Chapter 4: Makoto Takatsuki Scouts the Forest of Fiends
The Forest of Fiends was a massive dungeon situated in the middle of the Great Forest. The enormous trees and thick mist made it dark, even during the day, and pitch-black at night. The whole place was filled with unpleasant noises and groans.
Sasa and I were using Stealth to sneak along. Transformation made us look like zombies as well. Sasa had a ribbon on, though, so she was going for a cute zombie. That was...something.
The recommended rank for adventurers challenging the Forest of Fiends was silver. However, most adventurers didn’t come here even if they were that rank, because...
“Takatsuki!” Sasa whisper-shouted. “That’s a zombie dragon, right?”
“Yup. Looks like it’s sleeping...I think. Let’s avoid it.”
We gave the massive dragon of bones a wide berth. It shouldn’t have been breathing, but the rise and fall might have been a leftover habit from life? Zombie dragons were classed as calamities. Even a group of silver-ranked adventurers wouldn’t be enough to defeat it.
We took a large detour as we headed deeper.
“There’re a lot of skeletons,” Sasa commented after a while.
“Are they...fighting?”
There were about a dozen skeletons engaged in combat, fighting with rusted swords and spears. It looked less like an actual fight and more like playing with siblings. Incidentally, an iron rank adventurer was strong enough to defeat skeletons. They weren’t that dangerous.
“What’s that big bird drinking from the lake?” Sasa asked, pointing. “It’s...kinda cute.”
“That’s a cockatrice. That lake’s poisonous, so don’t get too close.”
“What? The lake’s poisonous?!”
The massive bird monster had a snake’s tail, and it crowed as it splashed around in the water. It was cute from a distance, but a cockatrice was an extremely dangerous monster—its breath could petrify you.
It was, of course, a calamity.
The monsters here are way too varied in strength...
The Forest of Fiends was one of the least popular dungeons on the continent. It was also in first place for the number of adventurers that went missing inside its borders. A large part of that was people not noticing the transition between the Great Forest, the Wayward Woods, and the Forest of Fiends.
On top of that, adventurers who died here would all get turned into the undead thanks to the miasma from the Demon Lord’s Grave! Man...
I’d heard a lot of rumors lately they were planning on raising the rank requirements for this dungeon to gold. If that resurrection happens it’s gonna need to be more than that...
“Takatsuki, look, look! There are so many monsters over there!”
“Huh, they’re sunbathing...well, it’s nighttime, so moonbathing?” There were more than fifty of them standing and lying around, groaning. Maybe that counted as conversation for them. This was the first time I’d been in the Forest of Fiends, but still, it felt...strangely peaceful?
There were a lot of monsters though—the density here was even higher than in the middle level of Labyrinthos. Though, since we kept Stealth up, none of them really noticed us. There was also no real fighting between the different monsters here, like there had been in Labyrinthos. I guess they don’t squabble over food since they’re all already dead.
I saw the odd forest wolf or bear, but the further we went, the rarer living monsters became and the more ubiquitous the undead grew. It must have been some form of segregation between monster types. We were heading for the area considered to be the center of the dungeon, the aforementioned grave.
“Takatsuki, there are a lot of strong monsters that way.”
My Sense Danger skill was reacting to something in the same direction as Sasa’s pointing finger. I saw another group of monsters.
“Keep your Stealth up,” I told her.
“Right, I know.”
We slowly headed in that direction with bated breath. There were vines perfectly placed to hide us, so we peeked in from behind them. A vague clearing allowed moonlight to illuminate the area.
Before us was a legion of monsters.
I spied a massive two-headed lion, a three-headed dog, and a black griffin. There were even man-eating giants from the north that were known to be particularly vicious. So many monsters, types that I’d never seen before—I couldn’t even process all of them.
The strangest thing was that they were all armed. I’d never seen monsters that equipped themselves with tools before. The giants had huge swords, while the quadrupeds wore helms and other armor.
Are they...from the demon continent? I wondered.
I’d heard that the monsters from the northern continent were far more intelligent. The strength of the mana I could feel coming off them—especially when coupled with their size—gave an impression they had lived for vast lengths of time.
If they attack Lucy’s village...
I dreaded even imagining it. Unlike Macallan, the elf village had no real walls. Furiae and Prince Leonardo were there too...
What do we do? Head back and evacuate? Lucy’s family lives there, though. We’ll probably have to stay and defend the village.
While those thoughts swirled through my head, someone gripped my hand.
“Sasa?”
“Don’t take this on all by yourself,” she told me with a smile.
“Did I have a weird look?” I asked.
“You looked like you were in pain.”
So that’s what my face had been doing...
