Chapter I: Humanity’s Full Might
A few days before the world was supposed to end, the people of the capital of the Heiligh Kingdom were going about their lives like normal. Many of them were working on rebuilding the homes and structures that had been destroyed during the demon army’s attack.
Seven students watched the hustle and bustle of the city from the palace’s terrace as they ate their lunch. Their expressions were somewhat forlorn, even though the atmosphere wasn’t particularly heavy.
Compared to when the entire class had sat together to eat lunch, there were far fewer of them now. Of course, the majority of the missing students weren’t dead; they were just holed up in their rooms. And considering what had happened the night of Eri’s betrayal, it was hardly surprising.
Thus, despite the scrumptious lunch the palace cooks had prepared for these students, they ate without tasting much of it. That being said, eating in awkward silence would have felt even worse, so they did attempt to make conversation.
“Uh, how were things on your end today?” Atsushi Tamai asked, brushing his hair back with his hand.
“I mean...same as usual,” Kentarou Nomura replied listlessly as he stabbed at his salad with a fork. He then looked toward his right, to where their party leader Jugo Nagayama was sitting, and nudged him. “Isn’t that right?”
Jugo put down his knife and fork before nodding in agreement and saying, “We just helped with the restoration effort, same as always.”
Nagayama’s party was mostly helping rebuild the outer walls. Kentarou was a Geomancer, while Nagayama’s job was Heavy Fighter, so both of them were well suited to the task of rebuilding stonework. Mao Yoshino and Ayako Tsuji, who were a Rejuvenist and Healer respectively, were able to support Kentarou and Nagayama’s efforts by bolstering their stamina and replenishing their mana.
“Pfft, is that seriously the only topic you could think of? You sound like my uncle,” Mao said, letting out a hearty laugh.
“Ha ha ha, stop it, Mao. You’re making me spit out my soup!” Ayako replied, burying her face in her hands.
The conversation had succeeded in lightening the mood a little, though it had come at the cost of giving Jugo and Kentarou the reputation of sounding like old uncles.
Smiling wanly, Kentarou nevertheless tried to keep the lighthearted conversation going by asking, “So tell me, how are things going with you guys? Patrolling sounds like tough work with how unsafe the streets have been recently.”
“Well, yeah,” Noboru Aikawa said as he crossed his hands behind his head and looked down at the capital’s main plaza.
“But we’ve got Sonobe, so we’re fine,” Akito Nimura added, wiping off the steam that had gotten onto his glasses from the soup.
“She’s become a local idol at this point. I bet all the hooligans feel ashamed to get a scolding from her.”
Everyone else also looked down at the plaza to see a crowd had formed. As always, Yuka was performing in the plaza to help keep the citizens’ minds off of recent events. Her job was Acrobat, which meant she was as good at juggling as she was at throwing knives. The crowd oohed and aahed as she dazzled them with a display of unparalleled skill.
Though the Divine Mountain had been destroyed, as far as the regular citizens were concerned everything was still fine because the hero still had god’s blessing and was fighting for them.
Princess Liliana’s propaganda campaign was working perfectly. Since Yuka was part of the hero’s party, from the people’s perspective it was as if one of the apostles themselves had come down to entertain them. Her performances helped ease the pain of those still grieving the deaths of their loved ones.
“Nana-chan and Taeko-chan are doing a pretty good job too,” Atsushi said.
“And I guess you’re not down there with the rest of your party because you aren’t?” Mao asked with a sly grin.
“Shut up,” Atsushi, Noboru, and Akito said in unison, pouting. They couldn’t deny it, however. The three of them were just getting in Yuka’s way, after all.
Though Yuka looked like a high school delinquent, she was as straitlaced as they came. On the other hand, her two friends Nana Miyazaki and Taeko Sugawara were as bright and cheerful as they looked. They often teased Yuka, which helped people feel less put off by Yuka’s appearance. Furthermore, the three of them were almost always together, so the common people thought of them as a set.
All of that was to say that the three dudes in Yuka’s party would have just ruined the dynamic if they butted in, and they knew it.
“Though honestly, I’m amazed by how much she’s doing. Not only is she holding those performances, but she’s also making sure the streets are safe. She isn’t pushing herself too hard, is she? If she collapses, the city’s gonna collapse with her.”
“Apparently, Aiko-sensei learned some super powerful magic, so if it looks like Yuka’s about to snap, she’ll be able to help. Though...I do think she might be overdoing it a bit,” Mao replied as she finished off the last of her sandwich. She then turned to look at the corner of the palace where all the students’ quarters were.
“Compared to her, we’re pathetic,” Jugo said with a heavy sigh.
No one replied, since they all felt the same way.
“How’s Endou holding up?” Atsushi asked hesitantly.
“The fact that you can remember him should tell you all you need to know.”
“The less mentally stable he is, the more his presence grows, right? Man, he’s like some kind of urban legend,” Noboru said with a frown, which prompted Akito to smile sadly.
“I mean, it’s true though, isn’t it? Normally, whenever someone brings up Endou, everyone else goes, ‘Oh yeah, that guy,’ but right now he’s on everyone’s mind. That’s never happened before.”
Kousuke Endou was a man who was so forgettable that back on Earth, his family had accidentally left him home alone when they went on trips multiple times. Even on surveillance cameras, he had shown up as nothing more than a blur. In some ways, he really was an urban legend.
However, right now, everyone was worried about him. Normally, only his best friends Kentarou and Jugo even remembered he existed, so the fact that everyone was thinking about him showed just how bad of a state he was in.
“The guy really respected Meld-san,” Kentarou said in a despondent voice.
“We can’t even cheer up our best friend. How the hell are we supposed to cheer up the people of this city?” Jugo said through gritted teeth.
“I know how you feel. We’ve been trying to reach out to Nakano and Saitou, but...it’s tough going,” Atsushi replied.
“Their spirits are completely broken. They’re finally willing to let us into their rooms, but even that’s only thanks to Sensei and Sonobe’s efforts,” Noboru added, exchanging a sad glance with Atsushi.
No one had expected Eri Nakamura and Daisuke Hiyama to betray the entire class. As a result of their betrayal, Reichi Kondou, Meld, and a ton of the kingdom’s knights had died.
Yoshiki Saitou and Shinji Nakano had been close friends with both Daisuke and Reichi, so their deaths had also hit them hard. They, along with the students who’d already abandoned clearing the Orcus Labyrinth and had hidden away in their rooms, had given into their fear and despair and were on the brink of falling apart entirely.
The only people still trying to rehabilitate them were Aiko Hatayama and Yuka. They weren’t professional counselors, however, so there was a limit to what they could do, but both of them had been bringing the despondent students their meals and talking to them every day.
They had made an effort to exchange at least a few words with everyone each day. They didn’t want to let any other students die, both in body and soul. No matter how much they were yelled at or ignored, Yuka and Aiko continued reaching out to the students with steadfast determination.
“Most of the girls are showing signs of improvement, aren’t they?” Akito asked, prompting a nod from Ayako.
“Yep. Yuka has a girls’ talk session every single night. Sometimes, she even cooks Japanese-style food for us or makes us snacks.”
“You can tell she’s the daughter of a restaurant owner because of how good her food is. She even sews new clothes for us and gets us accessories and stuff as presents,” Ayako added with a smile. She also partook in the little parties Yuka hosted, so she knew that Yuka was well on her way to replacing Shizuku as the students’ collective older sister. She had surprisingly feminine hobbies too, for someone who looked like a delinquent. Many of the servants and palace guards were smitten by her, and she’d received numerous confessions.
“By the way, we can’t talk about Yuka without discussing Nagumo-kun. Though she still hasn’t realized she’s got a crush on him, has she?”
“She might not have, but everyone else sure has. At first, everyone was scared off by the kinds of expressions she made when she started talking about him, but now they all know it’s just how she is and find it cute.”
“Yeah yeah,” Atsushi, Noboru, and Akito said in unison. They were among the boys smitten with Yuka, but they’d known ever since Yuka and Hajime had reunited back at Ur that they stood no chance.
Still, as far as the shut-in students were concerned, Hajime was the monster who’d ruthlessly mowed down the knights they’d looked up to. Of course, at that point Meld and the others had already been turned into zombies, but watching Hajime’s massacre had still traumatized them. He was terrifying, especially since he’d annihilated the demon army with one attack.
In truth, a good portion of their trauma came from Hajime and not Eri or Daisuke. But naturally, Yuka had tried to assuage people’s fears.
“You don’t have to worry about that guy at all. It’s not like he cares about us, anyway... You’ll be fine as long as you keep your distance! He’s too busy traveling around with his harem to pay attention to the likes of us!”
