“Wh-what is this…?”
The pupils of Riki, who had been protecting Count Georg with his Sword Aura, trembled uncontrollably.
When he realized the foul stench wafting from all directions and that the source of that stench was his own comrades—bleeding black blood as they rushed the Special Task Force Captain.
A kaleidoscope of confusion, anger, and betrayal bloomed within his heart, sweeping through his body and threatening to dominate his mind.
“You guys…”
They were once his most reliable comrades and, at the same time, brothers who had stood by his side for a long time.
“How could you…”
The sight of them rushing forward in the forms of the Demon Race was enough to paralyze the reason of the man who once led them.
“How are you using the power of the Demon Race! Since when!”
Riki’s red sword began to burn fiercely.
The flames soon took the shape of talons, beginning to dye the surroundings red.
Before his eyes, the Special Task Force Captain wore a fishy smirk.
“Wolfhound Captain. It seems your father has no intention of explaining this situation to me.”
***
Even though Riki and the Special Task Force members had defended against the Holy Sword once, the slashing attack that extended in a circle had not stopped.
As a result, sword wounds were carved into the bodies of the entire Mercenary Band Wolfhound.
The Holy Sword I had just swung had swept through their bodies.
It was no different for the bastards belonging to the same squad as Riki.
No matter how skilled they were, it was impossible for the Demon Race to hide themselves before the Holy Sword.
“How dare you bastards deceive me?”
The Sword Master was consumed by rage.
As if to prove it, the red-tinted, talon-shaped Sword Aura flashed violently.
That Sword Aura brushed past me and halted the steps of the rushing Demon Race.
“Riki, stop! This is a trick by the Special Task Force Captain!”
At Count Georg’s shout, Memory Alteration occurred in my head once again.
However, there was one thing that fellow overlooked.
“No matter how much of an illusion it is, no matter how much of a trick it is, the Demon Race must be killed first.”
“They are your comrades! Should you not think of the bonds you shared!”
“They are still the Demon Race.”
“Riki!”
“Didn’t you say so, Father? Even if it is an illusion, the Demon Race must be killed. Because even if it’s an illusion, the possibility of it ensnaring me always exists.”
“Th-that…”
Ultimately, Count Georg could not continue speaking.
The deep-rooted hatred for the Demon Race within him.
And the method of dealing with the Demon Race that surpassed even that.
Just who was it that had planted those things in him?
“Heh, things are turning out quite interestingly.”
Ah, I couldn’t help but let out this villainous-sounding laugh.
Riki’s eyes turned toward me.
“You can still laugh after creating this shitty situation?”
“Good grief, for a Sword Master, you really can’t get your head straight. Does the man behind you still look like your adoptive father?”
“Shut up!”
I responded by pointing the Holy Sword at the trademark ‘Shut up’ that always comes out when one has nothing left to say.
“Demon Race soldiers! If you don’t want to die, kill the Sword Master at once!”
The members of the Demon Race, who had been blankly watching the situation, wore bewildered expressions.
However, it didn’t take long for those expressions to turn into horror.
“H-hey! Captain! Get it together!”
“Shut up!”
Riki’s talons fiercely struck down a member of the Demon Race.
His upper body was hideously sliced as if shredded by claws.
Watching the black blood splattering everywhere, I cackled.
“Aigo, you idiots. You couldn’t dodge that? To think those who followed the Sword Master’s heels couldn’t even read his movements properly. The name ‘top elite’ is a waste on you.”
“Damn it, Team 1, Team 2! Try to stop the Captain somehow! Meanwhile, the rest of us will deal with the Special Task Force!”
I immediately shouted.
“Elena! Prepare defense!”
Elena, who had been watching the situation with her mouth shut until the end, hastily deployed a defense wall to protect the Special Task Force members.
The Demon Race immediately rushed forward and began bashing against the defense wall.
“Elena, how long can you hold?”
“Two minutes!”
