Battle For The Underworld, Six PM, November 7th, 380 HE Part 4

It was a death that offered no recognition of a warrior's honor or respect for

the wise. They were simply fuel or meat—no different from the long-haired

cattle that the provisions troop brought along as a food supply.

"We came heah to fight! Ouwah lives awe not da pwice foh yoh failyah!"

Lilpilin argued, his nasal voice high-pitched and strained.

But Chancellor Dee of the dark mages merely stared at the orc with cold eyes

and folded arms. She said, "This is by the edict of the emperor!!"

With a grunt, the orc chief's words stuck in his throat. Emperor Vecta's power

had been made explicitly clear during the dark general's attempted betrayal. He

was almighty, far outclassing any of the Council of Ten.

And the strong must be obeyed. It was the ironclad rule of the land of

darkness.

But— But…

Lilpilin stood there, clenched fists trembling. Behind him, a voice that was

smoother than usual for an orc said, "Chieftain, we have no choice but to follow

da empewah's odahs."

He turned around with a start and saw a female orc who had a comparatively

slender build and elegantly long ears. She was from a clan that was distantly

related to Lilpilin's, and they had spent time together as children.

With a gentle, comforting smile, she said, "Me and my twee tousand twoops

would gladly give up owah lives. Foh da empewah…and foh owah people."

"..."

Speechless, Lilpilin could only gnash his long tusks so hard they nearly broke.

The woman stepped closer and whispered, "Lil, I still believe dat it is not just da

humans, but also orc souls dat awe summoned to Heaven afta death. We…we

can meet again in dat holy place."

He wanted to tell her that she didn't have to give up her life, too. But he also

knew that if three thousand soldiers were to accept an unfair order, it would be

easier done if they knew their fates were shared by their princess knight, whom

they held in a certain esteem even higher than their chieftain.

Lilpilin unclenched his fists, took her hand, and groaned, "I apologize, Len…

fohgive me…Fohgive me…"

Dee Eye Ell stared down at the two in obvious disgust. "Pack your three

thousand troops together in close formation, a hundred mels before the ravine,

within five minutes. That is all!" she ordered.

The orc chief glared at the departing dark mage with burning, squinted eyes.

Why did they have to undergo this fate just because they were orcs? It was a

question he had asked himself many times, but as usual, no answer was

forthcoming.

As three thousand troops lined up, orderly, and marched toward certain

death, there was even a kind of pride among them. But from the remaining

seven thousand who watched them go came the low rumbling of sobs and

comments of loathing.

The princess knight astride her armored boar led the three thousand proudly

past the dark knights and pugilists, then arranged their formation a bit before

the entrance to the ravine where the battle was taking place.

Almost impatiently, the two thousand dark mages who weren't enveloped in

the earlier blast made their ominous appearance and started making a

formation. Their chanting, in reflecting the horror of its intended content, set

the atmosphere on edge with hideous discordance.

"Aa…aaah…," Lilpilin croaked. The orcs suddenly began to writhe in apparent

agony and collapsed to the ground. As they flopped and struggled, little white

twinkling lights emerged from their bodies, sucked out by some invisible

pressure. As they flew toward the mages' hands, the lights turned black and

bunched together, growing sticky and clumping until they took a shape like

some eerie, unnatural serpent.

The screams of three thousand soldiers stabbed at Lilpilin's ears, sharp and

vivid. He could make out the words, too.

Long live the orcs. Glory to the orcs.

Their bodies began to burst in quick succession. As the blood and flesh went

splattering in all directions, the light gushed out of them in great quantities,

traveling toward the mages.

Before he knew it, Lilpilin was on his knees, slamming his fist against the

ground. The tears that flowed from his eyes trailed down either side of his large

nose before falling to the black gravel.

Through stained vision, he watched as the princess knight in her especially

conspicuous armor issued blood from all over her body like the petals of a

crimson flower.

"...Lenju...!" he gasped as the princess knight slowly toppled toward the

ground and out of sight. His jaws clenched so hard that the fangs burst through

his lips, dripping blood of his own.

Humans.

Humans!

Damnable humans!!