She repeated such words over and over again, but the way she pouted whenever she said things like that made it clear that she was just jealous.
“Despite how he treated Lily, she seems to be falling for him too and...I think even Sensei’s into him now?”
Oftentimes, she’d start muttering to herself in that fashion when talking about Hajime as well, saying stuff like “Well, whatever. He’ll find a way back to Japan eventually. We can just ask him to take us with him when that time comes. Knowing him, he’ll at least do that much for us.”
It was obvious from the tone of her voice that she trusted Hajime a great deal. As a result, her insistence that he was actually a good guy went a long way to reassure the scared students. In fact, they’d started developing an interest in him, doubly so because Aiko-sensei also spoke highly of him.
Yuka didn’t realize it, but her love for Hajime was actually helping in her efforts to lessen the trauma of the students as well.
“Well, regardless of what Nagumo-kun might be thinking, it’s true we only survived thanks to him. He’s a bit scary, but I can’t help but think if anyone’s going to find a way back for us, it’s gonna be him,” Kentarou said with a small smile.
“Amanogawa plans to stay behind and fight Ehit though, right?” Jugo asked, making the table fall silent.
After a few seconds, Kentarou’s shoulders slumped and he replied, “I know it’s the right thing and all, but I don’t have it in me to stay and fight. If I could go back, I’d return in a heartbeat. I’m tired of risking my life here.”
At first everyone had been excited to explore a fantasy world, but then reality smacked them in the face. After discovering how powerless they were in the face of truly deadly threats, all Kentarou wanted was to go home. And honestly, most of the others shared his sentiments. Whatever yearning they might have had for an adventure in a fantasy world had been beaten out of them.
They did feel guilty about leaving Kouki to fight the imminent threat against Tortus on his own, but they didn’t have the resolve to stay with him.
At this point, they were just praying Hajime found a way home soon so they could return. Unfortunately, fate, and more importantly, Ehit, had other plans for them.
“Huh?!”
Chills ran down everyone’s spine, and they let out involuntary gasps. Together, they looked up at the sky.
“Isn’t that...?” someone muttered, trailing off.
Hovering above the palace was a familiar figure clad in silver light. Even at this distance, the students could tell the apostle was staring straight at them. It descended in a flash of light, heading for the section of the palace where all the students’ rooms were.
“Don’t just sit there spacing out! We’ve gotta go help!” Jugo shouted, running back into the palace. Atsushi and the others hurriedly followed after him, though they knew there wasn’t much they’d be able to do.
Let us rewind to a few minutes before the apostle appeared.
Kousuke, decked out in his all-black battle gear, was standing before a small monument a short ways away from the palace. The monument had been erected to honor the knights who had given their lives to protect the capital. Shoulders slumping, Kousuke looked despondently down at the small altar in front of the monument where people placed flowers and other similar offerings.
“Meld-san...”
Meld Loggins, captain of Heiligh’s knights, had been the person Kousuke had respected most in this world.
“If only I’d noticed what was going on that night...” Kousuke muttered for the thousandth time in a voice laden with regret and sorrow.
Kousuke had been the last person to see Meld before he’d been killed. It had been a coincidental meeting. Kousuke had pushed himself too hard while training that afternoon and had slept through dinner. Of course, no one had noticed his absence or saved any food for him, so he’d headed to the kitchens to fix something for himself. The food he’d made hadn’t sat well in his stomach though, so he’d needed to run to the toilet right after, only to discover it was out of toilet paper. After that whole saga had ended, he’d started heading back to his room, exhausted, which was when he’d ran into Meld.
When he’d called out to the knight captain, Meld had reflexively slashed at his neck. A second later, Meld realized whom he’d almost accidentally killed and apologized. The two of them had chatted for a bit afterward, with Meld asking why Kousuke was out so late, and then they went their separate ways.
Thinking back on it now, Kousuke realized that Meld had been on edge. Normally, Meld wouldn’t have lashed out immediately like that, regardless of how badly something might have surprised him.
“Why didn’t I ask him what was on his mind?”
Kousuke had been so absorbed in talking about himself that he hadn’t thought to inquire about what Meld was doing. Even though the palace felt more ominous than usual, Kousuke had foolishly assumed he’d be able to talk to Meld again the next morning. And of course, Meld had died that night.
“I didn’t even get to repay you for saving my life,” Kousuke mumbled as he clenched his fists so hard that his nails cut into his skin and drew blood.
He was, of course, referring to the time when Cattleya had attacked them in the Great Orcus Labyrinth and Meld and his knights had risked their lives to hold off her monsters and give Kousuke enough time to escape. Since that day, Kousuke had never once forgotten what Meld had said to him as he’d run away.
He’d apologized for being so useless, for asking them to sacrifice themselves to save Kouki if it came down to it. But even then, he’d selflessly risked his own life to buy time for Kousuke and told him not to die.
It was Meld who had taught Kousuke the importance of making hard choices when faced with unreasonable situations, and the weight of resolve it took to make them. It was Meld who had taught Kousuke the nobility of self-sacrifice.
Everyone, both Kousuke’s classmates and the other knights of the palace, had praised him for finding Hajime and getting him to bust through the Labyrinth and mop up all the monsters and save everyone. But honestly, Kousuke had never once felt proud of that accomplishment.
To Kousuke, the real hero wasn’t him, or even Hajime, but Meld and the knights under him who’d sacrificed their lives to protect everyone.
“I’m sorry... I’m so sorry...”
Kousuke didn’t even know what he was apologizing for anymore. He still couldn’t believe that Meld had survived that harrowing encounter with Cattleya’s monsters only to die after making it back to the palace. It had all been so sudden.
After a few seconds. a voice called out from behind him, interrupting his string of apologies.
“Endou-san...”
“P-Princess Liliana...”
Surprised, Kousuke turned around.
Liliana had a bouquet of flowers in her hands. Behind her was her brown-haired maid, Helina, and the new knight captain, the blonde-haired, purple-eyed Kuzeli.
God, I’m so pathetic. Now even the princess and her maid can sneak up on me without me noticing. Some assassin I am.
“You look awful. I heard from Nagayama-san that you haven’t slept in days. Are you okay?”
“Oh, um...I...”
“Maybe you should get Aiko-san’s treatment.”
“I’ll think about it,” Kousuke replied as he bowed his head and turned to leave, wanting to escape from Liliana as soon as possible. It was obvious from his expression that he had no intention of following her advice. He didn’t want to be free of his regret, or his guilt, after all.
Head still lowered, he strode passed Liliana and her attendants.
Liliana gritted her teeth in frustration, unable to think of what to say. If even Kousuke’s best friends couldn’t console him, how could she? But to everyone’s surprise, it was Kuzeli that stopped Kousuke.
“No one will be able to replace Meld Loggins,” she said in a firm voice. Thinking he was about to get a scolding, Kousuke stopped and looked timidly at her.
“He was an amazing man. It wasn’t just knights and soldiers who looked up to him; even the common people loved him. He was the shining star everyone strove to reach, as well as a symbol of the knights’ strength and kindness.”
Until now, Kuzeli had been looking straight at the monument, but as she finished speaking, she turned to Kousuke. Her purple eyes glowed like amethysts as she stared right at him. She was tall for a woman, and quite imposing, so Kousuke involuntarily took a few steps back. It was because she looked so intimidating, though, that Kuzeli’s next words came as a complete surprise
“I know I’m not up to the task of being his successor. I don’t have the popularity, the strength, or the resolve that he had. Why, just thinking about having to fill his shoes makes me feel weak in the knees.”
“Kuzeli, that’s not—”
“Your Highness, let her speak,” Helina said gently, cutting Liliana off. The astute maid could tell that Kuzeli was building up to her main point.
“So...what?”
“Loggins-sama is dead...but his legacy yet lives.”
For the first time, Kousuke looked up to meet Kuzeli’s gaze.
“What do you mean?”
“He left behind his teachings, what it means to be a knight, and most importantly, you and your friends, Endou-sama.”
“We’re his legacy?”
“That’s right. That’s why I chose to accept the post of knight commander despite knowing I’m not worthy of the title. I will use everything he taught me to continue to protect the people he gave his life to protect.”
Kuzeli’s expression softened.
“You know, he would often talk about you. He always said he never could quite get a handle on you. You’d always vanish from sight, then surprise everyone by popping back up. He also talked about how you always ended up in unfortunate situations through no fault of your own. He’d never met anyone as strange as you his whole life.”
“W-Wait, he was shitting on me?”
