Chapter 1022

With his eyes fixated on the giant antidemon descending from the heavens, Ashwrath held Gaia tightly in both hands. Every muscle in his body pumped up and expanded. The ogrekin was already pretty ripped, but he practically turned into a huge mass of muscles.

Ashwrath twisted his body as he held Gaia over his shoulder. The huge hammer-like head of the blade was almost touching the ground. The stance reminded me of a golf player’s backswing.

I could sense him focusing all his mana on the divine sword. Ashwrath must be intending to intercept the giant antidemon head on.

A clash between two entities containing a massive amount of energy that we couldn’t hope to match. I can barely imagine the absolute devastation that will result.

『Run, run, run!』

All I could do was urge Fran to keep moving. We’ve come a long way, but my Crisis Sense refused to settle down one bit.

In reality, it’s only been a few seconds since we started running. Fran was dashing at max speed, but it still felt too slow. I started to panic too.

We’ve managed to reach Orfalve’s division.

「Guys! We need to run!」

「We are already out of time! Shield squad! Forward!」

「「「 Roger! 」」」

Staying here with the dwarves seems to be our best plan. Fran took refuge behind them.

『Fran! Let’s cast resonance magic!』

（Got it!）

A combination of flame and wind magic, for defense rather than offense.

Flame Barrier to insulate us from the heat, combined with Wind Shield to protect us from wind. By resonating magic with these two elements, we can make a huge wall for mitigating explosive shockwaves.

Even if we can’t block everything, anything weakening the force will help out the dwarf shield squad.

「Wide-Range Impact Ward!」

In addition, Seliadot deployed a ward. It seems she had been quietly building up her strength all this time to respond in the case of an emergency.

Immediately after our resonance magic and Seliadot’s ward formed a double-layered wall in front of the dwarves…

The falling star landed.

Its descent slowed for a tiny instant right before impacting the earth, probably due to Ashwrath’s interference.

Even so, he wasn’t capable of repelling it completely.

The gigantic explosion covered the land with blinding light, a massive shockwave, and a storm of debris.

Our barriers were annihilated in an instant. Seliadot’s ward managed to hold on a bit longer, but no more than a single second. The mana shield projected by the dwarves took the rest of the impact head on. Still, they managed to hang in there.

Only by pouring all their mana into their shields were they able to prevent them from falling apart. A few seconds after the short clash, the storm began to subside.

The dwarven shieldsmen were so exhausted that not a single one of them could stand, so they all collapsed on the spot. However, it’s thanks to them that we got through without heavy injuries.

Some had been hit by flying debris, but I don’t see any fatalities. The demonkin were already scurrying around and healing the wounded.

Leaving the rescue to them, we quickly blew away the vortex of dust with wind magic in preparation for our assault on the giant antidemon. That’s when we saw a breath-taking view.

The entire battlefield had been gouged out, as if dug up by excavators. Literally everything aside from the area we stood, which was relatively safe thanks to the dwarves.

The scene stretched as far as we could see. The flat ground we were standing on was now a small hill rising above the surrounding land.

This massive amount of damage must have been from taking the huge shockwave head-on. Still, it was nothing compared to ground zero.

There, a huge hole had been drilled into the earth. Round and deep, as if the cylinder of earth existing there had suddenly evaporated.

The antidemon had concentrated the majority of the force directly downwards.

We were only standing right now because it didn’t consider us the main target. If the creature wanted to take us out, it could have easily spread out the force of the impact.

As for the state of our enemy, the giant antidemon was lying at some distance from the huge hole. Its spherical body that used to be like the full moon was gouged and battered, more like a crescent moon now.

It seemed to have lost about 70% of its volume. The inner core had vanished, leaving only part of the surface layer remaining.

That said, it still had plenty of mana. I bet it’s already regenerating on the inside.

On the other hand, we also saw Ashwarth lying on the ground near the hole. He was completely motionless, with his entire body charred.

「Ashwrath!」

We ran over to check his condition, and found him barely hanging on to life. He was missing an arm and the lower half of his body was mutilated.

However, he can be saved as long as he’s not dead. In the first place, his regeneration was already starting. Despite this fact, we focused on healing him as quickly as possible. Without caring for our mana reserves, we cast restoration magic as if our lives depended on it.

「……The light on his horns went away.」

『Yeah, that was a close one……』

The horns on the fallen Ashwrath’s forehead had been glowing red, with rapidly-increasing intensity. Mad Ogre Form was almost about to activate in response to his near-death condition.

It seems to have settled down after we healed his wounds.

『We have no clue what’ll happen if Ashwrath suddenly goes insane on us.』

「Nn.」

It’s true that we might get lucky and have him kill the giant antidemon for us. However, things are never that easy.

I think it’s more likely he’ll attack our forces too, causing massive casualties.

In that case, the annihilation of our forces might allow the giant antidemon to make a full recovery.

『Fran. We need to go too. If we can’t manage to defeat it here, we might be doomed.』

I have no clue if Ashwrath will be battle ready when he wakes up. We have to end this battle here, once and for all.

After leaving Ashwrath in the hands of some approaching adventurers, Fran joined up with the dwarves. However, our assault wasn’t going as planned.

Since we never got the chance to finish our preparations, we didn’t have enough firepower to finish off the antidemon. The exact same situation as when Adol rushed in early.

I had been counting on Mea’s team for support, but they got blown away in the impact. I doubt that’s enough to kill them, but I have no clue where they are……

A wave of panic began to take over our army. The regeneration rate of the giant antidemon began to outpace our attacks.

If it manages a full recovery, we’re really out of options. Can we do anything? The only countermeasure I could think of was to ensure Sophie’s escape, then intercept the giant antidemon at Nocta, where we could use the song of adventurers.

We would be leaving many people to die, but it’s the only strategy that seemed to have a shot at victory.

As I was thinking about this, a girl dismounted her carriage. She seemed relatively unharmed, probably thanks to the soldiers protecting her with no consideration for their own lives.

That girl had completely slipped my mind.

「Ajisai.」

「Sakaki, Shikimi. Take care of the rest.」

「……Understood.」

「……Leave it to us.」

「You may get caught up in this, so I apologize in advance.」

Ajisai bowed to the nearby dwarves and demonkin with an attitude that was completely out of place. Then, she drew her divine sword.

「Ajisai!」

「Fran, this is good-bye. This abomination must die if we are to return Berserk to our homeland. I will put an end to it.」