Chapter 402

The rabbits scattered and fled.

The predator, gaining momentum, pursued those rabbits.

Because there was no easier prey than a rabbit fleeing with its tail between its legs.

But the predator didn’t know.

That the fleeing rabbit actually had sharp teeth hidden, sufficient to bite the predator.

Those sharp teeth began to tear at the predator’s fingers and toes all at once.

Of course, the predator was so massive that such an attack couldn’t inflict a fatal wound.

However, a light rain soaks clothes, and dripping water pierces a stone.

Rather, because it was being eaten away little by little, the predator didn’t properly realize its own condition.

That if things continued like this, its very life might be torn away.

“What? Why aren’t these guys coming back?”

Elden tilted his head.

It was past time for the first pursuit team to have produced results and rejoined the main force.

But there was no sign of them.

“Tsk, did they encounter more prey and start hunting again?”

Elden clicked his tongue.

It wasn’t an impossibility if they had encountered other remnants of the enemy who had scattered and fled.

“They’ll join up eventually as we go.”

Elden didn’t think much of it.

In the end, the final target was the academy.

He had already given orders regarding that.

It meant they wouldn’t desert.

They would return on their own once the hunt was over.

Therefore, Elden continued to advance along the main thoroughfare without stopping.

Until then, he thought there were no problems.

However.

Suddenly, Elden realized a certain fact.

“Hmm? When did our numbers get so small?”

A large army that had filled the main thoroughfare.

But after splitting up to pursue the fleeing enemies in various directions, their numbers had noticeably decreased.

Elden’s expression changed.

“This won’t do. We need to stop and wait for them to regroup.”

Elden changed his decision.

He thought it was better, but also because he felt an inexplicable unease.

It was an instinctive feeling.

And that feeling did not lie.

*Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack!*

“Huh?”

Because enemies had suddenly appeared from behind.

“Tsk, now I see they were planning an ambush all along.”

Enemies appearing from a direction they shouldn’t have.

He couldn’t help but think it was an ambush operation.

In reality, they had emerged from underground.

“Hmph, even so. Insignificant bastards.”

But Elden snorted nonchalantly.

Although their numbers had decreased, they were still far more numerous than those ambushing bastards.

It meant it was a battle they couldn’t lose.

“Everyone, prepare to crush the enemies in the rear!”

Elden’s main force turned around and assumed a battle stance.

Of course, their opponents were the enemies who had appeared in the rear.

An opponent they could finish off just by pushing forward.

But it was then.

*Clack, clack, clack!*

The sound of movement was heard again.

This time, from a side path to the left.

Elden’s gaze turned.

“Who are those bastards now?”

Elden spat out, as if incredulous.

Enemies appearing from a different direction.

Even so, they were few in number.

It meant they were still insignificant enemies.

“Don’t worry too much about the left! They’re not worth worrying about!”

Anyway, once they crushed the enemies in the rear, those guys would flee in terror.

Elden, true to his words, didn’t pay them any mind.

But he never dreamed.

That it was only the beginning.

*Clack, clack, clack, clack!*

“Huh?”

Another side path.

*Clack, clack, clack!*

Yet another side path.

*Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack!*

This time, directly behind the main force that had turned around.

And that wasn’t the end.

*Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack!*

*Clack, clack, clack!*

*Clack, clack, clack, clack!*

Enemies continuously emerging from all the surrounding paths.

It was truly instantaneous.

Elden’s main force found itself completely surrounded.

“W-What?! What the hell is this?!”

Elden’s incredulous shout echoed loudly in the dawning atmosphere of the Holy City.

How could such a thing happen in the world?

It felt as if he had been subjected to some vicious fraud.

Not a single ally came, and only enemies appeared like this?

Does this make any sense?

But Elden soon realized what the situation was.

“N-No way, did they all…?!”

The pursuit team that he had expected to wipe out all the enemies.

If that pursuit team had, in turn, been completely defeated by the enemy, then this situation could barely be explained.

Yes, completely.

“T-This damn it! This son of a b*tch! Aaaaaaaaargh! You baaaaastards!”

A torrent of angry curses erupted from Elden’s mouth.

His face flushed red with rage.

His bloodshot eyes blazed with murderous intent.

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”

He absolutely could not let those who had inflicted such humiliation on him live.

He would surely repay them with death.

Surrounded?

Such a thing couldn’t stop him.

Because he had that ability.

Elden gritted his teeth and summoned his Evil Eye.

A large, black eyeball floated ominously in the air.

Undulating black waves swirled chaotically.

An Evil Eye that confused the mind.

On top of that.

“Your enemy is not here. Everyone is on the same side. Yes, the same side. The same side. See clearly with your own two eyes. You can only see those on the same side.”

Elden’s bewitching voice echoed everywhere.

It was the voice he used when exerting his mental manipulation ability.

He couldn’t exert strong mental manipulation in a short time.

The reason he was able to brainwash the 2nd Holy Knights so thoroughly was because he had taken sufficient time.

It meant there was a limit.

However.

Confusing the senses was certainly possible.

Now, in their eyes, everyone would look like an ally.

They would know it was an illusion, but just not being able to distinguish between friend and foe would inevitably throw them into great confusion.

On the other hand, his side could kill the enemy to their heart’s content.

A triumphant smile appeared on Elden’s lips.

“Just die in your delusion.”

Soon, the battle began.

A simple battle where they just had to slaughter the enemies who had fallen into great confusion.

“Haha, hahahahaha… Haha…?”

Elden’s hearty laughter, which had been booming, awkwardly stiffened at the end.

*Slice! Thwack! Thump!*

Far from falling into confusion, the enemies were pushing forward with a perfectly coordinated pincer attack from all sides.

