Kuro no Maou

Chapter 448

Battle Tower Pharos (Part 3)

“I wish you really were okay, though...”

Lily’s eyes were so full of pity for me that it hurt . It’s even harder to hear her reply, which sounds as if she understood that I was being stubborn .

So it really is impossible to lie to Lily, huh?

“Never mind me, just hurry down here . ”

So I decided to change the topic, though my embarrassment was only half the reason . Our first priority was to do something about the golem, which kept on marching ominously towards the castle walls .

“That’s right, we can’t stay here for too long . ”

Agreeing with what I said, Fiona’s black clothes flutter about as she gently descends upon the golem’s shoulder .

She had been carried like a princess all the way down here by Lily . As opposed to my “flight”, Fiona’s experience seems to have been far more enjoyable . Thank you very much for flying with Fairy Airlines today! Though Lily doesn’t seem to be very amused to have been used as an airplane .

“All right, Lily, it’s your turn!”

“Yeah, leave it to me, Kurono . I’ll pry that cockpit open in a second . ”

Lily’s answer comes with a charming smile . Her plan to deal with the Golems was to open their cockpits and kill their pilots directly . Since these Ancient Golems are basically moving fortresses with incredible defensive power, it makes sense to exploit that kind of weak spot .

We wouldn’t be able to do this if these golems had the mobility of those Super Robots you can see in anime, but thankfully, these guys are slow . That’s why it was possible to jump on them in the first place .

“Okay, let’s see... how about there?”

Lily jumps down from the golem’s trembling shoulder . Rather than heading to its front, she flies towards its back and stops in mid-air at the section where its shoulder blade would be if it were a human .

As if clinging tightly to the golem’s back, Lily reaches out to its rugged steel armor with her white hands . There doesn’t seem to be any switches or levers to open a hatch or anything like that, so how would Lily make her way into the cockpit?

I was getting curious, but it didn’t seem like we would have time to relax while she was doing all the work .

“I knew it, there are guards . ”

“We’ve been followed, haven’t we?”

A group of harpy-like chimera soldiers appeared in the air, letting out loud ear-splitting shrieks . The way they fly around the gigantic humanoid golem makes them look like feathered mosquitoes in comparison .

Though they were swarming, they didn’t seem to have any military formation in mind, so they simply began swooping down one by one on Lily’s exposed back .

“Gatling-Gore Mode . ”

I summoned ‘The Greed’ from the shadows, already transformed into a six-barrel gatling gun . The barrel used to fire that incredibly powerful ‘Plasma Breath’ is now cooling down inside the Shadow Gate .

“Too hot! It’s way too hot, Master!” was Hitsuji’s complaint as she was cooling down the barrel using pseudo-ice, which is the fourth Divine Protection I reluctantly obtained the other day .

She had coiled a countless number of thin tentacles around the barrel, releasing cold air from them . This had to be done slowly and carefully, or the barrel might break like Simon’s gatling gun .

It might even be cool enough by now, but I believe that machine guns will be more useful here . The barrels start to spin around and making mechanical sounds as I point them at the harpy-chimeras .

“Burst . ”

Even if they are hard to aim at, they won’t be able to avoid a barrage of bullets . Their once colorful feathers sway down from the sky, stained by their fresh dark blood . The harpy-chimera vanguard was quickly shot down, leaving behind only the echo of their repulsive screeches still ringing in our ears .

“Come to think of it, this is the first time I have been at the vanguard together with Kurono . ”

Leaving my thorough counter-attack completely unnoticed, Fiona calls out to me as if changing the topic of conversation . Even standing over the shoulder of an ancient golem, Fiona always does things at her own pace .

“Ah, now that you mention it, you’re right!”

I gave Fiona a half-hearted reply while getting ready to get down from the golem’s back –who is still standing as upright as the castle walls– in order to protect Lily . But she’s probably right, this must be the first time us two ever fought at the vanguard together .

“I’ve been thinking sometimes that it wouldn’t be so bad to fight at the front lines together with you, Kurono . ”

“What made you change your mind?”

Up until now, I’ve never heard Fiona say anything like “The rear guard is the best . I’m the happiest when providing covering fire from behind” to express herself about the appeal of her usual battle position . Still, she doesn’t seem to be unhappy about it .

“It was a bit fun to fight side by side with Lily before . ”

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t goofing around . More than that, I was having a pretty hard conflict in my heart .

But yeah, Lily is surprisingly easy to work with, so fighting side by side with her makes me feel like we have the teamwork of a well-coordinated sports team .

That may have seemed appealing to Fiona .

“Well then, shall we try something to see whether it really is fun or not?”

“Yes, let’s go, shall we? ... Formation: ‘Vertical Limit’ . ”

After that, Fiona and I follow Lily and make our way down the golem . Of course, I’m using Bind Arts as a lifeline .

As for Fiona, she breaks into a run, and dashes down the golem’s surface .

She’s definitely not simply falling down to her death . Just like when running over the ground, she’s running down a ninety-degree wall using a steady posture and speed .

“I hope Fiona would teach me her ‘Air Walker’ next time...”

Fiona’s martial art technique was so flawless that I was murmuring such a thing before I knew it . She was like a witch .

It’s like the phrase “If you can’t do this much, then you can’t go solo . ” It’s a popular phrase, but now that I think about it, except for magic control, Fiona is surprisingly skilled .

Me? I just set up a rifle and pulled the trigger while feeling the weight of my own lack of experience .

I have absolute trust in Lily, and I’m relieved that she has my back on the battlefield, but Fiona is equally trustworthy .

That’s why now I have no worries about being at the front lines with Fiona . Let’s continue to protect Lily with my fierce shots and her flame storms .