Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 222 Demonic Saviour

222: Demonic Saviour

222: Demonic Saviour

A surge of panicked voices and gasps echoed all around, and as I struggled to comprehend what was going on from my kneeling posture on the ground, only hearing a rush of chaos and alarm, I managed to tilt my head just enough to barely see what all the clamour was about.

That’s when I saw it.

In the middle of the air, a fair distance above the gallows I was currently positioned atop, a wide circle was drawn in empty space.

Contrasting against the azure backdrop of the sky that lay beyond, the black magic circle opened like a hole in reality itself, and before I realised it, it expanded.

What initially appeared not much more than a single dot rapidly widened, swelling until soon, the circumference appeared to outmatch even that of the visible sun in the sky.

At that moment, there was a pause, before something gradually began to emerge from that ominous abyss.

Short arms and legs; dark purple skin covering its whole body; a small, fat torso; two small horns protruding from the top of its smooth head; and perhaps most importantly, a pair of miniature, bat-like wings attached to its back.

‘What the hell…’

I didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t human by any means.

The size of the creature’s body as a whole was only about equal to a young child, but that evidently wasn’t the end of it.

They continued to emerge.

‘H-hey, is this really still a part of the plan…?!’

My mouth slowly gaping as not just one or two, but dozens of the imp-like monsters appeared from the dark portal, each flapping their wings and flooding the once-pure sky above the Imperial City.

Before long, their count exceeded the hundreds and continued to climb without showing any signs of stopping.

“Monsters…!”

Countless shrieks and screams rang out, and as expected, the dense crowd immediately began to disperse, fleeing from the area as quickly as possible.

All without even sparing me a second glance.

“Men!

For the empire!”

“””For the empire!”””

Tilting my head the other way, I saw all the gathered Imperial Knights rush out to protect the fleeing citizens from the invading monsters, leaving me all alone, trapped in the closed lunette of the guillotine.

‘Okay, that’s great, but can someone let me ou–‘

Putting as much force into it, I pulled my head back hard, pushing the top half of the lunette away surprisingly easily and stumbling back, finally free.

‘Wait, how…?

Oh, they didn’t lock it in time!’

Giving a brief breath of relief, I jumped to my feet and turned my head to get a better understanding of the situation.

Looking up, it appeared the army of imps had ceased coming through, though the dark portal was still present, sitting still in the sky as if waiting for something.

All around, most of the imps that had come through the portal were attacking the Imperial Knights, their tiny bodies seeming to contain a surprising amount of strength judging by the fact their little claws were able to somewhat contend with the knights’ swords.

At least, that was until they empowered their body with magic energy, which I was able to see with no limitation thanks to the magic energy in my own blood flowing to my eyes and enhancing them.

With that explosive increase in power, the knights were able to effortlessly cut down even multiple imps in a single strike, but the sheer amount of them was so many that it was barely a drop in the ocean.

Needless to say, the number being that high also meant that the knights couldn’t take care of all of them, particularly the ones flying after the fleeing citizens.

The city guards were the ones responsible for dealing with those, but of course, they weren’t nearly as strong as the Imperial Knights, only able to take on one or two imps at a time.

Fortunately, there were a lot more city guards than Imperial Knights, but even then, there were far more powerless citizens than both combined.

Watching stray imps fly off to chase down innocent civilians, attacking them from behind without giving them a chance to resist, I clicked my tongue.

‘There’s no way this was planned…’

Spinning around to face the direction of the Imperial Palace, I looked for Lucretia and the emperor, quickly finding them being surrounded by their personal guard.

There didn’t seem to be many imps attacking them in the first place, but I also expected their personal guard to be stronger than the average Imperial Knight, so I wasn’t too worried about them, but it was definitely still a matter of concern.

‘What the hell happened…?’

Wondering just how things ended up to be this way all of a sudden, where the plan went wrong for it to be replaced by this disaster, I didn’t even know what to think.

As someone who was never let in on ‘the second step of the plan’, that wasn’t something I could know, anyway.

And even if I did know, I wouldn’t have had the time to contemplate as a stray imp came flying right my way.

“Woah…!”

Ducking to the side and dodging, its small yet fierce claws whizzed past my head.

I quickly turned my body to face it head-on as it made a u-turn in the air to come straight back, its sharp teeth growling menacingly.

My hands still being restrained by the manacles, I couldn’t summon either sword and use it effectively, and the same went for the Black Wisp, so I adapted and hurriedly raised my arms in front of me as the imp rushed forward, blocking its claws with the connecting chain in the middle.

Clang-!

Just like that, it broke, and I was finally truly free to move however I wanted.

Without wasting any time, I summoned the Villainous Blade and swung, effortlessly connecting the blade with the side of the imp’s body and slicing part of its wing, knocking it to the wooden foundation below.

Grounded, I unhesitatingly stabbed it through the chest, killing it instantly.

The moment I withdrew the blade from its body, a miniature fountain of purple blood spurted, drowning both the deceased creature and soaking into the wood beneath it.

Then, the dark runes decorating the Villainous Blade momentarily pulsed with violet light, instantaneously cleansing the sword of all blood and filth that had stained it.

‘Ohh…’

“So that’s how it works…

Good stuff.”

Briefly nodding my head, I dropped my arm to hold the weapon by my side and scanned the surroundings.

‘What the hell do I do now, then…’

Sure, I was free from execution, but now there was an even bigger problem on our hands.