Chapter 28
Chapter 28
“What’s happening!” Erna ran down the hill screaming, as she too had noticed the anomaly, she couldn’t help but notice! She was able to see the demons crawling onto the land very clearly from the hill she was standing on. She looked up at the sky as she bolted down the hill, seeing that the letters in the center of the magic formula were shining and spinning rapidly. The part that she was in charge of to infuse mana was completed, the problem was, the other parts were not.
Erna was in charge of the letters that were at the heart of the magic formula, the letters that determined the nature and shape of the magic formula. Other wizards took charge of the assisting letters which were in charge of setting the range or causing no harm to humans. It truly was an enormous spell, and there weren’t many opportunities for them to use such a big spell, so Erna purposely entrusted a lot of the infusing to them, in the hopes that everyone would gain practical experience.
“If I had known that this would happen, I would have done it myself!” Erna raced towards the wizards, watching her magic formula gradually fading.
She had taught them well, but everyone still lacked practical experience, including her. The moment she saw the demons crawling onto the land, fear had seized her and she’d frozen for a moment. Other wizards would be no different. How many of them will be able to protect themselves?
Most of the mana must’ve been poured into the magic formula floating in the sky by now. Moreover, there were not many wizards who could quickly draw attack or protection spells, so if a demon attacked them…
“Do those monsters think I’ll let that happen!” She had found and raised every one of these wizards. Some wizards were older than Erna, like Orpé, but that didn’t matter. Those were her wizards, her pride and strength, and her greatest achievement in Hessenguard.
As she ran, Erna wrote in the air and the letters immediately started to spin and glow brightly, quickly turning into a gigantic fireball which she then flung at the demons that were on land now. With the great explosion came bone-chilling sounds of the demon’s screams and smoke filled the air. Had wizards from the Magic Tower witnessed this, they would’ve been astonishment by her ability.
Magic was something that could be used when everything was stable and focused, so it was almost impossible to move while casting a spell. The moment you moved, your concentration was broken and the magic formula you’d drawn up, as well as the mana contained within, would disappear. However, while running and screaming, Erna executed her powerful attack spell, nonchalantly.
Amid the bewildered, dying demons, Erna found her wizards nearby. Unfortunately, while she was attacking the demons that were crawling up, some of them came to their senses and quickly started using protective spells.
“We are fine!” One of the wizards shouted. “Miel is inside!”
Miel was a very timid child and the youngest wizard in the Wizard’s order, she was now only sixteen years old. Erna was going to leave her at the Archduke’s castle but ended up bringing her with as she had nagged and pleaded that she’d wanted to come too.
“Okay!” Erna ran in the direction the wizards were pointing.
When she looked up at the sky, the letter in the magic formula she’d created had started to spin slower, as the infusion of mana stopped. If she didn’t quickly re-infuse the mana, the magic formula, which had taken hours to create, would disappear. I must hurry. First, though, she had to quickly evacuate the wizards to safety and then complete the spell.
“Aah!” Miel’s scream was heard from inside the forest and Erna quickly ran towards it. As she scrambled through the thickets, she saw Miel lying flat on her back and a demon was approaching her quickly, waving its claws right in front of her.
“Miel!” The moment Erna was about to use a protection spell, another demon nearby jumped towards her and Erna instinctively kicked it with her feet. It was good that she blocked the attack, but her concentration was completely broken, and the protective spell she had created, vanished.
At this rate, Miel would be scratched by demonic claws and the moment she thought about that, Erna instinctively put her arms around her as she laid curled up on the damp ground.
When she heard the screams of the monster, Erna closed her eyes in anticipation of the upcoming pain, not wanting to get hurt. But then all of a sudden, the demon that had been racing towards Erna and Miel, flew through the air, and with a loud thumping sound, it crashed into a nearby tree and fell to the ground making a disgusting popping sound. The tree that the demon had collided with was dripping with the demon’s body fluid and it exploded and died.
“How on earth did that happen?” Erna said in shock. Was that also a spell? Who wrote it? Erna quickly raised her head and looked behind her.
“Are you okay?” A familiar voice asked.
