Chapter 94: 053. Imperial Prince is Going to the Academy -1 (Part Two)
**
As the explosion resounded out, the steel front door was blown apart.
The Necromancers squatting by the passageway flinched nastily and hurriedly got up from the ground.
As the thick smoke wafted out, a black silhouette could be seen within. Then, a distinctive metallic ‘clank’ rang out.
The heavy-sounding footsteps forced the Necromancers to hastily stumble back.
It was a ‘creature’ kitted out in a pure-white helm and armour which covered his entire torso and limbs; even his joints were covered by chainmail.
A set of impressive white armour covered him from top to bottom, with a massive shield held in its left hand and a long-barrelled musket rifle in the right.
[Divine Aura has been used.]
[All equipment will temporarily be upgraded.]
The lights resembling rune letters suddenly engraved themselves on the entire body of this small-statured ‘angel’. Strikingly-blue divinity gushed out from the gaps of the armour in the very next moment.
Behind him were the eerily-grinning Blue Santas with much larger physiques on standby.
“I-it’s the angel!”
The Necromancers screamed in terror at the angel’s appearance, and urgently tried running away from there.
“Oh, dear Gaia.”
Breaths leaked out from the air holes of the white helm the angel was wearing. Divinity started permeating into the musket rifle.
“Hiiieek?! A-all of you, stop him!”
Rune letters of demonic nature were engraved on the floor and the Necromancers hurriedly summoned zombies and skeletons.
The undead they summoned while using up their own lives began shuffling towards the angel.
They reached out and tried biting into it.
However, the angel utterly ignored them all. The divinity gushing out from the gaps of the armour was more than enough to melt down any skeletons or zombies getting too close and erase them from existence.
This sight was a complete contrast to the Necromancers who spewed out poison.
The angel pointed his musket at the targets.
[Skill, Spread Shot, has been used.]
Then, he squeezed the trigger.
BOOM-!
At the same time, dozens of projectiles were fired out.
The Necromancers were cleanly penetrated through and turned into Swiss cheese in an instant. The bullets ricocheted off the walls and the narrow passageway was soon enveloped in noisy explosions.
“Uwaaaahk!”
The Necromancers trying to escape were swept up in the explosions and got flung away.
After the smoke cleared, the Blue Santas began searching through the hideout. They checked if any children had been abducted, and also didn’t forget to ransack the place for any items they could find within.
Clank, clank.
The angel continued marching forward. He offered prayers and exhaled more breaths into the musket.
[Skill, Burst Fire, has been used.]
He pointed the musket at the Necromancers. Divinity visibly swirled around in front of the muzzle, and every time he pulled the trigger, holy bullets flew out to strike their targets.
“O-oh, dear god! We beg of you! Please, please s-save us!”
A Necromancer who lost his leg was crawling on the ground.
But then, the angel ruthlessly stepped on this man’s back and spoke up. “Save you? Heh, allow me to do just that for you.”
He pointed the musket at the downed Necromancer.
“The Goddess’s grace will lead you punks straight down to hell.”
The Necromancer looked behind him. His eyes widened in terror after spotting the swirling divinity in front of the muzzle.
“Ah, aaaaah... Aaaaaahk!”
A gunshot rang out.
With every step the angel took, the Necromancers fell increasingly deeper into confused pandemonium. Because, the angel was truly merciless against the ones who manipulated death.
Only death existed whenever it pulled the trigger on the musket.
Soon, the angel stood before a steel door. He simply kicked it off the hinges.
The heavy, sturdy-looking door bent and broke. The glare of the angel’s eyes seemed to gleam brightly from beneath the helm.
Countless Necromancers activated their magic while paying the price of their lifespan, right up until their moments of death.
Beshum, who was stuck in the middle of them, was also raising his staff, a look of shock etched on his face. He was working hard to manipulate demonic energy to do his bidding, but his eyes didn’t want to look away from this creature called ‘angel’.
“That... that’s the angel?!”
The angel’s body size was small. But even then, ‘it’ still managed to move that thick armour without any issues.
This being was the so-called monster that took over Humite all by itself?
“Fire!”
While Beshum dazedly muttered to himself, other Necromancers were busy roaring out as veins in their throats bulged up.
The angel raised the thick shield in its left hand. The fired magic spells collided noisily against the shield.
It was set on fire before freezing up. All sorts of curses and toxins began melting down the area around the angel. The combined firepower was so great that a regular person would’ve dissolved away without a trace even before he had a chance to protect himself with the shield.
Unfortunately, the angel was unscathed.
The impact force did push it back a few steps, but that was only for a short while. It began moving forward once more.
The glare of its eyes shooting out from beneath the helm was so frightening that goosebumps broke out on the skin of all the Necromancers watching.
“Ah, aaaaahk!”
Beshum, who only a few minutes ago thought of it as some kind of a joke, also lost himself to fear as well.
He unleashed all of the demonic energy in him.
The angel’s eyes permeating with divinity were quietly taking in the sights of the Necromancers. It was as if he was trying to study their magic.
“Pant... pant... pant...”
One by one, Necromancers began collapsing out of exhaustion.
Their magic spells eventually cut out, and in the end, even Beshum fell on his butt while laboriously panting.
He raised his head in despair.
