Paradigm Parasite

Chapter 117: "Unmanned"

Chaos.

If I had to describe this situation in one word, this would be the appropriate one.

Countless chiropteras were attacking from the sky.

I, Jelchi, was running frantically and staring at them with a somewhat cold feeling.

Several knights were shooting magic with their short canes and shooting them down one after another, but the chiroptera, as if in return, launched invisible attacks from their mouths and chased the knights and my sisters around.

I attack only the ones that are trying to attack my sisters.

I don't kill them by force. If I damage their wings so that they can't fly, they will stop moving on their own, so I leave them alone.

Even so, the number of sisters is decreasing, one by one.

There were also subordinates who had been entrusted by Guardio, who were skilled in combat, and those I had brought with me.

Some had disappeared, but they had fought and died with me, protecting our comrades.

Out of the corner of my eye, one of the knights was caught by Chiroptera's foot and taken into the air, where he was tortured extensively before becoming food.

We can't afford to be leisurely digging out hidden passages in this situation.

There are no other ways to get out of here.......

There aren't many places I can think of right off the top of my head.

We can either go up the outer wall on one of the ladders and go out from the guard station through the outer wall, or we can go out through the gate as usual...

If we go through the outer wall, we need to get past not a few guards inside.

If we go out through the gate, it is closed at this time and must be opened by operating it.

In this case, the person operating the gate will have to give up their life, as they cannot leave the opening/closing device until it is opened.

...We'll have to go through it.

Fortunately, it is not that far to the nearest ladder.

It's a gamble to see how much chaos there is inside with all the commotion, but we have no other choice.

I took out the magic stone that I had in my pocket, and grasping it tightly, I cracked it open and threw it upward.

"Up!"

I shout and run.

At the same time, the magic stone shattered in mid-air, releasing the engraved magic.

A deafening loud noise and light scatter the surroundings, and the swarm of monsters stops moving.

It seems that chiroptera has good hearing.

The sound would have been less effective since it was outside in the open, but the sound would have slowed them down at least a little bit.

I looked back as I ran.

I wanted to check on the situation of the man I should be most wary of.

"Is ...... there?"

I couldn't see him.

He had just been reaping a swarm of monsters, but he had disappeared from where he was supposed to be.

After showing up like that in such bravado?

I can't believe it. That son of a bitch got away.

I'm worried that I won't be able to see him, but it's better that he won't get in my way.

I'm worried that he's getting ahead of me, but I don't have time to think about it.

The other girls, sensing this, followed my lead, but the problem was the rest of the knights.

They were dealing with the monsters, but they were relentlessly aiming at us.

Some of them even attacked us while being eaten by the monsters.

I had a feeling that they were being controlled in some way.

Vertex's words sounded as if he had an idea of what was going on, although it seemed to be a different matter.

In my experience, I know brainwashing when I see it.

Behavior, eye movement, tone of voice. Something is wrong with any of them.

First of all, they are not moving of their own volition, so their movements are not good.

I once saw a man who was being controlled by a magical tool, and he looked like a puppet completely manipulated by strings.

He could move at a minimum, but his eyes were strange and it was difficult for him to use his head for conversation.

If you talk to him, you will understand that his tone of voice is quite strange.

When you forcefully twist the will of human beings, there is always some point where it becomes impossible.

If you want to manipulate people without any difficulty, the usual way is to guide them rather than twist them.

Drugs, words, and pleasure. That is how we have been able to seduce people.

But those knights didn't have that.

They were fluent in conversation. Their skills seemed to be improving.

And that fluid coordination is not something that can be done overnight.

They may have been communicating in some way.

I am curious about what happened to those knights, but for now, we need to escape first.

The ladder came into view.

I use my "legs" to leap up the ladder at once.

As I reached the top of the ladder, a panoramic view of the favela spread out before my eyes.

It's terrible.

The whole place was ablaze, and it would be difficult for the residents to get their lives back to normal if this happened.

Near the center of the favela, knights and sacred knights were engaged in a three-way battle with a horde of monsters.

I don't understand why they are crushing each other in this situation, but it's convenient for us.

When I looked down, Helga was just coming up, out of breath.

Several others followed.

"If I survive, I'll definitely build up my stamina..."

Helga laughs as she says this, breathing heavily, and pulls the girls up the ladder.

After a few of them had climbed up, I said to Helga, "I'll go first," and ran along the outer wall to the entrance to the inside.

I'll go ahead and clean up.

I run with the favela on my side.

It is an odd sight to see once again.

The herds of monsters are gathering only over the poor district and the sky above it, completely ignoring the rest of the city.

Strange.

I'm wondering why there has been no movement by the Knights, even though it must have been a reasonable amount of time since this situation came about.

It is true that the people who were attacking the favelas have not been wiped out, but what does it mean that they are not sending reinforcements?

I have a bad feeling...or rather, I've already had a bad feeling for the rest of the day.

I enter the outer wall from the stairs....

...what is this?

It was surprisingly quiet inside.

I proceeded with caution, but there was no sign of anyone. No one was in sight.

I went back and looked outside the outer wall and saw a person a short distance away.

Using my "eyes" to correct my vision, I saw that they were soldiers who were supposed to be inside the outer wall.

