Raul spotted the signal from the upper floors of Babel and came running.
“C-Captain! Zald’s reached Central Park! He’s made contact with Warlord!!”
Finn’s order was immediate. All the building tension in his body was instantly converted into movement, like a fisherman who had finally hooked the catch he had been waiting for.
“Activate the barrier!” he yelled. “Seal off Central Park and signal our allies!”
Raul hurried to a nearby desk and grabbed one of many flare guns lined up on it. Raising it overhead, he sent a blue streak trailing into the sky.
At the same time, an enormous glowing forcefield appeared.
“Huh?! What the hell’s goin’ on?!”
“A-a barrier has appeared around Central Park, ma’am! It surrounds the wall of ice, Babel…everything!”
This unexpected turn of events bewildered the Evils. Valletta looked on in shock.
Far off in the distance, she could see that dozens of mages had taken to the rooftops around Central Park and raised their staffs in unison. Evidently, they had chanted their spells well in advance, because the barriers appeared without delay, layer upon layer, all differing colors and elements, forming a hemispherical dome around the city center.
“A barrier?! They’re trappin’ Zald inside Central Park?! But why?!”
Although she didn’t yet understand the reason, something about this turn of events gave Valletta a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. However, she didn’t have to wonder for long before her answer came in the form of a bellowing roar.
“““Rrraaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!”””
It came from the center of the city.
“What is it this time?!” she spat in irritation, when a second subordinate ran over, even more flustered than the first.
“New enemies have joined the fray, ma’am! They showed up just after the signal flare was fired!”
The news made Valletta’s eyes snap wide open.
“That’s the signal! We’ve hidden long enough! Now is the time to fight!!”
In the southwest of the city, near the trading district, the doors of a mansion built right next to the Ganesha Familia home flew open. Out came Shakti, leading an army of her familia’s elites with her powerful voice.
“I-it’s an ambush! We’re surrounded—aaaaaaaghh!!”
Just as the Evils were certain that the stronghold was on the verge of falling, Shakti’s unit took their forces by surprise and struck them with a rear charge.
Meanwhile, in the shopping district to the south, an army of adventurers came rushing out of a different casino.
“Our enemy has overextended themselves by attacking all the strongholds!” yelled Asfi, leading the charge. “Take them out swiftly, before they have a chance to reform their lines!”
“You’re finally here, Asfi!” cried Falgar, his face awash with relief. “Perfect! All units, no more defending! Time to bring the fight to them!”
“““Raaaaaaaaahhh!!”””
Falgar raised his greatsword high, and the stronghold’s defenders, only too eager to exact payback for the pummeling they’d received, descended from the barricades and launched themselves at the enemy. Working in perfect sync with Asfi’s strike team, the two forces pincered the horde of monsters and cultists.
“They’re everywhere! Have they been hiding in the buildings this entire time?!”
Olivas stood atop a building, spared from the carnage below but unable to avert his eyes from it.
“They knew we would gather our forces at the strongholds… This was a trap all along!”
The vigor in the adventurers’ voices confirmed his suspicions. It was a trap, and the Evils had fallen for it magnificently. Over on the roof of a trading-house in the southwest, the information from her eyes and ears forced Valletta to confront this uncomfortable truth. Even if she didn’t know the full extent of it yet, it was impossible to deny what was happening.
“L-Lady Valletta! Our forces at the strongholds…they’ve all come under attack by adventurers who came out of hiding!”
“An ambush? But it doesn’t add up! Were they hiding there all along? There’s too many! All the other adventurers were supposed to be at Central Park!!”
Valletta couldn’t shake the apprehension that had crept into her voice.
“Unless…there’s no one there!”
When the realization hit her, she emitted a wrathful snarl.
“That wall of ice was just a distraction! It was meant to make us think that they were hiding an army!!”
“Th-then…who is Zald facing? Surely they don’t mean to ignore him completely!”
“Ottar!! It’s gotta be that pig bastard! We been followin’ Finn’s lead this entire time, and now the board’s set up just the way he wants!”
