The First Strike
The border stretched along the edge of the Barren Lands. Four frontier regions—including the Asis Duchy—held a full eighty percent of the Empire's military might, while the remaining forces had gathered at the gates of the Free Trade City where I now stood, joining ranks with the Allied Kingdoms to prepare for war.
Whether by spatial teleportation or by riding Miho's shikigami, every form of travel was bound by constraints of time, and for the smooth exchange of intelligence this city had to be held at all costs. It was the secure bridgehead linking the Allied Kingdoms and the Empire.
Which was why I—a bearer of the Dragon Tongue—had been stationed here.
"I must say, my lord... there are rather a lot of prostitutes in evidence."
"Can't be helped."
Under the crushing weight of knowing they might die tomorrow, soldiers wielding spears and swords to soothe their stress had no choice but to sustain a symbiotic relationship with the courtyards. Setting the mercenaries aside, the rest had trained long and hard for this, but for common folk steeped in generations of peace, the sight of blood itself was a foreign terror.
Besides, the temples of the Order of Iris, long since completed in every region, had proven their true worth as that anxiety deepened. When given the choice between seeking out a woman's skin to release their tension, and offering a prayer to the goddess—the overwhelming majority of soldiers chose to pray.
"I received the reports in advance, but seeing it with my own eyes... the sheer volume is staggering."
"Once the war begins, most of it will be destroyed or lost anyway."
Dana, her signature red hair tied up, gazed at the countless artifacts engraved with magic and marveled aloud. In response, I breathed the power of the Dragon Tongue into them—wide-area, and permanent.
Everywhere else, artifacts imbued with permanent enchantment had long since been distributed. Beyond spears and swords, even ordinary soldiers carried them now; until they shattered, they could be used again and again.
Our baseline firepower was unquestionably overwhelming compared to the past.
"Princess Aria is not at your side, my lord. Are you not anxious, deep down? The youngest Overlord in history—a force she could wield privately, if she only set her mind to it."
Five months. Aria had hinted long ago that she would break through ahead of schedule, and she truly had claimed the title of youngest Overlord.
"If I claimed I wasn't anxious, it'd be bravado. But this isn't the only place that matters."
Here at the Free Trade City, with me now, were Lapis and Dana. The Empire's frontier regions bordering the Barren Lands numbered four in total, and with only three Aura Masters among us, Aria—the Overlord—had no choice but to cover the remaining gap alone. Fortunately, my father had assigned her his own advisors and troops, which eased my mind somewhat.
"My lord, the council convenes shortly."
"On my way."
Having finished the permanent enchantments, I turned my back on the artifacts and, with Dana at my side and Lapis in tow, headed for the provisional residence within the Free Trade City. Inside, nobles of the Allied Kingdoms and of the Empire sat waiting, armed and armored alike.
"Are you certain it is wise for Your Highness not to take overall command yourself?"
"I must attend to the Demon King personally, so I cannot remain here at all times. If a variable arises, I will have to leave my post at once—meaning it would be absurd for me to presume to command this front. I trust Count Madel of the Allied Kingdoms and Count Aslan of the Empire will harmonize their counsel and render sound judgments."
"If that is Your Highness's will, so be it."
After that brief preamble, the council began.
The Barren Lands sprawled across a vast domain, but the closer one drew to its center, the more the terrain twisted into a labyrinth of ridges and obstacles—a notoriously treacherous battlefield. From the Demon King's perspective, it amounted to a natural fortress.
Yet the terrain was hardly a disadvantage for humanity either—because until we uncovered the means of the Demon King's death, our strategy called for a war of attrition rather than open battle. We would use the natural labyrinth as our rampart, establish a secondary defensive line at its entrances, and hold fast.
To that end, for four months since the council concluded, forces from every region had been fed in piecemeal, slowly herding the monsters inward. And today—the day itself!—we would massacre the cornered horde all at once, force the Demonic Tree's resurrection, and strike the first blow with consecrated Divine Instruments.
So the opinions were reconciled and the council ended, and at one o'clock in the afternoon, I led the standing army garrisoned in the Free Trade City—every man and every machine readied—on the march toward the secondary defensive line.
The journey would take roughly seven hours. One might ask why the line stood at such a suspiciously close distance, but the Barren Lands—a tangle of overlapping terrain features—was punishing to move large armies through, and to push deep and then have to retreat would poison the whole operation.
...My hands are shaking.
Upon arrival, the operation was scheduled to commence at ten o'clock at night. And why such a late hour? The answer lay in the White Feather Fan.
The finest unit of time the fan could rewind and observe was a single day. Which meant: launch the surprise assault, and the moment midnight passed, dig straight into the past with the fan for intelligence. A little sleight of hand.
"...Lady Lapis rides rather well, I must say."
"Does she?"
"Those unaccustomed to the saddle usually complain of aching hips and backs after hours of riding."
"Dana, please don't pay me such idle compliments. A woman who followed her lord all the way to a battlefield being praised merely for staying on a horse... frankly, it is not a pleasant thing to hear."
"My apologies."
Dana, less silver-tongued than she appeared, withdrew with a sulky expression.
Thereafter, arriving at the secondary defensive line we had constructed, I surveyed the prepared positions, ordered the soldiers to rest while they could, and stepped into the barracks.
It was eight o'clock in the evening. I figured that if I ate the supplied dinner and then departed on Miho's shikigami, the timing would be just right. Clenching down on the faint tremor in my hands, I filled my hollow stomach.
"I'll be back."
Then, since the operation required me to be in position, I concealed the Miho I had summoned in advance and mounted her shikigami, soaring up into the sky.
