Tales of the Old World Demon Lord
Chapter 18 - Dear Este
[Eternum Calendar 1971]
The battle between Sipher and the Crystalline Goblin could easily be summed up as ‘one sided’ to say the least. Initially the goblin was able to get the upper hand with a surprise attack however after it had its presence registered it was all downhill for the ‘Goblin God’. That wasn’t to say that the battle didn’t yield any useful results for Morgant either; it may have been brief but through their display some interesting discoveries were uncovered.
The first and most notable observation was the unnatural tenacity of this Crystalline Goblin. Even as its limbs were and torsos were torn apart it continued to crawl through the ground to try and fell its target. It was a disgusting sight as it dragged its torn apart torso through the putrid yellow mire of its own blood while it gargled and shouted in a blood curdling pain. The fact that it could scream in pain meant it could still properly register that sensation, yet despite that it ardently continued to follow its directives.
‘Hmm… or perhaps it really is a zombie’, Morgant continued to study its movements and body structure as it crawled through the floor with its only remaining limb. Still dedicated to its cause it growled in a low humming tone until it eventually expired away from blood loss.
“I knew you could do it, Sipher. I mean, there’s no way something like a goblin would ever be a match for you!”
Este commented with a hint of enthusiasm in her voice. An understandable reaction to the disgustingly horrific scene as it was her first piece of action since arriving on the demon continent. Yet Sipher’s expression did not meet with her expectations; a serious and contemplative shadow was cast on his face as he examined the felled monster.
"I think it may be a little quick to rejoice, princess."
He spoke and recognizing his pensive tone Este also adopted a more steady posture. Despite still being a child she was bright enough to understand the tension in the mood and react accordingly. That being said, while Sipher usually took on a humorless face at most occasions he was rarely, truly serious.
"Have you figured something out?"
“Nothing significant… though if I had to say, this monster is already dead.”
"Well yeah, I wouldn't doubt it after what you've done to it."
"You misunderstand princess, what I mean is that it had been dead long before it appeared before us.”
Sipher corrected her as he pocked the corpse with a long stick to examine further. With Sipher’s observations being in line with what Morgant was able to confirm through his [analyze] ability, it was safe to assume that the theory was probably correct. However going by that assumption many more questions would then rise, mostly in the form was ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘why’. Yet unfortunately there was no real way to obtain the answers to any of these questions at the current moment. Thus it was decided that Morgant would continue to tail behind Sipher and Este and pick up any further clues he could along the way.
“They aren’t alive? You mean like they’re undead?”
Este asked as she looked over Sipher’s shoulder to see what was going on with the corpse. She had seen many different corpses of monsters and even fellow people over the years, enough to the point where this kind of scene no longer fazed her as it should have. A fact that brought a little bit trouble to Sipher but he decided to put that matter on hold for now as he wanted to investigate more into the goblin case.
“Most likely that should be the case, however… even undead exude a certain amount of presence of which I can detect. Yet this monster was completely invisible to my senses, thus I’m not even sure calling it an ‘undead’ would be entirely correct.”
“Invisible even to your senses?”
Este contemplated on that fact for a while before Sipher lightly tapped her on the shoulders without a word. Glancing up she saw several figures moving about behind the bushes until finally revealing themselves to be similar Crystalline Goblins as before. About twelve in all, each one more fierce looking than the last, perhaps feeling angered that one of their numbers had been so brutally dealt with. Of course that was merely the kind of vehement illusion of emotions that they gave off. In all likelihood they moved purely based on their instincts, anger and directives at all times.
"What should we do Sipher? Run? Or fight?"
Este asked in a slight burst of surprise from their creepy stalking entrance.
"Our mission was to merely investigate what the true phenomenon in the forests were but leaving them alone like this would likely result in future victims. Not to mention that we still haven't figured out what's causing these variant of goblins to appear. So against my better judgment I suggest we stay. However that is only if you permit it, princess."
Without even a moment’s hesitation princess Este replied as she flashed a confident smile.
"Of course, helping people whenever we can is the motto of the Fallon house after all!"
