Interlude Chapter: Prelude to Chaos (1)

At noon, in a village somewhere in Elverwad continent, lots of people with ox horns on their head are walking on the road. That people's race is called ox-type beastman.

A blue carriage that is carried by two white horses arrived near an inn.

A knight wearing purple coloured armor and helmet gets out from the carriage. That knight's name is Ekirschteria Pentagon, one of Brahmastra Kingdom's Royal Knights.

As the purple knight offer the right hand, a blue-haired human priest with green dress comes out from the carriage and takes the purple knight's hand with her left hand. The priest's name is Sylphie Mariage, a travelling priest that spreads the teachings of Astraea religion.

The purple knight escorts the priest out of the carriage. Sylphie slowly let go of the purple knight's hand after she gets out from the carriage.

Both of them goes inside an inn while a short orange-haired burly man with ox horns on his head is observing them from behind another wooden house.

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In a place that is around ten kilometres away from that village, there is a big city where most of its residents are dwarf people.

Unlike the previous village, the city is way larger and most of its buildings are made of bricks.

At the back alley, there is a woman with short brown hair and cat ears. She is holding a Tele-stone with her right hand near her human right ear hidden in her hair. That woman is Nelsia Klanjour, the former maid of Graize household.

"Keep observing them for now and tell me if there is any change. Good work."

She puts the Tele-stone into the pocket on her leather pants. Then she quickly adjusts her hair to hide her human ear and adjust the position of her cat ears that is on top of her head.

After her preparation is done, she goes out from the back alley to a bar on the main road.

Upon entering the bar, she suddenly hears a man shouting.

"Why the hell a filthy goblin is eating here huh?!"

A drunken male dwarf with large beard is shouting at a one-eyed male goblin who is eating noodle-like dish with fork. That one-eyed goblin is wearing black hood but does not put on the hood while eating.

On the same table as the one-eyed goblin, there is a female with red-white dress wearing a white human face paper mask. That masked female has a short white hair.

Despite the drunken dwarf shouting at him, the one-eyed goblin just eat his noodle-like dish without batting an eye.

"Oi! Don't ignore me, you bast- OUCH!!"

Before the drunken man uses his right hand to punch the one-eyed goblin, the masked female quickly stands up and grab the dwarf's muscular arm with her slender hand.

She grabs the arm so hard that the dwarf's muscle starts to distort.

"OW OW OOOW!! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!! PLEASE LET GO OF ME!!!"

The dwarf shouts louder and louder due to the intense pain.

"That's enough, Bion. Don't waste your time on him."

The masked female let go of the dwarf's arm and the drunken dwarf uses the chance to wobbly run away.

Nelsia makes sure to step aside so that the dwarf can go straight into the door.

As the masked female that was called 'Bion' sits besides one-eyed goblin again, Nelsia approaches the same table too.

"They arrived at Orna village's inn as expected."

Nelsia immediate talked to the one-eyed goblin who is about to finish his meal.

"I see."

The one-eyed goblin says that right after finishing his meal.

Then he looks around and notices that there's a lot of attention from other dwarf people to his table thanks to earlier commotion.

He drinks water from a wooden cup.

"Let's talk outside."

He says that right after finish drinking.

The one-eyed goblin, masked white-haired female and Nelsia gets out from the bar.

As they walk on the main road filled dwarf people, the one-eyed goblin starts talking again.

"The targets have just finished their final adjustments. They will be handed over to the Royal Knight in three days. As expected of dwarf technology huh..."

"This is one of very few rare chances to reduce the power gap between us and that cursed Kingdom. Failure is not an option."

Nelsia says that while still walking.

"Heh, that's some big talk for someone who let a single kid got away."

Nelsia is surprised a bit by one-eyed goblin's statement. But the one-eyed goblin continue talking regardless.

"Don't let some stupid sympathy disrupt your objective. That goes for you too, Bi-"

But before the one-eyed goblin finishes her sentence, Bion the masked female is no longer with them.

Not too far from Nelsia's position, Bion is crouching in front of a cake store. She is planting her face at the glasses wall to see various cakes for sale.

"Mama, there is a strange masked person doing strange thing~"

A dwarf boy is pointing at the masked while saying that.

"Sssh! Don't look!"

The boy's dwarf mother quickly closes the boy's eyes.

The one-eyed goblin quickly grabs the masked female's collar and pulls her away from the cake store.

"Alright, alright. I'll ask Firth-sama to make some after the mission. So bear with it for now."

The one-eyed goblin brings Bion back to Nelsia.

