“Why……”
Alfio mutters softly at the sight of such heroes.
“Am I……not the ‘protagonist’……?”
The “real” hero in the distance shines brightly, holding a golden sword, praised by knights and soldiers, with royal friends, and a princess who, though still young, will surely grow into a peerless beauty.
All the women in Alfio’s group, including Ataline, who had been rescued from a dire situation, gazed at the true hero and warrior with eyes that once looked at Alfio.
“Hey”
Hearing such a casual voice, Alfio snaps back to reality and sees Ludrick approaching them leisurely, having noticed their presence.
Nearly two years ago, Ludrick was shorter than Alfio, but now he had grown to be equal or even taller, clad in priceless mithril armor and a pure white surcoat, holding a golden magic sword. Alfio felt an intense sense of inferiority and the gap between them.
“……Hey, Your Highness! Sorry, but we’re not close enough to talk so casually, are we? We’re here fighting in your war, so shouldn’t you thank us first?”
“Yeah, I’ll thank you.”
At Alfio’s words, filled with male pride, even his companions were taken aback, but Ludrick simply said that and walked past Alfio.
“Ataline……”
“Lord Ludrick……”
With slightly reproachful eyes, Ataline looked like she was about to cry.
If it were just about being scolded for her actions, she might have rebelled with her usual strong will, but now she was no longer a child who couldn’t see that this attitude came from concern for her.
A surge of regret…… Ataline had lived freely since childhood. Her mother had been the same way in her youth.
Because of their deep emotions, the women of the Coel family did such things to attract someone’s attention. Ataline’s misfortune was that her mother, who had the deepest emotions, didn’t restrain her as a way to spite her father.
And because Ataline also had deep emotions, she couldn’t abandon her past self to protect someone.
“I, I……”
Ataline couldn’t say more and could only avert her gaze from the eyes of the boy who had been her fiancé in childhood.
At least, until she exposed the true nature of the “sister” they believed in……
Even as such things happened in a corner of the battlefield, the war continued.
“Get out of the way!!”
Through it all, a giant monster and a group of dark knights riding it charged across the battlefield.
The person leading them was none other than the commander of the demon army, Darnell. With the other division commanders absent, he should have been commanding the entire army in place of the demon king, but informed of the “hero’s” presence by the demon army strategist Geass, Darnell entrusted the command to Geass and went to fight the hero as a demon general.
“I found you, hero!!”
For demons, strength is honor. Among them, the “hero,” the hope of humanity, was the ultimate “rival” Darnell sought.
“……A demon general.”
Noticing his presence, Noel’s eyes narrow with intensity.
Clang!!
“Where is……the ‘Saint’!?”
“The Saint……I don’t know! Don’t lose focus in battle, hero!!”
Eurushia had gone to the demon country. If she hadn’t flown, she must have encountered the demon army on the way.
A demon general leading the demons should know that information. Thinking so, Noel questioned Darnell, who truly knew nothing but deliberately provoked him.
Crossing swords, Darnell understood that the hero was the “real deal.” Realizing the hero’s strength was beyond imagination, Darnell tried to bring out Noel’s true power.
But the suppressed power, unleashed with the thought of the girl he loved, didn’t even consider Darnell an “enemy.”
“Then……don’t get in my way!!”
Around Noel, “light” erupts with his power.
The difference in their weapons’ performance was too great. The mithril greatsword, once wielded by past hero candidates, chipped with the first strike, cracked with the second, and with the third, Darnell’s body was cleaved apart with the sword. With a look of disbelief, Darnell collapsed on the battlefield.
In the silence that followed the one-sided battle, Noel glanced at Darnell with emotionless eyes──
“Eurushia……”
He murmured sadly and turned his sword towards the demon army once more.
The natural enemy of demons. The human side’s slaughterer.
For the sake of the girl he loves, the fearsome little asura charges through the battlefield.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
“……What is this?”
Geass feels a surge of panic.
Initially, he planned to cooperate with the demon king, summon the devil, and turn this world into hell.
He intended to mobilize all demons and clash with human nations to take many lives.
He had tricked his way into commanding the demon army, aiming to turn the battlefield into a quagmire where only lives would vanish.
But all of that failed.
Instead of the devil, an uncontrollable demon beast appeared, half of the mobilized demons disappeared somewhere, Darnell, who he had pushed onto the hero, was easily defeated, and with the hero at the center, the battlefield changed, no longer a quagmire.
It was like a nightmare.
Geass had spent decades planning for this. He had used precious time to cast the soul-collecting secret art on the demon country and human nations, waiting for this moment.
For Geass’s “goal,” a vast number of “souls” were needed.
It felt as if he was being toyed with in the palm of some enormous being.
“……Damn it.”
Geass mutters softly and glances at the “number” in the corner of his vision.
The number was 【００３】──. With a heart-wrenching feeling, Geass poured in the souls he had painstakingly collected, and the display changed to 【００４】.
A counter that only increased by “1” even after pouring in a hundred souls.
By now, he should have obtained a million souls, and his wish should have been fulfilled.
Watching the “light” run across the battlefield, the army crumbling, and the militia fleeing, Geass gritted his teeth.
“……Damn you, hero!!”
The appearance of the “real” hero on the battlefield was also Geass’s miscalculation.
As in demon legends, the apostle of light with the protection of the great spirit of light.
The natural enemy of “demons,” whose holy light purifies evil.
That “existence” had taught him.
For demons, the value of a “soul” is determined by “emotions”……
Love, hatred, sorrow, anger, fear, desire, regret, jealousy, pleasure, despair……. These complexly intertwined emotions make the soul fall into a state that demons favor.
