Chapter 177 : The War Begins (7)
The final clash began.
This was a battle more ferocious than any we had fought in the Demonic Realm itself.
To be expected, perhaps. The effects of the Abyssal Realm had turned the battlefield into a slaughterhouse. Holding Pepia back at all was a miracle.
If I hadn’t awakened my Halo… if the cardinals were still poisoning the Holy Kingdom from within… if my master were not here.
The battle—and the fate of this kingdom—would have been sealed. The Holy Kingdom would have fallen, and the news would have shattered the continent.
Is this, too, the goddess’s will?
The thought came to me as I drew my bowstring. Even an unbeliever like me could not deny her existence—not after the miracle of regression. I did my best to honor her will, so long as it did not conflict with my own.
The arrow struck Pepia’s neck with a sickening, wet crunch.
“Did we get him?” Lancelot blurted, his eyes wide.
Damn it all. Of all the times to jinx a situation. Why didn’t he focus on the Maggot Hosts instead?
“…Focus on your own fight, Sir Lancelot.”
“What? Why are you always like this?!” Lancelot shot back, his voice strained as he parried a Maggot Host’s lunge with a sharp clang of steel.
With a frustrated click of my tongue, I turned away. There was no time for this.
“…Damn it.”
Just as I’d feared, Pepia was already on its feet, his eyes gleaming with undiminished malice.
It felt like fighting an immortal.
Neither divine power nor my Demonbane Aura could unmake its body. We could pierce it, tear it, wound it—but the creature simply reformed.
“Hah… is it even possible to defeat that thing?” Lancelot despaired.
“We have to,” I said.
<Demonbane Shot: Rend>
KRRRA-KABOOM!
The demon-slaying arrow screamed toward Pepia’s eye, trailing lightning. At the same moment, my master summoned a new pack of divine beasts, unleashing them in a wave of holy light.
<Divine Beast Invocation>
These were attacks that would have annihilated most Demonkin in an instant. But Pepia met the assault with a vile grin.
<Tears of the Outcast>
As Pepia extended one hand, the dormant masses of flesh across the battlefield began to vibrate in unison. The quivering mounds shuddered as if weeping, then dissolved into a viscous fluid.
WHOOOOOOSH!
The resulting ichor surged into a thick, gelatinous wall, intercepting both my arrow and my master’s beasts. The divine beasts thrashed, their holy forms dissolving in the sticky mire. My own arrow vanished into the muck without a trace.
“Such a shame… they’ve all vanished,” Pepia sneered. Then, with a wet squelch, he birthed new Maggot Hosts from his gelatinous wings.
“Ggggrrr…”
The creatures writhed to their feet and advanced on the Templars. An undying legion, invulnerable to all but divinity, began to overrun the Holy Kingdom’s defenders.
“Damn it! Protect Lady Helena!”
“We’re being pushed back!”
The battlefield was chaos. I caught my breath and glanced at my master.
“Do you still intend to follow the plan?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“…Would it not be better to face it ourselves? If we were to unleash our full power, destroying the creature should not be impossible.”
He was right. It wasn’t impossible.
My Halo and my Aura, combined with my master’s secret technique, could annihilate it. Not even its immortal flesh could survive the obliteration of the entire battlefield.
But winning that way would leave us crippled. Losing the Holy Kingdom would make securing aid from other nations nearly impossible. And my master’s secret technique placed a devastating strain on his body.
Besides, the Halo was not a power to be used carelessly.
It gnawed at my sanity with every use. Unleashing its full power here would leave me bedridden for the foreseeable future, and with the Duchy of Artezia’s movements still unknown, being incapacitated was a risk I could not afford.
Which meant the plan had to succeed.
…Not here yet?
I dodged a volley of slime daggers, my eyes scanning the chaos for Hans.
Our unit’s jack-of-all-trades was nowhere to be seen. He was no warrior, but his competence in every other field was unmatched.
Would a man like that flee from battle?
No.
I had sent him away myself. Evacuating the refugees was only part of his mission, and that should have been finished by now.
He was retrieving the one weapon that could end this without my master’s sacrifice or the full cost of my Halo.
But for that weapon to matter, Hans had to arrive. Now.
“Hurry…”
My search for his presence yielded nothing. I could locate him with Clairvoyance, but I didn’t have the aura to spare.
All I could do was wait.
<Lightning Bolt>
KRR-ZZZZZZZZT!
