This may be the first time in centuries that Guinevere had struggled in a battle. Though exhaustion had yet to sit in and her divine power is plentiful, her power is not infinite. If she only fought with physical strength, she would be quickly overwhelmed.
To paint a picture of how strong each of these monstrosities are—picture them as the reason for the Dragon Lords' existence. Now imagine thousands of them attacking you, unable to be killed. That one factor is what makes this fight difficult to win.
Guinevere's current priority is maintaining the barrier she cast around the grasslands and half the town, to keep the monsters from attacking the people on the other side of the town. While there were no survivors from the town itself, the people who came from neighboring villages to check on the town, are still in there. Her Einherjar companions were constantly dying out there, sapping her divine energy pool little by little. Alas, the Gates to Valhalla must remain open so that she may keep this situation under control.
So long as that portal remains open, this fight will never be over and she will never be able to get rid of them once and for all. Guinevere doesn't expect payment, cheers or any other benefit from fighting this unwinnable battle. But she's scared—scared that she will fail and let these monsters out into the world. Such a catastrophe would be on the same level as the great war against the demons.
So long as they are unkillable, she cannot fight to her fullest potential.
Even now there were many creatures on Suluvuk's level banging on the barrier wall, salivating at the chance to crush this beautiful mortal world.
She can't use a powerful skill right now to stop them as her concentration will be broken—keeping the barrier up, holding the gates of Valhalla open, and fighting is already pushing her to her limits.
Guinevere could use the same sealing method she used against Suluvuk to seal these monsters but—as mentioned before her hands are quite full. Something would need to keep these monsters at bay.
'Suluvuk does not seem to have any urgency to escape.' She felt no form of resistance from that cage she put him in, which isn't strange considering the fact that he believes he has all the time in the world and she will eventually be drained.
"!?"
While she was evading and blocking attacks, a dragon's roar shook the surroundings, making all the monsters stop and stare to the east.
A behemoth shadow, its wings spanning almost a kilometer across flew into the air and crashed with so much force, that a powerful wind toppled anything not as heavy as concrete or nailed to the ground, including trees, barns and wells.
Sensing new prey, the monsters mindlessly walked towards that commotion to confront the new arrival.
However, they were dealt with in one blow when a lightning bolt descended from the heavens, scorching them all to hell.
The dragon roared again, this time calling for its hundreds of floating comrades who charged into the battlefield like hail dropping from the sky. Within moments, the battlefield was filled with dragons munching on the monsters and shooting their Breaths around.
'Did the dragon lords finally hear what's happening and sent help?'
No, that doesn't seem to be it. she couldn't sense them anywhere so this must be a third party from a dragonkin family. Whoever it is, she's grateful for the help but worries that the dragons may perish quicker than the angels.
The next moment, felt someone pass through the barrier, going outside.
'There were townsmen inside the barrier!? Why did I not pick up on their—' her heart sank but when she used Warrior Sense to see how many there were, she felt a familiar signature.
'Is that the Lancelot boy? It's good that he's still alive… but his energy signature is quite weak.' In addition to that worrisome detail, none of his inquisitor colleagues made it out with him.
"Bless their souls and may they have eternal peace," she prayed with one hand to bless them in the afterlife, while her sword moved in a blur, cutting monsters at the same time.
Something else caught her attention, so she lost concentration and was sent plummeting into the ground by the hands of a mountainous golem. When it was about to smash down again, she caught its hand with one hand and blew its entire body into dust with the force of her punch. She then levitated to gain some distance to have a window to check what interrupted her fight. The barrier needs her concentration to remain intact so anything going out or coming in will be signaled to her, like her brain sending impulses to her muscles.
This was a rather unusual sensation, like a bug crawling over her back. The unpleasant sensation told her that one of the monsters from the Layers of Hell managed to make it outside.
But how? Unless you're someone with a noble heart or a priest, it would be impossible to go through the barrier as it uses one's karma to determine if you should be let out.
When Guinevere extended her warrior sense outside the barrier, she noticed that only Lancelot and two other signatures were outside. Miraculously, there wasn't a fourth anywhere near them.
'Was that a trick of the mind to make me lose concentration?' there is no doubt a powerful magic caster on this battlefield that even Zephyros had to imprison because killing them wouldn't have been enough, 'The Curse of Dante is considered to be a demonic curse, so I can use it as a shackle to keep the monsters in the barrier so long as it stays up.'
The person probably used some kind of shadow ability to create a ghost of themselves to go outside. That's nothing major to worry about since they can't cause any havoc outside the dome, since all magic is sealed if you go this route.
That said, there's no telling what tricks this caster has up their sleeves so they must be dealt with quickly.
"Great Ancient Dragon!" Guinevere's voice traveled through the battlefield as much as the dragon's roar from earlier, "Please keep the biggest and strongest foes at bay so that I may prepare sealing spells!"
The next second, the behemoth of a dragon took to the skies again, his wings clapping like thunder then he landed right behind Guinevere. He lowered his head even in the midst of battle:
--You have my word that I shall burn our enemies to a crisp, Great Human Warrior.
The two barely knew each other but they extended equal respect to each other.
She smiled, then sheathed her sword.
"[Sanctity Chains]" she clapped her hands together, which made a gigantic golden pillar of light erect behind her that transformed into a bald humanoid creature with no mouth or nose but countless eyes over its body.
it gripped its face with both its hands, feeling around it. Then suddenly it tore its own jaw open, creating a hole in its head, acting as its mouth.
