The Girl Raised by the Death God Holds the Sword of Darkness in Her Arms - Volume 6 - Chapter 4.2

II

Just a little earlier, Felix had more or less finished drawing up the plans for his defense network and had begun to consider the various forts captured by the Royal Army when the report came of the surprise attack. He quietly set down his pen as he asked the frantic runner, “How many of them?”

“My lord! We don’t have accurate numbers, but it appears to be less than a thousand.”

“Less than a thousand?” cut in a veteran general, known for his valor. “What do they think they can accomplish with so few troops?”

There was a murmur of agreement from the others.

With close to three quarters of his soldiers engaging the routed Eighth Legion, the remaining forces were thin on the ground at present, but even then, they exceeded six thousand soldiers. That was a simple sixfold advantage. There was only one reason Felix could think of for why, even then, the runner was in such a panic.

“So it’s the unit led by Death God Olivia, then?” The shift in the atmosphere at his words was dramatic. The runner’s head bobbed up and down fervently.

“So what’s going on?! Right now, what’s going on?!” The runner cowered under the barrage of questions from the officers, but answered nevertheless.

“Our forces are successively taking up defensive formations, but the enemy was advancing too quickly, and the Death God’s strength is so terrible...”

“So it’s only a matter of time until they reach us here, then?” Felix asked. Before the runner could say anything, someone else stepped out in front of him. It was Matthew, the captain of his personal guard.

“I swear on the honor of your guard, I will stop the Death God and her forces, my lord.”

Felix could not fault his spirit, but he also knew well that there were limits to what spirit alone could accomplish. Thus, he turned back to the runner.

“Please convey to each unit that they are to lead Death God Olivia here. Naturally while remaining in offensive positions.”

“My...my lord...?” Matthew sounded confused.

“I will put an end to this battle myself,” Felix said. There was a burst of cheering, mainly from the younger officers, extinguished in an instant by Teresa’s enraged shout.

“My lord, you can’t!” She glared daggers at the younger officers, whose smiles had not yet faded. It was all the more shocking for those who knew her usual gentle nature to see this fearsome transformation. The pleading looks the younger officers gave her, despite the fact that some of them outranked her, struck Felix as so funny that he smiled despite himself. “This is nothing to smile about!”

“I beg your pardon. But are you really so staunchly opposed?”

“How could I not be, when you’re drawing danger down upon our heads?!”

“But can you rule it out? At the very least, I believe I am the only one who can stop Death God Olivia.”

Teresa gritted her teeth. “But my lord!”

“I have made up my mind.”

The only option the Eighth Legion had to turn things around now was to kill the supreme commander—in other words, to kill him. And more than anything else, he could not stand by while his soldiers marched helplessly to their deaths.

Teresa’s eyes filled with suspicion. “My lord, don’t tell me you thought all along that it would come to this?”

“Of course not,” Felix replied, but he wondered if, in his heart of hearts, he hadn’t secretly hoped for things to turn out this way.

I won’t think that my Asuran blood grants me the power to do this. I am ending things with the girl for the future of the empire, that’s all. So Felix told himself as he stood up.

The clash between Felix and Olivia, the culmination of the battle, was almost upon them.

Just over an hour had passed since Olivia’s forces charged the Azure Knights when their opponents, who had ’til then stood staunchly in the way of the attackers, began little by little to fall back. The soldiers of the Eighth Legion had no idea what to make of the path forward that suddenly materialized before them, but they did not lower their guards. All of them knew that a moment’s weakness could spell naught but death.

Claudia and Ashton brought up the rear of the formation along with Riful, there to protect the latter. As the three of them rode alongside Olivia, Claudia cast her gaze left and right, then murmured, “What do you think they’re doing?”

The Azure Knights gave no indication that they had lost the will to fight. On the contrary, it appeared as though they were trying to lead the Eighth Legion somewhere. It just so happened that this somewhere was the same location that Olivia was aiming for.

“It looks like Felix wants to end things with me too, doesn’t it?” Olivia replied. Ever since the first time she had laid eyes on him at Kier Fortress, Olivia had sensed with the force of something like destiny that this day would come. She was sure Felix felt the same.

“I agree, General,” Claudia replied.

“So by chance, everything played out just as we wanted...” Ashton murmured to himself.

“No one on this earth...can beat Ultra Master Olivia.”

Olivia took in all their remarks in silence, her gaze fixed ahead. She didn’t slow down, wanting to ascertain the situation. At last, when she judged their enemy was not going to attack, she looked down at Comet. Through the bond of friendship they shared, the horse understood what she wanted and slowed to a walk.

“Let’s go slow from here.”

The abnormal scene that played out as Olivia approached Felix’s command camp would later go down in history. Though the Azure Knights bristled with hostility, Olivia’s forces faced no resistance as they passed through as sedately as though they were out on a pleasure ride, with the pleasant clip-clop of the horse’s hooves completing the picture. The maelstrom of bloodshed that had stormed just earlier took on the quality of a dream.

Here we are. The Azure Knights’ command camp, wide open, came into view, and Olivia saw Felix standing majestically before it, an enormous imperial flag raised behind him. It seemed to her as though he bore the whole of the empire on his shoulders. With a last warning from Claudia not to let her guard down, Olivia slipped nimbly from Comet’s saddle.

Comet reared up, whinnying as though in warning, making Olivia laugh. “Don’t you worry. I’ll be okay.” Olivia lightly scratched the horse’s back. Then, she turned back to face Felix.