Clank! A loud metallic ringing sound resounded, prompting me to twist around to see what was going on, only for my vision to be blocked when my mana exuded out of my body like a cloud.
“And you said our caution was unwarranted!” I heard Ellaine shout through the mana mist before the metal-on-metal banging sounds continued. “Sir Royce! You traitors!”
“Urk!” I heard a man grunt before Falamm and Karlst shouted in unison, followed by the sound of the wind being sliced.
Meanwhile, my body began to morph, growing in size before I felt my true form return. To the sound of bone-chilling, raw moaning filled with pain, despair, and fear, I howled out as lightning gathered around my front legs before I slammed them down on the people behind me.
As the mist was blown away, I couldn’t exactly take the time to assess the situation before me, as I had to snap my head right back to the sin heir as my skills warned me of three incoming projectiles. I twisted my body, avoiding two bone arrows, before knocking the last down with my tail. I howled once more, noticing three female demonkin having formed a bow each using the bones and tendons on their arms.
Demonkin of Lust.
“Mistress Klea’Hatma!” The three shouted, followed by the crackling of seven more in the back. The latter seven then kicked the spasming fire mages forward before they all produced bone bows with their bodies. “Return her to us, human!”
While the lust demonettes were nocking their bone arrows, the elementally-charged wrath demonkin grabbed the spasming fire mages and threw them at us. My skills immediately advised me to dodge them, and I understood why when I noticed the drugged humans and beastmen bloating up like balloons, deforming into grotesque creatures.
My shadow pack immediately jumped out of my shadow, forcing Midirn, Yorshka, Fargryneill, and Ellaine on their backs before quickly retreating back. On their dinosaurs, Krim-Slak and Grazlahta did the same and I quickly followed suit as well; meanwhile, Kushlek’zar stood his ground, catalyst in hand.
Three water circles appeared in front of him, and while he didn’t need to chant it still took time for the spells to materialize. In this time it took to manifest the magic, the thrown fire mages were nearly on top of the saurian priest, spasming so much I thought they were like the glitches I would see on malfunctioning PCs.
Just before the bloated mages reached Kushlek’zar, Shayu and Beth swooped in and swung their wings, creating a gust of wind before freezing it with their breath attack. As the ice turned into a wall, a loud explosion erupted from beyond it, rocking the wall as I saw flames fly over it. A fire bomb? A human fire bomb? Though, to be honest, I was more surprised about my bafflement.
The explosion did create some massive cracks into the ice wall, weakening it enough for the next volley of bone arrows to penetrate them. Although the arrows themselves ended up stuck in the ice, they were able to shatter the defensive structure enough for the subsequent projectiles to fully fly through, forcing the wyvern twins to form their ice armor and cutting anything approaching down, buying just enough time for Kushlek’zar to finish his cast of three [Water Magic Lv. 10] [Aqua Beam]s upward, creating something similar to a high-pressured aqua wall to completely drench the city.
“Hraaah!” As our group was splintered, I heard Ellaine’s voice echo out as metal contined to clash. I turned around, seeing her in her full rhytilic bodysuit armor, swinging her blue-glowing whipsword as she engaged the traitor knights.
With their faces covered, I couldn’t see their emotions, but it was clear from Ellaine’s bated breathing that she was furious. As a fellow Artorian, Royce was actively insulting Ellaine’s romanticized version of knighthood, spitting on her ideals. A knight of Aurena, purposely betraying the Goddess he was meant to serve, went against everything she believed in.
Yet, in a pure clash of skill, the three knights clearly held the upper hand over her. Even without proper knowledge of swordsmanship, I could see the knights having no issue keeping up with Ellaine’s sword swings, blocking and parrying with no issue before retaliating. As holy knights, they even kept up with her casting. The only thing they had an issue dealing with was Ellaine’s demonic lust powers, as blades and flesh spawned and transformed, keeping her battle style hard to anticipate.
I had no reason to interrupt them when a fierce foe was appearing before me, so our party left them be while we reacted to the beastial cries of monsters. Wolves appeared! Yet, those sounds couldn’t have come from them, as it sounded more like the same sounds the cardinals were making before we had to retreat for a moment … Which proved me correct when I noticed houses being bulldozed by five massive, deformed creatures.
