The Spearmaster and the Black Cat

Chapter 399: The Magic Halberd’s Transformation

I informed everyone about the battles up in the sky while making it easy to understand by using Japanese.

“I understand that it was you who saved us, but I don’t have a single clue what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t get it either. In the first place, why can you fly? A huge beast is lumbering around nearby and flying around while ignoring all gravity. That’s scary. The pads are cute, however.”

The tone of their words hadn’t changed much in comparison to back when I explained things a while ago. At times Hina and Sana helped me out by expanding on their own theories about world transfers in order to make my explanations easier to comprehend.

But, it looked like only a few of the former passengers possessed flexible thinking. The majority was unwilling to accept the facts.

Well, it’s understandable since it’s a different world all of a sudden for them. But, if they can’t accept and adapt to reality soon…only death is going to await them.

Right after I thought that, a woman in a flight attendant’s uniform and a man in a suit were raised into the air. The flight attendant, who had a voluptuous chest she could be proud of, and the muscular guy had branches of plants growing out of their chests.

“Eh?”

“Guaaaah!”

“Nooooooo!”

“What are thooooose!?”

Everyone started to scream.

But, I didn’t sense the movement of magic elements. There wasn’t any sign for an incoming attack either, yet…

『Branches? Your Excellency, it’s an unidentified attack. Everyone is…』

Just as Helme pointed out, the tips of sharp branches grew out of everyone’s chests, except for Sana and Hina.

An assault from behind, huh?

By reflex, I checked my back, but there was no incoming attack to be found behind me. Immediately turning back around, I checked everyone else.

A swarm of branch-like tentacles was floating while fanning out behind all those who got stabbed… The tentacles had penetrated all the way from everyone’s back to the front, making them now dangle from the branches like fruits.

『It has the same magic source quality as a tree. That’s why I didn’t realize』

『Me neither. It’s not like I was careless, but for us to suffer a sneak attack like this…』

Sana and Hina were safe. Matabe, who was guarding the two, had chopped up all the branches with splendid spear work as if to exhibit his skill as a warrior. Wood chips were whirling through the air in front of him.

“Nn, no magic source presence.”

“So you didn’t sense anything either, Eva?”

“No, as you can see.”

I noticed one branch tentacle being wrapped up by violet <Mind Force> while agreeing with Eva. It had been a silent attack by the branch with its sharp end.

The attacks that befell the passengers didn’t aim at my partner and me. Neither did they go for the spirit world knight who had been turned into an iron maiden and left lying around in the back. The Burning Knights on my sides had been ignored as well.

“How incomprehensible.”

“Ahh, Kisara, those things are creepy…”

Kisara and Rotalz, who were on the right side behind me, made sure to talk while staying vigilant. They didn’t get attacked by the branches either.

Suddenly, the branches,which had pierced the passengers, withdrew. While converging into a single, thick branch, they were retracted into a tree, and assimilated with its trunk. After being absorbed, a head abruptly grew out of the trunk. It was the head of a woman. Its composition combined human flesh, bark, and leaves.

Moreover, the instant the pair of her eyeballs squirmed around, a womanly figure with model-like, long and slender legs was formed in an instant. The color of her skin was light brown. Her surface somewhat resembled Nemus’s bark.

The woman standing on two feet was a plant demon. She moved her lips that looked like a crack in the bark.

“――Hehe, those humans have no power. They piqued my interest since they spoke in a weird tongue and wore strange outfits, but how boring.”

Her voice was quite high-pitched.

Did she imitate the shape of a tree like a chameleon or octopus? Ah, maybe she’s a subspecies of a Torrent, the tree species I encountered in the Great Forest of Demonic Haunts?

No, she’s different. She got the head of a woman, and her appearance differs too much from the tree monsters who prey on demons.

“By the way, spearmaster. The black beast over there sure is amazing. It looks like she can also shrink her body. Earlier I tried to hit you with ancient magic only I can use, but she easily dodged it,” the female plant demon rattled on while extending one of her branch tentacle arms diagonally above.

