Fanaticism (5)
As Sein's group formed a ring around Habitz, the Sioks also arrayed themselves in a circle from the inside.
'It's not over just by manipulating the environment for a certain time period.'
Sein was still thinking.
'If the incident where we forced Habitz to flee is merely a future that continues from the past... then I get the feeling Habitz didn't come here only to avoid the elemental bomb.'
"Hey, woman."
Habitz's thought reached them through , and everyone realized at once.
"Dodge!"
A Siok lunged toward Meirei.
'Why?'
Armin, who had stayed in place to maintain stop magic, frowned.
'I assumed the Sioks would be specialized in defense. Maybe that's not it.'
Perhaps they couldn't be sorted into a simple category like offense or defense.
"How contemptuous." A voice—Kuan—came from behind.
But the next instant he was swinging his sword from the Siok's flank.
'The extreme of asymmetry.'
Sein's group could clearly see Kuan's position, but the Siok hadn't even noticed his approach.
That's the Law.
'Here's a second hypothesis. Why are there twelve Sioks, or why twelve of them?'
0.666 seconds.
A prison of time in which no event can occur.
'The Law corresponds to every result one-to-one. If it didn't, the world would fall into chaos.'
Twelve people form one Law for the Sioks.
'In other words, twelve specific phenomena combine to birth this prison of time. So if you eliminate even one... a hole opens in Habitz's ironclad defense.'
Before he could finish that thought, Kuan had already swung at the lead Siok.
'He won't even realize he's dying.'
At that instant—
"Q"
The lead Siok suddenly snagged on a comrade's foot and its upper body arched backward.
'What—?'
If this were a gag, it couldn't be more vicious, but the sword had already been swung.
The blade sliced through the robe, and a thin ribbon of blood spurted with a soft sound.
"Wha—?"
As if a machine had stalled, the Siok's shoulders slumped and its head dropped.
"Not bad."
When the lead Siok pulled back its hood and revealed itself, Sein's group widened their eyes.
"A human?" No pointed ears, no ruddy skin, no horns on head or back—just an utterly ordinary human.
'If they're human, we can eavesdrop on them.'
Meirei tapped into the Siok's wave on the god-frequency.
"What is this?…"
Eden, who shared waves through , turned to the Siok with a dazed expression.
'Their voices—these are definitely... humans who've become entranced by pure evil, mortals turned into followers of Satan.
"Fanatics."
The Sioks' true identity: twelve fanatics. How massive a current would it take to wrench a boulder from the earth?
The Information Castle crumbled like dust.
The battles inside the complex looked chaotic up close, but from a distance it was as if some enormous mass had swept through.
"Charge! Charge!"
As the ranks of demons that had toppled the castle converged, a tremendous shock rocked the ground.
Where nothing remained but ruins, allied bodies bounced on the earth.
"Kill anything that moves!"
There were no survivors.
"Hah! Hah!"
In the dank subterranean tunnels Dante's rough breathing echoed bleakly.
"Are you all right? If it's too much, leave it to me."
A division officer supporting him peered at Dante with worried eyes. His complexion was pale.
"No. It's a labyrinth keyed with cipher systems. It's not the sort of exit you find just by wandering." Behind Dante and the officer came soldiers who had fought to defend the Information Castle.
'The panic room.'
When the demons' impact exceeded the Information Castle's durability, Dante headed for the underground facilities.
He evacuated the troops through escape routes created by the serial magic array Baekdo.
'Thorough down to the last detail. If they'd abandoned the panic room they could have increased the castle's utility a lot more.'
Mages don't overestimate their own abilities.
'Then again, none of the mages I know care about being heroes.'
As a swordsman's view, it seemed their purpose was simply to solve problems.
'I hate how they always get promoted faster than me! Cunning brats!'
The thought of a military comrade made his teeth grind, but the officer soon wore a relieved expression.
'…So this is how comforting it is, having someone else do the thinking for you.' Like a lost child finding its parent, Dante's mere presence calmed them.
"What shall we do now? We don't have enough troops to pull off an operation."
Dante had already made his decision.
"Absorbing them into our unit is an option, but it's a shame to give up the advantage of being underground. Considering the distance to the flower fields, it's not a time window where they'll push us back if we arrive. Let's move through the tunnels and set traps en route."
"Traps?"
The officer asked, puzzled.
"They won't be grand. Compared to the enemy's scale, the work efficiency is too low." He doubted how threatening a hastily made trap could be.
"Scale isn't always determined by size or shape."
"Eh?"
Dante conjured a laser model between his palms with precise photon output.
Within a cubic frame, another cube-frame was linked by lines.
"This is...?"
As if endlessly birthing itself, the two cubes inverted inside and out as they moved.
"Dimension."
Dante smirked.
The energy of the ancient weapon Seonghwa drew on sunlight absorbed by vast petals.
There wasn't a single cloud in the sky.
They had already coordinated with the World Climate Organization through the cathedral to manipulate the weather.
"Block the sun."
Balkan grasped the mechanism immediately.
As flying demons attached to each unit soared into the sky, the area darkened as if night had fallen.
Enox, commander of the flower-field forces, gave the order.
"Intercept."
Three hundred living flowers shot beams into the sky and tore a clean hole through the red ceiling of flesh.
"Now! Charge!"
While the demons' ashes fell like heavy snow, the ground forces pushed into the flower fields.