I couldn’t even call them monsters like the beings my party had met in our adventure. No, this was similar to the deceased bodies of the troll shaman, that bandit leader, and even Davison. Eldritch monstrosities with figures that didn’t feel or look natural, or maybe it was more accurate to call them tumors growing on their bodies like fungi.
One was like a slimy mass of meat, oozing both blood and pus, as it crawled forward like a quick lizard. Another was a humanoid with an octopus head and a robe made from their pink skin. The third had transformed into a giant beetle with a hardened shell with spiky legs, jumping around like a leapfrog with a large gaping mouth underneath its body. The fourth victim looked like a lanky treant as their long, wood-like arms grew like a tree, while their mushroom head began spreading pollen. The last, though, was the most “normal” as it was simply a humanoid with large, overgrown claws, except for the fact that they had four heads.
The cardinals, although hostile to us, did not deserve this. This was an affront to life itself. There was nothing that could excuse such an action. Even if I understood “the ends justify the means” when it came to surviving, I was so horrified by such a display that I could only feel indifferent to the existence of the demonkin. Their plight Hestia was concerned about? If their leaders were doing something like this, then I would severely question if Hestia could succeed in her lofty goals.
What a job.
To stop their advance, Kushlek’zar ended his water wall spells and cast new magic from his hands, blasting a water jet at the deformed cardinals, only for two demonkin pairs to jump in front of the attack, blocking it simply with their body.
“Mana absorption and adaptation,” that was the demonic power of the envy demonkin. Born with high intelligence and wisdom growth at the cost of their physical stats, envy demonkin were Bole’Taria’s best magician and magic defenders, simply because of their ability to absorb anything with mana like a sponge. They could then temporarily change their mana into that absorbed element, gaining the benefits of being elementally-aligned.
Similar to Hestia’s natural resistance to fire and weakness to water, this duality of traits would also apply to them. If they absorbed my mana, they would gain increasing defenses against my stygian powers but would be susceptible to holy attacks. Yet, this didn’t make them immune, as they had to absorb a great amount of mana to tackle stronger mages, and even then, their bodies were normally too fragile to absorb it all without some kind of defense. These two did look like they were undefended, but they did manage to deal with this magic and expel it as a mana slime, similar to Asaka’s twilight slime.
When the water beam couldn’t kill the demonkin pair, forcing Kushlek’zar to abandon his offense and let the wyvern twins fly him away from the lust demonkins’ continued arrow barrage. Tasianna was forced to support them using her wind magic to deflect the projectiles, leaving the rest of us to handle the incoming army.
A full-on clash began as our forces engaged each other, with Midirn finally taking command while everybody began their attack. Without Hestia’s songs, the demonkin could fully unleash their powers to their fullest potential. Thankfully, some of her buffs were sharable without her [Idol] and they were still active
“Twins’ group, long-range bombardment and projectile defense. Do not focus on group support, only target the enemy! Wolves, focus on mobility and battlefield safety and track that tamer down! Yorshka, Princess, with me, we’re diving with me!” Midirn ordered, leaving Ellaine alone as she already committed to her role. “Saurian warriors, break through the damn frontline for us!”
“Xohulotel, laruz!” Krim-Slak and Grazlahta shouted as they charged with the dinosaur army, allowing many of the water golems to be obliterated by the wrath demonkin protecting everybody behind.
Through an initial briefing, Midirn explained his command lingo to us, allowing me to understand “battlefield safety” also meant any monsterized individuals had to be exterminated as well. The cardinals were my duty, in other words.
Mom and my fenrirs were already hard at work culling the wolf horde, who showed a newfound aggression they didn’t have before. The cowardly wolves were growling and baring their teeth before my larger and clearly stronger ones, something their natural instincts would advise them against engaging with. As a tamer myself, I understood that skills could cajole them, but this still was pretty aggressive on their end, standing ground instead of fleeing.
As my shadow pack and I began the clean up, my eyes also wandered to the rest of the battlefield, especially to the sin heir who was commanding the archer group. His body was completely aflame yet he wasn’t screaming in pain, probably a result of his affinity as I remembered the saurians call him a fire mage.
