Forced march (6)

The leader's eyes bulged in disbelief. Not even a formidable siege weapon could pierce the iron gates.

"Damn it! Shoot directly at them!"

Instructions were issued that were almost like a temporary measure. As the castle gate had already been breached, if they couldn't stop them here, the battle would quickly tilt in their favor.

The subordinates, aware of this, also aimed directly at Shirone and pulled their bows.

"Fire!"

Forty magic projectiles were fired with all their might and flew towards Shirone.

Even after seeing the arrows approaching rapidly, Shirone didn't move. This was because escaping the explosion range with just the teleportation radius was impossible.

However, Spatial Shift was a different story.

The moment the forty arrows fell, Shirone's body turned into a flash of light and soared into the sky.

Kaboom!

The sound of Spatial Shift echoed as a powerful explosion destroyed the place where Shirone had stood.

Tess looked at the explosion incredulously. The thunderous echo made them feel like they were in the center of a battlefield.

"Shi-Shirone..."

The magnitude of the explosion was enormous, enough to shake one's senses. Therefore, no one knew that Shirone had used spatial movement.

However, Amy was an exception. It's said that for archers, the sound of arrows being shot is the clearest, and for swordsmen, the clash of swords is heard most clearly.

Therefore, as a mage, Amy could clearly hear the unique sound of spatial movement even amidst the roar of the explosion.

"Shirone is safe. Let's go in too."

Amy moved forward, cutting through the smoke. As expected, when they left the explosion site, they saw Shirone standing in front of the fortress.

Spatial Shift bends light, so it looked as if he was rising into the sky when it was actually an optical illusion.

In reality, Shirone wasn't ascending into the sky but bending space.

Moreover, such an illusion could only be observed from a distance, and if seen up close, it would seem to suddenly disappear.

This was why mages used sound to determine if spatial movement was being used.

"Hahaha! It's over! Completely finished!"

"There's no trace left! There's nothing to fear anymore. Guys, get ready to charge!"

The Falkoa men put down their bows and grabbed their weapons. Now that the mage displaying the most threatening power was dead, they had nothing to fear.

Tess, who was watching this, tilted her head. Clearly, Shirone was standing in front of the iron gate like the Grim Reaper, but the enemies were applauding.

"What, what's wrong with them?"

"They didn't hear the sound of spatial teleportation like I did. They think Shirone is dead."

The Falkoa men didn't take long to correct their mistake.

As Shirone slowly retreated and appeared outside the fortress wall's blind spot, everyone was surprised as if they had seen a ghost.

"Leader! There...!"

The leader's face turned red. Shirone, who should have been torn apart by the bombardment, was looking defiantly at the castle wall.

"You, bastard!"

Before launching a large-scale siege, Shirone decided to give their enemies one last chance.

"Release Jiss's sister. Then we'll leave."

The leader looked at Shirone without understanding. Leave after causing all this chaos? Where to? Do you think you'll leave? Is this some kind of amusement park that charges an entrance fee?

"Do you think we'll let you go? The true face of a siege begins when the gates are breached. Do you know how much effort it took to build that magic circle you ruined? You can't pay for it even with your life. We'll torture you until you beg to die."

"I don't want to get involved in a pointless fight. It was you who made the mistake from the beginning. I wish you'd stop now."

"Hahaha! Hat? Do you want us to stop? Do you know who we are? We are the Parrot Mercenary Band that lives and dies on the battlefield! Guys, let's go! Kill them!"

"Uaaaaa!"

The subordinates raised their swords and cheered.

Seeing that words were useless, Shirone sighed and walked towards the fortress wall's blind spot.

"How considerate of you to come yourself! Guys, get down there right now... huh?"

At that moment, the leader stopped speaking. In an instant, a scene flashed through his mind.

It was a strange magic that turned falling rocks into dust. Can they really say that the walls here are harder than rocks?

"H-Hey, wait a minute...!"

The leader rushed up the stairs and checked the fortress gate. As expected, Shirone was going through the metal gate and pushing it down.

"Hey, hey, is this punk joking? This can't be possible..."

The leader's voice trembled with horror. He felt his face growing pale.

"Hey! Stop doing that! Do you know how much effort it took to build this wall? Hey!"

Shirone completed the magical preparation and briefly looked at the leader standing on the stairs.

The leader who faced that gaze finally realized

that the decision had already been made.

"Evacuate! Everyone jump to the ground!"

The moment the leader climbed the stairs and shouted, Shirone muttered quietly.

"Photon Explosion."

Kaboom!

A 20-meter-wide photon explosion pulsed 15 times per second. The fortress wall shook as if there had been an earthquake, and the Falkoa men lost their balance and fell.

As expected, being a massive structure, it had exceptional durability. However, Shirone didn't stop the Photon Explosion. After all, the law of physics says that the durability of materials has a limit. If you keep hitting, eventually it will break.

The iron gate made a loud metallic noise, as if it had been hit with a hammer, and cracks like lightning crossed the fortress wall.

The cracks continued branching out and infiltrating the entire castle wall until the ground began to shake, and signs of collapse began to appear.

The leader was at a loss.

