Arifureta Zero: Volume 1 Page 10

  Oscar transmuted the bars and walked through them.

  He put his hand to the wall in the back, and mana the color of sunlight enveloped him. There was a warmth to his mana that made it feel like actual sunlight.

  “Wow, it’s so pretty!”

  “Amazing.”

  The children watched in amazement. For some reason this made Ruth, not Oscar, blush. He kept stealing glances at Oscar’s work, but tried to make it look like he wasn’t interested.

  Oscar’s spell only took a few seconds. The wall had been transformed into a staircase leading upward.

  “Alright everyone, listen up. There’s still other kids out there. I need to go save them. This staircase will take you all the way back to the first floor. Can you guys go up it without me?”

  Was there a staircase like that on this floor? Ruth puzzled over that while the other kids exchanged nervous glances. They’d been hoping Oscar would take them all the way home. They were scared of going without him.

  “Don’t worry. Ruth here’s my little brother. He’s a brave guy. He’ll lead you guys out of the Greenway.”

  “Huh!?“ Ruth exclaimed in surprise. The children all turned to him.

  He certainly had been the only one to try and use magic to escape, so the children were willing to trust him a little.

  Since he couldn’t follow them out, Oscar transmuted a few maps for the children. He carved out disk-shaped slabs of rock from the wall and engraved a map of the first floor onto them.

  “Ah, that’s the map of the first floor! My dad sells that to tourists!” One of the children recognized it.

  The others crowded around, eager to get a glimpse of the maps.

  Oscar’s maps were so detailed that they looked like they had been drawn by a master artist. Oscar’s golden mana faded away as he finished working.

  “Take these. I’ve marked the shortest route to the exit. Follow that and you’ll be able to get out. Can I count on you to guide my brother if he gets lost?”

  “I-I’m not a kid! I wouldn’t get lost on the first floor!” Ruth protested hotly. However, Oscar’s words had reassured the other boy. He was less nervous now that he had a role to play as well.

  “I have one last request for you guys. See how there’s another map on the back of these disks? That’s the map to the Orcus Workshop. I know you all want to go home, but I need you guys to go there first and tell a man named Karg what’s going on. I need his help to save all the other kids.” In truth, Oscar just wanted Karg to look after them. If the templar knights were involved, then he couldn’t trust any public institution to keep them safe.

  If the kids went back to their families, it was likely their parents would inform the guard. That was the last thing Oscar wanted. It was obvious the guard would report his actions to the Holy Church.

  He couldn’t exactly tell the children not to trust the town guard, either. Because they’d assume if they couldn’t trust the guard, they could still trust the Holy Church.

  And they wouldn’t believe him if he told them not to trust the Holy Church, either. If anything, that would make them more suspicious of him.

  And so, he’d decided to send them to the one person with authority in this city that Oscar knew he could trust. He knew Karg would handle things discreetly.

  Oscar hid his true intentions behind an explanation that was easier for the children to swallow. Ruth stared at Oscar suspiciously, but the kids were all eager to get going. They all puffed out their chests and said things like “Leave it to us!” or “We’ll do it!”

  “Thanks. You’re all really brave.”

  The kids blushed in embarrassment. Oscar ushered them forward, and they began climbing the steps.

  As always, Ruth took the position of rearguard. Though this time he’d done so because he wanted to hang back and talk to Oscar before leaving. Once they were alone, though, he found himself at a loss for words.

  “Go on, Ruth. We don’t have much time. You know the first floor better than anyone, and you’ve met the old geezer before too.”

  “I-I know. But... Aniki, you really weren’t—” Oscar knew what Ruth was trying to say, but he interrupted him before Ruth could finish.

  “Ruth, get down!”

  “Ah!?”

  Oscar pulled Ruth close and buried him underneath his coat. A gust of hot wind blew past Ruth’s head and there was a loud boom behind him.

  Oscar’s black coat had deflected the attack, but Ruth paled when he turned to look at what had happened.

