Chapter 52 (1/2)

Troy sighed as he looked out the window of the airship. The seven other robed figures sat in seats ahead of him, watching the hornless demons fight Lindyss. Black tendrils sprouted from her shadow, fending the demons off as a torrent of spells flowed from her hands. A red moonlike object floated in the sky above her head, glowing with a dim red light. The demon corpses littering Niffel stirred and released a red mist as the light shone on them. The hornless demons were unharmed by Lindyss’ spells, but at the same time the black tendrils swatted them away before they could reach her.

“Enjoying the show?” a voice said from behind Troy. He froze. A cold spearhead rested against the back of his neck. The other demons turned around and stared at the man holding the spear.

“Chad!” the white bearded demon said. “How’d you-“

Chad smiled. “I’m a dragoon, remember? Jumping’s easy.”

The demons faces turned ugly as they channeled their mana and drew their staves.

Chad raised an eyebrow. “You really want to use largescale magic in such a confined area?”

“What do you want?” the bearded man asked as he gritted his teeth.

“I just wanted to ask a few questions,” Chad said as he lowered his spear. “What I do next depends on your answers.”

“Don’t you know who you’re threatening right now?” another robed figure asked with narrowed eyes and glowing blue horns.

“Yes, I do,” Chad said and smiled as he sat down next to Troy, “and I honestly don’t care. I always despised the royal family, hated them even more ever since Zollstock stole Mina from us. It was quite satisfying to watch him die.”

The demon hissed. “Die!” he shouted and waved his staff forwards. A black icicle materialized in front of him and flew towards Chad. Chad snorted and swatted the icicle with the back of his hand. The icicle slid along the black leather glove and pierced through the ship’s stern. The ship shook and air gushed out of the hole before another demon raised his staff, stopping the flow of air.

“My armor’s made out of crocodile hide from Fuselage. Anything less than a tier four spell won’t even tickle,” Chad said as he dusted off the back of his hand. “Now can we discuss this like civilized men? Or should I kill all but one of you?”

The demon with blue horns snarled. “Insole-“

Clunk. The bearded demon smacked the blue horned demon on the back of the head with his staff and shook his head.

“Great,” Chad said as he leaned back and crossed his legs. “Those parasites. You send S ranked adventurers to Fuselage to cull the creatures and harvest their bodies for materials. What were you thinking when you brought live ones back here?”

The demons glanced at each other, but none of them spoke. Troy cleared his throat. “Biological warfare or, like in this case, last resort defenses. Zollstock was conducting experiments on prisoners to weaponize the worms in the most effective manner.”

“So you do have a plan to stop them.”

All the demons remained silent and looked down.

“You,” Chad said and put his hand on Troy’s shoulder, “speak.”

“Err… Like I said, we’ve been conducting experiments to-.“ Troy gasped as cracking noises resounded from his shoulder. “We don’t. No plans except to wait it out.” Sweat flowed from his forehead as he gritted his teeth and clenched his hands.