The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Chapter 263: Sealing From Aboveground

Proofreader: Xemul

“Loren? What in the world…”

Lapis, who had noticed Loren’s state and climbed the stairs to check on the city as he did, was speechless when she saw what he had seen.

What they saw was not the same city they had been in before entering the sewers.

“My goodness… How much things have changed in such a short time.”

Gula casually said as she shaded her eyes with her hand and watched the city’s buildings burn violently.

From between the burning buildings that were spewing billowing black smoke, a young woman, apparently not yet infected, ran out screaming. But just as she was about to step out into the street, a number of hands reached out from the darkness and grabbed her body, dragging her back into the darkness of the alleyway by force. 

There was also a young man running frantically down the street, probably in the midst of running away from the infected who were chasing him from behind. But just as he looked back to see if he had managed to escape, he was swallowed up by a wave of infected citizens that broke through the entrance of a building nearby.

And on the other side of the street, centipedes were swarming in such numbers that they covered the entire ground, pushing down and swallowing citizens, who were probably already infected with parasites and lost their senses. 

“Isn’t this too chaotic?”

Loren muttered in a fed-up voice as he knocked down one of the approaching infected with the flat of his greatsword and kicked another to the ground.

As far as he could see, the town had been almost completely overrun by centipedes, and the situation had developed to the point where there was nothing that could be done to help it now.

“What do we do now?”

“We can’t even do anything now, can we?”

In the distance, a building could be seen crumbling down with a rather loud noise. What emerged from the collapsed building was a huge centipede, lifting its long body, which was long enough that one had to look up to see it, and clattering its fangs. Loren, with his mouth falling half-open, wondered what would make it grow several to ten times larger.

Behind him, Shayna was using Energy Drain to kill those who tried to approach in place of Loren, who was so stunned that he stopped moving.

“The city is almost completely wiped out. There is no way to rescue the victims, and from the looks of it, there are no un-infected people to rescue.”

Those who were able to escape had probably already fled out of the city. The ones that couldn’t escape, like the woman who was dragged into the darkness earlier, had already been made to join the infected by now. 

“So we’re the only ones un-infected?”

“Yes, I think it’s very likely to be the case.”

Lapis answered while casually kicking away those who came close to her. Judging from the design of her priest robe, it seemed to Loren that constant kicking was not considered a laudable action for a priest. 

Compared to the priest robes of other deities, the robes of the God of Knowledge were more nice-looking, but on the other hand, there were many unprotected areas. The skirt is the best example of this, but since Loren somehow understood why Lapis used kicking that much, he couldn’t ask her to stop.

It was because unlike her legs, which were prosthetics, her arms were now made of real flesh. Lapis was being cautious to avoid touching the infected in the flesh as much as possible, just in case.

“This is getting out of hand.”

Loren shouted as he drove away the infected, whose numbers did not decrease no matter how many times he did, and Lapis and Ivy began to discuss something.

In the meantime, Loren and Gula were in charge of intercepting the attackers to keep them away from those two.

“I’ve had enough of this rusty iron taste for eternity…”

Gula also did not want to touch the infected directly because of their creepiness, and she continued to intercept them mainly by using her power to devour them. Although she also sometimes used magic to burn them down, the number of attackers did not seem to be decreasing, perhaps because their group were the only ones who continued to resist in this Suest city. 

Even so, if they stopped resisting, they would be joining them, and both Loren and Gula were determined not to let that happen.

“Loren, what if that big centipede from earlier comes this way?”

“We have no choice but to run away. There is no way we can deal with such a monster.”

The giant centipede that they had had a glimpse of earlier seemed to Loren to be as huge as the neck of the Ancient Dragon he had seen in the demon territory, if only in size. He had not the slightest intention of directly crossing swords with such a thing. If possible, he would run, and if not, he would have to put all his strength into his greatsword and create flames to burn it away.

But fortunately for Loren and his team, the giant centipede had encamped in the center of the town, and there was no indication that it would move from there. Loren thought that perhaps the largest concentration of prey was in that area, and the centipede had not felt the need to venture into other areas yet.

However, once it had consumed all the food in the central area of the town, it would next turn its attention to the infected on the periphery, and if that happened, the giant centipede could make its way to them.

Loren was thinking of taking some kind of action before that happened when Lapis, who had been discussing something with Ivy, seemed to have finished and came up to him at a run. 

“Loren, I’ve discussed this with Ivy, and we’ve come to a decision. Let’s burn this town down.”

What she had just said was outrageous, but judging from the fact that Ivy, who had been in discussion with her earlier, was nodding her head deeply, it seemed that she was not joking.

