Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~

Part 2

「Nao-san, Can I leave this to you？ 」

「Understood」

Nao is closing her eyes and then enters a meditative state.

Nao has superior perception skills. It is one of the abilities that she learned after coming to this world.

Whether what or where, it’s the kind of ability that will let her know the enemy even if that guy can’t be seen with eyes.

Reiji, Shirone, and Kaya can also use this ability. But, other than Reiji, the two have their perception limited to the radius of 8-9 metres, while considering Nao whose perception almost reached a radius of 2 kilometres.

In the first place, generally, they would know nothing but the fact that something is there. When she focuses her mind, her perception will rise to another level, to the point that she can figure out the form of the enemy.

Naturally, even her perception ability has its own weak point. There’s many things that she can’t feel, such as formless magical power, and she can’t sense the other party in case she is sealed inside a barrier.

Though there’s a barrier made of magic erected around this temple, she can sense the enemies since they’re also inside the barrier.

「It seems the number of the intruders surrounding the temple are just thirty」

I’m tilting my head after hearing Nao’s report. The goddess had also descended into this temple, so the defense is even tighter than usual.

There should be around 300 knights on the duty for today. So they might be able to arrest those thirty intruders immediately.

「….We meet these guys sometime ago. They are the ones called spartoi」

Everyone is surprised after hearing Nao’s report.

Spartoi was a demon that we met when we fought in Nargol.

If I’m not wrong, their strength depend on the capacity of the magical power of the one who summoned them.

「Does that mean the demon king is coming to attack us？ 」

Rino is saying so with an anxious tone.

「Nao-san, if it’s spartoi, the one who summoned them should be around」

If it’s really spartoi, the summoner should be around.

The spartoi should vanish as long as that guy is defeated.

「Understood！ ！ 」

Nao is concentrating even further.

「….I found someone who has a different appearance from the others」

Nao identified another intruder who is not a spartoi.

Maybe this guy is the one who summoned the spartois.

In that case, it’ll end as long as this guy is defeated.

「This figure is kni~… NO WAY, THE DARK KNIGHT？ 」

Everyone is thinking the same thing upon hearing Nao words.

「Could it be that Diehart is coming for us？ 」

Nao stops her meditation upon hearing Reiji’s word.

「Maybe… I think it’s possible」

「Could it be that his target is…. Rei-kun？ 」

Reiji hasn’t recovered yet. He’ll be defeated miserably if he fight in his current condition.

「No, he’s going for another person」

Reiji is standing up with his weapon while saying so.

「WAIT, WHERE ARE YOU GOING！ ！ 」

「Maybe Rena is in danger！ 」

Reiji is saying so while he’s trying to leave the room.

Certainly, Diehart came after receiving the news of Rena’s descent.

The probability of him aiming for Rena is higher than for Reiji.

He must have heard that Rena made the preparations to send us back tomorrow.

「NO, YOU CAN’T WIN AGAINST HIM！ ！ 」

Sahoko is embracing Reiji to stop him.

「Yeah, you can’t go！！ You’ll only get yourself killed by going there！ ！ 」

There’s no need to put his life on the line for Rena’s sake. He should just abandon her.

But, Reiji is shaking his head in denial.

「My bad, I’ll go. If Rena is in danger, I’ll go to help her, and if everyone of you is in danger, I’ll come to save you guys too」

Reiji is about to leave. He’ll put his life on the line if it’s for the sake of a beautiful girl.

That’s why everyone is here by Reiji’s side.

「NO, YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN’T GO THERE！ ！ 」

Sahoko’s putting more strength into her arms.

「Sorry, Sahoko. Allow me to go there…」

But, Reiji won’t even heed to her pleas. He couldn’t shake off Sahoko who is embracing on him.

「You should know yourself about your current condition, right！」

Sahoko was the weakest in term of powers amongst us. But the current Reiji can’t even shake her off.

Reiji isn’t ready for combat, yet. Going there is futile.

That’s why she absolutely has to stop Reiji.

「I’ll go！ ！ 」

Everyone is looking toward Shirone.

「I’ll protect Rena-san！ ！ That’s why, please calm yourself and stay right here with everyone, Reiji-kun！ ！ 」

「Shirone-san！ ！ ！ 」

Shirone left the room after saying those words before I could even stop her.

「WHAT THE HELL IS THIS！ ！ WHAT THE HELL’S WRONG WITH THESE GUYS！ ！ 」

In spite of swinging my sword, my opponent stopped the blow with it’s round shield.

And just like that, the intruder in front of my eyes pushed me back with it’s shield.

Being pushed like that, I bumped against the guy behind me.

「KUHAA！ ！ 」

「GUHE~！ ！ 」

Two idiotic voices overlapped from behind.

「SUCH POWER!」

I’m looking at the intruder who’s wearing armor in front of me.

It’s eyes are shining with scarlet light from the gap of the helmet.

「They are not humans…」

Maybe they’re demons.

The goddess-sama has descended, so I, who was supposed to be off-duty, was summoned back to guard the temple.

When I was cracking some jokes with my fellow knights about whether we can see the figure of goddess or not during our stand-by, intruder alarm reverberated.

The bells were ringing around the entire temple, thus we know that the intruders are raiding the temple from multiple directions.

And then, these guys appeared at our assigned post.

When I look around, six of my fellow knight lay sprawled on the ground.

Some were cut on their arms or legs. Some were hit by the shields of our enemies. But, strangely no one died.

I felt that our enemy isn’t even interested in taking our lifes.

Even though I think that they are going to take my life when I fell on the floor, nothing happened.

「W-What the…. Are they playing around with our lives…？ 」

I support myself and then stabilized my stance.

There’s three of my fellow comrades left at this place. Moreover, we were facing just a single enemy.

We outnumbered our opponent. But, none of us could even land an attack.

The nine of us were facing a single opponent and yet, six of us were beaten in the blink of an eye.

So, it can’t be helped but become extremely careful.

「Un ？ 」

One of my comrades is suddenly shrieking.

When I follow the line of sight of my comrade, there was one shadow looming behind the intruders.

On looking at the shadow, the first thing that come to me was a reinforcement. The one who wore jet black armor was coming toward our direction.

A shiver runs along my spine when I’m looking at that shadow.

The pressure released by this person is incomparable than the one released by that other intruder.

「Ah, The dark knight…」

My other fellows started shrieking.

「Dark knight, don’t tell me he is the dark knight Diehart！！ So, the rumor was true！ ！ 」

Dark knight Diehart. Currently his name is echoing throughout the entire world. The man who defeated that invincible hero.

And then, it’s rumored that the dark knight Diehart would lead the army of demons to destroy human race of the entire world. [TL : What a cruel rumor]

Could it be that he was aiming for goddess Rena from the very beginning？

「G-Goddess-sama is in danger….」

I can’t stop the trembling of my hand as I set my stance. Just standing in this place made me almost suffocate to death.

The dark knight came right before me and stretched his hand.

「Sleep….」

As I heard those words, I was assailed by an intense drowsiness. When I’m looking at my surroundings, it seems that my comrades are also suffering from a similar fate.

「Sleeping… magic」

When I noticed the origin of my drowsiness, it was too late.

「I’m sure that the altar room is just behind this door…」

Was the last thing I heard as I lost my consciousness.

(~’.’)~To Be Continue To Chapter 17~(‘.’~)