She then raised her hands as a small ball of flames formed at the palm of her hands. Morgant had seen this ability being performed before by the self proclaimed Demon Lord, a spell known as [fire bullet]. From what he had known about this skill was that it was a low level elemental spell. While its damage output wasn't anything to speak about, its quick casting speed, ease of use and overall utility made it an effective spell to use during combat.
Perhaps it was just his imagination but he thought that Astaroth's fire bullet was much larger and was cast more in an instant. Then again comparing the magical prowess of a nine year old girl to the Demon Lord may not have been an entirely fair one.
The battle had commenced with Este's fire bullet managing to incinerate an entire half of a goblin. Though the blast wasn't enough to completely annihilate a single goblin it managed to pause the enemy long enough for Sipher to seize the opportunity to rush in and start hacking away. In the blink of an eye threeof the goblins were torn to shred by Sipher's sword, yet they still held on to life as they struggled desperately in a pool of their own blood.
While Sipher took the front lines, from the back Este continued hurling fire bullets towards the enemy with great ease. It was almost an amazing sight to behold; the scene of a nine year old girl happily lobbing fire at monsters. The goblins, managing to dodge a few of them rush past Sipher and, holding their primitive clubs up high, dashed towards Este's position. However what they were rewarded with was not victory but a pierced torso as a large pillar of ice erupted from the grounds, impaling all enemies.
“Hah ha! Did you think you could get to me so easily? How do you like my [Glacial Pillar Trap]?! I’ve already cast several offensive protection magic on myself before the battle had even begun!"
Several of the goblins that made it past Sipher were all easily taken care of by Este's guard trap. Impaled along a thin piece of sharp blue ice the goblins failed to die but we're entirely incapacitated. They tried to struggle out but the more they did the more damage they suffered in turn, yet even though that was the case they endured on their self destructive path to freedom.
Feeling a little abhorred by the sight Este spawned more fire bullets to blast away the zombie goblins. However she had summoned too many fire bullets at once as she felt squeamish about the view and nearly exhausted her entire mana supply. Unlike Sipher, Este was still a child thus using too much power had left her rather exhausted.
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"That's enough princess, I'll take it from here."
Noticing her haggard breathing Sipher point her to a comfortable looking rock and told her to catch her breath. Holding nothing back Sipher readied his blade before the few crystalline goblins before him. They paused for a moment after sensing his formidable pressure but ultimately they charged forward as though they were possessed by something. Their reckless disregard for their own lives made them not necessarily more difficult to fight but much more uncomfortable to cut down. It felt as though the only one who truly considered the goblins as living beings was the opponent himself.
Sipher clicked his tongue in annoyance as he cut them down one by one, yet even his most powerful swings weren't enough to completely kill them offin a single hit. The only true way to kill them was to damage them beyond recognition.
They weren't particularly hard to slay, only that they took more damage to do so than what was expected. Even for the 'Grand Praetorian Knight' it was the first time facing such a ridiculous opponent; he was unable to estimate just how many strikes it took to completely kill one.
"Kyahh!"
As he was fighting the goblins the screams of his princess could be heard from behind. Instantly reacting to her voice he turned around to see that Este had been surrounded by even more crystalline goblins that suddenly appeared from nowhere. Normally he would've easily caught anyone getting too close to the princess but these monsters were different, they couldn't be detected by normal senses.
"Princess!"
Sipher shouted as he abandoned his fight to go to her rescue but even at his top speeds it was obvious that he would never make it. 'No!' he screamed within the depths of his mind as he desperately tried to get to her location but the goblins were just about in attack range. With Este's protection magic failing to activate due to her depleted mana supply, even the talented sorceress princess was just about as vulnerable as any nine year old at this point.
As his probably sister was about to be mauled to death Morgant thought about the situation for a little bit. Since he had the [Enhanced Kinetic Vision] and his cognitive capabilities were impossibly accelerated he had a bit of leisure to do so. He thought about how if the old Sovereign was in his shoes right now he would probably leave her to her death just to see what kind of reaction and abilities Sipher would unleash.
