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–––Sorciere’s viewpoint

“Who would’ve thought she was hiding in a place like this.”
“I know. This forest is right next to our territory, I guess that’s what it means to be a powerful sorceress. I hate to think she’s human.”

Those were the demons leading the monster army. The two in the highest position, at least according to my intuition, were talking while riding on horses.

Most of the monsters following after them were weaker ones like goblins or kobolds, but here and there were larger cyclops that made the ground shake with every step, or chimeras that threatened anything that got in their sight. In the sky there were flying monsters like harpies and wyverns. It was hard to count them inside the forest, but it was easy to assume there were at least ten thousand monsters in total. A small country would suffer considerable losses trying to fight such an army.

A wyvern passed next to me, flapping its enormous wings. Many harpies also flew past me, but not a single one noticed me.

“So my hiding magic is still effective. But if they found the city, there must be someone amongst the demons that can see through it.”

It felt a bit conceited of me to think this, but the barrier and spell hiding the city were both incredibly strong. No half-hearted magician would be able to even notice it, and even if someone noticed, no one was strong enough to break through the barrier. But considering they were mobilizing such numbers, I had to assume they knew of a way in as well. I began listening to the demon’s conversation with more attention.

“I really don’t get why Lord Trianf is being so wasteful though. Why would anyone send such numbers against a single sorceress? She’s like three hundred years old, she’s probably some old hag wrinkled like a raisin. She’d die without us having to raise a hand, don’t you think?”
“Don’t just assume that, she’s still the sorceress that used to travel with the old hero. You can’t be too careful around people like that.”

Who’s wrinkled like a raisin! That annoyed me so much I barely managed to contain myself from just blowing their heads off with fireballs. I might have lived for centuries, but I had maintained my body to look like it did in my early twenties..! Either way, they mentioned Trianf. Out of the five Demon Kings, he was the one attacking human countries the most. He had lost a lot of momentum after his failure in Strom, so why was he sending out such a large army after me?

“Do you think we’ll get to fulfill our mission though?”
“You mean retrieving Agster’s grimoire? I don’t know. We don’t even know if such a book exists, or existed. How do we know it didn’t get destroyed?”
“We did get told to find the book, or at least kill Sorciere if we can’t… Oh well, at least we’ll get to see some action after staying behind so many times. I’m sure the humans in the city will entertain us.”

After that, both of them laughed creepily. I caught myself frowning again after hearing that. The Demon King Agster’s grimoire, huh. Now it started making sense, that had been what pushed them towards my city. It was true that if they found that book, and garnered the knowledge sealed within it, they would gain incomparable strength.

Agster’s grimoire, the book once owned by the Demon King that ruled over the entire Haunted Lands, who later waged war against the human territories. Calling himself Demon King, he was far stronger than other demons of the time, but his magic prowess was even more terrifying. His magic was even stronger than mine at the time, and he knew of spells I could not even dream of. In a way, it was only thanks to that book that he managed to become Demon King. The book was said to be written in the language of the underworld, and the characters looked like scribbles at first sight. I researched how to read it, translating it into a language I understood, and through many years of strenuous effort I slowly decoded all of it. Thanks to that, I learned the spells Agster used, as well as pointers to how to develop even more new spells.

It was also with that knowledge that I was able to turn Brave into a girl. I no longer had any use for it, a mere paperweight, collecting dust deep inside one of my shelves, but I could not let a Demon King get their hands on it. Not to mention that I had heard them say they wanted to kill me, so I had no reason to spare their lives either.

“I’m still curious how they managed to notice the hiding spell, but I doubt they’ll mention that just because I want them to. I’ll just have to kill them and strengthen the spells for now.”

I focused mana onto my staff and swung it, which drove the flying monsters nearby into a frenzy. To them, it looked like I had suddenly appeared in mid-air. The harpies quickly turned their aggression towards me, while a wyvern attempted to swallow me whole, but I ignored them and launched my first spell.

“Wh-What happened?!”
“Did the sun just explode?!”

My familiar still near them, I heard the demons speak shocked. A large searing ball of magic had appeared overhead, charring all monsters nearby without mercy, while the shockwave knocked the smaller monsters on the ground off their feet.

