Chapter 112
While avoiding the fleeing people, I headed to the source of the commotion with Mea and Maizen .
Looking ahead, the culprit seemed to be in the northern part of the city .
Maizen cleverly passes through the crowd of people and run onward .
He’s been working out, so he’s much faster than I am .
“H-, hey Maizen! Wait a minute!”
Maizen looks back a little bit .
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to go ahead even for a second! There’s nothing more reassuring than you, so make sure you catch up with me!”
“You, that’s the pattern that you’re not gonna be in time and die pattern……”
“Let’s go into the back streets! I think we’ll get there faster from there!”
It’s true that the flow of people is a hindrance, and it doesn’t go as well as Maizen .
It would be quicker to take the long way around as a result .
“Then we’ll go that way……”
I was about to turn the corner and enter the back street when I spotted someone else running in the direction of the fleeing crowd and the intersection with Maizen .
He was a tall man with neat indigo-colored hair .
His clothes were tightly clothed, which set him apart from the rough adventurers .
He held a gleaming sheath sword at his waist .
That man seems to have seen this unusual situation and is thinking of taking the initiative to resolve it .
I thought the only adventurers in this city were people like Gaston, but the world is not abandoned .
“Move, move! Get out of the way! I’m the one who got this demon off the ground, and I’m the one who came out! Hey, stop! Somebody explain to me what’s going on here . I’ll fix it!”
…… it was just Gaston .
It wasn’t at the level of a makeover .
I hadn’t noticed it at all until I heard his voice .
He has shaved off the thick beard that was attached to his frowns .
The hairstyle has also changed, and the clothes have been completely changed from the bandit fashion that looks like it’s only washed once every three days to something small and neat .
In addition, the sword has been changed from a large, rugged sword to a stylish longsword .
I thought you were in debt to Gordon because you didn’t have any money .
What is that old man talking about?
“I’m a hero, you know! Get out of the way!”
I stopped moving and glared at Gaston without a second thought .
Strongly, Mea tugs at my sleeve .
“What’s the matter with you? You look at me like you’ve seen such a rare beast . ”
“……Ahhh, no, I could have been looking at it wrong . ”
I pretended I hadn’t seen anything and decided to head towards the source from the back street .
Out of breath, I somehow made it to my destination .
It was an affluent residential area with two and three-story buildings .
Because of its proximity to the shopping district, it’s usually a busy place .
When I turned the corner, I saw an extraordinary sight .
The street was lined with stone statues in the shape of human beings .
The nearly thirty stone statues all had sad expressions on their faces, and they all stopped as if they were reaching out their hands to escape from something .
Among them were a stone statue of Maizen clutching his sword and a stone statue of Gaston standing in an imposing stance for some reason .
“A, Abel…… this is……”
Mea’s eyes widened and her shoulders trembles as if she sensed something .
Perhaps out of fear, her hand gripping my sleeve also gains in strength .
I walked closer to the nearest stone statue .
It’s a stone statue of a girl about six years old .
I touch the shoulder area with my hand and stroke it .
A dark magic mark was left behind . There is no doubt that it is the curse of petrification .
At the back of the stone line, on the roof of the first floor of the building, a man was standing .
He was deeply robed and held a large staff in his hand .
“Ha! Just when you thought someone was coming again, it’s the little short kid! I think I was expecting a crunchy one to come along soon, but it’s boring! You’re boring! Oh! Even though I wish I could feel more and more of Zolomonia-sama’s power in this skin!”
The man glares at me from behind his robe, rubbing his cheek on the large staff in his hand .
At a glance, I could tell that he was a crazy type of person .
It looks like I’m pretty sure that’s the bad guy .
The name Zolomonia sounded familiar . It was the name of a famous great demon .
Apparently, this case was caused by a sorcerer of demon beliefs .
I stared back lightly, then took out my wand .
“Curse solution . ”
The girl’s statue took on color, turning from stone to flesh .
Returning to life, the girl fell to the spot .
“Kyah! What, what……”
So the curse is broken now .
It’s not that complicated of a curse .
From the magic traces, I’ve also got a general idea of the sorcerer’s habits .
The man in the robe laughed, the corners of his mouth hanging up .
“Ho, ho! You’re somewhat in high spirits! Otherwise, it would be boring! But what a fool . How dare he throw away an opportunity to take me by surprise and bother to expose his abilities in front of me!”
I point the tip of my wand at the roof where the man in the robe is standing .
“Flame, form, ball . ”
A ball of fire appeared from the tip of the wand and flew in a straight line to the man .
“Faaahahaha! Dear Zolomonia, please! Show that fool the difference in rank!”
The man raises his large staff and shouts, “The wall of light” .
A wall of light appears, and a black haze covers the man’s surroundings to reinforce it .
“What a foolish fight!”
I could hear something like an angry voice in my head .
Immediately after, the ball of fire touched the wall of light . A black haze quickly dissipated .