However Morgant was not that kind of Sovereign... yet. He thought that it was possible that, even though they shared the same ideologies, there was still a fundamental discrepancy between the old Sovereign and himself. Perhaps in time as more and more memories are integrated with his own those disparities would cease to exist, but for now Morgant was still different enough to make a judgment that divulged from the choices of the old Sovereign.
Morgant took a deep breath as he prepared himself. Several small rocks started orbit around him as they emitted a majestic blue tint. [Telekinesis], the ability to manipulate objects without physical interaction, using this skill Morgant carved and sharpened the floating rocks to form a sort of stone bullet. In addition he spun them around to give a drilling effect for extra penetration damage.
Making a gun shape with his hand Morgant pointed towards the goblins that were just about to swing down. Since his Kinetic Vision allowed him to perceive everything in slow motion it wasn't too hard to get a deadly accurate shot.
"Bang."
As Morgant spoke the stone bullets ceased orbiting around him and flew into the direction he point at.
"Este!”
Sipher called out to her from the top of his lungs as desperation and fear slowly sunk into the depths of his heart. Then finally the guilt, guilt that he had failed the house Fallon, of which he had sworn his undying loyalty towards, by letting their only known heir perish to the hands of mere goblins. All he could do now was pray that he would make it in time but even to himself he knew that was never going to happen no matter how much he wished for it.
He reached out to her just to get a little bit closer, but then…
“Kyah?!”
The goblins stopped in their tracks as their savage stone clubs were just few inches short from pummeling Este’s face. The expression on their faces seemed to portray confusion as they themselves didn’t understand why their hands had stopped moving. A large circular hole was bored into their foreheads as putrid yellow ooze leaked out in a gruesome manner.
The ‘Crystalline Curse’ gave them pseudo immortality, yet with a large hole replacing where their brains used to be they couldn’t issue any sort of commands to their bodies. The result was paralysis. Slowly Este opened her tear filled eyes to see that she was not yet dead and the goblins ceased to move. Confusion and fear continued to grip her until Sipher managed to finally get over and calm her down with a full body embrace.
As though a father trying to relieve his daughter he stroke her hair until she was able to regain her lost composure. It wasn’t just Este but Sipher could feel his own distraught heart also starting to relax as it synchronized with Este’s. As the tensions and desperation started to leave his body he wryly started to laugh at himself, in happiness, that Este was somehow saved.
“Mmm… S- Sipher, I’m fine now, you can let go.”
Este tried to struggle out of his grasp but he didn’t want to let go and continued just for a short while longer. In his relieved mindset, and due to their uncanny ability to avoid detection, he had forgotten all about the crystalline goblins he had ignored to get to her. Before he had even noticed it they were in attack range and even got in a few shots but their pitiful attacks simply deflected off of his solid armor and in retaliation drove a sword through their skulls.
He didn’t kill them but just like before, without their brains they couldn’t move their bodies. They froze in place, unable to die but also unable to budge an inch.
He sighed as he let go of the princess in his arms who feeling flustered. However as he was about to rejoice in the battle’s end and relax he was interrupted by another sound coming from behind. Three ominous claps, as he wasn’t able to sense their approach he had assumed that more goblins had shown up and instantly launched his sword towards the target.
However once he turned around he saw the figure of a small boy, no older than seven years of age. Dark, almost deathly colored hair and green eyes filled with the utmost clarity and near malignant confidence, he had noticed too late and his sword continued on its trajectory right for the boy’s head. He tried everything in his power to stop, yet even though he had managed to stop his own arm, the momentum of the great sword in his hands wouldn’t. He instinctively shut his eyes to avoid the gore but no sound ever came from the impact.
Opening his eyes he saw an almost impossible scene; the sword had been stopped right in its track. The boy had effortlessly stopped it with two fingers. No words could describe how this was even possible, but the boy smiled innocently as he responded.
“[Zerstörung des Gehirns; Lähmung.] Even if they don't die so easily, without a brain they can't move.”