"Hold on fast, we will protect this village! For Ilias!"
Eden was haranguing the monsters and angels that were surrounding her, fighting on for their dear lives as they were desperately holding waves after waves of apoptosis. Since she joined this theater of war, she saw the tide of battle rising and receding, but there never really was a long moment of peace. They could only rest for a few hours at most before a new wave would invariably show up, no matter how many they killed each time.
And worst of all, they only grew in number. What used to be skirmishes with a few apoptosis had grown into intense fights with tens of dogmatic monsters before becoming full on battles with hundreds of enemies.
And this place had been defined as a priority defense target, even in front of the human capitals. Apparently, Luka's only hope of saving the world was located inside. Eden didn't understand everything, but Ilias had told her to defend the place at all cost, and it was enough for her.
She kept stabbing and smiting any and every transdimensional monster that was coming closer, no matter how many of them kept coming. She had to defend the village. It was all that mattered. Her group already had to abandon the mountains south of Iliasville when the apoptosis started directly spawning on top of it, as it was partly swallowed by Tartarus. They were now fighting directly in the plains surrounding the village, but luckily, the otherworldly creatures were too single-minded to try exploiting their greater numbers. They only tried to flank her own troops because they were blocking each other otherwise.
Even then, her group was in distress against these endless hordes. No matter how many were atomized by beams of holy lights or blasted by blades of wind, those deaths simply looked like a dent into the sea of monsters, while every single death on their side could be counted as a tragedy.
Eden saw an exhausted harpy about to get gunned down by an apoptosis when she casted a divine lightning bolt on the aggressor, saving the flying monster. The latter didn't even have the time to thank her before a chaos explosion tore her apart, her limbs falling lifelessly on the ground. The seraph snarled in rage as she blasted the offender apart with a lightning bolt. The situation looked grimmer by the second, as it was clear her party was at risk of being overwhelmed. They were almost surrounded from every direction, were exhausted, and were fighting ten to one.
She looked on her side to see Victoria barely holding against three apoptosis at the same time. As her blade kept dancing to defend herself, the valkyrie kept moving back to avoid being surrounded by her opponents. Before Eden could step in, the three monsters fell apart, cut cleanly in two at waist level. The next second, it was as if a large portion of the plain folded on itself, crushing apoptosis between what looked like gigantic jaws. Several of the dogmatic monsters managed to clear themselves from the rubble, and were already readying their weapons when a pillar of flame finished them off. Eden could see a larger group mostly made of plant monsters led by Alrauna with Tezcatlipoca on her side. Remembering what Ilias and Micaela told her about respecting her allies, Eden carefully weighted her words.
"What's happening? Weren't you supposed to support Luka after completing your tasks with the World Tree?"
Alrauna grimaced. "An unbreakable barrier is currently blocking our way, and we cannot teleport in to support them. The diversion group will step in should the barrier finally break, and, in the meantime, we checked who could use the most help."
"I see…" Eden respectfully bowed. "We thank you for your support."
As the plant monsters scattered around to heal their allies. The attention of both angels and monsters turned once again to the Tartarus.
"But it looks like we're not done yet."
Eden sighed as yet another large group of apoptosis kept appearing, their mechanical movement bringing them closer and closer to the group. This time, however, a more powerful one appeared. The third seraph looked at the terrifying blond apoptosis that had appeared to join the fray.
"Repeated violation: class three cross-world contact, elimination required."
"It's Adramelech. We've been warned against her. She'll keep reviving as we kill her again and again."
Eden steadied her spear as she full focused against that new opponent.
"Then we'll just kill her again and again!"
The seraph charged Adramelech as the battle started once again, determined to bring her down. The strange creature parried her first assault and counter attacked by summoning an explosion of chaos, knocking Eden back. The first seraph healed herself in short order and summoned a divine thunderbolt, which proceeded to hit the apoptosis head-on and turn a few of her more unfortunate partners into ash. If it did damage Adramelech, however, the apoptsis didn't show any sign of exhaustion. Soon, Eden's spear and Adramelech's tentacles clashed against each other into a series of lightning fast blows. However, Eden was still tired from her past fights against other apoptosis, while the apoptosis seemed to ignore every form of exhaustion.
Eventually, Adramelech managed to overpower through Eden's defense and used a tentacle to pin her on the ground. As she prepared to execute the seraph, Victoria jumped midway and deviated the sword with her own. Adramelech blasted the interloper with an explosion of chaos, killing the valkyrie in the process as the angel was reduced to nothingness. A rage filled shrill cry echoed through the battlefield, and a ball of light rammed into Adramelech, knocking the apoptosis away and freeing Eden. After hitting her target, the light dimmed and revealed Lucifina-chan. The small seraph's eyes were injected with blood.
