Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 222: Not paid enough

Vale decided to wait and observe for a while, watching what was happening. The small number of soldiers must be from the main bulk, but what were they doing in a small town like this?

...I can count three Errant Knights and up to thirty normal Knights, with Squires double that number...

The leader of the soldiers was saying something, but he was almost too far away to catch anything that didn’t resemble shouted murmurs. He moved his tower closer, still cloaked by the unseen law, and listened to what the man was saying.

"Open the door! We are soldiers on behalf of the Clan! We won’t give you this grace again!"

"We don’t recognize you! Show your badges, you criminals! I know you are bandits masquerading as soldiers. And you have real guts too, with the soldiers’ camp not far from here!" A female voice answered from the town, amplified by magic.

Vale could hardly believe his ears. He knew that voice. It was a voice he was very familiar with. Nadia!

...What is she doing here? She should be at the Clan, and since there was no mention of her, I had thought she had been locked up somewhere or managed to escape... But here? On a mission or what...

...Ah, shit... She might not even know what’s happening at the capital... Her mother...

...Wait... These bandits... It’s too convenient for them to be here, in the city where Nadia is. They are either here to capture her or kill her...

Without waiting, Vale swung his tower downward at the army. With the unseen law removed, they sensed his presence immediately—a small black dot that grew bigger by the second.

And they reacted just as fast. The soldiers shifted, moving into formation quickly. Vale knew about it—how armies were able to fight in open land like that without the cover of a shifted shield that protected all.

On their armor was a set of enchanted symbols that connected into a collective enchanted formation, activating when the different symbols aligned in certain ways.

As they shifted into position, they shouted out as one, and a hazy smoke rose up around them, solidifying into a shield that covered them all—a flexible one that moved with them.

Those near the poles turned it upward at the tower and began to fire beams of concentrated energy. Vale didn’t dodge. The tower simply vanished, only to appear close to the shield, and without slowing down, he crashed into it.

Bam! Bam!

He slammed into the shield like a falling mountain, and it shattered without resistance. The soldiers below shouted in pain as the enchantment broke, the shockwave rippling over them and knocking most of them down.

Vale added his essence pressure into the tower and sent it out, hitting them like a blow to the gut and keeping them down. Without the tower, Vale was powerful alone with his abnormally massive core, but with the tower? He was hitting close to the Master Knight rank.

With the suppression still in place, he made a law. "Only the truth is allowed here!"

Then he focused on the leader. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

The man cursed him, but then Vale pulled back most of the pressure from the others and focused only on him. The man began gasping for breath. He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but nothing came out. He was lying. It wasn’t allowed in the area.

Without waiting, a beam of fire cut down from the tower and struck toward the man, who raised his hand and created a golden shield around himself. But this was an attack from Vale, amplified by the tower.

He couldn’t stop it. The beam sliced him in two, shield and all.

Vale turned his attention to the other Errant Knights and asked, "Well?"

They spoke the truth. The small unit of soldiers was made up of bandits, but someone from the army had sponsored them, ordering them to burn down the town and kill Magister Nadia.

Vale frowned. It was just as he suspected—and even worse. There were spies in the army. Expected, though. But he hoped it wasn’t a Master Knight in hiding.

...Thrain wouldn’t have sent his Master Knight here, would he...

Vale dropped the suppression law he was using and changed it to something else. He declared solemnly, "Fire magic is stronger here!"

Suddenly, the temperature rose, and red fire ignited above the soldiers, forming into beams of countless blades that cut through the air toward them.

Blades made of fire severed heads and cut hands as if they were made of butter. The soldiers ran, but the fire blades only seemed to be faster.

All the Errant Knights and most of the others fell to the fire wave.

As for the rest, Vale simply burned them. Then he floated close to those he had killed with fire blades and absorbed their bodies into the tower’s guest room.

Taking one last look at the town, he flew away. It was time to have some words with the army.

☆☆☆☆

Nadia watched from the town wall, and she couldn’t help but shudder. She could still feel the heat from that strange red fire from where she stood.

And the way that person had killed them... If they decided to turn on the town, there was simply nothing she could do.

She frowned. A lot of strange things had been happening lately. The biggest Clan in the surrounding area had been demonstrating its military might for days now. Then the army suddenly arrived about a week ago and set up camp nearby.

And then those bandits appeared, demanding entrance into the town without showing their badges. A badge was something every soldier had, regardless of rank.

It carried the intent of the Clan they served. It was something that couldn’t be faked.

"What is going on?" she whispered.

As she watched, the black tower took to the air and soon became a small dot before disappearing.

Nadia couldn’t help the shiver that ran down her spine. It wasn’t lost on her that the town she had been given was now, surprisingly, between the Rikon Clan and the army.

And from how things were looking, either of the two would come for it.

She sighed. "I’m not paid enough for this."