The flight attendant’s corpse was stabbed onto its sharp end. Once she brought the corpse right above herself, she spread her mouth as if the lips were tearing open at the seams, and gulped down the corpse. Her whole conduct was just like that of a snake swallowing prey. As she expanded her throat, you could hear a gulping sound.

“…The flesh and blood isn’t overly tasty, but well, it’s still meat, so I guess it’ll do.”

You can only call that attitude bold. Her tone has a nuance that makes it clear that she’s saying everything very naturally. But, 『hit you with ancient magic』, eh…? I suppose that means it was her who had fired that ancient magic pebble at us.

Come to think of it, Shaysad, the Time Tapir, and Hazes had been fighting demons with caterpillar-like legs while earth pebbles were shot into the vicinity. Hoffmann’s subordinates and the divine domain’s forces were also hit by those pebbles.

I guess she’s a whimsical demon just like the Death Butterfly women.

Although I analyzed her psychologically, going by her actions…

Immediately after I considered all that, the corpse of the man, who had collapsed face-down, got up with a swaying. As if being pulled upwards by countless transparent threads sticking to the corpse from above…the corpse moved like a marionette.

The corpse lifted its ghastly pale face upwards. Its eyes were glowing suspiciously. It was still wearing the sullied suit. But, its whole body was clad by a layer of light brown mana, and bark had become visible after breaking through parts of the suit. That bark was reminiscent of dragon scales. The bark had tapered ends and moved in wave motions.

The dead man had apparently transformed into a humanoid demon that was covered by shady bark. The other dead people also stood up as if having revived.

“…Hey, what did you do to everyone’s corpses?”

“I changed them. My sap contains the blood of destruction and Kyulha-sama power after all.”

“…Kyulha-sama’s power? You’re saying you possess blood similar to the roots of Kyulha who appears in the Harvest Myth? Then, you’re related to the roots located beneath the Rhinoceros Lake…” Kisara was clearly shaken.

“I have no direct relation to the one at the Rhinoceros Lake. But, you could call him a relative, I guess?”

“And you’ve mixed the blood of destruction with Kyulha?” I asked.

The plant demon nodded slowly, and then ripped her mouth apart as if laughing. Next she spat out the flight attendant’s body with a “Peh!”

The flight attendant’s corpse was also engulfed by mana blended with murky, light brown blood. Suddenly, the attendant bent her spine, and stood up in an unnatural posture while staggering. Her weird motions aligned with those of the other corpses.

As I thought, they look like marionettes who are being manipulated by a puppet master. Just like the man, this woman had been transformed into bark as well.

Something similar to plant vines grew out of her body all over while mana dwelt in her eyes.

“…Yep, the blood of destruction.”

“What’s that blood of destruction? Do you also possess vampiric powers?”

Is the blood of destruction mentioned by her the power making the corpses move? Zombies?

“Nn, maybe…”

Eva appeared to suspect something.

“The corpses have been reviving…”

“It’s okay to purge them all, right?”

Kisara and Rotalz were getting ready to fight. Rotalz was indirectly asking whether it was okay to kill them since he knew that they were people we had earnestly tried to explain things while also feeding them.

“Not yet. But, it’ll be fine to do so when the time’s ripe,” I restrained them, but got ready myself just in case.

“…To watch a zombie movie in real life…”

“Hina, stay by my side. As long as we have Matabe, we’ll be able to cut our way through.”

Sana and Hina nodded at each other. I could sense a strong will to survive from their eyes.

“The blood of destruction belongs to the King of Destruction Rashinz Lebioda,” explained the plant demon honestly while watching our actions.

“Nn, I’ve heard that he’s one of the chief gods of the Spirit World and that his apostle is rampaging in the Fujique Federation…further east of the 【Independent Stronghold City Relic】. His apostle is called “Six-Armed Raid King Kai” or something like that.”

