GATE: the clash of the titans V2

by Qun Nguyn1

Mostly AUs. A Gate has opened in Tokyo by a Roman-esque Empire, familiar scenario with familiar faces but the people marched through the Gate is from a vastly more powerful magic world. The stage is set. Earth Alliance vs The Holy Empire. Science vs Magic. The power of the thousand sun vs The Beast of the Apocalypse. Let the clash of Titans begin. Let the worlds have War.

18. Chapter 18: Battle of Helm's Deep Valley

Chapter 18 : Battle of Helm's Deep Valley

Worldbuilding:

Due to the existence of Titan powers most residential structures in Falmart are very big. Buildings are often very impressive and well-built. There are extensive underground systems in every major cities to protect civilian population during the wars of gigantic proportion between titan armies.

Falmartian are exceptionally good at building, considering after every battle their city is flattened to the ground by the titan army and also because they have titan power so they have a lot of time (1000s years lifetime) and raw materials ( summoned from Path Dimension) to practise city building.

Underground cities are very famous due to their safety, people can't turned into titan underground and it is very hard to attack a subterranean city, 100 meter underground, when you are the size of a 7-floor building.

The Holy Order of Eden have many "Doomday Vault" around the world, which basically are gene banks that preserves genetic material of every species on Falmart.

For plants, this is done by in vitro storage, freezing cuttings from the plant, or stocking the seeds. (Thanks to magic they can be preserved for 10,000 years)

For animals, this is done by the freezing of sperm and eggs in zoological freezers until further need.

With corals, fragments are taken and stored in water tanks under controlled conditions.

Genetic material in a 'gene bank' is preserved in a variety of ways, such as freezing at -196° Celsius in liquid nitrogen, being placed in artificial ecosystems, and put in controlled nutrient mediums.

Their purpose of those Vaults are to conserve Falmart biodiversity and repopulated the planet after apocalyptic wars against the chaos demon or arachnid empire or maybe a especially bad imperial civil war.

Status Quo and Stability:

The unifying doctrine of the Holy Darwinian Empire is Security and Stability, as such they prioritizing stability over personal freedom, traditional over innovation.

-The Holy Empire has science, but not quite as we know it: the notion of knowledge for knowledge's sake is alien to them, and the notion of the scientist as a revolutionary, a shattered of paradigms and a demolisher of old, outdated notions is downright heresy.

There is research, and experimentation, on an extensive scale: but it is always a matter of building and extending what is already known, not bold speculation. Scientific theory tends to grow slowly and cumbersomely, with added cycles and epicycles until the contradictions grow too great

This sort of approach leads to different results in different disciplines. Since Falmartian astronomers has a cosmological model that fits the observed universe with no really important holes, they have been happy to stick with it for millennia rather than try other models, and see no point in expensive experiments to test it.

On the other hand, since medical and biochemical theories have actual and observable effects on the lives and well-being of other imperial citizens, the sciences of medicine and genetics and biochemistry slowly but steadily move forward over the centuries, one folded-molecule model at a time.

One strength of the Falmartian is expertise: millennia of incremental improvements in medicine and careful genetic tweaks and gene therapy methods have given the falmartian a lifespan roughly ten to one hundred times as long as earth's human, depend on the sub-species.

Given their capacity for steady work and good memories, an Imperial expert in some fields can be very good at it, and elderly Imperial scholars may have a depth of knowledge in their chosen fields to match any twenty human Professors Emeritus.

-To ensure Security and Stability the Empire embraced " For the Greater Good" and " That is Good Enough" approach in managing the Holy Empire.

So it not suprise to see the Holy Empire tend naturally to hierarchical societies, and find the notion of essentially using a poll of an uninformed population as a means of selecting leaders absurd, they need a symbol of national unity not divisiveness or mindless demagogy.

The Holy Empire needed a symbol of unstoppable strength to hold it by it's tattering seams through sheer will and power and a kinder hand that convinced the populous that the Holy Darwinian Empire was the only force capable of providing the security they required. And that symbol are the 13 Gods of Falmart and the Absolute Emperor of Darwinian.

Due to this the Drawinian monarchy and the Falmartian pantheon have a very close relationship to the point a new Emperor can't ascendant to the throne without the blessing from the gods or they will loss the "Mandate of Heaven".

A global government actually be more effective with a Monarch or Sovereign (whether he wears a crown or is succeeded hereditarily or not) because however else the system runs, it helps to have someone up top whose authority can cut through the bullshit of government bureaucracy in an emergency.

And the emphasis on tradition and ordered succession limits the political fuckery of outsiders trying to game the system (it'll never stop corruption because no system does, its how its managed that matters especially on a global scale)

Falmartian doesn't have the expectation of endless progress Earth's humans do: what was good enough for my great-great-grandfather, etc.

A comfortable house will not be torn down for a newer model, but repaired and perhaps piecemeal replaced over centuries.

As a result, there is a sense of "good enough" re a great number of forms of technology: although the Holy Empire has far better medical technology, some magic involvement here, than 21st century Earth, they weapons are all unchanged: sword, spear, bows, ect. Since it works fine for its purpose, why make any sweeping changes

The Darwinian Empire had no incentive to improve on their military tech (aside from marginal things such as making it less prone to wear and tear, more comfortable to ride, etc.), so they went with Good Enough, since almost nothing can fight a 60 meter tall titan army, why bother to use a machine gun.

The biggest threat to an empire stability is internal corruption and hubris as such the must be eliminated immediately before taking root within the society and that is the mission of The Office Of Assessment of the Falmartian Orthodox Church.

"Only a gods can judge a man" that is a Falmartian idioms and their deeply entrenched believe. As such only the Falmartian Orthodox Church have the right and duty to bring judgment to a person crimes, in fact all members of the judiciary system are clergy.

The holy duty of the Falmartian Orthodox Church is to prune sick branches excessively to keep the Holy Empire healthy. For that reason the church carried out many purges to bring down corrupted individual and even an Emperor at one point.

They are known as the "Secret Wars", a war against the very nature of man, a war that can never be won, but must always be fought to keep the Holy Empire healthy and strong.

Since the accession of Charles the Great Unifier, the Holy Empire has been ruled by a dictatorial monarch, all of whom have managed to walk a fine line between benevolence and malevolence.

Darwinian is one of the few monarchies in the world where the successor to the throne is chosen not just by blood but by adoption of the most suitable candidate by the current monarch, in a Roman-inspired system.

This system seems to work well for the Holy Empire, and because of it Darwinia has had a succession of fairly competent rulers who have led the nation reasonably well.

As a side effect of the competition involved in the adoptive succession system, the Imperial nobility have, over the years, been forced to become, and remain, largely educated and competent as well.

---

Headquarters, 11th Army of Itami, Southern Lemuria

General Itami, his subordinates, and Rory Mercury stood before the transmission screen and waited for it to light up with the link from Alnus Base. They would be briefed about the current situation of the Operation.

"General Itami, I bring terrible news from our right flank." said Major Mahanta

Itami paused for a second, a how bad the situation? "What happened?"

"Sir, terrible news. Task Force 7th in Hit has been defeated."

"Defeated?!" Everyone was stunned by the news. "How?" asked Major General Nguyen Duc Chung.

Itami knew if Hit falled, and its right on their front line, their extreme right flank, the Demons could cross the Euphia river and come down between the river and the Kingdom of Kowan. Cut their main army off from their supply lines.

"Over 200,000 men from Task Force 7th had heroically fought to their last men against an overwhelming number of demons, up to 25 million of them, without heavy armor. By the time the European Army Group 6th came to the rescue and destroyed the majority of the demon forces, nearly 10 million demons had crossed Euphia river using ice magic. They are heading north, threatening our supply lines. General Hazama has order the East Asian 11th Expeditionary Army to intercept them immediately."

The mood of everyone in the room was quite bleak, before Rory clasped her hands to pray. "Oh Lord Emroy, the God of War, he who lead us to glorious battles and grand victory, the one shall purge all devil with his divine blade, may you bring the soul of those great warriors to their rightful place in the Field of Heroes and forever protects their soul from demon. Let them the honor to join your Legion of Light and become the guards of the world order. Praise the Lord, Emroy Protects!"

While Hardy was the goddess who governing the Falmart's Underworld. Emroy was the God Of War, as a result the soul of the soldiers who die in battle went to him and under his protection from hellish entity.

XXXXXXXXX

An hour later, Itami was trying to absorb the CIA's description of the enemy force. He had about 100,000 troop in his 11th Army and they would face an breathtaking force of over 10 million demons.

"What we can finally be sure of is that it wouldn't be easy to repel the enemy's total attack power with our own battle strength right now, and when we are surrounded by the enemy, there would large casualty. To make the matter worse, the enemies are distributed over a wide terrain, reducing the richness of the target environment, we are running low on holy enhanced ammo and magic air-to-air missiles so we can't waste any of them."

Using the thin scabbard of his family heirloom katana as a baton, Itami pointed at a giant map spread out in front of his troops.

"As you all can see, over here near the Mountain Range at the Edge, there are plains and rocky terrain spanning 50 kilometer. If we are pushed back there, we would almost certainly be surrounded by the ten-million-strong demon army and annihilated. Therefore, we must lure the demons in and fight to them in the two thousand-meter wide, thirty five thousands-meter long Helm's Deep valley extending from the Great Eastern Gate. We shall set up a deep line formation here, focus on countering the enemy's assault, and slice them away bit by bit. That is the basic operation. Are there any comments regarding this point?"

The one who suddenly raised his hand was Major General Eun-Sung Lee. The young man stood up, his ash brown-colored curls shaking, as his usually casual but now suppressed rang in the air:

"If the enemy soldiers were concentrated in such narrow area, we could cut down even ten or twelve million demons. But the enemy are also very aware of this so they are spreading out in a long frontline. How are we going to lure them in the valley ?"

"About that, it's a dangerous bet…"

Itami paused, turning his eyes from Lee to Rory. He inadvertently straightened her back and continued:

"The demons after so many lost must be thirst for blood, they want to revenge and to vent their rage on those weaker than them. We will take advantage of this and send three infantry divisions out to lure them deep into the valley, only mobile infantry with armored vehicles with anti-tank missiles without tanks and artillery support. But they will receive support from the Imperial Fists regiment of the Zeroth Division."

At Itami's bold suggestion, the generals and command offices all began to argue.

