With the emergence of Chimera Soldiers effortlessly scaling the walls, scenes of close-quarters combat are already noticeable atop the castle walls. The chaotic atmosphere, filled with blood and blades, befits a scene from a defensive war.
Moreover, flaming boulders hurled from a line of catapults roughly a kilometer away add a fiery touch, resembling meteors.
The walls lined with Spada Soldiers demonstrate a defensive power worthy of their nickname, the Great Wall of Galahad, standing tall and undamaged even when rock projectiles explode against them. Additionally, projectiles falling from above in a parabolic arc towards the paths and forts are intercepted by a wide-area defensive barrier of light deployed with all their magical power by the Spada Royal Palace’s Mage Corps and the latest barrier technology.
As the blazing rocks touch the invisible dome-like barrier hovering about two hundred meters above the fortress, they detonate in a massive explosion, scattering fiery heat and blocking the raging hot winds, while only small fragments, reduced to the size of pebbles, rain down.
“Hey, Nero! Let’s hurry and go!”
Amid the thunderous sounds of exploding rock projectiles overhead, a boy shouted loudly.
He had spiky blond hair, but his face was covered by a mask shaped like a dragon.
“Don’t call me by my real name, you idiot.”
The boy called Nero, who similarly wore a mask, retorted. However, while his design was much simpler—a plain white mask covering only the upper half of his face—the sharp line from his nose to chin suggested a handsome face beneath.
Fortunately, the surrounding adventurers engaged in battle seemed completely unconcerned about them. In fact, they likely had no time to worry.
“Have you already forgotten why we came dressed like this?”
Nero shot him an exasperated look—of course, he was the First Prince of Avalon, Nero Julius Elroad himself.
“I know, I know! So, um, what was your name again?”
“……Ex.”
“Right, that’s it! Of course, I remember!”
With a somehow proud shout from his less-than-bright friend, Nero let out his usual deep sigh.
“I’m counting on you, alright? We’ve come this far. Remember, I’m Ex, Sharl is Es, Safi is Dee, and you are… do you remember?”
“Uh… Kai?”
“It’s Kei.”
Despite the name being chosen to be easy enough for an idiot to remember, it had lost its purpose. All he could do now was pray that he would finally remember this time.
“Please don’t shout our party name or anything.”
“Don’t worry!”
The foolish-looking Kai, or rather Kei, pounded his chest confidently, instilling only anxiety in Nero, as was always the case.
“Haah… Maybe I shouldn’t have come to this annoying place after all…”
The Rank 5 Adventurer Party “Wingroad” led by Nero was now caught in the midst of the Fifth Galahad War. However, they were participating under false identities, concealing their true identities.
Currently, Nero was in Spada solely to undertake an emergency quest, identifying himself as the rookie adventurer “Ex.” This Ex, who happened to meet three other equally novice adventurers in Spada, formed a party and was now joining the battlefield as a member of “Gladiator.”
That was the setup for the Rank 1 Adventurer Party “Alterface.”
Truly, a thoroughly ridiculous lie, but although he thought so deep down, he accepted that such things were sometimes necessary in the world of adventurers.
Essentially, because adventurers are not pried into about their circumstances, they can maintain a ‘self-proclaimed’ identity even with obvious lies. None of the members of Wingroad, or rather Alterface, believed that simply donning silly masks could hide their true identities. Well, except maybe Kai, who might truly believe, “I won’t be found out like this!”
In any case, even if someone realized their true identities, it wouldn’t pose a significant problem. At the very least, not for adventurers.
As long as they weren’t spotted by Spada Soldiers, especially the Third Princess Charlotte.
Of course, if they blended in among the Gladiators like this, they should be fine unless they attracted attention by fighting too conspicuously.
“Hey, hey, Ex! Let’s do this!”
Kai, who had altered his name for the occasion, excitedly pulled on the inconspicuous disguise of Nedro’s apprentice mage robe, eager to showcase his combat enthusiasm. It was somewhat, no, quite annoying.
“We don’t need to move just yet. The Spada defense line isn’t so fragile that it’ll be shaken by this.”
From the corner of his vision, through the mask, he caught sight of a six-armed wolf beastman rampaging into the wall passages, being pierced and taken down by the spears of Spada Soldiers.
The Chimera enemy possessed an aberrant body with immense power, yet they were not unbeatable even by just infantry. With spears thrust from all sides simultaneously in this narrow passage, the creature had no choice but to take on the sharp tips.
Had they been poorly motivated weak soldiers, they might have been frightened and trampled by the fierce Chimera, but those defending here had a famously courageous national character all the way down to the common soldier.
With courage, spirit, tenacity, and the advantage of numbers, they would secure victory against the raging Chimera.
“And besides, even if we slay those creepy Chimera bastards, it won’t earn us any real merit.”