“The offer still stands!” His loud voice transmitted through the entire battlefield. “Our feud is not with Loatryx or Kargryx, so retreat and we can keep it civil between us! Make your little princess back off and we can stop killing each other. Or, you can all die today and we can start tormenting Aurena’s newest dog with your mutilated corpses!”
“Rejected!” Midirn shouted before he crashed into the backline, now initiating a duel with the demonkin. “Our princess demanded the Prince of Envy’s head and I, Midirn the [Black Bomber], shall deliver it to her! Now, move!”
He demonkin was then punched back, prompting the lust demonkin to switch their attention to him, only for Fargryneill and Yorshka to take on the bone-archers and make them leave Midirn alone. This allowed Kushlek’zar to unleash his full arsenal of spells in a way similar to Hestia, utilizing whatever spell he could use to inconvenience our enemies and either kill them or give our allies a chance to slay them; for example, three [Kraken’s Destruction] was enough to discombobulate the wrath demonkin frontline.
The physically weaker envy demonkin were then forced to come in to absorb his spells while the wrathies defended them, but under all this pressure, the two saurian warriors flourished. After all, even now, Kushlek’zar kept creating more water dinosaurs and that meant more disposable bodies to protect his two friends.
[Lifetaker (35 kills)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]
While our front was starting to look better, I was starting to get more worried about Ellaine. She had been isolated in her three-way duel up until now, but a few lust demonkin actually managed to maneuver around, now attacking her in the name of “Mistress Klea’Hatma.” We had expected it, but due to our situation, it was becoming an issue. Our lack of numbers were showing right now.
[“Uno, lead your the others behind us, now!”] I ordered. [“Mom, you stay. Shoyi, I need you now! Go!”]
Midirn wanted the pack to take care of the tamer and the monsters, but I also had to take care of Ellaine. We needed to adapt. After all, all I needed here to mop up the tamer and his pets were the members I told to stay behind.
As my fenrirs departed, a giant blob of purple slime shot out of a ruined alleyway, dragging and consuming multiple wolves at once with its tentacles. As a rank C poison slime, Shoyi wasn’t a good attacker and was quite vulnerable to piercing spells that could destroy its core, which was why I didn’t like bringing it onto the surface. Shoyi was more useful as an ambusher.
Yet, this time its presence could benefit me quite a bit. Similar to Hestia’s [Hydra] spell, Shoyi was best used to eliminate weak enemies and debilitate stronger ones with its poison. Combine this with Mom’s experience fighting as a garm and her usage of our tool set to grab and drag the wolves into Shoyi’s body, it allowed us to clean up a number of threats on the field, even if it was slower than with my fenrirs.
While relying on these two, I challenged the five former cardinals, roaring as my body charged up with electricity. Using [Dark Tendrils], I slingshotted myself forward and used [Air Walk] and [Umbral Skip] to quickly maneuver around their wide attacks. If I had to, I would tank their strikes to give myself the momentum to strike.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The treant-like cardinal howled, “P-paain!” from a small mouth on the top of his mushroom head as I bit into him. I felt sorry, even pity for causing this pain despite all the crimes he committed and helped commit. If their situation was anywhere similar to Wendell, then dying like this was the worst punishment. After all, they were all still alive to witness this horror they had become.
I attempted to finish him off, but the octopus-head cardinal began casting holy spells at me while grunting, “Kill. Kill for master.” A mind was needed to cast spells, regardless of their state. Since the others hadn’t cast any spells, I believed this one was the octopus-head was the most dangerous right now.
Darting my body through a [Sacred Smite], I slipped into the shadow world with [Shadow Dash] to appear from beneath him. With a charged claw, I was about to end it with a [Voltage Impact], only for the meat blob cardinal to slam his tendril-like arm onto the ground, blocking the full brunt of my attack. Although the blob’s flesh was blown away, it was already regrowing while leaving me open to the octopus-head’s spell.
I expanded my [Shadow Armament] and twisted my body to swing my tail, sacrificing some of my fur to mitigate the near point-blank attack while pushing the two cardinals away from me. At the same time, the insect and four-headed cardinals engaged me in a melee with a flurry of rapid attacks that gave me no chance for an opening.
