Skeleton Knight, in Another World (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

The Fall of Tagent 

Before us stood the remains of what had once been a small tiger clan camp in the middle of the Kuwana Prairie. 

The giants in the Black Forest off to the south were slowly making their way up north, laying waste to tiger clan camps as they went. Or at least, that’s what I’d been told by the tiger clan warriors after they finished slaying the dark giants outside the camp. 

They were currently searching the ruins in the hopes of finding survivors. But by the dark looks on their faces, it seemed as if prospects were grim. After all, it hadn’t been a large camp to begin with, and it had been attacked by ten dark giants. 

That made the boy who’d come to the Ena clan seeking help was the sole survivor of this tragedy. 

The warriors had been in high spirits just moments ago, after killing the last of the giants, but that mood quickly soured as they came face to face with the fate of their comrades. 

While I had access to magic spells that could revive the dead, they were of little use here, given that almost all the victims were either missing heads or were just heads—and even more of them were likely half-digested in the giants’ stomachs. I’d already learned my lesson about trying to bring back people who were too far gone after attempting to revive soldiers slaughtered during a bandit raid. 

The heavy silence and looks of mourning on Chiyome’s and Goemon’s faces made the whole situation feel as if we were at a wake. Neither Chiyome nor Goemon had said a word since Sasuke ran off. Sure, they were both usually reserved, but this was something else entirely. 

Ariane seemed lost as to what she could possibly say and simply frowned as she watched the two of them. I called out to her, striving to keep my tone light. 

“How’re your legs and back doing?” 

Ariane’s expression lightened a bit. She rubbed her lower back. 

“They’re much better now. Thanks, Arc.” 

Of course, her lower back was never really the problem to begin with, but it didn’t seem appropriate for me to ask a woman about the trauma her backside had taken from riding in a saddle for so long. 

More importantly, it hardly seemed like the time to be making jokes. 

Besides, I was pretty sure that my recovery magic wouldn’t have much of an effect on sore butts. Though, if it did, it’d be pretty handy to just cast a spell from time to time to make such long rides more bearable. 

I spotted Chieftain Houwe of the Ena clan and five other warriors approaching us. 

All of them were absolute pillars of fitness, their bodies rippling with muscles and adorned with various styles of battle dress, the likes of which were unseen on the rest of the warriors. I figured these were the six chieftains. 

Despite standing right in front of me, Houwe’s gaze was focused on Chiyome and Goemon as he spoke in a heavy tone. 

“Arc, you said that these cat people accompanying you come from the northern continent, yes?” 

I was a bit confused by his question, but nodded my head anyway. 

“The rest of the giants lurking around the camp ran off after a cat person who suddenly showed up.” 

Even in the middle of an intense battle, a few people had apparently seen what was going on with us. Anger washed over Houwe’s face. 

“Why did the giants chase after this person? Did he bring them to our camp in the first place?!” 

For a moment, I wasn’t sure why he was asking me this. But the answer soon became clear. 

Another man—one of the chieftains perhaps—leaned in close and began yelling at Chiyome. 

“You can’t talk your way out of this! This little girl, she knows the bastard, doesn’t she?! One of my men saw her talking to him!” 

Apparently, their exchange hadn’t gone unnoticed. Technically speaking, there hadn’t really been any sort of conversation per se. However, I doubted they were interested in such semantics. 

Goemon stepped between Chiyome and the yelling chieftain, glaring at the other man. While the tiger clan chieftain had height on his side, the light emanating from Goemon’s body made him look the more powerful of the two. 

Probably thinking that the glow came from the power of the spirits, the chieftain took a step back, but he still looked as angry as ever. Goemon, however, showed no fear. He glanced back at Chiyome again, then addressed the chieftains in a booming voice. 

“That man used to be one of us, but no longer.” 

Goemon’s words caused Chiyome’s shoulders to perk up, though her eyes still remained downcast. 

“How can we believe a word you say? And why are outsiders joining us on the field of battle in the first place?!” 

The nearby warriors all focused their piercing gazes on me. While I was the one who’d asked Chieftain Houwe to let us join him in combat, the hunting party had come together too quickly for him to explain to the others why he’d agreed. Aene, chieftain of the Whilee clan, knew the general story, but the majority of the people had no idea what had brought us all the way out here. 

Goemon looked out across the warriors standing on front of him. “He is no longer the man I once knew. He is now one of the undead!” 

This information surprised even me. 

The chieftains were taken aback by this news and exchanged glances with one another, as if to confirm that their ears had not deceived them. Many of the other warriors standing by, however, didn’t appear to grasp what Goemon had said. This seemed strange to me. 

Ariane leaned forward to whisper in my ear. “Undead probably aren’t common out here in the prairie, since they need mana to survive. Mana usually gathers in forests and valleys, so people living on the plains might never encounter the undead.” 

She had hardly reacted to Goemon’s statement. But elves could see spirits and other types of energy otherwise invisible to humans. The moment Sasuke revealed himself, she was probably instantly aware that he was undead. After all, she could see the contamination of death, as she’d once called it. Indeed, the fact that Ariane hadn’t seen the contamination of death around my skeleton body was what originally convinced her that I wasn’t undead, merely cursed. 

The mountain people apparently couldn’t see this contamination, but they could smell the scent of death in the air. If not, I had no doubt they all would have written me off as an undead long ago, and we wouldn’t be traveling the globe together. 

“Kyii!” 

Ponta seemed to pick up on my shift in mood and mewed to cheer me on. I reached up and patted its head in appreciation. 

“You, too, buddy. You don’t judge people by their appearance either.” 

I turned my attention back to the issue at hand. 

For some reason, Sasuke, one of the six great fighters of the Jinshin clan, and Chiyome and Goemon’s ally, was here on the southern continent…and was undead at that. 

Though he’d been a bit on the pale side, honestly, Sasuke hadn’t looked all that different from Chiyome to me. However, his status as undead was confirmed both by Ariane and Goemon. 

“How can we be sure what you say is true?” One of the chieftains spoke up, eliciting nods of agreement from the others. 

Only two men, Chieftain Aene of the Whilee clan and Chieftain Houwe of the Ena clan, looked at Goemon and me, as if searching for some sort of truth in Goemon’s claim. 

I tried defusing the situation. “There’s much I don’t know about Chiyome’s circumstances, but I do know that she’s been searching for Sasuke for some time. It’s pure coincidence that she and Goemon encountered their one-time comrade here. After all, I was the one who suggested traveling here in the first place.” 

“But how can we…” 

One of the chieftains began objecting, but I started speaking again, cutting him off. 

“Can we all just call it a day? Did you not hear the report that there were thirty giants out here? Because all I counted was ten…only five of which we actually killed! We might not know why the giants were chasing after that man, but I want you to ask yourselves, are there any other camps in that direction?” 

The chieftains—indeed all the warriors around us—started murmuring among themselves. Apparently, there was a camp in the direction Sasuke had gone. 

The warriors began crowding around the chieftains, many of them proposing they take off in pursuit of the giants. 

Chieftain Houwe spoke up, putting an end to the roar of voices. 

“We must pursue the giants and secure and protect all other camps!” 

His declaration was followed by a round of cheers. 

The warriors immediately mounted their driftpus. As I watched them, I saw out of the corner of my eye that Houwe was walking toward me. 

“Show us what you’re made of!” he said as he passed. 

With that, he and the other chieftains mounted up as well. 

I wasn’t sure exactly what he was trying to convey, but the general message was clear. I’d started this whole endeavor figuring that I’d earn a few favors and the rest would be easy. But ultimately, I just kept getting myself into one mess after another. 

“My apologies, Arc.” Goemon bowed his head low. 

“There’s no need to apologize, Goemon. Besides, I don’t mind going it alone from here.” 

It wouldn’t be a problem if we were just facing some dark giants, but given that we’d likely also encounter Sasuke, things could get awkward. 

Goemon shook his head and clenched his fists. “No. He is our problem, and we can’t turn aside. Come, Chiyome.” 

I watched as he and Chiyome walked solemnly back to their mount. 

There was something in Chiyome’s expression that seemed odd, almost as if she’d seen a ghost. 

I turned to Ariane. “About Sasuke… Is it common for the undead to be running around like that?” 

Ariane furrowed her brow. 

When I heard the word “undead,” I imagined rotting corpses and skeletons—creatures far different from the skilled fighter Sasuke had shown himself to be. If anything, he was closer to how I imagined vampires. Though, I didn’t know if they existed in this world. I certainly hadn’t seen one. 

The only undead I’d seen move about gracefully like that were the ghoul worms we’d encountered back in the cave near the Dragon Wonder. But their bodies hadn’t even remotely resembled humans. There were also the man-spiders in the same cave—at least, I recalled Ariane calling them undead—but, just like the ghoul worms, they looked nothing like humans. 

Sasuke, however, looked pretty much like any of the other cat people. 

Elves were generally able to see the contamination of death that hung around a person, allowing them to identify whether or not someone was undead, but unfortunately, my sense of sight wasn’t as strong as my elven brethren. 

“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen an undead retain its living form. Fa— The village elder may know more though.” 

I shook my head. We didn’t have time to go back to the elven village, nor was it a productive use of our time to think about them. 

“Well, right now we’d best head after the giants.” 

I made my way back to my grazing driftpus and hopped up on its back. Ariane made her way over more slowly, let out a heavy sigh, and climbed up behind me. 

I waited for Houwe’s signal before once again urging my driftpus into a fast clip across the prairie, following the rest of the mounted warriors. 

*** 

It felt as if a dark, oppressive cloud surrounded us as we rode. The general mood was much more somber than it had been when we’d first left the Ena camp. The tiger clan warriors’ feelings toward the giants were no different than before, and while there was still a bit of nervousness about hunting giants, that wasn’t the source. 

No, the dark mood was coming from up near the front—from Goemon and Chiyome, who sat quietly on the back of their driftpus, her head buried in his back. I couldn’t see her expression. 

I thought back to our voyage on the Rievbelta, when Chiyome had been excited about sending some of the roasted kraken to Sasuke. Now that I was a skeleton, it was hard for me to truly understand, or even sympathize with, the sheer pain that she must be in right now. 

As soon as I turned back into an elf, however, I knew the emotions would come flooding in like a tidal wave. I wasn’t confident I’d be able to think clearly when that happened. 

Honestly, I didn’t think too highly of myself in that regard. 

While in the body of a skeleton, I was able to keep my emotions subdued almost as well as any seasoned soldier. But I was nowhere near the level of professionalism that Goemon and Chiyome displayed. She wasn’t quite a seasoned warrior, but she also wasn’t helpless by any stretch of the imagination. 

I let out a long, deep breath and shook my head. Though not much of a thinker, my mind tended to wander. It’d be best to focus my mental energies on what lay ahead. 