With each internal scream of fury and loathing, the orc felt his right eye pulse.

Less than twenty minutes earlier, at the camp of the Human Guardian Army,

the soldiers who'd been separated into two groups had shared warm

handshakes and embraces at their safe reunion.

After the announcement from Alice, Commander Bercouli added a decision of

his own. He ordered that the so-called Priestess of Light, Alice, be given half of

their number when she diverted the enemy's attention. Alice was strongly

against this, of course, and insisted that she would act alone, but the leader of

the Integrity Knights would have none of it.

We still have plenty of reinforcements. If you're the only one acting as bait,

Little Miss, there won't be many enemies going after ya. Only if you've got a

good number with you can the strategy to split up the forces actually work.

She had no rebuttal to that. There was no denying that it was a huge stretch,

claiming that she, on her own, would lure the entire enemy army away, based

on nothing more than some vague information from the chief of the ogres.

Plus, Alice wanted to take Kirito on Amayori's back with her. Admittedly, she

was uncertain about being able to protect both herself and him against the

enemy army. So the idea of military cohorts was reassuring.

When Bercouli announced his splitting of the guardian army, he had another

surprise in store. He decided that he, the overall commander of the army,

would join the decoy team.

Fanatio and Deusolbert, who were designated the commanding officers of the

remaining portion of the army, were vehemently against the idea.

"Hey, you've done enough in this battle already. Gimme a chance to fight,

too," Bercouli argued. Fanatio's eyes screwed up in frustration as she said, "You

can barely fold your own clothes without me there at your side!!"

That one got a big jeer from the knights and guardsmen who heard it.

Bercouli grimaced, leaned over to Fanatio, and whispered something into her

ear—and surprisingly enough, the vice commander looked away and backed

down.

As for Deusolbert, he had to accept the inevitable, especially when it was

pointed out that he had fought to the point of exhausting his arrows earlier. A

supply team was heading for the nearest town to get more, but this would take

longer than an hour or two.

Concern and nerves were in abundant supply among the soldiers of both the

advancing team and the remaining team. In fact, it wasn't clear which

assignment posed more danger. How much of the enemy army would pursue

the decoy team, and how much would continue attacking the ravine? Only God

knew—specifically, Vecta, the god of darkness, commander of the enemy

forces.

Eventually, the decoy force was complete: Bercouli, Alice, Renly, Sheyta, the

four elite knights' dragons, a thousand guardsmen, two hundred priests, and a

fifty-member supply team. Eldrie insisted on joining the decoy team, backing

down only after Alice scolded him. The apprentice knights Linel and Fizel threw

a fit as well, but when the commander told them to hold down the fort, they

didn't have much choice but to accept his order.

To carry their supplies, they set up eight high-mobility four-horse carriages.

One of them would contain Kirito in his wheelchair and the two young trainees.

Alice was very conflicted about the idea of allowing Tiese and Ronie to come

along. But she would need someone to look after Kirito, and whatever it was

that had happened between them, Renly the elite Integrity Knight now insisted

that he would protect the girls with his life.

In all honesty, Alice had few memories of Renly. But the determination in his

young face and the impressive shine of the Double-Winged Blades on either hip

suggested that he was the real deal.

Bercouli's dragon, Hoshigami, began its heavy running start to prepare for

flight, giving way to a muted cheer from the guards on the ground. As Alice

waited for her turn, clutching Amayori's reins, she looked back to Eldrie below.

Her loquacious disciple had been quiet as she'd prepared to leave, a fact that

gnawed at her. But before she could think of something to say, Hoshigami took

off into the air. She had to look ahead and gave Amayori's sides a gentle kick.

Her dragon mount ran powerfully across the ground and floated up into the air,

followed by Renly on Kazenui, and Sheyta on Yoiyobi.

Bercouli, flying slowly up ahead, turned back and shouted, "When we leave

the ravine, we use the dragons' breath against the enemy's main force! They

should have almost nothing left in the way of long-range attacks, but keep an

eye out for their dragon knights!"

