Kuro no Maou

Chapter 104 Cross Fire

“There are quite a lot of them.”

Crossing through the river that was being rained with numerous arrows and lightning, white figures started approaching.

We had shot down a lot of them but the enemy are moving as if it didn’t even affect them. I once again realized that our enemies have an incredible number of soldiers on their side.

“Say, can we really——stop that?”

Irina-san who was standing beside me while firing countless lightning arrows at once, asked me that.

Those words were filled with half doubt and half expectations.

“It’ll be fine. We’ll stop them definitely.”

For now I’m waiting for the enemy to enter our firing range.

“In my wor—homeland, this had changed the way of war itself. It can completely stop soldiers to charge in from the front.”

Probably. But I didn’t say that. I can’t use vague words at such a moment after all.

“Well whether it’s true or not, we’ll now in a few minutes.”

“that’s true, I’m looking forward—-to it!”

The enemy would completely cross the river after a few more meters.

I guess pulling them till here is enough.

“Magic Bullet Arts—–“

With the black baton [Black Ballista Replica] in my hand, I pointed it towards the oncoming Crusaders.

I concentrate my magical energy as I wait to release the thousands of bullets that have been already [Loaded] inside. And soon the enemy finally entered the kill zone of my black bullets.

Filling every bullet with hatred and the will to kill, only sarcastic words came to my mind as I got ready to send them to the other world.

“Welcome to Alsace—– Sweeping fire – Gatling Burst.”

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“منع صخرة حجر كبير جدار لحماية— Terra Armour Shield!!”

Before even feeling any killing intent, Norz instinctually felt danger bells ringing inside his head.

His instinct had saved his life countless times till now and so this time as well, he let instinct rule his body as he deployed an intermediate level defensive earth magic.

A giant rock wall came out from the river bed and covered Norz’s body completely.

And the very next moment he felt bloodlust along with the sound of explosions, something bursting and getting destroyed—— and also, screams

“wh, What!?”

A lot of something ‘hard’ came and smashed against the rock wall.

Norz shouted when he realized that the rock wall’s surface was being shaved off but there was no one who could answer him.

The subordinate who had been standing right next to him till now had already become a silent corpse and had fallen.

And it was not just him. The corpses of the troops kept on rising,2, 3, 4—-in a matter of few seconds, the number of corpses had increased exponentially.

Norz finally realized that small countless black balls were being fired at them.

The pierced into the bodies of the soldiers at a high speed not traceable with the eyes of a normal human and, depending on the point where it hit, it could instantly take the life of the soldier.

“This dark element magic——no, could this be the black magic activated from the divine protection of the evil god!?!”

Peeking out slightly from the cover of his giant shield, Norz focused towards the source from where this bullet attack was coming from.

In his eyes, two jet black figures appeared, that were firing bullets towards the soldiers from the two ends of the fence while making a *giyarigiyari* systematic sound.

(“I see, so that’s the identity of the ‘Devil’ that annihilated Kievan’s squad!?”)

He didn’t know whether he was correct but to him that was how evil the image of the man dressed in full black and an evil-looking face along with the other one that had only a skull as a head looked like.

But what was more surprising wasn’t their evil appearance but the power of black magic that could create a mountain of corpses so quickly.

The man was using a baton and the skull-head was using a never before seen long tube of iron. Norz confirmed that these were the ones firing the bullets.

(“Were the soldiers who came back after running telling the truth? Could it be that they can really use insta-kill attack magic consecutively?........”)

The countless bullets flew and easily pierced through their chainmail and gave fatal wounds.

The remnants of Kievan’s squad had certainly testified that but, Norz had only perceived it as [ there is one strong adventurer there] only.

Although he regretted not thinking up any counter tactics against the ‘Devil’, he quickly changed his thoughts and focused back into the battle.

“تجنب الثابت، هيئة قوية لحماية― Terra Defence!!”

To face those black bullets without any cover was too dangerous. Norz activated a defensive magic, although of lower level, but one that could cover the maximum area.

A wall of rock appeared from the riverbed but it was much thinner than his Terra Armour Shield and could not guarantee absolute protection against the bullets.

(“Not making the magicians cross the river has backfired on me. I can’t protect the troops alone.”)

Numerous soldiers scrabbled over to take cover against the Terra Defence but even its covering range was also limited.

There were those who could not make it in time, those who were far away in the first place and those who unluckily got hit by bullets that pierced through even the wall and hit them. There was no end to the increase in the deaths.

(“As long as we do not have a way to defend, stopping would actually increase the damages. There is no other way but to harden your resolve and keep on advancing!”)

“Do not falter! Keep on charging! Attack!! We have the greater numbers; we’ll settle it in an instant!!”

Norz once again raised his voice and gave the order to attack.

The soldiers had already resolved to die. If there was no way to retreat then they could only try and advance. All the soldiers understood that.

“uooooo! Attack!!”

“Aim for that black devil!!”

“Yeah, if we can kill it we’ll win!!”

“Kill the devil!!”

“In the name of God!!”

“Kill the demons! Kill the Devil!!”

Stepping over the corpses of their fallen comrades, the Crusaders advanced while raising their shouts.

“Yeah! Advance!!”

After confirming that the soldiers had started to attack, Norz also resolved himself to move.

“تجنب الثابت، هيئة قوية لحماية—- Protect Boost”

Putting the minimum defence enhancement on his body, the moment he was about to get out of the cover,

*ZUGAN!!*

The giant shield was pierced by something and the shock blew Norz towards the rear.

“Guhaaa!!!”

Within his faint consciousness, he saw the two giant black logs that had pierced his giant shield and he also saw the ‘device’ used to launch the logs.

