Kuro no Maou

Chapter 144 Element Master Vs The 8th Apostle

As the sun began to set and the sky started becoming redder, Ai finally woke up from her deep sleep.

“Nn?”

As she opened her eyes, with the setting sun as the background, the devil, the witch and the fairy were standing and facing her.

“I expected you guys to come attacking at me without warning but, nfufu, it seems you’re quite the gentleman, Devil-san.”

Clearly, a lot more than just one hour had passed but she was the one who had been sleeping, and its not like she was in any hurry so there were no problems really.

Ai was just satisfied if the opponent had finally become ready to fight her.

And, she had expected them to surprise attack her while she was sleeping ‘like an adventurer’, but the fact that she was proven wrong made her sad as well as happy at the same time.

“I’m not a Devil. My name is Kurono Mao.”

“I see! So you’re not a devil but a demon king, ahhahhahaha!”(T/N: in case you didn’t know, Maou= Demon King in Jap)

First a Devil, then a demon king. Kurono moved his eyebrow on Ai’s loud laughter and glared sharply at her with his evil looking face as if to not allow any action made by her to be left unnoticed.

“While we’re at it, I’d be happy if the witch girl and the fairy who grew up suddenly could also name themselves.”(Ai)

Kurono looked towards the two girls beside him.

“Fiona Soleil.”

“Lily.”

The witch Fiona who gave her name quite politely and the fairy Lily who was clearly releasing an immense amount of killing intent.

Satisfied after hearing their names, Ai nodded and jumped up from her lying posture instantly.

“I named myself earlier as well but once again, I’m the 8th Apostle Ai. Ah, by the way, this is Tsumiki-chan, cute isn’t it?”

She showed the black cat in her hands. Probably, the cat had no interest in the three standing in front of it as it just gave a small *nyaan*.

“Is that a familiar servant of yours?”(kurono)

“nn, oh, don’t worry, I’ll be fighting alone. Now then, Tsumiki-chan go and wait for your master like a good child ‘kay? I’ll show you your master’s cool form!”

Tsumiki who got away from her restrains ran away quickly inside the forest and disappeared.

“Nn mouu, I wanted you to cheer for me——-well, whatever. Then, you guys, come at me whenever you are ready!”(Ai)

And thus, Ai faced the three of them with the highway in middle of them.

There was no signal, but, at that moment, the curtains on this fight were definitely opened.

“—–Let’s go.”

The first one to move was Kurono.

The moment he swung his baton, Ai’s vision was obstructed by a black smoke as dark as the night itself.

Soon the whole surroundings were covered with dense black smoke and nothing could be seen through.

But of course, Ai didn’t show any signs of faltering and without even trying to get out of that black smoke, took a stance with her long bow.

“I guess [Lux Blast] should be fine enough.”

As she pulled the worn out bowstring that looked like it might break any moment, light particles began gathering and soon formed into an arrow of light.

It seems she did not require an actual arrow to attack. Even with just her bow, she can easily use magic without any problems.

“Eiyah!”

The moment it was released from the bowstring, it burst to numerous beams and blocked the various black blades that were approaching from inside the black smoke.

White magic and Black magic clashed in mid air and light and darkness scattered each other.

“Halberds? Oh, the ones used by those light golems. How shrewd ~ ”(Ai)

The enemy’s attack that were the black blades; Ai saw its true form just before they were smashed to pieces.

But, compared to the halberds used by actual heavy knights, it was a weapon of a much lower grade.

The fact that Kurono could remotely use weapons to attack after enchanting them with his black magic was already known by Ai who was watching his battle with Cyprus from the sidelines while eating the portable food.

Thus, she had quickly seen through the halberd attacks.

“Now then, next is—-“

My turn to attack, is what she thought as she pulled her bowstring again but,

“Oops!?”(Ai)

She quickly jumped away from the place she was standing.

The very next instant, in the place where she was standing, a pillar of light fell down from the skies like a laser beam and created a giant explosion.

She guessed that probably this was the Extra Magic of that fairy known as Lily.

(“It’s as strong as an advanced level magic, not to mention that its activation speed is pretty fast as well. That could be dangerous.”)

As she jumped away to dodge the laser beam, she continued with her momentum to get out of the black smoke as well.

By using [Air Walker] martial art reflexively, Ai moved few meters of distance instantly but,

“—Kuronagi.”

