Chapter 103 - Episode Twenty-Four - The Thing Lurking Deep in the Forest (5)
Chapter 103 - Episode Twenty-Four - The Thing Lurking Deep in the Forest (5)
Chapter 103 - Episode Twenty-Four - The Thing Lurking Deep in the Forest (5)
“Demon, Rest in peace.”
I wave my wand at a limping Evil Bound.
A ball of light flies straight up and melts into Evil Bound’s trunk.
Something like a black haze blows out of Evil Bound’s mouth.
This is the main body of a demon.
Normally, I wouldn’t let it be expelled easily, but Evil Bound must have been at the end of his rope for a number of reasons.
The black haze was weak, and it was obvious that it already had very little strength left in it.
The black haze quickly flies away as if escaping from me.
…… or rather, it’s really escaping, that.
The black haze spreads and fades as it mixes with the atmosphere.
It is said that the devil is a collection of spirits, and spirits are living beings, inanimate objects, the embodiment of thoughts caged in the land.
The fact that demons are often delusional is probably a remnant of this.
“What did you do just now?”
Mea walks up beside me.
“I scattered the demons and turned them back into spirits. My village used to specialize in this sort of thing originally.
The Marren people believed that the spirits of their ancestors had been transformed into spirits, giving them power over their descendants, themselves.
Many of the rituals in the village are built around this idea.
As such, they have a deep understanding of magic against spirits and demons.
I could still feel the slightest hint of Evil Bound’s will, but it should disappear completely soon.
Spirits themselves do not have the power to retain their memories.
It only floats in the air and moves according to spirit language and magic circles.
“Good…… Since it was Abel, I thought you’re was going to carve Ortem while keeping the demon alive……”
“…… Eh, what’s with that, that’s scary.”
When I frowned deliberately, Mea’s expression turned blue.
“What… N-, no, because Abel, you’ve been doing a lot of… you know, goblins and balm birds and stuff! Wait! Why are you looking at me like that!? Me-, Mea didn’t say anything that weird, right!? I mean, really, it’s not that Mea wish had done that or anything, it’s just that Abel always…! Because, because!”
Mea flaps her arms and desperately tries to explain herself.
Well, frankly, the reason I didn’t do that is because if I stressed it for a long time, it would deteriorate even more.
When you catch a fish, it’s better to kill it as soon as possible than to let it swim in a bucket.
It’s the same with demons.
It doesn’t make much difference if you just shake it a bit when you take it down, but if you keep the demon intact and sustained stress by cutting down on the possessed body, the tree will change.
I enjoyed a round of Mea’s panic and then turned to Evil Bound.
Perhaps because Evil Bound had run out of power, the roots that had spread so far had shrunk all at once.
If I had used his magic, I could have stopped the shrinking, but there was no need for that.
What’s valuable is the roots that have shrunk and condensed magic power.
It would be enough to let Gaston take this root to prove his subjugation.
First, I’ll activate the Evil Bound with magic to slow down the deterioration process.
Then I’ll use a wood carving knife to remove the excess branches of the Evil Bound and cut them off with wind magic to adjust the height to my liking.
I tamper with the soil to push it up to the ground and cut off the exposed roots with wind magic.
I diverted the slices off from the height adjustment to create six arms with spherical joints.
I even built in the joints of the fingers.
There were times during the battle when I felt uneasy, but the wood is higher quality than I expected.
The magic conduction is quite high.
I could make her play the piano with this.
The demon has been diligently crafting it for years.
I tried to keep the original face of Evil Bound as much as possible.
The nose isn’t as high as the original, but it’s a good reproduction.
Finally, I put some magic power into it and paint it and it’s ready to go.
This is the result of a gigantic object that is nearly two meters tall.
It’s not easy to carry around due to its size, but its magic capacity is unexpectedly high.
As long as I can build up my magic power, I should be able to bring it to my hand using teleportation magic.
