Chapter 215 : Meryl, the Second Daughter of Praha (8)
Save the people of the Empire.
The plea was etched onto the First Prince’s face, his expression one of pure sincerity. He knew. If this continued, the Empire would be torn apart between Artezia and the Demonkin.
So he truly is a worthy ruler.
Had war never broken out, he would have made a fine emperor.
Of course he would have. That must have been why the Grand Duke supported him in the first place.
The First Prince’s faction, the Second Prince’s… it was all meaningless.
Everyone was dead. What use were old allegiances now? All that remained was a man, weary of war.
“Yes, Your Highness,” I said, my voice steady. “As a citizen of the Empire, I will uphold your command.”
“…Thank you.” The First Prince finally let out a breath he seemed to have been holding, his shoulders slumping in relief. “You must be busy. You may go. It was thoughtless of me to keep you.”
“…I am grateful for your consideration.”
With a nod and a wave of dismissal, he let me go. I rose from my seat and rejoined my men waiting outside the audience chamber.
“What did he say?” Lancelot asked immediately.
“…Nothing nothing. A plea to save the Empire.”
“What?” Lancelot grumbled, his lower lip jutting out. “He called you in for something so obvious? He’s just going to keep running anyway. If we’d left him alone, he would’ve figured that much out on his own.”
To say something like that inside the Imperial Palace… I couldn’t tell if the man had nerves of steel or was simply that confident in his own strength.
Probably both.
I silenced Lancelot with a look and led the unit back to our quarters. I didn’t know where Duke Artezia would strike next. All I could do was wait for intelligence.
He’ll come for the capital eventually. To become emperor, he has to take this city.
If that was the case, waiting here was a viable strategy.
“Everyone, get some rest,” I ordered. “The moment war breaks out, we deploy.”
“…You get some rest too, Captain,” one of my knights said. “And if any of those other bastards give you trouble, just knock them down and walk away.”
“Hah. You must be the only knight in this palace who would say something like that.”
I gave them a small wave and entered my room.
While I waited, I planned to examine my Mindscape more thoroughly.
* * *
Meanwhile, the knights of House Artezia arrived in the Trading Kingdom of Diva.
“Ugh, the stench of corpses,” the Veilwarden of Death Veil spat. “This is what I hate about Demonkin. No concept of cleanliness.”
“That’s why they’re Demonkin,” the paladin of the Demon God replied coolly.
“Why don’t you shut that pious mouth, zealot? Was I talking to you?”
“Muttering should be done quietly. It seems your time in some back-alley guild left you without a basic education.”
“Oh? Listen to that mouth on you. Want me to carve it open for you, pretty-like?”
“Try it, if you can. You’ll just become another experiment in my god’s name before you get the chance.”
The two snarled at each other, their animosity a low hum in the air.
Though they served the same master, they were a company united only by self-interest; friendship was not part of the arrangement.
“Both of you, stand down,” the Ogre Chieftain growled, stepping between them. “If the Duke hears of this, we’re all dead.”
As he intervened, others who had been watching chimed in.
“Why stop them? This is getting interesting.”
“Let’s take bets on who wins.”
The twin Aura Masters snickered from the sidelines. The Ogre Chieftain’s eyes narrowed, his Aura flaring around him like a shroud.
“If you’re that bored, I can give you a fight myself. Any takers?”
“Tch… Not really.”
“Nah, we’re good, we’re good.”
As the twins backed down, the Veilwarden and the paladin also took a step back.
“We move quietly,” the Ogre Chieftain commanded, his authority reasserted. “Avoid combat with the Demonkin unless absolutely necessary.”
The Duke’s forces gave their reluctant assent.
They had not traveled far when the sounds of battle echoed from ahead.
CRASH! KRA-KOOM!
This must be the place.
The Ogre Chieftain led them toward the sounds of the fight. When they arrived, they found a scene of carnage: dying humans surrounding the single knight they were trying to protect.
A woman, haggard and worn. Enoxia Brahms.
She was an obstacle to their master’s grand design and an ally of their target. Her presence meant the Educator, Martel, had to be nearby.
“Assassin, find Martel,” the chieftain ordered the Veilwarden. “She must be close.”
“…Right.”
“The rest of you, with me. From the scent on the air, a powerful demon was here just moments ago.”
The lingering demonic energy was immense, stronger even than that of the Twelve Nobles.
“Let’s go.”
With that, the Ogre Chieftain charged toward Enoxia.
BOOM!
The knights of Diva, caught off guard by the sudden assault, were cut down before they could mount a defense.
“Gah!”
“Human,” the chieftain growled, looming over a wounded knight. “One question. Who did this to her?”
“Are you… another Demonkin…!”
“Hm. Your mind is broken. Then I’ll ask something else. Where is the Educator?”
“To hell with youuuuuuu!”
CLANG!
