Any Human Would Inevitably Hesitate
When I became a holy knight, humans and monsters alike had all turned into zombies.
Naturally, the first thing I had to do was devise ways to deal with them.
It was no exaggeration to say the Light Spirits had been researched for precisely this moment.
The zombies were the reason I developed the Light Spirits around wide-area explosions and movement speed.
Chronos.
You just played the worst possible move.
How many times do you think I've been through situations like this?
Hmm—
I sent one spirit down beneath the bell tower.
Right after—
Boom!
It detonated, shattering the stone foundation as cleanly as an axe felling a tree at the roots.
Rumble—
The tower, robbed of its center, began to topple toward the station.
I clung to the outer wall of the tilting bell tower and rode it down with it.
Crash!
The tall, massive structure smashed into the station and settled onto the ground, crushing it beneath its weight.
After turning the ruined tower into a barricade, I lofted a spirit enhanced with a detection buff high into the air.
The things that needed handling first were those that, like this place, had already crossed the territory's borders.
One spirit stayed fixed as a sentry.
With its help I detonated every last zombie remaining on the platform.
Sssss—
The zombies crumbled into black powder and scattered on the wind.
Once I confirmed the sentry spirit no longer reacted, I vaulted over the barricade of fallen tower and entered the territory proper.
Julian, who had been chasing me earlier, was nowhere in sight.
That was fine.
Sealing his territory took priority over dealing with Julian himself.
In that regard, the nature of the land would prove useful.
I had realized it the last time I came here as well: this place could be locked down relatively quickly.
Oskar and Julian.
The two grand ducal houses had spent long years watching each other, preparing for territorial war.
In other words—
Tall, sturdy walls and efficient bastions already stood ready.
Both houses had built fortresses.
Walls raised higher and stronger to keep external enemies out.
Just as it was difficult to force entry from the outside, sealing every gate would make the reverse equally hard.
Leaving from the inside would become difficult as well.
Isolation would be simple.
I had never fully surveyed Julian's fortress, however.
I needed to determine where the gates were, whether detours existed, and which points to seal first.
Still, I had a map.
One of the abilities unlocked while upgrading the Scouter.
Hidden items are displayed on the map.
The main feature was revealing concealed items, but nested inside that statement was another secondary function.
The 'Map' function unlocked at the same time.
The moment I thought it, a translucent window floated before my eyes.
A broad map unfolded, centered on my current position.
Surprisingly, Julian must have been a character who appeared in the game scenario; a single treasure-chest icon glowed somewhere inside the territory.
But that could wait. The gates came first.
An overhead schematic of Julian's territory.
True to game design, doors that could be entered and doors that could not were clearly marked.
Castle gates were doors as well, of course, so the same applied.
At times like this the game system was genuinely useful.
Without this ability I would have had to inspect and seal every single gate myself, but thanks to the friendly display of impassable doors I could eliminate them efficiently.
The route grew shorter.
Time, too, was saved.
The gates stood, basically, at the four cardinal directions.
I was currently in the east.
The eastern gate was close, so I could start there, but I still needed to decide the next stop.
"After the eastern gate I will seal the southern one."
...
Result: a fifty-percent chance that the opposite gate—the northern one—would be breached.
And if I started with the northern gate instead?
...
The result came back: one hundred percent chance of sealing the remaining gates as well.
Clench—
I tightened the gauntleted hand into a fist.
The route was set.
Because the south bordered Oskar's territory, ordinary logic would dictate sealing there first.
If the zombies spilled over into Oskar's land they would spread that much faster.
Yet the Simulation ability let me construct the safest, most certain optimal path.
First seal the territory completely, then exterminate every zombie left inside.
Woom—
The moment I decided, the spirits clung to my armor.
"Haha… This one's life nearly ended first…"
Having put considerable distance between himself and Daywin, Chronos watched the territory from atop the walls.
Zombies rising one by one from the funeral were already turning the land into a sea of blood.
Left alone they would spill far beyond Julian's territory into the outside world.
Chronos had come south to learn more about Karma, yet this turn of events seemed an acceptable enough outcome.
Past a single gate the zombies would reach Oskar's territory.
Never having seen such undead, they would surely let their guard down; a single bite and Oskar himself would be finished.
Just as Karma had tried to kill Julian and shake the princess and her knight who challenged the throne—
Spreading plague into Oskar's lands would serve the same purpose.
Oskar had publicly declared support for the Seventh Princess.
And for Daywin Hasgard and the young princess who stood at the very forefront of obstructing the Death God Cult.
"If Lord Oskar were to dispatch troops, it would create even greater complications for future plans."
Daywin Hasgard, who even now must be panicking somewhere inside Julian's territory amid the zombie horde, remained the greatest obstacle.
Should Daywin pile up further achievements with Oskar at his back, the princess who held him as her weapon would inevitably ascend the throne.
"Even now you appear unbidden and interfere at every decisive moment."
The opponent they had tried again and again to kill would stand at the very side of royal power.
A full-scale offensive against the Death God Cult would follow.
