And so, I’d gotten stuck with the absolute shittiest job in the history of shitty jobs.
“Alicia!”
“I know!”
I’d already started casting as I shouted back to Cion. With my bible in my hand, I manipulated the surrounding plants, making them tangle around the demons to obstruct their movements—but the demons instantly tore them to shreds. I swore under my breath as the scent of soil and grass flew through the air. These improvised defensive maneuvers were just wearing me down; we were staring annihilation in the face.
Right now, we couldn’t communicate with the mercenaries. We needed to make contact with the guy leading them, if nothing else. But by the time we’d arrived here, the battlefield was already in absolute chaos. It felt like this was their final stand. We needed to get them to retreat for now, but the demons were pushing the offensive too hard for them to get away.
“Alicia, just let me—”
As Cion made to head back out into the battle, I reached out a hand to grab her wrist, then hesitated.
Right now, I didn’t have a lot of options. I could send Cion out as a decoy to draw the demons’ attention, and take that opening to pull out the mercenaries. Or I could fire off every spell and orison I could think of that might create enough of a smoke screen while the mercenaries retreated. Or Cion and I could go all out, kill all the demons, and end the fight... That last one was obviously out of the question, but I didn’t want to choose either of the other two if I could avoid it.
If I sent Cion out as a decoy, there was a real risk she’d get left behind. The demons didn’t know who she was, but if they found out that she was the Hero who’d killed the Demon Lord, she was dead for sure. And even as incredible as she was, I couldn’t imagine she’d be able to escape if they got her surrounded all on her own.
On top of that, we were up north. There were far fewer worshippers up here compared to the south, and this far from any settlements, the aether in the air was pretty thin. If I used up all my mana and exhausted all the aether in the vicinity to create a smoke screen, then I wouldn’t be able to heal the mercenaries even if we made it out. That’d leave us unable to construct a line of defense and negotiate an armistice with the demons. After all, a truce couldn’t hold unless the two sides were on an equal footing.
“But that said... If we just get wiped out here, then there’s no point to any of this...”
In front of me, a mercenary was about to fall to his knees; I pulled him over backward and fired off a thunderbolt to drive away the bird-headed demon attacking him.
I glanced at Cion.
“Signal the boss!” she shouted.
I didn’t need to explain everything to the mercenaries. Demon-slaying was their job to begin with. When it came to demons, they had way more knowledge and more combat experience than I did. Trusting that these men who lived their lives on the battlefield would understand my message, I began casting—
“Wha—?”
Suddenly, a shock wave spread out from a completely unexpected direction. It felt almost like an explosion. Thick tree trunks went flying through the air, and demons’ flesh and blood came splattering down.
“Reinforcements!” someone shouted.
“Now! Push them back!” A man with a nasty face hefted his axe. The mercenaries weren’t about to let this chance slip away from them.
No, that’s not it. This feels like...
“It’s not reinforcements,” Cion said. “They’re alone. Someone’s attacking from behind, all on their own.”
I squinted through the trees, trying to follow what was happening across the battlefield with my heightened senses.
“Retreat!” I shouted as loud as I could. “Please, retreat! The distraction won’t last long!”
It was just a solo fighter. If they’d staged a sneak attack to disrupt the battlefield and save their allies, then this was our final chance.
“Veil of night, rain of pitch, enfold us and conceal us!” I evaporated all the nearby moisture all at once, creating a cloud thick enough to block off the sunlight streaming in between the trees. In an instant, the battlefield was enveloped in darkness.
“Roar, thunder, and strike down our foes!” This was a roadblock and a signal rolled into one. As the world flashed and flickered, both sides stopped in their tracks. In the wake of the thunder and lightning, a familiar man’s voice rang out.
“Retreat! Retreat, you lot!”
The voice was closer than I’d expected. With one arm around a wounded man, the esteemed former royal knight captain who ran a bar in Arshelm shot a glance at me.
“Please, go on ahead!” I called to him. “I have a plan!”
A snake-headed demon was trying to chase his fleeing prey; as I slammed my bible into him and sent him flying, I whispered in Cion’s ear.
“Please, no killing from here on out, okay?”
We needed to guard the mercenaries’ backs as they fled. But if we killed any demons here, it’d make things more complicated down the line.
Demons were the enemy. They needed to die—even if they were just children. That was the world Cion had lived in up until now. So...
I know it’s hard for you, but please—!
“Okay... But if you’re in danger, no promises, all right?!”
“Understood!”
I was going to do all I could.
“Rage, bird of lightning!”
I used mana to bind together the electricity that had scattered all around us, forming it into an imitation of a divine beast and sending it flying around the battlefield to draw attention. I searched for the presence that had attacked the demons from behind...but as far as I could tell, they’d already withdrawn.
Bits of viscera had scattered through the trees; the quiet dripping of blood was soon joined by the sound of actual rain, seeded by the divine thunder I’d called down. A stillness spread across the forest battlefield.
With a wary grimace, Cion brandished her sword at the demons that had encircled us. I softly took a single deep breath. With my bible clutched to my chest, I took off my hood, exposing the animal ears I’d prepared underneath my cloak. Then I called out to my fellow nonhumans.
“I serve the Crimson Witch, Nevissa Vernalia! Is the Golden Lion, General Royalfang, among you?!”
Amid the soft sound of the rain, my heart pounded loudly in my ears.
According to the Horny Slut, General Royalfang commanded one wing of the Demon Lord’s army; he was an experienced leader and one of the more reasonable people among the demons. But there was no guarantee the Golden Lion was even here. The other wing of the Demon Lord’s army had been commanded by a certain white wolf, so with him gone, it was more likely that the larger invasion force to the east was under Royalfang’s command. But...
“Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time... Didn’t expect I’d hear it again in a place like this.”
A lion-headed demon covered in golden fur appeared from among the demons; the Gods still loved me that much, at least.
The old leonin general had an air of majesty befitting his title. “Let’s hear what you have to say, witch’s pet,” he said with an indomitable smile.
And so, the two of us became the demons’ captives—all in the hope that we could end this pointless war.