The Final Battle (2)

Every ounce of our effort had to be poured into cornering Asmodeus.

The mages and spirit masters of the Azure Scale Knights had to draw up their mana to their very limits, forging flames hotter and fiercer than before.

For my part, I moved in tandem with the wind wolves, focusing on growing more comfortable with the authority of Wind.

"Growing the fire beyond this size would be dangerous. It would be better to raise the temperature of the flames themselves."

In the game, Kan had been described as nothing less than a genius blessed with every talent imaginable, and here as well, he had begun offering his counsel alongside the rest of us.

He had been brought to Plot Territory at a very young age. In the years since, Kan had traveled from battlefield to battlefield, and unlike me, he was a veteran of multiple Tides of Corruption.

So it went without saying that when it came to tactics and strategy, he knew better than I did — that much would never change.

And so Eli and Kan put their heads together, revising the plan and folding their ideas into one another's until, at last, the final strategy took shape.

The hour of our all-out assault on Asmodeus was drawing steadily nearer.

And now, we were riding for Elion Forest.

Our entire fighting force — the reinforcements from Plot Territory, the imperial reinforcements, and the Azure Scale Knights combined — came to roughly five thousand.

The reason our numbers were so thin was that Plot Territory itself was under demonic assault and could hardly spare its army, so a third of our reinforcements were imperial troops.

Next came the Azure Scale Knights, who had been forced to leave most of their order behind.

In exchange, a silver-haired man rode beside me now, Kan matching my pace as we headed for our destination.

Originally, his role had been to handle rear support and hold back the demons striking at Cumul Territory while our attention was fixed on Asmodeus.

But Kan reread through the plan and the tactics one more time, then spoke.

"You know, I think I'd better come along."

I had a good idea why he wanted to join this battle.

"It's because of the fire, isn't it?"

"That's right."

If you asked what our most worrying factor was, Asmodeus's personal strength was certainly one of them.

But the raging inferno our counter-fire operation would unleash was impossible to overlook either.

"Can you control all that fire with your wind? Because from where I'm standing, there's no way you can."

"....."

When I simply stared at him, Kan slowly began to explain himself.

"It's not that I don't know how strong you are. This is a matter of elemental affinity."

"Wind can smother a flame, sure — but it can just as easily feed one. One mistake from you, and half the soldiers and knights out there end up roasted alive."

Hmm... I hadn't been thinking of it that way...

Somehow, I felt guilty now.

To be honest, I had been anxious too.

That was exactly why I'd spent all this time practicing the authority of Wind, syncing my breathing with the wolves.

After Lightning, Wind was the authority I had used most often.

I would never say I lacked confidence — but there was always the case of what if.

What if I gave the wind wolves the wrong signal?

Or what if I drove the wind too hard?

On that day, Elion Forest and Cumul Territory alike would go up in a sea of flames.

But with Kan there, the equation changed.

The authority granted to Kan came from the Black Tortoise.

Every trait he possessed related to water and the sea as well.

In other words, he was the best piece on the board for handling any disaster that might arise — and next came our own, a joker card kept in reserve for just such an emergency.

Among the current successors of the Four Divine Beasts, Kan and I were the two who ran first and second in raw martial power.

Embarrassing as it was to admit, that was simply the reality.

After all, Rare hadn't yet obtained the Feather of Ash-Flame, and Shiorin had only just become a successor — a rank newcomer.

Which meant that, short of our complete, polished forms, the only successors capable of standing against a top-tier ranked demon were the two of us.

Kan reassigned Edgar to the emergency ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reserve force and took his place in the vanguard.

Edgar had been present for all of it, listening from the same seat as the rest of us, so he raised no objection either.

And that was why, at this moment, a silver-haired man rode at my side, guiding a mount from the Cumul stables toward our destination — a perfectly natural thing.

Before long, Elion Forest came into view — our destination, and soon enough, our battlefield.

Elion Forest was no longer a forest. It was a den.

It became clear the moment the woods fell within sight: a monstrous swarm of demons had bared their sharp claws to attack us.

The knights, without a moment's hesitation, drew their swords from their hips, cutting down the demons as they came — and carving open the road ahead of us.

"All forces! Increase speed to the entrance of Elion Forest!"

No one answered Eli's order to quicken the pace.

And no one failed to quicken it.

Thus we arrived at the outskirts of Elion Forest faster than expected.

"All forces — draw your blades!"

The operation began with Eli's booming voice.

Knights and soldiers alike raised the weapons in their hands and swung at the demons.

- Shweeeek!

- Thwack!

- Screech!

Of course, the demons didn't simply take it lying down.

A nightmare of Krete roaring to rally morale with its tremendous voice.

Death Knights, heavily armored in black plate and wielding massive greatswords.

And an overwhelming tide of succubi and incubi besides.

Then an arrow wreathed in white flame struck one of the boasting succubi square in the head, sending her plummeting to the ground.

The moment she hit the earth, she crumbled into nothing.

The one who had loosed that arrow was Eli herself.

Her primary weapon — her sword — hung at her hip, and in her hands was a bow.

