7DP 188
１８８．An Unexpected Encounter
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
Part 1
――The Outer Ramparts of Evaloti's Royal Castle
「UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
The connecting passage was barely wide enough for two men to stand side by side. In that cramped space, soldiers surged forward, their voices cracking between screams and shouts as they swung their blades.
「...」
The demon prince, soaked in blood, faced them with a cold, unblinking stare.
He thrust his spear forward without pause, the point smashing through a soldier and his shield in a single brutal motion.
「DAMMIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!」
The second soldier, splattered with his comrade’s blood, didn’t falter. He pressed the spear down with his shield and forced himself into striking distance. In such a narrow corridor, a sword could be turned and swung far more easily than a spear—!
But the demon prince did not hesitate. His left fist crashed forward. The blow slammed into the soldier’s breastplate, the impact like being struck by a charging boar, driving the air from his lungs.
Seizing the opening, the demon prince pulled back his spear with a swift motion, shifted his grip short like a sword, and delivered a compact thrust into the soldier’s throat.
「Guh...」
Clutching at his neck, the soldier coughed blood and collapsed. The passage was already piled with corpses, the defenders’ bodies strewn so thick that there was barely space to place one’s feet.
「...」
Jilbagias wiped the blood from his blade in silence, pausing in thought. The gate tower was as good as taken. A few of the garrison might have run for reinforcements, but whether to stand here and wait for them, or leap down and wrench the gate open himself—that was the question.
If the war was to be finished in one stroke, flinging the gates wide and admitting the demon army would be best. But if it was "Power" he sought— If he wished to reap more strength for himself— Then he had to claim as many kills as possible before others could snatch them away—
A sharp metallic crack rang out.
From behind. He spun at once, every nerve alert. At the far end of the dim corridor— Someone was there. A black speck in his vision. Even with a demon’s eyes, he could not make it out clearly.
A chill crept along his spine—the uncanny sense born of battle whispering danger.
A resounding clang followed. His helmet shuddered violently. Something had struck him, a blow like being smashed with a hammer. Down the passage, the shadowed figure discarded one object and readied another—
『【――TABOO TO THRUST!!】』
Another metallic crack split the air. Jilbagias charged down the corridor, raising his blade to guard his face. The projectile was ensnared by the taboo magic, its force greatly diminished—yet it still slammed into his waist. His scalemail, 【Sindikaios】, deflected it with ease, though a dull shock reverberated through his body.
「DAMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!」
Cursing, he caught sight of the soldier at the far end of the passage reaching for yet another weapon lying at his feet. But before the man could act, Jilbagias’s blade flashed and severed his head in a single stroke.
「…What is this?」
He picked up the strange weapon from the corpse’s hand. A metal bow fixed to a wooden stock—an odd contraption. He had no way of knowing it was a dwarven prototype known as the crossbow.
「...」
He squeezed the trigger. With a sharp twang, the short, thick bolt shot forth, cutting the air with a metallic snap.
Jilbagias studied the crossbow in his hands with a grim expression, his eyes narrowing. A glance at the fallen marksman revealed that the man’s arm had been severed at the elbow.
「Wounded soldier...」
This was a weapon capable of loosing a bolt with such force. Enough that, even entangled by taboo magic, the impact would have pierced him had he not worn armour. Dwarven craft, no doubt; the bolts themselves carried a faint trace of magic. But what struck him most was its sheer usability—far easier to wield than any bow.
「―― 【Taboo to Silence】」
After sweeping the surroundings, he tested the draw of the crossbow. It was stiff— No, monstrously stiff. No wonder, for the bow itself was forged of metal. Its tension rivalled that of the Night Elves’ greatbows. For Jilbagias, whose body was reinforced with overwhelming magic, it was no great burden; but weaker demons would struggle even to draw it.
「How, then, did the humans manage to reload the bolt?」
At the fallen archer’s feet lay two more of the same weapon. Close by was a peculiar contraption fitted with a large crank-like handle(?). He deduced they must have used it to wind the string back into place. (Though in truth, Jilbagias could not know, it was no hand-crank, but a foot-pedal mechanism.)
「...」
After one last, careful inspection — committing the crossbow’s mechanism to memory — Jilbagias drove his spear through the weapon and its winding device, reducing both to splinters.
―― This is the sort of thing that mustn’t become widely known.
