Arifureta Zero: Volume 1 Page 18

  “M-Miledi. There’s six more coming. Stop playing around and get rid of them.” Miledi made no move to get up.

  “No.” She said, like a spoiled child, and smiled.

  Six Sandworms popped out of the ground, surrounding Oscar. They looked at their trapped buddy, and then at Oscar. Their anger was palpable.

  Oscar’s expression stiffened, but he remained calm. Then, he adjusted his glasses.

  “Miledi, I understand that you’re frustrated. I’m willing to listen, so let’s talk this out, okay? But first, could you please get rid of these—”

  “Giyaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

  Before he could finish, the Sandworms converged on Oscar. Six gaping maws bore down on him.

  Oscar screamed, and a cloud of dust rose up where he’d been standing. The Sandworms’ heads were all stuck in the ground, and they looked like giant upside-down Ns.

  A second later Oscar spoke.

  “A-Are you really just going to sit there!?” As the dust cleared, Miledi saw Oscar on one knee, with his umbrella thrust out before him.

  He’d activated Hallowed Ground to keep himself alive. The sheer weight of six massive creatures should have buried him in the sand even with a barrier, but he’d transmuted the ground into metal and affixed his umbrella in place. His Transmutation abilities were truly impressive.

  “You’re my partner, aren’t you, O-kun? You’re not going to be much help against the gods if you can’t beat monsters like this.” Oscar finally snapped. Miledi didn’t notice, and kept needling him.

  “What’s wrong, O-kun? Come on, you can do it! Don’t give up! Stay light on your feet! Believe in yourself! I know you can do better than this! Come on, get back up!” Oscar stood up. He extended the umbrella’s shaft toward the Sandworms, then pulled out a single black glove and put it on. After that, he also took out a few of his enchanted weapons.

  Finally, he took a deep breath, looked up at Miledi, and shouted.

  “Milediiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! I’m going to fucking murder you!” His voice carried pretty far.

  At the same time, there was an explosion, and the one of the Sandworms flew back. The first Sandworm that he’d suppressed with his chains was a smoking husk. He’d used lightning to kill it.

  The explosion had torn huge chunks out of a few of the remaining Sandworms’ torsos.

  He’d hit them all with Combustion Blades. The resulting blast had been pretty powerful.

  Chunks of meat rained down on him, which he fended off with his umbrella. He then bent one of his gloved fingers. There was a loud whistling noise, and one of the Sandworms was split into five.

  This was another one of his artifacts, the Sable Glove. It was crafted from superfine threads of metal that had been enchanted with gravity magic. The threads were made of spirit stone, so he could also control them freely. While his chains were made for binding and restraining targets, those were made for killing. The threads of spirit stone were sharp enough to cut flesh.

  The remaining Sandworms tried to burrow back underground, as this opponent was too much for them to handle.

  “You’re not going anywhere.” Oscar transmuted the ground around him. The sand, which should have been their domain, turned into the tombs that entrapped them.

  Oscar closed his umbrella, lifted it up, and slammed it into the ground. Blades of wind bisected two of the Sandworms, while electrified chains and metal wire made mincemeat of the rest.

  It hadn’t even taken a minute for Oscar to wipe them all out.

  After finishing up, he glared at Miledi.

  “I knew you could do it if you tried, O-kun!” She was clapping happily.

  In order to ensure they had a good working relationship going forward, Oscar decided he needed to teach her a little lesson. He aimed his chains at her. But before he could fire them off—

  “Hm?”

  “Huh?”

  The air shook. A second later, the ground began to shake too.

  Something a few hundred meters out was running right at them. It was kicking up a cloud of dust so big that it looked like a sandstorm was following in its wake. That something turned out to be an entire herd of Sandworms.

  Oscar looked down at his Silver Slate. The whole thing was glowing with light. There was easily more than a hundred of them, which spanned an area over three hundred meters wide. One of the Sandworms looked a lot larger than usual.

  It appeared those Sandworms from before had a lot of friends.

