Oblivion Legion (4)

What Eris had brought was unmistakably a Canal seed. The moment she poured her mana into it and lofted it into the air, the Canal bloomed open.

A Canal opening inside a barrier that was already none too spacious meant one thing: that cramped pocket of space was about to fill with monsters. For Erinn's party, who needed to deal with the Legion Commander, it was an unmistakably bad situation.

Somehow, they had to stop the monsters from pouring out of the Canal. The ideal solution would have been for Erinn to close it herself—but that was the problem.

THWOOOOM!!!

Eris knew exactly what Erinn would try, and she wasn't about to sit still for it. She drove the massive Rage Python forward and simply blocked the strike with its body. Erinn abandoned the idea on the spot.

"Freya!"

Erinn called out, and Freya understood at once. Divine power flared around her as she folded her hands neatly together.

"Upon the wicked, deliver judgment. Upon the faithful, bestow your blessing."

A vast tide of holy power unfurled from Freya and swallowed the entire space. Watching the barrier's interior vanish beneath that sacred domain, Eris offered a frank note of admiration.

"As expected of the Saintess of Vita."

She grasped Freya's intent immediately. Turn the whole barrier into a sanctuary—deal lethal damage to every monster inside while blanketing her own side in a powerful blessing.

"So even if monsters come out of the Canal, you mean to make them worthless?"

But Eris had known this was coming. She had already extracted everything she needed about the Hero's party from her collaborator, Reite. She had known Erinn's group was here. Preparing a countermeasure for Freya's power had been the obvious move.

And so—

"But what about this?"

The Canal's mouth yawned fully open, and monsters came crawling out. Freya's face went pale—and so did Erinn's, the one who had ordered the sanctuary in the first place. Eris watched their expressions and laughed as if she were thoroughly entertained.

"If holy power is the problem, you just bring things that resist holy power, don't you?"

True to her word, every monster spilling from the Canal was one with high resistance to divine energy.

Most monsters were vulnerable to holy power—but near-inanimate creatures like golems, slimes, and murks barely felt it at all. And those were the only things crawling out of the Canal. True to their nature, they did not fall even when they touched the sanctuary.

Ordinarily, mindless as they were, such monsters were neither particularly threatening nor especially agile. Dealing with them would have been simple enough: dodge their crude attacks and go for the cores. But this was inside a barrier. Most of them were enormous, and a flood of them pouring into a confined space meant the interior would soon be packed solid with their bulk.

And it wasn't only holy power that had been neutralized. Clara's specialty—hexes that targeted living things—was useless against them. She could still fight, but with no vital points except the core, her assassination techniques lost most of their efficiency.

In practical terms, only Erinn and Ser-Aria could engage effectively. Under normal circumstances those two alone would have been more than enough—but Eris and Rage Python had no intention of standing idle.

"Not a chance."

KRAAAAAASH!!!

Even now, Eris casually swatted aside Ser-Aria's arrow—aimed at the Canal and the monsters—with a flick of mana.

Eris understood the situation perfectly. If she simply held the Canal and let them stew, they would destroy themselves. There was no reason to shoulder the risk of facing them personally.

Erinn realized it then. The reason a Legion Commander had shown herself on the most dangerous battlefield of all was precisely because she had this scheme prepared.

Of course the sanctuary would affect Eris to some degree—but as a Legion Commander, she was hardly helpless against holy power. And it wasn't concentrated on her alone.

Everything was unfolding according to Eris's design. Erinn's party had walked straight into a trap.

"Tch. Rats in a jar, the lot of us~."

The situation was undeniably grim. Freya could suppress the monsters' movements but couldn't land any real damage. Clara's combat effectiveness had plummeted. A thief's role depended on support from other positions to deliver decisive strikes—and Ser-Aria was already scrambling just to stem the tide pouring from the Canal.

Erinn surveyed the field, sorted the pieces, and let out a long sigh. At this rate, there was nothing left but to force it.

"…Going to all that trouble to think? Doesn't suit you at all~♡"

Erinn drew up her mana.

The mana gathering into the Holy Sword was immense—vast enough to recall that single, all-consuming strike she had unleashed across the Estire Kingdom's grainlands.

"…So the rumors weren't exaggerated after all?"

Eris felt a flicker of unease. Sensing something ominous, she raised her own mana and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠began constructing a technique.

It was her specialty—her most despairing weapon. The Curse of Oblivion. It had been forcibly dispelled earlier by some strange interloper, but that man was not here now.

She was not foolish enough to cast the Curse of Oblivion on the Hero. The same went for the Saintess. Eris knew full well that both of them were shielded by divine protection.

So the curse targeted the other two—the High Elf archer and the dark elf thief. If Erinn had to divert her attention to them, she wouldn't be able to finish whatever she was preparing.

But—

CRACK!!

The Curse of Oblivion never properly reached either of them. Both Ser-Aria and Clara raised their mana in the instant before it could latch on and struck the curse cleanly aside.

