Kuro no Maou

The one shouting while spitting foam from sides of mouth was the playboy Elf from before who told me the meaning of Nameless just before.

His slim browswere angled unnaturally, his eyes being half white and half bloodshot, and he was baring his teeth while waving his tongue out, just like a hunger-struck dog.

That beautiful face of his is already past.

「I should’ve stopped him......」

The Elf departed to the arena gallently, defeated the lizardman, who was taken over by curse, with his unexpectedly sharp sword attacks, it went greatly till there.

The next moment he elegantly took up the opponent’s Nameless sword, he also went down the same fate as the lizardman.

「GuuggeeeeggEEEEeeeee!」

And this is what has become of him.

How cruel, I want to scold in my head, but the spectators are crueler.

The scene of the beautiful Elf getting taken over by curse was much more popular than the lizardman, apparently, resulting in the increase of uprush at once.

「Well then, the next person is, an Adventurer who ranked up at tremendous speeds and is also a secret topic within Guilds, a member of Rank 3 Adventurer Party『Element Master』, the Black Magician, Contender Kurono!!」

It’s the first time I hear myself being a secret topic. It’s hard to guess if it’s a truth or just a lie to enliven things.

Whilst hearing the ardent announcement of the man, the officials standing beside me give a GO sign to me.

This place is the passage reaching the arena.

The moment I pass through the entrance three steps in front of me, the insane Elf shouting near the centre of arena would percept me and attack on me.

Unless I enter from that entrance, no, that barrier covering the whole arena, the insane person inside won’t be attacking me. Moreover, the barrier covering the arena is a transparent one, just like the one that was present on the castle walls of Daedalus.

It is installed with perception interference magic, and other strong defensive magic to protect the spectators from effects of long-range attacks.

This strong barrier should be placed on a stronghold, but, I can now understand the enthusiasm of people of Spada, who love sword battles the most.

Leaving that aside, I should just finish this match immediately.

「Let’s go」

Mumuring quietly like that, I headed towards the arena.

.

.

.

「Well then, the next person is, an Adventurer who ranked up at tremendous speeds and is also a secret topic within Guilds, a member of Rank 3 Adventurer Party『Element Master』, the Black Magician, Contender Kurono!!」

Thanks to the amplification magic, the moment this announcement was made, in one of the seat among ten thousand seats, one person’s heartbeat increased. It was Erina.

That was not because of the fact that she herself was the person making Kurono a secret topic in Guild, but because she was worried about Kurono.

(Kurono-kun, will you be really fine......)

The cursed sword being swung currently in the Arena was the one that had made every person go mad till now, ever since the first match.

That Elf swordsman was a Rank 3 Adventurer, his sword skills were also something. As an extra info, he had made moves on her. Although she had rejected them all.

Anyhow, even someone having good ability like him was easily taken over by the curse. No matter if it was just a Nameless, but Erina was made to realize the threat of Cursed Weapons.

(Hmm, it’ll be fine, that serial killer was much more scary after all)

The insane movements of Elf swordsman resembled a lot to that of serial killer Joto, who beat Erian down to the very bottom of fear, however she didn’t see that incident as a nightmare.

(Kurono-kun will definitely not lose!)

The moment she settled that in her heart, a single black shadow landed on the Arena just like a gale.

The distance between the first floor arena and second floor stands was quite a lot, but to make up for it, the barrier covering the Arena had an ideal magic engraved into it for spectating.

It didn’t increase the eyesight like『Hawk Eye』, but rather it enlarged everything inside the barrier and showed it on the transparent wall.

Therefore, even in the clear sky-blue eyes of Erina, that human figure was clearly visible.

It was a single man appearing in the Arena with light steps, whilst fluttering his black hair along with the black coat.

「Kyaaaaaa! Kurono-kun, go for it!!」

Erina cheered for the contender for fourth match, Kurono.

Naturally, it would not reach the ears of Kurono standing in the Arena. Considering the loudness of the venue, her voice would only reach one or two seats in her surroundings.

「Who is that girl?」

「Who knows, probably some friend of that Kurono man?」

The young female spectators sitting beside Erina rolled their eyes at her.

(Hmph, as if lowlifes like you will ever understand the appeal of Kurono-kun)

Rather than embarrassment, her feelings for Kurono won over, making her enraged on the females.

「I liked the face of that Elf from before」

「That black coat, so lame!」

(Like you will ever understand his appeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Erina’s resentment increased as she started gritting her teeth towards the females ridiculing Kurono.

「Go for it!」

Even so, they should learn something from this small child purely cheering for Kurono, or so Erina thought while trying to hold back her anger thanks to her steeled rationality.

That black haired red-eyed child had a face that was hard to say of either male or female. But, he was wearing a male uniform of Royal Spada Academy, so it was easy to understand that he was a cute boy.

Holding the staple food for spectators, the Popcorn, in one hand, he was cheering for Kurono, looking at that scene Erina felt her heart soothe.

