Renée cast aside her wounded flesh.
“What?!”
In an instant, the thing that had been Renée’s body until moments ago transformed into the decapitated, stabbed corpse of a girl with wavy blonde hair and wisteria-colored eyes. Lawrence let out a cry of shock as he watched Renée leap forth from it.
Her translucent spirit form was Renée’s original body clad in a white, delicately decorated dress. This was the true form of the “Rose Princess of Hellrage”, her form as an Abyss Spirit, a highest-tier spirit-type undead.
Turning on her heel, or rather floating backward through the air, Renée put some distance between herself and Lawrence.
“Curse you! Is that how you’ve been escaping?!”
Lawrence immediately unleashed a follow-up “Heavenly Severance.” Even against a spirit body, a sword imbued with <<Consecration>> could still deal damage. But…
“<<Counter Magic Field>>!”
“Ngh…!”
A bubble of magical energy enveloped Renée’s spirit body, and the light of the holy aura burst harmlessly against its surface.
Only special magic, such as holy aura, could deal damage to spirit-type undead. In other words, magic damage. However, a certain spell existed in this world: “a defensive magic that completely shuts out magic damage for as long as one’s MP holds.”
<<Counter Magic Field>>.
It was a horribly inefficient spell that constantly squandered mana to cancel out an opponent’s magic, but when used by Renée, it provided her with immense durability. Even the divine magic launched a second later failed to reach her.
Then, gliding toward one of the girls captured by the skeleton (or rather, floating), Renée spread her arms wide as if to embrace her, and lunged. The target was Jillian, the girl who had introduced herself first.
“Ah…”
Renée’s hand touched Jillian. And then—
“Aaaaaghhhhh!!”
A voice that was far too horrific to be called a mere scream, a howl of death agony burst from Jillian’s throat. As Renée dissolved into Jillian, the girl’s apple-red eyes and pitch-black hair shifted to a radiant silver. Her slender neck sprayed blood as her head tumbled off, caught swiftly by Renée’s left hand. As she raised her right hand toward the sky, the blood spurting from her severed neck slowly coalesced into the shape of a sword, settling into her palm. The excess blood was shook off, painting a fresh crimson rose upon her dress.
Jillian’s flesh had transformed into Renée’s appearance; it was now Renée’s.
“Jillian…?”
“N-Nooooo!”
One of the knights dropped his shield in a daze, while another captured girl let out a scream of utter despair, having realized her own impending doom.
“Rest easy, young girls. Even if the result is still ‘death,’ you won’t have to suffer even a hundredth of the pain I endured.”
She made the offer, but the captive girls were shrieking and weeping so loudly it was doubtful they even heard her.
Even Lawrence stood frozen, visibly shaken.
“Y-You… how could you do such a thing?!”
“Honestly, this is mildly unpleasant… It feels like I’ve wet myself.”
Renée lightly tugged her coldly clinging underwear through her skirt. This was the trace left by Jillian wetting herself out of sheer terror when Renée threatened her.
“Now, shall we move on to round two? That is, if you want to make more sacrifices.”
“Guh…!
…The spirit that emerges after her physical body is destroyed is likely her true self! We just have to destroy her with holy magic before she can seize another host!”
“Correct. But the question is: can you actually do it?”
Lawrence shouted out his commands, but executing them was easier said than done. To do anything to Renée while she was in her spirit form, they would first have to bombard her with magic attacks until her mana ran completely dry.
“Now, everyone, think about it once more. I don’t particularly enjoy doing things like this either. If you guys will just die for me, I’ll release the remaining girls this very instant. I may kill infants and the elderly if my revenge demands it, but I have no interest in needlessly inflating the body count. Do you really distrust me that much? You’ve noticed that not a single citizen has fallen victim to this battle, haven’t you?”
“Do not listen to her words!!”
Lawrence roared, cutting off Renée’s words.
Naturally, Renée didn’t expect them to actually listen. In fact, it was a blatant lie. Since these girls shared the blood of the First Order’s knights, they fell under the category of “closely aligned with eradication targets, yet barely irrelevant enough to use.”
Her call for surrender was merely laying the groundwork. It was a ploy to drive a wedge into the hearts of the knights to make them wonder if there was, or could have been, a way to save the girls. To make them think that if they only abandoned the King and Lawrence, they might at least protect their own families.
Through her emotion-detection ability, she could feel their agitation building.
“Well, once the Commander is dead, the face of the order will just be a bunch of weaklings, so I suppose I won’t even need any spare bodies anymore.”
Raising her voice just enough for them to hear, Renée muttered this to herself before dashing straight toward Lawrence.
Three steps away from Lawrence, who stood ready to intercept her, she activated <<Short Warp>> to instantly close the remaining distance.
And Lawrence…
—He’s not dodging?!
No, he did. With minimal movement, he slid aside just enough to protect his vitals.
The crimson blade pierced Lawrence’s armor, sinking into his left shoulder. But by then…
“Raaaaaaaaah!!”
To thrust a sword meant that Renée had to be right there.
In that split second, Taylor-Ayul’s strike sliced Renée’s torso in half.
The crimson blade piercing his shoulder dispersed into mist. His wound was instantly closed by healing magic cast from the “Tortoise Formation” behind him.
A suicidal move! It doesn’t matter if he has healers backing him up, that was insane!
“<<Counter Magic Field>>!”
