Seated in a chair, Raazuka gazed at the mirror directly in front of him. The image reflected in the mirror, about three feet in diameter, was not his own. Instead, it reflected a grassy plain from somewhere else, as if it were a television. The grass calmly swayed in the breeze as if to prove that it wasn't a still image. Showing the flow of time, the sun that had just started to rise gradually banished the darkness over the plain. The pastoral scene coming into view was a far cry from the hopeless landscape of the Great Tomb of Nazarick's former world, Helheim. Raazuka lifted a hand and made a peculiar motion. The view reflected in the mirror lowered down and sped across the plains. It was a Mirror of Remote Viewing.
Since it would display a specified location, it was an item that PK (player killers) or PKK (PK killers) would find handy, but because players could conceal themselves easily enough with anti-intelligence magic and it was vulnerable to counterattacks from reactive barriers, it was also an item of questionable utility. But as an item that could display what was happening outside, there were plenty of reasons for Raazuka to use it in his current situation. As he watched the grassy plain go by from overhead, he thought it looked like a location from some movie. He'd been at this monotonous task for hours now, and he still hadn't found any meaningful signs of sentient (and preferably human) life. Out of the corner of his eye he glanced at the one other person in the room.
"What is it, Lord Raazuka? Whatever you may require, I am at your service."
"No, it's nothing, Sebas." The butler was smiling but everything he said was somehow prickly. He respected Raazuka absolutely, but it seemed he was a bit miffed about him going out without an escort—it'd been like this ever since Raazuka had returned from the surface and Sebas had caught him to give him 'advice'. Whenever he was with Sebas, he couldn't help but think of former guild member Touch Me. Not that there was anything strange about that, considering Touch Me had created Sebas. But why did they have to be so similar that they're both equally scary when they're mad? Grumbling inwardly, he turned his attention back to the mirror.
He was planning to teach Demiurge how to use the mirror as the basis of an information network. Even though it would be easier to leave this up to his subordinates, he was doing it himself with the questionable aim of getting them to think, That's our ruler, all right, when they saw him working. That's why he couldn't just get fed up partway and abandon the project. Finding really any signs of intelligent life was currently top priority. It probably hadn't even been that long since he'd started, but if he didn't get results, he would feel like he'd been wasting his time. With a glazed look on his face, he moved his hand absentmindedly and the view changed dramatically. He sighed and rested his chin on his fist in frustration. After a while, something that looked like a village appeared. It was surrounded by wheat fields, and there was a forest nearby. At a glance, it didn't look as if the civilisation were terribly advanced.
As he zoomed in, something seemed off.
"Are they having a festival?" Though it was early morning, there were people going in and out of houses, running. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry.
"No, that's not it…," Sebas, who had moved beside him, answered in a steely voice as he watched the scene with a piercing gaze. Sebas's hard tone gave Raazuka a bad feeling, and he furrowed his brow as he zoomed in farther. Knight-like figures in full plate armour were brandishing swords at simply dressed people who seemed to be the villagers.
It was a massacre.
The villagers fell one by one each time a knight raised a sword. They must not have had any means of resistance. All they could do was flee in desperation while the knights just chased them down and killed them. Horses the knights must have ridden in on were standing in the fields eating the wheat. Raazuka grinned to himself. Civilisation achieved. He sat back in his chair, allowing the events to play out before him. He felt like he was watching ants being crushed under the inevitable weight of a foot. Humans really were such a bottom feeding race. As Raazuka caught himself making this cruel assessment of what was happening, he felt suddenly confused. When had he started thinking like that? Was he already counting humanity as a different species. Nah. Can't be.
He motioned and the view came to a stop above the burning houses. Two knights were breaking up a struggle between a villager and another knight. They forcibly dragged the villager away and made him stand up, with one knight restraining his hands. Then, as Raazuka watched, the other stabbed him with his sword. The blade went clear through the flesh and came out the other side. That's probably fatal. But the sword didn't stop there. The knight stabbed once, twice, three times, over and over, as if taking out his anger. Finally he kicked the body away, and it fell, spurting blood, to the ground. Raazuka and the villager's eyes met. Or perhaps he just thought they did.
