小嫂子的味道

"That\'s…that\'s a lot of them. Don\'t be reckless, I think we all should run. You can protect us that way," mother said as she was consumed with fear and worry.

Father stayed quiet.

"Don\'t worry. This is the first time I\'ve sworn to protect someone, I\'m not going to back off just like that," I said.

\'So I said,\' I thought as I looked at the millions of demon beasts charging straight toward us. \'But facing all these demons at once is going to be one hell of a task. If I were to be blunt, what I was going to do was pure madness.

\'Even though I had the Requiem sword, even though I had the ability to look 0.1 seconds in the future, even though I could use elemental magic without the use of magic circle or incantations. Despite all that I was simply outclasses in numbers.

\'I would have had to go god-speed if I wanted to face all these demons while protecting my parents at the same time. And doing that was simple not possible. I knew that. Perhaps this time I was not in control. One against millions was something that seemed impossible.\'

I sighed and prepared myself to do whatever it takes to get my parents out of here safe and sound. That was when a voice ringed in my head.

[I\'m afraid I can\'t provide you with an army to make the numbers equal. But if you want, I can at least make it two against millions. Well, that is if you want my help. I\'m not forcing you or anything.]

I lowered my head and sighed again, this time it was because I was disappointed in myself.

However, I did not have the luxury to do that for long—the ground was rumbling and it felt like it would split apart from the force. Thus I raised my head and held the Requiem sword straight.

\'Yeah, I would be glad to have you right now. Would you?\' I heard a slight giggling sound afterward.

My sword flashed a bright light and upon vanishing there was Req standing beside me with a smile on her face.

"Let\'s do it then," she said. I nodded.

Turning behind toward my parents I saw that they were as confused as I had expected them to be. It was understandable. They were seeing me do things they didn\'t have a clue about before—such as my elemental magic.

But they were not asking me about it because they were adults and knew that this wasn\'t the time for that sort of thing. I wanted to pass Req in that too.

"I promise I\'ll explain afterward," I said in an apologetic tone. They nodded after a bit of thinking and then I turned forward.

"Let\'s massacre those demons," I said and held Req\'s left hand.

She stretched out her right hand in the air and the Requiem sword materialized within her grasp. I did the same but since the sword couldn\'t be used by both of us at the same time, I used my magic to create a sword of ice.

I\'d been practicing this for quite a while and now was able to create a pretty sturdy one. I made its edge especially sharp.

"What\'s the plan?" she asked.

"Stay close to my parents and protect them. That takes the top priority. After that, reduce their numbers however you like. Running is not an option since they will be everywhere, so fighting is the only thing we can do," I said.

"Leave it to me," she replied and rasied the sword toward the incoming horde of demons.

I used my magic and created a protective wall around my parents and made it translucent so that I can what is going on inside. Although that didn\'t comprimise its thickness at all.

"Mother, father. I\'d like you to wait in there until I take care of things outside," I said, turning my face toward them. Even though the wall around them was see-through, it was blurry and I could only see them nod slightly.

With that it was set in stone, now didn\'t need to look back and focus completely on eliminating the demon beasts.

I held the ice sword tightly, by this time the demons were only a little distance away.

\'Okay, let\'s get this done with,\' I thought as I dropped the ice sword to the ground and brought my hands together with palms facing toward the sky.

\'This is going to be the most powerful elemental magic I\'d ever cast.\'

I used it and a ball of fire appeared before both of my palms, I continued to supply it with mana and it grew in size. In the span of a few seconds it was the size of a house, and looked like a small sun.

Then I started titling my hands and facing it in the direction of the demons, and as I moved my hands I pressed the fireball from the sides and forcefully reduced its size.

By the time my hands were stretched out toward the army of demons, the fireball had been compressed to the size of a tennis ball.

I transfered the ball and held it with only my right hand. I pulled my arm back, aimed for the demons, and threw it like a baseball with all the force I could manage.

The fireball flew straight toward the demons and soon it vanished from my size as it was small in size.

One second, two second, three seconds, four seconds…

What we heard and saw then was a big explosion right at the head of the demon army. The initial ball of explosion rose like that of a nuclear explosion—although it was small in sacle.

First came the shock wave, then the burst of heat. I didn\'t have the exact numbers but that explosion blew up at least a thousand demon beasts at once. However, all it did was slow them down for a second or two.

The places left by the dead demons were overtaken by the new ones coming from the behind.

I pulled out my ice sword from the ground and got read to face them in a hand-to-hand combat. My heat was beating faster and faster, the demon beasts were just a mile away from us now.