Chapter 22
FIRST PUPIL AND WOOFSON stood side by side, peering into the labyrinth. It seemed the wolves would not track them this far out.
“Seems like they gave up, Meowstress.”
“I think they’re focusing on guarding that chamber.”
“Hrmm… Well, I suppose we can relax for the moment.” Mira summoned a few holy knights to stand guard, just in case.
Her plan to wait and watch had turned into a fight, but she’d learned some things as a result. First, her opponent was Fenrir. Second, he could create wolf minions out of darkness.
Martel had said that the seal had been corrupted far more than expected. Even if she temporarily strengthened it, she’d already weakened Fenrir as much as possible, and wouldn’t be able to suppress the dark wolves.
Hrmm. In that case, I’ll need more firepower.
She could defeat the wolves, but the multiple summons at once were an issue. If Fenrir could do that infinitely, she could forget fighting the big dog himself; Mira might have abundant mana, but even she had her limits. She wasn’t here to kill Fenrir either; she was here to expel the mysterious power that had driven it mad. Keeping that in the forefront of her mind, she borrowed the Spirit King and Martel’s wisdom to formulate a strategy.
***
Once the strategy meeting had ended and Mira had mustered her forces, she returned to the corridor before the final chamber.
“Okay… The time for our fight has come.”
“We sisters are fully prepared,” Alfina declared. Behind Mira were her precious elites, the Valkyrie Sisters, led by Alfina. They each commanded a mixed squad of holy and dark knights. They were going to war as platoons, rather than a unified army, so the Valkyrie Sisters were here to provide more precise leadership.
First Pupil and Woofson lined up at Mira’s feet.
“I’ll go left!”
“And I’ll take the right side.”
They were tasked with reporting the battle situation to her, so they moved along the walls in search of vantage points. They escaped the wolves’ sight by moving through the shadows, stealthily pressing forward, yet jokingly selling each other out, as they searched for the ideal positions.
“Don’t look at me-ow! Look over there!”
“Nuh-uh, look there! He’s going that way, woof!”
“I’m relying on you, too, friend,” Mira said to the last summon standing with her: Garm. He was here as a countermeasure against the enemy’s powers, as well, but Mira also hoped that he could bring Fenrir back to his senses.
Once upon a time, Garm had guarded the abode of Hel, Fenrir’s little sister. They were thus acquainted, and thanks to Cat Sith’s translation skills, Garm even noted that he knew some of Fenrir’s powers. However, Garm was clearly nervous to confront someone so much stronger than himself. Even when he barked in response to Mira, his tail quivered.
Unfortunately, Eizenfald would not get to participate in this battle. His strength in battle was excellent, but he wasn’t well-suited to fighting in confined spaces. Worse, Fenrir already took up half of the chamber; anyone could imagine what would happen if a being of similar size tried to charge in. Besides, raw firepower wasn’t what they needed in this fight.
“Hrmm… They’re on guard,” Mira noted.
When she peeked into the final area, there were dozens of wolves carefully watching their surroundings. As expected, it would be nearly impossible to approach Fenrir without handling them first.
They looked like an impenetrable barrier, but Cat Sith and Woofson easily wove through the gaps and made slow but steady progress. Eventually, reports finally came from both of them. On top of confirming the number of wolves, they also reported that they’d found their target, behind Fenrir.
“Behind him, hmm? In that case, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with being a little loud.” Their first objective was to drive off the wolf pack and open the way to Fenrir. Mira stood before Alfina and her sisters, raised her right hand, and swung it down. “Begin the battle!”
With that as their signal, the Valkyrie Sisters and their platoons rushed in. Fenrir howled in defiance.
All of the wolves that had been focused on scouting immediately turned and rushed forth. They slipped across the ground like shadows, approaching in the blink of an eye. The battle lines clamored with wolves’ roars, the sounds of swords, and Alfina’s orders.
On top of the sisters’ strength, the armored spirits they commanded displayed excellent teamwork. Mira served as command and control, making use of the First Pupil and Woofson’s reports to allow for even more precise coordination. They encircled the wolf pack and began eradicating them.
Ten minutes after the start of the battle, Mira’s army had annihilated the wolves. However, Fenrir’s wolves were strong; each platoon had accumulated some casualties.
“A protracted battle only works in his favor.” Mira used her mana to recover everyone’s wounds as Fenrir howled once more in the meantime.
Unsurprisingly, there were plenty more wolves where those had come from. Darkness gathered, and they attacked like mad, one after another.
“Well, this was expected. It’s time for Strategy Alpha!” Mira had prepared a few strategies to respond to various situations. She chose the quick strategy, having assumed that there would be no end to the wolves, and charged into the front lines.
Garm was behind her, dark knights holding Sanctia on either side. Alfina’s platoon at the front guarded her and cleared a path. The other sisters’ platoons acted as a wall to suppress the wolf hordes.