Kousuke wouldn’t be able to take it if it turned out Meld had been dissing him the whole time. Tears welled up in his eyes, but Kuzeli just chuckled and said, “But most of all, he said you were dependable.”
“Huh?”
“He said that you never stood out, but that when the chips were down, you’d always pull through. He believed you’d become your group’s trump card. Of all the students, he was looking forward to your growth the most.”
“He...really said that?”
The tears that had been building in Kousuke’s eyes began to fall, but for a completely different reason this time. As he sobbed quietly, Kuzeli walked over and took his hands.
In a quiet voice, she chanted a healing spell, closing up the wounds Kousuke had inflicted on himself.
“You’ve inherited some of Meld Loggins’s legacy too, haven’t you?” she asked in a gentle voice, making Kousuke grit his teeth. He then thought back to all of the time he’d spent with the kind knight commander.
“I... I...”
I have. There are so many things I’ve inherited from him.
Kousuke felt as though a fire had been lit under his frozen heart. He suddenly felt embarrassed about how he’d been moping around for so long.
Imagine what Meld-san would say if he saw me now.
His regret and guilt hadn’t faded, but he couldn’t let that stop him from doing what needed to be done.
Unfortunately, his newfound resolve had come just a moment too late.
A silver streak shot across the sky, heading straight toward the palace. And a second later, there was a thunderous boom.
“Wh-What the—?!” Kousuke shouted, looking up. Kuzeli swiftly moved protectively in front of Liliana.
“Are we...under attack?! But from where?!”
“Your Highness, you must evacuate!” Helina shouted, pulling out her dagger.
“Wait, Helina! That’s where...Aiko-san and the others are!” Liliana exclaimed, her face going pale.
Kousuke was already on the move, his body acting entirely on instinct. Liliana and the others shouted at him from behind, but he didn’t hear them. The only thing on his mind was the safety of his comrades.
“I’m coming, guys!” he shouted as he ran.
At around roughly the same time, Yuka was about to reach the climax of her performance. She was currently juggling a total of twelve knives and eighteen apples at the same time. There probably wasn’t anyone else on Tortus capable of juggling thirty objects.
“All right, everyone, Yuka-onee-san’s about to show off her biggest trick! Let’s hear some applause!”
“The one who cheers the hardest will get a prize!”
Nana and Taeko were skipping around the crowd, getting them hyped up. The kids in the front row were watching with rapt attention, and even the adults in the back looked like they were having fun. Everyone wanted to forget about their troubles for a few hours. And Yuka’s performances were the perfect thing to help them do that.
In truth, even Yuka had trouble juggling thirty objects at once, but she figured if she messed up, she could just turn that into a joke and make everyone laugh.
“Here we go!” she said in a cheerful voice and performed the ungodly feat of cutting the apples with the knives while juggling them. And as the apples fell, Nana and Taeko brought out plates to catch them and started handing slices out to the children.
“Holy crap, Yukacchi, you’ve gotten even better than before!” Taeko exclaimed.
“Yeah, I think I might be a juggling master now!” Yuka said with a grin, continuing to juggle the knives. With just the knives, she didn’t have to focus completely on her juggling, so Taeko figured she could tease Yuka a little.
“I bet even Nagumo-kun would be impressed by that! Aren’t you glad, Yuka?”
“Why are you bringing him up?!” Yuka roared as she blushed bright red and messed up throwing one of her knives. It nearly hit Nana on the head, but fortunately, all of the knives were part of a single artifact. As long as Yuka had one of them, she could recall the others at any time, so she pulled the knife back before it brained Nana. Of course, the spectacle still scared the audience, but then Nana said it was all part of the act, so they breathed sighs of relief. None of them seemed to notice there were tears in Nana’s eyes.
“Yukacchi, if you’re going to take your anger out on someone, then at least make it Taecchi! I thought I was gonna die!”
“Sorry, Yuka, I promise I’ll tease you when you’re not juggling next time!”
“Maybe don’t tease me at all!”
With a flourish, Yuka threw her knives higher into the air than ever before and caught them all for her grand finale. As she was putting the last one away, she spotted something up above.
“Hm? What’s that?”
A silver streak was shooting through the sky over the palace. A second later, it barreled into a corner of the palace, making almost no noise.
“Nana! Taeko!”
“Huh?! What?!”
“Yuka?! I said I was sorry, didn’t I?!”
Yuka’s ferocious expression caused the thunderous applause to slowly die down. Neither Nana nor Taeko had seen what Yuka had, so they didn’t understand why she was suddenly so serious. She stowed her final knife and started running straight for the palace.
“Let me through! And get away from the palace!”
The crowd quickly parted for her, and she sped up. Nana and Taeko hurriedly followed after her.
“H-Hang on, Yukacchi?! What happened?!”
“What’s going on?!”
“We’re under attack! I saw a silver flash hit the part of the castle we live in!”
The two of them looked at where Yuka was pointing and paled. It seemed a small section of the castle roof had been destroyed, and no one had heard a single explosion.
“That’s the same color of mana that Kaori has now that she’s changed bodies! Remember what Aiko-sensei told us? The thing that kidnapped her could use magic that disintegrates things!”
Yuka and the others jumped onto a nearby roof and started hopping from rooftop to rooftop much faster than any person from Tortus could move.
In a trembling voice, Taeko said, “Doesn’t that mean...?”
“W-Well, Nagumocchi managed to kill one, right?!” Nana shouted desperately. However, Yuka said nothing. She had no words of assurance for her friends. In fact, she was as scared as they were.
The moment they reached the outer walls of the palace, they heard a huge explosion. In the distance, they could see the colors of their fellow classmates’ mana. Numerous stone spikes shot out of the castle, then a shimmering barrier appeared around the section of the castle that was under attack.
The apostles’ raid had been so silent that it wasn’t until that explosion that the castle guards realized they were even there and started panicking.
Yuka issued orders to them as she ran past, then turned to Nana.
“Nana!”
“On it! Ice Pillar!”
Nana created a pillar of ice going up to the hole the apostle had made in the ceiling. It was a good ten meters away, but Nana’s job was Frost Mage, so she could handle a distance like that easily enough.
In seconds, Yuka and the others had reached the hole.
“Guys! Ai-chan-sensei!”
The walls of the rooms had been destroyed, turning the entire wing of the castle into one big hall. Shinji, Yoshiki, and the other students were all huddling in one corner of the room.
Kentarou stood protectively in front of them, but he was trembling violently and cold sweat poured down his forehead. His trusty vanguard, made up of Jugo and Atsushi, was on the ground in puddles of their own blood a short distance away. Neither of them was moving. Ayako was tearfully casting healing magic on both of them while Aiko desperately cast various spells to keep their souls attached to their bodies. The two of them were clearly in dire straits.
Noboru was standing in front of Aiko and Ayako to serve as their shield, but his war-axe had already been shattered and he needed Akito’s help just to stay on his feet.
A woman with the exact same body as Kaori stood before all of them, and she emotionlessly looked over her shoulder as Yuka jumped into the room.
“Match my timing! Stone Spire!” Kentarou shouted, casting the strongest spell in his arsenal. The ground underneath the apostle then buckled and countless stone spikes shot up underneath her.
“Taeko, Nana!”
“On it!”
“Ice Spear—Sevenfold!”
Yuka threw her brace of knives at the apostle, while Taeko lashed out with her whip and Nana launched a barrage of ice spears. However, the apostle beat away all the attacks with a single flap of her wings. Then, in that same emotionless voice, she said, “Now then, what will you choose?”
In that instant, she vanished and reappeared right in front of Yuka. She punched Yuka in the stomach, sending her flying. That one blow nearly knocked her unconscious, and out of the corner of her blurry vision, she could see the apostle just as easily dispatch Nana and Taeko. The apostle then shot a single feather from her wings, which pierced through Kentarou’s stomach and forced him to his knees.
As Yuka’s consciousness started to fade, she remembered what Hajime had said to her in that snarky way of his back when they’d reunited at Ur: “You’ve got guts.”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Forcing her eyes open, Yuka let out a scream of defiance. She then grabbed three more knives and threw them at the apostle even as she sailed through the air.
“Lightning Field!”
She imbued the knives with enough electricity to kill an elephant. She planned to call them back as soon as they landed and bombard the apostle over and over, but—
“Huh?”
She felt another impact on her stomach and looked down to see her own knife sticking out of it. She looked back up in surprise, then felt both of her thighs get impaled. The apostle had caught her knives and thrown them back with such speed that Yuka hadn’t even seen them. By the time Yuka figured out what had happened, the strength had left her limbs.
A second later the pain hit her, and her body broke out in a cold sweat. But as one last act of defiance, she refused to scream.