「Well then, it’s already the fourth match! Contender Kurono is from the rare class of Black Magician, oh wait, looking closely Contender Kurono doesn’t possess any weapons! Is he going to fight empty-handed like Monks!?」

The shameless words wanting spectators to be more passionate didn’t enter Erina’s ears as she watched the small child stuffing his cheeks with popcorn.

「Well then, just what sort of fight is Contender Kurono going to show――」

*Booom*

An explosion sound interrupted the announcement and reverberated in the whole Coliseum, at that moment, Erina returned her eyesight back on Arena thinking what happened there.

There was Kurono standing while holding the cursed longsword in his right hand, and the corpse of Elf, the owner of that longsword just before, was lying down.

It was obvious at a glance that Elf had already become a corpse because the cranium from above the forehead had been splattered while flashily spurting out blood and brains on the ground.

「......Eh?」

What happened, looks like this was a question that everyone other than Erina also had.

She had just take her eyes off for a second, then, just how in that short amount of time did Kurono steal that cursed sword, and also, blow up the head.

Every person had seen that decisive moment, but the spectators, none of them, were able to understand what just happened.

The question at once became noisy enough to be heard here and there in the whole Coliseum.

Kurono didn’t even declare himself as the winner, but just threw that Nameless sword which had turned all black who knows when, into a shadow extending behind his back.

It must be Dimension Magic, the sword disappeared as though sinking into the shadow, and Kurono again becomes empty-handed.

Like that, as though nothing had occurred, he turned back on his heels naturally to exit from the place.

「Eh, what, just happened?」

As expected there was one capable of answering that question.

.

.

.

The things I needed to kill the insane Elf was just two shots, a fake Full Metal Jacket, just a normal Bullet Arts and a Grenade Burst with restricted explosion power.

I sent the Grenade Burst at his right hand, so he definitely releases the Cursed Weapon, meanwhile the Bullet Art’s one bullet went to the forehead of the true body.

The Goblin who was once possessed by『Cursed Hatchet『Tsujigiri』』certainly evaded or warded off the Bullet Arts, no it was『Rifle』and『Anti-Material』at that time, anyhow, it warded them off with the blade, it showed truly terrifying reflexes.

As a Nameless is of lower grade, so it’s easy to guess that the Berserk Level will also be lower than that.

In short I thought about like this, wouldn’t it do to be half-assed about it?

And my predictions hit the mark, the bullets magnificently hit the mark.

「It sure ended fast」

I murmured while watching the Elf male lying dead while spurting blood from forehead and the brains from back of head.

The Nameless sword is already in my hand.

I didn’t aim for it. Just that the sword got blown thanks to Grenade Burst and ended up flying towards me.

If I just stood there it might’ve hit me right in face, or had I dodged it, it would’ve been troublesome to be going to pick it up, so I decided catch it.

It came at me at the speed of arrow, but I’m not an remodelled human for nothing. Even without Boost, I can easily catch a sword coming at me.

And as usual, the hateful voices reached my head from the hilt, which I forcibly shut up with blackening, and threw it inside Shadow Gate.

Maybe it ended anti-climactically that even the spectators were making noise about something and not a single was giving me a round of applaud.

Well whatever, I didn’t participate to make them happy.

Like this, my first Sword Battle Tournament ended, period.

「......Hm?」

Or maybe not.

I moved towards the entrance for leaving this place at once, but suddenly the I sensed magical energy increasing――no, speaking precisely, I saw something shine brightly.

I have very bad premonition, but I don’t seem to have an option of not turning around.

「I somehow seem to remember experiencing something similar」

The sources releasing the lights were 8.

A circle of 2 metres of diameter was drawn with bright blue colour. It was made from geometrical patterns and another-world alphabets mixed together.

I don’t know what that Magic Equation is about, but I immediately understood the effect of magic. In short it is Summon Magic.

From the lights appeared different people holding different weapons. Human, Elf, Dwarf, Goblin, Orc, Lamia, Cyclops and Gargoyle.

All of them were showing the white of the eyes, had rough wild breath, and were all raising groans from their mouths.

They were all in Berserk State, as for reason, naturally are those Cursed Weapons in their hands.

「Wooooooooww! An accident has occurred! Looks like the other Cursed Weapon-users we had as spares were all released at once due to a mistake!!」

I see, so this is the surprise.

Although I know it, but this situation makes me remember ‘that’ even if I don’t want to.

There is one enemy on the field, and suddenly there are near tens of reinforcements.

This makes me remember of when I first used the black magic, about those annoying mobile experiments.

「Making me remember the darkest times」

I can feel the sensation of heartbeat pulse from inside the Shadow Gate.

It’s only that which can react this much to my anger.

「Fine, help me vent my anger in quite a while――」

I held my hand above me shadow and a jet-black hilt appeared with a force as though some hungry wild animal was attack at its prey.

「――Let’s go『Absolute Grudge Hatchet「Kubidan」』」