As the main army flooded into town, Kanade opened the guild home door, stepping outside.
“The town’s still in one piece!”
Teleport was a skill that warped the user back to their guild home. In other words, it was a one-way trip with only one destination, but that worked just fine this time.
It had let Kanade return quickly, and judging by the lack of fighting, he’d beaten Mii and Velvet there.
Maple Tree’s home was near the outer walls. He headed toward the wall near the gate to take stock of the situation and found players tumbling through, Frederica in tow. Even counting the stragglers in the rear, there were clearly far fewer of them now. Only a third of the players posted to her defensive formation had survived.
“Frederica, any news?” Kanade asked, running up.
She looked surprised to see him.
“Urkk? K-Kanade, how…no, shit’s about to go down!”
Before Frederica could say another word, a red glow shone through the gate, and billowing flames melted the walls like butter.
“I made it in time!”
Mii appeared through the huge gap in the wall. The fires enveloping her had finally started dying down, with the wall incineration serving as their last gasp. Still, Maple’s group had struggled to accomplish a feat she managed like it was nothing.
Players were pouring in.
“Now we just gotta hit the castle!”
“Indeed.”
It seemed to be squads from both Thunder Storm and Flame Empire. There were far fewer of them than the forces stationed in the other town, but more than enough to capture the throne.
“Frederica, prepare for siege.”
“What’s your plan?”
“Buy all the time I can. And…you’d just get caught up in it.”
Kanade pulled a black-spined grimoire from his stacks.
“Then I’ll grab anyone I see on the way. Feel free to just win this!”
“Ha-ha, we’ll see.”
Frederica ran off, and the enemy were headed toward him.
Kanade opened a book he’d kept around since the day he first obtained Sorcerer’s Stacks.
“Forbidden Spell: Catastrophe Storm.”
The sky grew dark as newly formed clouds swirled overhead. Allies raced past him, as pitch-black sparks shattered the roofs all around, black flames billowing in their wake.
It was a skill no one had ever seen, and the enemy could not afford to blow this here. If they tried to plunge into this obvious threat, victory would slip through their fingers.
“This is a really neat spell. The more skills and spells you’ve used, the stronger it gets.”
““……!””
They weren’t sure if that was true. They’d just have to find that out the hard way. And to emphasize that point, Kanade made his bookshelves—and all the grimoires on them—manifest behind him.
“I’m not holding anything back.”
With that, all manner of tomes flew off his shelves, activating even more magic circles.
“God, Maple Tree…”
“…are all monsters!”
Raging winds, surging waters, death-inducing black mist, and writhing curses inflicting status effects all surged out across the town.
All of them would be the ace up any mage’s sleeve, but here they were mere fodder for the winds swirling overhead. The skill count rose at a furious pace. The black fires flared more and more violently, now every bit as powerful as the elements Mii and Velvet wielded.
“Now that’s what I call exciting!”
“Retreat is not an option! Win this thing!”
“““Rahhhhh!”””
They’d come here prepared to push through anything.
And so they threw themselves into the threat that lay before them, trying to take Kanade down.
✦ ✦ ✦
Sparing no thought to those defenses, Maple’s side was charging through the enemy camp.
“Waterway!”
“Ancient Weapon! Commence Assault! Saturating Chaos! Hydra!”
Blowing herself up would hit everyone around her, so Sally was helping by pulling her into paths made of water that gave her the height she needed. Using these vantage points, she sprayed attacks in all directions.
Maple was great at area attacks. After coating both sides of the main road in poison, she fired two types of guns to the fore, scorching the earth.
The damage reduction from Glow of Deliverance kept them safe, but they were still deep in enemy territory. The spells raining down claimed one life after another.
Still, their invasion continued undaunted. As long as one survivor made it to the throne room, victory would be theirs.
“Ray!”
“We’ll fly too! Anyone who can, join us!”
The one path to the castle was a long, long staircase. That stretched their formation thin, so players that could take to the skies did.
The flying contingent peered down at the square outside the castle entrance and found it bristling with soldiers carrying guns—as well as Lily, her flag planted firmly in the ground.
“Sorry, but this is a no-fly zone. Ancillary Draft!”
Pain tensed up, and the staircase began to glow.
“Aughhh?!”
“Eek!”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
Even as players ran up the stairs, troops were summoned below their feet.
“Whoa!”
“Maple!”
Sally quickly snagged Maple with her webs, pulling her to an invisible platform in the air. But she couldn’t save everyone. The troops knocked the players into the air, forcing them off-balance and sending them tumbling down.
Lily had made great use of the terrain through her unexpected summons, catching everyone off guard.
As one, every summoned soldier shouldered their rifle.
“Load Armor Piercers!”
“Maple, pierce damage coming!”
Maple had been about to activate Martyr’s Devotion to prevent the fall damage from killing anyone, but Pain heard Lily’s order, and barked a warning.
If every one of these soldiers fired, that was a lot of piercing damage. She’d have to time Pierce Guard perfectly while also activating Martyr’s Devotion, but that was a Sally stunt, not something Maple could do. There was too much going on for her to be that precise.
Heedless of her hesitation, the players falling yelled up at her.
“Forget about us!”
“Not like we’d catch up in time!”
“In which case…”
If the fall was gonna kill them anyway, then their best bet was to sacrifice themselves for the cause.
“““Swallow us all!”””
“……! Sally!”
“Flash Spout. Subzero Domain.”
Maple caught their drift, and Sally caught hers.
She froze the surge of water, giving players who’d not yet fallen a place to stand, and in lieu of Martyr’s Devotion, Maple used a very different skill.
“Dark Rebirth!”
Then there was black. Black muck spread out from Maple’s position, ignoring even elevation changes as it stained the ground far below.
Players in free fall had nowhere to go. Even if they avoided death at the hands of Lily’s projectiles, they were all headed straight to the surface below.
But when they hit, they felt not the impact of landing, but the gentle embrace of the bog—a bottomless pit of darkness.
How many fell? One hundred? Two? It was impossible to tell—especially when an equal number of grotesqueries clawed back out.
“Hi! Help us out!”
These creatures born from man heard Maple’s plea, put their claws to the cliff face, and began scaling their way to the castle proper.
In due time, the first of these fallen players appeared before Lily.
“Ha-ha, didn’t think I’d get to be part of a kingdom overrun by monsters in my lifetime. This is the last plot I had in mind.”
The grotesqueries shattered everything in their path, from fences to fountains, forcing Lily back into the castle halls.
She headed to the throne room, bent on buying every last second she could.
Given their sheer bulk, some creatures were squeezed out and fell, but others broke through the castle walls and shattered windowpanes, demolishing the castle from the outside in.
Plumes of fire and smoke emerged from the palace. The end was nigh.