Chapter V: An Unparalleled Declaration of War
“This is the supreme commander of the allied forces, Liliana S. B. Heiligh!” the artifact Hajime gave Liliana amplified her voice, projecting it across the entire battlefield.
“The time for the final battle has come! All units, take up your posts at once!”
Her booming voice lit a fire under the soldiers, and they started scurrying to their positions. This wasn’t the time to be watching in awe; the fate of Tortus rested in their hands.
The cracks in the sky grew larger, and just as the soldiers finished deploying, it shattered.
A giant hole appeared in the sky. It was undoubtedly the same gate Ehit had used to transport the demons three days ago, but it looked distinctly different.
The gate back then had been surrounded by radiant silver light, but this one was pitch black. On top of that, it appeared to be emitting an ominous miasma from its edges.
What appeared at first glance to be black rain was actually a horde of monsters that spilled out from the gates of hell. They landed atop the summit of the Divine Mountain, covering it in its entirety. There were so many of them that they could be seen by the naked eye, despite the fact that the summit was 8000 meters up. Though Hajime couldn’t get an accurate count, he guessed there were millions of them up there.
The massive army of monsters rumbled down the mountainside like a dark avalanche. And they were nothing more than the vanguard of Ehit’s army.
Next, a torrent of silver poured through Ehit’s gate and streaked through the bloody crimson sky.
“That certainly is a lot of apostles...” Liliana muttered as she glared at one of the artifacts that showed her a close-up of the sky from her command center.
Hajime had left her several screens that were linked to different areas to help her keep an eye on the overall situation. The largest of them showed the neverending stream of apostles flying out of Ehit’s gate, and the officers in the room with Liliana shivered in unison. They were protected by the world’s best barrier mages, but they didn’t feel at all safe.
Liliana quickly scanned the other screens as well, then activated the telepathy stones attached to one of them.
“Emperor Gahard. Don’t rush ahead of your army. You’re not allowed to die until this battle is over.”
Gahard had taken his personal retinue of soldiers and advanced past the vanguard, so Liliana reined him in.
Pleased that Liliana had already settled into the role of commander, Gahard grinned and replied, “Hah, who died and made you boss? Oh wait, I guess we did. But still, if the alliance’s strongest warrior doesn’t fight on the front lines, we won’t stand a chance. Even if I die, it’ll just make my soldiers fight harder to avenge me. The only person we absolutely need to keep alive is you, Supreme Commander.”
“Good grief... Well, we’re about to send out the goddess and the sword. Make sure you stick to the plan.”
“You got it!”
Liliana then contacted Lanzwi, Ulfric, Cam, Barus, Crystabel, Kuzeli, Simon, and David, offering each of them a few words of encouragement.
“Remember everyone, we’re risking our lives today so that we can have a tomorrow!”
The hardened warriors all shouted in approval, while the officers that had been cowering in the command room regained a bit of their composure.
Liliana had really grown into the role of supreme commander, and she looked more imposing than ever before.
“All units, brace for impact!”
She wasn’t saying that because Ehit’s armies were about to reach them, but because the goddess and the sword were about to act.
“Members of the alliance, brave warriors who have decided to fight to save our world! There is no need to fear! We have the protection of a true god on our side!” Aiko shouted from the fortress’ rooftop, her voice amplified to echo across the battlefield as well.
“The true god shall protect us from this evil imposter who wishes to eradicate humanity from Tortus. All of you standing here today are true heroes! As the true Ehit’s messenger I, the Fertility Goddess, anoint you all as divine valkyries!”
The soldiers’ morale skyrocketed. The knowledge that they were Aiko’s divine valkyries caused their hearts to soar.
“Justice is on our side! On this day, none of us shall know defeat! Shout it with me, brave heroes! The only thing waiting for us at the end of this battle is victory!”
The earth shook again as 500,000 soldiers stamped their feet on the ground, creating a rhythmical beat. Together, they shouted, “Victory! Victory! Victory!”
“Glory to humanity! Death to the evil god who opposes us!” Aiko screamed.
“Glory to humanity! Death to the evil god who opposes us!” the soldiers parroted.
Aiko desperately tried to remember what else was in the speech notes Hajime had written for her while fulfilling her duty as the army’s goddess.
“We have nothing to fear from this evil god’s lowly minions! Behold as our sword strikes them down!”
A quiet voice responded, “Your wish is my command, O Goddess.”
The soldiers watched as a figure rose up from behind Aiko. He had white hair, an eyepatch covering one eye, and wore a black coat. The man who held the fate of the world in his hands had finally joined the stage. Hajime floated up a few meters, then raised a palm-sized diamond high into the air.
The diamond emitted a dazzling light, looking almost like a second sun. From the soldiers’ point of view, it looked like Aiko had suddenly been wreathed in a halo. Of course, this was all just an act to make things look more impressive than they were. And naturally, it was also one of Hajime’s ideas.
