Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku - Book 17: Chapter 31

onMonday, September 9, 2019zweindrei

Satou here. There’s this term Normalcy Bias. An unconscious and unfounded belief that you alone “will be fine”, regardless of warnings given by others in times of disaster.

And, even in another world–.

◇

“Simultaneous terror acts all over the world–”

Arisa muttered with a look of anxiety on her face.

Monster stampedes have begun from purple towers all over the world.

“We should have destroyed all those purple towers if we knew this would happen.”

“Arisa-chan, you can’t say that.”

“Yes, besides, a new tower got immediately rebuilt right after Master destroyed one.”

Hikaru and Liza said that to Arisa.

“Well you may be right, but you know, it could have at least lessened demon god’s divinity, right?”

“Arisa, regretting can come after saving the world.”

I bopped Arisa’s head.

Besides, the gods would have dispatched their apostles to destroy the towers if doing so would really lessen Demon God’s divinity, and even if they wouldn’t do it to save their powers, they could have at least sent oracles to mobilize their believers.

“First of all, let’s go around all towers in Shiga Kingdom. We’ll work to stop the stampedes swiftly.”

After declaring that, I first took everyone to the purple tower in the capital’s suburb with Unit Arrangement.

“> Claiomh Solais!”

“Magic Edge Cannon~?” “Rapid fire nanodesu!”

“Diffusive Acceleration Cannon, shooting through one magic circle!”

The moment we teleported in, the girls quickly got to work and annihilated vanguard monsters that flowed out of the tower.

“No resistance at all.”

“Looks like only lower floor monsters are coming out of the towers.”

Arisa and princess Sistina gave their impressions while watching over the other girls.

“Satou-san, wouldn’t it be wiser if we split up?”

“I’m of the same opinion. Even if by any chance we get captured by demon god, so long as Satou-san immediately take us back like you did with Aze-sama, I believe it’s not necessary to band together.”

Zena-san and Sera weighed in as well.

“I got it. Let’s split up.”

While saying that, I produced little clones of myself using True Ninjutsu which I had acquired during the past half year and slipped them inside the girls’ shadows. These little clones aren’t much, but they’re pretty good at detecting things and alarms.

I can adapt to any situation now.

◇

“We shan’t let you destroy our Lulu’s Orchard!”

“Marquis Lloyd, don’t forget about the tomato fields!”

“Indeed indeed, it is as Earl Houen said.”

“You two, please back away. Leave the defense to us Oyugock Knights.”

At the Duchy Capital where Sera teleported into, some noblemen and knights were arguing about something on top of the city’s rampart.

I don’t even have to look to know that the noblemen are the glutton nobles, Marquis Lloyd and Earl Houen.

I’m sure they’re trying to protect the orchards and fields located between the tower and the city.

Even if they have access to City Core terminals, they’re being reckless here.

“Everyone, please be at ease. Hero Nanashi’s attendant, Silver Knight Holy will take care of monsters coming out of the tower.”

Sera in silver armor spoke to the populace from the sky above the rampart.

She then went on toward the tower without waiting for reply.

The vanguard monsters haven’t reached the rampart thanks to several trenches situated between the tower and the city, obstructing their march.

“As expected of grandfather.”

Sera praised her grandfather who gave the instructions to dig out those trenches and stayed still waiting for the leading monsters to enter her range.

『An order from Duke Oyugock. All hands, fall back to the rampart at once.』

I gave the order to retreat to the territorial army still in the battlefield while apologizing to Duke Oyugock in my mind.

Sera hid those soldiers with her [Hermit Hide] Unique Skill to prevent them getting attacked during the retreat.

“> Sacred Attendants!”

Silvery pieces separate out of Sera’s armor and turn into geometrical objects before floating around her.

Unlike the previous silver armor, the number of [Sacred Attendants] has seen a huge increase due to further development of dimensional storage techs.

I could faintly hear commotion from people on top of the rampart who witnessed the glittering lights.

“> Sacred Attendants!”

Waves of purification with tinges of blue light shot out of the countless objects, pushing the vanguard monsters back.

Several of those monsters turned into dust as they bathed in waves of purification, perhaps due to their higher dependence on miasma compared to ordinary monsters.

This is a nice find.

I’ll mass produce this system and distribute it to every city later.

“> Sacred Attendants!”

This one is a new function added this time.

By resonating with Sera’s chant, those objects can deploy up to mid-level holy magic over a wide area.

“■■■ >”

The magic Sera recited with Chant Shortening skill gets resonantly duplicated by [Sacred Attendants] that have filled the sky, raining spears of light down the earth.