She gave him a crisp affirmative response. The sound of the soldiers pursuing

them on horseback and foot were audible over her shoulder. When they and

the carriage group left the ravine, they would head south, to their right, and it

was up to the four knights on their dragons to keep the battle lively and

distracted until the ground troops had put good distance behind them.

A multitude of campfires burned in the land beyond the dark, narrow ravine.

There were so many. They had eliminated a ton of enemy soldiers, yet there

must have been close to thirty thousand left. But the bulk of that power was

concentrated in dark knights and pugilists, both of which were close-range units

and had no effective means of attacking airborne Integrity Knights.

No, wait…What is this?

There was a chanting in the air, audible beneath the whistling of the wind,

roiling and low.

A…group chant? Of a sacred art command?

Impossible! Alice balked against her own instincts. There isn't enough sacred

power left to carry out any kind of large-scale attack art!!

But then Bercouli, who was flying ahead of her, gasped, "I…I can't believe

what they've done!!"

Ohhh.

What incredible power!!

Dee Eye Ell, chancellor of the dark mages guild, hands outstretched to the sky,

shivered in ecstasy.

Had any mage in history ever experienced such rich, saturated dark power as

this? The life of intelligent beings was the purest and most potent source of

power in the world—even the life of something as low and ugly as an orc. If this

potency of power was like fine wine aged a hundred years, then the dark power

that came from sunlight and the earth was no more than water.

What they had tried to consume for the wide-range incineration projectiles

before had been merely the dregs of the lives expended in battle. But this, now,

was power directly and freshly converted from three thousand lives through

sorcery.

The misty black substance gathered around the extended hands of Dee and

her two thousand cohorts, forming a number of hideous long insects, each with

countless writhing legs. They were simulacrums of life, things generated from

darkness elements, and were called life-eaters. Nothing with physical form, not

even the highest-priority swords and armor, could stop them. It was a lessefficient form of conversion from darkness than fire attacks were, but that

didn't matter when the source of power was so rich.

Dee had chosen this particular art as an intentional counterpoint to the pillar

of light that the enemy had used to burn a thousand of her precious followers.

At this point, the death screams of tormented orcs were almost music to her

ears.

"Ready…?" Dee called out on high. "Prepare to unleash the deathworm

curse!!"

But as she stared forward, to her shock, she saw a mad rush of four dragon

knights approaching through the ravine. Her alarm promptly turned to joy. Now

she would be able to wipe out the Integrity Knights and their dragons, the most

powerful piece of the enemy army.

"Don't rush it!! Let them come closer!! …Closer…closer...…Now! Unleash!!"

Zwaaaah!!

Countless black insects thrummed in horrifying fashion as they leaped straight

for the oncoming enemy.

The moment they saw the enemy's spell, that great black wave of horror

rushing toward them, both the civilian men-at-arms and even the elite Integrity

Knights found themselves unable to think for entire seconds at a time.

It was a dark art of an ultra-high priority, even higher than Alice's earlier light

attack. A long-range curse art that was impossible to physically defend against

and devoured the target's life directly.

How could they produce a dark art of this incredible scale and density when

darkness elements had such inefficient conversion to sacred power, and the

entire battlefield was barren of resources to begin with? Only Bercouli was

capable of spotting the answer.

But even he could not summon the wits to give an immediate order.

Every kind of offensive art carried certain values: its source element, density,

range, speed, direction, and so on. In order to defend against a sacred art, you

needed to cancel out those elements or utilize them to your own ends. You

could snuff out flame attacks with ice elements, confuse a tracking art with a

decoy, evade a direct-line attack with enough speed—part of what made a

high-level caster was the ability to react and respond appropriately without

skipping a beat.

But not in this case.

The enemy's attack was simply beyond the pale.

Only light elements could counteract dark elements. But light, too, was

difficult to convert from raw power, and they could not generate enough of it to

dispel that kind of curse. Fanatio's Memory Release would certainly be able to

punch a hole through the enemy's curse, but the Heaven-Piercing Blade's light

was far too thin in its effect, and more importantly, she wasn't in the decoy

group.

"Invert!! Pull up!!" shouted Bercouli, about the only thing he could do.

