“We took care of all of them.”
Linel replied this time.
“Then… I’ll return to my unit, so it would be for the best if the two of you did the same.”
“Okaay.” “Understood.”
After seeing off the apprentice knights who turned about with absolutely no sign of exhaustion from the combat and rushed off, he turned his eyes towards the rows of tents behind once more.
……Thank you.
Expressing his gratitude in his heart to the two female trainees and that young swordsman, Renri Synthesis Twenty-seven the high ranking integrity knight began running towards the east to join up with the left flank of the second unit.
3
At the back of the Dark Territory’s second army, stationed roughly five hundred mel from the valley where the fierce battles continued.
A tall woman in a revealing outfit stood on the second floor of a four-wheeled carriage, luxurious enough even if inferior to Emperor Vector’s earth dragon war vehicle, with her arms folded. She was one of the Ten Lords of the land of darkness, head of the Dark Arts Users’ Guild, Dee Ai El.
The black-clothed messenger arts user waiting at her side looked up at her master as she reported in a low voice.
“Sigrosig-dono, Shibori-dono, and Kosogi-dono have all been lost in the battle.”
Dee’s lips curved in that instant and she spat out.
“Ugh, how useless… I suppose that’s as far as those stupid demi-humans could go.”
She took a glance at the necklace dangling on her captivating breasts. With twelve precious stones set on the silver circle, it was a treasured divine instrument that told the time through their fluctuating hues. The six o’clock stone lit orange and the seven o’clock stone was still dark. In other words, only a mere twenty minutes or so had passed since the battle began at six in the evening.
“Have those integrity knights’ positions been uncovered?”
She asked, making no effort to hide her irritation, and the messenger arts user chanted a short art and listened to the art users lurking on the battlefield before replying.
“We have visual sight on three at the frontmost lines. We have found two in the rear, but confirming their positions will still require time.”
“Still five? Or perhaps their numbers are simply few…? Still, we must be sure to slaughter those five…”
Dee muttered to herself with a ruthless expression, far from the coquettish behavior she put up before the emperor, and gave an order after slight thought.
“Fine, release the minions. Make the commands…”
Squinting, she judged the distance to the collapsed Great Gate and the war front beyond it before continuing.
“…«fly seven hundred mel», «descend onto ground», and «unrestrained annihilation».”
“I believe the demi-human forces at the frontmost line will be swallowed up with that distance?”
“That’s of no issue.”
She decided in an apathetic manner.
The female messenger arts user, too, showed no emotion and nodded with an “understood” before asking again.
“How many shall we send? We currently have a total of eight hundred incubated and all available here.”
“Hmm, let’s see…”
Dee took several more moments as she pondered.
She felt minions, requiring many resources and much time in their production, to be far more important than those goblins in terms of fighting strength. Though she wanted to exercise prudence wherever possible, the emperor would certainly be displeased if Dee’s proposal to [annihilate the enemy’s main force through a concentrated volley of arts from behind] were to fail.
“…All eight hundred.”
A cruel smile made its way onto those lips that issued that order.
D. hid an ambition. To achieve victory in this battle and obtain that «radiant medium» person, and thus, to succeed the position of emperor from Dark God Vector who had returned to the earthly realm for absolute rule over the entire Underworld.
Upon taking the throne, she could create thousands, tens of thousands of minions if she so wished. Her greatest obstacle, the Dark General Shasta, had already died and the only ones with power remaining were the merchants, interested only in money, and the pugilists, interested only in battle. The realization of her ambition could be said to be imminent.
She would succeed in subjugating the entire world, a feat unaccomplished by even that half-god, half-human Highest Minister Administrator, and get her hands on that art for eternal Life said to be concealed at the stronghold of the Axiom Church.
Perpetual youth and immortality. Everlasting beauty.
Sweet shudders crept their way up D.’s back. Her scarlet tongue dabbed at her lips painted blue.
It was about then when the orders from the messenger arts user dispersed through the Dark Arts Users’ Guild at the front lines and those pitch-black golems, manifestations of darkness given wings, flew off as one.
As the light from the torches shone upon her glossy skin, the eight hundred minions rose and flew straight through the gorge as commanded.
* * *
—They’re here.
A wide grin carved itself on Knight Commander Bercouli’s lips that have been pursed like some sculpture since the battle began.
He sensed many aviating soldiers intruding the range of the armament full control art he maintained in the skies right before the Great Gate.
Those were not flying dragons with dark knights astride. They appeared to be those minions, cold as mud and devoid of soul.
However, it was too soon to invoke it. He would pull the minions released by the enemy in until they were all swallowed within his «slashing space».
Bercouli’s keen senses had already perceived the tough battles Fanatio and Deusolbert went through, as well as how Renri awakened even if he had fled temporarily.