Therefore, here—they would stop him.
Inflict Daywin Hasgard's first defeat and strip Oskar of every last soldier.
If possible, pin this entire disaster on him as well.
Should news of it also reach Karma's ears, the man's heart might even tilt toward the Death God Cult.
That cruel man might yet be made an ally.
"…"
Chronos suddenly raised his own arm and examined it.
The once-smooth sleeve of his uniform was crumpled and twisted.
All because Daywin had seized that arm aboard the train.
A holy knight wielding sacred power.
A force effective not only against the undead but against specters as well.
So the fact that the attack had connected had been expected.
"How he managed to see this one… the answer remains unheard."
Those red eyes that had snapped open from sleep and blazed with light still lingered in Chronos's mind.
"Never once… has such a thing occurred."
It was the first time.
He had lived a very long while, yet never before had anyone appeared who could perceive Chronos in his spectral form.
And of all people, it had to be him…
Chronos pursed his lips in a complicated expression.
Creating the zombies had allowed him to formulate an efficient plan for resolving the situation, yet the truth remained that he had been driven by Daywin into executing something unplanned.
He had pretended composure before Daywin, but honestly, from the moment that arm was seized he had been unable to think with any leisure.
If Daywin broke through even this—
Chronos would have to pay the price for freely using power borrowed from his master.
Worse, he had already played the card he had kept hidden until now.
Undead that not only revived but carried contagion.
"…Yet even for you, this will prove difficult."
It was different from resurrecting long-dead powerhouses as allies.
Mindless undead could be multiplied efficiently and rapidly.
Quantity over quality.
An overwhelming mass that swept everything away like a plague of locusts.
A stratagem even the Necromancer in his prime a century ago had never employed.
No matter that Daywin possessed a holy knight's power, no matter that he commanded Light Spirits—
He could not easily handle enemies he was seeing for the first time.
Just as Chronos himself had been thrown into confusion upon first encountering someone who could see through him.
If Daywin was human, he would react the same way.
"Hmm…"
Thinking so eased Chronos's mind somewhat.
Just then Daywin's figure appeared near the eastern gate.
Chronos closed the distance in an instant and watched him in secret.
The zombies, too, seemed to notice Daywin's presence; they abandoned the fleeing survivors and changed targets.
They swarmed toward him like a living cloud.
"If one tallies every human in the grand duchy's territory, the number must approach three hundred thousand."
The zombies that would soon converge on Daywin would number roughly the same.
"Whether he can hold alone… this one cannot say for certain."
A single man.
The thought that one person could face every zombie had never even crossed Chronos's mind.
More than that—unlike the undead that rose from graves, most of these zombies still retained human form.
There might be a cure; one could not simply slaughter them outright.
If a cure existed, Daywin would become the demon who massacred three hundred thousand souls.
"Well, no such thing exists, of course."
Any human would inevitably hesitate.
BOOM!
At the sudden explosion Chronos turned his head and saw zombie corpses shredded into pieces, flying through the air.
"…What."
Whoosh—!
Flesh torn free by the blast even streaked past Chronos's cheek.
"This… what…"
The very instant he had expected hesitation, Daywin unleashed a magical explosion in the midst of the zombies without the slightest change of expression.
Worse—
"No. Impossible."
He even wore a faintly pleased look, as though thinking how convenient it was that they had gathered so densely for easy disposal.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
As Daywin raced along the walls pouring down bombardment, the walls themselves were painted red with zombie blood.
And it did not end there.
The moment he drove the zombies back he thoroughly sealed the eastern gate, blasted the drawbridge as well, and left the scene.
Not a flicker of emotion.
He moved with the cold precision of a machine.
Calm. Collected.
As if determined not to waste even a single inch of motion.
As if he had trained his entire life for this exact moment.
Kiiiiing—!
Using the spirits he soared far, dropped magical bombs from the air, and sprinted toward the next gate.
As though a map resided inside his skull he read the terrain perfectly and advanced with the absolute minimum of movement.
"Impossible…"
Chronos repeated the same word without realizing it and gave chase.
He had expected Daywin to head south toward Oskar, yet the man moved in the opposite direction.
Of course Chronos had assumed he would request reinforcements from Oskar—but the reverse proved true.
Daywin pressed forward as if he alone were more than enough.
Survivors still fought or fled from zombies along the way.
It would have been natural to stop and help them, yet Daywin paid them not the slightest attention and continued the sealing.
Coldly considered, that method was the most efficient.
Locking Julian's territory down first and only then rescuing survivors was the sole way to save the greatest number of lives.
If the seal failed, even the people outside Julian's lands would be forced to struggle merely to survive.
But if he were human—
If he were Daywin, the hero celebrated in the Royal Capital—one would have expected a different choice.
Yet he coldly selected only the "correct answer."
What he sought was not "rightness."
"Are you a being without emotion…?"
Even in the moment Chronos was once again thrown into confusion, Daywin's expression never changed.
As if this sort of work were already familiar.
Like a cynical clerk processing his allotted tasks.
He simply continued the work.