The monsters within the crater’s domain vanished without a trace, while those lingering nearby screamed in agony, their bodies shattered and barely clinging to life.
More than half of the enemy’s forces had been wiped out in an instant.
This was Meteor.
The magic of the Grand Mage Inariel.
Yet, Zbeta’s fortress stood unscathed, resolute as ever.
It was as if the fortress walls divided two separate worlds—inside and outside.
“What on earth…?”
Jarred, who had been knocked down by Yuri’s foot, staggered to his feet, finally regaining his senses.
“Is this even possible?”
“Impossible,” Yuri replied.
“Huh?”
Yuri had a vague understanding.
Even Inariel couldn’t have unleashed such an absurd spell without paying a heavy price. Even as the master of immutable mana formulas, he would have suffered a cost.
Yuri’s gaze shifted.
From the crater left by Meteor, small bluish sparks—like fireflies—were drifting upward, flickering erratically.
Inariel had likely lost his forbidden magic, his immutable mana formula.
More than that, he might have sacrificed a significant portion of his own mana.
Yuri muttered under his breath, “Inariel went this far… there’s no way we can afford to lose.”
Clutching his Guilty sword, Yuri fixed his eyes on Zbeta.
Beyond it lay their goal.
There was still a long way to go.
“Cedric must be stunned.”
No matter how sharp Cedric’s mind was, he couldn’t foresee everything. Who would have expected a mage capable of casting an off-the-charts spell like Meteor?
So many troops had vanished in a flash.
Though some forces remained outside Meteor’s range, the momentum had clearly shifted.
“Let’s kill them all and storm Zbeta.”
“Agreed.”
The Anti-Empire Alliance roared and surged forward, attacking the remaining monsters.
Even the monsters enslaved by black magic and Inariel’s Meteor seemed shaken, their movements sluggish.
The Alliance’s forces pushed relentlessly.
Giants fell, half-human, half-beast monsters collapsed like porcupines pierced by blades, and others beyond were hunted down like prey.
But the enemy’s resistance didn’t cease entirely.
Flesh flew skyward as tentacles clashed with spears and blades, splattering blood everywhere.
The battlefield descended into chaos once more—a brutal slaughter of death and killing.
Yuri plunged back into the fray.
Familiar faces wandered nearby.
“Hey, Tirvo. What are you doing?”
“Fighting monsters! Hehe…”
“Looks like you’re just getting pushed back.”
“Could use some help!”
“That’s a failure as my rider.”
“Got it! Then I’ll leave the flag to someone else!”
“You little…”
Yuri helped Tirvo battle the monsters. Though Tirvo had talent, he still had a long way to go.
Yuri swiftly slaughtered the monster Tirvo was barely holding off, then moved on to assist others.
Wherever he appeared, monsters exploded in death.
“Thank you!”
“Don’t stop!”
“Yes!”
With all his senses heightened to the peak, Yuri experienced time differently.
Enemies and the world around him slowed to a crawl.
He felt capable of anything.
For example—
Saving a soldier just before a monster tore his throat out.
“Your Highness…!”
Stepping onto the monster’s body, Yuri slammed down, killing it, then used the recoil to launch himself toward another monster attacking a knight, plunging his sword into its head and twisting.
“Thank you!”
He swiftly sliced through several charging monsters, cleaving them in two.
“P-please, spare me!”
He blocked the shadow of a monster looming over a wounded soldier crawling on one leg.
“Y-Your Highness?”
“Go to the rear. The mages will heal you.”
“Yes.”
“You can manage on your own?”
“Yes, yes.”
It was harsh but unavoidable. This wasn’t a fight where you could tend to the wounded. If they wanted to live, they had to move themselves.
Yuri’s eyes widened.
Countless events unfolded within his sight.
Thousands, tens of thousands of lives clashed, each fighting to kill the other. Yuri identified what he could do and executed it in a split second.
His mind and body accelerated to their limits.
In that brief moment, countless allies were saved by Yuri, and countless enemies lost their lives.
A whirlwind swept across the battlefield.
Wherever the wind passed, monsters’ bodies were torn apart.
Yuri was, quite literally, leading the battle alone.
“Aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”
Lost in a trance-like state, Yuri found himself at the Holy Kingdom’s camp.
Francesco, who was stabbing monsters to death, smiled.
“Or maybe you don’t mind that much?”
“Well, so-so.”
“Still, save some strength. There’s still…”
Francesco nodded toward Zbeta.
“It’s still standing.”
Thanks to Meteor, the enemy’s forces had been decimated, but the fortress remained steadfast. Occasionally, a section of the wall would open like a beast’s mouth, releasing monsters.
“Yeah, I guess I have to.”
“No time to chat. Good work.”
“You too, Francesco.”
After a brief exchange, Yuri moved on.
Suddenly, he felt a persistent gaze and looked up.
Someone stood there.
A humanoid monster wielding a gently curved falchion.
“Hoh…”
He had expected they wouldn’t let him roam freely.
This new enemy had a bipedal, human-like body structure. Its skin was pitch black, muscles grotesquely overdeveloped, and its triangular, torn eyes gleamed like those of a reptile.
Yuri muttered, “Not a mass-produced monster…”
The Empire’s monsters were all eerily similar, as if stamped out by a mold. But occasionally, unique individuals with distinct forms appeared.
Like Katrina.
Those who had exceptional abilities as humans retained extraordinary powers as monsters.