“Ah, the one who destroyed the tiger beastmen’s hometown, huh? If I remember correctly, <Servant Leader> Mamani mentioned having encountered him on the battlefield.”

“So, she’s related to him?”

Eva had apparently analyzed. It made me remember the hero tale of Donarque & Sieglan. I heard about it when Viine and I were buying vanilla beans on the market. The store owner told us about the hero tale that took place in the Eastern Mahaheim area.

“…Are you a kin of the king of destruction? Does that make you one of his apostles?”

“No, not really? I don’t intend to obey anyone, nor am I anyone’s apostle.”

Eh? It was wrong? Is it some other kind of connection then? But, when it comes to the ability to create zombie-like kin in an instant…

“Even though she has the same smell, she is no apostle of Kyulha?” Kisara murmured while readying her witch spear.

Which reminds me, Kyulha was an object of worship in the Black Witch Church, wasn’t it? But, if we’re speaking of plants…Evil Spirit Spear Iglued comes up.

“A Torrent, huh?”

“What’s that? Who cares about something like races anyway?” She said with a tone as if feeling bored.

Just like Iglued, this woman…probably possesses an ability allowing her to grasp mental or space abilities and plant confusion in her opponents.

“Certainly, it doesn’t matter, but then you don’t have any reason to kill other people, do you?”

With those words, I pointed Baldok’s red spear at her. Her coloring somewhat resembles Iglued. But, her shape is completely different…

She mentioned that she used ancient magic. That type of magic is quite sophisticated, but offers a high degree of freedom. Besides, there’s also the earlier silent attack by the tentacles none of us could sense…

That’s why I can’t fathom what kind of magic or skill she’ll throw at us.

“Hah?!? Who do you think you are!? What ridiculous thinking――”

Hearing my words, her mood worsened drastically, and she swung her slender, left arm upwards to the right. In response, the corpses all attacked us as if being linked to her arm’s movements.

The corpses were moving fast. I hurriedly adjusted the angle of the red ax blade by inclining Baldok. A faint, metallic sound could be heard from the halberd.

Just like that, I swung Baldok upwards, creating a crimson trace in the air. The ax blade clashed against the buttocks of the female flight attendant zombie, who had closed in on me from the front. Immediately following, her corpse was vertically bisected.

I checked the neck from the lump of meat that had been roughly parted int two halves, but no bug came out of it.

『Your Excellency, shall I come out?』

『No, not yet』

While sucking up the blood, I assessed that these guys weren’t kin of Evil God Hyuriox.

In the next moment, Eva said with a sorrowful look, “――Sorry, Shuuya. Even though you went out of your way to rescue these people――,” and deployed Sergilon’s Steel Orbs.

The five orbs raced back and forth through the air with a speed reminding me of Saraten, heading for the corpses approaching us. That speed was great and the quality of the attack was high. According to Suloza’s appraisal, those were Legendary items, but Sergilon’s Steel Orbs manipulated by Eva were so strong that I considered them to be rather Mythological.

I guess they possess such a power exactly because she’s added her blood mana as <Head Servant Leader> to them.

In an instant, the steel orbs crushed some middle-aged male zombies to death alongside the trees lining up nearby. Eva herself was floating in midair. Within milliseconds of her flying, the metal pieces forming her boots and feet separated from Eva’s legs like living beings. The metallic back fastener and silver tacks of her boots melted as well.

Even the metal stuck to her leg bones melted away, and transformed into parts of her magic wheelchair. Moreover, the magic symbol on the surface of her bone legs glowed powerfully.

In the next moment, the metallic parts combined, completing a wheelchair made out of metal and wood. The time all of this required was no more than an instant. But, the movements of the combining metal pieces looked damn cool as it was similar to a mobile armor changing into its flight mode.

