Renée leaped onto the roof of a nearby building and bounded across the rooftops towards the west, circling the castle walls.
She raised her red blade high and chanted a spell.
“… [Plague Ray]”
A dark red flash burst from Renée’s sword, extending in a straight line toward the royal castle.
As if a child had kicked down a sandcastle, one of the royal castle’s towers collapsed. The tower, its midsection blown open with a gaping hole, fell while crumbling in on itself, lying across the courtyard and kicking up a cloud of dust.
Without magical defenses, even a royal castle ends up in this state.
Since there was no specific emotional reaction, no sense of presence from inside the castle, it seemed Hilbert really was stationed at the castle gate.
Hilbert’s judgment to abandon the castle and come out to the gate tower at this late stage was correct.
It was impossible to apply magical defense to the entire castle due to cost issues. In that case, inside the castle walls would be safer.
Normally, the castle walls and the Knight Order’s mages would protect the castle from magical attacks… but such half-baked defenses wouldn’t work against Renée.
Well, since Hilbert had already evacuated, Renée’s act of destroying the castle wouldn’t deal a direct blow to him.
——But that doesn’t mean they’ll just let me destroy it…
Sensing hostility, Renée flew sideways and jumped off the roof.
——Right!?
Immediately after.
A “Vertical Slash” passed through the space where Renée had just been.
A stone house was sliced in half like a cabbage cut by a kitchen knife, and a straight incision was carved into the stone pavement below.
Standing at the origin of the slash was… a knight clad in white silver armor. In his hands, he held a blade that emitted its own light… though now, it was a pale silver blade defiled by cursed blood. It was Lawrence, swinging the Demon Sword Taylor-Ayul.
The strike just now was his Martial Art, “Heavenly Severance,” a technique spoken of alongside Lawrence’s name.
Its effect was purely to extend the reach of an attack. It allowed him to attack as if he were swinging a sword with a blade length of twenty or thirty meters.
If he thrusts, it is a mid-range attack with few openings. If he slashes, he mows down dozens of enemies.
Martial Arts that expand attacks aren’t particularly rare, but perhaps it should be called “Simple is Best”; when unleashed with Lawrence’s skill, it became a peerless sword technique capable of crushing any enemy.
If she climbed to strangely high places or jumped around, she would conversely make herself a target.
Renée walked along the ground toward Lawrence.
Lawrence held Taylor-Ayul at the ready, waiting for her, while the knights behind him took up the “Turtle Formation” as usual.
She had already figured out the trick behind the “Turtle Formation.” The problem lay in the shields the knights were holding.
The Type-29 Hillman Magic Shield.
These were made using domestic Adamantite and given to the elite of the Royal Knights. The shield itself didn’t just have resistance to magic; it was a magic item capable of deploying a force field slightly forward to block magic. The defensive range was wider than the shield itself.
The principle was that by holding these shields in a dense formation, the force fields would fuse, forming a wider and harder magical defense field.
Blasting through with magic was a pain. However, against half-hearted physical attacks, the mages enclosed within would simply defend with magic.
The current Renée could probably pierce through from the front using Lich Form… but if she failed, it would mean a painful consumption of energy. In the first place, Renée had no intention of breaking through with such brute force.
“…You monster. I let you escape once, but I will not let you escape a second time.
Receive the retribution… for defiling and wounding this Ciel-Terra. And I shall avenge my humiliation and purge the curse from my sword.”
His voice sounded like frozen filth.
Hatred, rage, and a scorn that seemed capable of piercing not just the ground but all the way to the other side of the planet surged toward Renée.
Renée stifled a sneer.
“Defiled and wounded Ciel-Terra”? If so, then were the people killed in the chaos following the coup d’état… was Renée… not considered a part of Ciel-Terra?
But even if Renée said that sarcastically, Lawrence would likely affirm it calmly.
Far from it, Lawrence seemed to think of Renée as an invader.
——So, there’s no way we can talk this out… right?
Renée’s heart, which had stopped beating, flared up with black, cold flames of hatred.
An anger that made the blood in her entire body feel like it was flowing backward.
Renée had been a little worried that her resolve as an avenger might have wavered. But it seemed that was needless anxiety. Now, facing Lawrence, Renée could think of nothing but killing him in the most gruesome way possible.
“Do you think you can win? The cowardly knights hiding behind their shields like turtles seem to have decreased significantly compared to the other day.
To have to bring out those Federation-made dolls you hate so much… you must be suffering from a pathetic lack of manpower. Is the turnover rate high because the commander lacks popularity? Or perhaps everyone is taking a vacation on a southern island?”
“You…”
Lawrence’s anger intensified.
The “Turtle Formation” was a size smaller than in the battle a month ago. That was because manpower was being diverted to defend the castle, but more than that, it was because many knights had died in battle… in other words, because Renée had killed them.
Renée was saying it knowing full well that was the case, and that was exactly why Lawrence was seething with rage.
“In exchange, I’ve brought plenty of convenient ‘item’ comrades with me.”
When Renée snapped her fingers, eerie footsteps thundered out as if sudden rain had begun to fall.
The undead filling the castle town were gathering.
Undead soldiers who weren’t participating in the castle assault surrounded Renée and the others, covering the entire area. They maintained a distance where they wouldn’t be swept away by Lawrence’s Martial Art, yet took positions where they could immediately jump in to assist.
Fear and tension rose from the “Turtle Formation.” Naturally, they felt pressure at this sight.
Lawrence didn’t waver at this level, but…
“Well, they might have been your comrades a little while ago, though.”