"NO ONE KILLS LUKA'S FRIENDS!"
Adramelech assaulted the small angel with her tentacles as the latter held still, apparently defenseless. The next second, a comet hit the apoptosis, and before it could recover, a blade of light knocked it again. Lucifina-chan, joined by Micaela-chan, pushed her assault while Eden was healed by Alrauna. As the apoptosis fought the two little seraphs, she fell under her assault before reforming herself less than a minute later.
As Eden charged the apoptosis with renewed vigor, a question made its way through Alrauna's mind.
How many of them would have to die before a solution presented itself?
"B-Back off you whore…" Zion was struggling under Lilith, her mechanical arm reduced to an useless scrap only weighing her down. Amidst the chaos of the battlefield, the succubus had pinned the already-weakened seraph and was draining her of the little energy the angel had left in her. Uriela tried once again to dash away from Tamamo to support her subordinate, but the kitsune was somehow always getting in her way. And every other angels that tried to support the fallen seraph was getting attacked by either a succubus or one of Kagetsumugi's doll. Right now, she could only endure the succubus' touch and hope for the best, even as she felt her very essence slip through her body, replaced by a dazing pleasure her mind attempted to reject while her body welcomed it, disgusting her.
The succubus was interlocking her limbs with Zion, bringing their face close together. "Oooh, why so angry? You remind me of Morrigan without anything that makes my cute little sister fun to hang around…" Zion attempted to spit a small clot of blood to Lilith's face, but the succubus nonchalantly dodged it, her predatory smile never departing her face. "We could have had a looooot of fun together, but unfortunately, I can hardly bring you back home with how messy things are. Trust me, it saddens me a great deal, but…" She licked her lips, and Zion couldn't help but shiver against her will. "…I can't let all that energy go to waste, can I? Please enjoy those last moment..."
Zion cried out in disgust and ecstasy as Lilith's body started glowing. Several angels tried to do their best to step in, but they were all held back by their own opponents or, for the closest ones, drained by the powerful aura deployed by Lilith. A minute later, when she was done, there wasn't even a dead body remaining, in front of her. Only Zion's uniform and a handful of ash soon blown by the wind testified of the presence of the seraph.
Lilith got back up with a devilish smile. Even as most warriors around her were getting more and more exhausted by this fight, she felt as fresh as the snow ever so present on the continent. She used her regenerated power to drain a few angels to death with her aura. The situation was as chaotic as ever, but she felt pretty confident about their victory, if only because they didn't need to beat everyone. They only had to capture the hero, after all.
She looked around her, killing angels that were getting a little too uppity in a heartbeat with a blade of wind or with her aura depending on her mood. She could see Uriela trying to glare at her, even as Tamamo kept the Archangel on the defensive, and Morrigan was holding her own against two dolls. Those twins were also busy fighting dolls and angels, and every one of Luka's other allies she could see was busy fighting an angel or one of her own succubi, she could focus on the hero and finally try to make a grab for him…
Lilith dashed at the speed of sound in an attempt to grab Luka, but was intercepted by an arrow of light. As she groaned in pain, she noticed Ilias readying another arrow on her side. She threw a blade of wind toward the angel, and the latter managed to dodge it before shooting another arrow. Lilith managed to dodge this one and prepared to lunge at the goddess when she noticed the hero charging at her. She managed to avoid his attack and kicked Ilias down with a gust of wind before offering Luka her most reassuring smile as she took off.
"I have difficulty understanding you, boy. You were offered the best pleasure any world could offer, and yet, you prefer supporting that pathetic frigid excuse of a goddess."
Ilias groaned as she got up, and before she could try shooting at Lilith again, a vampire jumped on top of her and wrapped her in her coat. The night monster soon screamed in agony as beams of light escaped holes appearing in her coat, and the two started fighting while Luka's attention was fully focused on the oldest of the Lilith Sisters.
"You aggressed me. You attacked my friends. And you killed Alice." He summoned the power of Gnome, making him as immovable as a mountain. "And no excuse, no the ant girls did it, no it was Tamamo No Mae's orders will bring her back, nor will it bring back the hundred of persons you killed for your own pleasure, no matter what you say or think."
"Mmh. And I thought we could become friend… You already welcomed my sister in my ranks in the past, after all. And what does Ilias think of your allies?"
"I learned to deal with them. At least out of necessity." Ilias used her hand to ram an arrow through a succubus' throat before shooting down another one.