“How dare you do that to Yuka!” Taeko shouted, brandishing her whip once more. The apostle’s last attack had broken Taeko’s arm, but Taeko’s job was Whip Master, so even with a broken arm, she could swing her whip at the speed of sound with perfect accuracy.
The edge of her whip shot straight toward the apostle’s eyes.
“Huh? Ah—”
Unfortunately, the apostle just grabbed it out of the air. She then reeled Taeko in and knocked her out with a heel kick.
“Taeko!”
Taeko bounced off the ground and came to rest at the end of the massive room, groaning in pain. Her fingers twitched slightly, but that was all the movement she could manage.
Incensed, Nana held out her hands and shouted, “Get iced, you bitch—Crystal Coffin!”
A coffin of ice appeared to encase the apostle. But the apostle shattered it with ease and continued walking forward like nothing had happened.
“G-Goddammit!” Nana yelled and shrank back in fear and started desperately firing off ice spears. However, the apostle knocked them all down with a single hand.
Yuka kept on throwing out her knives despite her injuries, while Kentarou tried to petrify the apostle, but neither of their attacks worked. Aiko, Akito, and even Mao tried to attack in between healing their comrades, but that wasn’t enough either. The petrifying smoke did absolutely nothing to the apostle and all of the knives and fireballs and lightning bolts were deflected with just one hand.
“Sh-She’s a monster...” Kentarou muttered, falling into the depths of despair. He was finally beginning to realize just how strong Ehit was, if he could mass-produce something like this.
“What are you after?!” Yuka shouted, pulling the knives out of her body and struggling to her feet.
“I offer you a choice. My master has invited you to dance atop his game board.”
“What do you mean?”
“Those who lack the qualifications to be an entertaining pawn, however, will not be granted that right. From what I have seen...” the apostle trailed off, turning to where Shinji, Yoshiki, and the other students huddled, cowering. They hadn’t even tried to fight. “Those over there do not deserve the honor of being a pawn.”
“Don’t act all high and mighty!” Yuka shouted. Though, the apostle ignored her.
“I thought to dispose of them, but Aiko Hatayama and a few of the others prevented me from doing so, even though I explained that those who accepted my master’s invitation would not be harmed. Thus, I chose to fight.”
It was clear the apostle intended to bring Yuka and the others somewhere. However, the students who no longer had the will left to fight were unnecessary, so she was going to kill them. With all that, it was obvious what choice the apostle was asking Yuka to make.
“Screw you! There’s no way we’re going to abandon them!”
“I should have known you would make the same choice,” the apostle stated as she cast her gaze over Yuka, Nana, Taeko, Kentarou, and Aiko.
“So you insist on protecting those who have no value, despite knowing this is a fight you cannot win?”
Shinji and the others looked pleadingly over at Yuka. She knew she must have looked pathetic to them, trembling in fear and appearing to be on the verge of tears.
Yuka gritted her teeth, lamenting her own lack of strength. All she’d done so far was easy work like helping people through their trauma and putting on performances, but now that a real threat had arrived, she was powerless. She hated herself for that, but she couldn’t deny how scared she was. The apostle in front of her was terrifying. At the same time though, she knew there was at least one person who’d defeated this terrifying monster.
“That’s funny,” she said to the apostle.
“Excuse me?”
“Wasn’t one of your comrades killed by someone you once called useless?”
“......”
The apostle’s expression didn’t change. Her eyes were still as smooth as glass. Yuka could feel herself trembling again. Nevertheless, she put on a brave front and smiled fearlessly, just as she knew Hajime would have.
“You want us to become your god’s pawns?! Fuck that! Tell him he can eat shit!”
Come on, focus your attention on me.
Yuka had spotted a familiar shadow out of the corner of her eye and was trying to stand out as much as possible in hopes of keeping the apostle from noticing it too. That was the only shot at victory they had, so Yuka stared the apostle down with as much malice as she could.
“I see.”
Unfortunately, Yuka’s desperation clued the apostle in on what was going on. From the moment she’d spotted that shadow, her plan had no hope of succeeding.
“Everyone from your world is accounted for now.”
“Gah!”
The apostle spun around and backhanded Kousuke—who’d been trying to sneak behind her and land a fatal blow.
“Endou—eek!”
Yuka tried to fight on despite the failed surprise attack, but as she launched another knife at the apostle’s forehead, she suddenly felt something hit her square in the back. As she collapsed to the ground, she saw the image of the apostle begin to blur and realized she’d been aiming at its afterimage. The actual apostle had circled behind her and kicked her in the back.
Yuka never even stood a chance.
“Agh...”
The apostle stomped hard on Yuka’s back, shattering bone and causing Yuka to gasp in pain. Her vision swam and her limbs began to grow numb.
“How dare youuuuuu!” Kousuke shouted, once again enveloping himself in shadows and charging at the apostle. His nose was bleeding and his cheekbone looked broken, but he didn’t let the pain stop him. He tried to stab the apostle in the chest, but she just kicked the dagger out of his hand as soon as he got close. Not even his stealth powers could hide him from the apostle’s supernatural perception.
“Very well. I suppose a use might be found for these failures as well,” the apostle said calmly as she launched a series of kicks to shatter Kousuke’s right arm, right shoulder, and all the ribs on his right side. The force of the blows sent Kousuke careening into the far wall. He slumped to the ground, the wall he’d crashed into coated with his blood.
“I’m sorry...Captain Meld... I couldn’t do it...” he muttered weakly before falling unconscious.
“Please, stop hurting them,” Aiko said in a pleading voice.
There was no one left capable of putting up a fight. None of the remaining students had been able to so much as slow the apostle down. She’d utterly overwhelmed them.
The group of students who weren’t injured was too terrified to even try anything.
And now, Yuka and the others were watching as a veritable swarm of those very apostles poured out of a giant gate. The sky was dyed a dark crimson, and the area around the gate to the Sanctuary was spewing forth a black miasma. The whole thing looked like a scene from a nightmare.
Hajime and his comrades had headed right through that gate to put an end to this nightmare, but those left back on Tortus still had an army of apostles to deal with.
Yuka could hear the thunderous cheering of the alliance of mortal races behind her. Her body was trembling, and though she wished she could tell herself it was in anticipation, she knew deep down she was afraid.
In a few moments, the battle which would decide humanity’s survival, and their own future, would begin. It would undoubtedly be her hardest battle yet. Honestly, she wouldn’t even be surprised if she died a few seconds in. This battle would determine whether it was god or man who got to decide the fate of this world.
Yuka would have felt a lot more reassured if Hajime and the others had been with her. Of course, she was glad they’d managed to break through to the Sanctuary, but still, she wished they were by her side instead.
No, I can’t keep relying on them forever. I need to start fighting for myself. If I keep relying on others, how am I going to protect anyone, much less myself?
Yuka gritted her teeth and forced herself to stop shivering. The events at the Demon Lord’s castle had lit a fire in her heart. Hajime, the one man who never gave up no matter how bad things got, had said that he knew everyone back on Tortus would be fine because Yuka was there. He’d said that he could trust her.
Yuka repeated those words to herself in her head, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
I can do this!
She then opened her eyes, her doubts gone. Calmly, she gripped the standard-issue artifact necklace Hajime had given to everyone and looked around.
Since she was standing atop the fortress, she had a good view of the entire battlefield. Stationed directly in front of the fortress was Gahard’s imperial army. On the east flank was the Heiligh Kingdom’s army, headed by Knight Commander Kuzeli, with Lanzwi’s desert warriors on the west. To the south was half of Verbergen’s beastmen army, with the remaining warriors stationed on the walls and towers farther out to the east and west. Adul and the other dragonmen were spread about in the same way.
Most of the adventurers who’d volunteered had been assimilated into each army’s reserves, since they were the most flexible unit. They were in charge of plugging any holes that appeared in the various armies’ formations, as well as taking down any apostles that got past the front lines.
All told, the combined forces of Tortus numbered a few hundred thousand strong, with every race represented.
Behind Yuka, the new pope, Simon, and his clergy were standing in a magic circle carved into the tallest point of the fortress. Simon was completely unlike his predecessor. He had an actual sense of humor, and he valued human life far more than his faith. When Yuka met his gaze, he gave her a reassuring wink.
In the past, he’d argued that humans should treat beastmen as equals, and had been exiled from the capital for his views. Had it not been for Liliana’s intervention, he likely wouldn’t have been appointed the new pope. All of the clergy who followed him shared his brazen confidence and somewhat radical views. If anything, David and the other Templar Knights charged with guarding the priests looked more nervous than they did.
