Chapter 517: Nowhere to Run
"Enemy?"
Inside the cave, where a gentle warmth lingered in the air, Chaldea’s group, who had been conversing with Oberon, were all left speechless.
Why?
Simple.
It was because Riezel suddenly burst in from outside and, without any warning, threw out a single sentence.
"Our location has been exposed, so the enemy is closing in on us right now."
With just this one line, not only did Chaldea’s group fall silent in surprise, but even Artoria, who had followed along at a quick jog, froze on the spot.
Only Oberon reacted immediately, rising to his feet.
"Seriously, that was fast... Who’s coming?"
Oberon frowned, his face turning serious as he questioned Riezel.
"Fairy Knight Tristan—or rather, Baobhan Sith."
Riezel answered right away, glancing at Tristan.
As soon as his words fell, Tristan raised her eyebrows slightly, and Da Vinci also showed a look of surprise.
"What a coincidence."
Da Vinci murmured under her breath.
"No, it’s not a coincidence."
At Da Vinci’s murmur, Oberon quickly shook his head.
"Fairy Knight Tristan—no, Baobhan Sith, is Morgan’s adopted daughter and has inherited Morgan’s grand magecraft called ’Mirror,’ which allows her to teleport anywhere at will. You all only arrived in Faerie Britain today, so you don’t know."
"Normally, even if the news had reached Camelot, it would take some time for them to send soldiers, so for someone to arrive here so quickly, it could only be Baobhan Sith, who inherited Morgan’s Mirror."
"So, it actually makes sense that she’s the one who came."
After finishing his explanation to the clueless group of Chaldea, Oberon asked Riezel again.
"Who else is coming besides Baobhan Sith?"
Clearly, Oberon did not think Baobhan Sith would come alone.
Baobhan Sith might be a Fairy Knight, but among the Fairy Knights, she was by far the weakest, her power nowhere near that of Lancelot or Gawain. In this situation, there was no way she would try to take on Riezel, who had defeated Gawain, Woodwose, and Lancelot all by himself.
If she did, she would be walking straight into her own doom.
For that reason, she shouldn’t be coming alone.
As it turned out, that was indeed the truth.
"Besides Baobhan Sith, there’s Beryl Gut, along with a force of a few hundred fairy soldiers."
Riezel relayed the intel he had observed with ’God’s Eye’ to everyone.
"Beryl Gut?" Oberon narrowed his eyes.
’It’s him?’ Da Vinci’s heart skipped a beat, her brows furrowing.
"Who is he?" Tristan’s handsome face now showed a trace of worry as he asked.
""Beryl Gut...""
At the same time, Ritsuka and Mash were both confused, but something in their minds began to stir, as if they were on the verge of remembering something.
Riezel, acting as if he had not noticed any of this, spoke again expressionlessly.
"Right, there’s also a seductive woman in a white military uniform following those two. Judging from her aura, she’s not a fairy, not a human, and not a Servant—she’s some special kind of being apart from all three."
As Riezel finished speaking, the faces of everyone except Artoria and Tristan changed dramatically.
’A seductive woman in a white military uniform?’ Da Vinci thought solemnly. ’Could it be her...?’
For the first time, Da Vinci’s expression shifted.
Let alone Da Vinci, even Ritsuka and Mash seemed to have a profound impression of such a figure and could not help but widen their eyes, even with their lost memories.
Even Oberon’s face darkened slightly, and he fell silent.
As Riezel took in everyone’s reactions, he was not surprised at all.
He knew the original work well, so of course, he understood just what kind of background that seductive woman truly had.
Her origins were even more extraordinary than Lancelot or Gawain, because she could be said to be on par with the very source of Faerie Britain’s ’Calamity.’
Put simply, if that woman ever returned to her true self and revealed her true form and power, she would probably become the most terrifying being in this Lostbelt.
Neither Lancelot, nor Gawain, nor even Morgan herself, could compare to her—in fact, her arrival alone placed a great deal of pressure on Riezel.