Besides, I had a sword to fell my enemies, a shield to protect my friends, and armor to protect myself. Overthinking things was a waste or time…or potentially worse. I could let myself, or someone else, get hurt. 

Though…I’d need to be more careful about leaving my sword and shield behind in the future. 

*** 

We continued for some time. I cast a recovery spell on Ariane’s backside whenever she complained about it aching. Slowing down wasn’t an option, so I figured magic was the best way to offer her some relief. Unfortunately, it almost certainly looked like I was rubbing her butt whenever I cast the spell. 

In fact, the second time I cast it, the jostling of the beast beneath us actually did cause my hand to make contact, resulting in an immediate and merciless punch to the back of my head, sending my helmet spinning. 

At least Ponta seemed to enjoy it. 

The sun was on its downward trek, but still a long way from sunset. I figured it was around snack time. Up ahead, after we crossed over a gentle hill, the tiger clan camp came into view. It was small, consisting of fewer than ten of the yurt-like buildings. 

I spotted several domesticated animals roaming around. Some people around the camp pointed toward us as we approached, their attention drawn by the thundering footfalls of the driftpus. The camp looked completely unharmed. In fact, it looked rather peaceful. By all accounts, the dark giants hadn’t made their way out here. 

The hunting party slowed to a crawl, and Chieftain Houwe jumped off his driftpus to speak with the people in the camp. I made to join him, in the hopes of learning what was going on here, but the conversation was over almost as soon as it started. 

Houwe conferred with the warriors in the camp and nodded in the direction they were pointing. Then he shouted orders to his men. 

“The giants passed by this camp on their way north! Change course!” 

The hunting party adjusted its direction and left the camp behind. 

The chieftains at the front of the formation drew their mounts close together as they discussed something. I couldn’t tell what the problem was, but it wouldn’t be long before I found out. 

*** 

The hunting party found itself atop a small hill. 

Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. The ground was no higher than the rest of the prairie, so the area ahead was actually something of a lowland. Thanks to our higher vantage point, I caught sight of the vast ocean spreading off to my right. 

More noteworthy, though, was what I saw farther down the slope ahead—I spotted a large, humanmade construction spreading from the shore, as if marking some border. This construction looked a lot like the walls I’d seen surrounding towns and castles in this world, and its immense length reminded me of the Great Wall of China. I spied square gun ports built into the wall at regular intervals. It was clear that they were primarily for defensive purposes. 

The ports themselves were quite large, suggesting there were perhaps cannons or fixed catapults on the other side. 

Come to think of it, I recalled some of the mountain people on the Rievbelta saying that humans lived on the other side of a giant wall beyond the prairie. Maybe the humans owned the land here? 

There were looks of shock and surprise on many of the faces around me. Had they never seen this wall before? Though, to be fair, it was quite an awe-inspiring sight to see something humanmade on this grand a scale. 

I couldn’t even imagine how much time, energy, and money must have been poured into building such a thing. 

Houwe glowered at the massive wall. “Hmph. There’s no way we could have missed the giants. But would they really come all the way down to the humans’ peninsula?” 

So, apparently, there was a peninsula on the other side of the wall. In that case, it meant that the wall must have been built in order to close it off from the mainland. But there was something about the wall that didn’t seem quite right. 

Large towers rose high above it, spread out at regular intervals. I supposed they could be lookout towers, or barracks for the soldiers stationed here…but I couldn’t see any signs of life. 

Anyone up there should have spotted a formation of 150 mounted warriors, and would almost certainly be worried about this. But no one stirred, or sounded any sort of alarm. 

I looked over at Houwe. Deep wrinkles creased his forehead as he stroked his chin. 

“I don’t see any movement. Is the wall usually…empty?” 

The wrinkles grew deeper at my question. He turned back to me and narrowed his gaze. 

“No…soldiers are always stationed here. They often let off harassing volleys of arrows the moment they catch sight of us.” 

I glanced back at the wall, but all was still. So still, in fact, that I wondered if it had been abandoned. 

A warrior rode in toward us, stopping right in front of Houwe. Apparently, he was a scout sent on ahead to see what he could learn. 

“Chieftain Houwe!” 

I could tell by the look on his face that his report contained urgent news. Houwe nodded for the man to continue. 

“The wall’s been breached! There are signs of a great battle, and the corpses of several fallen giants.” 

The other chieftains, and the surrounding warriors, immediately went into a panic. 

“The wall was breached?! How far did they make it through?” 

“I could see clear to the other side! I assume the giants made a concentrated attack against the wall.” 

The warriors began frantically talking among themselves while the chieftains looked on in surprise. 

I couldn’t be sure of the exact height, but the wall looked to be about ten meters tall from where I stood. 

The dark giants themselves stood at about six meters or so, but considering that they were tough enough to resist even bladed weapons, I had little doubt they could barrel through a wall in a full-fledged attack. 

The scout reported that he’d spotted several of their corpses, however, so that meant that the wall had at least held up against the behemoths’ onslaught for some time. 

“And they breached the wall? We’ve never even gotten close, despite our best efforts!” 

“Maybe the giants intended to break into the human towns from the very start?” 

The other chieftains were in a near panic at this point. Chieftain Houwe, however, was deep in thought, and gestured toward his scout. 

“Prepare to follow this man to the hole in the wall!” 

The warriors immediately moved in unison toward the wall. 

It was a very short trip. 

In the middle of the wall was a huge gap, nothing but a pile of rubble remaining. I could see straight through to the land on the other side. 

I counted six dark giant corpses in front of the wall, each of them with an arrow as thick as a log piercing their face. 

My best guess was that those arrows had been launched from ballistae built right into the wall. 

The bodies of human soldiers also littered the country side; there were no survivors. 

On the other side of the wall, I saw a figure running across the plain. 

“What’s that?” A voice cried out from among the hunting party. 

The figure looked to be around twenty or so, and had a short tail and animal-shaped ears atop their head, one of which was torn. I couldn’t tell the species at this distance, but they were definitely one of the mountain people. They were dressed in tattered clothes and had iron shackles and chains around their feet and neck. 

Judging by the way the man was running for his life, I had a good idea of what was going on: He’d likely been enslaved by the humans. After hiding himself away while the giants crashed through the wall, he’d spotted the tiger clan’s hunting party and come running to us to seek assistance. 

Just when I thought I had it all figured out, an-ear shattering roar rose up from the wall itself as bricks began tumbling down. Out of the dust, a dark giant emerged. The man realized he’d misjudged the situation. 

The giant’s cry echoed across the prairie, stopping the man dead in his tracks. 

Houwe shouted out a command. “Keep the giant away from that man! Kill it!” 

The warriors let out a cry and charged their driftpus downhill at top speed. 

Unfortunately for me, the command came way too quickly for me to respond, and I was left standing alone atop the hill. 

Though I’d originally assumed that they were going to make a headlong charge at their opponent, instead the rushing warriors gave it a wide birth, maintaining a consistent distance as they circled it. 

This technique was definitely not something an amateur like me should try. 

The giant let out another mighty roar as it noticed the thundering footfalls and dust cloud trails of the hunting party. 

The young slave was now between the hunting party and the giant. While there was still some distance between him and certain doom, his comparatively small legs wouldn’t carry him far. The giant’s inky black eyes focused on its prey. 

There was no way the tiger clan would make it in time. I had to do something to slow the giant. 

“Fire Beretta!” 

I focused all my power into my fist. A second later, a massive ball of fire formed in front of me, obscuring my vision. The warriors and chieftains who’d held back looked on in surprise, their eyes fixated on it. 

The next moment, the fireball launched, whistling as it sailed through the air straight toward the giant. It flew over the heads of the hunting party and slammed straight into the giant’s face, resulting in an impressive explosion. 

“Hey, I got it! Didja see that, Ariane?” 

“Wait, you weren’t even aiming?” 

I’d figured that a hit anywhere on the giant would be great, especially if I could slow it down a bit. That’s why I’d decided to use one of my faster magic attacks and make the fireball as large as possible. Granted, the giant’s face was a rather large target, but even so, I never thought I’d score a direct hit. The more power you put into a magic spell, the harder it became to control. 

By the time the warriors reached their objective, the giant was lying on its back, stock still and thoroughly charred. Well, probably. Dark giants were covered in fur, so it was hard to tell. 

I looked at the stunned chieftains and asked what we’d do about the young slave. This brought the men back to themselves, and they quickly hurried down the hill. 

“E-everyone else was killed when the wall fell. I… I’m the only one left.” 

I used my recovery magic to cure the man’s wounds as he responded to Chieftain Houwe’s questions. He clenched his fists as he spoke. 

The man was thin and malnourished, his clothes no more than rags. 

“The nearest human town is Tagent, no? Are many of your kind being held there?” 

The man replied with a firm nod. 

The chieftains debated what their next step would be. 

“What should we do? I have to admit, it’s rather fortuitous to find the wall breached like this.” 

“If the giants are already going to be ravaging Tagent, why not join in the havoc?” 

“We need to decide soon, or we’ll lose whatever advantage we have.” 

“I don’t know how big Tagent is, but if it’s anything near the scale of Fernandes, it’s probably too big for us to free everyone.” 

“So, you’d rather turn a blind eye?” 

While the chieftains deliberated, the warriors chimed in with their own opinions. Then, all eyes focused on Houwe. 

After a moment, Houwe dropped his arms to his side. There was a decisive look in his eye. 

“We will depart at once for the human town of Tagent to liberate the beast people. We must not forget that humans have assaulted our camps and taken our own as slaves. We will slay any giants that get in our way! Warriors, keep an ear open for the call to withdraw!” 

His speech was met with a roar of cheers. The hunting party split into seven platoons to sneak their way into Tagent. 

As for my companions and I, we made our own eighth platoon. 

It was time for the playoffs of the Giants vs. the Tigers. 

I glanced up ahead at Goemon and Chiyome and thought about the troubles they faced. Well, we’d just have to deal with that when the time came. 

*** 

The peninsula jutting out like a finger on the southern continent belonged to the Great West Revlon Empire. 

The port town running along the eastern shore of the peninsula was the major hub for shipments leaving the continent for the empire, though it had grown over the years, and now rivaled some of the biggest cities in the north. 

The Hilk church located at the center of the town was flanked by two massive towers that served as quarters to the priests and the temple knights, as well as the cardinal’s private chambers. 

The contrast of the red bricks and white stones used to construct the buildings gave them a rather elegant appearance. The white stone pillars throughout the vast church grounds also helped it stand out from the sea of brick buildings that made up the rest of the town. 

The cardinal’s private chambers were located on the third floor of one of the buildings. This was where he made all the decisions about the church’s direction. 

A massive, colorful painting adorned one of the walls, a towering presence in the room. Not to be outdone, all of the furniture in the room was also ornate and fit for a king. A woven rug on the floor completed the look. 

