Seeing her as its new target, the grotesque demon roared and charged at her. Lefille’s howling greatsword was swung right at the demon’s miasma-charged shoulder tackle. The chilling sound of a sharp blade cutting through air was accompanied by a ground-shaking boom. And just as the two forces were about to collide, the grotesque demon was bisected from above to below. Its two halves crumbled to the ground with a heavy thud. Before long, it turned into black ashes and vanished.
Elliot walked up to Lefille as she gathered herself.
“Oh man, you beat it so easily,” he said. “I’m losing confidence.”
“No, it wouldn’t have gone this way had you and Reiji-kun not exhausted it,” she told him. “It took a fair bit of time for my concentration to reach the right levels, after all.”
Elliot recalled what Lefille had done. She’d readied her blade before concentrating. The entire preparation had left her open for a fatal strike. If not for those supporting her, she wouldn’t have been able to bisect the demon like that.
But if that was all it took, Elliot and Reiji should’ve been able to beat it too. The demon had been killed so easily that Lefille didn’t understand why those two had such apprehensions about it.
“I have a question,” she said.
“What is it?” Elliot prompted.
“Was the demon you fought before really only this strong?”
Elliot froze for a moment before saying, “No, it was quite a bit more sluggish here, and it had the wound Reiji and I dealt to it left to rot. To be honest, we didn’t even have the time to talk during the fight.”
“I see. It appears I still need more training.”
It had frankly taken Lefille everything she had to match the timing of her strike to the point of impact. If the demon had been any faster, its ramming attack would have hit her. Were there going to be armies of these demons in the future? This development seemed inevitable, and Lefille felt strongly how necessary it was for her to keep training.
“Good grief, it seems I’ll have to get serious soon too...”
Anxious over her lack of skill, Lefille heard Elliot murmur something, but couldn’t make out what it was he said.
Moolah was alone inside a demon encampment some distance away from Metel. She was lost in thought, going over how to carry out the upcoming battle. She had to attack the city while meeting Demon Lord Nakshatra and the Evil God’s expectations: forcing the Goddess’s power to focus into one hero. Toppling the city was secondary. So long as the primary mission was accomplished, it would be nothing more than a nice bonus.
But if that’s all they have, there’s no guarantee it will go well, is there? Not only had she overpowered them and then withdrawn, she’d even told them what she was up to. Doing so was what caused the minor anxiety that was nagging her now.
“The preponderance of the Goddess’s power... Can that really be done now that two heroes are present...?”
Things were already developing in an unexpected direction. So, it was at her discretion to correct the course of events. To that end, she’d put one grotesque demon and two schemes in place. The grotesque demon had suffered serious damage, so she didn’t really expect it to accomplish much. At the very least, it could be a nuisance.
A demon then approached Moolah. It was probably here to give a report, so she lent it an ear.
“They’ve made a move...? What?”
However, the news the demon brought was shocking. Due to her original plans being thrown out of sorts, she was forced to change her approach. She recalled what Lishbaum had once told her.
“A human boy with black hair and black clothes...”
At the time, Lishbaum had told her, “I’m simply asking you to take such possibilities into consideration” and “However, with the amount of power you possess...” All these statements clearly showed just how wary Lishbaum was of this man. So, what would happen if Moolah defeated him personally?
“Very well. How about I disgrace you with my own hands?”
Moolah’s face tightened with anger.
Hatsumi’s group was headed to the western part of the city, toward the church. It seemed the demons were plotting something nefarious at the Goddess’s sacred shrine. Hatsumi’s group was there to clean them up.
Proceeding at a half run, Hatsumi took a look at the city around her. Due to the invasion, the buildings and greenery were all tattered, as if they’d lost their shine. Regardless of the outcome of this war, whether they won or lost, the damage to the city was done. And that was a real tragedy.
With such thoughts in mind, she noticed that Titania had fallen silent. She, too, was looking at the crumbling houses.
“Titania-san?” Hatsumi said.
“Oh, forgive me. Seeing the city like this overwhelms me...”
“You don’t have to...” Hatsumi trailed off. She knew exactly what Titania was thinking.
“I am a princess,” Titania said, looking at the ruins of the town in grief. “I don’t often go out into the city, but still, this is my home. To see it like this pains my heart... It vexes me. There was nothing I could do to stop this. All I can do is remind myself that abandoning the city is necessary.”