“There, there,” she said, rubbing my head. “You’re so serious...”
I felt kind of awkward. Back in junior high, Sasa had always acted this way. Her early birthday coupled with the responsibility she felt for her younger brothers meant that she ended up doting on me the same way.
I hadn’t been happy with it at first, but since I had no siblings of my own—or memories of my parents being like that—I’d started to enjoy her acting like a big sister. She was doing the same now, ruffling my hair. Gradually, I calmed down.
“Let’s head back,” I said.
“Right, we can talk it over with everyone.”
Worrying about it here wouldn’t help anything. We didn’t know what these monsters were here for, but it probably had something to do with the demon lord. If we were going to stop the resurrection, we’d have to deal with them too.
But first, we needed to make sure that Springrogue knew.
The moment we made that decision, a voice called out to us from above. “What are you doing?”
Sasa and I looked up at the same time. Towering above us was an enormous figure.
Wh-When did that happen?!
It definitely hadn’t been there before. Could it move that quickly? Even considering how big it was? Without making a sound? The figure was—to cut to the chase—a huge, jet-black centaur. However, the horse’s legs looked more like an elephant’s, and it had eight of them. The hooves didn’t touch the ground—they just floated in the air.
Maybe that’s why it didn’t make a noise?
“Can you speak, swine?”
Its voice was harsher than before.
It’s an upper-class demon... Prince Leonardo had told me that monsters that could speak were demons. On top of that, demons that didn’t immediately attack were likely to be high-ranking. Apparently, they took pride in their names and looked down on those that began hostilities before introducing themselves.
“We’re undead that live in the forest,” Sasa said nervously.
“So you have some modicum of intelligence. In that case, who do you follow?”
Sasa fell silent. I should probably answer.
“Sir Setekh,” I said, offering the only demon’s name I knew. He was a legend in his own right as the demon lord’s subordinate, so everyone would know the name. However, the new demon didn’t seem happy about my answer—its face creased into a scowl.
“Him? What is he doing, swanning around after he’s just been resurrected.”
Setekh was apparently a rather free spirit.
“Tell him this,” continued the centaur. “We’re about to get much busier, so this isn’t the time for him to play around.”
“R-Right.”
“We will.”
Sasa and I nodded jerkily. Pretending to obey was all we could do.
“Incidentally,” I said, “could we ask your name?” This guy seemed like he’d be pretty famous.
“I am one of Sir Zagan’s Ten Fangs, Jvāla.”
Zagan was the name of one of the three demon lords on the demon continent. He was also called the King of Beasts. Another one of the inner circle?! Come on!
Sasa and I knelt. “While we may not have known, I apologize for our rudeness, Sir Jvāla. Are you here to aid in Sir Bifrons’s resurrection?” I’d play deferent for a while to see if I could uncover more information.
“I am here at my lord’s command,” scoffed Jvāla. “The human heroes will interfere with the rite, and I will simply repel them. The young cambion is currently carrying out the rite of resurrection. You should progress no further.”
“Understood, sir!”
We’d gotten a lot of information. The grave was already the site of the rite, and “the young cambion” likely referred to Isaac from the Snake Sect. The same bastard that had resurrected the thousand-year-old vampire, Setekh. He sure was a busy bee.
“We shall take great care.”
“Excuse us.”
With that, Sasa and I bowed and moved away. I could feel Jvāla’s gaze for a while, but it suddenly vanished.
Teleportation? I wondered. That must have been why we didn’t notice. Jvāla had looked like a fighter, but he was apparently an accomplished mage as well, so maybe like a spellsword?
Once we’d gotten far enough away from the army of monsters, Sasa and I let out a massive sigh.
“That was terrifying,” Sasa said.
“Yeah. I’m glad we didn’t get found out.”
The higher-ups in the demon lord’s army might be able to see through Stealth, so we couldn’t rely too much on our skills. I’d met two of them in as many days and somehow managed to survive.
I shouldn’t be so careless. Sasa had almost been at risk as well.
Springrogue was waiting for its forces to assemble, and it was with those thoughts in mind that we headed back to the village where Lucy and the others were waiting.
Sasa noticed it first.
“Takatsuki, do you smell something? It smells like...burning.”
“No, not really...”
It was getting close to dawn by the time we got out of the Forest of Fiends and back into the Great Forest. Our investigation had taken several hours. Honestly, the wary tension I’d been feeling had diminished considerably. That’s why it took me longer to notice the change.
“Look over there. Smoke...”
“That’s where Lucy’s village is!” I realized.
As we got closer, it became more obvious—there was no moisture in the air, and the smoke was prickling at our noses.
