Memory (4)
"Alert! Emergency!"
Shortly after midnight, a detachment of demons made a sudden assault on the right flank of the Valkyrie's camp.
"Hurry! Move faster!"
Unlike before, when they had to cover the entire central continent, the Valkyrie's defensive perimeter was now much narrower.
Because of that, more troops were concentrated there than before—and yet the situation was still unfavorable.
"Damn it! I knew this would happen!"
Tess, who had already finished all preparations, vaulted into the saddle and led her men forward.
"Tess."
Rian fell in beside her.
"Don't die."
There was nothing Rian could say in a situation where he couldn't fight for Tess alone. That was all he could offer.
"Don't worry. Go. Wipe them out."
No sooner had Tess finished speaking than Rian angled away and left the cavalry formation.
"Huuuuu!"
Muscles twisted as his body shifted into a yaksha-like form, and with every thudding step shards of rock shot up from the ground.
"Incredible."
A cavalryman watching the rising dust columns muttered in awe.
"His stride must be over twenty meters." Not only was his step huge, he moved his legs with the speed of a horse.
"They say it's originally a giant's ability."
Tess drew her twin swords and watched the demon army filling the horizon.
"Rian strikes first. We go in after him. Prepare."
"Yes!"
As the cavalry increased their pace, Rian was already at the enemy's front.
'This feels different.'
Though only a detachment, their momentum was on another level compared to the forces they'd fought before.
'They're elite.'
What might Balkan be thinking now?
'Doesn't matter.' Thinking is for soldiers; some brilliant mind on the Valkyrie side would be watching this.
Krrr—
The bridge of Rian's nose twisted; both hands gripped the great straight sword with bone-crushing force.
If it had been an ordinary blade, the metal would have buckled under that grip.
But took that force and returned it to its wielder as an explosive sensation.
"Yaaaah!"
The great straight sword swung in a huge arc and its shockwave tore the demons apart like cloth.
In the fan-shaped clearing the moon hung.
"Huuup!"
Rian stepped forward from his strike, drew the blade and swung it horizontally.
Once more the world cleaved, and the demons standing where the flash passed were severed.
At that moment Tess's cavalry arrived.
"Go in! Annihilate them from the inside!"
Emboldened by Rian's opening, the cavalry surged, spears thrusting with a terrifying aura.
"Die! Filthy demons!"
Kraaaang!
As dozens of horses were hurled into the air, the cavalry finally realized—
"T-this...!"
Rian was simply too strong; the demons they'd fought until now were on a different level.
'If this continues we'll be cut off.'
Most of the demons had already shoved dozens of meters into the Valkyrie unit.
"Tess!"
As they cut a path through the demons, the cavalry who'd been pushing forward found themselves surrounded.
"Retreat for now! At this rate—!" Feeling the killing intent, Rian stopped and turned toward where Tess was glaring.
"What delusion is this, you insignificant wretch?"
A gray demon stood upright like a mantis, insectile legs bracing it. Three thin, needlelike arms hung on the left; an abnormally thick arm on the right.
"An officer. Everyone be careful."
On Tess's order the cavalry formed ranks.
"I'm Yun-gae."
She was a brigade commander of the First Legion, counted among the strongest in the hellish host.
"And I am the Great Stone Idol."
The ground rumbled and a demon appeared whose face took up half its body—long and rocklike.
He inspected the humans with bulging eyes and split his mouth into a grin.
"I'll make you tasty."
At the same instant Yun-gae moved like the wind and slipped into the cavalry's formation.
"You first."
A massive hand shot for Tess's face.
"Where is it?"
Natasha's pupils slid to the left.
"Uaaah!" Dozens of soldiers who'd been standing where she passed dropped to the ground with their necks snapped.
"Where are you?"
The Valkyrie company commander barked orders.
"Grab it! Encircle and attack!"
But honestly, he didn't even know what was cutting his troops down.
"Impossible! We can't pinpoint the position—ugh!"
Before his report finished, a hole appeared in a soldier's chest as if something had pierced through.
"Damn it...!"
How can you fight if you can't even see what you're fighting?
"Company, sir! Aah!"
As if attacked by multiple enemies from different directions, soldiers collapsed, gutted in places that made no sense.
"Retreat! Fall back!"
A rush of air whispered into the company commander's ear.
"Ugh!"
The scene inverted, and when he recovered his senses his body was suspended upside down.
'How...?'
The only clear thing was that the enemy hadn't killed him—otherwise he wouldn't be able to think that.
A woman's voice spoke.
"Where are you?"
Natasha's hand, stretched out to the side, gripped the back of the commander's nape—he was upside down.
When she relaxed her hold he fell, hastily flipped himself upright and looked up.
"Ugh!"
A woman with no eyelids stared straight ahead.
'That's Natasha.'
As if the whole battlefield meant nothing to her, she didn't avert her gaze and asked,
"Who's the strongest here? Where are they now?"
The company commander realized.
'This is an assassination of a VIP.'
The positions of the unit's top fighters were confidential regardless of rank.