Four dragons turned quickly, spiraling around, heading higher right above the

ravine. With a terrible rustling of wings, the swarm of snaking creatures turned

accordingly.

But then Bercouli shouted, "No!!"

The worms that chased after them were not even half the total. The rest

proceeded straight for the guardsmen and the supply team running along the

ground.

"…!!" Alice gasped and turned her dragon into a steep dive. She charged

straight for the wriggling mass of dark arts in the lead below.

Shing!! She drew the Osmanthus Blade from its sheath. The blade began to

glow a golden color.

"Little Miss!! You can't use that one!!" cried Bercouli, trying to stop his

favorite apprentice. The Osmanthus Blade's Perfect Weapon Control art was

tremendously powerful in a battle of one against many, but only with sword

against metal. It couldn't cut through a curse that had an ethereal body.

Alice was perfectly aware of that. But there was no way that she could sit

there and watch the soldiers be attacked.

Just then, a fifth dragon rocketed forth from the ravine like a shooting star.

It was Takiguri—the dragon of elite Integrity Knight Eldrie Synthesis ThirtyOne.

As he gripped the dragon's reins, just one word ran through Eldrie's brain.

Protect.

His mentor. His Alice. He must offer his sword to do whatever it took to

safeguard the person whose life he had pledged to protect.

But at the same time, he heard a voice mocking him at exactly the same

volume: How will you protect her? A powerless man like you? Inferior in every

conceivable way and yet endlessly seeking validation and attention from your

mentor.

The thing that supported Eldrie's skill as a new, junior Integrity Knight was the

powerful Incarnation that drove him to serve Alice. It was what made him a

higher-ranked knight, but it also meant that when he was hit by doubt, it rocked

him to his core.

I don't have the strength to protect my teacher Alice, nor the right to stand at

her side, he concluded, which caused a rapid loss in power. Swept up by an

unpleasant emotion, he leaped onto Takiguri and chased after the decoy group,

though he had no idea what he was going to do.

If it came to it, at least he could die here with his mentor.

As he flew, clinging to this last resort, he thought he heard something, and he

glanced down at the ground. The guardsmen below had noticed the oncoming

dark magic and were beginning to panic. Behind them, the supply team's

carriages were fraying apart the same way.

A pale-blue light flickered in one of the carriages, visible through the covered

top.

He heard a strange voice in his head.

Your determination—

—your desire to protect—

—needs no payment in return, does it?

Love is not something you ask for. You just give and give and give it, and it

never runs out. Isn't that right…?

Ah, man…

What got me so confused?

That I didn't have enough strength? That I couldn't monopolize her feelings?

That I wasn't able to protect her?

What tiny, insignificant things…

Lady Alice has been trying to save all of humanity.

Eldrie whipped Takiguri's reins with one hand and shouted, "Go!!"

The dragon beat its wings powerfully, sensing its master's thoughts, and sped

up immediately. The instant they passed the plummeting Amayori, Eldrie heard

Alice calling for him to stop. But he did not slow down; he pulled the dragon

higher, heading straight for the onslaught of worm creatures.

With his free left hand, he removed the platinum whip from his side.

The Frostscale Whip received its holy power from its core: a great snake that

had once lived in the mountains of the eastern empire, known as the godserpent. Unleashing the power of its memory transformed the whip to many

times its original length and gave it free control over its own trajectory.

But this power was nearly meaningless against a curse-type sacred art. Even

so, Eldrie continued to pray, filled with absolute conviction.

Serpent!

God-serpent of yore!

If you are indeed the king of the snakes, then devour this swarm of wretched

worms!!

"Release Recollection!!" he called out, and the Frostscale Whip shone a

brilliant silver.

Amid that light, the whip split into countless ends. Hundreds upon hundreds

of beams of light lashed out at the squirming black things.

And then the light turned into glowing snakes. The swarm of reptiles fanning

outward from Eldrie's hand opened jaws of sharp, glinting fangs and bit down

on the deathworms. There was a horrible zormp sound, and the first creature to

be bitten in two reverted to darkness elements that promptly scattered into

nothing.