"What will you do?" Sebas asked, as if he'd been waiting for the right time. Raazuka met Sebas' hard gaze. There really was only one rational answer. Ignore them, leave them to die, I'm not a hero, why would I save these beings. Luckily for the villagers, he was not a rational sort of man.
"Touch Me was always the best of us. He was, as it were, the better man. So, Sebas, tell me what would Touch have done?"
"Saving someone in trouble is common sense, Lord Raazuka." The butler's face was stoic as ever, no emotion showing through.
"Hmm. Sebas, put Nazarick on the highest alert level. I'm going ahead. Albedo is standing by in the next room; tell her to fully arm herself and follow—but no Ginnugagap. If something happens and I become unable to retreat, send in a party with good stealth abilities or invisibility." He draped his Cloak of Deep Darkness over his shoulders to obscure his features and raised the hood.
"Understood sir. But if you need an escort, then I would—"
"If you escort me, then who will relay orders? If there are knights rampaging through that village, there's the possibility another group could appear near Nazarick while I'm gone. If that happens, I need you here."
The scene in the mirror changed and he saw a young girl send a knight staggering with a punch. Then she took a younger girl—was it her little sister?—by the hand and tried to escape. Raazuka immediately opened his item box and took out one of his least powerful weapons: Decay. It was a heavily curved sickle sword that could cut through most things with ease. Meanwhile, the girl's back had been cut. There was no time to lose. The spell glided out of his mouth. "Gate."
The spell was the most reliable transport spell in the game, with a failure rate of nearly zero percent. His view changed. Raazuka felt a tiny bit of relief that there had not been any magic blocking his teleportation. If there had been, he wouldn't have been able to save the village, and it might have ended with someone getting the jump on Nazarick.
The scene before him was the one he'd been watching a moment before—the two scared girls. The older one, probably the elder sister, had shoulder-length hair in a braid. Fear had drained the blood from her healthily tanned face. Her eyes brimmed with tears. The younger one had buried her face in the older girl's back; her whole body was trembling. Raazuka looked coolly at the knight standing before them. He must have been thrown off by Raazuka teleporting in; but his sword was still coming down toward the girls. There was no time to try and block it. He opened his empty hand, stretched it out, and promptly cast a spell.
"Grasp Heart."
Magic tiers went from one to ten, and this was a ninth-tier spell—one that caused instant death by crushing the enemy's heart. Raazuka was good at ghost magic like this, but had never specialised. His choice carried with it a very precise reason: It was one of the only spells that he could perform quickly, that caused instadeath, while also having relatively little collateral damage. And even if it hadn't worked, the spell also had a secondary stun effect, which would stop the knight regardless. In that case, he planned on taking the two girls and jumping through the still-open gate. When the strength of your enemy is unknown, you need to have an evacuation strategy and plan B ready.
But in this case the prep was unnecessary.
Raazuka closed his fist around something warm, causing the knight to drop to the ground dead. He pursed his lips slightly, looking down at the lifeless body before him. It appears that I have ceased being human in both body and mind. He moved forward, drawing his sword from his sleeves. As he passed the girls, who must have been frightened following the death of the knight, the elder sister made a hesitant noise. He wanted to know why, but he didn't have time for a Q and A. He confirmed in passing that the elder sister's shabby clothes were torn and her back was bleeding. He stepped in front of them and shot a penetrating glare at a new knight who had appeared next to a nearby house.
The knight seemed to register his presence all of a sudden and took a step back.
"So you're fine chasing little girls around, but I'm too much to handle?" Raazuka sneered at the knight in response to the clear terror the man felt at facing a superior foe. Raazuka had specialised in medium sized bladed weapons such as short spears like Gungir and his sword, Decay. He raised his sword and flew at the armoured form of the knight. His sword slid smoothly through the knight's neck, decapitating him cleanly. Raazuka reformed behind the knight and sheathed his blade. He had moved so quickly that the blood hadn't had an opportunity to adhere to the sword at all. There was a clattering of armour as the man he had just killed sunk to his knees before keeling over silently.
"How weak. They die so easily?"