That was the countermeasure against the Curse of Oblivion. Of course, even the slightest mistiming meant instant failure—which was why victims kept piling up—but this time…

"…You could read the curse?"

As a hex-user herself, Clara could perceive the curse's structure. Ser-Aria had simply watched Clara's movement and matched it with monstrous reaction speed, batting the curse away in the same breath.

And in that same instant, the sword strike Erinn had been gathering her mana for reached completion. She wound her Holy Sword arm back in a wide arc and let out a light, giggling laugh.

"You'd better guard that Canal properly~♡"

Her mana took on an edge sharp enough to cut through anything. Then Erinn simply unwound her arm and swept the Holy Sword upward on a diagonal.

WHOOSH!!

The razor mana that had ridden her swing stretched forward. As though carving through every inch of space ahead in successive strokes, sharp blade-marks scored the air wherever the mana passed.

And the most important part: the entire sequence was invisible to everyone except Erinn herself. Even the Oblivion Legion Commander was no exception. Eris felt an instinctive dread—but she could not see it.

Then, at last, the mana reached the far edge of the barrier.

CRRRRRRRRRACK───────────────────!!

Every slash carved into space materialized at once and cut.

Everything that stood there.

"Haa……."

Erinn exhaled, the weariness plain on her face. It was the strength of a Hero chosen by the Holy Sword and heir to the Hegemon Sword Art—the power of a living weapon.

Even her companions were stunned by the sight. The monsters, the Canal itself—everything had been carved apart. Each slash seemed to have targeted the monsters' cores with perfect precision; none of them could regenerate.

A few monsters had escaped the cuts, of course, but with the Canal sealed there would be no reinforcements. Cleaning up the rest was only a matter of time.

The Legion Commander Eris, however, whom they had also been aiming for—

"……You're quite a bit different from the Hero I know."

—was, astonishingly, unharmed.

In the instant the slashes materialized, Rage Python had coiled around Eris to shield her, and she herself had poured vast reserves of mana into her defense and weathered the blow.

Rage Python, which had taken Erinn's devastating strike with its body, had lost its life—but Eris had come through more or less intact.

Erinn's expression soured. She had poured every scrap of her mana into that one strike to break the deadlock, and the one person who actually mattered was still standing.

"You're surprisingly strong. I'd say it's fair to call you the strongest force humanity has."

Eris delivered her assessment with cool rationality.

"Fighting you alone would be fun, but I think I'll bring my officers along."

There was no need to overreach. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Erinn was spent for the time being, and none of them could leave the barrier.

So the stable play was simple: step outside, sweep up whatever remained out there, then return with her officers and finish off the ones trapped inside.

Eris gave a short, sharp laugh.

"Sit tight and suck your thumbs."

"…Stop her."

At Erinn's clipped order, Ser-Aria and Clara moved at once—but Eris was not about to be hindered by them.

"You think that'll work?"

BOOM!!!

A vast surge ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of mana blasted them back.

She had burned through a great deal of mana blocking Erinn's attack, but she was a Legion Commander. Her reserves rivaled even Erinn's—who already stood well above most Heroes in raw mana. And since Erinn had emptied herself completely trying to cut down everything at once, Eris inevitably had more left. Rage Python's protection had helped, too.

Eris sneered at the ones trapped inside the barrier. And in the very moment she moved to leave it—

Crack.

A section of the barrier split open. Eris felt the change and lifted her head, her eyes flooding with bewilderment.

"……What?"

She could not understand why the barrier was coming apart. A barrier was a form of magic, and deciphering its structure was all but impossible under ordinary circumstances.

Someone with an exceptional gift for reading magical architecture might manage it—but shattering a barrier from the outside was still impossible.

At least with the forces left outside, it should have been impossible. And yet the barrier was breaking right before her eyes.

"Erinn! Clara!"

A man's voice cut through the air. In the same instant, Eris felt the mana shielding her body slip free of her control—exactly the way her curse had been nullified before.

"…Pfft. You're late~♡"

Freed from Eris's mana pressure, Ser-Aria and Clara moved at once.

Clara's dagger punched into the side of Eris's neck. Ser-Aria's arrow slammed into her abdomen.

"Ghk…!! You—you little—!"

Even stripped of her mana, a Legion Commander's durability defied imagination. For all that she wore a humanlike form that looked fragile, her hide was thick and tough. She was a monster, after all.

But there were a few forces that paid no mind to such things. One of them was Erinn's Holy Sword—except Erinn was near collapse and could not move.

Pinning Eris in place with Clara and Ser-Aria's attacks was enough, though. Another of those forces was waiting outside.

"…Elysia."

"Yes, my contractor."

Eris stared at the ethereal woman who had appeared before her.

"I'll be borrowing a little of your mana."

Facing the woman with the striking cherry-blossom hair, Eris's expression curdled.

"……A Spirit King?"

KRA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KRAK──────!!

A colossal storm of four fused elemental forces roared to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠life and swallowed Eris whole.