A blinding beam of energy erupted from that opening, spearing across the battlefield like harpoons.
From the beam burst chains—countless radiant links forged of condensed divinity. They shot outward in every direction, moving with a will of their own. One by one, the unstoppable monsters were seized mid-charge. Titans that had shrugged off dragonfire were wrapped around their torsos and limbs. Winged abominations were yanked screaming from the sky. Undying Beings struggled as the chains coiled tighter, dragging them across the ground toward the golden construct behind Guinevere.
The monsters' roars warped into distorted echoes as their movements slowed, their power forcibly compressed and restrained. No matter how violently they struggled, the chains did not break. Instead, they pulsed rhythmically, tightening with every surge of resistance, as if feeding on defiance itself.
Tyrgavion watched as entire behemoths were forcibly dragged across the battlefield by a single skill, their massive bodies leaving trenches in the earth as they were pulled toward the ritual circle. Those too large to be moved outright were anchored in place, pinned down by dozens of chains driven deep into the ground like divine stakes.
'Perhaps I should've used this from the start.' Guinevere thought as she surveyed the battlefield, her hands still clasped in prayer, 'Thank you, Yorm, for teaching me the magic of giants. I did not think I would use it in this world of all places. Nor this soon…'
It's a divine spell of the highest caliber, created specifically to fight calamities. While she could seal them all away in the void of the avatar's stomach, doing such a thing to thousands of monsters will be time-consuming.
Restraining them temporarily will have to do.
While Tyrgavion was a big help with dealing with them, she can't rely on him forever.
Though she successfully subdued a few hundred monsters at once, the numbers were just too much for her to deal with. Tyrgavion was also being overwhelmed by their sheer numbers that his single fire breaths just couldn't deal with alone.
Almost as if they had a single mindset, the monsters ignored the Einherjar and dragons and began to run towards their location. There were probably well over several thousand monsters already, a number Guinevere won't be able to handle without getting overwhelmed.
Just as the monsters were about to jump on them, the clouds parted, sending down hundreds if not thousands of golden arcs of light, each arc burning the monsters into pieces. But it didn't stop there, as even when the monsters regenerated, the beams of light ripped through them again.
That attack wasn't Guinevere's. In fact, this is the first time she's seen such an attack. It didn't resemble any divine spells she's seen before or studied—being a Valkyrie, she's studied and mastered almost all of them.
The next moment, two disks of light flew around the battlefield with breakneck speeds, cutting the monsters apart.
They then flew towards one another after felling hundreds of monsters in the span of under ten seconds. No, they did not fly towards another—they flew into the hands of someone at the center of that bloodbath.
His hair flowed like a golden fire, his eyes were like two suns staring at the monsters, and his magic swords gleamed with immense power that he hasn't shown before.
Guinevere could tell from one glance that the power flowing through him—
Reminded her of her father.
'The… Will of the Sun…?' she stared blankly at his divine form that no ordinary human should possess. The power flowing through him was almost as great as Arnold's or Gederick's.
His burning white eyes sought her out. Once he spotted her, he began to speak.
"Lady Gwyn!" Lancelot shouted as the monsters regenerated, "I would like to fight by your side as your squire for just today!"
Guinevere walked up to him, "You have endured so much yet still wish to walk this path?"
There was definitely something different about him but that alone won't be sufficient to surviving this invasion.
"Not just my comrades who died under my watch, Angelica and my comrades back home would be disappointed in me. More than that, I would feel guilty if I ran knowing my… new powers could make a difference in this fight."
"Do you feel that the lives of the weak are your responsibility?" she asked him, expecting a serious answer to understand what kind of person he was.
He shook his head, "The Gods hold that responsibility. My responsibility is using the powers given to me to save anyone that I can."
She smiled hearing his answer.
"That is the heart of a true Hero speaking..."
He widened his eyes hearing her, "I… I could never…"
"A Hero is not defined by a crown, a prophecy, or the favor of the Gods. It is defined by the moment one chooses to stand—knowing full well that running would be easier." She placed a hand on his shoulder, "That is why there are many people called heroes who will be remembered and immortalized in legends and historical texts."
She lifted her sword and rested it against her shoulder, the divine light around her flaring in response. "If you wish to fight at my side, then do so not as my squire… but as my equal."
"Yes!" his energetic voice echoed across the battlefield.
**
Meanwhile in the cemetery where all of this chaos originated—
A certain being was about to make his presence known.
"It seems Suluvuk's plan succeeded in the end." An amused voice came from within the portal before a towering demon stepped out of it, his horns pointing up as if threatening to pierce the sky. His skin was dark red, his eyes pale yellow and each breath he took was scorching.
He glanced around the ruins of the city block.
"…It seems my little Arsnoria couldn't conquer this world, after all. A shame."
Valtraak, former Demon King banished to the Layers of Hell by Zephyros shortly before the Great War, had returned to this world once more.
He inhaled deeply with his eyes closed before releasing his killing intent, making it travel thousands of kilometers in mere seconds.
The killing intent was so deadly that most warriors sensitive to this were knocked out cold. Even the strong who resisted trembled like children.
Arthur stained his pants with urine and could barely move after falling down on the floor. Shirley was too petrified to even check up on him.
Arnold, however, smirked as an opportunity to test how strong he became after his first fight with Guinevere, and how powerful the pure martial art 'Sovereign of Blood' really is. But since he was helping out Sylphiala on the other side of the country, he couldn't confront this powerful being, unfortunately.
"Time to go greet the little humans."