Chapter 833: 833: Antidemon Eradication Complete

Even after rescuing Nadia, we were still up against a massive horde of antidemons.

Our original plan was to rescue Nadia and escape, but the dwarves and demonkin refused to run away.

With them protecting us, we could not escape either. That would probably be physically impossible, and we couldn't mentally bring ourselves to ditch them either.

The members of the hundred man army, after recovering a little, began to rejoin the fray.

They had to refrain from using wide area attacks to reduce their mana consumption. Unlike Fran who has a mana tank in me, everyone else will run out of mana very quickly if they don't conserve it.

The only two who could rampage without worrying about such trifles were Orfalve and Jayne.

「Onwards! Trample the antidemons underneath our charge!」

「If we've come this far, we might as well eradicate them! Drive the antidemons into extinction!」

Even though they had been pushed to their limits against Nadia, they were still the most energetic of the group.

As one would expect from two of the Seven Sages.

Yeah, I just remembered. The ruler of the demonkin country was counted as a member of the Seven Sages. That means Jayne.

No wonder she's so damn strong. All of the Seven Sages that we've met have been ridiculously powerful.

Weena Rhyn, the High Elf. Orfalve, the Dwarf Queen. Jayne, the Demon Lord.

The rest were three divine sword wielders, as well as the ruler of the most fearsome warrior race, the insectkin. There was no way they could be weak.

I heard that forces opposed to the guild wanted a counter to the Rank S adventurers. That's why they named the Seven Sages without any real authority...... But their strength was certainly the real deal.

「Fuahahaha! Too weak, antidemons! Come like you mean it now!」

「Ahahahaha! You worthless trash who can't even become undead, at least turn into my experience!」

You could say they have personality quirks on the level of Rank S adventurers too.

Then, half a day later...

「Mm! Drinking alcohol after a victory is the best!」

「Orfalve-dono... I think one minute after the battle is over is a little too soon to be drinking.」

「Drink like this is nothing but water to us. It is the same as how you quench your thirst after a workout.」

「I might have agreed if that wasn't hard liquor.」

After the long, long battle, we had succeeded in destroying all the antidemons.

Even the monstrously durable dwarves seemed to have gotten exhausted. They had pulled out water bottles from their items bags and gulped down the contents.

If Jayne hadn't pointed it out, I would have been left thinking it was water. Hard liquor, huh......

Most of the demonkin were sitting down. Even these elite magicians could not manage to stand when completely depleted of stamina and mana.

Our hundred man army was in a similar situation. Or probably in worse shape? They fought until complete exhaustion, recovered a little, and were thrown back into the antidemon horde for an extended duration.

They were bruised, battered, and devoid of energy. It would be hard to find someone worse off than them.

Fran also got up in the middle to battle alongside the others. She couldn't stand staying still while her friends were desperately fighting like that.

The plains that had been filled with over 100,000 antidemons were now silent. The swarms of antidemons had completely vanished, as if the war here was only a dream.

The antidemons left behind no corpses or blood, so the battlefield suddenly felt spacious without them.

「Nadia isn't waking up.」

「She pushed herself quite hard, no? I don't blame her.」

「Nn......」

「At any rate, we need to take her to a place where she can rest. What do you think?」

「If we need to head to town, then why not Nocta? That's where we heard about Fran's request in the first place.」

「Uh-huh.」

Orfalve and Jayne had apparently heard about Fran's request right after the hundred man army departed Nocta. Then, they followed immediately without making any significant preparations.

「Orfalve-dono asked me pretty forcefully to tag alone. Well, it sounded like fun, so I said yes anyways.」

「I wouldn't have made it in time without Jayne-dono's wide range support magic. I appreciate your assistance.」

「No problem. I was able to save my son's acquaintance, and I also got a lot of points and experience.」

「Fuhahaha, I see!」

「Ahahaha! Yeah!」

Orfalve and Jayne seem to get along rather well. It can't be easy for their subordinates to get roped along with such gusto and enthusiasm, even though that is what ended up saving us.

Tort usually butted in at times like this, but he remained completely silent. Rather, it seems like the skeleton pendant has lost its power?

「Is Tort okay?」

「He just used up his power and got returned.」

「Summoning heroic spirits is certainly powerful, but the short duration is a major drawback.」

「That can't be helped.」

「Heroic spirits?」

「It's one of a necromancer's secret arts.」

Apparently, there is a high-level underworld magic that summons past heroes for a short period of time. Tort was able to prolong his active duration by inhabiting the pendant without a physical body.

But I guess after being fully summoned and incarnated, his time limit was reached very quickly.

In the end, we decided to go back to Nocta. After all, Nocta was the only town large enough to accept such a big group of people.

There was also an illegal city nearby named Sendia. However, we were not sure if they would accept us, and there were rumors that it was a front for slavers, so we decided not to go there this time.

On the way to Nocta, I checked Fran and Urushi's stats.

As expected, they had leveled up. Fran was now level 67 and Urushi was level 68.

At first I wondered why only they only got one level from defeating so many antidemons, but that was understandable.

Most Rank A adventurers and higher were level 60+, and it usually takes decades to reach that level.

That makes it pretty ridiculous to get one level up for half a day's work. Instead, I should be surprised that we leveled up so soon after our arrival on this continent.

(Master. Sendia is......)

I knew you would remember. You've been looking so worried ever since we heard about the slavers.

『It should be easy enough to find out where it is. But we won't go until you're fully recovered, okay?』

(Nn, I know.)

It's been a while since I've heard such an obviously false "I know"...... Fran had the same look in her eyes as when she's talking about a sworn enemy.