Acceleration (2)
"Hmm."
Parkma, commander of the 7th Legion of the Army of Hell, glared at the Ifrit and brought his axe down.
"This is… interesting."
A superior shouted from behind Amy.
"Commander! Get over here, now!"
"Go ahead. I'll buy time."
"We can't leave our leader!"
They couldn't retreat and abandon their commander.
"Don't worry. I won't overdo it. If we don't pull back now, the unit will be annihilated." The confusion of the troops seeped through the Spirit Zone.
"Hurry!"
At Amy's shout, the soldiers snapped out of it and stampeded away. Parkma laughed out loud.
"How noble—sacrificing yourself for your men. Then again, tormenting humans is fun."
The longer she held him off, the more survivors she'd save, so Amy stayed silent.
"I've decided."
Parkma swung his axe; a gale roared and the Ifrit's body was thrown violently.
"A human like you doesn't feel pain. I'll whisper sweet things and melt you away slowly."
As a woman who'd come to the battlefield, Amy had long steeled herself for whatever fate a loser might receive.
"How disappointing. That's all you've got to say?"
The demon's threats were pitiful compared to his boast—almost laughable.
"I'm a doer. Once I have you in my hands, you won't even have time to feel disappointed."
That, too, held true.
Seeing the distance between her and her allies widen, Amy's eyes flashed and she charged forward.
'A demon division commander.'
To Amy, who aimed to become commander of the Valkyrie Legion, this was a mountain she would have to climb someday.
"Fire Fist!"
The Ifrit's punch whipped like a gale, and eruptions of flame tore out in every direction.
Each strike carried the power of high-grade magic.
"This it?"
But once you reached a certain level, destructive power became a basic skill everyone shared.
"Too easy is boring…"
Parkma cut through the Ifrit's blaze, twisted at the waist, and raised his axe.
"I like you!"
He drove a powerful blow; three holes ripped through the air with a tearing sound.
Waves of corruption.
The moment that irresistible sound struck Amy, the landscape of hell unfurled before her eyes.
'What is this?' Rotten arms clawed up from beneath the earth and grabbed her ankles, and corpses suddenly filled the surroundings.
'My body won't move.'
Was she in shock?
'But my mind is clear?'
She still remembered the horrible sound.
"Uuuuuu…"
The corpses crawling up from the ground closed around Amy and forced her mouth open with their hands.
Parkma walked through them toward her.
"Ke ke ke, finally caught."
He presented a many-legged centipede to Amy like a gift.
"Eat. It'll taste good."
It was the height of revulsion, but the trained mind of a mage separated situation from feeling perfectly.
'It's not that I can't move.'
The vision came the instant the sonic wave lodged in her brain.
'Time isn't passing.'
Time is a sensory construct; when the brain is cut off from the senses, it cannot perceive the passage of time.
The moment a worm slid into her forced-open mouth, Amy's irises flared crimson.
Anything tied to mental function could be reset by her self-image memory.
As her pupils went red, cracks began to spider across the hellscape.
'I'll reverse it.'
Back to the state just before she heard the sound.
When she snapped back, Parkma was there, grinning grotesquely and reaching out.
"Got you———!"
Amy's body reflexively spun away, and Parkma's center of gravity pitched sharply forward.
"Puuu!"
Amy amplified her mind to an Il‑do level, and flames began to flare around her fist.
'Eat this!'
Using the rotational force from lifting her lower body, she struck Parkma in the flank and an explosion followed.
"Kraaah!"
Parkma flew back from the shockwave, clutching his side as black smoke rose from the wound.
"You…!"
Parkma's face twisted into a horrible expression, but Amy ignored it and took up a fighting stance.
"I'll remember you."
A light flashed in Parkma's eyes.
"I will never forget. I'll carve your face into my retinas if I have to. Remember this: I will not forget you."
If an enemy is immune to mental attacks, a frontal psychological assault is less effective—so Parkma leapt away toward his lines.
"I meant to kill you."
The force of a division commander was unmistakable.
"Amy!"
Tess's voice reached her.
The mounted unit she led was cutting through the demons and closing fast.
"Tess!"
Tess, who had driven her sword straight between the demons' eyes, hauled Amy up onto her mount.
"What are you doing here? I told you to fall back with everyone!"
Back-to-back on the saddle, Amy fired flame magic to the rear and shouted.
"How's the front?"
"We completely collapsed. Orders came down to pull the defensive line back two kilometers."
Amy bit her lip.
"Damn it! Can't believe we couldn't take down a single division commander."
The gap in strength was stark.
The rare victory reports from the other side of the world now felt like lies.
* * *
Shirone made Seongeum stand.
"What on earth is going on?" Seongeum's eyes were hard with killing intent.
"The Army of Hell has seized maritime control. Eighth Legion commander Mitura— a demon who rules the sea. Jincheon has no way to stop him."
At the name of a ten‑legion commander, Shirone's expression changed.
"What about the Demon Realm?"
"They haven't opened it yet. Even so, being pushed back is disgraceful. I heard you rescued Kashan. Please, come help."
As Seongeum moved to bow again, Shirone hurriedly grabbed her arm.
"Don't do that. If it's fighting demons, we must help. But first, there's something I need to confirm…"
Shirone let the words trail off and Rian glanced sideways.
'Of course she's curious.'
She'd been quietly hoping the Tower's command would judge the demons invading the central continent as the greatest threat.