The angel remained unscathed.
The white armour didn’t even have a single trace of being singed. In fact, the aura of divinity continuously gushing out from his body was still perfectly protecting him.
“Ah, ah! Dear Yudai...!”
Beshum offered a prayer towards the god he worshipped.
In the meantime, the angel’s breaths injected more divinity into the musket rifle, then he took aim at the Necromancers. Flames lit up on the weapon’s muzzle in the next instant.
It was one of the magic spells that the Necromancers used earlier.
“He... he copied our magic?!”
Even if the attack spells employed by Necromancers were rather simple in structure, how could anyone analyse and copy it in such a short amount of time?!
The flames erupted out from the muzzle and incinerated the Necromancers.
More wretched screams resounded out in the area.
Beshum looked behind him and saw that his fellow Necromancers had collapsed to the ground as burnt-out blocks of charcoal.
He shivered in fear, and when he turned his head back, the angel was standing right in front of his eyes.
Beshum barely managed to crack open his trembling lips, “You! You bastard... Just what are you?!”
The angel didn’t reply and simply reached out with his hand.
**
(TL: In 1st person POV.)
The morning sun rose past the horizon.
I yawned and stretched my limbs while still feeling drowsy.
My whole body was still aching thanks to all that rampaging I did last night while wearing the set of armour Belrog had gifted me. My accumulated fatigue hadn’t gone away yet.
I rubbed my still-sleepy eyes and went to the ground floor of the inn. The inn’s owner smiled warmly while bringing out my food.
After settling down on an empty spot at a dining table, I began chowing down on my breakfast consisting of a bowl of simple soup and bread.
In the meantime, Harman walked over and sat on my opposite side. “Your highness. With the aid of the Crimson Cross, I was able to interrogate the Necromancer that infiltrated the city last night. His name is...”
“...Beshum?”
“...You already knew?”
Of course I knew. A Necromancer was capable of sharing the vision of their familiars after all. While using that skill, I activated [Mind’s Eye], so yeah, I knew a few things about that guy.
Although, there was somewhat of a drawback of my vision becoming disorientated if I used this skill on too many familiars, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted. Still, it was better than nothing.
I replied while chewing on the bread. “I only know his name.”
Harman’s breakfast was brought out as well.
He munched on his bread and continued with his report. “He says he came here to learn more about the current state of Humite, your highness. He hasn’t mentioned which district he originally belongs to, but if you give me a week, I will definitely uncover that information as well. It wouldn’t be all that hard considering that the Order of the Crimson Cross is also here.”
As per my request, Harman transferred the surviving Necromancers to the imperial palace and brought along a portion of the Crimson Cross back with him to Humite.
We were currently capturing any Necromancers that decided to show up here, and at the same time, interrogated them and learned more about this [Chaos Plan] of the Black Order.
Currently, it was a rather delicate time period for the Theocratic Empire.
The moment Kelt Olfolse learned of the [Chaos Plan], he immediately dispatched combat forces to each of the important cities. He also considered the possibility of the Black Order entering into a cooperative relationship with Aslan to invade the empire, and that was why he had the Heavenly Army stationed in the border region.
If the kingdom of Aslan showed even one tiny little hint of doing something stupid, then the battlefield wouldn’t be inside the Theocratic Empire, but somewhere in Aslan instead.
“Okay, I got it. Get all the info out of him as quickly as possible.”
While saying that, I got up from the seat.
“Where are you going, your highness?”
“I’m off to the library.”
“You mean the one in the academy? You seem to frequent that place a lot, your highness. May I ask, why do you go there?”
“Because they have plenty of books.”
Actually, the real reason was because a lot of grimoires left behind by the Necromancers could be found in there, that’s why. Most of the captured punks were small-fries and they didn’t hold a lot of valuable knowledge.
The grimoires dealing with more advanced content could be found stored in the academy. I especially found all the tomes related to the Necromancer King quite interesting at the moment.
“Instead of doing this, isn’t it better to consider transferring to the academy altogether?”
“I’ve been acting like B*tman almost every single night so you think I have enough spare energy left to attend school during the day?”
“I have no idea what this B*tman is, but you can leave the search and hunt of those bastards to us, your highness.” Harman placed his fist against his chest, and then bowed his head. “We wish for nothing more than your highness to be able to enjoy some semblance of a normal life.”
Hey Harman, you sure do know how to talk, don’t you?
Just who was it that forcibly dragged me out of the monastery all those months ago? So what’s this about having a normal life now, ah?!
“The other siblings of the Imperial Family have also spent some time as students here in Humite, your highness. How about taking a small break from your task and making some friends in the...”
“I’ll think about it, okay?”
I could only tut here.
After breakfast, Harman went to the hideout to interrogate the rest of the captured Necromancers, while I walked over to Humite Academy.
I passed through the grand gateway of the academy and entered the hallway that led to the library, only to be greeted by a familiar voice.
“It’s been a while, Allen. Or should I call you with the false identity of Jerone Ripang in this place?”
Jerone Ripang – this was the name of my current identity, the adopted son of Count Jenald Ripang. Only the Imperial Family and Harman knew the truth.
I turned my head and stared at the owner of that voice.
< 053. Imperial Prince is Going to the Academy -1 (Part One and Two) > Fin.