Chapter 305: Oops, I'm Dead (Patreon)

"Boom!" "Slash!"

Two different sounds, exploding in the same instant.

The earth shattered and the air tore open, shrieking. Two sword waves, now solid enough to touch, met in a cross, one horizontal and one vertical.

On one side stood the impostor, teeth gritted. On the other stood Aura, expressionless.

The impostor charged first, raising its sword straight at Aura's neck.

"You know what? You've made a big mistake."

Aura suddenly raised the Scales of Obedience in her hand!

"Magic of Obedience, activate!"

Bit by bit, both sides' Mana turned into weights of the soul and settled onto the giant scales hanging in midair.

The impostor lost its magic. All at once, it couldn't remember the stance of Himmel's swordsmanship, and it rushed at Aura like a fool.

In the brief moment after the Magic of Obedience unfolds, the Mana on both sides stalls. The more Mana each side has, the longer the comparison takes.

Aura had used that very window to land several punches on Solitär's little face.

"You walked right into my trap."

Aura's sword came down in one swift motion and struck its head first.

Without the confusion the sudden unfolding of the Magic of Obedience had caused, the impostor would never have left that opening, and Aura would never have had a chance to counterattack.

A moment later, she cut off the Magic of Obedience. As Mana resumed its flow, a golden-haired head dropped to the ground and rolled, thump-thump-thump, all the way to Alice, who had just pushed herself up from the dirt.

"Aww! I'm dead!"

With that, the head's eyes turned into two giant X's and its tongue lolled out, the very picture of instant death.

How to put it? It wasn't the wound that had nearly gutted her moments ago. Seeing someone identical to herself get beheaded made her feel strangely sick.

She was about to say something when she noticed Lord Aura didn't look well.

Aura swiftly tore the Magic of Obedience apart.

The hollow look in her eyes regained a little life as she stepped out of her Nanoda-mimicking state.

"Who are you, really?"

Beheaded and still not dead, the headless body took a huge backward leap right before Aura's eyes, putting distance between them. It flailed its limbs wildly, apparently because it couldn't speak properly without a head.

By now, Aura could see the impostor's Mana capacity.

That sly creature had dropped its Mana concealment at the last moment, and used a magic Aura knew all too well.

It was Jane's undying magic.

With the concealment gone, Aura was even more astonished by the sheer amount of Mana it had. After a battle that should have drained it, its Mana was still greater than her own.

For a Greater Demon over five hundred years old, it was a bit humiliating.

The head that had rolled over beside Alice now rolled back toward the headless body.

Aura stepped on it, pinning it under her foot.

"Ohohoho, this is my first time being stepped on. Why is it kind of thrilling?"

A smile spread across the mud-covered head.

Aura pressed down a little harder. She badly wanted to crush the thing, but since it seemed to have undying magic, all she could do was drain part of its Mana.

It was nowhere near enough. Unless she staked all of Kinton?

It wasn't impossible. But the price would be steep. She would lose all the power she'd worked so hard to build, along with those foolish humans who treated her like a king.

"Hoooooh, you're pressing harder again!"

The head wore a look of rapture, as if it were truly enjoying itself.

She couldn't tell whether the act was genuine, but it sent a chill down Aura's spine.

She had never met anything so revolting.

Aura simply punted the head toward the headless body like a ball, drawing a few more eerie shrieks.

"Once in a while, this isn't bad. Don't tell me you're not going to chop my head to pieces, Lord Aura? I did bully your subordinate quite badly, you know?"

The headless body picked up the head and clamped it onto the stump of its neck. It put it on backward at first, then twisted it back half a turn.

Alice watched, horrified.

Aura answered flatly, "I'm no good at dealing with old undying freaks like you. Qual might manage it, though."

"Aren't you afraid I'll turn your domain upside down?"

The impostor wobbled its head a couple of times.

"If you want to go down together, I don't mind."

Aura tightened her grip on the Scales of Obedience.

In the past, she would have thrown her entire force at it without hesitation, then finished it off in one blow once it was worn down and weak.

Why was she the unlucky one? Why did she always run into freaks like this?

"Are you angry? Angry for those humans?"

The impostor clapped its hands, looking thoroughly entertained.

"Lord Aura! Give the order! For Kinton, I'll gladly sacrifice my life!"

Alice staggered to her feet. The wound in her belly had closed a little. Forcing her body upright, she held up her half-ruined maid uniform and walked toward Aura.

Aura didn't answer. She only stared, expressionless, at the Demon Race member before her. One strategy after another flashed through her mind, and none of them promised victory.

Then Alice's hand, soft but covered in calluses, closed over Aura's sword hand.

As if shocked by lightning, Aura shook her off and issued an order that surprised even herself.

"Go back. You can't die."

"Lord Aura!"

The Magic of Obedience was absolute. Against her will, Alice's body began to drag itself toward the lord's manor. She desperately wanted to stop and turn around, but she couldn't.

She wanted to fight to the last breath, for Kinton and for Aura.

"I don't know who I picked this up from, but I've gone soft."

Aura sighed. It was definitely the influence of that wretched Nanoda.

These humans were still useful. It would be a waste to spend them like this.

That was what Aura told herself.

There was no need to give the order until the very last moment.

"Care to cross swords with me again?"

With her sword in one hand and the Scales of Obedience in the other, Aura unfolded several ordinary Killing Magic circles at once.

"No, no need. I've already gotten what I came for."

The impostor suddenly shook its head.

Hurried footsteps sounded behind them. A small squad of mercenaries had arrived.

In the instant Aura was distracted, the sword in the impostor's hand melted away.

Its figure vanished from where it stood, and in the next moment it appeared right in front of one of the mercenaries.

"Next time, we'll meet in the Empire's courtroom, Lord Aura. Bye-bye~!"

With one hand it hauled a sack over its shoulder and with the other it seized the mercenary by the collar. Then it disappeared without a trace.

Teleportation magic!