Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Zero - Volume 6 - Chapter 4

Chapter IV: The End of the World

Five days ago, when Miledi and the others were still in Dastia, the world came to an abrupt end.

In Uldea’s capital, Damdrak, two figures illuminated by the unnaturally crimson full moon walked down an alleyway.

“What’s with this strange atmosphere?”

“I know, right? It’s way too quiet.”

Chris and Kyaty sniffed at the air, their faces covered by deep hoods. After escaping from the capital, the pirate crew had fled to the Liberator village hidden in the mountains northwest of Damdrak. Supporters within the capital had been keeping them apprised of the situation within the city ever since, and a few days ago, they’d gotten a report simply stating, “Something in the city feels off.”

Everyone had seen the Liberators’ battle with the church via the Skynets, so the city had been quite noisy in the following days. People had been suspicious and afraid of the church, and more than a few had been moved by Miledi’s heartfelt speech. They were beginning to question their faith in Ehit, which was something that would have been unthinkable before. However, now there was open talk about whether or not Ehit was worthy of worship. Members of the clergy weren’t able to put a stop to such heretical talk, and were, in fact, holed up within Damdrak’s church for fear of retribution. And yet, now the tumult had died down and the streets were eerily quiet. Even the breeze, which blew almost constantly over from the lake, had vanished.

There was definitely something weird going on. To Chris, it almost seemed like the calm before the storm.

“For now, let’s just make sure everyone’s safe.”

“Yeah. Who knows, maybe they’ll have some new info for us.”

The reason Chris and Kyaty were here was because they hadn’t received their scheduled report from their supporters in the city.

The two of them tamped down on their growing unease, nodded to each other, and walked out of the alleyway. They chose as discreet a route as they could, though there was little need considering how deserted the streets were. The usual sounds of life one would expect from a bustling population center were nowhere to be found. It was almost as if the city itself was holding its breath.

They reached their destination, a building that provided ferry services around the city, with surprising ease. Circling around to the back, they gave the coded knock to let the people inside know Liberators were here. There was no response though, and Chris couldn’t sense any people inside. Plus, the windows and curtains were closed, making it impossible to see inside. The lights were off as well, and were this a normal day, Chris would have just assumed the owners were out.

“Did they...change bases, maybe?” Chris wondered aloud.

“Without contacting us first? Even if they had to leave in a hurry, they’d have at least left behind clues to their new location.”

“Good point,” Chris replied, then tried the door and discovered that it wasn’t locked. Alarm bells started ringing in his head. His gut told him to run, but he had to know what had happened to his comrades. He exchanged a worried glance with Kyaty, then steeled his resolve and pushed the door open.

Kyaty’s expression stiffened the moment the door opened.

“I smell blood,” she said, prompting Chris to click his tongue in frustration.

The two of them dashed in and found tragedy waiting for them. Everyone in the building had been slaughtered. Blood splattered the floor and walls, and the corpses had all been heaped into a pile in the center of the living room. None of the Liberators had managed to escape.

A crowd of flies buzzed around the corpses. These people had been dead for at least two days now. However, it was how they’d been killed that caught Chris’s attention first.

“They were all...beaten to death?”

It didn’t look like they’d been bludgeoned by the kinds of warhammers that knights occasionally used either. It looked more like they’d been smacked over and over by people who clearly had no martial skill. It was almost as if—

“They were ganged up on by amateurs?”

Their injuries resembled those of Andika’s residents after they’d gotten into a bar fight or a back alley scuffle. They’d been showered with blows from canes and crude cudgels, and whoever had been wielding those makeshift weapons had no experience in real fights.

The whole thing made no sense. Burglars wouldn’t have gone out of their way to kill everyone, but this whole assault looked too amateurish to be the work of knights.

“Chris! I don’t like this... Something’s coming!”

Kyaty’s warning broke Chris out of his musings, and he suddenly realized that they were surrounded. He could sense bloodlust from outside the windows.

“Oh man, you’ve gotta be kidding me.”

The people staring into the building with bloodshot eyes were...just regular civilians.

Kyaty took an involuntary step backward, overwhelmed by the unnatural amount of hatred oozing from them.

“Kyaty, go up!”

Chris drew the sword on his back and sliced up at the ceiling. He created a small hole in the three-story building’s roof, and the two of them leaped up through the opening. But as they saw what was happening around them, they stiffened.

“What the...? What’s going on?” Kyaty asked in a trembling voice.

Chris had no answer for her. Cold sweat poured down his back and his throat tightened up. This had to be a nightmare. The streets were filled with people, as far as the eye could see. All of them, young and old, men and women, were holding makeshift weapons in their hands.

As the crowd advanced on the ferry building, a few people tripped and fell, but no one paid them any mind and the crowd just trampled over them. They all chanted, “Kill the mavericks!” in unison. Everyone in the capital had gone completely insane.

“Can you hear me, Chris-san, Kyaty-san?! Are you two okay?!”

The two of them heard a girl’s worried voice in their ears, knocking them out of their stupor.

“Diene, what’s wrong?!” Chris asked as the two of them jumped from roof to roof, avoiding the hordes of people that spilled out of balconies or tried to jump at them from the roofs of nearby buildings. Some people missed their jumps and fell, but no one seemed to care.

Diene breathed a sigh of relief upon getting a reply, then explained in a tense voice, “The dukedom’s armies have entered the mountains. They know where our hidden village is too. We’re evacuating, but there are far too many soldiers here. It’s only a matter of time before they hunt us down.”

“Even the army’s on the move? Shit, so that’s what you were scheming?!”

Chris immediately realized that this was Ehit’s final game.

“Keep running for now! If things get bad, execute the contingency escape plan!”

“What about you and Kyaty?”

“We’re going to check on the Skynet in the city. Our portable ones don’t have the range to contact the branches in other countries.”

Chris told Diene what was happening in the capital, and she was left momentarily speechless. Finally, she said in a trembling voice, “All right. We’re taking the village’s Dark Gate with us. Get out of there as soon as you can.”

“You bet we will. Take care of the rest of the pirate crew while we’re gone.”

With that, Chris ended the transmission.

Kyaty, who had been knocking down magic missiles and arrows as they leaped across the city rooftops, asked, “Hey, Chris, this is the only place this is happening, right?”

“Who knows? I really hope that’s the case, though.”

Not all hidden villages had Dark Keys, nor did every member of the combat division. Many of them were still recovering from their wounds, and most of them had lost the protection of their artifacts like the Metal Batlams.

Both regular civilians and professional soldiers had been doubting Ehit just a few days ago, but now they’d become crazed believers who appeared to want nothing more than the destruction of all heretics. Chris hadn’t seen this coming at all. If something like this was happening all over the world, then the Liberators really were doomed.

“Anyway, we need to contact the other branches. And if it turns out that’s impossible, then we need to get out of here!”

“Yeah, you’re right. We’ve gotta protect our little princess until our captain returns!”

Forcing themselves to focus on the task at hand, Chris and Kyaty dived into the sea of crazed people. They didn’t even stop to consider the possibility that the wave of crazed religious zeal might have affected the Liberators’ own members.

In the Odion Federation, the Liberator village in the mountains was facing a similar crisis.

“All of the federation member states are mobilizing their armies? Do we have any idea why?” Sim asked, his voice echoing throughout the makeshift pavilion that had been set up in an empty plot in the village.

All of the other beastmen generals were in the tent as well, and it was Nirke who replied, saying, “I’m afraid not. Our support branches have all told us that things are normal in the cities.”

“They’re not trying to suppress the new groups that popped up in support of the Liberators...are they?”

“It doesn’t seem so. They’re just all heading east.”

Sim had been receiving reports that numerous groups had started appearing within the federation that had come out in support of the Liberators. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the church had petitioned the federation’s leaders to mobilize their armies to stamp them out, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“Hmm... I doubt they’re planning to launch a second invasion of the Pale Forest, but...”

Sim couldn’t figure out what the federation’s intention was, which bugged him.

Everyone else looked similarly confused, and an uneasy silence settled over the tent.

Suddenly, a cheerful voice interrupted the meeting, saying, “Everyone, I’ve brought you some food! Can I come in?”

“Oh, is it already that late? You can come in!”

A young woman in her midtwenties pushed aside the tent flap and walked in. She had originally been a nun, but when she’d reported a priest’s misconduct to the church, she and her family had been branded heretics. She had been about to be executed when the Liberators had saved her. She was a gentle woman with a motherly demeanor, and all of the village’s kids loved her. She was carrying a basket that was giving off a delectable smell.

“Thanks for always making us food.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, really. I just want to do what I can to help.”

As she started deftly handing out food to everyone, Sim smiled. She didn’t despise beastmen the way most humans did, nor did it look like she was forcing herself to be friendly with any of them. She simply treated Sim and the others like she would anyone else. The fact that they were from a different race didn’t bother her at all. Sim truly hoped from the bottom of his heart that the day would eventually come when everyone in the world was as open-minded as her.

“Oh yeah, you went into town yesterday to buy groceries, right?”

For just a moment, the woman’s hands stopped, but then she replied, “Yes. I’m afraid this village can’t completely provide for itself. I occasionally go into town under the guise of a traveling merchant and stock up on supplies. People would start getting suspicious if I stopped making my regular trips, I think.”

“Oh yeah, I’m not saying you need to stop. I was just wondering if you’d heard any useful rumors while in the city.”

“Not particularly,” she said with a shake of her head as she finished handing out food.

“Oh, but something nice did happen,” she stated as she took off the necklace she was wearing and showed it to Sim and the others. “It’s pretty, isn’t it? I got it as a gift. Apparently, it’s called Loyalty’s End.”

“Is that an artifact?” Sim asked. Only he and Nirke, the two beastmen in the room who possessed mana, could see the necklace for what it was.

Nirke’s expression soured, and he stared intently at the woman’s face. Meanwhile, Sim asked, “That’s a rather ominous name for a necklace, don’t you think?”

“Really? I think it’s wonderful. Being loyal to the person you love until the very end sounds so romantic, don’t you think?! I know I’ll be loyal to—”

Smiling, the woman walked over to Sim. A shiver ran down his spine as she got close.

“Commander, something’s wrong! Get away from—”

The moment Nirke tried to hold the woman down, her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

“To Ehit-samaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Her smile grew even wider, and as she screamed, her necklace started to emit a blinding light.

A second later, there was a deafening boom, and the tent was blown apart. The rest of the village’s residents stared at the explosion in shock, pale-faced.

“C-Commander?!”

“What happened?!”

Confused, the residents tried to run over and help Sim and the others.

“Oraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Unfortunately, a series of screams echoed throughout the mountains, stopping the people in their tracks. Hordes of people who looked like regular civilians started appearing from all of the secret passages that led to this village. There were more of them than anyone could count.

“H-How did they find out about this place?!”

A new series of screams could be heard from within the village, answering the confused resident’s question. They had traitors in their midst. Without any way of knowing who was friend and who was foe, the Liberators fell into a panic. Plus, the army of enraged commoners didn’t help matters either. Worst of all, their leaders had all been within that tent, and now there was no way of knowing whether they were still alive.

“W-We have to fight them!”

“Don’t be stupid, they’re just civilians!”

“But the way they’re acting isn’t normal!”

“That’s all the more reason not to harm them! Have you forgotten our creed?! Remember why exactly you chose to join the Liberators!”

“Y-You’re right! For now, let’s figure out whether or not General Sim is still alive! We need to find our Skynet and Dark Gate and Dark Key as well!”

Both their means of communication and their escape tools had been in the tent with Sim. If those tools hadn’t survived the explosion, then the Liberators would be completely isolated within this death trap.

The situation was quite grim, so all of the beastmen warriors looked suitably worried.

Further to the east, the Pale Forest had once again become a battlefield. A million soldiers from the Odion Federation had launched a fierce assault on Haltina.

“Report from battalion four! Our defensive lines have been breached!”

“The center can’t hold any longer! We can’t afford to use non-lethal tactics! There are just too many of them!”

“Without Her Majesty’s powers, we can’t hold back a horde this big!”

A series of hysterical voices mingled as they were transmitted through the large Skynet that had been set up in the room behind the throne room within the Haltina Republic’s palace.

Panicking a little, Badd shouted, “Hey, is there still no word from Sim or HQ?!”

“It’s no good! Our transmissions aren’t getting through!”

“Goddammit,” Badd spat.

Three days ago, they’d received an urgent report from Marshal, who’d been hiding in the Liberator village near Agris, the federation’s capital.

“There’s something strange happening in the Odion Federation.”

That was all it had said. The next day, an army composed of both soldiers and civilians had invaded the Haltina Republic. There had been so many of them that they’d covered the northern, central, and southern parts of the forest. It honestly felt like some kind of sick joke, but the reality was that this massive army was on the verge of swallowing the republic whole. In some places, the beastmen were no longer able to stick to non-lethal tactics, so they’d been forced to start killing the invaders. The attacks didn’t stop even at night, and corpses were piling up within the forest at an astonishing rate.

“Parsha! We can’t maintain the front any longer! Have everyone retreat to the capital! We’ll make our stand here!”

Parsha grimaced when she heard Badd say that. The capital was the Haltina Republic’s final stronghold. Over the past three days, many of the republic’s residents had been evacuated here already. Moreover, the Sacred Tree still hadn’t recovered fully. It was nothing more than a giant target at the moment.

Parsha wanted to avoid turning the capital into a battlefield if possible. Unfortunately, she wasn’t left with much of a choice.

“I suppose holding out until Her Majesty returns is the best option... Very well, then. Call everyone back!”

Badd nodded and had the messengers inform everyone at the front lines to retreat.

“Badd!” a familiar voice cried out as Badd was overseeing the retreat. Badd turned to see Marshal, who’d gone missing right after he’d let everyone know that the federation was coming three days ago.

“Marshal! Where the hell have you been this—?”

“You can scold me later, so shut up and listen! I need you to contact every single Liberator village.”

“I know the world’s gone to shit, but—”

“It’s not just that! Everyone needs to be told that there are fanatics within the Liberators’ ranks as well!”

Badd went as white as a sheet, which prompted Marshal to grab him by the shoulders.

“Listen up. They got Tony and Abe! I’m the only survivor from the Angriff branch! They knew exactly where our village was! The traitor was—”

One of the messengers interrupted Marshal, thinking he was bringing good news.

