Thanks to her, our army was able to focus on the pure numbers battle at hand. I was doing almost the exact same thing on the southern flank—although not as successfully as Sogou. I mean, she even came over to the southern flank toward the end. Her ability to just keep fighting made her the MVP of this battle. This battle was three days long, though… Apparently, leveling up in the past has brought down the mana cost of her abilities.
We cycled out soldiers from our reserves as we fought the battle—not even Sogou Ayaka could fight three days straight with no breaks. I used Sleep to help her get some rest. We weren’t able to gain EXP during the fight and level up, meaning that sleep was the only form of mana restoration available to us.
Not to mention that, with a skill like Sleep, it doesn’t matter if you’re too wired or restless—I could put an insomniac to bed with my skill if I wanted to. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got coming up tomorrow, or how awake you’re feeling. Sleep can let you get a deep night’s rest without the need for pills. I feel like some people would love to have this skill back in the old world.
…Anyway.
While Sogou was asleep, I handled most of the giant eucharists as Seras and her Holy Knights took down the smaller and mid-sized ones nearby. We didn’t have the same kind of impact that Sogou did, but I was confident that I had the staying power to keep fighting.
I mean, Paralyze and Berserk only consume 20 MP total. That’s nothing compared to my total MP. It wasn’t as if I was the only one who secured this victory, either—the strength of our allies was crucial to winning this three-day fight. Some additional forces from the Country at the End of the World also arrived on the last day, meaning Amia and her Lamia knights could be immediately put into our lines.
On the third day, it had been clear that our soldiers were getting tired, so it was a relief to see reinforcements arrive. Sogou took short naps when she could, so we sometimes went back onto the front lines to replace her.
In the end, we didn’t need the Takao sisters for the fight.
They did ask to be sent out around noon on the second day…but I insisted that they only go out if it looked like we were losing the fight. I left the choice up to them, of course, on the condition that they needed to use their discretion and evaluate my condition. And once I’d made that call, the sisters pulled back. Should’ve expected that level of understanding from Takao Hijiri.
In any case, the first battle of the Anti-Goddess Alliance ended in victory.
I sent out black dragons and harpies to scout the area from our location to the borders of Alion once the eucharist army was destroyed—but none of them detected any more enemies in our path. The day was drawing to an end after the battle. Dissolving eucharists were scattered across the highway and the surrounding plains, their fading bodies tinged orange by the glow of the evening sun.
“They attacked for almost three days and nights… And it really didn’t feel like they were holding anything back.”
“Might have been that Vicius just wanted to throw all of the giant and mid-sized monsters into the fight to overwhelm us with numbers,” replied Lokiella from atop my shoulder. “I think she wanted to crush us with her most murderous horde. But I suppose it was a bad move to clump them all together in one place.”
“Because of Sogou, huh?”
“Yes,” Lokiella replied. “To be honest, I think that even if Vicius knew that Ayaka was on our side, she never thought that she’d be capable of taking on a large army like this on her own. Maybe she thought we’d suffer more casualties…enough to make us reconsider whether this war was worth fighting. But even setting Ayaka aside, it seems like our soldiers are more than strong enough to fight this war… You in particular.”
“Still, I didn’t do as much to win this as Sogou did.”
“Hmph, what are you saying, Lord of the Flies? Everyone watched you tirelessly charge off into the battle whenever Ayaka was resting, you know? You’re the one who made sure this massive battle went off without a hitch.”
Hmph. I snorted. “I guess so.”
“Hmmmph! It’s that modest part of your character that I quite like, you know? Not bad, human.”
“…You goddesses are weird, aren’t you?”
“Hey! You just lumped me in with Vicius?! Rude!”
“Squee.”
“Waaah?! Don’t pop up out of nowhere like that, Piggymaru! You scared me! I-I mean it, give me some warning! Oh…that gave me such a fright…”
“Seems like you and Piggymaru are getting along.”
“Better than I get along with Vicius, sure!”
“Squee! ♪”
Let’s get back to the subject at hand…
“Come to think of it…” began Lokiella, looking as if she’d just remembered something. “There weren’t any flying eucharists. Perhaps she put only made sure the anti-divine monsters could fly? Hmm… I imagine she wouldn’t be able to make flying monsters in bulk.”
So, there’s a chance that she didn’t send her most valuable eucharists our way, huh…?
“You think the eucharists we’ve been fighting might not have been her strongest ones, then?”
According to Lis, Vicius and her disciples are in the capital.
Lokiella started kicking her legs as she sat on my shoulder. “…Maybe not, since there’s no question she’s spent the most time on the creation of her anti-divine eucharists. They aren’t meant for you, and that’s why she hasn’t sent them out against you. She’s not fighting with her full strength. Meaning…”
She folded her arms behind her head, leaning back to look up at the sky. “These monsters that Vicius sent… Maybe to her, they were just the rejects.”
“They were extras that she just flung at us?”
If she’d decided to pour all of her strength into creating eucharists to annihilate every last person that lives on this continent instead… Well, there’s a good chance this battle wouldn’t have gone well for us.