Thanatos looked around, sensing that someone was near, and fixed his gaze on a young boy emerging from the shadows. He stood out like a sore thumb among all the undead.

Blond-haired and blue-eyed, the stunning young man seemed entirely untroubled by the bizarre scene unfolding around him. He walked straight toward the pontiff and took a knee.

“Apologies, Your Holiness.” A high-pitched voice betrayed the boy’s young age. “I spotted what appeared to be three beastmen outside the city walls, but I’m afraid that I wasn’t able to catch any of them.”

Thanatos nodded and gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Worry not, Tismo. The Delfrent Kingdom has no relationship with the beastmen. There is little concern that they would utter a word to other humans about what happened here.”

The pontiff let out a laugh that reverberated in his hollow skull.

After all, it was on the Holy Hilk Kingdom’s orders that its neighboring kingdoms had expelled all elves and beast people from their lands over the past few decades.

These non-human creatures had the ability to sense when the undead were present. They posed a threat to the pontiff’s plans, so he’d taken it upon himself to drive them out of the surrounding regions once he’d taken his place as ruler.

He’d pursued them to their hidden settlements in the mountains and burned everything to the ground, using their bodies to swell the ranks of his undead armies.

After securing a large enough force, he’d begun collecting rune stones. It was then a simple matter to manufacture the weaponry needed to arm his soldiers.

His forces now numbered in the millions.

It had taken a great deal to get this far, but it had all been worth it. Now was the time for his armies to shine.

The young man standing before Thanatos was Tismo Ghoula Temprantia, the youngest and most powerful of the pontiff’s seven cardinals.

“I need to focus on creating as many additional soldiers as I can. I want you to stay on alert. If you see any signs of trouble, handle it. This task will take some time to complete.”

“Understood.”

Cardinal Tismo bowed low in acknowledgement before leaving the courtyard with several man-spiders in tow.

Thanatos’s jaw clacked in another ominous laugh.

“The real game is finally about to begin.”

He turned his attention back to the task of creating more undead soldiers.

The upcoming battle was going to be an intense one, probably the most dangerous thing we’d faced yet. It was easy to understand why she’d be worried about her little sister, especially since she couldn’t come with us.

Deep down, I knew it was just a tad arrogant for me to say that I would protect Ariane, especially considering how strong a fighter she was in her own right. But now hardly seemed like the time or place to bring up such trivialities.

After all, protecting Ariane had always been Eevin’s job. Since she’d admitted that I was a talented fighter in my own right, it only seemed fair for me to take this duty from her.

One way or another, I had to convince her that I would be true. “I promise, I will protect her with my very life.”

Eevin raised a thin eyebrow at my cocky reply. “You’d better keep your word.”

Having sufficiently drilled the point home, Eevin took off in a jog after Ariane.

There’d be no slacking off for me in the upcoming battle.

With a renewed sense of purpose, I followed the two sisters through the crowds and down a much quieter side street lined with shops.

The building we stopped in front of wasn’t marked with any sort of sign, and, quite frankly, I wasn’t even sure if it was a shop. However, Ariane opened the wooden door, which responded with a loud creak, and walked right in. Eevin, Ponta, and I entered after her.

The interior was dimly lit, and filled to the brim with all sorts of small items, which made it difficult to even move around. Despite this, it still looked quite clean and well taken care of.

One of the walls was lined with shelves from floor to ceiling, every available space filled with equipment. I could even guess what most of them were used for.

I felt like I was in a museum.

Some of the goods looked familiar, so I felt confident enough to guess that these were all magical items of one sort or another.

In the center of the room stood several waist-high shelves displaying unique wares. I felt like I could spend a whole day here and never grow bored.

I mumbled quietly to myself as I cast my gaze across the store. Looking up and toward the back, I caught sight of a small area that seemed like a workshop of sorts.

A moment later, an old man sporting white hair and a white beard that fell to his waist emerged from the workshop area.

He stood at around 140 centimeters, maybe even shorter, and had a thick, barrel-shaped body that made his muscular arms and legs look like afterthoughts that had just been pinned onto him.

Deep wrinkles chiseled into the man’s forehead, giving him the intense look of a man who’d lived a long life mastering his craft.

“A dwarf?” The words left my mouth before I had a chance to think better of them.

The old man angled his head to look up at me.

Though they’d once been common across the entire northern continent, the dwarves had been hunted by humans to near extinction. The elves had offered them sanctuary in the Great Canada Forest, letting the humans believe that all the dwarves had died out.

Since coming to Maple, I’d seen quite a few wandering the streets. In fact, one of the high elders was a dwarf.

“Well, I’ll be! It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you ladies around these parts. Who’s the flashy knight you’ve got with you?”

The dwarf—store owner and craftsman, as far as I could tell—raised a large, bushy eyebrow at me, with a certain degree of suspicion.

I stepped forward to introduce myself. “I am Arc Lalatoya. I’ve only recently been invited to join Ariane’s village.”

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!” Ponta chimed in as well, ending with an exaggerated wag of its tail.

“That’s not a cottontail fox, is it? Never seen one sit so easily atop someone’s head. You an elf?” The old man gave me a quizzical look.

Ariane stepped in to smooth over the situation.

“You could say that.”

Strictly speaking, my non-skeletal form didn’t look anything like the elves or even dark elves that inhabited this world, but her answer was technically correct.

The dwarven man cocked his head at this odd reply, but didn’t seem to care enough to push the issue. He turned his attention back to me. “Well, enough about that. What brings y’all here?”

Eevin and Ariane both turned to look at me.

“Now that you mention it, what did you come here to buy anyway?”

I reached out to a nearby shelf, picked up the closest item, and brought it to my face for closer inspection. “Well, uh, I just figured that, when this is all over, I’d like to get my shrine into livable condition. There are so many conveniences out here, and I thought this was a good chance to check some of them out.”

Ariane, apparently sold on my explanation, turned her attention back to the many wares that lined the shop’s shelves. “Now that you mention it, there really isn’t much there, other than the hot spring.”

“Personally, I’d love to get my hands on something like that magical cooking apparatus that Glenys is always using in the kitchen.”

Ariane moved about the shop and picked out several items for me.

Of course, there were the remains of a hearth back in the shrine, but if I could avoid the hassle of cooking over a wood-fueled fire by purchasing some magical items, then all the better.

Ariane put a finger to her chin in thought, as if recalling what the shrine looked like. “It’s pretty dark there at night, too, right? There aren’t any lights or anything, so maybe some large crystal lamps would help.”

Now that she mentioned it, there were no artificial light sources there at all, leaving me to navigate by the light of the moon at night. Making matters worse, the canopy of the massive Lord Crown blocked much of the sky, plunging the shrine even further into darkness.

While Ariane and I browsed the shop, the owner let out a loud yawn and scratched the top of his head. He spoke in a slow, bored tone. “I dunno. Y’all sound like a newlywed couple buying yer first furniture together.”

Ariane’s ears burned bright red.

“Whoa, wait a minute! I’m just here to help him shop! Besides, I think Big Sis here is the one who you should be talking to about newlyweds!” Ariane’s voice rang with annoyance.

Eevin drew close, however, a bright grin on her face. “Aww, Arin, you called me ‘Big Sis’!”

This only seemed to annoy Ariane even more. She tried pushing Eevin away.

I had to admit, the two sisters were adorable when they argued.

The old dwarven man and I exchanged glances. Without needing to say anything, I could tell we were thinking the same thing. We both shrugged, and left the sisters to their spat.

I brought an item over to the owner to ask him about it. “Excuse me, sir, could you please tell me what this is?”

He beamed at my obvious interest in his work and took time to politely answer all of my questions. I began growing excited about my future life, letting the yelling match behind me fade into the background.

After discussing various magical items with the dwarven shop owner, and picking out the ones I wanted to bring back to my shrine, I informed him that I would be back later to buy everything. The next time I had a chance to visit, after all, would likely be after the battle with the Holy Hilk Kingdom.

After we left the shop, Eevin said her goodbyes. Ariane, Ponta, and I returned to Lalatoya to tell Chiyome about what had happened at the meeting of the high elders.

The short girl in ninja garb spoke up the moment she caught sight of me. “How did everything work out in Maple?”

Despite her small stature, her clear, azure gaze carried a strength that many adults could never possess.

The cat ears atop her head, and the black tail that extended from her waist, marked her as one of the mountain people. More specifically, she was of the feline variety.

Ariane was the first to respond. “Don’t you worry, Chiyome. The central council officially agreed to join the battle.”

Chiyome let out a loud breath. “I…see. Well, I suppose it’s settled then.”

Her face tensed as she asked her next question. “So, do you know how large a force we’ll need to completely wipe out the undead army?”

This was probably the most important question of all, since the Holy Hilk Kingdom’s forces numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

If we didn’t do anything to stop them, humans, mountain people, and elves alike would find themselves in a very dangerous situation. However, a direct frontal assault on an army of that size would only accelerate the grim future that awaited us.

And yet, here we were, with species who’d spent generations doing their best to avoid each other putting aside their grievances to fight a common threat. It was as if fate itself had intervened.

I could tell by the look in Chiyome’s eyes that this weighed heavily on her, and that she was committed to our victory.

To the human nations that had lost almost everything, and were hanging on by a thread, this might have looked like a step back. However, it was a necessary step, in order to ensure that this world lived on.

For myself, I couldn’t help but wonder if it truly was chance that had brought me here from another world and placed me at the center of such a pivotal battle. In my heart of hearts, I felt that there must have been some sort of supernatural influence involved. I didn’t actually expect to learn the answer to this question though, nor would the answer change what I had to do.

Asking God about the purpose of your life was just as useful here as it was back in my world.

In the end, it was up to me to pursue my dreams. Fortunately, I had the abilities to make them reality.

The teleportation magic that allowed be to cross vast distances in the blink of an eye was what had enabled me to bring these three species together in the first place.

The Holy Hilk Kingdom had first attacked its nearest neighbors, but now that they’d been overrun, it was only a matter of time until the undead arrived at the capital of the Nohzan Kingdom.

Fortunately, the elves understood the severity of the situation and had agreed to form an alliance with the humans.

I was worried that the elves would choose to stand by and watch the humans get wiped out, but since that would mean facing an even larger undead army all on their own, it made sense for them to join the battle
now.

Which led me to Felfi Visrotte. From my sparring match with the Dragon Lord, I’d learned firsthand that she was immensely powerful.

She and the other three Dragon Lords lived here in the Great Canada Forest and offered their protection to all who dwelt within.

If we could convince them to join us as well, then we could topple the Hilk, despite the fact that most humans were still faithful to the church’s teachings.

The high elders knew this, yet had done nothing to rally the other Dragon Lords. The only explanation I could think of was that there was some kind of agreement between the Dragon Lords and the elves, and that Felfi Visrotte was the only one allowed to take a more active role in the affairs of the world.

Even so, this battle—no, this war—against the Holy Hilk Kingdom should be winnable.

“You have nothing to worry about, Chiyome. The people of the Great Canada Forest have made arrangements for a Dragon Lord to assist us in battle. Not only that, but they’ve agreed to muster a large number of troops as well.”

Chiyome’s eyes went wide.

Ariane spoke in a soothing voice as she put a reassuring hand on Chiyome’s shoulder. “That’s right. Not only is Felfi Visrotte said to be the strongest of the Dragon Lords, but we’ve also got Arc with us, and he’s already destroyed over 100,000 undead soldiers on his own.”

After having turned Sasuke, Chiyome’s brother-in-arms, into a member of the undead, the Holy Hilk Kingdom had become Chiyome’s mortal enemy. Ariane and I were all too aware that she would stop at nothing to see them defeated.

It was just as personal for Ariane, who’d been there when Chiyome was forced to kill Sasuke in battle. She knew that if we weren’t careful, Chiyome may decide to fight the Holy Hilk Kingdom on her own.

Though she was still a girl, Chiyome was, in fact, one of the greatest warriors of the Jinshin clan. Survival had been drilled into her from a young age. She understood that allying ourselves with the humans was the only way we could achieve victory.

For people like Sasuke and Chiyome, who’d spent their lives killing, learning to separate their hearts from their minds was vital.

I let my thoughts wander, thinking again about the strange sequence of events that had brought me here…and where I would go next. I began explaining my plan.

“Tomorrow, I’ll use Transport Gate to teleport all the elven soldiers to the Nohzan capital. Since we don’t have much time, I plan to head back to the Rhoden Kingdom and notify Princess Riel and the others waiting there shortly.”

“In that case, I’d like to go with you,” Chiyome said.

Ariane looked relieved at Chiyome’s renewed determination.

“Also, um, would you mind taking me to the Nohzan Kingdom after you’re done with that, Arc? I’m not sure which route they took, but Goemon and the others should be arriving any day now.”

I was also curious about what they’d encountered on their way to the capital. I didn’t say it aloud, but I was worried about our friends’ well-beings.

It was a little late to be only thinking about this now, but I also needed to make arrangements in the Nohzan Kingdom to bring in such a large number of troops. Between the Rhoden Kingdom and the Great Canada Forest, there would be at least 10,000 soldiers joining the fight.

Of course, 10,000 was practically nothing in the face of 100,000 undead, but that was where Felfi Visrotte and I would come in.

“All right. Let’s head to the Rhoden Kingdom to speak with Princess Riel.”

I hefted my bag, and Ponta let out a yawn. This whole thing was all pretty boring for my little buddy.

“Kyiiii…”

Alas, things would heat up quickly in the next day or so.

I reached up and stroked its fur, then summoned up Transport Gate to take us all to the Rhoden Kingdom.

 

***

 

Early the next morning, while a thin, white mist still gripped the city, a large crowd gathered anxiously in Maple’s massive stadium.

These were the soldiers who would be leaving the safety of the Great Canada Forest to join the fight against the Holy Hilk Kingdom.

Most were outfitted in leather armor, with only the occasional flash of metal in between.

More interesting, however, was the sheer variety of weapons, each soldier armed with whatever they were most skilled with. The various bags and belongings they brought also spoke to the diversity of the villages this ragtag group was leaving behind.

There were even a few soldiers with the characteristic amethyst skin of dark elves.

I have to admit that I’d assumed most of the soldiers would be men, but I was surprised to find that at least a third of them were women. This was in stark contrast to the human military, which was heavily male-dominated.

Between Ariane, her mother, Glenys, and her sister, Eevin, I already knew quite a few female soldiers. I wondered if elven culture had harbored a bias against female warriors in the first place, or if they were just quicker to move away from outdated gender roles.

“I guess Ariane and Glenys really weren’t exceptions after all, huh?”

“Kyiii…” Ponta responded cheerfully to my quiet musings.

Dillan and Ariane, who’d come along to oversee today’s gathering, approached me.

Ariane, for some reason, was glaring daggers. “What was that just now? Are you trying to insult me, Arc?”

I shook my head quickly. “No, of course not! I was just impressed at how talented elven women are.”

“Kyii kyii!”

Ariane glared at me for a few more moments, then let out an annoyed sigh. The sudden shaking of my head had nearly thrown poor Ponta off, so I reached up and slid it back onto its perch atop my helmet.

“All elven soldiers spend their lives training with the weapons and magic they’re best at. So, unlike with humans, being a soldier isn’t just a matter of having certain physical attributes. I suppose you could say you’re more like an elf in that respect.”

Up until now, I’d felt a divide between myself and the elves here, but put in that light, there was something to be said for how the Paladin class I was using—with its mixture of both the physicality of the Knight class and the arcanity of the Monk class—was actually pretty close to the fighting style that defined elven soldiers.

Ariane’s words sparked a renewed sense of excitement within me. I’d always felt a bit sad that the only real connection I shared with the elves in my non-skeleton form was my elongated ears.

Before I could dwell on this further, Dillan approached with Fangas in tow. “Well, Arc, we’re counting on you to bring all these soldiers to the Nohzan Kingdom.”

Fangas spoke next. “So, I hear you’re going to be using teleportation magic. I know enough not to doubt someone that Ariane trusts so implicitly, but I have to wonder if it’s truly necessary to teleport everyone at once. If something goes wrong, the battle will be lost before it even begins.”

The high elder had a point.

While Transport Gate used a lot less magic than offensive spells, expanding it to an area large enough to encompass all of these people would consume a lot of energy, especially over multiple trips.

However, with my Twilight Cloak, I would be able to regenerate a set amount of magical energy any time I was standing still. So long as I took ample breaks, I was confident I could accomplish this in about half a day’s time.

When I’d traveled to the Rhoden Kingdom last night to share the good news of Canada’s decision with Princess Riel, I’d also met with King Karlon to tell him of my plans to teleport his army to the Nohzan Kingdom. I’d asked him to hurry up their preparations.

Honestly, I was a little concerned about whether they’d be able to muster their troops in time.

They had the command structure in place, of course, but they also needed a lot of people and resources to make it happen. It would be an incredible challenge to get all of that together in short order.

In that regard, it was easier for the elves to form up on such short notice, since they rarely fought in a large army. Each individual soldier was responsible for supplying everything they needed to fight, including food.

This battle was on a vastly different scale from the duties elven soldiers were used to. They usually moved through the forest in small units, sourcing their own rations and weapons. Patrols often lasted several days while they slayed monsters to keep their villages safe.

