─We have taken the event stronghold. As you said, ‘Jackal’ is leaving the remaining personnel behind and heading south.
“Good! Keep it up! Report if there are any unusual situations.”
─Understood.
One hour until the end of the Siege War.
Amidst the countless occupations and re-occupations, the leader of the Medium and Small Alliance, Rai, made the most of his abilities.
One of his hidden job skills, ‘Command Control’.
All troops under his command receive a stat buff and are better able to respond to his orders.
It wasn’t at the level of Ayane’s ‘Suggestion’ or hypnosis, but it had a sort of charm and trust-inducing ability.
Without this, he wouldn’t have been able to control the narcissistic hidden users.
Thanks to Command Control, the Medium and Small Alliance was quickly capturing the castle, but the legendary troll behavior of touching Lily messed everything up.
They had pushed forward with the occupied areas of the west, south, and the eastern front, but…
“Phew… looks like there’s no law against just dying.”
After Ayane brought in ‘three people’, the tides turned once again.
They were so powerful that even if a regular user died a hundred times, they wouldn’t win, and contrary to concerns, the control was pretty decent.
‘They seem a bit unstable. But there’s no such thing as risk-free power.’
Lily’s speed in capturing was fast, but these three were working together.
Above all, Lily rarely killed users when capturing castles, so she had a lot of usable troops.
If they took the remaining troops and captured the castles that the others or Lily couldn’t reach, that would be it.
“Hoho… Since Ayane is sweeping in the northern region as well, victory is certain at this rate…”
─Shark has been taken down!
“Eh?”
W-Who was taken down?
Before Rai could hear more from the reporting alliance member, he hurriedly turned on Lily’s broadcast.
It was obvious that only Lily could harm Shark.
On the screen, Lily was handing over the fainted Shark to a red-eyed girl beyond the space.
From the looks of it, Shark seemed to have been caught without being able to do anything.
“This is a pretty big loss…”
Rai’s goal was active evasion.
No matter how crazy a dog you might call them, this trio was simply wild wolves compared to the Cerberus-level mad dogs they were up against.
He had talked to Ayane about stopping a mad dog with another mad dog, but Rai was among the more normal hidden owners despite the craziness around him.
Sure, Rai was among the relatively normal ones among the weird hidden owners.
Since he’s in charge, his judgment of the situation is quite superb.
The moment he attacked Lily, the plan of ‘winning by devouring most of the castles on the continent’ was long abandoned.
What Rai wanted was to stall for time with those three and win by differences in the ‘number of castles’!
Even though it was urgent for him to use his full power, he still asked Ayane to push the North till the end.
“I thought you’d hold out a bit longer… the gap is bigger than I expected.”
─What should we do? The southern front is empty.
“…For now, leave it to those heading south. If you see any user opponents, kill them on sight. Lily shouldn’t fight at all.”
─Understood.
They maintain the front line.
I don’t know why Lily, who was occupying the east, came to catch Shark in the west, but anyway, Shark is the weakest user among the three.
Even if Rest and Jackal might not win, they could at least dodge as much as possible.
“Shark has no physical abilities aside from the summoned shark… In contrast, Jackal has a strong individual body, and Rest already has a history of escaping from Lily!”
There’s a chance to win.
If he only dodges like this—
─J-jackal has been caught!
“What the heck, seriously.”
■
“Krururu…”
KRAAAA!!!
Countless blades spring forth.
As thousands of magical blades imbued with magic spread in all directions, I raised my holy power to block them.
It was a quite imposing attack.
It’s definitely thicker magic than what I faced with Shark before.
Jackal, a disheveled-haired man, stands before me drooling while holding a sword in each hand.
“You’re still standing after getting hit in the head…”
By the way, when I met Jackal, he had already demolished a castle.
He swung his sword around so vividly that not a single intact part of the castle was left.
Even though I smashed his head with the White Guardian transformed into a hammer the moment I met him, he was still fine.
It wasn’t with any special technique or strong power, but it was a blow imbued with holy energy.
Even if it didn’t kill him right away, at least he should have fallen down.
[ㄷㄷㄷㄷ]
[Looks a bit strong]
[Wait, Lily got hit by the hammer and is fine?]