With the three generals of the invading army’s vanguard defeated, there was no worry they would lose their hold on the battle line. Next, if only the seventh high ranking knight on stand-by in the sky were to render the enemy’s long range arts futile by exhausting every last bit of the space sacred energy, the unhurt second unit of the Defense Army would be capable of intercepting the enemy’s main force, the Order of the Dark Knights and the Pugilists’ Guild.
Bercouli had predicted his true role to arrive after that.
It was not to fight, one-to-one, against his arch rival of many years, Dark General Shasta.
Bercouli had already sensed Shasta’s absence from the enemy’s main force. The immense spirit he felt vanishing far in the east days ago—that must have been that master swordsman’s final moment.
As the most senior integrity knight, having lived through practically countless years and months, Bercouli no longer grieved and mourned for those bound by Life. Still, the death of Shasta, the one he hoped capable of reconciling the land of darkness and Human Empire without bloodshed, filled him with chagrin and nothing else.
With things as they were, he would simply have to cut down the one who ended Shasta’s life, the owner of this presence that felt like a frigid emptiness—that unknown enemy supreme commander likely leading the Dark Territory army—by his own hands to avenge his death.
Or perhaps his own life would end there, Bercouli thought.
Still, he no longer felt even a fragment of attachment towards life.
He would simply die when the time came.
Bercouli had thought that incarnation released by that lower ranking knight under Fanatio on the verge of death to be admirable, and felt slight envy from it too.
But naturally, this was no time for such.
The slashing area had, at last, devoured every single one of the swarm of minions tearing through the dark skies above as they advanced.
Bercouli’s two eyes flashed open and gently swung up his cherished sword, the «Time Piercing Sword», that was thrust in the ground.
“——Cut!!”
He slashed the empty air with its naked blade with that brief shout.
At that, endless dazzling white rays of light joined together as they traced out a three-dimensional grid in the sky beyond.
Following a grand, bizarre cacophony of death cries, darkness rained upon the heads of the enemy demi-human forces like a waterfall. The weak poison in the minions’ blood spurred on the confusion among the forces that had lost their generals.
* * *
Ominous premonitions seized D. right as she heard a faintly startled ring in the messenger arts user’s voice which had persisted in its utter lack of emotion thus far. Only to be realized a second later.
“Lamentably, Your Excellency… it appears the eight hundred minions have been all annihilated before they landed.”
“Wha……”
She lost her words.
The shattering noise following that was a shriek from the expensive crystal cup struck against the carriage’s flooring.
“How could it be?! I had never heard of any force capable of arts on this scale among the enemy!”
In the first place, it would be near impossible to massacre eight hundred minions with only arts. As they were largely produced with clay, they held high resistance against thermal and cryogenic arts. A slash from a sharp blade would be most effective, but the infantry units’ swords could never reach the minions in the air.
“…The enemy has yet to release their flying dragons?”
D. asked, somehow bringing her rage under control. The messenger arts user confirmed with her head still lowered.
“Yes. We have yet to confirm even a single flying dragon at the current moment.”
“In that case… it’s that? The trump card belonging to those integrity knights… the «armament full control art». Still… to think it’s capable of…”
Saying no more, she grinded her bared canine teeth together.
Like Dark General Shasta, D., too, had attempted to collect information regarding the secret arts concealed by the integrity knights. However, it was near impossible to witness some precedent on such a scale.
She could explain it with nothing more than the synergy between the divine instrument and the knight’s own strength.
“That said, using their weapons in such a way should consume much of their Life. Continuous usage shouldn’t be…”
It was when D. muttered so as her thoughts whirled about at full speed.
Having listened to a report from the frontlines, the messenger arts user’s head shot up and she conveyed it with a voice that had regained some of its strength.
“Your Excellency, the tracing of the two integrity knights in the rear has been completed. In total, we have the five targets within sight.”
“…Good.”
Nodding, she gave it more thought.
The most uncertain element was whether to send in the second main force of the army, the Order of the Dark Knights and the Pugilists’ Guild in order to further debilitate the enemy’s armament full control art. Another choice would be to invoke their trump card, the Dark Arts Users’ Guild now and to settle the war in one blow.
It was in D.’s original character to be wary, to carefully work out a plan and to eliminate any obstacle before putting it into action.
However, the unexpected loss of her eight hundred treasured minions in an instant drove her into an unconscious uneasiness.
Filling up a new crystal cup with a dark purple wine, D. spoke to herself.
—I am calm. This is the time for the first grasp at glory.
Raising the cup that she had drank down all at once, D.I.L. loudly ordered.
“Move out all of the ogres’ archer forces and the Dark Arts Users’ Guild! Enter the gorge and begin reciting the «Wide-area Incineration Arrows» art!!”
* * *
Kurururu…
The voice produced from her throat was shrill and sounded somehow forlorn. The flying dragon, «Amayori», encouraged her master.
Integrity Knight Alice forced a mild smile onto her lips and whispered.
