"Stop!"
Alice suddenly shouted.
"W-what's wrong?!"
Hanta, who was walking in front, was startled.
He turned to see Alice with a serious expression and immediately became incredibly nervous. It was his first time seeing this lady show such a look. Could there be some hidden danger nearby that he hadn't noticed?!
He looked around, and although he found nothing, he didn't doubt for a second that there was danger, because he trusted the lady's judgment.
Alice looked ahead solemnly. In her vision, the path forward was obscured by dark, cold mana.
The heavy magicule reaction in the air gave her a spine-chilling coldness. That was a type of magic her master had used in experiments—Necromancy Magic that manipulates souls! And though she was loath to admit it, the mana reaction ahead was even more massive than what her master had previously displayed.
While the owner of that mana might not necessarily be as powerful as her master, it was undoubtedly an incredibly malevolent existence. Furthermore, that kind of magic happened to be her natural enemy; if she encountered it, there would be no possibility of escape.
"Let's change locations. The village ahead is unsafe," Alice said, looking at Hanta.
Hanta wanted to say that this was the only village nearby and the nearest city was still a long way off, but seeing Alice's serious expression, he swallowed nervously and nodded to show he understood.
If even Lady Alice felt it was unsafe, it must be truly dangerous. He couldn't even imagine what had appeared in the village ahead.
Could it be that the entrance to the Demon Realm had reopened and appeared inside Kain Village? Otherwise, he really couldn't think of any reason why Lady Alice, who had already stepped into the Hero Realm, would be scared into avoiding that place.
Shortly after the two left.
Tsukasa tracked their scent to this location. Seeing that they had changed their route, she felt relieved and continued toward Kain Village.
On the way, she encountered the Warrior Chief and his men. This group seemed to be hesitating; they had seen the Empire's soldiers heading in that direction and the smoke signals rising from Kain Village. The Warrior Chief appeared to be arguing with a soldier. Listening to their conversation, it seemed the soldier believed the Empire was doing this to lure them there, while the Warrior Chief insisted that as soldiers of the Kingdom, they had to protect the safety of the Kain Village villagers even if they knew it was a trap!
However, in the time they spent arguing, the villagers had probably already been slaughtered, hadn't they?
Furthermore, she really didn't think there was a trap targeting the Warrior Chief, because the Warrior Chief was too weak.
Compared to the mana reaction at Kain Village, the Warrior Chief was as insignificant as an ant.
Shaking her head.
Tsukasa continued forward.
With her speed, she soon reached Kain Village.
"Ooooohhhhh—!"
As soon as she arrived at Kain Village, she heard a monster's roar. She immediately entered the village. Along the way, she saw many slaughtered villagers. With a quick glance, she could tell they had died under the swords of knights.
She arrived at the source of the monster's roar. In the village's central square, she saw a tall Death Knight fighting a group of soldiers wearing Empire knight armor, with some villagers hiding nearby. According to her judgment, the ones who slaughtered the villagers should be those knights, because the wounds on the villagers' corpses were very easy to distinguish; the greatsword in the Death Knight's hand couldn't possibly leave such thin wounds.
"Y-you bastards!"
"Hurry up and block that monster! I'm not someone who can just die here! Hurry and buy me some time! Use yourselves as shields to protect me! Money, I'll give you money. Two hundred gold coins! No, five hundred gold coins!"
A knight suddenly shouted in a mental breakdown. Looking at him, he seemed to be the captain of this squad. Tsukasa found this captain's behavior quite strange.
After the Empire had undergone its purge, it was impossible for such a coward to remain in the army, let alone be an officer like a squad captain.
The Empire army before her was very likely a disguise, and this conduct seemed more like the soldiers of this country. But why would they disguise themselves as the Empire, and what was their goal?
Could it be that they intended to masquerade as the Empire's army to provoke the Necromancer hiding here, drawing an invincible enemy toward the Empire? If it were a Necromancer of this level, they would indeed have enough power to destroy a nation single-handedly.
While Tsukasa was thinking about these matters.
The soldiers disguised as Empire knights were slaughtered by the Death Knight until only a few remained, and these knights had already given up on struggling.
"Death Knight, that's enough." Suddenly, a voice echoed through the air.
Tsukasa looked up.
A Magic Caster in black robes and a female warrior in armor slowly descended.
Tsukasa immediately entered her combat state and copied the [Fly] magic from them. However, to her surprise, she had only leaked a tiny bit of her presence when the female warrior discovered her and charged at her with an attack without a word.
〖That poleaxe... is no ordinary weapon...!〗 Noticing this, Tsukasa didn't dare to be careless. Her opponent was very strong, displaying speed and power close to that of the Vampire Sophia.
If she hadn't entered her combat state, she would never have dared to engage in close combat with such a person.
Wrath was unsheathed.
Tsukasa rushed to meet the female warrior's attack. At this moment, she had already used a martial arts skill to increase her speed. Just as she prepared to face the opponent's martial arts, she saw a look of astonishment on the warrior's face. The warrior seemed completely unable to keep up with her speed, so she decisively unleashed a Spatial Slash.
Spatial Slash was a new technique she had developed based on Asura's Wrath. Although it was a new move, its power wasn't necessarily greater than her original ones; it was simply more convenient.
The space in front of the female warrior seemed to crack open, and with a massive boom, she was slammed into the ground. Using the newly copied Fly skill, Tsukasa hovered in mid-air without pursuing further and said to the silent Magic Caster, "I am the Empire's Sword Saint. I received news that people were masquerading as our soldiers to cause trouble at the Kingdom's border and came here to investigate the truth. I have no ill will toward the people of Kain Village. Please, Excellency, persuade your companion."
At that moment, an exceptionally evil mana emerged from the deep crater.
She frowned and looked over.
"Albedo, stop!"
The Magic Caster's voice rang out.
The mana in the pit gradually subsided.
Accompanied by the sound of footsteps, the female warrior, looking completely unharmed, walked out of the crater.
Seeing this, Tsukasa thought to herself that as she expected, that armor was also very high-quality equipment. These two were extremely dangerous, although their innate strength might not be greater than hers. However, the equipment was too troublesome; she really didn't want to provoke such dangerous individuals.
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