The carpet bombing-like attack pierced the vanguard monsters’ bodies, gouging the earth.

The resulting cloud of dust hid those monsters from view.

That should have taken care of most of those monsters, but since the little clone doesn’t have Menu, Map and Radar functions, I wait for results from within Sera’s shadow.

Sera didn’t think it would have annihilated all of them herself, she had already chanted the next spell.

–ＶＷＡＮＧＧＧＧＧＧＧＥＹＲ.

Several gigantic figures blew away the cloud of dust and roared loudly toward the sky.

Delaying the magic she just chanted, Sera looked down at the giants.

“I figured there would be survivors.”

After muttering that, Sera holds her holy wand on her chest like praying.

“Sacred Retribution!”

Sera’s delayed magic homed in on the surviving monsters.

What originally supposed to be a ritual magic was made possible to invoke thanks to the support of geometrical objects floating around Sera.

No, that was with the previous armor.

With the resonating spell duplication function, its power has been amplified multiple times over the original now.

–ＶＶＶＶＶＷＡＮＧ.

The vanguard monsters crumbled into gray sands before vanishing into the dust.

“Annihilation done. I didn’t even get a chance to use that secret ceremony I went the trouble to learn. And now I just need to seal the tower’s entrance with that item Satou-san gave me and go to the next tower.”

Although I was worried about her most in term of fighting prowess, it seems like she’ll be fine.

I transferred my consciousness to the next little clone.

◇

“Golem unit two and three, fortify your encirclement. Do not let even one monster escape! Unit one, charge in the moment those vanguard monsters stop their march. Cull down enemy ranks with ranged attacks while you wait for the hidden unit zero’s ambush.”

–ＭＶＡ.

–ＭＶＡ.

–ＭＶＡ.

–ＭＶＡ.

The golems’ affirmations resounded on the battlefield.

Princess Sistina is issuing orders to the golems through the Thousand Throne installed in an armored airship standing by in a satellite city closest to the capital.

It’s a huge army consisting of level 40 six meter class soldier golems as the main force and level 50 nine meter class knight golems.

The soldier golems are for hunting mobs, while the golem knights have been equipped for one-on-one battles.

The monsters flowing out of the towers are getting pulverized by the golem army.

I kinda feel sorry for those monsters instead.

Since there doesn’t seem to be any problem here, I transferred my consciousness to the next little clone.

◇

“BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURNING CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE desuwa.”

Fashioning her right fist clad in flames like a spear, Lady Karina charged straight into a crowd of monsters and mowed them down.

Her technique fits like a glove to her fighting game-like character.

That flame-like thing appears to be a transformed form of Raka’s scaly shields.

『Karina-dono, the enemy will surround us at this rate.』

“It’s okay desuwa! Let’s use that, Raka-san.”

『That, is it… I think it consumes a bit too much mana, but if that’s what Karina-dono wishes for, I won’t object.』

Lady Karina stimulates her own mana and fully opens her silver armor’s Sacred Stone Furnace.

It’s a reckless act for a clumsy girl like her, but control is made possible thanks to her partner, Raka the [Intelligent Item].

『> Rending Force Full Armor!』

A whirlpool of red light manifests below Lady Karina.

『> Rending Force Gauntlet!』

Whirlpools of lights gather on Lady Karina’s spread arms, dazzling lights wrap around her body.

Looking closer, those lights are the same kind as Raka-made scaly shields.

『> Rending Force Mantle!』

The monsters crowding around Lady Karina rushed toward her all at once.

There’s no fear to be found on Lady Karina’s face even after witnessing that.

She calls out her partner as she grins.

“Let’s do this, Raka-san!”

『–Umu. > Rending Force Armor.』

Lady Karina began to spin like a spinning top with both her arms still spread open.

Her speed gradually rose, lights overflowing out of her body turned into a whirlpool that quickly grew into a tornado.

The rushing monsters got swallowed up inside that tornado.

The tornado razed all over the battlefield, turning great many monsters into dust.

I was worried about Lady Karina getting dizzy, but apparently she had overcome that already, she was fine.

『Karina-dono, it appears several big ones still remain.』

“I know desuwa.”

Lady Karina ran up the eye of the tornado, and caught a giant monster still surviving despite wounds all over its body in her sight.

“Raka-san, the usual one please.”

『Umu. > Rending Force Full Armor!』

Lady Karina took a flying kick stance as she fell down in a dazzling light coming from the Scripture recited by Raka.

『> Rending Force Full Armor!!』

“KUNGFU KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK”

Lady Karina in tens times gravity through Gravity Control rapidly accelerated like a speeding meteorite.

–ＶＶＶＶＶＷＡＮＧ.

