"FIRE!!!"
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!!!
With her command, countless siege spells launched forward, creating an opening.
"Melee!"
The warriors answered her call and used the mages' spells as cover to advance.
Alice calculated the result of the charge before it happened and fired her next order.
One calculation led to another, before they meshed into a complex web of intricate variables for her to pull and push with her own set of formulas, all for one goal only.
To get through this place with the least casualties.
…at least until she reached him.
This was not just to conserve the fighting power of her hastily gathered army. It was a necessary component to their continued existence.
Because if they felt fear, morale would go down.
And if their morale was touched…
They would desert in almost every future she envisioned.
This was due to the way they had been gathered.
Some were promised the return of their lord, others were here due to contracts, while the majority believed the lie she had woven:
They had discovered a ruin in the old Pride Domain, one that was rumored to be the old treasury of its capital.
They would plunder it and gain untold riches.
The proof was a large piece of Mithril that she dangled before them, claiming that it had been found alongside other traces at the location.
There was also another rumor that Ashen was alive in that region, so they agreed to look for him as a side quest.
Rumors clashed together, and everyone came up with their own theories, but one thing was for sure:
The army wasn't ready to be told that they were going on a rescue mission.
Not after what they had experienced on the last crusade against the Narkals.
That was why she, alongside Lucia and Seraphine, was forced to lie and blur the truth with rumors and plausible answers, casting a fog over the unpleasant truth:
The only treasure they were looking to unearth was her man.
In fact, she had even wanted to pull Cornelia along, but she did not find her.
According to Sabrina, there was an ongoing feud among the Sin Lords, and she was currently tied down by it. But thankfully, her visit to the Ashbastion wasn't without gain.
Sabrina herself had come with her.
It was apparently on the orders of the Wrath Lord herself, as she had known what Alice was attempting from the movements of the four women alone, and had given Sabrina the choice to join them if she so wished.
The only reason it wasn't an order was that she knew the fatality of their quest.
But the maid did not hesitate.
Braun had also joined, and surprisingly, his own daughter had come along, saying that she couldn't leave her friend alone when she needed her the most.
That very friend was now on the front lines, cutting the monsters with her katana like she was harvesting wheat.
Honestly, Alice did not want to put Lapis in such danger, but she had no choice.
Every hand was welcome in these times, and she was forced to acknowledge that, when talking about killing power alone, Lapis was a monster.
Being merely a Fourth Step, she had killed more Narkals than ten Third Steps combined, and the ease with which she did it inspired the soldiers behind her more than her own encouragement ever could.
"Advance!!!"
Her orders were relayed, and Jenna, who was her adjutant, relayed them to the commanders, making the army move as a single body.
"Sabrina… what did Lucia say?"
"Keep going forward," She answered crisply.
Being competent in the concepts of shadows, she was the most suitable to receive a message from the woman who was practically their compass in this unchanging wasteland.
"She also says that we are very close now…"
"Good… we can't hold on for much longer anyhow…"
Alice did not get to sigh in relief before Jenna spoke beside her.
"Commander."
Her usually monotone voice was clipped with a touch of absurdity.
"Report."
Jenna did not speak at once.
She touched her earpiece, listening to the report for the second time. It was not because she had misheard. The content itself was so absurd that she had to double-check.
"…there is a horde of Narkals five hundred meters in front."
"Ranks?"
"Catastrophes…"
Alice's eyebrows scrunched together.
"…they finally appeared, huh…"
"How many…?"
"W-what…?"
"How many Catastrophes among them!" Alice repeated the question with barely restrained anxiety.
She had helped Ashen kill one of those before, so she knew how terrifying they could be.
One of them would cause too much damage and could even destabilize their ranks.
"N-no… Commander… the report says…"
Jenna's voice trembled.
"…all of them."
"Huh?"
"Every single Narkal in the horde is a Catastrophe…"
"…"
"…"
"Haah…" Alice's lips trembled; she looked at the uneasy faces surrounding her, but in the end… she said it.
"We advance."
