Chapter 360: 360

Chapter 360: 189. The Job of the Bait -2 (Part One)

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

“Lady Saintess!”

Charlotte was left deeply shaken as she watched Alice urgently ride away.

She quickly issued a new command to a small number of Priests and Paladins, “Go and provide protection to the Lady Saintess!”

“Understood, ma’am!” They quickly mounted their horses and chased after Alice.

Meanwhile, Charlotte hurriedly headed to her new destination.

“What’s going on, ma’am?” Hans stopped loading the wagon and asked her, sensing that the atmosphere had become rather heavy all of a sudden.

“I’m going to find that out myself,” Charlotte responded.

Her destination was the forest that she had seen Allen walking into earlier.

Eventually, she arrived in the open clearing in the middle of the forest. That’s where she found the Paladins meant to fetch Allen had gathered. However, their Holy Emperor was nowhere to be seen.

There was a figurine of a person mocked up with some branches sitting in the pool of holy water. The Paladins were standing next to it, a letter clutched in one of their hands.

A complicated mixture of emotions and thoughts washed up over Charlotte after seeing this scene, and she began rubbing her face.

She knew it! Without a doubt, Allen must’ve sneaked out of here in order to stop Surtr.

She couldn’t help but feel guilty, thinking that she might have said something unnecessary and made him act this way.

“…Ma’am. This is a list of orders from His Majesty the Holy Emperor.” The Paladin presented the letter to Charlotte.

She opened it and confirmed the contents within. They turned out to be fairly simple in nature.

He said that he was going to buy as much time as humanly possible, so she should lead the refugees and return to the Theocratic Empire as soon as possible. He also didn’t forget to end the letter with, “This is an order!” as well.

“…An order.” Charlotte began frowning deeply. “My apologies, sire, but at least this time, this servant will disobey.”

She carefully folded the letter away. Naturally she was also planning to head off to where the Jötnar were.

Hans was well qualified to lead the refugees, while she could temporarily yield command of the troops to the King of Frants. With her near Allen’s side, she believed that she should be able to help him out to some degree, at the very least.

But then, something happened.

“Marquis Charlotte! Ma’am!” A Paladin who was dispatched as a scout earlier hurriedly rushed up to her and cried out while she was making her way outside the forest. “Several vampires and twelve giants of fire are currently approaching our location!”

Some other Jötnar, excluding Surtr, were coming from another direction, he reported to her.

Charlotte’s expression distorted in anger.

Paladins flinched nastily when they saw her scary expression, but still they managed to quickly recover themselves. The scout continued with his report, “They are relentlessly marching towards this area, where the refugees are still camped! It seems that they are planning to delay us until Surtr arrives, ma’am!”

“V-vampires!” The frightened cries of the refugees could be heard rising now.

Charlotte turned her head and stared at them.

Their complexions were deathly pale after the news spread among them so quickly. They were urgently packing their belongings, but it’d still be another thirty minutes before they could get moving again.

They were not about to deal with some random creature, but twelve giants of fire. The King of Frants’ commands wouldn’t be enough to successfully repel them.

That meant it was up to Charlotte to stop them.

She tightly clenched her fists and barely managed to speak up. “Prioritise… the protection of our citizens!”

“Yes, ma’am!” The Paladins nodded in unison. They then dispersed and began roaring out, “Hurry up, all of you!”

The refugees began murmuring to one another in fear.

“They say vampires are coming!”

“Hurry and pack up your things!”

They moved much faster, as if their lives depended on it.

In the midst of them was Laurence, urgently climbing up to the carriage driver’s seat. He reached down towards Roy next, “Roy, hurry and climb in!”

“Yes, dad!”

As he climbed up on the carriage, though, he suddenly turned his head around. He could somehow sense some things were approaching the refugees from the forest.

The feeling he got was at once repulsion and disgust. But at the same time, he also felt lightheaded from the sudden bout of thirst, as well.

For a brief moment there, Roy’s eyes glowed in a distinct crimson hue.

**

(TL: In 1st person POV.)

The morning sun was already rising.

Surtr was standing in the middle of the fiercely-burning forest, shuddering in rage.

-I, I shall kill you! I shall burn your whole body down, capture your soul, and let you taste the torment of burning down for all eternity!- The Fire Giant roared out monstrously in sheer rage. My ears were getting numb from all the ringing.