“Mm?”
Immediately after, the ball of flame popped . In an instant, the man was engulfed in flames and the roof collapsed at the same time .
The man was knocked down by the impact and fell to the ground amazingly .
He collided with the sidewalk from the shoulder and was engulfed by the rising dust cloud .
“Azuaaaah! Zolomonia-sama, Zolomonia-sama!! Where are you, Zolomonia-sama!”
The man grunts and reaches for his staff .
He seems to have dropped his large staff in the smoke .
It has an eerie magical force, but he doesn’t seem to be much of a guy . It’s okay now .
“This stone statue can be turned back into a human, right? Right?”
“It’s a fairly simple curse in petrification . It’s the type that can be broken if the sorcerer receives a strong impact, so it will return to normal in time . Even if it doesn’t come back, as soon as I analyze it a bit…”
“Cough! Cough! I’m going to beat you to death…… Brat, feeling high just because I gave the initiative…… Cough! Taste the horror of Zolomonia-sama’s horror for yourself!”
As I and Mea were talking, the guy got up .
He was covered in burns all over, and on top of that, it looked like his leg and shoulder were broken due to a flashy hit to the left side of his body when he fell .
I hadn’t expected him to be able to stand after that .
If it were me, I would never be able to do it .
“I’m invincible with Zolomonia-sama’s power! Zolomonia-sama’s has chosen this me! There can’t be a defeat! I will not allow that to happen!”
The man’s eyes are white, but he brings it back with only his energy .
He seems to have bitten his tongue to notice, and blood is flowing from his mouth .
“Cursed be his men!”
When the man raises his staff, a large magic circle floats in the air .
At the same time, a purple light leaks from the wand .
“Stop, Margus . Just stop, it is useless . ”
The curse is a two-tiered magic circle .
You must first draw a magic circle to show the spirit that you will use the curse, and then you must draw a magic circle with added details .
So if you can spot it at the first stage, you can falsify it ahead of time .
Fortunately, I had caught the man’s magic habits when I broke the girl’s curse, and the second stage’s magic circle must always use the type of encryption that corresponds to the previous stage’s magic circle .
In addition, from the stone statues around the area, I can also guess that he must be good at petrification curses .
I waved my wand and overwritten the magic circle at about the same time as the man drew the second stage of the magic circle .
The second stage was exactly as I had expected .
“Turn to stone”
The purple light from the tip of the staff becomes a line and falls on the man’s limbs .
“Ughhoooo!?”
The principle is the same as the redrawing of the magic circle that he did against Noswell in the Marren village .
They destroyed themselves by redrawing the magic formula regarding direction .
Normally this would be impossible due to the too-short amount of time involved in the magic circle, but I was able to cover it because I knew the magic to be used, the encryption, and the timing beforehand .
There was no particular reason for taking this method at all, but the implication was that I did it because the conditions were neatly arranged and it looked like I could do it .
Honestly, it felt kind of nice .
The man’s hands quickly lost their grip and he dropped the large staff . Then .
More and more, the hand turned gray and hardened .
“No-, no way, this! This is not happening! This is ridiculous!”
The man reached out to pick up the large staff, but by that time his fingers were already unable to bent and grasp it .
“Ahhhhhh! Zo-, Zolomonia-sama! I am, I am!”
The petrification of his legs also seemed to be going on under his pants, and the man fell to the spot, unable to keep his balance .
As expected, he wouldn’t be able to do anything else, nor would he be able to do anything else .
But I thought he was mumbling and talking to himself a while ago, but I wonder if that large staff is Zolomonia-sama .
I heard a strange voice echoing in my head earlier, but that might have been a fragment of Zolomonia’s telepathy .
The Great Sage of the past sealed Zolomonia in his staff and disappeared saying ‘I’ll take it where no one can get it’ . Since then, no one knew the whereabouts of the Great Sage and Zolomonia’s staff, as the legend goes .
Could that large staff be the real Zolomonia’s staff?
“Ohhhh…… Zolomonia-sama, please forgive this Margus for his miserable actions……”
The man said that in a belly-crawl position and hung his head helplessly .
Then he turned his eyeballs around and stared at me with eyes that seemed to curse me to death .
“You little brat! Try laying a finger on Zolomonia-sama! When that happens, I will become a spirit and curse you to death! Stay away from Zolomonia-sama!”
Ohhhh…… how strong is that guy’s spirit?
In this world, it is believed that when a person dies, a part of their soul becomes a spirit .
In short, the current one is a threat to the extent of ‘I’m going to come out and haunt you’ in the Japanese style .
It’s impossible for a spirit to possess the soul of a dead person .
“Well, this time…… it’s over, right?”
Mea muttered to the man who was squealing and screaming, looking at him with a mixture of pity .
“Yeah, right . I’m going to check out that large staff for a bit before I lift the victim’s petrification curse . ”
When I replied, the man began to scream even more loudly, shaking his almost petrified limbs .