The moment she came out of the black smoke, Kurono appeared while swinging his hatchet along with his martial art skill.

“Sooi!!”(Ai)

She jumped and rolled forward to dodge the martial art [Kuronagi] that was approaching while tracing a black shine.

She felt the hatchet with the ominous aura pass just above her head.

The moment she thought that she had avoided it, a slight pain ran through Ai’s back.

“iih!?”

She intuitively understood that she had been cut and soon after she also realized what had cut her.

In Kurono’s left hand was a silvery shining long sword.

“As expected of a mithril blade, it was able to cut through even that aura easily.”(kurono)

“Cyprus’ blade!? You really are extremely shrewd!!”(Ai)

It was a sword with a simple design but it was undoubtedly Cyprus’ [Mithril Sword].

The reason he’s using it just like that is probably because his affinity with white magic inside it is bad.

No, rather than that, Ai was thinking about something else altogether.

(“His movements are completely different from the time he was fighting against Cyprus—“)

He had a speed that could keep up with her who was even using [Air Walker]. And the fact that he was able to attack with a speed with which he could hurt even her, both were things which could not be seen in his previous battle.

But the moment Ai saw the witch holding her long staff, she got the answer to her question as well.

“I see, so you are under the effects of enhancement Boost!”(Ai)

“Correct!”(kurono)

The hatchet with the ominous black aura and the long sword with the white divine aura, these 2 combo of black and white attacked Ai who had nothing but a bow in her hands.

“—-!?”

With a power that was already much above humans, he now also had the help of Fiona’s [Force Boost]. The sword attacks of such a Kurono were as sharp, fast and heavy as a master swordsman.

Physical attacks, magic attacks, an Apostle’s unique silver aura held a resistance against both of these, but the swords swung by Kurono were cutting through it as if it really were nothing but mist.

Realizing that her aura’s defensive abilities were as good as nil now, Ai quickly began to take evasive actions under the consecutive storm like attacks with the help of her dynamic vision, body movement and intuition.

“ooo—“

Ai was completely on the defensive. A single cut ran through her soft cheek and fresh blood flowed out from the wound.

Ignoring the fact that her face, which is considered her life for a girl, had been injured, her face showed an expression of joy.

“Not bad! Much better than what I was expecteing!”(Ai)

The moment she said that, Ai became aware of the slight presence that had approached her from behind.

“Even though you say that, you’re still holding back right?”(Lily)

As she turned back, Ai saw a beautiful girl leaping towards her.

While dishevelling her platinum blond hair and releasing an immense killing intent from her emerald eyes, Lily was there who was stretching her delicate glass like hands towards Ai.

(“Ah, this is bad.”)(Ai)

As shivers ran down her spine, Ai used all her might to evade that.

Just what level of heat did it possess; the cute little hand of the Fairy was shining with a green light.

Concentrating on getting away from that Fairy’s attack that was most probably a sure-kill attack, she had no choice but to become unable to completely dodge Kurono’s attack who was attacking from the front.

“Kuah!!”

As Ai sensed Lily’s hand grazing her temporal region, a much stronger pain ran through her limbs.

Ai’s clean and pure looking thighs and upper arm now had a gaping red wound due to Kurono’s double attacks.

It was nowhere near a fatal wound but it certainly gave some damage. As she felt the clear pain from damage that she had not felt in a long time,

(“I guess I’ll have to revaluate them once again.”)(Ai)

She decided to acknowledge the strength of this party as one level above of what she had originally expected.

“—[Lux Kris Sagita].”

The moment she drew her bow in a matter of seconds, 2 arrows of light were nocked on the bow.

What was released was the intermediate level light attack magic. Both the arrows certainly captured both Kurono and Lily who were in different directions and approached them while changing their trajectories in mid air.

Kurono was light weight as well as possessed a [mithril sword] that had high resistance towards light magic and Lily originally had an extremely strong light magic [Oracle Field] so they were both able to defend against the light arrows fired by Ai.

In front of them, the two arrows flashed as they were broken.

In the time those two were blocked by that light, Ai had already moved ten meters above the highway to create a distance between them.

“Wow that really was good. It’s been a really long time since I was cornered like this by just three people.”(Ai)

Even while blood flowed from her wounds, Ai spoke happily without even trying to use any healing magic.

Without really showing any surprise towards her, the three of them remained cautiously in their stances.

