A dark night with even starlight dim.

With moonlight shining through the clouds on her back, a girl was floating in the sky.

The face of the girl with deep black hair was beautiful like an angel, but her black eyes contained an ominous light that was difficult to describe.

Even while watching the bloodshed and death unfolding on the ground, the girl’s face was full of innocent joy, as if watching a play on stage.

“Ah—I advised not to forget the wish, but…”

The girl shook her head.

She looked like a spectator giving advice to a character in a play.

This was even more so in the sense that while lamenting failures or mistakes, she held expectations for how things would unfold next.

《──■■■■■■■!!》

Letting out a wail full of grudge, the death knight Friedel fought against the enemies.

Originally composed of skilled knights gathered into one, plus the seed given by the girl, its power was truly formidable.

However, the girl’s assessment was cold.

“At this rate, it won’t last long. If the opponent had been a bit duller, things might have worked out well.”

Among higher undead, there were types that grew stronger by feeding on others’ deaths.

The death knight was the same, and if it successfully completed its growth, it had the potential to be called a national calamity.

If it completed its growth, that was.

The problem was that the opponent wasn’t lenient enough to allow that.

The Tower of Control was undoubtedly evil in terms of the scale of good and evil, and also greedy, but at least they weren’t incompetent.

If they were truly incompetent, it would have been impossible to maintain their position of power in the first place.

As soon as they grasped the situation, they controlled human entry to prevent the death knight from gaining new power, and instead of uselessly deploying forces in stages, they immediately gathered elites.

With the supply of “sacrifices” cut off, the death knight had to sustain itself by killing trivial animals, and during that time, the Tower of Control completed their encirclement.

The damage suffered by the tower’s side was only one person, who was taken by surprise when they first encountered the death knight.

The other mages, who abandoned their dying comrade without a moment’s hesitation, immediately distanced themselves, and from then on, it was entirely the tower’s pace.

Persistent immobilization and thorough long-range attacks.

Familiars that couldn’t be absorbed even when defeated used their bodies to restrict the death knight’s movements, and all sorts of attack magic rained down on top of that.

It was already closer to a hunt than a battle.

Just like when the Friedel domain’s army was annihilated earlier.

The death knight was struggling, emitting desperate grudges and hatred, but its body was steadily being whittled down as time passed.

At this rate, all that awaited them was another final moment.

Without achieving anything. Meaninglessly once again.

Without any variables, it would undoubtedly end that way.

And that “variable” was approaching the death knight with a fiery momentum.

While completely crushing the tower’s mages blocking the way.

Anticipating the reunion that would soon take place, the girl giggled.

Her pitch-black eyes gazed at another black-haired girl who resembled her, yet was decisively different.

“Now, will your interference be a blessing or a curse? Dorothy, my dear friend, I pray it will be an ending you’ll be happy with.”

***

“…Hmm?”

Feeling as if a strange gaze was upon her, Dorothea unconsciously turned her eyes to the sky.

However, it was only for a brief moment, not even a full second.

It wasn’t easy to find anything in the distant, pitch-dark night sky with barely any starlight.

To begin with, she didn’t have the leisure to casually observe celestial bodies right now.

– □▲▽◆!

With a bizarre cry, a spirit in the form of a snake made entirely of water inflated its body like a balloon.

A clear sign of an impending attack.

Just as Dorothea rolled to the side, the spirit’s fully inflated body suddenly thinned, spewing out a tremendous stream of water.

Whoosh!

A tree, directly hit by the water cannon, couldn’t withstand the force and flew backward, almost uprooted.

Adelaide struck the spirit with her sword as it tried to launch another attack at Dorothea, but the snake spirit merely temporarily collapsed its body shape, then effortlessly regained its original form before retreating to the rear.

Adelaide tried to pursue again, but at that moment, the ground she was standing on suddenly collapsed as if caving in.

And towards Adelaide, whose balance was disrupted, all sorts of attack magic poured down simultaneously.

Boom!

Before confirming Adelaide’s safety, who had disappeared into the explosion and smoke, Dorothea took out various catalysts through the Gloves of Haider.

Blood-soaked earth. A dead person’s hair and nails. Finally, enough mana to skip several other processes.

As the simple ritual was completed, dozens of black hands sprouting from the ground, scattering grudges and curses, stretched out their long arms.

The snake spirit tried to dodge somehow, but before that, the cursed black hands grasped the spirit’s body.

– □□□□!

A miserable scream rang out.

While the spirit didn’t take much damage from physical attacks, the hands Dorothea summoned were beings whose essence was more about malice and curses than physical force.

A vicious spell that would make an ordinary person bedridden for days just from a touch of the fingertips, and if properly grasped, their body would rot away.

Being caught not by one, but by multiple, there was no way the spirit could be unharmed, no matter what kind of spirit it was.

“You bastards!!”

As if trying to save his familiar, a mage hurriedly tried to cast a support spell, but revealing his position through his voice, whether from anger or confusion, was a mistake.

The Tin Knight, who had been single-handedly withstanding the combined attacks of three familiars and their masters, deflected a pebble that had bounced up during the battle in the direction of the sound.

With a crack, the mage’s head exploded, and simultaneously, the spirit covered in curses turned into murky water and scattered on the ground.

The black hands pounced on the surroundings at Dorothea’s command, and the mages fired attack spells to stop Dorothea, but those attacks were all blocked by a golden shadow that sprang out from somewhere.

“You, how’s your condition?”

“I’m fine.”