At the center sat a large bed, made specifically to order. The bedposts reached nearly to the ceiling. A curtain draped over them covered the bed in an intricately detailed cocoon of splendor. 

Atop the bed lay a large, balding man with a jutting belly, drooping cheeks, and a face reminiscent of a frog. The man’s name was Cardinal Charros Acedia Industria. As he did most days, he was currently stuffing his cheeks with fruits from a basket tucked under his arm. 

“Ahh, what a wonderful day. Those little prats from the homeland haven’t bothered me ever since I sent them off. Gyahaha! They must’ve just given up after they realized that a force of ghostly soldiers was nothing of note. I have to admit, I’m quite the brilliant little thinker. Yes, I am!” 

Charros burst into a fit of laughter at this, his massive belly shaking and legs flailing about. 

His eyes fixed on some of the fruit juice dripping from his hand as he yanked the curtain back. 

“Well, I suppose I can’t just idle my whole day away. There’s work to be done after all. Still, nothing wrong with being a little self-indulgent, is there?” 

He continued speaking to no one in particular as he rolled his rotund body across the bed. 

The sound of someone banging on the door interrupted his reverie. 

“Cardinal Charros, we have an emergency! Please, grant me an audience!” 

The priest would normally wait for permission before entering the room, but he didn’t even bother waiting for Charros to respond before bounding through the door, arms and legs flailing as he tripped over himself, landing face first on the floor. 

This took Charros by surprise. Then, a scowl soured his face. 

The prostrate priest didn’t even bother looking up before he began speaking, the urgency clear in his unsteady voice. 

“I have just received reports that twenty or so monsters have breached the border wall and are descending upon the town. They appear to be giants. The magistrate has requested the services of the church to fend off the attack.” 

After the priest finished his report, Charros gestured for him to bow lower, until his forehead brushed the floor. He hefted himself off the bed, his scowl deepening. 

“But it’s just twenty monsters, no? Why should I have to get my temple knights involved? The magistrate has 2,000 soldiers under his command, while my men number a mere 500!” 

Charros walked over to the window, where he gazed out at the houses and cathedral before him. The towering wall surrounding the church grounds prevented him from seeing out into the town. 

The priest, sensing what the other man was thinking, continued. 

“Cardinal Charros, you can see out into the town from the church’s towers. I believe you can truly understand the peril we face from up there. Please, come with me!” 

“Harrumph. I know I said I should get out of bed today, but I’m really beginning to regret that. I wish you’d just stop pestering me.” 

The plump man’s cheeks puffed out as he muttered to himself. Then he looked down at the prostrate priest and let out a dramatic sigh. With a heavy shrug, he waddled over toward the door, the priest’s gaze following him the whole way. Cardinal Charros waved the man over. 

“Well, come on now, take me to the tower! I rarely have occasion to be up there, you know, so it’s not like I’d know the way!” 

“R-right away!” 

The priest smiled broadly, tripping over himself again as he made his way past the cardinal. He jogged ahead, like a dog leading its master. Charros somehow managed to keep up with him, in spite of his large girth. 

The two made their way to one of the towers connected to the cathedral and began the long climb up the spiral staircase. It wasn’t long before Charros was breathing heavily and wiping sweat from his brow. 

“Wh-who decided to build towers like this? Even if we needed them, I can’t see why we put stairs in here. What purpose do they even serve?” 

His body jiggled as he complained, but he still jogged his way up the stairs at a steady clip. The man wasn’t quite the fat slob people mistook him for. 

The lanky priest leading the way, on the other hand, was heaving for breath, and looked as if he might pass out at any second. He stuck his head out one of the open windows built into the side of the tower to catch his breath, the light of the setting sun shining brightly on his face and causing him to squint. 

As his eyes adjusted to the light, he was able to take in the sights of the town below. 

What he saw took him by surprise. He jerked his head back to look at the cardinal, his voice shrill. 

“Cardinal Ch-Charros! Come here, quickly! You can see the monsters!” 

The tower itself was quite cramped, and his voice resounded off the walls like an echo chamber. Charros glared back at the priest and shoved his fingers into his ears. 

“Fine, fine, I got it! You’ve no need to yell like that.” 

Charros grumbled to himself as he moved his face closer to the window. 

The window allowed only a narrow glimpse of the outside. Making matters worse, the overly excited priest was also trying to crowd his face in, further limiting the view. 

Using his rotund body as a battering ram, Charros shoved the priest away from the window and looked outside. The rays from the setting sun caused him to squint as well, but as his eyes adjusted to the light, he was able to make out fires burning near the wall surrounding the town, though far from the church itself. 

He could also make out strange beasts towering above the brick houses off in the distance. With the sun at their backs, these figures appeared as headless shadows against the sky. One black, headless giant smashed the roof of a building in, reached inside, and started shoving something into a large hole at the center of its chest. 

Charros watched wide-eyed as the giant munched away on a person as if it were a mere snack right in front of him. 

From where he stood, Charros could see four of these figures. The screams of the townsfolk came to him faintly on the wind. 

Charros stepped back, indentations from the window still marking his skin, and looked back at the priest. 

“Waaaaaugh!” 

He screamed and stuck his head back out the window. 

“What is that thing? Who would dare attack my town? Just what’s going on here?!” 

He was near hysterical. Charros looked to the priest for answers, but all he could do was shake his head, desperately hoping the cardinal would know how to respond. 

“Ah, yes, the temple knights! Go dispatch them at once!” 

“Right away!” 

The priest bowed. When he looked back up, he saw Charros running down the stairs. 

“Where are you going, cardinal?” 

Charros didn’t even bother to turn around. 

“Reinforcements! I’m calling for reinforcements, so hurry up and—” 

The rotund man slipped on the step and tumbled down the stairs for a ways before slamming into the wall and bouncing off it like a massive rubber ball. The force of the blow took him over the railing and down the center of the tower. 

The priest looked over the edge. 

“Charros! Cardinal Charros!” 

He was surprised to see Charros climb back to his feet and take off again in a hurried waddle. The man must’ve fallen at least four floors. 

The priest’s mind went blank with shock at what he’d just witnessed. Once he came back to his senses, he took off to fulfill his orders and summon the temple knights. 

*** 

Charros went straight to the cathedral’s basement. 

At the bottom of the dimly lit stairs, he could make out the shape of a huge metal door, held fast by a peculiar lock with no keyhole. 

The stone stairs were covered in thick layers of dust, rarely traveled by the church’s inhabitants. The air around him was filled with a unique, almost spicy smell from what lurked on the other side. 

Charros approached the massive door and put his hand on the keyless lock. 

Magic formed around Charros’s palm, and the thick shackle on the lock released with a satisfying thunk. 

Charros placed his hands on the metal door and gave it a push, revealing a large, high-ceilinged room on the other side. Shelves lined the walls of the room, illuminated by the magical lantern Charros held in his hand as he moved deeper and deeper into the darkness. 

Countless box-shaped coffins, all painted black, lined the shelves. 

Charros was in the town’s catacombs. 

His eyes scanned the rows of coffins as he moved down the narrow passage, the echoes of his footsteps the only sound in the silence. 

“Why do bad things always happen to little old me? Tagent is dooooomed!” 

He stopped, as if something had just occurred to him. 

“Did he have all this planned before coming here? But that would mean using them would violate the will of the pontiff. Hmm…” 

He put both hands on his head as he mumbled to himself in the middle of the corpse-lined shelves. 

Charros stood up straight, his mind set. He began moving quickly through the passage before stopping at an altar at the center of the catacombs, where he picked up a black box sitting on a platform. 

“This is all awful, awful, awful! I’ll put an end to them all—those black shadows, and the jerks that started this whole thing!” 

Charros’s right hand began glowing as magic flowed through it, spreading to the black box, which let off an eerie glow of its own. 

Suddenly, the lids of the coffins all opened in unison, skeleton knights in dull armor slowly climbing out and grabbing their weapons as they rose. They moved almost like any live soldier would. 

Charros looked around at the armored warriors and nodded. He held up the box and called out in a loud, clear voice: 

“I order you to kill the dark giants! Don’t leave any survivors!” 

The knights moved in unison. Each of the churches throughout the town were connected to the vast catacombs via an underground passage. 

The skeleton soldiers marched down the passageways, passed through the oft-overlooked doors, and stormed out into the town like a swarm of ants. The small squads of temple knights standing guard at each of the churches were immediately cut or beaten down. 

The skeletons numbered around 10,000, a full third of Tagent’s population. Slowly but surely, the town fell into chaos. 

One man, dressed in the garb of a priest and sent from the Holy Kingdom itself, stood atop one of the town’s brick buildings and watched the skeleton knights flow into the streets, the corners of his lips tugging upward into a grin. 

His smile didn’t last long, however, as he observed the citizens of the town getting pushed ever closer to the giants by the mobs of soldiers. His eyebrows knitted in consternation as he let out a sigh. 

“If he wanted to kill the townsfolk, that would be one thing. But the giants too? This is in clear violation of the pontiff’s wishes. Proof that I am far better suited to serve as cardinal.” 

The man chuckled to himself before pulling a round crystal out of his pocket. It emitted an eerie glow. He held it high in the air and smiled. 

“Kill all of the living! This town will belong to the dead, the servants of the pontiff!” 

The crystal’s glow grew harsher as all of the skeleton soldiers ceased moving…but only for a second. The next moment, they began cutting down any humans who crossed their path. 

It was like the gates of hell had opened up. 

The elderly were the first to die, their bodies lining the streets. Next were the fathers trying to protect their children. Their heads were lopped off, landing in their children’s arms. After that were the mothers, run clean through along with their children. 

“Gyahahaha! That’s it! You will be the vanguard of the pontiff’s forces! Just the thought of marching down the roads with you behind me brings a tear to my… Wha?!” 

The man sensed a presence behind him and turned around. 

A younger man kneeled before him, looking up with bright red eyes under a head of black hair, cat ears sprouting from the top of his scalp. 

“Ah, you’re back. I see that you were successful in killing the giants’ children and leading them here to town. Why don’t you go out and draw in the giants still fussing with the wall over there?” 

A smile broke out on the man’s face as he indicated with his chin. 

The young beast man—Sasuke, one of the six great fighters of the Jinshin clan—nodded before running off, darting from rooftop to rooftop. 

The man watched as Sasuke disappeared into the distance, a smile gracing his face. 

“He’s quite the impressive asset. After I am appointed cardinal, I may ask the pontiff to give him over to me.” 

The man turned his gaze back to the hell unfolding before his eyes. 

*** 

The tiger clan party, accompanied by me and the gang, stormed north on their driftpus toward the human town of Tagent. Every direction we looked, there were crops as far as the eye could see, almost as if the entire peninsula were one large farm. It was quite a shock. 