“I am fine, there is no need to worry.”
However, she was, in actual fact, not fine in the least. Her vision strangely distorted, her breath rough, and her limbs icy cold. It would not be odd for her to fall unconscious in the next moment.
The compressed, enormous art, possibly exploding at any moment, that she had continuously chanted for immediately after the battle began was not what exhausted Alice so.
It was what served as the source of sacred energy that art consumed: the countless deaths.
Knights. Guards. Ascetics. The dread, grief, and despair from the instant before they disappeared tormented Alice without pause.
Once, Alice would have paid no notice to the lives and deaths of the Human Empire’s common folk, let alone those from the Dark Territory.
She had lived in Rulid for half a year, understanding the preciousness of the villagers’ modest yet earnest lives, and recognized them as something worthy of protection, but that was no cause for thinking the same of those living in the Dark Empire.
In reality, Alice had annihilated the gang of goblins and orcs who assaulted Rulid a mere ten days ago without the slightest hesitation.
The dark forces were heartless invaders, an enemy to be destroyed without mercy.
She accepted that without doubt until she assumed this duty Bercouli assigned her to.
However.
How could it be—?
The sacred energy born from the Life of both armies’ fallen soldiers in the battlefield below were of the exact same nature be it from a human of the Human Empire or a demi-human. They were all warm, pristine, and without any means at all to distinguish their former selves.
Pondering on the reasons for that threw Alice into great turmoil. What if, what if the Human Empire’s inhabitants and the land of darkness’s monsters effectively possessed the same soul, differing only in whether they were born on this side of the mountain range or that?
Why, exactly, were they fighting against us?
“……Kirito. If only you were around…”
You might have found some other way; she stifled those words without verbalizing them. She had to focus on the art now.
In the war council before battle began, Alice expressed her doubts to Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio. On who could be the one capable of using an art enormous enough to exhaust the vast gorge of its space sacred energy.
Fanatio looked straight towards Alice at that and answered.
—That would be you, Alice Synthesis Thirty.
—You may not have noticed, but your current strength exceeds that of integrity knights. You should be capable of it as you are now. The true power of the gods, to split the skies and tear the earth asunder.
She thought she expected too much of herself then. Still, at the same time, she felt that she had to accomplish this role even if it meant her life in exchange. That it was her responsibility as the one who pointed a sword at the highest minister and so drastically altered the Axiom Church’s ruling structure.
Alice thought no further and focused solely on gathering the sacred energy released in the gorge and converting that into the art.
However, Alice felt tight in her heart and she could do nothing about it as screams incessantly echoed through the gorge.
Die. Dying. Fathers; brothers; sisters; and children.
…Hurry.
Alice murmured into her heart.
She wished for «that time» to arrive even a second earlier. The time to end this tragedy by giving birth to deaths far outnumbering the current horrendous count—
* * *
The jumbled forces of mountain goblins, plains goblins, and giants demi-humans making up the first unit of the invaders were a step before going on a stampede.
The three chiefs had all died in battle. In other words, the knights leading the enemy army were stronger than anyone among the demi-human forces. «The strong shall rule»—that w
as the one and only law engraved onto the souls of the Dark Territory’s inhabitants.
If this battle belonged only to the demi-humans, the soldiers would have all surrendered as soon as their commander was defeated.
What narrowly prevented that situation was the presence of the god of darkness, Emperor Vector, who had descended into the Dark Territory. The emperor was stronger than anyone among the Ten Lords and it was still unknown if the knights of the Human Empire were stronger.
Hence, the demi-humans could only follow their initial order and continue with the momentum, earnestly swinging their blades against the Human Empire Defense Army.
Utilizing the minutes gained from their desperate combat, the Dark Territory army’s trump card, their long-range military force: the ogres’ archer forces and D.’s Dark Arts Users’ Guild advanced to a position barely before the crumbled Great Gate.
The plan was to have the three thousand strong ogre unit ready their massive crossbows in front and the dark arts users, also three thousand strong, chant their offensive arts behind. The one assuming overall command was not the ogre chief, Fulgrr, but an adept arts user close to D.
That arts user listened to the commands coming in from the rear and nodded once before shouting.
“Ogre unit, ready your crossbow! Arts unit, begin chanting for the «Wide-area Incineration Arrows» ceremony!! Spotters, begin chanting the marking art for the enemy integrity knights’ coordinates!!”
The wide-area incineration arrows referred to a large-scale annihilation art designed by D.I.L. for the sake of this plan. Converting all of the space darkness energy filling the battlefield into thermal elements, they would then achieve firing it at long distances by affixing them onto the ogres’ arrows. As it consumed no darkness energy through transformation phrases like «bird shape» or «arrow shape», the output should far exceed their expectations.
It was the mightiest offensive art in history, absent from the «age of blood and iron» and possible now only because the races fought together under Emperor Vector.