Din's Side
"Merlin! I've secured the path to the Warp Zone!"
After absorbing Merlin's arm and Kogarumaru into her body, that woman hadn't bothered to finish us off—she'd simply started moving toward the surface. She must have written us off completely.
I wanted to at least land a single hit on the woman as she turned her back on us, but the reality was that I had lost my right eye, Merlin had lost his arm from the elbow down, Jin had lost everything below the midpoint of his left thigh, and Shiromaru had taken heavy blows across his entire body and was bleeding from wounds all over. Slarin was the only one who appeared uninjured at first glance, but even she had slowed down considerably—likely because she'd lost a large portion of her body. Jin's bleeding in particular was severe; it was the kind of wound that could be life-threatening without immediate treatment. In the brief time we'd spent patching him up, the woman had slipped away.
And to make matters worse, even though that woman was gone, zombies were still crawling out of the dungeon below. Some of them had even made it up to the upper floors and were wandering around.
Thanks to our injuries and the nuisance of the zombies, we'd lost precious time—but Tenma's Golem had let us secure a path to our destination without having to fight directly.
"If that woman climbs up one floor at a time, we might have enough time to treat our wounds…"
"That's unlikely, I'm afraid. Given who she is, there's a strong chance she'd find some way to use the Warp Zone to ascend directly."
Merlin was probably right.
According to Tenma, Seigen's dungeon was constructed using spatial magic, much like a Dimension Bag, and because of that, it was highly likely that something called a Warp Zone existed within it. The woman had absorbed Tenma into her body and produced weapons from thin air—she could clearly use spatial magic at a high level. It was something I didn't want to think about, but it was possible that the woman could use the dungeon's Warp Zones through some means other than the proper method.
"If the Warp Zone can transport you from one floor to another, she might get lost and it could take time—but Seigen's Warp Zones always return you to the topmost Warp Zone first if you want to reach a different floor."
In other words, while Seigen's dungeon offered countless routes inward, the way back out funneled through a single exit. So anyone who used a Warp Zone would almost certainly be sent back to a point near the surface.
"Still, if there's even the slightest chance, we need to get back as quickly as possible… Jin! I'm sorry, but Merlin and I are going ahead."
Merlin and I had taken considerable damage, but that didn't mean we couldn't run. Jin, on the other hand—although we'd managed to stop the bleeding from his leg, the amount of blood he'd already lost had left him barely able to stand. He was being supported and moved along by the Golem and Slarin, but his pace was slower than a walk.
"I'm… fine. At this rate, it's not far to the surface, so please… go on ahead."
It wasn't entirely safe, but with Tenma's Golem around—and more importantly, Slarin and Shiromaru—the journey to the Warp Zone shouldn't be too dangerous. That was what I thought, but Jin pushed Slarin and Shiromaru, who had been supporting him, toward me.
"The more… fighters we have, the better."
He said that from here, the Golem alone would be enough to get him back, and urged us to head to the surface first.
"Understood. Jin, make sure you catch up to us right away!"
Since Jin said so himself, we had no choice but to go on ahead. Besides, Golems were stationed in small numbers at each junction point along the way to the Warp Zone, so as long as something truly massive didn't show up, there should be no danger to Jin. If anything, we should have been more worried about the injury to his left leg than about him being attacked by Monsters.
Leaving Jin behind left us feeling a bit guilty, but we shook that off and dove into the Warp Zone after that woman, racing back to the surface. What we saw when we got there was... the woman, who had already made it back to the surface, writhing in pain.
Jin's Side — End
Wrapped in light, we arrived at what appeared to be the exit—
(Tenma, this is where we part ways. Well, it's not like we can't talk — I'll just change my appearance and keep fighting alongside you.)
(I can't stay with you any longer. I'll be watching your fight from above. Also, reliable reinforcements should be arriving soon. Hang in there!)
The instant we tried to force open the narrow hole to squeeze our way out, the black Ancient Dragon and the God of Death left those words behind and vanished. And then, I gripped Kogarumaru and Grandpa's arm...
"GYIAAAAAAAAH—!"
I burst outside, splitting through the body of the screaming woman as I went. In that instant, something inside me—
"S"
"o"
"m"
"e"
"t"
"h"
"i"
"n"
"g"
"was"
"splitting"
and
I had the sensation of being sent flying somewhere far away.
