Before their eyes, the once-flat shadow at Natsuki Subaru's feet began to churn like boiling water. The pitch-black shade spread outwards at an astonishing speed.
This domain of shadow crept rapidly across the snow and flagstones, covering more than half the square in the blink of an eye. The surrounding light abruptly dimmed, and even the falling snowflakes seemed to be drawn in by this power, vanishing the moment they neared the shadow.
The next second, countless pitch-black Shadow Soldiers rose from the ground within the shade.
The clang of colliding armor and the ringing of drawn blades intertwined into a deafening torrent of sound.
These Shadow Soldiers were clad in armor that seemed to flow with dark light, faint wisps of ethereal blue glowing from its seams. In their hands, they held shadow blades that condensed the cold air.
They made no superfluous movements. Their crimson eyes, devoid of any ripple of emotion, locked onto the horde of Great Rabbits ahead. Merely standing there, they exuded a chilling, murderous aura.
At the same time, a system panel popped up before Natsuki Subaru's eyes, displaying a clear notification:
[Notification: 3,124 Shadow Soldiers summoned].
It was worth noting that among this shadow legion, 124 Shadow Soldiers were recent additions to Natsuki Subaru's forces. He had deliberately extracted the shadows of the Magic Beasts controlled by Meili when he had eliminated her horde at the mansion. Now, this expanded shadow legion was just large enough to match the scale of the Great Rabbit horde before them.
"Subaru, are these... your summons?" Emilia's amethyst eyes widened in astonishment as she stared at the Shadow Soldiers Natsuki Subaru had called forth. "They don't look... like any summoning magic I've ever seen before!"
"Hey, hey, even for summons, isn't this number a bit too ridiculous...?" Garfiel's expression was one of pure shock as he gazed at the thousands of Shadow Soldiers surrounding them.
"What in the world is going on? Such a large-scale summoning art?" Beatrice's blue eyes were fixed on the Shadow Soldiers, her face a mask of disbelief, her heart churning with both curiosity and shock.
As a Great Spirit who had lived for over four hundred years, and as the librarian of the Forbidden Library, Beatrice's knowledge far surpassed that of an ordinary person. She had a masterful grasp of the principles and characteristics of all types of magic, especially summoning magic.
She knew perfectly well that the execution of any summoning art was inseparable from a supply of mana, and the number of summons was directly proportional to the mana required. In other words, the greater the number and the stronger the individual combat power, the more immense the mana consumption.
According to Beatrice's understanding, most mages could summon no more than ten elementals or lesser spirits at a time; that was already the limit of an average mage's mana. Even an exceptionally talented mage who could surpass this limit would find it difficult to summon more than twenty at once, and doing so would inevitably leave them weakened from mana exhaustion.
More importantly, Beatrice had a Spirit Contract with Natsuki Subaru.
As his contracted Spirit, she could clearly sense the state of the mana within Natsuki Subaru's body.
Natsuki Subaru's total mana was only slightly greater than that of an ordinary person, not even matching that of some novice magic apprentices. He would struggle to sustain even a conventional low-level spell, let alone summon creatures.
Yet here and now, not only had Natsuki Subaru summoned creatures, but he had summoned several thousand of them. Each and every Shadow Soldier possessed a complete form and distinct combat characteristics; they were by no means mere phantoms barely held together by a thin supply of mana.
A summoning of this scale required an amount of mana unimaginable to most people. With Natsuki Subaru's reserves, he should have exhausted his mana just summoning a single ordinary creature, let alone several thousand. This contradiction between what was theoretically impossible and what was actually happening before her eyes only deepened Beatrice's shock.
"That's right. These are all Shadow Soldiers that I summoned." Natsuki Subaru turned to Beatrice and the others, offering a simple explanation. "They follow my commands completely. Their loyalty is absolutely reliable."
In truth, the Shadow Soldiers possessed a loyalty to Natsuki Subaru, their Shadow Monarch, that was etched into their very essence. This loyalty was not something formed through later training but an inherent attribute from the moment of their creation. Once a Shadow Soldier is summoned, it will strictly follow Natsuki Subaru's every command, and will never mutiny or retreat, no matter what situation it faces.
"If Betty hadn't seen it with her own eyes, I suppose, she would never have believed someone could summon so many creatures." Beatrice withdrew her gaze and looked up at Natsuki Subaru.