It was a weapon Kan had recommended to her: given her trait of Commander, she needed to hold still and read the flow of the battlefield.

Since Eli's proficiency with the bow was quite high as well, she simply coated her arrows with sword-flame instead of ordinary fire.

- Ping!

The sword-flame coating her arrows — as its trait's name suggested — possessed the power to purify every impure thing it touched.

Against demons, it had transformed into a poison so lethal that a mere graze meant death.

The archers following her lead also set fire to their own arrows and loosed them in volley after volley.

The flying beasts and demons that couldn't withstand the flaming barrage fell helplessly from the sky.

"Hyun!"

Kan whirled his spear, carving open the road ahead first.

"Got it."

I smoothed out the path behind him, shaking off the demons that pressed in.

"Yeon-a. Cover my side. There's a bit of a gap here."

"On it!"

Yeon finished the work, shaping a road safe enough that anyone could walk it without fear.

Repeating this process over and over, I swung my sword at the demons while escorting the mages and spirit masters, all in service of our plan to set the forest ablaze.

Mages were extraordinarily precious in this world — but their spells devoured staggering amounts of mana, and their casting times were long. In exchange, they delivered devastating firepower.

Our job was to clear the path and guard them, creating an environment in which they could cast their magic safely.

Needless to say, during those long casting times the mages were defenseless, so they had to be shielded by the rest of us. Kan, I, and a handful of elite knights pushed forward as their escort.

The spirit masters, however, were the exception.

They wielded the personal power of their spirits, so they were never beholden to mana ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— a simple request to their spirits was all their role required.

The spirits that received those requests performed feats that bordered on the absurd — incinerating demons reckless enough to approach their contractors, or dropping boulders to seal them in stone.

When we reached the designated position, I immediately summoned every wind wolf I could muster at maximum capacity.

"Gather!"

At my word, seven wind wolves took shape and converged at my side.

The soldiers and knights who watched them assemble wore eyes full of awe — but there was no time for that now.

"The fuse!!"

The word 'fuse' was the code phrase we had given the entire army before marching out.

Its meaning: The fire is about to be lit. Everyone, protect yourselves.

At last, the mages and the fire spirit masters hurled the flames into the forest.

- FWOOM!

- KABOOM!

- Frrrrooarrr!!!

With the wind wolves' coordination and power feeding the embers ever larger, we finally beheld with our own eyes the tremendous inferno that had become visible from a distance.

The flames climbed the great trees, devouring them with everything they had in order to burn them down.

But we couldn't stop there.

For this operation to succeed completely, fire had to be lit on the opposite side of the forest as well. Only then would the plan be complete.

Leading the mages and spirit masters, we pushed into the forest with our very best strength.

The objective lay beyond the forest's heart, deeper still.

A place where the trees stood far enough apart that the fire's spread appeared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠relatively contained.

Lake Rian — the only lake in all of Elion Forest.

The road to Lake Rian was a long one.

"Three o'clock! Black serpents! Watch out!"

My instincts quickly pinpointed where the danger was coming from, and I relayed it to the party.

Kan swiftly drew forth the Black Tortoise's spear, trusting in his own subordinate.

Having heard that our opponent in this battle was a top-ranked demon, he had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brought his main weapon just in case.

A deep blue shaft, and upon the golden ornament connecting to the spearhead — a tortoise clutching the long blade in its jaws, with a serpent coiled and climbing up its back, all rendered in gleaming gold. That spear.

Kan poured the power of water he possessed into it.

The spear, thrown with tremendous force, punched through tree after tree — and in an instant, blew the black serpent's neck and torso clean apart.

Before long, the Black Tortoise's spear came spinning back into Kan's hand, as if it had never been thrown at all.

Not to be outdone, Yeon was slowly cutting through the demon-held bottleneck with her own reworked style of folded-flower swordsmanship.

"Hmm...? If I were you, I'd say I'm already down here?"

Even as she spoke, her phantom-blades sheared straight through the hiork's neck.

"I don't really know about that — but one thing's certain. I am already down here."

It was swordsmanship that toyed with demons outright.

Her style, shaped like butterflies and blossoms, moved at a speed their eyes simply could not follow.

And so the only thing laid before them was the cold earth of the forest floor.

About an hour spent.

We finally arrived at the second checkpoint.

And waiting for us there was —

So saying, he gripped his two-handed sword.

Kan stepped in front of me and sent me a voice transmission.

- You remember the plan, right?

- Yeah.

At my answer, Kan readjusted his grip on the spear and spoke.

- I'll hold that one off alone. The demons going after the mages and spirit masters — you and that swordswoman Yeon deal with them. Can you do it?

- Of course.

- Then may the results match that answer.

With those final words, Kan charged at Raum.

Two-handed sword and spear clashed.

"Everyone — we've reached the checkpoint! Set the fire!!"

At my words, the mages began casting and the spirit masters gathered flames, hurrying into firing position.

Before long, demons surged at the mages, desperate not to let the moment slip away.

Not a single one gets through. If even one slips past and a spirit master or mage falls into terror and the line collapses, it's over!