“A Ballista?.......Why, do they have something like ........”

“Priest-sama!”

“Priest-sama was shot!!?”

The shouts of the troops felt very distant to Norz.

“Don, Don’t be flustered, I’m fine..........”

He realized that two soldiers were supporting him but his vision was spinning around as if he was drunk and he couldn’t even make out their faces.

“Don’t mind me, Go, retreat is not—–“

While his consciousness became even fainter, in the skies above, he clearly saw countless shadows even then.

“—–The Pegasus Knights have arrived. With this, we’ll win.......”

As Norz gave a smile, he let go of his consciousness.

With soldiers attacking from the ground and the Pegasus knights attacking from the air, the defence of Alsace protected by the Devil will definitely fall.

Norz was still sure of his victory.

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“Amazing! This really is an amazing weapon!!” (mozrun)

Mozrun was excited as he fired the machinegun supported on a carriage.

His appearance was definitely like a death god and now that he had taken so many lives, he truly could be called a reaper.

“Take that! Good job coming from the other side of the sea just to die!!”

Hiyaha!! His hyena like laugh didn’t suit the image of a death god at all though.

But the machinegun was clearly the weapon of a death god that could take lives in an instant. Also only he, a dark magician could make use of this.

Kurono had requested Simon to make a machinegun but in this different world where neither science and tech nor the machine industry had been developed, they could never make a machine gun similar to that of what exists on Earth.

What Kurono wanted was a substitute magic for his [Magic Bullet Arts]. He wanted to build a weapon that would rapid fire bullets with magic and not with gunpowder.

In short, this was Magic Staff based on a machine gun. In the first place, [Guns] were only of such type in this world.

It’s appearance was only like a box with a grip from which a barrel tuck out. From Kurono’s pov it was a very ill-formed gun. But its inside was was built with a magic similar to Kurono’s [Magic bullet arts] which made rapid firing of bullets possible.

And the only one who could use this magic technique was the dark magician Mozrun who had the most similar type of magic to Kurono’s black magic.

“Mu! No good, the barrels heated up. Quickly, change it!!”(mozrun)

“”Yes!””

2 goblins quickly started to replace the barrel of the machine gun.

Thanks to the practice done just for this day, they were able to work very smoothly.

In the first place, the magic formula behind the machinegun was –‘ to cover the technique equations with actual materials/substance’.

For example, the gun barrel had the effect of deciding the bullet’s direction and stability of the trajectory.

When you think of firing bullets with magic, one has to put magical energy and concentration to fix the above aspects as well before using the magic itself.

By using the ‘substance’ called gun barrel, the amount of techniques and formulas required were lessened.

The [Staff] that is the weapon of a magician was meant to reduce the burden on the caster. This machinegun was also made with the same effect in mind.

Kurono’s [Magic Bullet Arts] were made with an image of gun in mind in the first place. Conversely speaking, if a ‘shape’ like a gun was also given, most of the formulations could be left out.

The magic effects required to fire the machinegun are ‘loading the bullet’ and ‘a force to be used in place of gunpowder’.

The bullets are ‘summoned’ directly inside the chamber and then all that’s left is to use dark magic to bring out enough pressure to fire the bullet directly out of the barrel.

Mozrun could exhibit both these magic effects well which is why he could use the machingun to display the same destructive strength as Kurono.

By the way, since the part of firing the bullet is done through magic, there is no trigger even though it’s a gun.

“Boss, how’s it over there?”(mozrun)

Since Lily’s telepathy was currently covering all the area in the surrounding of the main gate, anyone could freely talk as long as they were in the area.

Mozrun communicated with Kurono who was many meters away.

“I can still keep on firing. What about you?”

“I can make bullets but the barrels are exhausting very fast. I won’t last too long like this.”(mozrun)

“I guess that problem would come considering how hurriedly we created it. But right now we have no other choice. Use them as much as you can without destroying it by cooling them.”

“Leave it me! I might not look like it but I’m pretty damn good at economising!”

Ahhahha. Kurono gave a wry smile as he heard Mossan’s usual cheerful laugh.

“”The barrel has been changed Mozrun-san!!””(goblin)

“ A’right! Then let’s start firing back again!!!”(mozrun)

He once again clasped the grip and started a full burst against the advancing army.

Crusaders that attacked with a tremendous number; the only reason they could not come any closer was due to Kurono and Mozrun were holding the line through their Cross firing.

That idea came from the time when Kurono had single-handedly killed over a 100 soldiers of Kievan’s squad at Irz village. Although at that time he was under the berserk state due to the cursed hatchet, his memories of that time were still vivid.

After Kurono became the leader, when he was using his almost nil experience to think up plans, he once again realized the tremendous effect ‘shooting’ had against them.

To have been able to kill more than a 100 soldiers alone was due to simple advantage that a gun had over a sword.

And so he thought, that if he was able to prepare even one more machinegun like attacking method, they could use ‘crossfire’ to efficiently kill the advancing troops of the enemy.

Cross fire was called so because two machineguns were used in a line that their target range intersected at a point. It was a tactic that was very efficient when defending.

This tactic had first appeared during World War 1 but was also used in the Russo-Japanese war as well, or so Kurono remembered.

And the same scene was once again revived here in this Alsace defensive battle as well.

The distance to the other shore was left was only about 10 meters. But it was distance that no one was able to cross to.

Legs getting trapped in the flow of the river, the speed of the river’s flow made running almost impossible and made the distance to the other shore much greater.

But still, the soldiers kept on advancing without even knowing the fact that until this rain of black bullets stopped, they would not be able to even get to the other shore.