Tida first rushed toward a party of adventurers who were fighting elder liches. The group was composed of two warriors, an archer, and a healer. Thanks to their flawless coordination and the support of their healer, they were holding off two elder liches at the same time. Doing that took talent.
Tida cut down a wraith that was sneaking up on them from behind with her own Divine Artifact before using Holy Enchantment on the adventurers’ weapons. Then, she cut off one of the arms of the first elder lich with her scythe to give the group an advantage before dashing toward the next adventurer party.
She repeated the same process several times, enchanting the weapons of many powerful fighters. Then, she spotted an imperial guard crossing swords with a skeleton knight.
“Looks like you need a hand!” she said. Tida swung her scythe and cut off the skeleton knight’s legs.
Tida’s Divine Artifact, Harvest, could absorb the mana of the enemies it cut through. This effect was especially powerful against undead, which depended greatly on their mana to maintain their forms as opposed to monsters that had flesh bodies.
“I’m indebted to you,” the imperial guard replied as he finished off the skeleton knight.
Tida used some healing magic on him. “How is the government going to respond?” she asked.
“It was chaos at first, but His Highness Prince Okyst took control of the situation. He sent us ahead of time even though we normally remain by the imperial family’s side to protect them, and he’s currently gathering the army. We only need to hold out for a little longer before reinforcements arrive.”
“He’ll deploy the army?”
“Yes,” the imperial guard replied. “However, he’ll need time. The knights’ swords are made with a mithril alloy, but the regular soldiers have lower-quality weapons that will barely work on the undead. They will plunge them into holy water to imbue them with holiness temporarily.”
“I see. Then we have to decrease the number of enemies to buy time for the citizens to flee until the soldiers get here.”
“Exactly. I will go help the citizens who have fallen behind. Sister, thank you very much for your assistance.”
“Don’t worry about it! May God’s blessing be with you!” Tida exclaimed, waving goodbye to the imperial guard. As a dullahan emerged from the shadow of a building, she promptly sliced it in half. “If the army’s coming, we can leave the small fry to them. I should focus on thinning out the big ones.” Tida sighed. “I just wanted to have a fun time at the festival, but here I am... I don’t get it. I’m always so pious and good, so why me?”
Tida tilted her head in confusion while slaughtering a host of powerful monsters. Then, a conspicuously loud noise caught her attention, so she ran toward the source of the sound.
Yuu dashed straight toward the black giant skeleton, which had rested its hand on the symbol of the Central Square, the clock tower. A regular giant skeleton was roughly as tall as three to four men, but this one was as tall as ten adult men. It was plain to see that it was a mutated version. The square was already in ruins, and Yuu leaped off of the rubble with a powerful kick. She swung Period with all her strength, aiming at the gargantuan enemy. The giant skeleton fell to the ground due to the force of the impact, but not even Yuu’s gigantic battle-axe had managed to crack its thick bones that shone with a black luster. She’d barely left a scratch.
“So hard!”
The skeleton swung its arm at her, but Yuu blocked it with the handle of her axe. She held her ground for a moment, but the gap in their sizes and masses was too much. The force of the blow sent her flying and her body slammed into the clock tower. Yuu quickly regained her balance, though. The clock tower was starting to crumble, but she deftly ran up the side of it and jumped.
At the same time, the giant skeleton extended its hand toward her.
“Ngh!” Yuu used her gigantic battle-axe, which was as tall as she was, to deflect the monster’s hand and landed on it. She ran up its bones that were as thick as logs, concentrating mana into her blade, and brought it down when she reached the skeleton’s shoulder blade.
Yuu’s Divine Artifact, Period, had no special effects. It was simply sturdy, heavy, and sharp. Yuu leveraged her entire body to swing it downward, charging it up with as much mana as she could. The condensed mana made her weapon glow as she slammed it against the monster’s body. The axe smashed through its shoulder blade and crushed its ribs. The rest of the black bones soon crumbled down.
“As I thought, taking care of a single foe is far easier than dealing with countless small fry,” she said, resting her battle-axe on her shoulder. She rushed toward a group of knights who were struggling against a skeleton dragon.
Yuu planted the handle of her battle-axe into the ground to block an incoming hit from the skeleton dragon, then used it to vault onto its spine. Even if skeleton monsters were all bones, they still had a weak point—their mana core. Locating and destroying it was the most efficient way to get rid of undead monsters, but Yuu picked another, simpler method.
Divine Artifacts were made of condensed mana to begin with, but Yuu continued pouring tremendous quantities of mana into Period.
She let out a battle cry and exclaimed, “Final Slash!”
Light flashed. A blade of destructive mana descended upon the skeleton dragon, annihilating its entire body, including its core, in a single strike.
“All right! On to the next one!”
Elsa joined a group of knights who were grappling with a large number of undead monsters. She immediately slew a few skeletons and zombies.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Thank you! You saved us!”
Elsa took a step forward, and the skeletons and zombies extended their hands toward her. As she faced the colossal swarm of undead, Elsa increased the mana contained in her sword, and flames flickered on the surface of the blade.
The worse her situation was, the sharper Elsa’s Divine Artifact—Spada della Fenice—became and the more her physical abilities were enhanced. She unleashed several flashes of her sword and countless undead monsters fell to the ground in pieces.
Elsa humphed. “I guess that’s the extent of the power I can get when surrounded by insignificant weaklings.”
With Elsa joining the fray, the knights seemed to regain their footing. They grew calmer, and their commander started issuing orders.
“Second platoon, bring the wounded to the rear! Third platoon and fourth platoon, help the citizens escape! First platoon, protect their backs!”
The knights thanked Elsa before dutifully following the commands.
Just as Elsa had finished dealing with this swarm of monsters, someone called out her name.
“Elsa!”
The members of her party had arrived.
“I’m glad to see you’re all in one piece,” she said.
“Who do you take us for?!” one of the members replied.
“There’s no time to waste. Let’s focus on the strong foes first. Marty, you scout the area. Lisa, you can purify monsters, but give priority to healing. Sarina, you protect her. Sicily, you’re with me on the front line.”
“Got it!”
Having received Elsa’s instructions, the members of Sharp Edge quickly got into formation and dashed toward an elder lich who was leading a pack of wraiths.