“I guess I’ll need to get rid of another seal or I won’t be able to face you guys properly—-“

Ai stretched her free right hand, that wasn’t holding the bow, towards the hairband on her twintails.

Her hair weren’t held up by gum or strings but was tied up with a silver ring.

It was of the same material as the silver bracelet that she had been wearing just a while back. As she touched it lightly, Ai chanted.

“—-Seal Unlock.”

And just like the silver bracelet the silver ring on her hair also—–did not break and fall.

“……huh?”

Ai made a surprised expression. This was not her usual playing around face but she was actually surprised right now.

(“Huh, what’s going on, why isn’t it breaking off? Did it fail?”)

She poked at her hairband with her finger tips but there was no response. It was as if it had become just a normal silver accessory.

But that’s impossible. These items were seals meant to seal her infinite white magical energy provided by God. It was a necessary ‘restraint’ for Ai who had been acting as a normal adventurer.

“Seal unlock! Seal Unlock!!”

The seal should have been removed with just those words but the hairbands were really not responding at all.

(“nonono, how can it fail with such a timing—–no, if it was broken then the seal should have been automatically removed. But to not respond to the keywords even then…”)

Ai who knew the structure of the ring quickly thought of one possible probability.

“—-[Mind Jammer]!?!”

And the enemy clearly had a member in their party who was able to use such a skill.

The Fairy Lily. She had used her Mind Jammer to destroy the network between the experimental squad and had made annihilating them very easy.

(“But, but this and that need two different types of Jammer. To be able to pinpoint the sealing item so accurately, just how—-“)

She thought about the source, naturally she should be able to find out the answer like that.

But still, The enemy wasn’t merciful and gentle enough to give her such time. After all, even if this was half play for Ai, for them it was battle for their lives.

“—-Anchor Hand!”

It was exactly the same form that he had used against Cyprus. The 4 jet black big tentacles created by Kurono rushed towards Ai like surging waves.

“Uwaa—-“

In a panic, she pulled her bowstring to counter it.

Under the effects of the seal, she could only use [Lux Sagita] that could be fired instantaneously but,

“Black Shield!”

There was no way a few low level magic attacks could stop Kurono’s advance who was also using defensive magic.

“Mouu, wait a sec—-“

If she couldn’t stop then she had no choice but to run and create some distance between them.

Ai, who was tsill under the effects of [Air walker], tried to quickly move away from there but,

“How foolish. Do you really think we’d let you run away?”(lily)

Lily who had appeared behind Ai out of nowhere came to stop her.

Lily’s balls of light blocked all paths of evading Kurono’s attack.

(“Oh crap, there’s no way to run—–“)(Ai)

She thought of rushing through it but soon decided otherwise. In her current situation, the damage she would take from Lily’s balls of light filled with magical energy and killing intent would be too high to bear.

As a result, Ai pulled her bowstrings now that her escape route was blocked and had no choice but to aim towards Kurono who was coming at her with 4 tentacles growing out of him.

The shied that had withstood countless arrows of light had already disappeared so she fired to atleast stop him somewhat if it hit his body directly but,

“He’s dodging even from this range!?!”

Whether he had used intuition or maybe he had simply seen through it, Kurono fell down on all four limbs like an animal to dodge as the arrows of light flew above him.

“Got you!”(kurono)

The weirdly moving 4 tentacles quickly restrained Ai who had lost all ways to evade or counter back.

“Aaah!?!”

The distance between both was 4m. Ai who had been caught by the 4 tentacles growing out of Kurono’s shoulder and back, obviously struggled and moved around to free herself but,

(“Uwaah, this tentacle, its dangerously dense enough to not be stopped by just by the magical energy of my aura!”)

Ai, who was in a sealed state, had no way of getting away from those stiff and strong tentacles that had been created by Kurono with a lot of black magical energy.

“Oracle Field – Max power!!”

Behind Ai, Lily’s voice could be heard. And the oracle field that had been deployed was,

“Now—“(kurono)

Completely covered Kurono’s body inside the sphere.

She was caught and the enemy had deployed a defensive magic around him. Considering the situation, Ai could guess the conclusion of this.

And that her answer was right was proven the moment she looked above.

“—-Do it! Fiona!!”(kurono)

Above Ai, a giant shining golden fireball of around 5m in diameter had appeared.

“[Golden Sun- Aur Soleil]”

“Eh, wait—–“(Ai)

The sun that could kill an Apostle fell from the sky.