I Became the Narrow-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss

Talo stared in disbelief at the farce unfolding beneath him.

“Why are they fighting each other?”

From the looks of their attire and speech, the newcomer must also be a part of Argyrion. So why were the angels attacking their reinforcements?

A few hypotheses popped into Talo’s mind and then vanished. The most plausible one was that the increased erosion from the extra-dimensional realm had driven them insane, making them unable to recognize their own comrades.

Although he hadn’t fully interpreted the proper mechanics behind angel transformation, he had noted that the changes only occurred after opening a door to the extra-dimensional realm. This likely meant they had to absorb a certain amount of extra-dimensional mana above a critical threshold for the transformation to take place.

As a result of devouring the extra-dimensional mana, Argyrion, unlike ordinary eroders, had lost even the slightest bit of rationality and began attacking their own allies…

Logically, this hypothesis seemed the most likely. But…

“Hmm?”

The movements from Argyrion’s side were far too organized to be described as having lost their rationality. In an instant, they split into two groups: one responding to the firepower of the weapons, while the other was attacking the very reinforcements.

They were using a variety of magic to compose a sophisticated firing pattern while targeting vulnerable spots.

This skilled tactical maneuvering was far too refined to be dismissed as the random attacks of a mindless creature.

It was difficult to believe that those capable of properly using “magic” would lose their minds.

That left another possibility.

“The one who just cut off my arm is a third party pretending to be Argyrion…?”

How interesting! What on earth would motivate them to impersonate the enemy of the magical world, Argyrion, and try to attack him while pretending to help them?

“Just keep it attached around my neck.”

He still had enough magic power to maintain spatial alchemy. Talo leisurely gathered silver iron to create a few aerial cannons.

Targets were locked on each cannon displayed in the augmented reality UI before Talo’s eyes. He cheerfully touched the launch button floating in mid-air.

*

It truly was a perplexing matter. How could my perfect plan have been uncovered?

“Argyrion’s formation is far more elite than I expected. To think they’d ask about a code word in such extreme circumstances.”

Support from the Divine Cult couldn’t be expected, nor could it afford to arrive.

Whether it was the Ten Towers or Argyrion, if they sensed a third party capable of interfering in the battle, they would likely prioritize eliminating them first.

At first, Talo planned to approach diplomatically, but upon discovering that the Divine Cult were the “Followers of Superstition,” there was a high chance that both sides would end up trying to deal with the Divine Cult once they realized their true nature.

With support from his allies unlikely and enemies who had been battling each other now showing hostility towards him,

Damn! Should I have waited until Argyrion was a bit more cornered?

There was no choice. The most immediate priority was to reduce the number of enemies. Destroy Argyrion’s door—

BOOM!

Bombing fell from the sky toward the place he was about to dash to.

No, it wasn’t aimed at that spot. It was indiscriminate bombing over the entire land where the battle was taking place. Crazy, is there an abundance of magic power?

The sound of the explosions continued in a manner akin to a chainsaw’s noise.

He quickly opened his eyes. The impact zones were marked, and he visualized the ranges of the explosions.

Destroying the door was canceled; he had to make the most of Argyrion to survive!

He ran using the gaps between the explosions. Twisting his body, he avoided the trajectories of the incoming shells. The safe zones for survival were constantly shifting.

With wide-open eyes, he received combat information from the aerial battles above.

With the first bombing, the Argyrion troops that had been surrounding him scattered.

They cleverly responded to the explosions by flying higher than the altitudes of the aerial cannons, escaping the radius of the blasts.

The angels cast spells toward the aerial cannons crafted by the Ten Towers’ mage.

The first angel summoned clouds.

The second angel added water elemental magic to create dark clouds.

The third angel unleashed electricity.

It was as if the magic flowed smoothly like it had been cast by a single person, creating a chain of spells. Lightning swept over the group of aerial cannons soaked by the clouds.

As bombings rained down below, a gap was created. The angels aimed to secure the door with this gap.

Other angels accelerated forward to secure it.

