984: Hagane's Casualties

We failed to intercept all of them!

I quickly reinforced our barrier as soon as I realized it was too late. Immediately afterwards, the massive explosion covered the second division in flames alongside a similarly massive roar.

All the ball antidemons detonated at the exact same time.

「Kuugh……!」

『Fran! You okay?!』

（Kinda……!）

With the blast shockwaves coming at us from all directions, we were completely pinned down.

Even our max output barrier couldn’t block the incinerating heat, and I could see Fran’s skin rapidly turning to ash. My blade also started bubbling up with my durability eroding at lightning speed.

While healing Fran, I activated Dimensional Shift to escape. Putting too much into the interception effort had forced a delay before I could cast my next spell.

The inferno and debris raging on the battlefield made it impossible to see what was going on around us. The powerful mana imbued in those flames also prevented me from detecting anything with my skills.

I couldn’t even sense Matsuyuki, who was supposedly right next to us.

We should have knocked away 9 out of the 10 ball antidemons, but each explosion just had a completely ridiculous amount of power.

Even knocking them 100 meters off course wasn’t enough to disable them completely.

It’s terrifying to think this happened after a single direct hit. If all of them exploded next to us, even Fran and I might have been goners.

Half a minute or so passed, and our field of vision finally cleared. But Fran simply stood there, choking on her words.

「G-Guys……」

『This is… terrible……』

More than half of Hagane’s troops laid motionless on the heavily cracked and rubble-strewn earth. Many of the fallen were completely charred, others had their limbs unnaturally bent or missing.

Just one look at their bodies told us they weren’t getting back up again.

The damage was way more than we expected.

Yet, some of them survived, thanks to Matsuyuki. She must have activated Berserk’s power just in time to negate the explosion’s force.

Some of the soldiers behind her stood unscathed.

While Hagane suffered heavy casualties, the adventurers had almost zero fallen.

Izario had used the power of Ignis to create a ward. This completely absorbed all the flames and canceled most of the impact as well.

However, some of the remaining enemies had been chasing the adventurers up until the explosion. They must have injured a few before they could escape into Izario’s ward.

Though those same enemies were pretty much eradicated by the giant explosion afterwards.

But this wasn’t even close to the end.

『They’re coming!』

「!」

The humanoid antidemons were already closing in on the still disorderly second division.

Even setting aside the suicide bombing of the ball antidemons, the ten humanoid antidemons alone were enough to become a deadly threat.

No wait, only eight of them were approaching us. Urushi managed to grab the attention of the remaining two. Despite taking quite the beating, he continued provoking the antidemons away from us.

『We can’t lose either!』

「Nn!」

But what can we do? Izario still had his divine sword activated, but pushing him any further might be dangerous. Meanwhile, Matsuyuki was――

Shiver.

「Nn?」

『Huh?』

Fran was startled by a sudden change in her field of view, but I was even more surprised. Why did I just teleport us?

No, I know exactly why. I ran, obeying the fear that suddenly welled up in me. The sheer terror gave me no choice but to run.

The source of the fear was a single girl, simply standing there with an eerie mixture of black and white mana enveloping her.

『Something’s going on with Matsuyuki……』

（That black and white mana is Berserk’s?）

『Berserk, and its scabbard!』

Black mana rose from Matsuyuki and her blade, while the white mana came from the scabbard.

Simply looking at her gave me a sense of uneasiness, telling me to get away as quickly as possible. Fran seemed to feel the same way since her tail had fallen lifelessly to the ground.

Up until now, Fran has fought off countless enemies without showing any trace of cowardice. Yet, even she was scared to death upon seeing Matsuyuki and Berserk. The current Matsuyuki gave off an aura with that much pressure.

Could it be that the Blade of Madness was about to be unleashed?

That’s when Izario called out to us.

「Come on, little lady! We need to get out of here!」

Izario shouted, creating a wall of flame between the antidemons and the second division. His towering wall was filled with divine energy.

However, Izario wasn’t trying to escape the antidemons. He took all the adventurers and started running away from Matsuyuki. That flame wall was intended to allow them time to escape unhindered by the antidemons.

Seeing this, Fran immediately began moving as well.

（Izario is so panicked.）

『Damn! Urushi, that’s enough! Come back to us!』

（Woof?）

『Don’t worry, just hurry back as fast as you can!』

（W-Woof!）

I called Urushi back with a telepathic message. We had no choice but to run too.

From behind our backs, we heard Matsuyuki’s voice.

「Show us the true meaning of power. The manifestation of fury and destruction, Berserk! Divine Sword Release!」

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