Protea, chief of the Flame Clan, shouted.
"Enox! The allied forces are breaking! We have to push them back with the living flowers before they get any closer!"
"No. The living flowers need constant energy. If the sky doesn't open, they're just scrap metal."
A demon general who had broken through the allied encirclement bellowed.
"They don't have to die! Torture them horribly! Break them until they beg for death!"
"Uaaaaaagh!"
The order, which even blurred the purpose of war, drained the color from the faces of the waiting allied troops.
"Filthy things."
Enox drew her sword and shouted.
"Brothers and sisters! Fear not! The light of Agape will protect us. Forward!"
"Kwahahaha! Elves—elves!"
Watching the demons charge with greedy eyes, the elf units drew their weapons.
"To the Idea!"
Enox's legs lifted as if sprung and she launched forward at tremendous speed.
"Rotten meat that can't even be recycled."
She gathered a vortex around her blade, and with each swing demons were cleaved into pieces.
A wind sharp as a blade sliced off the right arm of a demon battalion commander.
"Ugh! What wind is this—!"
It felt like being struck by steel.
"Hmph, proof you are inferior." Flying-magic Aeos, cutting-magic Aruophe.
All ancient magics wielded by the Nor.
"Elves are the next humanity."
Half Nor, half fairy.
Even among ancient magic, the mana that flows from a fairy's spirit is incomparable to humans'.
"The next-generation Idea will be ours."
Enox once dreamed that elves would mingle with human society and reach the gods.
"Surround them! Crush them with your bodies!"
At the brigade leader's order, large demons charged from all sides, shaking the earth.
Visibility was almost completely blocked; Enox landed as lightly as a feather.
"To charge with reeking flesh." She scanned the enemy with cold eyes and twisted her slender waist.
"Mahagart."
For the Nor, a group magic.
But an elf whose spirit affinity is one hundred percent needs no help beyond the air itself.
"Spirit of the wind!" Enox slashed using the spring of her hips and a gale spread in all directions.
"Grrk!"
As if struck by a great wave, massive demons were dragged across the ground and flung back.
Turning elegantly, Enox plunged her sword into the earth and opened her eyes wide.
"Estacion!"
A group magic that would normally require a hundred Nor mages exploded from her spirit alone.
Within a hundred-meter radius the air turned into tens of thousands of tiny blades, whipping the atmosphere into turbulence.
"Kraaa!"
Flap! Flap! Flap!
Like a giant blender, shredded chunks of demon flesh spiraled in a storm.
"Damn it! That elf—won't leave her be!"
Even brutal demons preferred to watch from outside Estacion's range for now.
"Phew."
Enox drew her sword and the waiting demons, driven by murderous intent, surged forward.
"Start by chewing off the fingers—!"
A demon's face burst with a bang.
"Chief!"
Elven archers born of the wind spirit pushed the line forward.
"All units, fire continuously!"
Each time the archers snapped steel strings, arrows flew at Mach speeds and shattered the sound barrier.
Their firing rate, far beyond human physical limits, reached seven shots per second....
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Arrows punched clean through demon bodies and vanished from sight.
Tess, who had been anxiously watching the vanguard's fight, let out a relieved breath.
"We managed to balance it somehow. There's a limit to sacrificing flying demons, so if we hold out like this..."
At that moment, a faint vibration that only Schemas' sensation type could perceive was transmitted.
"What's that?"
When she turned toward the epicenter, she saw one living flower aimed at the allied side.
"Dodge!"
Rian grabbed Tess's wrist and threw her out of the way as a flash scraped the ground.
The earth tremored and a dark line scored diagonally across the Celestial Corps where Tess had stood.
Rian rose and muttered.
"Someone stole a living flower."
"I'll go!"
Tess was a precious friend, but there was no room for personal feelings in war.
"Be careful."
Tess gave a thumbs-up and moved away; Rian turned his head and took in the front again.
At that moment.
A seesaw of time occurred.
Time shouldn't slow just because someone glanced ahead....
Why on earth?
Even before his brain could form the thought, every cell in his body fired questions wildly.
Two hundred meters ahead another Celestial Corps stood.
Because the rear forces blocked their view, it was impossible to know exactly what was happening.
K | 99
Farther off, countless soldiers were being flung into the sky simultaneously.
The fact that the rear soldiers didn't move a finger meant they weren't even aware.
'They're moving at tremendous speed.'
As the time seesaw released, Rian's arm dragged his greatsword deep against his chest.
TZ: rz rz rz rz = TZ: | 1―I―r?t?i―r!
Like a mine detonating, soldiers were flung aside, and as the rear finally blew open....
Bang.
A shock ran through Rian's greatsword.
"Uuuugh!"
Rian flew tens of meters, braking with the soles of his feet and thrusting his upper body forward.
'I feel like my solar plexus has been pierced.'
He looked ahead and saw Natasha in a black dress, shaking her hips and dancing.
'A combat doll...'
The way she swung her hips was playful and yet seemed deliberately seductive.
She spun once, tilted her head to one side, pressed both elbows to her waist, and spread her hands wide.
"Hello?"
Rian tracked ten specks of starlight that began at her fingertips and rode up along taut lines of force.
A hooded skeletal avatar looked down at her from above.
"The Reaper's Dance."
Natasha disappeared.