Renée’s true body abandoned Jillian’s physical form and leapt out. She instantly erected her defensive magic once more.
“Now! Do it, now!”
“<<Ray>>!”
“<<Holy Arrow>>!”
“<<Falling Light>>!”
At his command, a <<Consecrated>> “Heavenly Severance,” offensive fire magic, and the punitive radiance woven from divine magic closed in on her.
A magical explosion erupted. The violent, churning aftershocks of light formed a sacred gale that swept across the area.
Even so, Renée was unharmed. Charging straight through the barrage of magic attacks, she reached out for her second victim.
“I-Ieeeeeeghhhhhh!!”
Along with a death rattle, the girl’s form transformed into Renée’s, carving a fresh blood-red rose onto her country-style dress.
“…So, what’s next? Just to let you know, if you try to take these girls back, I’ll just kill them as hostages.”
As Renée posed her question, Lawrence ground his teeth in frustration.
The blue-silver blade of Taylor-Ayul was thickly stained with an ominous-colored blood. It was <<Bad Blood>>, which Renée had triggered when Jillian’s body was destroyed. The holy aura enveloping the blade was being neutralized, weakening its power. In his haste to settle the duel, Lawrence had struck directly with his physical blade instead of using “Heavenly Severance”, which would have kept him out of range of the blood spray.
The scent of despair began to drift from the knights, and Renée almost let out a sweet giggle of delight. Finding lamentation and despair to be “sweet” was the innate nature of an Abyss Spirit.
“Attack… the hostages!”
Lawrence ordered, his expression grim and resolute.
“Commander!”
“No, you can’t!”
“There is no other way… Do you honestly think we can conveniently defeat the undead alone and save the hostages?”
Even Lawrence spoke in a strained, agonized voice, as if spitting blood.
Even if they successfully defeated the skeletons holding the hostages, those skeletons were merely standing at the forefront of an army of over a thousand surrounding the battlefield. The soldiers lurking in the rear would immediately fill the gap. The undead soldiers stood perfectly still, waiting, making no move to help Renée even when she fell into a pinch. There was no opening to exploit.
If they could use magic like <<Sanctuary>> which didn’t harm humans, to neutralize the surrounding undead all at once, they might have been able to rescue them. However, using any such spell was highly demanding in terms of the number of targets and range. They would need to turn it into a ritual spell. Even a simplified one to boost its power and area of effect. If the mages occupied themselves with preparing such magic, Renée would surely kill Lawrence in the meantime.
Abandoning the hostages was the best course of action. And to prevent Renée from using their bodies, it was only rational to destroy them beforehand.
“Um, so as I was saying, if you all would just die for me—”
“<<Fireball>>!”
A staff was thrust through a gap in the line of shields, and a sphere of fire flew out.
Its target… was not Renée. It was aimed straight at the girls held captive by the skeletons.
“<<Wind Shear>>!”
Renée invoked a defensive spell, and a swirling barrier of wind intercepted the flames. The Fireball burst midair just before impact.
“…What are you doing?”
It was a bizarre twist where a knight had tried to kill the hostages (or Renée’s spare lives) and Renée was the one who had protected them. Looking purely at the situation, it was completely upside down.
The robed man who had thrust out his staff to unleash the spell bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, staring at the girl with a tragic expression.
“M-My…! My daughter just died! This is for the sake of the people! The more we hesitate, the further our chance of victory slips away!”
“Father?!”
The targeted girl cried out through her tears.
“No! Stop, save me, Father!!”
“Forgive me… forgive me…”
As the father and daughter played out this tragic scene, the knights surrounding the father began to stir.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing on your own?!”
“My daughter… My daughter is over there!”
“What is wrong with you people? This is the Commander’s order!”
The knights began to argue among themselves.
“You only say that because your own child isn’t there!”
“The nation’s lives come before your family’s!”
“As knights, we must obey the Commander’s orders…”
“We have to find a way to save them without killing them!”
“Have you forgotten our debt to His Majesty?!”
“If we don’t defeat her here, many more people will die!”
In the very presence of their enemy Renée, they engaged in a heated argument that threatened to warp their battle formation. They were all desperate. However, their priorities differed from person to person, and under the extreme stress of standing on the brink of life and death, those differences were laid bare.
“I have no choice…!”
Seeing the commotion, Lawrence made his move. He lunged toward Renée.
—”Heavenly Severance”…! He’s going to sweep them all away!
Realizing that his allies would collapse if this continued, Lawrence stepped in to settle things himself.
Once he slashed them, there would be no turning back, putting an end to the argument. Even if some lost their will to fight, it was better than the entire formation falling apart.
Lawrence’s judgment was likely correct. Renée could feel the knights’ emotions beginning to spiral out of control.
“…<<Shield>>!”
Renée conjured a wall of light using her magic. Towering in a fan shape centered around herself, the barrier stretched across a wide area—positioned precisely to protect the girls from Lawrence’s “Heavenly Severance.”
Raising Taylor-Ayul high overhead, Lawrence… did not stop.
It seemed he intended to pierce her defense through sheer brute force.
A powerful step forward.
And then…
Right at the exact fraction of a second Taylor-Ayul was swung, Renée lowered the durability of her <<Shield>>, turning it into nothing more than paper-thin papier-mâché.
The wall of light shattered miserably.
Lawrence’s single strike blew away nearly a hundred undead. And along with them, the girls held in the undead soldiers’ arms.
…Even Renée herself.