The bulging eyes of the giant were filled to the brim with murderous intent.

I began dripping in cold sweat at this sight. The temperature had shot up to an extreme level and it became quite hard to breathe properly, yet a cold shudder still ran down my spine, making me think that my own body temperature had gone down, instead.

‘Holy cow, did I provoke this guy a little too much?’ I only planned to attract its attention for a bit and stop them from marching forward, so I was kind of caught off guard at how pissed off the Fire Giant had become.

“Heh, I guess you really cared about your little brother, then. But hey, what can I do?” I patted Hrímr’s severed head lightly. While doing that, I shifted my gaze over to Surtr and continued to sneer. “Collecting heads of monsters runs in the family, you see.”

-Shut your mouth!- Surtr suddenly raised up that whip of flames. The thick and burning weapon rose up in the air. -Get smashed to death!-

That seventy-meter long whip cracked like thunder.

I urgently stored Hrímr’s severed head back in my item window, summoned the Bone Wyvern, and flew up high in the air.

That overlong whip split apart the land right below us. The forest went up in the billowing flames spreading out from either side of the weapon.

In the blink of an eye, the ground for seventy metres in length was chopped in half, melting down into a pool of lava right before my eyes.

Despite being up on the back of the Bone Wyvern, the incredible heat still reached me. My skin burned, causing some burn wounds to appear on my body.

“Gee whiz, too damn hot!”

I was getting irritated here. I quickly materialised some holy water and splashed my face and the rest of my body. My physical self was fully healed from that, but my breathing remained heavy and laboured.

‘Crazy son of a b*tch!’ Why did I get the feeling that getting anywhere remotely close to that thing would mean instant death by burning down to ashes?

In comparison, one could at least get close enough to physically damage Hrímr. The situation with Surtr was way too different. One would just be burnt to death even before they had the chance to attack it from up close.

“Yup, me coming here was the right call in the end.”

Others wouldn’t be able to endure this situation at all!

If it was Charlotte, well, then she might have been able to deflect that earlier whip attack, sure. But she’d still end up suffering a grievous wound from the insane heat.

Fine. I should just focus on buying time here. Wasting that sucker’s time for one or two days should do the trick.

The Bone Wyvern flew in the opposite direction from where the refugees were.

-Go! Chase after him! Bring him down from the air!-

The Jötnar pounced into action when Surtr roared out.

Boom, boom, boom, boooom-!

The ground rumbled as the giants chased after me with a shocking turn of speed. Licks of flames gushed out from their mouths in heavy breaths.

Holy cow. Three hundred Jötnar running hard in order to capture this ol’ me was one hell of a spectacle to behold!

-We won’t let you get away!-

One of the Jötnar shot me a glare filled with madness. It opened its maw wide and spat a mass of molten lava into its hand. Clutching it in a certain recognisable position, the corners of the creature’s curled up ominously.

What the Hell? Hang on a minute!

-Die, punk!-

The Jötunn threw that burning mass of lava in the air. That scorching hot mass hurtled in my direction.

I hurriedly materialised a bone shield to block the incoming lava. I succeeded, but the shield melted down instantly. I had no choice but to discard it.

“Holy sh*t, isn’t that way too insane?!”

I was riding on a bloody Bone Wyvern here. Its speed was far beyond that of a horse, yet those damn giant bastards were gradually closing the distance. Not only that, they could hit me with long-distance attacks, too?!

“Stop them!”

In order to fool the eyes of the mob of Jötnar, I deliberately flew lower towards the forest. At the same time, I began Summoning my holy undead.

Hundreds of holy undead appeared within the forest below and began screeching out while wielding a variety of weapons.

-Small insects!-

-Crush them all underfoot!-

The giants of fire swiped out with their hands. Their stomping feet utterly crushed the holy undead. The skeletons were easily melted down to nothing, completely wiped out of existence.

BOOM–!

A loud cannon fire resounded out, and the shoulder of one of the giants exploded, causing the creature to stumble. Its damaged shoulder was mangled, and lava trickled down from there like blood.

The giant of fire frowned deeply and howled out in rage. It then threw a spear of fire in its hands. The skeletons operating the cannon were instantly pulverised into bits and pieces, and even the cannon itself gradually melted down.

Hundreds of holy undead failed to inflict any proper damage on the pursuing fire giants.

“I knew it. Fighting them off here is asking for a lot.”