That was Light Magic. Even humans with little mana capacity used it in their daily lives. But if one poured more magic power into a simple spell like that, it could become something far more destructive. Even a harmless spell that usually only emitted light turned so powerful when I used it. The ball of light overloaded with mana let off an immense amount of heat, becoming a powerful spell that was akin to creating a small sun.

The monsters burned off by it vanished without a trace, not even ashes remained. I looked down and saw there was a lot of confusion on the ground. The monsters had no real sentience and acted purely on instinct, so they ran around randomly trying to escape, while others attacked each other.

“Heyy! Calm down you idiots!”
“Help keep the monsters quiet!”
“Keep your eyes peeled! That might have been the sorceress!”

It seems there was at least one bright minded demon that noticed I had attacked them. Commendable.

“Look up! There’s a human floating up there!”
“Is that Sorciere?! Did the sorceress actually come out?!”
“Don’t run! Kill her!”

Noticing my presence, the demons and monsters all focused on attacking me. They shot arrows at me, threw stones, and a barrage of magic was flung my way as well. That was clearly excessive to kill any regular human, but all those attacks lost their momentum before they could reach me, stopped by an invisible wall. It did not seem like they had any attack powerful enough to pierce through my defense barrier.

“Long range attacks are useless! Everyone that can fly, follow me!”

One of the demons I had been listening to earlier yelled angrily before taking off with Flight Magic, heading straight towards me at high speed. A few other demons followed after him, and flying monsters joined them as well. It was almost intimidating with how much ferocity they pointed their swords, spears, fangs, and claws at me, but…

“Sh-She vanished?!”
“That’s impossible! Where is she?!”

Their weapons hit nothing, slicing through air. Failing to strike their target, they looked around bewildered trying to find me again.

“So they can’t follow teleportation magic. Or maybe they don’t even know it exists, and believe Flight Magic is all there is.”

Magic to move from one place to another instantly. I had never used that spell during my time with Brave, but it allowed me to go into a higher spot than the demons. I swung my staff there, activating my next spell. A small chunk of ice appeared in front of my staff, which began to grow in size, quickly becoming as big as a human head, and then swelling to the dimensions of a small hut. But it did not stop there, continuing to reach the size of a mansion, and still growing. Eventually it was big enough to block the light of the sun, casting a huge shadow onto the ground.

“What’s that?!”
“It feels cold…is it Ice Magic?”
“You can feel the cold from this distance? That witch, just how much mana does she have!”

By the time they noticed it, the ice was already the size of a fortress. It was too late for them, even if they tried to fly up towards me at full speed. I pointed my staff down, and the ice began to fall and gain momentum, colliding against the demons and monsters that tried to reach me.

“…?!”

The moment they touched the ice, they all froze solid before they could say a word, and shattered to pieces. The ice continued falling without resistance, heading straight for the large army gathered on the ground. Some of them seemed to be somewhat smarter and thought of running away, but the ice was falling so quickly they would not get away on time. The ground shook violently when the ice landed and shattered, a blizzard of snow and ice chunks dispersing towards all directions. Monsters with robust bodies, demons who were resistant to magic, those who tried to protect themselves with their own Fire Magic, they all instantly froze over.

A moment later, there was not a single sound, just an army of ice sculptures, an army with no living member left alive. The plants and animals around were not affected by my magic at all, making the frozen monsters look like they had been brought here from another world. The city was obviously unaffected by my magic as well. Only a few minutes had passed since the battle began, and it was already over.

“It’s been a while since I did something like this, but at least I’m glad to know I haven’t gotten rusty.”

I landed between the ice sculptures dotting the forest and struck the ground with my staff, shattering all the ice around me. All I had left to take care of was the large pile of ice where the chunk landed, and the sunken ground around it. But with time it would all fade away naturally.

“Still…Trianf, huh. I wonder how he saw through my magic.”

While I was willing to fend off the embers sent my way, I had no intention to get involved with the wars of the outside world. But I could not stand here doing nothing if they had found some new type of magic. I had to investigate Trianf’s territory a little.