"Of course, this is quite risky, the baiting force to lure the enemies will have to hold off until all of the demons enter Helm's Deep. However, facing an enemy far exceed our own in number. We have to gather the enemies in one place and annihilate them in one overwhelming first strike."That is true. However —there were two problems with Itami's operation.

In place of Lee Eun-Sung, who was now speechless, Nguyen Duc Duy stood up. The Vietnamese Major General inquired in a steady voice:

"So, perhaps General Commander Itami's words are true. However, The demon army has within it an Chaos Ogre army equipped with strong rapid fire Polybolos, supported by 10 harpy divisions and we are running low on AAA shell and SAM. How are we to counter their torrential long-range attacks soaring over from behind their foot soldiers without our tanks and artillery?"

"That's why I said it's a dangerous bet. We have emptied the nearby Cathedral armory of all the holy magic AAA shell and magic SAM missile stored there and transported them here. If we restrict firing AAA shell until they enter the absolute kill zone, we should be able to hold the fort for two [ Falmart ] days just with our AAA shell… No, three [ Falmart ] days."

This time there was even more surprised hustle and bustle. Even the serious faces of many veteran CO displayed silently shocked expressions. Waiting until Duy sat down with a moan, Ji-Eun Seong stood up.

"There's still… one problem, General Itami."

Clearing her mind of their argument a while ago, Ji-Eun Seong brought up the second problem.

"Although the valley is narrow, its land area is not small, and moreover, the valley entrance is quite wide. I believe that even in the best case, nearly half of the enemy force can escape. Exactly how can we completely destroy the enemy in one blow?"

This time, even Itami was unable to give an immediate reply.

The valley that ran through the mountains was certainly narrower than the grassy plain that extended behind the camp, but even so, it was two thousand meters wide and a thirty five thousand meters long. To immediately covered it with explosions, thousands of artillery canon must fire at the same time, but it was as Itami just said: there were not that many non-anti-air artillery left in the 11th Army. Ji-Eun Seong couldn't think of any weapon with that kind of power except an atomic bomb, unfortunately non-holy-magic weapon couldn't kill the demon because they would resurrect immediately.

However, the Commander gazed at Ji-Eun Seong with dark-brown eyes and shook his head forcefully.

"No, there is. Only one person can do it."

"… One person…?"

Mumbling softly, Ji-Eun Seong looked around at the 11th Army soldiers.

But what came out of Itami's mouth was a name she had never considered.

"That's your pet, Rory, the Divine Dragon Enryū. Rory, can you borrow us your divine dragon?"

"EH…?!" Rory thought for a moment. "Enryū should be able to use it… that world-creating, veritable godlike power."

---

Army of Gabarinelazat, Soma village, Southern Lemuria

The Great Duke of Hell Gabarinelazat snorted in disgust as he watched the young Immanity die. He stared into those cow-like eyes as they fluttered and the hands feebly clawed at his infernal flesh.

He could feel the soul within stirring now as the meat caging it finally ceased its life functions. He casually allowed the corpse the slide out of his grip and he was quiet for a long moment, before devouring the corpse.

After being fully fed he started thinking about his current situation. The humans army were about in large numbers and he was no fool. His army would take time to regenerate and his own flesh was still aching from his wounds. Their spears of plastic and metal spat hot burning bolts that could wound even his great personage.

This was not the way it was to be. Go find them and challenge them, he was told. They will cower before you. He had found the humans but their chariots of steel and plastic were far too powerful for him. He had lost more than half of his army already and he was in no condition to battle the human army again. Not yet, anyway.

Gabarinelazat smiled cruelly. When he did, there would be blood. Enough to drown a thousand human infants, and then the pain would come. Sweet melodic pain. Gabarinelazat's eyes fluttered and the never born knew that it was time to rest. His prey had been bested and he had claimed a lair for himself. At least long enough to heal the wounds and allow his spirit flesh to sing to the domain he called home. This wretched place of cloying life and limited matter was not to his liking. He was his own being and he needed rest.

"Just for a little while." Gabarinelazat growled and curled down onto the floor next to the corpse of the boy. He looked with contentment at the place that surrounded him for sprawled out across the couch was an older woman, head turned completely around and leering at him while a younger woman was impaled on a broken piece of furniture, scream frozen on her face.

All were small offerings to the Gods of Chaos and his Prince to watch over him in this moment of weakness. He would repay them with more flesh and blood when he was whole again.

Army of Gabarinelazat , The Field of Blood, Southern Lemuria

A long military convoy, with the command car with a waving demonic flag bringing up the rear, was slowly but surely moving to the West. At the edge of the blood-colored sky, the saw-like pitch-black Blackstone Mountain Range at the edge of Lemuria slowly revealed its silhouette.

On the fourth day of the march, The main forces of the demon approached the base of the Blackstone Mountain Range, where they were ambushed by a human infantry division then run away.

A countless number of black tents set up by the vanguard covered the wide plain.

Boom.

Boom.

The earth trembled from the thunderous war drums played by the army of Giant Demons.

At the end of the line, Gabarinelazat looked silently from the roof of his command car — as though they were countless blood cells pumped by a giant heart, the attack unit slowly expanded into the final formation.

The first army of the advance guard, an army of lesser daemons light infantry and daemonic beasts heavy infantry, summed up to a three million. They formed a column that snugly fitted into the gorge piercing through the mountain range at the edge. The giants' massive bodies were set up in various places among the ranks like siege towers and though they numbered fewer than 100 thousand, they would likely serve well as the main tanks supporting the infantry units.

The lesser demons were followed behind by the second army: one million four-arm demon and another, likewise, one million Chaos Minotaur. The young hell duke who succeeded as the new dark general pled for the vanguard position to wipe the disgrace of his predecessor, but Gabarinelazat drove him away. Expecting the entire Minotaur unit to suffer from low morale, he decided to eliminate that uncertain element.

The third army comprises 1.4 million demon archers and 600 thousand demon sorceress from the Dark Arts legion. Their duty was to charge into the gorge behind the infantry and annihilate the enemy troops with ranged attacks. According to the head of the dark arts users, Duconmemay, they would be able to defeat the main force of the enemy, the heavy tanks, by concentrating fire on them as long as they were within sight.

To be perfectly honest, Gabarinelazat had to admit he had the desire to personally attempt a fight against those human and devouring their souls. However, he would lose everything if there was some unexpected incident. His first priority now would be to destroy those lowly vermin human.

Just as he was dreaming of all the tortures he would inflict on those lowly monkeys, the tapping of high heels sounded out from the stairs set up behind the command vehicle and the head of the Dark Arts Sorceress Legion, Duconmemay, showed herself.

She gave a respectful bow and licked her lips before reporting.

"Sire, the entire army is in position."

"Understood."

Aside from the main force of seven million deployed in front, there were two million reserve troops mainly consisting of chaos goblins and orcs, and the transport unit of one milion waiting on the left and right of the command vehicle.

This army of ten million was all the military force Gabarinelazat had. Hence, if he suffered heavy losses and was still unable to break through the enemy's defenses, he would be unable to correct his basic plan. The chances of securing his glory would almost completely disappear.

However, according to reports from harpies scouts, the enemy had merely 60,000. If everything went according to plan, it would be impossible to lose.

"… All right, good job. How much time is left until the sun set?"

"About 2 hours."

"Then, have the first army enter the valley an hour before the sun set. Fan them out as close to the enemy line as possible, and attack the very moment the sun set. If they can push back the front, immediately send in the second army and third army and annihilate the enemy in a single strike."

"Yes. …We will take the head of the enemy before tomorrow. Of course, they will already have been charred beyond recognition."

Duconmemay giggled. After quickly giving orders to the harpies awaiting them behind her, she bowed deeply and descended the steps.

Gabarinelazat walked to the front of his huge four-wheeled vehicle, looking far off at the gigantic stone gate erected in front of him.

It was still two miles off, but its size gave off the tension of a huge mountain. However, the true feast will have only just begun. The thousands of souls that will crack and disappear will release an unparalleled gorgeous glow.

Boom. Boom.

Boom. Boom.

The drums were beat increasingly faster, arousing a hunger and madness that flooded the wilderness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sun's afterglow dyed the sky in the red of blood.

Looking down into the skull's hollow eye sockets, Gabarinelazat let out a somber voice suited to his role as the Duke of Hell.

"Warriors of the land of eternal fire! The time you've been waiting for has come! Kill all who live! Pillage all without hesitation! —Trample on them all!"

War cries burst forth from all across the battle formations, their volume exceeding the human tolerance threshold. The countless machetes and pikes thrust upwards shone in the hue of blood under the setting sun.

The first batch of the demons comprised 1 million goat-headed demons, 1 million ox-headed demon, 500 thousand Chaos orcs, and 100 thousand cyclops giants for a total of 2.6 million demons. He would first have them lead the charge and observe the enemy army's reaction.

Swiftly swinging his raised right hand down in front, Gabarinelazat gave his first command.

"Group one—begin the assault!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The one who assumed command over the 1 million goat-headed demons on the right flank of the demon force making up the first group of the ten million-strong invading army was a young duke named Kosograri who was extoled as the most cruel and greedy even among the lesser Duke of Hells.

The order given to the goat-headed demons was truly simple. They would penetrate in with a charge as the vanguard and annihilate the enemy army. That was all.

Kosograri secretly passed down a directive to his trusted commanding officers right before the attack.

The moment the slave skull given to him clicked into movement and delivered the assault order from the Greater Duke, he stuck his hand under his armor and pulled out a small ball he prepared prior.

His commanding officers ought to be doing the same at that time too.

He spotted multiple watch fires and the glint of dazzling weapons and armor further into the valley that opened straight on.

That was the human defense army.

Kosograri gripped the ball firmly within his left hand and thrust up the thick bronze knife in his right as he screamed in a deep voice.

"All of you, stick together and come with me! —Chargeeeee!"

Helm's Deep valley, Southern Lemuria

"First Battalion, draw your sunblade and prepare your holy incantations to engage! Sixth Goryeo Mechanized Division, prepared your 120mm mortar and 57mm auto-cannon !"

Knight captain, Prioress Lalatina proud voice pierced through the twilight, in her role as the holy knight serving as the deputy head for the Imperial Fists regiment, Zeroth Division.

Jyariin! The chorus of swords slipping from their scabbards rang through the valley. Their watch fires, whose numbers were suppressed, imbued their orichalcum blades with a red gleam.

