Legiones Ketratus
Legiones Ketratus
After Mammon was driven from the mindscape, Asmodeus hurriedly approached the fallen Amael's soul.
[Oh dear.]
Even though he bore her protection, perhaps it was because of his fragile human soul.
His condition was considerably unstable.
[It will take a little time to stabilize him.]
But it was no problem.
She had just absorbed numerous divinities potent enough that healing Amael's soul took little effort.
Just as she slowly reached out, gathered Amael up, and began the treatment,
Amael's eyes opened in a half-waking daze, and he gazed at Asmodeus.
[Don't open your eyes. Stay still and rest.]
Asmodeus smiled gently as she said that, but Amael did not close his eyes.
He forced his eyes open and looked up at the Demon King of Lust.
"Lilia...... Goddess?"
At those words, Asmodeus realized that she was not in the muscular male form she had always worn—she was in her original appearance.
Amael, for some reason, seemed to draw courage from that muscular male guise. Just as Asmodeus was about to carefully change her form, Amael seized her collar tightly.
In a hazy voice that sounded as if it might go out at any moment, he asked in a tone that was half sobbing, half screaming.
"Don't send me to hell."
At that, Asmodeus laughed.
[Is that what you want?]
"The people were hurting...... hurting so much. An entire family was about to kill themselves if it weren't for me. Good people who had done nothing wrong and even tried to give me their black bread were going to die because they couldn't endure reality. I had no choice but to use my power to save them."
[I know. I watched it all happen.]
"I'll take responsibility and become a martyr...... before my authority runs wild, I'll definitely make myself a martyr....... please don't send me to hell."
Watching Amael cry with hiccuping sobs like a child, Asmodeus burst out laughing.
What a truly foolish being he was.
To fear hell so deeply while not even knowing exactly what resided within him.
[Don't worry. I am by your side, Amael. Put your heart at ease and rest comfortably now.]
Asmodeus stroked Amael's head.
The hand gripping her collar loosened slightly.
But he was still forcing his eyes open, struggling not to lose consciousness.
"This city...... Mammon is here. Mammon is in the Scrap Yard."
[Yes, he is.]
"Save this city. Peter and Anna, Jim and Amy are still in this city. And countless other pitiful, suffering people are in this city too."
At those words, Asmodeus gently stroked Amael's cheek.
[Is that what you want?]
"Yes. Lady Lilia is one of the Pantheon's gods, isn't she? Somehow...... protect them. I don't want to see the people of this city suffer any longer."
[It shall be as you wish.]
Only at Asmodeus's words did Amael finally release his grip on her collar.
[Sleep now, Amael. When you wake, everything will be better.]
"Why must I...... suffer like this? If you would just let me be a little happy........"
Before he fell asleep,
he murmured a final, tearful complaint.
"Why is Asmodeus inside my body........ I never wanted any of this........"
Amael fell completely asleep.
Asmodeus rose from her place, holding the sleeping Amael tightly in her arms.
She looked up at the sky.
She could feel the gods of the Pantheon above the heavens looking down at her.
Because the passage between the Celestial Realm and the Human Realm had been severely damaged by Lucifer, the gods' divinities were barely perceptible on the surface.
Asmodeus slowly stirred her own divinity and authority.
[I'll be rather busy treating Amael from now on. It seems I'll have to leave the cleanup of Mammon's remnants to you.]
Slowly,
an intense holy power welled up from her body as if it were being invoked for the first time in an age.
The powerful authority gained by devouring Mammon's divinity began to pour out into the Human Realm through Amael's body, slowly taking the shape of a pillar of light.
[Anathema!! Anathema!!]
[It's the sun!! It's fire!! Aaaaagh!!]
The screams of countless demon worshippers and hell's minions throughout the Scrap Yard erupted from every direction.
[I've made a passage.]
Asmodeus said simply.
[Please handle the aftermath.]
Holding Amael's body tightly, she began using her authority to heal his soul.
***
[Awaken.]
At a majestic voice she had never heard before, Iomene's eyes snapped open.
When she lifted her gaze, a giant man whose face was wreathed in light was looking down at her.
She could not see his face, but Iomene could recognize who the being before her was.
"Lord Dulanear?"
Wordlessly, Dulanear pointed to one side.
There, a city Iomene knew well came into view.
A city of steel and steam, built around colossal factories.
The Scrap Yard.
And within that Scrap Yard, Mammon's minions and followers could be seen rampaging.
[Run away!!]
[To the mines where the light doesn't reach! Go underground!! Aaaaagh!!!]
Stripped of their disguises by the enormous pillar of light enveloping the city, the creatures screamed and fled in panic. At the sight of them, Iomene felt a surge of instinctive revulsion.
"Worms of hell!!......."
But an instant after her fury erupted, she had to spring up from where she lay, her face turning pale.
"Ah, Amael!!"
She saw the Saint, Amael, collapsed on the ground.
A large hole had been pierced near his heart, and the sight of him lying in a pool of blood made her feel as if her heart had plummeted into an abyss.