Fortunately, she was not yet in her ’complete’ state—at least, not enough to become truly terrifying.
Bearing this in mind, Riezel, as if wanting to cut the situation short, spoke to the group.
"Our enemies have already formed an encirclement and are closing in on us. If we’re not preparing to fight back, then we should retreat while we still can."
Hearing this, everyone put aside their shock and started thinking.
"If we want to retreat, where can we go?"
Among the group, the first to speak was none other than Da Vinci.
In this perilous situation, this genius, capable of anything, no longer seemed prepared to remain silent.
"Even though we haven’t surveyed the area specifically, isn’t the terrain here pretty bad?"
Currently, Riezel and the others were in the hills several kilometers outside the Nameless Forest, which was part of the coastal zone, with the sea on both the left and right sides and the forest behind them.
Since only the road ahead led toward the central region, Riezel and the others could only move forward or fall back, as the sea on either side meant those routes were out of the question.
According to Riezel, Baobhan Sith and the others were already spreading their net in front, closing in fast, which meant that if he and the others wanted to retreat, they could only go backward.
However, the problem was, not only did the Nameless Forest—cursed to make people forget their memories—lie behind them, but the forest was also by the sea where Chaldea’s group had landed on its shore.
If they tried to retreat, they would have to run into the Nameless Forest and hide there, which meant not only would they become trapped prey, but they would also have to endure the curse of amnesia.
In this situation, there really was nowhere to run.
"Unless we fly away through the sky, but wouldn’t that be too conspicuous?" Da Vinci pointed out their predicament. "Besides, we can’t even fly..."
"Yeah..."
"Mm..."
Ritsuka and Mash both replied weakly.
"Flying isn’t a problem—I can take care of that." Riezel said calmly. "The question is whether we can break through the encirclement that way."
He possessed a magic spell called ’Mass Fly.’
As the name implied, Mass Fly was a flight magic that could be applied to several people at once, allowing both the user and the targets of the magic to fly.
With Mass Fly, everyone present would be able to take to the sky, so that much was not a concern, but as Da Vinci had said, simply flying into the sky would make them far too conspicuous.
Fairies had eyesight far surpassing that of humans, so even if Riezel and the others flew thousands of meters up, they would likely still be spotted as blurry figures in the sky.
In other words, escaping by air was not really an option.
If it were just Riezel alone, he could use ’Complete Invisibility’ to erase his presence and slip away with ease, but unfortunately, it could only be cast on himself and would not work for anyone else.
Meanwhile, the lower-tier ’Invisibility’ could maybe be used on others, but as a mere 2nd-Tier Magic, it was much weaker, easy to see through, and could only make someone transparent, unlike the 9th-Tier Magic, Complete Invisibility, that could hide their aura, scent, or magical energy.
For beings like fairies who could track by scent and magical energy, Invisibility was useless.
For that reason, escaping by air was not going to work, and all it would do was turn everyone into easy targets for Baobhan Sith’s forces.
"What about your teleportation magecraft?" Artoria asked with a hopeful expression. "Can’t you use that to get us all out of here?"
"I can."
Riezel answered concisely, but before anyone could look relieved, he continued, as if dumping a bucket of cold water over their heads.
"Only if they just stand there and let me do it."
Upon hearing this, Artoria realized right away.
"Is it like what happened at the palace last time?"
Artoria’s slightly stunned words were answered by a nod from Riezel.
He had already sensed that the space in this area was sealed off, just like when in the royal palace, so there was no way to use teleportation magic at all.
It was obvious the enemy had come prepared.
In the end, though Baobhan Sith was weak, she was still Morgan’s adopted daughter and had inherited Morgan’s Mirror, so locking down space and time like Morgan was not such a difficult feat for her.
In short—
"We only have two options now: either we fight, or we retreat into the Nameless Forest." Riezel explained calmly. "If you aren’t afraid of the curse of amnesia, retreating into the Nameless Forest isn’t actually such a bad choice."