“I’ll finish this in thirty seconds.”
Swinging the Holy Sword immediately, I took off the heads of the two closest Demon Race members.
Perhaps because the movement was so swift, the reaction of the Demon Race was a step late.
Even at the moment I killed those two and immediately stabbed the chest of the next one, the movements of the Demon Race members trying to defend themselves were a bit slower than before.
I could roughly guess how these ‘lower-ranking Demon Race’ members had made a name for themselves as top elites while keeping up with a Sword Master’s pace.
“Aha. You guys are all ‘connected’.”
A member of the Demon Race who had been pounding on Elena’s defense wall died as he was cut by the Holy Sword.
His gaze was filled with shock.
“All for one, one for all. Surely that was tactical magic used by lower-ranking Demon Race?”
Human magic and Demon Race magic are different.
To be more precise, there is Hierarchy Magic designed by humans, and there is the magic of Authority used by the Demon Race.
Humans cannot use Authority.
Conversely, the Demon Race could use both Hierarchy Magic and Authority magic.
It was a fairly rough explanation, but for someone like me who didn’t know much about magic, that was the best I could do.
Anyway, the important point was that every time a member of the Demon Race was killed, the movement, speed, and power of the other Demon Race members decreased.
“That makes half.”
Among the Mercenary Band Wolfhound members who had turned into the Demon Race, twenty were rushing toward me and the Special Task Force.
I had disposed of about half of them.
However, support from the Special Task Force members still couldn’t be expected.
Count Georg’s Memory Alteration would be taking effect on everyone listening.
‘The suspicion that I commanded the Demon Race—no, the conviction—will not change.’
Even I had undergone Memory Alteration just now, being framed as the one commanding the Demon Race, so what would it be like for the Special Task Force members?
Basically, to release Memory Alteration, one must kill the member of the Demon Race who executed it or make that Demon Race member perform Memory Alteration on someone else.
Because the power that can influence memory must be limited.
There is a method only I can do, but since others can’t, it’s excluded.
Anyway, since that would only create more victims, killing them here is actually the best option.
I processed the Demon Race members one by one with certain and rapid speed.
After the thirty seconds I promised had passed, not a single member of the Demon Race remained.
“Captain, can you explain the situation?”
I shook my head toward Murfin, who threw out the question from within Elena’s defense magic.
“It’s difficult right now. Focus on surviving.”
At my words, Murfin closed his trembling eyes and asked back in a serious tone.
“…When should we move?”
“When I give the signal. You’ll have to give it your all.”
“I’ll wait.”
I nodded with a bitter smile.
“It’ll be hard because your doubts won’t stop, but if we get back alive, I’ll treat you to a meal.”
“Do as you please.”
I gripped the Holy Sword firmly and looked toward Riki’s side, where a mess was still unfolding.
“Damn it! He’s getting stronger!”
“Curse it… Even though we’re using our Authority amongst ourselves, we’re being pushed back. Was a Sword Master always this strong?”
Those guys are definitely… the 1st and 2nd main units of the Mercenary Band Wolfhound.
If Riki is the spear that pierces the front, they are the support that sustains that spear.
The rumor that their skills were absurd just by the fact that they supported a Sword Master could be heard in quite a few places.
But…
‘Were those guys connected too?’
It was the same tactical magic as the twenty lower-ranking Demon Race members I had just dealt with.
However, it was on a different level from the tactical magic used by mere lower-ranking ones.
It was a more refined and enhanced form.
In the first place, for them to stand on equal footing with a Sword Master—who requires several high-ranking Demon Race members just to barely match—meant that the ten members of the Demon Race gathered there were at least mid-ranking or higher.
The mid-ranking or higher Demon Race members were using the tactical magic of the lower-ranking ones all at once, and that magic was showing improvements in various ways.
‘The concentration of Magia has increased to the level of about three to four high-ranking Demon Race members.’
A concentration of Magia that had increased to a level that didn’t make sense proportionally.