[This isn’t a one-shot kill]
[It’s doing some damage]
[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
“Is it a power similar to immortality? It looks way too unstable for that though.”
“Huuhhh…”
“First, let’s catch it─”
Swish! Swish!
The sword moves.
It looks like it’s twisting around mindlessly, but executing the technique is no different from normal.
As he took the knight stance, his gaze returned to normal.
“Thousand Blades’ Fury.”
Swish!!!
Ten thousand swords move.
With shadowy replicas darting around beneath the ten thousand swords, their number skyrocketed to at least fifty thousand.
I spun the hammer vigorously toward the countless malices charging at me.
“Roar of Acceleration!”
Boom!!!
Like a lightning bolt, the hammer shot through and knocked Jackal’s head clean off.
After regaining the hammer, I completely crushed Jackal’s remaining body.
‘If it’s just this much…’
“!”
[Lily!]
[????]
[?]
[Behindbehindbehindbehind]
[What the hell]
Swish!!!
Before I knew it, a black blade had grazed the back of my head.
Swoosh! A tiny trickle of blood erupted, and the magic began savoring my body infused with holy power.
Sssss…
Of course, this level of magic was quickly purified.
“…Immortality.”
But that wasn’t the problem.
“Ugh…”
Jackal resurrects.
Despite having completely shattered his body using holy power and the hammer, the near-immortal ‘ability’ forced him back to life.
Jackal’s flesh bubbled and regenerated, and soon he took the knight stance just like before.
“Thousand Blades’ Fury, multiplied.”
This time, hundreds of thousands of swords erupted.
Gazing at the hundreds of thousands of swords filling the sky, I pondered.
‘Immortality is undoubtedly a powerful ability, but it’s never ‘absolute.’’
Just like the intermediate-class demon who was the god of Suessu.
Resistances related to immortality or death are often toppled by greater power.
And here, Jackal in front of me was no different.
More than Shark, but his power was still at the level of an intermediate-class demon.
He certainly hadn’t crossed the wall of ‘upper.’
But.
Clang!
“I inherited the power. La…”
What if I inherited the ‘ability’ itself?
Though his power is at the intermediate level, if the ability surpasses the upper level to grant the ‘highest’ immortality?
‘He does not die. Not with just this.’
“I’m not going to die. Not like this.”
Shark was using a power she could handle, but Jackal was the opposite.
The power of immortality itself was using ‘Jackal.’
It was a bit unpleasant that the demon race’s magic was wielding the user like a weapon.
Deflecting countless swords, I transformed the hammer into a spear.
I could probably kill him if I tried my hardest, but forcibly cutting off that kind of immortality would likely lead to severe backlash.
Perhaps, like with the Sword Saint, something strange might happen.
I decided to use the technique I had for the first time since my return.
“I’m going to sink it.”
It’s not something that consumes an outrageous amount of resources, but it’s a technique that can only be used once you reach a certain level of ‘rank.’
I don’t particularly like using ‘their’ techniques, but there’s no better technique to restrain such power.
Sinking water surface, the technique created by the sleeping angel, Celes.
“Spear of Rest.”
Crack!
A faintly translucent spear pierced Jackal’s heart.
“…!”
To be precise, it pierced the ‘soul’ beyond the heart.
The magic’s ability, which was moving like it was squeezing the soul, began to sink beneath an endless water surface.
Unless the subject of that power descends directly to pull it back up, it would never surface again.
“Whoa…”
[Is it all over?]
[ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ]
[Is it a new technique?]
[That one was a bit strong.]
[First time seeing it.]
[What did you use?]
“It’s a type of seal. He won’t be able to regenerate for a while.”
Things got a bit complicated, but for now, it’s sealed, so it shouldn’t be a big problem.
Besides, there’s nothing I can find out right now anyway.
I sighed after handing over Jackal to Lasty, beyond the space.
“First… let’s finish the siege war.”
I think we’ve played around enough by now.
At this point, I’ve really given them a lot of chances.
Even for me, giving more than this feels a bit much.
“Then, shall we head to the Medium and Small Alliance’s base?”
[Whoa]
[Hahaha]
[Lily of the Hard Game is coming]
[ㄷㄷㄷㄷ]
[Ah!]
[Oh no!]
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