That’s especially true when it comes to Paralyze. There’s nothing lethal about paralysis, unless the targets decide to kill themselves by struggling against it… Those eucharists just sitting there without moving are going to eat into my target limit. I need to kill the targets that I paralyze and reduce their numbers.
“Paralyze.”
It’s times like these I really realize how important having a front-line fighter on my side is… Someone to fight beside me.
“Squee!”
Piggymaru noticed the reinforcements massing in the direction I was heading—a horde of them at the end of the passage.
They’re trying to crush me with numbers, then. I can’t underestimate their combined strength. They divide us with this labyrinth, then send in powerful disciples and hordes of eucharists to crush us in here. This strategy makes good use of the Divine Labyrinth the Goddess has created. These eucharists aren’t worth much when our whole army is together as one—we demonstrated that to Vicius on the road to Eno. Our enemy knows that, too. They’ve laid a trap to sap us of our strength before they crush us all.
This makes me a bit more worried about the others who are in here. But, well, I guess it just means that Vicius knows her eucharists could be easily taken out one by one, so there’s not much point in scattering them at random through the labyrinth. If it turns out her monsters are only moving in hordes, then taking this group out here will make it easier for our side to get around.
“Too-ka,” said Munin. “You don’t need to trouble yourself with defending me. We anticipated that such a situation might arise and Seras has taught me how to fight. I trained so hard… And Piggymaru is taking care of me too. So please… Don’t hold back on my account, Too-ka!”
“…Sure. You’re right.”
But still…if any more of these eucharists show up to block the passage, I’ll have to use Paralyze to make a wall of them, just like I did back in the Ruins of Disposal. I sure hope that tactic works with these things.
“Squee?”
I looked back in the direction we had just come. It was still faint… But over the horde of advancing eucharists, I heard a sound growing closer. The noise increased as it approached at incredible speed, slashes and strikes ringing through the air as the mass of monsters was gradually mown down.
That must be…
“Sir Too-ka!”
…Jeez.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“Couldn’t have asked for better timing for you to show up.”
Slicing through the eucharists like she was cutting through tofu, the Princess Knight—Seras Ashrain—advanced toward us.
“Seras!”
Munin’s expression flushed with relief. It looked as if Seras had only transformed her sword into its Prime Armor form. The blade of light increased the range of her strikes and made it almost certain she hit her mark.
I didn’t know she could use her armor like that… I guess she’s only using her sword so that she can conserve her energy for the fight to come. She must’ve made the call that she doesn’t need to use her armor here.
It’s no use. The level she’s fighting on is just way beyond anything I’m capable of.
With Seras in overdrive like this, it took her no time at all to catch up with us. We stood back to back in the passage.
“I apologize for keeping you waiting.”
“Perfect timing. You got here just as I was thinking how nice it’d be to have you around.”
“Squee~!”
With Seras here—I can fight while keeping an eye on Munin.
“Sir Too-ka.”
“Yeah,” I said.
First…
“Let’s take them out, Seras.”
It didn’t feel like the process took ten minutes. I used Paralyze to freeze the eucharists in place, then Seras cut them down. The eucharists could do nothing to combat Seras, and they died without even coming close to touching her. She let the light fade from her sword, one eye turned to the dissolving eucharists to her side.
“Seras!” cried Munin as she embraced her.
“I am happy to see that you are uninjured,” Seras replied with a smile.
She turned in my direction and explained how she had come upon us.
“I was running through the labyrinth, searching for our allies, and found that marching horde of eucharists. I thought that there might be someone fighting them at the end of the passage, so I decided to follow the flow.”
“You haven’t seen any disciples yet, then.”
“I have not. I met with many eucharists in this labyrinth, but none that I struggled to defeat.”
I don’t know what kind of monster would even pose a challenge to Seras right now—but putting that aside, it sounds like she hasn’t found any of the other entrants. Sogou and the Takao sisters entered close to us in the order, but we haven’t found them.
“Any citizens of the capital?”
“No.”
No citizens either. Maybe there weren’t as many people left living in Eno as we thought… Or…it would also make sense for them to be hiding in the buildings somewhere. I guess we can mostly forget about them for now.
“In any case… It’s lucky we were all able to regroup unharmed.”
“Speaking of those who entered close in the order, Lady Lokiella…”
I’d like to find her as soon as we can.
I brought up a mental picture of the map of Eno in my head and looked at the buildings and signs around us—then looked in the direction of the castle.
“As you all know, I’ve told everyone to head for the castle gates unless there are other considerations that require their attention. If everyone’s on their way to the castle at the center of the labyrinth, it should help us to group up and prevent us from getting caught wherever we teleported to.”
If Lokiella’s analysis and the intel that Lis fought to get is accurate… Then there’s a very low chance that Vicius is going to leave the castle itself. We already know that her best course of action is waiting until the Holy Eye has been destroyed. And then there’s the divine carving that ties its activator to a certain spot, enhancing their power. If that carving of hers is somewhere near our goal, then she should want to stay as close to it as possible. Apparently, that enhancement of hers is also powering up the eucharists that are on their way to destroy the Holy Eye of Yonato, after all. If her goal is to destroy that eye as fast as possible before escaping into the heavens, then waiting near the end of this labyrinth gives her the best odds of victory.
Of course, it would also be dangerous to feel too certain she’ll be there. It’s possible she might decide to come out into the labyrinth precisely because she knows we won’t expect her to.
I’ve made all the preparations I could. Gathered all the allies I possibly can. I’ve drawn together all the threads I could grasp and woven their potential into a path to victory. But there are still unknown variables at play. Anything could happen. So now that we’ve come this far…we need to react to the situation as it develops and doing the very best we can.
“We’re headed to the castle.”
But no matter what…
“This is where we finish this, Vicius.”