#15 Assault (Lete, Noa - Hand Heart/Pregnancy Delusion♥) (3)
The news of the intruder reached me just as I was about to go see the orc babies who had safely been born this time.
The maids informed us that the assailant was heading straight toward this place, drawing closer by the second, and that three orc scouts had already been killed because of it.
"No way."
I used the base's functions to project the intruder's image right in front of us. Noa, who checked the figure on the grid-like screen with me, muttered with a stiff, hardened expression.
"Master, Master...! We have to run! That one, that person—no!"
"...? Who's that?"
"Ah, aah, how is that person, how is she here? She's not someone who should be in a place like this. There's no way...!"
"Noa?"
The old Noa definitely would have welcomed her. I even wondered what it would have been like if she were here instead of me. But that wishful thinking was in the past. The person she'd once desperately wanted by her side had now become the one she most wanted gone from here.
"The Holy Light Kingdom's greatest sword, the most noble knight—it's Eve!"
She had come here.
...
Eve had simply followed her instincts blindly into the depths of the forest. After pushing deep through the poison-filled woods for a good while longer, the air suddenly cleared, and a completely different landscape unfolded before her eyes.
It was a territory. A village. A small city.
It was surrounded by walls woven from trees and rocks, and at what looked like the entrance stood what appeared to be guards. She tried approaching and attempting conversation. But their reactions were so bizarre that Eve quickly gave up and knocked them out.
She didn't kill them. Unlike the orcs she'd encountered in the forest just moments ago, these were humans.
Passing through the gate like that, an unbelievable scene appeared—one that made it impossible to believe they were still inside that poison-choked forest.
"—Well, to put it simply, pumpkin. Pumpkin hardened into—"
"Kyarruk! Over here!"
"Ugh, to think yesterday was our anniversary, and I was too drunk to even know...!"
Sounds teeming with life filled a place that should have been devoid of proper life. Murmurs of chatter. The presence of people walking the streets. Merchants hawking their wares here and there.
At a glance, it seemed normal. But Eve quickly noticed something off. Their actions were full of incongruities. Repeating the same behaviors, the same lines, the same people shuttling back and forth across the same spots over and over.
Even when she tried talking to them just in case, all she got back were responses like those from game NPCs. Identical to the guards from before.
"........."
Even with so many people around, it felt like she was utterly alone here. Amid that sensation, she sensed a new presence approaching through the inhuman crowd.
Turning around, she saw a group of armed orcs. The one at the front was larger than the others and radiated an unusual aura. Probably a hero unit. Stats... around Lv.3, maybe.
No problem at all.
Eve drew her sword from its sheath without hesitation.
* * *
The most noble knight had come. The one I'd only heard rumors about until now, and whom I'd thought I wouldn't meet for a while.
"Gaon, sir. Barosy has gone out to block the intruder. The other orc warriors on standby are with him too. With the base's own buffs added in, we should be able to buy some time. In the meantime—"
"He's dead."
"...Pardon?"
"Dead, I said. Barosy."
On the grid window projected in front of me—this function that could show the view anywhere around my base or in the territory—I was watching the intruder and the orc group.
And just moments ago, Barosy had died.
Unlike the other orcs who dropped dead with one slash, he seemed to show some grit, enduring a few more hits, but in the end, he was hacked to pieces and died.
'Orc General Barosy' has died.
Orcs' morale decreases.
The status window confirmed it plainly, as if to say it wasn't a mistake. He was really, truly dead.
Orc General Barosy.
"Gaon, sir, hurry to the warp gate!"
No time to feel empty about it—urged on by Lete, I rushed toward the warp gate.
Whether we'd reach the gate first or the assailant would catch us first... who knew.
...
We all ran together at first, but midway, Lete wrapped shadows around my body and leaped into the air carrying me. It was faster for her, a hero unit, to carry me than for me to run myself. She even smashed through the hotel wall and burst outside.
Noa kept up without falling behind, leaping out with us. Heart was in Stonevic on a mission right now, so these were all the people we needed to evacuate from here.
"I'll stay here, Gaon, sir."
And Mea.
The skull-headed advisor arrived at the base's first floor alongside us but didn't follow—instead, staying behind.
I could guess what she was planning. But I couldn't stop her either.
Mea began summoning all the undead and skeletal monsters she'd created so far, holding her position there.
Being carried swiftly in Lete's arms as we flew away, I quickly lost sight of Mea.
Conveniently, the warp gate facility was located in the northeast of the base. Eve was charging straight from the south, so it was precariously on the opposite side.
If Mea could block the path well enough, we might just escape.
"...We're here!"
And we arrived at the warp gate.
It would have been faster if we could have built it inside the base. But due to the setting requiring a leyline, it had to be in this remote spot.
I activated the gate with a pounding heart.
But we couldn't use it right away. It needed about five minutes to activate.
Not long under normal circumstances, but in this situation, it was a hopelessly long time.
On top of the orcs, I'd recently formed a civilian militia from NPC soldiers. Them plus Mea. I desperately hoped they could hold Eve back for just five minutes.
No, if she even gets a little lost...!
The warp gate was in a remote spot far from the base. The enemy had no way of knowing it even existed.
So maybe I could hope she'd wander a bit. She seemed to have detection magic to track positions, but that would take time too.
Clinging to that slim hope... but then footsteps and a voice shattered it completely.
"Freeze. That's far enough, King of Ruin."
I closed my eyes and looked up at the sky. Then I rubbed my dry face and turned around.
There, in the spot I turned to, stood a black-haired beauty. Her clothes were torn and ragged in places. Covered in bloodstains, but none seemed to be hers.
"Sorry for arriving in such a state. I had to deal with a massive snake last night."
"...You're the most noble knight?"
"That's what they call me, apparently. But just Eve is fine. Plain old Eve."
Eve approached slowly, sword in hand.
"Not that you need to know my name, King of Ruin."
The warp gate still wasn't active. But a few more minutes, and we'd make it. We could warp straight to Stonevic, connected to this gate. Then smash the power source of Stonevic's warp gate.
Shwick—
Two figures stepped forward in front of me, the king, who watched the warp gate with tense eyes.
Noa and Lete, respectively.
Noa already had her sword drawn from its sheath, while dark magic roiled around Lete.
Both Lv.3 hero units. Top-tier ones at that. And with the base buffs here, if they teamed up, they might even hold off a Lv.4... maybe even a Lv.5 for a bit.
"Gaon, sir, stay by the gate. And when it opens, jump right in."
"We'll protect you with our lives, Master Gaon. Don't worry about us—once you're through, destroy the gate."
Eve looked at Lete with indifferent eyes, then at Noa standing beside her.
She knew Noa to some extent. They were holy knights from the same order, after all.
What the hell had happened? Noa was a bit naive, but not someone who'd fall to a King of Ruin.
Various possibilities flashed through her mind, but Eve quickly stopped thinking. No time for that. She had to subdue both before the gate opened and eliminate the King of Ruin.
"...For Saintess Lemon's sake, I won't kill you, Holy Knight Noa."
And Eve's form blurred as she closed in rapidly to point-blank range.
Lete didn't hesitate either, pulling thorns and tentacles from the shadows, while Noa infused her knight sword with light and swung at the approaching Eve.
And the battle began.
