Chapter 59 - Unexpected Turn
Xaren glanced at the area she indicated, then nodded.
"It's best if you take a different approach. Go through the street beside it, the one on the next block. There's an alleyway connecting them between the blocks, so you can hit them from the side.
Catch them off guard long enough for the rest to seize the momentum."
He scanned the area and raised a brow in question.
"Where's Carack?"
As if answering the question himself, a nearby building suddenly exploded, flames bursting outward as Carack emerged from the wreckage. Spotting Xaren, he spoke.
"Oh, you're back."
"Yes, I am," Xaren responded, then gestured toward the street.
"Now then, would you mind following Ilya? There's a connecting alley on the next street over. Attack from that side while the rest strike from behind. That way, we can secure the advantage before they even realize what's happening."
Carack glanced toward the street Xaren pointed at and nodded.
"Sounds like a plan."
"Good. You two go on ahead," Xaren said. "There's something I need to check."
Ilya fixed him a questioning look when he said this.
"What did you notice?"
Xaren turned, pointing toward a half-burning sign on the floor.
"You might not have realised, Ilya, but this is District 7."
With that, he unfurled his wings and took off into the air.
Ilya blinked, then raised an eyebrow.
'District 7... that's where we stayed, right?'
She glanced around, trying to recall the street's original layout. Then, her eyes widened in realization.
"Oh. So that's where he's going."
She instantly understood Xaren's destination.
◇ ◇ ◇
After splitting up, Xaren headed straight to a place that had become familiar over the past two weeks.
Now, it lay in ruins.
It was the inn where Xaren and Ilya had spent their nights in Zlego. Silence hung over it, broken only by the wind stirring through the debris. Though only a few hours had passed since they were last here, it looked as if ages had gone by.
In the middle of the wreckage was the innkeeper's corpse.
Nearby, two demon corpses lay sprawled on the ground, evidence that he had taken them down before meeting his own end.
The sight made Xaren sigh.
This man had simply been going about his life, running his business. And now, because of the war—and because of Xaren and Ilya, whom he had accommodated—his city was gone. And so was he.
As Xaren stood before the body in silence, a human soldier spotted him and shouted.
"DIE, DEMON!!"
Xaren didn't even turn to look.
"Shut the fuck up. I'm trying to think."
The grey demon extended his arm in the direction of the screaming soldier, and a sphere of gravity enveloped the man. The pressure intensified rapidly, crushing him into a compact ball of flesh and bone, silencing him permanently.
Only after the deed was done did Xaren realize what he had done. He had intended to use gravity to slam the soldier into the ground, but in his annoyance, he had ended up crushing him in a way he never imagined he could.
'What's this...?'
Xaren glanced at his palm and then at his surroundings, his eyes narrowing as he noticed faint traces of dark red energy clinging to everything around him.
'Perhaps...this is 'Gravity' itself?'
He knew his skill allowed him to manipulate gravity, and after studying the Grimoire from the Zlego library, his understanding of it had deepened.
'I see...so I used his 'Gravity' to crush him...'
The moment Xaren understood that principle, a notification appeared in his field of vision.
|Skill Acquired: Gravity Crush.|
He blinked and the skill description expanded.
|Gravity Crush;
Type: Rare Active Skill
Effect: Envelops a target within a powerful gravitational field, forcibly compressing its mass. This technique drastically reduces the target's size while exponentially increasing its density, crushing organic and inorganic matter alike. The pressure intensifies with prolonged use, making it harder for the affected target to resist or escape. |
'Hmm...it feels redundant. My Gravity Sphere skill also crushes—oh! How silly of me.'
It only took Xaren a moment to discern the obvious difference between the skills.
'I can launch the Gravity Sphere at targets, but I can't launch the 'Crush'. What's more, the sphere attracts nearby enemies when launched.'
Concluding his skill analysis, Xaren dismissed the skill description.
Then, he looked down at the innkeeper's corpse and crouched beside it. Taking a deep breath, he muttered,
"This isn't the first time... and it won't be the last. If I let it get to me every time, my mind won't last."
He reached out and gently closed the man's lifeless eyes.
Clenching his fist, Xaren activated his Unique Skill and created a localized gravitational inversion, breaking the ground apart and carving out a small grave.
He lifted the body, laid it into the hollow, and then pulled chunks of soil and stone over it. Then he compressed the earth, sealing the makeshift grave.
Xaren exhaled and finally turned away, ignoring the two demon corpses still lying nearby.
"Now then..." he murmured as he lifted his gaze. "I should head back to—!!"
Just as he was about to finish his thought, a chill ran through him.
Every hair on his body stood on end. He wasn't the only one—every demon in the city had felt it.
It was an instinctive reaction to the presence of their Natural Enemy.
And for demons, only one race could invoke such a response.
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Xaren's eyes shot to the sky and there he saw it—brilliant white lights raining down on the city, piercing airborne demons while healing the wounded humans.
"Fucking Angels...!"
The sudden barrage of magic from above the clouds caught hundreds of demons off guard, striking them down before they could react.
