The Swordsman Called The Countless Swords Sorcerer Chapter 60

   The distress call originated not far from their position.

「Is it in the back!? 」

   Ardis immediately started running through the houses of the village, arriving at the back of the village. Kyrill as well, wordlessly followed behind Ardis as quickly as he could.

   After circling to the back of the village, there was another lone house, it was that moment that Ardis saw a purple creature trying to smash the wall down. The purple creature had a body of a molluscs, and more than ten tentacles were on the ground.

   Its body is almost as tall as three meters. It was most probably the demonic being, 『Unholiness』. Every time its tentacles waved around and smashed at the wall, the wooden wall let out a dry crackle before blown into chips.

「Help! Someone please! 」

   It was a female voice that came from the inside of the house.

「Kyrill! Hide behind something! Yell if anything happens! 」

「Y-Yes! 」

   Kyrill immediately ran towards some crates at the end of the road, and hid in its shadows. It's a little unfortunate but, the only thing that Kyrill can do now is to stay within Ardis's view docilely.

   After giving out instructions to Kyrill, Ardis drawn his short sword with a white blade and threw it towards the 『Unholiness』. Drawing his broadsword of the color of autumn sky, Ardis swiftly circled around to the back of the demonic being like a gust of wind.

   The white short sword severed the tentacles that had continued to destroy the house. Till that moment, the demonic being had probably only saw Ardis as someone who couldn't harm itself.

   Having realized its enemy all but too late, death had already approached from the back of the 『Unholiness』. Although he didn't know if it was its eyes or what, Ardis had caught the round object that looked like a blue mineral.

「Rot in h.e.l.l. 」

   Muttering the last words he had for the demonic being, Ardis swung the autumn sky colored broadsword in a wide trajectory. The demonic being was blown away along with the blue mineral object which was now separated into two, it seemed like it lost its string before collapsing to the ground.

   It was not even ten seconds since Ardis gave his instructions to Kyrill. At Ardis's figure and light movements which dealt with the abomination easily, Kyrill's eyes had a sense of admiration while he watched.

「Amazing……」

   Kyrill tried to get up from his crouching position because he thought the danger had been dealt with. But the next moment, noticing that Ardis hasn't let his guard down with a tense expression, Kyrill panickily surveyed the surroundings.

「Tch, it was an offshoot huh」

   Ardis who clicked his tongue looked up at the sky. Kyrill's gaze which followed Ardis's saw another purple creature was floating even higher than the roofs of the surrounding building in the sky.

   There's no one who can understand the thoughts of the Unholiness which continued to hover in the sky. But what was heard from the purplish creature above was akin to an unsettling sound of something vibrating quickly.

「An offshoot……, just as I thought. 」

   As if waiting for Ardis's words, countless shadows started appearing from the purple body that floated in the sky.

   The color and shape of the Unholiness in the sky didn't change. What changed was its size.

   The Unholiness that was in the sky was about the same size as the one Ardis dealt with just now but, now there're countless smaller offshoots at about twenty to thirty centimeters surrounding it.

   The numbers were unimaginable. Kyrill could at least count thirty of them with just his bare eyes.

「Babies of demonic beings……? 」

   Even for Kyrill who isn't clear about the life cycle of demonic beings, he understood after seeing the countless smaller demonic beings seperating from a single larger one.

「Kyrill! Come here! 」

   At the same time Ardis's voice rang, a white bladed short sword came beside Kyrill. Stopping just in front of Kyrill's eyes, the short sword sliced up the surrounding offshoots of the Unholiness which approached easily.

「……Y-Yes! 」

   Kyrill seemed stunned at first but, to not be an even more useless baggage by crouching there, he immediately ran towards Ardis. The offshoots started chasing after seeing their prey had started running.

   But all of them were met by the short sword floating beside Kyrill. While sweating at the prospect of the tentacles of the offshoots grazing the top of his head, Kyrill continued running towards Ardis.

「Have your back towards the house and sit tight. 」

   Leaving behind the white short sword to protect Kyrill and the villager, Ardis threw his other short sword towards the group of offshoots and started chanting at the same time.

「The tune of rupturing winds played by the pristine shrine maiden ――――Schelwi! 」(Wind Blades)

   With each swing of the sword, another offshoot died, together with Ardis's wind magic, the offshoots started dying one after another.

   But there weren't even any signs of the numbers of offshoots decreasing. How many more offshoots did the parent give birth to? Ardis couldn't figure it out as more and more appeared behind the houses even while he continued crus.h.i.+ng them.