A huge shadow covered them, and there stood Kalion, breathing heavily. Before Erna could answer him, a demon that was crawling on the ground, attacked Kalion. While Miel screamed in Erna’s arms, Kalion drew his sword and she watched in awe as his hands moved like lightning, and before Erna could even interpret what was happening, the demon’s body rolled on the floor, sliced in half.
Erna helped Miel up as she watched the blue fluid form a gooey puddle around the split body of the demon. She quickly cast a protective spell on Miel and shouted, “Go to the entrance of the forest and stay with the other wizards!”
Miel grabbed Erna as she rubbed the corners of her teary eyes and stuttered, “W, what about you, Archduke?”
“Do you think you’re in a position to worry about me? Hurry on!” Miel hesitated as Erna pushed her to go quickly. “Hurry!” When Erna shouted again, the child finally turned around and ran towards the entrance of the forest. She knew she’d cast a strong spell so she wasn’t concerned about her safety as she headed to the entrance of the thick forest on her own.
Once Miel had disappeared into the thick forest, Erna quickly turned her body, realizing that there were still other wizards in the forest that she needed to rescue. As she was about to bolt off in their direction, a large hand grabbed Erna’s arm, and as a result, her body staggered backward. Fortunately, Kalion’s other hand grabbed her before her she hit the ground.
“What?” Erna glared at Kalion. Then she saw the corpse of the demon lying next to him and remembered that she was so preoccupied that she didn’t even thank him for saving her and Miel from the demons. “Thank you, now let go,” she said, sounding extremely irritated.
“Wait. Where are you going alone?”
“There are still wizards inside!”
“The knights will save them.”
All of a sudden, she saw the knights running into the forest as if to prove that Kalion’s words were true. Feeling helpless, she sat on the ground and listened as the battle commenced between the knights and the demons. A short while later she heard loud shouts each time they came across a wizard.
After some time, Erna spoke, sounding quite worried, “Your knights are also in danger.”
“They are not weak enough to be killed by demons like that.” Then, Kalion pointed to the magic formula still floating in the sky. “What’s happening with that?”
Erna’s gaze followed his hand to the sky and she noticed that the central part, where she had put her mana, was still shining, but the parts that the wizards had taken on were quickly losing light. She needed to decide in a hurry what to do next. For her to put mana into the other parts, she had to go to where the wizards were stationed originally, and from there she’d be able to use her mana to move it.
Erna looked despondently at the forest that was filled with the screams of dying demons, knowing that she needed to concentrate when she was infusing mana into a magic formula. She had to especially pay particular attention to such a huge and sophisticated magic formula, and that meant that she couldn’t do anything else while she was working. So, if a demon attacked, she wouldn’t be able to protect herself.
As Erna thought about her predicament, Kalion looked at the forest too. There are more than I thought. He knew that there were many demons, but Kalion still felt a chill go down his spine as he saw how many of them continued to crawl out of the lake. There were so many of them, that he was beginning to wonder if the lake was comprised only of demons!
He knew that his knights would not fall prey to such small demons, however, they were only human and they would reach their physical limit if they kept on going, and if they were scratched or bitten by the demons even once, they would likely collapse from the poison. Therefore, killing the demons one by one wasn’t an option, it would take far too long and be far too risky. There was only one way to go about this and that would be to ensure that the spell that the wizards initially prepared, could be cast safely. Kalion asked Erna, as he looked up at the sky, “How can that be activated?”
Erna quickly answered, “I have to do.”
“Where?”
“To the location where the wizards were in charge.”
“Where is that?”
“Everywhere in the forest! Not just one area!” Erna snapped as she pulled her arm free from Kalion’s tight grasp. “So let go! If we don’t fix it quickly, there will be a huge battle on our hands.”
“I will go with you.”
“What?” Erna doubted her ears for a moment. Had Kalion said that he would go with her now?
As she stared at him with a questioning look, he secured his sword in its holster and answered, “There are more demons than I thought. I hate to admit it, but the order can’t deal with all of them. Therefore, we have no choice but to borrow the power of magic.” He continued speaking without giving Erna a chance to say anything, “The purpose of us coming here was to rescue the residents of Haldis and subdue the demons. I can join hands with anyone to achieve that goal. Even if…” Kalion’s gaze turned directly to Erna, ”…it’s with someone you don’t like very much. Isn’t that right?”