Rescue
Jerry, summoned by Diego, did not look the same. Ed smirked at Jerry who had appeared with monocle glasses.
“What happened to you?”
“Father said it would be hard to find the demons with Jerry’s current power. He said Jerry would need something else to strengthen his power. He said Jerry needs to especially strengthen his powers to sense the faint demons’ power after several days had passed.”
“Hence the glasses?”
“They look like glasses but they are something my father made.”
Juan was a senior demon and a powerful skill-commander. If he had made the glasses, then they were worth looking forward to.
When Diego let Jerry go, Jerry dropped to the ground and started sniffing around. It raised its head and scrutinized something beyond with its glasses.
Then it started to run.
“He must have found it.”
Before his sentence was even finished, Ed tucked Diego under his arm and started running after Jerry. Jerry was running faster than a mouse might move, so Ed, with Diego under his arm, had to run with all his might.
Jerry was clearly aware that he was a skill-commander and lightly skipped over obstacles while running at top speed. Ed had a harder time following Jerry because of the obstacles.
At first, Jerry followed the traces of the carriage wheels, but after a while, he changed his direction. Ed, following Jerry behind, kept quiet.
It was already over one week since the time when he had heard the news, and yet Jerry was following the trail. Ed realized how important Diego was to him.
Ed followed Jerry with full concentration. He only hoped that this pursuit would end before this night was over.
And so, the pursuit in the dead of the night began.
Aron was praying continuously with his eyes closed. Maya, standing naked in front of Aron, touched his chest with her finger and smiled.
“Hmm… This is certainly better than what I had expected.”
When Aron didn’t react to Maya’s seduction, she whispered in Aron’s ear.
“Do you prefer men? I have quite a lot of handsome men. Shall I call for them and have fun?”
Only then, did Aron open his eyes and look at Maya. Aron’s eyes, staring at Maya’s eyes, were peaceful. He looked at Maya in the eyes and said,
“The brotherhood will come to save me.”
“Do you think they will find you so easily?”
Maya let out a clear laugh, and putting on her clothes, stroked his cheek. Her eyes smiling, Maya said,
“Even if they come here, they will die. We are not who we used to be.”
Maya came close enough to feel Aron’s breath and looked into his eyes.
“If there is someone who is lucky enough to come here, I will pick his throat and take out his guts right in front of you. Only then, will you despair. Your mind needs to be broken once.”
Maya stepped back.
“Tomorrow night. We will move again. Rest for now.”
After Maya had left, Aron let out a sigh and lifted his head.
“Dear Astron. Please save me.”
Ed felt short of breath. It had been a long time since he had felt shortness of breath. He had started running before sunrise and had run without stopping, so he must have run for at least six hours. He had run faster than a horse on a road without a path.
They had found a trace of the demon’s power in the carriage and had followed the trace into the forest. They had crossed rivers and a mountain and had reached a small fire field village.
It was a small village with only about ten houses. Barriers surrounded the village. What was noticeable was the people who were guarding the barriers.
Their eyes looked different. They were well-trained people.
They didn’t seem like people who would guard a fire field village deep in a mountain. Ed stopped at a place where he could look at the village and put Diego down.
Diego had become stronger after a long period of riding horses, but coming this far tucked under Ed’s arm was something else. Diego, whose face had turned blue, retched for a long time after Ed had put him down.
“Whew. It must be here.”
“You are right. And there are men who look dangerous.”
“Shall we summon Tom?”
“Yes. But you will hide here. Only Jerry and I will go. I will go and save Aron.”
“Will you be alright alone?”
Ed reached out and petted Diego’s head.
“You have done better than I had expected. I didn’t think we would reach here before morning.”
Diego knew this was the only way to help. And this made his resolution stronger. He would wait until the day his help was needed and called for. He will make sure that day would come.
Diego summoned Tom and put Jerry on Ed’s shoulder.
“I will wait for you. Make sure you come back.”
“Of course,”
said Ed, stroking Diego’s head.
“See you soon.”
Ed started walking, leaving Diego behind. It was his moment now that he had found where his enemies were.
After shooting arrows into the foreheads of the men who were guarding the barriers, Ed ran and jumped on the barrier. Standing on the barrier, Ed looked at the fallen men and found other men coming towards him, and shot the arrows.
He had added just one agility after moving one level up but the power of the arrows was so much stronger. Without even looking back at the fallen men, Ed looked at Jerry who was perched on his shoulder.
Squeak, squeak.
Jerry pointed with his front leg at a house that was at the farthest north among the identically-looking village houses. Ed looked at the dead men.
Ten dead.
Ed jumped down from the barrier and broadened his senses. He could sense two people inside the house. One of them was a monk.
Ed fixed an arrow on the bow and pulled the string and walked toward the house. At that moment, the door opened and a woman appeared.
Once he had seen that it was a woman, he let go of the string without a moment’s hesitation.
Thwok!
Ed frowned slightly when he saw the smiling woman’s head tilting backward. The situation should have ended but the woman, with the arrow stuck in her forehead, was bending her head.