Still, other than the scale, and the fact that they were traveling to a human country, this wasn’t that different from any other elven patrol.

“You have nothing to worry about, Fangas. Speaking of which, I haven’t seen Felfi Visrotte yet this morning. Do you know if she’s all right? I was hoping to bring her along first, so she has a chance to meet with the humans.”

I’d also stopped by the Nohzan Kingdom last night to tell them to make preparations to receive a large number of soldiers. I’d explained to King Asparuh that an incredibly powerful Dragon Lord would be joining the battle as well.

Fangas and Dillan exchanged a knowing glance. Ariane and I looked back at them, confused.

Dillan shook his head. “Felfi Visrotte said that she was going to fly to the Nohzan Kingdom herself. She may be there already, in fact, assuming she didn’t spend too long on her side trip.”

This probably meant that she was in her Dragon Lord form, since it was better suited to flying. I was impressed that she even knew where these human countries were located.

This did, however, present one problem. I was confident that the elven soldiers would stand their ground when the Dragon Lord entered the battle, but I could easily imagine shock overtaking the humans if they suddenly saw a dragon descend upon their capital.

Thinking back to when I’d first seen Villiers Fim in his dragon form, I could imagine the fear that might induce.

“Hmm. Perhaps it would be best for us to send an elf to explain things to the Nohzan Kingdom before she arrives.”

Fangas gave a firm nod. “You’re right. Best we avoid causing a panic. I’ll supervise the troop movements while Dillan smooths things over with the humans. Can you bring him to Nohzan with a small contingent?”

“Absolutely.”

Dillan summoned a nearby group of soldiers who were already packed and ready to go.

I stepped into the center of the stadium, together with Dillan, Fangas, and the soldiers who would serve as our first contingent.

I had everyone huddle together and pull their gear in close so that I could keep the teleportation rune on the ground small and conserve energy.

Since I needed to be at the center of the rune, the area around me was the most cramped.

“I feel like I’m on a commuter train during rush hour…”

“Kyii!” Ponta cheered me on.

I was incredibly jealous of Ponta’s privileged spot atop my head.

My armor protected me from actually feeling the crush of bodies all around me, but there was something about being crammed in the middle of a large group that made me think fondly of the past.

Ariane and Chiyome stood outside the range of the teleportation rune, waving. Apparently, they’d decided to wait until things were less crowded.

“Guess we’d better go before someone gets crushed. Come on, Ponta. Transport Gate!”

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!”

A large, glowing rune appeared on the ground as I summoned up the spell. All of the soldiers around me stared down at their feet, speaking in a mixture of surprise and excitement as they watched this unfold.

I closed my eyes and focused on the corner of the castle in the Nohzan Kingdom where King Asparuh had arranged a space for our forces.

Everything went dark, the voices fell silent, and an instant later, we were in a completely different place.

Gone was the Maple stadium, now replaced with the large courtyard next to the castle in Saureah, the capital of the Nohzan Kingdom.

The elves around me let out gasps of surprise. They began venturing out into the courtyard, giving me some space.

I noticed some guards standing around, probably awaiting our arrival, but even though they’d known we were coming, they still looked shocked.

Fangas began issuing orders. “I’m sure this is all fascinating to you, but we don’t have time for lollygagging!”

The soldiers immediately hefted their gear and formed behind Fangas. Since we’d be using this same spot to teleport each group in, we needed to keep it clear.

Also, as a representative of the elves, Fangas had to meet with King Asparuh. This initial contingent would serve as his guard. However, looking over his musclebound frame, his sturdy leather armor, his massive war hammer, and the intimidating scar running down his face, I found it hard to imagine this man needed much protection.

Given that this initial group was mostly made up of massively built dark elves, I wondered if the humans would even believe these were the forces from the Great Canada Forest.

King Asparuh Nohzan Saureah soon showed up with his own contingent of royal guards in tow.

The two men exchanged greetings while their guards held back.

“I’d like to thank you, on behalf of my entire country, for overcoming interspecies prejudice and offering us your assistance in our darkest hour. We greatly appreciate it.”

The king bowed his head to Fangas. The high elder offered a burly hand in return, and the two men shook.

“If we can finally put an end to the Holy Hilk Kingdom, then it will all be worth it. I’m sure this is a difficult time for your people, especially those who still follow the church, but we’re more than happy to join you.”

That was the entire reason why Canada had agreed to send soldiers in the first place. They intended to use this opportunity to bring the fight to the Hilk church. The fact that the Nohzan Kingdom had accepted aid under these terms was a sign of their assent.

Even though destroying the power base of the Hilk church would dramatically reduce its influence, there were still many kingdoms founded under Hilk principles. The high elders were well aware that these dark teachings wouldn’t vanish overnight.

It remained to be seen what form the Hilk religion would take after the fall of the church, but the Nohzan Kingdom, which had only survived annihilation thanks to a united front with the elves, would be instrumental in combatting the religion’s resurgence.

And then there was Rhoden, another influential human kingdom outside the Hilk’s direct sphere of influence, which would also be offering its support. They would help spread the anti-church sentiments to their neighbors.

Canada was hoping that the Nohzan Kingdom would keep the Holy Hilk Kingdom in check, and had agreed to help them rebuild after the war, in order to provide a stronger defense against the church.

“We’ve been driven to the edge, and don’t have many options left to us, but despite that, I feel that this decision will ensure a bright future for our country. Together, we will forge a brilliant new world.”

King Asparuh held Fangas’s gaze and gave his hand another firm shake.

A king willingly joining forces with the mountain people and elves would certainly elicit outrage among the true Hilk believers once they heard the news. The shock would be relatively small among those who’d endured the siege here in the capital, but for those living who hadn’t yet experienced the wrath of the Holy Hilk Kingdom, they likely wouldn’t let this go so easily.

People, after all, tended to hate change. Many didn’t appreciate the true threat facing the kingdom until it was too late to save themselves.

King Asparuh, on the other hand, was committed to using all of his power to put down any who threatened to revolt and transform his kingdom into a perfect society.

With the pleasantries out of the way, it was now time for the king and me to discuss serious matters.

“Thank you for making these arrangements with Rhoden and Canada, Arc. If it weren’t for your efforts, our fine kingdom would be lost.”

This caused a stir among the king’s guards.

“All I did was express your wishes. It is the parties involved who have come together to help one another out. Princess Riel deserves praise for having sought us out in the first place.”

A smile sprang to the king’s lips. “You’re right. My daughter has certainly done more than her fair share. Speaking of which, where is Riel?”

“She is safe and sound in the Rhoden Kingdom. I will bring her back here with the Rhoden forces shortly. It seems that she and her royal counterpart have gotten along quite well.”

King Asparuh seemed relieved. “Well, I’m happy to hear that she’s made friends outside of the castle. I’ll leave Riel to you for now. Good luck in the upcoming battle, Arc. Our fate is in your hands.”

The king bowed, then left with his honor guard. There was still much to do to get the grounds ready to take in another 10,000 soldiers.

I made my way back to the teleportation spot. “Back to work, I suppose.”

“Kyii!” Ponta agreed from atop my head.

Feeling slightly re-energized, I told Dillan that I’d be heading back to Maple and used Transport Gate again, this time just with Ponta.

An instant later, I was back in the stadium. At the behest of one of the high elders, the next group of soldiers swarmed me.

Once again, I was overcome with the feeling of being on a morning commuter train. I teleported the next group back to the Nohzan Kingdom.

This was a far greater burden on my body than I’d originally anticipated, and I felt sudden guilt over how I’d taken the elven transportation industry for granted. But that didn’t stop me from traveling back and forth, like a piston running on automatic.

Fortunately, all that hard work paid off. Just before noon, I finished teleporting the last of the soldiers over to Nohzan. It had taken around fifty trips, and had certainly been a lot of work, but magically and physically speaking, I was far from spent.

Briahn and the rest of the high elders seemed impressed.

Ariane, who’d chosen to remain with me, suggested I take a brief break. “Thanks, Arc. Why don’t we have lunch, and then we can tackle the Rhoden Kingdom this afternoon?”

Chiyome had stayed in the Nohzan Kingdom with the last group, though apparently, she hadn’t been able to make contact with Goemon and the others yet.

I wasn’t really too worried about them though. Goemon was as tough as nails.

“Well, we’d better eat a hearty lunch and build up our strength.”

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!”

I rolled my shoulders to try and work out some of the stiffness that had crept in from all the teleporting.

After leaving the stadium and heading into the city proper, I asked Ariane where we should eat. “Any lunch suggestions?”

She offered me an annoyed frown. “I mean, there are a ton of good places. We could be here all day if you want me to rattle off suggestions for—”

Before Ariane had a chance to finish this sentence, Eevin appeared out of nowhere and wrapped her arms tightly around her sister from behind. “Ariiiiiiin! Come to lunch with meeee!”

“Eevin?! What’re you…?!”

“Now, listen. I know you don’t have a lot of time, so hurry up and let’s go.”

Eevin urged Ariane on in a sugary sweet tone, all while giving me a death glare.

She apparently had what could be charitably described as a sister complex, and didn’t take kindly to my being here.

“Now, hold on a second. You’re supposed to be in charge of the civil defenses, remember?! Arc, get over here!”

Ariane shot me a desperate look as she tried fending off her sister. I could tell that their relationship would become an issue in the future.

After a tense lunch, we finally managed to convince Eevin to return to her duty, though she pouted the whole time as she waved goodbye.

Ariane looked exhausted from all the attention and let out a loud sigh as soon as her sister was out of earshot. She then rapped her knuckles on my armor.

“All right, break time’s over. Time to head to Rhoden. Riel’s waiting on us.”

I nodded. “You’re right.”

“Kyiii…” Ponta mewed and raised a paw in agreement, lulled into a lazy daze by the large lunch.

Worried that Ponta might not be able to hold on while napping, I took the fox off my head and handed it to Ariane. The two of us stepped close, Ponta let out a loud yawn from between Ariane’s arms, and I summoned up Transport Gate.

An instant later, we were standing before a large group of soldiers, outfitted and ready to go. Princess Riel Nohzan Saureah and her two bodyguards, Zahar and Niena, were waiting with them.

As soon as the young princess caught sight of us, she immediately started jogging in our direction.

“You’re late, Arc! We’ve been worried sick!”

The eleven-year-old princess stood around 140 centimeters tall, and had bright blonde hair that bounced around her shoulders as she ran. Her youthful exuberance shone through in nearly everything she did.

But looking closer, I saw concern in her eyes.

It was understandable, of course. Transporting these troops out to her homeland could mean the difference between life and death for her people. Despite her young age, she’d been entrusted with organizing the reinforcements from the Rhoden Kingdom and the Great Canada Forest.

Riel was more mature than she appeared. She understood all too well what was at stake. Such worries had likely contributed to her growing up faster than she might have normally.

I dropped to a knee and tried putting her at ease. “Apologies for causing you such concern, Princess. I finished teleporting all of the reinforcements from Canada without issue. They are waiting for us in Nohzan. Everything is going according to plan.”

Riel let out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear that.”

A voice interrupted our exchange. “I’m sure with power like his, a slight delay would hardly be a concern. Indeed, rushing like this hurts our ability to properly prepare for battle, Princess.”

The man was Sekt Rondahl Karlon Rhoden Sahdiay, prince of the Rhoden Kingdom.

Tall, handsome, and with light brown hair, Prince Sekt was dressed in elaborately decorated armor. He looked like the kind of prince you’d read about in fairytales.

Though still young, in his early twenties at the oldest, he had the intense demeanor of royalty. His sneering, insincere greeting did little to strengthen the image of a gentle prince that he tried to convey.

There was something I didn’t like about him, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.

A few moments later, a young woman with blonde, wavy hair and dressed in a regal gown stepped up to his side.

Yuriarna Merol Melissa Rhoden Olav, princess of the Rhoden Kingdom, was Sekt’s younger sister.

Her eyes were brown, her gaze friendly, belying a strength that rested just beneath the surface.

“That’s a bit much, don’t you think, Sekt? Riel… I mean, Princess Riel is worried about the future of her kingdom. It’s entirely understandable that she would want to hurry things along. Don’t you agree, Arc?”

Princess Yuriarna glanced over at her brother.

I got the sense that the two didn’t have the best relationship.

I wasn’t in a hurry to side with either of them at this point, and I stumbled over my words for a moment in the hopes of finding some way out of the situation. I glanced at Ariane, only to find her looking off in another direction, a dozing Ponta in her arms.

The only option was to change the topic of conversation.

“Before I transport the soldiers here to Nohzan, I would like to speak with the king, if I may. Is he available?”

I hadn’t exactly been expecting the king himself to see us off, but it did seem a bit odd for him to not make an appearance before sending his own son to war.

Princess Yuriarna replied first. “There was a bit of a commotion in the capital this morning, so father is working on getting that under control.”

Her voice sounded odd as she explained this, but I wasn’t sure why. She couldn’t seem to hold my gaze, looking away from time to time.

Sekt shrugged his shoulders and shot his sister a sarcastic grin. “Turns out there were quite a few people in Rhoden who were breaking the law and using elves for labor, so I hope you appreciate this as a sign of our loyalty.”

Ariane and I exchanged a confused look.

Princess Riel stood on her toes in an attempt to look taller as she joined the conversation. “Early this morning, while we were still sleeping, two giant dragons flew over the city. Zahar heard the commotion and went outside to look, but they were already gone. Apparently, the king got to speak with them. I really wish I could’ve talked to a dragon.”

Niena frowned at her young charge’s disappointment. She took a knee in front of Riel.

“That’s not possible, my princess. No matter how intelligent the dragon might be, it’s too great a danger for you to go near one. Just think how brokenhearted the king would be if something happened to you.”

I leaned over to Ariane and whispered in her ear. “Do you suppose one of the dragons was Felfi Visrotte?”

She shook her head.

Now, I wasn’t exactly well-versed in the different types of dragons living in this world, but the only ones I knew of that could speak were the Dragon Lords. Ariane seemed to be thinking the same thing.

But even if it had been Felfi Visrotte, when we’d parted ways with her this morning, she was alone.

The only thing I could think of was that she’d reached out to one of the other Dragon Lords in Canada. But then…why were they in Rhoden and not Nohzan, where they were supposed to be heading?

I just couldn’t understand why two Dragon Lords, intelligent beings that they were, would come to a city full of humans. From the way Princess Riel made it sound, seeing a dragon up close was an incredibly rare occurrence here.

And not only had the dragons spoken directly to the king before leaving, but they also hadn’t done any damage to the castle or surrounding city as far as I could tell.

Prince Sekt seemed to have interpreted the sudden appearance of these dragons as a show of force from Canada, so I figured it wasn’t the best time to ask what the king had discussed with them. Besides, it was entirely possible that this meeting had been at the behest of the high elders.

I decided to let the topic drop and move on to other matters. “Well, I think it’s about time we made our way to the Nohzan Kingdom. Could you please order all those who will be traveling to form up around me?”

Prince Sekt stepped in close. “Given that I will serve as the representative for the Rhoden Kingdom, I should go first so I can meet with the other parties and make the necessary introductions. I’ll also need to bring my personal guard.”

I watched as nearly a dozen guards led their horses over to me.

Looking around, I noted that the area was filled with not only soldiers, but also mounted knights and horse-drawn carts laden with supplies. The sheer mass of people and things took up far more space than the elves had.

I began having my doubts about whether we could transport them all with the half day left to us.

“I’m going too!” said Princess Riel. “I need to report back to Father. And besides, I’m worried about my people!”

After Riel and Yuriarna said their goodbyes, the young girl and her bodyguards hurried over to my side.

“I’m counting on you, Arc.”

“I know.”

I was relieved to realize my first trip of the afternoon wouldn’t be a repeat of the cramped train incident from this morning, though it also drove home how inconsiderate I’d been to Fangas and Dillan, asking them to squeeze in tight like that. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to have minded.

I shook my head. “All right then, we’re off to the Nohzan Kingdom. Please stay inside the rune circle at all times.”

As I made this announcement, several of the knights took a few steps back. When I summoned up Transport Gate, I heard yells of surprise. These humans were far more jittery around magic than the elves.

I glanced over at the mountains of supplies and people waiting to be transported and sighed. “I’ll be lucky if I’m done by midnight.”

Just as the words left my mouth, we were gone.

After seeing Sekt off for his meeting with King Asparuh, I got to work traveling back and forth between Nohzan and Rhoden.

The sky was the color of burnt umber by the time I transported the final group of horse-drawn carts from Rhoden and left them with their Nohzan attendants. My job finished, I stretched my arms to relieve some of the tension that had built up in my shoulders.

“You know, more than the constant use of magic to teleport people, I think it’s the sheer repetition that really makes this exhausting,” I muttered aloud to no one in particular.

What had once been a tranquil courtyard near the castle was now filled to the brim with Rhoden soldiers and their supplies, creating a literal tent city.

Having foreign soldiers posted right outside the place where the royal family lived would have been a huge ordeal under normal circumstances, but these were hardly normal circumstances.

Besides, the entire kingdom of Nohzan would have been wiped out if Rhoden hadn’t sent reinforcements. In a way, the whole world was rising up in revolt.

