“Enemy sighted! Ready the firecrackers! Fire!”
The siege of Althos had begun by the next morning. Jamka intercepted the initial assault at a once-prosperous farmland that had already been reduced to rubble.
“Use your shields to stop the cavalry! Use the firecrackers as a substitute smokescreen! Ruu, report on the Empire’s movement!”
Jamka hurriedly gave the army commands from their headquarters. Unfortunately, the three thousand troops under his command weren’t nearly enough to use any sort of grand military strategy. His formations were inevitably lacking, and their defenses nearly toppled at various points.
“No movement yet, sir. Or rather, it’s as if they’re not even here,” said Ruu, the vice president of the intelligence agency, in a monotone voice. With Brusch on her way to escort Al, Ruu was now acting as Jamka’s aide.
“Oh my, what could this mean?” Cecilia murmured from next to Jamka.
“The Empire should join the assault if this is an all-out attack, right? Anyway, I guess I can’t go wild just yet.”
And next to Cecilia, Sharon was eating sweets from atop her horse, not a care in the world. She probably believed that she didn’t have anything to do until Kanon’s arrival, so she was lazing around like a cat on a Sunday afternoon.
“Focus on the defenses! Ruu, keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious activity!”
Choosing to ignore the lazy Diva, Jamka bowed to Cecilia before issuing his orders to the battlefield.
“Why hasn’t their defensive line been destroyed?! You call yourself the strongest army in all the lands?! Pathetic! Bring it down!” Kanon shouted furiously as his armor clanked on top of his horse.
“With all due respect, the enemy seems to have a rather capable tactician themselves. Not to speak of our ally’s utter lack of assistance... If only we had Toshisaka, he’d pierce through the enemy lines— Oops, my apologies. ’Twas but a slip of the tongue.”
Feeling Kanon’s sharp gaze piercing through him, Kanemitsu promptly fell quiet.
Kanon whipped his head to face the battlefield and cursed the situation in a tiny whisper. “Damn it! How dare that scoundrel desert us right before this battle...?”
Toshisaka’s departure was a sudden blow for him. Immediately after their meeting with Feena, Toshisaka expressed his doubts about the Empire for the millionth time and advised sending a messenger to Althos. But, of course, Kanon’s stance was the same as before.
“I’ve made a decision. If you don’t like it, get out of here!”
Normally, that would’ve put an end to their disagreement. Normally. Things then took a turn for the worse.
“Understood. I will step down as a warrior of Eshantel.”
“Huh?! What did you say?!”
Long ago, Kanon’s father had seen the potential in the little Toshisaka, and as such, he was made Kanon’s personal guard. They became close friends; Toshisaka begrudgingly helped Kanon elevate his pranks to the next level. Of course, that in turn meant they were scolded together. Once they grew up and Kanon became the head of the warriors, Toshisaka was immediately promoted to second-in-command. Not only that, but he was the sole warrior who knew Kanon’s secret, which was kept tightly among the royalty. And then his friend, his brother left him, just like that.
“This is all the Demon King’s doing!” Kanon said to himself, on the verge of exploding.
But as if something was amplifying his emotions, the air around him started to change.
“I-Inquisitor...”
Feeling that sudden change, Kanemitsu turned toward Kanon with an expression of deep sorrow. But Kanon completely ignored him. Instead, he looked up, as if something was flickering just above him.
“I’ve got it! If I take Demon King Alnoa’s head and present it to Toshisaka, he might realize his wrongdoings and beg for forgiveness! Then, in being the graceful lord that I am, I will, of course, pardon his foolishness!”
Fully set on carrying out his genius plan, Kanon kicked his horse.
“Where are you heading, Inquisitor?”
“Don’t worry! I’ll be back soon with the Demon King’s head!” Kanon said, as if he were off to take his afternoon stroll.
“That’s the entire point of our operation!” Kanemitsu shouted while frantically trying to catch up to him.
“Just watch, Toshisaka. I’ll be back before you know it.”
His eyes ominously lit up under his helmet, and his mouth curled into a foreboding smile.
“Open the dam! Let the water thwart the cavalry!”
Following Jamka’s order, Althos’s army opened the dam. Water rushed through the entire battlefield in mere moments.
That was the reason he’d chosen their current location as the battleground: Althos’s waterway spanned the entire field. Furthermore, the soil was cultivated specifically to hold high quantities of water. As such, when the water was released, the soil transformed into a clay-like substance.
