Aria
The Arterian army was obviously waiting for us to arrive at the Northern Pass, only for the First General and – by the looks of the other generals I see with her – the Third, Fourth, and Sixth Generals to strike them from the Pass while they’re waiting. And now there’s an all out war going on between the two sides, with the Arterian army still in shambles from their lack of a leader.
I’m sure the nobles are currently squabbling over power while the four generals scrounged together this army. But most of the soldiers are all both worn out and uncertain of what to do.
I wouldn’t even be surprised if some of the soldiers went ahead and deserted. After all, their emperor is dead. And everyone hated the emperor.
They really did have a tyrant after all. So now that he’s gone, they’re going to want to take advantage of the chaos to leave.
Most probably would’ve already left if not for how fast the generals seem to have ordered them to march.
The Albarians can diss the nobility and emperor of the Arterian Empire all we want, but their generals do at least know what they’re doing. And none of them are nobles either. So they don’t have that crude arrogance the nobles have.
Of course, it also led to mistreatment by the nobles and the emperor. But even they couldn’t take it too far with their own generals.
Our driver just keeps on going, and soon enough, we near the two fighting armies, and all of our team except for Vargas jump out of the vehicle to join the fray. Then the five of us tear through the army to make a path for the vehicle to enter into the Northern Pass from.
After we succeed in doing that, we turn our attacks onto the enemy army itself.
And just like with the last time we were fighting in a large scale conflict, I find myself quickly growing numbed to the number of enemy soldiers that fall to my blade and guns.
But unlike before, this time I am using their own soul energy that I take harvesting the souls of the fallen on this very battlefield to empower my gun and blade. Because it apparently works with my blade too.
A lot of the enemy soldiers purposefully try to avoid me. Until the enemy noble soldiers amongst them in officer positions order them to attack me specifically when they notice me. Shouting out things about me having been their emperor’s killer and stuff like that.
Which hurts their morale even more since they know they can’t really do much against me, and I’m pretty sure a lot of these soldiers are thankful towards me as well.
I try to avoid killing the unwilling soldiers as much as I can at least.
To my surprise though, out of nowhere, a bright golden light shines down and I feel a flash of pain. Then nothing. Just utter darkness for who knows how long.
Eventually feeling returns to me again and I find myself lying face-first on the ground covered in blood and snow with a massive chunk taken out of my clothes, leaving me pretty much bare in far more places than I would care for. Thankfully I have my armor in my storage ring and a fast equip function, so I put it on right away without anyone seeing thanks to me being lying down on my front and covered in blood and snow.
Then I climb to my feet in my officer uniform once more to find a man who I very much recognize standing several meters away from me. And he’s not alone.
Alongside the former emperor’s dog are several of the former emperor’s other lackeys. Each of whom are Category 4 Ability Holders. And next to them are several of the Category 4 nobles from Arteria, showing that they’re working together to deal with little ol’ me.
I raise a brow before looking around to find that we’re in some sort of sealed off space through space magic. So none of my team members can get inside.
“Well this is interesting,” I call out to the enemies while crossing my arms. “You gonna throw a party or something? A last farewell?”
The former emperor’s dog – a lieutenant general under the Ninth General’s command, likely implying that he either deserted her army or is working with her – snarls at me and says, “You’re going to regret ever crossing the grace given to you by His-”
“Blah, blah, blah, grace, former majesty, blah blah,” I mutter before shaking my head and asking, “Is there a point to all this? You know you can’t kill me.”
I glance around at the few thousand soldiers surrounding us all, both from Arteria and Albaria. And all of whom are focused on me, clearly siding with these idiots.
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We certainly do have a lot of traitors in our midst.
Not sure how the emperor managed to scrounge up so much last second support, especially while he’s most likely not even free. Considering the First General’s words.
Although it’s also possible that this is entirely the lieutenant general’s doing without the emperor having done anything.
I look to the edge of the spatial barrier to find that the people outside seem to know what’s going on as they’re trying their hardest to break it. Even one of the Generals is doing so. But somehow they’re failing.
“Even immortals grow tired,” the emperor’s dog barks, sounding incredibly pissed off. Most likely by the term I called Lysandre. “And we’re here to capture you after you do. Then you’ll know what pai-”
“Can you stop it with the monologuing?” I call back, while tilting my head, my arms still crossed. “Just attack already, please. Spare us both the time.”
His eyes narrow, meanwhile a couple of his underlings actually try to hide a laugh at that without much success.
