“You detach your head well, don’t you?”
“Rib shield!”
The ribs around the detached head gathered together and took the form of armor.
The skeleton moved freely, assembling and disassembling like a magnet with a will.
The two arrows I shot pierced through the rib-made shield.
Since the magical arrows have no physical form, it’s impossible to block them with such a shield.
If the shield had been summoned using mana, it could have been blocked.
I approached the bone shield and lightly stomped on it with my foot.
“Get out of the way! Are you going to fight cowardly, putting your warrior pride on the line?”
“I am not a warrior.”
Crack!
Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the rib shield.
After knocking it a few times with arrows, the shield that was protecting its head crumbled easily.
“I’ve held on as much as I could!”
The skeleton rotated its head, merging back with the torso, and began to fly into the sky wielding a great sword.
The battle hadn’t been decided, but as the captain retreated, the other skeleton soldiers followed it out of the city.
As if the seawater was draining away, they quickly exited, leaving the city eerily quiet.
In that tranquil moment, we were checking to see if any soldiers were injured.
Fortunately, our soldiers didn’t seem to have any major injuries.
However, the expressions of the team leaders from the Royal Guard and Knight Order were not bright.
“It was definitely an ordinary pile of bones…”
“That’s right. Just having one leader makes such a difference.”
The two gazed blankly at the spot where the skeleton soldiers had left, as if lost.
When 5 approached and asked what was wrong, they shared their experience from the recent battle.
I, who was listening beside them, was surprised and asked if the story was true.
“We saw it clearly. There’s no doubt.”
I began to understand why they could carry out an attack with such a small force.
I needed to quickly inform the south of what I had just heard.
As soon as 5 finished relaying the information to their clone, we returned straight to the hotel.
Upon entering the conference room, I saw the Demon King looking down at the city from near the window.
“What’s the outcome of the battle?”
“They retreated.”
“It was unusually quiet for an attack.”
The number of intruders wasn’t as high as expected, and the captain had been tied up by me, so the damage hadn’t been great.
“I have urgent information to convey.”
“Speak.”
5 relayed what they had observed during the battle to the Demon King.
“Did they aim for the core properly?”
“They did.”
This was the information I had heard from the team leaders of the Royal Guard and Knight Order.
They reported that the fragments of skeleton soldiers that were destroyed would gather together and resurrect as new soldiers.
Although the soldiers were too focused on the battle to notice, the two leaders who commanded the teams had witnessed it accurately.
This could be an enormous advantage in a large-scale battle.
While our numbers were steadily decreasing, the enemy hardly lost any soldiers, creating an truly invincible army!
“I just received information from the southern front.”
It seemed 5’s clone had conveyed the news from the south.
Immediately, 5 began to take out a parchment and scribble down the information.
A hefty amount of information that would fill about two pages was written down.
5’s expression, as they skimmed through the information they had received, looked rather grim.
“It seems the damage isn’t insignificant.”
Currently, two battles had taken place.
In that, the Empire’s losses were more serious than expected.
Even well-trained soldiers had considerable difficulty against the invading skeleton soldiers.
The knights who could handle the skeletons’ cores were struggling due to numerical inferiority.
Despite that, the Empire was still holding strong.
We would devise a suitable strategy based on the information we had just discovered.
Since Latnia had also been attacked, there remained a risk of the undead invading.
“Anyway, we’ve established ourselves here. We can’t move now.”
Latnia had been designated as a refuge city to prepare for such situations.
If the undead invaded, refugees would likely flock here, so we had to protect this place.
Initially, the capital had held back because they claimed they couldn’t afford to help, but they had asked whether more support was needed here.
Since the Demon King had not given a reply, 5 waited calmly.
“No, we can hold with the current forces. We have Ririan.”
“Me?”
The Demon King spread out a map of the city on a large table.
“See the marked area here?”
“Yes. It’s near the train station.”
“When we have an opportunity to eliminate the enemy, lure them here and wipe them out. Currently, this area is where all the citizens have evacuated.”
In other words, it was a designated area where it would be permissible to wipe out a portion of the city.
Depending on the power of the magic, the range could widen a bit more, but it was sufficient.
Now the remaining problem was how to lure the undead over there.
“Alright, if there’s further information to report, contact me separately. You two always stick together.”
5, who could gather information from the entire Empire, and I, who could relay messages directly to the Demon King.
With the two of us together, we could provide information to the Demon King anytime, anywhere.
Of course, there would be a process of passing through me first.
