Banquet (3)
Rio's personality had matured significantly compared to two years ago. Before, just brushing up against someone was enough for Rio to always raise her fists.
Since she had grown up in the notoriously rough 7th Legion, it was a bad habit she had picked up, but such a temperament should never be accepted outside that environment.
However, as time passed, those negative tendencies had gradually been corrected.
Now, she was a woman who even knew how to smile at children.
Of course, there was one thing that had not changed.
"I don't know who summoned them for me, but..."
Rio spoke, her eyes gleaming as she looked at the herd of wild wolf monsters before her.
"Thank you so much. My body's been itching for a fight."
In that instant, one of the wolf monsters suddenly raised one of its arms. It looked like it was about to swing, so everyone tensed up. If a beast that size swung its massive arm, it could easily send the mansion flying, and the shockwave would surely reach the whole village.
But fortunately, such a disaster did not occur. Rio dashed in quickly and blocked the monster's arm faster than it could swing.
PAaaak!―
The instant Rio took the monster's arm with her entire body, a deafening roar broke out. The knights who witnessed the scene were left dumbfounded. A girl had suddenly appeared and blocked an attack that would flatten them if they as much as tried to get involved.
"Kh!"
Of course, it wasn't as if she was completely unscathed. Her opponent was, after all, an advanced-rank monster. Any single attack from it could easily cause fatal injuries.
"What are you doing! Use this chance to evacuate the remaining nobles!"
Klein kept his composure and commanded the knights. Even though he wasn't their direct superior, they had no reason not to follow him.
Given the situation, the knights came to their senses and began swiftly evacuating the remaining nobles. Thanks to that, the once-boisterous banquet hall was gradually growing quieter.
Grrrrrrrr!—
At that moment, another wolf monster targeted the fleeing nobles and the knights helping them escape. When the monster blocked their path, both knights and nobles fell into utter despair.
"Damn it!"
Seeing this, Rio tried to rush towards that wolf monster. However, the wolf monster on this side wouldn't let her go.
Kuuuuuuung!—
The monster stomped down on Rio with precise aim. The impact shook the ground, and another loud boom rang out.
"Kuheuuugh!"
But Rio gritted her teeth and blocked it. It wasn't just her bare hands—above her head a crimson barrier had formed, like a shield. The barrier, created from blood, absorbed the shock of the attack.
"Why now...!"
She would have preferred to engage in a fierce battle with the monsters, but people were present. Rio had sworn—because of her promise to the young master—to become a good person. Accordingly, protecting citizens took priority over the fight that was as natural to her as instinct.
Krooooooar!—
Smoke began rising from the monster's mouth as it blocked the people's path. The heat pouring from its maw was enough that Rio could feel it from a distance.
Fwooosh!—
Finally, a massive jet of fire burst from the monster's mouth. Spewing flames like a dragon, the heat intensified with its size, threatening to become a terrifying inferno.
It was the kind of firepower that could obliterate an entire city in one shot—if not for the defensive magic that Klein had cast.
"Damn it! Hey, brat! Did you think you were the only one fighting here?"
Klein, struggling to block the flames, shouted at Rio. He tried to appear unscathed, but it was impossible. Ten seconds was the limit for withstanding such fire with defensive magic. It was not as if he'd acted only trusting in a single spell.
"He's right! Don't act like you're the only one holding things together!"
Leaping quickly, Kelian slashed at the monster's jaws with his aura-clad sword. The wolf monster, struck while breathing flames, sustained a massive wound to its mouth, causing its fire breath to shoot skyward instead.
"Yeah! You haven't forgotten about me, have you!?"
Klein shed tears as he blurted out his pent-up feelings.
"Nobody cares about that stuff!"
Silia ignored his words and leaped toward the outstretched flame. At the moment, thanks to Kelian's attack, the monster could no longer direct its fire. But to Silia, those wasted flames were a crime. So she chose to intercept them herself.
"You shouldn't waste something this precious by just sending it up into the sky!"
Silia drew her two Bloodline blades and dove into the fire. To an observer, it would have looked like a suicidal act. But Silia wasn't diving in to die.
[It's been so long since I last got to fight...]
[Let's show what we can do now, child.]
From the two Bloodline swords, the voices of the two known as legends sounded. And then, the twin Bloodlines began to absorb all the flames engulfing Silia.
Krrrrk!—
The monster saw its own flames being absorbed completely and panicked greatly.
"No waste allowed!"
Having absorbed all the fire, Silia descended holding the now-empowered Bloodline swords.
Kwaaaang!—
With her Bloodline ablaze, she sliced diagonally across the monster's head, triggering an enormous explosion.
Hit dead on by her sword, the monster's head was swallowed by the explosion and burned so thoroughly that its shape was no longer recognizable.
When the smoke cleared, the monster's head was revealed, charred black and lifeless.
Kuuuuung!—
As the massive beast collapsed into a corpse, an enormous crash echoed again. Fortunately, there was no collateral damage from the aftershock, thanks to Kelian's slash and Klein's wind magic softening the blow.
"Rio! Don't try to handle two at once recklessly!"
As Silia advised, Rio had gotten a bit too excited seeing advanced-rank monsters again after so long—like students eager to get more food at lunch. For Rio, such monsters were nothing less than a delicacy.
"We took care of one, so the other's all yours!"