Canaan was wreathed in flames.
I started to run. “We need to hurry!”
“Takatsuki, grab on!” Sasa yelled, pulling me by the hand as we raced toward the village. Once we’d drawn near, the towering flames were visible.
Damn it! We shouldn’t have been taking our time exploring!
The Great Forest was burning. Despite the trees being hard to set alight, they were engulfed in roaring flames. While we were avoiding the fires on our way to the village, we stumbled across some blackened corpses.
My heart pounded in my chest. Even swallowing the saliva in my mouth sounded loud in my ears.
I moved in closer to look. Which of the villagers at the party last night got sacrif—
Hmm...?
In the middle of that thought, I realized something.
“Takatsuki! They’re zombies!” exclaimed Sasa.
I paused for a moment. “Looks like it.”
The charred nature of the bodies had made it hard to tell at first, but now that we were closer, it was possible to identify them. These were a couple of the many undead in the Forest of Fiends.
What had happened? Had they attacked Canaan?
“Let’s go, Sasa!”
“Right!”
We ran farther into the village. When we saw it, we could only let out low murmurs.
It was like a scene out of hell. There were blackened corpses all over the place, and every one of them had originally been a zombie.
I thought standard fire magic didn’t work on the undead? We’d learned in the Water Temple that sun magic was the most effective. Well, I hadn’t exactly listened properly since I couldn’t use either of them...
While I was thinking that over, we arrived at Lucy’s home.
“Makoto! Aya!” yelled the redheaded elf as she ran over.
“Lu!”
“Lucy!”
Sasa and I yelled in unison and the three of us came together in a hug. I was so glad she was safe. I could see Furiae, Prince Leonardo, and Janet (with her knights) standing behind Lucy.
It seemed like Lucy’s family and the other elves were all safe.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Bifrons’s subordinate Sciulli attacked with a host of undead.”
“His subordinate?” Setekh was already more than enough.
“How many injured?” I dreaded to think about how many people had died...
“Huh? No one’s really hurt.”
Sasa and I stared blankly back at Lucy’s confused look.
Hold on. No one? With this much fire?!
“But the village is on fire!” I exclaimed. “Plus, Sciulli is a high-rank demon.”
“Ah, well, the fire...”
Lucy glanced awkwardly off to the side. I followed her gaze. Residents of Canaan were all calling out and conversing with one another.
“Everyone, make sure the fire doesn’t spread to the godtree!”
“Got it, gramps!”
“We’re in trouble if the barrier drops!”
“Mama’s fire magic’s not going out any time soon!”
“What about the houses?!”
“Leave them! We can rebuild them with wood magic!”
“Someone should go ask Rosalie to ease back the magic a bit...”
“If anyone can get her to listen, go ahead...”
Oh...?
“So the fire...” I said leadingly.
“Y-Yeah. Mama’s fighting the demon on her own. This is the overspill.”
The village was burning because of something the family had done.
“I knew the rumors,” murmured Prince Leonardo, “but seeing the Crimson Witch’s magic in person shows how far beyond our power she really is. She repelled over five thousand undead on her own...”
“On her own?!” I demanded.
Sasa seemed dumbfounded too. “Five thousand?!”
“I was going to aid as well, but if I’d gotten involved, I would’ve just died...” Janet said, her voice filled with disappointment.
“Over there!” Sasa shouted, pointing. Flying through the air was the massive form of a zombie dragon, and alongside it, a scarlet figure.
Wh-What the hell?
Clairvoyance helped me recognize the scarlet figure as the woman I’d met the other day—Lucy’s mother. Her whole body seemed to be covered in a burning crimson color. Actually, was she burning?
“Lucy, that’s your mom, right? She looks kinda...red.”
“That’s...her Elemental Unity.”
I’d never heard of that technique before. Was it a unique skill or something?
Using my Listen skill, I heard Lucy’s mom call out. “Elemental Summons, fire and wind!” Instantly, the air seemed to roil with mana.
Whoa... It’s possible to summon elementals? I couldn’t see the fire or wind elementals, but I could hear the noise of them. They’d probably appeared next to her.
Then, she started glowing an even brighter red, and a massive pillar of fire ballooned out of nowhere. It possessed more than ten times the force of Fire Storm, which was an upper-rank spell. The monsters around her burned inside it...along with the houses of the village.
“Ah! My house!” I heard an elf screech. Did his place get caught up in the blast? That’s a shame...
Even more monsters gathered around Lucy’s mom. They were all undead, but some of the zombies were formerly wyverns, griffins, and harpies. There were easily more than a thousand foes...but the Crimson Witch just grinned in enjoyment.
