Chapter 357: The Adventures of Rooms 10 and 11 – (3)
Editor: Tseirp
“<Gravity>”
The moment the old man in red who descended in chanted, the priest-looking man got crushed.
Crushed by space.
But it was only for a moment.
The next moment, the priest-looking man was standing upright as if nothing had happened.
“Bastard… a Spellno?”
The priest-looking man asked in surprise.
“You impertinent Akuma… it’s irritating enough that you appeared right next to my dungeon, and now you’re trying to mess with these guys.”
The old red man was beyond annoyed, he was furious.
“Um, Sir Merlin…?”
Etho called out to the old man in front of them.
“This psycho is bad news. Even I’m not confident I can take him on and survive. So you lot should stand back.”
Merlin, the Red Djinn, said and readied his staff.
“After going out of my way to appear near the Holy Capital… to think that the dungeon where a Spellno dwells was so close by… what a blunder.”
The priest-looking man… Akuma, as Merlin called him, laughed as he said that.
His words implied how regretful he felt to have made such a careless mistake, but the expression on his face was anything but…
Yes, the word ‘ghastly’ was perfect to describe his laughter…
“Well, now that we’ve bumped into each other, we’ve got to duke it out now don’t we? Yes, this is inevitable. It’s not my fault. Just the result of one unfortunate event leading to another. There was no way around it, yes, it has to be done.”
The Akuma said, laughing.
Thus, the curtain was drawn on the battle between the Djinn Merlin and the Akuma.
“<Gravity>”
Merlin cast.
There was no chanting, of course, not even a buildup.
The moment he spoke, the Akuma was… not crushed.
The Akuma moved the moment <Gravity> was activated.
“I saw that trick earlier. <Flames>”
The Akuma chanted as he teleported multiple times with fine precision.
Huge flaming bullets shot out from all his afterimages.
“<Reverse>”
Merlin waved his staff and chanted, and the trajectories of all the flaming bullets turned and flew back to where they came from.
Reaching there, all the flaming bullets disappeared.
Vanished as if they had never existed.
They were all erased by the Akuma.
The Akuma continued to teleport all around.
Wearing a devilish smile on his face still.
“How bothersome, you really are one pain in the ass Spellno.”
The Akuma laughed and chanted as he said this.
“<Stalagmite>”
“<Invalid>”
The moment the Akuma chanted, stalagmites began forming around where Merlin was standing, but… as soon as Merlin chanted, they disappeared and the ground returned to normal.
“<Icicles>”
The moment the Akuma chanted, ice lances sprang up from all directions and attacked Merlin.
Hundreds of them.
“<Reverse>”
Merlin chanted again, waving his staff, and the icicles went back in the direction from which they came….
However….
Thuk.
“Gah.”
The moment Merlin waved his staff, the Akuma appeared in front of him and ran the sword he was holding through Merlin’s gut.
“I needed to make you wave your staff.”
The Akuma said with a terrible smile that could only be described as ominous.
But it was Merlin who grinned.
“…I finally caught you.”
“!”
“<Implosion>”
Merlin chanted, grabbing the sword that was stabbed into his gut with a wicked smile on his face.
In that instant, the Akuma in front of him vanished under pressure from all directions.
If Ryo had been here, he might have exclaimed.
“Implosion!”
“Kukuku…. That was quite fun, Spellno. But you must be ‘sleep deprived’. I hope we do this dance again when you wake up. And you lot possessing knowledge about the Fallen, get your act together. I’ll see you soon.”
A voice echoed around them.
The Akuma was crushed, but not dead.
Merlin collapsed and fell to his knees.
“Sir Merlin!”
The party rushed to him.
“I’m okay. It’ll close up after a while.”
Merlin’s face twisted in pain, but his voice was firm.
But you lot… have attracted the attention of one real nasty fellow.”
“Sir Merlin, who’s that exactly?”
“Well… we call them Akuma. Have you heard of them?”
“No…”
The party looked at each other and shook their heads.
Except one person…
“I remember hearing Ryo mention something like that.”
“What! ”
Amon answered as he traced his memory, and the other five looked at Amon at the same time.
“Ohh, the fairy king’s favorite is aware of the existence of Akuma?”
“Well, I’m not sure if he meant Akuma as an entity though…. He once said that coffee is… as black as Akuma, hot as hell, pure as an angel, and sweet as love.”
“So according to Ryo, they’re comparable to coffee…?”
Niels seemed to have grossly misinterpreted Amon’s explanation.
“Ohh. How brave.”
Somehow, Merlin too seemed to have misunderstood him.
“The Fairy King’s favorite aside, those Akumas are simply bad news. You can’t win even if you fight them… and it appears this one was just goofing around this time, so he let things end the way the way it did…”
“That was him goofing around…”
Etho’s mutter was heard by Zeke, who was standing next to him.
Zeke, like Etho, frowned and muttered with a small shake of his head.
“That magic isn’t something that humans can handle…”
Harold and Gowan nodded.
“Speaking of which…”
Merlin broke the ice, stared at Etho, and continued.
“That Akuma was talking about the Fallen or something. What’s he talking about?”
“Oh, that…”
Etho explained about the ‘Fallen’ that he heard from Ryo.
“I see.”
Merlin nodded, then hung his head downward and seemed to be thinking about something.
“Sir Merlin?”
After a minute, Etho called out to him.
“Oh, my bad. That Akuma perhaps knows someone in the upper echelons of the Western Church, or… no, let’s just say someone in the upper echelons. He’s probably trying to say that someone in the upper echelons is associated with the Fallen. And probably wants to see how the Western Church will react when accused of such allegation.”
“That’s… Why can’t the Akuma do that himself? He can just ask all of those questions personally. By disguising as a human?”
Etho questioned Merlin’s explanation.
Incidentally, the other five remained wide-eyed in surprise since the beginning of Merlin’s explanation…
“Well…. I heard a long time ago that for Akuma, everything they do is just a means for them to pass the time. Perhaps the matter with the Fallen this time too, is just another way for them to pass the time. What a nuisance of an existance.”
Merlin said, shaking his head slightly.
Later that evening, the party, protected by Merlin in the shadows, arrived in the Holy Capital of Marlomar.
When they arrived at the Kingdom delegation quarters, they found a water-attribute magician in the lounge at the back of the lobby, eating a yummy cake with a cup of coffee.
“Ryo!”
Amon called out, and the water-attribute magician turned around, smiled, and waved his hand lightly.
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