The hyperspeed Lady Karina’s kick smashed one of the giant monsters into pieces.

“It’s not over yeeeeeeeeeeeet desuwa.”

『> Supersonic Full Armor!』

Lady Karina move in to combo.

Moving at Ground Shrink speed, she rapidly let loose series of kicks on giant monsters one after another, turning all that that stood in her path into dust.

And the last one received a powerful kick in the body, turning its body into a <>

“Now desuwa!”

『> Rending Force Gauntlet!』

“KUNGFU UPPEEEEEEEEEEEEER!”

A jumping uppercut from crouching position crushed the giant monster’s jaw and broke its head into pieces.

I’m a bit intrigued by Lady Karina’s transformation into a fighting game character, but she looks like she’ll be fine with Raka around.

Since there doesn’t seem to be any problem here, I change to another little clone.

◇

The situation seemed to differ a bit at Seryu Earldom’s capital.

“Yukel, over there!”

“Leave it to me, Auna-sama! WOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Zena-san’s little brother, Yukel-kun who got highly motivated by his wife’s cheering cut down a mid-sized monster with one slash of his holy sword.

“Men! We ain’t gonna lose to knight Yukel!”

“Resume march! We’ll show those demon god’s troops our Seryuu spirits!”

After the so-called strongest knight of Seryuu City, Baron Kigori roused the soldiers, the knights including knight Soun began issuing orders to the soldiers.

Though the soldiers weren’t able to cut down the monsters with each stroke of their weapons like Yukel, they manage to gain an upper hand against the vanguard monsters despite their superiority in numbers.

Seryuu Earldom’s soldiers are elite units, but that’s not all there is to it.

This is by and largely thanks Zena-san.

Mimicking Nana, Zena-san has fused the Unique Skill given to her by god Heraruon, [Saint Prey] with her ranged wind magic to create [Saint Army].

The fusion of Unique Skill and her magic resulted in the monsters being unable to exert their strength while Seryuu Earldom’s forces getting strengthened instead.

The power up is extraordinary and, according to Seryuu Earldom court magicians, even approaching the effect of the lost force magic [Hero Play].

“Thunder Geezer! Some big ones are coming!”

“Oh these look like they’ll give some challenge.”

An elderly mage with a long white beard replied to Earl Seryuu.

“Then, I shall–”

“No, attendant-dono, keep up reinforcing our soldiers from here. Let me take care of these.”

The elderly mage stopped Zena-san as she was about to jump out.

“I just hope you old bone don’t get too excited and endanger yourself instead…”

“Hmph, Ice huh. We ain’t even ten years apart.”

“Fufufu, ten years are long enough. Allow me the honor of first strike. ■■■■ ■■…”

The old woman brandished a wand furnished with an ice crystal gem as she recited an advanced level ice magic.

“Make sure our army out of yer’ spell range.”

At the white beard old mage’s warning, the old woman complained back with her eyes.

“Goes without saying eh–”

Following after her, the elderly mage also brandished a wand furnished with a lightning crystal gem and began to chant lightning magic forbidden spell.

“■■■■■■ Freezing Hell (Cocytus)”

A torrent of snow and ice unleashed from above the rampart imprisoned giant and mid-sized vanguard monsters that just came out of tower inside ice.

Zena-san murmured, “I had no idea the magic store shopkeeper was such an amazing mage.”

That reminds me, this person did sell me some dragon scales long time ago.

“…■■■■ Thunderclap Hell (Keraunos).”

Dark clouds covered the sky before lightnings rain down incessantly upon the earth.

Even Yukel and the others stopped moving at the excessive roars and flashes.

“Amazing as always.”

“Nah, one managed to get out of it.”

A tattered gigantic figure came out of a cloud of dust produced by the lightning rain.

It’s an above level 60 >.

“Attendant-dono, could you handle this one?”

“Yes, please leave it to me.”

Zena-san clad her silver armor in wind and flew in the sky.

“… ■■■■■ Tempest”

It’s a wind magic exclusive to her implanted from the finishing move of Mia’s garuda.

The Giant Vanguard was enclosed in a cage of raging winds, its body got utterly cut apart by vacuum blades before disappearing into mist.

“Perhaps I should have used an attack magic that requires less mana.”

She was probably inspired by the mighty magic the two old mages showed off.

As I enjoyed a rare side of Zena-san, I focused to transfer my consciousness to the little clone accompanying Pochi next.

『–It’s here.』

I got a warning from the little clone I had dispatched to Aze-san.

Looks like Demon God went straight for Aze-san.

I concentrated on the place where Aze-san was.

※ Next update is planned for 9/15