Chapter 705

Screech—

A shriek that had been buried beneath the monsters’ screams suddenly pierced straight into the mind, sharp and unmistakable. As if answering it, the purple glow swelled larger and clearer, then burst out of the storm clouds like a raging sea.

Whoosh— Aaaaaah—

Over the wall, a massive shape rotating obliquely in a spiral revealed itself in an instant. The archdemon Akihatara was plummeting toward the fortress city.

The creature tearing through the sky now looked very different from what Mev remembered. Of its three pairs of wings, only a single long wing on the lower right functioned properly. The rest were severed midway, broken, or twisted at grotesque angles.

Its fur was sparse and ragged, with entire sections scorched black. Even the one remaining wing was barely intact, spared only from being completely shattered.

Kiaaa— Aaaaaah—

The torso below was no better. Burn marks and deep gashes covered it, while the four legs tipped with crescent-shaped claws were broken and dangling uselessly. The tentacle tails had been cut off in a rough, uneven mess. It was a pitiful sight.

And yet, the true reason Mev’s eyes widened as she stared up at the sky lay elsewhere.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"...Ian."

Before the traces left by the falling archdemon could even fade, another light bloomed within the clouds.

A shape that flared dazzlingly bright burst from the darkness, as if in pursuit of the archdemon.

Shing—

It was Ian, spreading golden wings shimmering like heat haze behind his back. It also looked as though wing bones formed entirely of magic had sprouted from him.

Whoosh!

The moment he snapped those wings backward, his descent accelerated sharply. From either side of his head, horn-like projections of golden magic flared violently. In his right hand, he still gripped the greatsword, while the Platinum Barrier gleamed over his left arm.

Boom, boom!

The trail streaming behind him leaned closer to orange than gold. Crimson divinity still blazed over his body, mingling with draconic magic around his shoulders and shifting into a fiery hue.

Screech!

At that moment, Akihatara, still spinning as it fell, twisted its gaze upward and howled. purple light boiled up violently as it flung its sole remaining wing toward the sky.

Whoosh—

A whirlwind mixed with purple light burst from the wing, surging toward Ian as if to sweep him away. Almost simultaneously, Ian raised the Platinum Barrier over his head and folded his wings tightly around himself.

Rumble—

The golden trajectory pierced straight through the swirling purple gale. His speed did not falter. It did not even slow.

With its back now facing the ground, the archdemon drew terrifyingly close as it entered the sky above the city.

Then Ian spread his wings wide once more, accelerating again, the Platinum Barrier still held overhead. In the next instant, the orange trajectory he created slammed directly into the center of the archdemon’s obliquely falling torso.

Crunch—

Akihatara buckled inward. Its head and legs snapped upward from the impact, though only for a fleeting moment.

Purple light erupted from its gaping maw and from wounds all across its body, and the massive form was driven down, crashing into the heart of the fortress city.

Boom!

The instant its shape vanished behind the buildings, a thunderous shockwave rolled out, shaking the ground. Beyond the rooftops, purple smoke, shattered masonry, and clouds of dust billowed upward in a chaotic plume.

The sight was enough to make Mev, who had been watching in a daze with only her head moving, blink in sudden clarity.

The screams vomited by the surrounding monsters surged back into focus.

Screech—

The monsters looked as though they had fallen into complete chaos. Whether it was because the archdemon’s consciousness was bleeding through to them, or because its dominion had weakened, there was no way to tell.

"The Great Warrior has revealed his true form!"

A cry steeped in divinity cut through the screams at that moment. Mev, who had been sweeping her gaze across the monsters, snapped her head toward the blazing red front lines.

"O golden demigod!"

"For the great transcendent one—"

"

Oooooo

!"

The barbarian warriors’ thunderous roars erupted almost simultaneously, drowning out the monsters’ shrieks in an instant. They had even ceased fighting, each of them raising their weapons high as they turned toward the city.

It was only possible because the monsters had stopped charging. Before the warriors, nothing remained but hacked, frozen, and charred corpses carpeting the ground.

"Truly... as the agent of the Platinum Dragon...." Mev, gazing in the same direction as them, finally let out a low breath.

Thesaya’s words resurfaced in her mind. The Ian she had seen earlier was a being that could just as well be called dragonkin.

Screech!

At that moment, Akihatara burst upward through the dispersing dust cloud, screaming as it rose. Its single remaining wing flailed convulsively, purple magic spraying outward in erratic waves.

Whoosh—

The movement fully exposed its head, which bore an unsettling resemblance to a grotesquely distorted human face.

The horned, feathered crown atop its head had been shattered and bent beyond recognition. The face beneath looked as though it had been carved apart by blades. Of the six eyes arranged in pairs above and below, all but two had been destroyed, leaving its features drenched in bodily fluid.

There was no need to dwell on how thoroughly pain and fury had warped its expression.

"O demigod!"

"

Ooooo

—"

The barbarians, however, showed little interest in the archdemon’s wretched appearance. Their gazes were fixed instead on the broken wing, twisted crookedly and dangling from one of the archdemon’s shoulders.

Whoosh—

Ian was clinging there, golden wings stretched wide behind him. He endured the violent ascent by gripping the wing root with his left hand alone, the Platinum Barrier deployed over his arm.

Of course, he was not merely enduring it.

Even in that state, he raised the greatsword clenched in his right hand. The sword’s protruding tip, now broken into a more ordinary shape, traced a red trajectory as it fell toward the demon’s head.

Crunch!