It was Elden’s main force that was collapsing.

“W-What?! N-No way!”

Elden’s bewildered eyes widened.

There was no way that the mental manipulation, for which he had even summoned his Evil Eye, wouldn’t work.

B-But how…

Huh?!

“N-No way?!”

Only then did Elden realize.

That the enemies hadn’t exchanged a single word since a while ago.

An impossible thing.

Because communication on the battlefield was more important than anywhere else.

If so…

“They blocked their ears?!”

“Correct.”

A voice heard from somewhere.

Elden, whose head turned by reflex, twisted his body urgently with alarmed eyes.

Because an arrow had reached his vicinity without him even noticing.

However.

*Thwack!*

“Ugh!”

The arrow he thought he had dodged pierced his right shoulder and embedded itself.

Because it wasn’t just one arrow.

A silent shot, a hidden shot.

Flying without a sound, hidden behind the front arrow, he had been struck by the trailing arrow.

“Y-You b*tch… who are you?”

“I have no name to tell a villain.”

Hiresia spat out coldly.

But Elden already knew her identity.

There was no way he wouldn’t know, as she was a rare High Elf.

That wasn’t what was important.

It was that she, who clearly had her ears open, hadn’t been caught by the mental manipulation.

“H-How did my ability not…”

“Hmph, as if such a petty trick would work on me.”

Hiresia snorted.

That scene said it all.

Along with the sight of the combined forces crushing Elden’s main force with a fierce pincer attack.

“Kuuuh! D-Do you think it will end like this!”

Elden, making a final, desperate cry.

But he looked pathetic, like a toothless beast.

Hiresia, as if he wasn’t even worth answering, ignored him and nocked an arrow to her bow.

* * *

Underground in the Holy City.

“Hurry, hurry out! There’s no time!”

Ran’s urgent shout.

Her shout was directed at one person.

Carson, the black market merchant.

He was blinking his dazed eyes, as if he had been sleeping soundly until just now.

Whether it was an enemy trying to destroy the world or whatever, going out to fight was none of his business, so he had been sleeping peacefully.

If it was an enviable personality, it was truly an enviable personality.

Anyway, Ran shouted at him again in a loud voice.

“Get up immediately! We have to get out! This place is going to explode!”

“W-What?! E-Explode?!”

Carson’s surprised eyes widened.

“Yes, explode! We have to get out quickly!”

“H-Huuuh?! N-No way, are you really going to blow it up?!”

Carson’s expression turned to one of horror, as if he realized what the situation was.

“Yes, it’s real, it’s real! Don’t even bother getting dressed, just come out as you are!”

“B-But there might be enemies outside…”

“Are you more scared of enemies you might or might not encounter, or of dying here?”

“I-I’ll go! I’m going!”

As if he had finally come to his senses completely, Carson rushed out in his pajamas.

Ran clicked her tongue and ran with him towards the south exit.

The others were already running far ahead.

* * *

Hound, the worst poison master, approaching after breaching the West Gate.

He absolutely could not be allowed to approach the academy.

He had to be finished here.

For that, I intended to use my last resort, my trump card.

The massive explosion magic circle that had been installed underground for the past year and a half.

It was installed to inflict damage by blowing up the city itself if a situation arose where the enemy could not be handled.

But it was literally a last resort.

If this massive explosion magic circle was fully activated, the Holy City would be completely devastated and immediately transformed into a city of death.

Not just for the enemy, but for our allies as well.

Few humans would be able to survive in the soaring flames and the black smoke that covered the sky.

However, that was if the entire underground was blown up.

‘If it’s a part.’

Blow up the western part of the city.

That alone would devastate many areas of the Holy City.

But at least people’s lives would be safe.

Because the shelter was in the southern part of the Holy City.

Of course, it meant that many people’s homes and property would be blown away.

To blow that up with my own decision was a heavy decision, difficult to bear.

But I decided.

To save the lives of many.

And one more thing.

‘I have to buy time.’

A measure chosen after agonizing until the very end.

The plan had changed.

Therefore, I had to buy time for the personnel waiting underground to escape.

Because once the massive explosion began, deadly smoke would fill the underground.

That wasn’t all.

Until the escape was complete, I had to prevent the western enemy from passing through.

Only by tying down the enemy in the west could a severe blow be dealt by blowing up the west.

If not, only an uncontrollable self-destruction that would truly end the Holy City could stop them.

That was tantamount to suicide.

In the end, it meant I had to hold out while tying down the enemy.

‘I can do it.’

I told myself.

I believed in myself.

It was something I had to do alone anyway.

Regina and Elaine had to protect the academy from the enemies advancing after breaching the east, and Hiresia would be busy fighting the southern enemies.

Riviera was concentrating and preparing to activate the massive explosion magic circle as soon as my signal fell.

In the end, I was the only one left.

There was also the Turtle Unit, but they were, after all, a force for surprise attacks.

Holding out against Red Rain’s large army on a main thoroughfare like this was not something they could do.

Especially in a situation where it was unknown when the heinous poison might be spread.

But I knew.

That there were things that could be done precisely because I was alone.

The Empty Fort Strategy.

A stratagem originating from deceiving the enemy by deliberately leaving a fort empty and appearing to be well-defended.

First, buy time with that.

I had a certain conviction.

Because I knew that those who prided themselves on being smart tended to overthink in unexpected situations.

I leisurely took out a cigarette and lit it.

“Phew.”

The taste of that cigarette felt stronger than ever before.

* * *

“What’s that?”

Hound’s expression turned to one of utter disbelief as soon as he saw the scene unfolding before him.