Fire Magic: Phoenix Flock!
Dozens of fiery phoenixes filled the sky.
“Aha ha ha! Burn!” I heard Rosalie laugh.
Man, she’s just firing off king rank magic while she laughs! Scary!
“She’s like Lu,” Sasa commented.
“Yeah, they both get excited when they cast magic.”
“Guys?! I’m not like that, am I?!” Lucy asked with a hurt look. She was, though...at least a little. She just didn’t go quite that far.
Before long, the explosions died down.
“Is it over?” I asked.
“Did she beat Bifrons’s subordinate?”
“Why did Sciulli come here in the first place?” Springrogue had hundreds of settlements, but out of all of them, why did they attack the one we were in?
“That’s...probably my fault,” Florna, Freya’s priestess, said apologetically.
“Florna?” Lucy asked.
“Sciulli said she was here to deal with the heroes and priestess.”
“I see,” I replied. Zagan’s Jvāla had been just as wary of the heroes. I suppose heroes and priestesses were considered key targets.
Florna turned to her grandfather-in-law, head bowed. “My apologies, Chief. The village is in this state because of—”
“Listen! The fires aren’t out! Be careful fighting them!” the chief yelled to the people around him. Then, he looked at Florna. “Don’t worry yourself over it, Florna. The demon army will always target priestesses. We’re family—we help each other.”
“Thank you...”
That man was fairly wise, actually. He’d taken time in the middle of his instructions to give Florna comfort.
“Do you think Lucy’s mom will come here?” I asked. I wanted to speak to her again. And I wanted her to teach me some elemental magic!
“She certainly should! She needs to deal with all her damned fire! She can’t just set everything ablaze and leave!”
“Come on, grandpa. She fought off the demon at least...” Lucy’s sister soothed the angry chief.
The tension had just started to ease, when suddenly...
A demon woman dropped from the sky.
“Priestess of Freya!” she roared. She was beautiful, with black hair and pure-white skin...though her eyes were bloodred.
“A demon?!”
“That’s Sciulli!”
“Protect Florna!”
We all moved in to shield the priestess.
“Too slow!” Sciulli declared, swinging a scarlet-bladed sword.
She was quicker!
“Florna!” Lucy screamed. We could only watch as the priestess—
“Slow?” a voice said mockingly. “That’d be you, Sciulli.”
“Guwah!”
Suddenly, a burning red elf appeared in front of the demon woman and hoisted her up by the neck. Before I knew what was going on, Sciulli’s sword had fallen to the floor.
“You’re the legendary demon lord’s subordinate, Sciulli? Considering he ruled half the continent...I expected you to be stronger.” Lucy’s mom smiled, tightening her grip.
Allow me to correct myself—Lucy never made that kind of expression. She and her mom weren’t alike at all.
“D-Darkness Magic: Darkness Cloak.” Suddenly, the demon’s body was covered in a dark aura.
“Whoops,” Rosalie said, dropping her.
“You bitch...” Sciulli’s beautiful face was twisted in hatred as she glared up at Rosalie. Rotting mana filled the air around the demon, and it was an awful sensation.
Lucy groaned and grabbed my sleeve. So this was the miasma that strong demons could produce... It corroded weaker-willed people’s mana.
“Lucy, use Serenity.”
“I-I am...”
“Sasa, you good?” I asked.
“I’m...fine. She’s strong, though.” Her voice was tense. My Sense Danger was blaring in my head as well. Sciulli was easily a calamity.
And standing against her was Springrogue’s strongest mage, Rosalie J. Walker, the Crimson Witch.
“Aren’t you lively?” Rosalie remarked. “Fine, I’ll play.” She beckoned to the demon, who glared murderously up at her. Black mana made the air almost thick enough to choke on.
The village elves and even Janet’s knights had moved back with pale faces. The only ones managing to remain relatively unruffled were Sasa, Furiae, the village chief, and Florna.
“Lucy, Prince Leonardo, get behind Sasa and me.” I stood in front of them. It might not have been much, but it was better than nothing.
“Thanks, Makoto,” said Lucy.
“I’m sorry,” the prince apologized.
The demons attacking us were getting closer to the level of demon lords, and it seemed like Serenity alone was no longer enough to keep calm against their miasma. This might be an issue.
While that was happening, Sciulli and Rosalie faced off against one another, surrounded in black and red respectively. You could cut the tension with a knife—a battle to the death was moments away...
“Die!” the demon yelled, instantly closing the distance between herself and the Crimson Witch. A slash burst from her hand, shaped like a massive claw, and...
Rosalie just took it head-on?!
