"Yes, ma'am," they chorused obediently.
"Now it seems I have something else to do, so go get your bows ready. If you don't understand, ask someone to help," Jess added, her tone brisk. She glanced at me, her gaze sharper than I expected, and I tilted my head at her.
'Did she hear us talk?' I thought, studying her closer. She wore greenish light armor with a hood hiding most of her face, but the long elf ears poking out made it obvious what she was. Her hair was the same shade of green, her pearl-white skin flawless, and her striking blue eyes clashed almost unnaturally with the rest.
"You seem to handle newbies quite well," I said sarcastically.
"And you seem too knowledgeable for your age," she rebuked, her tone clipped.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I said, frowning.
"You're too young to be here, but the guild master is listening to you. Let me remind you, our guild master never listens to someone younger than him."
"Hmm, what can I say? "I have a good head on my shoulders," I said with a shrug.
"Sigh, anyway, you were sent here for something, right? How can I help you?" she asked, shaking her head at my confidence.
"Aah, yes. I need help setting up a fence."
"Might I inquire what this fence is meant for?"
"Well, the mages will need a lot of protection. With only a small number of guys who can do physical and magic damage at the same time, the fence will provide protection by doing constant magic damage."
"Huh, you can make something like that?" she asked, dumbfounded.
"Yeah. Working with my element will be a bit complicated and dangerous for the people involved, but it shouldn't be impossible.
"I remember the guild master said you apparently have special elements. But do explain your plan."
"We will use these as poles, and in between each pole we'll span adamite wire," I said, pulling spears, rods, and long objects from my storage, laying them out like bones of a skeleton.
"Hmm, are these made out of your ice magic?"
"Yes, they are," I said, arranging the wires.
"Then can't we use these to kill the thrall?"
"I thought about it, but it won't work. My ice magic in this state is physical, not magical."
"Yeah, that won't work," she agreed.
"Anyways, in the first run, I'll channel my mana through a mana conductor. Those will be set every few hundred meters."
"Hmm, by mana conductors, do you mean those things that are made in guns?"
"Yeah, just bigger."
"How many do you have?"
"Enough. I made them mostly out of ice as well. They do work, if you were worried."
"You made it out of ice? Is there anything you can't make out of your ice?" Her eyes widened, almost glowing.
"Not much, actually. The guns I create from my ice can withstand one shot before breaking," I admitted, scratching my cheek.
"I give up. Okay, let's get the start-up."
"Oh, also, for each conductor, get someone with excellent mana control, okay?"
"But that would mean the stronger mages won't be able to fight."
"That, or your newbies get burned to death by devil magic."
"... Okay, fair point. I'll get everyone ready and explain," she said after a pause.
"Great. With a grin tugging at my lips, I said, "Let's move before things get messy."
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Chapter 128
"Is everything ready?" Kayda asked, her voice carrying lightly over the hum of adventurers preparing in the distance. She turned her head the moment she saw me walking up to her, her arms folded under her chest as if bracing for my answer.
"Yeah, most of it is. I just activated the fence, and I explained what to do." I nodded as I walked past her, continuing without slowing down and putting a few paces between myself and the crowd. I wanted distance from all their eyes and questions.
"That's pleasing to hear, but you said you were going to take care of the rock seekers. How will you do that?" Kayda asked, her footsteps quick and deliberate as she followed without hesitation.
"Ah yes, you will see. Mana, please." I stopped halfway down the path toward the slums and stretched my hand out toward her without looking back.
Kayda sighed deeply, the kind of sigh that carried both exasperation and affection. "You really need to increase your mana or acquire a regeneration skill for it," she said, clearly annoyed; however, her hand pressed against mine without hesitation, and her energy flowed into me.
"Yes, yes, Miss Sage. You never know, I might get to level 50 after tonight," I said, flashing her a grin, trying to lighten the weight pressing down on us.
"That might actually happen. Devil-related things give an insane amount of experience," Kayda admitted, her lips curling in a small smile.
"Oh, I didn't know that. I just thought that I would be the one that will kill the most thralls, and there will be a lot of them." I shrugged, feeling the warmth of her mana soaking into my system.
"You aren't wrong about that. For some reason, the system hates devils-hence the extra experience. Oh, and I have to say, that fence is a fantastic idea to hold them back and kill them." Kayda tilted her head toward the glowing perimeter in the distance, faint arcs of my magic sparking like frozen lightning along the adamite wire.