“Marshal-dono! Shushu’s safe! She’s at the main gates right now and—”

“Wait, don’t let her in!”

“Huh? But—”

“She’s fallen into the enemy’s hands. Shushu’s the one who told the church the location of our village!”

Badd paled, while the messenger hurriedly told the guards at the gate to close it. Unfortunately, it was too late. There was a huge explosion, and everyone rushed toward the terrace. In the distance, they could see smoke rising from the main gate.

A deafening war cry resounded throughout the city. For the first time in the Haltina Republic’s history, human invaders had breached the capital’s gates...and it had happened almost comically easily.

Soldiers and civilians from the federation rushed through the gates, and the screams of beastmen filled the air. A bewildered voice called out to Shushu—who was still standing in front of the demolished gates—from behind.

“What...are you doing?”

Shushu looked over her shoulder to see Valf. There was no madness in her gaze, but it was cold as ice.

“I asked you a question. Answer me, Shushuuuuuu!” he roared as he charged forward, intending to incapacitate her. However, he was blown back by a powerful shock wave.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m getting revenge.”

“Shushu, you...”

The federation soldiers charged mercilessly at the dumbfounded Valf. His men desperately held back the assault, while Valf thought back to what Shushu had said during the banquet before the decisive battle. She’d said that she’d let go of her grudge toward her homeland, that she’d change herself so that she could change the world. After their long discussion, that was what she’d told Valf. And yet—

“They used your feelings for their own twisted ends, didn’t they?”

Rage welled up within Valf. Someone had taken advantage of Shushu’s hatred, the very feeling she’d been working so hard to let go of. Even if whatever magic that had transformed regular people hadn’t been able to turn Shushu into a fervent believer in Ehit, it had still been enough to amplify her desire for revenge to the point where she’d turned on her own comrades.

“Shushu, open your eyes!” Valf shouted.

Shushu looked at him like he was trash and blasted him with another shock wave, but this time, it didn’t blow him back. He used his special magic, Float Field, to increase his own gravity, and then strengthened his body as much as possible and crossed his arms in front of him to block.

“Remember what I told you? I’m never gonna abandon you again.”

Shushu fired yet another shock wave at him, but Valf refused to fall. Coughing up blood, he walked toward Shushu. Shushu’s lips twitched, and she fired a fourth shock wave at him.

“Gah...right now, I’m one of the republic’s generals. I’m not a powerless nobody like I was back then.”

During their talk, Valf had confessed something to Shushu. He’d told her that he’d been part of the unit that had turned Shushu away when she’d finally managed to return to the forest. Back then, he hadn’t been a general...or even a captain.

“Our laws are important. We need them to protect our brethren! But—gah—I should have still tried to save you! If I couldn’t have let you back into the country, I should have at least left it with you!”

“Tch. Shut up...” Shushu mumbled as she fired blast after blast at Valf, to the point where the air around him started to warp from the consecutive shock waves.

Valf’s bones shattered, his internal organs ruptured, and his vision began to grow blurry, but he never stopped moving forward.

“Even a human brat was able to take you in, but I—”

From the moment that Miledi had stepped foot into the republic, Valf had known that Shushu was the girl he’d turned away way back when. It was then that he’d realized the difference between his resolve to protect his people and Miledi’s. That was why Meiru’s words had rankled him so much. But now he’d grown, so he truly did want to protect his fellow beastmen with every fiber of that being, and he was going to prove that to Shushu.

“I’m sorry I didn’t save you back then. I’m sorry I turned my back on you.”

“I told you to shut up!”

“Neither I, nor this country, will reject you ever again. I promise.”

“Ah—”

Valf’s unwavering stride struck a chord with Shushu despite her burning desire for revenge, so her thoughts grew muddled. Thoughts of a much younger Miledi flashed through Shushu’s mind. Miledi had completely overwhelmed Shushu, while Valf looked like was about to drop dead any minute now, and yet, in this moment, he reminded Shushu of the Miledi from back then.

A searing pain lanced through Shushu’s head, and emotions that had been dulled suddenly welled up within her once more. The first thing Shushu felt was guilt.

“A-Ahhh! No...what have I done?!”

“Shushu!”

Valf finally reached Shushu, who was still firing off shock waves in a panic. Yet more blood spilled from his mouth as he embraced her, so Shushu let out a small gasp.

“It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay,” Valf said as Shushu completely dispelled her Repulse. However, that also meant the two of them were wide open to an attack.

“Commander!” one of Valf’s men shouted just as a javelin pierced through both his and Shushu’s hearts, connecting the two of them together. The two of them then fell to their knees, their foreheads touching.

“I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I’m sorry...”

“It’s okay. Let’s just rest for a while, okay?”

Valf’s subordinates were swallowed up by the endless tide of people, but they left Valf and Shushu behind, presumably because they had no interest in corpses. And yet, despite the utter hopelessness of the situation, Shushu and Valf died with smiles on their faces.

Meanwhile, Marshal, Badd, and the beastmen warriors were fighting desperately to keep the invaders from reaching the palace.

“No killing this time—Egxess!” Badd exclaimed as he whirled his scythe over his head, shooting out small crescent-shaped jet-black pulses with each spin. He fired off a hundred a second, each pulse draining a regular commoner of all their mana and knocking them unconscious. Unfortunately, the federation’s soldiers weren’t quite as weak. Moreover, the majority of the republic’s warriors hadn’t returned yet, so Badd and the others were severely outnumbered.

Badd deflected hundreds upon hundreds of arrows, but eventually, one of them slipped past and struck his side. No matter how skilled he was, he couldn’t keep this up indefinitely, so slowly but surely, more arrows started hitting him.

“Marshal! You’ve got a girlfriend, so you better not die before I do!”

“Shut up! I don’t wanna hear that from a loser who can’t even confess to the woman he loves!”

The two of them bantered with each other mostly to confirm that they were alive. The battle was too fierce for them to take their eyes off their opponents for even a second, after all. Plus, if they fell, the people hiding in the palace would die. Craid and the other royal guards were with them as a last line of defense, but it was just a matter of time before they were overwhelmed, which was why Marshal and Badd fought and fought and fought.

They didn’t even know how long they’d been fighting for anymore. Maybe it’d just been an hour or two, or maybe it’d been five or six. Badd couldn’t tell if he was even breathing anymore. Still, despite his injuries, he pressed on through sheer force of will. The woman he loved’s precious home was behind him, so he couldn’t afford to fall now. And yet, even though he was still burning with fighting spirit, his body felt cold.

“Hey, Miledi, did you find a way to kill Ehit?” Badd started mumbling to himself as he fought. Not because he’d gone insane, mind you, but because he expected Meiru to use restoration magic to see what had happened here and he wanted to leave his final words behind.

“Sorry, but it looks like this is as far as I go.”

He smiled lightly as he took an arrow to the shoulder. He couldn’t even remember how many arrows he’d been hit by at this point.

“You know, normally, the second-in-command would be giving you some words of encouragement like, ‘Make sure you kill god for me!’ or something, but...honestly, if it seems impossible, I’d rather you just run.”

Another arrow sliced through his thigh, and Badd slumped back, leaning against the sacred tree.

“If you were here, you’d probably say something like, ‘It’s too late for that, idiot!’, wouldn’t you? Ha ha, sorry. But don’t feel like you have to fight Ehit for us or anything, all right? We all chose to be here...and we knew the risks of making that choice.”

Badd failed to parry a wind blade, so it sliced into his neck, causing a fountain of blood to spurt out.

“Sorry I was such a pathetic adult. If possible, I’d like at least you to live.”

He could feel his consciousness slipping.

“Lyu, are you listening to this too?”

Another two arrows hit Badd in the chest, but he ignored them and continued shooting off non-lethal mana shock waves at everyone.

“The truth is, I’ve been in love with you this whole time. You know how I told you I come from a clan that worships the spirits of Ur lake? Well, when I first met you, I thought you were one of those spirits. I fell for you at first sight.”

Laughing, Badd crushed the legs of ten soldiers that tried to charge at him. But in return, one of them managed to cut deep into his left arm, so it went limp.

“But you know, I don’t think I could ever be your husband. After all, I couldn’t bring myself to insult you or step on you.”

Everything around him started to go silent, but even as he was on death’s door, he felt a surge of strength and swung his trusty scythe one more time. The shock wave he unleashed was his biggest yet, and it knocked a hundred soldiers unconscious at once. Even trapped by whatever fanatical brainwashing Ehit had done to them, the remaining soldiers still stared at Badd in awe.

“Ha ha, surprised I knew about your secret fetish? I’ve actually known for a while,” Badd said, grinning mischievously as he imagined Lyutillis’s shocked face.

“Haaah... Haaah... Am I forgetting anything? Oh, yeah. If Egxess hasn’t been stolen, and you can’t find a suitable wielder for it, dump it into the bottom of Ur lake. It’s not the kind of thing that should be left lying around.”

Egxess’s terrifying black aura began to fade as its owner’s life finally came to a close.

“Oh, and...hmm, actually, I guess that’s everything. I’ve got nothing else to say.”

A huge fireball came at him and Badd used the last of his strength to slice it in half and absorb its mana. However, Egxess’s aura didn’t get any stronger. The light in Badd’s eyes slowly dimmed, but he didn’t fall. Up until the very end, the Liberators’ second-in-command remained standing, defiant.

“Now then, it’s time to show you all just how much of a sore loser I am!”

Smiling fearlessly, Badd stood against the oncoming horde of soldiers until his body had been completely destroyed.

A day before the world went insane, at the southern coast of the Astlan kingdom, where The Melusine was anchored...

“Tonight sure feels ominous...” Salus muttered as he looked worriedly through the bridge’s window.

“I haven’t seen a moon this red in ages,” Mikaela replied. Despite her blindness, she could see the moon clearly with her Soul Sight.

The guards on watch squirmed uneasily, and Salus mentally berated himself for adding to their fears.

“Any word on what those shooting stars were?” he asked the person manning the Skynet in an attempt to change the subject.

“Not yet, sir. We have no information on the new pope either.”

Salus frowned and let out a sigh. A few days ago, he’d gotten reports from numerous branches that they’d seen silver shooting stars in the sky. There was, of course, one thing that first came to mind upon the mention of the word silver. The Liberators had been on high alert, looking for any sign of an apostle anywhere.

Salus had even sent a spy unit consisting of Jinx’s crew as well as Sui into the theocracy’s capital when the new pope had been anointed, so he’d been hoping for some news. However, none of them had reported back to him yet. Of course, he knew that the theocracy would be on high alert, so his spies would have a hard time getting out to contact him, but he couldn’t help but worry.

“I need to snap out of it. I keep on envisioning the worst-case scenario.”

No matter how hard he tried though, Salus couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen. Miledi and the others had found a lead on how to defeat Ehit, the world was turning its back on the church, and people were finally beginning to think for themselves. Everything seemed to be going the Liberators’ way. And yet, Salus’s instincts, which had been honed from decades of navigating stormy seas, told him that they needed to hurry or everything would be lost.

Suddenly, the person manning the Skynet delivered some good news.

“Captain, we’re picking up a transmission from our spies!”

“Patch it through!”

Salus had been waiting for news for ages. More than anything though, he was just glad everyone was okay. Though, as soon as the image popped up on the Skynet, he realized he’d celebrated too soon.

“Sui! Are...you okay?!”

Sui was covered from head to toe in wounds. She was leaning against the wall and breathing heavily. Blood trickled down her face, one of her rabbit ears was missing, and her shoulder and side were heavily lacerated as well.

Sui ignored Salus’s question, as she had very little time and said, “You have to warn everyone not to get close to any towns or cities! Evacuate all of our supporters within the cities as well! Get as many of them to the Pale Forest as you can and call Her Majesty back immediately!”

“Wait, Sui! What happened?! Where are Jinx and the others?!”

“Everyone else is dead,” Sui stated in a flat voice. However, it was clear from her expression that she was just holding her grief in. The situation was so urgent that she couldn’t even afford to take the time to cry.

“Did you get everything I said? Listen up. Those church bastards are using the apostles to—”

Before Sui could explain the details, a massive explosion rocked the ship. Salus tumbled to the ground, while Mikaela shrieked in surprise.

“Wh-What happened?!”

“I don’t know. That explosion came from...inside?! I’ll switch comms over to the ship!”

Tim’s panicked voice echoed throughout the ship.

“U-Urgent report. The Skynet has been damaged! Shit, why are they—?”

Looking back at the Skynet’s screen, all Salus could see was Sui desperately trying to say something. Her voice was no longer coming through, and there was static on the screen.

“Tim, who are ‘they’?! Are there intruders on the ship?!”

The only reply Salus got was a series of screams as a second explosion rocked the ship. Mikaela then used her Soul Sight to see what was going on directly.

“No way...”

“Mikaela, what do you see?!”

In a shocked voice, Mikaela said, “The dragonmen. The dragonmen who were assigned to guard us are attacking the ship!”

Salus’s eyes widened in shock and goosebumps rose on his arms.

“Send a distress signal! Can we reach Rigan?! I need to know what’s happening in the Dragon Kingdom!”

“It’s no good! Our calls aren’t getting through!”

Sui’s image was on the verge of disappearing too, so the Skynet was clearly too damaged to be usable. It seemed she was under attack as well, as she was desperately trying to hold the door closed while she shouted at Salus. The most he could pick out were the words “church,” “brainwashing,” and “world.”

“You’ve done enough, Sui! Just get out of there! Return to the forest!”

Sui smiled sadly as she read Salus’s lips. Then, just before the image cut out completely, she opened her mouth and said, “Sorry, but there’s somewhere I need to go first.”

Salus’s lip-reading skills weren’t the greatest, but he was sure that was what she’d said.

“Emergency ascent! We need to head back to the Dragon Kingdom’s capital! I know the king would never betray us!”

The pilot quickly moved to obey, but before he could touch the controls, Mikaela shouted, “Deploy a barrier above us! They’re coming from the sky as well!”

It seemed the dragonmen had already gained control of the skies. Countless flashes lit up the bridge, each of them a dragon’s breath.

“Miledi, I’m sorry...” Salus muttered. He knew this situation was hopeless.

