Chapter 284: Night Cleanup (Patreon)

A night spent camping after leaving the city.

"It's so quiet, Grand-Master."

Inside the simple tent, little Übel poked her head out, a strand of green hair falling over her shoulder, as she called out to Nanoda, who sat outside on a wooden stake keeping watch.

This tent, in fact, was a gift of apology from the Demon Circus.

The firewood crackled and popped as Nanoda closed the Scripture in her hands.

"Get some rest. You had too much fun in the city — I bet you haven't slept properly since," she said.

"Won't you rest too, Grand-Master?"

"I'm a Demon. Going without sleep for a few days is nothing to me."

"Aw, what a shame. Such a nice tent, too."

Little Übel pouted, a bit unhappy, then ducked back into the tent.

Once again, only the crackle of flames eating away at the firewood remained.

"Übel, if you don't sleep properly at night, you won't grow tall."

"Mmph!"

Little Übel, who had been secretly watching Nanoda from behind the tent flap, immediately burrowed into her blankets. She had no idea how her Grand-Master had noticed.

The sound of breathing.

The quieter it got, the sharper Nanoda's senses became.

She'd meant to warn that magic beasts would come looking for anyone who didn't sleep at night, but that warning didn't quite fit the situation now.

Nanoda turned her attention back to the Scripture, wearing an expression of great seriousness, though the pages were blank. He wasn't there today.

A little while later, Nanoda sensed that Übel had fallen asleep inside the tent.

"Honestly, are magic beasts these days really so patient? Even I'm starting to grow impatient waiting."

A pitch-black shadow shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, bursting into the firelight. Two crimson points traced an arc through the air, and in the blink of an eye a set of sharp claws reached for the neck of Nanoda, who sat with her head bowed over her book.

But a hand had already seized the beast's leg first.

A pained howl cut off abruptly.

The broken horn swept across the beast's throat, a white arc of light flashing through the night, black smoke rising steadily from the wound.

With a flick of her wrist, Nanoda tossed the shaggy, mane-covered leg into the campfire, where it slowly dissolved into black mist.

The death of their companion didn't make the other magic beasts retreat — instead, it stirred their savagery. Pair after pair of blood-red eyes lit up in the darkness.

There were quite a few of them.

These magic beasts were skilled at hiding. When they'd first arrived that evening, Nanoda's Mana Perception had detected nothing nearby. They'd probably built a well-hidden den somewhere close, evading her Mana Perception entirely.

How could she deal with these magic beasts without waking little Übel, who had just fallen asleep?

The answer was simple: Paradox Magic.

The Paradox Magic of motion and stillness was a targeted spell, ill-suited to enemies attacking from every direction — the more targets involved, the greater the drain on Mana and concentration. And besides, its duration was quite limited.

If it were her predecessor's inverting Paradox Magic, she might have been able to eliminate every enemy at once without lifting a finger.

Unfortunately, given that the location changed every time, Nanoda didn't believe she could pull off a paradox as vast as inverting heaven and earth. That Paradox Magic simply wasn't something she could recreate.

Still, Nanoda had another targeted Paradox Magic at her disposal.

Zeno's Turtle, the Tortoise Paradox — a paradox of endlessly approaching yet never touching.

It made no logical sense — but that was the nature of a paradox. That was magic.

She made the tent the target of the spell.

That way, no matter how much the magic beasts outside thrashed about, they'd never be able to touch the tent. If she wanted, Nanoda could even filter out the noise from outside entirely.

As expected, this somewhat intelligent pack split — some charging the tent, others charging Nanoda herself.

Compared to attacking from a distance with Severance Magic, Nanoda still preferred close combat.

She'd spent so much time training her Mana and magic that her mind had grown plenty sharp — but neglecting physical training simply wouldn't do.

Might as well call it a warm-up.

Bam!

Five wolf-shaped magic beasts, their bodies covered in brown-black manes, lunged into empty air. Amid the swirling dust, the Nanoda standing there faded and vanished — it had only been an afterimage.

Her two broken horns became a pair of razor-sharp daggers. Leaping several meters into the air, Nanoda used the momentum to drive them savagely into the necks of two wolf heads.

She then stepped off the heads of two more wolves, the broken horns in her hands shifting into cutting blades. With one perfect spin, all five clustered wolf-beasts lost their heads, thick black smoke billowing up around her.

Beside the tent, several magic beasts leapt at it in unison, only to somehow miss it entirely, each held apart by an uncanny gap.

No matter what angle the dark shapes attacked from, none of them could so much as graze the tent.

"Grrrooowwwl!"

Several magic beasts circled the tent, growling low in frustration.

"All right, that's enough fuss. It wouldn't do to wake the child — why don't you play with me instead?"

The magic beasts' attention shifted back to Nanoda, who stood holding a severed wolf head.

"Shff!"

An invisible slash, like a thread of silver, split every glaring pair of eyes in two! Blinded, the magic beasts staggered backward on instinct.

Nanoda had no intention of letting the retreating beasts escape.

If there was one great difference between Demons and magic beasts, it was probably reason.

Beasts without reason, harming others on nothing but instinct.

Shrk. Shrk. Shrk.

Wherever her white hair drifted past, a magic beast was sure to collapse, dissolving into black smoke of Mana.

In just a few minutes, Nanoda had slaughtered every last one of them.

Beast blood splattered all over her, though it faded away into Mana just as quickly as the creatures themselves had.

Spring cleaning, complete.

"The meaning of magic, huh?"

Nanoda tilted her head back to look at the stars. This world truly was beautiful — untouched by the pollution of industrialization, the river of stars stretching gorgeous and endless overhead.

"Protecting this peace, right now — that's the meaning of my magic."

Nanoda felt content now — she had companions, a place to belong, and every so often, a journey like this one.

She considered herself quite lucky.

After all, there had been a ninety percent chance, if not a full hundred, that she would have ended up standing against Humans.

Still, she was far too weak.

After witnessing her predecessor's Paradox Magic, Nanoda had come to recognize her own shortcomings.

In a one-on-one fight, Nanoda believed she wouldn't lose to any single Great Demon.

But suppose she alone had to challenge all seven Sages of Destruction at the height of their power, commanded by the Omniscient One, Schlacht.

She'd probably end up like the Hero of the South — taking down a few Great Demons before running out of strength.

Even the Demon King had only been defeated by the Hero's Party working together.

One person's strength was ultimately limited. She needed companions now — and although that New God seemed a little suspicious, the power of the Church of the New God was indispensable.

Come to think of it, meeting Schwenk in the first place had been a strange twist of fate. That someone once devoted heart and soul to the Goddess would end up becoming the Grand Bishop of the Church of the New God — it was more than a little hard to believe. Or perhaps Schwenk's change, too, was the New God's influence at work?