Chapter 16 | The Assassin Makes a Decision
The spacious underground tunnel ran directly under the lord’s estate. I used a spell to fly through it. I was also using magic created for covert operations, including one spell that bent light with a layer of wind to conceal myself and others that masked my body heat and scent. I couldn’t have the enemy notice my approach.
They’ve been playing me like a fiddle this whole time. I’m not going to botch my first chance to catch them off guard. Some snakes sensed vibration, which meant they would notice footsteps. I also needed to account for heat, vision, and smell. All the spells I cast lowered my speed, but moving stealthily was paramount.
After twenty kilometers, I emerged aboveground, lifted myself high into the air, and released the taxing spells I used to hide. I then produced a hang glider from my Leather Crane Bag; they weren’t going to sense the vibration from this elevation.
“Well, this is gonna be easy.”
I strengthened my Tuatha Dé eyes with mana to improve my vision from the sky, but that was hardly necessary. The tracks left by Naoise’s giant snake monsters as they slithered for their destination were clearly visible, even from the sky.
“Time to go all-out.”
I didn’t have to worry about avoiding detection at this height, which enabled me to devote all my mana to movement. I used wind magic to produce a cowl that minimized air resistance and to summon a gust that propelled me from behind. I could have moved significantly faster with an explosive spell, but the noise would give me away. I took care not to cross the sound barrier for the same reason.
I didn’t care how fast those snakes moved. They couldn’t escape aerial pursuit.
These tracks look fifteen minutes old. Considering the direction and the need for ten thousand souls to create a Fruit of Life…they’re headed for Faryl, the largest city in the Distore domain. There’s no doubt about it.
Faryl was thirty kilometers away. I needed to hurry.
I caught up to Naoise and his force of soldiers three minutes later. It was a horrifying procession formed of ten giant serpents like the one I rode to Mina’s estate. Each carried ten snake people, for a total of one hundred soldiers, every one of them a mage. Only House Gephis or House Romalung could assemble such a force. Tuatha Dé couldn’t even gather thirty mages from all across its lands, including those in branch families.
They didn’t appear to notice me as I observed from above. I needed to take advantage of that. It was safe to assume that every one of the snake people rivaled my strength in close combat. Taking them all on would be suicide.
I’ll wipe them all out with a surprise attack. I apologized to Nevan mentally. I was probably going to kill Naoise before delivering her message.
I used the force’s current speed and direction to calculate their position ten minutes from now. I compared that to a memorized map of the kingdom and confirmed there were no settlements in that area. I was free to use one of my most devastating attacks.
“Gungnir.”
I formed a tungsten spear weighing one hundred kilograms and sent it up toward the heavens. By strength alone, this was the strongest spell I had. It used anti-gravity to lift a tungsten spear one thousand kilometers into the air and then let it free fall to annihilate the target with the force it picked up on the descent.
The spell was inspired by a weapon idea commonly known as “rods from God” in my previous world. The rods would have been dropped from space, achieving power that rivaled nuclear weapons upon impact. Technically, such a thing was possible, but the cost of placing heavy rods in space was prohibitive, so it was only ever done in tests. However, the reverse gravity spell allowed me to employ the deadly attack with a small amount of mana.
There were drawbacks, though. It took over ten minutes to land, and I couldn’t adjust the impact point after firing the spear. Given this, it also required predicting the target’s position. Achieving a direct hit in the middle of a fight was impossible.
Aiming was also extremely difficult, necessitating accurate environmental information and a complex calculation. It was more than achievable, however, with the advantages of magic and the brains of the smartest person alive—me. Furthermore, the orderly nature of Naoise’s unit and its fixed travel pace made anticipating their future location easy.
“Gungnir.”
I released another god spear into the sky. The small mana cost enabled me to rapid-fire the spell.
“Gungnir.”
I sent yet another rod upward, and then two more. There were five in total, each with the power of a nuclear bomb. No matter how strong Naoise’s group was, there was no way it could survive this.
I continued following Naoise’s force from the sky, keeping my distance from the expected trajectory of the god spears. Even the impact aftermath was enough to kill me.
The spears would land in eighteen seconds. The knights were spurring on the snake monsters below me, still unaware that their lives were in mortal danger.
Then—impact. The first tungsten spear was too fast for eyes to follow as it descended. It didn’t even make a sound when it landed. The ground ruptured, forming a crater multiple kilometers wide, and the shock waves dislodged everything in range. One spear changed the landscape forever.
