Chapter 143: 078. Hashashins and King Rahamma -2 (Part One)
“Kyaaahk! Stop! Please stop!”
“W-what is the meaning of this!? Keok!”
The citizens of Aslan continued to scream away. The intoxicated soldiers mercilessly attacked them, but in the midst of their cruel slaughter, they noticed a signal flare rising up into the night sky.
“What was that just now?”
The crimson flare had been fired by the hashashins.
“Huh! That’s from Rahamma’s children, isn’t it? But, they are requesting assistance?”
“Those high-and-mighty hashashins are doing what now?”
“Haha, in the end they are still nothing more than some measly demi-humans, after all! What can a group of slaves even do, anyway?”
“You’re right. How strong can a demi-human be, right?”
“Get ready. Judging from the direction, it looks like the street we’re on.”
The Aslan soldiers got ready by the entrance to the street. While pulling out their swords and crossbows, they strutted towards their destination and gathered up in a group.
“Well, now. Should we snatch up the achievement that those demi-human bastards so stupidly messed up?”
“Hey, who knows? Maybe our accomplishment will get acknowledged today and we’ll be granted those demi-humans as our slaves.”
“Ohh! Does that mean we can order around royalty as our own personal slaves?”
They exchanged banter and relaxedly waited for their quarry to show up. Just as around thirty soldiers finished finding their individual positions and raised their crossbows, the ground beneath their feet began rumbling ominously.
The Aslan soldiers got confused by this sudden development, and paid closer attention to their front. Their previously smiling expressions gradually froze up.
-Fu-ruuph! Fu-ruuuph! Fu-ruuuuph!
A skeleton horse kitted out in heavy armour was angrily snorting away while dashing towards them. The paved road surface below cracked apart into bits every time the undead creature’s hooves pounded on the ground.
Thick dust clouds were kicked up in its wake, and its glowing eyes were flickering sharply.
Then, the Aslan soldiers saw the undead kitted out in knightly helms and armour covering their entire bodies. On top of that, they were even lifting up lengthy cavalry lances as well.
“S-stop them!”
“You think we can stop something like that?! Run away, now!”
All semblance of colour drained from the complexions of these Aslan soldiers.
The undead cavalry leaped up and, without a single trace of hesitation whatsoever, trampled and crushed the hapless soldiers.
The lances merely stabbed into their victims, but the human bodies couldn’t withstand the impact force and got ripped apart into chunky bits and flung away in the air.
The mounted undead troops led from the front while the carriage pulled by the skeleton horse closely followed from the rear. Meanwhile, hashashins were chasing after them on the rooftops.
The soldiers who urgently jumped out of the way got lucky and managed to keep their lives. While their complexions grew deathly pale from fright, they loudly shouted out to the others. “G-gather more troops, now!”
More signal flares went up in the air.
The hashashins continued gathering demonic energy in their hands. They fired magical projectiles at the carriage, causing a chain of explosions.
However, their assault couldn’t last long; hashashins quickly shifted their gazes to the path ahead. Rune letters began engraving onto the various rooftops, and mummies wielding scimitars leapt out from there.
The undead cocked their heads up while the light in their eyes glowed ominously.
“…!”
The legion of mummies, referred to as the ancient guardians, revealed themselves to the world once more.
The undead attacked with their scimitars. Hashashins relied on their nimble movements to dodge the curved blades one at a time, then ran past the mummies.
-Ku-ooooh!
The undead legion also broke into sprinting as well and chased after the hashashins. The mummies were swift and agile, allowing them to quickly catch up to the demi-human assassins.
Every time hashashins managed to catch up to the carriage, the mummies were summoned right in front of them and blocked their paths.
However, the demi-human assassins were able to cut the mummies down and reopen the path. Still, the number of undead blocking the way continued to swell even higher, and that slowed the speed of the hashashins greatly.
The demi-humans quickly scanned their surroundings. They could see that the distance to the carriage was growing larger. At this rate, the Imperial Family members would slip through their fingers.
The signal flares continued to go up into the night sky.
The Aslan soldiers within the city saw them and began making their moves.
King Rahamma and the feudal lords also witnessed the flares illuminating the night sky.
“Your majesty, it seems that the hashashins have discovered the Imperial Family members.”
Rahamma frowned heavily when one of the feudal lords addressed him.
He could see that the flares were still going up periodically, which indicated that the hashashins were experiencing great difficulty at the moment.
The thing was, though, that the flare’s colour wasn’t white, meant to signal the presence of the Crown Imperial Prince.
Did that mean only the Imperial Princes had been discovered?
Rahamma leapt up and landed on top of a tall rooftop. His eyes caught the figures of the hashashins darting across the distant rooftops and the mummies blocking their advance. The two groups were currently sprinting forward while engaging in a nimble, quick-footed combat.
‘Mummies?’