Once I left the conference room, I went up to my room and started looking for books.
This battle made me realize what I was lacking.
More powerful attacks against single enemies instead of wide-range attacks.
And a defensive capability.
I had a shield, but this battle showed me that the shield had its limits.
I needed alternative defensive measures.
After reading a whole book, I let out a deep sigh.
As I progressed through the book, the magic written became more about making daily life more comfortable.
“What can I do just by reading books?”
“True.”
I wondered what kind of magic I would have learned if I had been at the Academy at times like this.
Magic usable in an urban environment.
“Speaking of which, you haven’t participated in any battles at all, have you?”
“My main purpose is information delivery. I can’t afford to get hurt in a fight.”
Since I was constantly communicating with my clones and exchanging information, the mana consumption must be immense.
It would be utterly impossible to engage in battle amid all that.
I then went through the remaining books but found no magic that would be particularly helpful.
There was only one spell mentioned that had incredible power, stating that it could easily wipe out a whole city.
In the end, I concluded that there was no magic in the book worth using.
I decided to fly up into the skies above Latnia for practicing magic.
I aimed to practice magic targeting the sky instead of the ground.
First, I distanced myself from the city to avoid causing any damage to the ground.
I created a spear of lightning and threw it up into the clouds.
Boom!
Dark clouds slowly began to gather in the sky, which had been slightly overcast.
During that time, I saw a giant made of lightning for the first time, casting a spear from above.
As he inserted his hand toward where the spear of lightning was aimed, our eyes met.
“What is the reason for dropping lightning in an empty sky?”
The bearded giant spoke to me.
“I’m practicing magic.”
“Practice is important. I never thought we’d be face to face like this. Let’s exchange greetings.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Ririan.”
“I am Last Ape.”
The lightning giant extended a finger towards me.
When I placed my palm on the tip of his finger, his eyebrows twitched as he gazed at me intently.
“Are you perhaps a dragon?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
A brilliant light flashed once, and standing before me was Last Ape, shrunk to human size.
“Do you have a moment?”
It was late at night, so I had plenty of time.
We descended near a forest a little removed from Latnia and settled in.
Last Ape hovered slightly above the ground in front of me.
“Do you know what kind of magic you used?”
“Isn’t it creating a spear of lightning?”
“Partly correct and partly wrong.”
Light emanated from Last Ape’s hand, revealing a short double-edged sword.
“This is my weapon. Now, hold it and give it a try.”
As I took the double-edged sword in my right hand, a tingling sensation traveled from my arm to my brain.
When I gripped the double-edged sword, Last Ape’s expression changed to one of astonishment.
“Oh. Think of the desired shape. It will change.”
I envisioned the form of the sword in my mind.
A bright yellow light burst forth from the double-edged sword, morphing into the shape of a blade.
“A sword made of lightning!”
“To be precise, it’s a sword of lightning.”
I had tried several times before to create it with magic on my own, but I was never successful.
I could only whip lightning into a shape resembling a whip.
But now I had a real sword of lightning in my hand.
“It was originally a magic to summon that.”
“Then, why have you been dropping the spear of lightning from the sky until now?”
“I thought you were an ordinary demon.”
Last Ape revealed that they had been confused about whether I was a demon or a human.
“You looked too much like a human to be a demon, yet you appeared too familiar with mana to be a human.”
“How did you know I was a dragon?”
“What do you think you’re holding in your hand?”
“The sword of lightning?”
“The name of that weapon is the same as my name. If you can wield it, then you can’t be an ordinary demon.”
The moment I gripped the double-edged sword, the possibility of being human was erased from Last Ape’s mind.
“Now, let me ask a question. Where have all the dragons gone?”
I hesitated, considering if I could tell Last Ape the whole truth.
“I don’t know either. I’ve just heard stories that dragons went extinct.”
“Extinct, is it?”
Last Ape didn’t even know that the gates had opened along with the vanished dragons.
As I explained only as much as I knew about this world, he seemed intrigued, as if he were hearing stories of a world he had never known.
“The world has changed a lot. So that’s why there were no sorcerers who could call on me.”
The spear of lightning magic was written in a book I found at the Latnia bookstore.
Dragons disappeared roughly a thousand years ago.
It was astonishing that, during the thousand years of passing from mouth to mouth and then to books, there had been no mention of this magic.
Surely at least one person must have used the spear of lightning magic before.
“Hasn’t anyone used it until now?”
“You are the first. Of course, if you’re a dragon, you certainly have the qualification to call me.”