  “Wh-What the?”

  “I know I had to make sure the kids were safe, but it looks like I wasted too much time here...”

  The bottom part of the staircase was a smoldering mess.

  Ruth realized what must have happened, and his heart sank.

  “Stealing an offering to Ehit is an offense punishable by death.” Ten templar knights rounded the corner, their armor clanking as they walked. One of them had their arm outstretched.

  He was the one who’d shot those flames at them. Thankfully, the children had already started climbing, so they hadn’t been hit by the spell.

  The knights formed a semi-circle around the cavity. Since it had just been an indent that was transformed into a storage area, it was effectively a dead-end. The knights were blocking the only way out.

  Oscar glanced back. In order to let Ruth escape he’d first need to douse the flames and retransmute the stairs. Then, he’d have to create a wall around them using the sealstone he’d transmuted to keep the knights from chasing after the kids.

  “Trying to run away, are we? Let’s see you try, you little heretic. We’ll end you the moment you turn your back to us.” Oscar would have to deal with the knights first.

  He prepared to fight.

  He’d brought this upon himself. From a purely logical standpoint, it would have been better to let Ruth get burned. He wouldn’t have died, and Oscar could have healed him later. Then, he would have been able to go to Dylan and the others right away, and they would have escaped.

  Though I probably couldn’t ever forgive myself for doing that... Oscar smiled bitterly to himself.

  The knights drew their swords. One of them was glowing with mana and stuck a hand out toward him. Judging by the force of the previous spell, Oscar guessed it had been the intermediate-rank Crimson Spear.

  Strong enough to melt even their bones if it hit.

  “A-Aniki, don’t! I-If you apologize I’m sure—”

  Ruth pulled on Oscar’s coat. He still thought they could get out of this by apologizing. If only you knew.

  Ruth didn’t think they could win a fight. After all, Oscar was up against templar knights. The best of the best, strong enough to kick about normal soldiers with ease. Even if Oscar had been hiding his talents, he was still just a Synergist. A blacksmith, not a warrior.

  Still, Oscar was determined.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t let them hurt you.” He turned to face the knights. There wasn’t even a hint of fear in his expression.

  Looking at him, Ruth was reassured. He stared at the back of the man who he’d thought of as a loser.

  “You won’t let us hurt him, huh? Looks like someone needs to be taught their place.” The knights were irritated.

  One of them scratched his chin thoughtfully. It seemed he was considering something.

  He came to some kind of conclusion and addressed Oscar, his voice dripping with casual malice.

  “Here, I’ll give you a choice.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Oscar asked suspiciously.

  “You raised a hand against a templar knight. On top of that, you stole Ehit’s offerings. A heretic like you deserves to be cut down on the spot.”

  “Your point?”

  “Abandon the brat.”

  Oscar raised an eyebrow. He could see exactly where the knight was going with this. He didn’t like it one bit.

  “He’s family, right? Well, dump him and beg for your life. Pray for Ehit�
��s forgiveness. If you do, I’ll consider letting you live. So, what’s it gonna be? Throw away your life, or throw away your pride?”

  The knights’ shoulders shook from barely suppressed laughter. They weren’t mad at their comrade for saying something so insulting.

  No, they were enjoying it. They thought they had an overwhelming advantage, and they were using it to try and torment Oscar.

  They wanted to see him weigh Ruth’s life against his own. They wanted to know what kind of person he really was.

  “Sheesh... I never realized you knights were so rotten.”

  “What was that? Bastard, I dare you to say that again!”

  Oscar just shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t look conflicted at all. He’d spoken relatively softly, but his voice had carried far thanks to the cavern’s acoustics. The knights hadn’t expected this response.

  In fact, they were a little shaken by Oscar’s unwavering confidence. He gave the knights a thumbs-up.

  “The Holy Church, you templar knights, all of the priests, and even Ehit can suck my dick.” He turned his hand so his thumb was facing down.