A thunderous noise finally approached from beyond the Great East Gate with the ground practically rumbling from the march of millions of Chaos demons.

The goat-headed demons short pace. The Chaos orcs tepid pace. The giant one eye demons' footsteps, which sounded like hammers slammed into the ground, mixed in and overlapped atop their war cries. The howl of the massive beast known as terror yet unknown to all humans.

It took everything they had for the mere 20,300 mobile infantry of the South Korean 6th Goryeo Mechanized Division with their heavy IFVs lined up in defensive lines 20 kilometer from the Great Eastern Gate to stand their ground. It would not have been strange for their files to collapse before such an overhelming number of enemy.

What kept them standing at their post were the backs of nine hundred holy knights standing alone in intervals at the frontmost line.

In charge of holding the left flank was the «Dragon Scale Whip», Knight Captain Erik.

In the middle was the «Heaven Lighting Sword» who also served as the force's commander, Knight Captain Lalatina.

And the right flank was protected by the «Holy Flame Bow», Knight Captain Dietfried.

The three 7-foot tall knights clad in full body armor which would glitter beautifully even in the depths of darkness stood firmly on the ground with each of their two feet and awaited the enemy troops without even a twitch.

Knight Captain Dietfried awaited the enemy army with his chest boldly puffed up while gently stroking the aged ring fitted on the ring finger of his left hand, holding onto the Holy Flame Bow, with his right-hand fingers.

Ranking among the oldest holy knights, he had protected the order in the Holy Drawinian Empire's northern region for over a thousand years.

He drove away demonic invaders comming from the Immaterium in their attempts to cross to the realspace, exterminated large magical beasts within his base of operations, and occasionally took in criminals who committed taboos.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dietfried separated his right hand from the ring and grasped ten mithirl arrows at once from the gigantic quiver set on the ground by his side.

He arranged them carefully onto his divine instrument, the Holy Flame Bow, that he wielded horizontally.

He was nearly done with the incantation for his Holy Armament spell. Lalatina and Erik would still restrain from doing so, but Dietfried's secret technique could not display its might when it became a ruckus. With the resolve to expend half of his beloved bow's mana, the holy knight sucked in a deep breath and uttered the final phrase.

"Holy Enhanced Armament!"

Crimson.

The humongous flames from the great Orichalcum bow dyed the invaders who reached two thousand meters away in a brilliant red.

The ten arrows nocked on the bowstring shone too, immersed within deep crimson flames.

"—I am Holy Knight Captain Dietfried! All who stand before me, you shall burn away, leaving not even your bones!"

The knight's fingers released the taut bowstring drawn to its limit.

Zudoo! Ten streaks of flames shot forth in a radial formation with that roar.

The first victims of what would be later known as the «Battle of Helm's Deep» were the ox-headed demons soldiers who charged in from the left side of the valley.

The commander of the ox-headed demons, Shiborinzha, had neither wisdom nor schemes on the level of the goat-headed demons' commander, Kosograri, and was a youth demon duke who could boast only about his constitution and strength.

As such, he went up against an holy knight, possessing overwhelming might even when alone, absolutely unprepared and simply ordered his soldiers into a tactless charge.

Dietfried's ten flame arrows pierced into the tightly packed plains demon army from the front, achieving their maximum potential. A whole 2400 ox-headed demons were instantly incinerated in that first strike and sent the surrounding soldiers into a fine disarray.

However, as their charge was undisciplined from the very start, most of the machete-wielding soldiers thirsting for blood tread over their torched kindred and continued their disordered rush, pushing their faltering comrades aside.

Dietfried nocked another ten arrows onto his Holy Flame Bow in response.

Instead of spreading out his range, he shot them while still bundled up.

The grand, Holy spear impacted upon the direct middle of their ranks and brought forth a tremendous explosion. Many demon soldiers were blown away amidst the scattered shrill screams. The casualties exceeded three thousand, but still, the plains demons charged on.

Naturally, they would. Chaos orcs and thousands of giant demons followed after the goat-headed demons who kept pace with each other and stopping would be equivalent to getting stomped upon by them, several times their size, moments after.

Raising the brusque battle axe he held with his two arms, far more muscular than the average ox-headed demon, Lesser duke Shiborinzha let out a savage scream.

"All of you! Kill that archer first! Surround him, cut him, smash him!"

"Orarara—! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

That battle cry resounded throughout the millions of demon soldiers.

Dietfried took on the imposing anger and bloodthirst without a word as he let loose his third volley of fire arrows. The number of ox-headed demons charred to cinders exceeded three thousand yet again, but the enemy forces charged on.

He stored away the Holy Flame Bow's flames as the distance between them reached 500 meter and switched over to normal shooting.

Taking 10 mithril arrows at a time out from his giant quiver at a ferocious pace, he fired blindly without any particular target. Each arrow pierced through 10 ox-headed demon, or 8 at the very minimum.

Holy knights ran forward from Dietfried's sides with their sunblade drawn.

"Protect Knight Captain! Don't let their blades reach him!"

By the time the Demons had swarmed through the wire, their neat ranks and serried formation had gone. In its place was a stream of demons in groups of varying size making their way towards the defending army.

Dietfried heard the 120mm mortars coughing as they lobbed their first rounds at the larger of the groups, the 6th Mechanized Division were pounding the Demons hung up on the wire with their anti-tank missile, 57mm cannon and 40mm grenade.

XXXXXXXXX

Several seconds before that.

In the middle of the gorge, Deputy Knight Commander Knight Captain Lalatina was awaiting the enemy army in a posture that could be considered only odd by the common knowledge in this world.

She was standing with her feet far apart and the left of her body forward. Her right hand, aligned to her shoulder's height, was gripping tightly onto the hilt of her divine instrument, the Heaven Lighting Sword. However, her sword was held horizontally in a reverse grip with its bottom end supported by her spaulder.

Meanwhile, her left hand was stretched out forward, her palm supporting the Heaven Lighting Sword's blade. Simply said—she was like a sniper with a rifle at the ready.

That could be said to be true in a sense. Lalatina drew the rushing enemy army in for as long as possible while scouting out the most effective point.

Though Dietfried's Holy Flame Bow could adjust the broadness of its arrow firing, the Heaven Lighting Sword could only shoot a single narrow beam of light. As such, naïvely firing it into the massive enemy army would hardly do much.

She should aim for the commander somewhere within the enemy army.

The Chaos Demon led its forces through power and fear. The average soldiers pledged absolute obedience towards their commanders and they would fight on until their end as ordered regardless of any development. But turning that around, it meant they would lose all leadership with the defeat of their commander.

Lalatina brought her bare face, stripped from its silver mask, towards her cherished sword's guard and caught firmly onto the enemy army with her widened eyes.

The chaos demons charging in as the ground rumbled was already narrowing the distance between them to two thousand meter. Dietfried had started his assault from her right with his "Holy Enhanced Armament!" and explosives flames lit up the twilight in red twice or thrice.

It was in that brief radiance—

That Lalatina finally found her target.

Huge shadows in the middle chased after the goat-headed demon forces in the advance party as though urging them on. They were the one eye giants, boasting bodies 10 times the size of humans', rival a titan. The one leading them had a tremendous frame a head taller than the rest; he was unmistakably hell duke Sigrosig.

The one eye giant were a proud, or perhaps terribly haughty, race. They measured superiority based only by the size of their bodies, and it seemed that inside, they looked down even on the true rulers of the land of darkness, the Hell Duke.

That meant taking down the tribe's leader with a single strike before the war truly began would cause a great disturbance indeed.

Lalatina took in a deep breath, held it, and whispered.

"Holy Enhanced Armament."

White light, bright as sun, engulfed the Heaven Lighting Sword's blade as a low noise vibrated.

She accurately seized, with the path its keen edge traced, Sigrosig who ran in from that distant point and shouted out sharply.

"Meteor Stream!"

Zubaaaa! The air shook as a dazzling heat ray converged from the might of the sun penetrated through the battlefield.

Howerver, the power of Meteor Line had no connection with the energy of the light. Even the amount of light was irrelevant.

The essence of the magic lied in forcing the redistribution of light, where the coordinates for light to be in were set as little balls and lines were then drawn between them.

Anything in the space the light passes through was modified as the light was transmitted: regardless of the hardness of the object, heat resistance, plasticity, or resilience; a hole was drilled through.

Not even highly transparent glass holds an optical transparency of 100%, and couldn't escape the event modification that 'light has passed through' and therefore 'a hole was made'. it was the ultimate sniper magic

Looking at the logic behind this magic, rather than the phenomenon itself, it could be concluded that the magic interferes with the structural information of the object via the distribution of light, directly vaporizing solids and liquids without affecting heat or pressure; in other words a type of decomposition magic which decomposed targets into gas.

Since it was defined as a 'ray of distributed light', it could not be defended against via blocking, reflecting or refracting.

Since the light didn't come from any particular direction, it couldn't be shielded against by magic either.

Even if one were to cover themselves with a spherical shield in all directions, it couldn't alter the movement of photons and the phenomena 'light has become a line' would still be produced, resulting in a hole.

XXXXXXXXX

The first casualty from the Holy Knight was an elderly knight struggling by Dietfried's immediate side at the right flank of where the first unit held down the front line.

He did not manage to stop the hand axes thrown by the Chaos orcs with his shield.

He was a lower noble that had long commanded a platoon in the imperial guards before joining the Zeroth Division.

Though he certainly had Titan regenerate ability, he could not help but to approach the undisputable descent of his life as he reach his age limit and the axe, imbued with dark magic, dug deep into his wrinkled neck dealt him a completely fatal wound.

Not even the healing arts hurriedly recited by the ascetics party on standby behind could make up for that damage.

Dietfried had paused his random firing immediately and performed a high ranking healing art on the fallen old knight. However, the man shook his head and shouted out while vehemently vomiting blood.

"You must not! This is, truly, this old man's sacred task and Life… esteemed knight, I trust you… with our home…"

A moment later, the old knight passed away with what was left of his life force released as space resources.

Dietfried bit down hard and shot at the Chaos Orc who had hurled that hand axe with the blaze from the Holy Flame Bow powered by the old guard's life.

The Knights of the Defense Army continued falling after that, too, sporadically yet without end. Thousands of those numbers among the demons lost their lives as well, obeying the command for their ruthless charge to the very end.

Much of the flood of Life force dispersed throughout the battlefield rose as specks of mana—

Far, into the skies above the gorge.