The knight surged to his feet, swinging his sword at the Ogre Chieftain. The Aura-infused blade glanced off the chieftain’s hide without leaving a scratch.
“…A pity,” the Ogre Chieftain muttered. “If you weren’t human, you might have stood a chance.”
He shattered the knight’s skull with a single, brutal blow.
Splat.
It burst like a crushed watermelon. The knight’s body collapsed, limp and lifeless.
“There are plenty more humans to question,” the chieftain said, turning to his forces. “The Demonkin… kill them all.”
At his command, the ogres who had followed him charged into the fray roaring, turning the battlefield into a war between their own kind and the Demonkin.
Amidst the chaos, the Ogre Chieftain approached the fallen Enoxia.
She had once been called the greatest knight in the world. Now, she was just a woman on the verge of death.
“A shame,” he said, to no one in particular. “If you weren’t human, you could have become a truly powerful being.”
He raised his fist. Normally, he would have offered her a chance to surrender, but there was no point in offering terms to a corpse.
Their only mission was to retrieve Martel and return.
“Farewell.”
The Ogre Chieftain’s fist descended.
But Enoxia’s hand shot out, clamping around his descending fist like a vise.
“…Hm?” The Ogre Chieftain grunted, surprised. “So you weren’t dead after all.”
Enoxia’s eyes slowly opened.
But something was wrong. Her eyes were vacant.
“…Tch. This complicates things.”
Enoxia Brahms was no longer there—only the vessel, moving on pure instinct to continue the fight.
“…Nothing changes. Twins, assist me. Paladin, provide healing.”
“On it.”
“As you command.”
The Duke’s forces moved with practiced coordination. In response, Enoxia’s will-less body began to move.
And in that moment, the power the world had forbidden was unleashed.
<Mindscape: Infinite Carnage>
* * *
Enoxia felt as if she were dreaming.
…Where am I?
She was certain she had been fighting Demonkin. One in the shape of a man, the other a beast.
No, beast wasn’t the right word. It was a creature unlike any she had ever seen.
Dark and foul, radiating a terror so absolute it felt impossible to resist. If fear itself were to take form, it would look like that.
I was fighting it… then the human-shaped one caught me, and then… Ugh!
Just trying to recall the moment sent a spike of pain through her head.
She had no idea where she was. She could see nothing, hear nothing.
She could only assume the Demonkin had killed her.
Then this must be hell.
She had never believed in the Goddess, nor had she lived a virtuous life. Hell was where she belonged.
A dry, empty laugh echoed in her consciousness.
The greatest human alive? A Grand Master? What a bitter joke.
Such titles were nothing but mockery for someone who couldn’t even protect a single patch of land.
I hope Martel survived.
That was her only wish. Martel’s safety.
If there was one silver lining, it was that she hadn’t used her Mindscape.
Because then everything would have died.
It wasn’t the continent that had forbidden her Mindscape. She had sealed it.
The reason was simple: if unleashed, she would annihilate humanity far faster than the Demonkin ever could.
She had never once managed to control it. Not once. Every time she had tried, from her youth until now, only ruin and regret remained.
All she could do was seal it away and pray she never had to use it again.
…But what if I had?
Enoxia wondered as her consciousness faded.
What if I lost control and began to rampage?
She knew the answer with chilling certainty.
The entire area would become a land where nothing could survive.
* * *
It was as Enoxia had predicted.
Every man and beast before her wore the same expression. Faces of those who had glimpsed a true monster.
“…A monster,” the Ogre Chieftain voiced aloud.
A monstrous entity. The word was a perfect description. He knew Grand Masters used an ability called a Mindscape, but he had never seen anything like this.
With every twitch of her body, the air buckled and space itself tore open.
Friend and foe were irrelevant. It made no distinction, shredding everything in its path.
He finally understood the origin of her moniker: the Battle Fiend. This had to be why.
“…We need to withdraw.” As soon as they found Martel, they had to get out of here.
CRUNCH!
Even as the thought crossed his mind, Enoxia lunged. His arm was ripped clean from its socket.
“Ngh!”
The Ogre Chieftain staggered back, unleashing an Aspect he had stolen from the Baron of War.
<Aspect of War: Marionette>
Corpses lurched to their feet, moaning as they shambled toward Enoxia.
CRUUUUNCH!
With a single clench of her fist, space compressed around them, and the bodies were crushed into a bloody pulp.
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Enoxia screamed at the empty air, and countless pockets of space around her began to implode.
With that one movement, hundreds of thousands of Demonkin soldiers were obliterated.
“Found her!” a voice called out. Martel had been located.
“Withdraw!” the Ogre Chieftain roared.
Without a backward glance, he and his forces fled.
And so, a new catastrophe was born in the Trading Kingdom of Diva.
The Battle Fiend, Enoxia Brahms, had become a calamity to rival the Demonkin themselves.