At around the same time, countless roars echoed through the Dragon Kingdom’s capital. Fires had broken out within the city and breath attacks shot back and forth while people screamed in the streets.

There had been a coup d’état within the kingdom. While the dragonmen had kept a vigilant eye out for external enemies, they hadn’t paid enough attention to their own internal affairs. Moreover, the surprise attack orchestrated by this rebel had been extremely well-planned, considering she was a young soldier and her followers were mostly civilians.

Half of the kingdom’s strongest fighters and generals had been killed or incapacitated in the initial assault, and those who had survived couldn’t tell friend from foe. The battlefield was utter chaos.

The one shining beacon of reason within the madness was none other than the dragon king, Tragdi Augis Astlan.

“Open your eyes, Shival!” Tragdi roared, transforming into a resplendent golden dragon. Gold sparks shot out of his mouth as he addressed the leader of the rebels—his daughter, Shival Augis Astlan. The two of them were facing off above the ruins of the city’s palace.

Shival had the same golden scales as Tragdi, and at a distance, they looked almost identical.

“You’re the one who needs to open his eyes, father. I’ve told you time and time again, if we wish to have a future, we dragonmen need to join hands with the church. Why can’t you understand that?!”

“It is that very church that has branded us as evil.”

“If we pledge our service to them, they’ll accept us as divine dragons instead. We can fill the hole left by the destruction of the Paragons of Light. That way, we won’t be persecuted anymore. No more of our brethren will have to die the way mother did!”

“The dragonmen you’ve riled up are killing those very same brethren you claim you want to protect!”

“This is a revolution. I need to shatter the old ways and the old values. These are necessary sacrifices that will ensure the Dragon Kingdom will continue to exist for another thousand years.”

“Shival, you...”

Shival valued lives over pride and tradition. Tragdi couldn’t rightly say that was a bad philosophy. However, Shival had never been the kind of person who would condone sacrifices for the sake of the greater good.

“Wait...”

Shival’s sudden radicalization and the glint of madness in her eyes wasn’t normal...and Tragdi became sure of his suspicions the moment a streak of silver light grazed his shoulder.

“Gah, I knew it! The church is behind this!”

Looking up, he saw an apostle hovering above them, bathed in the red light of the moon. Furthermore, there was an armada of theocracy airships coming in from the west. It seemed Shival had invited the church’s armies into the Dragon Kingdom.

“So they managed to corrupt you, Shival...?” Tragdi said in a sad voice, sounding more like a father than the dragon king in that moment.

“You’re mistaken, father. I chose this of my own free will,” Shival replied as she flew up to join the apostle.

“Order your men to stand down and name me the new dragon queen.”

“So that we can become Ehit’s lapdogs? Would you kill all the other races if your new master ordered you to?”

“This is all to ensure the dragonmen’s future.”

The church’s forces started landing in the city, surrounding Tragdi and his soldiers. Though the church had been severely weakened after their battle with the Liberators, there were still a good number of apostleified knights remaining. Tragdi gazed into Shival’s eyes, a pained expression on his face.

“Shival, I know I was not a good father to you.”

Shival blinked in surprise, then smiled a little and replied, “Father, does that mean...?”

She trailed off expectantly, hoping that he would surrender, but his next words made her smile stiffen.

“Hear me, citizens of Astlan. Tonight, the Dragon Kingdom will fall. Flee the capital now while there’s still time. Soldiers, protect the civilians until they’ve made it to safety! This is my final order as Dragon King Tragdi Augis Astlan!”

His booming voice reverberated throughout the entire city. Sparks ran down the length of his body, electrifying the air and calling down lightning bolts from the sky.

“Have you forgotten why it is that I never keep any guards around me?”

The dragonmen fighting for Shival trembled in fear, overwhelmed by the immense pressure Tragdi was emitting.

In order to be the ruler of the dragonmen, a person had to be the strongest among them. Everyone knew that, so they all knew how strong Tragdi was. Tragdi kept no guards because they’d just get in the way during any serious battle.

The reason Shival had asked for an apostle was because she knew that outside of the seven ancient magic users, only an apostle could hope to defeat Tragdi, the lord of thunder.

The majestic dragon king let out a roar, making Shival’s dragonmen faint on the spot.

“Bear witness to the true might of the dragon king!” Tragdi exclaimed as he bared his fangs at the apostle, daring her to attack. He needed to buy as much time as he could for his people, and for the Liberators, to escape.

This would be his final battle.

As the dragon king’s roar echoed through the city, there was one section of it that was under heavy attack by Shival’s dragonmen: the three-story building where the Liberators had been staying. The left and right wings of the building had already been demolished, and it was only thanks to the Hallowed Ground barrier surrounding the center that it was still standing.

The walls were still one step away from crumbling even in the center, however.

“Dad! Where are you?!” Shirley’s voice echoed through the corridors. Blood was dripping down her face, and she was unsteady on her feet. She heard a groan from underneath a pile of nearby rubble and desperately started clearing it away. Underneath it was Rigan, his chest caved in. He let out a small groan as Shirley uncovered him.

“Shirley...”

“D-Dad! It’s gonna be okay! We just need a healer and—”

“Forget...about revolution... Live for your own happiness instead...”

He was hovering on the edge of consciousness and wasn’t even aware of what he was saying. However, despite being a firebrand revolutionary himself, he truly did wish for his daughter to abandon the path he’d chosen. Speechless, Shirley simply squeezed Rigan’s hand.

“Miledi-kun...you too...” Rigan muttered.

“Dad...” Shirley called out to him. However, there was no reply. She ignored the sounds of battle raging all around her, looking only at her father’s lifeless eyes.

No...just like that? Shirley thought blankly, still squeezing her father’s hand.

Just then, another explosion rocked the building and a pillar started falling toward Shirley. She looked absently up at it, not really seeing it, and making no move to get out of the way. Right before she was crushed, however, Baharl tackled her to safety.

“You idiot!” he screamed as the pillar crashed into the walls, causing them to creak ominously. It looked like they might cave in at any second.

“Get a grip, lass! We’ve gotta make it to the barrier!”

“B-But dad—”

“Rigan’s dead! But you’re still alive! And if you’re still alive, you’ve gotta keep struggling until the very end, right?!” Baharl exclaimed as he slapped her across the face, snapping Shirley out of her stupor.

He’s right. Rigan Nelson’s daughter would never just meekly accept her death!

“The barrier...must be Reinheit-san’s doing.”

Indeed, Reinheit and Sharm were both in the Dragon Kingdom. They’d arrived three days after Laus and the others had left, and they’d been talking with Kaime and Selm in Laus’s place ever since.

“The kid’s got good reflexes. Or wait, maybe he just has good instincts? He cast that barrier just before the first attacks came. It’s thanks to him that half of us are still alive.”

Of course, that meant the other half were dead. They’d escaped execution by the church only to be killed here instead.

Reinheit had wanted to expand his barrier to cover the whole building, but it was unfortunately too big for him to push the barrier out that far in the few seconds he’d had. Besides, he’d needed to make it strong enough to withstand multiple dragonmen’s breath attacks, so he wouldn’t have been able to make it much bigger regardless.

“See you later, Rigan. Wait for me up there in heaven, all right?”

Upon hearing Baharl pay his respects to Rigan, Shirley bit her lip and silently said her own farewells. The pair then stepped out of the rubble and saw breath attacks flying back and forth from all sides. It seemed some of the neighbors had come to their aid, and were fighting back against Shival’s soldiers despite being regular citizens themselves. Thanks to these dragonmen’s aid, Baharl and Shirley were able to make their way into the barrier without getting incinerated.

“You’re back. Where’s Ri—? No, I guess there’s no need to ask. I’m glad you’re safe, Shirley.”

“Thank you, Karg-san...”

While the rest of Andika’s residents and the prisoners that had been freed from the execution grounds were huddling together, Karg was sitting off to the side, desperately working on something. He could tell just from the look on Shirley’s face what had happened to Rigan.

“Where’s the army? We won’t last much longer,” Baharl asked as he looked over at the front porch.

Reinheit was standing there defiantly, absorbing the concentrated fire of dozens of dragonmen. The fact that he was able to block them at all was a testament to how suitable he was to be a hero, but judging by the way he was gritting his teeth, he wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.

“No clue,” Karg replied. “I didn’t want to entertain the possibility, but it’s looking like there really may have been a coup.”

“You think all the generals are dead? Now that’s a scary thought.”

Shirley glanced around, looking for someone. When she didn’t see him, she asked in a fearful voice, “Where’s Sharm-kun? I don’t see him anywhere.”

Karg and the others glanced away awkwardly...and Shirley paled, thinking for a moment that he might be dead.

But then, suddenly, Reinheit looked over his shoulder and said, “Sharm-sama has gone to his family.”

It was clear from his tone that he was forcibly holding himself back from running after Sharm.

“Wait, you let him go by himself?!”

The Barn family were technically prisoners, so they’d been housed in a manor at the edge of the city instead of here with everyone else. With the city now a battlefield, that was an incredibly dangerous journey for an eight-year-old child to make alone.

“Sharm-sama’s instincts told him that if he didn’t go now, he’d never get to see his family again.”

“But you let him go alone?!”

“I have to stay here to protect everyone,” Reinheit replied simply.

In response, Shirley shouted, “Didn’t you pledge to serve him?! How could you let him—? If you go now, you can still reach him in time!”

“Sharm-sama ordered me to remain here! It’s because I pledged to serve him that I must follow his orders!”

Sharm had told Reinheit to protect everyone before running off right after the initial assault. Reinheit had, of course, wanted to stop him, but he’d seen the look in Sharm’s eyes. Sharm wasn’t just a child who couldn’t read the situation, so he had made the decision to go knowing the consequences. His resolve had been real. In that moment, he’d looked just like his father...and Reinheit would have spit in the face of Sharm’s trust and his own loyalty if he’d gone against Sharm’s orders.

“Besides, I am a knight! It is my duty to protect those who cannot protect themselves! No true knight can allow personal feelings to cloud their judgment and choose the safety of one over the safety of many!”

Reinheit Ashe was a true knight to his very core. Laus and Sharm both knew this, which was why they trusted him so much. When the time called for it, they knew he would always protect everyone he could, the same way he’d protected them.

Shirley could find no words to argue back, so it was Karg who filled the ensuing silence by saying, “All right, this’ll work!”

This whole time, Karg had been working on repairing a small cylindrical object. He clapped his hands together, put on the finishing touches and exclaimed, “Transmute!”

The former head of the Orcus Workshop was a master synergist second only to Oscar, and while the barrier artifact that Oscar had left behind on the off-chance that the Liberators were attacked in the Dragon Kingdom had been damaged in the initial assault, Karg had been able to swiftly repair it. Thanks to that, a glowing golden spatial barrier appeared on top of Reinheit’s Hallowed Ground.

“Perfect, I managed to get it running at least!”

Reinheit looked back in surprise, and another group of workers shouted, “Karg-san! The metal slime things are back!”

“Oscar really is a genius. I can’t believe his slimes brought back more artifacts and survivors!”

There was a hole in the floor of the living room and Metal Batlams were coming out of it one after another, bringing salvaged artifacts and rescued survivors with them.

Oscar had left behind a plethora of artifacts, as well as all the remaining Metal Batlams that had survived the battle with the church. There were barrier generators, shields, enchanted swords, and even crossbows.

A second later, a group of Andikan residents came down the stairs, yelling, “We got some more artifacts from upstairs!”

Karg and the others hadn’t just sat around while Reinheit had protected them. They’d been working on protecting themselves so Reinheit would be free to chase after Sharm.

“Go, Reinheit! We’ll take care of things here!”

“B-But—”

“We can buy some time, but not much, so hurry up and bring the kid back as soon as possible, okay?”

Everyone was looking at Reinheit, their expressions making it clear that they wanted him to go.

“If a hero protects someone, it’s only natural that those people will want to protect the hero in turn, right?” Shirley said with a smile.

“Think of how bad we’ll feel if a kid dies because you were stuck protecting us,” Baharl added.

“Thank you, everyone. I promise I’ll return soon.”

With tears in his eyes, Reinheit dashed out of the building.

As soon as he was out of sight, Karg let out a sigh and collapsed.

“Karg?!”

“Karg-san!”

Baharl and Shirley ran over to him, pale-faced. Baharl helped him into a sitting position and shouted, “Come on, get a grip! What happened?! Did you run out of mana?!”

“Ha ha, it’s not that. I’ve just hit my limit,” Karg said as he unbuttoned his shirt. Baharl gasped upon seeing what was beneath it. Karg’s entire right side was covered with a Metal Batlam...and blood was dripping out of the cracks in it.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been like this the whole time...”

Karg simply smiled at Baharl. He had indeed taken a fatal injury during the initial assault, but he’d stopped the bleeding with a Metal Batlam.

“Listen up. I was able to repair this thing...but not fully. What I did was...just a stopgap measure...”

In a strained voice, Karg explained that he’d just jump-started it and that it was currently draining more mana than usual to remain active. Everyone would need to work together to keep providing it with mana because if it stopped, there was no guarantee it would start up again.

Baharl and the others gritted their teeth as they watched all the color drain from Karg’s face. Without Meiru or Diene’s help, there was no saving him. Thus, they listened to the master synergist’s final words because that was all they could do for him.

“Tell Oscar... Actually, I’ve already said all I want to him...so just tell him to keep walking the path he believes in.”

“Yeah, I will.”

“Also, tell Miledi...thanks for...freeing my son...from his cage...” he mumbled, trailing off faintly. Then, in the faintest of whispers, he added, “Oh, and tell her not to push herself too hard...”

As Karg breathed his last, Baharl took over maintaining the barrier artifact. Breath attacks slammed into it as the dying man growled, “The rest of you better survive this!”

Kaime and Selm watched the chaotic battle unfold from atop a tall hill on the outskirts of the city.

“Aaah, I knew Lord Ehit hadn’t abandoned us!”

“Yes, that’s right, Licoris! We are part of the prestigious Barn family, after all!”

Licoris and Debra were there as well, crying tears of joy as they watched the airships and apostleified knights destroy the Dragon Kingdom. Their reaction was the expected one from citizens of the theocracy.

“Brother...no, forget it. It’s nothing.”