Where a single three-headed dragon hovered under the cover of night.

Spiraling as they coalesced towards the demi-goddess, clad in red armor, standing atop its back.

XXXXXXXXX

An instant.

Zubaaa! A ray of dazzling light shot out from the sword the female knight propped up with that buzz unlike any sound he had heard before. It stabbed through the right side of the chest of the giant running right in front of Sigrosig without any resistance.

If Sigrosig had not tumbled, that light would have blown away his heart next.

Instead, the white light vaporized part of the giant chief's disheveled red hair and his right ear decorated with his prey's teeth.

Piercing through another two hundred of his allies running behind, it dissipated into specks of light, leaving behind those fatal wounds.

Sigrosig's consciousness could hardly register the 200 one eye giant who lost all of their Life in an instant and fell like logs. Even the intense pain burning at the right of his head was stabbed like some tiny insect before the humongous emotion assaulting him.

That was, in short, terror.

Sigrosig shamefully continued sitting on his backside as his jaw chattered in his trembling.

Even when he witnessed the power of human weapons, while he was surprised, there was no fear. Yet why had that mere female holy knight inspired such fright in himself?

Sigrosig could hardly bear to be paralyzed in fear from a mere woman as his opponent.

"No… No, no, no…"

Smoke rose from his burnt hair as the giant duke moaned.

Impossible. He could not be frightened. White fireworks shot off deep in his mind as intense pain ran through it the harder he fretted. His mouth and tongue convulsed rapidly, spewing out uninterrupted words that came out as strange noises.

"Nononono, kill, kill, killkellkeldell, delldelldelldelldeldel."

The Hell Duke's eye released crimson light.

"Dell, dell, de—"

While the warriors of the one eye giant race watched on in shock from all around, Sigrosig sprang up with force.

Swinging about his gigantic warhammer as though it was a tiny twig, he restarted his charge with tremendous vigor.

Sending those of the same race in front flying to the left and right, he caught up with the vanguard ox-headed demon before long. Moist noises and shrill screams continuously welled up from his feet upon him pushing on without any attempt to let down on his momentum, but the giant no longer perceived any fear.

The desire to kill that female knight alone resounded his soul like a broken bell.

The crimson light residing within the lesser duke's eye seemed of the flames in the demon world far under the earth. Even the surrounding demon soldiers had ceased their approach, seemingly afraid.

"Kee… keel… Keelllll!"

An abnormal scream roared from the one eye giant. But, there wasn't even a smidgen of surprise or fear within Lalatina's chest. She's been through this situation hundreds of times already.

Smoothly pointed straight towards the sky by her right hand, the Heaven Lighting Sword—

Gained a coating of pure white light with a dull rumble. That dazzling radiance stretched on for over five meter from the sword's tip and remained as such.

"Humankeeeelllll—!"

Swinging the iron hammer with both hands, Sigrosig jumped at Lalatina.

"…Return, unto the underworld."

Lalatina carelessly swung down with that murmur. Having extended several times its previous length, the blade of light drew a white streak through the air as it struck the bronze hammer's blunt surface.

A crisp noise echoed with the gigantic weapon dividing into two. Burnt red from the cross section, the melted bronze splashed all over.

The huge sword of light came into contact with Sigrosig's head just like that—slicing down into the ground without its momentum even waning.

The one eye giants behind and the guards of the Holy Empire descended into silence at that scene; the lesser duke, boasting of the world's largest body, was severed into halves while still airborne.

Lalatina raised the blade of light over her head with a satisfying sound from the two lumps of flesh, falling with a damp noise, and shouted out loud.

"First Battalion, middle, forward! Repel the enemies!"

XXXXXXXX

The waves of attacks from the never-ending stream of Chaos demons sank Dietfried into impatience.

There was no chance he would be defeated or even challenged by some average demon soldier in one-versus-one combat, no matter how many times that was repeated. The mountain of corpses burnt by the flames from the thousands of arrows he shot earlier served as actual proof of that.

However, he could not take on all of the enemy troops alone as they came as a wide, horizontal wave. He could only leave most of those on the sides to the mobile infantry from the 6th Goryeo Mechanized Division and his holy knights.

In terms of individual expertise, the holy knights surpassed the enemy troops by a significant gap. Their sword techniques, polished through years of strict training, were certainly faster and sharper than the demons who relied on their strength in swinging their machetes and their weapon the sunblade with its superheated monomolecularly-edged could cut throught virtually anything.

But that strength difference was far less sure than the overwhelming gap between an holy knight and demon soldiers. It would be tough to overcome those numbers, several thousand times their own, with purely skill and weapon.

Dietfried keenly felt the desire to share with all of the guards the great strength his body was endowed with. But naturally, there was no art capable of that.

The knights under him lost their lives one after another, one jumped upon by multiple Chaos orcs, another collapsing from exhaustion. Dietfried felt as though his own Life was shaved away each time he heard their shrieks echo through the battlefield.

So this was «A Black Crusade»?

It was utterly different from the old fights: sweeping up intruders on the ground while atop a flying dragon or a one-versus-one duel with a hell duke. It was an ugly war of attrition with each moment certain to add to the number of casualties.

The pride of the holy knights served no purpose on this battlefield.

Was it not yet? Was the order for the unit to retreat not given yet?

Even the knowledge of how much time had passed since the start of the battle escaped him.

Dietfried blow away the advancing enemy soldiers with the 60mm grenade launcher in his right hand and randomly shot with the Holy Flame Bow whenever he could. With his calm lost without his notice, he failed to notice the strange movements taken by a slice of the enemy troops.

The commander of the ox-headed demons, Hell Duke Shiborinzha, was far more of a fool than the goat-headed demon commander, Kosograri; the same went for his cruel nature.

Shiborinzha recognized the holy knights leading the enemy troops as no more than large magical beasts. He made light of them, thinking that no matter how strong they were, they were just one person on their own, doomed after being surrounded.

However, he found the holy knights to be much more troublesome than magical beasts after the fighting began, barely slipping from their encirclements despite how many charged forth, hundreds would be blown away with the explosion from a single fire arrow and even normal arrows flew true, to a horrifying extent, towards their heads and hearts.

Now then, what to do?

The conclusion Shiborinzha reached after some thinking could not have been any more simple or cruel.

He would continue having his soldiers charge forward until the enemy knight's arrows ran out.

That said, the soldiers sent ahead without a plan were in no mood to simply "go with it", naturally enough. There was a fair amount with intelligence surpassing Shiborinzha and though they went with his orders, they contrived whatever gimmicks they could.

They began lifting up corpses from their fallen comrades and hiding in their shadows or staying a fair distance from the knight while strafing left and right.

Dietfried should have seen through such a naive plan at once if he had his usual temperament. However, the screams from the guards whose strength left them shaved away at his calm without his notice. The ox-headed demons benefited from how the war started at evening as well. The enemy was taking awfully long to fall.

By the time Dietfried noticed that, his stock of more-than-enough mithril arrows was nearly exhausted.

"Goood, good, looks like he's finally out of arrows."

Shiborinzha scraped the nape of his neck with the backs of the two machetes against his shoulders as he snickered.

The tragic display of the countless corpses of his race, too, failed to instigate much influence on his mind.

It appeared about 290,000 of his allies were done in, but there still remained over 700 thousand soldiers. If they obtained plentiful meat and land after invading the mortal lands, they could replenish their number all they liked.

However, they had to produce significant results to expand their territories. They would first have to take care of that holy knight in red armor.

"Alright, let's go, all of you. Surround that archer and drag him down. I'll take his neck off myself."

Shiborinzha instructed those forming a barricade around himself, his close aides who were both brawny and boorish, and slowly stepped forward.

"…I slipped up…"

Dietfried let out a deep groan.

He had finally realized those enemies erratically moving through the darkness and those scarecrows improvised from raised corpses.

After bringing down those manipulating the scarecrows by aiming at the feet rather than the heart, the right hand searched through the large quiver behind and grasped only a fruitless emptiness.

Without arrows, the Holy Flame Bow, a divine instrument, was no different from a plain longbow. Though it was possible to produce arrows from metallic elements with sacred arts, that technique could only be used in a one-versus-one where he had the chance to recite the spell.

Grinding his teeth as he hung the Holy Flame Bow on his left shoulder by its string, Dietfried drew the sunblade from his waist once more. It was in that precise moment that he spotted a party rapidly approaching through the darkness from in front, with sizes rather large for ox-headed demons.

Their outfits differed from the small fry he faced off until now. Their chest to around their hips was covered in plate armor and riveted leather belts wrapped about their brawny arms. They held thick, large hatchets that seemed fit to sever even cows in their right hands.

Dietfried confirmed another ox-headed demon approaching from behind those seven—with a frame that exceeded even chaos orcs in terms of height.

Judging from the dark metal armor shining with black luster, the two large hatchets hanging from his hands, and the vivid, decorative feathers swaying on his head, he figured there was no mistake that he was a demon army's commander, a Duke of Hell.

The demon general's two eyes shining red under his bulging brow collided with Dietfried's pair of eyes and the surrounding air creaked in that instant. The swords and machetes striking against each other without pause on the front lines gradually petered out and came to an eventual stop. Both the guards and the chaos demons gained distance from each other without further words and watched the two generals' confrontation with held breaths.

Dietfried held back the numerous approaching guards with his left hand. Brandishing the sword in his right hand without letting down his guard, he questioned in a deep and seasoned yet distinct voice.

"You are one of the Duke of Hell… the ox-headed demons' commander, huh?"

"That's me."

The large ox-headed demon responded with his yellowed teeth showing.

"Commander of the ox-headed demons, that's Duke Shiborinzha to you."

Dietfried steadied his breathing, rough from the long, fierce battle while gazing straight towards the enemy general.

—If I defeat this general and those close to him, the ox-headed demon army would lose its will to fight, even for a moment. If we take the initiative and push the lines back, we would accomplish our role as the vanguards. Even if he could not use his Holy Flame Bow.

Even if it was eight on one, he could only aim for a certain victory now. He would prove the holy knights captain' strength, said to comparable to ten thousand man, here and now.

"I am the Holy Knight Captain, Dietfried…"

Shiborinzha's vulgar cry cut his sonorous voice short as he tried to state his name.

"Hold there, who cares about some human's name?! You're meat, meat stuck on that head I'll be taking! Get to it… all of you, get him!"

