I recalled that elves had somehow caught up to our coach early in our escape, around the time I’d found Barkus. Ah, how I miss the way he used to be before he grew enormous... Wolves shouldn’t be the size of bulls.
Jomin walked to the front of our group, her staff emitting a metallic ringing.
“I shall open the path.”
“You will, mother?”
“Yes, we must hurry to Yggdrasil.”
Phalaris stepped up next.
“Wanna fly on my back? I can carry a few people to mount an assault.”
“Hmph. As if a dragon is fast enough to move this army.”
“Whoa, shots fired by Barkus’s mom!” replied Phalaris.
“‘Barkus’?” asked Jomin as she turned to her son, who awkwardly looked away.
She then sounded her staff and began chanting a sonorous incantation that resonated through the forest. In response, the forest rustled and creaked to life, opening a straight, wide path through itself.
“What a splendid forest path!” said one of the village elders.
“I would expect no less from Jomin, the best magician among high elves,” said another.
“Why don’t we come to Yggdrasil with you?” said a third.
Jomin regarded Hufton’s elders with a quizzical expression.
“To what end? You are too old to fight, are you not?”
“What are you talking about?” replied one of them.
“I see you haven’t a clue,” continued another.
“Wherever yokozuna Floortje goes, there be sumo,” said a third.
“And that is what we’re going to see,” finished a fourth.
“I cannot comprehend this...” replied Jomin.
These elders were in love with sumo already. A crowd of young elves from the village tagged along as well. We were pretty much leaving a ghost town behind us.
“It’s fine, mother. Probably,” said Ulupano.
“We are going against demons and monsters with no semblance of reasoning. And has the Demon Lord himself not made an appearance?”
“It should be fine, trust me.”
Doubt was written all over Jomin’s face. For now, we would just have to hurry to the Town of Yggdrasil through this forest path opened for us. Our troops from Aryaka weren’t here yet, but it was probably fine. Probably.
After simply walking through the forest for some time, Yggdrasil came into view already. It wasn’t like we had walked extremely fast or anything, and yet the distance traveled was staggering.
“Maybe it’s like shukuchi,” I wondered.
“What is ‘shukuchi’?” asked the prince.
“It refers to a means of shrinking distances. A sort of spatial magic, you might say.”
“I see. You are a well of knowledge, Floortje.”
“Oh, please, Your Highness...”
It felt so nice to be praised by my beloved prince. Dosukoi dosukoi!
“This magic shrinks space-time with such delicacy as to be imperceptible. The word ‘shukuchi’ is a good fit,” explained Jomin.
Though it could only be used in a forest, it seemed incredibly useful for moving troops very quickly. Such terrifying magic, I thought.
Having come near the Town of Yggdrasil so swiftly, I looked up at its namesake. It towered over us, as magnificent as ever. The trees around the town swayed their branches as if welcoming us.
And in front of the town stood members of the Demon Lord’s army, radiating confidence. A set of their elite rikishi, with the Demon Lord himself in front.
“There you are, yokozuna!” he spoke.
“I’ve come as promised. Also, what in the world is this?”
As I poked at the bizarre object shaped like a structure’s foundation, the Demon Lord frowned.
“I told that chancellor to build me a dohyō for our showdown, and this shoddy earthwork was the best he could do. Can’t fight on this thing, can we now? Wanna summon the usual thing somewhere?”
“I would certainly feel bad for all the people who’ve come to see it.”
“Yeah, same.”
With the usual metallic ringing, Jomin thrust her staff at the shabby dohyō, causing it to crumble. Indeed, there was no way we could do sumo on something this unstable.
“Heed my words, Demon Lord, for I speak on behalf of the Elder Council. You would do well to leave these lands at once.”
“Hah hah hah, so you’ve finally left your lair, high elf granny! Too bad your last hope is gone. We’ve finished analyzing this town’s defensive barrier, so we have nothing to fear from you elves anymore.”
“My, those are some big words, boy. And indeed, Yggdrasil’s forest barrier is currently damaged and not performing its function.”
Jomin began quietly chanting an incantation.
“Hah, no way you’re gonna fix such large-scale defenses in a matter of— Huh?!”
“Engage...” finished Jomin, sounding her staff.
As she did, something white akin to shock waves came flying out of Yggdrasil’s base and pushed all the demons and numerous monsters stationed in town outside, sending them high into the air before causing them to fall back to the ground like rain, screaming. As horrible a sight as a rain of monsters was, they were all tough, so while some blood was spilt, none looked to have perished.
“Your forces have been expelled from the town. Now return to your demonic lands,” spoke Jomin.
“You damn old hag! What the hell was that spell just now?!” complained the Demon Lord.
“You should’ve expected a large-scale magic barrier to have hidden properties. Of its five layers, you were only able to break through the first and a small part of the second. Whoever you assigned to this task is clearly skilled, but they still have a long way to go.”
