Monsters approached Frondier and his group by the moment.
Most of them were insignificant.
Things Frondier and the strong here had seen to death. Beasts of no consequence.
Most of them had no intelligence and were simply busy barreling forward stupidly.
“Impertinent.”
One of the ‘set’ Frondier possessed annihilated them.
The god’s bow and arrow, a combined power fit for a god’s place.
Fireworks.
The Piljung and Falling Rain combination did not waste itself by firing volleys of arrows.
A single arrow shot up into the sky and fell as rain.
Bang! Prrrboom─!!
Sshaa─
The split arrows literally fell like the sound of rain. They cleaved the wind and fell toward their separate targets.
The monsters’ screams echoed. Their numbers looked indeed too many to handle.
They could not avoid the rain.
If even one drop hit them it would be a mortal wound; if everyone were struck by one drop each—
“......Amazing.”
Riri, who was in the carriage, murmured in a daze. Riri had taken on the role of protecting Vasileo inside the carriage. It wasn’t an order from Frondier; she had done it of her own accord.
Even in a world where magic and aura ran rampant, manpower mattered most in war.
An individual could not beat an army. That rule still applied in this world. Even if overwhelmingly powerful individuals existed, none of them were the ‘only one.’
Officially evaluated as the strongest on the Falind continent was one of the Zodiac, Ospret.
And unofficially, Anfer de Roach might be comparable.
But neither of those two tried to fight countless troops alone.
Ospret had political ties and factions; Anfer had his own knights.
Humans have limits to stamina and mana, and no matter how strong the technique, one grows tired eventually. Even if that were not the case, others do not just stand idle while someone becomes strong.
There are definite walls between talent and skill, but no wall that many humans united cannot overcome.
Whether Ospret’s coordinate magic, Anfer’s isolated-position cleave, or Elodie’s Phoenix Rise—the moment a skill is revealed to the world, the entire continent will devise countermeasures through every brain and training resource available.
Falind may be a single country—the Terst Empire—but not everyone within it is a friendly ally.
‘......But that only applies when the opponent is human.’
Riri realized the moment she saw the fireworks Frondier fired.
She finally understood why Artemis’s bow and arrow were called a god’s weapon.
That was a power that could overturn the logic of war.
In a war against humans, enormous power beyond a certain level is unnecessary. Cleaving the earth or blowing away a mountain would be spectacular and useful in themselves, but they were not the point.
To win a human war you kill humans.
One shot that pierces the heart or skull is enough.
No need to wreak havoc on pointless earth and mountains.
A force that inevitably annihilates humans below a certain threshold.
‘If you were to choose between an archer and a swordsman, and there’s one on each side, you’d usually pick the swordsman, but if there are a hundred, you pick the archer without hesitation.’
The more arrows, the incomparably stronger they became.
In other words, Frondier’s ‘fireworks’ carried thousands of archers in a single shot.
Truly the power of leading an army.
‘......I’m glad Frondier is on the human side.’
Riri, herself a demon, felt relieved that Frondier was, for now, on humanity’s side. She was human-side too.
Still, unease remained.
What if Frondier ultimately turned his back on humans someday?
Would the fight humans wage against him still be called a ‘war’?
Frondier wore god-weapons in abundance.
An individual cannot beat an army, but that was only when the opponent was human—
“Riri.”
“Kyaa!! Oh, uh?”
Riri flinched at the voice that suddenly reached her.
Perhaps her own thoughts had become too frightening.
She answered and turned to see Selena.
“Start the engine.”
“Huh, oh? Okay. But why?”
Vroom─
Riri started the engine and asked. Fortunately, despite the chaos, the carriage was still in decent shape.
“Frondier’s message. He says he will clear a path soon, so wait and then depart.”
At that, Riri looked ahead.
Monsters were pouring in from all directions. Frondier had just sorted them with the fireworks, but their numbers were still large.
Of course, since they came from everywhere, whether they retreated or advanced made little difference.......
“Isn’t it a bit early to tell us to get ready? There might still ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ be hidden bombs, and above all, the Abyssal monster......”
Riri’s worry was reasonable.
She, like everyone here, felt that immense, ominous aura beyond the monsters.
It was certainly comparable to a Minotaur, or perhaps a higher-grade abyssal monster.
To that Selena replied.
“He included that in the preparations. He said to prepare for that too.”
“......Can we fall back a little before moving?”
“That was his recommendation.”
Riri’s face went cold and she nodded.
At the same time Selena conveyed that message to Riri, Frondier spoke to Elodie.
“Elodie. Hold this place for a bit with the others.”
“For a bit, fine, whenever. But what will you do?”
“From here to there.”
Frondier pointed in one direction.
The road to where they had originally planned to go—the direction of Caron’s mansion.
“I’ll open the way.”
“......There’s an Abyssal monster at the far end. It might be more dangerous than a Minotaur.”
“Then I’ll go.”
Clack!
Frondier extended his hand. Mjölnir flew and landed in his grip.
“......Frondier. You seem impatient. Like with the earlier fireworks. You were the one who said you would trust Pielot.”