"What?! Commander… they number more than a thousand!! Please reconsider!"
"Ashen is there. I'm sure of it."
Alice shook her head.
"Advance!"
And so, the clueless army marched to their deaths.
It was a predetermined end.
When your commander is a woman who would not hesitate to sacrifice the world for her man…
What else would you expect?
Would she feel regret for the consequences?
Would their deaths torment her?
Would the families she would orphan weigh on her conscience?
Perhaps.
But above all of this, Ashen stood.
And he weighed more than any of them, alongside their families combined.
And so…
"ADVANCE!!!"
They advanced.
◉◉◉
"Hm?"
In this strange state between life and death, Ashen felt something.
A fraction of the injuries he was being subjected to were not landing properly…
It was truly odd.
What was more peculiar was the onslaught of despairing emotions assaulting his mind at the thought that this was the end of his life.
…they too were strangely lessening.
At first, he thought this was some kind of trick by one of the Catastrophes he was battling, but something else refuted that.
A skill of his was reacting.
This skill's concepts were a bit foreign to him, and he shortly understood why. It was one of the two skills he had gained when he reached the Third Step.
The more his injuries disappeared, the more the skill reacted.
It gave him a peculiar energy that made him move faster.
It was not only his movements.
His reaction speed, the traversal of his mana through his circuits, his dynamic vision… everything was spurred to move faster.
It was as if…
The skill was hurrying him, pleading with him… to move in a certain direction… to save someone.
But he couldn't even save himself. Who was he supposed to save here?
The constant cries of the skill finally lasted long enough for Ashen to understand its functions.
It was a skill that reacted when those he considered under his sanctuary were being harmed.
It gave him enough speed to reach them and do his duty as the Harbor Of Peace.
'Come to think of it… that's my new epithet, wasn't it?'
'How laughable. I can't even bring peace to myself; how am I supposed to bring peace to anyone else?'
Even as he had such self-deprecating thoughts, anxiety gnawed at him.
He had finally sensed who was in danger.
'Lucia…'
'She's probably doing something reckless again…'
He couldn't imagine trouble landing on her without her deliberately seeking it.
She was just like that. A woman who valued her preservation above all else.
If there was something above it…
'That would be me.'
He wanted to ask her to stop doing whatever she was doing.
'I'm dead, love. It's futile.'
'This is but a drop from the ocean.'
Those were his thoughts, but his body gladly used the small reprieve to prolong his life some more.
Like a wretched cockroach that refused to stay down.
He struggled with everything he possessed to keep going for one more moment.
And that struggle finally allowed him to live long enough to sense them.
His domain, which had been slowly but surely expanding the more he relied on it, caught a new presence.
'A new horde?'
Based on their numbers, he thought they were Narkals coming for reinforcements. He had killed quite a few, after all. It wasn't out of the question for them to call upon more of their kin.
'No, that's not it.'
He sensed that they were a bit too organized to be a mere horde of monsters.
What's more, the closer they approached, the better he could feel their mana.
'It's clean.'
Unlike the Narkals, it was free of corruption.
'What's this…?'
He couldn't make any sense of it, nor did he dare to.
'What a joke. Rescue? In this hell? Stop dreaming.'
He crushed his hopeful thoughts with impunity and refocused on keeping what little of his life remained going.
But soon, he was forced to confront the reality before him when the presence approached close enough for him to see them with his own eyes.
'…'
A bitter smile colored his disfigured, bloodied face.
'Ha.'
Here they were.
A miraculous rescue, one that he did not dare to dream of, manifesting right before him.
But as if to mock all of his hopes, his current feelings were the farthest thing from happiness.
No… That was not entirely accurate. He felt happy.
Especially when he felt the familiar presences among the army.
His lovers.
His friends.
Even the army that he had fought alongside from his days in the Pit to the crusade against the Narkals.
He was happy.
They had not forgotten about him. They had come for him. They loved him enough to risk their own lives for him.
But that was precisely why…
Why that flicker of happiness was ruthlessly crushed beneath the terror of knowing that they would all die alongside him here.