Another tremor shook the ground as an ungodly clash traverses the city. It is as Topaz said, Ivory was on a whole new level when it comes with both physical and magical prowess. Not only that, her speed and ferocity seem to stem from her origin, a devil.

Ivory, even as we ran far away, incites a feral fear that made my skin crawl with goosebump. The worse part is that while Topaz utilizes the power of the earth and can use earth base magic stemming from the blessing she received, Ivory is going wild using iron and other metal, fragmented or not.

It’s a whole new power to me…for someone to manipulate metal at will.

“Hey, don’t forget about our situation.”

“Eh…Yeah! Ah!”

Merlin called out to me as I drag him away. To be more exact, he is letting himself get dragged while drawing out a huge grin on his countenance.

Then on our heels are two Valkyrie of astounding brilliance brandishing their spears on our backs. I doubt I stand a chance against them! Why the hell are you coming at me with intent to kill, Lady Hinoki!?

Focus those two at the war going on outside of the city walls.

As I was thinking of that, from afar, Lady Hinoki then conjured a huge ball of fire and ball of water.

“[Efreet and Undine!]”

Two beastly apparitions of water and fire were molded. A huge horned demon with the face of an ox emerges in fiery blazes that easily stand over five meters. The other one is a translucent beautiful woman with transparent skin of blue and stands over two meters emerges.

The mere presence of the two summons made me remember that, despite her usual calm and ditzy attitude, Lady Hinoki trained under Astlan’s guidance, and the magic that she usually kept in check overflows like a river that even her soldiers and knights are astounded equally.

The two summon immediately jumped over the walls and joined the fray. The barrier that Ivory tore through started restructuring.

At that moment, I started believing that Lady Hinoki actually gets everything under control. After that, she also stepped out and while leading several knights.

However, before she could set her foot out of the city, the barrier she was maintaining with all her might shattered entirely with no traces of getting repaired. After that, instantaneously, the wall shattered and multiple ethereal beams pierced it.

“What in the world--?!”

The elven knights and soldiers retreated in panic. Horror filled the place as those who are slow to retreat are blown away and injured, covering themselves with their own blood. Rabbles started flying towards the city. Since this is the western district, most people have been evacuated towards the eastern district.

It has been now established that the western district will be the battlefield. The siege by the enemy is deemed successful and the elven army is in distraught.

And we may witness its downfall as dozens of golems, an exact model of golem that Higan and I fought before, started ravaging the land with ear-splitting motor sound. After that, the towering dwarves help themselves in and started invading.

I understand now that the elves don’t stand a chance. The exoskeletal suit that the dwarves wear is magic resistant and the golems are grinding the ground with their barrier that deflects magic. The elves heavily rely on magic for their offense.

But now, even enhancement magic will do nothing against the empowered dwarves…

The best move is to retreat.

“This is just unfair. They all have these magic repelling shields and the elves can’t do shit.”

“I understand how you feel. Your enemy seems to know the in and out of the magic system of this world and was able to create a counterforce against it. Every magic has its core concept and methodology where it is based and created.”

“Counterforce? Concept? Methodology?”

“That’s right. All they need to do is to abide by this world’s law and turn it against the residence of this world. They might have created a system that rejects any magical properties and disperses it. If I were to give it a name, it’s called Antithesis. Really…this sounds incredible and troublesome at the same time.”

Since Lady Hinoki was distracted, her Valkyries that was pursuing us started going after the golems. The only one who could defend against them is Lady Hinoki’s summon after all…

Her four summons works together to hold off all the golems and dwarves, however, it can only do so much as a lot of the enemy was able to run past them. Of course, their target is Lady Hinoki herself. Her first son, Leth, immediately came to her aid.

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“Mother, fall back now!”

“As much as I’d like to, we still have a lot of men behind.”

“This is solely for the lack of my foresight…”

“……”

There was no one to be blamed here.

It was the fact that the dwarves used Ethe technology that tipped off the balance of the war…if we can still consider this as a war.

But…deep inside me, I feel like there’s something entirely wrong with this situation.

As I was pondering the things from the side, as I cover Merlin and myself with a barrier, Topaz fell back and retreated by my side with bruises violently covering her whole body.

I look towards the direction where she confronted Ivory and there, there are myriad of steel spikes floating around her. She still kept the same crazed smile.

“She’s well beyond me by miles…I’m sorry, Asagao…”

“I can’t exactly tell you how bad you did as it was evident that Ivory is a real piece of art…”

“As long as she consumes something, whether be it living or not, her stamina is inexhaustible. She uses no form of martial arts and moves by her instinct, a pure rabid fighter with unpredictable movements. The worst part is that she throws those spikes at random.”

“You analyzed her as you fought?”

“I actually knew I was ill-matched…”

It was a risked she readily took. Topaz has been becoming more calculative in her movements than before. Most of the time where she predicts danger to be unwarranted, she keeps her senses open to information.

However, getting the enemy’s strongpoint is all she can do for now. I immediately protected her with my barrier.

The last thing I want to happen is for us to be captured. I immediately turn towards Casablanca and Hibiscus who are donning the power of divines and saw them doing their best to break the ether shield protecting the giant floating ship.

Then, at that moment, a small latch opened up where the dwarves came from. Out from there is a figure of an old man, presumably not a dwarf, came out.