Spears of light shot towards Xaren, but he drew his sword and slashed at them, unleashing a wave of demonic energy that shattered them mid-flight.
"There are too few demons in this area. I would like to fall back, but first, let's regroup with Ilya."
With that, Xaren pivoted and sprinted in the direction Ilya and the others had gone.
More angels poured out from the clouds, with some spotting him and charging with strong light magic crackling around them.
Xaren ignored them and kept running, but the Angels didn't let him off. One raised a glowing bow and loosed a volley of white fire arrows.
As the burning projectiles streaked toward him, Xaren abruptly turned. His sword slashed through the air, releasing a wave of black flames that met the arrows and detonated them mid-air. The explosion sent a shockwave rippling through the area, kicking up dust clouds and debris.
Taking advantage of the angels' momentarily obscured vision, Xaren seized massive chunks of rubble with his gravity magic and hurled them forward.
The massive stone chunks from collapsed buildings, some twice the size of the angels, shot out at high speed. The projectiles slammed into their targets, sending them plummeting to the ground.
Xaren wasn't about to waste the opportunity. The moment they crashed, he charged.
Before they could recover, he raised his left hand and lifted the rocks, then slammed them back down, crushing them beneath the weight.
He knew it wouldn't be enough to kill them, but his sword would be.
He pounced on the first angel, driving his blade straight through the rubble and into their body. Twisting the weapon, he unleashed a burst of black flames.
**BOOM!!!
The first angel died instantly.
The second pushed off the debris and fired a blast of light magic, forcing Xaren to intercept it with his sword coated in strong gravity magic power.
'Huh? The light's bending right before it hits my sword...?'
The force of the blast sent Xaren hurtling backwards just as he noticed the strange phenomenon, crashing into the third angel behind him and knocking them off balance.
Before they could recover, Xaren grabbed them by the neck and yanked them in front of him, using them as a shield to block the second beam of light from the second angel.
The attack tore through the angel's wings and carved into their back, eliciting an agonized scream. This made the second angel hastily cease their attack, not wanting to kill their ally.
But that hesitation was all Xaren needed.
With his still-active Unique Skill, he locked onto the traces of "Gravity" around his palm, using it to increase his grip's force grip and crush the angel's throat.
"Ouch...!"
He winced, glancing at his fingers.
'Using gravity magic on my palm alone isn't ideal. Sure, I broke his neck, but I also broke two of my fingers.'
And it was his dominant hand.
With his level of vitality, Xaren could regenerate, but it would take around a minute for his broken bones to mend. Until then, wielding his sword properly was impossible.
So, with his left hand, he lifted more rubble around them and hurled it at the last angel, forcing them to dodge by jumping into the air—exactly what Xaren wanted.
The moment the angel activated their magic circle, Xaren conjured a spear of black fire from below, forcing them to swerve mid-air to dodge, making them miss their aim and waste their spell.
At that moment, Xaren threw the corpse of the dead angel he held at them and lunged after it, delivering a powerful punch that sent the body crashing into the remaining angel.
The impact drove both of them into the ground, and before the angel could push the corpse away, Xaren used his gravity magic to launch his sword, sending it piercing straight into their forehead with four times gravity.
[Level Up]
Ignoring the notification, Xaren grabbed his sword with his left hand, then unfolded his wings, immediately dashing off into the distance.
◇ ◇ ◇
Lieutenant Colonel Gorgre frowned deeply.
The reason was naturally the sudden appearance of the angels.
Like Carack had told Xaren the night before, there were three frontline cities. Zlego—the human city was in the centre, the angel city lay to the west, and the elf city to the east.
The human city wasn't the only one under attack. The elves and angels were also being besieged.
So how were the angels here when they should have been defending their own city?
'Judging by their numbers, this wasn't some ragtag reinforcement force.'
Gorgre flew into the sky and analysed the angels descending with airships from above the clouds, as well as those flying and those marching on the ground.
From his visual estimate, this was a full-on army. An army that was supposed to be defending the city. An army numbering in the tens of thousands.
A full at least 20,000-strong force of angels, meant to be holding the western front.
Yet here they were.
Gorgre's expression darkened as he descended, landing beside his aide.
"Call that bastard in the west and ask him why the fuck his targets are here."
The aide, having already tried to establish contact the moment the angels arrived, shook his head.
"Sir, all communication channels with the Western Division have been cut off."
Gorgre's brow twitched.
'Could it be...? Had they been annihilated?'
A heavy premonition settled over him like a lead weight.
"Contact the East," he ordered.
The aide obeyed and activated the magic radio transmitters. However, instead of a proper response, distorted static rang out, mixed with frantic broken voices.
[Code...Red—repea—Code—]
[Fuck—c—n't—hold—]
Then, suddenly, the distortion vanished. The transmission cleared, and a commanding voice familiar to Gorgre came through.
[Get me Gorgre. Now.]
"I'm already here. What the hell is happening over there?"
There was a momentary silence, then the voice—that of the Commander of the eastern front's invasion force—echoed.
[Those fucking elves... they blew up the entire city.]