I Wanted to Face You

─ "Commentator Aisha, you've actually met Sword God before, haven't you?"

─ "Yes. He's overwhelmingly strong — his skill exists on a completely different plane from everyone else's. Truly a blade above all blades."

─ "Everyone knows Sword God is strong, but Aisha, you seem to rate him especially highly. Is there a particular reason?"

─ "A particular reason..."

Is there a reason?

─ "The strongest is called the strongest, after all."

"Hmmm..."

The strongest, huh...

"Interesting."

Perched atop Kres Castle, with the whole kingdom laid bare beneath me, I was relaying the sound of the official broadcast to my stream. My screen currently showed nothing but me — not a single clue that might give away Kres Castle or the Angel Guild.

"As if. How could I possibly side with the Empire?"

It was true I walked the same path as the Spirit God Duke, but that didn't quite make me an ally of the Empire — after all, the Spirit God Duke himself had a blade pointed at their throat.

While I watched my viewers clamor to know my location, the official broadcast carried on.

─ "...And so! Unlike the DCK or the Mock Siege Battle, Siege Warfare is content that runs natively within the game itself. No designated players or special procedures required."

─ "That's right. Thirty minutes from now, at 7 PM, the siege system will activate automatically across every continent in DeoEn, allowing anyone to declare war on an opponent."

─ "So what you're broadcasting are the castles that have had war declared upon them?"

─ "Exactly! If you'd like to watch a castle that hasn't received a declaration..."

In the end, even the 'official' broadcast was nothing more than one of the broadcasting companies DeoEn had granted permission to.

"You can only relay through DeoEn's system once a declaration of war has been made; otherwise, it's indirect footage through personal recordings or privately operated ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠relay cameras. Right?"

"Who knows? We'll see."

I gave the camera a peculiar little smile. Ideally, both of them would come out to meet me — but something told me the Demon Duke had no intention of setting foot outside the Empire's borders.

'She's a mage. And a mage always wants to fight on ground she's prepared. I'm no different, mind you.'

So the Spirit God Duke had said.

Of course, if she refused to come out, I fully intended to storm in myself.

So I chatted with my viewers, and some time slipped by.

Zhaaang...

A strange, alien energy swept across all of DeoEn, and the beacon atop the castle that bore me lit up green. Green meant a castle where the siege had yet to trigger. Red meant a siege in progress, and gray meant a castle that had fallen and was locked in its cooldown.

Zhuuuung!

In that instant, the light at the castle's peak, which had been glowing green, turned red.

"Lady Lily!"

Paaat!

Someone with short white hair came fluttering to my side.

"You're here!"

"So you are. Shall we go?"

"Yes!"

At Raguel's cry, I finally switched my screen — and leapt from the castle top.

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAAG!!!

Every voice in the chat fell silent at once — cut off by a violet sword strike tearing the sky in half.

"...Huh?"

The castle split into two.

"What the hell is this!"

"Shut up already!"

Vlack smacked the back of the frothing Taebaek's head. Taebaek shot him a glare, but given the circumstances, he let it go and turned to face the disaster he'd just witnessed.

Right up until a moment before 7 PM, the siege map had been a sea of green dots.

'Until just now, that is.'

Beep.

Beep-beep.

Beep-beep-beep.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.

Accompanied by that skin-crawling cascade of signals, seventy percent of the continent dyed itself red in the space of a breath — and was turning gray at a terrifying pace.

What chilled him even more was that an unfightable monster was currently tearing through every defensive line and flying straight for them.

"Wait, why is the Empire attacking us?"

"...Looks like they're just attacking everyone? You can see it plain as day."

Vlack studied the map. Looking at this insane map, the unease that had been creeping up on him for a while now coiled through his mind.

Red dots clustered only in the north and the west. Sword God, suddenly returned from nowhere — and Leo, flying in from somewhere far away. Both of their castles sat in the north and the west...

'No way. This isn't just a siege—'

"Is the Empire trying to conquer the continent? Is that why they declared siege..."

"What? What are you talking about?! Conquer?"

"...I'm not certain either. But it's the Empire versus everyone else, so for now let's hold out as long as we can and get a read on the—"

He'd meant to say situation.

Kurrrrum.

That was, until he saw the small girl beyond the storm clouds, spinning a hurricane of mingled yellow and green.

Taebaek, standing beside him, spat.

"...Ridiculous."

A hurricane large enough to swallow the entire castle. Everyone froze solid at the sight of the searing lightning and the blade-storm whirling at ferocious speed.

A guild member with far-sight murmured,

"Spirit Descent... twice...?"

"I'll finish this quickly!"

"You're insan—"

The hurricane swept the castle away, and when it passed, no one remained.

Ta-ap.

Shrrr...

"Phew... doing it twice really is rough..."

Only a single nymph — her hair and eyes already back to normal — remained to fill the empty space. Breaking the Core with an exhausted body, she murmured,

"...I wonder if Lady Lily is holding up okay. Sword God really is strong."

"This has changed a bit, hasn't it...?"

Raguel, running at my side, asked with a worried edge to her voice.

'It certainly has.'

The Empire's original plan had been to strike first at Kres Castle of the Angel Guild and Black Moon Castle of Black Moon. Shatter the two strongest pillars, then swallow the smaller castles one by one — that was the strategy. But apparently something had shifted in their hearts the moment word spread that I would enter the field, because they abruptly changed the plan just one day before.

This was what Leo had told me before I left.

'She's using the knights and the Eight Blades to clear everything around us, and she's left her and Sword God the original targets, exactly as they were. And she told us to make it flashy, remember?'

This siege was a war for the Empire's conquest of the continent. Unless the two most pivotal users in the war displayed an overwhelming gap in power, the other users would never quite find the nerve to challenge them.

And in fact, even at this very moment the Empire was advancing under the cover of its armies. The other guilds were holding the line, but only a handful dared carry the fight to the Empire itself. The greater problem was that the only two factions capable of dealing them real damage — Black Moon and the Angel Guild — were both pinned down by the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠same user.

Having dashed forward while pulling information from half a dozen sources, I turned back to the anxious Raguel.

"Don't worry. As long as I'm here, it will not fall."

"I believe you. But Sword God..."

"He is strong, I'll give him that."

I'd left him alone for a while, thinking I'd gauge his skill first — and he'd cut the castle clean in two. Not the Core. The castle itself.

If Leo hadn't warned me in advance that he'd be using his full strength, it would have been quite the shock. Castles these days were considerably hardened by DeoEn's system, after all. My earlier test had shown that even I needed to put real force behind my strikes to break one.

"Well, we do have to cross blades at least once."

Our destination was Utra Castle, held by Uriel. Having deliberately given ourselves a little extra time, we arrived to find Sword God already there, locked in combat with her. He wasn't using the same overwhelming power as before, but that stately bearing alone seemed more than enough — he was toying with Uriel, raining blows on her at will.

"Raguel, you shoot from here."

"...? It's still a long way off, though?"

We were still far from reaching the castle. I could see Utra Castle because I didn't rely on my eyes alone, but it lay well beyond the range of an ordinary archer's sight.

"An archer charging into melee? Use Clairvoyance or Far-Sight from here. Your range covers it easily."

"...Understood. Stay safe."

A cross carved itself into Raguel's left eye, and she nodded firmly.

A brief breeze stirred.

And then —

"...!"

"Whoa... holy shit, that's insane... Lily?!"

I was there. Right in that spot.

The White Savior flared with light and shifted into a spear.

'Sword God.'

Not the Sword God I once knew.

"As did I."

Spear and sword collided.