"Tenma!"
"Grandpa! Din!"
As I flew out and quickly put some distance between us, I heard Grandpa and the others calling out from the direction of where the above-ground dungeon building used to stand.
The enemy was still alive, and Grandpa and the others had each suffered serious injuries, but to me it felt like a reunion after years apart, and tears nearly spilled from my eyes.
In the midst of all that, Shiromaru, still carrying Slarin on his back, inexplicably headed back toward the dungeon at incredible speed.
"Grandpa, Din—let me treat those wounds."
"Never mind us! Forget about that — hurry up and finish her off!"
Din said the same thing, telling me to attack the woman, but her suffering was just an act — she had surely already sacrificed the surrounding Zombies to recover.
"It's fine. Right now I'm more worried about your injuries. Besides, it looks like Shiromaru and the others brought Jin back. It'd be better to treat you first."
It seemed Shiromaru had returned to the dungeon to bring back the injured Jin. Jin, barely hanging on to life, was riding on Shiromaru's back, held in Slarin's arms.
"I've got Grandpa's arm here and Jin's leg, so I can put them back the way they were. The blood that was lost — there's nothing I can do about that, but the pain should disappear. Though I think I can heal Din's injuries, I'm not sure whether his eyesight will come back."
As I said that and reconnected Grandpa's arm and Jin's leg while treating Din's eyes—
"Tenma! Get out of there!"
The woman dropped her act and was about to cast a spell at us. Grandpa moved in front of me to shield me, but—
"It's okay. The best reinforcements have arrived."
Before the spell could be unleashed, the woman herself was sent flying.
(You think I'd let you do that?!)
(Damn! She's as tough as you'd expect from the boss of the Dragon Zombies!)
Furthermore, the woman was blown back and had her neck slashed by someone, but the perfectly timed strike didn't manage to sever her head completely.
"That's... those..."
"two..."
"people..."
"...are..."
"Celia... and Ricardo..."
"The best reinforcements you could ask for, right? But it's not just the two of them."
After finishing treatment on the three of them, I moved on to treating Shiromaru, and right in the middle of that, something had been closing in...
"Gold..."
"...colored..."
"and..."
"Silver..."
"...colored..."
"light was scattering the zombies to pieces. I pointed toward them."
"Are those Fenrir?"
The old man didn't seem to have any memory of two Fenrir, but Shiromaru was wagging his tail furiously and exploding with joy in the form of a howl.
(Tenma, enemy reinforcements are coming from the sky.)
(It's about to get rough, so at least help me out already.)
"Celia!"
"Ricardo!"
Mom and Dad came to me after finishing Shiromaru's treatment and said that, but it seemed Grandpa and the others couldn't hear their voices.
When Dad and Mom noticed that, they smiled at the two of them and patted Shiromaru and Slarin. And then—
"I'm heading out!"
Swearing in my heart that next time I'd talk to everyone with a smile on my face, I dashed toward the woman.
The woman had recovered to near-full condition and was preparing to meet our attack, but before her reinforcements—the swarm of wyverns—could arrive, we decided to settle things and launched a wave of attacks.
Against the woman whose stance had been broken by Mom's suppressing magic, I swung a strike infused with all my strength. However, the woman defended against my blow with full force, so Dad, who burst out from behind me, immediately targeted her.
The woman had been targeted in the neck by Dad earlier, so she instantly guarded her neck, but Dad didn't aim for the neck—he swept his blade across her torso instead.
With Grandpa, she apparently used the Dimension Bag in her torso to evade, but this time she was caught off guard and it was a horizontal sweep, so it seemed she couldn't dodge it. However, only a black mist-like substance scattered from the cut on her stomach instead of blood, so I couldn't tell how much damage she actually took.
We continued pressing our attacks, but we couldn't take the woman down before the swarm of wyverns arrived.
(That ability to recover by sacrificing allies is really troublesome...)
(Well, without it, we probably wouldn't be here right now, but—Wha!)
Dad sliced the head off an approaching wyvern and tried to close the distance to the woman, but she was focused on running away and recovering with zombies. This was getting tricky. If there was no one left in Seigen, we could consider using "Tempest," but targeting the woman while she kept running was difficult, and more importantly, there were still many residents hiding and surviving among the zombies. Among them were Amy's family and Master Ganz.