Uu—raaaaaahh!

Dietfried took on the seven elite ox-headed demons jumping forward with brutal war cries on his own.

They should have simply continued that boorish war if they lacked the pride of swordsmen so. Proposing this shame of a duel was just—

"Ridiculous!"

Before picking up the whip, the spear, or the bow, every holy knight was an experienced swordsman.

Not even a single being there could perceive the motion of Dietfried raising the sunblade in his right hand overhead and swinging it down.

The slash at godspeed drew a dimly white streak of light. A faint noise rang out as the large hatchet raised by the leading ox-headed demon was split into two.

That was a moment before that ox-headed demon was cut into two from the crown of his head to his stomach, fresh blood gushing out everywhere.

However, the knight was gone before that spray reached.

Dietfried carried out his next attack, having moved to the second before the first even noticed his own death.

It was not some consecutive sword technique like those of Lalatina . Those were repeated single slashes in the old style of sword techniques executed from the traditional stance.

However, Dietfried's skill was polished through a near infinite number of months and years, to a practically divine level. Only the upper ranks among the holy knights and demon lord could react against that single strike.

In actual fact, the second, cut from the left at nearly the same time as the first, had perished with his plate armor severed along with his heart by the time he began swinging down his large hatchet.

The overwhelming power difference was evident in everyone's eyes.

However, the elite chaos goblins showed no hesitation. Lesser Duke Shiborinzha, too, was a superior being that inspired fear in them and they did not even consider opposing his command.

Two who circled around from Dietfried's side, bathed in the blood sprays from their own race, assailed him from both the left and right.

The experienced knight showed not even the least panic and first cut into the left chaos goblin from below and drew that into an arc into the right chao goblin from above. The single immediate motion that ended the enemies on both sides was truly on the level of divinity.

Three remained; no, four if the general was counted too.

Would they come all at once or one after another?

Avoiding the spurts of blackish-red blood with a jump back, Dietfried prepared his next attack.

The fifth naively slashed at him from the left of his vision. He saw no light reflected off blades from any other direction.

"Nuhn!"

He sliced horizontally with the sword on his left with that curt yell. The tip cut a silver arc and sank into the enemy's right.

Both of Dietfried's eyes opened wide in that moment.

A large hatchet had stabbed through the enemy's chest from behind, right as he had slashed, and flew towards him.

The massive dark blade scattered all around the fresh blood from its still breathing comrade as it closed in towards Dietfried's throat.

He could neither dodge nor block it with his sword.

Having judged so in an instant, the left forearm he raised collided with the tip of that large hatchet, producing dull light. The dark magic imbuing in the blade prevented his wound from healing.

A numbing, intense pain. Though he had somehow endured with his reddish-copper gauntlet, the blow spread through his bones from his flesh.

"Ku… oohh!"

Blowing through his surprise with a shout, Dietfried forced the enemy's blade to glance off towards the left. A cracking noise rang throughout his body, informing him of the broken bones in his left arm.

That was no more than a single arm!

With the slash stopped with his mustered up spirit, Dietfried charged straight in just like that. Stabbing through the sacrificed fifth's stomach, his sword reached the overlapped sixth's body.

However, the feedback was shallow.

He had to quickly withdraw his sword, gain some distance, and link that into his next attack.

Dietfried pulled the sword out at once, sweat rising onto his brow without his notice.

The fifth slumped over, dead, and beyond that, he saw—

The sixth and seventh throwing their large hatchets away and leaping at him with their arms spread out at a height equal to crawl across the ground.

And there existed no stance fit for attacking an enemy in that position within Dietfried's style.

Falling into a momentary rigidness, the knight's two legs were grabbed simultaneously by the two chaos goblins. Incapable of dealing with their dreadful physical strength, Dietfried fell onto his back.

His two widened eyes perceived Shiborinzha, the enemy general, jumping forward with his large frame and two battle axes brandished while showing a brutal joy.

—In such a place, against a low life ox-headed demon?

—It's impossible for I, Dietfried, a holy knight, to face defeat here.

«Impossible».

That thought could prove to be a dangerous poison for one's mental state the more stubborn one was. Dietfried's motion came to a complete stop within his numbed consciousness.

The knight could only watch on as the lethal blade loomed closer before he heard—

A scream, hoarse from exhaustion but valiant all the same.'

"Esteemed knight—!"

A single soldier charged towards the enemy general and his fiendish features. That was a young Korean commando in his powered exoskeleton.

That youngling whose name he had not even heard yet raised the 200kg Vrataski battle axe his two hands held up and carried out a slash from above with all he had.

In response, the enemy general swung the battle axe in his left hand as though it was a bother.

Gagiin! A dull, shrill metallic noise rang out.

Though it paled when compared to the enemy general, the Korean commando had a large build and wore the 200 kg Combat Jacket Mk3, but was blown away like a paper doll, rolling two, three times across the ground. That physical strength overthrew the gap between their technique, speed, and equipment all too easily.

The two eyes of the demon shone red and narrowed. Releasing the murderous aura of a beast's, he leapt and swung up the axe in his right hand as though to put an end to the guard commander who had yet to stand up.

—No.

—I cannot allow any further casualties as a knight, and as their commander!

The momentary thought stabbed into Dietfried's stiff mental state like a bolt of lightning.

Before he could consider what to even do, his two hands swung almost automatically—carrying out what he had never thought of prior.

Nocking the sunblade in his right hand as a replacement for an arrow onto the bowstring of the Holy Flame Bow he wielded horizontally, he fiercely tugged at it.

The heavy resistance felt as though he was pulling on a rope fastened to the great earth. The intense pain practically wiped his consciousness blank from the roots.

However, Dietfried let a groan escape amidst his clenched teeth and pulled it to its very limit. Taking up a posture to fire, he yelled.

"Come, flames!"

The divine weapon responded to its owner's will even without reciting its magic.

The energy from the flames emitting from all over the bow surpassed all previous manifestations of his "Holy Enhanced Armament" incantations .

Though the sunblade nocked onto the bow could not compare to a divine instrument, it was a named good produced personally by the highest minister. It possessed a power on an entirely different level from the mass-produced mithril arrows. The sacred energy contained within its blade transformed into flames without moderation.

The full body armor on Dietfried, with its supposed resistance towards heat, turned red hot at once.

The two chaos demons clinging onto his legs let out shrieks as flames started spouting out from their eyes and mouths, burning them, before they could react accordingly.

The enemy general, turning back upon noticing the abnormality, widened both eyes from surprise and anger as he tried to hurl the axe in his right hand.

However, that was too slow—

"—Burn down to ashes!"

Shouting so, Dietfried released the bowstring. Shot forth with a roar, the chainsword flapped its crimson, blazing wings as it soared straight. It appeared just like the Holy Flame Bow's original self—the phoenix that lived in the oldest volcano of the southern land.

"Graahh!"

The enemy general let out a groan as he crossed the two large axes before his body. The phoenix clad in flames struck the heart of that for an instant.

The large, bronze axes vaporized all too quickly with a hiss.

And their owner, Shiborinzha the commander of the ox-headed demons, skipped through the usual processes of combustion, immediately turning into black charcoal— He crumbled into pieces right after and vanished without a trace.

Having witnessed their general's horrifying death, the ox-headed demon soldiers turned around at once and began fleeing. However, over thirty thousand soldiers could not escape the phoenix's inferno and disappeared into cinders.

XXXXXXXX

Though being a prodigy among the holy knight, Knight Captain Erik, too, was up against the wall despite how he should have much more experience in actual battles.

Hours before the battle, his wife, Alicia, spoke with a gentle smile he had never seen even once in the past.

[ Erik, you must come back, for our children ] …Or so she said.

Erik resolved himself with tears of happiness when he heard those words. He would make sure no demon can harm his newborn angel.

That strong determination lent strength to Erik as the power of incarnation and drove him into a corner at the same time.

Even if the goat-headed demons army had waged a normal war on the left flank of the first unit he led, Erik would show ferocity in no way inferior to Dietfried at the right flank.

However, in reality, the goat-headed demons came up with the unexpected strategy of completely robbing the left flank force with a very dense smokescreen before attacking. This greatly reduced Erik vision making his normal attacks much less effective.

Lucky for him his divine instrument the capable of AOE attack.

"By the power of the Gray Dragon from Andora."

As Erik chanted the spell, the Dragon Scale Whip— Covered with pure white light accompanied by a dull rumble. That bright light extended over five hundred meters from the tip of the whip and remained so.

Erik swung his divine weapon with all his might. Having stretched several hundred times its previous length, the whip of light cast a white streak in the air as it cut through thousands of demons.

However, what arrived at his ears was the noise of twigs fell by a hatchet rather than the prior cutting noises.

Kakiiin! A shrill sound of impact.

His two widely opened eyes caught sight of a figure, a single goat-headed demon, languidly appearing from beyond the smokescreen.

Large.

His height did not differ much from Erik whose body was at the physical age of seventeen. However, the bulging muscles covering his entire body and the burning murderous aura emanating from his pair of yellow eyes were wholly different from the other goat-headed demons. He wore riveted leather armor, perhaps for the sake of mobility as it appeared light, and a massive hatchet dangled from his right hand.

"…You're their general?"

Erik asked in a soft voice.

"Yes. Commander of the goat-headed demons, Infernal Duke Kosogi."

The demon replied calmly and slowly looked about.

"Ah-ah, that's one grand display you put on in killing mine kind. To think you knights have this much power, no wonder you people have beaten us for 12 times."

It was not just his physique, but his manner of speech, too, completely differed from the other goat-headed demons. Despite possessing an intense, seething blood thirst, his high intelligence held that down.

—Not that it matters. He only got lucky and deflected the Dragon Scale Whip once, that won't happen again.

Erik crossed his arms before himself and shouted.

"Your war will end here!"

He swung his whip as fast as he could, with all he had.

The whip soared down at an angle as the left grazed the ground as it sprang upwards, accurately flying towards Kosogi's neck. Still.

Once again, all that rang out was a shrill, clear metallic noise.

The enemy general, Kosogi, shifted the hatchet quickly enough for it to turn into a grey blur and splendidly warded off the simultaneous attack from left and right.

—Why!? The Dragon Scale Whip should be enough to slice through that demon's weapon…!

Shocked, Erik's sight was drawn in towards Kosogi's hatchet.

