Chapter 63: April Fool's is Impossible
On the scorched earth, the King of Swords of Italy lay there, his entire body a grayish-white.
The Divine Sword of Salvation, which had previously radiated immense light, had flown away after delivering that critical strike. Three God-slayers and a witch now stood beside the grayscale version of Doni.
Hikigaya continued to observe Doni's condition for a moment. After concluding that the fellow definitely wasn't dead, he decided to ignore him.
"Just leave him here. He'll get up after a nap," he stated. Then, he turned to Liliana, who was frowning in thought. "How did you end up here too?"
"I..." Liliana started to speak, but her expression suddenly shifted.
A bolt of lightning flew out of nowhere, striking toward her. Liliana dodged instinctively; the lightning then veered toward Uldin, who deflected it with a casual swing of his sword. It then lunged toward Aisha, only to pass right through her body.
It lingered for a moment before finally flying toward Hikigaya. He reached out, caught it in his hand, and with a squeeze, crushed it into nothingness.
But in the next instant, Hikigaya wore a strange expression.
Though no one knew it yet, after his several bouts with Sun Wukong, he had accidentally acquired the power of "Seventy-Two Transformations" (Infinite Variety). This power made him exceptionally lethal when dealing with spiritual entities.
He had been so focused on looking at people that he hadn't noticed: the spirit of the Goddess Artio had apparently been hidden within that bolt of lightning, and he had just crushed her to death...
Feeling a bit incredulous, Hikigaya expanded his mental senses to check thoroughly. He found that the divine power left behind by the Beast Goddess was indeed dissipating at a rapid pace.
After confirming this multiple times, Hikigaya took a deep breath, feeling a bit dazed.
'He had actually killed a god because he wasn't paying attention...
Was this lady really that weak?' Although a Heretic God who didn't descend of their own will is usually weaker, this was overkill.
As his mind wandered, he heard Liliana calling him.
"Hachiman?"
"Oh? It's nothing." Hikigaya snapped back to reality.
Forget it, no use worrying about someone already dead; business first. "How did you get here?" he asked again.
"Lord Smith sent me to find you and ask you to return," Liliana said.
She then informed Hikigaya that someone had requested Smith to snipe him. Although Smith had asked her to keep it a secret—stating he would tell Hikigaya himself—Liliana had politely declined at the time. One thing was one thing; this matter was too malicious. Even if it was a request from another God-slayer, Liliana was Hikigaya's knight first and foremost.
This news successfully diverted Hikigaya's attention away from his desire to complain about Artio. His first reaction was that it was absurd.
Hikigaya reflected on his recent activities and felt he might have become a bit too immersed in "unproductive" hobbies. The true profession of a God-slayer was to defy heaven and earth—especially a young God-slayer like him; he couldn't afford to be too low-key. He decided that once he got back, he would give that old man a "gift."
"It seems this matter is settled then," Uldin suddenly said.
"Yeah." Hikigaya glanced at the guy. "What do you plan to do next?"
This was the first God-slayer he'd met who, upon encountering a goddess, felt no killing intent but instead wanted to... "get close" to her. Hikigaya had reason to suspect that the first god this guy had slain must have been an incredibly lewd deity. Even a god as "dirty" as Di Jun hadn't turned Hikigaya into someone like that.
"I plan to go back and bring my tribesmen here," Uldin said. He had made up his mind to migrate to Gaul.
Of course, it wasn't because the local girls satisfied him, but because this land truly looked excellent. Although the Huns were nomads, horses could be raised on plains just as well, so they wouldn't lose their combat effectiveness. Moreover, the local population could serve as great labor to work for the Huns. Uldin was quite pleased with his plan.
"Fine, but you'd better wait for the thing on the ground to wake up and discuss it with him," Hikigaya suddenly had an idea and reminded Uldin. "After all, he currently holds the title of Great Chieftain."
While Hikigaya couldn't go back to confront his enemies right now, he could still spite them. He hated people who thought they were "correct" and tried to boss others around; and since the man had hired a hitman, he was an enemy. The proper etiquette for dealing with an enemy was to do exactly what the enemy least wanted you to do.
As a currently obscure branch of the Germanic people, the Franks were in a state of "stealth growth," their strength rising rapidly. Meanwhile, although the Huns had a leader like Uldin, their intrinsic strength was on a downward trajectory against the backdrop of the growing Germanic tribes—this was evident from the fact that Attila's later army contained a massive number of Germanic tribes.
Attila and Ramesses II were actually similar characters; both were born exactly when their respective ethnic groups were having one final burst of glory.
Without Doni, Uldin's migration would still proceed smoothly, but Hikigaya estimated that once Uldin disappeared suddenly (as he did in history), the Huns would inevitably be pushed back by the Franks, and history would return to its original path. That "original path" meant the Huns sitting in a corner, Western Rome going offline, and the Germans taking center stage.
But with Doni, it was different.
His weight as "Great Chieftain" was significant. He could facilitate a true integration between the Franks and the Huns. Once the Frankish berserkers were combined with the swift Hunnic light cavalry, they would be far more formidable than the later Hunnic Empire that could only win but never afford to lose.
Even if Uldin disappeared, a Frank-Hun union that had integrated to a certain degree would still have enough power to wreck the history of that period.
If it got wrecked, Hikigaya would feel much better. Then he'd go back and kill that annoying, likely trembling-with-rage old guy. How wonderful—what a perfect, harmonious life.
Uldin likely couldn't guess Hikigaya's true thoughts, but Hikigaya's suggestion held no downsides for him.
So, the group began to wait.
However, Doni might have taken a bit too much damage this time. The group waited for a while, only to see his skin tone return to normal while he remained fast asleep. Since everyone present was someone of status, they couldn't just keep waiting for an idiot to finish his nap. Thus, Uldin made a sensible suggestion: they should return to the city first. Those who wanted to flirt could flirt, and those who wanted to eat could eat.
The proposal received unanimous approval.
Following the usual routine, Uldin summoned three flying dragons. He carried Doni on his back; Liliana and Hikigaya rode together, while Aisha rode alone. Before long, the three dragons spread their wings and flew into the sky, heading toward Agripina.
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