434 Part 1

The Black Demon King

Chapter 23: Holy Maiden of Helvetia

Episode 434: Confined Space

“— Fiona! What is this barrier!?”

With her small appearance, Lily squealed in an unusually upset voice while dashed all the way to where Fiona was. Though the passage was blocked, apparently the upper limit of the barrier was a little over 5 meters. Lily ran through the merging transparent top that that looked almost like a roof.

“This is probably ‘Sanctuary’.”

Fiona answered without even giving Lily a glance.

Lily did not ask her to explain what that was right away.

It was not because Lily was familiar with it. Simply because Fiona’s expression was unusually stern as she started at the approaching Crusaders from the other side of the wall.

Fiona was scanning for something: the caster of this godforsaken barrier that had separated Kurono from herself.

She was utilizing the magic of vision enhancement “Hawkeye” that allowed her gleaming golden eyes to clearly identify the faces of each soldier even from this distance. Knowing that, Lily waited quietly.

“Just as I thought. It’s Linfelt ….”

“Who’s that?”

“My classmate. She’s right there — the girl in a white robe with black hair and black eyes that sticks out like a sore thumb.”

From inside the barrier, I looked at the direction where Fiona was pointing. I could see Lily as well.

Fiona was pointing at a girl dressed in a pure white robe, reminiscent of Sariel. Her face could be clearly seen because she was straddling a unicorn, making it easy to single her out among the crowd of humans.

Indeed, her black hair and eyes conspicuously stood out among the sordid all-male Crusader Army. She had a cute face but was not overflowing with charm.

However, her features were slightly different from the finely chiseled characteristics of a pure Sinclair. She appeared to be from a different race. Then I immediately realized.

“Could she be a foreigner?”

Her features were similar to the girls of Hundred Numbers that I had the liberty to meet up close when I retrieved the “Angel Ring”.

“I wonder. There are rumors about her going around, but no one knows the truth.”

Being Fiona’s classmate and a student of Elysion Magic Academy, it seemed unlikely that she was one of the experiments of “White Sacrament” like Kurono. If she was an experiment and able to self-sustain independent actions that made her possible to live as a student without any problems, it would only mean that the Church’s plan to raise an army of homunculi was a success.

Of course, that did not exclude the possibility of her being accidentally be summoned into this world like Earl Redwing.

“It doesn’t really matter at this point. Do you have any ideas on how to break ‘Sanctuary’?”

“It can be broken with force, but … from what I know, even if those trapped inside combined all their powers, this barrier would still be too strong for them to destroy. We’re talking about dismantling a structure at this large, after all. It’s unknown whether bombarding it with ‘Al Soleil’ could crack the barrier or not.”

Lily was aware of the fact that the barrier was tremendously strong, without having it spelled out to her.

If it were something that could be broken easily, utilizing Al Soleil would have been overkill.

The Crusaders, no, that girl named Linfelt must have a great confidence that her “Sanctuary” would not be broken. Otherwise, she would not utilize it this way. Her method of trapping outdoor enemies like that using the barrier was unprecedented.

“Is that barrier capable of attacking?”

“She can drop the top and crush everyone. But that would mean inserting an extra procedure which increases the load on the barrier, making it more fragile. While it certainly can crush the human body, it can’t smash the rocks. Perhaps it’s possible to destroy it using an intermediate level magic.”

“But we don’t know the current state of the barrier, do we?”

“That’s irrelevant. What makes ‘Sanctuary’ special is the barrier itself. When tampered with human hands, its divinity is lost.”

Of the different magics that were given as blessings, there were often types that could not be manipulated into other forms. Their activations would give certain fixed effects. God’s magic could only be utilized as intended by god.

Apparently, “Sanctuary” worked that way. The only changes it could do were the area and number, but it would maintain its solid property.

Perhaps the White God gave Linfelt more blessings. But then if that were the case, either Kurono with all those trapped inside would have been crushed already, or the castle walls would have been pulverized already. The limits of her ability had been proven the instant this situation was created: they were simply being trapped, not annihilated.

“There’s no doubt that Linfelt understands the weakness of the crushing maneuver. To push the barrier to its limit, we have no choice but to let the enemy soldiers rush in just as is already progressing.”

Since the barrier was transparent, it was unclear whether the front of it was already open from the very beginning, or we would be creating another opening. But there was no point in speculating about it since both were similarly probable and could have been executed with ease.

Like so, they were successful in letting in their allies in the barrier for assaulting those of us that were trapped. The rest of their allies advanced toward the castle wall and inside, through the skilfully created staircase that acted as a scaffold for them. While Linfelt was letting enough soldiers to charge inside the barrier, we could easily make a safe breakthrough for us as well.

However, the walls for Galahad fortress might be destroyed.

“We must take action before that happens.”

The worst-case scenario would be for Galahad fortress to crumble. But this did not matter to Lily. Nothing else mattered as long as she could run away with Kurono again.

Unfortunately, Kurono was splendidly trapped inside “Sanctuary”. When she managed to break the barrier, all the Spada soldiers in it would have been killed already.

Being trapped in a space with no escape against so many enemies, even with Kurono’s power, it would be no surprise if he could not accomplish anything.

“Would it solve our problem if the caster were to be killed?”

In general, the basic of magic was that once activated, the effect remained as long as the power trapped continued to flow. However, some of the special ones, such as Original, had a direct link between the user’s will and the magic effect.