**Side: Prim**
After Mako’s declaration, we whipped our trembling bodies and attacked the demons before us. You might think it was just a fit of pique, but we didn’t have any lingering emotions like that. Quite the opposite, in fact. We absolutely didn’t want to endure Mako’s lecture.
I mowed down demons one after another while flying through the battlefield with Flare Penetrator, but suddenly a bad premonition ran through my entire body. Following that intuition, I retreated immediately, and it was absolutely the right decision.
“They’ve come!”
“Indeed. I wanted to annihilate these guys before deployment, but it seems their title of ‘elite’ wasn’t for show.”
“Even if the commander was incompetent, they managed to hold out thanks to excellent subordinates. This is something to reflect on, but we weren’t careless either, so let’s just call it even.”
We survived! I’m so glad…
“But is the Divine Emperor not angry?”
“He seems to be. Well, the Abaricia army has been significantly reduced, so I suppose it’s understandable.”
Yeah, that’s certainly true, as Meena said. In fact, the Kirin, Rei-ki, and Phoenix armies have been wiped out, and the Ouryu and Chiyou, which were supposed to be reinforcements, are barely hanging on. If he weren’t angry about this, I don’t know what would make him angry.
“…What is the meaning of this?”
A low voice, tinged with the Divine Emperor’s anger, echoed across the battlefield. Hearing it, the demons flinched and began to tremble with fear.
“H-Your Majesty…”
“I’m asking what this means! Why are everyone except Chiyou and Ouryu annihilated?! Didn’t I tell you? Ouryu, Phoenix, and Rei-ki should merge with Chiyou! I can accept the annihilation of Kirin at this point. That’s why I intended to use Kirin as a decoy and merge the entire army, but this is the result?! This can’t be happening!”
Surprisingly, the Divine Emperor seemed to have intended to merge the three armies of the Four Spirits with the Chiyou army. Of course, that would allow them to concentrate their forces and minimize casualties, but for some unknown reason, the demons attacked us individually without merging. Rei-ki and Phoenix attacked almost simultaneously, but there was no coordination whatsoever. They even seemed to be trying to outdo each other, so it’s safe to say they attacked individually.
“W-What you say is true, but… w-when we arrived, Rei-ki and Phoenix were already gone… Perhaps the commander… was too eager for glory…”
Trembling with fear, the commander of the Chiyou army answered the Divine Emperor’s question. Yeah, that’s the truth.
“What he’s saying is the truth. To explain it simply for you, while we were fighting Kirin army, or rather, just as we were almost annihilating them, reinforcements came from the north and south. However, there was no coordination or attempt to support Kirin. Each attacked us separately.”
“What did you say?”
“I thought only idiots would deploy their forces sequentially, but judging by your appearance, it seems to be the result of the commanders’ recklessness, or rather, a struggle for achievement. Thanks to that, we didn’t suffer much damage, and we even had time to rest until you guys showed up.”
Yamato explained while taunting. He has no obligation or duty to explain to the Divine Emperor, but it’s probably effective in this kind of situation to include provocation.
“And to add, that commander was also bad-mouthing those Four Spirit armies. He didn’t even see my attack, which I held back. With an incompetent commander like that, even if the Four Spirit armies had merged, the result would have been the same.”
Yamato, you’re wrong there. It wasn’t the Four Spirit armies he was bad-mouthing, but the Four Sacred Beasts armies, specifically the Azure Dragon army that accompanied us to the Linea battle. Well, the fact that he belittled his own army hasn’t changed, so I won’t point it out here.
“You couldn’t see my attack? You, the leader of Chiyou?”
“Some of my subordinates were dealing with it, but this guy just had a foolish look on his face. As the leader of Chiyou, I assume you’re the top of the Abaricia army, but it’s probably a result of you flattering him. If you put an incompetent person at the top, even the strongest army will quickly become weak. Thank you very much.”
He’s only stating facts, but even so, this way of speaking must be infuriating. In fact, several blue veins are bulging on the Divine Emperor’s forehead. However, as Yamato said, the Divine Emperor himself was the one who placed an incompetent person at the top, so this outcome is his own fault.
“You… you worm! I don’t need trash who can’t follow my orders!”
“Hic! I-I’m sorry!!”
“If all it takes is you bowing your head to improve the situation, then apologize all you want! But that’s not how it works!!”
The Divine Emperor, burning with anger, released several blades of wind from the sword he held, Life Reaper. That’s the Wing Line engraving magic, wasn’t it? It’s thinner than what Yamato uses, and the precision feels comparable to Mako’s, but is it just me?
Those Wing Lines severed the commander’s limbs, wounded the chimera’s wings and forelegs, and finally severed the commander’s head. The commander’s body fell powerlessly, but the chimera, its wings wounded, couldn’t stay in the air either and fell in the same way.
I see, so this is the Divine Emperor. I’ve heard about him, but there’s information you can only truly understand by seeing it firsthand.
“He uses engraving magic with greater precision than Yamato, and his engraving tool, which he’s used for many years, has achieved performance comparable to Mako’s Spiritchia Hexa Dipper, but seeing it in person makes me understand. ”
“Indeed. Is that the ruler of Abaricia, the king of demons, the Divine Emperor?”
Mana and Flam, who are seeing the Divine Emperor for the first time like me, have the same impression. This means my senses are not mistaken.
