Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 79: Side Story: The Disaster of Laraska III

It was as if thousands of missiles went off. An ear-piercing crash, a wave of heat accompanied by shockwaves, and finally the distinct sound of glass shattering...

All of it happened in an instant, as half of the colorless barrier surrounding the city shattered like a lie. Note, all it withstood was a single attack.

The barrier was repairing itself, slowly patching up the areas that got destroyed, but it was too slow!

A red cloud of poison, lingering in the area of explosion, was further slowing down the rate at which the barrier regenerated.

A second wave of bombardment followed the first without rest. The city under the barrier erupting in chaos as the Earl could see demons hurriedly running around, preparing for battle.

Ignoring the small fries, he instead focused on taking down the barrier.

[Eyes of Baldur]

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

His eyes shined golden, as his now reptilian pupils scanned the whole city and quickly figured out the who and what was powering the barrier.

It was at this moment, that an enormous demonic pressure, rivaling that of the Earl emerged from the tallest spire of the city.

A familiar pressure, for the Earl felt it for the second time, a pressure that ignited the flames of anger within him.

"HAH! So, YOU CaME! hiGH And MIghtY MaGuS Of tHe EMpIre!"

The demon appeared.

"tOOK you A WhIlE~ it seemS YoU doN’t lOvE yOur son EnoUgH! keKEKe~"

His figure was mostly the same, grey scales, ghostly grey eyes with strange rune shaped pupils, sharp claws, pointed bat-like wings and a thick tail ending with a hidden stinger.

The only thing different from when he appeared in the Estate would be his size. He was about a meter taller, around 5 meters in size and much bulkier.

Did he expect a reply?

It looked like he did, cause he paused and gave the Earl a nasty look.

A look that said – What do you have to say? – which then turned into one of anger as the Earl simply ignored his presence, and continued oneshotting the buildings that were supposed to be powering the city barrier, each building having powerful barrier of its own.

"BOTh fatHEr AnD Son acTING ALl MIGHty!", the demon roared angrily.

His ghostly grey eyes shined, as a eerie green flame erupted from his body. "LeT ME seE yOU IgnOrE tHIs!", he shouted.

Hundreds of green fireballs, giving off a eerie feeling, shot straight at the Earl.

-Crackle

-Crackle

Lighting flashed right at this moment, destroying every single one of those green fireballs mid-air, but it wasn’t simple whitish-blue lightning, it was black lightning with a tint of red.

It was the element of Destruction!

"oh rIgHT, yOu DidN’T coME aLonE.", the demon said in an unamused tone, as he looked at the Duchess who just stopped his attack.

"a COWARD WouLd NEVEr Come alone. anD THIS bArRiER? You surelY DoN’t waNT Me TO HaVe anY reINForCEMEnts.", the demon sighed or atleast pretended too. "In tHe eNd, tHe PRIDEFul MAguS’ Of Central reALm JUST WAnT To GAnG UP On ME! kEKEke~"

He grinned, the runes in his eyes changing rapidly as green flames lit up in his ghostly grey eyes.

"VeRY WeLL! THEn, I, ZaRKiarT, The POlYmATh, wiLl eNTeRtAin YOU!", he declared as he disappeared.

And it wasn’t a matter of speech, he really disappeared, teleporting behind the Earl who just finished destroying the last tower and the barrier along with it, and slashed.

-Slash

A ominous red sword aura, tens of meters long, came down on the Earl so fast, that the world lost its color, turning into a shade of grey.

In the grey world that lost its color, the Earl silently turned his head, locking his deep blues with the demon’s ghostly grey and mouthed, "Obvious."

-Crackle

The grey world crackled with black lightning as a spear made of black lightning clashed with the sword.

-BOOOOM!!!

-CRACKLE!!!

The two energies clashed. An energy explosion of black and red ripping the space apart, but the two silhouettes responsible for it just backed off and clashed again, loud booms hot on their trail.

The third silhouette, you ask?

He was gone before the clash even happened, teleporting high in the sky with the help of a magical artefact, not even watching the fight below.

Instead, the Earl fully concentrated on a small multicolored cuboid mass that absorbed more and more of the poison and magic that he fed it. And soon, he was done.

Then holding the multicolored poisonous cube in his hands, the Earl asked, "Are you done?"

…

..

.

Inside a building silent as the moon, a figure moved in complete darkness. Like a specter in the dark, the figure approached the unsuspecting demons. Giving them a death as silent as her steps, their whole figure disappearing in the darkness as she approached her next target.

Just like that, the number of demons in the building lessened, the demons disappearing without leaving a trace of their existence.

’This is the last one!’