He was a veteran and had quite a bit of experience in siege warfare, but although he had witnessed a destroyed fortress before, this was the first time he had seen a brute force collapse method. An entire fortress.

"Arghhh! Okay, we lost! Stop!"

The leader shouted, but his voice couldn't even reach a meter due to the mass-filled photons pounding the fortress like a drum.

'Darn it! This can't be happening!'

This was really dangerous.

If the fortress collapsed like that, the fate of 40 lives would have been left in God's hands.

"Uuuuu!"

Shirone frowned and focused on his Photon Explosion. He was bringing everything down around him at an alarming pace, with no acceleration or deceleration.

From a vantage point where the fortress walls were visible, Tess stared at the scene without understanding.

At first, part of the central part of the wall was destroyed, followed by hysterical cracks that spread along the wall. The left side seemed to sink slightly, and then the right side sank to balance it.

And finally...

Kureureureureureung!

The entire fortress collapsed.

"My goodness... That's a human weapon, isn't it?"

Rian agreed with Tess's sentiments. Until now, Shirone had tended to use magic to protect others.

When he really set out to destroy something, they realized again how different the results could be even with the same magic.

"It's definitely incredible. I guess I didn't fully understand Shirone either."

Amy said, smiling in agreement. While combat wasn't everything for a mage, it was her pride.

"Shirone normally doesn't escalate things. However, when he sets his mind to it, his fighting ability itself is extremely outstanding. At this level, he could easily rank among the top of the class."

Tess chuckled. She seemed to know what Amy was talking about.

'Certainly, she's been nurturing, consciously or unconsciously. Anyhow, looks can be deceiving.'

Amy was genuinely pleased with Shirone's growth. At this rate, graduating together might not just be a dream.

'I see you followed me well, Shirone.'

When the storm passed, the walls had completely collapsed. While the wall built near the valley still retained some of its shape, the center was as if a huge rock had rolled over it, completely flattened.

"Phew..."

The mercenary buried in the stone groaned and writhed.

Not a single person came out unscathed. Even the squad leader who had tried to stop Shirone couldn't avoid the collapse and had a broken arm.

But he was so devastated that he couldn't even feel the pain.

The five years of hard work required to build a hideout in the north passed in an instant.

"It can't be. Destroyed by a single person? The Parrot Mercenary Band?"

The squad leader was startled by the sound of Shirone's approaching footsteps. Facing Shirone's intense gaze, he felt an uncontrollable wave of fear.

"Bring Jiss's sister now! Otherwise, you won't survive!"

"Ah!"

The leader covered his face unconsciously. Then his broken arm dangled and swung before his eyes.

"Phew...!"

The leader, seeing his grotesquely bent arm, rolled his eyes and fainted.

Shirone and his group passed the first checkpoint.

***

"Wow. That's amazing, Shirone."

Marsha had been watching Shirone's combat from a spot 200 meters away from the wall.

Sitting on a spread-out handkerchief on the ground, she seemed as calm as if she were on a picnic.

It's sad what happened to her subordinates. But enduring such pain wasn't part of being a mercenary? She herself had lost hundreds due to politicians' schemes.

"You're very strong, but very clever at deceiving people. No, was it because you were strong that you had so much room to maneuver?"

She knew it. The boy had talent for magic, but she didn't expect this level of power.

Most impressive was that all of Shirone's magic was applied from his own original mana pool.

'Unlocker…'

Marsha was in a good mood.

She liked the fact that Shirone was strong and also appreciated that he was a hypocritical person pretending to care about others' pain.

More thrilling than anything else was the fact that, sooner or later, such a pure and beautiful child would become a black bowl in her hands.

"You're a decade too young to catch me, kid."

Marsha stretched and got up from her seat. Her bracelet glowed intensely and led her to a cliff in the north.

***

Shirone and his group continued heading north. As most of Falkoa's men were injured at the first gate, there was no battle.

"This way."

Finding the path through the forest fell to Amy's responsibility.

Running aimlessly in a natural labyrinth could easily result in losing one's sense of direction.

However, this common sense did not apply to Amy. Tess, following Amy, realized she had the potential to shine in intelligence operations.

"Indeed. You can use Red Eyes in this manner."

Amy's self-image memory perfectly restores a specific state at a given moment. Therefore, as long as she didn't lose consciousness, she could accurately determine the direction regardless of where she was transported.

"Amy, there's a mountain trail over there."

As soon as Shirone spoke, Amy changed direction and left the forest.

The winding mountain path led to the summit.

Tess checked the terrain. Although it seemed like a while had passed, there were signs of carriages having passed by.

"From now on, it's their territory. In terms of a siege, we've entered their inner walls, haven't we?"

It was a welcomed relief for those exhausted from running through the forest.

But it wasn't a situation in which they could relax yet. Even though they had decimated most of the troops, the leaders, the so-called executives, were nowhere to be seen.

"If we follow this path, we'll reach their hideout. Let's hold on a little longer."

Amy said as if she were certain, but in reality, she wasn't sure. She simply felt the obligation as a leader to boost her friends' morale for success.

Based on her self-image memory, the sum of movements and distances covered in battles indicated that they had moved approximately 12 kilometers from the starting point. In a straight line, they had advanced over 7 kilometers on the map.