Eva sat on a wheelchair that was slightly different from the ones so far. As she placed both arms on its armrests, she expanded her violet mana in all directions like an aura.

Immediately following, long and narrow trenches appeared on the somewhat bulging, two wheels that were installed on the inner side of the new wheelchair’s wing section. Disk-like, metallic weapons were created within those trenches, and quickly shot out into the air.

Next, metal pieces in all kinds of shapes and forms such as white stakes, green sword blades, and objects similar to broken glass shards were produced from corresponding holes in the frame, before being sent out into the air one after the other.

The speed of the swarm of metal pieces, which Eva was controlling with her <Mind Force>, was rather high. And then, the metal pieces, which had all acted on their own, unified their movements, adopting a formation similar to that of a sardine swarm.

Yep, their cluster looks just like a “Bait Ball.”

The metal pieces, which seemed to possess their own consciousness, swooped down on the corpses. But, although a “Bait Ball” was a spherical swarm created for the sake of escaping predators, Eva’s metal swarm did the opposite. It was clearly on the side of being the predators. The swarm vividly reminded me of ferocious killer whales.

Far from just piercing the corpses, the hungry killer whales repeatedly slammed against the corpses while pulverizing their flesh as if attacking sharks or whales. Their force was so strong that they ripped out the ground with its network of thick roots, digging and tilling through the soil. It happened at such a scale that it made my white flame hands appear like a cute tickling.

In the blink of an eye, all of the revived corpses had been wiped out.

The metal swarm headed next for the female plant demon. But, she dealt with the attack by transforming one of her arms into a shield, blocking all the attacks by Eva’s metal blades.

“Nn, hard,” Eva complained for a change.

The plant demon shifted the huge shield sideways, and turned her murky, light brown, dully glowing eyes in our direction.

At that moment, plant vines protruded out of the ground right beneath Eva. While taking on a humanoid form in an instant, the vines spiraled upwards towards Eva.

Eva responded while sitting in her wheelchair, “Naive――,” with a cool expression and a sharp glint in her eyes.

And then she caused blood to clad her wheelchair, seemingly having strengthened her <Blood Mana>. With her wheelchair gleaming from her blood and violet mana, she suddenly swooped down. Within the blink of an eye, she crushed the humanoid vine bundle from above with her wheelchair, counter-attacking the plant attack instead.

“Why did you only extend your branches to her?”

“That chair. It releases the stench of a Gudola tree. Still, spell me surprised, god-slaying spearmaster. Since you’re someone emitting a smell similar to Kyulha-sama, your kin are, as might be expected, fairly powerful as well…” The plant woman remarked while peeking her face out behind her shield.

Her face clearly showed her surprise over her vine attack, which had a touch of a surprise attack, being easily blocked.

But, I’m unrelated to Kyulha. I’ve absorbed a part of Evil God Steertop’s power, so it seems this woman is misunderstanding something.

While the demon was blathering, the semi-transparent warrior protecting Sana circled around to her left side. He had been moving while keeping his spear pointed downwards.

The woman directed her glowing eyes to him, “What a strange appearance. Who are you? You possess a mana quality I’ve never seen before. Is he another of your kin, spearmaster?”

She assessed Matabe like that, but I didn’t comment on it in any way.

“Nn, nya,” Rollodeen purred throatily while in her black panther form.

As if to match with everyone else, my partner had assumed that this was going to be a ground battle. She turned her head in my direction. After meeting her cute, red eyes, I nodded to affirm her.

Immediately following, my partner growled, and stabbed the trunk of a tree with a tentacle bone sword. Contracting the tentacle, her body was quickly drawn towards the trunk. As soon as she got close, she kicked off the tree with her hind paws, jumping atop a big branch on the right side. The workings of her muscular limbs were impressive to watch.

Being on that branch would allow her to attack the plant demon at any moment.

