The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

Jade searched for the origin of the rushing black magic power from all directions.

At the same time, he activated the magic circles he had prepared in various parts of the city while traveling around, just in case.

The magic circles, reacting to Jade’s magic power, cut off the flow of black magic power and gathered the black magic power that should have headed toward the center of the ritual.

Yard was impressed by the sight.

“Mr. Jade, can you stop the black magic ritual?”

To Yard’s expectation, Jade shook his head.

“No. The black magic power far exceeds my expected range. This level of black magic power requires extracting the life force of at least a few thousand people, perhaps close to tens of thousands. Whatever the ritual is, I’ve only bought a bit of time.”

Even that was merely the preparatory stage when considering the progress of the ritual.

In the eyes of Jade, who had learned and mastered magic all this time, it was evident that the ritual had not even properly begun.

Yard was flustered by those words.

“It required such a large-scale human sacrifice?! But according to my investigation, the number of missing persons over the past 3 years was barely over 200!”

200 people could be considered even fewer than the usual number of missing persons.

If thousands of people disappeared at once, not just the city, but the entire territory would stagger.

The territory where this city was located was not a small one, but it was not a large territory of high nobility level either.

That’s why Jade, who had investigated with Yard, did not expect this much black magic power to gather.

“They must have extracted small amounts from over a thousand people over several years. The targets of extraction would be those from the slums managed by the underworld organizations or people in debt.”

Yard recalled the expressions of the homeless people he had seen when he first came to the city.

They had their anxiety about life castrated by spirit magic in exchange for having their life force extracted.

“But it’s strange. I learned that those who have mastered black magic are affected in the brain, making it difficult to control themselves, becoming somewhat hysterical, or developing paranoia, obsession, and such. How could they endure for so long?”

To Jade’s question, Yard found the answer without difficulty.

“Faith. Belief in a god sometimes gives a strong and solid mental strength to endure hardships.”

“What? But believers using black magic?”

“It makes sense if the object they worship is not a god but a demon. The most famous and powerful demon-worshipping cult… was it the Dawn Star Cult?”

At the mention of the Dawn Star Cult, Jade recalled what Yuan had said before about such a group existing.

Clearly, there was a monster called the ‘1st Apostle’ at the center, with a total of twelve apostles, and below them were three ranks: archbishop-level, bishop-level, and ordinary believers.

Ordinary believers were further divided into high-rank, mid-rank, and low-rank, so there were a total of five ranks.

“For a ritual of this scale, at least a high-ranking magician must be overseeing it. For now, I’ve prevented them from extracting any more life force from the city’s people, but I don’t know how long it will last. Let’s join up with Yuan first…!”

Jade, who was speaking, suddenly raised his magic staff urgently and cast multiple layers of protective barriers.

Boom! Kwaaaaaa-!!

Jade’s barriers shook from a high-level magic bombardment flying from afar.

Yard also tensed up and adjusted his posture at the sudden bombardment.

As the smokescreen created by the bombardment cleared, a woman with light blue-tinged white hair reaching her waist approached through the gap.

“Excuse me. I am the 9th Apostle of the Dawn Star Cult, Ahletan.”

Her voice was so languid that one would not have thought she was the person who had just launched that fierce magic bombardment.

Her eyes were filled with utmost boredom and annoyance.

In contrast, the aura emanating from Ahletan was brutally murderous.

Jade aimed his magic staff at her, tensing up at her greeting.

“Are you the one who prepared this ritual?”

Ahletan furrowed her brows and shook her head at Jade’s question.

“Pardon me. I am merely an assistant. The one overseeing this ritual is the 6th Apostle, Agistream. I was just half-dragged here because that paranoid patient said he felt strangely unpleasant for some reason and requested help.”

Jade could guess the identity of the ‘unpleasant feeling’ she mentioned.

It was the top-grade holy water that went into the ‘insurance’ Abassael had diligently set up under Yuan’s instructions.

They had tried to hide it as much as possible, but it was difficult to completely deceive the senses of a black magician at the apostle level.

“…Is it okay for you to answer that?”

When she readily answered, Jade became suspicious that it might be a trick.

As Jade looked dumbfounded, Ahletan, after briefly pondering with a blank expression, said with a tired sigh.

“…Pardon me, but I will have to kill you. Yes, well, I guess it’s fine then.”

Yard and Jade were convinced that it was originally information that shouldn’t be spoken.

“Excuse me, but let’s finish this quickly. I want to go back and rest.”

The moment Ahletan clasped her hands together, gathering black magic power in both hands, a magic sphere of the scale of high-level magic instantly floated in the air.

Jade also drew upon the power of winter, not backing down, and constructed a high-level magic.

Kwaaaaaa-!!

The moment the two high-level magics collided, the sky began to distort.

*******

To my question of whether he wanted to live, Vermilion laughed cheerfully as if it was obvious and answered.

“If you ask me if I want to live, of course I want to live. But I have no desire to live by extracting the lives of countless innocent people.”

His bright eyes were upright without a single speck of delusion.

“That is the justice I learned from my father, and it is my life.”

I chuckled at that uprightness.

“Your father contributed to escalating the matter to this point, you know.”

Oops, my bad habit came out again without me realizing it.

When I see someone so upright to the point of being sincere, I strangely want to provoke them.

At my mischievous words, Vermilion briefly scanned the surroundings.

Unlike the black magic power that was noisily fluctuating in all directions, there was almost no presence felt.

It was because all the citizens of the city had collapsed as the pre-stage of the ritual began.