Though its make was coarse like the machetes the demon soldiers had equipped, the tint of its blade differed. That was not a product of primitive casting. It had a sharp blade with high priority, forged over much time with adamantine.

Perhaps having seen through Erik's astonishment, Kosogi brought the hatchet before his face as he grinned.

"This? It's a prototype, but it's quite well done, right? There was blood spilt in order to steal the materials and methods from the Order of the Dark Blade. But you see… that's not the only reason why your attacks are being blocked, knight kid."

"…!"

"They're light, kid. And that noise too."

Kosogi's short lines covered every single one of the Dragon Scale Whip's weaknesses.

The weight of the whip was unbelievably light for a weapon considered a divine instrument.

That was only natural given its pursuit for only sharpness and momentum energy, but as a result, it could not cut down by force any opponent with a defense of sufficient priority to handle its velocity.

In addition, the whip that swung at high speeds exhibited a distinctive noise as they sliced through the air. It was within the realm of possibility for someone who had trained their hearing to predict the trajectories.

Erik shuddered at Kosogi's intellect, seeing through that much after watching his attacks only those few times. To think a demon, a crude, inferior goat-headed demon could—

Erik brought the Dragon Scale Whip before his face.

The Dragon Scale Whip's weaknesses. The one method to rid it of them would be the holy knight's secret art, the "Maximum Enhanced Holy Armament Art."

The problem was he never done it before. It usually took 200 years to master that technique.

But.

For the sake of this world he had to try.

Erik averted his sight from the demon general, approaching with an expression certain of victory, and gently lowered his eyelids.

The young knight appeared as though he had given on everything before his body let loose an abrupt tempest of his spirit as a swordsman.

His two eyes flickered open. His two arms, gripping onto the Dragon Scale Whip, brought it close to his face as if he were talking to it.

"—Rise. Dragon of the West!"

Those arms swung vertically along with that shout. The soaring streaks of light traced a steep arc and assailed Kosogi from above.

"You can keep trying… but it's useless!"

The Duke of Hell brandished his hatchet and deflected the swinging whip with all his might.

A pure white radiance illuminated the valley. The whip divided endlessly within the brilliance. Turning into a thin light dragon.

—Beautiful.

"It's… no use!"

Roaring, Kosogi slashed the hatchet at the Dragon Scale Whip's assault from the sky above in a bid to knock it down.

However, it occurred a moment before the thick adamantine went up against the ultrathin whip. The divine instrument rapidly altered its prior trajectory and leapt horizontally for a moment before accelerating downwards once more after the hatchet swiped through empty air.

Khh.

It was a dry, quiet noise.

A bluish-white streak surged through the middle of Kosogi's figure, trained to the extremes, in the very next instant.

"Gaaahh!"

Kosogi leapt at Erik with a savage roar. But the right half of his body fell behind the left. He ran a step or two before his body separated fully, crashing towards the right and left.

On the verge of his death, Kosogi pondered on the cause of his defeat with his excellent intellect.

Going by his preconceptions, it would mean that puny, budding knight hid bloodthirst and desires greater than him. However, no matter how hard he stared with his divided vision, he could discern no bloodthirst at all on the knight's childlike face.

—Then, what had I lost to?

Though the desire to know overwhelmed him, that was but a moment before complete darkness engulfed his vision.

XXXXXXXX

The distress both Lalatina in the first unit, middle, and Dietfried in the right flank went through.

Instructing the second unit in the rear, the commander of the Imperial Fists regiment, Knight Commander Benedict , clearly knew of those as well as the chaos the left flank under Erik's command experienced from the smokescreen Kosograri's army were using.

However, he did not take even a single step.

The first reason was his trust in the knights and the 6th Mechanized Division. The second reason was how the 11th Army could not send out its second unit either, with the main force of the enemy's ground troops yet to make a move.

And the third reason was the possibility of a surprise attack, something he could not help but worry for, with his knowledge of the chaos demon. Or in other words, the enemy's might in aerial warfare.

Benedict felt it necessary to prepare for harpies launching surprise attacks from the skies. And in this situation with the helicopter corp was held back for latter attack and anti-air units were low on ammunition, he was the only option left for aerial defense over a vast area.

To be accurate, the divine weapon Benedict held, the «Sword of Chronos», was the only option.

Benedict focused entirely on his mind while standing firm in the middle of the second unit with both hands against the pommel of his precious sword in its scabbard.

He could constantly sense the difficult battles the nine hundred holy knights and the 6th Mechanized Division of the 11th Army went through.

However, he could not take even a single step.

After all, Benedict had already activated the Holy Enhanced Armament for his cherished sword.

The Sword of Chronos had the power to «cut the future». The power behind a slash would remain in the trajectory where the sword was swung and anyone who touched that would be cut, a technique that was just as exceptional.

Just before the enemy attacked, Benedict straddled the knight dragon, «Star Born», and created a gigantic «slashing space» spanning two hundred meter in width, two thousand meter in length, and two hundred-and-fifty meter in height right before the Great Gate. Swinging his sword time after time with subtle vertical and horizontal movements, he drew out a fine mesh in the empty air. The total number of slashes exceeded a hundred thousand.

Maintaining those «incarnation blades» on such a scale for over tens of minutes was a first for Benedict , the practically immortal being who had lived for over two thousand years, as well. The technique was made possible only by separating his consciousness from his flesh and concentrating solely on his mental state. He had left command of the first unit to Lalatina for this one and only reason.

—Hurry… if you're coming, come quick.

XXXXXXXXXX

At the back of the Gabarinelazat's second army, stationed roughly seven thousand meters from the frontline 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 Gabarinelazat's earth dragon war vehicle, with her arms folded.

She was one of the demon lord, head of the harpy legions, Dark Sorceress Duconmemay.

The black-clothed messenger arts user waiting at her side looked up at her master as she reported in a low voice.

"All three demons generals have all been lost in the battle."

Duconmemay.'s lips curved in that instant and she spat out.

"Ugh, how useless… I suppose that's as far as those stupid demons 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 eight o'clock stone lit orange and the nine o'clock stone was still dark.

In other words, only a mere 50 minutes or so had passed since the battle began at eight in the evening.

"Have those tanks' positions been uncovered?"

She asked, making no effort to hide her irritation, and the messenger magic user chanted a short spell and listened to the magic users lurking on the battlefield before replying.

"We have visual sight on 30 in a trenche near the front lines. We have found 120 in the rear, but confirming their positions will still require time."

"Still 150 ? Or perhaps their numbers are simply few…? Still, we must be sure to slaughter those 150…"

Duconmemay muttered to herself with a ruthless expression, far from the coquettish behavior she put up before Gabarinelazat, and gave an order after slight thought.

"Fine, release the harpies. Make the commands…"

Squinting, she judged the distance to the war front before continuing.

"…«fly seven thousand meters», «descend onto ground», and «unleashed hellfire »."

"I believe our forces at the frontmost line will be swallowed up with that distance?"

"That's of no issue."

She decided in an apathetic manner.

The demon messenger, too, showed no emotion and nodded with an "understood" before asking again.

"How many shall we send? We currently have a total of a hundred and two thousand harpies and all available here."

"Hmm, let's see…"

Duconmemay took several more moments as she pondered.

Gabarinelazat would certainly be displeased if her proposal to [annihilate the enemy's main force through a concentrated volley of arts from behind] were to fail.

"…All of them."

A cruel smile made its way onto those lips that issued that order.

As the light from the torches shone upon her glossy skin, the a hundred and two thousand harpies rose and flew straight through the gorge as commanded.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"They're here."

A wide grin carved itself on Knight Commander Benedict's lips that have been pursed like some sculpture since the battle began.

He sensed many aviating soldiers intruding the range of the "Holy Enhanced Armament!" he maintained in the skies right before the frontline.

However, it was too soon to invoke it. He would pull the harpies released by the enemy in until they were all swallowed within his

«slashing space».

Benedict's keen senses had already perceived the tough battles Lalatina and Dietfried went through, as well as how the South Korean 6th Goryeo Mechanized Division had bravely fought.

With the three generals of the invading army's vanguard defeated, there was no worry they would lose their hold on the battle line.

The slashing area had, at last, devoured every single one of the cloud of harpies tearing through the dark skies above as they advanced.

Benedict's two eyes flashed open and gently swung up his cherished sword, the «Sword of Chronos», 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 demon forces like a waterfall. The acid poison in the harpies' blood spurred on the confusion among the forces that had lost their generals.

XXXXXXXXX

Ominous premonitions seized Duconmemay right as she heard a faintly startled ring in the messenger magic 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 half of the harpies forces have been all annihilated before they landed."

"What... ?!"

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 incantations on this scale among the enemy! except the apostles "

In the first place, it would be near impossible to massacre 50 thousand harpies with only one incantation. 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 dragonflies?"

Duconmemay asked, somehow bringing her rage under control. The messenger magic user confirmed with her head still lowered.

"Yes. We have yet to confirm even a single flying dragonfly at the current moment."

"In that case… it's that? The trump card belonging to those holy knights… the "Holy Enhanced Armament!". Still… to think it's capable of…"

Saying no more, she grinded her bared canine teeth together.

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 Duconmemay muttered so as her thoughts whirled about at full speed.

Having listened to a report from the frontlines, the messenger magic 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 120 tanks in the rear has been completed. In total, we have the 150 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 in order to further debilitate the enemy's "Holy Enhanced Armament!".

Another choice would be to invoke their trump card, the Dark Sorcerer Legion, now and to settle the war in one blow.

It was in Duconmemay'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 half of her one hundred thousand treasured harpies in an instant drove her into an unconscious uneasiness.

Filling up a new crystal cup with a dark purple wine, Duconmemay 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, Duconmemay loudly ordered.

"Move out all of the Dark Sorcerer forces and prepared 300,000 man ! Enter the optimal firing position and begin reciting the «Death Curse Worms» spell!"

Third Platoon, Second Company, Third Battalion, Fourth Regiment, 6th Goryeo Mechanized Division, Helm's Deep, Lemuria.

"Air Raid Warning Red! Red! Red!" The scream over the radio was just in time. A group of about 50,000 harpies had managed to assemble themselves after the massacre in the skies over the battlefield by Knight Commander Benedict and attacked the IFVs sitting on the defensive fighting position.

The T15 Armata was shut down, its hatches sealed and firmly dogged in place, overpressure system on to prevent harpy gas and flame leaking in from outside. Bullets were rattling off the armor plate as the three IFVs machine-gunned each other in an attempt to drive off the hordes of harpies that were swarming all over the vehicles, tearing at anything breakable.