Of course, it wasn’t only the Rhoden soldiers camping out in the courtyard. A little farther off, the elves were setting up their own tents, giving the whole area the feel of an overgrown summer camp.

As was typical of well-trained soldiers, the people gathered here seemed to be in high spirits about the upcoming battle. I even heard the occasional cheer rising up from the various gatherings.

Whenever I passed a group, they would dutifully stop what they were doing to salute or offer up a greeting. I was starting to feel like a bit of a celebrity—which I really didn’t mind at all.

I still hoped to see my idealized fantasy world come true, one in which humans, mountain people, elves, and even dwarves all lived together. If I needed to give everything I had in order to make that a reality, then that was what I intended to do.

Ever since coming here, I’d tried to stay out of the limelight and avoid drawing attention to myself. But I couldn’t just watch people suffer in silence.

I had to wonder how many people actually could. Living on your own, never interacting with another soul, far from any form of human settlement… That was a lot more work than it might seem.

The longer you lived in a place, the harder it was to cut yourself off from it.

My thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind me. “You did good work back there, Arc.”

I turned to find Chiyome. I hadn’t seen her since we’d parted earlier this afternoon.

For once, she was walking among humans with her pointed ears and long tail exposed, wagging freely.

“Ah, Chiyome. Were you able to meet up with Goemon?”

She shook her head.

I glanced up at the setting sun. Quite some time had passed since they were supposed to show up. Could something have happened to them?

I felt unease rising inside me. Chiyome’s ears were standing at attention as she looked back at me with her azure eyes.

“If I don’t hear anything by tomorrow, I’ll make my way to Delfrent to try and pick up their trail. Arc, I…”

Before she could continue, a large outcry went up around us. Chiyome and I scanned through the crowd to figure out what was happening.

“What the hell is that?!”

Shouts began erupting from the east, so I turned toward the darkening sky.

There were two shadows flying straight toward the castle at high speed. I could tell they were enormous, even from here. As they drew close, it quickly became evident that our new visitors were dragons.

Though both massive, the one leading was at least double the size of its partner. It was covered in black scales and had violet marks running across its wings, like ripples on a pond. In addition to the two horns sprouting from its head, I also noted that the tip of its tail sparkled in the dying sunlight. Somehow, this dragon felt familiar, even though I knew I’d never set eyes on it before.

The one taking the rear, however, was easy to identify.

Four wings sprouted out of its blue-scaled body, and two horns rose from each side of its head. Not only had I met this dragon on multiple occasions, but I’d actually fought him.

This was undoubtedly Villiers Fim, the Dragon Lord I’d encountered near the forest beyond the Furyu Mountains at the base of the Lord Crown. Which meant that the huge dragon—a Dragon Lord, maybe?—leading him toward us must have been none other than…

“Is that… Is that bigger one up there Felfi Visrotte?”

I’d never seen her as a dragon, but when I recalled her humanoid form, it made sense. Felfi Visrotte had decided to bring Villiers Fim along to boost our firepower.

I knew that Villiers Fim was smitten with Felfi Visrotte, a fact that she was also all too aware of. Perhaps she’d decided to take advantage of this.

“Looks like we’ve gained another powerful ally.”

Chiyome gazed up at the eastern sky, her tail wagging excitedly. I nodded in agreement.

While these two Dragon Lords would be a great help in keeping the undead armies at bay, the soldiers around us didn’t seem to share in our excitement. They began arming themselves, moving away from their carts while their commanders started to shout orders.

Unlike the elves, humans rarely ever saw Dragon Lords.

My mind raced as I tried thinking of a way to calm the agitated crowd, but before I had a chance to act, I heard a series of loud trumpet blasts from the direction of the castle. The pattern repeated several times.

The soldiers looked confused, but they slowly began putting down their weapons, and the tension started to ease.

The two Dragon Lords slowed as they drew near, their powerful wings sending blasts of wind down onto everyone and everything below. They landed in a corner of the castle’s courtyard.

Ariane and Fangas were probably going to meet with them immediately, so I figured I should be there too.

“Shall we get going, Chiyome?”

Her ears perked up as she glanced in another direction. “Go on without me. I have to meet with someone else.”

She disappeared into the crowd of bewildered soldiers. Judging by how she was acting, I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d somehow received word from Goemon. My senses were nowhere near as good as hers, so I easily could have missed some signal.

I stood there for a few moments, hoping she’d show back up, but it quickly became clear that that wasn’t going to happen. I headed toward the elven side of the encampment.

Though the space reserved for the elves was quite a bit smaller than the one for the Rhoden Kingdom, this was logistical and not a question of the Nohzan Kingdom giving humans preferential treatment. The elves simply hadn’t brought as much stuff as the Rhoden reinforcements.

The space was quite cramped with two dragons sitting in the middle of it.

The Dragon Lord that I assumed to be Felfi Visrotte was about eighty meters in length, and the sheer immensity of her body grew all the more intimidating the closer I drew. However, I also noticed that both Dragon Lords appeared to be shrinking as I approached, until they’d completely transformed into their humanoid forms.

They looked just like two people standing in the middle of a large gathering of elven soldiers.

One of the figures was, indeed, Felfi Visrotte, in the same form she’d been in when we fought.

She stabbed the crystalline tip of her large, serpentine tail into the ground and ran a hand through her violet hair.

Next to her, standing at around four meters tall, was Villiers Fim. Though his body was humanoid in shape, his height was a dead giveaway that he was anything but human. His dragon head and blue scales further confirmed this.

I was surprised to see that Villiers Fim was twice the size of Felfi Visrotte in their humanoid forms—a complete reversal from when they were dragons.

Felfi Visrotte grinned. “Heya, Arc! Sorry to make you wait like that.”

I weaved my way through the soldiers until I arrived in front of her. A moment later, Ariane showed up with five other figures in tow.

Accompanying Ariane were representatives from the united armies: Fangas and Dillan from Canada, Prince Sekt from Rhoden, and King Asparuh and Princess Riel from Nohzan.

Ariane adjusted Ponta in her arms and nodded in my direction before making her way to the Dragon Lords.

“You must have had a long journey.”

Felfi Visrotte smiled back at Ariane and gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “You must be the little sister Eevin talks about so much. Ariane, right? Anyway, I figured the more power we have, the better, so I dragged this guy along. You don’t mind, right?”

Villiers Fim seemed to physically shrink as he shrugged his shoulders and glanced about nervously. You’d think he’d be a little more grandiose about the fact that he’d come all the way out here to join a battle to save humans, but I got the sense that the circumstances around his coming here weren’t all that they appeared to be.

Despite his massive body, he was squirming around like a new recruit.

“It’s a great honor to hear that Villiers Fim has also agreed to join the fight. I assume your delay was due to a trip to the Furyu Mountains? I would’ve figured it was a mere twenty-minute flight from Maple.”

Felfi Visrotte had implied that the reason for her delay was Villiers Fim, but something didn’t add up. Especially not with the way he was acting.

Flying across the Great Canada Forest from Maple to the Furyu Mountains and on to the shrine beyond, followed by crossing the mountains again to travel all the way to the Nohzan Kingdom, would certainly have been quite a journey, even if I couldn’t say exactly how far.

But even so, it should only have taken about half a day to cover the distance. I had no doubt that flying was the fastest mode of transport in this world—aside from my teleportation magic.

Felfi Visrotte belted out a laugh. “Well, y’see, I got a little confused and ended up in the wrong country entirely. I really can’t tell one human kingdom from the next, or even where they are.”

The representatives of the three countries looked shocked at her answer.

Apparently, she’d gotten caught up in the excitement of it all and had just taken off without bothering to ask for directions. This made sense, given the stories we’d heard earlier about the king of Rhoden suddenly having to entertain a pair of dragons.

But had she really been lost, or was there something else going on here?

Fangas spoke up next, a cheerful lilt to his husky voice. “Well, I truly appreciate you coming all the way out here, Felfi Visrotte.” He turned to the other Dragon Lord. “And Villiers Fim, I’ve heard much about you from my granddaughter. I cannot properly express just how honored we are that you would join us in battle.”

Villiers Fim looked down at Fangas sheepishly. “W-well, since Felfi Visrotte wanted me here, I could hardly turn her down. Ah… Ahaha!”

Though they were both Dragon Lords, Villiers Fim seemed to be in absolute awe of Felfi Visrotte. He was acting completely different from his usual, confident self. It was clear he wasn’t used to being around people.

I looked from Felfi Visrotte to Fangas and back to try and glean a little more context about what was going on here, but their expressions were completely neutral. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Prince Sekt scowling as he listened to the conversation.

King Asparuh spoke next. “I am truly honored that you have agreed to come out here and assist our country in its darkest hour. I would like to offer my thanks to you on behalf of all of the people of Nohzan.” With that out of the way, he got down to business. “I have made arrangements to conduct a joint planning meeting back at the castle. Please, follow me.”

Felfi Visrotte threw out her arms and stretched. “Well, thank God for that. I’m all tuckered out after such a long flight. I’d love to sit down for a bit.”

She was about to start off when she stopped and looked back over her shoulder, as if suddenly remembering something.

“Y’know, I think Villy’s gonna have a bit of a hard time squeezing in there. Why don’t you be a good boy and wait here for us?”

Felfi Visrotte glanced at me before making her way toward the castle. Villiers Fim slumped visibly and hung his head at being ordered to stay behind.

I kind of felt bad for the guy, but she was right. Sure, he could probably squeeze himself through the castle interior, but there was no way he’d fit into any chairs or other furnishings with his current size. Staying behind only made sense.

King Asparuh headed for the castle, followed closely by Fangas and Prince Sekt. Before I could join them, Ariane jogged over to me, Ponta dangling from her arms. She glanced around before speaking.

“Where’s Chiyome? I thought she said she was going to meet up with you when you got back.”

It took me a moment to realize what Ariane was actually asking. “I spoke with Chiyome earlier, but she told me she had to meet up with someone and left very suddenly. I figured she must have sensed that Goemon had finally arrived.”

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!”

Out of nowhere, Ponta started mewing anxiously and leaped from Ariane’s arms up to my helmet.

“Whoa, what’s up little buddy? Did you see something that…?”

Before I could finish, I caught sight of a familiar figure out of the corner of my eye.

Standing at over two meters tall, the muscle-bound figure dressed all in black stood out even among the bustling crowd of elves setting up camp. Atop his head were a pair of cat ears similar to Chiyome’s, though his body was covered in a silver and black pattern that made him look like a giant tabby.

This was Goemon, one of the six great fighters of the Jinshin clan. Chiyome walked at his side, along with two more mountain people.

“Ah, Chiyome… Goemon. Glad to see you’ve arrived safely.”

“Hm.”

The taciturn cat man responded with a nod and raised his fist in greeting. After bumping fists with him, I greeted his comrades before turning my attention to Chiyome.

“Goemon has provided some good information about what’s happening in the Delfrent Kingdom. The capital had already fallen by the time he got there, and the situation is looking pretty bleak.”

Goemon punctuated her report with a firm nod.

That confirmed that the two countries bordering the Nohzan Kingdom, Delfrent and Salma, had already fallen. It was now only a matter of time before the hordes descended upon us.

“In that case, I think we should bring Goemon to see the king.”

With that, we hurried off.

 

***

 

Margrave Wendly du Brahniey, the man charged with overseeing the last standing territory of the Salma Kingdom, was displeased.

“Dammit! So not only did Salma’s capital city fall, but Delfrent’s too? How is it that only Nohzan was able to turn back the armies of the Holy Hilk Kingdom?!”

The margrave boasted the body of a man who’d grown up in the military, his muscular frame, receding silver hair, and intense gaze giving him an intimidating air—a far cry from most nobility.

He glared down at the map laid out on the table.

Saureah, the capital of the Nohzan Kingdom, sat right in the center, with Delfrent and Salma near the edges. Two black tokens sat on Larisa and Lione, their respective capitals, while another two marked the Nohzan Kingdom and the Holy Hilk Kingdom.

Fangas crossed his arms and tilted his head back. “It’s only a matter of time until we’re attacked on three sides.”

King Asparuh let out a heavy sigh and slowly shook his head. Princess Riel looked up at her father, the worry written on her young face.

Dillan spoke up next, a deep crease etching his forehead. “If it weren’t for Arc here, the capital would have surely fallen and the truth behind the Holy Hilk Kingdom’s assault would still be unknown.”

Prince Sekt, the man charged with overseeing all of the forces of the Rhoden Kingdom, nodded. “And it’s also to Arc’s credit that we all find ourselves gathered in this room today. I, for one, am honored by the opportunity to stand among these mystical creatures, whom I’d assumed to be the stuff of legends. The world truly is much smaller than I’d imagined.”

He glanced over at Felfi Visrotte and then right above my head as he spoke.

Felfi Visrotte closed her eyes and smiled, letting her long, crystal-tipped tail sway gently back and forth. “The way I see it, you people only inhabit a small part of this great world.”

Her reptilian pupils stared out through half-lidded eyes. Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably at this, which caused her smile to grow even brighter. Sekt swallowed audibly.

They knew in their hearts that what she said was true. The idea that the world revolved around them was pure delusion.

“Kyii!”

Growing antsy at the sudden change in mood, Ponta hopped from my helmet and down to my shoulder before wrapping itself around my neck like a scarf. Felfi Visrotte chuckled at Ponta’s reaction before casting her gaze back down to the three tokens sitting atop the map on the table.

“Well, look at that. So I guess all we need to do is wipe out the armies at each of these three spots, yeah? If we assign me, Villy, and Arc each to one of them, we should be all right, yeah? You guys can hang back and catch any that make it through.”

The humans in the room looked completely taken aback at such a basic plan, while the elves nodded in agreement.

With a Dragon Lord on the battlefield, there was little need to formulate for an overly complicated strategy. The real problem would be in figuring out how to coordinate the remaining forces.

There was a certain logic to it. With powerhouses like the Dragon Lords and myself involved, there would be far fewer casualties, if we were able to wipe out huge swaths of the enemy.

The only problem with this plan was timing.

I clenched my hand into a fist. “Time is of the essence. Since we’re dealing with undead, the longer we wait, more of their victims are likely to rise up and swell their ranks. However, if we were to attack the enemies at their strongholds, we’d risk killing any survivors still holding out.”

This wasn’t mere boasting. Using the powers of my Paladin class, I could wipe out an entire army of the dead with relative ease. Though I’d rather not go through the experience of using that kind of power again, we didn’t have much of a choice right now.

The problem, however, was that there was no way to direct or limit the damage of such a powerful attack. I figured this was also true for the Dragon Lords.

Dillan grabbed a white token sitting off to the side of the map.

“True. These are all the capital cities of their respective countries, right? So I have to imagine that they’re at least as big as the city we find ourselves in currently. If there are any survivors within the cities, they’d almost certainly be wiped out in an attack.”

Fangas picked up where Dillan had left off. “On the other hand, wiping the other countries off the map would also save us from worrying about any new undead cropping up.”

He let out a loud belly laugh, though the look of horror on King Asparuh’s face made it clear that not everyone in the room appreciated this dark humor.

“We could hardly do something like that! Who knows what sort of ill will that would give rise to? Even if we managed to destroy all of the undead, we’d risk deepening human distrust toward the elves.”

Fangas smiled at this, but said no more.

After a few moments of silence, Dillan tried to allay the King’s concerns. “Please, Fangas, this is no time for teasing. We’re here to formulate a strategy for battle that will also help build a stronger relationship between us and the humans.”

Princess Riel broke out into a smile.

Dillan continued. “Anyway, back to the subject at hand. We need to wipe out the undead armies as soon as possible, before they have a chance to grow any further. We also need to leave the cities largely intact. The way I see it, that means sending our troops to each city’s perimeter, to draw the enemy out. Once they’re outside the walls, we shouldn’t have to worry about any collateral damage.”

As he spoke, Dillan placed two white tokens on the map, one in Delfrent and one in Salma.

Prince Sekt was the first to object to this plan. “Undead, even in large groups, lack any sort of consciousness outside of a desire to kill the living. I highly doubt they’d be concerned about a siege. Moreover, these undead are under the direct control of the Holy Hilk Kingdom. So what makes you think they’ll fall into our trap?”

Dillan seemed to have anticipated such a question and reached for a black token.

“As you said, undead under intelligent control make for rather deadly opponents. However, as far as I’ve heard from those who’ve had personal experience, the Hilk’s hold over the undead is tenuous at best.”

He paused and looked at each person in the room, until all eyes were on him, urging him to continue.

“Considering that the undead are a type of evil spirit that takes possession of bodies, the energy they thrive on is weakest during the day, while at night, they grow more powerful. I’m sure none of this is news to you.”

The elves and mountain people in the room nodded as if this were obvious. The humans, however, seemed surprised.

To be fair, so was I. But at least I had a helmet to cover my reaction.

“However,” Dillan continued, “I’ve been told that the undead that laid siege to this city managed to maintain the assault even through the day and lost much of their focus at night. Judging from this, I think it’s safe to say that whoever is controlling them is unable to maintain that control at night, when the undead grow stronger. I can’t say why that would be—maybe due to the sheer number they’re trying to control—but ultimately, the result is the same.”