  He knew he wouldn’t be able to fight such a large group. He’d be blown away by their sheer mass before he even had a chance.

  “Miledi-san? If you’re telling me to fight that all on my own too, I’m going to have to rethink my decision to travel with you.” Oscar looked pleadingly up at Miledi.

  “E-Even I wouldn’t be that cruel. Actually, let’s get out of here! I don’t think my magic’s gonna be enough for that!”

  “Y-Yeah.”

  Oscar attempted to leap into the air with his Onyx Boots.

  The Sandworm army was almost on top of him. They were even faster than he’d thought. Up close, he realized the giant one was even bigger than he’d first thought. It was like a living mountain was looming over him.

  Crap, I might not make it. Miledi must have been thinking the same thing, as she lightened him with her gravity magic.

  “Huh?”

  “Huh?”

  Just then, Miledi and Oscar looked down in shock.

  This was hardly the time for it, but what they saw was simply unbelievable. A man had appeared between him and the monsters.

  He had rust-red hair and eyes as sharp as a hawk. His eyes were the same color as his hair. He wore a faded gray robe, with a white sash over it. Standing a formidable two meters tall, he had a massive frame. Oscar guessed he was in his mid-twenties.

  From his clothes it seemed likely that he was a resident of the Crimson Desert, but neither Oscar nor Miledi had sensed him coming at all.

  He silently dashed over to Oscar, as if completely unconcerned about the army of Sandworms behind him.

  “Huh, wait, who are—”

  “Don’t worry about that.”

  Oscar faltered as the heavily muscled man towered over him. He grabbed Oscar’s arms, his voice utterly emotionless.

  A second later—

  “Wha?”

  “O-O-kun?”

  Miledi was directly in front of him. They both blinked.

  With his free hand he grabbed hold of Miledi.

  A second later, they vanished.

  “Huh?”

  “Wha? Wait, all we’ve been saying for the past minute is huh and wha...” And reappeared on a sand dune somewhere else. A giant city rose up in the distance.

  The two of them exchanged looks and turned back around.

  “Please forget all about me.” He let go of their hands and looked into their eyes. Just then, Miledi blurted out,

  “A-Are you the Fairy of the Desert?”

  “Huh?”

  “Huh?”

  Both the man and Oscar looked at her in surprise.

  Oscar then turned back to the man.

  “Fairy?” His sharp eyes refused to meet Miledi’s gaze.

  “F-Fairy?” A blush spread up his chiseled face. It looked like he’d only just realized that was what people called him. He must have been embarrassed to have such a dainty nickname.

  The man returned to his senses and coughed.

  “Anyway, please don’t tell other people about me.” Mana began swirling around the man.

  “O-kun, don’t let him get away!”

  “Huh? Oh, got it!” Oscar wrapped his chains around the man, which made his mana disperse. The man let out a gasp of surprise.

  “Wow, that was amazing, O-kun! And it looks like we hit the jackpot right off the bat! I can’t believe this! I spent years searching fruitlessly before I found you, and now we’ve got another falling right into our laps! Looks like my luck’s finally turning around!”

&
nbsp; “Uh, sure.”

  Miledi got herself hyped up. She pumped a fist into the air and leaped with joy. Oscar was honestly a bit put off.

  Meanwhile, the man tried to free himself of his restraints.

  “Fufufu, don’t even bother. O-kun’s chains are made of sealstone. You won’t be able to emit mana easily with those around you.”

  “What do you plan on doing to me?” He stared warily at the two of them. When he narrowed his eyes, he looked positively terrifying.

  Cold sweat poured down Miledi’s forehead.

  “Th-Thanks for saving us back there, but we can’t have you leaving just yet. We actually came here to find you. But man, I can’t believe we ran into you before we even got around to gathering info!”

  “What do you plan on doing to me?” He repeated his question. His tone was even fiercer than before. It seemed Miledi had only made him more suspicious. Oscar sighed and removed his chains.

  The man looked at Oscar in surprise.