The soldiers had finished their meal and were drawn up in formation against the battle to come, and at the sight of me they raised a tremendous cheer. In any case, this shikigami of Miho's had long been displayed publicly—it was a living symbol lending weight to the power of my Dragon Tongue—so I suppose they had every right to roar.
As the altitude climbed, breathing grew slightly labored, but I had long since grown used to it, and I turned my gaze toward the Demonic Tree visible in the distance.
"This humble girl dares to offer her lord comfort, and prays it shall go well."
Shedding the form in which she had hidden herself, Miho whispered in a low, honeyed voice, her signature tails wrapping my body in warmth. In that luxurious embrace I spent the remaining time stroking her fur, and by the time we arrived above the Demonic Tree, the appointed hour of ten was nearly upon us. I bowed my head.
Had the massacre of the monsters herded in from every region begun? The Demonic Tree before my eyes was shifting with terrifying speed, its transformation vivid to my sight.
I could hardly stand by and watch, so riding Miho's shikigami I lent my strength to accelerating the resurrection—and the already colossal tree swelled even larger, shedding something from its leaves and letting it seep down into the Barren Lands.
...Like a swarm of ants.
Whatever had seeped into the ground grew at a furious pace and budded into flowers—grotesque shapes, as if each cradled a fetus in its womb. And when I saw the single black bud that stood out among them, my instincts screamed a warning. That one, beyond any doubt, cradled the Demon King.
"Transmutation."
I took up the crimson spear Gáe Dearg—the weapon bearing the power to nullify magical protection—and steadied my breathing.
The accumulated Faith Points stood at 136,000. The Divine Instruments I would wield here today were the Astras—divine powers of Indian myth, borrowed through ritual—and among them, I intended to invoke a Supreme Astra, one the System had revealed to me long ago.
"This girl cannot lend her lord her strength upon this field, I fear."
Because it would be calamitous if Miho died, I had already released her summoning. Enfolded in a curtain of pure white mist, she faded slowly from view, and with her, the shikigami shaped after the Azure Dragon no longer bore me aloft.
Whoosh!
Yielding to the pull of gravity, my unbalanced body began its slow descent toward the earth.
It begins!
At that very moment, the Demonic Tree shuddered and scattered a storm of pollen-like dust, its vast bulk beginning, ever so slowly, to shrink. And the bud-flowers—those fetus-cradling, ant-swarm flowers that had drunk the pollen—bloomed all at once, and demonkin and monsters set foot upon the earth.
The resurrection of the Demonic Tree. The simultaneous return of the Demon King's army.
Engraving every inch of it into my eyes, I gritted my teeth.
"Transmutation—Astra!"
[ The Astras currently available for transmutation number eight in total. ]
[ Which Astra will you invoke? ]
As if it actually expected me to answer aloud.
The Pashupata—of Shiva, the Destroyer!
With the answer, a comfortable current of chaos gathered at my fingertips and poured, at my will, into every inch of Gáe Dearg. A sinister aura rippled outward in all directions, wavering with wisps of black haze. Though it showed no intent to harm me, merely holding it sent a shudder of dread down my spine.
"Strength to uproot mountains, spirit to overshadow the world."
Presently, a force that could shatter mountains and swallow the very world condensed into my every movement—
"One-Way Road!"
And I forced the target of this spear's arrival into being.
KWA-BOOM—!
Gáe Dearg, driven downward with my full strength, tore free of my grip and shot toward the earth, unleashing an indescribable gale and a shriek of sound that threatened to split my ears.
Now all I had to do was teleport straight out of this place—
Our eyes met!
But no sooner had the spear left my hand than, stepping out of that grotesque bud onto the earth, the Demon King—three horns crowning his skull—crossed gazes with me. An instinctive chill shot through my body, and I instantly drew Excalibur from the transmutation list.
Standing before a demon, the blade answered before I could think, sliding free of its sheath as the scabbard wound around my wrist as a bracelet.
And still, the premonition of death would not fade.
Though I was falling, I still hung at an overwhelming height—and the Demon King closed that impossible distance in an instant and appeared before me, opening his mouth.
"Shatter."
"Nullify!"
I hadn't let my guard slip for a second. I knew those words had to carry meaning, and I poured the power of the Dragon Tongue straight into the nullification.
The Demon King's blow slammed home a heartbeat later, striking squarely against my raised guard—and the recoil bent my outstretched arms at grotesque angles. A grinding crunch echoed through bone. My body had yet to fully register the pain, but I understood well enough: both my arms were ruined.
How in the—!
My body, knocked reeling by the blow, gathered speed as it plunged. Excalibur's scabbard was already knitting my arms back together, healing me even without a word—but as I thrashed desperately against an agony I had never known, the Demon King closed in behind me, seized me by the hair, and hauled my head back.
Damn it—!
Relying on instinct alone was far too slow. This was a body pushed beyond its limits, yet just as the first Emperor had warned me, the gap in raw physique could not be bridged. Acknowledging it, I opened my mouth at once.
"Fairness!"
The Demon King's fist, hurtling toward me, suddenly became unmistakably visible. Perhaps feeling his own body grow sluggish, a flicker of disorientation crossed his face.
I wrenched my head free of his grip, flipped my body in midair, drove both feet into his face—and without a moment's hesitation, buried Excalibur in him.
Spurt!
Black blood burst out as if he were vomiting it.
Well, there's one utterly useless piece of intelligence gained, I thought—realizing in the same breath that I had already fallen from the open sky to hover just above the crown of the Demonic Tree—and with no time even to catch my breath, I poured my will into the Dragon Tongue.
"Spatial Teleportation!"
FLASH—!
The last thing I saw as I escaped unscathed from that place was Gáe Dearg, laden with the Supreme Astra, driving down into the earth.