438 Just Charge At The Tower



"That's a lot more imps than I've ever seen in one place…" The older Tiara muttered.

I peeked over her shoulder and sure enough, there was an entire horde of imps both winged and without crowding around the base of the tower.

I assume my initial guess where the demons were consolidating their forces to defend here was right, though I can only see this as an opportunity for us since they had all gathered in one place which made them easier to kill.

As though reading my thoughts, the King tightened her grip on her sword, "That's just fine. This means we can wipe them all out together and not worry about being hit from behind."

The older Tiara turned to look at her with a frown, "Was my Father always like this?"

"Well I don't know about yours but I believe I've always been like this," The King shrugged.

I cleared my throat, "So do we just charge out into the open or do we have a strategy?"

Odeta huffed, "Just charge at 'em! They're all just a bunch of weaklings aren't they?"

Older Tiara turned to her, "We're outnumbered at least thirty to one right now, are you confident of fighting off that many?"

"Ha! With Sister Aster supporting us, even if it's a hundred to one we can still take it!"

Everyone turned to me, Katsuki with a face that said she also believed that to be true while the King and older Tiara were with eyes of doubt, albeit the King with a lesser degree of doubt than the princess.

I'm guessing Katsuki and Odeta believe that was the case because they know about my army of Shadow Summons… Well I won't be showing it here anyway unless necessary so no need to look at me like that.

I shrugged, "Err… I have proficiencies in both offensive and defensive magic skills… So I can act as both support and vanguard if need be. I also have proficiency in Iatronmancy so I can heal all of you as well."

The both of them nodded as though that was all the explanation they needed.

"Alright then, I guess we're charging forward," The King decided.

Wait, wait… Was that all you needed to decide this?! I only said I was versatile in a fight! How does that equate to just charging straight into-- You know what, fuck it. That's probably what I'll do anyway so… Charge!!

The five of us literally just jumped out of our hiding place and charged at the small army of imps while yelling out a warcry. I don't even know why I agreed to this…

King Justinia was the first to engage the imps and slashed her sword forward in an arc, using the Valour Skill I've already grown accustomed to seeing by now.

"[Sacred Slash]!"

Her figure disappeared and reappeared behind a group of imps, her sword held parallel to the ground and to the side.

A second passed before the imps had their heads separated from their bodies and falling to the ground with soft thumps.

The imps were still stunned by the display of power so they were still completely distracted when we crashed into them, tearing the imps apart.

I had my Light Sword out and worked on cutting down the imps closest to me one by one. Several of them couldn't even react before my blade sliced through their necks and decapitated them like how the King had done to their comrades.

One of them was quick to recover and tried to jump at me so I stabbed my sword through its chest, impaling the imp on my sword.

Another imp let out a screech beside me and tried to raise its claw to strike at me.

Seeing that I had no time to pull out my sword that was still impaled in the first imp, I simply swung both the sword and the imp to smash it into my second attacker.

The force of the blow was not only enough to dislodge the imp from my blade but also to send both of them flying away and crashing into several other imps as well.

Two more screeches came from behind me and I was in the midst of turning around before something fell from above and grabbed the two imps by the throats.

I blinked and saw Odeta swinging the two imps that tried to attack me like improvised clubs, smashing another group of imps away like they were bowling pins.

"Wahahaha! Weak! Weak! Too weak!!" She roared, clearly enjoying the fight.

Ugh… She's got imp blood all over her… I'll have to wash her with an [Aqua Ball] later…

"Mistress…"

I turned in the direction of Katsuki's voice and found an imp with a slit throat falling at my feet.

"Please be careful, we are still in a fight."

Oh, oops… My bad.

I turned my attention back to my surroundings just as a winged imp dived from above with a spear in its hands.

In response, I raised my hand and used [Spark Strike], knocking the imp out of the sky with my bolt of lightning before stabbing it through the throat when it fell in front of me.

Right then, I noticed a ball of fire coming right towards me and I frantically leapt out of the way, avoiding being incinerated by mere inches.

Looking in the direction of where the fireball had come from, I realised there was a Scarlet Fiend there who I assumed to be the leader of this small army of imps.

He seemed quite upset that I managed to avoid his blow and raised his hand to shoot another fireball at me.

You want to fight me with your stupid Infernalmancy huh? Well two can play at that game!

I pulled out the Demonic Core from my Pack of Folding and used it to cast my [Infernal Lightning] at the demon.

There was a gasp coming from behind me but I was too focused on the demon to see who it was.

My lightning blasted through the demon's fireball and continued forward until it struck him in the chest, stunning him for a moment.

That moment was all I needed to use [Link Portal] and teleport myself behind him, my Light Sword decapitating him like he was made of tofu.

The decapitated head still had a look of surprise on his face as I pulled my sword back and stabbed into it in midair, sending my mana into the sword to activate its enchantment and completely obliterating the demon's head.

The body fell onto the ground a second later and, just in case it got burned up by the King or whatever, I started extracting the Demonic Core from the corpse at that moment.

"I… I knew it! You're also a demon!!"

Huh?

I looked up at where the voice came from to see the older Tiara charging towards me with her sword tip pointed towards my chest.

I scrambled to pick up my sword but Katsuki had already intercepted her and deflected her blade away from me even before I could stand up.

The older Tiara scowled at Katsuki, "Are you also on her side? Or do you not even realise that she is a demon in disguise right now?"

My Inugami maid kept her daggers raised defensively at her, "On what basis do you think that my Mistress is a demon?"

"She used Infernalmancy! That's not something a non-demon is capable of doing! The fact that she can do it means she is a demon!"

"I can assure you that my Mistress is not a demon and the fact that she could use that magic has nothing to do with being a demon. I would advise you to stand down or I shall treat you as an enemy myself."

The older Tiara looked like she was about to say more but Odeta came barrelling in between them with a few imps held in a chokehold.

"Hey! I don't care what your problem is, but how 'bout you save it until after we get rid of these stupid little thingies?! Or do I have to whoop you as well?!"

King Justinia also spoke up from where she was slashing through a bunch of imps, "I agree. Tiara, save it for after we deal with the more imminent threat first!"

The older princess obviously did not agree but two imps that jumped at her from behind forced her to shift her attention away.

She slashed her sword at the imps and cut both of them down with a single swing before turning back to me to point with her sword, "You! You have a lot of explaining to do after this! I don't know what kind of trickery you did but don't think you can fool me!"

Without waiting for my response, she jumped away and returned to slaughtering the imps around her.

Ok… Umm… But I don't know what I'm supposed to say though?

Oh whatever, let's just focus on extracting the Demonic Core from this little demon first! I want to gather as many of these as possible since who knows when the next opportunity for this might show up?

Maybe I can even advance my Infernalmancy to the point that I don't need to depend on Demonic Cores to cast them anymore!

Now let's slice open this little demon's chest…