Seeing Selm’s hesitation reassured Kaime a little. It was heartening to know that he wasn’t the only one feeling conflicted about the arrival of the church.

“Fear not, you two. This is the appointed meeting place. They’ll be coming for you soon,” a young dragonman said to Kaime with a smile.

“You’ll be back with the church in no time,” another said to Selm with an identical smile.

The two dragonmen seemed to think Kaime and Selm were worried they’d be attacked before the church reached them. Their smiles were surprisingly light considering they’d just killed all of the guards that had been assigned to watch over the Barn family. Those guards had really just been guards in name and had spent more time looking after the family rather than keeping an eye on them, so those careless smiles irked Kaime and Selm.

“You sure look cheerful for someone who just killed your own comrades,” Kaime said, causing the dragonmen’s smiles to fade a little, though not much.

“It’s unfortunate, but this was a necessary sacrifice for the greater good.”

“Returning you two to the church will prove our devotion to Ehit and earn us a place in his ranks.”

“My! I thought you were all evil monsters, but it seems the grace of Lord Ehit has reformed you,” Licoris said with a smile.

“That’s right. From now on, I swear we will serve as the theocracy’s protectors as divine dragons.”

“How wonderful!”

Kaime and Selm looked sickened as they listened to the conversation between the dragonmen and their mother.

Some time back, the dragonmen guards that had been killed had started opening up to Kaime and Selm. They’d started telling the brothers about life in the Dragon Kingdom, and Kaime and Selm had even started looking forward to eating meals with them. Eventually, Kaime and Selm had become intrigued by the dragonmen’s way of life and their vast repository of knowledge. No matter how much Kaime and Selm had insulted the dragonmen at the beginning, their guards had never gotten angry. Not only that, they’d never even tried to force their viewpoints onto Kaime and Selm.

“You should spend some time talking to the dragonmen. Then you’ll learn what true virtue is all about.”

That was something Laus had said to them before he’d left.

“Where’s the virtue in this?” Kaime muttered quietly, prompting the young dragonmen to turn questioningly to him. He ignored them, though. He couldn’t bear looking at such lowly creatures.

“I see you’re all safe,” a familiar female voice said to Kaime.

“Division Captain Lelei Argeson?” Kaime asked, turning around in surprise.

The reason his tone was questioning was because while she looked like the Lelei he knew, she had a totally different demeanor. Furthermore, she was no longer wearing the Holy Templar Knights’ uniform and was carrying a spear rather than her bow.

“Watch your tone. You stand before the new pope.”

“Ah,” Kaime and Selm both said in surprise. They had heard the news that the old pope had died, and Darrion Kaus had been appointed the new pope. However, this wasn’t Darrion Kaus, which was why they were confused.

“The Barn family doesn’t have a monopoly on spirit magic,” Darrion said simply, which was enough of an explanation for Kaime and Selm. They immediately understood what had happened to Lelei’s body, and what Darrion Kaus’s true ability was.

A shiver of fear ran down their spines and Kaime hesitantly asked, “Wh-What happened to Lelei?”

“Does it matter?”

Kaime fell silent upon hearing that. Licoris, Debra, and the two dragonmen knelt upon realizing they were standing before the leader of the new world order.

“The church is extremely shorthanded right now, so I shall grant you the opportunity to erase your failure and the shame of getting kidnapped. Slaughter the heretics left within the city.”

Darrion swung down with his spear, cutting through the bracelets that suppressed Kaime and Selm’s apostleification. He also handed them a replica Holy Sword and Divine Staff. Kaime and Selm stared blankly down at the weapons in their hands.

This is a good thing. Lord Ehit didn’t abandon us, and he’s even given us a chance to clear our names. We should be happy about this.

And yet, Kaime couldn’t bring himself to rejoice. Feeling conflicted, he nevertheless started following Darrion. But before he could go more than a few steps, a voice called out to him.

“Nii-san.”

Looking up in shock, he saw a panting Sharm. Sharm grimaced, worried he might not have made it in time.

How did you find us? Why did you come here? What are you thinking?

Kaime’s head was filled with questions, and for a moment, he was at a loss for words.

“Hmm, well, I guess this saves us some time,” Darrion said, grinning.

Sharm looked up at Lelei, confused. But after a second, realization dawned on him.

“Darrion Kaus?” he asked.

“Oh?” Darrion said, impressed that Sharm had seen through to his true essence so quickly.

Before Kaime or Selm could say anything, Licoris said in a shrill voice, “How dare you address Her Eminence so casually, you filthy traitor!”

Despite being Sharm’s mother, she looked at him like he was trash. A tinge of sadness came over Sharm’s expression, but his determination remained undaunted.

Debra was no kinder to Sharm either, saying, “Kaime, this is undoubtedly a chance granted to us by Lord Ehit! Slay that traitor and redeem the Barn family’s honor!”

Kaime stiffened up. Until just recently, he would have gladly done just as Debra asked. He wouldn’t even have hesitated as he cut Sharm in half. And yet, now he was conflicted.

I can do it! I have to! The pope is watching

His body wouldn’t listen to him, almost as if it had a mind of its own. Sharm was nothing more than a worthless pebble, and yet now that he was here, Kaime found himself thinking back to all the time they’d spent together in the Dragon Kingdom. No matter how rude Kaime had been, Sharm had shown up day after day to speak with him. The same brother Kaime had tried to kill had spoken to him with a smile on his face and called him Nii-san.

Sensing Kaime’s internal struggle, Selm frowned and said, “Your Eminence, why don’t we take him back with us and reeducate him?”

Darrion turned to Selm, looking at him as if he was nothing more than an insect. There was no need for words. Selm could tell that if he suggested anything like that again, Darrion would kill him.

Selm shrunk back, feeling as though Darrion had seen right through him. Licoris and Debra went pale, as if the world had just ended.

“Your Eminence, please have mercy! It’s that man, Laus Barn, who misled these two!” Licoris exclaimed.

“Kaime, Selm! Return to your senses!” Debra shouted. If anything, it was the two of them that looked like they’d taken leave of their senses.

“Kill Sharm Barn here. It is only right that a member of the Barn family cleans up the family’s mess,” Darrion said, making the order an explicit one from the pope.

Kaime squeezed his sword’s hilt so hard that it hurt as he glared at Sharm.

This would be so much easier if you would just see me as your enemy, and not your older brother. If you were just looking at me with hate like any other heretic, then...

“Nii-san, you can’t go back to the church. You’ll lose yourself completely this time,” Sharm said, his gaze clear and unwavering.

“Shut up! Kaime, hurry up and kill him! The pope gave you an order!” Licoris shouted.

“Please fight. For yourselves, more than anyone or anything else. You don’t have to worry about me. Just get mother and grandmother to safety,” Sharm stated flatly.

It was at that point that Licoris snapped. She drew one of the young dragonmen’s daggers from its scabbard and started running at Sharm.

“M-Mother?!” Kaime and Selm shouted. However, Licoris paid them no heed.

“If only I hadn’t given birth to you!”

“M-Mother, I—” Sharm stammered, shocked.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up! I’m not the mother of a heretiiiiiic!”

Licoris bowled into Sharm and the two of them went down in a heap of flailing limbs. She then brought her dagger down toward Sharm’s chest, and he blocked it with his arm. He screamed in pain as the blade pierced his soft flesh, but he doggedly grabbed onto Licoris’s arm to prevent her from striking again. Furthermore, he kept trying to appeal to Kaime and Selm even as Licoris assaulted him. Incensed, Debra picked up a nearby branch and ran over to help her daughter kill her grandson.

Within seconds, Sharm was covered in numerous cuts and bruises. The apostleified knights with Darrion watched on in amusement, and the two dragonmen even applauded. They were enjoying watching a mother kill her son.

“There are so many more wonderful things in this world than you realize.”

Laus’s words once again ran through Kaime and Selm’s heads. They thought back to the sunset they saw together from the beach near the capital. There had been other happy dragonmen families there, enjoying the view.

Even though what their mother and grandmother were doing was something a true believer in Ehit should’ve been proud of, Kaime and Selm felt disgusted.

“Hmm, I see Reinheit Ashe is heading this way. I imagine witnessing Sharm Barn get killed by his relatives will shake him to his very soul.”

Darrion was saying something, but Kaime and Selm didn’t notice.

“Kaime-nii-san, Selm-nii-san, get a hold of yourselves!”

They were too captivated by Sharm’s unwavering gaze.

How can he stay so unyielding even after being hurt so badly?

“Finally building up the resolve to be a proper father to you two.”

Laus had said they could ask him for anything, so they’d constantly challenged him to duels. Kaime and Selm had, of course, been looking for an opening to kill him, but ultimately, the duels had ended up being more training sessions than anything else. At some point, it had even stopped annoying them that Laus could wipe the floor with them. They started feeling a kernel of pride again knowing that their father really was the world’s strongest knight.

Of course, they’d never admit that to his face, but they had asked him what had made him so strong, and the above words had been his reply.

“I know it might be too late, but I swear I won’t let anyone, not even Ehit, steal your freedom ever again,” he’d added afterward with a wan smile.

“You need to get away, even if it’s just you two!” Sharm shouted at Kaime and Selm. Licoris and Debra were having more trouble than they’d expected with him. That was only natural, though. The two of them had lived a sheltered life wanting for nothing, whereas Sharm might still have been a child, but he’d struggled and fought his way through numerous deadly battlefields. His will to resist was on a different level.

“That’s enough. Out of my way,” Darrion said, getting tired of this farce. He stepped forward, preparing to deal the finishing blow himself.

To Kaime, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. It was only his memories with Laus that flashed by at a breakneck pace. He remembered the first time Laus had praised them for their fighting skills. He’d patted them on the head, and for the first time, Kaime had realized just how big his father’s hands were. He remembered the first time Laus had cracked a joke. The first time he’d taught them magic. The first time he’d cooked for them—which had been a disaster. For the first time, Kaime had come to learn what a family truly was.

“You should decide for yourselves what it is you want in life. What you want to protect, who you want to fight, what you want to believe in, all of it.”

Most importantly of all, Laus had taught Kaime to choose for himself.

“Don’t stop struggling!” Sharm shouted.

“Ah!”

His voice was like a hard slap to the face, and it brought Kaime and Selm back to their senses.

Kaime looked up to see Darrion holding a bloody spear aloft. Sharm was below him, one of his arms and one of his legs broken. He couldn’t even stand, but he remained resolute in the face of death.

“You have to decide for yourself what you want in life!”

Sharm was saying the exact same things his father—the strongest knight—had said. Before he knew it, Kaime was on the move.

“What are you doing?” Darrion asked as Kaime jumped in front of Sharm and held his sword behind him to block Darrion’s spear. He then fired a disintegration beam behind him, forcing Darrion to leap away.

“Nii-san?”

“Shut up, idiot brother.”

Sharm blinked in surprise. Even if Kaime had added “idiot” in front of it, he’d called Sharm his brother. Kaime had never done that before.

Kaime turned back to face Darrion, and Selm walked over to stand with him. Licoris, Debra, and the apostleified knights were all at a loss for words. Just then, Reinheit appeared.

“Sharm-samaaaaaaaaa?!” he shouted, growing pale when he saw the condition Sharm was in.

Upon seeing Kaime and Selm standing next to Sharm, his face contorted in anger, but then Kaime shouted, “You worthless hero! Can’t you even protect one kid?!”

At the same time, Selm summoned up a bunch of chains to grab Sharm and throw him toward Reinheit.

“Get out of here,” Kaime said, pointing his sword at Darrion. Selm also brandished his staff at the knights, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

Seeing the two brothers’ resolute expressions, Reinheit realized who the real enemy was here.

“Nii-san, no! You have to come with us!”

Sharm desperately reached out to Kaime and Selm with a bloodied hand, and Reinheit hesitated, unsure if he should really leave.

“Oh, Holy Sword. My goddess...” Darrion said with a rapt look in his eyes.

Suddenly Reinheit felt as though some foreign object was trying to bore its way into his head and he fell to his knees with a groan. However, that was all that happened.

“I guess with things as they are now, it’s impossible...” Darrion said, clicking his tongue in frustration. It seemed he couldn’t take over Reinheit’s body.

“I won’t let you take him!” Selm shouted, activating his special magic, Forbidden Command, to seal Darrion’s own special magic.

“Tch, what a pain,” Darrion mumbled as he rushed at Reinheit.

However, this time Kaime blocked him. He activated his special magic, Sacred Way, as well, doing everything in his power to keep Darrion from reaching Reinheit.

Kaime might have been older than Sharm, but he was still a boy. And yet, he was actually managing to hold Darrion at bay. It was taking every ounce of his strength, but he was doing it.

“We can’t hold them off for long. Hurry up and go! You’re too outnumbered here to do anything!” Selm shouted, using Sanctified Purge and a volley of light spells to keep the apostleified knights from overwhelming Kaime. There were more knights and dragonmen headed this way, so he knew this tenuous equilibrium wouldn’t last long.

More than anything else though, Sharm’s wounds were severe. If he wasn’t treated soon, he’d die. At the same time though, the three brothers had finally come to care for each other. Reinheit didn’t want them to have to part so soon.

“Reinheit Ashe, as Laus Barn’s eldest son, I order you to protect the next head of the Barn family!”

Those words from Kaime were the last push Reinheit needed to make his decision.

“As you command, my liege! I’m sorry!”

Sharm squirmed in protest, but Reinheit chose to prioritize Kaime’s orders and ran from the battlefield as fast as he could.

“My goddess!” Darrion shouted, his spear glowing brighter than usual. He forcibly broke Kaime’s guard and sliced him in the chest, but even as Kaime coughed up blood, he fired off a Celestial Flash to keep Darrion from running past him and chasing after Reinheit.

“Brother!” Selm shouted in a pained voice.

“Hah, compared to Laus Barn’s attacks, Darrion’s are nothing!” Kaime said with a fearless grin, thinking back to all the times he’d dueled his father.

Reinheit was well out of sight now, so Darrion turned back to face Kaime and said, “I suppose I should have expected as much from the sons of a traitor.”

Kaime scoffed and replied, “I’m just choosing for myself for once.”

He once again pointed his sword at Darrion. Licoris and Debra were yelling something at him, but he didn’t feel like paying any attention. Instead, he turned to Selm and said, “Sorry, Selm, I’ve killed us both.”