  “Sorry. It’s true that we came all this way to meet you, so I panicked a bit when you were about to leave. Also, I apologize for my partner’s attitude. I’m truly sorry.” The man looked away, clearly uncomfortable at being apologized to.

  “And what’s that supposed to mean!?” Miledi screamed. But then a second later she looked back at the man and bowed with a mumbled “Sorry.”

  The man tried to look anywhere but at the two of them.

  Oscar held out a hand.

  “Thanks for saving us back there, really. My name’s Oscar. Oscar Orcus.” The man looked at Oscar’s outstretched hand.

  He made no motion to take it. After a brief moment of silence, he shook his head.

  “Sorry, but I’m not interested.” Mana started swirling around him once more.

  Miledi tried to stop him.

  “Wait, please listen!”

  “......”

  Miledi yelled out one last thing just as he was about to vanish.

  “We’re like you! We can use magic from the age of the gods too!” His mana dispersed again. This time though, Oscar hadn’t done anything. He’d stopped casting of his own accord. Judging by his stunned expression, he probably hadn’t meant to.

  Miledi breathed a sigh of relief and stared at the man. Her expression was serious now.

  “You’re the same, aren’t you?”

  The man’s expression gave nothing away, but Miledi continued anyway.

  “You just popped up out of nowhere, and then you touched O-kun and showed up next to me with him. After that, you brought us here in an instant. You must have some kind of teleportation magic, correct? Something normal mages can’t possibly use.”

  “You’re wrong. My power is nothing special. It comes from an artifact I happened to find.”

  The man pulled a necklace out of his robes.

  Miledi glanced over at Oscar. Oscar gazed intently at the necklace for a few seconds before turning to Miledi and shaking his head.

  “That’s just a normal necklace.”

  “You simply cannot see its power. I’ll say this now: I won’t lend it to you. If you plan on stealing it—”

  “Sorry, but those lies won’t work on us. I told you before, we can use ancient magic too. O-kun over here’s probably the only Synergist alive who can make artifacts still. No one’s more knowledgeable about them than him.”

  The man turned to Oscar, clearly at a loss for words.

  Oscar made his chains and umbrella float in the air. Electric sparks flew off of them. They were obviously not your average magical tools.

  “By the way, I was floating using gravity magic earlier, not wind magic.” Miledi showed off her powers as well. Sky blue mana swirled around her, and a second later a massive segment of sand flew up into the air.

  “We’re on a journey to find other people with powers like ours. Please at least hear us out.” She silently gazed at the man after saying that.

  For a while, he just stared at the floating umbrella and sand. Neither Miledi nor Oscar could read his expression.

  Though Oscar thought he caught a hint of jealousy in the man’s eyes.

  “My answer remains unchanged. I have already decided how I wish to live my life. I have no desire to join any group.” His sharp gaze pierced through Miledi.

  “Why? You’re using that power of yours to help people, aren’t you? So why do you want to be alone?”

  “This power is nothing more than a curse.”

  What kind of things happened in his past? Oscar was surprised at the darkness in his eyes as he said that.

  “That’s all I have to say. Please don’t trouble yourself any further with me.” He said with a tone of finality.

  Miledi hung her head. She was trembling. The man felt a little guilty about leaving her like that.

  Oscar spared Miledi a glance before giving the man a look of sympathy. He already knew where this was going.

  “No! I’m not giving up that easily! I managed to seduce O-kun eventually, too! Don’t underestimate me!”

  “Can you please stop using suggestive words like that?”

  Miledi ignored his protests. After throwing a mini-tantrum, Miledi closed in on the man.

  Flustered, he took a step back. Miledi’s menacing demeanor, or perhaps just her overbearing presence, had been enough to leave him disturbed.

  “I’ll make you listen to me, even if I have to force you!”

  “Wh-Wha!? I told you I don’t— Cosmic Rift!”

  Miledi disappeared into a glowing ring of light. Just before she vanished, she let out a confused yell.