The figure thought as she twirled the poisoned kunai in her hand, but before she do anything to the said demon, she noticed a white light flickering from the corner of her eyes. Stealing not only her attention, but also her kill as the demon stood before her, unmoving and headless.

"Hmm, my no.2 was taking too much time, so I came to check on her~", a teasing voice entered her ears as the speaker, Amy, tossed the demon’s head in her direction.

-Tch

Clicking her tongue, Jinx was about to retort but was interrupted as a sound that resounded in the her head.

"Are you done?"

Dropping the head and the body of the demon in her shadow, which eventually swallowed them, Jinx moved quickly. Placing her hand on the device that had all sorts of complex runery floating above it, Jinx took out a scroll with her other hand and muttered, [Shadow Style Ninja Arts: Array Corruption].

On her queue, the scroll unfurled, pitch black tentacles dispersing shadowy smoke emerging out of the scroll as they attached themselves to the runery. Within seconds, the runery turned into a similar shade of black as it crumbled without resistance.

"Done.", Jinx said, both to Amy and the Earl, hearing an exhausted sign in return, "Finally..."

A commotion broke out in the silent city as the barrier suddenly stopped working, tons of demons rushing towards the barrier towers, to check what happened.

The girls didn’t worry about that though, more focused on the voice in their heads. A big grin decorating their faces as they heard the later part of the sigh...

..

.

A stark contrast to what was happening in the previous city, things had escalated to full-blown war in other invaded cities.

Being able to invade a city of demons completely unnoticed? Nope, they didn’t have the required skill set for that. Only those two freaks could do it!

This was a sentiment shared by all other Archmages, so they decided to do things the usual way. Of course, since they were Archmages their usual ways were quite unusual themselves.

For example, the city invaded by Delmar, the mountain of a man in armor, had turned the city into a forest of purple, as all types mythical spirit beasts made up of purple light marched through the city, surprisingly only focusing on the barrier towers as they left rest of the city, unscathed.

The only Demon Archmage in the city tried to stop the advent of the spirit beasts. Alas, his attempts were thwarted by the Delmar’s two companions.

In a matter of minutes, the barrier towers were destroyed. Last two of them remaining when a voice resounded in Delmar’s head.

"Are you done?"

Feeling a need to hurry, Delmar brought his palms together, saying in his gruff voice, "[Spirit Summon: Colossal]!"

A purple energy gathered between his palms, before he threw them apart, a massive gate of purple forming before him.

-Thud.

-Thud.

Before even the summoned beasts emerged, their giant footsteps could be felt as the ground vibrated with them. The vibrations only getting stronger as two giant creatures more than a hundred meters tall got out of the purple gate. Crushing everything that got below them, the colossals ran speedily. Their target already fixed as with a defining boom their huge bodies slammed into the barrier towers.

"Completed.", Delmar said as he looked at the now decimated towers.

Of course, the Archmages of Duchess side felt weird hearing that.

Why?

Cause they barely did anything!

And they weren’t the only one...

..

.

Raniel and Gandalf were a perfect combo. One was a fierce fighter and another was a mage specialized in healing.

Together with the Ice Archmage Maya, from Duchess side, they fought with their all, without much caution, as under Gandalf’s care there was no way they would die...

With a hand on his beard Gandalf, whose real name was still unknown, smiled merrily as he observed Raniel’s battle with the Demon-Archmage, "How envious, young people."

Of course, they had already destroyed the barrier. Their city was closest from Vanzahra, naturally giving them more time.

So, when the Earl asked, "Are you done?"

Gandalf respectfully replied, "It’s done, my liege."

...

..

.

Outside another city two figures sat cross-legged. One had blonde hair tied by a ribbon, bandage like gloves, and white armor; yes, it was Zuri. While the other was the Imperial Archmage whom Zuri talked with earlier. His features still a mystery as his robe covered him from the head to toe.

They were sitting cross-legged, facing each other as they held hands, lilac colored flames blazing on the magic circle below them.

They sat there for a good two minutes, as Brax guarded them, wondering what they were doing.

The only thing he knew was that they were doing some soul hocus-pocus, things he didn’t understand, the things that didn’t matter.

"Are you done?", a voice resounded in group’s head.

Knowing the voice and the state of his companions, Brax was about to reply with a no.

But Zuri beat him to the punch.

Opening his shining lilac eyes, he said with a smirk, "It is done."

Cause only thing that mattered, the barrier, went down on its own.

"Oh nice, you did it.", the Baldy remarked, weirdly looking at them.

"Don’t give me that look, baldy.", Zuri said cheekily as he tapped Brax on the shoulder and pointed at the city.