“You’ll regret that,” the dog finishes before motioning with his hand. “Take her.”
Then thousands of enemies all dogpile on me at once, some even killing their own in friendly fire. But I manage to take it all. Although my armor ends up being torn to shreds over and over again.
Thankfully this armor is high class armor enchanted with just repair enchantments, so it repairs itself before any of my modesty is leaked.
I go around slaughtering the ones attacking me while taking far more hits than I’m giving. And as I do this, I can’t help but wonder if I’m right in the head, thinking about my modesty while being attacked by thousands of Ability Holders at once.
Actually, no. Modesty is important.
My head gets blown off at that thought before it’s restored again a few seconds later.
Right. Important.
I continue trying to fight back, but their sheer numbers is more than a little overwhelming. Meanwhile the people outside of the spatial barrier are struggling to so much as scratch it. Something about the barrier being set up to launch everyone into a random location in space should it be physically broken without the caster canceling it or dying themself.
So if they try to force their way in I’d probably be floating in space unable to breathe for a while. Which would suck.
The fight continues on and on, and apparently I can’t absorb the soul energy of those outside of this barrier. So my soul energy rapidly depletes.
I kill one, end up slaughtered a dozen times before killing another. Rinse and repeat. For hours upon end.
Over time I manage to kill quite a lot of them, and I begin to near my next level.
But another major issue is that they’re all around a dozen or so levels above me. And Rogers isn’t here to support me with his ability.
So not only do they have me massively outnumbered, but I have to stretch the usage of my soul energy just to not be captured by them. And when I am captured, I make sure to break one of my own limbs or do something rather self-destructive just to get out of their hold.
Good thing I brought a lot of grenades with me in my storage ring.
For me at least. Not for the person who is grappling onto me.
Gradually, as my soul energy runs out, and I run out of things in my storage ring to break me out of their holds, the fight turns more and more in their favor. Meanwhile the people outside of the spatial barrier all grow more and more panicked about trying to figure out how to disable the barrier without launching me into space.
But my attention isn’t on them. What my attention is locked onto are the System Messages appearing with each kill I make.
[User has killed one being of Level 16. Requirements to reach level 6 have been updated. New requirements are as follows: 2989/3000 beings have been granted Death.]
Pleeeeeeaaaase give me a skill with this level! I honestly can’t see a way for me to get out of this without one!
I use my last grenade, blowing both myself and ten others around me up at once.
[User has killed one being of Level 16. Requirements to reach level 6 have been updated. New requirements are as follows: 2999/3000 beings have been granted Death.]
Then, after several blades of wind, fire, ice, and even lightning cut off my limbs, someone moves behind me and puts his arms under where my limbs are regrowing, putting me into a lock by my arms. And at this point I’m out of things to free me in my storage ring.
Someone even takes my ring off and throws it away this time, making sure it isn’t restored along with my body. A particularly difficult and hella expensive enchantment that the Two Star Merchant had put on it for me during our trip.
Finally, the lieutenant general walks through the remaining thousand or so panting and exhausted soldiers to stop right in front of me with a smirk on his face.
I scowl up at him, but he ignores me as he kneels down and strokes my cheek, making me try to move my face away without any success. Since someone is holding my head in place.
“You’re finally done struggling like a mutt?” he says with a very satisfied voice. “That is what you call me, right? A dog?”
He puts his hand on my cheek, holding my face, only to suddenly jab his fist into my eye socket and rip out my eye. Then my eye grows right back again with me not showing a single ounce of reaction to it.
I just keep glaring at him, feeling like his touch is worse than having my eye ripped out.
“It’s so dissatisfying to torture you when you’re like this…” he mutters, still with his hand on my face. “Although, you do seem to hate my touch. Maybe-”
I don’t let him finish as I finally activate the hidden blade in the back of my shoe and purposefully use the last of my soul energy reserves to struggle free just a little bit, letting me stumble slightly from my kneeling position. This frees my leg a little and I manage to dig the blade straight into the gut of the person standing behind me.
But I don’t succeed in freeing myself, as while the person does fall back, bleeding out from the gut wound and a couple other wounds he already had before that weren’t fatal until now, another takes his place right away without giving me a chance to get loose.
“Tisk, tisk, tisk,” the man clicks his tongue at me while patting my face. “Such a naughty blade. You should’ve learned to respect your wielder more, otherwise this wouldn’t have happened.”
The man stands up straight, finally removing his hand from my face to my satisfaction. Then he begins to monologue.
Because what villain doesn’t monologue?