Prince Sekt, who’d been watching Dillan with great interest, piped up. “So, if whoever’s in charge of these armies loses control at night, then that means they wouldn’t be able to mount an effective strategy against us.”

Dillan nodded and set another white token down on the map. “That’s correct. The longer we wait, the more powerful our enemy becomes, so I believe we should strike out at once. We can split our forces and head to both Salma and Delfrent for a simultaneous attack.”

King Asparuh broke his silence, a look of concern on his face. “If we split all of our forces, then who will be left to defend Saureah?”

It was only natural that protecting the capital from another invasion took priority over the king’s desire to see the Holy Hilk Kingdom fall.

Dillan looked back down at the map and stroked his beard. “I believe your guards should be sufficient for now. Even if you were invaded again from the west, it would take a considerable amount of time for the troops to arrive. Also, I believe you said your son, Prince Terva, is mustering forces from the surrounding nobles. That should be enough to hold off another siege, no?” He looked around the table.

“Fine by me.”

“No arguments here.”

“Hmph.”

One by one, everyone in the room agreed to his plan, until finally his gaze fell on me. He smiled. “All right then. Arc will take care of the teleporting tomorrow morning.”

I was hardly surprised. At this point, I pretty much expected it, even if I wasn’t exactly a fan of the slog involved in transporting troops back and forth. There was, however, an issue with this.

“I don’t mind teleporting the armies to their positions, but I need to have an image of the place I want to go to firmly in mind in order to teleport there. I’ve never been to either Salma or Delfrent.”

Dillan’s eyes went wide. Apparently, this had completely slipped his mind.

I looked down at the map and traced my finger from Saureah to Larisa to Lione. “It’d take me at least a day, maybe two, to get close enough to the capital to teleport people there, and that’s just for one of them. I’d need two to four days to travel to both.”

According to the map, they were both about equal distance from Saureah. Assuming I had a perfect line of sight and could continuously teleport the whole way, I could maybe make it to one in a single day.

Dillan followed my finger as it moved across and map and furrowed his brow. “Figuring in a little wiggle room, how about three days? I hate to give the enemy more time to bolster its forces, but we don’t have any other choice.”

He stared darkly at the black tokens sitting on the map.

Felfi Visrotte, who’d been watching this whole exchange with a bemused look, crossed her arms and smirked. “Y’know, I have an even better idea. Wanna hear it?”

She cocked her head to the side and shot me a smile.

Here I was, claiming I felt weird about climbing on top of a woman, and then the moment I did, massaging her like that. It wasn’t my proudest moment. Even I could admit that.

Once I finally got into place atop her back, the elves who’d come to see us off stepped away to give us space. Felfi Visrotte unfurled her wings.

“All right, and we’re off! Hang on, and try to not fall!”

“All right, I got iiiiiiiiiit?!”

A beautiful pattern flashed across her wings as she began flapping, and suddenly I was thrown back by the sheer force of her takeoff. It was everything I could do just to hang on.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

I could hardly hear myself scream over the roar of the wind as we tore through the air. It was a completely bizarre sensation, unlike anything I’d experienced before.

Since simply keeping my grip was a struggle in its own right—and daring to glimpse over the side was out of the question—all I could do was relish the new sensation and watch the sky as we flew. This must have been how astronauts felt as they rode their rockets into space.

“Kyiiiiiiii!”

At least Ponta seemed to be having fun.

I felt a brief wave of jealousy wash over me. However, after a few more minutes, my body went light and the wind died down.

Sensing this was my chance, I leaned over and looked at the terrain below. The city of Saureah was already a tiny speck.

I had no idea exactly how high we were, but judging by the size of the capital, I figured we had to be one or two thousand meters up.

“We’re pr-pretty high! If I fall off now, I’m done for.”

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!”

If I’d had skin, I’d almost certainly had been covered in goosebumps.

A new feeling began overtaking me, a sense of excitement at speeding through the air as the beautiful world moved beneath me.

Felfi Visrotte flew easily through the air in a long, lazy turn, putting the sun at our backs as we headed west. Moments later, Saureah was a lost sight, and I found myself looking down at the snow-capped Sobir mountain range that served as the border between the Nohzan and Salma kingdoms.

The mountains themselves were quite large, so we had to be at least 3,000 meters above ground by now in order to clear them with ease. However, Felfi Visrotte continued climbing higher into the sky as we flew.

“Well, this will definitely get us to the Salma capital in no time.”

Ponta slowly crawled out of its hiding place in the crook of my arm and let its large tail unfurl and billow in the wind.

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!”

Felfi Visrotte tilted her long neck to glance back at me and smiled. “Of course we will. You’re flying with me, after all. And hey, I even made sure to check a map this time, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the view!”

Outside of my long-distance teleportation magic, this was the fastest method of travel by far. It was a shame we couldn’t transport all 10,000 soldiers like this.

Although, judging by the way the others had reacted to the suggestion, there was more than a little hesitation about transporting people by Dragon Lord.

Not only was there the issue of having to endure the sheer cold that accompanied being up so high and flying at such great speeds, but it also took quite a bit of strength to hang on during takeoff and even throughout the flight. It was probably for the better that Ariane and Chiyome hadn’t come along.

Felfi Visrotte probably knew this too, which is why she’d objected to bringing anyone else along. Though, it did make me wonder how she’d known that I would be able to hang on. Perhaps she hadn’t and it was simply a risk she’d been willing to take.

In any case, that left teleportation as our only option to get 10,000 soldiers where they needed to go.

Ponta was the real trooper here, though. It was having a great time speeding through the air and letting its long, cottony tail billow in the wind.

After a short while, Felfi Visrotte called out from up ahead. “Hey, Arc, you’re pretty quiet back there. Would you mind talking about something to keep me entertained?”

I was perfectly satisfied just sitting quietly and taking in the sights, but apparently, she was looking for conversation.

I hesitated, unsure what to talk about with her. I finally settled on the topic of the first time we’d met.

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Of course not. Whatcha got?”

While I was certainly impressed with her appearance the first time we’d met, there was something that had struck me as even more interesting: her accent.

Since Villiers Fim was the first Dragon Lord I’d ever met, I kind of assumed that all Dragon Lords spoke in the same formal manner he did. I couldn’t get over the unique, casual way Felfi Visrotte spoke.

Since no one else had said anything about it, though, I’d just let it go, until now.

“You have a rather unique way of speaking, so I was wondering if you’ve always had an accent. Or maybe Villiers Fim is actually the one who speaks strangely?”

She blinked her large, violet eyes at me several times before bursting into laughter. “Gyahahahaha! That’s what you wanna know? You really must be from the other world then, huh?”

She faced forward again before continuing. “Y’see, Eva was the one who taught me how to speak your language, so I guess I just picked up her accent.”

She cocked her head, as if unsure how to provide a more definitive answer.

“Hmm, I guess that makes sense…”

Now that I thought about it, her accent had a slight twang to it that resembled the way people from Kyoto spoke. Not exactly spot on, but close. But just what had she and the founding elder talked about anyway?

I’d always kind of figured that Evanjulin, the founding elder of the Great Canada Forest, was Canadian. But from the way Felfi Visrotte spoke, it now sounded possible that Evanjulin might have been Japanese.

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!” Ponta mewed excitedly as it looked over the Dragon Lord’s side at the world passing below. Its fluffy tail whipped about in the powerful gusts of wind.

I leaned over to see what had gotten Ponta so excited only to find that we were now past the Sobir Mountains and flying over vast, open plains—the lands of the Salma Kingdom.

“Looks like we’ve crossed the border already. That really was fast!”

“If I recall correctly, the capital city of this country is called Larisa, and it should be right on the water.”

Before leaving Saureah, Felfi Visrotte had looked over some maps to get the lay of the land. Fortunately, it seemed to have worked, as she had a pretty good understanding of where we were.

The plains below us seemed almost endless…until I caught sight of a body of water on the horizon. That must be the South Central Sea.

I felt relief wash over me. We’d made it here in less than a half a day. At this rate, our original battle plan might still work.

In the distance, I could just make out a port city surrounded by a massive wall. In the middle was a large fort that sat atop a hill, giving it an imposing view of surrounding lands. According to the description given by Margrave Brahniey, this was Larisa, the capital of the Salma Kingdom.

Felfi Visrotte began her descent as we approached our objective. The closer we got, the more detail I could make out. It rapidly became clear that things were not right with the city.

All of the boats docked at the pier had either been destroyed, and were sitting low in the water, or they were on fire, sending billowing smoke high into the air.

A little further off, I spied several other ships floating aimlessly in the bay, but almost all of their masts were too damaged to serve any purpose.

The city itself was a scene of destruction, flames running rampant through the remnants of once-great neighborhoods.

The messenger from Larisa who’d met with the margrave had told the truth: The city had fallen to a massive army of undead.

From this distance, it was impossible to tell if there were any survivors.

After giving the city a quick look over, Felfi Visrotte twisted her neck and looked back at me.

“There are a lot of undead down there, but I’m not seeing anywhere near the number you guys told me about. Maybe one really big one and a few other smaller ones is more accurate. At most…10,000.”

“Wow…”

I was thoroughly impressed that she could get a sense of their numbers from this height. I mean, I liked to think that I had pretty good vision and could generally make out small details, but figuring out what was going on in a city 2,000 meters below was another thing entirely.

Regardless, we had a far graver problem than my vision on our hands—that of the number of undead in the city.

The messenger had said that Larisa was under attack by an army of at least 200,000. If they weren’t in the city below, that meant they’d already left, and the ones here were merely to prevent anyone from taking the city back.

Factoring in the number of days it must have taken the messenger to reach the margrave, and then for the margrave to make it to Nohzan, quite a bit of time must have passed since the city was first attacked.

It was possible that the undead army had moved on to Brahniey and were already there, but based on Goemon’s observations in the Delfrent Kingdom, it didn’t sound like they left immediately after crushing their objective.

The man-spiders leading the armies could move about as fast as a horse, but the general rank-and-file troops could only manage human speeds.

I felt certain that we still had at least some time left.

“Felfi Visrotte, would you mind letting me down for a moment? I’d like to draw the location.”

I figured it couldn’t hurt to make a sketch of Larisa in my teleportation diary, should a situation arise where I needed to get back here in a hurry.

“Sure thing, lemme find a place to land.” Felfi Visrotte tilted her wings and dropped into a steep dive.

“Waaaaaaugh?!”

“Kyii!”

She jerked back suddenly, and a massive blast of air caused me to temporarily float up off of her back. I tried scrunching myself down as small as I could to hang on tight.

A moment later, I heard a loud crash and felt her whole body reverberate beneath me.

Venturing a glance over the side, I discovered that Felfi Visrotte had landed right on two man-spiders and was batting undead soldiers with her tail, deftly deflecting oncoming blows with its crystalline tip.

In a single, massive sweep of her tail, she wiped out a large group, like a god of death wielding a soul-reaping scythe.

“Now that’s a stench that’s hard to get out of your nose.” She scowled at the stench of rotting flesh. Despite her initial attack, there were still quite a few undead left.

We’d landed a fair bit away from the entrance to Larisa, in what must have once been a field. As I dropped to the ground, I felt wheat stalks crunch beneath my feet. This year’s harvest seemed like a lost cause. However, some fields seemed to have been spared, so if there were any survivors, at least they’d have something to eat.

I turned my attention to the city, a vast wasteland filled with dead and undead alike.

Aware of the pressure of time we were under, I pulled out my teleportation diary and tried to get a feel for my surroundings.

Before I could start, however, I caught sight of several undead soldiers and man-spiders closing in on me. I’d never get my sketch done if I had to keep fending them off, so I shot a pleading look up at the Dragon Lord.

“Sorry to bother you, but would you mind taking care of these pests while I finish my work?”

The large dragon propped herself up and puffed out her chest.

“Not a problem. I’ll play around with ’em for a bit while you do your thing. Just call out to me when you’re done, ’kay?”

She gave her wings a flap, sending up a whirlwind of dust, before launching off toward the oncoming enemy. The air snapped as she swung her tail around, like a bullwhip breaking the sound barrier.

In no time at all, the undead were lying in pieces, while what was left of the destroyed crops floated about like a golden snowstorm.

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!” Ponta mewed at me, as if prompting me to get back to work.

I hurriedly opened my teleportation diary and stared down at the empty page. If I didn’t get this done soon, she might finish off the undead out here and move on to those inside the capital.

Since I didn’t have much time, I just focused on one part of the city wall, sketching it as simply and as quickly as I could. I could fill in the details later.

“As long it’s accurate enough to jog my memory, that should be enough.”

I held the teleportation diary up and looked back and forth between the sketch and the wall a few times before giving a satisfied nod. It was a bit rough, but it captured all the unique details.

With that done, I put my supplies back into my bag and looked about until I spotted the Dragon Lord smashing undead like ants. I waved my arms as I called to her.

“Felfi Visrotte!”

Fortunately, she seemed to have excellent hearing, and she instantly turned her neck to look at me. With one final swipe of her tail to clear away the lingering undead soldiers, she darted through the air back to my side.

“Well, that was faster than I expected.”

She narrowed her reptilian eyes, staring at the gates of the capital.

“Something wrong?”

“Kyii?”

Ponta and I looked at the Dragon Lord with concern, but she shook her head and turned her attention back to me.

“I sensed a large presence in the city earlier, but now it’s gone.”

I looked up at the battered walls, but try as I might, my senses were nowhere near as keen as Ariane and Chiyome’s. I couldn’t sense anything similar to what Felfi Visrotte was talking about.

She clearly wasn’t talking about the man-spiders or undead. The only things I could think of were either the pontiff or one of his cardinals.

Being able to disappear all of a sudden also suggested that they were able to use teleportation magic like me, in which case it’d be impossible to follow them. We needed to focus on more pressing matters.

“I’m afraid the main undead army is likely marching on Brahniey as we speak. I’d like to try and track them down, if you’d be willing to help with that.”

Our original plan had been to come out here and find a place to teleport troops to, then immediately head back to Saureah to notify Ariane. But if the undead army was already closing in on Brahniey, then figuring out their current location was of the utmost importance. Depending on where they were, it could change our plans entirely.

Fortunately, Felfi Visrotte agreed to my request without a second thought.

“I said I’d help, didn’t I? So no need for you to make all these little requests. Just hop on my back and hold on tight!”

I adjusted the bag on my back, pulled Ponta close to my chest, and hopped onto Felfi Visrotte’s back. She seemed to take this as the sign that I was ready and immediately rocketed into the sky.

“Thanks, I appreciate iiiiiiiiiiiiit!”

I squeezed my body against her back and held on. Ponta seemed to be having a grand time.

“Kyiiiiiii!”

Once we got up to altitude and the wind died down, Felfi Visrotte started moving through the air in slow circles. She glanced back at me to check where we were heading.

“Brahniey is off to the east, right?”

“That’s correct.”

She nodded and turned. “And we’re off!”

She gave a powerful flap of her massive wings, causing the wavy violet patterns on the membranes to glow, before blasting off toward our objective.

Since I was taking the brunt of the wind, Ponta loved moving at such high speed.

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!”

I noticed that the wind around Ponta seemed to be weaker, probably thanks to its magic. It was pretty impressive. From what I’d heard, cottontail foxes often traveled on wind currents in large packs, so it only made sense that they would be able to strengthen or weaken such gusts.

I, for one, would have given anything for that kind of power while I fought not to be thrown to my doom.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long until Felfi Visrotte slowed, and the buffeting wind calmed slightly. She called my attention to the scene below.

“Heya, Arc, look down.”

I glanced over her side and swallowed hard. “That’s… Wow.”

The plains were covered with what looked like a black, undulating carpet moving east—the tightly packed undead soldiers.

They didn’t move anything like the trained soldiers I’d encountered in the Holy East Revlon Empire’s colony on the southern continent, but they were still progressing steadily, marching slowly but surely toward Brahniey and the Ruanne Forest.

“They’re not far from Larisa, so we still have time until they arrive at their destination. But this definitely isn’t a good sign.”

Even Ponta watched the black blob with great interest. “Kyii!”

“If they were all clumped together, I could wipe ’em all out with a single strike. But they’re too spread out right now. I’d need to chase a lot of ’em down.”

Felfi Visrotte made no effort to conceal her annoyance. She turned to look at me, a scowl on her face.

“So, what’re we gonna do, Arc?”

“Hmm…”

If hundreds of undead soldiers were packed tightly into a single formation, an area-of-effect spell should be able to wipe them out in one go. However, with them dotting the entire countryside like this, it would take several hundred of our biggest attacks to kill them all.

Felfi Visrotte and I could probably do it on our own, but we didn’t have a lot of time to spare.

Sending the troops to Larisa was pointless now, so we needed to find a second drop-off location. That left either the border of the margrave’s territory, or the city of Brahniey itself.

However, there was a very real risk that the undead army would split off before reaching Brahniey and send half of their forces south as an advance strike on the village of Drant in the Ruanne Forest.

We needed to figure out a place to attack them before then. But where?

I thought back to the map I’d looked at earlier, trying to recall some sort of landmark.

“What about the Wiel River that runs along the border? They’ll need to stop there and get organized, don’t ya think?”

It was as if Felfi Visrotte could read my mind. I’d been thinking of the exact same place.