Abruptly, the swarm that was heading for the guards and the swarm following

the airborne dragons changed directions, recognizing the glowing hydra to be

their most urgent foe. The snake heads were soon beset by countless writhing

worms. The curse traveled up their length, bearing down on the source.

Eldrie was using the one element of the enemy's dark arts that he could

affect, its ability of automatic pursuit, to force all of the spell's attention on

himself.

Lady Alice…

He grinned and closed his eyes.

The next moment, darkness engulfed him.

The life value of the Integrity Knight Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One, which was at

slightly over five thousand, instantly plummeted to negative five hundred

thousand.

The explosion that rippled outward from a centerpoint in his chest tore his

body into tiny, fleeting pieces.

"Eldrieeeeee!!!" screamed Alice.

Her one apprentice, whose time with her had been short but memorable, slid

off his dragon's back, missing over half of his body.

Alice turned Amayori around yet again and plunged through the remnants of

the vanishing worms, reaching out with her free hand to grab Eldrie's. Her

breath caught in her throat when she felt how light he was, but she gritted her

teeth and sent the dragon upward anyway.

Takiguri followed right beside them, concerned for its master. As the dragons

shot upward in parallel, Alice shouted again, "Eldrie!! Open…open your eyes!! I

won't let you leave me! Not like this!!"

Eldrie had nothing left from the chest downward. His pale eyelids fluttered.

Underneath his lashes, his purplish irises shone, weak but firm, as he looked at

her.

"…Men…tor…you're…safe…"

"Yes…yes, I'm safe, thanks to you! I told you that I needed you!!"

Her vision went blurry. Droplets landed on Eldrie's cheek. Alice held her

disciple tight, not even realizing that they were her own tears.

His voice was barely audible in her ear.

"Lady Alice…you are needed…by…so many more people. I was…such a small

person…to think…that I could have you…all for…myself…"

"I will give you whatever you want!! Just come back!! You are my disciple!!"

"I've…had…so much already," he whispered, full of satisfaction. She could

sense what little weight there was in her arms rapidly beginning to fade.

"Eldrie!! Eldrieeee!!" she wailed.

His final words were gentle yet heavy.

"Don't…cry...Mo...…ther..."

And so the soul of Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One the Integrity Knight, also known

as Eldrie Woolsburg, left the Underworld forever.

Through wet eyes, Alice watched the body of her beloved disciple vanish. It

turned into a gentle light that illuminated the night and melted into it, as

miraculous as the several seconds she was able to talk with him as he lay dying.

Soon Eldrie was entirely gone, without even a trace of armor. Only the

Frostscale Whip remained, falling onto Amayori's back limply. Nearby, Takiguri

howled sadly as it flew, sensing its master's death.

Alice breathed in the faint scent of roses and lifted her head.

This is a war.

There was no point in taking any of it personally, no matter how the enemy

tried to attack or what damages were suffered from it. Just minutes ago, Alice

herself had unleashed a mammoth sacred art that had taken the lives of

thousands of enemy soldiers; it could not be described as anything but

merciless.

So if she took all this anger, this sadness, and channeled it into power that

would allow her to slaughter ever more foes…

"…Let it not be said that you were not ready for me!!" Alice drew the

Osmanthus Blade and shouted, "Amayori! Takiguri! Charge at full speed!!"

The dragons, who were pressed into service by a binding art, normally refused

all battle orders that did not come from their designated rider. But the two

dragons, brother and sister, roared ferociously and beat their wings, rushing

forward. The outer end of the ravine, where the charcoal Dark Territory

stretched as far as the eye could see, grew closer.

Through the burning rage that threatened to blind her, Alice's blue eyes

quickly made out the formation of the enemy's main force.

On the left side, about five hundred mels past the exit of the valley, five

thousand dark knights stood in their matching metal armor. To the right,

another five thousand pugilists, their hardy bodies wrapped in light leather.

These two groups were the bulk of the enemy forces.

Behind them were backup units of orc and goblin infantry and a very large

supply team. Somewhere in the midst of them would be the enemy's supreme

commander: Vecta, the god of darkness.