Why were the undead meant to guard the ancient Aslan kings currently appearing in this place? Could it be that some Necromancers were trying to protect the Imperial Family members?
Some amount of fluster washed over Rahamma, but that emotion passed him by quite quickly.
“It’s over.”
He knew this because he had spotted a silhouette belonging to a massive monster shuffling forward among the buildings of Evelyum.
It was a huge war elephant at least eight metres tall, boasting dark and thick hide, a pair of massive ears, and equally huge tusks. Thick metal plating covered its body like armour, while Aslan soldiers riding on its back readied bows and arrows as well as sharp spears. One of the riders was whipping the huge creature to make it shuffle forward.
That was one of the strongest creatures found on land. Even Ogres avoided colliding head-on with that weaponised beast and tried to run away if they saw one.
If the Crown Imperial Prince wasn’t riding in the carriage currently pursued by the hashashins, then the two Imperial Princes alone should find it very difficult to defend against that war elephant.
Once the carriage came to a stop, the hashashins should have no trouble dealing with the Imperial Princes.
That was why Rahamma decided to stop paying attention, but even before he could do that…
“…!”
His brows shot up high.
The ground began rumbling.
The paved streets got crushed as a huge stone statue slowly rose up to its feet. Its whole body was covered in metallic armour, and its lone eye burned fiercely against the backdrop of the night sky.
The ancient weapon of Aslan that was supposed to be lost to the passage of time…
“…A Cyclops Golem!”
Rahamma gasped out in a daze.
No one could tell just where a Cyclops Golem had suddenly emerged from, but as if to remind everyone that such a thing didn’t matter right now, the statue broke into a fierce sprint as well.
The ground cracked apart from its sheer weight. The surrounding buildings were collapsing from the shockwave.
“U-uwaaaahk?!”
The Aslan soldiers all fell into unbridled panic at the suddenly-emerging giant stone statue. They unsteadily stumbled back before fleeing in fear. Even the war elephant backed away while howling out loudly in alarm.
The hands of the giant stone statue shot out and grabbed the war elephant’s tusks before easily lifting up the huge creature off its feet.
The statue was strong enough to drag down a dragon from the air. Obviously, a single war elephant wouldn’t even pose a challenge!
A humongous shadow was cast over the soldiers of the kingdom of Aslan.
A giant stone statue at least five metres tall was lifting up an even bigger war elephant in the air, so the resulting spectacle could only be described as truly gobsmacking to behold.
The soldiers remained stupefied for only a brief moment, however; they all began screaming desperately after realising that the war elephant had been thrown in their direction.
The buildings all collapsed and got destroyed, while the hapless soldiers were crushed into meat paste.
“Just what on earth is the meaning of…?”
King Rahamma sucked in cold, heavy breaths.
There were undead mounted troops dashing forward and slaughtering the Aslan soldiers on the streets. A giant stone statue was walking around and firing beams from its eye. Meanwhile, the agile mummies were darting across the rooftops to oppose the hashashins.
The city was going up in flames while the screams from the dying Aslan soldiers echoed throughout the night sky.
“…”
With how things were, it became rather difficult to tell who was actually attacking and destroying the city right now.
Rahamma found it impossible to understand. From what he could see while standing a great distance away, those creatures must’ve been the results of summoning magic from the school of Necromancy.
Not only that, every single one of those creatures needed a considerable amount of demonic energy to manifest in this world.
So, why would a Necromancer with such incredible powers protect the members of the Imperial Family?!
Something felt very, very wrong here.
An ominous foreboding quickly took a hold of King Rahamma.
Could there be someone other than Oscal Baldur the sword king and Crown Imperial Prince White Olfolse present here? Someone he had overlooked until now?
Just what exactly had the Imperial Family been hiding from the world until now? What kind of a weapon could it even be?
“Your majesty!”
It was then that one of the soldiers urgently called out to him.
Rahamma turned his head and stared at a group of soldiers down by the street.
“The individual suspected to be the Crown Imperial Prince has been located in Evelyum’s castle! Currently the members of the army are fighting him, but as expected, they can’t hold on for much longer, your majesty!”
Rahamma’s eyes trembled greatly at the soldier’s report.
He alternated his gaze between the distant fortress up on the hill, and the relatively-close carriage with the Imperial Family members inside sprinting across the city’s streets.
The feudal lords leapt up and also landed on the rooftop, then walked over to their king to ask, “W-what will you do, your majesty?”
“All of you, head to the fortress.”
The feudal lords flinched in surprise and exchanged glances with one another.
“Go and keep the Crown Imperial Prince busy for the time being. In the meantime, I…” King Rahamma turned his head away. He locked his gaze on the carriage that had finally arrived at the city’s gate and was about to exit the city limits altogether. “…shall eliminate the monster over there and join you later.”
He quickly dashed forward.
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