“Even if he’s incompetent, he’s still a commander he named himself. Executing him just because it offended him, he’s not a dictator for nothing.”
“Huh? What are you, a child, spouting such insolence? This country, no, everything in this world belongs to me, so wherever I do whatever I want, it’s my prerogative.”
What an arrogant fellow. Beyond being infuriating, I could almost admire it.
“Even a child these days doesn’t have such childish thoughts. Well, “we” came all the way to Aromancia to defeat you. We won’t let you escape this time. You have nowhere to run anyway.”
“Are you sleeping, you? It’s true that last time, I had no choice but to retreat. But that was because your father and mother were there. The fact that you were disgracefully defeated before me can never be changed.”
“I know that. That’s why I’ve lived until today, using that defeat as fuel. And the proof of that is this sword.”
Yamato raised his ring-shaped Blau Solaris, as if to show it off to the Divine Emperor. At first glance, it doesn’t look like a sword, but if you look at it a certain way, it could be called a two-edged sword with a hilt and a blade. No, since the blades are short and there are six of them in total, it’s hard to call it a two-edged sword.
“Huh? What is that… a sword? It would be more fitting to call it a giant shuriken, but what can you do with just one of those?”
“Just by looking at it, it’s natural to think so. Right, Blau Solaris?”
“Indeed. But you have certainly underestimated me. It’s quite frustrating, my master.”
The Divine Emperor, who had been looking down on him, froze with the same expression the moment Blau Solaris spoke.
“…What? The shuriken spoke, you say? N-No way!?”
“As you suspect, this is an Engraving Divine Artifact, the Holy Sword Blau Solaris. And let me tell you, it’s not just this one.”
“The one on my back is also an Engraving Divine Artifact, you know. Right, Sacred Wing Agatholam?”
“Indeed. My name is Sacred Wing Agatholam. The counterpart and one with Blau Solaris. We have come to slay the foolish emperor who has fallen into darkness, following the will of our masters.”
“I-Impossible…”
As expected, the existence of Engraving Divine Artifacts was an unforeseen shock even for the Divine Emperor. Well, there are few people on Earth who can create them, and even including my father-in-law and mother-in-law, there weren’t more than ten, were there? Furthermore, from the perspective of the Divine Emperor and Mako, Yamato is of the younger generation, so there’s no way they could have predicted this.
“Last time, it was supposed to be a one-on-one fight, but at that time, you interfered. But even that was a lie. Well, it’s my fault for trusting someone like you, so I honestly admit it was a defeat, but my emotions couldn’t be helped. However, seeing your reaction to Blau Solaris and Agatholam has somewhat settled my resentment.”
I only heard about it, but Yamato said that he was fighting on equal footing, even at a slight advantage, against the Divine Emperor, whose engraving magic precision was likely superior to his. However, the Divine Emperor didn’t intend to fight Yamato one-on-one; he drew Yamato’s attention and then had Blood Ruby Dragon launch a surprise attack, successfully inflicting serious injuries on Yamato. As Yamato himself said, it was a result of trusting the Divine Emperor, so being alive was a good outcome, and Mako and my father-in-law said similar things. Still, somewhere in his heart, he felt unable to accept it. That’s why he followed up with “it has somewhat settled my resentment.”
“Alright, we didn’t come all the way here just to chat. It seems we’re ready here too, so we’ll be going now!”
The reason Yamato engaged in a verbal spar with the Divine Emperor was to await the deployment of our forces. The Ritter and Hunter, after finishing their battles with the Rei-ki and Phoenix armies, had returned to the Wing of Order. at that point, the deployment of the Chiyou army, led by the Ouryu army, was confirmed. So, the plan was for us to go first, and then the Ritter and Hunter, after a short break, would also deploy. That’s why Yamato was buying time, but the Divine Emperor’s enraged mind didn’t seem to grasp that. Demons seem to have trouble controlling their emotions, so that might be one reason.
“Y-You… why did you bother explaining all of that to me!”
“You’re too slow to notice. Why should I have to fight someone like you on equal terms? From our perspective, we just need to defeat you, the existence that will lead Helios Orb to ruin, by any means necessary. Well, that wouldn’t satisfy me, so I indulged myself a little, but that’s as far as it goes this time!”
Yamato re-gripped Blau Solaris and created Ice Edge Javelins again. This time, there were over a hundred of them, so he had completely let go of control. This means that if we charge carelessly, we might get hit, so our attacks will have to wait until Yamato’s Ice Edge Javelins stop.
“Here we go… This is the signal flare for the final battle!”
With that cry, Yamato unleashed the uncontrolled Ice Edge Javelins with all his might.
“Oooooh!”
The Divine Emperor managed to defend against them somehow, but it seems he couldn’t block them all. His mount, the chimera, had its wings shredded and was forced to fall. If even the Divine Emperor is in such a state, it’s impossible for the demons of Chiyou and Ouryu to deal with it. They took direct hits from the Ice Edge Javelins along with the chimera, their lives extinguished one after another. Now less than half of the aerial enemies remain, but there are still about 200 demons on the ground, and the Divine Emperor has also fallen to the ground. In that case, I’ll annihilate the aerial demons first, and then descend to the ground.
Now, let’s make the signal flare Yamato raised for the start of the battle burn more spectacularly!