  “Wh-Wh-What was that!? You damned heretic! Die! Be executed! Receive divine punishment!” The knights’ anger was unbelievable. They were so furious that they could barely form proper sentences. The lead knight unleashed his Crimson Javelin.

  “Aniki!” Ruth’s scream bounced across the walls.

  The flaming spear hurtled toward Oscar. He could feel the heat coming off it as it closed in on him.

  “I wish you’d just done this from the start instead of trying that disgusting Q&A on me,” he said, his voice completely calm.

  “No way...” The knights staggered backward.

  The javelin scattered, blown away by a glowing object in Oscar’s hands.

  It was his umbrella.

  The black umbrella he’d taken from his house. He’d held it in front of him like a shield, and it had completely blocked an intermediate-rank fire spell.

  “I’ll start with you.” An umbrella had blocked magic. The knights were still struggling to comprehend that fact, but Oscar wasn’t going to give them time to get their bearings. There was a soft whoosh, and something shot out of his umbrella.

  “Guoh!? Was that an arrow!?” Indeed, Oscar’s umbrella had fired a small metal arrow. It slammed into the breastplate of the knight who’d fired the Crimson Javelin.

  “But something like this won’t even pierce... Ah!?” The arrow had possessed quite a bit of force, but nowhere near enough to punch through the knight’s armor. That was why he’d thought there was nothing to worry about. How wrong he was.

  The arrow started emitting sparks, and a powerful electric current flowed down it and into the knight.

  He was struck directly by an intermediate-class lightning spell. Even someone as strong as him couldn’t take that head on.

  “Gah...” He slumped to the ground, white smoke rising from his armor.

  Oscar folded his umbrella. In that state, it looked more like a cane.

  There was a moment of silence.

  “You bastaaaaaard!”

  “Curse you, heretic!”

  After which the knights all charged at once.

  Despite being in full plate, they were fast. One of them was mere feet from Oscar now.

  Oscar flung the hem of his coat backward, revealing a holster strapped to his thigh. He pulled out the throwing knives stored within and flung them at the knights.

  They struck the ground inches in front of the knights.

  “Hah, fool. You miss—” The knives exploded, interrupting the knight’s taunt and sending them all careening backward.

  This was another one of his artifacts, Combustion Blades. He’d made his own miniaturized enchanted weapons. Enchanted weapons were, as their name suggested, magically enhanced weapons. Most were rare and valuable enough to be a national treasure.

  Oscar had just thrown a few out like they were nothing. Anyone who knew their worth would have fainted at how casually Oscar wasted such valuable weapons, but for him, this was nothing. He made objects of that level in his spare time for fun.

  The explosions had thrown the knights’ formation into disarray. Oscar nimbly sidestepped around them.

  “You really should pay more attention to your feet.” He hooked his umbrella around the feet of a knight and tripped him.

  “Whoa!?” The knight fell flat on his face.

  The other knights quickly reformed their ranks and charged.

  Oscar turned to the knights and trained his glasses on them. They emitted a blinding flash of light. These were yet another one of his artifacts, Obsidian Spectacles. He’d packed a multitude of features into the frame and lenses. A person like him wouldn’t wear just any old spectacles.

  “My eyeeeeees!” As the knights stumbled around, Oscar pulled out more throwing knives and lobbed them. These ones didn’t explode. In fact, a single glance was enough to tell that they were different from the previous ones. As they flew through the air, the knives began to glow red hot.

  These were yet another one of his enchanted weapons, Heater Knives. They sliced through the knights’ armor like, well, a hot knife through butter. The heat melted any flesh it came into contact with.

  It looked like their armor had just gone through a blast furnace. The heat was great enough that it melted the knives too, and the knights screamed in agony as the molten metal burned them to death.

  The remaining knights backed away in fear, but Oscar wasn’t even looking at them. His focus was on the knight in the very back. The one who was chanting a spell.