"Yeah, I just hope it holds up. Especially the opposite side from here. I can't really see what's going on there." My gaze lingered on the faint shimmer of the barrier. Worry itched in my chest.
"Don't worry too much about that. I will be there for backup."
"True, true, then I have no worries." I tapped my foot against the ground. A pillar of ice rose sharply beneath us, carrying us up several meters above the grassland.
"Are you going to use your guns?" Kayda asked, crouching slightly as she looked down at the tower beneath her.
"Yeah, but they don't hold on so well, so I might need a refill sometime if the action goes on for hours," I admitted, shaking my head.
"Okay, just shout if you need me then."
"Will do," I said, smiling at her happily. Her presence always steadied me.
"Oh yeah, I have been wondering, but why hasn't the summon started yet? That fire came out like three hours ago."
"I don't really know, but I think it's like ruffling a hornet's nest."
"You don't mean-" Kayda's expression hardened, her tail stiffening.
"Jip, exactly that," I nodded grimly.
"You want to send someone in there to get killed, and that will activate the summoning," Kayda said, her tone heavy with disapproval.
"Yeah, don't you guys have any criminals close by? Send them in." My voice was flat, careless.
"But they will lose their souls."
"Yeah, get rapists. They don't deserve to reincarnate," I growled, glaring at nothing in particular, venom lacing my words.
"...Sigh, I will go ask the guild master," Kayda said, leaping lightly off the tower of ice.
"Okay, now I need to get ready," I muttered. I crouched down, hands raised in front of me. Closing my eyes, I let mana surge through me, carefully shaping ice into a long barrel.
'Tch, the process is going to take a while,' I thought, feeling the cracks spiderweb through the fragile form.
Break!
"This is fucking hard! Why is it so much harder to make a sniper, but the handgun worked?" I shouted, shards of ice scattering.
Taking my ice handgun out of storage, I rolled it in my hand, inspecting every line.
"I was able to create this after a few weeks and a lot of studying the princess's gun. Hmm, do I actually need those twins to make one so I can study it?" I mumbled.
"Hey, Kitsu, the guild master said he has a couple of people that fit the category you said and wanted to know how many will be needed," Kayda's voice cut through the air suddenly. She appeared behind me without a sound, making me jolt slightly.
"...I think just one is fine, but bring all of them in case. I will construct a small jail at the bottom of this tower to confine them. My voice was calm again, forcing steadiness back.
"Okay. Hmm, are you struggling?" Kayda's eyes flicked to the broken shards at my feet.
"Yeah, it seems I can't make a sniper with my ice yet."
"A sniper?"
"You know, guns that are made for long range."
"Ooh, so you want to make a bigger handgun with your ice. But didn't it take you really long to make a handgun, and it doesn't even work properly?"
"Yes, I thought it would be easy to just work from that, but it isn't even possible for me. But I guess I will need to make a railgun. At least I know how to do that."
"Rail... railgun? You don't mean that thing you used when you blew up the mountain that one time."
"Nah, that was an accident. We don't talk about it." I waved her off, looking away.
"Okay, whatever, just don't kill innocent people."
"I will do that."
"Uh-huh, see to it then," Kayda said, and with a spring of her legs, she disappeared again, leaving me with the cold air.
"Sigh, at least rail guns are easier to make. Well, big ones are. The small mobile ones are fucking hard to do," I muttered, annoyed, gathering mana again. Standing up, I tucked everything away.
"Wait, is this going to... Augh, fuck, this is going to use so much mana!"
[Kayda POV]
"Yo guild master, Kitsuna said to get all of them. She will make a jail cell at the bottom of that tower to keep them." I strode up to the guild master and gestured toward the jagged ice tower gleaming pale in the dark.
"Does she want to kill all of them?"
"I don't know, but I don't think so."
"Hmm, sorry to disturb, but if that summoning will only activate when it gets a soul, why don't we just leave it be then?" an adventurer said this, stepping forward.
"... "
"... "
"... "
"Is he one of your newbies?" I asked, side-eyeing the guild master.
"No, his name is Timothy, and he is actually a veteran. A disappointing one, it seems." The guild master looked at Timothy with open disdain.
