Chapter 168: But Then The Bus Flipped Over (2)
Iona’s bus had flipped over.
But that didn’t mean it was a disaster.
To be honest, it wasn’t an absolutely dire situation right now.
A lord-class vampire capable of toying with an archbishop alone, and could win against a cardinal after a bit of a struggle.
That was Iona.
It wasn’t for no reason that I solely relied on Iona and timidly followed her.
Iris also knew well about Iona’s strength, so she wasn’t too worried.
Which was why this couldn’t be called the worst situation.
One cardinal and seven archbishops. And there were about a dozen bishops, filling the area with an undead army that could bring down a large city in an instant…
But ‘I’ would be fine.
With Iona’s power, we could keep up a fight on equal footing for quite a while.
So, I wasn’t the one in danger. It was Iona who had decided to risk her life.
“I’ll hold them off here, so go!”
A voice unlike usual, mixed with oppression and allure.
I forcibly suppressed my legs, which twitched to move on their own at Iona’s words. Then, I quickly scanned the front.
The first thing I saw was a woman walking with a limp due to missing an arm. Behind her, the faces of mid-bosses I recognized were densely packed.
Undead bursting from the ground and fishermen crawling from the sea in the distance were just a bonus.
Once again, I carefully looked at the woman standing in front… Despite it being my first time seeing her, her face strangely felt familiar.
She seemed to be in her late 20s. Unusually for her appearance, her strikingly white hair was impressive, like an old woman’s.
However, the familiar dark red light emanating from her pupils added a slight sense of dissonance.
Though it was my first time seeing her in person… It was easy for me to recognize her facial features.
It was Ayla.
The Cardinal of Intolerance, and Iona’s younger sister, whom she so desperately wanted to kill, must be this woman.
“What are you doing?! Go already!”
“Ah.”
Perhaps frustrated by my brief hesitation, Iona lightly waved her hand.
As if grabbed by an invisible hand by the nape, my body was forcibly pulled away.
Telekinesis magic?
Carla and Elisha, seemingly in a similar situation, were bewildered as they tumbled into the grass side by side.
In a moment, Iona and I were easily 10 meters apart.
Between us, a massive amount of magical power rose up like a wall.
As if pushing us away, or perhaps preventing the enemies from reaching us.
Iona glanced back at us from beyond the translucent red barrier.
Her atmosphere, exuding allure just by breathing, was unfamiliar. Yet, the smirk on her face was filled with familiar mischief.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. This isn’t running away; You’re going to call for reinforcements. If Yandel comes quickly, I can survive too, so please do. Got it?”
“……”
A lie so thin it couldn’t deceive a child.
Going to call for reinforcements? Where to?
Going to some mediocre village wouldn’t make any sense. And there wouldn’t be any decent communication magic tools available.
Then, how long would it take to run to the nearest city from here, a remote port village?
Even using magic, it wouldn’t be possible to arrive in just a few hours.
Countless thoughts came and went in my head. Each could counter Iona’s clumsy lie.
But I couldn’t respond to any of them.
I didn’t know what to say or what I wanted to say.
I was just frozen, overwhelmed by the weight of the emotions contained in Iona’s last words—her gaze, her smile, all of it.
Carla dragged me away. To the opposite side of Iona.
One step. Two steps. Three steps.
Once inertia took hold, my legs moved on their own without needing to be led.
I glanced back briefly, but all I could see was Iona, exhaling a short breath from behind.
Somehow, her appearance, which seemed to be relieved, brought to mind the words I wanted to say too late.
But it was already too late.
She was too far away. Even if I shouted from here, Iona wouldn’t hear me.
Above all, blood-colored magical light was blazing above Iona’s raised, pale hand.
“Snap out of it, Master! This way, quickly!”
Pulled by a warm hand, I inadvertently turned forward. Then, a loud explosion resounded.
Boom!
A gust of hot air from behind twisted my body involuntarily.
The scale of the shock was different from any loud noise.
It was said that low-grade magic could easily harm a person.
Intermediate magic could annihilate a well-organized veteran party, and high-grade magic could bring down a fortress.
What level of magic had Iona just used? And what about the cultists who were still intact and burning with hostility after being hit?
What was certain was that it was too soon for me to intervene.
“……”
Was it because I felt like I was hit in the back of the head by the shockwave? My mind, which had been cluttered, felt as if it had been calmly washed away.