“Merlin, can you see the figure of that guy clearly?”

“He is clearly not a dwarf, yeah. Wait…woah…he’s clearly a red flag.”

“It must be Dylan!”

One thing I should have remembered about the Ethers is that they are expert in slaying gods! That also means they are also adept at capturing them. It was something that Casablanca told me in the past and Merissa the pirate confirmed it.

Artemis, the goddess that resides within Casablanca told the tale of how she was captured by the Ethers.

“Casablanca! Hibiscus! Come back here!”

I shouted as an order.

I look at both my left and right and sure enough. There was no way I can just jump off. Ivory is observing us like a predator and on the other side are dwarves that noticed us.

By this time, the western district of the city has now fallen.

A patch on the ship’s barrier opens and Dylan pointed something at Casablanca and Hibiscus. I just realized that twins didn’t hear me and the two of them thought that the open patch on the shield is an opportunity.

As they entered on it in rush, Dylan shot them with a huge web that glows an eerie purple light.

“…He got us.”

I muttered as I felt the divine power I gave Casablanca and Hibiscus returns to me. The web that Dylan shot must have disabled my Divine Ascension.

Knowing the Arcana Sins, they must have known that Divine Ascension needs a medium of the same divine being to activate it. If none, then there would only be ringing headache.

“We tore through your forces like a butter, tis’ the greatest feelin’!”

A ragged loud voice reverberates. The rank of dwarves and golem opened up a path and sure enough, there was the…it was not the king of the dwarves but rather a guy I never met before.

This made Lady Hinoki raise an eyebrow.

“Where is Osthorio Talon, the Dwarven King?”

“Ya mean former king? The fool refused helped from the Ether. I jumped on the gun and started a coup. We easily imprisoned him for his incompetence. Now, he will see that prowess we currently possess!”

“……”

“I am Stern Lostfell, I hereby declare that I am now the new king of the dwarves!”

“This matter…to go this far…what is your objective?!”

“That is somethin’ we won’t be tellin’ ya, green lovers. Now, to liberate the whole elven people! After that, we will destroy the Rage King Ashfon Astlan Lionheart! And then…the whole continent!”

“This is why the world cannot achieve peace because of fools like you.”

“Say what you may, as long as we can conquer this land, I shall obtain power that dates back two thousand years ago.”

“……”

That was the cue…

This is no longer strife between the elves and the dwarves. Any major interference from our group will be eligible.

However, even with that fact getting laid down on the table…we are now cornered. Dylan is pulling the twins away and it is making me really anxious. Lady Hinoki could only grit her teeth as we are surrounded.

Is it really it…?

Should we…

“AHOY! PREPARE FOR IMPACT.”

As if everything in the world slowed down, a ship smaller than the ethers rushed out of nowhere. It was flying with booster engines that are really familiar with me.

I can only gasp with a widened mouth as I saw that person with a megaphone on hand with her vice-captain following her lead in shouting.

“THREE SECOND UPON IMPACT! OPEN THE ETHERIC DRILL!”

A huge drill propelled in front of their ship and immediately pierces through giant ship’s shield. Dylan who was standing at the open hatch rushes inside in panic and let go of Casablanca and Hibiscus.

All of us onlookers had out mouth gaping from the spectacle and upon impact.

CRASH

The giant ship swayed as its flank is penetrated by the random flying ship appearing.

“Hahahaha! You trash second generation dwarves have become so feeble that you bow down to these machines! We should be the smart one to overwhelm them and use it for our own! Sear my name on your pea brains, I am Merissa, the captain of SS. Iowa!”

All of her crew proceeded to hurl every insult in the book at every enemy. Her vice-captain, Ferd, is chuckling at the situation.

Everyone was flabbergasted except for Merlin who snaps his finger.

“My King, the time is now right!”

From the veil of the shadow comes rushing Daisy, or rather, King Arthur Pendragon. On his hand is the sword Caliburn shining brightly with blue light.

“First off…”

He then rushes at Ivory. He probably assessed the Ivory would be the most dangerous enemy and sure enough, King Arthur caught her off-guard.

King Arthur swings his sword at an unbelievable speed and Ivory had no hope of keeping up. With a final swing, King Arthur managed to put a huge slash on Ivory from her right shoulder to her left flank.

“It HURTS! It hurts…It hurts!! Meanie!”

Without retaliating, Ivory immediately escaped by jumping across the army of the dwarves and running off without turning back. The chance gave us an opportunity and Topaz jumped upwards to catch Casablanca and Hibiscus who fell from the sky as their Divine Ascension was dispelled.

Next off, I drew a sword from my dimensional storage, pushed the dwarves on my heel back with my Barrier by spinning and expanding it, and ran towards Lady Hinoki.

King Arthur also thought of the same and fought the dwarves towering over us with nothing but his sword alone.

“It’s useless! Tis’s feeble sword won’t…?!”

The dwarf that intercepted King Arthur was immediately taken down. Caliburn easily cut through their exoskeletal suit and managed to inflict a fatal wound.

“Ha! It’s just a few of you cretins anyway! Charge!”

The golem and dwarves alike obeyed Stern as they are confident of their forces, however, King Arthur slashes at the golems, rendering its shield useless against the legendary sword.

“No way! How could this be!”

“A fitting line for a man who knows no proper way kingship! I shall take you down here.”