The next morning, Alfard opened the door to the dining hall with great trepidation. He eased it open as slowly as possible, looking as though he was about to step into the lair of a deadly beast. But while the room itself looked like it had been hit by a dozen tornadoes in quick succession, the Liberators were sitting quietly in a circle on the floor, seemingly at peace.
“Wh-What happened?” he asked hesitantly.
Miledi gave him a conflicted smile and muttered, “W-We did it.”
Alfard’s expression stiffened and he asked in a serious voice, “You’re pregnant with Oscar’s child?”
“Aaslkgjsalgajiu?! No!”
Blushing furiously, Miledi explained that they’d finally succeeded in creating things with concept magic. They’d managed to create multiple trump cards against Ehit...all while completely wasted.
The first thing they’d made was the Godslayer Dagger. It was a small, twenty-centimeter-long dagger with a sky-blue blade imbued with the power to kill gods. The second thing they’d created was the Compass of Eternal Paths. It looked more like a pocket watch with just one needle than a compass, but the concept magic it was imbued with pointed the needle to whatever the user desired most. Finally, the last thing they’d created was the Arrow of Boundaries. It was an arrow made of black quartz, and it was imbued with concept magic that allowed it to destroy any and all boundaries.
“That’s amazing,” Alfard said when Miledi explained what all the objects they’d made did. He was guiding the group to the cliffs that marked Dastia’s border as the conversation unfolded.
“Umm...thanks,” Miledi replied, sounding surprisingly meek. Normally, she’d have been boasting about their accomplishment and generally being a nuisance. However, no one called Miledi out on her strange behavior. Mostly because Oscar and the others were similarly subdued, honestly.
“I guess I’ll make sure to record that the best way to forge an unbelievably powerful will is to get unbelievably drunk.”
“Please don’t!” Miledi exclaimed in a panic. She didn’t want her shame to be recorded forever in history.
Alfard burst out laughing, and Selene, Anya, and Sveit, who’d also come to see the group off, chuckled.
“A-Anyway, please take this!” Miledi said, holding a Treasure Trove out to Alfard. Oscar had made it for him as a token of his thanks. He’d also stuffed it full of unique artifacts, including one he’d made in the process of creating the concept magic artifacts that defended against Ehit’s power of compulsion. That ability had actually been recorded in the Font of Knowledge, and the group now knew that spell was called Divine Edict.
“Hm... And you say this artifact is called ‘Sorry? Couldn’t hear you, dumbass’?” Alfard asked as Oscar told him about all the artifacts in the Treasure Trove.
“I’m sorry about Miledi’s awful naming sense.”
“Are you mad that we always make fun of your naming sense, O-kun?”
While the group was talking, Albanor—who’d been in Selene’s arms—finally woke up, so Miledi and the others decided to take that as their cue to leave.
Miledi held out a hand to Alfard and said, “Thank you so much for everything.”
“If anything, I should be the one thanking you,” he replied as he shook her hand and gave her a beaming smile. “I have faith that you seven will do what’s best for the world.”
Miledi blinked in surprise upon hearing that, then smiled back at Alfard.
“Now then, we need to get back and tell everyone the good news. Mwa ha ha ha!” Miledi cackled, twirling happily as she flew through the air. She was in a good mood now that they’d finally obtained the power to resist Ehit, and her fighting spirit was burning brighter than ever. Accelerating rapidly, she led the group out of the Azure Lands in the blink of an eye. Then, as soon as they were out of the swamp, she activated her Skynet.
“Hmm? It doesn’t seem to be connecting properly. Lyu-chan, is something wrong?”
“My evolution magic is working perfectly fine, so it shouldn’t be that.”
Miledi had initially thought the Skynet didn’t have enough juice to transmit its signals, but after learning that wasn’t the case, she turned to Vandre.
“My brother should still be at the fortress at the front lines...but maybe he was forced to move?”
Rasul should have been the closest to Miledi and the others, but her Skynet didn’t seem to be connecting to his at all.
“O-kun, look for him with the compass.”
Oscar nodded and activated the compass, fixing Rasul firmly in his mind.
“Looks like Rasul’s traveling east along the gorge... Wait, is he planning on returning to the north?”
“What, with his entire army? He didn’t leave anyone behind to serve as a liaison or anything?”
“One sec, I’ll try searching for his troops... Hmm, it looks like they’re here. They’re at a fortress that’s a thousand kilometers to the northeast. But...this is weird. The image is fuzzy. It’s almost like they’re scattered.”
A chill ran down Oscar’s spine. He had a bad feeling about this.
“Let’s go. It’ll be faster to just head there directly. Plus, the Skynet at the fortress has a much bigger range than ours,” Miledi replied.
“That’s true. With my evolution magic, we should be able to reach Shandra or even Velnika with the Skynet there.”
Miledi and the others nodded to each other, then rushed off toward the fortress.
“What happened here...?”
Upon arriving, they found a shattered fort littered with corpses. The demon army had been slaughtered.
“Meru-nee! Lau-chan!”
“I know, I know!”
“On it!”
Meiru and Laus hurried down to the fortress. Laus then used spirit magic to try to search for any survivors, but—
“Fuck,” he whispered as he realized there wasn’t a single person left alive in the fortress.
In the meantime, Miledi and the others ran straight toward the room that housed the Skynet. That room had originally been the fortress’s command room, so it had the strongest defenses placed around it. A few survivors might have holed up in there.
“The door...”
Everyone paled when they saw that the door to the command room was wide open. The walls were caked with dried blood and the stench of death wafted out from the open door. A few days had passed since this massacre, clearly.
Upon seeing one of the corpses, Vandre’s chest tightened and he murmured, “No...General Elga...”
He walked over to the old general, whose body was against the wall, lifeless, and crumpled to his knees. He then stared blankly at Elga’s corpse, looking like he’d been hit over the head with a hammer. Miledi and the others appeared just as shocked.
“The Skynet’s broken...but...”
Biting his lip, Oscar nevertheless forced himself into action. His glasses had picked up trace amounts of mana remaining in one corner of the wall...and upon closer inspection, he saw that someone had shoddily buried something with earth magic. He transmuted the earth away, revealing a smaller, portable Skynet.
“It was set to record...”
Oscar had upgraded the Skynets to have recording capabilities so that the Liberators would be able to show future generations the day of the decisive battle.
Miledi and the others hurried over as Oscar played back the recording.
“I pray that you find this recording, my princess.”
Rasul appeared on the Skynet’s small, twenty-centimeter screen. He didn’t have the playful smile he usually did. In fact, he looked grimmer than he ever had. The sounds of battle and Lestina’s shouting could be heard in the distance.
“The world has gone mad.”
Miledi and the others narrowed their eyes in worry upon hearing that.
“Or rather, it is Ehit who’s driven it mad. All the countries around the world have started hunting the Liberators. Armies are mobilizing and the common people have turned against us. Why, even the children and the elderly have been trapped in a crucible of fanatical zeal!”
Laus and Meiru entered the room, looking defeated, just in time to hear that last sentence.
“Huh? What’s he saying? I don’t...” Miledi trailed off, shaking her head.
Rasul’s voice grew harsher, almost as if he was scolding her to get a grip as he said, “I don’t know when this message will reach you, but you must hurry! You must rescue as many survivors as possible...before all is lost!”
Tears spilled from Miledi’s eyes, while Oscar and the others went as white as sheets. They now understood the true nature of the final game Ehit had prepared for them.