He knew that only death was waiting for him at the end of this road, but he was left with no other choice.

Selm shrugged and replied, “It’s fine. You did it for our idiot brother, after all.”

Selm hefted his staff and tried to remember all of the techniques his father had taught him in the short time they’d spent together.

“Do you think he’ll be happy with our choice?” he muttered, wondering if Laus would praise them for choosing to do this of their own free will.

“In your dreams. You know he’ll be pissed.”

“Ha ha, I guess so. He did say he wanted us to live.”

But even so, I hope you’re at least proud of us... the two of them thought simultaneously.

In the end, they never did manage to tell him how they truly felt.

“It’s just like back then. Nothing’s changed at all!” Sharm lamented tearfully as the light of Reinheit’s healing magic enveloped him.

“How many times do I have to be saved by the sacrifices of others? How many times do I have to leave the people I care about behind to die?!”

“I’m so sorry.”

Even though he was a knight, Reinheit had failed time and time again to safeguard the people he’d sworn to protect. He’d needed others’ help just to survive, and at every turn, he’d had to choose who to prioritize because he couldn’t save everyone. His apology sounded more like a remonstration of his own weakness, so Sharm hugged his neck, knowing that Reinheit shared his pain.

“I want to become stronger. I want to be stronger, Reinheit!”

“You can! I know you can become stronger than anyone else!”

Reinheit and Sharm’s screams echoed throughout the city as they ran. Unsurprisingly, there were a few apostleified knights who heard them and flew down to attack. One of them fired off a Celestial Flash that Reinheit countered with a much more powerful Celestial Flash that obliterated the knight’s own and went on to bisect him. Another knight thrust at Reinheit with his spear, but he dodged to the side and cut the knight’s head off as he passed by.

Reinheit didn’t even stop as he dispatched the knights, running back to where the Liberators were as fast as he could.

Meanwhile, the dragon king’s battle grew fiercer and lightning filled the sky above the city.

Even though Reinheit was this generation’s legendary hero, chosen by the Holy Sword itself, he couldn’t even fathom taking part in the insane battle unfolding up above.

I’m so useless.

Berating himself wouldn’t magically fix anything, so even as he inwardly despaired, Reinheit pressed onward, determined to at least let Karg and the others escape.

“Reinheit!”

Unfortunately, it seemed he wouldn’t be allowed to do even that. Just as Sharm’s warning rang out, dozens of knights swooped down on his location, destroying all of the nearby houses.

Reinheit didn’t even have time to curse. All he could do was dodge, parry, and counter the endless rain of attacks, all the while making sure he didn’t drop Sharm and ensuring he kept casting healing magic on him. No matter how grim things got, Reinheit was going to at least make sure Kaime and Selm’s sacrifice didn’t end in vain.

However, he was sorely outnumbered. Moreover, dragonmen were coming to join in and help the knights.

They must be taking orders from Darrion.

There were far too many of them for this to be a coincidence. And at this rate, he would be overwhelmed.

“It’s not over yet... Limit—”

Even if it meant collapsing later, Reinheit would cling to any option that would let him live even a moment longer. But before he could activate his Limit Break, aid came.

“Save your trump card for when you really need it.”

A deep blue streak of light mowed down a group of apostleified knights...and a second later, more streaks—each one a different color—blew through the other enemies surrounding Reinheit.

“Grice-dono! You’re alive?!”

“I did nearly die earlier, but yes, I am thankfully alive.”

With a flap of his wings, Grice Schnee landed next to Reinheit. A group of dragonmen soldiers, with Nieshika among them, then formed a protective ring around Reinheit and Sharm.

“Thank goodness we found you two. Come, we’ll guide you.”

“Where to?”

“A secret escape route. Don’t worry, Baharl and the others have already been evacuated.”

As Nieshika shepherded Reinheit down an alleyway, he turned back to look at Grice.

“What about you, Grice-dono?”

“A general cannot leave his king alone on the battlefield. I will fulfill my duty,” Grice stated as he looked over his shoulder at Nieshika, a heartrendingly gentle expression on his face.

“Farewell, my beloved wife.”

“Farewell, my beloved husband.”

Nieshika smiled lovingly back at Grice, then grabbed Reinheit’s arm and started dragging him toward the escape route.

“N-Nieshika-dono.”

“There’s no need to say anything. Both my husband and I are simply upholding our pride as dragonmen,” Nieshika said in a voice that was at once both gentle and strict.

Neither Reinheit nor Sharm could think of anything to say to that. They traveled in silence as Nieshika took them to where Baharl and the others were waiting, after which all of the Liberators got on the backs of a hundred transformed dragonmen and flew out of the kingdom.

No one looked the slightest bit relieved as they left. The pain of losing so many of their comrades was still fresh. Moreover, it was clear the Dragon Kingdom wouldn’t survive past tonight. As they fled southeast to the pale forest, it was only Nieshika and the other dragonmen’s encouragement that kept the Liberators from falling into despair.

The journey to the republic took four days. They stuck to valleys and narrow passes to avoid pursuers, and once they reached the northern edge of the forest, they kept low, hiding under the canopy.

“I can see the sacred tree. We’re almost there,” Nieshika said, turning back to look at Reinheit and Sharm.

“Thank you so much. We wouldn’t have been able to make it without you and the other dragonmen’s help.”

“We don’t deserve your thanks. Miledi-san entrusted your care to us, but we failed to notice the coup one of our own was planning...and as a result, many of you died. If we didn’t at least save as many as we could, we wouldn’t be able to face Miledi-san again.”

Reinheit shook his head as if to say it wasn’t her fault.

“More importantly, how is Sharm-kun doing?”

“He’s sleeping soundly, though he still has a bit of a fever...”

“I see... He’s experienced a lot of tragedy these past few days, so I’m sure he’s mentally exhausted. Hopefully Laus-san returns soon.”

As they got closer to the sacred tree, Reinheit and the others noticed something was off.

“Huh? That’s not fog, that’s smoke! Is there a fire?”

“I hear screams as well... I’m taking us higher!”

Nieshika ordered the other dragonmen to wait where they were, then started a steep ascent. From her higher vantage point, she could easily tell what had happened to the beastmen’s haven.

“No...they got the republic too?” Reinheit muttered.

“This may, in fact, be happening all over the world...”

Hundreds of thousands of troops were pouring into the forest. The republic was currently being invaded.

“W-We have to retreat! Until we know how far the invasion has progressed, we can’t drop people off here! We have to go east...all the way to the eastern coast! We should be able to hide there!” Reinheit exclaimed.

“Very well, then. All units, head east to—”

Just as Nieshika turned around to address her dragonmen, a burst of silver light hit her in the flank, gouging out most of her side.

“Don’t worry about me, go!” she shouted as she started falling. The dragonmen gritted their teeth in frustration, but they were loyal to their mistress, so they obediently fled east even though they were burning with the desire to help her.

Reinheit could hear Shirley and the others calling out to him, but there was another beam of silver light coming up from the ground, so he couldn’t spare the time to think about anything else.

“Nieshika-san.”

“Focus only on protecting Sharm-kun!” Nieshika shouted, beating her wings even as she fell. She then summoned a powerful gust of wind that blew Reinheit and Sharm off her back and canceled her transformation to make herself smaller to avoid the beam.

The three of them fell toward the trees, and Reinheit created an aerial platform just before they hit the ground to absorb the impact of their fall. He wanted to immediately run to Nieshika’s aid, but he was forestalled.

“Ngh, an apostle!”

Indeed, an apostle was making her way straight to him, disintegrating all of the trees along her path. She swung both her claymores down at Reinheit, who blocked with his Holy Sword. However, the apostle was far stronger than him, and he was blown away with ease. He slammed into one of the trees behind him, coughing violently.

“Gah! Agh! Shit!”

The weight in his left arm was gone. He’d dropped Sharm. Through his blurry vision, he could see Sharm on the ground a short distance away. The impact appeared to have woken him up, and he was looking around in shock.

“Did you really think you could escape from me, Uralt, my beloved goddess?” the apostle—who should have been emotionless—said in a passionate voice.

“Wait, is that you, Darrion Kaus?!”

“I told you once long ago that you’re all that I care about.”

Darrion completely ignored Reinheit, his gaze focused solely on the Holy Sword.

“I betrayed my comrades and the entire world...I even debased myself and became Ehit’s pawn...all so that I could stay with you!”

He swung his claymores wildly, looking like a possessed madman.

“No matter how many times you chose a new hero and left my side, eventually you always realized I was the only hero for you and came back. I am your eternal hero!”

The Holy Sword began to glow, and Reinheit sensed a profound sadness and a deep regret coming from it. In his mind, he could see a beautiful black-haired woman crying and begging him to stop Darrion.

Unfortunately, Reinheit wasn’t strong enough to take on someone with an apostle’s strength just yet. Besides, Sharm’s safety took precedence over the sword’s wishes.

“I won’t let you run from me any longer!” Darrion roared as he locked eyes with Sharm, then cast his gaze over the trees in the distance. If Reinheit and Sharm ran, he would start killing others. His gesture said that far clearer than any words could.

The moment Darrion had pinpointed their location, running had stopped being an option. Thus, Reinheit steeled his resolve for a fight.

“Limit Break - Overload!”

He would surpass all of his limits, and defeat the fallen hero in front of him to save his soul.

“The world has no need for any heroes other than me. I’ll be taking over that body of yours.”

The very first hero and the current hero clashed, and the resulting shock wave flattened all the trees in the vicinity. Each time their swords crossed, a crater formed where they’d been standing, and with each passing second, more trees were obliterated.

Reinheit fought desperately, only barely managing to keep up with Darrion’s immense strength. His burning resolve allowed him to draw out even more of the Holy Sword’s knowledge, and the techniques of past heroes started flowing into his mind.

“Uwooooooooooooooooooh!”

Risking everything, Reinheit fought with every ounce of his being.

“You know, I took over the bodies of most of the past heroes.”

Unfortunately, Darrion was still a cut above him. He wasn’t shaken like he had been when his goddess had first chosen Reinheit as her new hero, so Reinheit couldn’t rely on any tricks like surprise attacks or trying to take Darrion down with him.

After a few more clashes, one of Darrion’s claymores cut Reinheit from shoulder to hip. Reinheit pressed on, undaunted, but then Darrion’s second claymore got him in the thigh and the strength left his leg. The counter he’d bet everything on was batted aside like it was nothing, and Darrion followed up by elbowing him in the stomach. Reinheit’s ribs cracked, and he coughed up blood.

None of Reinheit’s techniques were working. Darrion was simply the worst matchup for him. After all, he was an expert at beating heroes.

Eventually, Reinheit’s time ran out.

“Ah...”

He dropped to his knees as his Limit Break - Overload ended.

“Finally.”

Darrion had known Reinheit stood no chance without Limit Break, and he also knew that Reinheit’s soul would be weakened after he did, making him easier to take over.

Truly, the world’s first hero was every other hero’s greatest nightmare.

Darrion looked over at Sharm and said, “I’ll send you to the darkest depths of despair.”

Darrion wanted to make sure he’d done as much damage to Reinheit’s soul as possible to ensure the takeover went smoothly. Reinheit screamed at him to stop, but of course, Darrion didn’t listen. Instead, he strode right over to Sharm.

“R-Run, Sharm-sama...” Reinheit said in a raspy voice. He didn’t even have the strength left to reach his hand out to Sharm. Through his hazy vision, he watched as Darrion stomped on Sharm, causing the young boy to scream.

Dammit, move!

He struggled so hard he coughed up blood, but even then, Reinheit’s body barely twitched.

Why am I always so weak? Fight, goddammit! I swore I’d put my life on the line to protect others!

As he thought back to the oath he’d made, Reinheit realized something. When he’d been chosen by the Holy Sword, he’d thought, “I don’t care even if it costs me my life.”

That’s right, since when was just putting my life on the line enough? No, I should be willing to give it up entirely if that’s what it takes to save the people I care about!

The Holy Sword once again began to glow in his hands. He could still feel the sword’s sadness, but now he could also feel it gently comforting him.

I’ll give you my life, so please give me the strength I need to save Sharm-sama! Even if it’s only for an instant, that’s all I need!

Right before Darrion’s claymore pierced Sharm’s heart, there was a boom and a rush of immense power flowed through Reinheit. Darrion turned back in shock to see a spiral of pure white mana rising up to the heavens.

Reinheit had just activated Limit Break’s special derivative skill, True Martyr. It multiplied the user’s stats a dozenfold, but lasted only ten seconds and cost the user their life. This was the ultimate trump card that Reinheit could use only once, the strongest skill that cost his entire remaining lifespan.

“Uwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!”

“Ngh, you bastard!”

This time, it was Darrion who was sent flying. Reinheit immediately chased after him, knowing that every second counted.

“I’m taking you down here and now!”

The Holy Sword glowed brighter than it ever had before, turning into a blade of pure light. Darrion brought up one claymore to block Reinheit’s next swing, but it sliced through it like a hot knife through butter.

Everything moved in slow motion for Reinheit, and he saw Darrion’s second claymore coming at him. He held out his empty arm, and the moment the blade dug into his bones, he twisted his arm to redirect the blade’s trajectory.

Darrion’s eyes widened in surprise, and Reinheit delivered the most powerful thrust of his life right into the apostle’s core. An apostle’s body was strong enough to deflect regular blades, but the Holy Sword stabbed right through the core with ease.

“Holy Sword Uralt! Put his crazed delusions to rest!”

“I-Impossible!”

Ultimately, Darrion had only one soul. Even if he split it up to take over other peoples’ bodies, those fragments were still connected. That was how he’d been able to communicate with the other bodies he’d taken over, after all. However, that also meant anyone who came into contact with even a fragment of his soul would be able to affect the entire thing.

Reinheit was determined to cut down every single fragment of Darrion Kaus’s soul. That was impossible even for Ehit, but Uralt, the goddess that had been with Darrion for so long, could do it. Light burst from Darrion’s chest, spreading throughout the entire forest and stopping even the crazed federation armies in their tracks.

“My goddess...I...”

As the particles of light dispersed and Reinheit pulled the Holy Sword out of his opponent’s body, Darrion reached for it with a trembling hand.

