It was the third day of the battle with the angels. Day and night, the battle with the angels continued.
“Flame Burst!”
“Gale barrage!”
Erna unleashes a powerful spell and Pero attacks at an unbelievable speed. An angel was engulfed in flames and turns to ashes. The enemy who was struck by Pero’s blow also collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood after his insides were destroyed by the impact.
“Meteor Impact”
Freya’s spear pierces the armor of the enemy’s orichalcum. Right after that, the spear that was ejected by the divine power pierced the face of the angel behind him.
“Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred.”
Liz runs as if weaving through the gaps between the enemies. The moment they passed each other, she slides her dagger, slashing their necks. From there, she leaps further, twisting her body in mid-air and throwing explosive shurikens at the angels around her.
The next moment, a series of explosions occurred.
“Fuu! Fluffy enlightenment!”
Edner, who crosses swords with an angel, slips into the bosom of his opponent. He quickly grabbed the enemy’s neck and then the enemy lets go of his sword with an ecstatic expression. Edner then slashes his sword over the defenseless angel’s neck.
A pile of corpses was about to be built on the battlefield. The corpses of angels and the six races are piled on top of each other, and the wide-open eyes of the humans continue to stare at the battle. Non-stop yells and screams. The blood that continued to flow stained the ground red.
◇◇◇
“The current situation of the war is that the enemy has the upper hand and we are slightly being pushed back. Some people are now collapsing from exhaustion, we will not last long if this continues.”
“I can’t believe that three hundred thousand against only fifty thousand would end up with them in advantage. I think I should have given Erna the right to do another shot of magic on the first day.”
“There’s no point in saying that now. We have no choice but to do what we can at this moment. We have to push the front line to separate them from the Sacred Beasts.”
I held a meeting with each of the generals face-to-face. Even now, soldiers and angels are fighting on the battlefield. When I thought about it, I couldn’t help but feel a kind of impatience. It is necessary to call out my familiars after all. They are my trump card, but in this situation, I probably have no choice but to send them out.
“Reporting! The angels begun to retreat!”
The generals, including myself, stood up in surprise hearing the report of the soldier that came in.
Are they retreating at this time? Is it a trap?
No, it’s too early to judge that. The enemy may have reached their limit as well. At the very least, this will give us time to rebuild. I ordered the generals to tend to the wounded while maintaining the front line.
When I left the tent, Erna and the others were back. All four of them looked tired. They are all leaning back against the tent to rest.
“Eat a rainbow mushroom.”
“Thank you. Cure mushroom is good enough for us. Give it to someone else.”
“I understand. Well, did you get any information about the enemy?”
Erna and the others shake their heads helplessly. I asked them to find out what is the weakness of the enemy, but it didn’t seem to work. The most they learned was that the wings of the angels were prone to blind spots. But that alone will not change the course of the war.
“Frankly speaking, it’s very strange. I can’t see the limit of their physical and mental strength. I don’t see them having any signs of running out of magic, and they don’t seem to have any emotions at all. It’s like I’m fighting a winged familiar.”
“I feel the same way. They are in the shape of a person, with same appearance and physique but I can’t feel any emotions from them. They are more like a skeleton than a human.”
“Their healing ability is also in an order of magnitude higher than that of a human. If it’s just an abrasion, it heals instantly too. Furthermore, they don’t even flinch, probably because they don’t have fear at all. I don’t know what I’m fighting against halfway through.”
“ZZZZZ”
The four of them were confused by the creature called angel. No, it’s only three of them. Liz is sleeping right now.
This is the case with my experienced and highly skilled comrades. The soldiers who fought against the angels for the first time must be more puzzled. The situation seems to be tougher than I thought.
Just then—
“Don’t be silly! What do you mean by running away!?”
Turning my attention to where I heard the yelling, I saw Grill, the general of the Dartan, grabbing a soldier’s chest while showing his anger.
“Don’t ask me to fight a monster like that! I’ll go back to the kingdom!”
“Are you going to abandon the sacred beasts?”
“What’s wrong with that? There is no sacred beast in my kingdom! There’s no point in dying in a battle like this!”
“You bastard! I’m going to beat you to death!”
I grabbed Grill’s raised fist and stopped him. Looking closely, the soldier in question is from Logas. I really don’t know how to feel. They are forced to participate in the battle even though they don’t have a sacred beast to protect.
Grill looked at my face and slowly lowered his fist.
“This battle is no longer just about protecting the Sacred Beast, it’s about protecting humanity. If we lose, we will be destroyed by the angels. If you still want to escape, go ahead, run away.”
“…………”
The soldier ran away with his luggage without replying. Grill, who was watching by the side, sighed.
“He is already the twentieth man. They all said they value their life more than the sacred beasts.”
“I think it’s normal. Especially since it has been 5000 years already since the kingdom has lost the Sacred Beast. They feel differently than people in other kingdoms.”
“Maybe you’re right. I think I have a little too much blood on my head.”
“Go get some rest. You haven’t slept for the last three days.”
Grill said, “I will”, and went back to his tent.
The Allied force are all exhausted. Morale that was once high has now waned, and it is now a beacon before the wind. Even though we still have 270,000 troops left, we are about to lose because of mental breakdown.
◇◇◇
Countless corpses on the scorched ground. Broken swords were lying around, and the smell of burning flesh wafted through the battlefield. Three angels descended to the ground, and with such same appearance, they look like triplets.
Zazi, who was in command, looked out over the battlefield before speaking.
“I never expected that we, angels of God, would be defeated like this. Did we underestimate the inhabitants of this world?”
“That’s one thing, but the damage we sustained at the beginning was too great. There are also other people besides the man with the artifact that we need to pay attention to.”