If she provoked him, he would get even angrier.
“ The situation has changed compared to back then. In a direction favorable to me.
But no matter what changes, the words I have for you will never change.”
Renée pointed her red blade at Lawrence.
“…I will never forgive you.”
“Silence…!!”
The sound of grinding gears. The screeching of joints.
Those were the war cries of the golems.
The ground, covered in stone pavement, pulsated like the belly of a beast. The golems, attempting to step forward, nearly tripped and had to brace themselves.
The Liches were using earth magic to manipulate the terrain, hindering them from moving as they pleased.
However, the golems’ mighty arms didn’t stop just because their footwork was disrupted.
Every time ash-silver giant arms were swung, several undead were blown away whole, becoming true corpses that moved no more.
Holy water-coated arrows flew from atop the castle walls, threading through the rampage of the two golems to pierce the undead.
But the number of undead soldiers was vast, and they knew no fear.
Undead that slipped past the giant arms latched onto the legs and climbed up the bodies. Their targets were the drive mechanisms and the sensors clustered in the head.
“Shoot them down!”
Orders flew from the gate tower, and arrows were fired at the undead clinging to the golems. Purified undead fell, one after another.
“As expected, common soldiers aren’t enough…”
The ghouls commanding in the vicinity reported the battle situation to Alistair in detail.
On the other side of the Caller, Alistair sighed.
“It can’t be helped… Can you try it?”
“We wIll dO our beSt.”
Translator’s note
He speaks in a mix of archaic Samurai register and broken/robotic Katakana (hence we’re using odd capitalization).
Receiving Alistair’s order, a single ghoul began to move.
Pale skin, dressed in a kinagashi kimono. His hair was tied up high at the back of his head.
It wasn’t an officially recognized species name in the Adventurer’s Guild, but if one were to give a monster species name, it would be “Ghoul Samurai” or perhaps “Ghoul Kengo”… His name in life was Udanosuke.
Udanosuke leaped into the chaotic melee, running low to the ground.
The arm of the “Phoenix” approached, sweeping across the ground. The soldiers around the ghoul were blown away.
“ArmOr, thiCk and haRd… bUt…”
Udanosuke leaped lightly, moving as if he had no weight, dodging the arm. He then dove beneath the “Phoenix’s” feet, sliding through its legs.
“GUEEISHAAAAAAH!!”
The katana was swung with lightning sharpness.
The “Phoenix’s” right leg was severed at the knee.
The leg part, which looked like a Mithril coffin, rolled away. The “Phoenix,” having lost its balance, barely managed to stay upright on its knee.
“What the—!?”
An amplified voice of shock echoed before the castle gate.
“Hm. JoinTs arE fraGile as exPected. Just like nesTing dolls before the wiNd.”
With the golem’s disgraceful state behind him, Udanosuke sheathed his katana.
At a glance, it was a meaningless action, but thoroughly striking a pose to dampen the opponent’s fighting spirit after a decisive strike was a style ingrained in his body.
The target of the attack was the opponent’s mind. This too was part of the samurai’s combat technique. It was called Zanshin: lingering mind.
A katana user who could slice through Mithril with skilled technique, Udanosuke.
His physical abilities had increased upon becoming undead, raising his power to even greater heights. …In exchange for the righteous heart that valued a samurai’s honor.
What should be done if a strong individual capable of defeating a golem single-handedly appeared?
The logic was to use infantry equipped specifically to support golems or small-scale golems to interfere, allowing the main heavy golems to finish them off. The Jireshatar Federation’s golem corps organized their formations with that much in mind.
But Ciel-Terra had neither the spare capacity nor the know-how for that.
In the first place, the knight order hadn’t anticipated any strong enemy other than Renée who could fight a golem.
Renée had held Udanosuke in reserve because he was a valuable ghoul-resource she didn’t want to lose in a chaotic brawl, but it also functioned as a hidden ace.
“Did you do it? Splendid.”
“Too eaRly to praIse. ThreE legs left to cUt… no, two? One might be enOugh. FraGilE ToFu!”
Undead soldiers swarmed all at once onto the “Phoenix,” which could no longer move properly.
“Naglfar” couldn’t tear them off, nor could support fire shoot them down in time. The soldiers who climbed to the head thrust their swords wildly, destroying the head sensors. Furthermore, they jammed weapons into the gaps of the limb joints to immobilize them, destroying the mechanisms.
The “Phoenix,” its movements becoming increasingly erratic, eventually stopped moving completely.
“Get “Naglfar” to the front of the castle gate! If it separates poorly, it’ll be preyed upon!”
The drawbridge had already been raised, blocking the castle gate.
“Naglfar” backed up until it was practically carrying the castle gate on its back.
It was a position where the gate tower and flanking towers could protect “Naglfar,” but conversely, “Naglfar” could not go to attack the undead soldiers clinging to the castle walls.
If they sent it out, it would die in vain; if they kept it close, it couldn’t work. It was a dilemma. In the end, they had no choice but to make it stand before the castle gate as a gatekeeper.
“Excellent. Now just continue the attack and keep the defenses pinned down. It would be best if we can inflict casualties on the defensive personnel, though.”
“UndersTood. If there is an oPening, I will dismaNtle thaT goLem too.”
“Think of your own safety, too, alright? You are one who is needed by the Princess and will serve her from now on.”
“I knOw.”
The ghoul who had been ordered to serve as a sword instructor looked toward the west wall.
Wishing for the victory of the great person who would become his student.