The front lines.
As the distress flare shot into the sky, reinforcements from the major Familias, long poised and ready across the city, surged toward the festival grounds like water through an opened floodgate.
On one of the streets connecting the Folkvangr to the Adventurers' Plaza, the Einherjar led by Hildrsleif and Dainsleif came to a crisp, unified halt at a single raised hand from Hedin. Every eye was locked firmly on the row of black-robed figures blocking the road ahead.
The two figures at the very front drew the most attention.
These were two elves.
But what left everyone taken aback was that their attire was even more provocative, even more daring than the boldest Amazon's. Only a scant scrap of cloth covered their vital spots, leaving great swaths of skin bared to view.
And matching this wild getup were the twisted, saccharine yandere smiles on their faces.
...
Dina Dis, captain of the Alecto Familia, Lv.5. A blonde white elf, Vena's older sister.
Vena Dis, vice-captain of the Alecto Familia, Lv.5. A silver-haired dark elf, Dina's younger sister.
...
At the sight of the two of them, Hedin furrowed his brow and pushed up his glasses out of habit.
"So we've been blocked off."
Compared to the still-composed Hedin, Hogni at his side, who hadn't yet transformed, was in far worse shape.
"W-we're, we're, we're... we're done for!"
"H-Hedin, H-Hedin... Hedin! We're gonna die, gonna die, gonna die, gonna die, gonna die!"
Hedin and the Einherjar fell silent. Hogni was having one of his episodes again.
While the Einherjar dropped their heads in awkward silence, the Evilus crowd across from them couldn't spare a thought for Hogni's breakdown.
When they confirmed that Freya's troops had appeared exactly as Arachnia predicted, the two elf executives at their head plunged into a frenzy.
Their eyes blazed hotter, their faces gradually contorted, and their very bodies convulsed with excitement.
"Hehehehe!"
"My dear Hedin!"
"My dear Hogni!"
"Come dance with us!"
Hedin shot an expressionless glance at the chunni elf beside him whose face was twisting through manic shifts, and calmly pushed up his glasses.
"Dina Dis, Vena Dis. So you've been lying in wait here for a while. Turning Finn's plan back on him and beating him at his own game, even precisely cutting off our reinforcements like this... this level of scheming, that's Arachnia's work, isn't it?"
Gazing at her unflinching "beloved," Vena cupped her cheeks and laughed wildly.
"Ngh~~~~~~~~ Hedin, you're so handsome~~~ so handsome I want to peel off your skin with my own hands and keep it in my collection!"
The sisters clung tightly to each other, and Dina, her face flushed crimson, gazed at Hogni.
"Aah~ Hogni~ my Hogni~~~~ I, I can't take it! My body's so hot, so hot I can barely stand it, little sister~~!"
"Be good, sister, hold on just a little longer~ Once we drag them back home, we can play with them however we like, sister, however we want!"
"And even if we break them by accident, we can just keep them as slaves in our collection~~~~~~"
"Hehe!"
"Yes, yes! Sister, let's hurry and dance together with them!"
The Einherjar stared at the yandere sisters in horror, their sick talk sending an involuntary shiver through every one of them. One after another their eyes filled with dread, cold crawling up their spines, scalps prickling.
The unhinged air around the two of them sent another chill through the Einherjar.
"H-holy shit!"
"There is definitely something seriously wrong with these two sisters' heads!"
"No kidding, we're not blind!"
"They're, they're insane...!"
Heith in the ranks fixed her stare on the infamous Dis sisters, alarm bells blaring in her mind. Even as she guarded against their moves, she raced to think of how to break through the Alecto Familia's blockade and get to Lady Freya's aid as fast as possible.
"Einherjar, prepare for battle!"
Hedin pushed up his glasses, his expression unchanged.
"It seems the only choice left if we want to keep advancing is to defeat them."
"Hogni!"
Drawn from the sheath, blooming, the Magic Sword King's radiance. At the cost of reason and the blood of offerings, until the feast is over... slaughter to your heart's content!
Dainsleif!
Without any prompting from Hedin, Hogni, now in the zone, didn't hesitate. He chanted the incantation and triggered his first magic, Dainsleif.
...
Dainsleif
Activates a second personality more combative than the original, making the user stronger.
...
The magic itself granted no stat bonuses whatsoever; its sole effect was to switch the timid, shrinking socially-anxious personality over to a cold, aggressive combat personality. In this state, Hogni could fully unleash the entirety of his strength.
This was the unique magic belonging solely to Dainsleif, Hogni Ragnar.
Seeing Hogni enter his combat stance, the Dis sisters weren't alarmed but overjoyed.
"Hehehehe... Hogni, you'd actually invite me to dance of your own accord, you really do delight me!"
"Dina Dis, you lunatic!"
"Why, thank you~~"
Having gone through the standard trash-talk routine, both sides struck at once.
Eternal strife, the undying thunder soldiers.
Caelus Hildr!
Hedin swept up a hand.
Countless lightning arrows wreathed in crackling electricity blotted out the entire sky.
"Hm?"
The Evilus members and zealots charging forward in a frenzy looked up. As if doused with a bucket of cold water, their eyes abruptly cleared.
"Nooo!!!!!!"
A storm of thunder bolts came down, the blasts chaining into one continuous, deafening roar that swept the street clean.
And as it happened, this was no isolated case.
At that same moment, on another street leading from the Twilight Manor to the Adventurers' Plaza, the Loki Familia's reinforcement unit had likewise been firmly halted partway by their old rivals.
"Heh heh, what a coincidence! If it isn't our beloved old man Gareth Landrock, the Elgarm. Lovely weather, eh? Out for a stroll?"
"Makes sense. It is the once-a-year Christmas festival, after all. An old man stepping out to take a walk and get some air, that's only natural."
A heavy double-bladed battleaxe crashed to the ground, smashing the flagstones beneath it to pieces. Gareth braced the haft with one hand, straightened his helmet with the other, and curled his mouth into an arrogant grin.
"Hahahahaha, and here I wondered who it was. Turns out it's Apate's stray dogs."
"I'll tell you, Basram, you're this old and you're still running with this pack of lunatics? Don't tell me you couldn't get used to the quiet farming life out in the sticks."
The veins at Basram's temple twitched, and his grip tightened around his crozier. But at the sight of the fearsome battleaxe in Gareth's grasp and the Loki Familia reinforcements arrayed behind him, all his blazing fury came to nothing more than a cold snort.
Basram, Lv.5, priest of the Apate Familia, a fanatical follower and strategist of the goddess Apate, who regarded himself and his fellow devotees as Apate's apostles.