The second, third, fourth, and fifth spears hit. The collisions kicked sediment into the air, blocking the sun on what had been a cloudless day. A tsunami of dirt sped outward in all directions, wiping out everything for dozens of kilometers. This was the level of destruction I could achieve with a concentrated fire of Gungnir. It was powerful enough to erase a city.
I watched until the dust finally cleared and the sun returned. My Tuatha Dé eyes, which could perceive mana, didn’t catch a single sign of movement.
“A direct hit… The snake monsters are all dead. The knights, too.”
The devastation I could cause with this magic was absurd. Each of those knights possessed strength on par with mine, but they died without getting a chance to use it. This could be considered the ultimate form of assassination.
I released the hang glider, used wind as a cushion to land, and inspected the crater formed by the god spears. It was a hellish pit with no visible bottom. The model version of this weapon from my previous world was said to be an environmentally friendly alternative to nuclear weapons, but I couldn’t help but question that as I observed the destruction. There was no environment left.
“Naoise must be dead.”
He should have been, anyway. I didn’t think a demon’s underling possessed their master’s immortality. There was no way anything could have survived such a destructive barrage. My job was finished.
…Or not. I instinctively drew a knife to protect my neck, and a black-silver magic sword collided with it. The blade cut halfway through the knife, which was made of tough tungsten.
I responded with a spinning kick, knocking my assailant into the air and giving me some distance. Had I used a regular knife, the sword would have broken through it and severed my head. The very idea was enough to make me sweat.
“How cruel, Lugh. This is no way to treat a friend.”
“I tried to kill you because you’re my friend, Naoise. Let’s end this.”
I couldn’t explain it, but somehow, Naoise stood before me. It didn’t look like he dodged Gungnir; his armor and clothes were gone, leaving only his shining black sword. Becoming Mina’s underling must have granted him some special ability. I needed to figure it out quickly, or I wouldn’t be able to kill him.
One thing that interested me was that the black-silver magic sword he held wasn’t as powerful as the pitch-black magic blade I’d seen him wield before. This sword was incredible, but clearly inferior. The old one would have cut through my knife. Why wasn’t he using it? The answer to that question would likely lead me to his secret.
“Oh, Lugh. You have the wrong idea. Do you think you’re the ally of justice here?” Naoise sounded like a parent admonishing an ignorant child.
“I’ve never once fought for justice. I’m only acting in the best interest of the Alvanian Kingdom,” I responded.
The Tuatha Dé clan’s role was to remove presences harmful to the kingdom. While all the nobles I’d assassinated so far were villainous figures involved in illegal activities such as drug trafficking, slave trade, and thievery, I didn’t kill them for justice. My family was a tool that protected the kingdom’s best interests. Nothing more, nothing less. If my actions brought joy to those I cared about, that was enough for me.
“Give me a break. That’s rich coming from the most beloved man in the realm. First a Holy Knight, then a saint. What’s next? You can’t tell me you’re not killing demons for the glory. Now that I think about it, your presence is what threw my life off course. You stole all the praise that would have gone to me.”
“That’s possible. My actions allowed the government to keep Epona in the capital. There would’ve been no choice but to dispatch the hero otherwise. You might have made a name for yourself as Epona’s assistant.”
I took offense at Naoise’s claim that I fought demons for prestige, but I couldn’t deny that I had stolen opportunities from him.
“It’s irrelevant now. I hate to break it to you, Lugh, but you’ve only made everything worse. I will be the one to exact justice. I am the only person who can. So don’t get in my way. I’m ready to kill a friend for the sake of justice.”
“…You keep using that word. Can you tell me what this justice of yours is?”
“Fine, if you insist. I’ll enlighten you on the truth of the world.”
He tried to act casual, but it was obvious how badly he wanted to lecture me. I was genuinely interested. Naoise massacred his own people and was about to do the same to another domain. What could legitimize that? What had Mina put into his head? Whatever she said was probably a lie to sway Naoise, but I had a feeling there was a kernel of truth I didn’t know about.
Oblivious to my thoughts, Naoise began speaking with grand gestures as if he were the star in a play.
“First of all, demons were never our enemy,” he said.
“You realize how many people demons kill, right? They’ve destroyed the academy and annihilated two cities—no, Geil makes that three. Yet you claim they’re not the enemy?” I challenged.
“The destruction of a few cities is trivial in the grand scheme of things. Demons are a tool necessary for the world’s survival, a device for correcting an overabundance of souls!”
