“One silver coin for every demon’s head! And for the head of the boss, I’ll pay ten in gold!”
The adventurers immediately broke into a jubilant uproar.
After that, we spent a few days making preparations, sending out scouts (multiple times), and readying our forces—and then I, Menel, Reystov, and a large number of other adventurers made our way into the valley once more.
We weren’t going to be using any tricks in particular. The plan was simple: get enough people together, prepare properly beforehand, and overcome our enemies head-on. I had Pale Moon, Overeater, my circular shield, and my mithril mail. Menel had his bow, a knife, and leather armor. That was us fully equipped.
The trees were sparse. The river that had formed the valley had long since dried up, and where once there had been a river bed, there were now only rocks scattered on the ground.
We made our way deeper and deeper into that barren place, and before long, the long howls of beasts echoed around. I could sense their presence deep in the valley. It looked like the demons’ base really was down here.
“How many do they have?” Menel said quietly. “I think things might be pretty peaceful around here if we wiped out all of them.”
“Yeah. Let’s kill them all.”
“You come out with the most heavy shit sometimes, you know that?”
The adventurers chuckled slightly at our back-and-forth.
We had provided all the support we could by magic, benediction, and the use of fairies before we even stepped into the valley. All that was left was to fight.
“Here they come,” Reystov said.
All kinds of beasts started appearing ahead of us. Every one of them was gushing miasma and had eyes possessed by madness. Their numbers didn’t look as hopeless as before. Maybe I’d cut most of them down a few days ago.
“Hey. Will. I’ve got your back.”
“Thanks. I’m counting on you, Menel.”
Menel and I nodded at each other. Then, I raised Pale Moon, and shouted.
“We’ll storm them from the front!”
War cries came back, one after another.
“Readyyy!!”
Swords were raised.
“For the glory of the Beast Killers!”
Spears were raised.
“By Volt’s lightning sword!”
“Burn hot, fire of Blaze’s valor!”
“Whirl! Grant us winds that blow in our favor!”
We beat our weapons against our shields, a warrior’s gesture to gather the attention of the gods and intimidate our enemies. Everyone cried out the name of their guardian deity and wished for protection.
“May the good gods bless us all!”
“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Everyone’s mouths were curved into wild smiles brought on by the tension and excitement of war. They were sweating; their arms and legs were trembling. Then, as one, we drew a deep breath and roared. The war cry reverberated all around us, and everyone broke into a forward sprint, vying to be the first into battle.
“Fire!” Arrows from Menel and the others flew from behind me and into the beasts’ ranks.
“Sagitta Flammeum!” Several magic wielders cast a spell for flaming arrows.
The victory and glory-seeking adventurers sprang hungrily at the beasts, whose order had been thrown into chaos. Swords glinted. Shields were battered with violent sounds. Blood boiled. Hearts beat faster and harder, and muscles heated up.
This was war. Blood had talked fondly about this sight many times. This was war!
It was meant to be a terrible thing to witness, but for some reason, I was laughing. I felt like I’d arrived in the world of Blood’s epic stories, which I’d only been able to imagine while living in the city of the dead.
I chuckled. Now I was on the battlefield, I appreciated how small I really was. What had I been thinking, saying I’d solve everything myself? In the end, I was only a single element of this battle. A large element, perhaps, or a powerful piece, but not enough to decide its entire course.
For some reason, I was happy that the battlefield no longer looked like a place trivial enough that a single man of exceptional power could do something about it on his own.
I gripped Pale Moon. I could tell that my goddess wasn’t looking sorrowful anymore.
“On the flame of Gracefeel!”
I steeled myself, I shouted my god’s name loud... and I ran straight at the horde.
I swung my spear around and forcibly cut down a pack of small beasts in front. A bull-beast bubbling blood from the edges of its mouth charged at me. I used its momentum and threw it. It smashed into several beasts that weren’t quick enough to get out of the way. A pack of our enemies had been disrupted. Other adventurers rushed in, weapons in hand, and added to the damage.
On the battlefield, it is often more effective to simply overwhelm your opponents with muscular strength instead of trying to add stupid little tricks. I incanted a number of Words as well, and restricted the movements of the enemy group.
While protecting my allies from side attacks, I pushed forward and through, letting nothing stand in my way. Swinging my spear in all directions and yelling, I impaled and struck beasts one after the other, their blood splashing over me, and pressed directly forwards. From behind me, countless arrows and wind and earth elementals helped to clear my way. I could feel that Menel was keeping up behind me and providing me support.
And after running all the way through and past the horde, I found the ruins I’d been looking for hidden between trees and rocks.
It was quite a large structure, made of stone and surrounded by stone walls. The entrance was large, as were the corridors and rooms. From its construction, I guessed that this had once been a secluded monastery where priests had trained; now, it was probably one of the bases of the demons running rampant around here.
The moment I sighted it, my senses, sharpened by magic, picked up a subtle presence. But I couldn’t see anything around that matched it.
“Omnia Vanitas... Erasus.” I quietly incanted a Word of Negation, aiming it forwards, and a large beast showed itself in the shade of a rock in front of the monastery. It had been hiding under the Word of Invisibility.
It had a goat, a lion, and a demidragon’s heads, huge wings, and a tail that was a venomous snake. And all of its heads, and all of its eyes, were filled to bursting with contempt, ridicule, and malice for everything small. It was the same disordered, blasphemous amalgamation of beasts I’d seen before: the chimera.
“Hello,” I said.
I’d considered the possibility that our second meeting would be like our first—that it would fly above us and try to attack us from the rear as the other enemies charged. We’d even prepared a means of shooting it down and made sure everyone knew in advance, but apparently the beast was intelligent enough to know not to use the same trick twice.
If it had been generous enough to fly, I’d been thinking about taking away its wings and sight, slamming it into the ground, and thereafter having everyone beat it up at once. Unfortunately... this was a foe to be reckoned with. After the aerial back attack, it had chosen to lie low, hide itself, and aim for an attack from the side. This really didn’t seem like the intelligence of a beast to me.
“Do you have a bit of... demon in you as well?”
When I asked that question, the chimera’s three mouths all curved upwards into closed-mouth, crescent moon-like smiles.
Multiple beasts and intelligent demons had been crossed together to create an even stronger beast. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine how much blasphemy and bloodshed it must have taken to achieve such a feat. “Are you after the High King...?”