With monsters having been launched into the air in every direction from the town, a great number of them had fallen near the west gate, where we stood. Many had light wounds such as bleeding noses after crashing into the ground. It was a scene straight out of hell.
“This town’s protective magic has been left unattended for roughly two thousand years. Why don’t I renovate it using the superior design that was conceived by the powerful magicians of the Elder Council with too much time on their hands? I’m about to get busy, so you demons and monsters had better leave, lest you wish to be slaughtered.”
“Grrr!” grumbled the Demon Lord.
The Town of Yggdrasil had been reclaimed without our having to do any sumo at all. Wow, high elves.
“I’m gonna show you, old hag! Hey, you apes, get ready to fight! We’re gonna kill this granny and the fairy king!”
“Feebleminded savages! Witness now the powerful magic of my race and burn it into your memory!”
The situation between the two armies was touch and go. Bloodshed seemed nigh unavoidable. I felt I had better not do or say something to set it off.
“Wh-What’s going on here?! You demons and monsters keep causing trouble for me! Quit screwing around!” shouted Chancellor Mickaël, who had shown up too.
When he saw Jomin, his legs gave out.
“Ahh, aaaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!” He began screaming, with his eyes seeming as though they would pop out, his beautiful face all creased up.
“Yes, I’m Jomin of the Elder Council.”
“Aaaahhh! Th-This is a misunderstanding!”
“I’m here too.”
“Aaaahhh, aaaaahhh!!! Fairy King! Aaaaahhh, aaaahhh!!!”
All I’d wanted was to do some team sumo, but all the bad sorts were rapidly perishing of their own accord. It was troubling.
“Now that it’s come to this, let us settle things through sumo!!!” I exclaimed.
“I don’t see the logic here.”
“Ugh...”
I couldn’t find a good reply to Jomin’s calm retort. Unconsciously, I raised a leg. Not a pose one should assume in front of a demigod that is a high elf and a keeper of the forest that is a fenrir, but I was past that. For I was a beast of a sumo wrestler!
STOMP!!! The shiko I had poured all my might into shook the ground. A sound like that of glass being smashed to pieces reached my ears as well.
“Ahhh!!! The five-layer protective barrier of the Town of Yggdrasil is in pieces! H-How, how is this possible?! What is that antimagic power?!” wailed Jomin.
“Sumo,” I replied.
“What?”
“Sumo.”
“How does a martial art have such power?”
“Sumo is a ritual.”
“Oh. Really?”
Yes, really.
“I am a yokozuna, an avatar of a god here in the mortal realm, and I take it upon myself to settle this dispute. Do not dare wage pointless wars in front of my eyes, wars that nobody stands to gain from! Now, Demon Lord! Let us do sumo with the Town of Yggdrasil at stake!”
“Heh heh heh, you’re really pushing it, you know that? But this is my jam too! As a yokozuna of Demonic Sumo, I accept your challenge! What say you, monsters?!”
“Yeah!!!” shouted his subordinates.
All right, it worked out somehow! I wasn’t about to have a war on my hands.
Jomin looked puzzled. I couldn’t blame her, since I’dd said what I’d said on the spur of the moment. Even I didn’t believe a citizen of a different country had any right to stake one of the elven towns in sumo, but what can you do? It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.
“Mother, if it weren’t for Lady Floortje, I would have perished in the forest, which would in turn certainly have led to a bloody feud between the elves. So please, let her do sumo with this town at stake.” Ulupano, still in fenrir form, lowered his head to Jomin.
Even he could say pretty good things sometimes.
“But my son, we will lose this town if she loses.”
“It was our kin that let demons and monsters inside it in the first place. It’s not an exaggeration to say this folly has already made us lose control of it once. So if we lose it again as a result of this competition, it will simply return things to how they were before.”
Jomin shut her eyes and folded her arms in thought. It seemed the thing she was so reluctant to let go of was Yggdrasil itself, rather than the town surrounding it. I wondered why.
In the distance, I could see Yggdrasil rustle to life.
Jomin, my child... I do not mind. Had Floortje not put out the fires in the earlier battle, I would no doubt have burned away. I have faith in her.
Did this beautiful voice coming directly into my head belong to Yggdrasil?
“But ancestral spirit, you are the pillar of support for our race. I could rout these demons and monsters all on my own...”
It turned out Yggdrasil was the elves’ ancestor. Apparently, this beautiful race had been born from it.
“Shiko, eh?” spoke the Demon Lord in a madcap voice, as if he meant for us to hear it.
“Yes, sir—shiko can dispel magic!”
“I completely forgot about that, since we don’t use magic. Monsters’ special abilities aren’t magic, after all.”
“Now we have no reason to be scared of that high elf magic. We can all just do shiko together.”
“Yep. Floortje really helped us out on this one.”
Whoops!
Jomin had a sour look on her face.
“What a troublesome martial art... Very well. You may face off with this town at stake.”
“Thank you, Jomin!” I exclaimed.