  The man was breathing heavily, and looked like he’d just faced down some kind of demonic monster.

  “Sorry about that. Our leader’s a little excitable. Just making sure, but she’s okay, right?”

  “Haaah... Haaah... Y-You’ll see in a moment.” The man waved his hand. Another ring of light appeared at Oscar’s feet. Oscar, too, yelled in surprise and vanished into the portal of light.

  A very exhausted man remained alone on the sand after that.

  There was a huge splash in a small oasis some distance away.

  “Ack... Hic... I swallowed too much water...” This stopping point between desert towns was empty, but had anyone been there they would have seen someone appear seemingly out of thin air right above the water.

  Oscar splashed about in the shallows, still trying to get his bearings. He slicked back his hair and looked around. His glasses were missing.

  “Looks like I got sent to an oasis somewhere... That guy’s got some impressive magic. Anyway, did he also send Miledi...” There she is. She was sitting at the edge of the water, sobbing and cradling her knees.

  Upon closer inspection, Oscar realized that her clothes and hair were muddy, and her face was dripping with water. Her nose was red, as if it had scraped across the ground.

  Off to the side, he noticed the oasis turned into a marshy swamp a little ways away. There were skid marks showing someone had slipped into it recently.

  That told Oscar everything he needed to know. When Miledi had been teleported, she’d been running. If he’d teleported her near the oasis, it stood to reason that she would have slipped on the slick mud. And because she’d been waving her arms around wildly, she wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from falling flat on her face.

  Oscar walked over to Miledi.

  “Should I make you another shower?”

  “Please.” Miledi sniffled and nodded meekly.

  A short while later, Miledi returned to Oscar’s side. Her nose was still a little red, but she was clean. Oscar was sitting cross-legged at the oasis’ bank and staring at his Silver Slate.

  “O-kun, thanks for the shower.”

  “Your welcome.”

  Miledi sat herself next to him. She hugged her knees and stared at the water’s surface.

  Finally, she muttered something.

  “All the wielders of ancient magic are a huge pain the ass.”

  “I ho
pe you realize that includes you.”

  She ignored him, as usual.

  “That was teleportation magic he used back there, right?”

  “Seems like it. That ring of light... It’s some kind of portal, I guess? Passing through it will put you in a completely different location. It seems he can transport himself even without that portal, though. Either way it’s pretty impressive. And it’s going to be a real pain to deal with.”

  “Anytime he realizes we’re close he can just send us away, or teleport himself. We won’t even have a chance to talk to him.”

  “I’m pretty sure he only teleported us away that time because you were scaring him.”

  Oscar was once again, ignored. Still, he cleared his throat and continued.

  “At any rate, he refused our offer. Quite firmly, too. I imagine that won’t be deterring you, though.”

  “Of course not! I mean, he didn’t refuse us completely. You could tell there was something else in his eyes, right?”

  So you won’t stop until you hear what he really thinks, huh? Oscar smiled to himself. Like she’d said, that was how she’d managed to seduce him too.

  He almost felt a twinge of sympathy for the poor man.

  “Though, I have no idea where we are or where he went... And since he can teleport wherever he wants, it’s going to be hard to gather information on his whereabouts... Jeez, what are we supposed to do noooooow.” Miledi rolled around and pounded the sand angrily. She was back to acting like a spoiled child.

  Oscar smiled and his Silver Slate began to glow.

  “Finding him will be a piece of cake, actually.”

  “Huh? How!?” Miledi looked up in surprise and Oscar showed her his slate.

  “The moment he transported you, I figured I’d be next. So while we were talking, I attached one of my trackers to a thread and hid it under the ground. I managed to get it onto him before he dropped me.”

  The slate showed Miledi and Oscar in the center, two dazzling pinpricks of light. Some distance away was a third pinprick of light, equally as bright.

  “Oh, and from the looks of it, he transported us two days east of Chaldea. I found a signpost near the oasis while you were taking your shower. Judging by the distance, he’s probably somewhere near the city still.” Miledi started trembling.