Lilith gave out an exaggerated sigh. "It's a nice facade you're showing, but I can tell that deep down, you are clamoring for my embrace… Maybe I should make you more honest and take my time with you…"
"Sister, HELP!"
Lilith turned to see Morrigan getting ganged up by the dolls and Gnosis. The mechanical angel was raining death with her makinas on the trio, even if she focused more on the succubus for a reason. Lilith snarled and charged the angel, kicking her at full strength as she arrived and knocking her away. As Gnosis recovered, the succubus continued her assault on the dolls attacking, having already forgotten the hero as her hate for those that were harming her sister filled her.
Black Alice was getting more and more aggravated by the second. She had been enjoying watching the fight between all those people from different worlds… Then the hero had assaulted her. She tried to discipline him… Then Kagetsumugi assaulted her. She tried to get rid of the pest that was her past ally… Then the latter's dolls attacked her, taking her attention away from the fight that was growing ever more chaotic as apoptosis stepped in before a few of the small puppeteer's dolls also joined the fray. The latter had not only brought her Monster Lords to the fight, but also several others less powerful dolls to support her.
And right now, Black Alice was faced with Kagetsumugi herself, the doll of her own younger sister, and several other smaller flying dolls, including autonomous ones that repaired those damaged with magical thread. This large group was hovering over the battle, and while the one who proclaimed herself the goddess of chaos still seemed fresh, her usual sadistic smile had left her face a long time ago.
"This is not fun, you know!" She pouted like a disappointed spoiled child, her arms crossed under her chest. "I helped your clan a lot, gave you all that power, toys to create, and you didn't even thank me!"
Kagetsumugi answered by producing an oversized scythe and casting a spinning blade of fire with it. Black Alice nonchalantly dodged it and counterattacked with an explosion of chaos that was tanked by a barrier summoned by her opponent. Before she could continue, several of the small flying dolls launched small needles toward her. A few landed on her, but they were disintegrated before any spells could be channeled through it. Right afterward, she dodged a blow from the scythe-like limb from the doll of her sister. Annoyed, Black Alice summoned two large slabs of pure chaos and repeatedly crushed the doll until it slid like a sheet on the ground. She then summoned a wave of chaos, and blasted several drones around her before turning back toward Kagetsumugi.
"See?" I could kill you easily. You're just a minnow, and I'm a shark."
Under her mask, Kagetsumugi frowned. "That minnow will give you an indigestion."
A mocking laugh escaped from Black Alice's mouth.
"Ooooh, thank you! That was a good one! Now I'm in a good mood again… Shall I remind you I'm a goddess? Let me show you weak you are compared to me..."
Black Alice summoned two large slabs of pure chaos to crush Kagetsumugi, and the latter didn't seem to even react to this new threat, remaining immobile instead. Several smaller dolls flew in around the blocks at high speed. Black Alice started to bring the blocks closer to crush Kagetsumugi, but felt a resistance, as if they were held back by an invisible force.
It's when she looked at all the small dolls around that she realized they were holding both slabs with an impressive amount of wire-thin magical thread, likely personally enhanced by Kagetsumugi. The puppeteer was channeling all her energy in those to reinforce their resistance, making them glow in the process. Black Alice got as close to the small yoma as possible while carefully not getting in the way of the slabs for the moment the thread would inevitably give up.
"Ooooh, loooooook… You're holding…" Black Alice sarcastically clapped as she could feel Kagetsumugi sweating under the strength of her effort. "You know that I only have to put the smallest effort to crush you and end your life, right?"
"Her majesty's right…" Kagetsumugi was pouring so much effort into her spell, her words came out half cut. The small puppeteer could feel a thirst for magic as her mana was depleting fast. "However… She underestimates how predictable she is. Also… I wouldn't give your tea to my worst enemies."
Black Alice recoiled, clearly offended by her ex-partner's last statement. "In that case DIE!" She pointed at the slabs and put out more energy to crush her opponent.
At this precise moment, Kagetsumugi slightly shifted the nature of her defensive spell to an offensive one. The strings violently snapped even as Black Alice poured more power, and they flew around at an almost relative speed as they turned into razor-sharp blades, cutting down apart several of the closest angels and succubi around into bloody pieces.
Black Alice herself was sprayed by the offending trap, and several wires dug in her flesh and her body, pulling a yelp of surprise from her. As she recovered her composure, she instantly healed herself. Although there were no visible aftermath on her body and she still felt as fresh as ever, the taste in her mouth was now even sourer than before. Kagetsumugi's death had been spoiled by an insult born from her own arrogance.