If they continued to stay like this, most of them would lose their lives even if the ritual was not completed.

Vermilion seemed to have guessed that fact and made a bitter expression.

“I want to say there’s no way my father would do that… but yes, my father cherishes me. He is someone who would break his beliefs in order to save me. Unexpectedly, he has a weak heart.”

Having said that, Vermilion laughed heartily and then spoke seriously.

“Then I’ll have to re-establish that belief for him.”

“You unfilial son.”

He was a passionate fire-attribute filial son.

“Ahahaha! That’s right, I’m unfilial! So what? They say raising a child is useless anyway!”

I laughed cheerfully, pleased with Vermilion’s answer.

“Ahahaha! Well said! I’ll help you, so let’s commit some unfilial acts passionately. You delinquent boy.”

“I’d be happy to have your help!”

Vermilion and I lightly bumped fists.

“I’ll guide the way. Let’s go to the center of the ritual as quickly as possible and smash it.”

If it was before the ritual began, they might not know, but if they emanated black magic power so blatantly to this extent, they would find out even if they didn’t want to.

I picked up a wooden board on the street and instantly engraved a semi-gravity magic onto it using memorize magic.

It was a magic that could only levitate a few dozen centimeters from the ground and wouldn’t last long, but it was good for immediate use.

With my slow pace, I couldn’t keep up with those trained fellows, could I?

I stood on the wooden board, balanced myself, tilted the angle of the board by putting my weight forward, and pushed with the power of Navi.

“Follow me.”

I rode the wooden board that moved swiftly through the air as if sliding.

The three physical fighters lightly ran after me.

It’s faster and better than I thought?

It was a bit difficult to maintain balance, but it wasn’t too hard as I fixed my body with Navi’s power.

Vermilion, who stuck to my left, glanced at my wooden board and said.

“Hey, that looks nice?”

“Even if I make one for you, you won’t be able to ride it? You don’t know magic, so you can’t control it.”

The same went for Gilbert and Precia.

“Tsk, that’s true.”

Vermilion clicked his tongue and suddenly drew his sword and swung it.

“Kuek!”

A black magician hiding between the alleyways had his neck sliced off by Vermilion’s sword.

“Aaaagh!”

On the right, Precia bisected a black magician who was trying to ambush us with a sword wrapped in sword energy.

If it were Gilbert, he would tell her to save magic power, but sword energy was not a significant attack for Precia, so I decided to leave it.

“Ooh, is that sword energy!”

Vermilion admired Precia’s sword.

“Your father should also know how to use sword energy, right?”

If Frost was a transcendent, he would be able to use sword force with ease, not just sword energy.

“Ah, my father hasn’t drawn a sword in front of me since I fell ill. When I was young, he didn’t show me things like sword energy, saying it was dangerous.”

Vermilion chatted leisurely and cut down the Dawn Star Cult members who rushed in, emanating black magic power.

It was hard to believe he was the same person who couldn’t even fight properly against Gilbert when we first met.

“Lord Vermilion! You will become our apost… Uek!”

“Is this how you do it?”

Slice!

“Calm down and listen to u… Kuhek!”

“No, it’s not. Hmm, then is this how you do it?”

Slice!

“Subdue Lord Vermilion! A few wounds are… Uaaak!”

Slice!

Vermilion’s sword was coated with a clumsy but blackish sword energy.

After sparring with Gilbert and Precia for a few days and engaging in real combat against thugs, he awakens sword energy?

What kind of absurd talent is this?

“Oh! I think I’m getting it…! Urgh!”

As a price for his absurd talent, his fingertips began to turn black.

His body started to rot as a side effect of using magic power.

How much of Vermilion’s lifespan was consumed in that brief fight?

I couldn’t tell.

“Vermilion, refrain from using magic power. Gilbert.”

“Yes! Understood!”

Gilbert pushed Vermilion to the inside and dealt with the trash rushing in from the left.

Gilbert’s sword was also coated with a blue sword energy.

Vermilion’s eyes sparkled at Gilbert’s sword, even while feeling regretful.

To have such eyes even while his body was dying in real-time, it was no ordinary aspiration.

The trash, who looked like low-rank cult members at a glance, were sliced apart by the three people.

“Yuck, these people are disgusting.”

Gilbert swung his sword to shake off the black and sticky blood.

It’s comfortable for me to just stay still.

If enemies came from the front, I would shoot them dead with the spirit gun, but they were all popping out from the alleyways, making it awkward to use the gun.

At that moment, a huge magic wave was felt from far away, and the sky distorted with a thunderous roar that shook the entire city.

Kwaaaaaa-!!

“Wow, this magic power belongs to Jade, right?”

As befitting the protagonist, he seemed to have already encountered an apostle-level opponent and started a battle.

The place where Jade was fighting was far from the center of the ritual.

Then the fact that Jade was engaged in combat there right now meant that there were at least two apostle-level individuals in this city.

In that case, there would likely be more units of at least high-rank believers or bishop-level, but…

No, considering the current situation where the cardinal of the Sun Church was throwing a fit to catch and punish them, it would be unreasonable to pull and use them like that.

Then they must have brought Death Knights.

“Stop right there!”

As expected, as we got closer to the center of the ritual, some thug appeared with a group of Death Knights.

Where have I seen that face before?

“Ah! The cross-dressing pervert bishop, Nord!”

Right, he was a villain who never missed an episode related to the Dawn Star Cult.

At my shout, Nord yelled furiously.

“Who are you calling a cross-dressing pervert?!”