Chapter 122 : Female Hero of Ice

「Hmm! As I thought, the number of monsters has increased due to the influence of the demon king from the future.」

Ciel muttered as the party advanced through the first floor. Another batch of living armor came at them from inside the labyrinth, and the number of monsters had doubled. There was even an 〝Armored Wolf? of B+ rank riding atop a living armor.

「Now, it’s my turn.」

Ciel stepped forward.

She then vigorously took off her overcoat.

「B-Bunny… Girl…?」

Aria muttered with a puzzled look on her face.

Yes, Ciel had worn fishnet stockings, a bunny girl suit, and high heels beneath her overcoat. In short, her getup looked like that of a real bunny girl, and definitely not a cosplay.

「Manifest… 《Celcius Blade》!」

Ciel raised her hand as she shouted.

Then, an ice sword emitting pale blue light appeared in her hand.

Daa!

Ciel jumped forward. Her speed was terrifying. Even though it was thanks to Tama’s 《Divine Protection of Lion King》 raising her base status, her current speed rivaled Aria’s when the latter activated her 《Acceleration》.

『『『…!?』』』

The monsters’ eyes opened wide when they saw Ciel suddenly appear right in front of them. However, as expected, their B-rank wasn’t just for show. The monsters assumed their stances in the next moment; the living armor brandished their swords while the armored wolf bared its fangs and leaped toward Ciel.

「Too slow.」

Speaking in a serene voice, Ciel struck the ground in front of her with her ice sword, 《Celcius Blade》.

Then―

「Freeze in despair! 《Celcius Circle》!」

She recited the name of her skill.

Just when everyone wondered what was going to happen―

A magic circle five meters in radius and emitting blue light appeared on the ground with Ciel as its center.

Every monster within the magic circle froze at once.

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（The holder of freeze skill… So she’s the rumored hero of Usalda Pekura, who wields the power of ice, huh…!）

The rumor turned out to be true! Tama looked at Ciel, who had overwhelmed her opponents with her power.

「This is… Ciel-sama’s power!」

「Attacking so many monsters in a large area just by stabbing your sword on the ground, that’s awesome!」

Aria and Stella were astonished upon witnessing the display of a hero’s power. In contrast, the hero herself, Ciel, had an expression as if having such a skill was not a big deal. She hadn’t even broken a sweat after releasing such a large-scale skill.

「That pale blue light… that sword isn’t just imbued with the ice element. I can also feel the holy element in it.」

「Yeah, you’re correct, Cedric. As expected of the Archmage’s brother-in-law, you’ve keen observation skills.」

Cedric accepted Ciel’s praise with a slight nod.

（I see. That pale blue light was the proof of the holy element being in the mix, huh… It means that this ice sword isn’t just an ordinary sword; it’s an ice holy sword…）

Tama fell into deep thought as he looked at Ciel’s ice sword… or rather, the ice holy sword called 《Celcius Blade》. He couldn’t help but have such expectations since Ciel was the only one who hadn’t shown her power until now.

「By the way., why did you wear… that bunny girl’s costume, Ciel-sama?」

「Ah, this… This is our tribe’s combat uniform. The reason we use this uniform is that this design allows us to make full use of our trait, which is speed.」

Ciel replied to Aria’s spontaneous question with a cool face as she pulled out 《Celcius Blade》 from the ground.

◆

「I see, we’re descending to the underground, huh.」

「Yes, the location of the Demon King Belphegor’s seal is at the bottom of this labyrinth.」

Ciel clarified Aria’s doubts while leading the way.

After walking on the first floor for a while, the party had found a stairway leading underground. Everyone could feel the piercing pressure coming from underground.

「No doubt about it. This aura is similar to that of the future’s Belphegor.」

May spoke after she looked at the compass-like thing that she took out from her pocket. According to her, that compass was a magic tool used to measure the demon king’s aura.

Since May couldn’t say the details in fear of affecting the future, Aria and co. silently agreed to go with the flow.

◆

「That’s… a flock of goblins, right?」

After they descended, Cedric muttered as he looked in a certain direction. He saw over a hundred goblins in the distance.

「Nyan, not only that, the one in the middle is…」

「Yeah, that must be a 〝Goblin King?, right, Vulcan-san?」

Cedric agreed with Vulcan.

Right in the center of the flock sat a certain goblin variant, whose height reached three meters. This goblin was covered in golden armor.

Its name was―Goblin King.

A Goblin King was the highest evolution of a goblin and was an A-rank monster. It was a troublesome monster that enjoyed absolute command over goblins, and on top of that, had powerful strength.

――Stella, can I have a bit of your time?

――OOH! Tama, Is something the matter!?

Stella happily replied to the telepathic message Tama sent her.

Tama then suggested a proposal to her.

――I think… this is the right chance to show everyone the result of our cooperation training.

――Gufufufu, sure! Let’s show them the result of our special training!

Stella happily replied with telepathy.

In this half a month, Tama had often gone to dive in the labyrinth in the middle of the night along with Stella. And if anyone was wondering what they did… they had engaged in special training to master their new skills and new cooperation skill.

「Leave those guys to Tama and me!」

After saying so, Stella stepped forward wielding Claiomh Solais in her right hand and Caladbog in her left hand. Tama also walked along with her, right by her side.

Aria, who felt some sort of confidence toward them, shouted,

「I understand. I’ll leave those guys to you two, Tama and Stella-chan.」

Thus, the two of them lunged forward.

「Well then, let’s show them our cooperation combat!」

Stella let out a war cry as she dashed toward the goblins.