“We can win this, right?” Yuka muttered quietly, turning to look at her classmates, who were lined up next to her. Most of them were looking worriedly up at the sky. Just like Yuka, they remembered the thrashing a single apostle had given them.
The nine students who’d remained holed up in their rooms until now looked like they might faint. Yuka couldn’t blame them. Enough apostles were pouring out of that gate to blot out the sky. The only reason the apostle had let those students live was because she thought they would serve as good hostages for Yuka and the students who had fought.
Fortunately, Hajime had immediately accepted the Demon Lord’s invitation. Had he not, Yuka would have been forced to become Ehit’s pawn and try to convince him, or the apostles would kill the student hostages one by one. Now, with Hajime gone, everyone was remembering just how terrifying these emotionless monsters could be.
“Don’t worry! I won’t let anyone die!” Kaori said confidently, puffing her chest out proudly. Among Hajime’s companions, she was the only one who’d stayed behind to help the people back on Tortus.
“Nagumo-kun will defeat god for sure! As long as we can hold out and protect each other until then, we’ll all be able to go home!” Aiko declared, trying to psych her students up. Though she looked small and unreliable, she was always doing her best for her students, so they respected her immensely for it.
Thanks to her and Kaori’s words of encouragement, the students regained a measure of their earlier resolve.
However, in the end, they all turned to the one they considered their leader. Not Kaori, not Aiko, but Yuka Sonobe.
Kaori and Aiko both knew it was Yuka that everyone looked up to, which was why they nodded to her and stepped back to let her speak. Yuka nodded back, then turned to the students.
“We’ve got this, guys.”
Thus far, the apostles had been milling about the gate, seemingly wondering whether or not they should chase after Hajime. But now they were beginning to turn their attention to the armies on the ground.
Despite her fear, Yuka gazed resolutely back up at them. No matter how terrifying the foe, she knew she wouldn’t falter ever again. Raising her voice she shouted, “You all know how ruthless Nagumo is, don’t you? Right now, we have that monster of the abyss’s protection on our side!”
Yuka met each student’s gaze, and everyone clasped the artifact necklaces he’d given them.
“The judgment of Lord Ehit is upon you!” the apostles said in unison, their voices echoing directly in the minds of everyone. But Yuka just smiled fearlessly, just as Hajime would have.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared, but you know, I’m more pissed off than I am scared right now. These bastards kidnapped us, decided we only had value as hostages, and now that they’re done with us they want us all to die? Fuck that! We’re not Ehit’s toys! Isn’t that right, guys?!”
Cries of “Yeah, fuck him!” and “You’ve got that right!” rang out among the students.
Their anger began to overtake their fear, reinforcing their resolve and giving them the strength to keep fighting.
“I won’t let them lay a finger on any of my friends. I don’t want to lose anyone else! We’re going to take those apostles down and—”
The apostles started diving toward the armies. There were about five thousand of them in total. With her back to them, Yuka smiled gently at the students and finished with “And we’re all going to go home. Together.”
The students cheered, their eyes glimmering with determination.
A second later, they all heard Liliana’s voice ringing in their heads.
“Central command to all forces. We’re sticking to plan A. Everyone, brace for the incoming barrage!”
Countless beams of silver light shot down at the armies, signaling the start of the battle to decide the fate of Tortus.
The torrent of disintegration attacks normally would be more than enough to obliterate anyone not as powerful as Hajime. It was thanks to this power of theirs that the apostles believed they’d still be able to easily destroy humanity despite letting Hajime destroy the Sacred Mountain, annihilate all of Ehit’s monsters, and even destroy a significant chunk of the apostles on his way into the Sanctuary.
They were expecting this to be not a battle, but a one-sided slaughter. But of course, things didn’t go as planned.
“Deploy the Canopy!”
The Canopy was a repurposed version of the great barrier that had once protected Heiligh’s capital. Rather than consisting of three dome-shaped layers, it was a single two-kilometer-wide sheet that appeared directly above the army. Though it took an inordinate amount of mana to maintain, it was enhanced with spatial magic barriers and restoration magic self-healing powers, making it a nigh-indestructible barrier.
Humanity’s strongest barrier did indeed manage to stop the barrage of disintegration rays.
“You’re just wasting your time,” one of the apostles said flatly, her eyes narrowing slightly. The barrier was a single unbroken sheet that hovered a few hundred meters in the air. It was one thing if a person was controlling it, but since it was deployed by an artifact, that meant it blocked anything that touched it—both from above and below. The armies on the ground were safe from disintegration beams, but they couldn’t counterattack either. Furthermore, regardless of how powerful this artifact was, it wouldn’t be able to survive a concentrated barrage of disintegration attacks indefinitely.
Just as the apostles expected, the barrier shattered into shards of light after only a few minutes. The rain of deadly silver light once again began bearing down on the armies below. But before it could hit, Liliana shouted, “Counterattack, now!”
The apostles stared in awe as a volley of cannon fire, missiles, rockets, and Gatling gun fire shot out from the fortresses and walls and towers situated on the battlefield. The bombardment they’d expected, but what had caught them by surprise was what happened to their own disintegration beams.
“Teleportation defenses!” the apostles exclaimed. Indeed, all of their attacks had been sent back at them via enlarged versions of Hajime’s personal Orestes.
The apostles were so preoccupied with dodging their own attacks that they weren’t able to evade the barrage of missiles and bullets. The forces of Tortus had such an overwhelming advantage in numbers that they were able to fire off barrages with much higher density than the apostles too. On top of that, the Haulia snipers were so insanely skilled that they could accurately hit a target even from eight kilometers away.
Plus, Kaori was supplementing the barrage with her own disintegration beams, while Aiko had taken over the seven Hyperions Hajime had left behind when busting into the Sanctuary and was firing off high-powered lasers left and right.
Each of those attacks was powerful enough that the apostles couldn’t just shrug them off either. Thus, they resorted to trying to cut down the various attacks with their claymores, or wrapping their wings around themselves and focusing on absolute defense, but even so, a good number of them started dropping.
“I see. So that barrier was simply buying time for you to pinpoint where our attacks would land,” one of the apostles said as she caught a glimpse of the fortress through the missile barrage.
Normal people couldn’t freely control the teleportation rings like Hajime, since they lacked the ability to directly manipulate mana. So instead, Liliana had deployed the barrier to give people time to calculate the point of impact of the apostles’ attacks and manually move the rings to the correct locations in groups of three. After that, all they’d had to do was say the simple incantation of “portal” and the rings activated.
After going through the portal, the beams were shot back out of the paired gates that were installed at set intervals along the walls around the fort.
Meanwhile, on the lowest basement floor of the fortress, another team was hard at work.
“Get me numbers four through twelve! And hurry up on the repairs to number seven!”
“Roger!”
“Seven’s been repaired, sir!”
The Heiligh Kingdom’s finest Synergist, Volpen, was barking out orders as he oversaw the emergency repair of the Canopy.
The artifact’s main body, which was a transparent pillar as thick as a tree trunk, was situated down here. Though it looked like one single object, it was actually made of distinct three-dimensional blocks that all connected like a lego puzzle. Damaged or overheated blocks could be replaced with identical spares to quickly get the entire thing up and running again.
Of course, removing and attaching parts took a good deal of Transmutation skill because of how delicate the magic circles on the blocks were, but as long as you had a bit of training, even an average Synergist could repair this godlike artifact.
“Volpen-sama, the Canopy has been repaired!”
“Good,” Volpen said, nodding to his subordinate. He then activated the communicator connected to central command.
“Princess, we’ve finished repairing the barrier!”
“Perfect. Reactivate as soon as possible. Give me constant updates on the number of spare parts and mana you have left!”
“Of course, Your Highness!”
Volpen quickly redeployed the Canopy.
“So long as we are willing to sustain casualties...” one of the apostles muttered as she saw the barrier reappear.
There were almost five thousand of them in total, and they could coordinate with each other perfectly. Moreover, they didn’t care at all about any of their comrades. If they were willing to sacrifice a few hundred of their number, they could easily concentrate their forces on one spot and break through before the rings could be moved to the correct positions.
The apostles began to glow as they activated their pseudo-Limit Breaks and assumed assault formation. But just then, they got hit by the next in the long list of anti-apostle countermeasures Hajime had cooked up.
“Hm? Wait...it can’t be!”
The deafening roar of missile explosions and gunfire died down as the barrier redeployed, allowing the apostles to hear the sound they’d been drowning out until now. This was a sound they recognized all too well, since they had tried using it against Hajime once before.
“Lalalaaaaaa!”
It was the sound of a hymn. Specifically, the Hymn of Ruin, which debuffed whoever it targeted.
