In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 16 (Premium) Page 8

  “Thanks for the dance, kiddo. Goodbye.”

  Gien grinned broadly, stepped forward, and thrust his rapier straight through Colonel’s belly.

  “Hngh...!”

  “No!”

  “Colonel!”

  First Lieutenant and Sergeant called out in sheer horror as blood dribbled from Colonel’s mouth. Gien looked at him with a smug look on his face, but then one of Colonel’s burly arms grabbed onto Gien’s hand.

  Even though the rapier had been thrust into Colonel so deeply that it came out the other side, the wounded man had still found the strength to disable the hand Gien used to wield it.

  “Got you, fucker.” Colonel’s bloodied, beaten face curled into a triumphant grin. His free hand curled into a fist. It trembled, but stayed firm.

  “...I want you to savor this... I want you to feel Lowe’s pain, you piece of shit!!”

  “E-Eek?!”

  Colonel mustered all the remaining strength in his body and focused it on his fist. He then smashed the blunt force of his knuckles into Gien’s jaw.

  “Bwaugh!”

  Gien was hit so hard that it looked like his head was about to spin around backward. He slumped to the ground, unconscious and oozing blood from most of the orifices on his face.

  The rapier was still embedded in Colonel’s stomach, but he happily looked down at his fallen foe. Then, his duty done, he fell to the ground himself.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “[Prison].”

  Glaux was still fighting against Leopard, so I trapped the enemy Gollem with my magic. I didn’t want it picking up Gien and getting away.

  Then, I immediately ran over to where Colonel had fallen and yanked the rapier out of his guts. Even though he was unconscious, the motion still made him wince. I wasn’t too sympathetic, though... He’d just done something crazy.

  Nothing I couldn’t patch up with recovery magic, though.

  “Come forth, Light! Calm of the Goddess: [Mega Heal].”

  A gentle light wrapped around Colonel’s body, and the open wounds on his body rapidly closed up. Colonel then rose to his feet. He was still shaky, though. My spells couldn’t replenish the blood he’d lost.

  “...You’re crazy, man. If I wasn’t here, you might’ve died from that.”

  “Gien’s a sadistic freak who likes to torture his enemies before letting them die slowly. I knew he’d avoid my vitals. Even if he’s a monster, he’s still the second-strongest person I ever knew in Lowe... That was the only way I could get him.”

  He was definitely strong, that was for sure. He wasn’t quite on Hilde or Yae’s level, though... And frankly, I thought he was below Brunhild’s Lain, Norn, and Nikola as well...

  If I wanted to be brutally honest, I had a feeling Gien might have lost to some of Brunhild’s normal knights, too. I kept that part to myself, though. I didn’t want to hurt Colonel’s pride.

  It was pretty wrong to compare ordinary people to the people of Brunhild, anyway. It wasn’t like everyone got to be trained regularly by the god of swords or anything.

  “Besides, I had to keep Gien’s attention away from the prince...”

  I looked up at the blown-up room we’d come from, and noticed that First Lieutenant and Sergeant had the prince safely kept in a corner. But...

  “Seems like there was no point to that, eh? You made it, right? That weird protective barrier? Still, thanks to that I got to fight without worrying about his safety, so thank you.”

  Seemed like he’d noticed. I’d released it at this point, but during the conflict, I kept a [Prison] up around the guest room. Since he said he’d come to kill the emperor of Gardio, I couldn’t have discounted the possibility of Glaux launching more feather-bombs up there.

  “Your Majesty, is everything okay?!”

  The royal knights finally arrived in the area. They saw us and immediately tensed up before drawing their blades.

  “Who are these people, Your Majesty?!”

  “Fret not, they’re friends. They just saved my life. There was an assassin, the man on the ground over there.”

  The knights relaxed around us immediately and moved to take Gien into custody.

  “...Is it fine for them to take him?”

  “He wanted to kill the emperor, so... He’s probably gonna get executed for that. Public guillotine, I imagine. The remnants of Lowe will finally have their justice published.”