This one was probably another of Cedric’s toys, created to counter Yuri.
“Hey, are you someone I know?”
Though fused with black magic and barely human in form, the creature seemed vaguely familiar.
The monster didn’t answer, advancing with its falchion dragging along the ground.
Its long arms suggested a long reach.
Yuri studied the weapon and raised his Guilty sword.
“You’re probably…”
From its gait, Yuri thought he knew who it was. A very arrogant fellow.
“Hassan, weren’t you dead? Or just imprisoned?”
“…”
“Hey.”
“…”
“Not answering?”
Hassan had attacked the Briol palace but was subdued by Bernard. Yuri had no idea why he was here as a monster.
Even if he escaped the palace, the timing didn’t add up.
Yuri muttered, “So it’s not necessary for the original to be present to create these monsters…”
If they had Hassan’s biological data, they might be able to create such monsters without him.
Yuri’s anger deepened at Cedric’s wicked schemes—denying human dignity and even resorting to cloning.
With a bitter thought, Yuri pointed Guilty at him.
“To think you were brothers… what was Father thinking…”
Hassan strode forward, falchion in hand. With his other hand, he caressed the blade’s edge as if savoring it, then grinned—a grotesquely wide smile far longer than any human’s.
If he were human, it would have been intimidating.
“Hassan, I didn’t know you had such a twisted hobby.”
Some fighters try to seize the initiative with perverse antics before battle, but Yuri hadn’t expected this from Hassan.
He nodded, realizing new things about him.
“The Empire just keeps giving me more reasons to want to kill them all.”
Yuri moved first.
His sword stroke aimed to split Hassan’s waist.
The monster’s hideous face, barely recognizable as Hassan’s, twisted into a smile.
At the same time, several new forms burst from the ground.
“Huh?”
Four monsters identical to Hassan, each wielding a falchion, appeared and swung their swords at Yuri.
Their blade arcs were bizarre and unpredictable.
Yuri bent his waist like an acrobat and stepped back.
Another Hassan swung at his back.
Yuri rolled on the ground, then rose and slashed upward with Guilty, cutting through the monster’s body.
“You bastard!”
One was cleaved in two.
Yuri wanted to crush them completely, but the remaining four attacked again, forcing him to defend.
As Yuri exchanged blows with them, tentacles sprouted from the severed Hassan’s wound, merging their bodies.
The five monsters’ attacks were so fluid and coordinated that Yuri struggled to keep up.
It was as if they had trained to fight as one.
How far could Cedric’s black magic go?
One wouldn’t have been a problem, but five constantly targeting his back made Yuri uneasy.
They didn’t even try to protect each other; instead, it seemed like they were waiting for one to die, hoping to expose Yuri’s weaknesses.
Yuri spun around, checking all five Hassans’ faces.
They were identical.
Their auras were the same.
If dozens or hundreds of such powerful monsters were mass-produced—
“No, it can’t be.”
It couldn’t be. No matter how much power Cedric gained, if it came to that, the war would be utterly hopeless.
“Yuri Briol!”
Before I knew it, Lorant had caught up.
As a new enemy appeared, one of the Hassan fighters latched onto Lorant.
Yuri shouted, “Well done, Lorant!”
With five down to four, the pressure definitely eased.
Yuri gave a small smile. “You may grumble and complain, but your actions haven’t changed much from before…”
Seeing Lorant come to her aid when she was in trouble, silent and all, was just like the old Lorant. The mismatch between his words and actions was almost endearing.
“Your Highness! Huff… huff…”
Jarred arrived late to the fight, and another Hassan fell.
When Yuri said nothing, Jarred called out, “Why don’t you praise me too?”
“Oh, you’re here?”
“Wow…”
Five had become three.
The difference was staggering.
The Hassan group surrounding him had thinned out, leaving too many gaps. It was almost puzzling how to handle them.
Yuri moved.
As she targeted one, the other two immediately closed in behind her.
Just as expected.
Planting her right foot firmly, she swung her sword wide with her left.
Two Hassan fighters closed in from behind, but at that moment, she shifted her weight, pivoted on her left foot, and whipped her head around sharply, instantly reversing her front and back.
She thrust the sword she’d pulled back forward, piercing one of them.
“Ugh!”
Another Hassan was right beside him. Yuri dragged the sword sideways through the one she’d just pierced.
The sword, having torn through the first, sliced clean through the second’s body as well.
The Hassan, caught off guard and still in a defensive stance, tried to leap forward too late.
But by then, two of their number were already dead.
Yuri twisted her body to dodge an attack and then beheaded the last remaining Hassan.
The three fallen Hassan bodies, torn apart, seemed to writhe as if trying to cling together. Yuri infused her sword with the intense spirit of the Shinmon technique and swept through them, shredding the pieces to dust.
Their bodies turned to powder, never to rise again.
“Rest in peace, Hassan,” Yuri murmured, turning her gaze.
Jarred and Lorant were each overpowering their opponents one-on-one.
Leaving the rest to them, Yuri glanced toward Zbeta.
On the empty castle wall, someone stood.
A familiar face.
Yuri gritted her teeth. “Cedric…”
Her nemesis had appeared, wearing a calm, confident expression.
Then, suddenly, a small figure limped over and stood beside Cedric.
Yuri sighed softly. “Cory…”
It was Cory.
Together, they stood atop Zbeta’s walls, looking down on the battlefield with triumphant smiles.