The Betrayed Necromancer - Chapter 11
The Gates of Tartarus
After blowing the angel away, I stood near the edge of the neatly blasted wall hole.
The angel who called herself Milial seemed to have flown quite a distance; a plume of dust was rising from a distant forest. It looked like she had been blown all the way over there.
"I might have sent her flying a bit too far... but well, that's well within range. I don't think I need to change the plan."
Murmuring this, I spoke to Gina, who was standing by behind me.
"I'm going to chase after that
"Yes❤️ Leave it to me, Lord Crow!"
Gina had already bound Gaoran tightly with a rope. That rope wasn't an ordinary one either; it was a special magical tool. It should be impossible for Gaoran to break free from it.
Well, even if he somehow managed to escape, there's absolutely no way he could defeat Gina, who possesses some of the finest skills among heroes.
"Crow... What the hell did you do to Lady Angel?! Did you use some cowardly trick again?!"
Bound tightly and rolling on the floor like a caterpillar, Gaoran barked angrily.
It's impressive that he can still maintain this attitude even after all this. He's probably clinging to the belief that I'm using some cowardly trick just to keep himself from losing his sanity.
"Lady Angel... huh? You've gotten awfully pious, haven't you, Gaoran?"
"Shut up! I'm going to kill you!"
Gaoran thrashed around while bound.
In the past, he never showed any interest in other people. He scarcely believed in the existence of gods either, placing himself at the exact opposite end of piety.
Yet a guy like that was now fixated on this angel. The only reason I could think of was――
"I see. Are you in love with her?"
"―――!!"
Gaoran wore a look that gave the game away entirely. He gritted his teeth and glared at me. To think I'd ever get to see a face like that on him.
"I see... Heh-heh, to think that a guy who only ever looked at women as mere holes would fall in love. Well, well... this is turning out to be interesting."
"What the hell are you thinking! Hey! Untie this rope!"
Ignoring the thrashing Gaoran, I turned my gaze back outside.
The angel was emitting a unique magical aura. Using magic detection made it easy to pinpoint her location. I located Milial's position deep within the forest and leaped toward it.
Bounding out of the city of Borut, I headed directly to the place where the angel Milial was. Along the way, I concentrated my magical power for a specific technique.
"――Good, she's not dead. I'm glad she's sturdy."
Arriving at the forest, I visually confirmed Milial.
She was taking damage, but still capable of fighting. Angelic bodies seemed to be built remarkably tough.
When Milial stood up and spotted me, she immediately assumed a combat stance.
"――Target re-acquired. Setting threat level to maximum, commencing annihilation."
Milial summoned four cannons and locked her aim squarely on me.
"You never learn, do you? Don't you even want to try talking things through?"
"We have no words to exchange with fools who rebel against the gods. Purging all evil and creating a world of peace is the duty of us angels."
"…That's quite a lot of self-righteous garbage."
These beings had unilaterally labeled Alicia, Gina, and the others as 'evil' and carried out massacres under the guise of purging them. While I hadn't felt any deep-seated hatred toward angels specifically in the past, listening to someone so blindly brainwashed by the gods was starting to irritate me.
"『Arc Blaze』, Charge."
The barrels of Milial's cannons began to gather light. An attack like that wouldn't deal any real damage even if I took it head-on, but causing a massive racket and getting spotted by someone would be a nuisance.
I decided to finish things quickly using that technique.
"I'll show you a special treat. The ultimate secret art of necromancy."
Releasing the magical power I had been building up, I activated the spell.
In the past, I could only command low-level skeletons and ghosts. But after undergoing hellish special training at the bottom of the Abyss, I had mastered all the ultimate secrets of necromancy.
"Open, Gates of the Underworld. Consume my offerings and lift your seals."
Appearing behind me was a gigantic gate carved with grotesque, ominous decorations. The gate was firmly sealed shut by numerous chains and padlocks, which clattered and dropped away one by one in response to my spoken words.
"Secret Art of Necromancy―― Tartarus."
The moment I spoke those words, every single chain and padlock sealing the gate unlatched, and the gates of the underworld slowly began to swing open.
Inside the gate lay an abyss of jet-black darkness. A pitch-black darkness that permitted not a single ray of light. Emerging sluggishly from within that dark void was a massive, red arm.
"Incomprehensible. A spell not found in the database... This is...!"
Seeing the Gates of Tartarus, Milial fell into utter confusion. Evidently, this magic was unknown even to angels.
That alone was a major harvest. If the angels serving the gods didn't know about it, the chances were high that their ruler, God, didn't either.
The arm protruding from the gate grabbed the edge of the threshold. Then, five more arms—making a total of six arms—emerged from within the doorway, gripping the frame with crushing force.
(――Who the hell woke me up? Oh, it's you.)
Accompanied by a low, rumbling, terrifying voice, the entity that stepped out from within the gate was a giant red-skinned monster.
Standing over ten meters tall with a heavily muscled, Herculean physique, each of its six arms was as thick as a giant tree trunk—a testament to the unfathomable destructive power this creature possessed.
Possessing six such terrifying arms, this creature was a demon hailing from the underworld. Its name was...
"Hecatoncheires, sorry for the sudden summons. Did you have anything going on?"
(Nah, just taking a nap. Anyone else and I'd have crushed 'em... but since it's you, I'll allow it.)
With that, Hecatoncheires grinned.
Hecatoncheires and I weren't meeting for the first time. We had forged a pact, granting me the right to summon him.
"…Incomprehensible, impossible. A demon that never obeys humans has answered a human's summons and is even conversing as an equal. This is a clear anomaly... I must report this to Aion-sama immediately."
Catching sight of the demon Hecatoncheires, Milial muttered in panic and hesitation.
The name "Aion" she had just uttered was surely the name of their god.
The deity worshipped by the
It seemed they used that name to refer to their god as well. In any case, letting her escape to Aion would spell trouble. I had to capture her right here, without fail.
"Hecatoncheires. Capture that target for me. Make sure you don't kill her."
(Heh... An angel? Rare sight. Well, I can put a bit of muscle into it without killing her, right?)
Saying this, Hecatoncheires kicked off the ground.
In the very next instant, he materialized right beside the angel Milial. Moving with a speed entirely unbefitting his gargantuan size, it must have looked to Milial as though Hecatoncheires had cast a teleportation spell.
"Wha――?!"
(Been a while since I raised hell on the surface. Entertain me for a bit, will ya?)
Clenching his massive, heavy fist, Hecatoncheires swung it down with all his might to smash Milial.
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