The demons would likely not bother with it; at best it would be a toy. The night-elves would be furious at human presumption and would smash it to pieces, though they would probably record its details before doing so. The beastfolk might show interest, but because using it would infringe on night-elf territory, they would be unlikely to deploy it widely.
The real problem, however, was the Undead. Specifically the No Life King, Enma.
The undead army’s strength lay in two things: their physical resilience and sheer numbers. A crossbow aligned perfectly with that doctrine. Enma, ever the pragmatist, might take inspiration from this and craft an undead variant with an automatic winding system—perhaps even testing a long-range unit equipped with such weapons.
A legion capable of unleashing volleys of arrows as powerful as those of the Night Elf Rangers would be a nightmare. Enma had long worried that improving the undead’s usefulness as weapons might destabilise her place within the Demon Kingdom, yet knowing her, she would still push forward. And if such weapons were ever used, it would be the humans who paid the price.
The fewer cards the enemy holds, the better.
But… it was hard to believe the three destroyed here were the only ones.
「…Seems I’ve got more on my plate now.」
Before the Demon King army could breach the castle, Jilbagias resolved to destroy as many of the weapons as he could. He knew he couldn’t eliminate them all— And that Enma would find out sooner or later— But the longer that took, the better.
Nodding to himself, he sprinted along the inner corridor of the rampart.
Given their nature, these weapons were most likely stationed atop the watchtowers to snipe approaching forces. That was where he would strike first.
「WOAH! A DEMON!」
「Someone sto— GAAA」
Cutting down every guard who crossed his path, Jilbagias raced through the wall’s passageways, ascending each staircase he found.
―― Then came a sharp metallic clang.
「Found it」
He kicked the watchtower door open and stormed into the uppermost room.
「What the――」
「DEMON!?」
「YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME!?」
As expected, several soldiers were working the winching mechanism to reload their crossbows. While they gaped in disbelief at the demon’s sudden appearance, Jilbagias calmly observed them, noting with faint interest,
「!? DIE!」
Startled, one of the soldiers who had already taken aim below hastily fired his crossbow at the Demon Prince. But the panicked shot missed its mark; Jilbagias did not even have to dodge.
Then his blade swept through the air.
A handful of ordinary soldiers, caught completely off guard, could do nothing. In an instant, the watchtower fell silent.
「...」
With his usual meticulousness, Jilbagias went about smashing every crossbow and winding mechanism he could find.
His gaze drifted to the belt of a fallen soldier. Spotting a canteen, he picked it up and checked it with his enchanted ring, finding no trace of poison. He took a cautious sip, swallowed, then poured the rest over his head, rinsing the blood from his armour.
「Well then。」
He descended the watchtower and sprinted once more through the narrow corridors inside the castle walls. Above, the ramparts thundered with shouts and the clash of weapons, yet none of the soldiers would ever imagine that a demon had already infiltrated the fortress and was racing through the communication passage right beneath their feet—
Jilbagias dashed through the circular passage that wound around the royal castle, storming each watchtower he reached and destroying every crossbow within. Most of those he encountered were ordinary soldiers, though once he came upon a priest in the midst of treating a wounded man.
「DEMON!? 【LE――」
He struck them both down before the spell could even begin. The elite fighters were no doubt battling on the upper section of the rampart, which was why the connecting passages below were far less defended than he had anticipated.
Jilbagias wasn’t making any attempt to hide himself, but since he cut down anyone he came across before they could raise the alarm, and with the sheer speed at which he moved, the hero squad had yet to swarm in full force.
「...」
Pulling his eyes away from the corpse of a priest whose lifeless stare still seemed to burn with resentment, Jilbagias pressed on.
The staircase he came upon next was far larger than the one in the watchtower.
「Another gate tower…」
It seemed he had already covered nearly half the royal castle’s outer perimeter in the blink of an eye… But what of it? Without breaking his stride, he stormed up the steps and into the guardroom—
「―― Uhm!?」
A warrior guarding the staircase cried out, eyes widening as a demon burst forth.
「A demon, here!?」
Every hostile gaze locked onto Jilbagias, a wave of killing intent pressing against him.
The demon prince’s pace faltered for a moment.
For the ones gathered there were――
「Form ranks!」
At the roar of a bearded veteran, the short warriors clad in radiant, spell-forged armour snapped into motion. With a thunderous crash, axes and war-hammers were raised as one.
Weapon-smiths of unrivalled skill, and warriors second to none.
――— The dwarven smith-warrior host, clad head to foot in heirloom arms of masterpiece.