  Colonel quietly spoke as he watched Gien’s unconscious body get dragged off. Having him brought into custody was for the best. He’d be able to implicate Isengard before they killed him.

  Glaux, still sealed by my magic, was rampaging around like a wild animal as it watched its master get taken away. Even though its master was so rotten, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for his Gollem servant.

  “[Gravity].”

  “Caw?!”

  I used weight magic to immobilize Glaux. It struggled for a few moments, then shuddered and stopped moving entirely. It had probably entered sleep mode, like a computer.

  I released the [Prison] and placed my hand on the Gollem’s chest.

  “Open.” With a hissing sound, a hatch on the machine opened up.

  I stuck my hand into the gel-like substance and took out the Gollem’s heart, its G-Cube.

  That would prevent Glaux from ever waking up again unless we wanted it to. I decided to pass the G-Cube over to Colonel, but found him pondering something with a worried look on his face.

  “...What’s up?”

  “No, it’s just... Why would Isengard send Gien to assassinate the emperor? It’s not their style at all... That old man... the witch-king... he’s more the kind of man to raze an entire city... so I’m confused why he went all subtle this time...”

  “Wh-What is that?!”

  Just as Colonel was muttering his thoughts, a nearby knight cried out loudly and pointed towards the sky. There were several small dots lining the horizon far off in the distance... I had no idea what I was looking at.

  “[Long Sense].”

  I projected my sense of sight over to the horizon. What I saw made my blood run cold. Dozens upon dozens of little Gollems, miniature versions of Glaux. A massive amount of owls, heading en masse to the imperial palace.

  As they flew, the owls dropped things down onto the area around the imperial palace. Small, oval-shaped objects that detonated once they hit the ground. Grenades.

  “Isengard...! They... Don’t tell me they mass-produced Glaux-variant Soldats!”

  Soldats. They were simplistic Gollems that could be easily controlled in groups by one person. It was a type of Gollem that I’d been told Isengard used in their armies.

  If you wanted to overwhelm your enemy with sheer numbers, then that was the way to do it. It seemed that Isengard had reverse-engineered these ones from their analysis of Glaux. That was pretty amazing.

  But this was no time to be amazed at their technology, they were attacking the city.

  “Spiral forth, O Wind! Raging, Sweeping Gale: [Cyclone Storm]!”

  “Come forth, O Storm! Million Blades Borne of Air: [Tempest Edge]!”

  Before I could act, Yumina and Leen invoked advanced magic directed toward the mass-produced owls.

  The fierce surge of weather pelted the owls, knocking several of them off-course and destroying a good chunk of them.

  Welp. Guess I can’t fall behind here.

  “Come forth, Dark! I Seek the Shining Warmaiden: [Valkyrie]!”

  I invoked a large summoning circle in the middle of the courtyard, and several beautiful Valkyries emerged. Their pure-white wings spread out as they soared into the air.

  They wielded silver blades and were clad in silver armor, giving them the appearance of angelic knights.

  “Wh-What the...?”

  “It’s a Summoning spell. You guys, I need your help!”

  The warmaidens raised their blades and took the skies.

  They intercepted the owls, slicing them to ribbons with their blades.


  The owls obviously attempted to counterattack, but they were nowhere near as powerful as Glaux was. That was the ultimate weakness of Soldat Gollems. They could only carry out simple orders and weren’t particularly adept in any other instances.

  They were likely given the mission to bombard the palace, and whoever sent them hadn’t considered the fact that they might have been intercepted in mid-air.

  The last owl finally fell to my Valkyries, and a series of cheers erupted from nearby.

  I cast [Area Heal] across the areas that were hit by the grenade drops. I also called down some rainstorms to prevent the spread of fires.

  Later, I found out that the people of the city believed they had been saved by a god who sent his angels down to fight off the attackers. Oh well.

  “To think you could wipe out that many Gollems so quickly...”

  Colonel was completely bewildered, but I had no time for that. I pulled out my smartphone and projected a map into the air. The map was the area bordering Isengard, the old territories of Lowe.