“I don’t need materials from the likes of those weaklings either. Besides, I don’t want to use anything that’s been tampered with by humans.”
Quietly murmuring behind Nero was ‘Dee,’ also known as Safi Maya Hydra, clad in a sinister skull mask.
Her outfit was similar to Nero’s apprentice mage robe. While Nero wore black, Safi donned a dark purple that was near black. Coupled with her deep hood, the skull mask lent her an appearance reminiscent of a reaper. Had the beautiful voice issuing from behind the mask not resembled the sound of rolling bells, one might not have guessed that a girl was inside such a dark and foreboding guise.
“By the way, Safi—oops, I mean Dee, are those guys the products of necromancy?”
A red-haired girl with a cute, deformed cat mask standing near Nero casually asked the reaper Safi.
Of course, the girl in the cat mask was none other than Charlotte Tristan Spada, the Third Princess of Spada.
Instead of her usual proud red cape, she wore a bright red cloak. Like Safi, she too was hooded, but her design featured perked up cat ears.
Her pure white blouse made of mithril fiber enveloped her modest upper body, while the red and black checkered mini skirt she wore covered her recently slightly larger backside. From the hem of the short skirt, a swaying cat tail extended. Of course, it wasn’t real, but it was crafted to resemble one closely.
Incidentally, how this tail moved was a secret of the Mordred Weapon Trading Company, the manufacturer.
“No, those aren’t corpses. They’re definitely alive.”
A flicker of purple light shone from the dark eye sockets of the skull mask. The unsettling gaze was directed at a Spada Soldier throwing the pierced and lifeless body of a Chimera Soldier off the walls.
“So that means they modified living slaves from the Daedalus people… That’s some awful technology.”
Wait, are those guys not a new type of monster?! Only the fool Kai seemed surprised. Even with limited intelligence, one could quickly imagine that their differing characteristics indicated they had been forcibly remade in that form.
“Yet, it’s advanced technology not found in Spada. At first glance, they may seem like random junk patched together, but all their parts move functionally. Moreover, they have been intentionally enhanced to be in a mild berserk state, and their command to climb walls and slay enemies is not disrupted.”
Indeed, while the Chimera Soldiers rampaging like they had lost their reason, they did not attack their allies. It was presumed they only had one command imprinted in their heads: kill on this wall, but perhaps they could completely distinguish between friend and foe, according to Safi.
“To have so many of them prepared, there must be a brilliant mage among the Crusaders…”
Though generally indifferent to others, the usually cool Safi spoke with an uncharacteristic tone of admiration mixed in.
“—Which means there’s a crazy organization that willingly conducts modification experiments.”
Even she, hailed as the genius necromancer of the Hydra family, couldn’t help but acknowledge the magical techniques hidden within those Chimera Soldiers.
“Hmm, this Crusader organization seems quite interesting. I’m feeling a bit intrigued.”
“Oh, wow! Safi’s getting motivated! That’s rare! Let’s go take them down together—ugah!”
A long staff tipped with a crystal skull struck the center of the dragon mask, dealt by Safi, without a shred of mercy.
“That’s a different story. I don’t want to fight with them. Besides, I told you to call me Dee now, you idiot.”
“Ugh… what if the mask breaks? Unlike me, this one’s fragile!”
“Is that what you’re worried about?”
Just then, as Nero let out a second sigh at his usually lighthearted comrades in the battlefield, a warning shout arose from among the fighting adventurers.
“Hey, one of them broke through over there! It’s coming from below, watch out!”
“Whoa, seriously?!”
“Crap, it’s coming this way!”
“Those moves are super creepy!”
Three seemingly unreliable adventurer boys, clearly new, stood in front of Nero and the others, panicking as they readied their weapons.
They were at the front line overlooking the castle walls while Nero and his group were one row back. Though they couldn’t see the incoming enemy, it was easy to imagine the Chimera Soldier with its eerie multiple arms or heads rapidly scaling the wall.
From their positioning, it would be the front-line adventurers who met the enemy first. Yet, they would probably be torn apart in an instant. If that happened, their turn would come next.
Nero silently reached for his beloved sword, the Spirit Blade “White King Sakura,” hanging from his waist. Other members had also fallen into battle readiness without needing orders from their leader.
Even if they had no intention to fight, they would have no choice if enemies appeared right before them. It was unlikely that either Nero or Safi would complain about such a situation.
“All right, now’s the time. Attack—geh!”
As the Chimera Soldier reached the top of the wall, the adventurers unleashed their attacks—effectively, they planned to.
However, the swords, axes, and spears in their hands were promptly swept aside by the massive frame of the Chimera, which leaped up like a dolphin bouncing on the waves.