"No...... no!! Amael!!"
While she screamed,
Dulanear withdrew the vision and looked straight down at her.
[Go and protect them. Protect the humans of this city, and protect the one you love. This is my command to you, so do not refuse it.]
"I will!! I have trained for months awaiting this moment! Use me!!"
At those words, Dulanear seized Iomene and lifted her up.
[Show my wrath to the vile powers of hell, Chosen One.]
A radiant light enveloped Iomene. And in the next moment,
she realized she had been transported to a completely different place—not the Imperial Palace where she had been resting.
The smell of iron.
The smell of oil.
And the stifling smell of steam.
Amid those smells, she saw the man she loved lying powerlessly on the ground with a hole in his heart.
"Amael!!"
She ran desperately to embrace him, but the pillar of light surrounding his body flung her back with a strong repelling force.
As she staggered backward, Karl Lenaro, who had been watching, hurriedly pulled her clear.
"You must not approach the pillar of light carelessly! You could be gravely injured if you try to force your way in!"
Only then did Iomene collect her wits.
She tore her gaze from Amael and surveyed her surroundings.
Several Labor Theorists, dressed in grimy clothes and armed with light machine guns, pistols, explosives, and the like, were staring at her with dazed expressions.
After helping her away, Karl Lenaro carefully bowed his head.
"I behold the Imperial Princess."
"Explain. Right now. In detail. What happened?"
Karl Lenaro swiftly summarized what he had witnessed.
"While I was conversing with the Saint, a mass of melting flesh suddenly appeared before my eyes, screamed, and vanished, after which the Saint collapsed. Then, after roughly five minutes, Your Highness suddenly appeared."
His expression betrayed confusion even as he explained, but Iomene was not particularly surprised.
She glanced at the melted lump of Mammon's flesh on the floor and then stepped outside.
Her soul, having suffered for over sixteen long years from the Fragment of the Evil God, could perceive the powers of the Abyss and Hell more keenly than anyone else.
Besides, because of the pillar of light, hell's minions could not maintain any disguises at that moment.
Following the instinctive stench of hell, Iomene had little difficulty witnessing the sight of a horde of monsters screaming.
[The mines! We have to go underground!! Underground!!]
[Anathema!! It's fire!! It's the sun!!]
[It burns!! It hurts!! It hurts!!]
Giant, twisted beings covered in dozens of blinking eyes were charging forward, destroying everything in sight.
Behind them, fleeing humans were visible, screaming.
A few of the escaping people, spotting Karl Lenaro following behind the princess, ran over in desperation to report.
"Comrade Lenaro!! Demon worshippers and black magicians were hidden among our comrades!!"
"They suddenly mutated into monsters and are rampaging like that, destroying everything around them!!"
"Bullets don't work!! Pistols and light machine guns can't handle them! Comrade!!"
At those words, Iomene smiled and nodded.
"Ordinary weapons cannot kill those abominations."
She pushed through the crowd and began walking slowly toward the monsters that were running wild.
"Your Highness!! It's dangerous!......."
The Labor Theorists tried to stop her, but the holy power emanating from her body in that instant made them flinch backward.
The emblem of Dulanear engraved on the back of her hand began to blaze with light.
And the charging monsters also seemed to notice her presence.
[Dulanear!!]
[That mad god!!]
[How are the Pantheon's dogs here already!!]
[She's alone!]
[This is the fastest route down to the underground mines!]
[No time to detour!]
[Break through! Bite her to death!!]
[For Mammon!!]
The demon followers spat words in a chaotic chorus, then hurled themselves at Iomene.
She wielded no weapon,
and took no defensive stance.
Instead, she slowly raised the hand bearing her stigmata toward the sky.
And she spoke.
"Legiones Ketratus."
Dozens of streaks of light descended from the sky to the ground.
"Assemble."
The moment Iomene clenched her hand into a fist, the light beams vanished, and in their place stood beings the people of the Scrap Yard had never seen before.
Massive physiques exceeding two meters.
Enormous firearms that looked less like rifles and more like heavy machine guns, held in one hand.
And in the opposite hands, colossal swords and hammers that raised the question of whether a human could even swing them.
Transcendentally massive pauldrons.
Breastplates forged of adamantium and mithril.
Helmets painted in a cold, pure white.
And the phrases of the Codex Proelium engraved in full across the suits of armor.
The White Order's most powerful holy knights.
And simultaneously, its most experienced battle priests turned slowly back to look at the one who had summoned them, Iomene.
"The 1st Company has answered your call, Saintess. Give us your command."
Iomene pointed at the charging Mammon followers.
"Kill them."
A simple and intense command dropped.
And the answer to that command did not come in words.
The members of the 1st Company raised the pistols held in their free hands.
"Cover your ears."
After that warning, the huge pistols—each roughly the size of an average man's torso—belched fire.
It was cannon fire.
Not the sound of gunshots, but the sound of cannon fire erupted.
And along with it,
the bodies of the demon followers began to burst apart effortlessly.