The unnatural bodies of these two made it hard to predict their movements and it wasn’t long befor the treant cardinal entered the fight with whipping wood-like appendages. With my humongous size, I was still dodging all of them, destroying any building in my way. This “sign of weakness” lured in the other cardinals, committing everything onto attacking me and having probably forgotten there were more than just one combatant around.
A simple mind was easy to trick, after all.
[“Daughter, now!”] Mom called. The trap was set.
She then jumped onto a roof, away from fighting the wolves and pulled onto a string of mana thread, carefully hidden in the ridges of a building! An explosion detonated below me as I jumped up, leaving the cardinals to fall into a crumbling hole, down into the remains of one of the mud tunnels. A net of multi-colored mana threads caught them, but with another pull, Mom caused the net to wrap around all of them before she poured mana into it.
Preparations meant more than just planning on having Asaka’s onnikai followers help us; it also involved me doing what I did best as a Belzac wolf—laying traps and making cunning plans. We had a week for my shadow pack to wander around the city to lay traps, and we made sure to fill the north, east, south, and west districts with plenty of emergency ambush areas we could use as needed. Better over prepared than under, right?
“Griiesahhh!” Five combined voices erupted from below as the multi-spell net singed and burned their bodies. As long as Mom held the mana thread, it couldn’t break apart, and this meant they were grouped in one location for me to end them all with one single Ability. Conserving our strength was the name of the game here.
“Kill! Kill! Kil—Us!”
“Sins! Sinners! Sins!”
“Goddess! Mercy!”
The cardinals pleaded.
Rest in peace.
I grabbed my twin catalysts in my large paws and channeled my black lightning into them, charging them up before I felt my entire body fill with energy. As the power super-charged my stats, I used [Umbral Skip] to jump into the sky before using two [Stygian Lightning] to propel myself downward, using [Voltage Impact] to land a finishing blow onto all the cardinals!
[Lightning Revolt (Limited)] [Lifetaker (40 kills)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]
Annoyingly, as I was in my fenrir form, I couldn’t earn any experience for my unique Job, but I couldn’t risk exposing myself for such a greedy move. This was survival, and besides, the extra experience did mean my next level as a fenrir would come soon.
With one issue done, I was about to go help Mom, but decided against it as I noticed the strained voice over on Ellaine’s side. Four lust demonkin managed to avoid the primary charge, sneaking behind us and were now supporting the traitors. My fenrirs were holding on, but Royce and his allies were right—they were still rank A. This was too much for my fenrirs. I had to take command, otherwise, they would continue staying on the defensive.
Need to—
[“Saori, listen to your skill. Somebody is coming!”] Belzac warned me of a signal coming from the north. Expecting another lust demonkin, I was about to cast a spell to divert their attention, but before I could, I heard a whistle.
“Whroo!” Followed by the howling of the enemy’s wolves, signaling a chill running down my spine and being proven right when I felt my body becoming heavier. Before I could question it, my ankles gave up as I fell onto the ground.
Greed!
This intense weight on my body felt exactly like the gravity power we had to deal with against Maagneil and the aberration of greed fueling his ambition. That last signal was a greed demonkin, without a doubt, and my nose told me they were most likely the tamer as this whistling agitated the wolves.
The issue wasn’t about knowing this now, but the fact it probably affected my allies. I saw my wolves’ movements slow down, while the twins were being pulled to the ground as if they were magnetic. A lack of information on the enemy’s forces was a given, as they had hidden themselves up until now, which was why we prepared something for this moment. This was, after all, a pretty terrible situation.
Okay, now we—
Yet, it only got worse. From the middle of the battlefield, a single demonkin snuck past the rest of the forces and planted a staff on the ground. With a winged eyeball to decorate the top, the thing began to glow before it shot a purple light into the sky, creating a dome around us that encompassed the entire area.
I wondered what this exactly was, only to realize after a while that I couldn’t hear anything. There was no sound at all. All the breathing, metal clanging, and spell casting was now gone. I had Belzac check my body if something was happening, but aside from the gravity control, there was nothing wrong. This was a silence room.
[“They prepared that thing to fight against the dragon whelp. It doesn’t block mana to allow the envy sin heir’s power to work, meaning Hestia can’t help us even if she can still sing,”] Belzac informed me. [“That is an issue! Get over to the demonkin at once. NOW!”]