That alone was a significant burden for Riki.
However…
“Is that all?”
The Sword Master’s rage toward the comrades who betrayed humanity and betrayed him showed no signs of stopping and grew even more intense.
That was the Sword Master’s Authority that Riki possessed.
‘Forging.’
Like iron that becomes harder the more it is hammered.
The more he swings.
The stronger the opponent is.
The sharpness of the Sword Aura Riki emitted began to radiate even more keenness.
With what kind of heart did a man, who had to survive day by day by overcoming those stronger than himself since childhood, hold his sword?
And what kind of realization did he gain upon reaching the rank of Sword Master with his genius talent?
I still didn’t know Riki very well, but I could predict a certain amount about him just by the Authority a Sword Master harbored.
And also what kind of heart he held for Count Georg, who had taken him in.
“Huuu!”
I threw the Holy Sword at Count Georg, who was watching the situation while breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Kehek!”
The Holy Sword immediately pierced Count Georg’s abdomen and pinned him to the wall like a specimen.
“Count!”
In the end, the moment some of the Demon Race members fighting Riki tried to tend to Count Georg.
Riki’s talons instantly took off the head of a distracted member of the Demon Race.
“Do you dare lay those filthy hands on my father!”
At the same time, Riki instantly approached Count Georg.
“Kehek, cough.”
“Father! Blood, the blood…!”
“D-don’t look, Riki.”
“Father!”
Good lord, there’s no farce quite like this one.
But if one didn’t know the situation before and after, a reaction like Riki’s was unavoidable.
Because red blood, looking like human blood, began to seep from the Holy Sword that pierced Count Georg.
“Memory Alteration is quite terrifying. It makes people act without looking ahead… wow, to think even in my eyes it would look like human blood. You were a much higher rank than I thought?”
With those words, I immediately unsummoned the Holy Sword.
Then, I immediately resummoned the Holy Sword and stabbed my own abdomen.
The pain of it piercing my abdomen struck my whole body, but following that, I felt a holy power and a warm energy flowing through my entire frame.
Simultaneously, it began to purify the Magia that had been ravaging my mind.
After closing and opening my eyes for a moment.
The red blood Count Georg was spilling had turned into black blood.
I curled the corners of my mouth and smirked.
“Bingo.”
Count Georg grimaced deeply upon seeing my changed complexion.
“You… monster-like bastard!”
Ignoring those words, I pulled out the Holy Sword and immediately slashed toward the Special Task Force members.
As the strike of the Holy Sword, which even pierced through Elena’s defense magic, struck all the Special Task Force members, they grimaced at the instantaneous pain of being cut, but from the moment they confirmed the true form of the strangely unfolding situation, they each began to let out deep sighs.
“As expected… things were turning out quite hideously.”
“Memory Alteration, how absurd. Surely not all other Demon Race members can pull off something on this scale, right? I’d like to think not.”
“Disgusting.”
The Cat Siblings and Beatrice.
And Thrall and Laila were glaring at Count Georg with sharp expressions as if they didn’t even want to speak.
Since they were Dragons whom the Holy Sword’s healing does not apply to, it ended at the level of their skin being slightly scratched, but they would have regained their original memories with the divinity accumulated in the Holy Sword.
“Damn it, hurry up and kill those Special Task Force bastards!”
Seeing the turn of events, the main unit of the Mercenary Band Wolfhound rushed toward me.
“Father. Let’s escape from here first.”
“Y-yes. That would be best. Hurry and carry me on your back.”
As Riki and Count Georg tried to flee in the meantime, I chuckled while dealing with the main unit of the Mercenary Band Wolfhound.
“It’ll be difficult.”
“…What?”
At the moment the Demon Race member I was facing wore a puzzled expression, having heard my mutter.
Rumble, rumble.
Vibrations began to rise from the ground.
“What did you do?”
At the Demon Race member’s question, I wore a faint smile.