For a moment, it looked like a young black-haired man and a beautiful black-haired woman were holding hands. But then, Darrion collapsed and Reinheit fell to his knees.

“Reinheit,” Sharm said, crawling over to where Reinheit was. Using the last of his strength, Reinheit held the Holy Sword out to Sharm. Sharm wrapped his hands around Reinheit’s, squeezing both them and the sword hilt tightly.

“In the end...taking him down with me...was the best I could manage,” Reinheit muttered.

“Reinheit...”

Tears spilled from Sharm’s eyes, and he pushed himself to his feet despite the pain his body was in. He knew instinctively that this would be the last time he’d get to speak with his loyal knight.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t do anything. You protected me for so long, but I couldn’t even...”

Smiling, Reinheit shook his head.

“Uralt, I have a request. Please...grant your strength to this boy.”

“Reinheit?”

Reinheit looked down at the sword, which was still glowing faintly.

“I entrust you, the Holy Sword, to Sharm Barn...the kindest child of the strongest knight.”

Sharm stared at Reinheit in surprise. A second later, the sword left Reinheit’s hand and slowly floated toward Sharm as if acknowledging Reinheit’s request.

The current generation’s hero and the next generation’s hero locked eyes.

“I know...that you can grow...to be stronger...than anyone else.”

Those were Reinheit’s final words.

“I-I will! I promise...I’ll become the strongest knight ever!” Sharm gave Reinheit a knight’s vow, then after a brief moment of grieving, he rose to his feet. The sounds of battle were still raging all around him, growing closer by the minute.

“I’ve had enough,” Sharm declared, grabbing the floating sword and closing his eyes before pressing the flat of the blade against his forehead. “What do I have to do to end this battle?”

The sword glowed a bit brighter in response.

Sharm opened his eyes and looked up at the sacred tree.

“That’s fine with me,” he said in a determined voice. Even if what he was about to attempt was dangerous, especially with how tired and injured he was, if it would bring an end to the fighting, then it was worth it.

“Sharm-kun...”

Just then, Nieshika walked into the clearing. There was a gaping wound on her side, which was still spurting blood. She leaned against a nearby tree and gasped when she saw that Reinheit was dead and Sharm was holding the Holy Sword.

“Nieshika-san, I’m sorry, but I need your wings.”

Even though Sharm wasn’t even ten yet, the resolve in his gaze was enough to awe Nieshika. After a brief pause, she smiled and said, “There would be no greater honor than bearing you on my back, young hero.”

The pale violet dragon, ruler of light and water, ferried Sharm through the skies at lightning speed. Weaving between the branches of the sacred tree, she took him up above the republic’s capital. And as they climbed, Sharm spotted Badd standing defiantly in front of the sacred tree. However, he didn’t move at all as soldiers swarmed past him, nor did he react to their war cries. Marshal, too, was on the floor in front of the entrance to the trunk.

“Head to the base of the trunk!”

Nieshika summoned a torrent of water to push back the soldiers, then landed. The few surviving beastmen soldiers and all the beastmen citizens who’d retreated to the tree’s upper levels all watched on in amazement as Sharm drove the Holy Sword into the ground next to the sacred tree and began concentrating.

Nieshika stood protectively in front of him, using her body as a shield. The wounds she’d suffered were already fatal. If she was doomed to die either way, she would much rather have used what remained of her life to protect others.

Naturally, the soldiers all concentrated their attacks on the dragon that had suddenly appeared. Within seconds, Nieshika’s body was riddled with holes. But somehow, she managed to protect Sharm for just long enough.

“Holy Sword Uralt! I beg you, grant me, Sharm Barn, temporary dominion over the sacred tree!”

The sword emitted a blinding flash...and the sacred tree began to glow. That glow enveloped Sharm, after which a wave of white fog began to spread from the tree.

Within seconds, the fog expanded to cover the palace, the capital, and the rest of the forest. The federation’s soldiers suddenly found themselves unable to see even a few feet in front of them. Their sense of direction became muddled, and though they thought they were still charging into the palace, they found themselves running out of the forest.

After a few seconds, Sharm’s eyes closed and he fell unconscious. Using the Holy Sword to forcibly grant him dominion over the forest had taxed him heavily. Within two or three days, he would die. That had been the price of stopping this war.

A lone girl hid behind a trash can in an alleyway near the eastern exit of Horuo, Entris’s northeasternmost city. She was Kiara, the poster girl for Wanda’s Inn.

The hunt for the Liberators had finally reached Horuo. Kiara was covered in sweat, her breath came in short pants, and the streaks on her cheeks made it clear she’d been crying not too long ago. Her bunny ears, which were hidden by an artifact, twitched as they picked up a few familiar voices. A bunch of the local kids had looked up to her and called her Onee-chan. But now, their voices were filled with hate.

“Where are you, traitor?!”

“Get out here so we can kill you!”

They kept going on and on about how they needed to kill her so they could apologize to Ehit for ever becoming friends with a heretic. Kiara covered her ears with her hands to avoid their scorn.

“Why did things end up like this?”

She thought back to the evening when everything had come tumbling down around her. Everyone had been called to assemble at the plaza next to the city’s church. There had, of course, been quite a few people who hadn’t gone, but some had in the hopes that the church would prove they really were as absolute as they claimed, while others had attended to try to figure out whether the church was trustworthy or not. The Wanda family had attended as well to see if they could gather any useful intel.

The same elderly bishop as usual had come out to meet the crowd, but there had been something strange about her. Thinking back on it now, Kiara regretted not running the moment that bishop had appeared.

If we’d done that, mom and dad would still be alive.

A few minutes after the bishop’s speech had begun, everyone’s doubts about the church cleared up unnaturally swiftly. The speech itself had just been filled with empty platitudes that any sane person would have been able to see through. The bishop had gone on and on about how the Liberators were actually mavericks who opposed god and wished to plunge the world into chaos. She’d also talked about how despite being Ehit’s blessed children, Miledi and her comrades were trying to supplant him and rule over Tortus as gods in their own right for selfish, tyrannical reasons.

Kiara had expected everyone to call the bishop out on her bullshit. But instead, everyone had swallowed the bishop’s words completely and the people who’d once been Kiara and the others’ friends had turned toward the family with hate in their eyes.

From there, things got much worse. Even those who’d sided with the Liberators and those who hadn’t come to hear the bishop’s speech were soon assimilated into the mob, and eventually, even Kiara’s neighbors had started attacking her and her family.

Marcus had stayed behind to block the doorway and give Kiara and Vera time to escape. His last words to them were, “Get out of here, you two! You have to survive!” Marcus had known that if he’d gone with them, Vera and Kiara would have had a harder time getting out alive. After all, both Vera and Kiara were rabbitmen. They were much better at sensing the presence of others, and they were also the race most suited to running away.

However, in the end, the two of them had still gotten ambushed by a group that had been waiting for them at the edge of town, so Vera had sacrificed herself to give Kiara a chance to escape.

“Get up and run! You’re my daughter, aren’t you?!”

That was what Vera had said as she’d taken a dagger meant for Kiara in the back. A hunter that had been good friends with Marcus had tried to stab Kiara in the heart and she’d been so shocked that she’d been a second late to react. However, Vera had not only blocked the stab for her daughter, but had also then turned around and tackled the hunter to the floor to grant Kiara an opening.

However, Kiara had shaken her head and said that she was a Liberator too...and that she wanted to save as many lives as possible.

In truth, she just didn’t want to part with her mother. However, Vera had smiled at her and said, “Please let me protect my daughter.”

Kiara didn’t remember much of what happened after that. All she knew was that she forced herself to stop crying and run. Unfortunately, all of the city’s exits had been sealed off, so there wasn’t anywhere left to run. Before she knew it, she found herself hiding in an alleyway.

If only I was stronger. If only I could fight like she can! Kiara thought back to the one other bunny girl she knew. Sui was an annoying, cowardly, lazy piece of shit, but she was strong. Strong enough to be one of the beastmen nation’s top five warriors.

After the decisive battle, she’d stuck around at Wanda’s Inn until she’d been ordered to go spy on happenings in the capital. At the time, her lips and tongue had been so damaged by the poison she’d used on her enemies that she couldn’t taste anything. And yet, she’d acted like those wounds had been nothing and had spent her days lazing around and making fun of Kiara.

Right now, Kiara wished she had even a fraction of the strength Sui had.

Idiot. Now’s not the time to be wishing for the impossible! I need to get up and move! If I die here, mom and dad’s sacrifices will have been in vain! scolding herself internally, Kiara rose to her feet and wiped away her tears.

“Ah...shit.”

Unfortunately, it was precisely at that moment that she heard footsteps coming from either side of the alleyway. She’d let herself get distracted for too long, and now there was nowhere to run or hide. In a few seconds, this alleyway would be filled to the brim with crazed fanatics out for her blood.

Kiara’s expression was halfway between laughing and crying...when suddenly, someone jumped down from a nearby rooftop and landed directly in front of her. The newcomer covered Kiara’s mouth with her hands and pressed her against a wall as she said, “Quiet. If you make any noise, I’ll kill you.”

To an outside observer, it would have looked like someone was trying to kidnap Kiara. However, Kiara herself felt relief flood through her the moment she laid eyes on her “assailant.”

A moment later, the mob entered the alleyway. Nothing was covering Kiara or the newcomer at all, but the mob’s eyes passed right over them. The people at the other end of the alleyway reacted much the same. A few men stepped into the alley and glanced around with bloodshot eyes, but they passed right by Kiara without ever acknowledging her existence. They then joined the group at the other end and the mob went on its way.

Only after they were gone did the newcomer take her hand off of Kiara’s mouth.

“Pwah! What are you doing? Wait, you’re hurt!”

“Ugh, god, you’re so annoying.”

The person who’d saved Kiara was none other than the bunny girl she’d been thinking about—Sui.

Once Sui stepped away, Kiara noticed just how badly she was injured. She was missing one ear, and her combat uniform was soaked in blood. She was moving sluggishly as well, and at least this time it wasn’t just because she was lazy.

“Let’s get out of here,” Sui said, ignoring Kiara’s question and grabbing her hand as she led her out of the alleyway.

As always, Sui’s treatment of Kiara was brusque, which was precisely why Kiara didn’t understand why Sui had come to her rescue.

“Why? Why did you bother saving someone like me?”

Sui had no reason to come here. As the Haltina Republic’s premier spy, her life held immense value. Meanwhile, Kiara was just an expendable member of the Liberators’ support branch. Making a detour to save her while Sui was so badly injured made no sense.

It wasn’t as though the two of them were particularly close either. In fact, they fought anytime they were in the same room. Sui had even told Kiara multiple times that she hated cheerful girls like her.

It doesn’t make any sense.

Like before, Sui didn’t bother answering Kiara’s question. Thanks to Sui’s special magic, they were able to reach the gate without once getting spotted, and they were then able to pass through the blockade without attracting attention as well.

“Kuou’s waiting in the forest close to here. He’ll be able to take you to a Dark Gate. You should be able to reach the forest within three days.”

After the decisive battle, Kuou and his wolves had coordinated with the beastman army to help everyone retreat. Then, when Sui had been dispatched to the capital, they’d been the spy team’s means of transportation. Though in the end, all of the wolves in Kuou’s unit had been slain when everyone had needed to flee the capital.

“Shouldn’t I head to a closer base? We need to tell everyone what’s happened through Skynet...”

“You really are a dumb bitch, you know that? Do you really think this sudden transformation’s only happening here?”

“Wait, don’t tell me the whole world’s like this?!”

“You bet it is. The apostles who scattered around the world have disguised themselves as priests and bishops and are using charm magic to brainwash everyone.”

“Then...that means the bishop in our city is actually—”

“An apostle, yep. The scariest thing about their magic is that the people affected by it can pass it on to other people, like a disease. But for whatever reason, the Liberators and anyone who truly believes in their message are unaffected. Basically, we’ve got a worldwide inquisition on our hands.”

Kiara stared at Sui in shock as the true gravity of the situation washed over her.

“No way... Then what are we supposed to do?”

“Hell if I know. Maybe Her Majesty’s got an idea? If even she doesn’t have a plan, though, we’re all screwed.”

“How can you accept this so easily?!”

“Because that’s reality. Anyway, for now, we’ve gotta focus on getting back to the Pale Forest. The more people we can safely evacuate there, the more bodies we’ll have to defend our last bastion.”

Man, I really wish we hadn’t lost Lac Elain, Sui thought.

A mobile aerial base that was capable of teleporting and contacting people over extremely long distances would have been quite useful. In fact, that would have allowed the Liberators to ignore the wave of madness sweeping across the world and focus solely on rescuing their own.

I guess that’s why the apostles were so hell-bent on taking it out.

Sui let out a sigh as the pair reached the edge of the forest where Kuou was waiting. Despite Sui’s special magic, Kuou’s senses were keen enough to pick her out, so he started making his way to her the moment she stepped foot into the trees. As he came into view, Kiara noticed that he wasn’t wearing his usual artifact armor. Furthermore, his snow-white fur was matted with dried blood. It was clear from that just how difficult the flight from the capital had been.

“As long as we can get Her Majesty back, she’ll be able to activate the fog barrier again. Then we’ll just have to pin our hopes on Miledi-san and the others—”

As Sui explained the plan, she snapped her fingers to give Kuou a signal. But just then, there was a faint thunk and Sui staggered backward as if she’d been hit by something. She then slumped to her knees.

“Huh? Sui? What’s—?”

Blood spilled from Sui’s mouth and a red stain started spreading around her chest. Soon, yet more blood dripped down her sleeves as a lone silver feather dropped from Sui’s chest and floated to the ground. She’d been sniped.

Where’d that come from? How’d they find us? Have they been tailing us this whole time? Sui thought as she watched Kuou run over while Kiara tried to help her sit up. However, those thoughts slipped away as quickly as they came, and Sui’s vision began to blur.

This wound was fatal. She’d been hunted as easily as a common rabbit. However, Sui was no meek rabbit that would go down without a fight.

“Don’t underestimate meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

With a bestial roar, she took a bottle out of her pouch and bit down on the glass, forcing the liquid within down her throat before she lost consciousness. She’d just downed a powerful poison that was sure to kill her, but she was dead either way, and this poison granted her an immense amount of strength for a few minutes.