The moment Yeon or I let a demon through, and a mage or spirit master — left utterly defenseless — died, everything would unravel.

Paralyzed by the fear of death, they would forget the very spells they were casting.

Planting my legs like a support pillar, I drove a sword strike forward from where I stood.

The lightning slash surged ahead and swallowed up the great majority of the demons lunging for the mages and spirit masters.

And then —

"Mages! Casting complete!"

"Spirit masters! Attack ready!"

Every preparation was finished.

"Light it!!"

At my word, the mages and spirit masters hurled fire into the trees.

"Wolves!"

- Awoooo!!!

At my command, Jeongryeong gathered the wolves and took charge of them.

The powerful wind that swept in with Jeongryeong's howl was the perfect environment for the embers to feed and swell —

and soon.

- FRRRRROOOAAR!!!!

The blaze grew to a monstrous size and swallowed everything around it.

Even as he traded blows with Kan, Raum made no effort to hide his hostility toward me.

We had to bring Raum down quickly and get out of here.

A moon's shadow painted across the ground.

With my slash, that moon-shadow was cleaved and shattered to pieces.

And when my final strike split the moon in two —

that last slash carried straight into Raum as well.

But he was not a demon who would die from a single hit.

Even Gaap had endured my attacks again and again.

Raum was only slightly weaker than that — his rank merely lower. If he died outright from a blow like that, he'd have to hand his rank back.

And I hadn't swung with the intent to kill him anyway.

"Yeon! Get the mages and spirit masters out of the forest first!"

"Got it!"

Yeon swiftly took charge, guiding the mages and spirit masters back the way we had come, out of the burning forest.

My goal was a single one.

To wound Raum so badly that he couldn't move — to leave him with an injury grave enough that he couldn't immediately follow.

Even a ranked demon wouldn't be chasing anyone down in a hurry with his upper torso cut through diagonally.

"Let's go. We're moving too."

"Yeah."

We left Raum behind in the burning forest and hurried after the group that had gone ahead.

Raum was shouting something amid the towering flames, but his voice never reached us — swallowed whole by our own urgency.

Once we emerged from the forest, I could see that Yeon and the mages had already made it out ahead of us.

My task now was to scatter the wolves here and there and command the wind, making sure the fire couldn't spread wherever it pleased.

And then —

From deep within the burning forest —

"Save us, please..."

Women, utterly naked, came walking out of the woods, begging us for help.

Their bodies were as bare as the day they were born — the only difference was the suspicious liquid smeared across them from head to toe.

The soldiers and a few of the knights who spotted them approached to question them, learn their circumstances, and offer protection —

but something was wrong.

Women escaping the forest — now? At this hour, at this exact moment?

When people are in crisis, they come running, desperate, begging for help. These women were walking, calmly asking to be saved.

And more than that — a powerful instinct screamed at me that no one should touch that liquid.

"Don't touch the women!"

At my shout, the knights hastily withdrew —

but the soldiers, nowhere near as quick on their feet as the knights —

had their hands and arms seized by the women.

The effect took hold instantly.

"Ugh...ghk...!! Haah...!!"

Letting out strange sounds, the soldiers found themselves unable to shake the women off and collapsed to the ground.

And with them, a sickly sweet scent spread through the air.

I had to stop it before it spread further.

"Haah..!"

"Yeon-a!"

Yeon, swinging her sword beside me, caught the sweet scent too — and dropped her sword, gasping for breath.

"Hyun...! I — something's wrong..!! What is this..!"

The soldiers and knights already exposed to that sweetness were succumbing, spreading the effect wider and wider beyond anyone's control.

"Kan! Are you okay?"

"I can hold out. This is... some kind of aphrodisiac, isn't it?"

The truth behind that sweet scent was aphrodisiac musk.

A technique only succubi and incubi of the higher orders could employ.

"Hyun-a...! Hold me..!"

The musk had even made Yeon struggle to control her own body.

And the soldiers — regardless of sex — began stripping off their armor and walking toward one another, hungering for each other's flesh.

To think you'd turn human beings into walking aphrodisiac bombs — how utterly deceitful, Asmodeus.

I would never allow such a sight.

A white radiance spread over the entrance of Elion Forest, washing across the entire area — repelling the aphrodisiac musk and stabilizing it into stillness.

"Haah... haah..."

Yeon's breathing was gradually returning to normal — it seemed she would be all right.

The women, meanwhile, had collapsed in a heap. Just to be safe, I assigned guards over every soldier and knight, used the authority of Purification to shield their bodies, and then —

I brought my fingers to the women's necks.

No heartbeat.

Quietly, I rose from where I knelt and gave the order to the soldiers and knights.

"Collect the bodies. Send them home to their families."

"Y..yes, sir!"

"At once, my lord!"

The moment I watched the soldiers hurry to gather the dead — and saw the women lying utterly motionless —

just like in Haizi Territory, a sinister current slid up along my body.

When I found the Status Window and came back to myself —

my state had transformed into something resembling Lightning God Descent: dragon horns rising from my head, dragonfire burning in my eyes.