At the final moment, Akihatara jerked its head violently to the side, and the blade sank into its neck instead. However, the outcome was hardly different. Sparks mixed with chaos and divinity burst out, and the archdemon convulsed violently.

Screech—

Akihatara’s ascent halted. It hung in the air for a heartbeat before plunging downward once more, unleashing a shriek that seemed to tear at the sky itself.

Another thunderous impact followed. Debris billowed upward, and within that churning cloud, both the archdemon and Ian vanished from sight.

Roar!

As the monsters’ screams swelled even louder, Mev rose, stepping atop a mound of torn flesh. She cast a glance toward the gate, then turned away.

Her gaze swept across the battlefield—Selim lying motionless in the distance, the convulsing monsters, Mukapa standing atop an ogre whose shoulder had been crushed beyond recognition, and Moro behind him, still tearing monsters apart even now.

"Raise your weapons!"

Finally taking in the sacred flame illuminating the distance and the Crimson Legion beyond, Mev shouted and lifted the sword in her right hand high above her head.

"We will exterminate every last remnant of the archdemon! Let’s fight!"

At the shout imbued with divinity, the legionnaires looked back at her in unison. The crimson divinity clinging to them flared violently once more.

"For the golden demigod—"

"Follow the First Consort! Move!"

"Rip them apart! Kill them all!"

The barbarian warriors hurled themselves forward, roaring wildly. Unlike before, they no longer maintained formation, charging headlong without restraint.

Crack! Grind—

The monsters, thrown into total disarray, were swept away without offering any meaningful resistance. And that was not all.

Grrr—

Driven mad, some monsters seemed to have lost all sense of friend and foe, turning on one another in scattered pockets across the battlefield. Not all of them, but it was enough to hasten the collapse of what little balance remained.

Rumble, boom! Bang!

Explosions and flashes erupted once more along the wall. Mev’s command had clearly reached even that far.

"

Phew

..."

After taking in the sight before her, Mev finally lowered her gaze. Her dark red eyes locked onto another giant of the void, trampling monsters as it forced its way through the gateway.

That was why she had looked back in the first place.

As the divinity coursing between her armor thickened, turning heavy and viscous, Mev tightened her grip on both swords and kicked off the slick ground, launching herself forward.

Whoosh—

Crimson arcs spiraled violently around her once more as she surged back into the fray.

The battle intensified in an instant. Shouts and roars, screams and shrieks, and every kind of noise imaginable collided in chaotic overlap. Yet not everyone on the battlefield was wholly consumed by killing—or being killed.

"Honestly... what a complete mess."

Thesaya was one of those exceptions.

With her hood pulled low, she sat sideways on the saddle as though the carnage around her had nothing to do with her at all.

Growl—

Of course, Moro was still rampaging like a beast, tearing monsters apart without restraint. Even so, Thesaya, gripping the saddle rings before and behind her with both hands, maintained her balance with surprising ease despite her pale complexion.

It wasn’t merely because Moro had grown larger. As a fairy, balance and flexibility were instincts she had been born with.

Crack!

Beyond Mukapa, who was carving a path forward with his battle hammer, a tide of blazing crimson divinity surged closer. Thesaya did not spare it a glance.

"Now that I think about it..."

Her gaze remained fixed instead on Mev’s back as she ground her way through every monster in her path, advancing steadily toward the gate. It took little effort to realize she intended to face the giant of the void alone. It was reckless—utterly so.

"Those two really do act alike," Thesaya muttered, the corner of her lip curling faintly as she shifted her gaze.

Screech—

Beyond the chaos, the Demigod of the North was facing the archdemon of the snowy mountains alone.

Akihatara was repeatedly soaring and crashing, vomiting shrieks that induced splitting headaches and scattering unstable magic across the city. It was clearly struggling desperately to shake Ian off by any means.

"Foolish."

In Thesaya’s eyes, it was futile. Unable to dislodge him, the archdemon was only reducing an innocent city to rubble—and drawing itself closer to this side with every violent descent.

Whoosh—

That was why the sight of Akihatara shooting upward, with Ian kicking off its body and spreading his wings wide, was growing clearer by the second. After gliding briefly through the air, Ian raised his greatsword overhead and plunged downward like a falling meteor.

"He’s gotten good," Thesaya murmured, tracking the golden arc traced by his horns and wings.

He wielded them as though he had been born with them, not as though they were powers newly gained. Whether the relentless battles within the storm clouds had forced such rapid mastery was something even she could not say.

What was certain was that Ian wanted to kill the archdemon within those clouds. Unlike Akihatara, which was firing primitive spells mixed with chaos in every direction, Ian was barely unfolding any magic at all.

Judging by the scars etched across the archdemon, it did not seem as though Ian had relied on spells during the aerial battle either. He clearly had no intention of revealing that he was a mage to the garrison or to anyone else watching.

"Well..."

Even without magic, it seemed more than sufficient.

Thesaya followed the archdemon with her eyes as it crashed down again, a greatsword embedded deep into one side of its head.

There was no trace left of the overwhelming presence it had once displayed while ravaging the wall. Now, it looked like nothing more than a terrified beast, driven purely by the instinct to survive.

Screech! Roar!

That fear was likely the reason the monsters below were going berserk as well. Akihatara’s pain and terror were being transmitted to them in full.

At that moment, Thesaya’s eye twitched slightly.

For just an instant, as Akihatara slammed down and crushed yet another cluster of buildings beneath its weight, its glowing eyes seemed to flicker with violet.