“Kuou! Take her and flee!” Sui exclaimed as she leaped to her feet, kicking Kiara onto Kuou’s back. She then jumped to the side, and a second later, a silver flash gouged the ground she’d been standing on.

That first feather had already dealt Sui a fatal blow, but her opponent had fired a follow-up disintegration barrage anyway.

“Aren’t you embarrassed to be going all-out against two weak bunny girls?!” Sui shouted, throwing a dagger at the old bishop who came rushing toward her at top speed.

That dagger was one of Oscar’s and it was imbued with the power to rend through both mana and space. Not even an apostle could take that head-on, and as Sui expected, the bishop-apostle batted it aside with her claymore. However, the moment the claymore made contact with the dagger, the dagger’s hilt exploded, releasing mana-draining powder into the air.

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Sui didn’t let up her assault, though. She needed to make the most of the forty or so seconds left to her. And so, she fired off a barrage of other deadly attacks, using every single weapon at her disposal, from poison to acid to mana draining weapons to lightning emitters to heated wires to freezing daggers to petrifying spray.

“Sui! Wait! We have to escape together! Kuou, let me go!”

Kiara’s voice was growing steadily further and further. Kuou had abandoned Sui without hesitation and immediately started taking Kiara to safety.

Good doggy... Sui thought with a smile. There was no way she would be able to beat an apostle, even with Kuou’s help.

Sui was glad Kuou had managed to survive this far. He was one of Vandre’s strongest familiars, which meant that despite being a monster, he also possessed a Dark Key and the ability to operate it. She had no doubt he’d be able to safely get that annoying, overly cheerful girl to the Pale Forest.

“Ah...”

To Sui’s surprise, she didn’t feel much pain as the apostle’s claymore pierced her chest and pinned her to the ground.

Still looking like that old bishop, the apostle used her other claymore to sweep away the mana-draining powder around her. Sui’s suicide rush hadn’t even managed to scratch her.

“I didn’t think you would manage to escape the capital. You’re surprisingly skilled, considering how weak and cowardly rabbitmen are.”

The apostle’s eerily serene voice reached Sui even as her consciousness began to fade.

“Had you not wasted your time rescuing your worthless comrade, you would have been able to get away,” the apostle stated as she pulled her claymore out of Sui’s chest. “Fear not. While I have no reason to let her live, there’s also no need to go out of my way to chase her down. After all, the people you wish so dearly to protect will be hunted down soon enough either way.”

After all that, she dispersed the blood on the claymore with a surge of disintegration magic and turned on her heel. She then started walking away, as if Sui had been nothing more than a fly that she’d swatted.

Just like a fly, Sui had been quite easy to kill. However, the reason the apostle had gone out of her way to chase her down and finish her off despite receiving no such orders from Ehit was because Sui had been that much of an eyesore. Sui knew that too, and she grinned.

“One day...” she muttered.

“Hm?”

“One day, a bunny girl way stronger than me will be born. A true legend.”

The apostle stopped and turned over her shoulder to look at Sui. Upon seeing the girl’s expression, she took an involuntary step backward.

“Mark my words. It’ll be a bunny girl who’ll destroy your future.”

Sui’s smile was ghastly, but even on the verge of death, her eyes were shimmering with raw determination. She wasn’t just saying that to have the last word, she was utterly convinced of her prediction.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” the apostle replied, sounding like a sore loser even though she was the one who’d won the battle. She then flew away, and the strength started to leave Sui’s limbs. The slight breeze that flew through the forest felt comfortable.

Well, I did my best... Sui thought, praising herself as she prepared to die.

“Sui...” a tearful voice said, prompting her to look up through her blurry vision and see Kiara staring down at her. She could feel warm raindrops hitting her face.

“Why...did you come back...you idiot?”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Sui couldn’t tell whether Kiara was apologizing for not being able to save her or for needing to be protected.

Sui looked hazily up at Kiara’s distraught face and said in a raspy voice, “Rabbitmen...are strong.”

“Sui?”

“The reason we’re cowards is...because we know...better than anyone...how valuable...life is...”

“Yeah.”

“You might...not be able to do anything now...but as long as you’re alive, you can...”

It was for that very reason that Sui had fought. Even though she was lazy, and deep down a real coward, she’d risked her life time and time again to protect her fellow rabbitmen’s future.

Sui reached out with bloodied fingers and wiped away Kiara’s tears.

“I...hate you... You’re so cheerful...and cute... You really piss me off.”

“Sui...”

“But...you’re probably the greatest rabbitman...after me...”

Sui did not doubt that Kiara’s future was full of potential. That was why she’d risked everything to save her.

“Idiot. You should have believed in your future over mine,” Kiara replied, taking Sui’s hand into her own. “You know what, I hate you too. You’re strong, cool, and piss me off...but I always looked up to you.”

Sui smiled, showing Kiara her genuine smile for the first time.

“You better make it out of this alive, Kiara.”

“Oh, I will, Sui.”

Sui’s hand went limp, and silence fell over the forest shortly thereafter. Kuou howled softly, mourning Sui’s death.

“Kuou, can we take her with us?” Kiara asked.

Sui had worked extremely hard, so she at least deserved to be buried in her homeland.

Kuou rubbed Kiara’s nose, his way of giving assent.

“Thank you,” Kiara said with a sad smile as she lifted Sui into her arms. She then put Sui on Kuou’s back, wiped away her tears, and took off the artifact necklace that disguised her appearance. Her bunny ears popped back up and her hair returned to its original color.

“Let’s go, Kuou.”

She made her ears stand up straight as she looked out into the distance.

That’s right, rabbitmen are strong!

Kuou howled again, much louder this time, and then started sprinting through the moonlit forest.

After getting attacked at the fort, Rasul had led his forces north, to the wild, mountainous region of southern Velka. Only a few of his men had managed to survive the attack, so they were hiding in human territory. They were between the Reisen Gorge and the southernmost human settlement in Velka.

There was a simple reason why he’d chosen to go north during this chaos rather than return home. Namely, that the southern continent had gone insane as well.

“Rasul-sama. Is there any way I can convince you not to return to Igdol?” Lestina asked as she stepped into Rasul’s tent.

Rasul, who’d been munching on a piece of plain bread, put down the loaf and turned to Lestina. The past few days had taken quite a toll on her, so she looked rather haggard.

“We should seek asylum in the Haltina Republic. The northern continent is littered with Dark Gates we can use to speed our journey as well. Most importantly, though, returning to the castle is...”

“Suicide?”

“Yes,” Lestina said through gritted teeth, making a fist and slamming it against her leg.

Rasul understood exactly how she felt. After all, their own brethren had become their greatest foe. The demon empire had turned against its Demon Lord.

It had been soldiers from the very same demon army that had attacked Rasul and his contingent. Of course, the demons had also seen the decisive battle and had been moved by Miledi and the Liberators’ struggle. Even the hardline hawk faction had started accepting Rasul’s dream of coexistence and had sent reinforcements to Rasul to aid in his retreat.

Rasul had been overjoyed, so he’d gladly let those reinforcements into the fort, but then a few days later, those same reinforcements had launched a surprise attack on him and his men.

“To think this is how humans and demons would unite toward a common goal. Ehit really is one cruel bastard,” Rasul muttered.

Right now, the demon army was working together with the church to eliminate the mavericks. It seemed unbelievable, but it was the truth. Rasul didn’t know if Prime Minister Karm and General Angol had been brainwashed, or if they’d been assassinated, or if they were still around and trying to fight against the wave of madness. Either way—

“I have to see what’s become of the capital with my own two eyes. That is my duty as the Demon Lord.”

If his nation had been plunged into chaos, it was Rasul’s duty to set it straight. Even if it seemed suicidal, he had to fulfill his obligations.

“Then I shall follow you, no matter where your path leads,” Lestina replied in a sad voice. She’d expected that answer.

Just then, the two of them heard a commotion in the distance. Worried they might be under attack, Rasul and Lestina hurriedly rushed outside.

“What’s going on?!”

“Your Majesty, we captured a human girl who’s been wandering around near our camp!”

“Is she a fanatic?”

“I don’t think so. She was alone. Apparently, her parents suddenly changed and she got scared and ran away from them.”

As the soldier gave his report, another one brought a girl who probably wasn’t even ten yet over to Rasul.

The soldiers were clearly on edge, so they’d treated the girl roughly enough that she was crying in fear. As cruel as it was though, such suspicion was necessary now that the world had gone insane and even children were trying to kill the Liberators.

“Hey, stop that! She’s just a child!”

To Rasul’s surprise, it was Lestina who spoke first. The soldiers looked taken aback as well. After all, Lestina was one of the demon supremacists. She’d just joined Rasul because of her undying loyalty toward him.

Lestina herself was surprised by how vehemently she’d spoken out against the soldiers’ treatment of the girl. She’d basically acted on impulse because the scared little girl had reminded her of the girl she’d saved back in the theocracy’s capital.

“Thank you for saving me, pretty lady!”

Even though she was a demon, that girl had thanked her with a smile and given her the heart-shaped stone she treasured. It had been a silly little gift, all things considered, just a regular old stone that was shaped slightly oddly. And yet, Lestina had hung onto it. In fact, she’d even tied it around a string and made a necklace out of it.

That was proof that the girl’s gratitude had begun to change Lestina’s traditionalist values. Unfortunately, in this case, the soldiers were the ones in the right. Lestina’s budding desire for coexistence had robbed her of her wariness at the worst possible moment.

“W-Wait, Lestina—”

“Don’t cry, little girl. We’ll get you fixed up right—”

As Lestina crouched down to address the girl at eye level, she opened her eyes and looked straight up at Lestina.

“Ah! Gaaaaaaaaah!”

A second later, red hot flames filled the campsite. Lestina had activated her special magic, Inflame. Both the girl and the soldiers nearby had been utterly consumed by her flames.

“Lestina!” Rasul shouted.

“Get back, Your Majesty!”

A tornado of flames whipped up around Lestina, rising to the heavens. The nearby vegetation was incinerated in an instant, and the few demons who had managed to weather the initial blow had their barriers blown away by Lestina’s more powerful firestorm.

“Punish the traitors. Hunt them all. This is all God’s will. Only by accepting his superiority can you find true happiness. Eliminate the heretics, lest you wish to see those you care about slain!”

Lestina could hear that voice echoing inside her head. A surge of faith welled up within her. Her thoughts were slowly being eroded by Ehit’s vision of “justice.” Her will as her own person grew weaker and weaker. Lestina had only just started feeling like coexistence might be possible, she hadn’t fully committed to it yet, so a powerful hypnosis spell had easily been able to swing the scales in her heart in the other direction. The only thing stopping her from losing herself completely was...

Rasul-sama...

The loyalty and love she felt toward her lord just barely kept her in check. She watched as Rasul erected a barrier and slowly but surely made his way over to her. As a result of the extreme faith that had been implanted in her, Lestina’s limiters had been removed, and she could no longer fully control her powers. In her head, she begged him not to get any closer, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but think, Ah, I guess you, of all people, won’t stop just because someone tells you to.

Rasul was the kind of man who’d willingly return to his country even knowing it was a suicidal act, all just to protect his people. There was no way he’d abandon someone who believed in him.

Surrounded by a sea of flames, Lestina drew her sword. After having killed so many of her comrades, she couldn’t bear to take the life of the one who mattered most to her.

“R-Rasul-sama...”

“Lestina! Wait! I’m going to save you!”

It was certainly possible that Rasul might be able to rescue her, but there was no guarantee, and if he failed, he would die...and that was the one thing Lestina couldn’t allow.

“I wish you luck.”

“Huh?! Wait, stop, don’t do anything stupid! That’s an order!”

Smiling, Lestina placed the blade against her own neck and said, “Farewell, my beloved Demon Lord.”

“Stooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop!”

For the first time in her life, Lestina betrayed one of Rasul’s orders.

Rasul watched on helplessly, his hand outstretched, as Lestina slumped to the ground, blood spilling from her neck. The few surviving soldiers hurriedly worked to extinguish the flames, calling out to Rasul, who was still standing in the center of the conflagration. However, Rasul didn’t react at all. Meanwhile, the crazed shouts of zealots who’d found new prey could be heard in the distance...and there were quite a lot of them.

“Your Majesty, we must escape! At this rate, we’ll be overrun!” one of the soldiers shouted, trying and failing to penetrate the wall of flames. He went pale as he saw a massive horde of people crest a nearby hill and start sprinting down the slope.

“Brother!”

A blast of icy wind subdued the flames, and Rasul slowly looked up.

“Get a grip! Come on, climb up here!”

The wave of fanatics had nearly reached Rasul’s position. One of the demon soldiers shouted, “Forgive me, my lord!” and scooped Rasul up into his arms before getting onto Vandre’s back. Indeed, it had been the ice dragon Vandre’s breath that had extinguished the flames.

The other demon soldiers followed suit, while Vandre blocked the barrage of spells with an ice barrier. Then, as soon as everyone was on, he launched himself into the air.

The group flew through the night in silence. No one knew what to say to Rasul. The soldiers began to wonder if Lestina might have been more than just a loyal subordinate to him, considering how devastated he was by her loss. Perhaps he had loved her just as much as she had loved him.

After a long time, Rasul finally looked up and smiled sadly at Vandre, then said, “Thanks, Van. You’re a lifesaver.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t make it in time.”

“No, you did. You rescued the Demon Lord.”

Strength was returning to Rasul’s voice. Even if he had to force it, even if only a scant few people still followed him, so long as he was the Demon Lord, he couldn’t allow himself to give in to despair.

“Van, can you let me borrow a bit of Batlam? I need a part of him that can fly.”

“Don’t tell me you’re planning on returning to the castle?! Don’t. You should come to the republic with us, brother.”

“Van, I am the Demon Lord,” Rasul replied, his tone gentle, but filled with such majesty that even Vandre felt like kneeling before him. The other soldiers must have felt the same way, as the resignation vanished from their faces, replaced by newfound resolve.

There might still have been demons left in Igdol who hadn’t been brainwashed. They might have been waiting for the Demon Lord to come save them. In which case, Rasul couldn’t abandon them.

“I’m going to do what I must. Make sure you do the same,” Rasul said in a stern voice, though he patted Vandre’s back as he did.