Well, it was time to move on and grab the hero for herself anyway…
Tamamo punched back another angel with the power of the earth, sending her target stumble through a few of her allies. The only thing that allowed her to keep track of the time since the beginning of the fight was the timer on her Word of Dispel, and this was first and foremost a countdown to oblivion.
Amidst the chaos of the fight, she had lost track of Morrigan when a large group of angels had tried to attack her and the succubus. She had managed to sneak away thanks to one of her spell while still protecting Ilias. Since then, she occasionally saw the latter fighting as close to Luka as possible.
Tamamo managed to make her way a little away from the fight when she felt the Word of Dispel finally wear out. She needed to pull energy from her ultimate reserves to keep fighting all those monsters and angels that kept getting in her way…
…Not that she could do anything else in the first place. They were still apparently stuck under Black Alice's barrier for now, and they definitively couldn't even afford the time to analyze it to find any weakness. She looked around her and noticed Nero and Neris had ganged up on a doll of one of the older Monster Lord and were ripping her limbs apart. Before she could do anything, she was slammed in the back by a valkyrie, sending them both tumbling on the ground. She prepared to struggle against her opponent when she noticed the angel was already dead, an arrow through her throat.
"And now I'm killing my own angels…" Ilias sighed as Tamamo cleared the body of herself. "That might be the worst day of my life."
"Pray that it is so, even as other occasions present themselves." The kitsune grimaced after hearing her own line. It was better in her head. "Let's try to see if we can all break away from the fight and let them kill each other." Tamamo threw a talisman at a vampire that found herself blasted by a wave of holy light, making her screech as she disintegrated into ashes. A stray missile almost hit her, and she looked up to see Gnosis attacking a large brawl including the two remaining Lilith Sisters and two of the Monster Lord dolls. While Lilith looked furious, Morrigan looked exhausted by her fight. At the precise moment one of the doll fell apart, Gnosis shot a railgun-like makina on Morrigan. The attack caught the succubus flat-footed and knocked her down to the ground in a wrecking impact.
If Tamamo doubted that the succubus had survived the assault, Lilith's wrathful cry confirmed that Morrigan didn't. The remaining succubus tore apart the doll in front of her in a storm of wind blades, scattering its limbs around before charging Gnosis. The two opponents soon started dodging each other's attack as spells and projectiles flew around.
Tamamo focused back on the ground to see Luka surrounded by Nero and Neris and Nuruko. The quartet was fighting yet another of Kagetsumugi's dolls when they suddenly disappeared.
The kitsune had to blink repeatedly to confirm what had happened. She shook her head in denial, when she heard Ilias talk.
"The barrier has disappeared! We can finally leave!"
Tamamo looked up in the sky, and could also see a distinct lack of Black Alice. Her mind connected the two events. She called out to Granberia and Alma Elma, and readied a harpy feather as she surveyed the battlefield around her one last time. She sighed at the somewhat pathetic -if unsurprising- sight.
The angels and the small army gathered by the Lilith Sisters were still fighting against each other, the apoptosis, and Kagetsumugi's dolls depending on which enemy was the closest. The battle was slowing down as both angels and monsters were tiring, but both sides were holding fast even as the two other groups didn't suffer from exhaustion. The last of the legendary succubus trio and the mechanical seraph were still fighting against one another, Lilith's attacks being only moderately effective against her opponent. Uriela and the other version of herself were still attacking each other, too engrossed in their deadly dance to notice that their target had slipped from their grasp to the benefit of their enemy. From afar, the small kitsune still couldn't tell who was going to win this battle.
And besides, nothing that happened there mattered any longer in the grand scheme of things.
Not a second later, Ilias and the three Heavenly Knights were back in front of the doors of the Pocket Castle. As soon as they arrived, they collapsed on the spot, the adrenaline of the fight wearing off after they had drawn into their ultimate reserves. A few mermaids rapidly stepped in to heal them, even if no one was in real danger. They were soon joined by Yao, Erubetie, and the second Alma Elma. Ilias was desperately trying to talk, but simply breathing in and out took every effort, she could only manage to articulate one word clearly.
"Luka…"
"We're already trying to track him. Rest for a second."
Ilias tried to get up, likely to go out search for the hero by herself, but could only manage to crawl pathetically a small meter before giving up. She could at least let the healers do their work for now.
Tamamo pulled out her fan to cool herself, but gave up midway as simply lifting her arm was too exhausting for now.
"You know what? While we recover and they search for Luka, I think I should teach you a little something. You deserve it."