Chapter 465.1

Defense Specialization and the Final Battle (2)

With the wall torn down, not only players, but monsters could also enter.

At last, the castle was besieged. Lily’s summoned soldiers crowded together on the street that stretched to the royal castle on top of a hill.

The spawning point was set up in town by [All Army Sortie]. After analyzing their fighting strength and calmly judging that they were likely to lose, the advance preparations certainly delayed the time until defeat.

The monsters, which weren’t under their control, pushed Maple and the others aside, ran through the alleys, jumped over the rooftops, and rushed towards the royal castle.

Such monsters were paralyzed here and there, pierced, exploded, and then disappeared.

“They’re lurking!”

“There are also traps! Be careful!”

Shouts emerged. Surprise attacks that made use of shadows and traps. Compared to the flatlands where large-scale battles were fought, the castle town was a terrain where even a small group of people could fight. In order to proceed freely, detailed clearing was necessary, but they had no time for that.

“Iz!”

“We’ll break through!”

“I’ll show you what I can do!”

Iz opened her inventory and pulled out an item. It was a cannon anchored to the ground by multiple stanchions, with its muzzle pointing towards the sky.

“3…2…1…!”

With a loud boom, the cannon fired, launching a gleaming red cannonball into the sky. It unfurled, and vanished into the light. The cannon itself only had one bullet. After all, it was a luxurious item that took a long time and many materials to make.

Even if they broke, item shone when they were used. A short time after the explosion, a number of small red glows covered the ground. A wide range and indiscriminate attack. As usual, Iz’s attack was uncontrollable.

“““[Large Scale Magic Barrier]!”””

When it came to item-derived attacks, there was no distinction between enemy and ally. If they didn’t protect themselves, they’d suffer tremendous damage. Immediately after the barrier was deployed to protect everyone, explosive flames and shock waves followed.

Traps triggered by impact were triggered, and stealthy players who didn’t see the attack coming suffered from fatal injuries. The horde of monsters was also taken down. Even so, they succeeded in setting the castle town on fire and reducing the number of summoned soldiers.

“As expected of Iz!”

“That helps a lot!”

“Just follow Payne’s lead! There’s not much I can do anymore!”

Rather than worrying about that, they better aim for the royal castle. Maple and Sally rushed down the burning street, heading straight for the royal castle up ahead.

***

Around the time Maple and the others invaded the town, Kanade emerged from the door leading towards the guild home.

“Is the town still safe…?”

[Teleport] allowed the user to warp to the guild home. While he could just go back to town, this time it worked to his advantage.

Kanade swiftly returned to the town. Upon seeing that the castle town was still very much safe, he sighed in relief. Apparently, Mii and Velvet still hadn’t arrived.

[Maple Tree] had a guild home near the outer wall. Just as Kanade went to the gate of the outer wall to assess the situation, a player carrying Frederica appeared. The number of players seemed to have decreased significantly. Even including the survivors who rushed in afterward, less than a third of the players who accompanied Frederica for defense remained.

“Frederica! How are you?”

When Kanade approached and called out to her, Frederica’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Eeh!? Kanade!? What are you doing here!? T-this is bad…!”

Before Frederica could finish her sentence, the outer wall glowed red, and flames spewed out as the wall melted like butter.

“Did we make it in time?”

From the vertical hole that had opened in the wall, Mii could be seen. She lost her vigor at the end when the flame that coursed through her body melted the walls. Even so, compared to Maple and the others, it took her less effort to tear down the outer wall.

From there, one after another, the players stepped in.

“All that’s left is to go to the castle!”

“That’s right!”

Allied force from [Thunderstorm] and [Kingdom of the Flame Emperor] soon entered. Although the numbers were smaller than Maple and the others, they were still enough to take down the castle.

“Frederica, stay in the castle.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll buy as much time as I can.”

Kanade took out a magic book with black cover from the bookshelf.

“Then I’ll gather the others. Try to win, okay?”

“Haha, who knows.”

Frederica left as the enemy army also finished invading the town and headed towards Kanade.

Seeing that, Kanade opened the magic book that had been kept on the bookshelf for a long time since the day he got his hands on the [Magic Archive].

“[Forbidden Magic: Storm of Calamity]”

The sky quickly clouded over, and the clouds that formed swirled. Jet-black spark that burned ally and enemy alike flowed, destroying the surrounding houses, where black flames spewed.

A skill that had never made an appearance before. At the same time, the enemy couldn’t afford to screw up after coming this far. The distance to victory wasn’t so close that they were willing to jump into the obvious threat in front of them.

“What an interesting magic this is. The more you use skills and magic, the more powerful it becomes.”

“…!”

The truth was uncertain. Whether it was true or not, Kanade revealed a bookshelf full of magic books behind him, telling the enemy to check for themselves.

