An hour later, outside the fortress.

"Alright, everyone's accounted for?" Axel asked, confirming.

With a simple headcount, he knew that all fifteen of them were present. Still, just for formality, he asked anyway.

"Yes, Sir Axel." Princess Ethernina quickly responded, nodding with a smile. "And with our equipment repaired, we're more than ready to head out!"

"Good."

Of course, Axel fixed their dresses for them.

How?

Well, since he could repair items externally now, he simply had to touch the parts that needed repairing. Of course, he enjoyed every bit of the repair work he did.

Rather, to them, getting touched by Axel wasn't even a problem worth mentioning.

They were even willing to remove their clothes at first, which troubled him instead!

After confirming that they were ready, Axel turned around and stretched his hand forward. The moment he did, the Humvee came out, shaking slightly after dropping out of his inventory.

"Alright, let's get in."

And of course, just like before, they squeezed into the vehicle, carefully positioning themselves.

Everyone got in successfully, except one.

"Fenrir..." Axel turned to the gray-haired wolf and commanded, "You should run alongside the Humvee. Clear any demons that get too close; otherwise, leave them to the witches."

"As you wish, Master."

Of course, Fenrir didn't have any complaints.

Even if it looked like she was getting the short end of the stick.

Rather, with her speed, she could run ahead of them, clear the demon army, return, and stay idle the rest of the way. However, Axel didn't want to push her that far. He wasn't aware of how far her "loyalty" went, after all.

Thus, the only solution he could temporarily think of was to keep her at a certain distance—acting kind at appropriate moments, and pulling the reins strongly when needed.

Rather than "taming" her, he simply wanted to coexist, respecting each other's boundaries.

"Let's set off!"

With everyone settled, Axel shifted gears and stepped on the gas, moving the car forward as it accelerated.

They couldn't waste time.

The distance between the first and second fortress was roughly 1,000 kilometers, after all. Even at full speed, it would take them at least ten hours to arrive—and that was assuming they weren't slowed down by demons blocking their path.

Of course, they didn't have the option of teleporting to a closer fortress. After all, "this" one was already the closest.

"Alright, we'll review our tasks, so listen up."

As he drove steadily, Axel began to address their situation, clarifying their objectives.

"We'll be passing by several smaller fortresses along the way. And as Queen Wisteria decreed, we'll be fixing them too, in passing," he said. "Of course, we'll only repair them and place teleportation formations, then leave everything else to the Queen."

This was an important part of their plan.

After all, even if they reclaimed the second major fortress, it would be useless if it was surrounded by demons the moment they did. They needed to create a safety boundary by adding "checkpoints" along the way first, ensuring they were pushing the Red Zone back instead of jumping straight into its midst.

Thankfully, the first Major Fortress #606 was acting as a bulwark, speeding up this process.

By now, they had recovered roughly 100,000 acres of land, cutting off a large chunk of the Red Zone. Of course, it would take time to rehabilitate and repurpose the land, but the fact that they managed to reclaim such a large area was already a great achievement.

As Axel paused, Mimika raised her hand. "Then, do we clean up the monsters with curses, like usual? Or..."

Axel followed her gaze toward the outside, where a lone figure was keeping pace with the Humvee casually. Fenrir.

"Of course, we'll be using curses," Axel responded, nodding.

"Fenrir might be strong, but it would take time to eliminate demons one by one. Sweeping them away with a large AOE curse is still better."

"I see... A logical thought," Mimika nodded, satisfied.

Of course, what Axel said was only the surface of his worries. What concerned him most was that if he left the killing to Fenrir, she might flatten the area completely, increasing the repair cost by miles.

"Demons ahead!"

Nina's shout quickly caught everyone's attention.

Following her words, they stared ahead and saw a large mass of black mist—miasma gathering. Its size was quite large, probably bigger than the Minotaur from before.

Axel, wary, quickly swerved to the left, keeping their distance. "Everyone, prepare your biggest curses!" he shouted. "Fenrir, stay close to the Humvee and protect everyone with it!"

"Yes, Master!"

Fenrir didn't delay, following his orders. She leapt onto the moving Humvee, ensuring she kept pace without dividing her attention. Axel wanted to complain, but seeing that her choice was optimal, he held it back.

At the same time, Nina and the girls began chanting their respective curses, timing them for the enemy's emergence.

Slowly, the miasma solidified, forming a shape.

A giant, humanoid figure—one with two pairs of thick arms and a single pair of legs. A bulky giant that stood about twenty meters tall. In the middle of its aged face, a single large eyeball stared out.

"It's a Cyclops!" Nina commented, before her tone hardened. "Fire your curses, now!"

At her command, multiple curses flew across the battlefield.

Half of them were lethal, while the rest focused on high-quality debuffs. And since the curses were unaffected by wind, physical shields, or other disturbances, they quickly found their mark.

One curse after another struck the Cyclops as it emerged from the miasma.

"RAAAAGH!"

And all the curses did was hurt it enough to make it wail in pain.

"It wasn't enough...!" Axel grunted.

Even the Death Curses barely grayed out the areas they hit, and those gray patches were rapidly regaining their color.

"It has way too much HP, paired with high-speed regeneration—our curses can't kill it in one go!" Nina cried as cold sweat poured down her forehead.

Axel kept his eyes on the target as he sped up. After all, the Minotaur had been able to catch up to the Humvee easily. What more a giant four times its size?

"Cast a Ritual Curse to test it!"

Axel commanded as he saw the Cyclops move, its humongous eyeball locking onto their vehicle.

Then the giant took one step forward, then another, and burst into a sprint, quickly closing the distance.

"Shit...!" Axel cursed.

Even with their speed exceeding a hundred kilometers per hour, the gap was shrinking alarmingly fast!

The Ritual Curse, on the other hand, took time to cast. At the rate the Cyclops was closing in, there was no way the girls would finish chanting in time.

"No choice...!" Axel growled, raising his voice.

"Fenrir! Kill that bastard for me...!"

At his command, a figure shot forth like a star rising to the sky.

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