Boooom!
"...!"
A slash of black light filled the battlefield that had fallen silent.
A strike that came down like lightning from the empty sky, where not a trace of presence had been felt, instantly took the heads of the commanders before erupting in an explosion and soaring back upward.
Whoooong...!
When the blast finally died down, only two [Orc] corpses remained, barely retaining their shape.
Centered around their bloodless necks, their faces still frozen in clear shock.
"...Huh?"
"...W-what was that...?"
"W-what in the world was that just now...?"
Even seeing it with their own eyes, it was hard to believe.
The [Lizardmen], who had just witnessed the two [Orc General]s they had thought of as absolute powerhouses die in a single blow, let out their horrified cries a beat late.
And the same was true for the [Orc]s.
"Grrr...?"
"What... is this...? Why are the commanders..."
"...D-did they really... die in one hit...?"
Victory in the war had been only one step away.
There had been no chance of defeat. Their triumph had seemed certain.
They had been on the verge of devouring the [Lizardmen], rulers of the marshlands, and gaining even greater strength.
"Heh."
...And yet—
"For now, two of them."
—an unexpected variable had appeared.
"...!! H-hey... up there...!"
"T-the sky...! Someone's in the air!"
Two shadows flew through the heart of the blood mist.
Wrapped in golden and white magic, the shadows cast themselves over the battlefield below.
As if they were gods themselves, two beings had appeared in the sky, looking down on the monsters with emotionless eyes.
"Grrrk...!"
"How dare mere humans...!"
"Lowly inferior creatures!"
The [Orc]s raged at those shadows.
This war was their battle, and a meal for their king. Of course they would be furious when pests came buzzing in to interfere.
"......"
But the two humans looking down at them... no, the two demons... merely let out faint, mocking smiles as they received that pitiful anger head-on.
This battlefield certainly resembled a fragment of hell, but it was nowhere near worthy of comparison to the real thing.
To two demons who held seats in hell, this place looked little different from a playground pretending to be hell.
"Heh heh... For a bunch of starving pigs, you're awfully loud. I wonder if you'll still be able to scream that loudly when you die?"
Fwoooosh...!!
"Every last soul is filthy... In that case, I don't think there's any reason to go easy on you."
The white-haired demon, who regarded the [Orc]s' shouting as nothing more than the cries of beasts, and the ash-gray demon, who had instantly grasped the souls of the [Orc]s in the assault force, poured magic into their weapons.
Carefully controlling their power so they would not kill all two hundred thousand by accident.
"Grrk...?!"
"Those humans... they're gathering magic...!"
"No way...! A-attack them at once! Don't give those lesser creatures a chance to strike!"
"Gwoooaaaar!!"
The [Orc]s, who had just lost their commanders, saw the demons preparing to attack again and hurriedly tried to respond.
Those stronger than them had died, yes, but they still had twenty thousand soldiers in the assault force. They mistakenly believed that would be enough.
Fwoosh...!
Because they did not realize that the two who had flown right before their eyes in a single instant—
"Guaaaargh...?!!"
—were true monsters, beings who far surpassed the king of the pigfolk.
Wooooooong!!!
"...!!"
"S-save... me...!!"
"Y-you... monstrous... fiends...!!!"
A beautifully blooming blood-red whip instantly painted a hellscape of raging flames.
KWA-BOOOOOM!!!
And a strike descending with black heavens manifested and swallowed all twenty thousand [Orc]s whole.
Not a single cry.
Not a single soul.
Nothing was left behind. Everything was consumed.
...
—......
Silence.
Once the two demons' magic erased the army of twenty thousand, stillness finally descended.
"......"
'...Th-this... is this really something magic can do...?'
Gabiru, who had watched the two demons' attack in breathless silence from start to finish, felt awe that went beyond fear as he muttered inwardly.
'...Back then... did they really just let me off...?'
It was power so overwhelming it was horrifying.
Power monstrous enough to treat an army of two hundred thousand and their king as nothing at all.
After witnessing that power with his own eyes, Gabiru remained silent until the demons descended to the ground and spoke.
And then—
"Gabiru."
When the ash-haired demon called his name, he slowly raised only his head.
Soon, the face of the man he had met a week ago entered his view, and that man slid his sword back into its sheath before speaking in a low voice.
"I came to hear your answer."
He had come not only to drive back the [Orc]s or protect the [Lizardmen], but because he wanted an answer from Gabiru himself.
To the words he had thrown at Gabiru last time—
"Until you understand your mistake."
He wanted to hear what that mistake had been.
Now that Gabiru had suffered defeat at the hands of the [Orc]s, he should finally be able to give that answer.
"......"
Right after that—
Tap...
Gabiru set his spear down on the ground, bowed his head, and answered in a trembling voice.
"...My arrogance was my mistake... Please, I ask you to save the [Lizardmen]..."
Not confidence, but arrogance. Not an order, but a request.
The demon looked at the proud fool who had finally acknowledged those two truths, then quietly nodded.
As payment for the answer he had received in advance, a [Contract] was formed.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register