“Mama?!” Lucy yelled. However, Rosalie didn’t fall—she just staggered a bit.
“Hmm... That almost hurt,” taunted the Crimson Witch. “I suppose it’s my turn now.”
“What?”
Before Sciulli could manage to say anything else, there was a massive crash—almost like the sound of a traffic accident from my old world—and Rosalie’s red-clad fist impacted the demon.
The instant the punch connected, a shock wave burst forth and swallowed up the pitiful demon.
Those of us watching could only stare, agape. A single punch... And the place Sciulli’s body had flown off to was still burning merrily.
“All right, done,” Rosalie said, waving her hand.
“I see that your monstrous magic is the same as ever,” the chief said.
“Dad, you’re so mean! You shouldn’t call your daughter a monster.”
“Mother! You burned too much of the village!”
“Ah, my bad, my bad. Florna’s here though, so it’s not like it’s an issue.”
“It’s been a while,” Florna replied. “Leave the repairs to me.”
“Idiot! Florna is our priestess! We can’t make her do such things!”
Things had morphed into a bit of a family argument...even as the village burned around us. The elves were gradually getting the fires under control, though, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
That’s when it happened.
“Fool! You let your guard down!”
A black mass came rocketing in and struck Rosalie.
Lucy, the village chief, and some other villagers all called out for Rosalie. Sciulli was gripping the hilt of a red blade that was currently sticking out of the Crimson Witch’s chest. Rosalie looked slightly surprised as she sank slowly to the ground.
“Hmph. That was a rather impressive spell, but perhaps you forgot—I am undead,” Sciulli boasted. Rosalie was on the ground while the red-eyed, black-haired demon with snow-white skin stood unharmed, albeit in somewhat shredded clothes.
“That deals with our annoyance. Time to end the priestess.” Sciulli pivoted to face Florna.
“I won’t let you!”
“Everyone, protect Florna!”
The warriors, Janet, and the prince all drew shaking swords as they stood in the demon woman’s way.
“Well... That one tickled. I suppose it’s my turn again.” Rosalie was suddenly climbing to her feet, a wreath of flames surrounding her. She slipped the demon’s blade from her chest and let it drop to the floor.
Sasa, I, and all the other elves looked on in shock.
“Impossible... Are you undead...?” the demon demanded.
“How rude. These are the Flames of Rebirth. Never seen them before?” Rosalie asked, wiping at where she’d been stabbed. There was no sign of a wound there.
“S-Still, fire magic will do nothing against me!” She hadn’t won, so Sciulli readied her sword. However, Rosalie’s easy smile didn’t falter.
“Really? Let’s see about that.” She pointed her hand up to the sky and began to chant almost musically. “Oh Althena, embodiment of the holy sun. I offer thee my praise, my prayers, and veneration. Give thou thy compassion unto me, and offer holy retribution upon this foolish one.”
Vast quantities of mana started to coalesce in Rosalie’s hand as dozens of magic circles formed in the air. Her expression was that of an animal about to catch its prey.
“Rosalie?!” the village chief yelled in a panic. The other elves were retreating as well.
Maybe we should follow suit? Just as I was thinking that, she finished the incantation.
Fire Magic (Saint Rank): Nachal.
The spell activated. In the air, a humanoid figure formed, possessing wings on its back—an angel of fire. It was small in comparison to the king rank phoenix. However, the power held within it was far beyond anything of that rank.
The Seventh Angel...?
Lessons in the Water Temple had taught me that saint rank magic were miracles that borrowed the powers of the gods. I suppose that was why, in this instance, Rosalie’s magic had formed one of the messengers of the gods, an angel. Saint rank magic would burn through the enemy, regardless of whether it was undead or not.
The demon suddenly seemed to realize that she was outmatched—she fled with a grunt, vanishing instantly.
“Ah! She’s gone!” Sasa complained.
She’d gotten away... Rosalie’s smile was fierce, though. “I ask that you destroy that demon, Nachal,” she said.
“Understood.”
Th-The spell talked?!
The angel of fire vanished just as quickly. Was it chasing Sciulli?
After a few seconds, there was a tremendous roar. A pillar of fire burst into existence in the distance, spreading out to form a cross.
We heard a scream as well.
That cross shape was the same as Sakurai’s Sword of Light, I thought dazedly.
“Did you get her?” Lucy asked.
Almost as if in answer, the burning aura around Rosalie started to fade.
Her red hair gradually returned to its original brilliant blonde color, and the crimson in her eyes morphed back to blue. Standing there without a single wound, she turned her pretty face toward us.
“Piece of cake.” She grinned, her expression just like Lucy’s own smiles, and far too innocent for her moniker.
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