Off in the distance lay a small village in the middle of a field. There was no defensive wall at its perimeter—a sight rarely seen in this world. 

This tranquil scene was marred by massive footprints amid the fields. The trail of crushed crops pointed straight ahead. This was almost certainly the route the giants had taken. 

The lone road running through the farmlands was jammed with people, all their worldly possessions on their backs. They stared in amazement at the massive mounts ridden by the tiger clan, some of them even waiting quietly for the hunting party to pass on before running off. 

The humans made little fuss over the army of mountain people. Nor did they show much in the way of fear, suggesting that the town of Tagent was already under attack. They looked like refugees escaping a massive tragedy. 

Chieftain Houwe and the other tiger clan warriors snorted at the humans in disdain before looking toward their objective ahead. 

One of the warriors laughed, and the rest of his cohort was quick to join in. 

“I’m surprised at how pathetic the humans living here are. Without that wall, they’re nothing.” 

“And yet, for generations, that same wall kept us from even getting here.” Houwe looked back over his shoulder and glared at the warriors, putting an end to their banter. 

The sun hung low over the horizon, turning the sky a deep shade of burgundy. I could see the outline of Tagent off in the distance. The whole town was ablaze. Eerie cries of fear and anger filled the air. 

Occasionally, I caught brief glimpses of dark giants popping up above the brick houses that filled the town before disappearing again. 

Though nowhere near the scale of the wall at the entrance to the peninsula, there was a wall surrounding the town of Tagent. 

Standing around the same height as the giants, it had been smashed wide open in several places. Citizens of the town, along with the occasional mountain person among them, poured out of these holes. 

Houwe moved forward with his original plan and split his men into seven platoons to enter the town and save as many of the mountain people as they could. 

“Everyone ready? Don’t harm any humans…at least, not those who don’t deserve it! We’re here to rescue our comrades. Strike down anyone who gets in your way! And whatever you do, do not forget the way of the warrior! Now, goooo!” 

With the chieftain’s orders issued, platoon commanders took their men off into the town. 

The town itself was rather large, and its roads relatively wide, but due to the sheer amount of space taken up by the massive driftpus, the platoons also included dismounted troops to search houses and alleys. 

Houwe’s platoon waited at the town’s perimeter, to keep an eye on the mounts left behind and to protect any of the escaping mountain people while they waited for the warriors to return. 

I’d figured Houwe for the type to lead from the front line of a battle, but, considering most of the tiger clan wanted to fight in the front, his ability to stand back and watch things unfold was probably what had led him to become the leader of the largest clan on the prairie. 

I gave my regards to Houwe before heading off to join the battle with Ariane, Goemon, and Chiyome. We’d be going in on foot to support any tiger clan platoons that ran into trouble and to wipe out any enemies that stood in our way. 

These were not orders given to us by Houwe, but rather the job I gave us myself. Put simply, we were going to search the town for enemies then take them out. So pretty much what we always did. 

“Well, let’s get going. Ariane, Goemon, Chiyome…ready?” I looked back at each of them, one by one. “This is basically the same as when we freed the beast people from the slave market.” 

Ariane had her hand on the Sword of the King of Lions that hung from her waist, her golden eyes squinting as she looked at the town ahead. 

“Hmph.” 

Goemon brought his metal gauntlets together with a loud clang before casting a glance over at Chiyome. 

Chiyome nodded and let out a deep breath. 

“I can’t say that I’m totally okay, but I’ll do whatever’s needed of me.” 

“Kyii!” 

Ponta offered its own cheerful mew from where it sat perched atop my head. 

“I’m really sorry about all this. If I hadn’t come here seeking that red nail we found back in Plymouth, we wouldn’t even be here.” 

Goemon shook his head. “No need to apologize, Arc. Had we not come here, we would not have learned what happened to our lost brother. I owe you my gratitude.” 

“I… I see.” 

Chiyome’s ears twitched at Goemon’s comment. Assuming that Chiyome’s friend had led the dark giants all the way here, it was highly likely that he was somewhere in town. 

I wondered if that was what was on Chiyome’s and Goemon’s minds. 

“Well then, let’s get going! You know the drill!” 

Everyone moved close to me and put their hands on my back and shoulders. It had become like second nature to all of us. 

“Dimensional Step!” 

An instant later, we found ourselves inside the town, on the other side of the shattered wall. 

There were no signs of life coming from any of the buildings near the wall. The townspeople there had probably run as soon as the giants broke through. 

I could hear the roar of fires blazing, their tendrils licking high into the sky all around us. 

Amid the roar, I could also hear the sounds of fierce fighting and screams. 

We made our way down the road using Dimensional Step. 

Since much of this route was blocked by wreckage from the collapsed houses lining the road, the mounted warriors weren’t able to head directly down the paths the giants had taken. 

As Houwe had pointed out earlier, rescuing all of the enslaved mountain people was likely impossible, due to the sheer size of the town. 

But even so, as one who was once a human myself, I couldn’t just leave these murderous giants to their own devices. First off, I needed to find the dark giants in the first place. After that, I doubted anyone would mind if we killed them. 

If the original report was correct, there were still around twenty left. 

“Picking up anything? Goemon? Chiyome?” 

I looked back at the two of them. They simply shook their heads. 

Thanks to their ninja training, I was relying on their extraordinary senses to locate any survivors, but it was clearly no easy task. 

Back in the Rhoden capital, the Jinshin clan had already identified its target, so it was only a matter of carrying out the plan. Relatively simple by comparison. Out here in Tagent, however, we didn’t have the benefit of any advance reconnaissance and had no idea where anything was located. 

We’d need to find a lead that we could follow. 

After several more teleports, we found ourselves standing before a large, open space. 

In the middle of the square stood a decorative stone fountain. All of the surrounding houses were in flames. 

Nearby, I found several humans who’d escaped here for safety. 

Around the survivors stood a group of guards, dressed in light armor and armed with shields and spears, engaged in violent combat with another group of soldiers, dressed in full body armor made of dull metal. 

“What’s going on here? I thought the town was being attacked by giants!” 

Ariane shook her head at this, puzzled at the sight unfolding before us. 

I glanced back just in time to see one of the guards use his spear to score a direct hit on a soldier’s helmet, knocking it right off his head. The helmet hit the ground with a loud clang and rolled. 

However, the soldier didn’t seem fazed in the slightest, and continued pressing in on the guards with his sword. 

Now that the helmetless soldier’s identity had been revealed, a cold chill ran up my spine. 

Its face was that of a skeleton, not dissimilar from my own. 

“Ariane, that’s me! I wonder if all of the soldiers are just like me too?” 

“They can’t be! If they were all like you, then…well, they probably wouldn’t have made it this far.” 

Ariane was always the wet blanket that dampened my enthusiasm. 

“But still, something strange is going on here. Those soldiers are definitely undead.” 

Chiyome carefully inspected the soldiers, narrowing her eyes and giving the air a brief sniff. 

This only made the whole situation even more confusing. 

Why were there fully armored undead, and why were they wielding human weapons? 

If there had been just a few of them, a simple explanation, like a dead soldier being buried with their armor and weapons, could easily explain it. But there were at least ten that I could see, and at least ten more were flooding out of the destroyed houses and making their way here. 

“Now isn’t the time. We need to help the guards. We can look for answers later!” 

I pulled the Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg off my back and lunged into the fray. 

The humans took one look at me and, figuring I was one of the skeleton soldiers, readied their shields and spears. 

I wasn’t in a position to explain to them who I was. Besides, they weren’t entirely wrong on the skeleton point. 

I gave the human guards a wide berth and focused on the skeleton soldiers, swiping down with a heavy blow. 

The air whistled as my sword flew through the air, cutting through armor like paper and sending fragments of metal and bone raining down onto the pavement. 

The skeletons’ armor were made of relatively light metal that put up little resistance. It might have been able to stand up to an average sword or spear, but in the face of the mythical-class Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg, it was like they were wearing cardboard. 

“I thought we’d be hunting giants, but here I am fighting my skeleton brethren…” 

I complained to myself as I swung my sword once more, knocking back another soldier with a loud clang, sending pieces of bone flying every which way. Its armor collapsed in a neat pile. 

All twenty skeletons were reduced to literal bones faster than a ramen joint could get the bowl from their kitchen to your table. 

“That about wraps things up here. Anyway, I have a few questions for you guys, if that’s okay.” 

I slid the sword back into its sheath and looked at the guards and townsfolk. They all looked completely taken aback at what they’d just seen. 

I took another step forward to try and speak with them, only to be met with fear, and several spears pointed my way. 

“Arc, behind you!” 

I glanced back to find Ariane running full tilt in my direction, sword drawn. It took me a second to realize what she was trying to tell me. I pulled my shield up with my left hand and swung my sword with my right to meet the incoming blow. 

The newcomer did a flip through the air, bounding over my head, and landing in the middle of the human guards. He swung his blades with deadly precision, sending blood spraying every which way. 

“Sasuke!” Chiyome called out his name. 

I couldn’t tell if he was actually responding to her or not, but Sasuke’s expressionless face slowly turned toward me. 

Before I could react, I heard a now-familiar cry from above and felt the ground tremble beneath my feet. 

I used Dimensional Step to move out of the way. 

The earth rumbled so tremendously that the surrounding buildings shook on their foundations. The spot where I’d been standing mere moments ago was now occupied by a six-meter-tall dark giant, its weapon raised high in the air. 

That was close. One second too late, and I would’ve been as flat as a flower shoved between the pages of a book. 

The giant let out a furious cry before lifting up its immense stone axe and swinging it down toward Sasuke. The ninja, however, anticipated the strike and bounded up the wall of a building, disappearing onto the rooftops. 

“W-wait up, Sasuke!” 

Chiyome took off after him, running down a narrow alley before bounding onto the roofs herself, heading in the direction Sasuke had gone. 

Goemon ran straight up the side of a building and followed suit, leaving clear outlines where his feet slammed into the wall. That technique must’ve been a sheer feat of strength. 

Ariane watched them go, the worry clear on her face, before glancing toward me. She wasn’t sure if she should stay with me or follow them. 

“Ariane, you go after Chiyome and Goemon! Leave this big lug to me!” 

She glanced up at the roof above her and, after a prompting nod from me, chased after the others. 

It was now just me and the dark giant alone in the square. 

The headless dark giant pulled its stone axe up from the earth and focused its large, inky black eyes on me. It was a rather disconcerting sight. The dark giant swung wide, and I pulled up my own weapon, light slowly building around the blade. I slammed it into the ground. 

“Sword of Judgment!” 

A rune appeared under the giant’s feet. Out of the center rose a sword of light, piercing the giant’s body from below. The sword tore up out of the giant’s mouth before a loud metal clang resounded through the square as it shattered into a thousand pieces a second later. 