If we couldn’t hear the demonkin chant his Yaldabaoth, then we couldn’t reactively defend against the mana portion of the ability. We had to place the deployable [Auracoil] rune down now, otherwise it would be all over.
I stomped my feet down, using the [Lightning Revolt] mode to strengthen my body and gaining access to twelve spells all at once. As such, I cast seven [Dark Tendrils], snatching all my allies close to me while using four [Stygian Lightning] to zap the lust demonkin, preventing them from reacting just long enough for me to rescue everybody.
Once my shadow pack and Ellaine were with me, I shrouded all of them in my [Shadow Armament] before using [Shadow Dash]. Since all the [Shadow Snake]s were on my fenrirs, I had no long-range target, relying purely on my current line-of-sight. As such …
This is nothing! Voltage Impact!
I slammed the ground underneath me before jumping up into the air, using the boost to shoot up, high enough to see the entire section of the city! After pinpointing two spots, I cast two [Shadow Dash] but used [Delayed Cast] on the second, allowing my first teleport to come to the rescue of the saurians.
I roared and threw my allies into the saurians laps to protect them, while I discharged the [Lightning Revolt] all around me, cracking the earth and frying the air! The demonkin and wolves who were just fighting here were forced to retreat, allowing me to dive back into my shadow and dismiss the [Delayed Cast].
As I returned to the light world, I roared, baffling the demonkin before me. I snapped my jaw shut, ripping the man’s arm off, including the whip he was weidling. My second target was none other than the greed demonkin tamer.
I then discharged a bolt of stygian lightning into the person, paralyzing him while I kept my body standing tall despite the intense gravity control. Bearing through the pain as if a gigantic creature was currently standing on my body, so large I felt squashed, I shot out additional [Stygian Lightning] and also two holy flame grenades, scorching the man until his control over his power waned.
His wolves had somehow made it back to their master, but it was too late. With one swift [Voltage Impact], it was all over as I totaled the location.
[Lifetaker (48 kills)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]
Dammit, still no level? Argh, I need to go back, now!
[“Too late.”] Yet, Belzac’s melancholic voice was all I heard before I felt my body lose all control.
Fatigue assaulted my body, creating a sublime, tranquil feeling in my head. I felt so sleepy. I tried to keep my eyelids open but with every passing second, the heavier they felt.
It was checkmate … until it wasn’t.
[Noble Prayer (Dark Defence)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]
I woke up.
What? She shouldn’t be here, though.
I jumped onto a nearby roof to see what was happening, quickly recognizing a giant white glowing field surrounding this entire section of the city. Anything inside the barrier was covered by it, protecting and granting us this defensive buff.
It was Fleindia!
However, she shouldn’t have been here. Her duty was to wait for a signal outside the city before engaging, but none of us could have called for her. How did she make it into the barrier? Wouldn’t it prevent—It didn’t matter! Asking any more was counterproductive as I could ask the person herself, not to mention the sight of the sin heir blasting towards the epicenter of the holy field unnerved me.
As if he had rocket boosters on his feet, he flew over to Fleindia’s location, only for something like a black flash to descend on him, causing both to crash. I didn’t know what was happening, so I immediately used [Umbral Skip] to teleport over, where I found Fleindia next to Rajah, Varya, and … my students and Rhea?
[“W-what are all of you doing here?”] I asked, flabbergasted.
[“Fleindia asked us to come here, Sensei!”] Nishio answered.
Tatsuya nodded. [“Fleindia said she was supposed to receive a message from the Knight-Commander before the beginning of the raid. A warning. If he didn’t send one, then something happened to him and that the enemy had gotten to him first.”]
Royce! I had a feeling he was lying, but yet …
[“So Fleindia asked us to help her enter the city,”] Kyouya continued. [“Snuck past all of you to get to the basilica with Rajah’s [Mirror Image].”]
[“But the tunnels were also blocked by the damn barrier …”] Asaka said with a grim face. [“It’s tough. Even a holy spell can’t crack it, nor can my twilight stuff. At least I got the damn onnikai out … Yikes, what a close call.”]
[“Indeed.”]