A devilish grin spread across his face, and a section of the crimson sky flashed. A second later, a sphere of pure light descended onto the Divine Mountain. And as it hit the peak, there was an ear-splitting roar followed by a blinding burst of light.
Shortly after that, an earthquake rippled across the plains. Shockwaves powerful enough to warp the very air shot out from the epicenter of the impact. When the shockwaves reached the army, the grand barrier that Liliana had moved here from the capital activated, protecting the soldiers. But while Hajime had upgraded the barrier, it still creaked in protest as it absorbed the shockwaves. And it couldn’t stop the earthquake, so many people ended up falling to the ground.
Even as they lost their balance, the soldiers kept their eyes trained on the Divine Mountain.
“Holy shit. The mountain shattered...” someone muttered.
That was no exaggeration. A chunk of the mountain had been blown apart, along with the hundreds of thousands of monsters that had been in that area.
Hajime wasn’t done yet, though. The sky flashed again, and more burning spheres of light pelted the Divine Mountain, blasting through it as though it was as fragile as a sandcastle. It was as if Hajime was summoning the apocalypse.
Those spheres were called Gravity Meteors. Though they had the destructive power of missiles, they were just lumps of metal that fell from the sky. However, each one weighed a couple tons, and they dropped from an unbelievable height. Thus, the laws of inertia made them far more powerful than any bomb. Moreover, they were enchanted with gravity magic, which allowed Hajime to alter their course as he pleased and target his enemies with pinpoint accuracy.
Tortus’ greatest mountain became a pile of rubble in a matter of seconds.
If you’re gonna rain monsters and apostles down on us, then I’m gonna rain meteors down on you.
That was the sword Hajime had prepared for the alliance. Ehit had been kind enough to tell Hajime where his armies would be appearing, so Hajime had decided to obliterate his staging area. It was the perfect jab at Ehit’s arrogance.
It was only thirty seconds into the decisive battle, but Hajime had already called forth a cataclysm powerful enough to obliterate the Divine Mountain.
“......”
The soldiers watched on, speechless, as the dust cloud from Hajime’s assault rolled over them. They were trembling, not in fear, but joy. Burning with bloodlust, the soldiers let out a triumphant howl.
“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Their voices were powerful enough to push back the cloud of dust enveloping them.
“All hail Aiko-sama! All hail the Fertility Goddess!” they roared.
Meanwhile, the apostles stopped in their tracks and watched the Divine Mountain crumble. Even these emotionless warriors were shaken by Hajime’s overwhelming might. But Hajime wasn’t done yet. His diamond glowed even brighter.
“I hope you didn’t think that was all I had up my sleeve. I’ll burn your wings off and make you tumble to the ground, just like Icarus, you worthless puppets!” he snarled, and the sky above the apostles split apart as pillars of light rained down upon them.
Hajime had perfected his satellite laser artifact, Hyperion, and created seven of them in total. He’d christened the upgraded versions Pulse Hyperions.
Seven pillars of light, each taller than the tower of babel, swallowed the army of apostles. Thousands of them were caught by surprise and incinerated before they could even react. Of course, thousands more coated their wings with disintegration magic and used them as shields. But even their powerful magic couldn’t stop the light of destruction.
Hajime had strengthened the lenses that focused his Pulse Hyperions’ light beams, and the heat each beam contained was immense enough to turn the apostles’ unnaturally sturdy bodies to ash.
As the light faded, the apostles who’d been lucky enough to be outside the pillars’ path and the newcomers who’d just come through the gate were forced to regroup and rethink their strategy.
Hajime was a far greater threat than they’d anticipated. The only way to fulfill their objective was to destroy his artifacts. Realizing that, all of the apostles simultaneously shot upwards.
“Oh, still hungry for more? Don’t worry, I’ve got enough blasts to fill you all up!”
Hajime viewed the oncoming apostles through the farsight stone he’d loaded onto his lasers, and grinned. His diamond flashed again, and a section of each of his Pulse Hyperions split into ten pieces. Each piece looked like a triangle studded with crimson jewels.
The apostles watched these triangles fall with a bemused expression, but they determined that getting within firing range of the lasers took priority, so they ignored them. It honestly wasn’t a bad choice to go for the main weapon rather than the auxiliary parts, but they really should have been warier of Hajime’s tactics.
The Pulse Hyperions fired their second volley. The apostles barrel rolled out of the way, then flew up close enough to hit the satellite lasers with their disintegration beams. But just before they could launch their counterattack—
“Ah!? How—?”
A tiny beam of light perforated one apostle’s chest, while another lost their head to a similarly-sized beam. Both beams had come from behind.
The apostles that survived the first barrage looked below in shock.
“Is this the work of those smaller artifacts from earlier?” one of the apostles muttered as she looked at the ruby-encrusted triangles surrounding her.