As the shards of light clattered to the ground, the giant began shaking wildly. 

“Well, your hide may be tough, but sensitive spots are all the same.” 

I yanked my sword from the ground and started walking away when I suddenly spotted a young boy huddled in the ruins of a building. 

I put my sword back in its sheath and approached him. He looked afraid as he clutched a piece of timber in his hands, pointing it in my direction. Behind the young boy, I could see a woman lying on the ground, her foot trapped under the rubble, blood flowing from her head. 

The woman, probably the boy’s mother, spoke weakly. 

“Please…save yourself… Please…” 

However, the young boy continued holding out the wood, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I’m not leaving you, Mama! I won’t go without you!” 

I felt bad that he believed I intended to do him harm, but I had no ill intentions for him or his mother. To be fair, though, I must have looked just like the other skeletons to them. 

“Kyii! Kyiiii!” 

Ponta looked up from where it was wrapped around my neck like a scarf and tried telling them I wasn’t some sort of strange monster. Unfortunately, it had little effect. 

I remembered something I had stashed away at my waist and reached down to pull out my waterskin. After a quick swig, I was overcome by a massive headache as everything blurred in front of me. 

I let out a deep breath as I tried to get ahold of myself. 

A shudder passed through my body as the rush of built-up emotions washed over me. Maybe it was the up-close-and-personal battle with the giant that had taken such an emotional toll on me. 

I took another deep breath and let it out slowly before turning my attention back to the boy and pulling my helmet off. 

“You’re…not a human, are you mister?” The young boy looked up at me with great curiosity. 

“I’m an elf. Have you heard of them? We can use magic. Even magic that allows us to heal people.” 

The boy’s face lit up as I pulled the helmet back on. “You… You can fix Mama?” 

I nodded, and approached the woman behind him. 

After casting a healing spell on the woman’s head and making sure the bleeding had stopped, I began removing the bricks so I could examine her leg. It looked broken, and would probably need a more powerful spell. 

“Are you sure you’re an elf, mister? I heard that elves are cunning people who stole their powers from God.” 

I was taken aback by the boy’s statement. Apparently, this is what the Hilk church was teaching its followers. “Are you saying you’ve never met a cunning human?” 

The boy thought for a minute before shaking his head. 

I’d be willing to bet someone specific had come to mind. 

“Say, for example, there was a thief. If that thief were a human, would that make all humans thieves? Are you or your mother thieves? It’s the same thing.” 

“Mama and I ain’t no thieves!” the boy shot back angrily. 

After finishing with my healing magic, I looked over the woman’s leg and nodded. It should be all right now. 

“Thank you so much,” the woman said. 

“Beyond the wall is relatively safe. Keep out of sight and make your way out of town.” 

The woman slowly stood on unsteady legs and bowed her head. I glanced down at the worried young boy and cast a healing spell on him as well. 

“Keep her safe, boy.” 

The boy watched the magical glow fade with great interest and responded with a firm nod. He took his mother’s hand and led her out of the square and down the road. A few moments later, they were gone. 

That had taken longer than I anticipated. I needed to get up onto the roofs and get my bearings. 

*** 

Two dark shadows dashed across the rooftops of the buildings of Tagent. 

Leading the way was a cat-eared man dressed all in black and wrapped in a dark cloak. His bright red eyes and pale complexion made him look like a ghost. A young cat girl dressed in similar black ninja garb followed a short distance behind him. 

Her azure eyes were fixed on the man’s back as she darted across the crumbling roof tiles, desperate to not lose sight of him. 

The man she chased was someone she’d once considered a brother. They’d both lost their families. They’d lived and trained together. He’d doted on her like a sister, and she’d admired him as if he were her real brother. 

One of the six great fighters of the Jinshin clan, Sasuke was also one of the youngest members to ever assume that role. However, the Sasuke she was pursuing was no longer the man she’d once known. 

It was nothing short of a tragedy that she’d finally find the man she’d been looking for in a state like this, devoid of any life. He was undead, a man no longer of this world. Jealous of the living, he could do nothing but dispense death. 

A corpse without a soul…or so they said. 

But Chiyome had to believe that the man she’d once known was still inside. From getting yelled at by Master Hanzo to eating flour dumpling soup, they’d done everything together. She refused to believe that that man was gone. 

“Wait up, Sasuke!” 

Chiyome used her ninja skills to throw some water shuriken at Sasuke’s feet, but he immediately responded with shuriken of his own, knocking them away. 

Sasuke’s split-second pause, however, was all the time another figure, a mammoth of a man, needed to close in from the opposite side. He came in fast with a right hook, his arm looking like it was made entirely of metal. 

“Goemon?!” 

“Muscle to stone, concussive fist!” 

Sasuke launched into the air and did a somersault right as Goemon’s fist came crashing down, taking him out of the massive man’s reach. 

The roof exploded beneath Goemon’s fist as if it’d been hit by a bomb, throwing bricks and dust everywhere. 

Chiyome yelled at him. “What’re you doing, Goemon?! What if you’d hit Sasuke?” 

Goemon glared at Chiyome. “You know it as well as I do. Sasuke was one of us, but now he’s a member of the undead. Do you want to see him bring further disgrace to his name?” 

The normally silent man’s voice boomed, his eyes wide. 

Chiyome looked back and forth between Sasuke and Goemon. 

Sasuke picked up on her hesitation. A moment later, he had both blades out from the sheaths at his back and was rushing in to strike. 

Chiyome evaded the first slash and blocked the second with her own blade, but Sasuke caught her square in the stomach with a powerful kick, sending her flying backward and crashing onto another roof. 

“Hyauuk!” 

The young ninja spit blood from her mouth and lurched to her feet, but Sasuke was already closing in fast. All she could do was watch blankly. 

Goemon appeared behind Sasuke, his body now fully engulfed in bronze as he tried running the other man through. However, Sasuke mostly managed to dodge the attack, catching only a glancing blow that threw him off balance. While still in mid-air, Sasuke pulled several metal shuriken out of his pocket and threw them. 

Changing direction in mid-air was one of Sasuke’s special techniques. It was almost unnatural how he pulled it off. 

One of the shuriken missed Goemon and made its way straight toward Chiyome’s chest. 

“Instead of throwing it at the target, think of it like extending your arm toward the target.” 

These words echoed in Chiyome’s head as she remembered the day when Sasuke had taught her how to properly throw a shuriken. He’d trained with her until late into the evening. 

The image of young Sasuke sprang to mind as her eyes focused in on the man coolly dispensing death. The clang of metal on metal resounded in the air, and Sasuke’s shuriken tumbled off the roof, down to the stone path below. 

The shuriken had bounced off a woman’s long blade, her white hair whipping in the wind. 

“Step back, Chiyome! It’s too dangerous. Goemon and I will take up the fight.” 

Ariane turned her gaze toward Sasuke, stepping between him and the young ninja girl. 

Unfortunately, two dark giants chose that exact moment to make their presence known. They let out an awful shriek that echoed throughout the town. 

“Greeeeaaaaauuw!” 

Both of the giants had their eyes fixed on Sasuke as they brought their massive stone axes down in his direction. 

The roofs shook violently whenever the giants ran, making it difficult to move. The giants, however, paid this no mind, and swung their axes with reckless abandon into the surrounding buildings. They relentlessly crushed homes beneath their feet, causing a landslide of bricks all around them. 

The giants lost their footing on the ruins, tumbling to the ground and taking Goemon—his body still encased in metal—down with them in the wave of destruction. 

Ariane used her earth spirit magic to create a platform beneath her feet to escape the destruction, while Chiyome dove to a nearby roof just in time. 

Sasuke, who, only moments before, had been fighting against the three of them, leaped high into the air, flipped around, and glanced down at the destruction with disinterest. After landing on another rooftop, he bounded off again to make his escape. 

Before he could, however, several metal, star-shaped disks flew through the air and embedded themselves in his foot. Sasuke lost his concentration at the sudden pain and lost his balance, crashing hard into the roof and sending a cloud of dust high into the air. 

“Chiyome…” 

“Chiyome!” 

Goemon and Ariane turned toward the person who’d thrown the shuriken, the surprise evident in their voices. 

“Are you all right? You don’t need to push yourself.” 

Chiyome just shook her head, brushing off Ariane’s concern. “I’ve got this. I’m Chiyome. When I accepted the role that came along with that name, I knew it would be my job to see my allies off. Ariane, can you hold the giants back?” 

A stiff smile came to Chiyome’s face as she glanced toward the two giants struggling to stand. 

“No problem. Not only will I hold them back, I’ll put them down while I’m at it!” 

Ariane shot a confident grin toward Chiyome before bounding down the mountain of rubble. She practically glided, not getting caught even once as she drew her sword and held it high, her golden eyes locked straight ahead. 

Her body began emitting a faint, scarlet glow as she quietly recited a chant. 

“Holy flame, heed my call. Rise up, rain down, and return everything to the dust from whence it came.” 

Multiple red balls began forming around Ariane as she chanted. They took off like glimmering butterflies, dancing about, as if they had minds of their own. The flaming butterflies obeyed Ariane’s command and fluttered toward the dark giants. 

One of the dark giants let out an immense roar and swung its axe toward Ariane. The axe struck the pile of rubble below, sending pieces of debris flying everywhere and momentarily obscuring its vision in a massive cloud of dust. 

The dark giant tried waving the cloud of dust away. Instead, however, its hand erupted into flames, looking like a giant torch. 

“Grauuuuuwl!” 

It held its burning arm tight and fell into the pile of rubble, smashing more houses as it thrashed about. 

Despite the giant’s efforts to quench the flame, it only grew stronger as it burnt its way up the giant’s arm. 

Moments later, a pillar of fire burst out of the dark giant’s mouth, eliciting an unearthly scream of agony. Its massive eyes went blank as the flames began eating them as well, burning butterflies floating out of the now-empty sockets. 

The butterflies continued multiplying and returned to Ariane, who carefully orchestrated their movements with her sword, like a skilled conductor. They gathered below her, the red glow growing even more intense. Even her snow-white hair looked as if it were ablaze as it fluttered in the wind, reflecting the swarm of fiery butterflies. Whether the remaining giant was sentient enough to understand true fear was up for debate, but if it could, that had to be what it was feeling now. 

The giant started reversing course on its stubby legs. 

“Your fear of fire proves that you’re nothing but an animal!” 

A sadistic smile graced Ariane’s face as she sent the swarm of butterflies after the fleeing giant. 

While Ariane was busy creating hell on earth, Chiyome shuddered at the thought of how her companion must look when angry. 

Ah, right. She’d told Ariane that she would stop Sasuke on her own. 

The dark giant was now burnt to a crisp, filling the air with the unmistakable scent of charred meat. She could feel the unnatural heat wafting off the giant-turned-torch. 