But the others had already "shared and eaten up" one of them. Rio, feeling regret, continued to support the monster's leg. The time had finally come to shake off the leg she was holding up.
"You're strong, aren't you?"
Rio looked up at the monster, wishing for it to live up to her hopes.
"So don't disappoint me."
The crimson barrier blocking the monster's stomp now shot up into the sky. It stretched upward, like a pillar, making the monster stagger.
Shuuuuuk!—
At that moment, the monster's tail swung powerfully. Perhaps to grant Rio's wish of not being disappointed, the monster lashed its tail at her. With that enormous bulk, a tail swing was enough to send a person flying.
Like a ball kicked by someone with a powerful kick, Rio was sent flying several kilometers away.
Tracing an arc, she pierced even the clouds overhead and soon disappeared from sight.
How far would she fly? Anyone watching would have wondered.
'Blood Sword Technique'
At that moment, crimson wings appeared in the sky in the direction Rio had been sent. The wings, made from living blood, were ghastly—but burning with intense will.
A girl's wings, honed by fighting fiercely for survival more than anyone, fluttered in the sky. Sensing great danger, the monster unleashed a blast of flame at Rio.
The monster that had threatened everyone tried to swallow Rio in flames. The fire, streaking with the force to redden the sky, was split in two by Rio's crimson blade.
Chwaaaaaak!!—
The bisected flames spread, coloring the sky red. The sky turned a pastel-like red, split completely by Rio's sword strike.
The demonkin war, which decided the fate of the continent. In that war, the Demon King—feared not only by humans but even by demonkin—was said to wield a Blood Sword Technique that could cause natural disasters with casual ease.
Now, empowered by that very force, Rio rushed at the monster with a delighted expression.
'How long has it been?'
Since escaping from the demon realm two years prior, she hadn't met any strong opponents. She'd almost forgotten her battle instincts. But now, facing an advanced-rank monster again, her instincts were reawakened.
'This is the feeling!'
Descending toward the ground, Rio swung her crimson blade with all her might. The resulting slash sliced the huge wolf monster's body entirely in two.
Even a monster with a thick body, as grand as the mountains, was cut through as easily as tofu. The sword strike didn't stop: it swept beyond the village, through the mountains, and more mountains after that.
The slash continued slicing through the land, only stopping once it had reached the horizon and was no longer visible.
"Haha... hahahaha!"
Rio laughed as she saw the spectacle she had created. How long had it been since she'd exerted this much strength? It felt like she was releasing all the power she'd previously suppressed in one burst.
Maybe that's why she couldn't control her strength as usual. Normally, she'd have worried first, but now there was only exhilaration.
"Hahahahaha! This is it!"
"What do you mean, 'this is it,' you brat?!"
"Ow!"
Just then, someone appeared behind her and smacked her head with a fist.
"Louis! When did you get back?"
"I timed it just as the fight was ending."
Louis, who had suddenly appeared in response to Silia's question, pinched Rio's cheek as he spoke.
"I figured there was no need for me to step in, but you went and caused a major incident."
"What incident? I made sure to send it flying to an uninhabited area—ugh!"
"There may not have been any casualties, but because of you the mountain ecosystem has been changed. Haven't you heard of environmental destruction?"
Louis pinched Rio's cheek even harder for her excuse-making. Her speech grew slurred and her eyes filled with tears. Having your face pulled hurt anyone.
"I figured there was no problem with victory, so I left it alone. All it did was add more liability for me now."
Louis had a rough idea just how far that slash had gone. There may not have been any other domains or villages in that direction, but he remembered that there were mines or ranches owned by someone.
With aftershocks like those, both ranches and mines would surely have been destroyed.
"So now we have to pay all the damages!"
"That's right."
"Are you crazy, Rio!"
After finally coming back, she'd already caused an incident—it gave Lord Kelian a headache just thinking about it.
"By the way, where's Pram? Didn't she activate the warp magitech device?"
"Yeah. Pram is knocked out from that right now."
Originally, Rio had been coming over from the 7th Legion's side. It was quite a distance from there to Seifert Village, so for Pram—who had to activate a warp connection between the two—it had been rough.
"And Victor and the others aren't here?"
"Rozen and Simon disappeared too. Where did they go?"
"Oh, them..."
Rio explained that those two had immediately seen the enormous wolf on their arrival and were currently protecting the village.
Given the rampage of such a monster, the village couldn't be safe otherwise.
They needed people to guard the village from the aftereffects of the battle.
"By the way, young master, what should we do with these?"
Rio pointed at the monster's corpses. Silia, curious, climbed up onto one of the corpses.
[Child, these don't seem like ordinary monsters.]
[They may have fallen easily to you, but they're advanced-rank monsters—living disasters summoned with this much ease. That's not normal.]
Frederick and Mirianne's words made perfect sense. Even Mirianne, known as a Great Mage, was startled by such summoning ability. It was necessary to investigate whose doing this was.
[Stab us into their corpses.]
[We'll find out right away.]
Thus, one Bloodline blade was stabbed into each monster's corpse. After a few minutes, both blades flew back to Silia on their own and struck the ground as if to speak.
[We've discovered the one who summoned them here. Don't be shocked when you hear.]
Mirianne was aghast.
[The culprit is one of the heroes, like us.]
Frederick shared her reaction.