“Mea, Mea, it’s done! I’ve created a combat-specific Ortem!”
“…… combat-specific? Aren’t the World Tree’s Ortem combat-specific?”
“Eh, no, that’s all-purpose.”
“What!? I, I see……”
There are many uses for it, but it’s not as good as the specialized types. It’s a rather dexterous and poor type.
No, even so, its basic specs, such as magic capacity and magic conduction, are higher than Evil Bound’s, so of course it has many uses.
“Look at these arms, cool right? Ahhhh, so cool. I like this feeling. I’d like to have all of its arms hold different weapons or something!
I hug Evil Bound Ortem and slide my cheek against it.
I’ll name it Asura 5000.
In case you’re wondering, five thousand is the number of Ortem I’ve carved so far.
I haven’t counted it exactly, but I have a very thin grasp of it.
It should be about five thousand, so let’s pretend that this was the five thousandth Ortem.
“Let’s move it around right away.”
I take a few steps back and take out my wand.
“Doll, dance”
The Asura 5000 begins to move.
It raises its six arms, each of them, and gets into a stance.
I wave my wand, and the Asura 5000 begins shadow boxing.
It swings its fist again and again into the empty air.
The sound of the wind cutting dances around the area.
It moves nicely.
This might be the best thing I’ve ever made.
“It’s amazing…… Isn’t it somewhat faster than the original?”
“That’s true. Why bother with it if it’s not stronger than it was.”
When I said it proudly, Mea twisted her head.
“Is that…… how it is?’
With the Asura 5000, Evil Bound would be reduced to wreckage in an instant.
It would be able to withstand a bit of wind, and it would be able to cut all those tree roots to pieces.
I’m looking forward to using the Asura 5000 in battle.
“It has a lot of extra features. It supports teleportation, and also…… oddly enough, it allows you to send over your thoughts by going through this Ortem.”
The power of Evil Bound’s sending thoughts was left intact in the Asura 5000.
Don’t underestimate the power of just sending thoughts over.
Depending on your magical power, you can send them as far away as you want, and you can even send them into the heads of magic beasts to scare them away.
Besides, if you put your magic energy into it like a fool, you can make the opponent’s brain explode.
The amount of magic power required is too great to be realistic, but with some improvements, it might be possible to reduce the amount of magic power consumption.
Besides, thanks to this, I have the necessary theories to back up my magic cellphone Magiphone.
I’m getting the theory I need.
Once I have the time, I might seriously try to develop a prototype.
The day of reclaiming the smartphone life may be coming soon.
However, based on the current outlook, the mass production, construction of the magic wave control tower, and information management are going to cost a lot of money.
It’s not an amount of money that can be earned by defeating magic beasts on a little by little.
Even if the technology arrives, it’s still a long way from being practical.
It’s not a dream, if only an investor would come along, but the only person I can think of who might have the money is Wegener.
I don’t want to rely on him.
Perhaps there may be an opportunity to seek investment from the lord via the survey team, but the lord has been investing against Ebelheid and been betrayed.
He will have a much tougher eye on strangers.
“Thoughts? You mean like the tree did earlier?”
“Yeah, I’ll give it a shot and so ask me.”
As I form a magic circle, I think about what I want him to say.
I’ll take a line from Evil Bound’s speech anyway.
As I wave my wand, Asura 5000 shuffles and waves her arms and utters a thought.
“Worship me as the God.”
“Look, look, it resounds in your head, isn’t it? It comes, right?”
“…… It’s kind of surreal, the way he’s moving his arms around with his thoughts, isn’t it?”
“…………”
…… I can’t deny that’s a bit of a stretch.
I don’t know if it’s surreal or ridiculous.
I think it would be very intimidating if a stranger saw it suddenly.
“Regret……”
Suddenly, a thought flies out of nothing.
…… The thought of the fragment of Evil Bound is still alive?
I feel like I’ve done something bad.
What did Evil Bound think when he saw his last altered form?