To think we would be taking down the apostles with a song made to weaken the heretics who opposed Ehit. Heh, that youngster sure likes to twist the knife.
Pope Simon smiled faintly as he solemnly intoned the Hymn of Ruin. Though Aiko and Yuka both thought of him as a weird old geezer, despite his eccentricities, he did have the skills and strength to serve as a proper pope.
“Simon-sama. Please strike down the vile minions of that evil god,” Liliana said through her telepathic communicator.
“Ho ho ho, as you wish, Your Highness.”
Simon banged his staff on the dais he was standing on. Both his staff and the dais he was smacking it against were artifacts, with the dais working to concentrate and amplify the powers of the hymn.
“Take a good look, apostles, this is just one of humanity’s many trump cards—Heavenbreaker!”
A large, pure-crimson magic circle then appeared on the dais. It appeared he’d activated the powerful evolution magic spell that buffed multiple allies’ stats by a ludicrous amount, Limiter Removal, as well as the evolution magic spell that lowered the strength of the caster’s enemies, Core Seal.
The true nature of evolution magic was the ability to interfere with the discrete bits of information that made up a person or object. However, while lightly adjusting parameters wasn’t too difficult, rewriting them completely was an impossibly difficult feat.
Fortunately, while the apostles were legion, they were in effect one single target because they were perfect copies of each other. On top of that, Hajime had already had plenty of time to study Noint’s body. With Kaori’s help, he’d easily been able to manufacture an artifact capable of affecting them.
“Ngh! Our power has been halved?! No, we’ve lost even more than that!”
The auras of silver light that had been enveloping the apostles dissipated, and were replaced by a malicious red aura that lowered their abilities significantly. The debuffs were so strong they even affected the apostles’ mobility.
Down below, the armies let out resounding cheers. Thanks to their superior eyesight, the apostles could easily see that every single soldier down below had been significantly strengthened.
“This still changes nothing.”
Even at a mere forty percent of their power, the apostles were far stronger than any human. Unfortunately, they now lacked the strength to quickly break through the Canopy at a single concentrated point and charge the forces down below. Or rather, they could still do it, but the casualties would mount too high.
“In that case, we simply need to attack from the side.”
The only reason the Canopy was so powerful was because it sacrificed omnidirectional coverage for focused defensive power.
Two thousand apostles broke away from the main unit and circled around to the armies’ side. The remaining apostles maintained their barrage so that the detachment could swoop in and make short work of the priests singing the Hymn of Ruin.
They came in from the north, two thousand silver comets rushing toward the fortress at an extremely low altitude.
“I leave all field decisions to you, Commander Gahard. Good luck!” Liliana said.
“You got it,” Gahard D Hoelscher, supreme commander of the combined Tortus forces and a peerless, reckless warrior, proclaimed as he mounted his warhorse. He then stared down the oncoming apostles like a wild beast looking at its prey, then lowered the visor of his helmet with a grin.
Raising his sword high in the air he shouted, “Gunners, take aim!”
There were, of course, large contingents of gunners stationed on the fortress and the surrounding walls, but there were also riflemen mixed in with the infantry out on the front lines. The rifles had easily reloadable magazines that rotated automatically, allowing for easy, automatic fire. Each magazine was also charged with enough electricity to rail gun accelerate each of its six shots. The bullets were all large-caliber exploding shots as well, since Hajime had assumed the evolution-magic-enhanced soldiers would be able to handle the heavier recoil.
“Rejoice, all of you wannabe heroes! This is your chance to leave your mark on history! Fire!”
Not even bothering to hide his excitement, Gahard gave the order to fire. Bolstered by his rousing speech, the tens of thousands of gunners fired at once.
The Canopy was deployed about sixty meters above the ground, meaning the apostles had very little vertical leeway to dodge the veritable wall of bullets heading their way. Furthermore, since the bullets didn’t have to fight gravity just to reach their target, they retained a lot more of their blistering initial speed.
Hajime’s guns were truly deadly because they didn’t require their users to be particularly powerful to unleash extremely powerful physical-magical hybrid attacks. Even an apostle would take serious damage braving that barrage head-on.
Any attempt at counterattacking without bothering to defend would see the apostles dead. But even if they blocked with their claymores, they’d be stopped in their tracks and slowly whittled down until they were defeated. So instead, they used their wings purely for defense to nullify the bullets’ shock waves and allow them to keep advancing, albeit slowly.
“Damn you, Irregular. Is there no end to your interference?!”
The apostles were beginning to grow uncharacteristically irritated. Of course, the soldiers down below didn’t realize that was partly due to the fact that Hajime had instantly obliterated two hundred of their brethren in the Sanctuary without even breaking a sweat.
Still, that was only part of the cause of their irritation. The main reason they were getting so frustrated was that despite switching to a spindle formation and focusing on defense, the apostles at the outer edges of the formation were getting picked off one after another.
“Ha ha ha ha ha! Looks like the only strategy you idiots know is charging headfirst at the enemy! Fools like you are easy pickings for Baltfeld the Executioner!”
The Haulia’s premiere sniper, Baltfeld the Executioner—aka Par—cheered as he shot down another apostle, aiming for the minute gap between her wings.
“Get me more bullets! I’m running out!”
“Hya ha ha ha! That’s one hell of a fireworks display!”
The other Haulia snipers cackled maniacally at each other, while the beastmen resupply unit pretended not to see anything as they replenished their ammo stores. They knew that if they engaged with the Haulia, they’d end up as insane as them. In fact, they didn’t even want to admit that the Haulia were fellow beastmen. Regardless, the fact remained that the Haulia were extremely effective when the apostles’ aerial mobility was limited.
“Your tricks end here.”
Despite the dense barrage, the apostles were able to advance halfway through Gahard’s formation in the span of a few seconds. They used their sturdy bodies as shields and focused purely on defense, so they weren’t able to counterattack, but that single-minded focus did let them break through Gahard’s formation with only light casualties.
Or so they thought, anyway.
“Your Highness, they’ve reached the designated point!” a messenger said to Liliana in the command tower.
“Perfect. Then let’s show them how much of an advantage numbers give.”
Liliana touched the jewel on her necklace and sent a message to the entire army.
“Brave men and women of Tortus, we’re moving to phase two! Activate Grav Farensen!”
A second later, all of the apostles started falling toward the ground.
“A gravity field?”
The apostles looked around and saw crimson jewels set up at various points around the battlefield. Soldiers had activated them all at once, creating a gravity field right underneath the Canopy to prevent anyone from flying under it. Once they were grounded, the armies of Tortus would finally be able to utilize their numbers advantage instead of being unilaterally bombarded from the air.
Unfortunately, gravity magic was mana intensive, so they couldn’t spread the anti-flight field over the whole battlefield and still make it strong enough to drag down enemies as powerful as apostles.
That was actually the main reason for the Canopy’s existence. It split the airspace into two sections, allowing the armies of Tortus to focus the gravitational field in one area and amplify its effectiveness.
As a result, not even the apostles could take flight again in this superdense gravity field. A moment before the apostles hit the ground, a barrage of missiles struck them, shattering their spindle formation. They were sent flying in all directions and were forced to scatter even further to avoid the follow-up attacks coming their way, so they found themselves isolated in the middle of the enemy’s formation.
“Here they come! Don’t fear death, you louts! Overwhelm them with numbers and kill them all! It’s time to show your worth as warriors!” Gahard shouted, charging headfirst at an apostle himself. The empire’s armies, Heiligh’s armies, Ankaji’s armies, and Verbergen’s armies all cheered and followed suit.
There was a series of resounding crashes as the apostles all hit the ground, creating tiny craters all over the battlefield. They landed in a kneeling posture, their faces looking downward, which made their expressions unreadable.
“Surround her! Let’s do this!”
“Uwoooooooooh!”
The imperial soldiers swarmed the apostle near them, confident that they’d already won. But then a series of silver streaks shot out from the apostle in all directions. She’d fired her feathers in a scattershot blast, much like a shrapnel grenade.
The soldiers screamed in pain as they were sent flying back.
“Don’t falter! We can beat her!” one of the nearby officers shouted, and another wave of soldiers surged forward.
“As if humans stand a chance against us...”
The apostle slowly got to her feet and summoned her dual claymores. Even with their stats greatly reduced and their ability to fly sealed, there was a massive gap between the abilities of an apostle and a human.
Apostles were just on a completely different level, after all. The various stratagems the human forces had come up with had been annoying to be sure, enough to actually irritate the normally emotionless apostles, even, but annoying was all they’d been.