Chiyome took a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to clear her senses. Suddenly, everything around her began feeling much more vivid. Goemon stood a short distance away, blocking Sasuke’s escape route. 

A loud clang broke the silence as Chiyome blocked a shuriken flying out of the dust cloud straight toward her. It was the shuriken she’d thrown at Sasuke. 

A split second later, Sasuke came diving out of the shadows after the shuriken. Chiyome anticipated this and coolly deflected the first blow with her short sword before striking out with her own horizontal slash. She easily ducked out of the way of Sasuke’s second thrust. 

Sasuke parried Chiyome’s strike with one of his own blades before bringing the other down toward her undefended torso, hoping to cleave her in two. 

Right at that moment, two water shuriken flew straight toward Sasuke’s feet from out of the rubble. He bounded into the air and twisted around, dodging one of them, but he wasn’t quite nimble enough to avoid the second, which struck his already injured foot. 

Undead were generally incapable of feeling pain, but that didn’t mean they didn’t suffer from the physical limitations imposed by an injury. Just as one couldn’t grasp anything with a broken arm, it was impossible to move deftly on injured feet regardless of whether or not you felt pain. Though he didn’t show that he was affected at all by the injury, in either his expression or movements, the impact on his endurance and stamina were clear. 

Chiyome held up her short sword and locked eyes with Sasuke. 

A feeling she couldn’t quite put into words began welling up inside her. But no matter how much she knew that she couldn’t afford to think about such things, her thoughts kept drifting back to them. 

After shaking her head to clear her mind, Chiyome began performing several gestures with her hands. 

“Body to water, liquid wolf fang!” 

Water began pooling at her feet, forming into two mounds that slowly took the shape of wolves. However, these wolves were a fair bit smaller than the ones she’d used during the assault on the capital of the Rhoden Kingdom. 

Sasuke pointed one of his swords and drew the other back in a well-practiced move that could strike down a foe in a single, powerful strike. 

Chiyome unleashed her two aqua wolves on Sasuke, following close behind them while keeping an eye on Sasuke’s movements. 

The wolves dove toward Sasuke just as he swung. 

Sasuke’s initial blows went straight through the first aqua wolf, though his second attack blew it away. 

Sasuke’s swords began glowing as a gust of wind whipped around them, making his attacks all the more powerful. 

Chiyome and the remaining aqua wolf flanked Sasuke on either side, and she pressed in on the attack. 

The remaining aqua wolf dove at Sasuke’s back, only barely missing as Sasuke ducked away and swung his sword toward the beast. 

At the same moment, Chiyome closed in from the other side. Sasuke missed the wolf and launched another strike at Chiyome. She dodged, and let loose with another shuriken. 

Sasuke avoided the shuriken this time by twisting his body out of the way. He thrust his sword up into the neck of the remaining aqua wolf as it dove in toward him. 

Suddenly, he felt another wolf, this one smaller than the first two, bite down hard on his arm and thrash about. 

Due to its small size, it was hardly able to inflict more than a flesh wound. 

While Sasuke was distracted by the bite, Chiyome threw her short sword straight at his face. He deflected the blow, but she had anticipated that. 

After all the time they’d spent training together on driving an enemy back, striking when they least expected it, and feinting, Sasuke could easily read Chiyome’s intentions. 

With the blade temporarily blocking Sasuke’s view, Chiyome took the opportunity to close in on him and get within reach of his injured foot. Even she was stunned that she’d pulled it off. 

All of their training had led them here, with her hand on his foot. 

In that moment, Chiyome and Sasuke locked eyes—azure and red fixed on one another. Chiyome’s lips trembled as she stroked the foot of the man who’d once called her his little sister. 

His flesh was cold, as if blood had stopped flowing through it long ago. She gritted her teeth in determination. 

“Body to water, bloodstream hell needle!” 

A spike-shaped object formed in Chiyome’s right hand and drove itself into the wound in Sasuke’s foot. 

Sasuke’s foot began deforming and bloating as countless spikes of water tore out of his body, making him resemble a giant porcupine. 

The clear water took on a red tinge as it mixed with his blood. His body convulsed violently, then he collapsed, the spikes vanishing. 

Sasuke lay unmoving on the ground, his eyes closed. Chiyome looked down at him in silence as tears welled in her eyes. A single teardrop found its way down her cheek and fell onto Sasuke’s face. 

“Sasuke…brother. Why didn’t you use your ninja techniques and fight back?” 

Under normal circumstances, Sasuke would have undoubtedly relied more heavily on his wind abilities. And yet, he’d only used the most basic of his techniques. Even his sky-walking technique had felt…half-hearted. 

She never would have been able to beat the Sasuke she’d once known. 

Chiyome caught a glimpse of movement under the fallen man’s eyelids. 

“It…wouldn’t be right…to fight…against your sister…like that…” 

His voice was a hoarse whisper, barely audible over the flames crackling around them. But Chiyome recognized it as the voice of her beloved brother. 

An unrelenting stream of tears poured down Chiyome’s cheeks. 

“Sasuke! Hold on, I’m going to get Arc! He can heal you, I know it!” 

As Chiyome stood up, however, she found her path blocked by Goemon. She shot a defiant glare up at him. 

“Healing magic cannot bring back the dead. Say your goodbyes, Chiyome.” 

The young ninja let out a choked sob as she turned her gaze back toward Sasuke. 

“Don’t…cry, Mia. I’m glad that…it was…you who stopped me.” 

“Rowe… Rooooowe!!!” 

Tears flowed freely down her face as she pulled her brother closer, ignoring the wounds covering his body, in an attempt to catch every word. 

Sasuke’s face curved into a gentle smile at the feeling of her warmth. “Goemon, please watch after her.” 

The large man closed his eyes and nodded solemnly. 

Sasuke’s body drooped as the last remnants of energy left him. In a matter of moments, all trace of movement had ceased, as if he’d fallen into a deep, deep sleep. His body began turning into a fine dust. 

“Watch…the church…” 

“I don’t understand! Sasuke! What does that mean?!” 

Chiyome looked down in desperation at the scattering remains of her brother. Alas, he offered no answers as his disintegrating body was carried away by a strong breeze. 

Chiyome held tight to a red, diamond-shaped crystal as she watched the particles dance in the air. The gem in her hand was all that remained of him. 

*** 

I looked around at the town of Tagent from my rooftop perch and let out a sigh. 

“Where did you guys go? I can’t find anyone.” 

Using Dimensional Step, I teleported around the town, looking for my friends. But so far, all that greeted me were the ever-present flames, slowly eating away at the town. 

Whenever I ran across any skeleton soldiers, I destroyed them from the rooftops with a magical attack. But I quickly realized that there were quite a few of them. I must’ve destroyed at least a hundred already. 

I also slayed another dark giant while I was at it. 

Though not ideal against multiple opponents, Sword of Judgement was the perfect attack for tearing through a single giant right at their weakest point. I tried not to think too hard about where I was stabbing them though. 

Minimal effort, maximum effect. 

“Kyii!” Ponta was trying to tell me something. 

“Huh, what’s that, buddy?” 

I glanced around, finally spotting a dark giant standing atop a roof. 

Seeing that hulking mass atop a building was a sight to behold. I had no idea how the building was supporting its weight. 

The vast majority of buildings in Tagent were around three stories tall, making it easy for the six-meter-tall giants to disappear in their shadows. Staring off at the sea of rooftops made it impossible to really see anything going on in town. 

Another issue I faced was the shoddy construction of the roofs, and the fact that I was wearing a full suit of armor. On more than one occasion, I’d fallen into a building as the roof gave out beneath me. At the very least, I could always blame the damage on the giants, although it had probably been a poor idea on my part to climb up here in the first place. 

I focused on a location behind the dark giant. 

“Dimensional Step!” 

In an instant, I was standing 300 meters away from where I’d been moments ago. I drew my sword as I stared at the giant’s back, preparing for a surprise attack. 

“Sword of Judgment!” 

A rune appeared under the giant, and a large sword of light appeared at the center, shooting straight up through the giant’s crotch and out its large, gaping mouth. 

As soon as the sword splintered and disappeared, the giant’s colossal body tilted to the side, and tumbled off the roof, hitting the pavement below. 

Looking down, I could still see signs of life as it struggled to breathe. 

Hordes of skeleton soldiers flooded the narrow alley and approached the fallen giant, thrusting their weapons into its body. 

“I’ve got no idea what they’re doing here…” 

The first time I’d seen them, the skeleton soldiers had been attacking the citizens and local guards. 

I’d already figured that the dark giants were led here by Sasuke in order to lay siege to the town of Tagent. It made enough sense that he would put together a plan to lay waste to the humans. However, that still begged the question of why and how he’d disappeared, only to return undead. 

Though, to be honest, a part of me didn’t want to be suspicious of Chiyome’s long-time ally. 

Assuming that he’d led the giants here to destroy the town, and was also responsible for the skeleton soldiers, it didn’t make sense that they would attack the giants. 

Things don’t always go as planned, though. 

If you released a tiger and a wolf on the same prey, it’s more likely than not that the tiger and wolf will end up fighting each other instead. 

Even more confusing, though, was the fact that the skeleton soldiers simply walked past the townsfolk on occasion, without bothering to attack. 

Perhaps some of them were human after all? 

All of the soldiers I’d destroyed so far had attacked either humans or mountain people, though, so I didn’t worry about destroying them. Still, I couldn’t wrap my mind around what was going on in this town. 

The giant ceased all movement after the skeleton soldiers’ assault. With that task complete, they marched off in search of another target. 

I kicked a roof tile down toward them. It hit the pavement below, shattering with a loud crash. But they only glanced at it before continuing on their way. 

It didn’t seem like there were any humans among them. Sure, they’d responded to the sound, but they made no effort to identify where the tile had come from. 

“This just keeps getting stranger and stranger.” 

Before I could give it more thought, I heard another giant’s cry off in the distance. 

It was already well into the evening, and the sun was hanging low in the sky. 

The dark giant screeched again, this time followed by the desperate screams of humans. 

Ponta turned in the direction of the sound, its tail wagging gently. I turned, too, trying to identify the source of the sound. 

Up ahead, at the center of the town, I saw a massive building that looked nothing like the rest. 

It was flanked on either side by towers that shot high into the sky. It had a rather unique construction to it, and looked remarkably similar to a building I’d seen back in Leibnizche, in the Holy East Revlon Empire. 

I figured they were both churches of the Hilk religion. 

The last time I’d seen a building like this was when I summoned forth a demon and pretty much reduced the church to rubble. Glancing around, I caught sight of several dark giants marching down the road, closing in on the church. At their feet, I saw little dots scattering out of their way—townsfolk running for their lives. 