In mere moments, the already exhausted horses came to a halt as their hooves sank deep into the sticky mud. Just as Jamka had predicted, Eshantel’s cavalry was considerably weakened by their move.
As the attack died down, Jamka finally found a small window to let off some steam. “Haah... Geez, where are you at a time like this, Al?!”
A few hours had passed since the start of the battle. They had hardened their defenses, but the sounds of the battle still raged on. Eshantel’s reckless attack continued as the clanking of heavy armor and clashing of swords reverberated through the field. Luckily, casualties were still zero, but Althos’s infirmary was filling up at an alarming rate.
“Oh my, I’m certain he’ll be back soon,” Cecilia said ever so calmly, despite the beads of sweat rolling down her forehead as she desperately tried to treat the countless injured soldiers.
“If we continue to fall at this pace, our formation will be—”
“Reporting in!” a messenger called while rushing up to them, interrupting Jamka. “We spotted a horseman blasting through the battlefield! We believe it is the Inquisitor!”
“All right, I guess it’s my time to shine!”
Sharon crushed her empty bag of cookies and crudely wiped her mouth as she smiled dauntlessly. She was ready to fight.
“Oh my, Sharon. I hope you remember your promise to Lesfina.”
Cecilia felt like it would’ve been better to pull Sharon back to reality before she got too invested in decimating her opponent.
“Of course I do! All I have to do is beat him to a pulp and have him apologize!” Sharon answered, brimming with confidence.
She wasn’t wrong, but...
“Anyway, just make sure to jump in there, do what you have to do, and come back, got it?”
Just like a certain young Inquisitor, Sharon rode her horse into the fray, as carefree as ever.
“Oh my, stay safe!” Cecilia called, smiling at the fiery Diva’s back.
“Did we... make it?”
Al tried to regain his composure from atop his neighing horse. After meeting up with Brusch and hearing about what was happening, Al left the surviving Eshantel citizens in her care. He, along with Feena, had then hopped on a horse and rushed back to Althos.
When he arrived, he saw that the fight had already started, but it was far from over. Thanks to Jamka’s strategy, the battlefield had transformed into a muddy swamp. Eshantel’s cavalry were visibly disheartened.
Most of them were, at least.
“Al, look!”
Al followed Feena’s finger, pointing at two figures engaged in battle.
“Now I feel like we were late.”
The two figures clashed off to the side of the main battlefield, creating a storm of dust and pebbles and transforming the landscape that had been unchanged for centuries.
“Hahaha! You again?! Be warned, I’m going all-out this time!”
“That’s what I wanted to hear! See if you can match me!”
They were as lighthearted as a girl making her rounds at a farmers’ market, despite kicking up the ground to make one crater after another.
“Hahaha! This is what a real fight looks like!” Kanon shouted excitedly.
Sharon raised her sword again. “Of course! You’re fighting me, after all!”
Seeing two Horsemen of the Apocalypse go at it, Al worriedly tapped his temple.
“Haaaaaaaah... I was gonna turn this place into a farm next moooonth!”
The battlefield had been reduced to a marsh, and the land next to it had more holes in it than Swiss cheese.
Just how much time and manpower will we have to dedicate to restore this disaster area?!
Tapping wasn’t enough anymore; he buried his face into his hands.
“All right! For now, let’s focus on stopping this madness! We can worry about the repairs later!”
He tried to escape his nightmare, or perhaps steeled himself to face it. Either way, in order to reach Sharon, they first had to cross Althos’s headquarters.
But Feena stole his opportunity to give a motivational speech. “Keep it up, Al! This is the last spurt!”
“Hey! Don’t steal my thunder!” Al shouted, without realizing he had a slight smirk on his face.
“Sorry for asking this after all you’ve been through today, but please help me for a little bit longer.”
With a gentle tap on the neck, his horse set off again. Then, he shouted toward the soldiers desperately trying to defend against what seemed like an incoming threat.
“It’s me, Alnoa! We don’t have time to talk; let me through!”
They quickly passed between the panicking soldiers.
“Hey, Al! At least say hello if you’re back! I have a lot to tell you!” Jamka shouted.
But he was completely disregarded. “Sorry, Jamka, we don’t have time right now. We’ll talk later!”
They flew through the headquarters like an arrow and rushed directly at the feuding Divas.