Lokiella sprang back into a sitting position and sighed.
“The rejects, but still… There’s a good chance that she has an army much stronger than that one in reserve. We might have another, tougher eucharist army fight ahead of us.”
We had already questioned the Alion nobles we’d captured alive, but none of them had much intel, aside from what they knew about the forces that they’d ridden into battle.
Didn’t get much useful about Vicius or the disciples, either—but with Seras’s lie detector, at least what we did get was reliable. We still don’t have a clear picture of the Goddess’s overall strength, though.
“If they keep on us day after day with this kind of strength, that might be a problem,” I said, but Lokiella didn’t look convinced.
“I wonder if she’s been keeping some of her forces behind. Maybe the eucharist army’s real goal isn’t us, but them…”
Back when Lis’s familiar had first arrived—just after I gave the order for Sogou to deploy to the battlefield—I spoke with Lis for a few more moments before heading out myself. I stayed so that I could confirm something, a certain piece of information.
“A large army of eucharists heading north from the capital of Alion, huh.”
They’re going in the opposite direction from us, meaning…
“It’s likely they’re on their way to the capital of Yonato, to the Holy Eye.”
I looked up at the evening sky—the same sky that had been lit up with a flash just days ago as a great laser destroyed Vicius’s gate.
“It’s just as you predicted, Lokiella.”
It happened just as she said it would. The news turned her speculation into solid conviction. Just as Vicius sent her army to confront us in the west, she was deploying another to the north, bound for Yonato.
“Once she’s disabled the Holy Eye—and I mean the moment it’s gone—she’s going to try to open that gate again.”
“Then she’ll pour all of her anti-divine eucharists and disciples into the heavens,” I said.
“Yeah. She should be able to check whether the Holy Eye is operational using a divine device, like I did.”
We need to move as quickly as we can then—within reason.
The look on Lokiella’s face grew more serious. “Given what that little familiar told us, it sounds like there are more giant and mid-sized eucharists on the march north. Even if they’re the dregs of her forces and some of them aren’t worth much, some of them can really fight. She probably sent the weaker of her two armies in our direction.”
“We’re lucky there’s a long way between Alion and Yonato. Even once they reach the northern border, they’ll still have to cross that large expanse of Magnar territory. And if they decided to take a shortcut through the Land of the Golden-eyed Monsters, that’s still a long distance between Alion and Yonato. It should take them several days. Given the terrain, I don’t think the Land of the Golden-eyed Monsters would be a good place to try marching an army through.”
According to the intel in Lis’s report, given the position of their northern army and its marching speed… We should have more than enough leeway.
“The Wildly Beautiful Emperor has sent some reinforcements up to Yonato, hasn’t he?”
“Yeah, the Miran soldiers he left in defense of the imperial capital should be on their way up there now, led by one of his older brothers. Given the speed the enemy’s moving, they should make it there in time.”
If all goes well, we could have the White Wolf King up there rallying forces from Magnar too—and the Sabre-toothed Tigers. We should gather all the strength we can get.
“For now, I’ve reached out to everyone I could think of for support. The problem’s Yonato, really. It all depends on whether their queen has seen the proof we sent her on that smartphone and understands that the Goddess is her enemy…”
Everything depends on that. If it ends up taking us longer than expected to reach Eno, we’ll need everyone in Yonato to protect the Holy Eye. They’ll need to buy us time, at least. The moment the Holy Eye is destroyed, Vicius will open her gate and send those anti-divine eucharists through it. She could even refuse to fight us, taking her disciples and escaping into the heavens. From Vicius’s perspective, I guess that’d be quitting while she’s ahead.
On the other hand—this means that, until she destroys the Holy Eye, she can’t make any moves. The fact that she’s still holed up in Eno is proof of that. Buying time until the Holy Eye has been destroyed is the optimal strategy for her right now. According to Lokiella, Eno’s the place she’s got to deal with to open that gate now. And she can’t leave the capital alone, as that would risk our army destroying her anti-divine eucharists—the all-important troops she needs to invade the heavens. If we arrive in Eno while the Holy Eye of Yonato is still active, Vicius will have no choice but to try to exterminate us.
The Queen of Yonato
THE QUEEN OF YONATO, Alma Saintnokia, sat reading the letter that had arrived from Vicius. It contained orders to disable the Holy Eye, with the reason given being “the protection of this world.”
Not long ago the eye launched a holy strike toward Alion… Is that what this is about?
Alma was confused. The Holy Eye was the guardian deity of her nation. It had never been shut off since it was first activated.
What is happening?
If asked whether she trusted the Goddess of Alion—Alma would have answered no. But she was also aware of the fact that only the Goddess’s power could combat the Root of All Evil. She had no love for the Sacred Alliance but was willing to cooperate with them nonetheless. The Goddess interfered little with the state of Yonato, compared to the others. Alma was not sure why, but she was aware that the Goddess meddled with the other nations on the continent.