Chapter 400 - Episode Forty-Six - The Count (4)
“So that’s the best you can do, Count Julem. Count Julem, if you have any hidden skills, you’d better use them instead of using them sparingly.”
Count Julem glancing at me while clenching his teeth.
“I’ll admit that I’m lagging behind in the details of my skills. But if we are comparing magic power, I don’t feel that I’ll lose. Aren’t you getting a little carried away just because you’ve beaten a half-breed like Sim, who can’t even take on a humanoid form?”
Count Julem raises his left arm.
I can feel the magic power building up around his fingertips.
“How obvious.”
I waved my wand and dispersed the magic circle that Count Julem had been weaving near his lowered right arm.
“Uhhh ……”
Count Julem was preparing to use invisible teleportation magic by pretending that he was preparing an attack with his left hand.
He would draw attention to his left hand and play a trick with his other hand.
It’s a trick often used in magic.
I’m not going to fall for such a trick, because I have some simple knowledge in that area.
Count Julem kicks the ship and deploys three teleportation magic circles at the same time.
I crush them one by one.
As he was about to kick the ship out of the way, the Ortem, who was chasing after him, kicked him back into the ship.
Count Julem’s body slammed onto the ship and he bounced heavily.
“This can’t be …… I, who have lived since the earliest days of mythology …… who is also the ruler of the world, would end here because I treated one kid wrong ……?”
Count Julem gets up.
As usual, there are no external injuries, but he is clearly fatigued.
“I wanted to avoid doing this, but …… I don’t have a choice anymore.”
Count Julem catches his breath and grabs his left arm with the opposite hand.
He then gave it a big twist, splitting it clean off from his shoulder.
With a thud, his arm falls off, still covered by his clothes.
“A part of me will be given a new name, Jem!”
The severed arm formed a sphere that glowed green.
In the light, two eyeballs and a large mouth appeared.
Its appearance is close to the spirit Sim.
“B-Bunrei ……!?”
I was indeed startled.
A demon is an accidental gathering of countless spirits into a single life form through individual thoughts and long years.
Normally, a detached part of a demon will scatter and return to the natural world if the main body cannot be recovered.
However, it is said that in very rare cases, the detached part of a demon can come into its own as another demon.
That’s what Bunrei is.
However, it is a phenomenon that can destroy the identity of the demon, and it is not uncommon for the main body to disappear due to the occurrence of a Bunrei.
In addition, since the demon has acquired a different ego, it is not always possible for the spirit to cooperate with the main body.
In the first place, splitting the spirit body, which is the source of power, is an act that greatly degrades the quality of the main demon.
I never thought that there would be a demon that would do such a thing.
Count Julem touched his left shoulder.
His left arm, which he had just lost, quickly returned to normal.
“Jem, you know your role!”
Count Julem jumps behind me.
As if to replace him, Jem comes at me.
It was obvious that he was trying to buy time to escape.
“Wind, form, blade!”
I conjured four magic circles and aimed at Count Julem, attacking him.
This one, which focuses on attack speed rather than power, is more effective against Count Julem, who is sneaking and running around.
Count Julem is spitting out a lot of magic.
In addition, he must have separated a great deal of spirit and magic power to create the Bunrei.
You should already be at your limit
Count Julem held out his arm and manipulated the wind, diverting the two blades of wind and sending them backwards.
However, the two remaining wind blades sliced through Count Julem’s head and abdomen.
Now that I know he’s just a demon, I don’t need to go as easy on him as I would on a human.
I’m well aware of the sturdiness of high-ranking demons.
As Jem flew close to me, I was planning to use the Magimetal and the Ortem to block the attack, and then follow up with magic to finish him off.
However, Jem had made it look like he was coming towards me, and flew up into the sky.
When I looked up, Jem was deploying a magic circle.
…… It’s too late to interfere now.
It seemed that Count Julem’s goal was to draw attention to himself, the main body, and to make sure that the Bunrei could perform their magic.
So that behavior was a fake, I’ve been deceived.
But the Bunrei must be greatly inferior to Count Julem in terms of ability.
I don’t think he can do much magic. It’s encrypted, but it’s probably a teleportation magic.
However, the distance between Jem and Count Julem is too great to allow him to escape through teleportation magic.
Are you planning to let the spirit escape in order to bring back the information?
In the center of the magic circle, a young, slender man emerged.
It was the other way around.
He had not come to escape, but to call for reinforcements.
But …… although the distance was open, there was something familiar about the atmosphere.
“You’re here, Gillemeim!”
Count Julem shouted.
“Gille, meim ……?”
Gillemeim is a genius magician who, five hundred years ago, almost single-handedly brought an obscure traditional magic system to its current form, and is considered the greatest sorcerer of all time.
However, he was also a biased philosopher, and eventually angered several religions as a possessor of dangerous ideas, and was said to have been beaten to death in the end.
However, not a single portrait or sculpture of Gillemeim has survived, so there is no way I would have felt a sense of déjà vu at his appearance.
“I told you I changed my name because I was too conspicuous beyond calculation. Really, you don’t listen to me, no matter how many times I tell you.”
Floating next to Jem was James, the peddler who had once transported me from the Marren Tribe Village to the Lomarn City.
I opened my eyes.
“You-, you’re lying, right …… No way ……”
I expected it, but I was shocked.
It was James’ help that led me to work with Mea ……
“Even though I’m already busy, you’re always doing things that are unnecessary. I’ve been bothered by Jeem’s thoughtlessness, but I didn’t expect you to do something so selfish. I don’t like it when you, who has the most magic, create a spirit without permission.”
James glares at Count Julem.
Count Julem frowned in displeasure.
“…… The day of the ceremony is near, it’s not a problem. And you’re the one who brought that in. There’s nothing more distracting than a useless weapon, so hurry and get rid of it. If it’s you, you can do it, right?”