Finn’s sole aim was the enemy king and queen.
The bulk of the city’s forces had been gathered in Central Park to take out Zald and Alfia.
These were both myths that Valletta was made to believe.
The whole time, Finn had been leading them, as if by magic, with a beckoning finger.
The civilians had never been bait at all. The entire board was the bait. And by leaning so heavily on the power of Zeus and Hera, Valletta had ended up handing Finn the outcome he had truly been seeking.
“Finn, you bastaaaard!!”
The moment she realized the truth, that she had been dancing in Finn’s palm all along, the veins in Valletta’s forehead bulged, and she exploded with fury.
But far across the city, Finn continued executing his maneuvers without delay.
“All units, keep up the pressure! Don’t let this chance slip through our fingers!”
The brave adventurers carried out his commands with enthusiasm.
“Ignore the monsters! Focus on the Evils up on the rooftops!”
Shakti hopped from building to building, beating back enemies with her spear.
“They don’t have full control over the beasts! Force them into the streets and let the monsters tear them to shreds!”
Finn had entrusted command of the southwest district to Shakti, and the eagle-eyed captain lived up to her role by accurately discerning the relationship between the two enemy forces.
There were well over a hundred monsters in total, and there were at least five locations to attack. Even if the Evils had possessed tamers of sufficient skill, it was an impossible task to control the entire horde. There were simply too many of them.
Ganesha Familia, on the other hand, was home to many tamers. Shakti herself was one of the best in the entire city, and nobody understood the behavior of monsters better than she. One slip on the part of the Evils, and their greatest ally in this battle could very well become a crushing liability.
Over in the casino area, Asfi made another keen observation.
“Think of it like a pass parade!” she yelled. “The enemy only has so many tamers! Make them pay for that!”
The only enemies who could exert influence over the horde were those holding tamers’ whips, and these were few in number. They each commanded just one of the stronger monsters in the hopes that the lesser ones would simply follow suit. For someone familiar with the behavior patterns of the species, then, this method was a crude but simple means of controlling an entire horde. However, if the tamer or the stronger monster was defeated, all hell would break loose.
“““Raaaaaaaaaaahhh!!”””
The adventurers hit hard and fast. They had cloaked their scents with deodorizing items so as not to betray their presence to the monsters or any animal people among the Evils. All throughout their hiding, they had been forced to listen to the dying screams of their friends, biting their own arms until they drew blood so they would not rush out and reveal themselves too early.
Now was the time to unleash their pent-up anger on the witless Evils.
“E-eek!!”
“Their attack…it can’t be stopped!”
The adventurers raised their voices, striking fear into the hearts of the monsters and cultists alike, turning the tables on their foe in an instant. Led by the veteran adventurers, they advanced on their targets, eager to repay the debt incurred on the night of the Great Conflict.
“Focus on eliminating the Evils! Now is the time to exact our revenge!!”
Asfi leaped into the fray alongside her allies, careful not to let the deaths of Lydis and Adi blind her. She wanted her black hatred to become scarlet courage.
The enemy’s greatest losses, however, were suffered to the east.
“Struggle for eternity, indestructible soldiers of lightning.”
There it was not a rallying war cry that announced the beginning of Orario’s ambush, but a single chant, spoken in a voice colder than ice. Just northeast of the Amphitheatrum itself, atop a magic stone factory, Hedin stood alone. His patience had been tested to the very limit, like a bowstring about to snap, and so, the instant the magical shield that concealed his presence dropped, he unleashed his boundless anger.
“Caurus Hildr!!”
What that bowstring let fly was no arrow, but thousands upon thousands of balls of lightning that rained down without mercy on the Evils forces that swarmed the Amphitheatrum.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaghhh?!”
“Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugghhh?!”
Unlike Shakti and Asfi, there was no need for him to focus his efforts. The tyrannical thunder laid waste to human and monster alike without distinction, detonating the Evils’ suicide bombs and causing a string of explosions that tore through their ranks.
“Ggh?!”
“Zheeeeaaaaaaahhhh?!”