The scouting team’s reports had been correct; there were no ambushes waiting on the way to Yoko’s fortress. And so, their force of two hundred arrived at the gate.
The scenery was gloomy. A grim song played. A cold wind blew through the battlefield.
“Ahem! I am the Captain of the Royal Knights of the Holy Kingdom of Laboon, Baron Goto Shouji!” said Sir Goto, who began by introducing himself. Then he addressed the enemy: “Black Witch Yoko, we have your castle surrounded! Atone for your crimes and surrender, and you may be spared! If you refuse, we will crush you in the name of justice! What is your response?!”
A human form came into view on the rampart. It was the Black Witch Yoko. “Hmph,” she sneered. “Take this!”
A streak of light flashed, and then an electric arrow came shooting out from within the fortress to pierce Sir Goto through the heart. A critical hit! Sir Goto fell back and lay twitching on the ground.
“Sir Goto?!”
“Oh, sorry. Someone else should take command,” he managed to choke out. “Erk... lol.” And so, Sir Goto died a hero’s death.
The vice captain gritted his teeth and shed waterfalls of tears as he glared up at the rampart. “How dare you!” he cried out.
“Ho ho ho!” chortled Yoko. “How weak you are!”
“I’ll teach you a lesson, you vulgar witch! Start the battle!” the vice captain bellowed. “Catapults, fire! Fire! Fire!”
The siege division began hurling flaming rocks and giant arrows at the fortress. Suddenly the ramparts were spotted with flame, which burned higher as soldiers plunged from the castle walls.
“Charge! Charge!”
A cavalry call began to play on a bugle. Following this effective and thorough barrage of fire from the Knights, a squadron of hastily-made, low-level characters charged the castle gate with explosives strapped to them. The suicide squad fell to the rain of arrows one after another, but these low-level characters felt no fear; they always knew they could make a new character.
One brave soul shouted, “Yeah! Got me 10,000 gamel!” as he charged the castle gate and exploded. A second wave came, then a third. The castle walls shook and black smoke rose.
“Yes! Heavy infantry, to the front!” the vice commander yelled. “Archers, focus on support! Just move forward! Forward! Don’t be afraid! If we fail now, there’s always next week!”
The battle was wreathed in flames, like a scene out of hell.
Mixed in with the volunteer soldiers, Kaname spoke, her small shield held desperately above her head to shield from falling arrows, “Hoo boy, I hope Go****-sensei doesn’t read this battle scene...”
“What are you talking about now? Anyway, look alive! We’re almost through the gate!” Sousuke shouted back, while shooting an enemy soldier on the wall with his crossbow. The next instant, the gate broke in with a crash, and the royal army’s men flooded into the fortress. Issei flew in ahead of the group, laying out the troll warriors that stood in his way. Shinji turned his staff to a surge of incoming orcs and cast a few spells, causing rushing arrows of ice to riddle the orcs with holes.
“Take that!” he bellowed.
“Gwaaaah!”
The moment Kaname entered the castle, she was crossing swords with a knight all in black. She took him out immediately with peerless swordsmanship. “Yes! Who’s next?! Try me! Take that, and that... erk!” Just then, at the utmost edge of her peripheral vision to the right, an explosion of flame roared out.
Kaname just barely managed to dodge it. She looked in the direction it had come from and saw a familiar bunny-eared summoner standing on the stone stairway, about two stories up.
“Ugh! Dodging my killing blow... you’ve grown stronger, bathroom tissue!”
“Mizuki?!”
“Don’t talk like you know me!” said Mizuki as she summoned another fire wyrm, which fired a ball of flame at Kaname.
She dodged this one, too... but not entirely, and the resulting blast of hot wind knocked Kaname back into a wall. “Hrk...” she choked.
“All right, bathroom tissue! You’re really ticking me off!” Mizuki declared. “I’ll take your head and present it to Yoko-sama!”
“Sto—” Kaname tried to say, but was cut off as another fireball from Mizuki came streaking at her. Kaname managed to dodge that and leaped into the air, whereupon she landed on a catapult platform and pleaded with her further, “Stop this, Mizuki! I don’t want to kill a friend!”
“Hah, stop talking nonsense!” Mizuki scoffed. “I have no idea who you are! Shut your mouth right now or I’ll bury you with my ultimate summon!”
“Mizuki!”
“Hahhhh!” A dragon appeared behind Mizuki.
There’s no way I’ll survive an attack from that. I’ve got no choice, then... Kaname swiftly leaped and raised her rapier. “Ngh... Mizukiii!” she howled.
“Diiiie!” Mizuki screamed back.
There was a flash as red flame burst out, enveloping the two as they crossed ways. A violent shockwave burst out next, which sent nearby orcs flying backwards, and in turn caused the walls of the inner castle to collapse.
The thick black smoke gradually cleared. Two forms stood there, unmoving... but one held its posture while the other eventually fell. Kaname was the one left standing.
“Hrk... You got me,” Mizuki choked out.
“Mizuki!” Kaname scooped up her shallowly breathing friend.
Mizuki lay on her side, stained in blood, gazing up at the sky. “I’m... going to die, aren’t I?”
“No! Don’t talk like that!”
“A shame that I died... to such a strange woman...”
“Wake up, Mizuki! Noooo!”
Here, Mizuki returned to normal, and looked up at Kaname, who held her in her arms. “Boy... you really don’t have any boundaries, do you? You keep calling me by my first name... who are you?”
“It’s me, like I said.”
“Eh... Wait, are you Kaname?” Mizuki asked incredulously.
“Yeah.”
“Oh, hell! So I was fighting a dear friend this whole time? Sorry, Kaname. I... I was just a puppet, manipulated by Yoko...”
“You didn’t look very manipulated to me...” Kaname grumbled.
“But why the heck did you choose that weird name, Kaname? Ah...? Urk...” In that moment, before she could clarify, Mizuki expired.
“M-Mizuki? Mizuki?!” Kaname shouted. Whether it was predestined that she kill a friend, or simply a twist of fate, a sense of gravity welled up within her, and the BGM volume with its heavy drum beat sounded louder in her ears. “You’ll pay,” she shouted. “You’ll pay, Demon Queen Yoko!”
Pulling Mizuki’s dead body to her chest, Kaname pressed the ‘shed tears of blood’ command. Then, using the ‘loot enemy corpse’ command, she took 100,000 gamel from Mizuki’s dead body. She also leveled up!
“Watch me, Yoko! For the sake of my lost friend, I will defeat you! Graaaah!” Kaname used the self-buff spell ‘ATK Boost’ to make her aura flare up even brighter as she ran deeper into the fortress.
Meanwhile, back with Sousuke and Issei...
The two of them had never gotten along, but once they were working together, there were few who could match them as a fighting duo. Just moments after they broke through the gate, Sousuke and Issei stood back-to-back and polished off every one of the rampaging hordes around them. They were just absurdly tough. Wherever they went, mountains of enemy corpses followed—it wasn’t just NPC orcs and trolls. Even the black knights controlled by PCs would say, “What’s with them?! Don’t they have any blind spots?!” and run in panic.