Thus, Mira steadily approached the great wolf.
However, he took this as a threat. The wolves fighting the other Valkyries all disappeared into the darkness, then appeared in midair to ambush Mira’s blind spots. This did nothing to stop her, for the First Pupil and Woofson were watching the entire battlefield, including the ceilings. Garm received their report of the ambush and smacked all the wolves down with ease, neutralizing their attack.
This time, they became shadows that attempted to ambush Mira from the ground. It seemed there was a limit to how many shadows Fenrir could create at once, however; only three slipped through the Valkyrie barricades.
It became difficult for First Pupil and Woofson to see the wolves once they became shadows, delaying their reports. However, Garm reacted swiftly. He knew Fenrir’s abilities well, and he could feel the flow of his power, to an extent. Believing that he could handle a sealed Fenrir, he swung his fiery tail, as if to rouse himself. Then, as the shadow wolves leaped out, he delivered a powerful blow.
But the wolves were tough; they stood up even after taking the brunt of Garm’s power. The dark knights by Mira’s side lunged to finish them off without difficulty. They may have been formidable, A-rank foes, but Mira’s formation could brush them off just fine. She pressed on, remaining in an adaptable formation, until they finally arrived in front of Fenrir.
***
Fenrir glowered at her with bloodshot eyes. He was thirty meters long, too big to see his face without looking straight up. Supposedly, he was originally twice this size, proving the power of the seal.
“Even when he’s sealed, he’s just…frightening.”
The chains restraining Fenrir creaked. Each time he tried to lunge, the room shook.
As long as the seal remained, he couldn’t move any more than that. Though Martel had promised her this, Mira felt nothing but terror when she saw the beast in the flesh. Even so, she roused her cowering heart and confronted the behemoth.
Things are going according to plan so far, but this is the difficult part…
Behind them, the Valkyrie Sisters maintained their superiority against the shadow wolves. That didn’t mean they were without casualties, though; if the wolves were infinite, as Mira presumed, things would eventually take a turn for the worse. As such, she had to feed the fruit to Fenrir before that could happen. The problem was how…
Ten in all… There’s nothing we can do but try.
There were ten white fruits in total. If she could succeed in feeding two to Fenrir in this fight, he would be returned to normal. In other words, eight of them were backups.
Mira took a fruit in hand and looked up at the giant wolf. Fenrir bit its chains, outraged, and growled at the girl. After they’d maintained eye contact for a while, there appeared a gleam in his eyes—then he opened his mouth wide and snapped at her.
He was frightfully strong, but Mira calmly threw the fruit into Fenrir’s mouth. “Eat this if you’re so hungry!”
Despite his frenzied state, Fenrir turned his head away. Was that the reaction of the unknown powers within him? Had he discerned the effects of the fruit? Or was it a dog’s innate ability to avoid taking medicine at all costs?
“Hrmm… So, this won’t work. In that case—”
This, too, had been expected. However, what Fenrir did next was somewhat unexpected.
Having judged Mira and the fruit as threats, he roared loudly and caused a new phenomenon. The black shadows shooting out of Fenrir wrapped around the wolves as if possessing them, and they grew even bigger. What had he done?
Having witnessed the event, the Spirit King explained, “This is bad. Fenrir’s poured his power into them.” The wolves, previously just Fenrir’s shadows, had morphed into beings that harbored some of his power.
Alfina’s expression turned grave. “This is… Master, beware!”
There were many wolves, and though they each had only a fragment of Fenrir’s power, it was still Fenrir’s power. They’d evolved into even more powerful foes. Their shadows grew darker, and they displayed powers unlike before.
The Valkyrie platoons, who’d maintained an advantage to this point, were now barely holding on. Worse, the wolves were still growing bigger. At this rate, Mira’s army would collapse in ten minutes. Such was Fenrir’s power, even when sealed. This was no doubt the real devourer of gods.
“Then, I say it’s time we call for reinforcements!” Mira had come into this battle knowing that Fenrir might have more than just his shadow wolves, so she summoned more allies.
“I’ll do my best, Master!” Wise Popot, the owl who specialized in mobile warfare via magic, appeared.
Pegasus and Hippogriff followed shortly after. They were aerial reinforcements, who could join the fray without limiting the movements of Mira’s ground forces, and their mobility made them the perfect team.
The three reinforcements quickly began supporting their allies from above. Aerial support was valued for its ability to throw the enemy into disarray without disturbing allied formations. Their diversion was astoundingly effective, especially against foes who acted on instinct alone.
“Gaaarbage day!” Wise Popot blanketed the wolves with a hail of fireballs. It was anyone’s guess where she’d gotten that line from.