It was fortunate that the Argyrion angels’ encirclement was loosened due to the powerful magic cast by the Ten Towers’ mage.

“Can I actually survive this?”

Flying in the sky truly was a terrible advantage. The fact that my attacks couldn’t hit while their attacks could hit me was just infuriating.

He checked the magic imprint drive he had.

“Fireball?” I can’t use flames as a platform. “Iron Wall.” Usable, but I’m up against a magus from the Silver Iron Tower. If I misused a metal attribute spell, I’d be in a tricky situation.

The attributes that could create something akin to a platform at this moment were ice, earth, and wood.

Conditionally, wind.

“Should I give it a try?”

I rushed toward the human door of Argyrion.

*

The door must be protected.

One of their comrades had already made the decision to sacrifice themselves for opening an additional door. However, right now, they were inside a barrier established by the Elder of the Ten Towers.

The barrier was obstructing the connection to the Divine, and more time was needed to explore the passage connecting to it.

If the first door were destroyed before the second could open, their bodies would be transformed into something unfree in an instant.

Angels diving to retrieve their comrade from the door felt a breeze. It was not caused by their wings flapping.

Something is approaching.

As he turned around, flames exploded. Amidst the flickering fire, the shadow of magical machinery scattered. The form of whatever was approaching was hidden in the smoke and noise of the battlefield.

However, upon looking calmly, one could discern that, while the smoke was thick, the actual firepower was lackluster. A water spell completed in an instant extinguished the flames.

The stream of water that formed at his fingertips didn’t shoot off properly. It veered completely in a different direction than intended. Before he could comprehend the strange anomaly, a blade lodged itself in the angel’s neck.

Even a high-frequency blade enhanced for cutting power could not breach the angel’s silver flesh.

However, the moment the blade swung by Orthes touched the angel’s neck, the structure of the spell forming the angel’s body twisted grotesquely.

From where the blade made contact, the skin burst outwards, as flesh jumped out. It was the effect of the distorted, shattered spell. Orthes quickly covered the fire magic imprint drive with the blessing of angel transformation.

Flames erupted from the wound where the blade was stabbed. It resembled a being bleeding fire instead of blood.

As the magic of angel transformation that was supposed to transform a human into an “angel” intertwined with flames, the angel of Argyrion would burn endlessly as long as the mana from the Divine continued to flow.

Orthes jumped off the head of the angel who bled fire. While one angel faced Orthes, the other three secured the door and soared into the sky.

He switched out the magic imprint drive. A cube made of earth instantly formed beneath Orthes’ feet in mid-air.

There was barely a second left before the magic power in the drive ran out, causing the earthen cube to plummet below. Orthes used the elasticity of the ensnared vine to propel himself upward.

Yet, it wasn’t enough. The angels were faster than Orthes’ dash. The gap between crawling on the ground and flying in the sky couldn’t be bridged.

He could see a newly crafted aerial cannon pointing its guns toward the ground. The angels from Argyrion sensed that the faceless impostor would soon become a beehive.

At that moment, vines stretched out around the blade swung by Orthes. A basic wood attribute magic, “Growth.”

While originally suited for growing simple plants, this magic could be utilized in such a way depending on the plant being nurtured.

The carnivorous plant seeds he’d ordered from Meconion’s garden greedily reached out with their vines, binding the angel’s ankle.

Using the elasticity of the vine he caught, Orthes lifted himself into the air. The bound angel’s body swayed and teetered.

As the angel began a forced landing towards the ground, a secondary barrage from the aerial cannon initiated.

Just as his eyes showed, a rain of bullets poured down toward Orthes was completely blocked by the falling angel’s body.

Leaving behind the angel embedded in the ground, Orthes readied his blade in mid-air.

The high-frequency blade, wielded in reverse, plunged into the angel’s nape. This was the last one left among the three angels that had descended to secure the door.

“Let’s go together.”

Orthes pointed toward Talo, who was floating at the center of the barrier.

“Just to there.”

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