After a moment’s hesitation, Vandre asked, “You’re not planning on dying, are you?”

“Absolutely not. A precious subordinate of mine wished me luck, so I can’t afford to fail now.”

“Got it. Batlam, take care of him for me, all right?”

A slime oozed out of one of Vandre’s scales and wrapped itself around Rasul’s neck like a muffler.

“Van. I asked for a split of Batlam, not the main core...”

“I know you’re strong, brother, but even you can’t save the entirety of the demon empire on your own. Don’t forget that.”

Vandre was lending Rasul the real Batlam so that he’d turn back when things started to look too grim and live to return Batlam to him.

Rasul saw right through Vandre’s scheme and chuckled a little as he nodded. He then threw the muffler into the air, and after a second, it transformed into a wyvern.

Rasul and his men jumped onto the wyvern, and for a while, the two of them flew side by side.

“Don’t mess this up, brother.”

“I could say the same to you, Van. I’ll see you soon.”

The two brothers exchanged glances, vowing to meet again, then split up and went their separate ways.

A line of people headed south through the Obsidian Tundra. They were just a few dozen kilometers from the edge of the Pale Forest, and for once, a blizzard wasn’t blowing through the area. They were all residents of Sainttown. A pack of ice wolves was dragging sleds large enough to carry ten people apiece.

Margaretta and the other members of the Schnee clan were flying over the group, riding Vandre’s wyverns.

“Do you feel cold, Corrin?”

“Don’t worry, Ruth-onii-chan, I’m fine.”

The two of them were riding atop one of the sleds, both of them decked out in winter gear.

Corrin smiled at Ruth, but Ruth could easily tell it was forced, so his expression darkened. He was pale, and not because of the cold.

Not everyone had made it out of Sainttown. About half of the non-combatants belonging to the former Reisen village were still there, along with the test subjects Miledi had rescued from the demon empire. Of course, the Odion Federation’s mass invasion of the Pale Forest was still ongoing, so the people who’d stayed behind had done so to serve as bait.

Even with the defenses set around the village, it was only a matter of time before it was found. Furthermore, yesterday, they’d lost contact with the republic, as well as the other Liberator branches.

After some debate, they’d decided the safest place to retreat to was probably the Obsidian Tundra. The original plan, if anything happened to Sainttown, had been to run south, and Oscar had even left behind cold-weather gear and clothing for the residents. It was a long trek, but the Schnee clan’s village was in the tundra.

It had made sense as an evacuation location, but two unforeseen problems had arisen when the residents of Sainttown had started making preparations to leave. First of all, they realized a group three hundred large couldn’t travel stealthily enough to hide all their tracks. Secondly, they’d be quite slow, which was why the former test subjects had volunteered to stay behind as bait. Some of the hardier regular citizens had offered to remain behind as well, claiming that the soldiers would get suspicious if they found a village of only warriors. Right now, the group that had stayed behind was running around the forest, trying to trick the federation soldiers into thinking they were the sole residents of Sainttown.

“Everyone’s still alive, right? We’ll get to see them again, won’t we?” Corrin asked, unable to help herself.

Yunfa, who was riding on the sled in front of them, turned back and replied in a loud voice, “Of course we will! They’re all perverts who’re obsessed with you. They won’t die even if you kill them!”

“Yunfa! That’s rude!” Susha said, scolding her sister.

The adults riding on the other sleds, including Moorin, all laughed. Seeing everyone else acting normal, Corrin felt a little relieved.

“Sheesh, you really... Hm? What’s that?” Ruth mumbled as he looked up at the sky, seemingly spotting something. Margaretta and the others, who’d been keeping watch over the skies, also seemed to have noticed it. They were pointing at a cliff on one of the mountains in the distance. That mountain was along their route, and originally, the plan had been to detour around it and then travel along the valleys to avoid detection.

A second later, a breath attack shot out from that cliff toward the sky. Panicking, Margaretta quickly descended to where the sleds were.

“Everyone, head southwest! Hide in the forest there! We’ve been ambushed!”

That’s impossible! everyone thought at once, but then the scout Margaretta had sent out ahead came flying back from the cliff.

A fleet of the Grandort Empire’s airships was hot on his heels, but that wasn’t even the most surprising thing.

“That’s the demon army! Grandort and the demon empire have joined forces! Run! We’ll buy you guys time!” Margaretta shouted, then ordered her unit to attack.

Before anyone could get another word in, the ice wolves changed direction and began running as fast as they could. Margaretta couldn’t protect everyone in an open plain like this one, so it made sense for her to act as a decoy while Ruth and the others ran, but even so, she was up against an entire fleet of airships.

“Dammit, why are they here?! This is the Obsidian Tundra! Who would wait here in the freezing cold just to ambush insignificant nobodies like us?! They couldn’t even have been sure we’d come here!” Ruth shouted.

In truth, the empire hadn’t been waiting here to ambush them specifically. They’d just figured that once the invasion of the Haltina Republic began, people might try to flee north or south, so they had left forces to deal with anyone who did.

The Grandort Empire had its hands full hunting the mavericks within the forest, so they’d joined forces with the demon army to blockade the Obsidian Tundra, so it was demons who were riding those Grandort airships.

Ruth looked back and saw that the battle had already begun. Margaretta and her unit had managed to beat even the Paragons of Light, so he believed they would win, even if they had to stick to non-lethal methods of attack.

Soon enough, the wolves reached the entrance to the icy forest.

“Ah... Ruuuuuuuuuuuun!”

By the time Ruth and the others looked up, it was already too late. Blazing fireballs were raining down straight toward them.

While the airships had been waiting on the other side of the mountains, not all the demons had been on them. There had been another unit waiting in the forest, as that was the most likely place anyone would run if they were caught out on the plains.

The wolves did their best to avoid getting hit, and also used their special magic to deploy ice barriers. However, a second later, a series of shock waves assailed Ruth and the others. Everyone was thrown off their sleds and they rolled across the snow, though some slammed directly into nearby trees.

Rising steam obscured visibility, and Ruth heard an ominous series of noises. It sounded like something was crumbling, after which a huge shock wave rippled across the ground.

“Corrin, are you okay?! Corrin!”

Ruth had instinctively hugged Corrin at the moment of impact, so the two hadn’t been separated. Fortunately, it looked like she hadn’t been injured in the fall either.

“Ngh, I-I’m all right,” Corrin replied, raising herself into a sitting position.

Ruth breathed a sigh of relief, then the two of them quickly scanned their surroundings. Luckily, the sled Dylan and Katy had been on was unharmed. It seemed the adults had protected it. Susha and Yunfa were a short distance away as well. They’d been knocked off their sled, but both of them seemed conscious.

Unfortunately, when he turned to see what had become of the people behind him, Ruth fell into the depths of despair. The earth had been split. There was a ten-meter fissure between him and the other side. This giant fissure had completely split the party. The concentrated barrage had destroyed the layer of snow covering this ancient valley, so now there was nothing to bridge the gap. The few sleds that’d been directly above the fissure were, of course, tumbling to the ground below.

“M-Mom...”

And Moorin just so happened to be on one of those falling sleds. Her eyes met Ruth’s. Knowing he couldn’t reach her, Ruth nevertheless tried to stretch his arm out to her. Moorin smiled slightly, then shook her head.

“Don’t look,” she said, and Ruth hugged Corrin so tightly she wouldn’t be able to watch as Moorin disappeared into the valley below.

“No, this can’t be...” Corrin muttered in a trembling voice.

Sadly, this crazed world didn’t even give the two siblings time to grieve. There was a series of war cries, and then the members of the demon army hiding within the forest charged at the disorganized group.

The few former test subjects who’d elected to go with the group as guards tried to fend off the demons, but there were only fifty of them and nearly a thousand demon soldiers. If they didn’t find more favorable terrain, they’d be overwhelmed soon. Seeing the writing on the wall, one of the chimera warriors shouted, “Get out of here, kids!”

Until Meiru and Laus had healed her, the unfortunate demon woman had been an empty husk who’d muttered incomprehensible things to herself. But now, she was reaching into the sled packed to the brim with Oscar’s enchanted swords and pulling out weapons to help her fight back.

Another former test subject who’d been just as beaten down as the woman from earlier flashed Ruth a smile, then charged toward the demon army.

“W-Wait! You’ll die if you fight them! No one asked you to go that far for us!”

“And no one asked you to save us and treat us so kindly!”

The kindness Corrin and the others had shown them gave the chimera test subjects a reason to fight again. They wanted to do what they could to repay the Liberators who’d rescued them from hell and the children who’d made life worth living again.

“Stop! Stop! We didn’t treat your injuries so you could die!” Corrin shouted in a pained voice.

The adults who couldn’t fight hurried up and gathered the sleds that were still intact, then started loading everyone onto them.

“If we could just fix the sleds...!” Ruth shouted, running to one of the shattered sleds. The ice wolves were fast enough that anyone who couldn’t fly wouldn’t be able to keep up with them, which meant if Ruth could repair enough of the broken sleds, they’d be able to take the former test subjects with them.

Unfortunately, the Liberators were far too outnumbered. Determination alone couldn’t change that. Some of the demons’ spells made it past the chimera warriors’ defenses, and one of them landed right next to Ruth. The explosion momentarily deafened Ruth, and his head swam from the impact. Through his blurry vision, he could see Corrin running toward him.

Susha was huddling over Yunfa, trying to protect her younger sister from any stray explosions. A dozen or so demon soldiers managed to make it past the chimera warriors, and two of them beelined straight for Susha and Yunfa. The adults and the ice wolves tried to intercept the demons, but they were blocked by the other demon soldiers that had made it past. Then, another demon made it through and started heading for Corrin.

“Big brother, please save Corrin and the others! Pleeeeeease!” Ruth shouted, praying that Oscar would show up.

Right before Corrin was run through by a spear, someone stepped in and blocked the thrust with their sword.

“Unfortunately I’m not Oscar-nii-san, but technically, I am your big brother, so hopefully I’ll do.”

With a twirl, the fighter smacked the demon with the flat of his blade, knocking him unconscious. Ruth and Corrin watched in amazement.

“D-D-D-Dylan?!”

It was indeed Dylan who’d stepped in to knock out the demon and save Corrin...and he wasn’t the only one either.

“What am I, chopped liver?”

“Katy?!” Corrin exclaimed.

Looking over, she saw that Katy had sliced through the tendons of the demons that had gone to attack Susha and Yunfa. She was wielding one of the enchanted swords that Oscar had mass-produced.

“K-Katy-chan? Th-Thank you.”

“Umm, thank...you? Katy-san?”

“He he, you’re welcome!” Katy said with a smug grin, brushing her twintails back. The two of them sounded just like their usual selves, but they also looked like seasoned warriors, just as they had when their souls had been hijacked.

“It is you two in there, right, Katy? Dylan-onii-chan?” Corrin asked hesitantly. If their warrior skills had reawakened, then that was well and good, but it’d be a problem if their personalities had been destroyed again because of it.

Dylan and Katy smiled wryly as they replied to that question.

“Well, it’s us, but we still have the souls of old warriors mixed within us somewhere.”

“We haven’t just been sleeping this whole time, you know?”

The two of them cut through the barrage of fireballs like it was nothing. Even with the mana-severing properties of Oscar’s swords, that still wasn’t an easy feat.

The adults watched in awe as Dylan and Katy danced across the battlefield. Of course, they’d known that everyone would awaken eventually thanks to Oscar’s artifact, but it should have taken them another five months. All of the other children who’d similarly had their souls tampered with were still sleeping, so no one was expecting them to suddenly wake up and turn the tide of the battle.

Ever since Meiru had first started using restoration magic on them, Dylan and Katy had been training within the confines of their minds, absorbing the memories and experiences of the warriors whose souls resided in their bodies.

“We’ll explain later, but first, we need to get out of here,” Dylan said.

“Corrin, get everyone inside the ice wall while we buy time!” Katy shouted.

For now, Dylan and Katy were managing to fend off the demons who made it past the chimera warriors. But even with their superhuman abilities, it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed due to the sheer difference in numbers.

The adults hurriedly loaded injured kids onto the sleds, and Susha rushed over to help. Ruth continued working on repairing as many sleds as he could, while Corrin and Yunfa got on one of them.

Suddenly, there was a massive explosion to the east and a ball of flames rose into the sky. A shock wave strong enough to flatten the frozen trees rippled across the forest. Everyone dropped to the ground to avoid being blown away.

“Isn’t that where Margaretta-san and the others are fighting?!”

Before anyone could think to go check what had happened to them, everyone heard a low rumbling noise...and one of the men paled.

“It’s an avalanche! The explosion destabilized the mountainside!”

The ice wolves took the sleds that could already move and started running.

“Ruth, that’s enough! Come back!” one of the adults shouted. Even if he did manage to repair more of them, the chimera warriors no longer had any way to get back in time.

“Goddammit!” he shouted, running back to the sled Corrin and the others were on with tears in his eyes.

A few seconds later, the front line was swallowed whole by the avalanche. Dylan and Katy hurried back to the sleds as well.

There wasn’t a moment to lose. However, right before they set off, Yunfa looked around at the other sleds and shouted, “Sue-nee?! Sue-nee, where are you?!”

Surprised, everyone else looked around as well. They’d seen Susha helping the adults gather people, but none of them had seen her board a sled herself. Turning toward the crevasse, they saw her head and one arm poking out over the edge. The explosion had knocked her into the chasm. She didn’t have the strength to pull herself up and was struggling just to keep hanging on.

Susha turned to look at the advancing avalanche.

“I’m coming to save you, Sue-nee, just wait!” Yunfa exclaimed as she tried to jump out of the sled. However, Corrin and the adults held her back with pained expressions on their faces.

“Don’t!” Susha shouted in such a stern voice that Yunfa stopped struggling. Yunfa and Susha then locked eyes, and Susha smiled lovingly at her younger sister.

Yunfa paled as she realized what Susha was about to do.

“Take care of Naiz-sama for me, okay?” Susha said...and let go of the cliff.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” Yunfa shouted as Susha vanished into the depths of the chasm. Corrin hugged Yunfa tightly as the ice wolves pulled the sleds away from the oncoming avalanche, crying all the while.

They had survived, but at a great cost. And all of this happened just one day before Oscar and Naiz found them.