An arrow of pure energy shot forward, scorching Pepia’s face black.
A twitch. The charred flesh began to knit itself back together.
I clicked my tongue and prayed for Hans to arrive.
* * *
Hans’s lungs burned.
He was fit, but he was no Templar. A dead sprint left him gasping, a stark reminder of why the captain kept him far from the front lines.
I have to at least accomplish this.
Hans swallowed his ragged breaths and pushed on.
Finally, he saw it. A grand infirmary, its scale rivaling a cathedral, rose before him, a tall cross marking its peak.
“I’m… here,” he wheezed, drool tracing a line from his chin.
He stumbled inside.
The infirmary, located on the outskirts, had been spared the worst of the damage. A few ornaments lay shattered, broken by fleeing clerics, but the patients within were safe.
Hans climbed to the highest floor and pushed open a heavy door.
Creeak.
And there he was. The man he had been sent to find, sitting up in bed. A colossal frame that radiated a palpable chill. Beside him rested a sword of breathtaking beauty.
“Grand Duke!” Hans cried out, his voice cracking with exhaustion and relief.
“You are one of my son-in-law’s men,” the Grand Duke of the North observed, his voice a low rumble. “It has been some time.”
Lea, who stood by his bed, smiled. “This is Hans. The most vital member of our company.”
“Indeed?” The Grand Duke’s eyes held a flicker of surprise.
Hans’s gaze shifted between the Grand Duke and Lea. The last of his strength gave out, and he sagged to the floor.
“You did well,” Lea said, coming over to pat his shoulder.
The Grand Duke chuckled as he finished strapping on his armor.
“The refugees spoke of Demonkin,” he said, his tone hardening. “Is it true?”
“Yes, Your Grace!”
“One of the Twelve Nobles, I am told?”
“Y-yes! That’s right!” Hans confirmed, nodding frantically.
“For mere Demonkin to set foot in the Holy Kingdom,” the Grand Duke rumbled, his eyes flashing with cold fire. “They must have a death wish.”
“We should go, Father,” Lea urged.
“At once. It has been decades since my body felt this light. I am eager to test its limits against these creatures.”
A wave of immense cold washed through the room as the Grand Duke let his Aura flare for a moment.
Hans stared, his jaw slack. The Shield of the Empire was whole again.
The Pope’s healing had worked a miracle.
“Lead the way,” the Grand Duke commanded.
The Grand Duke of the North had returned to the battlefield.
* * *
Explosions of demonic energy rocked the battlefield.
“Puhahaha! Is this all you have?!” Pepia’s laughter was a grating shriek as he relentlessly hurled daggers of slime.
A single hit would be catastrophic. In contrast, our attacks were only chipping away at its power.
<Full Bloom>
The arrow blossomed from my bowstring, scattering into a shower of camellia petals that carried the flower’s sweet scent.
“Ggggrroooaa…”
The Maggot Hosts around Pepia disintegrated where they stood. The attack tore chunks from Pepia’s body, inflicting significant damage.
The victory was momentary. With a wet schlorp, his arm began to reform.
“Khahahaha! More! MOOOOORE!” Pepia screamed, his eyes gleaming with madness.
We were out of time.
…Hans is too late.
My master’s attacks were slowing, a clear sign he was reaching the limits of his Aura.
Is there no other choice?
With a tight jaw, I glanced from my faltering master to the cackling demon. At this rate, we would be overwhelmed long before Hans arrived.
I would not let that happen.
Ignoring the warm blood that began to seep from my stigmata, I channeled my power. The crown of thorns materialized above my head, spinning with holy light. A wave of immense divinity and Demonbane Aura radiated outward.
And then, just as I was about to loose a colossal arrow…
“It seems I am late.”
The voice I had been praying for cut through the chaos. I turned, and the tension finally drained from my shoulders.
“You are,” I said, a dry smile touching my lips. “Incredibly late.”
“My apologies.”
Derek Praha, the Grand Duke of the North and master of the Glacial Aura, had arrived. He stood whole, the wounds that had plagued him for decades finally healed.
“Then allow me to offer this creature’s demise as my apology.”
The Grand Duke raised his sword and brought it down in a single, clean arc.
<Ice Age>
And in that instant, a sound like the world cracking open echoed across the plains.
A wave of absolute zero erupted from his blade, and the Holy Kingdom froze solid.