"Yeah," I said, nodding slowly. I didn't see any proof of him being a veteran either.
"I see. You explain to him why. Your problem anyways."
"Well, Timothy, it is true that we can actually leave it as is, but then again, it might activate on its own, and we won't be prepared like we are now," the guild master explained patiently.
"But we might also be more prepared and not risk all our hope on a demon fox with no class," Timothy muttered. But when he said Kitsu, he glanced at me, and I returned it with a glare sharp enough to cut.
"Sigh, I fully agree with you, but do you have any idea who or what has caused this?" The guild master pressed.
"... "
"Thought so. She knows the most about what is going on, sadly." The guild master shook his head, his disappointment obvious.
"What about her then?" Timothy raised his voice and pointed directly at me.
"I don't know." The guild master glanced at me but quickly looked away.
"What the fuck. You guys are talking like I am not even here. Should I cook you, or do you want to talk to Kitsu?" I snapped, glaring at both men. My aura flared, heat shimmering, killing intent pressing down on them.
VRRRRRRR
Boom!
The ground trembled violently, and smoke curled from the fortress.
"What in the heavens was that!?" The guild master shouted, his ears shooting upright as he looked toward the explosion.
"Hehe, I guess the fortress is destroyed," I said, laughing, my eyes fixed on the gaping hole torn through its side.
"Wah... what was that?" The guild master stammered, looking back at me.
"That was a railgun shot," I said with a shrug, pointing toward the ice tower. At its peak, a new structure had formed-sleek, sharp, and deadly.
It was smaller than the one Kitsu had made in the forest. Smaller, but still monstrous. The barrel stretched three meters long, squared at the edges. Inside, mana conductors hummed, black lightning running between them like veins.
"I wonder what she used for bullets," I murmured aloud.
"That thing is dangerous," Timothy whispered, wide-eyed, face pale.
"No shit, Timothy. That thing ripped a hole into something we couldn't touch," the guild master snapped, his voice both annoyed and tinged with fear.
"Now, who would you rather have a proper talk with? The one with a giant gun or the cool and collected dragon?" I smiled sweetly at them, flashing teeth. Their shiver only made me smile brighter.
"I will be going," Timothy muttered, retreating quickly.
"Thought so," I said, my glare following him until he vanished.
"How can she make something like that out of ice?" the guild master muttered, half to himself.
"No idea, actually. All I taught her is mana control," I said with a shrug.
"She must be good if she can make something like that work," he said, nodding to himself.
"Hmm, she is average, I guess," I said, remembering how clumsy her control really was.
"Your average isn't normal."
"Her sister should be better than her by now, though."
"She has a sister, and she might be better?"
"Oh, don't worry. Kitsu is the stronger one between the two. However, Amari is unlikely to lag behind, given her parentage. I shrugged again.
"Accuse me, but who ordered the little criminals?" A joyous, cheeky voice rang out from behind.
Turning, I spotted a bunny girl clad in full armor. Her hair was brown with black spots, and her ears were tall and twitching. She stood no taller than 1.6 meters, yet behind her she dragged seven grown men chained together, their faces pale with terror.
The funny thing was-she was alone. And she didn't seem to be struggling at all. The chains scraped the dirt, the prisoners groaning as their knees scraped raw.
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Chapter 129
[Kayda POV]
"Ah, I want one of these." The bunny girl, named Nix, said brightly, almost bouncing on her heels as she inspected the jagged ice bars of the jail cell Kitsu had made. Her long ears flicked curiously as she tapped a knuckle against the wall, listening to the dull, crystalline ring it gave back. "So clean. So solid. And it sparkles in the torchlight too. Practical and pretty. I want one for myself."
"I don't know about that," I replied, tilting my head as I looked at the seamless way the wall rose from the ground. The cell looked more permanent than temporary, more fortress-like than a makeshift cage. "You'd probably just end up freezing your own tail off in one of these."
"Oh, come on. It is made out of magic! Can't she just make one for the military as well?" Nix whined, stepping forward and pressing up into my space. Her bright eyes gleamed with unrestrained enthusiasm, and her nose twitched in a way that reminded me uncomfortably of a real rabbit.
"You'll need to ask her," I said, stepping back before she could crowd me any further. I jabbed a thumb toward the tower of ice above us, where Kitsu stood like some ominous guardian, railgun humming behind her.