He’s here.
I turned my head around while my students raised their weapons. The sin heir of envy had made it to us.
Midirn? That was you, no? … You couldn’t have died, right? Yorshka? Fargryneill? I gulped. The lack of sound was unnerving me far more than usual. It felt even hard to sniff with this person standing before me. A being almost as strong as Vifi.
Wiping some dust from his coat, the sin heir grinned as he flaunted his flaming arm replacing the one Yorshka ripped off from him. [“More preparations? I can see the degree you’ve put into this plan of yours! I have to commend you! You took out their cardinals in a flash! I must applaud you, I really must! After all, if you were an ally, I would have invited you to anything you wanted to eat … but I so love it when the plans of my enemies fall apart. That sweet, succulent feeling is lingering in my chest! Ahaha.”]
I walked forward, blocking his sight from my allies. This little incident really ruined the plan Fleindia was supposed to be involved in, yet, it was also a stroke of luck. If she wasn’t here, we would have all lost, right here, right now. I mean, I had an idea they might have tried to defend themselves since they knew about Hestia’s songs now, but such a large silence field? Even Rhea’s silence field was just enough for a room.
Meaning, we had to protect Fleindia at all cost.
[“I do appreciate you all bringin the little Saintess to us. Killing her will certainly end this entire debacle with a snap! Aha, remember this, Bole’Taria has prepared for this for years! If you thought you could bring it all down so easily, then think again. If it weren’t for the traitor, things would have probably avalanched into your defeat earlier … But I actually like proper competition fighting back instead of the lukewarm reception of the Empire. They are already burning, yet they don’t even know … Regardless, time to end this.”]
[“Yeah!”] To my surprise, Daichi shouted from the back of the group. He charged forward, raising his staff into the air—Wait, what was he doing here? [“You think this will end now? Sure, it will!”]
[“… My goodness, I guess you children must have been mad. A madness caused by fear and anger, no? Well, let me apologize to all of you for this. We truly didn’t want to involve any of you here.”] He bowed like a showman.
Kohaku clicked her tongue. [“Pah! You mean, you apologize to us. You don’t care about the process of kidnapping people to your world only to abuse them!”]
[“Of course, not. Why would I? All of you are humans as well …”] He glared at us with these two furious eyes, grimacing at us to convey his feeling. [“Well, time to die now. Goodbye, give Ilsaphone my greet—”]
Just as he was about to declare our death, the man froze in place before snapping his body out of the way of a red arrow piercing through the ground. He stumbled back, eyes glaring at the projectile disappearing into the sky like a lightning bolt, only for his expression to distort into rage. He snarled with his nostrils flared.
[“Red. Voltaic. Traitor, you!”] He finally said, looking at the ground. [“You dare—”]
[“Did you think we would come here without any reinforcement of our own to help us out, you bastard?!”] Tatsuya shouted as his human form morphed into his werewolf form. [“We’re the fucking distraction! Rajah, you can dispel it now!”]
And with that command, the figures of both Rajah and Varya suddenly disappeared as if they were never there before. Yet, I still felt two—No, there were actually four signals. Seeing my students before me had baffled me to the point I didn’t double check my [Detection Sensor], leaving me unaware there were actually more people … below us?
Wait—
Like a thunderbolt awakening that light bulb in my head, the ground broke apart as a giant hammer suddenly flew out of it, slamming into the demonkin and slinging him backward while a giant metal humanoid jumped in front of us.
[“Grimnir!”] I shouted, causing the suit of armor to turn around to give me a thumbs up. His face was obstructed by a giant horned helmet, yet I could recognize the wearer due to the hammer. That was Grimnir’s blasthammer!
Furthermore, another surprise came when a red lightning shot out of the ground, completely collapsing it. We all fell into the mud tunnel, barely recovering from the amount of dust around us. When it finally disappeared, there, standing on top was a single woman with a glowing metal arm, holding up a red lightning halberd.
She turned around and smirked.
It was Vifi.
[“… I’m giving you a basket of donuts after we crush them!”]
She grinned and turned around, placing the halberd on her shoulder before showing us a thumbs up with her back shown to us. In the middle of this night, her red lightning was like a signal fire, demanding us to rally around our Warbringer!