And right up front, packed between the rows of dark knights and pugilists,

was a group cloaked in black.

That was it. They were the dark mages who had set off that massive curse.

There were nearly two thousand of them. And now they were fleeing, those

who'd noticed the approaching dragons first among them.

"You're going nowhere!!" shouted Alice, who then ordered the dragons, "Aim

for their tail…now! Breathe!!"

The siblings craned their necks and opened their jaws wide. The flames that

filled their mouths lit white fangs red.

Two parallel pillars of fire tore through the air and hit the ground right where

the fleeing mages were attempting to run. There was an earthshaking blast, and

a fireball rose from the spot where the flames struck. The figures caught in its

midst flew like leaves.

Their escape route blocked by flames, the mages completely lost order and

clumped into one place. Alice held the Osmanthus Blade high overhead. Its

body shone a yellow gold brighter than the sun itself.

"Enhance Armament!"

With a crisp metallic ring, the sword split into hundreds of tiny shards. Each

one reflected Alice's Incarnation and glinted with sharper edges than they'd

ever had before.

Impossible. It cannot be!!

Dee Eye Ell, chancellor of the dark mages guild, stared upward at the

oncoming dragon knight, a silent scream tearing through her mind.

Two thousand mages had sacrificed three thousand orcs to prepare the

deathworm curse, which had set upon the enemy with even more power than

she'd anticipated. The deathworms had a high enough priority level that they

should've easily devoured both the Integrity Knights and the soldiers on the

ground alike.

But somehow, the deathworms that should've devoured the life of all the

enemy troops had concentrated only on a single knight and spent themselves

on one extravagantly wasteful and redundant kill.

Deathworms were drawn to whatever creature had the greatest amount of

life. So if you were to guide them, it would require the creation of some

artificial life-form greater than any human or dragon, something along the lines

of a magical beast out of legend—but there was no way they could've produced

such a thing with a short command. There was no logic that explained this

outcome. It was simply illogical.

How can there possibly be some power that I, Chancellor Dee Eye Ell of the

dark mages guild, center of all the knowledge of the world, do not possess?!

Dee gnashed her teeth and let loose a screech that was all air, no voice.

Whatever the answer, the enemy had sacrificed just one person and resumed

its charge, and it was now unleashing all hell on her remaining two thousand

mages.

"Fall back!! All units retreat!!" Dee called out in a high voice.

But that was when two jets of blazing fire passed overhead and rammed into

the ground just a few dozen mels behind her. An explosion erupted from that

spot, drawing dozens of screams from her subordinates. A heat wave swept

over the second floor of her carriage, singeing the black hair she was so proud

of.

"Yeeek…!" screamed Dee, practically falling off the carriage. Standing on it

was only turning her into a target. She wanted to flee among the crowd of her

followers, but then she caught sight of a bright golden light.

Looking up despite herself, she saw an Integrity Knight atop a dragon, her

sword splitting apart into many tiny pieces of light. Each one of them, it was

clear, held a frightening level of priority—and there was no element she could

generate from the thin layer of dark power hovering around the area that

would help her defend against it.

Shit! Dammit! I will not die yet!! Not here!! Not when I am promised to

become ruler of the world!!

Dee squinted, features twisted in a rictus of desperation. She swept her hands

forward, fingers bent like claws, and jammed them into the backs of two mages

running before her. The sharp nails tore through soft skin and flesh until she

grabbed round pillars—the very spines of her mages.

"Aaaah! L…Lady Dee…?!"

"What are you…?! S-stop, please…!"

The greatest of mages ignored the pleading screams of her subordinates and

began to chant a command, a wicked smile on her face. This, too, was in all

ways a curse.

It was an art to change the shape of matter—a secret, forbidden art that used

human life force as its energy source to alter the container of flesh that stored

it.

Shlurbp.

Two young, healthy individuals melted into uncertain structures, sloughing off

flesh and blood in the process. The solution covered Dee entirely where she

knelt on the ground, and it hardened into a resilient membrane of living armor

around her.

The golden swarm of death descended into their midst.

Alice hardened her heart against the sound of all the screams.