They were called Mirror Bits, and Hajime had equipped each of his Pulse Hyperions with ten or so to protect them. They used spatial magic to bend and reflect the main satellite’s huge laser and strike approaching targets from all angles.
It didn’t take long for the apostles to realize how dangerous that was for them.
The Pulse Hyperions launched their third volley, but this time it was a scattered one rather than a concentrated barrage. The apostles were still able to react, but dodging had become impossible.
“Oh no—”
The Mirror Bits continued bending the smaller lasers, creating a prison of superheated, hyper-focused light. And the lasers didn’t just change direction when they reflected off a Mirror Bit, either. They also swerved in unpredictable patterns when two lasers collided with each other. There was no safe place for them to retreat within this web of death.
Hajime had created a perfect kill zone for any foe foolish enough to fly close to his weapons.
The apostles hurtled to the ground as the lasers burned their wings to ash.
“You came up with some pretty cool things, Vandre Schnee. Actually, I guess the credit should go to Oscar Orcus?”
The idea for the Mirror Bits had come from the superheated laser part of the trial in the Frost Caverns.
After thanking the two Liberators, Hajime looked up and said, “Well, looks like it’s time for the grand finale.”
He then twirled his diamond with a smile, sending one last present to the apostles struggling desperately against his Pulse Hyperions.
Each Hyperion dropped a small jewel that fell to meet the few apostles that had managed to use numbers and brute force to push their way past the laser prison.
“Disappear, you eyesores.”
Seven suns winked into existence in the dark crimson sky.
The jewels were another special artifact Hajime had installed into his Pulse Hyperions called Rose Helioses. They were light bombs made by focusing an enormous amount of sunlight and compressing it inside a specially crafted Treasure Trove. The satellites got their light from a similar Treasure Trove, but the Rose Helios used its energy to create a heat explosion instead of acting as lenses.
Due to how volatile they were, Hajime could only load one Rose Helios onto each Pulse Hyperion, but the tiny spheres were immensely powerful. The seven concurrent explosions were stronger than a nuclear detonation, and they created a miniature solar flare.
For a brief moment, the world went white. But a second later, shockwaves made of heat and energy rippled through the air.
The apostles that had tried to destroy Hajime’s Pulse Hyperions were reduced to ash, and the newly arrived reinforcements from Ehit’s gate were blown away. The cloud of dust that had covered humanity’s fortress was dispersed by the shockwave as well. Had Heiligh’s prized barrier not been active, the entire alliance army might have been destroyed by that shockwave alone.
“Whoa, that’s one big explosion.”
“I guess Hajime-kun’s strong enough to change the world’s geography when he’s not holding back...”
“He basically did the earth equivalent of leveling Mt. Everest and then detonating a bunch of nuclear bombs all at once. We better keep a close eye on him once we return home.”
“Looks like you’re gonna have a hard time keeping him in check, Shizushizu. I’ll do my best to help, since I don’t want Japan to get blown up, either.”
“It’s too late for Tortus, huh...? First thing I’m doing when we make it to the Sanctuary is beat Kouki senseless. I’m worried if I don’t get to him first, Nagumo will wipe him off the face of the planet.”
Shea and the others smiled wryly as they watched Hajime decimate Ehit’s forces.
They had known from the start that Hajime was planning on launching a preemptive strike, and they’d known about his meteors and lasers as well. But even then, they hadn’t expected that he would be able to obliterate an entire mountain and create fake suns in the sky for a few seconds.
A short distance behind Shea, Tio turned to her grandfather and said proudly, “What do you think, Grandfather? My future husband is amazing, no!?”
“He, uhhh, certainly is amazing, yes.”
Tio puffed her chest out while Adul just watched on in awe. The other dragonmen were similarly nonplussed. Ristas was so shocked his knees had given out.
Some of the students and soldiers had actually fainted because of how overwhelming the spectacle had been. The only other people who weren’t stunned speechless were the Haulia. The murderous rabbitmen were all whooping in excitement.
“Hell yeah! That’s our boss for you! Always doing the impossible!”
“Boss! I love youuuuuu! Please fuck me!”
“All hail the Rondo of Red Death!”
“Bow before the White Fang Hurricane, you maggots! Hahahahaha!”
“Wait, you guys! The titles we came up with before aren’t cool enough to express his awesomeness at this point! We need a better name!”
“How about ‘Demon Lord of the White Night, Bringer of the End’!?”
“We have to work red or crimson in there somehow! It’s Boss’ trademark color! What about ‘Crimson Godslaying Emperor’!?”
It seemed that by the time this battle was over, Hajime would have a new slew of edgy nicknames.
While the Haulia were cheering, Aiko addressed the soldiers. Doing her best not to laugh at Hajime’s new nicknames, she said in a commanding voice, “B-Behold the might of our sword! With him by our side, our victory is guaranteed!”
“Victory! Victory! Victory!”
Gahard chuckled to himself as the soldiers regained their morale.
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