“Agreed. I think it’d be a good idea to set our teleportation spot at one of the forts on the border.”

Margrave Brahniey had said that there were a series of forts east of the Wiel that had once belonged to the Nohzan Kingdom. They were from the days before his ancestors had taken possession of the land. He’d maintain them meticulously, and they were still fit for service.

Though technically just spaces to garrison the troops charged with maintaining the border, they served another important purpose—to keep an eye on the nobles as they traveled around the Salma Kingdom.

Before the forts were actually up and running, villages across Brahniey’s domain had often been attacked by bandits. Ariane had been shocked to hear this, though King Asparuh had looked unsurprised. The margrave had to be constantly on alert for raids not only by outsiders, but also from his own countrymen.

In any case, I figured that one of the forts overlooking the Wiel would be a good place to start.

“Do you think you could fly past this group and let me off near the river? I’d like to set our new teleportation point there and then head back to Saureah.”

Felfi Visrotte nodded. “All right. We’re off again!”

She twisted her mammoth body around in mid-air and turned back east.

Fortunately, none of the undead soldiers marching along the plains seemed to take any notice of us as we flew above them at breakneck speed. Within a few moments, they were just a dark stain in the distance.

I had to squint in order to keep an eye on where we were going through the gusts of wind buffeting my body. Assuming Felfi Visrotte was flying at the same speed as when we’d left this morning, I could calculate how long we’d have until the undead army arrived at the Wiel.

I caught sight of a river up ahead, winding its way from north to south. That had to be it, with the peaks beyond being the Sobir mountain range.

Judging by the time it had taken us to pass over the undead army and get here, my best guess was that they’d only recently set out from Larisa. The road they’d be taking traveled mostly across flat plains, though there was a mountainous region where the road grew narrow and the soldiers would have to bunch up to pass through.

Figuring this would slow them down, I guessed that would give us two, maybe three days until they arrived at the Wiel.

I could see two forts, each surrounded by their own robust stone walls. These were heavily fortified locations from back in the days when the Nohzan Kingdom had needed to fend off their invading neighbors, though by garrisoning his own forces here, the margrave had done a good job cutting off most of the easy routes any roaming bandits could use to gain entry.

Next to the fort was a magnificent stone bridge that ran across the river. Though I couldn’t tell how deep the water was, I was pretty sure the undead would need to cross that bridge in order to pass into Brahniey.

“Life certainly works in weird ways. What was once used to harass belligerent nobles will now serve as a base of operations to mount our defense.”

I was surprised at how things could take such a turn over time.

“Kyii!” Ponta seemed to be feeling much the same.

I truly had no idea if Ponta understood a word I said, but I gave its head a gentle rub all the same before instructing Felfi Visrotte to let me down near the fort.

Since leaving his lands for the Nohzan Kingdom, the margrave hadn’t returned to his people, nor had he made any mention to those stationed at the outposts about the upcoming battle. The guards charged with watching the borders would know nothing about me, and the sight of an eighty-meter Dragon Lord would only alarm them.

On the other hand, my goal was to teleport the incoming armies as close to the fort as possible, so I couldn’t be too far away if I wanted to get the details right.

They’d probably still notice us, but hopefully they’d assume this was just some sort of intimidation attempt. That should give me enough time to make a basic sketch for my teleportation diary. Then we could return to Saureah.

“Okay, hang on tight!”

The Dragon Lord dropped into another steep dive, heading straight toward the eastern bank of the Wiel. The shoreline was completely bare, giving me a great view of the fort below and the soldiers running around in a panic at the sight of a dragon. The reaction was pretty much what I’d expected.

Even though we were trying to keep our distance, there was simply no way someone could ignore the impressive sight of a Dragon Lord.

Fortunately for me, the stone bridge spanning the river had a rather unique design, so I figured I’d be able to get off a quick sketch before we wore out our welcome.

“Once I’m done getting this down on paper, I’m going to use my teleportation magic to take us back to Saureah. Would you mind transforming into your humanoid form?”

Felfi Visrotte smiled and nodded.

Though it would have been possible for me to teleport her in her dragon form, it would require a lot of magic to do so—magic that I’d need to bring the margrave and about 5,000 soldiers here.

I slid off the Dragon Lord’s back and started pulling out my supplies.

“Kyii!” Ponta hopped up onto my head while I focused my attention on the scene in front of me.

“We won’t be staying long, Ponta. We’ll be back in Saureah soon.”

The Wiel River was at least 100 meters across, and probably double that in some places. The large banks on either side made it look even bigger.

However, that was where the good news ended. The river looked to be relatively shallow, with small eddies circling around rocks just under the surface. I doubted the man-spiders would have much difficulty making their way across.

I started drawing while Felfi Visrotte began her transformation.

Just as she was about to finish, I looked up and noticed several soldiers in the fort’s watchtowers. They were pointing right at us and talking hurriedly among themselves.

A part of me felt a little bad that they’d have to explain to their superiors why they’d claimed to have seen a massive dragon when there was now nothing of the sort anywhere around.

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!”

Ponta patted my helmet, reminding me to focus on the task at hand. I turned my gaze away from the tower and began sketching again.

Once I had the general design down, I held my teleportation diary up and checked it against the actual bridge. Felfi Visrotte leaned over my shoulder for a closer look.

“Not bad, kid.”

“Let’s head back to Saureah.”

I turned to Felfi Visrotte as I slid my teleportation diary back into my bag. She wore a faint grin on her face, as if remembering something from her distant past.

“Y’know, it’s been quite a while since I’ve teleported anywhere.”

Now that I thought about it, I remembered hearing that Evanjulin had also used teleportation magic. Maybe they’d traveled around together?

“Transport Gate!”

A magical rune spread out from beneath my feet until it was wide enough to encompass Felfi Visrotte as well. She watched with great interest.

I focused my mind on the courtyard in front of the palace in Saureah, which we’d left mere hours ago. The world went dark, and an instant later, we were back in Nohzan.

Felfi Visrotte stretched out her arms and nodded approvingly. “That’s a pretty useful technique.”

“It’s thanks to your incredible speed that we were able to return here in less than half a day.”

Considering she’d probably never let people ride her before, I felt it only proper to thank her for all she’d done.

“You’ve really got your act together, kid. Nothing like Eva.” She tilted her head to the side and gazed at me with great interest. “So, what’s next?”

She smiled, and began wagging her long, dagger-tipped tail.

“Well, I suppose we’d better share what we’ve learned.”

After turning to face the castle, I pulled Ponta close and started walking.

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!”

 

***

 

We gathered with Ariane, Chiyome, Goemon, and the other leaders in a room deep within the castle to discuss the next phase of our fight against the Holy Hilk Kingdom’s assault.

Everyone crowded around close to me and Felfi Visrotte, their eyes fixed on the map.

The white tokens sat exactly where we’d left them the night before. I took one of the black tokens and moved it from Larisa, in the Salma Kingdom, to a spot farther east.

A look of shock overcame the margrave as his eyes followed the token. “Wait, you mean to say they’ve already begun their advance?!”

“That’s correct. We only found a few undead in Larisa, just enough to maintain control over the region, while the rest of the army moved east toward Brahniey.”

Felfi Visrotte tapped the black token with her fingertip.

“We coulda wiped ’em out right then and there if they’d marched in columns like you humans, but no luck.”

King Asparuh, Prince Sekt, and Margrave Brahniey—the human representatives in this alliance—frowned. Princess Riel looked puzzled at their shared reaction and turned to her father.

“If Felfi Visrotte is as powerful as everyone says, then we’ve got nothing to worry about if the undead attack us. So why are you scowling like that, Father?”

King Asparuh shifted uncomfortably under his daughter’s intense gaze and cleared his throat.

Margrave Brahniey looked straight at me. “How long do we have until they reach Brahniey? I don’t need an exact hour, just an estimate.” The margrave’s eyes pleaded with me. He was clearly clinging to the hope that there was still time.

“At my best guess, I’d say two days. Three, tops.”

He groaned at this, deep wrinkles forming in his forehead. “That’s much faster than I would have expected.”

Dillan, also scowling down at the map, offered some clarification on how they could cover so much ground. “Unlike the living, the undead need not eat nor rest, so they can focus entirely on moving. Judging by the lay of the land, it would take less than four days to cover that distance.”

He was right, of course. The undead weren’t burdened with the obligation to waste time on feeding and resting their soldiers.

As an added bonus, this meant that they didn’t need to deal with carts or the animals that drew them. They were only limited by the speed at which a person could march under the full weight of gear.

These were, in a sense, the ultimate soldiers. They could march twenty-four hours a day and still fight once they reached their destination. Plus, they were already dead, so they had no fear of death in battle.

While I might look like one of them, I still enjoyed eating, sleeping, and even a nice bath. We were, in these respects, fundamentally different.

Felfi Visrotte picked up one of the white tokens, moving it toward the Wiel River.

“We’ve decided to make our stand here, at the Wiel, since they’ll need to stop there. We’ll take care of as many as we can and leave the rest to you. Think you can handle that?”

King Asparuh and Margrave Brahniey looked worried at this rather brazen plan, while Fangas and Dillan nodded confidently.

Fangas even smiled. “I’ve been looking forward to the day when I could finally see the great Dragon Lord in battle.”

This seemed to reassure Asparuh and Brahniey, and they nodded their assent.

Here, in the presence of a Dragon Lord who spoke of facing off against 200,000 undead as if it were nothing and a dark elf elder who laughed at the thought of the upcoming battle, it was clear the humans were way out of their league.

All they’d have to do was take care of any survivors that made it past Felfi Visrotte’s attack.

Though I would have loved to see that battle unfold, it was quickly becoming clear that she would handle the Salma front while I held off the assault in the Delfrent Kingdom.

Dillan laid out his plan. “All right, we’ll place around 1,000 soldiers in the two forts on the Wiel River and defend from there.”

With no objections, it seemed that the matter was settled.

Dillan picked up two white tokens and placed them next to the Wiel.

“We don’t have a lot of time to prepare. On the Salma front, Fangas will command the elven soldiers and Prince Sekt will lead his. Arc, I’d like you to take care of teleportation.”

He picked up two more white tokens and set one down on a forest and another on a town.

“After the troops have been moved to their new location, I’d like the margrave to return to Brahniey to muster his troops. Fangas will head to Drant in the Ruanne Forest to bring together the other elven soldiers who’ve agreed to join us.”

He turned back to me.

“Once you’re done preparing the Salma front, Arc, I want you to head to Delfrent so we can get our troops out there as soon as possible. We’ll be relying on you and Villiers Fim for this fight, with some support from the Jinshin clan and soldiers from Canada.”

I held Dillan’s gaze as I voiced my concern. “If Felfi Visrotte will be stationed on the border with the Salma Kingdom, then it will take me quite some time to reach Lione in the Delfrent Kingdom.”

Now that we knew the undead were moving far faster than we’d originally assumed, everything on the Delfrent front had changed as well. Sure, Goemon and his comrades had observed the undead armies still lurking around the capital, but much time had passed since then. The situation could have easily changed.

Since there was no easy way to send information across long distances in this world, other than my teleportation magic or a Dragon Lord, there was an added pressure of simply not knowing exactly where the undead were or what they were doing.

They’d already toppled both the Delfrent and Salma kingdoms with relative ease, after all.

Having lived my entire life in the modern world, where we had the advantage of quick transport and information exchange, I felt completely out of my element here.

I was trying to say that if we hoped to strike a definitive blow against the undead, then I would need to borrow Felfi Visrotte for a little while longer. However, she quickly offered up a different plan.

“I don’t see the problem here. I brought another Dragon Lord along with me, didn’t I? If I ask him, there’s no way he’ll say no.”

Her mouth curled up into another one of her trademark grins.

Just thinking about riding on Villiers Fim reminded me of our first encounter, when I’d kicked him right in the back. I let out a quiet laugh at this interesting turn of events.

 

***

 

To the west of Brahniey, the Wiel River flowed out of the Sobir Mountains and ran south, creating a natural border with the rest of the Salma Kingdom.

An imposing stone bridge spanning the river served as a critical road that connected Brahniey’s domain with the capital of Larisa. This was flanked by large forts, originally built by the Nohzan Kingdom, where soldiers were garrisoned to watch over the roads and all who crossed the bridge.

These refurbished forts were typically quite large compared to the number of soldiers stationed within them, but their tranquil atmosphere was disrupted as hundreds of new soldiers descended upon them with a certain excited fervor.

In addition to the guards who maintained posts here, there were now soldiers from Brahniey, the Rhoden Kingdom, and even the elven realms roaming about.

The elven soldiers from the Great Canada Forest had been joined by elves from the village of Drant in the Ruanne Forest, led by village elders Iwahld and Serge.

Many of the humans stationed here had never seen an elf before and couldn’t help but stare, as if they were some great novelty.

But it wasn’t only their elongated ears that drew the human’s attention. It was also the fact that the elven ranks were filled with women, something practically unheard of in the male-dominated human military. This actually helped them cope with the anxiety of standing on the front lines of a battle against the undead, a battle for their very survival.

One of the soldiers leaned over and whispered to his comrades. “Y’say that the purple lady’s a dark elf? Man, you see the way her chest bounces when she walks? I gotta admit, she really does perk things up around here.”

Several soldiers slapped the man on his back.

“I know you’re desperate, but you best keep yer little buddy in your pants there, my friend. Man or woman, the elves are ferocious fighters. I already saw some drunk idiot come on a little too strong with one of the elven women. She worked him over so bad that they had to send him to a medic.”

The man shrugged dismissively. “Don’t lump me in with that idiot! I wouldn’t dare try something like that.”

Everyone was already experiencing a mixture of excitement over the upcoming battle and a severe case of nerves at the thought of facing a massive army of the undead. No matter how attractive someone might be, they still had a job to focus on. The people gathered here were the best their respective countries had to offer, and with that came a certain sense of duty. They all knew too well that they were fighting for the survival of their species.

Humans, elves, and even mountain people were all here to face a common foe. They’d been warned by their commanders not to do anything that would disturb the peace. But even though no one would dare say it out loud, it was clear that the humans felt uncomfortable having all these non-humans around.

Suddenly waking up to thousands of soldiers appearing out of nowhere, not to mention seeing elves, a species many had only heard about in fairytales, was a shock in its own right. Even more shocking was the sheer power on parade before their very eyes. The elven forces were superior in every way to anything the humans could offer. If the elves chose not to cooperate in the coming battle, the humans were pretty much done for.

 

***

 

As such, the humans treated them with the utmost respect. Their commanders would frequently go around “inspecting” the elven encampments so that they could offer praise on everything the elves had. Not a single human dared voice their annoyance at this preferential treatment. And when the large dragon landed in the courtyard, that pretty much put an end to even the thought of squabbling.

Until recently, the Dragon Lord known as Felfi Visrotte had been nothing but a legend, the topic of many songs and poems. No one had believed that such a magnificent creature actually existed until they witnessed her soaring high in the sky on her violet-tinted wings.

At an impressive eighty meters long, the sight of her was so awe-inspiring that no one dared to step out of line, regardless of their rank or how full of bravado they usually were.

The Dragon Lord brought power beyond comprehension. One would have to be exceedingly dense to take a hard stance against the elves now, especially knowing that they could call upon the impressive might of a Dragon Lord if needed.

This made many human soldiers question whether their presence was even necessary. However, this entire battle was based on the idea of a unified front. If that cooperative spirit were lost, the dignity of the human species would be lost along with it. Each and every soldier here, from the untestedy novice to grizzled veteran, knew that much.

Fortunately, the troops’ morale was bolstered by the fact that they had powerful allies. Even that, however, was nothing compared to the revelation that the undead army they were about to face was commanded by the Holy Hilk Kingdom. They were barely able to contain their surprise upon hearing these words.

Recalling this, one of the soldiers who’d been listening to the previous exchange brought the subject back up. The disbelief was still evident on his face.

“D’ya think the Holy Hilk Kingdom is really using some kinda dark magic to control all these undead like they say?”

The other soldiers stopped cleaning their weapons for a moment and exchanged glances. There were some who didn’t—couldn’t—believe these claims, while other reactions ranged from confusion to disillusionment with the church.

The Holy Hilk Kingdom was the de facto head of the Hilk religion, the most prominent religion on the northern continent. For practitioners of the faith, it was hard to overcome their long-held belief that the Holy Hilk Kingdom was beyond reproach.

According to King Asparuh and Margrave Wendly, the Holy Hilk Kingdom had used dark magic to create an army of the undead and was now crushing their neighboring kingdoms. While no one went so far as to say that their leaders were telling lies, it was difficult to reconcile these statements with their idea of the church. It was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The only ones who didn’t seem particularly troubled by this declaration were the soldiers from the Rhoden Kingdom, where the majority held their country in higher regard than the church’s teachings.

But for the soldiers of Brahniey, who’d been raised from childhood to believe that the church’s teachings were universally true, the idea of having to change their entire worldview shook them to their very core. Despite their uncertainty, however, they all had unwavering faith in the margrave. Such was the influence he wielded.

“Y’know, I got a buddy who traveled with the margrave to the Nohzan Kingdom. According to him, some of the locals were saying that when the Hilk cardinal faced off against the elves, he turned into a giant monster.”