I’d heard this somewhere before.
“Only a certain number of souls are supposed to exist in the world at once, yet that limit will inevitably be exceeded. When people die, their souls return to the world without being erased. That is why demons use Fruits of Life to reduce the number of souls.”
That made sense. A dead person’s soul went to heaven, where it was bleached and returned to the world. But making it part of a Fruit of Life removed the soul from the cycle of reincarnation, permanently destroying it.
“Huh, that’s interesting. You said only a certain number of souls are supposed to exist. So what happens after the limit is surpassed?”
“The world collapses.”
“Then why is there a hero? If demons exist to adjust the number of souls, the system shouldn’t need a hero. They’d only get in the way.”
“The Fruits of Life transform the victorious demon into the Demon King, who, if left unchecked, destroys too many souls. The hero’s role is to kill the demons and the Demon King once their work is done. The fight between the hero and the Demon King ensures the world’s survival.”
“There has to be a less roundabout method.”
That said, it was a good system. Demons were powerful beings that humans couldn’t kill. They reduced the population, and in so doing, they killed each other in their competition to become the Demon King. That left a single Demon King for the hero to vanquish. It was a clean process.
“I thought the same thing, but Mistress Mina set me straight. She said that the system placed a burden on humanity to encourage them to grow. Humanity unites as one to defeat the demons, and they evolve in the process. Surely, you know how the fights against demons have pushed technology to progress.”
That was new information, but Naoise was right. Humanity’s need to oppose the demons led to advancements in military, medical, and distribution technology, to name a few. Improvements came quickest during wartime in my previous world as well. Naoise’s assertion that the demon threat united people was correct, too. There was no time for squabbles while the enemy wreaked havoc across the continent. Undoubtedly, there’d be ongoing wars between nations if not for the threat of the demons. Considering the present international climate, it was surprising there wasn’t a major war.
“Is that why you shackled yourself to a demon and sacrificed your people?”
“You have no idea how much it hurt my soul to kill my subjects. But someone has to do this, and I’m the only one who can! I dared to wonder if demons were truly the enemy, and that lack of prejudice led me to the truth. That’s how I differ from you. You can’t get over the idea that demons need to be eliminated. Only I am fit for this role.”
“You realize that killing demons won’t end the cycle.”
“Naturally. It happens the same way every time. Demons appear, kill humans to make the Fruits of Life, one of them becomes the Demon King, and the hero kills them. How many thousands of years do you think humanity has gone through this foolish process? I’m going to end it once and for all.”
“How?”
It was just as Naoise said—demons appeared, the Demon King was born, and the hero killed them. I’d read in history books that the cycle had repeated innumerable times. The waltz never ended.
“I’m going to make Mistress Mina into an invincible Demon King. She will conquer the world and become its overseer, culling the human population periodically to prevent the number of souls from climbing too high. My knights and I will perform that role for her. We’ll kill people without worth and leave the elite.”
“Ah, I see. That will remove the need for indiscriminate slaughter.”
“Isn’t it a great plan? We’ll only kill those who deserve it. This world is full of worthless types, and we can end thousands of years of tragedy simply by rooting them out. There will be no need for a hero. I am the only necessary champion!”
Naoise couldn’t hide his excitement. He even had a boner. He felt so good that he couldn’t help it. It sounded as if he considered himself a god.
“How’d you like to enter my service, Lugh?” Naoise suggested.
“Now that takes me back. You asked me the same thing on the day of our entrance exams. I really was grateful. I don’t have many guy friends,” I responded.
I remembered it like yesterday. I found Naoise unpleasant at first, but I understood after talking to him that he was serious about his offer. He approached me because he recognized my talent.
“My feelings haven’t changed. You should let Mistress Mina turn you into a monster so we can make the world a better place together. I’ll forgive your insolence, and the way you looked down on me.”
Naoise meant that in good faith. He truly thought he was doing the right thing. If everything Mina told him was true, then his plan did make a certain amount of sense.
“No, Naoise. You’re not the same person you were then. I’m sorry, but I can’t join you.”
I readied my knife.
“Are you going to fight me?”
“No, I’m going to kill you.”
That was my resolve. I wasn’t fighting him as a friend—I was eliminating him as a noble assassin before he could do any more harm to the kingdom. I had already determined that Naoise was a lesion that needed to be removed. I was past forgiveness, or mercy, or sympathy. I was simply going to kill him. That was what I had decided.
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