To Raazuka, the technique he had used was basic. It was far too easy to avoid it, since it was basically a straight charge. All a Player really had to do was sidestep to avoid the movement of the sword, so a movement like that was not usually effective against anyone with a high enough Speed stat. He turned to the girls and noted their slight shudders as he looked toward them. He raised his arms above his head and made a fist.
"[Summon Lower Tier Spirit: Butcher]." He was especially good with things like this. Souls were a djinn's entire schtick. At once wind began to swirl, picking up speed until he was surrounded by a miniature hurricane. There was a sound like a loud hissing as the wind diminished, and a rolling grey fog began to emerge from Raazuka's feet. As soon as the fog touched the knight's sword, it began to disappear, receding into the weapon. This was the lowest form of spirit: the ones that inhabited objects such as this. The butcher in particular could possess any bladed weapons, and once it did would try to slaughter any players the area.
The blade began to float, as if waiting for orders.
"Kill the knights,"—he pointed at the decapitated corpse—"that are attacking this village."
The weapon sped off to do his bidding just as someone came through the fading Gate. The figure was covered head to toe in demonic black armour. Not a single patch of skin showed among the thorny raven-black plates. It was equipped with a raven-black kite shield, and in its hands, wearing gauntlets with spikes like claws, it casually held a bardiche giving off a faint, sickly green glow. Draped over its shoulders was a mantle the colour of fresh blood, and its surcoat was also blood-red.
"My apologies. Getting ready took some time." From beneath the horned close helmet came the charming voice of Albedo.
She had learned all the classes that had good defensive abilities or seemed appropriate for an evil knight to know. For that reason, she had the best defence out of all the level-100 warrior-type NPCs (Sebas, Cocytus, herself) in Nazarick. In other words, she was the best tank they had.
"Oh, that's fine. Actually, your timing is perfect."
"Thank you. Then, how will you dispose of these lower life-forms that are still alive? Would you rather I dirty my hands in your place?"
"Didn't Sebas tell you? We're saving this village. Our enemies at the moment are the ones in the armour like that guy lying over there."
Albedo indicated her understanding and Raazuka looked elsewhere.
"Now then…"
The two girls were cowering in fear, trying to hide themselves from his gaze. He raised his hands in a (hopefully) nonthreatening way and slowly moved toward them. The girls didn't see it like he did. A wet patch appeared between the older sister's legs. And then the younger sister's. I really don't have the patience to be a hero. Why am I doing this, again? Oh right, Sebas. He didn't even know why they were reacting like this. He wasn't that scary on the whole, and he doubted that not seeing someone's face would be enough to warrant this sort of a reaction. He turned and shook his head. If they wanted to die out here, he would let them.
"Albedo, come. Those who wish not to be saved, shall not be."
"My Lord tries to save you lower life forms, and you trample on his infinite kindness! How dare you! Die a thousand deaths for your insolence." She raised her bardiche to strike them down.
"Albedo! Lower your weapon."
"I hear and obey, my lord."
He swept his cloak and made to go, when suddenly, a small voice rang out behind him.
"P-please save us, sir." Oho, so the sisters have grown a backbone, eh. He took out a potion of minor healing from his back pocket and tossed it in their direction. It was the weakest potion in the game and had been regularly used for all sorts of minor scratches in game.
"Drink. It'll keep you alive."
The older one grabbed the potion and downed it in one go. Her eyes widened as the cut across her back closed over completely.
"No way…" She tried to twist around and look at her back in amazement. "All the pain is gone."
There was one other thing he had to verify.
"Do you two know what magic is?"
"Y-yes. There's an apothecary who sometimes comes to our village, my friend. He can use magic."
"I see. Well that makes things easier. I'm a caster." Nothing wrong with a little white lie.
While he was speaking, he drew a circle in the dirt around them. It was quite a weak barrier spell all told, but from what he'd observed so far, any more than this wouldn't be needed.
"Stay in there if you don't want to die. It's a barrier that blocks most weapons from entering."
"Th-thank you sir. Thank you so much. A-and I know it's shameless of me, but…we don't have anyone to rely on but you. Please, please save our mom and dad!"
"If they're alive, I will." Honestly, they're probably dead already. As grateful thanks rang out behind him, he motioned to Albedo to follow him. Having done more than he honestly needed to, he set off toward the village, Albedo at his side. Time to save these… people.