Like raptors hunting prey, the Demon Race soldiers swarmed the Divine Soldier from every angle the instant Baron Dibius’s saber descended.
But the Divine Soldier had no intention of giving them any openings.
Swish—!
In one second, he sent Dibius flying. In the next, he dragged his massive sword with one hand across the ground, kicking up dozens of meters of dust. The shockwave hurled the encircling soldiers back once more. Amid the billowing smoke, a blinding golden light erupted as he leaped into the air, reversing his grip on the oversized greatsword and slamming it down from above toward a Demon Race soldier still struggling to rise. In that approach, no one could track his shadow-like speed.
Before him, the Demon Race held no speed advantage on the ground—flight aside.
“Ha!”
Dibius appeared in a flash before one of his unarmed soldiers. With both sabers, he locked the Divine Soldier’s ponderous greatsword, sparing the poor man from being pulverized into unrecognizable pulp. Even so, the searing sparks flying from the grinding blades sent a chill through him. He snatched up his weapon, wrenched free, and readied an attack on the Divine Soldier, who was still locked in a fierce grapple with Dibius.
But in the next instant, Dibius dropped to one knee. He could no longer withstand the Divine Soldier’s crushing pressure—a massive crater exploding beneath his feet with a boom.
“This power… it’s absurd,” he muttered with a chuckle.
Golden light flickered from the gap in the Divine Soldier’s helmet in response. Dibius felt the weight ease for a split second, so he whipped out one saber. Before his single arm buckled under the greatsword and shattered him to pieces, he jammed the blade into the chink in the armor, hoping to strike whatever lurked inside.
It was all for naught.
Though Dibius dodged the greatsword’s immediate downward smash, this battle-hardened Divine Soldier matched Baron Dibius blow for blow in experience.
He paid the greatsword no mind. Instead, he sprang up, twisting midair like a spinning top to evade Dibius’s other saber. His metal-clad fist then hammered Dibius dozens of meters away, carving twin furrows in the earth like tank treads.
“My lord Baron!”
“No need.”
Dibius raised a hand, halting his soldiers from piling in and throwing their lives away.
He hauled himself up, wiped the blood from his lips, and grinned.
“It’s been ages since I faced an enemy like this. Last time was some fool human. Heh heh.”
“Bring me Grom!”
“Right away!” One soldier barked in response. With a few swift tugs, he unlocked the chains on a wooden crate and hurled it to Dibius.
The baron caught the box—tall as a man—and the entire battlefield quivered from its immense weight. He slammed it down before him. In a surge of blood-red power, the box splintered, and a slender two-handed greatsword burst free into Dibius’s iron grip.
“This blade was forged by one of the Demon Race’s finest smiths. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t draw such a brutal weapon.”
At the pommel of “Grom” gleamed a scarlet eye, eerily like a dragon’s orb—but richer, shot through with red and orange like a vibrant gem. It was the pupil of a beast, embodying pure malice.
In the human world, it would demand sealing in some secure vault as a cursed artifact.
Infused with far too much of Dark Filth’s power, the slightest mishap could send it spiraling out of control—a far cry from the “elegance” prized by the Iron Wing Knight Order. But victory was all that mattered now.
If Dibius had one word for the Divine Soldier, it was “heavy.”
Clumsy in appearance yet fluid in motion, utterly without waste. For a moment, he felt like he was back in his master’s training hall, that helpless sensation of being outmatched washing over him.
But with this sword, it was no issue.
The Divine Soldier’s frame hummed ominously—perhaps a warning growl, perhaps cold calculation. The next instant, he lunged. His sword qi streaked through the sky like a phantom, shattering the notion that bigger meant slower.
Dibius parried the overwhelming strike and poised to counterattack. Victory seemed within reach.
But…
Why couldn’t he land a hit?
A mere sidestep evaded the slash. This foe wasn’t some immovable wall—he was a nimble, battle-scarred veteran, Dibius’s equal!
Only now did Dibius realize how idiotic it was to commit to a one-on-one duel.
Still… a wise man knows when to turn back. Ten years was none too late.
“Regret it now, you cur of the gods!”
Suddenly, a black arrow trailing pitch-black smoke like a shooting star embedded itself in a gap in the Divine Soldier’s armor. As it tried to fend off more, hundreds of arrows came raining down from above Dibius like a hailstorm.
Finally, Dibius’s Grom pierced the Divine Soldier’s chest, putting an end to it. This brief victory brought a relieved smile to Dibius’s face.
But in the next moment, that smile of triumphant joy twisted into a bitter grimace.
“Bang—! Sizzle!”
In the corner of his eye, a red-haired girl danced across the battlefield. With one hand alone, she suppressed a Divine Soldier utterly. Her treasured sword slashed across its helmet, snuffing out the Divine Soldier’s pathetic life in a fluid sequence of movements that unfolded in mere seconds.
His own side had exhausted every ounce of strength just to kill one.
“As expected of General Setra. Heh… dispatching a Divine Soldier so casually.”
As if directed by some collective consciousness, the Divine Soldiers realized that continuing like this would see them all wiped out without claiming even a single Demon Race life. In response, they chose to merge of their own accord.
Limb components overlapped like machine parts, their armor gleaming ever brighter. The shadowed faces beneath their helmets sprouted single-line golden eyes, merging together like mechanical constructs or slimes into three far more powerful Divine Soldiers.
With a single sword stroke, swathes of Demon Race soldiers were engulfed in divine light. In an instant, what had seemed like an evenly matched fight turned into a one-sided massacre. The overwhelming pressure sent the Demon Race reeling back in defeat.
“All hands, fall back! Hah—!”
A Divine Soldier’s greatsword carved across the ground toward the defenseless Dibius. At the last possible second, Setra’s blade intercepted that monstrous strike. Yet the beleaguered general was sent flying a hundred meters by a heavy blow from another Divine Soldier, landing precisely in Sophia’s arms and narrowly escaping death.
“This won’t do. We have to regroup and hold out until we reach the safety of the Evil Dragon Domain’s second layer…”
“Setra…”
“Hm? You ready for the fight, you?”
“Of course! Let’s join forces and take down these invaders!” Sophia flashed a confident smile but made no move to set Setra down.
“Yeah, you better put on a good show~ After all, you’re the woman who’s going to be the Demon King’s. Impress the Dragon Consort, and you’ve got it in the bag, right?”
“Idiot…”
Sophia blushed as she descended, gently placing Setra on the ground. The red hair tickled her neck, making it itch.
“I’m not leaving your side.”