Pegasus was doing quite well. Its lightning tore through wolves, drawing their attention. When they jumped at Pegasus, it struck them with powerful backkicks. Even Fenrir’s bolstered wolves were mere targets as they leaped into the air, powerless to fly.
The Hippogriff lacked the flair of either of its fellow reinforcements, but its fighting had an admirable elegance, like a taciturn laborer. It scouted for enemies from up above, choosing opportunities to ambush from blind spots or precisely strike enemies that were open to attack. All of its attacks were surprise attacks that dealt deep wounds. Furthermore, it reduced the burden on grounded fighters by drawing enemy attention.
This trio stood out both for their individual skills and for their ability to work well together to dominate the air. The wolves fought well, too, and Mira’s side had yet to turn the tide of battle again, but this would buy her much more time.
***
The situation was ever-changing on this battlefield. Just as they’d pushed the enemy back with a land-and-air combo, Fenrir’s power drove back their breakthrough. Even when they reacted quickly, they could do nothing to stem the flow of suicidal wolves. The Valkyrie platoons had their hands full fighting this tug-of-war battle.
“Argh, how infuriating!” Alfina grumbled.
Fenrir had a deep connection with Odin, the master of the Valkyrie Sisters. As a result, Alfina became enraged when faced with his power. Fenrir himself seemed to instinctively grasp their connection, too, as he glowered at her rather than Mira.
“Now!”
When Mira surreptitiously sent the signal to the Valkyrie platoons, the battle lines gradually fell out of order, until it all become a mad brawl a few minutes later. However, the situation remained largely unchanged. The Valkyrie platoons mostly stayed on the defensive, enduring the wolves’ onslaught. The aerial trio also maneuvered to avoid letting the wolves crowd them.
Now that it was a mad melee, wolves started to leak toward Mira’s group. Alfina and Garm delayed them.
In the midst of all this, Mira quickly scanned the battlefield. She issued an order to a waiting dark knight while Fenrir was still focused on Alfina and herself. Over there!
It ceased guarding her and charged into the midst of the brawl. Then, it unleashed a devastating blow—with its sword, Sanctia—upon a wolf that was in the middle of biting another dark knight. The surprise attack, backed up by the power of a holy sword, successfully dealt the wolf a fatal blow.
One last powerful kick was unleashed by the wolf, however, striking the dark knight perfectly. Not only did the wolf knock the sword the dark knight had defended itself with out of its hands, but it also sent the knight flying to the ceiling. The dark knight struck the ceiling and fell straight to the floor—once again, right in front of Fenrir.
The knight stood, its armor shattered. Whether instinctively or reflexively, Fenrir opened up and chomped down. Even a dark knight could not withstand Fenrir’s bite. Beyond its repair limit, the knight shattered and dispersed.
“He took the bait!” A smirk crept onto Mira’s face.
It didn’t take long for a change to take place. Blackness spewed out of Fenrir. It wasn’t like the darkness that had come from its howls either; if all of this concentrated darkness turned into wolves and joined the battle, they would obliterate Mira’s army in no time. It was such a vast amount that it seemed certain that they’d be engulfed in a horde of wolves in no time.
Nothing took form, however. Instead, it continued to erupt from Fenrir before merely dispersing.
“How do you like that? Perfect, isn’t it?!”
As darkness erupted, the giant began to visibly shrink. Mira smiled at the sight of the smaller Fenrir, and she heard Martel cry happily, “You did great, Mira!” At this rate, she’d be able to feed him one more fruit and bring him back to his senses.
It had all gone according to plan. Mira had hidden the white fruit inside the dark knight’s hollow armor, then replicated the situation where the first dark knight had been eaten in order to feed the fruit to Fenrir. As a result, the white fruit was working its magic.
Its effects were clear, given the difference in size. That was proof that it worked. But that lone fruit wasn’t enough.
The wolf continued to snap and lunge at Mira. The chains containing it creaked each time, and the room shook. Mira simply watched the chains, as if waiting for an opportunity.
“Now, for this next one…” Mira muttered to herself.
There was more to this strategy. A single white fruit created by Martel could normally save Fenrir on its own, but before the operation, she’d informed Mira that she would need to feed him two.
The problem was the chains…
Garm knew all about the chains. Gleipnir was one of Fenrir’s powers. It was also the name of the chains that currently bound the wolf. It was an extremely potent restraint that limited the abilities and powers of its captive. Unfortunately, Gleipnir was also an obstacle right now. According to Garm, it suppressed the effects of the white fruit on Fenrir’s body. It limited the powers of not just its captive, but the effects of any external drugs, healing, or support magic used on them. Gleipnir was the ultimate restraint.
Even the fruit’s effect wasn’t perfect; it only expelled half of the power that ate away at Fenrir’s sanity. However, it had succeeded in weakening him. Some light had also returned to the beast’s eyes, meager though it was. It was absolutely a ray of hope.
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