“I won’t hold back.”

A number of magic books popped out from the bookshelf behind Kanade, conjuring a multitude of magic circles.

“Ugh, [Maple Tree] is just…”

“You’re a bunch of madmen!”

A curse that spread abnormal conditions from the water that were carried in the raging wind, along with black fog that brought upon death.

All of them were trump cards and fodder for the storm overhead. The skill count progressed at a tremendous speed. Soon, the intensifying sparks and burning black flames were no longer inferior to those wielded by Mii and Velvet.

“I’m going to push forward!”

“We won’t retreat! We’ll win!”

““Yeah!””

From the start, they came here with the intention of ending everything.

Mii and the others also went with all their might to defeat Kanade, the threat that stood in their path.

***

Maple and the others rushed through the center of the enemy base, completely entrusting the matter of defense to those who returned.

“[Water Path]!”

“[Ancient Weapon] [Commence Attack] [Seeping Chaos] [Poison Dragon]!”

Since self-destruction would involve the surroundings, Maple gained altitude through the water path that extended to the sky with Sally’s help. With broadened field of vision, Maple scattered attacks around her.

Ranged attacks were Maple’s specialty. She painted both sides of the main street with poison, while turning the path forward into scorched earth with attacks centered on two types of firearms.

Although the sense of stability had increased due to the continuous recovery and damage cut by [Afterglow of Salvation], they were still in the middle of the enemy territory. The magic that poured down took away the lives of allies one by one.

However, the invasion didn’t stop. Even if only one ally remained, as long as they could reach the throne in the innermost part of the royal castle, it would be fine.

“Ray!”

“We’ll fly too! If you can fly, follow us!”

The only way to reach the castle, which was built on a hill, was a long, long staircase. Since the formation had to be vertically long, players who could fly aimed at the royal castle from the sky.

When she flew up into the sky and checked the plaza in front of the entrance of the royal castle, she spotted Lily standing in tow with a horde of soldiers with guns. She stuck her flag to the ground.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll push you down! [Additional Call]!”

As Payne was on guard, the stairs shone brightly.

“Uwaah!?”

“Kyaa!”

As they ran up the stairs, a bunch of summoned soldiers emerged from beneath their feet.

“Woah!”

“Maple!”

Sally quickly rescued Maple with a string, before making a transparent foothold in the air to evacuate. However, they couldn’t save everyone. Soldiers pushed the players up one after another, causing those who lost their balance to topple far below.

One-to-many that made use of the terrain. Precisely because Lily manipulated the summoned soldiers, she was able to make an unexpected, momentary gap.

There was a clattering sound as the soldiers raised their guns all at once.

“[Penetrating ammunition loading]!”

“Maple, a piercing attack is coming!”

In order to prevent a large number of deaths from falling, Maple tried to activate [Loving Sacrifice].

If the soldiers fired all at once, there’d be a lot of penetrating bullets. Thus, Maple thought about timing the [Pierce Guard] and [Dedicated Affection]. Nevertheless, getting the right timing in such a complex situation was harder than it sounded.

Whether they were aware of Maple’s hesitation, the falling players called out to her.

“Don’t worry about us!”

“Let us fall!”

“If we fall…”

If they were going to fall to their death anyway, there was only one way to make the most of their lives.

““Devour us!””

“…! Sally!”

“[Flash Flood]! [Freezing Earth]!”

Maple instantly understood everyone’s intentions, while Sally understood hers.

After Sally evacuated those who hadn’t fallen to her scaffold made by freezing the stream of water, Maple activated yet another skill. Instead of [Dedicated Affection], it was—

“[Darkness of Rebirth]!”

Black. Black mud spread through the ground. With Maple at the center, the darkness seeped through the ground, ignoring altitude, dying the ground far below black.

While falling, the ground began to approach the fallen players who hadn’t fall prey to the bullets.

What they felt at their last moment wasn’t the impact of the fall, but a bottomless swamp of darkness that gently took everyone in as they sank forever.

A hundred or two players fell. Then, a strange shape crawled out of the ground.

“Everyone, I beg of you!”

Hearing Maple’s request, deformed creatures that used to be humans climbed the cliff towards the royal castle with their claws.

Just like that, in front of Lily, the fallen players rose up once again.

“Haha, I never thought that I could become a character in a kingdom that’ll be overrun by monsters in my lifetime! Who’d have guessed!”

At the advance of the monsters, Lily retreated to the inside of the castle. Soon, the fence and the fountain at the entrance were destroyed.

To buy time, she made her way to the throne room.

Due to their huge size, the monsters sometimes toppled over and fell, but they broke though the walls of the royal castle, the windows, and tore down the castle from the outside.

Flames and black smoke rose from the castle.

The end was near.

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