Last time Lieutenant Lee Hyong-kon had looked through the turret optics, a dozen or more of the beasts were trying to bend the barrel of his 57mm cannon, he didn't think they had succeeded but he was reluctant to fire the gun anyway.

He hunched down, trying to ignore the acrid fumes from the gunfire that was creating havoc with the harpies outside. Only, some of the acrid stench wasn't cordite residue, it was the smell of the harpies' acidic blood attacking bare metal. Certainly the chemical weapons-resistant paint on the T-15 was protecting most of the hull from corrosion but there were still parts that were vulnerable to acid.

His little command had done well at first. The Type 105 SPAAA had fired its twelve laser-guided missiles and turned more that a dozen harpies into spiraling explosions, then its 37mm cannon had started chopping more out of the sky. The T-15s had joined in, their turret cannon selecting the closest harpies and shooting them out of the sky. But there had been so many of them, more than 50,000 so the intelligence reports said, and the hundred or so that the 57mm guns had killed were hardly noticeable.

The rest had descended on the vehicles and started their assault. Oh, Lee knew that their claws and teeth would not get through the armor but the harpies had other weapons as well. They breathed fire and there was much on an armored vehicle that could burn. The Type 105 SPAAA had already gone, its engine compartment had caught fire and its crew had been forced to abandon their vehicle into the flock of harpies.

They'd tried to run for the T-15s but they were brought down, torn apart and eaten before they'd made more than a pace or two. Lee Hyong-kon had been glad of that in a way, he wouldn't have opened his hatches to let them in anyway.

"Ammunition is running out." The cry was from one of the two riflemen in the fighting compartment of the vehicle. They were hosing fire out of the fighting ports in the rear compartment, the steel floor covered with their expended cartridge cases.

The T-15 was carrying more that its allowed load of munitions but the rate of expenditure was such that even its enhanced stocks were getting short. Hyong-kon swung the turret, feeling the power traverse fighting the harpies swarming outside, and let off a burst from his co-axial machine gun.

The harpies trying to bend his 57mm cannon barrel werecaught unawares and the heavy machine gun burst tore into them, spraying acid blood into the air and causing their flesh to char. The cordite smoke-laden air inside the T-15 got more dense if that was possible, the heat rising further.

"Get us out of here, we must pull back."

"We cannot, the transmission is jammed." The driver's words didn't really make sense but Lee Hyong-kon guessed what had really happened, the suspension was being attacked by acid and the treads were jammed.

Orcs army camps, Army of Gabarinelazat, Helm's Deep

"Dat… dat is going too far!"

Chaos Orcs Chief Rirupiraz unconsciously shouted when the orders from Infernal Duke Gabarinelazat arrived.

The chaos orcs had already pitched in a million soldiers to serve as a reserve force for the first unit and a third of them were lost. Thinking about how they were ordered, outside of his command, by those dark goblins and giant demons to fight and die was enough to make his chest tighten, let alone this new, cold-blooded order handed down.

He was to contribute three hundred thousand sacrifices as a foundation for the dark sorcerer legion offensive incantation.

It was to be a death devoid of honor as a chaos warrior or even dignity as an intelligent being. They were to be just meat—no different from those yaks brought by the transport unit as edibles.

"We game here to bight! Ngot to pay for your mistakes wib ow lives!"

Rirupiraz protested in a strained, shrill voice.

However, the leader of the dark sorcerer legion, Duconmemay, who stood with her arms crossed looked down on the orc chief with cold eyes as she arrogantly declared.

"This is an edict from the lord!"

The dark orc chief felt something get stuck in his throat.

The strong must be obeyed. That was the absolute law of the demon realm.

Still— still.

Rirupiraz stood still as his two firmly balled up fists trembled.

It was then when a voice, harmonious for an dark orc, came from behind.

"Chief. We must obey the lord's orders."

"…"

Rendered speechless, Rirupiraz could do no more than grinding down on his long fangs as though to crush them.

Duconmemay spoke without mercy while turning an unpleasant look down on the demon orcs lord.

"You are to have three hundred thousand troops in a closely packed formation five thousand meters from the frontline within five minutes. That is all!"

The orc chief glared at the dark arts user, turning away and leaving, with eyes short of flaring up. Why did the orcs alone have to suffer this treatment? It was the umpteen time that question had swirled in his chest, but this time, too, was fruitless.

The three hundred thousand marching to their deathbeds, formed in orderly files, appeared even triumphant. On the other hand, soft weeping and outraged voices permeated deep within the other seven hundred thousands of their race seeing them off.

The three hundred thousand chaos orcs passed between the encampments for the Order of the Dark Blade and the Dark Sorcerer Legion, forming a square a short distance from the dark arts users legion .

The ten thousand dark arts users showed up, as though in wait, and surrounded the formation.

The atmosphere trembled, accompanying an incantation that started up horribly dissonant and grating on the ears, perhaps reflective of the art's hideous nature.

"Ah… aah…"

Rirupiraz let escape a hoarse moan. The dark orc soldiers had suddenly distorted in anguish and collapsed onto the ground.

White, fleeting light particles was being drawn out from their writhing forms without pause. Turning into black, viscous sludge as they gathered at the arts users' hands, they gradually transfigured into what resembled bizarre snakes.

The shrieks from the three thousand soldiers arrived at Rirupiraz's ears crisp and vivid. Along with a united cry mixed in.

Long live the Dark Orcs. Glory to the the Chaos Gods.

The soldiers' bodies burst apart in succession immediately after. Their blood and flesh scattered as the light leaving them grew in intensity before stolen by the dark sorcerers all at once.

Rirupiraz was on his knees when he noticed, his right fist striking the ground. The overflowing tears spread out over both sides of his large nose and audibly fell onto the black gravel.

Rirupiraz gritted fangs tore into his lips as blood trickled from his own mouth as well.

Damned humans.

Damned humans!

Those damned humans!

XXXXXXXX

Aah.

What power!

The leader of the dark sorcerer legion, Duconmemay raised her hands towards the sky as her entire body shivered in sweet ecstasy.

Had any other dark art user in history experienced a space charged with such concentrated darkness energy?

Nothing in this world held priority as high as and power as pure as intelligent Life's life-force. It did not matter even if it came from those vulgar, repulsive orcs' lives. If this viscosity was precious wine, aged for a hundred years, then the darkness energy provided by the sun and earth would be plain water.

Every arts user, from Duconmemay to the other ten thousands, had both of their arms extended as numerous grotesque snakes with countless legs, each seemingly appearing from clotting black mist, coiled about them.

These were artificial organisms, «Life eaters», created from umbra elements. No corporeal object could guard against them, not even swords or armor of the highest priority. The conversion efficiency for darkness energy was inferior to that for offensive flames, but everything changed with a source this abundant.

Duconmemay had chosen this art as revenge for the enemy's "Holy Enhanced Armament" that burnt a tens thousand of her precious subordinates to death. Even the screams of the orc soldiers, writhing as they dyed, sounded pleasant to her ears now.

"Good… be prepared to launch the «Death Curse Worms» art!"

Duconmemay's shout rang out and—

She spotted four dragon knights charging in from the gorge, as though they had lost their minds, with her own two eyes.

The momentary shock soon changed into elation. She could tidy up the enemy's greatest force, the holy knights and their flying dragons, all at once as things as they were.

"Stand your ground! Let them approach! …No… not yet… Now, let them loooooose!"

Zwaaaaaaaa!

The countless black snakes set off in straight courses towards the enemy knights, scattering vibrations that seemed to spread pure fear.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

What, was that?

That deep, meandering recitation, much like a curse, that came from below the noise of the wind.

A coordinated chanting… of dark arts!?

That would be ridiculous, this zone should not have enough dark energy for a spell of such scale !

Knight captain Mariane rejected her own instincts.

However, just as she did so, Benedict who flew right in front of her spat out, "Those bastards… what have they done?!"

The realization that the enemy's offensive art had become an immense, pressing wave of absolute darkness shut down not only the ordinary guards' minds for several seconds but the high ranking holy knights' too.

It was an umbra elemental spell with an extremely high power, likely surpassing the Holy Armament spell released by Knight Commander Benedict earlier. A ranged hex that directly inflicted damage on one's Life and could not be defended against through physical means.

The mystery—of how they had invoked the umbra elemental art, with its low sacred energy conversion efficiency, on such a scale and density despite the inadequacy of energy in the area—was seen through only by Knight Commander Benedict.

But not even he could give immediate countermeasures against it.

There were many aspects to offensive spells: the element they were based on, their density, range, speed, direction, and so on.

Hence, defending required either offsetting or countering those attributes. Instantly choosing and carrying out a suitable countermeasure could be said to be part of being a high ranking arts user.

Being capable of immediately selecting and carrying out a suitable countermeasure, such as extinguishing a thermal spell with cryogenic elements, scattering decoys against a homing spell, or quickly avoiding an spell going straight, could be said to be a requirement for becoming a high ranking magic user.

However, this case was an exception.

The enemy's offensive was too far beyond the norm.

Only the luminous element could offset the umbra element. However, luminous elements also had a low conversion efficiency and it was effectively impossible to generate enough to dispel a curse on that scale.

Lalatina's holy enhanced ermament attack would most certainly pierce through the enemy's spell without issue, but the Heaven Lighting Sword's light was far too narrow and she was absent from this air raid unit to begin with.

"Turn! Climb!"

Benedict could only shout those.

The four flying dragons turned about as they traced out a spiral and headed straight for the skies above the gorge.

The swarm of snakes, too, adjusted their direction with an unpleasant buzz.

However.

"—No!"

Benedict shouted once more.

The worms on their tail were less than half of them all. The remaining went straight for the guards and supply unit rushing over the ground.

"…!"

Letting out a sharp gasp, Knight captain Mariane had her knight dragon roll and swoop down. She twisted towards the beginning of the darkness art creeping ever closer below and rushed forward headlong.

Shaa! She drew the Dahlia Flower Sword as that distinct sound rang from its scabbard. A bright golden radiance immediately swept over its blade.

"lil' miss! No, that won't work!"

Benedict desperately tried to hold back his beloved disciple.

The Dahlia Flower Sword's holy enhanced armament exhibited overwhelming power in a fight of one-versus-many, but it was metallic elemental like the sword. It could not cut through the nearly incorporeal hex.