  “Run search. Isengard-affiliated soldiers and Gollems.”

  “...Search complete. Displaying.”

  Thudthudthudthudthud.

  Several thousand pins landed on the map. Just as I’d thought.

  “Isengard’s army has invaded Gardio. See here?”

  “What...? They’d do such a thing without a formal declaration?!” Gardio’s emperor looked up at my map before yelling out in disbelief.

  “Perhaps that irritating man was here to declare war on you before we unceremoniously defeated him?”

  Leen had a point. We’d knocked Gien out before he had a chance to really say anything.

  “But look... aren’t they going in a strange direction?” Yumina pointed at the map. The enemies weren’t headed toward the imperial city.

  “They’re likely after the Emerald Ruin. Luckily, there aren’t many townships in that area. But we do have a forward group of soldiers stationed there, as well as our expedition corps...”

  That would explain things. They were probably going to crush whoever was stationed there and occupy it first.

  Isengard had the upper hand in terms of raw numbers. If we didn’t do anything, it’d only be a matter of time before they took over.

  “Hmm... Guess I’ll go stop them.”

  “Huh?!”

  The emperor seemed surprised by my casual musing. I didn’t really want Isengard to keep doing as it pleased. Plus, they’d pelted us with grenades, and I didn’t feel as if Yumina and Leen would want us to leave without helping.

  Not to mention the fact that repelling an invading army would curry favor with Gardio.

  “What exactly do you intend to stop?”

  “The Isengard army, duh. I’ll fly over and have a word with them. Ideally, they’ll listen, and then leave.”

  That all depended on who was in charge over there. If they were reasonable, maybe we could end this without a fight. Even if the leader of Isengard was an insane old guy, it’d be wrong of me to assume everyone under him was equally bad.

  “H-How do you plan on stopping them?! There are tens of thousands... I-I know you’re talented in matters of magic, but...”

  “I’ve had a few experiences with massive armies at this point. If it comes to blows, then the surrounding landscape might get scuffed up a bit. I’ll fix it afterward though, promise.”

  “Uh...”

  The emperor was simply dumbfounded by my nonchalant talk.

  “Yumina, you coming?”

  “In ordinary circumstances, I’d join you. I’d rather avoid flying, though...”

  “I agree on that front, darling.”

  The two of them didn’t exactly like taking the scenic route, which I couldn’t blame them too much for.

  I used [Fly] and grouped up with the Valkyries, but quickly doubled back when I realized I’d forgot something.

  “Those Gollems from before were probably controlled by undercover agents from Isengard in your city. I’d tighten security if I were you.”

  “O-Of course...”

  “Alright, then. Be back in a bit.”

  Given what I’d seen on the map, I didn’t exactly have much more time to waste. And so, I accelerated through the air above Gardio. The Valkyries followed close behind, but I was slowly outdoing their speed.

  In hindsight, I should have just unsummoned them and then summoned them back once I’d gotten there. But in the end, it wasn’t that huge of a deal.

  The Emerald Ruin was located in a small forested area to the south of the Isengard/Gardio border.

  There was a large plain by the forest, and I could see several tents erected across it. I assumed that was the base used by the survey corps and the group of soldiers stationed there. That meant the large group of people approaching it was the Isengard army.

  The fighting hadn’t begun yet, so I’d just barely made it in time.

  There were a hell of a lot of people there. They had at least twenty times as many men as Gardio’s side. Only about a quarter of those forces were human, though. The rest were Soldats.

  The number they’d brought made sense if they were planning to march on the capital after securing the ruins. Their plan had likely been to use the owl Soldats to weaken the city in terms of infrastructure, and then take advantage of the chaos to swoop in with their army.

  The Isengard army took note of me and the Valkyries and immediately began acting uneasy. Then again, anyone who saw a man flying down from the sky with a group of angel-like beings would be confused.

  “F-Fire!”

  Several bolts of lightning suddenly rained down upon us. Or rather, they flew up at us from below, which was the opposite of raining.