“The truth is, the situation is out of control even if the army comes. The easiest thing to do would be to break through the siege of the infected and escape, but if we leave this city unattended, the damage could probably spread quite rapidly.”

“I agree. But how do we burn down a city? And what are we going to tell the Adventurers Guild about this?”

In the worst case scenario, they could be treated as criminals for being the ones who burned down Suest. And even if they said they would burn it down, Suest was fairly large, and Loren was very concerned about whether they had the firepower at hand to burn the entire thing down.

However, Lapis had an answer for Loren.

“Put all your power into Fiamma Ungia and generate the greatest amount of flame. If you use it seriously, that greatsword will burn down a city without any difficulty.”

“Isn’t that… going to kill me?”

The power consumed is determined by the power used; that was how the magic weapon called Fiamma Ungia worked.

If he were as powerful as the Demon King, he might be able to pay the price of burning down a city, but in Loren’s case, he only had enough power to produce a largish flame before exhausting his strength. He could only see himself dying because his lifeforce had drained completely if he were forced to burn the city with his power, but Ivy and Lapis offered a solution to that concern.

“We will create a defensive barrier. In the meantime, Loren, please use Energy Drain to siphon off the power of those who attack us.”

“I will call you when we’re ready, but I want you to thrust your greatsword into the ground, retreat into the defensive barrier, and then use the power of the greatsword. The sword properly has registered you as its owner, so even if you remove your hands from the sword, you are still linked with it, and you can use its power from within the ward.”

The fact that Lapis and Ivy discussed with each other and came to the conclusion that it would be possible to use the sword in this way suggests that it was probably feasible. But Loren just couldn’t bring himself to accept the fact that his weapon was something that, depending on how it was used, could burn down an entire city. Still, he believed that he had no choice but to do it. 

Ivy continued, perhaps taking Loren’s silence as a sign of hesitation.

“Please leave the Adventurers’ Guild to me. I’ll make sure to talk to them so that you won’t be inconvenienced.” 

“But you know, even if you burn the aboveground part of the city, the underground will remain, right?”

The number of centipedes above ground was considerable, but Loren believed that there must still be a good number of centipedes in those sewer canals as well. These centipedes could survive in the underground canals even if the aboveground part of the city was burned down, with the parasites still inside their bodies. If that is the case, then even if they burned down the city now, it would not have much meaning.

Ivy answered Loren’s question.

“Gula and I will seal off the underground, along with that ruin.”

Ivy believed that also exterminating the centipedes in the sewers right now would be impossible. If that was the case, she believed it was best to ignore the problem to some extent and seal the canals along with the ruin.

The seal would only prevent people from entering and leaving, and could be released or resealed at will by Ivy or Gula themselves. Lapis and Ivy’s proposal was to leave the ruin alone until it had replenished sufficient chemicals and materials.

“And then we’ll make the Dark Elf and her master take the blame for the whole mess. What do you think?”

“Somehow… Is it my imagination or does it sound like we’re the bad guys?”

In order to save their own lives and prevent further damage to the surrounding area, they burned down the city, including the victims who were infected by the parasites, and then blamed another party for their crime. 

That other party was indeed the source of all this, and although he felt almost no guilt, he couldn’t stop himself from wondering if this was the right thing to do.

“Isn’t it a little late for that? This party is made up of one demon and two Evil Gods, after all.”

“I’m only a temporary member of the party. I’ll be back to being a Guild employee when this is over.”

“So, that’s the plan. What do you think, Loren?”

Loren was at a loss for an answer when asked by Gula.

However, he knew that he had little time to hesitate, so he answered in a hushed voice while roughly ruffling his hair with his left hand.

“If that’s the only way, then let’s do it.”

‘We’ll get to work right away. Loren, please gather your strength.”

Lapis and Ivy immediately split up and began to draw some sort of magic formation on the ground with chalk. Gula took up the responsibility of protecting the two of them, and Loren, left alone, exhaled deeply as he looked out at the approaching crowd of infected citizens.

“I’m sorry, Shayna. I’m going to need your help.”

[‘Don’t worry, onii-san. I’m going to drain them dry!’]

Loren could sense the excitement from Shayna’s thoughts, as if she was glad to be able to actively help him. He readied his greatsword, wondering how she could sound so excited when she was about to do such a deadly task.

“Well then… I’m counting on you!”

[‘I’m going to go all out! Commencing Energy Drain!’]

At the same time as the declaration, the body of the nearest infected from Loren’s position dried up in an instant then fell to the ground with a dry sound. Before the fall could be completed, the next target’s life was already sucked out of their body by the Energy Drain, and like the first one, the dried up body collapsed to the ground. 

In the meantime, Loren, wielding his greatsword, began to fight off the infected citizens that were approaching their group.