The "Holy Sword" seemed to have encountered a catastrophe vast enough to destroy itself; pouring out Mana with all its might, it blazed with radiance.
In an instant the cloud layer was stripped away and dispersed, and in the blink of an eye a corner of the hill went missing.
Anhadī III's eyes went wide—this was the most spectacular strike he had ever witnessed, a destruction forever beyond his own reach.
"Hah! Just as I thought—war is the greatest!"
The laughter came with a mouthful of thick blood.
That ever-victorious musculature shattered and dissolved; the King of War's right arm turned directly into red-and-white powder, while his left arm hung from his shoulder all twisted and crooked, like a broken toy.
"Clang!"
The imitation Holy Sword, its Mana spent, flew down to the ground, gradually losing its sacred radiance.
"Phew..."
Nanoda put away the white-smoking broken horn she had used as a weapon and slowly approached Anhadī III, who still had not fallen.
That strike, which had poured out all of her Mana at the time, had originally been meant to sever the opponent's lower limbs; but the imitation Holy Sword, combined with Anhadī III's superhuman physique, had forcibly deflected part of the slash.
"Cough—hahahaha! This battle, I've lost."
The red-haired man glared with bloodshot eyes, crimson streaming ceaselessly down from the stump of his right arm, while those two legs embedded in the ground were the reason he did not fall.
"You really are a monster."
"Why? Why didn't you bring out power like that sooner?"
As if feeling nothing at all of his grievous wounds and crippling, Anhadī III, even while spewing fresh blood in noisy gushes from his mouth, kept questioning Nanoda.
"I just wanted to try—without relying on the instincts of the Demon Race, with a Human's soul, just how far I could go."
"What's that supposed to mean? I don't understand."
"Then answer my question first."
"Fine."
Nanoda couldn't quite grasp it—this battle-crazed lunatic who'd start a fight at the slightest disagreement seemed, when not actually fighting, to be unexpectedly easy to talk to?
"That demon who orchestrated this whole situation—just what kind of being is it?"
"A demon? What's that, is it strong?"
Looks like he doesn't know.
"Then have you ever seen a girl named Yuna? Green hair, a red staff, around twenty years old, a Mage."
"No, I don't know her."
Fine then—setting aside the fact that he attacks without a word, there really doesn't seem to be any deep blood feud between us.
Having confirmed this, Nanoda decided to leave behind this enemy who offered no resistance and go back to continue her conversation with old Wilhelm.
"Hey, take me along too. I want to go have a few words with that old man as well; my legs still haven't regained any feeling."
Anhadī III swayed his body as he made the request.
"And why should I?"
"We're the same kind, aren't we?"
"If you die on the way it's not my fault—and besides, we're not the same kind."
"No need to worry, wounds like these won't kill me. As long as I control my muscles properly, my life won't be in any danger."
Listen to that—is this even a human?
Nanoda rose up with Flight Magic, grabbed Anhadī III by the hair, and with brute force hauled him out of the ground.
"Whoa-ho, impressive—that arm that looks like it has no muscle at all can actually have such great strength."
"Shut up."
--------
A short while later, near the crater that had earlier been blasted out by Demon-Slaying Magic.
"Truly—a rather wretched way to die, old man."
Nanoda tossed Anhadī III aside and stepped forward to examine old Wilhelm, whose Mana and breath had already dissipated.
A broken horn was plunged into the white-bearded elder's neck; his sinews would never pulse again, and old Wilhelm, lying in a pool of blood, would never make a sound again.
Those eyes, closed in serenity—so one of the very instigators of this whole war had simply departed from the world, just like this?
Spreading out her Mana Perception to its fullest extent, she scanned back and forth several times; aside from old Wilhelm's Mana and her own, she found not the slightest trace of anyone else.
"That old fellow prized his own reputation above all—he was the faith of all the subjects of the Ohaly Kingdom. And then, he was always taking the side of those commoners' opinions, standing in opposition to me, refusing war. Such an undignified way to die... I see."
Anhadī III's voice came from behind.
For a moment, Nanoda's feelings were complicated.
That tangled brawl just now had caused her to miss what happened here; everything up to this point seemed to have been within the calculations of some certain being.
A thought suddenly surfaced in her heart:
If the one here right now were Him, what would it be like?
Recovering the broken horn left behind here, and wiping off the bloodstains with old Wilhelm's mage robes, Nanoda walked slowly up close to Anhadī III.
"After that old fellow lost to you, he must have said a lot of nonsense—things like 'I've won,' and so on."
"That's right."
"Then let me leave some last words too: I've won. This battle, I lost—but this war is my victory!"
"Right now my army of ten million has already surrounded this whole area. You, who've fought battle after battle in turn—do you still have any chance of escaping? And those troops you brought—where are they now, after all this?"
Because his mind was full of nothing but combat, Anhadī III's words abruptly reminded Nanoda of something.
The New God Cult's army was the one she had brought; and she was the one who had left them behind there.
Those guys, seeing an army twice their size, would probably flee, right?
No, that's not right—these people all harbor a madness toward the New God that exceeds all expectation.
Now she could only hope they hadn't been completely wiped out.
Schwenk, as Archbishop, would have no pity for them and would send them straight into the fire pit.
Nanoda felt that, at the very least, she had to fulfill some of the responsibility for having brought them here—whether dead or alive, she still had to go take a look and confirm.
"And if I take you and use you to threaten your army?"
As for her own escape route, Nanoda had thought of a good idea.
Seemingly having assumed his end was certain death, Anhadī III hadn't considered this angle.
Using him as a threat, those troops loyal to him really would obediently fall in line. After a somewhat awkward moment of musing, he finally managed to squeeze out a line: "I didn't expect you to be quite this clever."
"Of course—cutting my way out from a heap of common soldiers wouldn't be difficult for me either, it's just that doing it this way might save some effort."
"Aren't you afraid I'll kill myself?"
"With wounds like these, if you were going to do that you'd have breathed your last long ago."
"That's right—why is that, I wonder? I, who ought to be glad to give my life for the kingly way that is war, suddenly find myself looking forward to it: what kind of new path will you show me before my eyes? Hahahahaha!"
"Lunatic, shut up."
"How's the situation?"
"Reporting, Lady Aura—a large host of Humans is forming an encirclement around a certain area, and so far they haven't noticed us."
Draht knelt respectfully on one knee, reporting the situation to the somewhat haggard-faced Aura.
"Did you see any formidable types?"
"No. Far in the distance there were violent battle reactions—probably the leaders of at least two factions locked in a desperate struggle to the death!"
"And the numbers?"
"At least more than ten thousand!"
"How many?"
"More than ten thousand!"
Hearing Draht's report, Aura—who had been slumped dejectedly on a tree stump with the look of a dead fish in her eyes—immediately snapped upright on the spot.
With no enemy commander in their midst, an army of over ten thousand—if she could take it down, no, just by using the Magic of Obedience to seize a portion of that fighting force...
A comeback was no longer a fantasy!
The eyes of all the Demon Race and Humans gathered upon her. After pacing back and forth and musing for a while, Aura finally gritted her teeth and gave the command.
"Move out! Let's steal a batch of them!"
____
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