  The Gollems seemed to be equipped with magic guns, spellcasters. I didn’t expect them to attack immediately. I’d hoped that we could at least talk a bit first.

  I sighed, then cast [Ice Needle] in return. Several thin hunks of ice intercepted the incoming bolts and passed through in the direction of the Isengard army.

  “E-Eep!”

  The men all cowered and braced for impact, and none of them were lethally hit. I stood my ground... or air, and used [Speaker] to address everyone.

  “Attention, Isengard army. Withdraw immediately. Report to the witch-king that your attempt to take the ruins and the capital was a complete failure. If you continue any further, I’ll humiliate you so harshly that your ancestors will cringe.”

  “D-Don’t give in, men! This is simply a bizarre strategy by the enemy. They’re bluffing in an attempt to intimidate us!”

  The soldiers were thrown into disarray by my message, but the commanding officers attempted to recoup their morale. That was irritating. I did want to intimidate them, but it wasn’t a bluff.

  I had brought the Valkyries along to freak them out with the idea they were gonna get attacked by angels, but they didn’t seem too afraid of that.

  “I’ll say it one last time. Lay down your weapons and retreat. I hope that I can appeal to your calmer side, and—”

  “Fire! Fire, fire, fire! No mercy for pigs! Isengard’s guns are the strongest! Wipe out these inferior fools!”

  Apparently there was no calmer side to be found. An old man with a mustache, riding atop a quadrupedal Gollem, barked orders to the soldiers. He was likely the lead commander of the army, and unfortunately for all of them, he was an unreasonable old guy. I could tell that he wasn’t the type who’d stop and have a discussion over tea. He was needlessly hot-blooded.

  I used [Prison] to defend against the next volley.

  They didn’t seem to want to chat, which was fine by me.

  “[Slip]... And just for good measure, [Paralyze].”

  “Hngh... Gah... Gwaugh!”

  A massive thud rang out as several thousand men fell over at the same time, and then found themselves unable to move. I wondered if I’d done enough to create a small earthquake. It was probably the most I’d ever knocked down in a single go.


  Several of the Soldats moved to help up the fallen men, but I knew how to deal with them.

  “[Gravity].”

  “Bzzt...”

  If you increased a Gollem’s body weight to a certain amount, then the sudden excess pressure made their automated safeties trigger. That sent them into sleep mode. The sleep mode was exactly how so many of the ancient legacy Gollems could be reactivated safely nowadays.

  I’d successfully neutralized the army, but I wasn’t going to let it end there.

  “Ooze forth, Dark! I Seek a Grotesque Form: [Green Slime]!”

  I landed and called forth several thousand slimes from a summoning circle. One after the other, the slimy creatures emerged from thin air.

  Slimes came in all shapes and sizes. There were those that were harmless and those that were extremely deadly. Some were cowardly, and some were unreasonably brash. There were rare ones, and there were common ones too... There were just all kinds of Slimes.

  And the Green Slimes? They were a common Slime species that could be found almost anywhere. They were generally harmless, but they were also hated for a particular reason... One that I’d had a first-hand viewing to a long time ago...

  Green Slimes ate and digested fibers found in clothing. Any adventurer unfortunate enough to be attacked by one would find their clothing digested and consumed. They only ate clothing, though. They didn’t harm people or digest armor.

  And now, this massive wave was headed right for the fallen army... They had their hungry eyes set not on the men, but their clothes.

  “E-Eeh?!”

  “Ooauugh?!”

  The men had been paralyzed, but they were still completely conscious as the Slime horde descended upon them. I could only assume that they were absolutely terrified. Unable to speak or move as their bodies were coated in living goop.

  I scooped up a little Slime and walked over toward the commander. The older man who had been sitting on the quadrupedal Gollem.

  “Didn’t I tell you that I’d humiliate you so badly your ancestors will keep on cringing?”

  “M-Mff... Mffh?!”

  I dropped the little slime atop the panicked man’s chest. The gooey creature immediately started melting down his clothing.