But the holy light emitted by the hero and the saint purifies these “negative” emotions.
“……Is this the limit?”
Geass mutters bitterly, then uses flight magic to float into the air. His disciples voice their confusion.
“Lord Geass!?”
“Where are you going?”
“Forgive me. I wasn’t a good master, but at least you all should leave this place.”
At Geass’s unusually grave words, the disciples were even more confused.
“What’s wrong!?”
The panicked disciples also used flight magic to chase after him, but as their master began chanting a spell without incantation, they doubted his sanity.
“──Summon! Come forth, ‘Flame Demon’──!”
The air changes. The sudden temperature shift makes sweat pour out.
Flames rush across the battlefield, and the screams of the demon and human armies caught in the massive magic circle are heard. Geass poured almost all his mana and life force, converted the hundred or so souls he had collected into mana, and even the souls of the soldiers caught in the circle as a sacrifice, and “it” appeared from the magic circle.
A giant with flaming hair, clad in flames, with bronze skin, standing over ten meters tall.
The “Flame Demon.”
In the past, it was said to be the great spirit of Flame, or born from dragon flames. A divine familiar that lost its sanity, took countless lives, and was sealed beneath the earth for incurring the gods’ wrath.
A calamity of this world, found in its fairy tales.
That calamity appeared on the battlefield.
“……’Kill them all’……”
[──GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!]
At Geass’s “command,” the “Flame Demon” lets out a cry of joy.
The “Flame Demon” cannot be controlled.
It only has the impulse to destroy this world.
Geass hadn’t used this method to collect many souls because the “Flame Demon” doesn’t accept orders other than [destruction], and it would put his own life in danger.
Although now distracted by the many lives around, once all the destruction before their eyes ends, they will try to kill Geass that binds them.
Not knowing that if the summoner’s Geass dies, they themselves will be returned to the depths of the earth.
“GAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
The “Flame Demon” sprays its fiery breath across a wide area.
Like a tsunami, the flames attack indiscriminately, engulfing thousands from both the human and demon armies.
A single brutal strike that easily claims lives with its tyrannical flames. Though some still endured, being chosen warriors, they fell one after another to the unquenchable Flame.
At this rate, all life in this place would soon vanish.
However, in this battlefield turned hell, someone was quick to act.
“– [†§†Light] –“
Hero Noel’s light slices through the flames, purifying the hellfire that would burn until all life extinguished.
“Everyone, fall back!!”
At Noel’s voice, the soldiers who could still move came to their senses and tried to leave the area, helping their neighbors regardless of whether they were friend or foe.
Seeing this, Geass gritted their teeth, and the “Flame Demon,” angered at the interference with its destruction, attacked Noel with a furious expression.
A giant fist swings down. Noel jumps to avoid it, but the ground where it strikes cracks, and flames burst forth toward Noel.
SLASH!!
“Are you alright, Noel!”
“Ludrick!”
Blocking those flames with silver light and dispersing them with his golden demon sword, Ludrick stands beside Noel.
“I’ll block all of his attacks. Noel, focus on attacking!”
“…That’s our only choice.”
Holy Warrior Ludrick, blessed by the Great Earth Spirit, has defensive power surpassing Hero Noel. Fighting would be possible if Noel could attack during the openings, but this was only a small hope.
The “Flame Demon’s” power was on par with the “Great Spirits” and “Great Demons” who could cause natural disasters, making it a ‘Natural Disaster Class’ being. It was truly worthy of being called “Demon Lord class” – not as a position like the title of [Demon King] claimed by the Demon Race King, but in the truest sense.
Ordinary humans couldn’t even scratch it, and only those blessed by Great Spirits, like “Heroes” or “Hero Class” beings, could even fight it.
However, even with a Holy Warrior as a shield and a Hero as a sword, they couldn’t defeat a “Demon Lord class” being without a “Saintess” to protect them from all calamities.
Thanks to Noel’s quick intervention, the death toll wasn’t as high as feared. However, the Flame damage was extensive, and with thousands unable to move, the two had to draw the “Flame Demon’s” attention, even if it meant using themselves as shields.
The “Flame Demon” takes another deep breath.
If it uses its flame breath again here, most of those still barely alive would perish.
Those still conscious resigned themselves to death in despair, while Noel and Ludrick transformed their tiny hope into courage, holding up the golden demon sword like a shield.
At that moment–
“–Don’t give up on living–“
The people’s ‘hope’ descends upon the battlefield turned hell.
The scattered flames are extinguished by golden feathers falling from the heavens.
Dancing through them, darker than the night sky and gleaming like the moon, a golden angel in an elegant black and silver dress spreads her golden wings.
“…Luci…a?”
“…Eurushia!”
At the boys’ voices, the wounded people looked up, and the golden Saintess with a black cat on her shoulder had become a golden angel, gently spreading both arms along with her beautiful wings toward the fallen people.
“–‘Let There Be Golden Light’–“
The power of the shining holy magic ‘Healing’ dances as golden feathers.
Like flower petals in the wind, golden feathers dance across the cruel battlefield, falling like gently drifting snow upon the wounded and fallen, instantly healing all injuries.
Those who had lost limbs stared in amazement at their regenerated bodies, and both enemies and allies, human army and demon army alike, looked up at the sky like children seeing an angel for the first time… and the golden Saintess with her fluttering golden wings showed them a smile full of compassion.
As if purified by that ‘smile,’ the “Flame Demon” crumbled to ash and vanished, carried away by the winds of the battlefield.
TLNOTE:
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