Although she didn't understand the specific principles of his ability, nor did she know the mechanism for the Shadow Soldiers' creation. But based on Natsuki Subaru's past actions and the current scene, she could already deduce that these Shadow Soldiers were closely linked to him and completely under his control.
Just then.
From the distance came the dense sound of grinding teeth. Having devoured the corpses of their kin, the horde of Great Rabbits regrouped, and the white tide of beasts surged towards them at an incredible speed.
"Go, my most loyal servants!" Seeing this, Natsuki Subaru stood at the center of his shadow legion and decisively swept his right hand forward.
The shadow legion instantly formed a charge formation. The Shadow Soldiers in the front rank swiftly raised their shields, forming a solid black shield wall.
The Shadow Soldiers in the middle held their longswords, ready for close combat, while the shadow mages in the rear gathered dark energy, the black orbs of power growing ever larger in their palms.
The entire shadow legion advanced like a moving black fortress, charging toward the Great Rabbit horde with an immense sense of pressure.
"—ROAR!" The Knight Commander of the shadow legion, Igris, charged ahead of the pack. His movements were faster than those of an ordinary Shadow Soldier, and with every swing of his longsword, he could slay several Great Rabbits at once.
The various types of shadow Magic Beasts were not to be outdone. The larger ones charged directly into the Great Rabbit horde, their massive paws swatting down and crushing dozens of Great Rabbits with each strike.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" The shadow mages in the rear also launched their magical attacks at the opportune moment.
Black orbs of energy were hurled out one by one, landing amidst the Great Rabbit horde. Upon detonation, the orbs created area-of-effect shockwaves of black energy that blasted all surrounding Great Rabbits to pieces.
Throughout the battle, the coordination among the Shadow Soldiers was impeccable.
Whenever an agile shadow Magic Beast broke the Great Rabbits' formation, nearby humanoid Shadow Soldiers would immediately follow up, seizing the opening to attack.
If any Great Rabbits attempted a flanking maneuver, the shadow mages in the rear would promptly adjust their angle of attack, using their energy orbs to eliminate them.
During the entire process, the Shadow Soldiers showed no signs of chaos. All their actions revolved around the single command given by their Shadow Monarch, Natsuki Subaru: "Eliminate the Great Rabbit!"
Everything was carried out toward this objective. Even if an individual Shadow Soldier was overwhelmed by the rabbits, others would instantly fill its position, giving the horde no opportunity to break through.
"Strange... I'm not getting any experience points for killing so many Great Rabbits. It seems I'll have to wipe out the entire horde to get anything." Natsuki Subaru stood in place, his brow furrowing slightly as he watched the battle unfold.
He had originally thought he would gain experience for each Great Rabbit killed and had hoped to use this opportunity to farm some EXP. It now seemed his thinking had been too simplistic; only by completely annihilating all the Great Rabbits would he receive the corresponding experience points.
At this moment.
The soldiers of the shadow legion on the field were efficiently reaping the Great Rabbit horde. The battle was completely one-sided.
"This is a completely one-sided battle." Natsuki Subaru thought to himself as he stood there, his gaze fixed on the battlefield before him.
But on second thought, it made perfect sense.
His minions were already quite strong, exceptionally so, in fact. Whether it was the Shadow Knights specializing in close-quarters assaults, the shadow mages capable of casting area-of-effect magic, or the various shadow Magic Beasts with their advantages in size and speed, their combat power far exceeded that of ordinary creatures.
In contrast, the only advantage of the Magic Beast, the Great Rabbit, was its immense numbers and its ability to divide infinitely, which made it difficult to completely eradicate.
But the Shadow Soldiers felt no fear of death. Under the command of Natsuki Subaru, their Shadow Monarch, they were continuously wiping out the charging Great Rabbits in droves.
"As I thought, they can't be completely eliminated through conventional means." Natsuki Subaru frowned slightly as he watched the Great Rabbits being destroyed only to divide again and again.
The core reason the Great Rabbit cannot be completely annihilated lies in its unique reproductive mechanism: they possess the ability to divide and multiply infinitely.
Specifically, as long as a single Great Rabbit survives, that individual will rapidly divide into two, then four...
Its numbers grow exponentially, allowing it to reform a massive horde in a short amount of time.
This trait renders the traditional combat method of killing individuals ineffective, even if you eliminate every Great Rabbit in sight. As long as a single one is missed, all previous efforts will be wasted, as the threat can never be fundamentally eradicated.
Furthermore, the original story had explicitly mentioned that even the combined armies of several nations in this world lacked the ability to eliminate the Great Rabbit on their own.