The soldiers leaned close, intrigued by this bit of information, and urged him to continue. The man smiled at his enraptured comrades.

“In fact, they say that all the Hilk cardinals are monsters. The whole reason the Hilk even preached about kicking around the elves and beast people was because they’re the only ones who can tell the cardinals aren’t human.”

This was met with several suspicious glares.

The Holy Hilk Kingdom being behind this whole ordeal was hard enough to believe. The idea that their ranks were made up of monsters was downright outrageous.

Moreover, it meant that the soldiers themselves were complicit in the Hilk plot by following the teachings that had been ingrained in them since birth.

Whether or not the man’s story was true, the soldiers around him agreed that something significant must have happened in order to bring the species of the world together.

The soldiers hadn’t had nearly enough time to come to terms with the tempest of emotions racing through them when the situation took a sudden turn for the worse.

Every day, the Dragon Lord would fly off toward Larisa and report back on what she’d found. Today was no different. The guards on watch spotted her as expected.

She flew straight over the fort and landed in a large clearing nearby to describe her findings. A short time later, messengers were dispatched to notify the troops to prepare for an attack.

The soldiers, who just moments before had been chattering like schoolchildren, immediately made their way toward the fort’s outer wall to get a look at who they’d be up against. They squinted at the far bank of the Wiel.

A low, gray fog hung in the air, limiting visibility. However, they could just make out a faint, black blob spreading across the horizon. They swallowed hard as the blob began taking shape.

As this indistinct darkness crested the hill on the other side of the river, it spread out even more, continuing its slow march toward the Wiel.

The undead didn’t move like any army these soldiers had seen before. It was like they all happened to be moving east toward Brahniey together in a large mass. There was something about the sight that sent chills up the spines of all who watched.

From a distance, the undead looked like infantry in dull armor, moving about in small squads. There were so many of them that they were impossible to count. The knowledge that these were no mere foot soldiers made the humans’ skin crawl.

Among the squads were other bizarre creatures that clearly weren’t human. The soldiers let out quiet gasps of horror as these freaks of nature took shape.

One of them muttered his thoughts aloud to no one in particular. “It’s like the entire continent is covered in monsters…”

The feeling was mutual among the soldiers watching this scene unfold.

The bizarre creatures stood much taller than the undead around them. They seemed to be made of the lower half of a spider, while their upper body consisted of two human torsos melded together, each sporting two arms and wielding a variety of weapons.

Neither human nor beast, these abominations were like nothing the soldiers had ever seen. Worse, they seemed to be leading the squads around them as they prepared to cross the Wiel.

The forts began ringing their alarm bells to notify all soldiers in the vicinity that the undead army was approaching.

Up in one of the fort’s towers, Margrave Brahniey and Fangas stood watch.

The margrave groaned. “Even knowing this was coming, I still can’t believe it. Hearing is one thing. Seeing such an army with my own eyes is another thing entirely.”

When the messenger from Salma had first shown up with a report on what had happened in the capital, the margrave had understood on an intellectual level just how grave things were. That’s why he’d immediately headed for the Nohzan Kingdom to seek help.

While there, by sheer luck, he was able to get his request out to the elves, beast people, and even the Rhoden Kingdom, and muster a force far greater than he could have ever hoped for.

He glared across the Wiel at the slowly approaching undead.

If they failed to hold the line, then everyone within his domain was doomed. He felt his muscles tense under the burden of that responsibility.

At his side, Fangas clapped Margrave Brahniey on the shoulder and smiled. “You look tense, Wendly. Don’t forget, we have Felfi Visrotte on our side. So long as we stick to the plan, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Fangas unclasped the heavy war hammer from his back and swung it effortlessly into the stone tiling beneath their feet. A dull thud reverberated through the room.

“Warriors of Canada, heed my call!”

His voice boomed out from the tower.

“Archers, launch a barrage of arrows to keep them in place! Felfi Visrotte will strike when the time is right! Now, show ’em what we’re made of!!!”

The elven soldiers let out a thunderous roar and lifted their weapons skyward. Brightly colored flags were raised from the tops of the watchtowers surrounding the fort, billowing in the strong breeze off the river. The second fort soon followed suit with their own flags.

The signal given, the archers hurried to their positions and took aim.

On the far bank of the Wiel, the front of the undead army had just reached the water’s edge and were preparing to ford the river. Though they were undead, they were still limited to crossing where the water was shallow enough and they could maintain their footing. This caused the squads to cluster together.

The man-spiders rushed ahead, as if impatient to lead the charge, tossing their own soldiers out of the way like rag dolls to be dragged under by the powerful current.

The undead soldiers continued their march forward, even as they began dropping, one after the next, into the river’s depths.

Margrave Brahniey stared in astonishment. “Just what in the hell…”

He wasn’t the only one at a loss for words. Soldiers all around the perimeter watched in surprise.

The elves’ expertly aimed arrows were finding their marks and thinning the ranks of the undead.

While the fort was somewhat close to the river, there were still a good 500 meters between the archers and their targets. Even with the added difficulty of the breeze off the water, the elves were still able to find their marks. This kind of archery was leaps beyond what the best humans could do. Their arrows seemed almost self-propelled, hitting their targets even when the undead attempted to dodge.

The aerial onslaught wasn’t limited to the infantry either. Even the musclebound man-spiders took their share of casualties from the barrage, despite their armor.

The arrows exploded the moment they pierced the man-spiders’ flesh, sending limbs in every direction. Once a man-spider was incapacitated, the archers would follow up with another two or three arrows until it was nothing but a lump of meat.

Margrave Brahniey watched with great interest as the elves showed off their marksmanship. Looking closer, he noticed that the archers were chanting an incantation before launching each arrow. They were using magic to power each shot.

Alas, no matter how good their archers might be, the casualties they inflicted were little more than a drop in the bucket against the invading army. Between the two forts, nearly 1,000 elven soldiers fired volley after volley, but it just wasn’t enough to make a significant impact against the army of 200,000 undead.

It wasn’t all for naught, however, as it had the effect of putting the enemy on the defensive and caused the man-spiders to order a halt. Slowly but surely, the undead fell back and reassembled on the far shore of the river. It looked as if their plan now was to rush ahead all at once, rather than sending small squads, in order to limit the effect of the arrow barrage.

The fact that they could make such a tactical move was all the proof the humans and elves needed that these were no normal, mindless undead. Someone was clearly commanding these forces.

Fangas whistled at the peculiar sight. “Knowing something logically and seeing it for yourself are completely different, eh, Wendly? I doubt I’d have believed it had I not witnessed it with my own eyes.”

Brahniey nodded. Fortunately, even this had been accounted for in their plan.

The two men watched as the undead bunched up on the far shore. Excitement welled within them as they anticipated what would happen next. It was only a matter of time.

Fangas looked up at the wispy clouds. “Any second now…”

A moment later, he spotted Felfi Visrotte floating high above the battlefield, flapping her wings and building up magic as she waited for the perfect moment.

Once she was ready, a powerful ball of magic as bright as the sun appeared above her head, glowing white-hot. It grew bigger and bigger as she pumped more energy into it.

The undead began their second rush across the Wiel, moving forward in an endless stream through the barrage of elven arrows. When one fell, another stepped up to take its place.

The archers shivered, their brows wrinkling as the arrows seemed to have less and less effect.

Then, everything changed.

The Dragon Lord grabbed the glowing object above her head and hurled it down at the undead army below. Fangas gave the signal, and the fort’s alarm bells immediately began ringing in a slow, controlled rhythm.

Squad leaders, who’d been briefed on what to do once they heard this bell, began shouting orders for their troops to get into defensive positions.

“Lower your weapons and get down! Everyone, behind the wall!”

Margrave Brahniey and his aides ducked below the window in their small watchtower while Fangas continued standing in the center of the room. He gave a wide, toothy grin as the ball of light descended silently in front of them.

The whole world went white.

BAFOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The thundering explosion was followed by an equally powerful pressure wave that caused the very earth to groan as the fort’s foundation strained. A moment later, soldiers’ fearful cries reached the margrave’s ears.

A shower of pebbles and fist-sized rocks ruthlessly pelted the hunkering soldiers, followed by a deluge of water that turned the dust covering their bodies into mud.

Margrave Brahniey’s ears were still ringing as he pulled himself to his feet. He had to yell to the soldiers next to him just to be understood.

Though everyone knew to expect a powerful magical attack, none of them had experienced anything quite like this before. It defied all expectations.

The most likely explanation was that the city’s residents had been used to create these creatures. Exactly how they’d come to serve as fodder for the giants was unclear, but as long as there was the possibility of survivors within the city limits, it would be best to keep destruction to a minimum.

I was floored by the pontiff’s ability to create such huge beings on a whim. The two days we’d dedicated to liberating Larisa had probably given him the time he needed, but there was no sense in dwelling on that now.

Fehrbio Alsus had fallen, and there was no going back.

The Brahniey forces, elves, and members of the Jinshin clan had done well to clear out Larisa under the margrave’s leadership, while rescue operations were conducted concurrently in Lione.

Despite our best efforts, we found few survivors in Lione. We had greater success in Larisa, where more of the populace had been able to escape.

According to the margrave’s report, less than a third of the city’s original population remained.

The number of survivors led to a new problem, however: arguments of control and succession among the surviving nobility. But the margrave was having none of it and immediately placed himself in provisional control of the kingdom. With the elven and Jinshin forces behind him, there wasn’t much room for argument.

There was the risk, however, that those not fond of the margrave might stage a coup, now that we’d moved the soldiers out of Larisa for our assault on the Holy Hilk Kingdom. To minimize this, Dillan had left 1,000 elven soldiers behind to supplement the margrave’s forces and maintain order.

I couldn’t help but appreciate the irony that controlling a free city was infinitely more challenging than liberating an occupied one. At the end of the day, humans were their own greatest enemy.

Just as Dillan had predicted, we only needed two days in Larisa. We then gave the soldiers a day to rest while I left with Felfi Visrotte for the Holy Hilk Kingdom to find a good teleportation spot and gather some intelligence on our enemies.

The first time we’d visited, these giants hadn’t been here.

I had no idea just how powerful the leader of the Hilk actually was, but I had a hard time believing that he could create such immense creatures in a day. Otherwise, he would have done the same back in the Delfrent Kingdom to bolster his forces.

This could only mean one thing…

When I’d come here to find a good teleportation point, I’d had Felfi Visrotte drop me a fair distance away from the capital, and I’d teleported my way in using Dimensional Step to make sure that the pontiff didn’t see me coming.

This meant that my view had been obscured by the countless undead wandering around the outskirts of the capital, not to mention the protective walls surrounding it, preventing me from getting a good look at what was going on inside.

The giants must have been underground at that time, or were somehow hidden from view.

“Never in all my years have I seen such disgusting creatures,” Felfi Visrotte growled as she gazed at the giants. We were currently flying around the city to get a look at our objective before the upcoming assault.

Dragon Lords hated undead to their very core, and the giants below seemed to bother her even more.

From a distance, the creatures looked as if they were covered in inflamed skin. They stood in place, watching our every movement.

Their eyes and mouths—or the spots where these would have been on a normal person—were large, hollowed out cavities, and their faces were completely devoid of any expression. It was…unsettling.

“They’re just…watching us.”

“Kyii! Kyiiiii!”

Ponta offered its own attempt at a menacing threat to the monsters below.

“I’d love to get a closer look, but since we don’t know what kind of abilities those things can bring to bear, it’s probably best to keep our distance.”

It didn’t look like we’d learn a whole lot more just by circling around, so I figured it best that we turn back. To my surprise, Felfi Visrotte began descending instead.

“Well, we’ll just have to find out, then. Hang on!”

She left no room for debate as she dropped down toward one of the giants. It seemed to grow bigger as we drew close.

The giant’s face locked onto us, firing a massive black ball out of the hole where its mouth should have been.

BWAFOOM!!!

“Wha?!”

The blast shook the air like a thunderclap as the black ball barreled toward us.

Felfi Visrotte deftly dodged the incoming object, and I turned to watch it crash into the ground, far in the distance. The black substance quickly melted away, eroding everything it touched.

I shuddered at the thought of what it could do to me. Felfi Visrotte seemed to share my concerns.

“I’ve never heard of death contamination being used as a weapon like this!”

This “death contamination” was a unique aura that emanated from the undead. Though I couldn’t see it myself, elves were able to use it to tell if someone was undead or not. But this thing the giant had shot at us was a physical sphere.

The only way I could explain it was that the death contamination within the sphere was far denser than usual, which allowed me to see it.

“Kyi! Kyii!” Ponta called out a warning from where it was wrapped around my neck.

I turned back just in time to see the giant slowly twist its massive body, its feet tearing up the streets below as it shifted, and fire another volley. There were three projectiles this time.

BWAFOOM!!! BWAFOOM!!! BWAFOOM!!!

Felfi Visrotte spun, gracefully dodging this barrage as well.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite so lucky. I lost my grip on her back and fell.

“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuugh!!!”

“Kyiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!”

I was helpless as my body spun end over end, the ground rushing up to meet me. After a bit of effort, I managed to straighten myself out and started looking for a place on the ground to teleport to.

However, at the rate I was falling, it was hard to focus on any specific landmark. The ground was rapidly approaching, and I was running out of options. I searched desperately for something, anything, to latch onto. Just as I was about to hit the ground, I felt an incredible force slam into my side, catching me. Looking up, I met Felfi Visrotte’s reptilian gaze.

“Sorry ’bout that, Arc. Anyway, just try to hang on a bit longer while I get us back to the rest of the army.”

She’d caught me right in her massive jaws. From an outsider’s perspective, it must’ve looked like she was eating me.

While I was happy not to have fallen to my death, we were hardly out of the woods yet.

The two giants were now working in concert to coordinate their attacks on Felfi Visrotte and block her escape. The battle had only grown more intense.

For her part, the Dragon Lord shot off several energy blasts at the giants in an attempt to overwhelm them. The attacks looked similar to the one she’d used against me back at the stadium.

The energy blasted away chunks of the giants upon impact, but the holes quickly filled with more human parts. Apparently, they had the ability to regenerate too.

Felfi Visrotte’s attacks on the black spheres, however, fared a bit better. She was able to blast the incoming shots right out of the sky, though she was having a hard time keeping up with the incoming barrage.

As she weaved through several more shots, I noticed one more coming straight for us. Without thinking, I cast a spell.

“Holy Protection!”

A bright light began spreading out from me and across Felfi Visrotte’s body, like a thin, glowing membrane surrounding us.

The black sphere struck her side only a moment later, exploding in a black mist that quickly dissipated.

The two giants slowed their movements, giving Felfi Visrotte a chance to finally put some distance between us and them.

Once we were out of range of their attacks, they immediately stopped shooting.

I glanced down at the giants and the streets torn up beneath them. If there had been anyone left alive in those piles of rubble, they were almost certainly dead now.

The Dragon Lord turned to look at me. “Thanks for the assist back there, Arc.”

Holy Protection was a support ability from the Paladin class that shielded you and your party members from dark-elemental attacks. It seemed to have worked perfectly. Unfortunately, the spell had worn off after the blow, and her body had returned to normal.

I risked another glance down from my perch. The two giants were following us intently with the caverns that served as their eyes.

Without a doubt, they would prove to be a major obstacle in our assault on Alsus. I could only imagine what would happen to the rank-and-file soldiers if they were hit by one of those black spheres.

Felfi Visrotte glowered at the disgusting creatures below and offered a plan of her own. “Do you think if Villy and I draw those disgusting beasts’ attention, you could take down the person behind all this?”

I’d completely forgotten that we had another Dragon Lord at our disposal.

I’d originally been thinking of facing the giants using my Paladin abilities, but that would present a great risk to the two Dragon Lords if they also joined in the battle. Besides, I had serious doubts about whether I’d actually be able to take those two on by myself, especially if I hoped to leave any of the city intact.

I agreed to Felfi Visrotte’s plan and asked her to take me back to the outskirts, where the rest of our forces were waiting.

She beat her massive wings to pick up speed. I leaned back, trying to enjoy the ride while I thought about the upcoming battle.

I crossed my arms and groaned. There was also the fact that the pontiff was nowhere to be found. But would he really have left his entire kingdom behind?

I didn’t know a whole lot about his personality, so it was possible that he’d abandoned the city. However, I had a hard time believing that he’d just leave these…things.

Either way, we needed to purge the undead from the Hilk capital.

We arrived at the location to the southeast of Fehrbio Alsus where the rest of our forces were waiting. I was still hanging out of Felfi Visrotte’s mouth.

Ten thousand troops had gathered here, of different species and nations: humans from the Nohzan Kingdom, the Rhoden Kingdom, and Brahniey in the Salma Kingdom; elves from Maple and Drant; mountain people from the Jinshin clan; and two Dragon Lords. It truly was a sight to behold.

This was probably the first time in history that so many people of different species and creeds had come together. This was evident in the way they watched each other with great interest.

In the middle of this patchwork sat a large tent where all the commanders of the different forces met to discuss strategy.

I stood in the center of the tent, all eyes on me.

Dillan furrowed his brow. “Indestructible giants? I never would have imagined they’d have such things.”

Ariane stood at her father’s side, her face taut with concern.