Given that the Nameless Forest bordered the sea, they could escape by sea, taking the water route directly, since Riezel did possess magic that allowed someone to breathe underwater.
Even if he did not, with creation-type Tier Magic and Structure System Magic at his disposal, he could easily make a ship if needed. As long as they could escape onto the sea, they could circle by boat and land somewhere else, getting away cleanly.
Unfortunately, the Nameless Forest was cursed.
Aside from Riezel, Artoria, Oberon, and Da Vinci, the other three—Ritsuka, Mash, and Tristan—would all be affected by the curse and lose their memories.
In that case, the path of retreating into the Nameless Forest was not feasible, since it would only escalate the trouble they already had.
"So... we can only face them head-on?" Tristan looked even more troubled but remained composed.
"Or we could retreat to the left or right? I mean, both directions are also close to the sea..." Oberon rubbed his temples. "But those routes are barely used by anyone, so there are probably a lot of Moss built up there."
It must not be forgotten that there were plenty of Moss nearby, especially in places people never visited. In those areas, no one cleared out the Moss, so if they ran into them, they would be slowed down.
At that point, Baobhan Sith and her group could catch up at any moment.
In the end, Riezel and the others still only had one choice left.
"Let’s just fight them..." Oberon said helplessly. "We have no other choice."
Everyone held their breath and nodded, some quickly, some slowly.
"Are you all up for this?"
Artoria, a little concerned, asked Chaldea’s group.
They had lost their memories, so whether they could fight or not was truly uncertain.
Fortunately, even with their memories gone, the Servants of Chaldea did not seem to be in bad condition.
"I’m technical staff, but if it’s just dealing with a few small fry, it shouldn’t be a problem." Da Vinci smiled faintly.
"...It feels like the way to fight is already carved into this body. Even if I’ve lost my memories, once a fight breaks out, I can still use my strength." Tristan loosened up his body and gave his answer.
"I-I should be okay... right?" Mash said hesitantly.
She could feel that she was able to fight, and not just that, she even had the feeling that she might be stronger than before. Even though she was confused about this feeling, that was what the power flowing inside her body told her.
Since she had lost her memories, there was no way for her to know what had changed compared to before.
Only Da Vinci quietly glanced at Mash, a thoughtful look in her eyes.
She seemed to have some idea, but kept it to herself.
"I can fight."
Saying this, Ritsuka showed a determined look, but was quickly shot down by Da Vinci.
"You’re the Master. Your combat style is to stay in the back, give orders to Servants, and provide necessary support. There’s no need for you to fight on the front lines yourself."
Da Vinci gave Ritsuka a stern warning.
Out of everyone present, Ritsuka was clearly the weakest.
Even though he was a magus, he had barely learned any proper magecraft, and his physical abilities were only at the level of an ordinary human. Compared to Artoria before she rang the Bell of Pilgrimage, he would be completely outmatched, let alone against Morgan’s forces.
If Ritsuka’s combat power were measured by the levels from the world of Danmachi, he probably would not even reach Level 2.
On the other hand, as a Master who commanded Servants, he could provide his own magical energy to his contracted Servants, helping them unleash their power. He could also use all kinds of magecraft, mystic codes, and command spells to strengthen and support them, allowing the Servants to perform even better.
With all this in mind, Ritsuka absolutely must not be on the front lines and had to stay in the back—if necessary, he even needed bodyguards.
"In that case, we—"
Oberon was about to say something when Riezel suddenly looked up and interrupted him.
"All right, it’s too late to retreat now, even if we wanted to, since they’re already at the door."
As soon as Riezel finished speaking, before anyone could react, a wave of pitch-black magical energy gathered outside the cave.
In the next second, a massive, pitch-black magic bullet blasted into the cave.
*BOOOM!*
An explosive sound instantly rang out, startling everyone inside the cave.