To deal an effective blow to the Great Rabbit, one of two conditions must be met: either use extremely wide-ranging, large-scale magic to destroy the vast majority of individuals at once, slowing their division speed, or trigger specific environmental or energy conditions that could make the horde temporarily disappear.
But this disappearance was not a true elimination, merely a temporary removal from the current space; the Great Rabbit could still potentially reappear later.
It was for this reason that, for hundreds of years, no one in this world had ever been able to truly eliminate the Great Rabbit by physical means. At best, they could only temporarily banish or contain them.
So, in truth, these seemingly harmless white creatures were extremely dangerous.
They had no individual consciousness; all individuals shared a single group consciousness. Their hunger could never be sated, and they would devour every living thing in their path.
Although a single Great Rabbit's combat power was limited to attacks with its sharp teeth, their threat stemmed primarily from their terrifying reproductive speed and the scale of their horde.
"Looks like the Great Rabbit is even more troublesome than the White Whale." Though he said this aloud, for Natsuki Subaru, the Great Rabbit's numerical advantage, while shocking to behold, did not pose too much of a problem for him.
He had personally participated in the battle to subjugate the White Whale and knew full well how difficult it was. Not only did you have to withstand its powerful physical attacks, but you also had to constantly guard against the white mist it released. Once swallowed by the mist, you would lose your memories and become the White Whale's prey. The entire battle required absolute concentration, with no room for error.
In comparison, the threat of the Great Rabbit was limited to its large numbers.
This threat might be fatal to others, like Garfiel. With his powerful Beast Transformation, he could slay tens of thousands of Great Rabbits in close combat, but his stamina would eventually run out.
Then there was Emilia, who could use magic to freeze large swathes of the horde, but her mana would be consumed at an extremely high rate. Once her mana was depleted, she would be left helpless.
But Natsuki Subaru had no such worries.
After all, he could summon thousands of Shadow Soldiers at once, letting them fight in his stead without him needing to join the fray himself, resulting in almost zero stamina consumption. Even if some Shadow Soldiers were devoured by the Great Rabbits until they dissipated during the battle, he could immediately summon new soldiers to replenish his forces.
While summoning Shadow Soldiers did consume his own mana, Natsuki Subaru had access to the System's shop. The mana potions sold in the shop allowed him to instantly recover his entire mana pool after drinking one, meaning he didn't have to worry about running out of mana at all.
"In other words, dealing with these Great Rabbits that keep charging at me should be pretty easy for me." Natsuki Subaru's gaze swept across the battlefield.
The Shadow Soldiers were methodically surrounding and killing the Great Rabbits. The front-line shield wall blocked their charge while the rear-line mages continuously cleared the field. Yet even so, the number of Great Rabbits on the scene didn't seem to be noticeably decreasing.
"Just killing them is useless. The Great Rabbits split faster than I can destroy them. I have to find a way to eradicate them completely." Natsuki Subaru raised a hand to his chin, his mind racing.
"The real puzzle is, how can I find a way to truly, physically, and completely annihilate the Great Rabbit?"
Even using the method from the original story—having Beatrice banish the Great Rabbit into another dimension—would only temporarily contain them without solving the problem at its root. The Great Rabbit would still exist in that dimension and could potentially break through the spatial barrier in the future to once again threaten the people of this world.
"Speaking of which, even if the Shadow Soldiers could keep killing tirelessly, it would still be difficult to truly eliminate the Great Rabbit..." Natsuki Subaru stared at a rabbit that had just been slain, only to immediately split into two new ones. A thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
"Wait a minute... Shadow Soldiers? What would happen if I converted all the Great Rabbits into Shadow Soldiers? Wouldn't that break their cycle of division and solve the problem for good?"
After all, his Shadow Extraction ability could already convert deceased creatures into Shadow Soldiers. As long as the conversion was successful, those creatures would lose their original traits and fall completely under his control.
If I could convert the Great Rabbits too, then they shouldn't be able to split anymore, right? This method might actually work. It was worth a try.
Just as Natsuki Subaru was pondering this, Beatrice, who was beside him, raised her right hand and once again used a wide-area Yin Magic spell:
"El Minya!"
As the clear chant echoed, hundreds of purple arrows formed in the air and rained down densely upon the Great Rabbit horde.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Each purple arrow that struck its target would explode amidst the swarm, turning the ferociously leaping Great Rabbits into fine purple crystals.
______
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