「s.h.i.+t, if we're not right in the village……」

   Ardis could've casted a large-scale destructive magic that have a wide area of effect. But, since he couldn't have known that where else the villagers are hiding in, if he casted such a magic, all the houses would collapse.

   While having such thoughts, Ardis continued finished off the offshoots one after another. Of course, when its own offspring are getting killed, the parent Unholiness didn't sit quietly as well. It had already lowered its alt.i.tude substantially so that its tentacle attacks can reach Ardis.

   Following up on that, the offshoots of the Unholiness started coming at Ardis from all sides. Ardis just continued controlling the yellowish green short sword and cutting down the bodies of the offshoots with the broadsword of autumn sky.

「There's no end! 」

   Ardis cursed at the never-ending stall.

   Even as he did that, one body after another collapsed on the ground. Witnessing Ardis who continued cutting down one demonic being after another, Kyrill was stunned.

『Well, about that person huh. He's too strong, on a scale that's incomprehensible for us. 』

   What came up in Kyrill's mind was the words of a man he met in the morning as he left the capital.

   It was a man Kyrill met when he was spending time idly in the tavern when Ardis was meeting with another person called Jean. The man seemed to be interested in Kyrill's name, the reason why Kyrill is together with Ardis, and their relations.h.i.+p.

   Talking with some stranger is something Kyrill would've avoided normally. But, dragged in the flow of the man who for some reason had a rea.s.suring kind smile and polite tone, the fact that Kyrill spilled everything out was probably a showing of his experience in life.

   Hearing information that was leaked out by Kyrill, the man said smilingly, 『Lady Luck was with you. Normally, for someone to hire him, they'll need about ten gold a day for him. 』

   At Kyrill who seemed to have round eyes at the amount, the man continued on while having an expression of self-depreciation.

『He's someone very a.s.suring to have as an escort. But, just as much, it's scary if you antagonize him. At the very least, it's scary enough to a.s.sume that there're no mercenaries in the entire capital to dare turn on his bad side. 』

   From the stories he'd heard, Ardis had completely destroyed the Three Great Demons in one day, which were demonic beings that had been gnawing at the kingdom for more than tens of years, with no subjugation before his succeeding. As such a person, he's extremely famed among all the other mercenaries in the entire capital.

『Oi, Chezare. Don't simply mess around with someone's companion. 』

   And it was when Ardis had returned after finis.h.i.+ng his talks about the request.

『Messing……. We're just chatting idly……, right? 』

   As if trying to make an excuse, the man begged for affirmation from Kyrill. Although he didn't know why, Kyrill felt a sense of fear in the man's expression.

『So it seems that you're going to the Coalition? Do you need any information? 』

『No. I've heard what I need from Jean. 』

『You're so cold huh―』

   Even as he said so, the man didn't seem like he was disappointed at all.

『Kyrill, let's go. 』

   Without even facing the man, Ardis gave his reply and called out to Kyrill as he walked out of the tavern.

『If you got anything interesting there, let me know when you come back―』

   While hearing the man's voice from behind, Kyrill chased after Ardis's back.

   For Kyrill who isn't someone who lives in Gran, he had no way of knowing how strong of an opponent are the Three Great Demons. But, if what the man said was real――.

   Witnessing it first handedly now, even when taking on an entire swarm of demonic being, Ardis stood strong by himself, overpowering the demonic beings.

   Every swing of Ardis's sword, more and more offshoots of the Unholiness were decimated. Occasionally, at his swing of his left arm, magic of the element of ice or wind would be released, and they will surely take down a big chunk of the demonic beings.

   Kyrill thought that chanting is something that's essential for magic but, Ardis seemed to be able to use it with just a swing of his arm. At the mashup of Ardis's sword magic and his display of magic, Kyrill's eyes couldn't catch up at all.

   Eventually, even for the Unholiness's offshoots which seemed like it was endless at first seemed to decrease as time goes on. As expected, even as demonic beings, the army of Unholiness which seemed to have lost their number by half started to retreat.

   And there, Ardis mercilessly followed up with an attack.

「The dance of eternity of the s.h.i.+ning deep green in the color of imaginary land and the silence――――Troa・Seus・Fote! 」(Storm of the North)

   The moment Ardis had confirmed that there was enough of a distance from the village, Ardis didn't hold back and summoned a blizzard storm, freezing and destroying the offshoots of the demonic being, before dealing with the remaining main body of Unholiness with his two short swords.

「Good grace, that was too much of a bother. 」

   Ardis muttered while sighing lightly, it was the announcement of the end of the battle.