The demon said, “…Still, it’s weird. Going by your appearances, you’re humans, demons, or maybe vampires, and yet your mana smells different from any of those. You don’t feel like divine warriors of the divine domain either. So you are unknowns, huh? My Blood of Destruction throbs…”

I won’t tell her that we’re Light Demon Lucival.

“It’s not my intent to borrow your words, but that stuff doesn’t matter at all, does it? Anyway, you yourself won’t fight?”

“I wonder what I should do~”

The plant demon shifted her eyes diagonally above her.

Is this her thinker pose or something?

I summoned Baldok, and held up my left palm towards the demon. While tilting Baldok in my right hand…I shifted my body sideways, into a stance of the Wind Spear Style.

“Whoa, a weird weapon! An ancient dragon…no, Demonic Ogre Princess Mephalla? Huh? Gods of the Spirit World? Thick crest mana of an ancient god which makes your hair stand on end, and even mana in the shape of an unknown tiger…,” analyzed the demon while staring at Baldok.

『Helme, lend me your “sight”』

『Ahnn』

Even when looking at her with Helme’s Spirit Sight, it didn’t change much, did it? Her temperature was no different from the trees around us.

Given the situation…I guess I have no choice but to search for the vine attack she used on Eva with my normal eyesight.

“…Scary, everyone has…”

“Hina, don’t leave my side.”

“Okay.”

Sana was a mage of the Twelve High Families or whatever. I think she’d be able to deal with attacks, using Matabe or her spells, which were unknown to me, but I still told them, “Hina, Sana, if you want to save yourselves some trouble, fall back further.”

The two immediately moved behind us.

Rollodeen jumped from her elevated position, landed close to Hina and Sana, and walked over to their side in order to protect them. Matabe also matched their retreat, fell back from the left side of the demon and took some distance in order to protect the two. Matabe took a look at Rollodeen, and nodded.

“Nn.”

My partner purred and extended several of her tentacles in the direction where Hina and Sana were walking. Did she give Matabe instructions?

“Burning Knights, I leave Sana and Hina in your hands. Focus on defense.”

“Affirmative. Rollo-dono, please wait. That semi-transparent, cheeky spear wielder isn’t our new subordinate.”

“Rollo-dono, please give us your instructions! Make sure to not forget about us――”

The Burning Knights exclaimed while walking and bumping their bone swords against their bone shields as if to fire themselves up.

Matabe’s eyes seemed to observe the actions of the Burning Knights and Rollodeen. Does he have his own consciousness as well? Matabe wears a face guard even while being semi-transparent. That’s why I can’t tell much about his expression. The cheek guard beneath his eyes stands out as special with its slightly bulging form.

On the other hand, the plant demon was merely watching Matabe with a curious look. She didn’t try to chase after Sana, Hina, Rollodeen, and the others who had distanced themselves.

Is she really wavering whether she should attack as her question suggests? But, it’s a fact that she launched an attack against Eva a little while ago. And although Sana and Hina are still fine, the other people we saved got killed by her.

That’s why I’ll launch a surprise attack from my side this time.

Just as I thought that, I sensed magic sources from my right side. I unintentionally shifted my attention to the right edge of my sight. The magic source responses came from deep within a place overgrown with tree leaves, between the trunks.

『Your Excellency, new enemies from the right?』

“Leave the enemy on the right side to me.”

“Nn, Shuuya, right side.”

Just as Kisara and Eva pointed out, humans appeared from in-between the trees on the right side.

“Reinforcements? Should I crush them?” Rotalz asked whether he should squash them with his thick torso.

The part of him seeking my permission and not Kisara’s pretty much meant that Rotalz had approved of me as his master. Rotalz caused his forehead to expand.

“No, it doesn’t look like they’re enemies.”

Everyone stopped moving when I said so.

“Go for that new demon-type of a plant woman rather than the huge whale!”

“Usurping Path of Kingship! We’ll attack with the “Blade-shape Formation”!”

“Roger, I’ll get ‘er!”

“Let’s go――”