"I know what you care about. Taeseong told me."
"Huh? Taeseong?"
Seongeum's eyes sharpened.
"If they hold the sea, Jincheon will immediately strike Gustav. It would be like cutting into the Army of Hell's headquarters. If we could take the initiative there, Shirone might awaken."
"Even the troops of the Army of Hell fighting on the central continent wouldn't be able to return to Gustav."
They might lack a legion commander, but Habitz's unit was still there.
"If Jincheon helps, we'll help you. No—I'll find a way to make it happen."
"All right."
She could no longer stand to watch Seongeum's rigid face soften.
When Shirone reached for the weapon, the material unraveled and the Beopsal returned to Shirone's hand.
The reason material could give motion to created matter was that the material itself was Armand's mind.
'A naval battle, huh…'
That Shirone had never fought on water showed how short his training had been, but with material he could find a way.
"Let's go, Rian."
Rian nodded briskly and fell into position behind Shirone as Seongeum cast an etheric wave.
"Thank you."
As Shirone's lips curved, the three of them vanished from the mountainside in an instant.
Heaven—Third Heaven Shehahkim.
Ikael, who had organized Heaven's army, visited the Immortals' community, the Ten Elders, before the march.
Nine leaders had answered Ra Enemi's call and moved to the outpost, but one had remained behind.
'No, she simply cannot go.'
In the private chamber, a young-looking woman who seemed a teenager sat at the long table.
She occupied the seat to the left of where the head, Veron, had sat.
"What are you waiting for in a place everyone else abandoned?" The Ten Elders' second-ranked, Son Yujeong.
Despite her youthful looks, she was well over ten thousand years old and kept silent even at the archangel's visit.
'Was this the right decision?' The issue had caused heated debate at the Archangels' Council, and Imir had been especially vehement in opposition.
In Heaven's history there had been beings who reached apostasy before Imir or Ozent.
'They would become uncontrollable. Imir is different.'
Yujeong had no purpose in life.
Lacking any standard of judgment, her tendencies leaned toward the brutal.
'I wish she'd come to her senses.'
The golden circlet Anke Ra had fitted on her head to restrain her had been rendered useless when Nane allowed apostasy.
"Will you fight for Heaven?" Still, there was reason to bring her—the angels' nemesis, Satan, had descended upon the outpost.
'We need Son Yujeong.'
Counter chaos with chaos.
That was Ikael's agonized conclusion before the final showdown with the outpost.
"Fight for Heaven?"
Yujeong turned her head and stuck out her tongue.
"Why would I do that?"
Ikael's eyes widened and he swung his hand; the chair shattered into splinters.
Squeak! Squeak!
The thing that leapt and slapped itself against the wall was not human but a monkey.
"I'm not asking a mere beast." She moved like the wind, grabbed the monkey by the neck, and hauled it before her face.
"Where are you now, and who is your master?" The one Ikael sought was a descendant of the martial warrior who attained godhood by gaining enlightenment in a monkey's body.
Son Yujeong—the great-granddaughter of Sun Wukong.
Grrrr! Creak!
The monkey, wearing a look of imminent death, pointed beyond the wall. Ikael looked up.
The halo spun, tore through the wall in an instant, and a sky two kilometers high opened.
Skreeee!
The terrified monkey peed itself on the ground.
"Where?"
When the monkey pointed to the range beyond the horizon, Ikael's Gaze Down swept over the whole mountain range.
She found Yujeong, sighed, and a shaft of light streaked out and sliced through the mountains.
Kiiing! Kiiing!
When they landed, the monkey wiped its eyes with its paw and dove into the darkness of a huge cave.
Ikael followed, relying on the saintly radiance to pick out the dim interior.
On the dry, sandy floor lay a girl, using tangled black hair like a pillow.
"Wake up. Have you been sleeping for centuries?"
"Um?…"
Yujeong frowned, stuck her hand into her waistband, scratched herself, and sniffed her fingers.
Ikael, who knew how to handle her, shouted.
"Get up!"
"Ah, damn! Seriously!"
As if annoyed at being roused, Yujeong sprang upright and craned her neck.
"What a pain! Why'd you wake me up for this crap?"
"There's a battle. Come with me." Yujeong snorted and laughed.
"A battle? Have the angels gone mad? You look like you've gone soft."
"Buddha has permitted apostasy. There's nothing left to bind you."
Yujeong blinked, checked the golden band around her head, and pulled it off.
"Oh? It actually comes off?"
"We need you. If we win this war, I'll grant you freedom."
Yujeong flicked the band aside.
"No thanks. Too much trouble."
"You're as arrogant as ever. Do you really think you'll be safe acting like that in front of me?"
"And if I'm not safe?"
Yujeong snatched up her Ruyi Jingu Bang and readied to spring; golden light flared from her eyes.
The cave trembled with force enough to explode.
'As expected, threats don't work.'
Ikael tried a second approach.
"If you don't want to come, don't. But don't you want to save a friend fallen to Hell?"
"Friend? What friend?"
"The Ten Elders' rank ten, Mortasinger. She's been dragged to the ruler of evil and is being tortured."
"What? Mortasinger?"
Yujeong shot upright.
If there was anything she might respond to, it was the monkey's code of loyalty.
"If you won't, fine—keep sleeping here…"
"Wait."
Yujeong bared her fangs.
"What kind of bastard messed with my friend?"
Ikael smiled and pointed outside the cave.
"Satan."