The smaller ants that entered the city began running forward at full speed, as if suddenly berserk. Their rage, however, was not directed at the soldiers.
“They’re heading toward the castle!”
The smaller ants were behaving strangely. They seemed desperate to reach the castle and completely ignored the soldiers unless the soldiers attacked them first.
“Wait, you don’t think they know how Lady Falmeyr’s magic works, do you?” one of the soldiers said.
“They may have a survivor from the last war working with them. Any soldiers incapable of facing this big creature, focus on the smaller ones instead. Don’t let any of them through! They’re targeting the citizens!” Geldorf barked.
Realizing what was at stake, the soldiers redoubled their efforts.
“The rest of us will take care of this big one.”
Geldorf and his squad focused on eliminating the giant ant, leaving the smaller ants up to the other soldiers.
“Geldorf, we’re ready!”
“Let’s go!”
A group of soldiers carrying large, heavy weapons gathered around Geldorf.
“Let’s give this thing a taste of the Cragblade!”
The soldiers all swung their weapons downward in tandem, striking the earth. In response, the ground writhed and swelled. Several massive stone spikes shot upward, driving into the giant ant creature and piercing its flesh.
“Gyarrgghhh—!!”
Hammer Hands stopped in its tracks and released an ear-piercing roar. But the attack hadn’t been enough to bring the creature down. Despite its massive wounds, the creature began to thrash and rampage, breaking apart the offending spikes.
“How is it still standing?”
The creature’s wounds began to heal before their very eyes and had closed up entirely before long. In the end, even this powerful group attack had done little more then delay the creature. The soldiers stared in shock, realizing just how much distance there was between themselves and the Holy Protectorates of the Shield.
“Do it again! We’ll hit it as many times as it takes!” Geldorf shouted, trying to light a fire underneath the soldiers. But Hammer Hands was far stronger than any creature they had ever faced. The soldiers began to lose their nerve.
“At this rate—”
Just then, the unsettling sound of hope reached their ears. A whistle, high pitched and penetrating.
“That sound…”
After a moment, the whistle sounded again. They knew what was coming. The memory was lodged in the deepest recesses of their minds.
“The evil eye…! The witch of the evil eye is here! Everyone, take cover!”
The soldiers abandoned the fight, rushing to hide in the shadows of the buildings, looks of abject fear upon their faces. With the soldiers out of the way, the ants began marching forward once more, completely oblivious.
The whistle rang out a third time, followed by the sound of small footsteps. The witch, long since confined underground, had emerged once more, and she was bringing death with her.
“Kya-ha-ha! This feels exhilarating! How long has it been since I’ve breathed fresh air? Come one, come all! Form a line! Who is ready to die today?!”
Yppa laughed cheerfully as she poked the ground with her cane.
“We have only been granted ten seconds, Yppa. Is that going to be enough?” asked Melch, who was walking next to Yppa. She stroked the choker around her own neck.
“Leave it to me! Ten seconds is more than I need to slaughter the beasts!” Yppa bragged, removing her blindfold and revealing her eye, which was stitched shut with onyx-colored thread.
“Then let it be done.”
Melch began chanting the spell to unravel the thread.
“Darkest eye, sealed inside, I release you now.”
As Melch chanted the black spell, the thread sealing Yppa’s eye began to unravel until the seal was broken.
“Kya-ha-ha! It’s been so long since I’ve killed anything. I am going to enjoy this. If only I had more than ten seconds…”
Yppa bared her teeth in a grin at the thought of getting to butcher foes again.
“Get ready.”
Yppa steadied her breathing and began chanting a spell.
“Twist, bend, warp, break. All who stand before my eye—”
The witch of the evil eye slowly opened her eye, revealing a pupil that was twisted like a vortex. Everything that fell within her field of vision began to ripple in waves. The magical energy that allowed her evil eye to work its power upon the world was causing the scenery to distort.
Yppa finished her spell.
“—perish upon the spiral!!”
A strange light flashed from Yppa’s eye. Instantly, every last monster within Yppa’s view drew its last breath, twisted beyond recognition by the power of the eye.
The long road was now decked in blood and silence.
“Kya-ha-ha! It feels so delicious, it feels so good! The sounds, the sights! Oh, how wonderful it feels!”
Even Hammer Hands, which had given Geldorf and the other soldiers so much trouble, now lay dead in the dirt like a wrung-out rag. Yppa continued to laugh for a few more seconds, until she began to grow unsteady from the strain of using her eye.
“Phew… That’s too bad, though. This will probably make them all afraid of children born with evil eyes once again,” Yppa quipped, before collapsing with a thud as blood welled up in her eye. “I’ll leave the rest to you. It’s time for me to take a nap.”
With that, Yppa fell unconscious, almost as if it were time for bed.
She was one of the major reasons that evil eyes were so feared and despised in Galdorssia—Yppa, the Spiral Gaze of Death. Galdorssia’s foulest practitioner of the evil eye. The gruesome scenes she left in her wake after a battle tended to remain forever in the minds of all who witnessed them.
“Tsk-tsk… Is it not enough that I must be your chaperone? When was I drafted as your mule as well…?”
Melch, Gatekeeper of the Abyss, picked the tiny Yppa up in her arms and began to walk away.
“You had best regain formation while you can,” she said, casting a sidelong glance at the dazed soldiers before she departed.
The gold badges were fighting as hard as they could, both inside and outside the wall. Jin and Proto joined the fighting outside without asking for permission.
The army ants barely put up any resistance at all. They were too focused on reaching the wall and then the castle. The ants’ numbers were many, but the soldiers were holding the creatures back with numbers of their own.
Jin targeted the creatures’ joints, where their defenses were weakest, while Proto just used brute strength to smash them. They didn’t even try to avoid her.
“There’s still too many of them…,” Homura said, watching from atop the wall.
The teeming swarm was massive, and at some point, the soldiers were going to run out of energy. It was only a matter of time.
“Welp, we’ll just have to roll out our own weapon of mass destruction, then,” Psycho said coyly.
What was Psycho thinking?
“Don’t be crazy… If you do anything weird in front of this many people, a lecture is going to be the least of your worries this time.”
Psycho was in a dangerous enough position as it was; why would she want to stick her neck out at a time like this…? But apparently, Psycho wasn’t the one who would be doing the sticking out.
“Who do you think I’m talking about? When I said weapon of mass destruction, I meant you, you little napalm bomb.”
“What…?”