I turned my attention away for a moment to look up at the darkening sky. Once night fell, it would become infinitely more difficult for me to use my teleportation magic. 

The original plan had been to slip into the town unnoticed among the chaos and free the enslaved mountain people, but I couldn’t just leave the dark giants to run around freely, causing havoc. 

Well, havoc had already been caused. But I didn’t want to see it get any worse. 

From where I stood, I counted seven dark giants assembling around the church. 

I took a deep breath, drew the Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg with my right hand and hefted the Holy Shield of Teutates with my left. 

“Kyii!” 

Sensing that it was time for battle again, Ponta dropped down from my head and wrapped itself around my neck like a scarf. I brushed its fluffy tail aside to keep it from obscuring my vision. 

“Off we go.” 

I let out the breath I’d been holding and used Dimensional Step to teleport me atop one of the buildings inside the church grounds. It gave me a good line of sight over the surrounding area. 

The church was larger than any other building in town and immaculately decorated, though its design was still more reserved than the churches I’d seen back up on the northern continent. Probably the most unique feature was the large wall that enclosed the church grounds. 

Back in my world, I couldn’t recall seeing any churches surrounded by walls, given that the whole point of a church was to be open to all. It seemed a bit odd to me. But this was a different world. Back before the town had exploded in size, the church might have been designed as an evacuation point in the event of a monster attack. 

In front of me, I watched as people flooded through the church’s entrance. 

Anyone who showed even a moment’s hesitation was snatched up and thrown into the mouth of one of the pursuing dark giants. I could hear the awful sounds as they crunched down. 

Just watching the scene unfold was enough to make me sick to my stomach. 

Unfortunately, even those who did make it past the church’s walls weren’t necessarily safe. The dark giants were already aggressively swinging their stone axes into the wall. 

More crashes. More screams. 

The dark giants lumbered through the hole they’d bashed in the wall and began screeching as they stomped on the people in the courtyard as if they were ants. 

I couldn’t get a clear look from where I stood, but the screams I heard told the whole story. 

My sword hand trembled. Was this…fear? Why? 

I remembered what I’d done for the fallen woman earlier. I dropped my sword, took off my helmet, and touched my face. 

It wasn’t that of a cold, hard skull. 

I let out a sigh as the tips of my fingers touched flesh. 

Apparently, the effects of the spring water hadn’t worn off yet. So this emotion causing me to pause in the face of giants was…real. The feelings of fear surfaced whenever I returned to my elven form, and that was causing my feet to betray me and keep me from moving forward. 

I squeezed my fists several times, trying to force the fear down. 

No matter how overpowered this body of flesh and blood might be, without the proper experience and training to prepare the soul, it was like a weapon left in cold storage. I laughed weakly. 

“Kyii?” 

Ponta looked up from my neck, concern clear on its face. 

“It’s okay, Ponta. This will be a good exercise for me. If I plan to face my foes as an elf, I’ll need to prepare myself for combat.” 

Though I was speaking to Ponta, the words were more for me. I put my helmet back on, closed my eyes, and banged on my forehead several times with my fist. 

“I’m ready.” 

I made a brief list of skills that could be useful in the upcoming battle, then retrieved the Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg from the roof with an energetic yell. 

For my first target, I picked one of the dark giants a little farther into the courtyard, away from the others. Getting the drop on your enemy was one of the essentials of combat. Now that I thought about it, the very first battle I’d gotten into, when I first appeared in this world, had also relied on the element of surprise. 

It seemed a bit easy, considering all the power I could harbor, but I thought it best to build up my experience slowly. 

I held my sword at the ready and focused on a spot behind the dark giant. 

“Dimensional Step!” 

In an instant, I was standing atop another roof, staring at the giant’s back. Holding my sword up, I readied my next attack. 

Just then, I heard a man’s voice booming from within the church grounds. 

“Now just wait a minute here! You leave my house alone, you hear me?!” 

The voice shook the very ground beneath me and left me with a deep sense of unease. And yet, there was also something incredibly immature about it, which only contributed to how uncanny it sounded. 

“You’ve got me real mad now! I’m going to rip you to shreds!” 

The eerie, immature voice echoed around me. A massive explosion tore through the air as part of the church’s wall blew away. 

The panicking masses, and even the dark giants that were munching on them, all looked over in surprise. 

Amid the slowly dispersing cloud of dust stood a hideous, indescribable form that somehow managed to make the dark giants look cute by comparison. 

The best description I could come up with was that it looked vaguely like a scorpion with the face of a caterpillar. Its massive body was pale white, and it was about ten meters long. It looked rather squishy. Countless human heads, tortured expressions on their faces, covered the body of the creature. I could faintly hear moans escaping their lips, as if they were still alive. The whole thing was supported by innumerable pale, white human legs running along its stomach like fine hairs. The legs caused the creature to undulate as it slid its body along. 

The back of the creature was curled up like a shrimp. At the tip of the raised section was a body that looked like a cross between a frog and a man. This appeared to be the source of the voice I’d heard earlier. A large, fleshy mass grew out of the frogman’s back with a multitude of long, multi-jointed arms sprouting out of it. Each of the hands carried a hatchet, club, mace, or some other weapon. 

It was truly a creature of nightmare. 

The disturbing scorpion-caterpillar launched its raised section toward a nearby dark giant, the innumerable arms descending on it with weapons drawn, but I knew the dark giant’s stiff fur did a good job protecting it from being harmed by most normal weapons. 

The giant pulled up its axe and tried fighting back, but it was only a few moments before it dropped to the ground from its injuries. 

The large scorpion-like creature opened its immense mouth lined with hundreds of teeth. It looked like a giant alligator as it swooped in and swallowed the dark giant whole, a sickening squishing noise filling the air as its mouth closed. 

Even given its immense size, I was amazed to see the scorpion-caterpillar swallow a dark giant whole. I could hardly believe my eyes. 

I briefly considered the possibility that maybe there was someone else out there who could also summon demons and was trying to protect the townsfolk, but I knew in my heart that the world wasn’t that kind. 

After taking down the dark giant, the creature slithered toward some of the humans cowering in fear nearby. It opened its mouth again and chomped down on them. 

I realized that this was no angel of the church, but yet another of the many indescribable monsters that inhabited this world. 

The people quickly descended into panic, which was a pretty reasonable reaction. 

I heard them scream and flee in terror as the bizarre creature called after them. 

“Aww, but being like this makes me soooo hungry.” 

He sounded so casual as he spoke, inhaling people with his large mouth, like a whale might suck up krill. It was a scene of indiscriminate carnage. 

After seeing their comrade taken down, the rest of the dark giants descended upon the massive creature. However, the result was the same each time: They, along with the other humans running for their lives, just ended up as another snack in the creature’s belly. 

The faces howling in agony along the creature’s body increased. 

All I could do was watch as the large, pale creature wriggled forward on countless legs, its frog-human body gazing at the carnage in front of it. 

“Kyiii…” 

Ponta’s worried cry brought me back to reality. 

“Sorry about that, Ponta.” 

The scene only got worse as a swarm of skeleton soldiers swept in, chasing after the refugees who’d escaped to the church. 

It didn’t do me any good to try and make sense of the situation right now. 

If the tiger clan ran across this creature, it wouldn’t end well for them. 

Fortunately, the creature still hadn’t noticed me. I still had the element of surprise. 

I began waving the Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg, its blade slowly taking on a light blue glow. With a smash, I brought the blade straight down into the ground. 

“Sword of Judgment!” 

The scorpion creature was looking in another direction, so I was sure everything was about to play out perfectly. 

Despite putting in even more power than usual, in order to make sure I’d finish the thing off, as soon as the rune appeared underneath the creature, the faces that lined its body let out moans of agony, and it quickly skittered out of the way. The sword of light shot straight up into the air, totally missing its mark. 

I was impressed at how fast a thing that size could move. 

The frog-man looming over the creature seemed to be steering it around like some living vehicle—a kind of demon go-kart. 

I silently cursed as I readied myself for my next attack. Unfortunately, the creature had finally caught sight of me. That didn’t take long. 

The creature undulated as it moved, turning its massive body toward me. 

“Who dares oppose me?! All right men, destroy him!” 

His eerie voice rang in my ear like that of an impetuous child. The countless legs lining its belly trembled as the creature came toward me at full speed. Yep, I’d been found. 

“Holy Shield!” 

I took off in a sprint, shield at the ready as I called forth my defensive spell. 

At nearly the same instant, the multi-armed creature descended upon me. I could hear its blows smashing against my glowing shield as I slashed out with my own sword, lopping off several of the incoming arms. 

Fortunately, the pale flesh had nowhere near the defensive abilities of the giants, and my weapon easily cut through them. 

“You jerk! You big, fat, stupid jeeeeeeerk!” 

The creature was clearly annoyed as it began throwing a fit. Deciding on another strategy, it rushed at me, trying to crush me. 

I was able to dodge the attack with a quick teleport. The creature turned frantically from side to side, trying to see where I went. 

Apparently, his view was fixed, and he could only look in the direction his body was facing. 

In that case, I should be able to just attack it from behind, constantly moving out of its line of sight and attacking again. 

I readied my sword once more and called forth another of my skills, this time a fast, short-range technique. 

“Holy Ray Sword!” 

I swung my glowing blade down, sending out a beam of light in a straight line toward the creature’s feet. It let out a loud, wailing cry. 

The creature slumped to one side as it turned to face me. There was something rather nauseating about how it moved. 

“You jerk! You bastard! You, you, you… I hate you!” 

The frog-man attached to the back of the creature continued screaming a variety of epithets at me as it lunged in once more. I wasn’t really interested in fighting this thing face to face, though. 

I dodged the attack and unleashed another Holy Ray Sword, but this time I was only able to lop off a few more legs as it deftly moved out of the way. 

I glared back at the thing, silently hurling similar complaints back at it. 

The massive creature seemed to grow in size, the faces lining its body bloating, their mouths going wide. In unison, they each vomited up a pale, amorphous mass around the size of a grown man. 

These vomited lumps of muscle began twitching about in a grotesque manner before standing up under their own power. They looked like eels that had embedded themselves deep in the sea floor, wriggling about as they searched for food. 

Numerous tendrils began growing out of the sides of these writhing creatures before they started crawling along like inchworms. 

They squirmed about in bizarre fashion for a short time before bounding into the air like fleas, flying right toward me. 

“Yeagh, ewww!” 

I used my shield and sword to block and chop down the numerous masses of flesh that came flying at me. 

Everywhere I looked, all I could see was more of these writhing creatures. I couldn’t get a fix on a location to teleport to. 

None of the incoming enemies were particularly strong on their own. They posed little individual threat, but there were just so many of them…and they were disgusting to boot. 

I wasn’t making any progress, so I decided to use one of my Magus area-of-effect spells. 

