“They are far too powerful. If we commit the Holy Knights, we may be able to stabilize the situation, but that enemy is not only those spiders.”
“You mean that mountain-like monster in the rear? No... is it really a monster? The reports also say that people may be controlling it...”
“We must not allow ourselves to be misled, Brother Blat. Whether they are monsters or men, that does not change the fact that they are rebels who stand against us.”
“Amen. To begin with, even if they are human, what exactly are you proposing to do? Beg them for mercy with tears in your eyes, perhaps? We must exterminate every enemy that stands in our way.”
“...Then yes. It seems we have no choice but to do something about the ringleader in the rear.”
“Either way, we must do something about those guns. The will of our god is not flawless in every respect.”
“That gun took away a tenth of our reserves with a single shot. We are replenishing them as needed, but that too is not infinite. We are making the children offer prayers as well, but it will not hold much longer.”
“...Then we have no choice but to ask the Bishops. No, perhaps we should also ask the Archbishops.”
“Yes, that would be best. I will be the one to speak to them. Unless those guns are destroyed, there is no path forward.”
◇◇◇◇
The great barrier that protected the Holy Capital.
In all of recorded history, there had never been any account of this barrier actually displaying its effect.
But now, for the first time, it had shown its power.
“Our Prava’s Law-God Bork has protected us exactly as promised.”
“‘Amen.’”
At the center of the great barrier, a gigantic holy stone had been enshrined underground.
It glowed dimly, casting a pale light through the underground sanctuary.
Hundreds of believers were offering prayers toward that holy stone.
In answer to the believers’ faith and their wish that the power of Prava’s Law-God Bork be manifested, the holy stone displayed a miracle.
“Protect us.”
“‘Protect us.’”
“Grant our wish.”
“‘Grant our wish.’”
“Show us the road to the Promised Land.”
“‘Show us the road to the Promised Land.’”
“We offer up our prayers.”
“‘We offer up our prayers.’”
“‘Amen.’”
The believers prayed with single-minded devotion.
Those prayers swelled into a great surge and were offered to the holy stone.
◇◇◇◇
“Exterminate Them!!”
“‘Exterminate Them!!’”
They ran.
“‘Amen.’”
They ran.
Their speed could not be tracked by an ordinary person. Each step gouged into the ground, and each step drove their bodies faster.
Faster, faster, faster still.
They evaded the shells rushing straight at them, cut apart the shells waiting where they landed, kicked off the air, and evaded again.
The distance between the two sides vanished in an instant, and they reached the enemy.
A mountainlike body, gigantic, with guns sprouting from all over it.
For now, the shells fired from those enormous guns were somehow being caught by the Holy Capital’s great barrier. But even that was not infinite. The believers were restoring it with prayer, but that too had its limit.
At any rate, those guns had to be destroyed, no matter what.
He kicked off the ground and leaped.
A shell came from behind. Even though the ringleader they were supposed to be protecting was right in front of him, the little ones apparently had no hesitation about aiming at him.
Ordinarily, it would have been far too fast for the eye to catch.
And yet ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) he stopped the incoming shell with his foot.
His body, strengthened by faith, caught the metal shell, turned it into a foothold, and converted its speed into his own power.
Using the shell as a foothold, turning its kinetic energy into his own movement speed, he appeared at the base of that enormous, overlong gun with a speed that looked almost like teleportation.
“...!!”
He cut.
The blade, infused with faith, sliced clean through a barrel far thicker than the blade itself.
He had tried to move the instant he cut, but the high-voltage current released the moment the blade bit in paralyzed his body. His body, protected by faith, suffered no major injury, but the current that ran from the blade through his arm, body, legs, and then into the enemy’s main body scorched his skin, burned through his clothing, and fused the soles of his boots to the outer shell.
A moment of delay.
Then the high-temperature, high-pressure toxic gas erupting from the severed cross section came at him.
If the toxic fluid touched skin, it blistered it. If inhaled, it burned the lungs. The chemical agent should have penetrated proteins and denatured them instantly.
But most of that effect was nullified by the faith protecting him.
Even so, that only prevented the substances composing his body from being altered.
Drenched head to toe in the hot working fluid, with the toxic liquid itself soaking into his equipment and clinging to him, he would continue to take damage.
“NNNGH, OOOOAAAHHHHH!!”
Faced with the pain of having his entire body melted in the most literal sense, he could not help but scream.
But even so, he was still a Bishop.
In the end, the only damage he had suffered was to his clothing and the outermost layer of skin.
He kicked off the enemy’s outer shell and escaped from the spot.
Without stopping his movement, he fled back toward the ground by kicking through the air.
A crashing sound rang out overhead.
Because he had taken an unexpected counterattack from his slash, another Bishop had performed a remote shattering strike from a distance. The turret, whose base had been blasted apart from the outside, lost to its own weight, and the long barrel tore loose from the root with a catastrophic roar.
Toxic liquid gushed from the broken opening like a fountain, but the Bishop who had done it was already running toward the next target.
After landing on the ground, he tore off the equipment clinging to his body while he ran. He stripped away the clothes soaked in toxic liquid and chose, for the moment, to withdraw. If he returned to the base, he should be able to receive healing.
The other Bishops had succeeded in destroying the target giant gun. As far as he had seen, there had been no losses on their side. His own wounds, suffered as the first to strike, seemed to be the most severe.
He rushed into the base and had a cleric-mage offer recovery prayers over him. While his injuries were healed, he put on new equipment.
Fortunately, the beloved sword protected by his faith had suffered no damage. Once he changed his armor, he would be able to return immediately.
And so, having donned fresh equipment, he sortied again from the base.
The Bishops had destroyed the southern gun and headed east. The instant it looked like they had drawn near the gigantic enemy, a flash swallowed the battlefield whole.
He saw it.
He saw the instant countless guns all turned toward the running Bishops.
Even the spiders rampaging nearby had the small guns mounted on their backs aimed at them. Every gun sprouting from the enormous enemy’s body had locked onto the Bishops with flawless precision.
Every last gun flashed.
And at the same instant, the Bishops vanished in the burst of light.
He had no idea what had happened.
But one thing was certain. Bishops, who were in practical terms among their very highest combat assets, had been erased without managing even the slightest resistance.
The other Bishops probably did not understand what had happened either.
He alone had seen it because he had happened to be farther to the rear and thus able to take in the battlefield from above.
He did not understand the mechanism.
But most likely, they had concentrated a vast number of guns on a single point.
Each shot was an attack incomparably more powerful than any cannon he knew. If that many were layered together, then yes—even a Bishop would not be able to endure it.
He relayed the situation to every Bishop on the battlefield as he ran.
To survive that attack, all they could do was keep moving as constantly as possible and continue sharing the turrets’ movements.
Then the guns turned toward another one.
The targeted Bishop noticed and dodged with everything he had. He kicked off the air and moved straight sideways with the technique called instant movement.
The ground flashed, and at the same moment, a massive explosion erupted.
The earth melted bright red and splashed outward, and pure white smoke burst upward.
But he had avoided it.
Even a fatal attack was nothing to fear if it could be dodged.
The enemy was mighty, but it could be countered well enough.
And behind them, the Archbishops still stood ready.
This battle could still be won.
He, and they, were convinced of that.
And only then did they notice the countless shells pouring down from the sky.
Startled, he looked up.
Almost at the same instant, the sunlight was blocked out.
Gigantic wings covered the sky. The reason its whole body seemed to be flickering was simple—countless gun emplacements mounted across it were firing shells without pause.
An airborne fortress, too enormous to be believed, hung there in the sky.