Fangas, the muscle-bound high elder from the Great Canada Forest, spoke next. “And what about those dense balls of death contamination? If someone got hit by one, they’d be dead before they knew what happened. Judging from the sheer size of the things, their range must be pretty impressive. I don’t even know how we’ll approach the capital, let alone take it back.”

Upon hearing about the death contamination spheres shot by the undead giants, everyone in the room had grown visibly tense.

There was only one person smiling throughout all of this: Felfi Visrotte. She stood next to me in her humanoid form, confidence radiating from her face.

“Now, don’t you worry. Villiers Fim and I will keep those giants busy for ya. Besides, Arc here can cast a spell on y’all that will protect you from one—but only one—of those death contamination shots. That makes it at least a little better, now doesn’t it?”

With that, all eyes were back on me.

Margrave Brahniey was the first to question this. “Is that true, Arc?”

I mean, sure, I’d only just discovered that this spell even worked, but I didn’t need to tell them that.

“I used it on Felfi Visrotte earlier, and despite taking a direct hit, we survived without suffering any ill effects. However, it remains to be seen whether the human body can survive a direct hit, even with Holy Protection to absorb the death contamination.”

Sure, a powerful creature like a Dragon Lord could withstand it, but a normal human might just get blown away. Casting Holy Protection on the troops was no guarantee that they’d be safe.

Prince Sekt, leader of the Rhoden forces, brushed his bangs out of his eyes and sighed.

“Well, I imagine the easiest way to minimize the risk to our forces is to avoid any large formations. That way we don’t lose a bunch of soldiers all in one go.” From his sardonic grin, it was clear that he’d suffered no lasting effects from his previous injuries.

Next to speak was Zahar Bakharov, Princess Riel’s bodyguard and the man commanding the Nohzan army. “That would mean organizing our troops into small squads to carry out guerrilla strikes, but I don’t know how much good even that will do us. So long as those giants are around, I don’t think we stand a chance at assaulting the capital.”

At the request of King Asparuh himself, Niena, Riel’s other bodyguard, was serving as Zahar’s advisor. What the two of them lacked in authority and political influence, they more than made up for in experience. They were slowly gaining more esteem in the King’s eyes.

Chiyome, one of the six great warriors of the Jinshin clan, and the youngest person in the room, chimed in next. “We need to remember that we aren’t fighting another army of humans, but disorganized undead forces without any real sense of strategy. I think it would be best for us to wait until the giants are preoccupied with the Dragon Lords and then draw the undead out into the open to attack them in small groups. All while staying out of the giants’ range, of course.”

Goemon, the hulking feline who could even put the muscular Fangas to shame, crossed his arms and nodded in agreement with his younger companion.

It would be easy to discount Chiyome due to her diminutive size, but the mammoth cat man standing behind her lent additional weight to her words. Not that it was needed; most of the people in this tent were well aware of her abilities.

The only one who surprised me was Prince Sekt. I’d originally written him off as just another young royal, but he’d proven himself in the battle over the Wiel River, personally leading the charge into swarming undead.

Now that we’d gained some consensus, Dillan offered an impassioned speech. “I think that’s an excellent idea, Chiyome. I would like each of the forces to formulate their own strategy around this plan. Remember, everyone, this will be our last battle with the Holy Hilk Kingdom. Once this matter has been resolved, we will begin a new chapter in our shared history. We are standing at the cusp of a brand-new future for all of us.”

After letting out a small cheer, the leaders immediately left the tent and hurried back to their respective forces to pass along the marching orders.

“Well, it looks like the battle is about to start.”

“Kyii!”

I reached down and patted the spirit creature wrapped around my neck as I stepped out of the tent. I could just barely make out the outline of the massive cathedral of Fehrbio Alsus to the northeast.

Beside me were Ariane, with her hair tied back in a ponytail, and Chiyome, who’d redone her hair with a ribbon—black, to match her clothes. Goemon approached and bumped my fist in greeting before turning to look at the capital as well.

“Well, I guess we should get going?”

“Yeah.”

“Guess so.”

“Hm.”

It looked like we were all in agreement.

 

***

 

Felfi Visrotte arched her neck to look at Arc and all the soldiers gathered together in the distance.

“Looks like they’re about to start, yeah?”

She spread her beautiful, violet-patterned wings as far as they would go, then flapped them a few times, as if to make sure they were still working. Even that simple act kicked up a violent gust of wind.

Compared to his fellow Dragon Lord, Villiers Fim sounded far less confident as he gazed at Arc and the others. “Shouldn’t we get going soon?”

For a moment, Felfi Visrotte looked taken aback by this. Then she opened her mouth wide and cackled. “And here I thought your heart wasn’t in the fight, boy. Now look at you, all ready to go.”

Villiers Fim scowled and averted his gaze, twisting his large tail around to scratch the back of his neck. “I was just thinking about how things will settle down a bit once we get this out of the way. That’s all.”

Felfi Visrotte let out another loud, throaty laugh. “Fine, fine. Let’s be off then, yeah?”

With another powerful thrust of her wings, she was airborne.

From the sky, the army of 10,000 looked disjointed, the soldiers all operating in small, independent squads as they marched toward the same goal: the holy capital. Any moment now, the forces below would stop just shy of the giants’ attack range.

Felfi Visrotte tried to spot Arc in the crowd. Thanks to her excellent vision, she found him among the other infantry in no time. She picked up speed, Villiers Fim following close behind. A moment later, the two Dragon Lords landed right in front of him.

“Holy Protection!” Arc cast the spell as soon as they came to a stop.

Glowing light surrounded their bodies as the magic took effect. Felfi Visrotte gave herself a quick once-over, then she was airborne again, heading for the capital. Villiers Fim followed soon after.

The closer they drew to the capital, the more undead they saw amassing outside the city limits.

“Take some of this!”

Felfi Visrotte let off a volley of glowing projectiles flying down to the earth like shooting stars. They exploded with a massive roar, sending dirt and limbs everywhere.

Arc had referred to this as an “aerial bombing.”

“Gyahaha! Like music to my ears!”

As the Dragon Lord took a victory lap after her devastating attack, she summoned hundreds of tiny balls of light around her body, then sent them down on the enemy troops as well.

Though each of the individual blasts was much weaker compared to the previous attack, they more than made up for it in sheer density, blanketing the land in fiery death.

Not wanting to be left out, Villiers Fim released a massive tornado of his own, which tore across the plains, leaving a trail of carnage in its wake. The whole affair was about as strenuous to the Dragon Lords as mowing a somewhat unwieldy lawn.

Alas, their fun ended once the giants at the center of the capital caught sight of them and started shooting black spheres of death contamination. It was time to get serious.

Their emotionless, gaping maws of raw flesh followed the Dragon Lords as they approached, shooting sphere after sphere in an attempt to hit their targets.

As each black sphere smashed into the earth, they melted into a disgusting corrosive substance that disintegrated everything they touched…even the undead.

The Dragon Lords split up, still dodging the incoming shots. Within minutes, they’d reached the city limits and were within range of the protective wall surrounding the capital. Felfi Visrotte opened her mouth, accumulating energy into a massive ball of light, which she shot at the wall below.

With a flash and a thunderous boom, a massive gash was torn into the wall. Its integrity compromised, the wall began crumbling, like an avalanche of stone.

Villiers Fim passed into the capital proper, dodging shots as he closed in on the giants. One of them reached for him, but was quickly knocked back, thanks to another blast from Felfi Visrotte.

The attack might have struck the giant’s arm off were it not for its fast-acting regenerative abilities. Flesh and muscle bubbled out from within, reconnecting the limb almost immediately.

Felfi Visrotte was now thoroughly enraged. “These are gonna be a real pain in the ass! Can’t you just die already, your sick freaks?!”

She swooped in close and swung her dagger-like tail into the giant’s face, lopping off the top half of its head.

The giant shuddered, and it seemed as if its entire body screamed in unison. A black mist rose off its body as it frantically searched for the rest of its head. However, Felfi Visrotte was the first to find it and shot multiple blasts at the severed flesh, blowing it to oblivion.

The giant turned its attention back to her and launched another barrage of the black spheres. She ducked behind a building for cover before launching higher into the air. She retreated, putting some distance between her and the monster.

“You’re really startin’ to annoy me, y’know? I don’t feel like playing this game all day.”

She launched another volley, watching as each ball of energy exploded with an enormous blast that sent pieces of flesh flying in every direction. The immense giant stumbled.

The Dragon Lord pressed her assault as she pushed closer, swinging her razor-sharp tail into the giant’s right arm, followed by its left, cleanly lopping off both of them.

The giant fell to its knees, casting about for its missing limbs.

Felfi Visrotte launched another salvo at the severed arms, leaving nothing but dust behind. The giant now looked significantly weakened.

“You’re way too big for your own good, boy. And I’m gonna fix that!”

Deftly dodging another round of black spheres, the Dragon Lord glanced over to check on Villiers Fim. She found him sending tornado after tornado at his own opponent, the powerful wind funnels surrounding the giant and pinning it in place.

Once it was stuck, Villiers Fim began shooting wind blades, chipping away at the giant’s body like an artist carving ice.

Despite the undead giant’s best efforts to regenerate, it was losing more and more mass by the minute. To Felfi Visrotte’s eye, it now looked a fair bit shorter than the giant she was facing.

Even though Villiers Fim couldn’t bring anywhere near as much raw power to the battlefield as Felfi Visrotte could, he more than made up for it with his skill, as evidenced by this sustained attack.

The thousands of victims making up this giant let out an unsettling scream as the Dragon Lord chipped away at them, though their voices could only be faintly heard above the howling wind. Within minutes, the giant had been reduced to practically nothing.

Remembering that her own foe was still far from defeated, Felfi Visrotte turned to find that the armless giant was closing in on Villiers Fim.

“Oh, no!”

She flapped her wings in a desperate attempt to catch up.

The giant was practically on top of Villiers Fim when it launched its next volley of black spheres. Fortunately, he was able to blast them away with tornadoes.

The other giant took this opportunity to launch an attack of its own from within its wind prison. Villiers Fim lost focus, and his magic weakened, as he tried dodging the attacks from both directions. The confined giant used this opportunity to slam its body straight through the cyclones and break out.

Felfi Visrotte was furious with herself for having let her guard down like that, but there was no time to dwell on her mistake. She needed to take down the armlessgiant.

She dove for its back, where, much to her horror, a gaping hole opened, out of which shot another massive black sphere. It was coming right at her.

“Wha?!”

The sphere struck Felfi Visrotte in the head, knocking her back into a building. Thankfully, the magic spell Arc had cast on her earlier protected her from any of its ill effects.

The giant followed this up with a kick, which the Dragon Lord blocked with her tail. This stunned the giant just long enough to allow her to escape.

“If it weren’t for Arc, I’d be a goner. I need to keep my guard up and remember that this monstrosity’s face is nothing more than a decoration.”

The giant shot several more black spheres out of its mouth, but they were no match for Felfi Visrotte’s speed and agility. She returned the attacks blow for blow with energy blasts of her own.

While this was happening, Villiers Fim was slowly pulling back to gain some distance from his opponent.

The sky grew dark, and a bright flash of lighting struck the top of the giant’s head, followed by an ear-shattering thunderclap. The corpses forming the surface of the giant’s body were charred instantly, though even that damage was quickly regenerated.

“I’ve made some progress, but this is really starting to annoy me!”

The Dragon Lord launched several more tornadoes to knock his opponent’s latest barrage off course before jerking to the side to avoid yet another attack from the armless giant.

This battle was taking a heavy toll on the capital, but the Dragon Lords didn’t have the luxury of thinking about property damage at the moment.

Felfi Visrotte and Villiers Fim flew back again to get some breathing room, both launching attacks to keep the creatures at bay.

However, the giants completely ignored the barrage and pressed on, shooting sphere after sphere of death contamination. Felfi Visrotte grumbled deep in her throat. It began to feel as though the tables were turning—and not in the right direction.

All of a sudden, the armless giant and its shrunken comrade dove into each other. Within seconds, their bodies began melding.

“What?!”

“No way!”

The two giants morphed together, the corpses making up their bodies pooling and fusing. The single creature now had four arms, each with its own hole to shoot more black spheres. Combined with the one in its face, it could now launch five projectiles at once.

“C’mon, give us a break! This is getting ridiculous!”

Felfi Visrotte shot a volley of energy blasts to destroy some of the incoming spheres, while pulling off impressive aerobatic maneuvers to avoid the ones she couldn’t hit.

The monster continued growing, angling its upper body and launching black spheres like it was some sort of anti-aircraft artillery. Felfi Visrotte swooped through the barrage until she was within striking distance and slashed clean through one of its arms with her tail. However, the giant simply stomped on its own severed arm, absorbing the mass of flesh into its leg. A moment later, a new arm emerged.

Villiers Fim sent a fusillade of wind blades at their enlarged opponent, but it regenerated just as fast as either of them could damage it.

The giant was now standing at an impressive ninety meters tall—larger even than Felfi Visrotte, and more than double the size of Villiers Fim.

“Gyaugh! Its regeneration speed has increased too!”

Villiers Fim dodged another shot and decided to fall back to get some breathing room.

Suddenly, each of the giant’s four arms split in half, giving it eight cannons to shoot from. This kept Felfi Visrotte from getting too close, her only option now to attack from above with her energy blasts. But with each successful blow, the giant simply stomped on any severed body part and reabsorbed it.

Felfi Visrotte was starting to reach her limit. Out of frustration, she was considering simply blasting away the ground itself when her thoughts were suddenly interrupted. The giant’s foot began glowing.

Once again, the corpses making up the massive creature began shrieking in unison, as if the door to hell had been opened, unleashing the screams of the damned.

When the light faded, she saw that the giant was now standing on just one leg, the other having completely vanished below the knee. It lost its balance and tumbled forward.

The giant hit the ground with such force that the shockwave alone leveled all of the nearby buildings. A massive cloud of dust kicked up, obscuring the central capital.

The Dragon Lords weren’t about to let such a perfect opportunity go to waste. Even through the thick dust, they were still able to pick out their target; such were their keenly tuned senses for hunting the undead.

“You can’t hide from me that easily!”

Felfi Visrotte dove down into the dense dust and chopped off two of the giant’s arms, then shot back up into the sky. Villiers Fim sent out two more tornado blasts to tear the arms to shreds before they could regenerate, leaving chunks no larger than a pebble in their place.

“Looks like we just might win yet!”

Felfi Visrotte let out a hearty chuckle as she launched back into the dust cloud to inflict more wounds. With every piece of flesh she lopped off, Villiers Fim would follow up with his powerful wind bursts to destroy it.

They repeated this process over and over until the haunted screams of the dead fell silent, only to be replaced by the Dragon Lords’ roar of victory.

 

***

 

As the armies approached Fehrbio Alsus’s outer wall, the bell towers of the massive cathedral seemed to double in size. The closer they got, the more undead remains they encountered, completely annihilated by the thick, black contamination of death.

The army had split into small units, careful to maintain distance from one another as they advanced on the capital. Each and every soldier was on alert for any hidden undead. Though this abundance of caution was necessary, it made for very slow progress.

The entire formation was led by Ariane and a group of elves, Chiyome and a contingent of the Jinshin clan, and a group of human knights.

Arc marched cheerfully at the front, stroking the spirit creature wrapped tightly around his neck.

Fangas looked over at his granddaughter, who’d been silently staring at Arc’s back. “You nervous, Ariane?”

He was about as tall and muscular as Arc, and wore tight-fitting leather armor pocked with battle scars. According to the stories she’d heard, her grandfather had singlehandedly taken down a cardinal on the front lines of the Wiel, using the massive war hammer he carried on his back.

Though it’d been ages since he’d retired from military service, the years didn’t seem to have slowed him one bit.

Ariane sighed. “A little, I guess. I mean, with all those undead out there waiting for us…”

Chiyome turned to Ariane and raised a fist, determined to cheer her up. “Don’t worry, Ariane! I’ll keep you safe!”

Ariane felt herself flush. She gave her cheeks a gentle slap to focus herself.

Fangas looked down at his granddaughter and rapped his fist against the thick armor covering his chest. “Thinking too much leads to paralysis. Besides, I’m here. Now’s your chance to show me what you’re made of.”

He flashed a broad, toothy grin, though the scar running down his face still lent him an intimidating air.

Ariane gave a determined nod and focused her attention ahead.

A few moments later, the sound of massive wings flapping filled the air. The two Dragon Lords swooped down and landed in front of Arc.

Things were going exactly as planned.

Arc raised his right fist high into the air and cast a spell.

“Holy Protection!”

A bright flash of light spread out from him until it encompassed the mammoth Dragon Lords, Ariane, Chiyome, Fangas, Goemon, and all the other soldiers nearby. Once cast, a thin layer of light surrounded their bodies.

This display of magic shocked the humans, of course, but even the elves seemed surprised by the scale of this particular spell.

As Arc explained it, the spell would protect them from the toxic effects of the giants’ death contamination, though the effect would only last for a single blow.

The Dragon Lords took to the air again, heading straight for the capital. Moments later, Felfi Visrotte began shooting blasts of light down at the ground, sending plumes of dirt and smoke high into the air.