Just as Nero had predicted, the cheap leather armor and all were torn apart in one sharp swipe of claw, and the trio collapsed onto the passage, spilling bright red blood. Two were dead on the spot, their bodies motionless, while one lay dying, dumbfoundedly staring at his hands drenched in his own blood.
“N-No way… I…”
Even at this moment, perhaps they had not imagined they would meet their end. Stricken with disbelief, he would never rise again.
A high potion could have saved him at this moment, but—given the enemy before him, Nero had no intention of taking such action.
It wasn’t cold or cruel. Adventurers and knights alike would act similarly. A common sense of priority.
In the midst of battle, prioritizing saving lives belonged to noble clerics or healing mages like his sister Nel.
And she was not here right now. She likely had already left Spada’s domain by now.
“SHAAA!”
A creature reminiscent of a Lizardman landed atop the walls. It had blue scales and two insect-like legs sprouting from its shoulders. The knife-like claws of the lizard and the pointed insect appendages would tomb any ordinary human with just a single hit, just like the recently fallen adventurers.
However, Rank 5 Adventurers wouldn’t quail before such opponents.
“Got it! I’m going in for the kill!”
Kai drew his massive sword and charged gleefully at the raging Lizardman Chimera. The Chimera, too, bared its claws and fangs, preparing to rip into the oncoming Kai—and then halted.
“Gii!”
Letting out a high-pitched cry, the Lizardman Chimera was bound.
By black chains. They emerged rapidly from below the wall like a snake approaching its prey, rattling and wrapping around its blue-scaled bulk. Around its neck, body, and six arms.
The awkwardly captured Lizardman Chimera seemed as if dragged by the hands of the undead down into the depths of hell, disappearing outside the walls.
“——Red Calm.”
In the next moment, a faint crimson trail passed by from the other side of the wall. Simultaneously, a horrific, ear-splitting death scream echoed, and a filthily deep red mist of blood splattered into the void.
Following that, only the corpses of the three novice adventurers and a suddenly disappearing enemy capable of fighting remained, leaving Kai frozen in place with his sword raised.
“Damn it! That was my prey!!”
Before the sight of the man bitterly lamenting his lost quarry, Nero sighed for the third time. However, it wasn’t for the lamenting Kai but due to the one using black chain-like tentacles to steal their prey.
“Haah… That damn Chrono, getting overly excited over weaklings, what a shameful guy.”
While Nero didn’t particularly cling to the aesthetics of battle, he at least possessed minimal discernment. In other words, he held no crude joy in defeating opponents overwhelmingly beneath him.
Before merely infantry, even unarmed slaves were dangerous, but for a Rank 5 combatant, that wasn’t the case. They should be expected to show restraint, to show mercy. They shouldn’t even be engaged initially.
If they behaved that way, it would no longer be a battle but plain slaughter.
“Black Nightmare Berserker, huh? Hmph, he perfectly lives up to that title.”
While truly convinced, Nero gazed down at Chrono struggling against the wall, his red glare shining from beneath the mask.
“Fiona will have a tough time.”
A bit of sympathy arose for her, having to keep up with him, a bona fide combat fanatic even surpassing Kai.
Fiona, with her dazed, sleepy expression, why she was part of Chrono’s “Element Master” team, he couldn’t fathom. If it turned out to be, worst-case scenario, that Chrono harbored incredible ambitions and was taking action in cooperation with them—still, it wouldn’t change the lamentation for her endless struggle to stay beside such a man.
More so, positioned behind Chrono and his fairy companion Lily, routinely supporting their activities, the usual expressionless Fiona likely exhibited no signs of hardship at all to an average person. To them, she merely appeared to diligently carry out her duties as a backline support.
“Well, it’s a matter that doesn’t concern me for now.”
In any case, he had no intention of intervening in Chrono’s actions right now. That man’s aim was likely to achieve greater merit in this war than even during the Iskia incident.
No matter the ambitions harbored, as long as he fought as a member of the allied Spada army, he wouldn’t get in the way. Unless he firmly believed there was an evil intrigue like overthrowing the state on Chrono’s part, he wouldn’t act so far as to take such measures.
Currently, there was nothing to do but observe. Regarding the situation in this battlefield, they still didn’t seem to need the strength of “Wingroad.”
“Our turn must be a little further off—”
Just as he thought that, Nero’s keen sixth sense suddenly alerted him to danger.
“…What’s that?”
He jerked his head up, sharply scanning his surroundings. However, there were no changes as of yet.
Occasionally, Chimera Soldiers would infiltrate, but they were far from the level of occupying these walls. The ladders set by the slaves were swiftly repelled and destroyed, with the Spada Soldiers steadfastly refusing to allow any intrusion.
Nothing abnormal—no. The abnormality was about to arrive.
“W-What is that…?”
At that moment, Nero spotted something enormous emerging from the Crusader encampment about a kilometer away.