The apostle gracefully spun in a circle, her claymores mowing down swathes of imperial soldiers. The shock waves created by her slashes sent the soldiers in full plate armor flying as though they weighed nothing.
“But why...”
However, it was once again the apostle who appeared confused, not the soldiers.
That was because even though her claymores were coated in disintegration magic, her slashes weren’t actually cutting through any of the soldiers. She shouldn’t have been feeling the impact of any of her slashes, since they were meant to be bisecting people instead of sending them flying. With that one display, she should have killed dozens of people, but instead, she’d only succeeded in injuring them.
“Gah... They’re working... Our defenses are working!”
“I could see that swing! It was fast, but I could still dodge in time!”
The soldiers that had been sent flying started getting back to their feet. Most of the ones that had been hit by the disintegration feathers were getting up as well. Only those unlucky enough to have been pierced through the head had died.
For everyone else, it was only their armor that had been damaged. Granted, it was significant damage, but still, the soldiers’ armor had protected their bodies. Fortunately, their armor didn’t stay broken for long. Crimson light enveloped the soldiers and their armor started repairing itself.
Awestruck, the apostle muttered, “Don’t tell me...”
Out of the corner of her vision, she saw a warhorse charging toward her. She pointed one of her claymores at it and launched a disintegration beam. The beam caused the horse to stumble and fall, but its rider just leaped off and continued his assault.
“Hiyaaaaaaaaah!”
With a spirited yell, Gahard D Hoelscher swung down at the apostle. She raised her second claymore to block, but then Gahard redirected his sword and changed his downward slash to a horizontal one. And honestly, even the apostle was impressed by such a perfect feint.
As the head of a mercenary empire that valued strength above all else, Gahard was naturally one of the best swordsmen alive. His godlike swordsmanship let him slip past the apostle’s defenses and slice right at her neck. But the apostle wasn’t worried. After all, her body was harder than steel. A regular human weapon wouldn’t even be able to scratch her. Or so she thought.
“Ah!”
“This is what you get for being overconfident!” Gahard exclaimed with a grin, baring his teeth.
It was only as her vision started to spin that the apostle realized she’d been decapitated and her head was flying through the air.
She didn’t ask why; the red glow coming from Gahard’s sword and the faint bzzzzzz noise told her everything she needed to know. The apostle’s body could still move even without its head. So long as she still had mana, the apostle wouldn’t die instantly even after being decapitated. In fact, as long as her decapitated head could still see the area around her, losing it didn’t dampen her combat capabilities at all.
She brandished her twin claymores, then launched a twin cross slash at Gahard, hoping to cut his head off in revenge.
“Whoa there!”
Gahard evaded the unbelievably fast attack with unbelievably fast reflexes. He even managed to launch a counterthrust.
“I’ve already been told that your core’s somewhere around here, where your heart’s supposed to be,” Gahard said as he stabbed straight through the mana-supplying core of the apostle.
“As I suspected, all of your equipment is high-class ancient-magic-imbued artifacts,” the apostle muttered.
That was indeed the case. The superdense plate armor everyone was wearing was imbued with a triple-layered Diamond Skin, Impact Absorption, Auto-Recovery, Stamina Recovery, and gravity magic that made it lighter. Their helmets were imbued with Riftwalk and Foresight, their greaves with Supersonic Step and Aerodynamic, and their gauntlets with Steel Arms. Furthermore, their weapons were all enchanted with spatial severing magic, the ability to convert mana into shock waves, and supersonic vibrations that also dispersed the target’s mana.
This was also just one of the many blessings the monster of the abyss had granted to every single one of the over one hundred thousand soldiers of Tortus.
Gahard drew his sword out of the apostle’s chest, and her body crumpled.
“All right. I, Gahard, have single-handedly slain one of the false god’s apostles!”
He sent that message to the entire army in order to raise everyone’s morale. He’d only taken down a single apostle, but that small victory meant everything to the common soldiers. They burst out in cheers, and whatever lingering fear they might have still had vanished.
“Your Majesty, watch out!” one of the soldiers shouted. Out of the corner of his eye, Gahard saw a silver streak heading straight for him.
It seemed another apostle had launched a disintegration beam at him. The soldiers close to the beam’s point of origin had been knocked back, while the ones in the line of fire had managed to just barely jump out of the way with Supersonic Step.
However, Gahard himself didn’t have enough time to dodge. Just before the beam hit him, though, his core of handpicked elites jumped in front of him.
“Raise your shields!” Gahard shouted. Though, his men were already on it. The disintegration beam slammed into the triple-layered wall of shields.
In seconds, the shields were ground away into dust, but those few seconds were all the time Gahard and his men needed. The nearby soldiers took advantage of the delay to once again swarm the apostle.
“What a nuisance,” the apostle muttered.
Whatever arrogance the apostles had once had was gone now that the dead apostle had shared information with the rest. Now, they all knew that even a lowly foot soldier had weapons capable of killing them.
Now that their guards were up, the apostles were much, much harder to kill. They methodically tore through the soldiers, sending them flying and occasionally succeeding in chopping off their limbs.
“As we’ve told you time and time again, your struggles are in vain,” an apostle said as she kicked her way past Gahard’s retinue and charged straight at him. She then swung down at Gahard with such speed that he didn’t have time to dodge and was forced to block with his sword.
“Ngh, what’s with this insane power.”
The impact of the blow forced Gahard to his knees and caused the ground underneath him to cave in a little. His bones creaked painfully as they absorbed the shock of the apostle’s swing.
“Protect His Majesty!” his guards shouted. However, the apostle shot them all through the face with her feathers, killing them instantly.
“Behold. Your barrier is about to fall, and soon your vaunted fortress will as well.”
The only reason the apostle didn’t kill Gahard immediately was because she wanted to show him true despair first.
Indeed, as he looked up, Gahard saw that the Canopy had once again been destroyed. Though the disintegration barrage pounding against it had only been half as strong this time, it simply hadn’t been able to withstand long-term exposure to disintegration magic. All that had changed was that it had lasted a few minutes instead of a few seconds.
A concentrated downpour of disintegration beams shot toward the pope and his priests. A few dozen apostles also dived down and landed on the fortress’s roof. But at the same time, Gahard saw the arrival of another trump card to turn the tables, so he smiled fearlessly.
“Hah, we won’t go down that easily!”
Tired of his defiance, the apostle prepared to stab Gahard through the chest with her second claymore. But just before she could—
“Everyone! You can do iiiiiit!”
A cute little girl’s voice echoed through everyone’s communicators, and the dozens of apostles on the fortress’s roof were sent careening to the ground.
At their young master’s behest, the seven many-legged golems stationed on and around the rooftop of the fortress sprang to life, their eyes gleaming with a deadly light.
After striking down the nearby apostles, Myu’s friendly golems made a Power Rangers-style pose.
“The Demon Rangers are heeeeeeeeereeeeee!” Myu shouted through her communicator. Then, a small explosion appeared behind the seven posing golems.
People couldn’t help but feel exasperated by the needlessly showy display, but the fact remained that it was the golems who’d knocked the apostles away with their localized gravity fields.
“Beat up the bad guys, Demon Rangers!” Myu shouted, and the golems flashed her a thumbs-up before springing into action.
Two of each of the golem’s six arms transformed into Gatling guns, while another two turned into rail gun cannons and the last two were kept free to be used in close combat. Their stomach plates also slid back to reveal a massive rack of missile launchers.
They unloaded their full barrage on the apostles down below. Since there were no friendly forces nearby, they didn’t have to worry about holding back. Furthermore, thanks to the golems’ powerful gravitational fields, the apostles couldn’t even run away.
Unsurprisingly, the fifty-odd apostles were ruthlessly blasted apart in a matter of seconds.
“Man, we were all hyped up to fight, but now we don’t even have to,” Atsushi moaned.
“Nagumo’s way too overprotective of that daughter of his. I can’t believe he gave her golems that are this dangerous,” Noboru said.
“Also, what’s with that name? Is his naming sense that bad?” Akito added. They were still a little stunned by how handily the golems had torn through the apostles.
“They’re going to keep coming, so don’t let your guard down!” Yuka shouted, scolding her companions. With the exception of one area, everyone had managed to get their Orestes in place in time, so the apostles had once again been forced to retreat from their own disintegration barrage.
The one area in question was the fortress rooftop, which had been focused on by the enemies, but Kaori had simply nullified those disintegration beams with her own, and the few she hadn’t had been sent back at the apostles by David and the others flying up with their own smaller Orestes.
Upon seeing that, the apostles finally accepted that an aerial bombardment simply wouldn’t work. The detachment had been completely split up and was fighting a pitched melee with the soldiers on the ground.