Bion who gets dragged away does not struggle and stays silent.

"Sigh... What is Firth thinking, assigning that newbie to this mission..."

Nelsia says that and starts walking again the moment the one-eyed goblin arrives near him.

"Someone needs to take care of the third relic anyway. And she is way better compared to a certain self-proclaimed hero who never listen to what others say to him."

The one-eyed goblin says that while still dragging Bion.

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Meanwhile, Sylphie is standing in one of the inn's rooms. There are two beds and all their belongings from the carriage had been placed on the floor.

Ekirschteria is also inside looking at the curtain that is covering the window.

The purple knight slightly open the curtain and look at the main road of the village from the height of 2nd floor.

"There are still few hours before the sermon, what shall we do~."

Sylphie says that while stretching her body upwards while standing.

Ekirschteria then closes the curtain and starts fingerspelling towards Sylphie.

"Hm?"

Sylphie says that as she is reading Ekirschteria's fingerspelling.

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In the city full of dwarves, sunset can be seen implying that it is already afternoon.

A white eagle is standing on top a tree branch looking at a big warehouse made out of bricks.

Two male dwarves are guarding the backside entrance near that warehouse. There is also a humanoid steel golem behind observing the entrance.

Those guards are watching a single narrow road towards the entrance.

The dwarf guards notice that there are two male dwarves coming towards them together with Nelsia, Bion the masked female and one-eyed goblin. One of the dwarves accompanying Nelsia is carrying a big leather bag.

One of the dwarf guards then open the steel door from outside and let those five people enter the area near warehouse without much talk.

As the five people sneak into the closed steel door of the warehouse.

One of the dwarves accompanying Nelsia places the leather bag on the ground and opens it.

Nelsia takes out the twin slash claw weapons and put it on both of her hands.

The one-eyed goblin takes out crossbow and a metal cylinder full of small arrows from the bag.

Bion then takes out a dagger from the bag.

Right after three of them finishes preparing their weapons, one of the dwarves places his hand on the magic circle besides the steel door.

Upon touching the magic circle, the magic circle gives out a faint brown light before the steel door automatically unlock itself.

The other dwarf then places his hand on the steel while looking at the one-eyed goblin, Nelsia and Bion.

The one-eyed goblin then nods at that dwarf. The dwarf then opens the steel door. Then Nelsia, Bion and the one-eyed goblin quickly rush inside the warehouse.

When many dwarves inside the warehouse realize the intruders, Nelsia quickly shouts her magic's name.

"Accel!"

A small green magic circle appears in front of Nelsia's head. A green aura quickly envelops Nelsia's body and the green magic circle disappear right after the green aura envelops the entirety of Nelsia's body.

*slash3x!!!*

Nelsia's body movement becomes much faster. She slashes and kills three dwarves in an instant.

"What the!?"

As the dwarves inside the warehouses start panicking, Bion who is carrying a knife on her right hand rushes forward.

*slash!*

Bion slashes and kills one dwarf and then puts her left hand forward.

A blue magic circle appears Bion's left hand, a sharp stream of water comes out from the magic circle. It pierces and kills two dwarves at once on a straight line.

The dwarves that are far from Nelsia and Bion start casting magic while the other dwarves tried contacting someone through Tele-Stone.

However, the person who is about to use Tele-Stone got his head pierced by a fire arrow and dies.

Soon, the other dwarves who use magic also get their chest pierced by a fire arrow and die.

The fire arrows are from the one-eyed goblin who has his red magic circle in front of his crossbow. Every time the one-eyed goblin shoots an arrow, it goes past the red magic circle and the arrow immediately gets engulfed in flame.

The one-eyed goblin kills the dwarves from at the farthest position while Bion and Nelsia kill dwarves in front of them.

In a mere three minutes, all dwarves inside the warehouses are dead. The two dwarves that are accompanying Nelsia quickly rush inside the warehouse.

Then both dwarves quickly go towards the three treasure chests coloured with red and gold.

They quickly unlock the three treasure chests using its respective gold keys. There is a faint white light of magic circle every time the treasure chest is about to be unlocked by the gold keys.

"Good work. Now leave the rest to us."

Nelsia says that towards them. The dwarves nod and quickly runs away.

All three of them let go of their weapons and approach the treasure chests.

Nelsia opens one of the treasure chest and sees a mechanical shield coloured with red, yellow and white. There is a name carved on it in alphabet words: 'ABSORBER'

"Bion, this one is yours."

Nelsia quickly says that while going towards other treasure chest.