She would not let that art be used ever again. She would remove both the

caster and the command from the world.

With each swing of the glowing handle in her right hand, the blindingly sharp

little petals followed the movement, slashing at the foes on the ground below.

The dark mages, who wore no metal armor, had no physical defense against the

metal shards that tore through their bodies.

Alice maintained the Memory Release form of her weapon until she was

certain that over 90 percent of the two thousand or so dark mages were wiped

out. It used up quite a lot of the sword's life, but she was not in the mood for

conservation at this moment.

Two hundred mages fled in terror, not sparing a glance for the stacked

corpses of their fellows, but this time, Alice returned the Osmanthus Blade to its

original shape and let them go. Out of the corner of her left eye, she spotted

about ten dark knights lifting off the ground on dragons from the rear of their

formation.

She assumed they would rush for her, but the dragon riders merely formed up

and hovered, keeping their distance. She learned why very soon: Bercouli's

group was catching up behind her.

"Don't push your luck, Little Miss!" the knight commander called out as soon

as he was in range, understanding that she was bereaved after the death of

Eldrie.

"I…I know," she managed to stammer. "I'm fine, Uncle. Please watch over the

ground troops. I must go and play my role as decoy."

"Sure…just don't go charging too far ahead!" shouted Bercouli, glancing at the

enemy dragons. Alice ordered Takiguri to stay airborne where it was, and she

had Amayori proceed forward and rise.

She could sense the attention of dark knights, pugilists, orcs, and goblins—

and some great, colossal presence, though she could not tell its location—as

she rose. Behind her was the low rumble of the soldiers and supply team

leaving the ravine, heading south, and proceeding at top speed.

Then she shouted, loud enough to drown out the sound of all those footsteps.

Her Incarnate voice, heavily amplified, spread in all directions, crisp and clear.

"My name is Alice!! Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty!! I am the proxy of

the three goddesses who protect the human realm: the Priestess of Light!!"

There was nothing behind this statement. It was, in essence, a bluff.

But the effect it had on the enemy army was immediate. They rumbled and

murmured. She sensed the desire to capture her extending toward her like

giant invisible tentacles. It seemed true that the enemy was after this "Priestess

of Light" at least as much as, if not more than, the actual conquest of the

Human Empire and their lands.

The question remained, was that really her, or was she merely pretending to

own the title?

It didn't matter to Alice. All she needed was for half of the enemy soldiers to

follow her. If buying time and getting the enemy to pull away meant that they

succeeded in defending the human world, which Eldrie, Dakira, and all those

soldiers had given their lives in service of, that was all that mattered.

"Know that any who stand in my way will be struck down by my righteous

light!!"

"Ooooh…"

Emperor Vecta, the god of darkness, also known as Gabriel Miller, hunter of

souls, stood up from his throne in wonder. "Ooooh."

The apparent failure of the attack that had consumed three thousand orc

units, and the destruction of the large majority of the mage units, did not startle

or disturb Gabriel in the slightest. Only in this moment did his cold, inert soul

feel any kind of rumbling.

From his thin lips, which assumed only the shape of a smile, a quiet voice said,

"Alice…Alicia…"

His eyes caught in full detail the sight of the young knight in her shining

golden armor, standing on the back of the dragon in the distant night sky.

Straight, long golden hair. Pure-white skin. Blue eyes as cool and crisp as the

midwinter sky. In Gabriel's mind, these features perfectly matched the image of

a beautifully matured Alicia Clingerman, the very first victim of his desires. He

had failed to capture Alicia's soul the first time, but now he knew she had

returned to take her place in this virtual world.

This time.

This time she would be his. He would take the lightcube that contained her

fluctlight and devour it to his heart's content.

As the knight pulled the dragon's reins and flew to the south, Gabriel poured

into her a gaze like blue fire. He leaned toward the master skull and rasped an

order, quiet but fierce.

"All troops, prepare to march. Pugilists in front, then dark knights,

nonhumans, and supply, in that order. Proceed south. You must capture that

knight, the Priestess of Light, unharmed. The commander of the unit that

captures her will be given control over the entirety of the human realm."