“As far as we confirmed, including that man, there are five of them, who have unexpected power. If we don’t get rid of them soon, it will disrupt our plans.”
“I understand. We have already taken steps to eliminate the Sacred Beasts. We will prioritize the elimination of those who get in the way of our plans.”
At Zazi’s words, the two second-class angels nodded. They take off again and joined the army of angels.
Fifty thousand third-class angels had repaired their bodies with their high healing abilities. They boast inexhaustible physical strength, and their spirit has not yet reached its limit. They all had the ability to fight for a month or even a year. If the Allies had known this, everyone might have given up the fight from the get-go. Ironically, it was because of such ignorance that humanity was able to fight on an equal footing.
As the three Zazi emitted a dazzling light from their bodies, the angels’ self-healing speed jumped. The charred white wings were restored as if time had been rewound and the raw wounds that had dripped red blood disappeared without a trace. On the contrary, their body is back to full of power, it even gained twice as much power as normal. An army of 50,000 became a force equivalent to 100,000.
“Rest is over, let’s go.”
At Zazi’s words, the angels descended to the ground one after another.
◇◇◇
“Is the other side finally serious?”
Angels descend to the ground one after another and form a group. They must have decided that they couldn’t win if they fought separately. On the other hand, we haven’t even formed our group yet. On the contrary, our troops are retreating.
There was only about an hour between the enemy’s retreat and resumption of their attack. This does not allow us to rest satisfactorily. In addition, the soldiers have already reached their limits and are exhausted. It is obvious that they will be wiped out if they are sent into battle.
I decided to buy time.
I don’t know how far my familiars can last. Maybe they won’t stand long at all. But it would be a bad idea to save them for later. It can’t be helped if my power comes to light. Rather, it was too late for that.
“Tanaka-kun, I have withdrawn our troops as you have instructed. What are you going to do next?”
“I will buy time. In the meantime, I want you to have the troops rest a little.”
“Are you going to fight alone? No matter how I think about it, that’s absurd! Your opponent are monsters in the form of an angel!”
“Don’t worry. I have a subordinate I can rely on.”
I let Edner go back to the camp and then I faced the angels alone. Then one of the Zazi’s stepped forward and grins at me.
“Are you going to surrender? It’s too late for that though. We will throw you into the vortex of samsara without any mercy.”
“What bullshit are you talking about? I never said a word about surrendering. You seem to be cornered to the point of misunderstanding this huh.”
“……What a joke. You think we’re cornered?”
Erna and the others said that angels don’t have feelings, but that’s not true. It’s just that the undulations of their emotions are smaller compared to humans. As evidence of that, when I provoked him, his face contorted in anger.
Next, I’ll enjoy the look of surprise in his face.
“Familiar Summoning!”
Countless halos appeared behind him, and black skeletons emerged one after another from amongst the angels. The newly subdued wyverns were also summoned, powerfully roaring at the enemies. Right behind them are Suketarou and Sukejiro. Behind those two were the ten legion commanders and their troops. Their total number is more than 400,000. The vaunted army of immortals intimidates the angels with their overwhelming presence.
“What a number of undead….…”
“I’m going to make you regret picking a fight against us.”
My familiars that started to run, turned into a black wave and swept over the angels. The wyverns that took off released a breath of flame from the sky. Waita, with Suketarou on board, continued to breath fire like a flash as if to sweep them away. On the other hand, with high physical ability and skill, the angels were also defending themselves with a shield made of orichalcum while cutting down the skeletons ganging on them.
Zazi clicked his tongue and took off to take command. Soon, the battle between the angels and my familiars reached a stalemate. While the angels will surely defeat their opponent if it is one-on-one, the skeletons that outnumbered them attack like an ant swarming on sugar. By using magic to blow away the familiar all at once, the demi-lich and wyvern reduced the number of enemies.
On the other hand, Suketarou, Sukejiro, and the Legion Commanders were fighting more than equal to the angels.
Skeleton 1 repels the enemy’s sword with his sword, and Skeleton 7 pierces the enemy’s neck with his spear. Sukejiro rushes forward, cutting off the enemy’s neck as if he were lunging, and Suketarou, shining in silver, flashes his sword and beheads ten angels to the ground at once.
At least in part, the skeleton army is making good progress. I also draw my sword and prepare for battle. After all, as a master, it’s embarrassing to let my familiars fight by themselves. I activated my race, my horns and wings emerged and then I opened the eye on my forehead.
I tried to fly into the sky to fight against Zazi —however, I heard a sound that shook the earth, so I stayed in place and turned around.
“Uooooooooooooo!!! Charge!”
General Grill was galloping in the lead, and behind him was a large number of soldiers. That’s not all. Erna and the others were running hurriedly towards each general.
“Now is our best chance! The black skeletons are on our side, don’t attack them!”
“I understand. At this point, it doesn’t matter if it’s a magical beast or an angel! I’ll hear all the details later! Soldiers, fight like you’re going to die!”
The muddy-faced men replied with smiles at Grill’s voice. An army of mixed races passes through the Skeleton Army and joins them. Their appearance changed the tide of the war at once. They began to push the angels with ferocity. The soldiers were full of life, like fish out of water.
The reinforcements in the form of the Skeleton Army may have given them hope and restored their morale. When I look closely, I can see that the soldiers who should have fled were also fighting with weapons in hand. Now that I think about it, my fear may have been unfounded. Anything would have been good if it was an ally. I guess I was the only one concerned about them being a skeleton and an undead.
Then, my comrades who rushed to me surrounded me.
“Shinichi! We’ll do it, right?!”
“Mmm, let’s defeat the second-class angel and end this battle.”
We fly to the sky to fight the three Zazi, who are still watching the battlefield from above. I felt like I was finally seeing the end of this tough battle.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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