Bion takes out the mechanical shield from the treasure chest while the one-eyed goblin goes for the other treasure chest.

Nelsia finds a chainsaw inside the treasure chest and takes it out. There is a name carved on its chainsaw blade: 'DIVIDER'.

The one-eyed goblin takes out a mechanical jet-pack that is equipped with big double cannon barrels on its shoulder part. Its name is carved on its back part: 'BOOSTER'.

Bion equips the mechanical shield to her left hand.

Nelsia grab the chainsaw with her two hands.

"Don't forget to use the demonic power. If the information is true, these relics' mana consumption is no joke."

The one-eyed goblin says that while equipping himself with the jet-pack.

"I know."

As Nelsia says that, her eyes turns colour from green to pink.

Bion's eye colour turns from gray to pink while the one-eyed goblin's eye colour turns from yellow to pink.

(Connecting to Astral Body...)

As Nelsia thinks that, the 'DIVIDER' name carved on the chainsaw blade starts shining.

Soon after that, the 'ABSORBER' and 'BOOSTER' names also start shining as well.

Meanwhile, the white eagle on the tree branch sees that the dwarves outside of the warehouse starts running towards the entrance.

Back inside the warehouse, the one-eyed goblin looks at the warehouse's entrance.

"They're coming."

One-eyed goblin's statement makes Nelsia and Bion turns their attention to the entrance.

"Oi! What happened h- !?"

Some dwarves enter and one of them says that before realizing that the one-eyed goblin is pointing the BOOSTER's cannon barrels at the dwarves.

*ZAP!!!*

Big beam shot comes out from the BOOSTER's cannon.

Some dwarves cast light-based and earth-based magic to protect themselves but the beam shot and instantly melts and kills all the dwarves near the entrance while also blasting the entrance in the process.

The blast alerts all dwarves in the area near the warehouse.

Not too long after that, another beam shot pierce another side of the warehouse's wall.

As the dwarves try to surround the warehouse, they see Bion, Nelsia and one-eyed goblin coming out from the warehouse holding each of their mechanical weapons.

"Wha... the relics!?"

One of the dwarves says that.

"Let's go!"

As the one-eyed goblin says that, his BOOSTER starts giving out propulsion movement from its back causing the one-eyed goblin to fly.

Meanwhile, Nelsia rushes to her right side with her DIVIDER's chainsaw blade starts spinning.

Bion starts running to her left side where there are less enemies compared to other two.

"Accel!"

Nelsia uses the same magic and runs towards two steel golems with high speed.

She swings her DIVIDER and instantly slashes two steel golems in an instant.

*ZAP!!*

Right after the one-eyed goblin uses beam shot against the attacking dwarves, he shouts mid-air.

"Gardda!"

Upon hearing its name, the white eagle starts flying from the tree. It flies towards Bion.

As if Bion already expects the white eagle to approach her from behind, she jumps high.

The white eagle uses its big claw to grab Bion's hips and then plant its body into Bion's back. Gardda then spreads its wings and four green magic circle appears from the back of its wing.

The four green magic circle quickly disappear but the white eagle's wings exerts wind propulsion. As a result, Bion starts flying so fast that the dwarves' arrows never hit her.

Bion then quickly casts the same water magic she uses earlier to kill the dwarves that are shooting arrows.

(If I manage to blast that troop away, the path for out escape would be opened!)

Thinking that, the one-eyed goblin starts aiming at a certain dwarf troop on the ground.

"A... aa...!"

One of the dwarves loses the strength to stand out fear and falls backwards. He was the same dwarf who is drunk back at the bar. But the one-eyed goblin never notice that and blasts a beam shot at the dwarf's troop.

"HWAAAAAAAA!!!"

As that dwarf screams out of fear, a flash of broad sword's swing hits the double beam shots at once.

"BOOOOOOM!*

".... !?"

Realizing that he is still alive, the dwarf starts looking forward.

"Wha...!?"

The one-eyed goblin says that as he is also surprised seeing a humanoid figure among the black smoke on the ground.

"!?"

Nelsia also notices that humanoid figure while fighting on the ground.

"... no way."

She says that after the black smoke starts clearing up and revealing the purple knight holding a broad sword that has a red glow on its edge.

(How...)

As Nelsia thinks that, cold sweat runs through her left cheek.

The purple knight, who is none other than Ekirschteria Pentagon, quickly takes a battle stance with the broad sword.

On the back of the purple armor's right hand, the crest of purple shield half-enveloped with black curtain glows with purple-coloured light.

On the broad sword's blade part, there is a shining name carved on it: 'BLASTER'.