I discarded all the plans I had up to that moment and started from scratch.
It wasn’t necessary to go all the way to the academy or a nearby city to request reinforcements.
I immediately took out a crystal connected to Iris from my inventory and infused it with magic.
Click. Crackle.
Unfortunately, the crystal only reflected my face on its smooth surface and did not emit Iris’s voice. All I heard was indistinguishable noise.
Well, it made sense. If spatial movement was blocked, communication methods wouldn’t be left untouched either.
Of course, there was still a way. If I break the crystal, Iris would come to find me, no matter where I was or what situation I was in.
“Gasp!”
Crash!
Throwing the crystal on the ground, rainbow smoke rose from its fragments.
Judging by the energy it exuded, this wasn’t ordinary smoke but a form of mana.
Carla exclaimed in surprise as she saw the smoke, which was unhindered by anything and stretched up to the sky.
“Master! If you break that here…!”
“Since spatial movement is blocked anyway, she can’t come directly. We don’t even know how far the barrier extends.”
“But…”
“And even if Iris comes alone, it’ll be tough. It’s much better to take the fact that teleportation is blocked as a warning.”
Iris was much smarter than me. She’d surely catch on to my warning and come fully prepared.
For example, asking for help from the professors of the academy or the United Divine Orders.
If I would use my name and reveal the fact that she was my slave, it could definitely be done.
In the meantime, we must move as far away from here as possible and secure safety…
Whoong.
Just as I was thinking that, the air around me suddenly became unusually heavy.
It felt like resistance all over my body, as if I were in water.
…A sensation I was already familiar with.
I gathered magic and circulated it throughout my body. My shoulders felt a bit lighter.
Basic resistance seemed to be far from enough.
Then, the only option left was to face it head-on.
Recalling what I learned at the academy and from Carla, I squeezed my core.
Thump. Thump.
My heart, energetically pumping out magic, released all the magic I had gathered with the image of striking everything around me in one go.
Crack!
The sound of something breaking. At the same time, the pressure that had been surrounding me vanished into thin air.
Carla and Elisha also seemed to have been freed almost simultaneously, exhaling the breath they had been holding.
“It’s a curse.”
“I know. It’s like a curse that binds the body, but fortunately, it seems like it’s not a very strong curse…”
“…Master?”
Carla interrupted me mid-sentence and stopped running. Her unusual behavior made me turn my head, and she was pointing at the sky with her index finger stretched out.
“Huh?”
The rainbow smoke that was rising without any issue suddenly stopped as if it had frozen.
Or more precisely, I realized that the smoke had slowed down so much that it seemed to have stopped.
The curse of confinement we had just escaped from was not aimed at us but towards the signal being sent to Iris.
We were just caught in it.
It was an impossible task to bind mana with a curse, as it went without saying.
After all, curses were magic intended to be shot at living beings in the first place.
…But if there was a result right before our eyes, the story would change.
Doing the impossible with magic. This could be called a miracle.
Only a curse that takes another form of authority, not an ordinary curse, could bind even the flow of mana.
I hurriedly looked around.
Sure enough, my gaze met with that of a mysterious woman who had a multitude of undead with her.
Someone who was nervously biting her nails as if something were unsettling.
Despite being quite a distance away, an ominous atmosphere could be felt even here.
Sawtooth Sophia.
An expert in curses and controlling the undead, and the Archbishop of Intolerant Plunder.
She smiled at us, who had stopped, with her lips that had turned white with tension.
“…Carla. Can you handle that?”
“I’ve been trying since earlier, but it seems impossible.”
If that signal couldn’t reach Iris, it was only a matter of time before we would be in danger as well.
I briefly turned my head towards Iona.
The wall of magic, steadfastly holding its ground, was constantly ejecting weapons made of blood, keeping the cultists at bay.
That meant Sophia was the only one who had crossed over the barrier.
I wasn’t sure how she bypassed it, but if it was only her, even an archbishop-level opponent was worth trying.
Especially now that Carla is with me.
I glared at the forefront of the undead horde rushing towards us.
Ghouls, still with flesh attached, indicated they were beastmen living here until a few days ago.
Seeing their half-rotten ears and tails, I raised my staff.
“Everyone, prepare for battle.”
First.
This one had to be taken down.
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