Even at this distance, Ariane and Chiyome could feel the ground beneath them shake as the pressure waves rocked the earth.

Villiers Fim flew behind and slightly to the side of his larger companion, loosing tornado blasts that threw anyone in their path high into the sky.

Their devastating assault cleared a route from the army all the way to the gates of the capital. Once the soldiers realized what the Dragon Lords had done, they erupted into boisterous cheers.

While the troops celebrated their good fortune, Arc used Dimensional Step to teleport to the remaining squads, stopping just long enough to cast Holy Protection on them.

It was time for the united forces to march on the capital.

One of the human squads rushed ahead to take down some of the weakened undead that the Dragon Lords had missed. They met little resistance, which only served to spur them on to find more enemies to fight.

However, they soon ran into a man-spider with half of its upper body missing. It clawed up from the rubble, its remaining hands clutching a massive sword. By the time the frenzied soldiers caught sight of it, it was too late.

“Watch out!” One of the soldiers let out a shrill scream.

They suddenly realized just how exposed they were and started running toward the relative safety of the front lines.

“F-fall back!!!” Another soldier barked commands in an attempt to get the rest under some semblance of order.

The man-spider rushed ahead, swinging its giant blade, the stump of its missing human torso flapping loosely behind it.

The soldiers screamed and howled as they came to terms with their imminent death. Suddenly, a voice broke through the pandemonium.

“Savage Spike!”

By the time these words reached the soldier’s ears, a single arrow was already sticking out of the man-spider’s remaining torso. Then, a moment later…

BASHOOM!

The man-spider’s upper body was torn apart in a violent explosion. Its spider legs took another two or three steps before collapsing, motionless, before fizzling away into a black sludge.

The soldiers’ ears were still ringing as they searched for whoever had come to their aid. They spotted a single elf nearby, bow at the ready. She humbly acknowledged their thanks with a simple nod of her head.

However, her magical arrow only marked the beginning of the barrage. As if on cue, the rest of the elven archers let their arrows fly. They passed over the human soldiers’ heads to impale more man-spiders off in the distance. Just like before, there was a brief pause followed by a thunderous boom. The serenity that had once lay over this field was a distant memory.

The elves usually reserved such magical arrow attacks for the largest monsters that roamed the Great Canada Forest, usually in order to ensure a hit through dense vegetation.

But since the attack was powerful enough to rip someone clean in half, it was the perfect choice to use against the man-spiders.

During the planning phase, it had been decided that the elves, with their impressive array of magical techniques, and the physically gifted Jinshin clan would focus on clearing out the man-spiders, while the humans focused on slaying the undead infantry.

Prince Sekt led the Rhoden troops in several separate but tightly integrated squads. The advance guard consisted of infantry carrying tower shields, which created an impenetrable moving wall. While the undead occupied themselves with the shield bearers, the soldiers behind skewered the enemy with spears.

Though this greatly slowed their advance, it also meant that all the undead in their way were completely annihilated, clearing a path for the elven archers to follow.

Of course, they were only able to operate like this as long as they stayed outside the range of the undead giants.

In the distance, a trumpet sounded, causing Margrave Brahniey to groan. The nearby elves, who weren’t used to fighting in large-scale conflicts like this, grew visibly confused at this sudden noise.

Unlike the soldiers serving under Prince Sekt, the margrave’s commanders expertly led their squads without additional orders. Such was the breadth of their training. They linked up with and separated from other squads as needed, like a well-oiled machine.

It had also become clear that Zahar—the leader of the Nohzan forces, supported by Niena—had little experience in large-scale troop movements. There was hardly any cohesion between his squads.

However, the sight of Zahar rushing ahead and cleaving any enemy that crossed his path did a lot for the soldiers’ morale. After all, he’d come up from the same humble beginnings as them.

Though the unified forces could only muster around 10,000 soldiers, they were still able to hold their own against the legions of undead, thanks to the Dragon Lords, who’d forced the enemy to spread out.

And then there was the other heavy damage dealer up front, breaking up any undead clusters.

“Lightning Damper!”

Arc had charged into the heart of the enemy and let loose a powerful area-of-effect spell that sent lightning bolts raining from the sky.

He them teleported into another cluster and used a different technique.

“Bring Whirlwind!”

This attack caused a powerful gust of air to whip around, lifting the undead high into the air before dumping them unceremoniously on the ground, where they were quickly dispatched by the advancing troops.

Even after casting so many spells, Arc didn’t look winded. He was proving himself an invaluable ally on the battlefield.

The elves who’d watched his match against Felfi Visrotte back in the Maple stadium cheered him on as he tore through the enemy. They had high expectations for him, and he didn’t disappoint.

Ariane glowered at Arc as she struck down undead on her own. “Well, I’m not about to let him hog all the attention!”

She reached her free hand into her bag and pulled out a tubular object.

“Spirits of fire, lend your ears and grant me your protection!”

A barrier of leaves materialized, protecting her. She swung her sword, and it burst into flames. She then held the tubular object in front of her and cleaved it in two with her burning blade. Flames poured out of it, further fueling her sword until the flames licking off it reached well into the sky. It almost looked as if she were wielding a bonfire.

“May your flames of retribution set those who have strayed back onto the proper path, ready to receive your guidance.”

Dropping the rest of the tube, Ariane clasped the hilt of her sword firmly in both hands and lifted it high into the air, bathing everything around her in its flickering, red glow. She took a step forward and swung the blade with all her might, unleashing a massive pillar of fire.

The undead in its path were instantly reduced to ash.

The pillar of fire began transforming, growing flaming branches and even leaves.

Ariane smiled at the sight.

“I’m not holding back today! I’ve been granted permission to use powdered mana, so I’m free to show Arc a thing or two!”

Ariane reached into her bag again and pulled out another tube filled with powdered mana. While typically used as a power source for magical items, powdered mana was also used by elven soldiers to consume less of their spirit magic when casting spells.

It all sounded rather simple, but it took years of training to learn how to use powdered mana properly and in the right amounts, a skill that many battle-hardened veterans hadn’t mastered.

After spending years watching her older sister, Eevin, use powdered mana expertly, Ariane began to see her own lack of skill as a personal shortcoming. Eventually, however, she’d realized that her sister simply stood a head above the rest, and there was no sense measuring herself against her sister. But that hadn’t stopped Ariane from becoming an exceptional soldier in her own right.

Ariane’s fellow elves watched in amazement as she used her powerful technique to incinerate swarms of undead.

Fangas looked especially proud of his granddaughter, even as he barreled his way through enemy soldiers, swinging his mammoth war hammer as if it weighed nothing.

“I’m not ceding my place to the next generation just yet!”

He offered a toothy grin and raised his hammer high.

“Great spirits of the earth, heed my call and offer me your protection!”

Leaves whipped up from the ground, forming a protective barrier around Fangas. Though this attack was incredibly similar to the one cast moments ago by Ariane, the energy radiating off his war hammer was something else entirely.

The air around the hammer shimmered as the ground beneath his feet groaned. Beams of light shot out of both the weapon and the earth, the energy accumulating at the hammer’s head.

“Spirits, I summon you from your earthen slumber!”

The earth began shaking even more violently, as if something were clawing its way out of the planet’s crust. The tremor was so violent that both enemy and ally alike struggled to stand.

“Spirits of the earth, call upon your wayward children and lead them back to the everlasting darkness!”

Fangas swung the massive hammer down, smashing the ground with such force that the earth itself tore open. The rift continued growing wider and wider into a dark, bottomless chasm that bore a disturbing resemblance to the mouth of a giant beast. Humans and elves alike watched, terrified, as it began swallowing the undead. Even the man-spiders weren’t fast enough to outrun it.

After gorging itself on a significant number of the undead, the large mouth slowly closed, until there was no evidence that it had ever even existed.

“My friend here has been without its rune stone for far too long. It sure feels good to use it again.” Fangas patted the head of his war hammer affectionately.

His hammer had been custom-built to store powdered mana within it, allowing him to use magical attacks on a whim. Though similar to the method used by Ariane, his attacks were far more destructive, on par with something Arc or even one of the Dragon Lords might pull off.

Throughout his life, Fangas had diligently collected the rune stones from each and every monster he’d killed and refined them into powdered mana. He’d then embedded this within his hammer so it would always be available to him.

Years had passed without an opportunity to use all of this hard-won powdered mana. In fact, Fangas had begun to wonder if perhaps his hammer was destined to become a decoration, its mana forever unused. It felt good to finally lay that question to rest.

He’d originally intended to use this specific attack during the battle over the Wiel, but after Felfi Visrotte had wiped out almost the entire invading army, using such power against the few remaining undead seemed like a waste.

Fangas rested the hammer against his shoulder and turned off his attention toward the capital. The two Dragon Lords were in a desperate battle against the giants towering over the city center. The unmitigated destruction was impossible to put into words.

On her way into the capital, Felfi Visrotte had blown a massive hole in the protective wall surrounding it, and the rest of the wall had crumbled in an avalanche of bricks.

Thanks to the sheer destructive force of the Dragon Lord’s attack, as well as Fangas’s powerful spirit magic, the route to the capital was now mostly clear, shy of some undead still trapped in the rubble.

The battle between the Dragon Lords and the giants was well and truly underway, with the mammoth monsters shooting spheres of death in every direction as the Dragon Lords closed in.

Fangas was relieved to see that the giants were too preoccupied with the Dragon Lords to pay much attention to the advancing foot soldiers. He couldn’t bear to think about what would happen if they were hit by one of the death contamination projectiles.

The spheres were so massive that if the giants were to shoot one toward the troops in the field, there’d be nowhere for them to hide.

However, once they were within the city limits, there should be enough buildings to provide ample cover from any attacks the giants might send their way. Getting through the hole in the wall and into the city proper before they were spotted was of the utmost importance.

Fangas’s voice boomed across the plains. “We’ve broken through! Follow me to the capital!” He charged, using his war hammer to bat enemy soldiers out of his way.

The elven soldiers responded with a battle cry and followed the high elder, killing any undead in their path.

The Jinshin clan, having helped the elves eliminate the man-spiders, responded next. Chiyome and Goemon led the group toward the shattered wall at such speed that they managed to overtake the elves.

“Body to earth, exploding steel fist!” Goemon clanked his metal gauntlets, and his arms grew hard, taking on a dull, silver sheen.

His fists dealt lethal blows to each undead enemy that came near, leaving a trail of crushed bodies in his wake.

“Body to water, aqua lance slash!”

Meanwhile, Chiyome used her water lance to perform deliberate, surgical strikes on her enemies, disarming them so that the troops behind her could pick them off.

Whether in a forest, on a plain, or even the middle of a wasteland, no one could match the pace of the Jinshin clan. They reached the outer wall far ahead of the rest of the army.

The wall was still kicking up clouds of dust when they arrived, though it wasn’t enough to hinder their vision. Occasionally, an undead soldier came running out of the hole in the wall, but they were quickly dispatched by Goemon.

Chiyome surveyed the city beyond. Since the stench of death permeated everything, it was impossible for her to tell if any undead remained inside. Instead, her eyes were drawn to the outline of a figure standing in the middle of a dust-filled street.

It was a man, dressed in elaborate, priestly robes. He looked to be in his late twenties, and stood around 190 centimeters tall. The muscles rippling beneath his robes made him look more like a soldier than a man of thecloth.

Even from this distance, she could smell the unmistakable stench wafting off of him.

Goemon eyed the man warily and spoke in a low, growling voice. “Undead.”

Chiyome nodded.

“Where Augrent and Tismo have failed, I will succeed. I will protect His Holiness! Hyaaahahahaha!” The man’s voice boomed in an ominous echo.

His body began to twitch and bulge.

“I am Marcos Invidia Humanitas. I have been granted the title of cardinal by His Holiness the pontiff, and given the task of protecting our holy capital. This is your one and only chance to leave my sight, you and your repulsive comrades. If you don’t…”

Marcos’s body started puffing and growing, popping the seams of his clothes as he transformed into a hideous monster with tentacles for arms. He stood four meters tall, and was covered in gray-brown flesh.

His head now looked like a pulsating tumor with one massive eye, surrounded by a cluster of smaller eyes. Each one moved independently, making for a rather unsettling sight.

One tentacle stretched across his face in a gross imitation of a mustache, while six more tentacles, three on each side, tore out from his back, giving him a total of eight limbs with which to grab his prey.

The horrendous stench of death emanating from the man, and the enormous power clearly available to him, was enough to convince Goemon and Chiyome to fall back and put some distance between him and themselves.

The rubble beneath the Jinshin clan exploded, and pitch-black stones burst from the earth to spear them. This was clearly the cardinal’s work, but Chiyome couldn’t tell how he’d done it.

She normally wasn’t one to let her emotions show, but this defied explanation. The attack Marcos had used was similar to a special ninjutsu technique that was used exclusively by the Jinshin clan, but it required the user to have made a pact using a pledge spirit crystal.

Goemon furrowed his brow, seemingly thinking the same thing. “Look at his chest.”

Chiyome looked closer at the cardinal and saw a familiar sight. “I can’t believe we found it all the way out here.”

Affixed to Marcos’s chest was the distinct diamond shape of the lost pledge spirit crystal, though it no longer held the same ruby luster as the one in her own chest. The crystal had turned a dark black, the color of pitch, and gave off a peculiar glow.

“Begone with you, cretins!” the cardinal screeched. “This land belongs to the Holy Lord Thanatos!”

Black energy shot out of his eight tentacles as he lurched forward, quickly closing the distance between him and the two Jinshin warriors.

BWOOMF! BWOOMF! BWOOMF!

Each shot sounded like a miniature explosion, followed shortly by a shower of bricks as it slammed into a building, missing Chiyome and Goemon by a hairsbreadth.

“Look at his hands.”

Chiyome followed Goemon’s steely gaze. What she saw brought a scowl to her face.

The skin on the cardinal’s massive hands pulsed as it decayed and regenerated over and over.

“Just possessing the spirit crystal is affecting him.”

Spotting a possible weakness, Chiyome launched an attack of her own. “Body to water, aqua shuriken!”

She threw the stars at the cardinal as fast as she could generate them. Each found its mark, cutting deep into his undead flesh.

The eyes embedded in the pulsing tumor that served as his head focused on Chiyome, his face contorting with rage.

“Why, you dirty little mongrel!”

Several of the cardinal’s tentacles snapped through the air like whips toward Chiyome. The ninja cat girl gracefully dodged them, managing to chop one of the tendrils off as it flew past her.

“Curse you!!!”

Now thoroughly enraged, Marcos stretched out all eight of his hands once again and launched another volley of black energy, followed by a second tendril strike.

BWOOMF! BWOOMF! BWOOMF!

This attack was even more powerful than the last. Chiyome could feel the concussive waves rock her body as an enormous cloud of dust filled the area, obstructing her vision.

Goemon chose to use this to his advantage, moving into the cardinal’s blind spot and unleashing an attack from behind while the monster was focused on Chiyome.

“Body to earth, exploding steel fist!”

Goemon pummeled his opponent’s back with such speed and power that, with this single strike, he managed to rip two arms right off of Marcos’s back. Then he punched another fist right through the cardinal’s body.

Burgundy blood oozed from the wound. The cardinal spat out a mouthful of the thick liquid before leaping up to the top of a neighboring building. But the damaged roof gave way, and he fell through.

“Body to water, liquid wolf fang!”

Chiyome summoned two water wolves, sending them after the cardinal as he tried to crawl out from under the mountain of bricks that had landed on him.

“You pathetic little worms are nothing to meeeeeee!”

The cardinal blasted away all of the bricks around him and regained his feet. His eyes took on an ominous cast as a strange energy enveloped him.

Before the water wolves even reached their intended target, their bodies began taking on a gray hue. They stopped in their tracks and turned back toward Chiyome, baring their fangs before lunging at their own master.

“Whoa, what?!” Chiyome was completely taken by surprise.

She managed to dodge the first one with ease, but couldn’t avoid the second. Right as it was about to bury its fangs in her neck…

“Body to earth, tough muscle!”

With a flash, Goemon’s entire upper body turned to bronze. He threw himself in the path of the wolf.

“Hyaugh!”

He wrapped his powerful arms around the water creature, squeezing it to his chest until it finally popped, like an overfilled wineskin. Dingy gray liquid poured out onto the ground.

Chiyome delivered a finishing blow to the other wolf, then she paused to catch her breath.

“Thanks, Goemon.”

Goemon simply shrugged his shoulders, keeping a careful eye on the cardinal.

“It was nothing. Anyway, we’d best avoid using ranged attacks.”

The younger ninja nodded, watching their enemy. When she’d confronted her own water wolf, she’d felt that the ninjutsu magic had been altered by something sinister. There was no sense in letting the cardinal do something like that again. The problem was, the majority of her attacks were ranged, and she didn’t have the brute strength of Goemon to use physical attacks.

She glance at her companion. He nodded, as if reading her mind.

The two moved in perfect unison, using cover to approach the cardinal without being seen. The Jinshin clan was well-versed in finding and exploiting blind spots.

Chiyome focused her azure eyes on the enemy and whispered an incantation.

“Body to water, mist blade.”

A thin layer of mist surrounded her dagger, then condensed into water and formed a nearly invisible extension from the tip, doubling the length of her blade.