They were moving away from the outer wall in a panicked movement.

A chill runs down my spine.

...No way.

The reason for going to the trouble of abandoning the outer wall defenses.

The following of the knights who never came.

The missing Vertex.

"Jelchi? What's wrong?"

Helga and the others who caught up with me are looking at me quizzically.

I don't have time to worry about that.

"We're going to jump. Hurry up."

"What?"

"We don't have time. I'll jump from here. Those of you with magic, do the chanting and be ready for the impact and the landing."

"Jump... from here?"

Helga looked down with trepidation.

It was completely dark around the area, so she could not see what was below, but only the darkness.

She looked at it and her expression became tight.

I ignored her and just said, "Hurry up," and jumped down.

[Other Pov]

A swarm of monsters attacked.

Naturally, the upper echelons of the country were aware of it.

The location was the throne room on the top floor of the royal castle.

The decision makers of the country were gathered there.

They were all agitated by the situation, and with the exception of the king and a few others, everyone's expressions were grim.

The current leaders did not remember an attack of this magnitude, and their inexperience made them nervous.

The first opinion that came up was to form a strike force and attack.

They tried to quickly eliminate the source of the unrest by deploying a force, but their intentions were stopped by a single word from the king.

Why? The questioning was frozen in time by the next words of the king.

"Let's just clear the land, since it's being rezoned anyway."

...and.

The favela is a "town," and as such, it is quite large.

Can such a place be cleared?

The answer is yes.

It takes time to prepare, but once initiated, the favelas are cleared in less than a few minutes.

One of the men present expressed his opinion with trepidation.

"O king! There are our knights and the Gnostic sacred knights in that place. If you use that thing, they will be engulfed."

The king - Jacob Ethan Henry Noah Ursulagna.

His name continues after Noah, but he doesn't like to be called long, so he settled on this length.

He is just shy of 30 years old, with lazy eyes and lightly wavy blond hair. He wears luxurious clothes and a treasured sword propped up on a throne. His demeanor is light, but he is a true king who has survived numerous assassinations and power struggles to keep his throne.

Jacob looks at the one who spoke up.

"I don't remember allowing you to speak, but I'll let you know if you want to ....... Amelia, answer him."

Amelia, the woman standing next to the throne, steps forward.

Her hair is gray. She is tall with a well-defined body.

Her clothes are loose-fitting, robe-like garments, and her face is a beautiful woman with a sharp impression.

"The Gnostic side has been informed of what is about to happen, so they will retreat if we leave them alone. As for the rest...our knights? There are no such people there. The only people there are the bandits called Darzain, who are doing harm to Royal Capital...and ultimately to our country, so there will be no problem if we wipe them out along with the favelas."

Amelia's words made the man look at the king in disbelief, but his expression remained unchanged.

He realized that he really wanted to wipe out a corner of the city.

"Well, it looks like you're convinced. Anyone else have anything to say?"

No one said anything.

Jacob let out a breath, said, "If not, get ready to prepare," and left.

Amelia followed him.

In the room where the Lord was no longer present, the rest of them started to give instructions.

Magic.

It is one of the skills that exist in this world, and anyone can learn it to some extent if they train themselves.

However, there are only a few who can develop it to the stage where it can be used in battle.

Once you learn how to use it, it is easy.

The degree of perfection of the magic is determined by the strength of the image and the amount of magical power that was poured into it during the construction process.

Incidentally, if the construction of the details is not perfect, the power and accuracy will be significantly affected, and as a result, the effect will be reduced.

Now, let's say that the construction has been completed perfectly.

Even so, there is a limit to the amount of magical energy that an individual can contain, of course.

It is difficult for an individual to create magic that can destroy a country single-handedly.

However, through trial and error, the diligent ones were able to come up with a solution.

The idea was to use a single magic by several people.

It is a simple idea, but there are high barriers to overcome before it can be implemented.

The reason is that everyone who is involved in the construction needs to be able to synchronize their breath.

Two or three people can do it.

In fact, the magic called is a defective magic that involves oneself when activated at hand, but by activating it with multiple people, the defect is destroyed by manipulating the onset point.

However, when there are 10 or 20 people in a group, the difficulty of coordination increases.

If even one person disrupts the flow, it will fail and not produce the desired effect.

That's all well and good, but in some cases there could be a risk of an outburst.

On the other hand, if it succeeds, it will show tremendous power and is expected to be effective in large-scale battles such as wars, etc. The king of Urs Laguna, Jacob, had research started so that it could be used somehow.

Naturally, due to the degree of difficulty, progress was slow and difficult, but Jacob came up with an idea.

Then, why don't we prepare someone who can only do that?

Some of his subjects stopped him, but he kicked them out, saying just do it.

With the help of technology provided by a group of collaborators, he created a special army of children with no relatives, using magic and surgery to give them direction in their thinking and abilities.

After a few years of work, he named the completed group "Concertato" (Concert Band).

A total of 100 people. The magic that they had created together was said to literally split the heavens and crack the earth...but since the country was relatively stable, it was good that they had created it, but the trouble was that they were not blessed with opportunities to use it, and Jacob was wondering if it would really be that powerful.

And now, with the appearance of a reasonable test target, the king of this country was a little excited and gave the order to use it.