Knight captain Mariane, too, knew that all too well. However, she could not possibly bring herself to simply watch as the guards were attacked.

It happened then.

A fifth flying dragon rushed in from deeper in the valley with the momentum of a shooting star.

«Ashura».

The knight dragon belonging to the second highest ranking holy knight in the Zeroth Division, Knight Commander Vishnu, who just flown here from HQ to aid Her Holiness Rory Mercury.

XXXXXXXXX

Vishnu repeated a single word over and over again in his mind as he gripped onto the dragon's reins.

Protect.

His wife. Knight Captain Lalatina. He had to protect the person he pledged his oath and swore his devotion to, no matter the cost.

Vishnu snapped Ashura's reins with his right hand and shouted.

"Go!"

Perhaps sensing his master's will, the dragon Ashura flapped its wings strongly and accelerated all at once. Vishnu heard Knight Captain Lalatina's voice, her attempts to stop him, as they passed by. Still, he showed no sign of slowing down and climbed steeply towards the deadly flood of snakes.

His left hand removed a whip of white silver from his waist.

The origin of the divine weapon, «Orochi Whip», was Shesha, a gigantic 8-head snake said to be divine from the mountainous area of the Holy Empire. Releasing its memories increased its range by several times and allowed for its trajectory to be freely changed.

That said, that power held almost no purpose against that magic classified as a hex.

Still, Vishnu prayed hard with an unshakable conviction.

Oh, Shesha !

Oh, ancient snake Shesha!

If you lord over the serpents, then how about you devour that swarm of mere worms!

"Release recollection!"

The Orochi Whip let out a dazzling silver light as it perceived his booming voice.

The whip divided endlessly within the brilliance. Turning into hundreds of streaks of light, they struck at the snakes dyed in darkness.

The light had transformed into glittering snakes before anyone noticed. Swarming out in a radial formation from Vishnu 's left hand, they opened up their gleaming jaws of sharp fangs and bit at the snakes of death.

Zobuu! The snakes torn into infinitesimal pieces with that noise returned to umbra elements and scattered.

The swarm assailing the guards as well as the swarm pursing the flying dragons in the sky above turned around as though recognizing that the glowing snakes must be prioritized first.

It took no time for the snakes to coil about the countless worms. Their hexes traced across the snakes' bodies and flooded towards their source.

Vishnu had made use of the only aspect to the enemy's art that could be interfered with here, their «automatic homing attribute», and focused all of their capacity upon himself.

—Lalatina-my love.

He smiled and lowered his eyelids.

While the darkness swallowed the knight whole in the next instant.

Holy Knight Commander Vishnu 's numerical Life-force which was slightly more than fifty thousand—

Turned to negative five million immediately.

Vishnu's figure crumbled and scattered from the chest down as though he was blown apart.

XXXXXXXX

" Vishnu —!"

Lalatina screamed.

Her one and most beloved husband who had accompanied her through those short yet memorable days slipped from his flying dragon's back, having lost over half of his flesh.

Getting the dragon to roll about thrice, Lalatina dove into the vestiges of the dissipating worms and grasp Vishnu's right hand with her extended left hand. Her breath choked up at how light he was when she pulled him close, but still, she bore it with her teeth clenched and had her dragon climb.

Ashura followed right by their side, perhaps out of concern for his owner. Lalatina shouted once more atop the dragons keeping in pace.

" Vishnu ! Open… open your eyes! I will not allow it, you must not leave me behind in a place like this!"

Vishnu's bluish-white eyelids quivered slightly, with everything below his chest lost.

Beneath his barely raised eyelashes, his eyes, tinged violet and still faintly filled with light, looked upon Lalatina.

"…My dear… your safety puts me…"

"Yes… yes, of course I am safe, thanks to you! Had I not said before that I need you?!"

Her vision suddenly turned distorted. Drops of water fell upon Vishnu 's cheeks, one after another. Unaware they were her own tears, Lalatina hugged her lover close.

A near inaudible voice rippled at her ears.

"Lalatina -… there are many, many more people… who need your protection. … so you must live…"

"I will give you anything you wish for! So come back to me! Are you not my life partner?!"

"I have received enough."

Lalatina sensed the insubstantial weight in her arms fading rapidly, leaving her, with that satisfied whisper.

" Vishnu ! Vishnu —!"

One final murmur gently overlapped her weeping cries.

"Don't… cry… My… Love…"

And the soul belonging to Holy Knight Commander Vishnu, also known as Vishnu La Woodburg, left the mortal realm forever.

Lalatina's precious spouse turned into light, as though those few seconds she managed to converse with him was a miracle, and dispersed into the night air while Lalatina watched on with damp eyes.

Vishnu vanished before long, leaving not even a fragment of armor behind. The Orochi Whip he had gripped in his left hand quietly fell onto the dragon's back.

Perhaps recognizing the death of his master, Ashura who flew at their side let out an anguished howl.

Lalatina took in a deep breath of the faint fragrance of roses drifting about before pulling her face upwards.

"This is war."

XXXXXXXXX

Fifty thousand meters above the battlefield, among the highest clouds, Enryū, the divine dragon let out yet another low growl.

However, this time was one to warn, with a sharp roar mixed in.

Rory mustered her will, taking back her consciousness that had begun to fade, and stared hard towards the twilight far in front.

"That is quite a sight, isn't it!" Enryū refered to the heroic sacrifice of Holy Knight Commander Vishnu.

Rory pointed into the night sky and loudly called her beloved dragon:

"Enryū !"

Immediately, an energetic roar shooked the night sky. Rory's raised right arm swept from east to west, and she shouted:

"— Burn everything!"

''Fine,'' the Dragon replied with a shrug and then brought its tails over its 3 heads in concentration. Mana began to form above it before mixing forming a large ball of mass energy. Energy balls are made from an 8:2 ratio of positive black mana and negative white mana and were incredibly dense.

The time had arrived.

Rory shut her eyes for a moment and prayed to the god of war Emroy.

The black sphere with a diameter of thirty meter in front of Enryū's mouths had its pressure raised to its maximum.

"Magnetic Alignment… set."

Drawing in a breath, she whispered.

"…Heaven's Strike."

An incantation while short but well-deserved for a spell holding such terrifying power.

The dark, ominous sphere was made with one spot thinner on purpose.

Focusing the immense light and heat from the countless exploding elements onto that one point, the black sphere film liquefied into a crimson red—

Letting them loose into the world outside with a shrill explosion released an enormous amount of energy, which must be directed by an ultra-powerful magnetic field of Rory to form a white pillar.

Lalatina stood in a daze, looking up towards «that» from the ground, while she thought about how it must hold a might thousands of sun. The white pillar was an incandescent plasma a million times brighter than a welding arc, and over 100 kilometers long. Thus was considered to be one of the most spectacular man-made sights in history.

The soldier and knights aside from her were simply awed by what they believed was the power of Flare, god of the sun.

The pure white pillar measuring fifty meter wide fell upon the earth from the skies with extreme speed and stabbed in between the demon forces. It then made its way farther into the gorge as though nudged gently—

A roaring symphony of several million bells rang out as the waves of heat and light grew to encompass the entire width of the gorge. It became a towering pillar of fire immediately after, practically touching the mountain range at the edge, and dyed the night skies red.

XXXXXXXX

Assailed by the recoil from firing that exceptionally powerful attack, Rory collaped onto Enryū's back.

The flying dragon gently accepted its master before tracing slow spirals as it descended onto the HQ of the 11th Army.

The first one to rush in was Lt. Colonel Mari Kurokawa. Reaching out both arms, she caught Rory who slipped off her dragon.

"…That incarnation and display of power was magnificent, Rory."

Somehow raising her eyelids at that truly touched voice, Rory saw the gorge with its surface still burning red as well as the shadows of the enemy survivors fleeing in a frenzy. She could hardly find any corpses. They must have been disintegrated by the initial ray of light or blown apart without a trace by the following explosions.

Cheers surged in like a tidal waves from the surrounding soldiers straight away. They eventually streamed together and turned into cries of triumph as they continued.

While listening to the cheers for the Order of the Holy Knights and Rory Mecury, Rory finally let out a choked breath and lifted her body which was supported by Kurokawa. The beatiful japanese woman showed a tired smile and gave a deep nod.

"The enemy has been destroy. Rory, you have led us to victory."

Responding to those words with a smile as well, Rory tiffened her expression and spoke.

"No Mari-chan, the war has yet to end. Please tell Itami to lauch an immediate attack to prevent any enemy escape."

Command Camp, HQ of the 11th Army.

"General Itami, the large-scale attack launched by Her Holiness Rory appears to have wiped out ninety percent of the vanguard units, seventy percent of the the second line, and also… over thirty percent of the third line units…The enemy are in complete disarray."

"It works!" Everyone in the room busted into tears, exchanging high-fives and back-slaps.

"Now, General Itami, now's our time to shine. Put every gun to them Sir, every gun." said Major General Nguyen Duc Duy.

"Getting a bit ahead of ourselves aren't we?"

The Japanese general's voice was urbane and slightly amused. Then his divisions spoke for him. Outside the sky to Itami's left turned white as the massed batteries of M-370 320mm multiple rocket launchers opened fire, pouring their rockets into the Demon's flank and rear. Under the white cloud was a black one as the Type-47 and Type-92 main battle tanks gunned their engines and started their charge at the enemy.

207th Legion, Third Line, Army of Gabarinelazat.

The onslaught was totally unexpected, they were in retreat after that heavenly strike, covered by the fog they had conjured up. Then, somehow, the enemy had poured a new mass of fire into the right flank and rear of the demon forces. Calogivay looked over to the left and saw the black cloud as something crossed the ridgeline. He focused his eyes and almost screamed in horror at what he saw.

"Iron Chariots! They are coming!"

He wasn't the only one. Others saw the more than 1700 heavy tanks pouring over the ridgeline, moving terrifyingly fast through the grassland. They saw them spit fire, the blaze rippling along their front line as the shots went on their way to tear into the demonic ranks.

Every demon sensed the chariots and knew the truth. The Chariot were made of iron, not just any iron but some sort of super iron and fired hot Mithril bolts.

The demons recoiled from their old enemy, it was just too much. After the pounding, the mines, the wire, their nerve broke.

At precisely 10:15 hour, the Great Army of Gabarinelazat disintegrated into a disorganized and panicked mob.

---

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE 2021