“......That’s true.”
Frondier answered calmly, but his eyelids trembled.
“The feeling is odd.”
“......A hunch?”
“No, not that. Just something......”
Frondier turned his gaze for a moment in the direction Pielot had vanished.
His intuition did not extend far. Pielot had disappeared to somewhere well beyond his perception. Probably a location that Elodie and Selena could not detect either.
Even so, Frondier could not shake his unease. He felt something beyond mere intuition.
If it were Pielot, he would defeat whatever dangerous foe faced him. He believed that.
But if it did not end with that—
“......Let’s finish this fast.”
“Okay.”
Frondier shifted his gaze from directly ahead back toward the direction Pielot was in, and then looked that way again.
“Are you that worried?”
“......No, it’s just, over there, something is......”
Frondier stared in that direction for a long while.
And he saw the same thing he always saw anywhere.
A bird.
A black bird.
A common bird one sees everywhere.
......Yet a bird that seemed somehow familiar from somewhere.
[Caawk!]
It cried,
[Frondier!]
and called his name.
In that instant Frondier understood everything.
“......Gregory!!”
Frondier shouted in alarm.
Any pretense that the crow was his original taming slipped entirely from his mind at that moment.
“Gregory??”
Elodie frowned at the name. She knew that name too.
That was the name of a criminal.
[Frondier! I would love to tell you everything piled up, but!]
“Information first!”
The crow nodded atop Frondier’s shoulder as if in agreement.
[On the way flying here I saw Pielot!]
“......! What, what happened to him? Pielot!”
Frondier, unusually, spoke in a very anxious voice.
Elodie wanted to question Gregory’s name choice, but it wasn’t the time. Soon she, too, listened to the crow’s voice.
[Demons swarmed Pielot by the dozens! They swarmed him like a black dust storm!]
“......!!”
“What......!”
Frondier clenched his jaw.
All plans to break through were canceled. Kill all those things with this Mjölnir right now—
[No, wait! Frondier!]
“What do you mean wait!”
[You don’t have to go!]
“What......?”
Frondier’s expression chilled. Elodie’s was the same.
Don’t have to go.
“You, you mean—”
‘What does that mean.’
Is it too late to go? Pielot, that Pielot.
By my wrong judgement,
‘I can’t believe it,’
[He killed them all!]
“......Ah, what......?”
The thought that brushed Frondier’s mind and what Gregory spat out were so similar that his heart dropped.
But when he realized the meaning was different, the crow spoke again with its beak.
[That bastard! With his dying body he killed them all! The demons!]
***
A few minutes earlier.
Pielot scanned ahead with desolate eyes.
He had long since given up counting the number of demons pouring in.
At that rate they were not individuals but a moving wave.
‘......Their faces are all similar. Lower-rank, huh.’
Lower-rank. Now that he thought of it, Frondier had faced such things before.
He had faced a force that size twice already. Very leisurely.
“Hey, Dierr. What would Frondier-senpai say if I lost to such things.”
Under that cold gaze he—
“......Kukuku.”
Pielot laughed. It was neither self-mockery nor scorn. He laughed because it was genuinely enjoyable.
[Pielot! Are you insane? It’s not too late even now! If you use my power—!]
Hypnos shouted noisily.
Pielot then opened his mouth, but his words were not particularly aimed at Hypnos.
“Impossible.”
Clack.
Pielot put his hand on the scabbard and took his stance again.
“There he is! That one!”
“Kill him! Kill him!”
“Vengeance, vengeance!!!”
Lower-rank demons spoke crudely; their intelligence and actions were clumsy.
In other words,
“Trash.”
Pielot called them out precisely.
“Make no sound.”
Shik─
One of the incoming ones had its neck severed and dropped.
But that mattered little.
The number swarming Pielot was beyond counting.
Even if only one of them was cut within a distance the sword could not reach, thirteen meant only despair.
However, some of the demons near the fallen ones saw.
‘......Just now, the aura—’
Pitch-black,
Shh─
As if that one death had been the start,
Shik─
the black line swelled,
Ssoo!
Thunk! Thunk!
Something that made almost no sound struck the mass of demons.
Quietly, quietly.
Pielot just stood there.
Standing, simply,
‘A sword not drawn, a sword not swung.’
Not swinging meant not turning back.
My sword does not need my muscles.
Just think.
My thought cuts down the enemy.
A body pierced by arrows, netherworld mana, accumulated fatigue and wounds.
“......That kind of thing.”
Would they dare to touch even a speck of my mind?
Do not play at being spoiled. Pielot.
[Piel, lot...]
Pielot himself was not conscious of it, but Hypnos saw it.
The netherworld mana that had been swallowing Pielot’s body had somehow lodged into his aura and ran forward, cutting demons as it surged.
Brrrk.
Pielot ground his teeth.
The gripped sword, that single sword hidden in the scabbard.
The moment those eyes fixed upon the cloudlike demons, thought became, one sword, with thous nds of auras,
Shaaaahhhh!!!
and it rained down with the sound of rainfall.
