If the army of gods had attacked the Demon King’s Choir without trying to surround them, the girls would use Gard Aske to repel them. If they surrounded them and activated Arnest instead, the Azesion army’s advantage in numbers would overpower them. The crisis of battle united the humans of Azesion in shared sentiment and through Aske, empowered them.
But even then, their army of eight hundred was barely able to handle a divine army of one hundred—and that was only thanks to the surprise attack giving them a brief advantage. It wouldn’t be long before the situation changed.
“Ellen!” Emilia shouted. She used Fless to fly over to the Fan Union girls.
“My students,” she said, tone softly chiding, “there’s really no helping you bunch, is there?” Her gaze turned to Ennessone. “I just have to use Gyze on her, right?”
“Yes, but weren’t you just worried about her being a trap?” Ellen asked.
“I have no other choice. It’s not like I can abandon you girls here. I’ll just have to see for myself whether it’s a trap or not. If something happens to me, make sure to apprehend her,” Emilia said, before casting Gyze on Ennessone to create a magic link with her.
“Wow! That was so cool of you, Ms. Emilia!”
“This voice and magic... Is that you, Eleonore?”
Thanks to the magic link, Eleonore’s voice was able to reach her through Leaks.
“Yup, everything Enne said was true! We’re currently in the Divine Realm, looking for the cause of the solar eclipse. Are you able to protect this communication link?”
Emilia frowned grimly. “It looks like a trap would have been easier to deal with after all... There’s less than one hundred gods fighting right now, but we’ve confirmed that their main army is at least five thousand strong. If even a tenth of those forces come here, we won’t stand a chance...”
“Hmm. But you’re witty, Ms. Emilia, so you should be able to figure something out. Lay and the others are there too, right?”
“He’s currently fighting at the door of god that appeared south of Gairadite. There’s nothing I can do about our small numbers.”
Emilia started thinking with a solemn look. Then, she sent a Leaks to another location—in Gairadite. “Hero Assembly, please respond. This is Emilia speaking.”
She immediately received a reply.
“This is Lloyd, president of the Hero Assembly. Has the retreat been completed?”
“No. Demon King Anos has established communication from the Divine Realm. As suspected, that sun is the work of the gods. Our only shot of salvaging things is protecting a girl called Ennessone, whose location is deep in enemy territory. I am requesting permission to use the holy lake, and for reinforcements from the Hero Academy.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Explain the situation, Emilia.”
Emilia sighed at the uncooperative replies from the Hero Assembly. She gave the shortest possible explanation of the situation as fast as she could to Lloyd.
“I understand now,” Lloyd said after her explanation. “But there are only three troops left that can be spared. The Hero Academy and holy lake must be allocated to suppressing the spell formula of the sun being drawn in the sky. We cannot afford to move them—”
“Oh, there’s no point in doing that. It’s not the kind of magic you guys can handle,” Eleonore interrupted.
“Who is speaking?” Lloyd asked dubiously.
“I’m a subordinate of the Demon King. Sarjieldenav can destroy demons from two thousand years ago. Humans wouldn’t even be able to approach its airspace. And the solar eclipse this time will be even more powerful than the last one.”
“Is that so,” Lloyd replied. “But in its current state, it emits no trace of detectable magic. If we hurry, we should be able to stop it before it activates.”
Lloyd’s judgment was by no means mistaken—aside from the fact that Sarjieldenav’s magic power was so astoundingly vast, he simply wasn’t able to detect it. Just like how the demons of this era failed to sense my magic power after I reincarnated, the same phenomenon was now happening to the Hero Assembly in perceiving the Sun of Destruction.
The assembly members began to bicker among themselves.
“I understand the Demon King is saying to stop, but in this case, it would only be right for him to show up and tell us so in person.”
“Indeed, we will not move on your word alone. We do wish to maintain a friendship with Dilhade, but that doesn’t mean we will accept all demands without question.”
“However, if this is truly what the Demon King is saying, then the idea is worth due consideration.”
“That may be true, but it’s not as if we’re the ones who are acting thoughtlessly. We haven’t even requested help yet, so it isn’t their place to give unsolicited instructions.”
“You go too far. Have you forgotten how much the Demon King has done for us all this time?”
“Even so. We have our hands full with the army of gods already. It would be one thing if he were offering reinforcements, but demanding we split our forces further is...”
“We would have already completed our retreat if this demand hadn’t shown up so suddenly. Are you sure this isn’t a prank meant to sabotage us?”
“Prank or not, the Demon King should have used official channels to submit the appropriate documentation first instead of appearing like this.”
“Everyone,” Lloyd eventually said, effectively cutting through the discussion. “I know this is a tense situation, but calm down. Dilhade’s Demon King has done us a lot of favors until now. The Hero Assembly’s formation could even be credited to Anos Voldigoad. He should not be met with such disdain.”
The voices of the assembly members backed down reluctantly. However, there were still complaints that could be heard.
“I’m still standing on the battlefield right now...” Emilia muttered under her breath.
It seemed the Hero Assembly was still far from operating smoothly. Since it seemed they weren’t even able to agree on how decisions were to be made in emergencies, this situation was no surprise, but it was past time for them to make up their minds.
“My apologies, Headmaster Emilia. We have our hands full here...” Lloyd said in a line that only Emilia could hear.
“Apologizing won’t help me. At the very least, give me the right to handle this myself. Or even Lay—Hero Kanon.”
“That’s...”
“The more time you spend waffling over this, the more of Azesion’s people will die.”
Silence continued. Although it was temporary, Lloyd seemed to be hesitant to hand power to a demon. Their peace-addled minds were probably focused on the aftermath of the war, even though there was no guarantee there would be one. At this very moment, there were human soldiers dying at the swords of the gods.
“Oh, fine. I’ll just prove that Enne is worth protecting!” Eleonore snapped.
At the same time, Ennessone spread her wings. A blinding light surrounded her, and her wings started shedding feathers and magic runes. The runes formed several bubbles of holy water, and the feathers entered the bubbles while glowing faintly. In no time at all, the light within the bubbles took the shape of a young girl. Like that, two hundred Jinalenas were born.
“What’s this? Zeshia?” Emilia asked with a look of amazement. She was shocked by their appearance and power, it seemed.
“Go!” Eleonore commanded.
The two hundred magic dolls leaped to join the Azesion army, drawing their swords of holy water as they charged at the army of gods.