"If you give the command, I will go and assist them. Their enemies are merely those puny Holy Knights, after all. It will not take long. In return, I will secure a friendly and stable alliance for us," Catherine asked, her voice echoing slightly in the quiet, tense room.
"...." Nirvana just stared at Catherine for a few long moments, her expression unreadable, as if weighing the offer in her mind.
Then, with a sudden, casual movement, she turned and kicked the decaying body of Noir. The corpse sailed through the air and crashed against the far wall with a soft, wet thud.
"Not now," Nirvana said, her voice flat and dismissive. "I will give it a thought if they at least survive this war. The Holy Knights are no problem for us, but it is quite the opposite for the rest of the world. This will be a true test of their worthiness." She then looked over at Noir's dead body and let out a long, weary sigh.
"I guess there is no point in doing all this," she muttered, gesturing vaguely at the ritual circle. "I should focus on finding Sylvania Yogsothoth and making her go back in time to ask what Noir actually knew."
Catherine's brows furrowed slightly. Nirvana had actually presented a surprisingly solid idea.
"That is a great idea, but equally difficult," Catherine sighed. "Who knows where and how we will even find her?"
******
"Go on! Don't leave anyone alive!" Lunatic shouted, her voice carrying over the din of battle as she flew through the air with her powerful, succubus wings.
Her sharp eyes scanned the battlefield carefully. She had dominated her section of the area without a doubt. The succubi were a major threat, especially to humans who were all too quick to give in to their lust and desires. They didn't even have to fight. They were putting soldiers to sleep, giving them pleasurable dreams without them knowing it would be their last.
"We are falling short on numbers," Lunatic whispered to herself, a frown touching her lips. "But that does not matter. The true victory depends upon which side loses their veterans first." She had a broader view of battlefields and wars than Arpeus and the Gorgon sisters.
While they were right that the situation was getting dire because of the difference in numbers, she knew the end result of this war would depend on whether the Holy Knights could kill all of Scarlett's top individuals and succeed in stopping her from ruining their ritual, or if Scarlett's side would defeat the Holy Knights and give her the room she needed to destroy it.
Because even a single individual had enough power to bring down a whole army.
"How much time will it take for Scarlett to return?" she thought, a knot of worry tightening in her chest. "Would she return immediately if she finds out we are being attacked earlier than expected?" She kicked the air in frustration, but the worry on her face was plain to see.
She shook her head, forcing herself to focus on something else.
"But before that..." she murmured to herself.
"EVERYONE!" she shouted. Her voice surprisingly echoed so loud and was filled with such authority, it was as if she were forcefully making everyone around her stop and listen to her.
"You all stay in this same formation and kill as much as you can!" she commanded, turning to two beautiful, curvy succubi. "Vi and Maria will lead you in my absence."
"I am going to destroy that portal and kill that Vladimir guy," she declared, leaving no room for argument.
Without looking back, she turned around and burst forth, a dark streak in the sky, flying towards the portal area where the Mystveil soldiers just kept emerging from.
Flying through the air, she weaved past random attacks that weren't exactly aimed at her. During this heated stage, the whole sky was filled with different attacks aimed at both sides, so much that it felt like some chaotic firecracker festival was going on.
ZoooP!....
A flash of golden beam of light passed her, incredibly fast, but Lunatic dodged it with practiced ease.
But this time, instead of continuing forward, she stopped in the air, hovering.
Because she had already sensed it. This attack was not random. It was aimed directly at her.
As she looked down, she saw a guy riding on a horse, wearing some kind of priest outfit. He had a cross-shaped locket tied with a chain in his hand, dangling down from his palm.
He was none other than Adam.
Adam smiles calmly. "I should not expect to find reason and logic with you, demons. But do you know some of the rules of war? I, Adam, one of the members of the Holy Knights, wish to challenge you to an honorable duel, If you know honour, Then accept it," he shouts, making sure his voice carries clearly to her.
A big grin immediately spreads across Lunatic's face. "A Holy Knight? Very well. I shall reduce their numbers by one and make things easier for my comrades," Lunatic chuckles, the sound low and menacing.
She flaps her wings, gliding down until her feet touch the ground softly as she lands. Adam also jumps from his horse and walks toward her, leaving only a few dozen meters between them.
"Go on," Lunatic exclaims with supreme confidence. "I allow you to land the first attack, since you won't be alive to deliver a second one anyway."
Adam did not reply. He still had that calm smile on his face, but underneath it, he felt a pang of regret.
"I knew it. She's far too powerful to get her head blasted by my rare skill: Charge of Guilt," he thought to himself.
He took a few more steps closer and then said, "You see, despite how I look or how impressive that golden beam attack was, I am not actually a ranged fighter. I am a combat specialist."
After a dramatic pause, he stretches his hand up. "That is why you were a fool to get into my field of range!" he shouts out loud.
"Domain expansion: Court of Justice!" he adds.
All of a sudden, before Lunatic could even process his words, the ground began to tremble violently. Structures started to rise from the ground, and the sky above was covered by a massive, white ceiling. The very ground beneath her feet started to shift and rise, with polished wooden floors emerging from the soil.
Before she knew it, she was standing in a grand courtroom, right in the area where people charged with a crime would stand. At the front, in the judge's place, stood a tall stone statue of a woman wearing a blindfold. As for Adam, he was standing outside the defendant's box, as if he were the prosecutor of this court.
"Miss Succubus, it is time for you to be purified."
***********
BANG!...
Another shot rings out from Kroenen's sniper rifle. With his unique skill, *Sniper*, he could summon the rifle itself as well as create small space portals through which the bullets could travel. Because of this, the range and precision of his shots were increased by a mile.
Not to mention, no one could even locate where the attack had come from. There was almost no way to stop it, since the portal opened up right beside the target's head and killed them in a single go.