Thanks to the difference in strength between the two sides, it was only a matter of time before the apostles broke through, but the mission they’d been tasked with was the thorough elimination of all mortal races.
“Things will take far too long at this rate.”
And so, the apostles decided to change tactics. Unfortunately, the forces of Tortus had predicted what exactly they would try next.
“The enemy will be coming from the east, west, and south as well now. All forces, prepare for combat! Kaori, Adul-dono, I hope you’re ready!” Liliana shouted.
“Yep!” Kaori replied.
“This is the moment I have been awaiting,” Adul said.
Liliana continued giving out orders to everyone, saying, “We’re moving into phase three, everyone! Good luck out there!”
“Thanks! All right, Yuka-chan, Sensei, everyone. See you soon!” Kaori exclaimed as she shot into the air with a boom, her black armor gleaming under the sun. She was taking the fight to the apostles in an attempt to keep them too occupied to attack the pope’s team down below.
“For five hundred years, we have endured your unjust persecution. I have not forgotten the massacre you ordered on our people for even a single day. Back then, we survivors swore that we would one day reclaim our honor and avenge our fallen comrades. My brethren, the time has finally come.”
Adul was normally so calm and gentle that his cold, rage-filled voice surprised everyone. But at the same time, it showed just how long the flames of resentment had been burning deep inside his heart.
“Show these emotionless dolls no mercy! Let Ehit feel the wrath of the dragonmen! It’s time to remind everyone who the true rulers of the skies are! Dragonmen...attack!”
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The dragonmen’s roars resounded throughout the battlefield. Like Adul, their rage had been building for five hundred years, and even those dragonmen who had been born after the massacre knew just how much their parents had suffered. As one they transformed, the various colors of their mana spiraling up into the sky.
For a brief moment, Liliana deactivated Grav Farensen to let the three hundred dragonmen take flight. As they did so, they launched countless breath attacks into the sky.
It was truly a sight to behold. Five hundred years had passed since humans had last had contact with dragonmen, but they immediately understood why they’d been known as the rulers of the sky. The dragonmen’s breath attacks were so powerful that the apostles couldn’t just shrug them off.
Many of the apostles were killed outright by the dragonmen as they made their way to the eastern, western, and southern sections of the battlefield. The dragonmen, too, split up to aid their allies on all fronts, including the northern one where they were forced to fight on the ground due to the gravity field.
“Hah, looks like you guys are struggling to kill even one of us!” Gahard said, taunting the apostle.
“Disappear,” the apostle replied, unleashing yet another disintegration blast.
“Protect His Majesty!”
Once again, his guards formed up, desperately protecting their liege from the disintegration beam. However, the apostle launched a follow-up feather barrage, skewering them through the necks. As they collapsed to the ground, the beam made it to the soldiers they’d been protecting, who were vaporized in an instant.
“No matter how many artifacts you protect yourself with, no matter what tricks you use to take us out of the sky, at the end of the day, you are all human. None of you can hope to defeat us. Prostrate yourselves before us and accept our Lord’s judgment.”
Her words had an ominous ring to them, since the soldier’s emperor was currently being forced to kneel in front of the apostle. But even so, the brave warriors of the empire didn’t falter. They were far too busy trying to figure out how to defeat the enemy in front of them to feel even an ounce of despair.
“Don’t underestimate the soldiers of the empire,” Gahard said as he watched one young soldier charge forward, using the corpses of his allies as shields to cover his advance. He’d lost one arm and was bleeding profusely from the various gashes in his armor. His wounds were almost certainly fatal. And yet, his determination was unyielding. Grinning even as blood dripped from his mouth, he swung down at the apostle with his sword.
Barely sparing him a glance, the apostle fired a feather at him to finish him off.
“Limit Breaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!”
“What?!”
The young soldier’s mana ballooned, and he sped up immensely, dodging the feather with ease. The apostle was completely stunned by his action. Limit Break was the kind of skill only an Irregular like Hajime and his companions, or a bona fide hero like Kouki, could use. So unbelievable was this situation that the apostle’s reaction to the soldier’s attack was momentarily delayed.
Realizing it was too late to dodge, the apostle hurriedly blocked with her claymore.
“How are you able to use that skill...?” she muttered.
“Well done, youngster,” Gahard said, purposely relaxing his muscles. By the time the apostle realized what he was doing, it was too late. With one less sword bearing down on Gahard, he was able to redirect the force of the swing and parry it to the side. Once he was free, he too intoned, “Limit—”
“No, this can’t be!”
“—breaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!”
Like the young soldier, Gahard’s stats tripled. He slashed at the apostle with far more ferocity than before.
“That glow—”
The apostle barely managed to circle away from the slash aimed at her core, but then Gahard’s follow-up thrust found its mark. She was so surprised that she cut off midsentence.
As mana leaked out of the apostle at a prodigious rate, Gahard held up the red-jeweled necklace he was wearing with his free hand.
“This is a battle to decide the fate of humanity. We wouldn’t stand a chance if we weren’t able to transcend our limits, now would we?”
As he pulled his sword out of the apostle’s body he activated his communicator and shouted, “To all the brave souls of the imperial army!”
There was no longer any need to pay any heed to the dying apostle. It was time to give the signal. In truth, all of the soldiers had been using a weakened version of Limit Break from the very start of the fight, but it had taken some time for their bodies to get used to it. Not everyone even had managed to get used to it, but with the strength everyone had now, they couldn’t hold a candle to the apostles.
And so, even though it carried the risk of permanently damaging everyone’s souls, and guaranteed that once their time limit was up everyone would be too exhausted to fight, the combined forces of Tortus had no other choice. In the same way that the young soldier had risked his life to achieve a miracle, the time had come for every soldier to give their all. Dying without having unleashed their full power was the greatest dishonor a warrior could bear, after all. Thus, Gahard gave a simple command.
“Transcend your limits and fight! Squeeze out every last ounce of strength and sacrifice everything for victory!”
The initial plan had been for everyone to Limit Break much later than this, but Gahard’s speech had brought everyone’s morale to a fever pitch.
“Limit Break!”
To the east, Kuzeli and her knights activated their Limit Breaks.
“Limit Break!”
Lanzwi and his personal troops did the same to the west.
“Sheesh, think about how much stress this is putting on my old bones... Limit Break.”
Even Ulfric, who shouldn’t even have possessed any mana, was able to use Limit Break.
“It’s finally time. Let’s do this, guys... Limit Break!” Yuka said, glaring at the apostles rushing toward her.
With most of Tortus’s forces occupied, the concentrated barrage on the apostles in the air had weakened somewhat, allowing more of them to make it down to the fort. Fortunately, everyone was ready to meet them.
“Limit Break!” Atsushi, Noboru, Akito, Nana, Taeko, Jugo, Kentarou, Kousuke, Mao, Ayako, Shinji, and Yoshiki said in unison.
All of the soldiers in Heiligh’s army, Ankaji’s army, Gahard’s army, Verbergen’s army, all of the dragonmen, and all of the adventurers also cast their Limit Breaks.
“Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!” “Limit Break!”
This was the last, and greatest, trump card Hajime had left behind for the mortal races of Tortus. A Limit Break for literally everyone. And not just a regular limit break, but a Limit Break with a stat increase on par with Overload. And it was all thanks to the spirit magic artifact he’d created, Last Seele.
Of course, the damage caused by forcibly strengthening one’s soul like this would have killed half the people who tried to use the artifact had it not been for the fact that their bodies had all been enhanced by Hajime’s CheatMates, and their souls were constantly being strengthened and repaired by Aiko’s spirit magic.
In fact, Aiko was currently panicking because everyone had activated their Limit Breaks early. She clutched the rosary-shaped artifact Hajime had given her close to her chest and started casting as fast as she could. In that moment, she looked more like a praying saint than a goddess.
Aiko’s light-pink mana pulsed across the battlefield, and she stabilized the souls of everyone who’d activated their Last Seele, keeping them from killing themselves with their own Limit Breaks.
When Gahard and the others had first heard Hajime’s plan of splitting up the enemy apostles, forcing them to fight on the ground, weakening them as much as possible, and then using a power-up so dangerous it risked becoming a double-edged sword, they’d looked at him like he was crazy. But in the end, this was how far they’d had to go just to be able to fight on even footing with the apostles.
Looking at it another way, that meant all of Hajime’s plans were only enough to give humanity a fighting chance; what happened after this was up to their own efforts.
However, that was more than enough for Gahard. He leveled his sword at another apostle and shouted, “Don’t underestimate humanity!”
The apostle blinked in surprise. It was almost as if she’d heard those exact same words long ago.
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