  “Die, you monster!” The knight Oscar had tripped earlier got to his knees and sliced at Oscar’s feet.

  Oscar stretched his left hand out toward the chanting knight while expertly blocking the knight’s blow with his umbrella.

  There was an unexpected metallic clang as the sword slammed into Oscar’s umbrella.

  “What kind of umbrella is that!?” It was, of course, another artifact. It had been enchanted with body strengthening, and made from an alloy of the hardest metals in existence.

  Naturally, he didn’t tell the knight that. It wasn’t just the handle that was super-hard, either. The part that was supposed to keep off water and normally made of cloth was actually composed of metal mesh as well. The whole thing weighed a solid eight kilograms.

  It made for a great blunt weapon. Oscar didn’t feel its weight since he was using body strengthening, but the knight definitely did.

  Oscar snapped his wrist, flipping the umbrella around in his hand. Then, he slammed the handle into the knight’s neck.

  “Uwah, what the!?”

  “Guaaah!?”

  The blow sent the knight careening into the path of a different knight, who’d just been about to stab Oscar. Instead, he ended up stabbing his comrade. Unfortunately, the knight had strengthened his sword with light magic, hoping to finish off Oscar in one blow. His strengthened sword punched through his comrades armor, killing him instantly.

  The knight in the back screamed at the same time.

  The few remaining knights turned around to see that he’d been stripped naked and bound head to toe in slender chains.

  There was an ingot of some kind of metal at his feet, and white smoke rose from his body.

  Upon closer inspection, the knights noticed electric sparks running down the chains.

  The chains had been sent by Oscar, of course. When he’d pointed his left arm at the knight, the chains had flown out of his sleeve.

  Yet another one of his artifacts, Metamorph Chains. Normally, Synergists could only transmute things they were touching directly, or things that were a short distance away from whatever they were touching directly. The chains helped overcome that restriction. They were made out of spirit stone, so he could control them remotely, and they allowed Oscar to accurately transmute anything they were touching.

  Such a godlike feat was only possible through the combination of Oscar’s out
standing transmutation abilities and the artifacts he’d created.

  Without an incantation, Oscar had transmuted the knight’s armor into ingots of metal, then activated the lightning magic he’d enchanted his chains with.

  “Take him down with magic!” They realized now that he had a myriad of weapons. Four of their number had already been killed. This was no longer the time to be acting cocky. They needed to take this threat seriously.

  They fell into a proper formation. The vanguard would hold him at bay while the rearguard prepared their spells.

  In the time it took for them to get into formation, Oscar pulled out another three throwing knives and hurled them at the backline.

  “Don’t think that’ll work on us again!”

  The vanguard batted away his knives. Since these knives hadn’t started heating up the knights had assumed they were the exploding type. They’d figured they could withstand the blast and had risked hitting them.

  Their instantaneous judgment was truly praiseworthy. If this really had been one of the same knives that Oscar had thrown before, it might even have been a good plan.

  “The forecast for today is localized showers with a chance of hail. Do be careful when heading underground.” Oscar raised his umbrella over his head. It glowed golden with his mana, and a second later water started spraying from the umbrella’s canopy.

  It was a strange sight, seeing an umbrella create rain rather than ward against it. The knights paid it no mind though, and charged forward after judging the water not a threat.

  “Watch your step.”

  “Ice magic!? When did he cast that!?”

  “The knives! They were enchanted!”

  Bingo. The knives he’d thrown that time were the enchanted weapons, Ice Daggers. They froze the area around whatever they struck. The water Oscar had drenched them all in had amplified their effect.

  The three knights in the vanguard had their legs frozen, and couldn’t move.

  “But now you’re finished!” The rearguard had finished chanting their spells.

  They held their swords aloft, their bodies surrounded by a radiant halo of mana. Their target wasn’t Oscar, but Ruth. That way, Oscar wouldn’t be able to dodge.