So right now, Kroenen was hidden on another cliff, killing one enemy after another like a professional assassin. His main job wasn't to kill as many as he could; there were just too many enemies, and he had a sniper rifle, not a machine gun. His eyes scanned the battlefield, targeting important leaders or saving Dreadhaven soldiers who were about to be attacked from behind.
"I've been here for more than fifteen minutes now. Time to change the location," he thought to himself, standing up. All the dust and plant leaves he had piled on himself for camouflage fell to the ground.
But as he turns around, he sees someone coming towards him at the same time.
"Finally found you. You sure had your fun obliterating my entire squad," a voice said.
It was a woman. No, a girl. She was wearing an academic uniform and held a katana in her hand. But a normal-looking girl in the middle of this war? It felt too suspicious to be true.
"Are you a Holy Knight member?" Kroenen asks, stepping back slightly, now completely on guard.
"Yes, I'm Bonnie, a sub-branch Holy Knight member," she introduces herself. And without wasting another second, she bolts forward.
"Now die!" she shouts.
Kroenen's hand gripped his sniper rifle, his eye finding the target through the scope.
At the same time, a small space portal opened right beside Bonnie, and—BANG!—a precisely aimed shot fired through.
But Bonnie's pace didn't falter. She was still alive, completely unharmed.
"What?!" Kroenen grunted in disbelief, immediately trying to sidestep, but it was already too late. He had been completely caught off guard.
The katana sliced through the air and pierced his stomach, but before it could fully penetrate him, he twisted his body with a desperate cry and managed to take several steps sideways.
"It's poisoned," he realized immediately, gritting his teeth as a familiar, burning sensation began to spread from the wound.
Without wasting a second, he fired several more bullets at her, one after another.
But she dodged them all with an unnatural ease. Or more accurately, the bullets themselves were somehow missing her by mere inches, as if deflected by an unseen force.
Bonnie immediately closed the distance again. Kroenen, realizing the futility of his rifle, dropped it and switched to hand-to-hand combat.
He somehow managed to block a few of her strikes, but whenever he tried to counterattack, his fists and feet would always miss her by a hair's breadth.
Taking advantage of his growing disorientation, Bonnie managed to land several more, smaller wounds all over his body.
The poison had also started to take full effect, blurring his vision and making his head spin. He began throwing wild punches and kicks without stopping, fighting on pure instinct.
BAM!...
One of his frantic strikes actually hit her, purely by chance.
The blow sent her stumbling back a few steps.
"Good, I managed to hit her—Ack!" A sharp, searing pain erupted from his back.
As he looked over his shoulder, Bonnie was standing right behind him, having already pierced her katana directly through his chest.
With a swift, brutal motion, she yanked the blade free.
A spray of blood burst from Kroenen's mouth as he fell to his knees, collapsing to the ground with a low thud.
"Too bad, Mr. Assassin. My unique skill is Disorientation. It creates a real hallucination of my actual position and distance. I'm practically the nemesis of long-range attackers like you; they always miss by just a few inches," Bonnie chuckled.
Although it was valuable information, it was far too late for Kroenen now.
He couldn't help but let out a weak, raspy chuckle himself.
"In my time, I used to fight while drugged and not having eaten for days. I could still stand on my feet with wounds like these, no magic, no healing, nothing. Yet here I am, on my knees," he sighed, deeply disappointed in himself as he looked up at the sky.
"I really have changed after coming to this world," he murmured, remembering the life-and-death battles of his past lives that were once just everyday life to him. To the point that his peers had started calling him a zombie.
KACHA!...
Bonnie slid her katana cleanly across Kroenen's neck and pulled back.
"You talk too much for an assassin," she said, turning around and walking away without a second glance.
At the same time, Kroenen's body fell forward onto the ground, his eyes slowly closing.
The rise and fall of his chest stopped as well, his heart ceasing to beat.
He was dead.
Just like that.
***********
Meanwhile, in the military base of Mystveil, Vladimir continued to oversee the battle's progress.
"Good. The pressure is fully on them. One more thing and it will definitely break their spirits," he murmured to himself, a cruel smile playing on his lips.
He immediately ran to the people from armament, who were responsible for the control of the robots and other technological things.
"You all, stop using those puny missiles. I want you to shoot those bigger ones at Dreadhaven, NOW!" he exclaimed in a hurry.
"Already? H-how many?" one of them asked, his face paling.
"All. All of them. I want to see Dreadhaven completely obliterated," Vladimir replied coldly.
"All of them? But we only have five supersonic missiles. Lord Auren said to use them only in case any particular unrivaled opponent appears," the control guy replied, his voice trembling. "Not to mention, their range is too much. The explosion will reach here as well; it might kill many from our side too."
"Then let them die. You are all under my command. Do as I say," Vladimir shot back, completely unwilling to entertain any argument.
"B-but—"
"No buts. Do it now. Strike while the iron is hot," he commanded, leaving no room for refusal.
After giving the command, he casually walked out of the control camp.
Walking around, he climbed onto one of the deactivated robots to get a clearer, better view of the area.
With one of Dreadhaven's core members, Kroenen, now dead. Lunatic trapped inside a domain, Reiza on the brink of dying, and the same fate befalling Li Feng and Baron as well.
Dreadhaven's soldiers were slowly being outnumbered.
Their morale was already dangerously low. All it needed was one more mental attack, and it would surely break apart.
And what could be more heart and mind-breaking than seeing your home and family getting obliterated?
A sharp sound echoed around the battlefield as something shot towards the sky at blinding speed, going higher and higher.
Five tiny dots could be seen piercing the sky, leaving trails of smoke behind them, as if they were carving a path.
He knew exactly what path it was.
A path to complete victory.