"That, that, that and that...", pointing at a total of eight buildings, "Destroy those buildings within five minutes, no one below Archmage would be able to disturb you."

"What about the Demon-Archmage?"

"Of course, we will keep him company! You are the crusher! You should be able to destroy some buildings !", he sweetly smiled as some strands of his hair blew due to the wind.

’Fuck! Why he is a ’he’!’, Brax swore as he nodded, his anger ready to be taken on the towers...

..

.

If Zuri was being looked, weirdly, then it was the opposite for Kyle. The only thing his fellow Archmages had in their mind for him would be respect. Immense respect.

The boy wasn’t doing much, he was just standing on the city wall, dealing with the small fries as the other two did all the work, while he simply was providing them with information.

So, why was this ’immense respect’ bubbling in their hearts?

Cause the boy was too good at providing information!

And information didn’t just mean the number of enemies, their ranks or their positions. Of course, the information also included that but that wasn’t the extent of it.

What is their attribute, their weakness, the type of their next attack, will it be a feint or not, will it be strong or not, is it a ranged spell or a close quarters spell, all of it!

And the best part of it was that the information was real-time!

It was almost as if he was reading the future! But, he was not. All of it was just his quirky attribute and his quirky nature.

He was so good, in fact, that it was the Demon-Archmage whose stray attacks destroyed two of the towers.

And now they felt stupid for questioning him before, ’Why should we listen to you?’

Thankfully, his aloofly spoken answer was enough to for them to put him in command, ’Cause I am the chief strategist of Ellsworth Estate...’

"Broken the barrier.", a Archmage responded in place of Kyle as he didn’t respond, thinking, ’He must have his hands full.’, which was completely wrong as Kyle had already done his characteristic ’Mhm’, meaning he was done. Of course, the Archmage didn’t knew this nor did he need to know.

..

.

While Kyle slowly won the hearts of his group, Nova’s experience with the group was normal.

And normal was nothing new for her. She liked normal, after all, she herself was normal.

It might feel sarcastic coming from a Archmage, but it was true. Within the Archmages of Ellsworth Territory, she was normal.

Amelia was their leader and she was the strongest Archmage she had ever seen. She was someone who, given the right conditions, could assassinate a Magus.

Jinx was right next to her, the second in command and the second in strength. Her magic was so unique and versatile that she could even surprise her long time comrades with it.

Delmar was a one-man-army quite literally, his strength was in numbers, but that didn’t mean that his individual summons were weak. Not to mention, he also had a way to fight himself.

Zuri was one of the very few and unique soul magic users, outside of the Etherfleihm family. A very precious asset for the Estate.

Raniel and Gandalf made a very good combo. Raniel was fierce and reckless, but was acknowledged for his talent to reach A+ rank, while Gandalf had experience of era before unification war.

And then there was Kyle. No need to speak about him. He was a genius through and through. He was the youngest, but he was the most mysterious. Even she didn’t know the full extent of his strength, for he never showed it anyone, but she knew one thing, that guy, Kyle, could become a Magus.

The word genius felt ironic to her because of him. Wasn’t she supposed to be a genius with her having a mana pool that rivaled that of a Magus?

’Seems like those were just the words of an ignorant.’, she contemplated.

Well, if there was anything that wasn’t normal in this mission, then it was their opponent.

The Demon-Archmage in this city was strong, an A+ rank demon.

Thus, two would hold, one would attack that was the plan.

’We can’t hold any longer! Is your attack ready?’, Nova heard in her mind quite earlier than she expected.

But nonetheless, she replied, ’Yes’,

fueling the spell with her own mana, instead of casting it wholly by using natural mana.

’Then we will push him back, out of the range of interference.’

’Okay.’

Haaaah! – The Archmages shouted, and used their powerful spells, pushing back the demon. And when they did, she attacked.

Just as planned, just as usual, just as normal.

Eight pillars of elemental magic, struck the barrier-towers from above, each tower simply vaporizing to the root, as a slob of molten ground remained at the bottom.

Hearing another voice in her head, this time of her Master, she replied normally, ’Mission Complete.’, just as she usually does...

..

.

Hearing six voices in his head, the Earl sighed.

"Finally..."

A magic circle appearing above his head the next instant as the cuboid of poison and magic slowly floated up, going into the center of the circle.

-Fush…

The magic circle creaked, spinning wildly, as a multicolored gas started being emitted by the circle, soon forming a rainbow-colored cloud. A cloud that expanded rapidly, covering the whole area of the [Seven-way Purple Hex].

"...finally, I can rip him to shreds.", the Earl said calmly, but his eyes were glowing with a threatening light.

With those same eyes, he bolted downwards, for he had a demon to rip apart.