“But there’s no—”
“I don’t want to say there’s no helping that,” Titania said, cutting Hatsumi off. “Once I do, I’ll start to believe that it’s alright to abandon everything in any given situation.”
All this must have been building up in her as they traveled through the city’s devastated remains. Titania’s sorrow was palpable.
“We’ll have to... drive the demons out quickly, then,” Liliana said, tugging on Titania’s sleeve.
“You’re right. Let’s give it our all,” Hatsumi added, trying to cheer her up with a show of spirit.
Titania stared at them in wonder, then smiled gently and said, “Thank you.”
However, her expression swiftly tensed, showing the demeanor of a swordswoman. They’d found the hidden demons.
“There they are...” she muttered.
“Let’s... defeat them.”
“Yes, let’s,” Hatsumi agreed, putting a hand to the odachi on her back. “Come to think of it, I never thought I’d be using this katana so quickly.”
What she had now wasn’t the mithril katana the dwarves had made for her. This weapon was something she’d received during her stay in Japan. It was the same length and width as her previous one, but it was of the Kokushitsu Tachi style.
“It looks different from the one you used before,” Titania said, observing the odachi curiously. “Is the blade even stronger than mithril?”
“I wonder about that,” Hatsumi said. “At the very least, it’s made of steel.”
“So it really is steel. Wouldn’t the one you had made in Saadias be better?”
“No, this is probably different from that one.”
“...?”
“Want to try holding it?”
With that, Hatsumi handed the katana to Titania. Titania drew it and gave it one, then two swings. She slashed at a wall with practiced movements, but it didn’t seem to strike a chord with her.
“Forgive me, I can’t tell at all,” she said. “I can only see it has a sharp edge.”
“Birth pains.”
“Huh?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
And as their conversation carried on, Liliana raised her voice in warning.
“Princess Titania, Hatsumi, the demons... are making a move.”
“Mm, got it.” Hatsumi nodded.
It seemed the demons had noticed them and were maneuvering to eliminate them. The three girls quietly discussed what to do and settled on opening with magicka from Liliana to scatter the demons so Hatsumi and Titania could move in and crush them.
“Let’s start... by getting rid of the trash,” Liliana said with a lisp before she started chanting. “A cute, cute, grand parade. Everyone line up. Line up all together. Flightless birdies. Swimming birdies. Walking birdies. Form a tidy line.”
“C-Cute?”
“B-Birdies?”
The other two were terribly thrown off by Liliana’s strange chant. It didn’t sound like it could harm a fly.
“To all who’ll listen. Hearken my words. Contravene similarity, flow into an eddy, dissolve into goo, blend like oil. Free thyself from punishment. Free thyself from all shackles. Those who can’t fly, take to the skies. Those who can swim, do not wade the waters. Those who can walk, do not march. Do naught but deny thy fate.”
In complete contrast to the opening half, the chant finished on a rather eerie note. Liliana blew into her hands, causing a curse to spill to the ground like black tar. It was practically the same thing Suimei had done earlier.
The curse spread like mud on the ground before splitting into several shapes. As one, these shapes transformed to very closely resemble the stuffed toy Liliana was carrying—black penguins.
Liliana led them with a cane in one hand, and the penguins toddled after her. She looked like a teacher being followed by a bunch of kindergartners. The penguins being pitch-black with burning pallid eyes made it a whole lot creepier than that, though.
“U-Um, Liliana Zandyke? What is this?” Titania asked.
“This is that thing you mentioned earlier, huh...” Hatsumi said with a somewhat exasperated look.
The demons changed their approach at the sight of this abnormality. Now wasn’t the time to be stealthily getting in position. They burst into action from every direction.
“Here... I go. Take this.”
In response to Liliana’s declaration, the penguins took to the air, lying flat like toboggans, then started flying in circles, spreading black curses in their wake.
Liliana then thrust forward her cane, and...
“Ultimate art! Mr. Penguin... Missile!”
Immediately following the strangest of keywords, the cursed penguins cried as one.
“KYyuUrururUrUrurRUruu!”
“PipYyppYPyYRRRRrrrr!”
“KyrRrruAUwaaWuwaaAAA!”