“Well, well, well…”
The arrows that followed suit hit the woman’s forehead. The woman was thrown back. Ed grabbed the arrows in the freezing quiver and walked toward the house.
At that moment, the woman, lying on the ground, began to move and took out the arrows stuck on her forehead. Ed clicked his tongue.
“Is it an undead?”
Ed reached for the arrow in the freezing quiver. The woman stood up but her face was destroyed beyond recognition.
She glared at Ed with one remaining eye in a blood-coated face. Blood-colored threads stretched from the tips of her fingers. Just as Ed looked at the blood-colored threads that had grown longer and dragged along the floor, the woman struck the ground with her feet and bolted toward Ed.
Ed took out an arrow from the freezing quiver.
The arrow was made with the arrowhead that Benedict had made by melting the sacred water.
The moment Ed placed the arrow on the bowstring, the woman, who had already reached Ed, swung her hands, and ten blood-colored strings flew towards Ed. Ed jumped backward
Ed, who had retreated to where the thread could not touch him, shot an arrow.
The woman, who knew where Ed was targeting, twisted her neck quickly but not fast enough to avoid the arrow. The arrow pierced her head.
The woman screamed.
This arrow was different. The woman had not even let out a scream at the previous arrows but this arrow was an arrow with divine power, and the head exploded with a scream of agony.
Ed lightly captured the arrow that had come back after piercing the exploding head and shook the arrow to get rid of the blood. Ed frowned with the arrow in his hand.
The experience points had not come back.
“You’re not dead yet?”
The headless woman’s body began to wriggle and the blood flowing from her neck grew long like spider legs and started lifting her body.
At this sight, Ed drew his sword.
“She is definitely not a human being.”
Two of the eight legs that were holding the woman’s body came swinging towards Ed. The legs were like knife blades and Ed dodged the legs by bending his waist.
Because he could measure the distance, Ed dodged the blood-colored blades and climbed the woman’s body. The woman’s waist bent grotesquely and the two legs climbed up the body like feelers.
With the arms bent backwards and flapping, the woman no longer looked like a human being.
Squeak!
At that moment, Jerry, who was perched on Ed’s shoulder, lifted his hand and pointed at the woman’s body. Ed could see where he had to strike. It looked like a human but it was not a human being.
With that thought, his target changed.
When Ed swung his sword, an invisible power shot out from the sword and cut the woman’s body into pieces. However, although the body was in pieces, the body was still not cut off.
Perhaps it was because it was linked by the blood but the woman did not die even though the body was in pieces. Ed smirked. The woman let out a soundless cry.
Without resisting the power, Ed put away the sword and shot the arrow once again. Ed, who had shot the arrow with divine power, focused all his concentration on controlling it.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack!
The arrow with the embedded penetration pierced the woman-thing, came back, and pierced it again and again. If the parts that had been cut off with the sword had nuclei, the body would have crumbled; but the arrows pierced mainly the parts that had not been cut off.
When the arrow pierced the pit of the stomach, another explosion occurred. The blood threads turned into rain and poured down.
Ed grabbed the arrow that had returned and looked at the crumbled pieces of the woman’s body.
She was definitely dead this time. The experience points were in. Experience points that were more than those of middle-grade demons. His sufferings until now had not been in vain.
He knew that the power of the demon had disappeared since the enemy was dead, but he had to make sure. Even though they were one of the strongest of the crossels, it was hard to believe that they were this strong.
Ed approached the corpse and looked to see what had exploded last.
He could see a shining piece of something among the pieces of the body. It was something familiar.
“The magical blood stone?”
A magical blood stone from one of the crossels? Ed realized what it meant and picked up the stones. He approached the house and opened the door.
He could sense only one person inside the house. Just in case, he took out a knife and opened the door, and saw Aron sitting and praying.
Has something happened to him?
Had he been tortured?
One week had passed since Aron had been kidnapped but he seemed fine.
Ed stood in front of Aron. Looking at the divine power that was swirling around Aron, it was hard to believe that something might have happened to him.
“Aron.”
Aron opened his eyes at Ed’s voice. He looked at Ed and blinked his eyes. Then he pinched his cheek. Ed kindly finger flicked on Aron’s forehead.
Thwack!
“Argg!”
Ed looked at Aron who was covering his forehead and rolling on the ground and said calmly,
“Stand up. You are not dreaming.”
Aron, with his hands covering his forehead, looked at Ed and said quickly,
“Don’t you think you should prove to me that you are Ed first?”
Ed took out the token of Astron that hung on his neck. At the sight of the token, Aron, eyes glistening with tears, rushed to Ed and hugged him.
“Ed! Astron sent you!”
Had he been this scared?
Ed pushed away Aron who was crying.
“Let’s go. It will be bothersome if we stay here longer and something else comes along.”
Ed took Aron outside. Aron retched at the bloodshed outside the house. Ed thumped Aron on the back. Aron looked at the corpse that had been cut into pieces.
The woman who had threatened that she would pick the neck and take out the guts of the person who came was lying dead in the way that she had threatened.