"I don't know. How the hell would I know?"
Natasha turned her body.
"Tell me and I'll spare you."
Everyone values their life.
"Are you promising?"
"Yeah. It's so big it's hard to find."
"Fine. I'll tell you who the strongest here is. Right here."
The commander pointed at himself.
"I'm the strongest soldier here! So fight me! You idiotic woman! Hahahahaha!"
"...Don't you want to live?"
"Shut up! The subordinates you killed are watching from hell! Come on! Try killing me!"
Natasha scanned the area.
"Were they close to you?"
"They're deeead!"
As the commander raised his sword and charged, Natasha lifted an eyebrow and said,
"Sorry."
The instant the blade sliced the air, Natasha's body blurred and vanished.
"What—?"
She moved faster than thought; the commander's mental processes reacted too late.
'Combat automaton Natasha.'
He'd heard the rumors that she was the ultimate war machine, merciless and bloodless.
'How much do we really know about the enemy?'
Perhaps that was the key.
Tess twisted her body just before Yun-gae's hand caught her, stepped forward and drove her twin swords in.
'The heart!'
The strike hit true, but Yun-gae's face remained wickedly smiling.
"Heh heh, actually my heart—!"
Before she could finish, Yun-gae's body convulsed and split in two at the waist.
Rian stood between the severed halves.
"What about your heart?"
"Raaaargh!"
A scream tore out as the Great Stone Idol lifted a horse and a soldier and began to chew them whole.
Crunch, crunch.
Nibbling with its front teeth, it bit into the lower half of a partly living soldier and grinned.
"Delicious."
The severed lower half twitched—nerve endings still alive.
Just as Rian and Tess surged forward in fury, the Great Stone Idol's torso ballooned grotesquely.
"Huh?"
Pooooof!
"Arrgh!" The idol's midsection split open; a gale tore through and afterimages danced in the air.
"Oh."
Natasha, who'd abruptly slowed, stuck out her tongue with her fist still extended.
"It was too dark to see." That she'd felled the brigade commander in one blow was not surprising, given the speed she'd shown earlier.
"Rian, that woman—"
As Tess tried to say something, Natasha met Rian's eyes and raised her hand.
"Hi."
A black-robed skeletal avatar rose from her body and then vanished with her.
'What the?????!'
Faced with such extreme speed, Rian gave up trying to think and blocked the path with his great straight sword.
In an instant Natasha spun seven and a half times and struck the broad face of the blade with her foot.
Before perception could reach the brain, Rian's arm buckled and his chest took the blow—
"Gak!"
By the time he felt his breath stop he had already been flung tens of meters.
"Huh?"
Tess, who'd been staring straight ahead obliviously, turned belatedly.
Natasha stood where Rian had been.
'What on earth happened?'
It was obvious Natasha wasn't someone Tess could handle, but Natasha showed no interest.
"He blocked it."
Whether by knowledge or instinct, she had reacted to his speed.
"Oh? Is that so."
Over Natasha's shoulder Habitz's face appeared unexpectedly.
"This should be fun, Natasha."
Habitz's voice actually sounded, and his body existed in this space—only no one perceived it.
"Shall we check once more?"
Unaware that Habitz stood beside her, Natasha pushed off the ground and charged at Rian.
"Rian??????"
When Natasha vanished before his eyes, Tess bit her lip and prepared to give chase.
"You can't go. That man needs to play with Natasha."
Habitz stepped in front of Tess and pressed into her solar plexus.
"Wait a bit. I'll go."
Tess couldn't take another step, but she felt no discomfort at all.
For her, the event didn't exist.
"Pretty face. A lover?"
Habitz's face came right up to Tess's nose, but nothing from him entered her mind.
"Sir! We have to retreat!" The cavalrymen saw Tess as if halted by something, but no one found it strange.
"We're already being pushed back! We have to leave now."
When her aide grabbed her shoulder, Tess—who had given up chasing Rian—clicked her tongue and turned away.
"Good! Follow me!"
Habitz watched a moment, drew his sword, and approached the aide.
"That won't do."
He grabbed the aide's skull, pulled him forward so his neck bent, and the blade touched the back of his throat.
Sssk sssk.
Even as the blade slowly sliced, the aide spoke in an oddly calm voice.
"We need to break through at least three hundred meters. First, gather our forces—" Sssk sssk.
Finally the blade came free and the aide's head fell.
"Stea! Stea!"
Bloodlust filled Tess's eyes at the death of her subordinate, but there was no one to vent that rage on.
"You bastards!"
Causality is only the brain's trick.
In dreams the human mind doesn't resolve contradictions in cause and effect the way it does in waking life, after all.
"You're having a pleasant dream."
Habitz idly circled Tess, killing the soldiers he saw.
Even as limbs were severed, their brains accepted the scene as normal...
"Hmm."
Bored with the slaughter, Habitz wiped his blade on a corpse and turned his gaze toward Rian.
"This should be over quickly, I hope?"
Tess collided with his back.