“Flame Viper!” 

Flames began licking around my feet before turning into a column of fire surrounding me. A flaming snake rose up from the column and began torching the monsters. 

At least they weren’t resistant to fire, as far as I could tell. 

My surroundings looked like a sci-fi movie, the landscape covered in the charred remains of alien larva. 

Now that I was ready to get back into the fight with the creature itself, I discovered that it had its large, alligator-like mouth wide open, an ominous sound echoing out from deep inside. The wailing of the faces embedded in its skin increased in pitch. 

“Veeveeeeveeeveeveeeveeaaaaaaaaugh!!!” 

The sound on its own was enough to make me feel uneasy, but the volume made it all the worse. My legs wobbled, then gave out on me entirely, sending me to my knees. Ponta slipped off my neck. 

“Ngah, does he have debuff spells too?” 

I used my sword like a cane to support myself, running through the litany of recovery spells I knew in an attempt to ward off the debuffing effects. 

“Uncurse!” 

“Anti-disease!” 

They seemed to have at least some effect, since I felt my strength come back to me. Just to be on the safe side, I used the recovery spells on Ponta as well. 

I let out a yell to focus myself and turned toward the creature, ready to face it head-on. Once I got a look at it, however, I immediately understood the purpose of its debuffing attack. 

New fleshy-looking objects were growing out of the creature’s stomach. It looked like it was regenerating before my eyes and growing new legs. 

Its regeneration wasn’t fast by any means, but this whole situation didn’t look good. 

Back in the game, enemies that had regeneration abilities usually needed to be attacked by multiple people, all timing their attacks perfectly to prevent the monster from regenerating. Right now, it was only me. 

I felt like I was fighting the boss all on my own. 

Of course, the solution was simple: I needed to keep attacking the creature and not give it any time to regenerate. 

While my mind ran over my options, he lunged again, attacking with his many arms. 

I knew that I’d already lopped off quite a few arms at this point, but I didn’t seem to be making any progress in reducing the number. This was bad. I might need to make a run for it and find a better place to make my stand. 

I glanced around at my surroundings, desperately trying to come up with a plan. The square was now blanketed in darkness, which severely limited where I could teleport to. 

I really didn’t want to do this, but I didn’t have many other choices. I teleported to the farthest place I could see. This would at least give me a little breathing room. 

“I’m really sorry about this, Ponta, but I’ll need you to fly around on your own for a bit!” 

“Kyi? Kyiii!” 

Ponta tilted its head inquisitively before sliding off my neck and onto my head. From there, it called up a gust of magical wind, spread the membranes between its legs, and took off into the air. 

Good. 

I watched Ponta for a moment before turning my attention back to the creature. 

Next up, I needed to summon one of my demons—one I’d never used before. 

“Come forth, Guardian of Time! Aion, I summon you!” 

A large rune appeared on the ground beneath my feet and began glowing. It looked like the inner workings of a clock with intricate springs and cogs all moving together in unison. 

The rune began warping, and a giant snake with the head of a lion appeared in the center of it. 

The snake-lion coiled itself around my feet and moved up. To anyone watching, it must have looked like I was being attacked by a giant snake. But all was going as planned. 

The lion head made it all the way up to my shoulder and flashed its fangs at me. Then it bit my neck. My armor flashed, taking on a snake-lion design as flames flickered out from the gaps. 

This was one of the Summoner class’s top-tier demons, Aion. Upon summoning forth Aion, it would lock the player’s status for a full three minutes. It was a rather unique, though abnormal, skill. 

It was a little hard to describe what locking a player’s status actually meant, but in short, it basically meant that for three whole minutes, the player wouldn’t take damage from attacks and wouldn’t consume any magic. You were essentially invincible. 

It wasn’t without its downsides, however. 

First off, you had to achieve a fairly high level in the Summoner class before you could learn it. Even then, despite all that hard work you put in, using this demon was actually pretty inconvenient for most Summoners. 

You see, Summoners could only summon one demon at a time. 

Sure, you could use as much magic as you wanted in this invincible state, but a Summoner primarily relied on demons for its attacks, which it couldn’t use when their status locked. 

Compounding that was the fact that it used a lot of magic to summon forth Aion, which made sense, considering its effect. Even adding in a mid-tier, magic-based class, it’d probably take more than three minutes before you were able to make up for all the magic you’d consumed to summon it. 

Therefore, in order to properly make use of Aion’s abilities, you’d need to have another high-level class, one that could unleash powerful offensive attacks, as either your main or secondary class. 

Even though I was able to use any skill I’d ever learned here, back in the game, you were limited to skills belonging to either your main or secondary classes. With Summoner taking up one of those, and another dedicated to offensive capabilities, your player character would be heavily weighted on offense. 

Basically, this demon was reserved for gaming addicts. 

“All right, let’s wrap this up! Don’t leave a single ember left burning!” 

I looked up to see the creature heading straight toward me, its countless legs wriggling along its stomach like little hairs. Pulling up my sword and shield, I readied myself for the attack. Though Aion prevented your health from dropping in the game, I actually wasn’t sure what kind of effect it would have in reality. 

Being overconfident definitely wouldn’t do me any good, but I figured that, for now, I’d just ignore any incoming attacks and launch an assault of my own. 

While several of the arms were able to strike direct blows on me with their weapons, I didn’t feel any pain other than the sensation of being knocked back. At the very least, the demon’s abilities seemed to be working. 

However, I was unsure how much time was actually passing, so I wouldn’t be able to make use of the full three minutes. That would be a problem. 

Even though I was able to nullify the impact of the creature’s attack, I was still no closer to my objective. 

I needed to do everything I could to weaken the creature as much as possible before my time was up. 

“Sacred Seal!” 

Hot flashes of light sparked off my blade as I called forth one of my offensive Paladin skills. Forcing my way through its frenzied attack, I brought my sword down on the creature’s torso. 

A trail of light hung in the air as I swung my sword, the blade finding its target and chopping off a chunk of the creature’s body. 

“Oooooooooooww!!!” 

This was the most powerful skill I had against the undead. Fortunately, it seemed to be quite effective. While the skill was active, even normal attacks would have the same effect, making it a rather useful technique as far as magical abilities were concerned. 

I hadn’t summoned Aion just for this, however. I had bigger plans. 

The creature was drawing back now, in an attempt to protect itself, but I didn’t let up. 

“You’re done for! Cross Advent!” 

This was an area-of-effect spell from the Priest class. A bright circle of light appeared in the air above the creature before transforming into a giant, glowing cross. It looked almost like Jacob’s Ladder, going all the way down to the creature’s head. 

“Oooowww!!!” 

The creature began bubbling and evaporating where the light struck it, tendrils of smoke rising into the sky. 

It leaped back as the pain grew too much to bear, landing on top of several giants and killing them instantly before crashing into the wall of the church, sending down a landslide of rubble. 

But I wasn’t about to let up the attack now. 

I launched into another flurry of strikes against its body using Sacred Seal before calling forth another Cross Advent the moment the cooldown ran out and I could cast it again. 

The snake-lion design on my armor began fading just as the creature’s body started sizzling away and turning into an amorphous lump of pale flesh. It was an awful sight, like a bunch of human bodies mashed together. 

“Kyii!” 

“Hah! Looks like I did it!” 

Ponta landed on my head to offer up words of encouragement. I turned my gaze away from the lump of flesh to survey my surroundings. The church had been pretty much destroyed in the battle. 

At least this time it wasn’t my fault. Or at least, that’s what I told myself as I turned my gaze back to the mass of melting flesh. 

Just what was that creature anyway? 

Also, where were Ariane, Chiyome, and Goemon? Were they okay? 

I turned around, leaving the wreckage of the church behind me as the survivors stared at the remains of the creature, dumbfounded. 

The threat over here was pretty well pacified, so I figured it was time to meet up with the rest of the group. 

I glanced up at the star-filled sky and sheathed my sword. 

The fires still burning throughout Tagent were like streetlights as I walked along, my heart full of doubts about whether I’d actually be able to meet up with Ariane and the others. 

“Hmm…maybe I should just head out of town and wait with Houwe? That might be easier.” 

“Kyi?” 

Ponta responded to my rhetorical question with an inquisitive mew of its own, wagging its long, cottony tail excitedly as it spotted something that caught its interest. 

“Kyii! Kyiiiiii!” 

I caught sight of three figures heading toward me. 

It was Ariane, Chiyome, and Goemon. I let out a sigh of relief. Now we could finally get out of this place. 

I waved at Ariane as she crossed the open square toward me. “Ohh, Ariane! Did you have any trouble?” 

Ariane simply let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. 

As we closed the distance, I noticed that Chiyome’s eyes were cast down. She hadn’t said anything yet. Even her usually perky cat ears were lying flat atop her head. 

Back when we’d first entered the town, she’d taken off after Sasuke. I leaned in and whispered to Ariane, “What happened with Sasuke?” 

She only shook her head silently. 

Chiyome’s ears twitched slightly, as if responding to what I’d just asked. She slowly opened her hand, revealing a glowing red diamond. 

I’d seen something like it before. It was a pledge spirit crystal—a treasure cherished by the Jinshin clan, which allowed a person to become one with a spirit by pledging themselves to it, giving them the ability to use powerful techniques. Chiyome had one embedded within her as well. 

Since Chiyome was holding it in her hand, that had to mean… 

I locked eyes with Ariane. She nodded. 

Chiyome spoke at last, in a hushed tone. “The last thing Sasuke told me was to watch out for the church…then he was gone.” 

I looked back at Ariane and Goemon, but all they could do was shrug. 

“Watch out for the church”? What did that mean? 

I looked back over my shoulder at the church grounds where I’d battled the giant creature. Sasuke had called forth the undead and used giants to lay waste to the town. Did the church have something to do with all this? 

But if that were the case, then why would the church stage the attack within its grounds? Though, to be fair, we couldn’t assume that the church was acting as one. 

I scratched my chin and frowned. 

Back where I came from, every religion was made up of multiple denominations and factions, so it was entirely believable that there might be no central, solid consensus at the core of the Hilk. Could this be a case of in-fighting? 

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts and unravel this tangled ball of yarn. But I wouldn’t be able to find any answers right now, no matter how much I thought it over. 

Without knowing what they were after in the first place, it was impossible to figure out the reasons behind their actions. 

Besides, it was probably best for the elves and mountain people to stay away from the church in the first place, considering that their teachings insisted the elves were “usurpers” and the mountain people had been “cast out of humanity.” There was more than enough reason to steer clear. All this meant was that we’d want to be a little more cautious in how we conducted ourselves going forward. 

But for now, we should head out of town and make our way back to Chieftain Houwe. 

I gazed up at the church. Flanked by the two towers, it resembled a tombstone against the night sky. I tore my gaze away to look back at the group.