At that moment, Gareth, sensing the distortion in magic power, leapt from the rooftop, swinging his colossal axe straight at the woman.
"Uooooohhh!"
The strike came down with merciless force.
But Alfia did not even flinch. She spoke one word, "Gospel."
A resonant bass note roared outward, shaking the air itself.
Gareth was blasted back as if swept away by a bursting dam.
"Guaghhh!"
"Gareth!?"
Riveria's voice cracked as her comrade smashed into a wall, debris collapsing over him. Struggling upright, Gareth steadied himself with his axe, glaring. But Alfia only gazed down on them, calm as ever.
"Still the same noisy brute. Eight years, and nothing has changed."
Riveria and Gareth trembled, despair overtaking them.
At that moment, Alfia's hood slipped, revealing her face. Long silver-gray hair cascaded over her shoulders. A face like carved beauty, framed by closed eyes.
And Riveria and Gareth's voices overlapped in shock. "Silence Alfia."
Alfia gave no denial, only silence.
"After the Age of Gods, the woman most blessed by talent. Not only the very symbol of talent but the monster who devours it."
"So you live still... one of the strongest of Hera's followers."
Her name was both a curse and legend. A sacrificial word whispered with awe and dread.
Orario had not forgotten her, the witch, crowned as the strongest. Now she returned, wrapped in raging particles of magic and dust.
"Too much talk about talent!"
Akira's voice rang in her heart, complaining loudly, but even that could not drown out the despair gripping the battlefield.
...
The weight of armored boots echoed through the ruined streets.
Zald advanced with a stride so heavy it seemed to shake the earth itself, stopping before the fallen Ottar sprawled in the rubble.
His gaze lowered in scorn as he said, "Is that all? I suppose I expected too much."
Ottar could hear the words faintly, muffled as if through water, but his battered body refused to obey him. His mind drifted in and out of clarity, caught between rage and despair, yet even so, he could not lift a finger.
Zald looked down at his broken junior without a trace of pity. "Since you cannot rise, then let this be the end."
The guillotine-like greatsword descended—
"Tsk!"
In an instant, before the blade could sever his neck, a black shadow streaked through the air. A silver arc, then Ottar's body was wrenched away.
Allen.
Using his spear as a springboard, he had hurled himself forward at blinding speed, fast enough to surprise even Zald. He seized Ottar's massive frame and tore him free of death's grasp.
"Damn it!"
Blood sprayed. Allen's left arm, sacrificed in place of Ottar's, hung useless at his side, severed nearly to the bone. But with his remaining strength, he became a gale and fled.
"Escaped? Hmph. No matter."
Zald did not give chase. Though he could have pursued, cleaving them both to pieces, that was not his aim. He simply turned away, his cloak snapping behind him like a crimson wound in the air.
"Taste humiliation again, little brat."
And with that, he strode off.
Elsewhere—
"Guuh…"
As Allen carried Ottar to safety, Asfi took action. Her prototype flying shoes, though incapable of true flight, allowed bursts of midair acceleration. With explosive force, she carved a shockwave barrier and swept Riveria and Gareth out of Alfia's reach.
"Ah, he escaped." Alfia murmured, her face still expressionless, making no move to pursue.
Akira's voice bristled in her mind. "That tone is way too casual!"
But Alfia remained indifferent. "It doesn't matter. I won't be telling anyone else."
"Yeah, yeah. Then I'll handle the cleanup," Akira replied.
'If they connected me to this chaos while I'm still in Freya's tower, it'd be impossible to explain.'
From the shadows, bloody tendrils slithered outward, seizing unconscious adventurers and dragging them into the teleportation array.
Meanwhile—
A breathless Loki Familia scout arrived. "Report! Our forces in the southwest… annihilated! All adventurers wiped out!"
Finn's eyes widened. "The entire force… gone!?"
"Yes! Some retreated, but many bodies are unaccounted for. Possibly—"
Another runner interrupted, gasping. "Captain! At the treatment center, dozens of injured suddenly appeared! Someone saved them!"
"That's something, at least." Finn exhaled with relief, before the next words struck like thunder.
"Captain! Riveria-sama and Gareth-sama—defeated!"
"What!?" Loki herself snapped. "Are they alive!?"
"They were rescued but are gravely injured amd unconscious."
Despair swept the young adventurers. Riveria, the strongest mage of Orario. Gareth, the indomitable war axe. To hear that even they had fallen, morale cracked like glass.
"No way… Riveria-san and Gareth-san… lost?" Raul muttered in disbelief.
But Finn would not allow despair to root itself. His voice cut through the air, fierce and unyielding. "Where is the enemy!? Report!!"
The roar jolted Raul and the others, shaking their shoulders and their hearts.
"They said, a gray-haired witch. She chants with impossible speed, nullifies magic itself, and wields overwhelming power."
Despite their trembling, the scouts answered firmly. Finn's defiance steadied them. The commander's refusal to surrender lent his soldiers a spine of steel, however fragile.
Still, his mind churned. 'A gray-haired witch who nullifies magic… Alfia. So not only Zald, but she too has returned. Both of them, still Level 7, still unmatched even after eight years.'
Even Orario's mightiest first-class adventurers might not be enough.
"Evilus… so this is your hidden trump card." Finn muttered bitterly.
The defeat of Ottar, Riveria, and Gareth tore holes in the battle line he had woven. The loss of such pillars would ripple across every front.
"Captain!" Raul pleaded. "Send reinforcements to recover Riveria-san and the others, please!"
But Finn's answer was cold steel. "No. Our priority is the Central Square and the Tower of Babel. If Evilus strikes there, everything ends. We hold the center at all costs."
His voice brooked no argument.
"Relay my orders! Abandon the southern defenses, gather all remaining forces at the city's heart! Coordinate with Freya Familia in the north! Move!"
"Understood!"