Dorothea quickly examined Adelaide’s appearance, wondering if she was just putting on a brave front, but contrary to her concerns, there were no particular wounds visible on Adelaide’s body.

It meant that even in a situation where her posture was completely broken, she had perfectly protected her body despite being hit by consecutive wide-range attack spells.

Come to think of it, Adelaide had been like this throughout the entire battle.

She had suffered minor injuries from attacks that were physically impossible to avoid, like spreading heat waves or poison, and was healed by Sophia, but she had never been properly hit even once.

In the midst of a chaotic melee in darkness where it was difficult to distinguish front from back, and without the power of a barrier to block omnidirectional attacks like Dorothea.

…I thought the training in the book world would be helpful, but isn’t the effect too dramatic no matter how you look at it?

She was curious about what exactly Adelaide had experienced inside, but asking about that could wait until later.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ requests a temporary break!]

The Tin Knight, who had finally completely destroyed the persistent group of familiars blocking the way, threw himself to the rear, and Adelaide rushed forward again as if to fill that empty space.

Dorothea indiscriminately fired wide-area magic without distinguishing friend from foe, and Sophia protected Adelaide from the aftermath with holy power.

The Tin Knight, who had finished replenishing, also advanced forward again, displaying valor against all sorts of magical offensives.

After some time, the encirclement that seemed impenetrable collapsed.

The mages hiding in the darkness still seemed to have a fair number remaining, but most of the familiars that were supposed to guard the front had been uprooted.

The party continued to advance towards another battlefield where intense mana and explosions were echoing.

More precisely, they tried to advance.

Clang!

An ice spear flying at a terrifying speed was blocked by the Tin Knight’s shield.

The ice spear tried to freeze the party while causing a blizzard upon collision with the shield, but when the Tin Knight released the mana contained in the shield and struck the air, even that cold air was pushed back along with the gust of wind, failing to achieve its goal.

Perhaps the thick clouds had cleared a bit, the dim moonlight intensified and illuminated the ground.

Receiving that light, Jeras Rognir glared at the party with a face distorted by anger, unlike before.

“You… Who are you? What’s your purpose!?”

Perhaps the disguise magic Dorothea had cast in advance was effective, as the young man couldn’t easily discern the party’s identity.

Should I try probing?

Dorothea immediately denied the method that came to mind.

This was territory ruled by the Tower of Control.

It was a place where it wouldn’t be strange for the opponent’s reinforcements to pour out from anywhere at any time.

Rather than wasting time with something like dialogue, it was better in many ways to first knock down everything blocking the way and confirm the scene.

Having confirmed from the party’s attitude that there was no will for dialogue, Jeras declared with ominous killing intent in his eyes, “If you have no intention of talking, fine. I’ll kill you first, then ask your souls!!”

As if responding to Jeras’s fighting spirit, a fox with snow-white fur appeared beside him.

– ▽▽▽▽▽!

Immediately after the fox’s five tails all pointed towards the sky, a massive mana wave writhed in the sky.

The Tin Knight and Adelaide charged forward, but an absurdly thick ice wall, probably 3 meters thick, appeared between them and Jeras.

The clouds high in the sky emitted a whitish light, dyeing the dark night white.

The sight of white snowflakes scattering in the wind was extremely beautiful and fantastic, but the actual result was far from beautiful.

Slash!

Nearby leaves were cut off. Tree branches were severed. Small insects and bugs were pulverized.

Everything touched by the snowflakes began to be cut, as if sliced by a knife.

And those cut pieces became part of the blizzard again, freezing and slicing the surrounding things.

The barrier Dorothea spread made a strange sound as it came into contact with the blizzard.

It was a sound like scraping a wide iron plate with a thin blade, instinctively causing discomfort to people.

The barrier, supplied with Dorothea’s vast mana, withstood the attacks coming from all directions without faltering, but the problem was that only Dorothea and Sophia, who was next to her, could endure like this.

Feeling her undead army being cut down in an instant, Dorothea shouted, “Come back!”

Even knowing that the shout from behind was directed at her, Adelaide didn’t look back.

She instinctively knew that if the barrier was released to welcome her, it would create a big opening.

Above all, she had no intention of dragging things out now.

With Dorothea’s mana quantity, it might be possible to endure until this blizzard attack ended, but that would mean being late to the other battlefield.

Although the little lion wasn’t very knowledgeable about magic, it wasn’t difficult to understand what this magic was.

It’s just like how skin frozen by cold gets bruised and bleeds even from light collisions or friction.

She instinctively felt that the “cutting power” contained in each snowflake probably wasn’t that great.

If only the body didn’t freeze, even if cut, it would end up as just small scratches.

If so, the solution was simple.

Just crush it before the body gets cold.

Adelaide’s posture lowered.

The blizzard contacted various parts of her skin, causing pain, but she didn’t mind.

One strike.

With instinct rather than reason, in a half-unconscious state, Adelaide confirmed her tactics.

It didn’t matter that the opponent was strong.

Even the fact that they could be highly evaluated just for coming this far without much loss against an elite combat unit didn’t matter at all.

She had to move forward.

She had to see with her own eyes.

Therefore, they were obstacles.

Violet lightning surged. The belt controlling strength itself roared.

As if to say that one must naturally do so to step into a realm beyond common sense, the footsteps that two transcendents had walked guided the still immature seed of a hero.

One step. The belt’s enhancement ability soared to an unprecedented level.

Two steps. The violet lightning overlaid the white-dyed surrounding landscape.

Three steps. The flash was swung.

The next moment.

The terrain was plowed over.

– BOOM!!!!!!!

***

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