dove in... and it was immediately after that.
'Huh?'
Beyond Alberstein's palate... that is, in the middle of Ipos's path, a black sphere like a black hole appeared. About ten meters in diameter, it was larger than Ipos's wingspan, large enough to swallow them whole.
Unable to decelerate due to the suddenness, Ipos, carrying Marianne and the others, plunged into the sphere.
Next time, next week.