While we were taking down wyverns, the woman was searching for zombies to use as recovery sources... but most of them had already been exterminated by Shiromaru's parents.
"Grrr... Why, why, why, WHYYYY?!"
Whether because things weren't going her way, the woman flew around Seigen in a half-mad frenzy. And then—
"She stopped?"
(Whatever the reason, this is our chance!)
(Let's do this! Tenma!)
She suddenly stopped moving. And then—
"That's enough..."
A massive explosion erupted centered on the woman, and we—who had been closing in to attack—were caught in the blast.
HANA'S SIDE
Even though everything around us was stained red, my consciousness refused to fade.
"Mom, look over there... right there!"
That was the same for Amur, too. Unlike me, Amur had been facing forward, and she was pointing at the reason we were still safe.
The rea—
—son—
was right there.
"Grandpa...? Dad!"
It was somewhat obscured by the light, but standing there were my grandfather—the previous Bandit King, who was supposed to have died over a decade ago—and my father, Crow, who had passed away even before that.
The light spewing from the red dragon was torn apart by the sword and spear the two of them had drawn, splitting into two right before our eyes.
The red dragon noticed the interference in front of us and stubbornly kept breathing fire, but my father and grandfather didn't retreat a single step, slicing through it again and again. If anything, when my grandfather planted his feet and braced his spear, he was able to hold off the breath attack all by himself—something that had required both of them moments before.
Then my father, his hands now free, raised his sword overhead and brought it down in a sharp slash—
"The breath... it's been split open!?"
The red dragon's breath was cleaved apart vertically, ultimately reaching the dragon's own mouth and drawing blood. And then, when my grandfather swung his spear—
"It blew it away... that's incredible!"
The shockwave sent the red dragon flying several meters backward. Honestly, it was a sight hard to believe, but since it was actually happening right in front of me, this was reality—including the fact that my father and grandfather, who were supposed to be dead, were standing right here before me.
My father and grandfather didn't say a word, but they wore the satisfied smiles of men who had just finished one last job. Then their bodies gradually grew faint, and I realized with a pang that this miraculous time had come to an end.
Seeing that sight, I couldn't help but cry out—
"Dad! This is your granddaughter, Amur! I became a mother! And Sana had a baby, too! His name is Yoshitsune! He looks just like you, Dad!"
I pushed Amur forward to show her, and even though Sana wasn't here, I screamed that she'd had a child too—firmly, so he would know his bloodline carried on into my next generation.
"Grandpa?"
Amur looked confused at this grandfather she was meeting for the first time, but Dad gazed at her with an expression that hovered somewhere between tears and a smile, then spread his arms wide and crouched down.
"Grandpa!"
The moment Amur saw him like that, she burst forward and threw herself into his arms. I ran toward Dad too, but by the time I reached him, he had almost completely faded—I could barely make out the sensation of embracing him and his arm around my shoulder. Then, as we stood there, Grandpa's fading hand reached out and patted our heads.
"Grandpa Kei…"
"Grandpa…"
It had been—how many years? No, how many decades—since Grandpa had last patted my head? But that strong, gentle feeling was something I could never forget.
And just like that, the two of them vanished with their warm, nostalgic smiles still on their faces… and in their place, the greatsword and crimson spear they had been wielding moments ago remained.
"Amur, let's go!"
"You got it! We're not wasting the chance they gave us!"
I gripped the greatsword, Amur took the crimson spear, and we charged toward the staggering red dragon.
Up until the two of them appeared, we had been so exhausted that we could barely walk—but now, strangely, our bodies moved. We felt better than we ever had at full strength, even.
The red dragon wore an expression of disbelief that we still had this much fight left in us, but the damage Grandpa had inflicted hadn't subsided yet—all of its legs were trembling. Still, it braced itself, channeling what little power it had left into its limbs to strike back at us—
"Take—this—!"
Amur leveled her crimson spear and closed in on the red dragon at a fearsome speed, driving the blade right between its brows.
The skull was the thickest and hardest bone in its entire body, but Amur's strike had clearly pierced deep enough to reach the brain. However, that alone didn't guarantee an instant kill.
Sure enough, even after taking a blow that should have killed it on the spot, the red dragon still hadn't stopped moving. It tried to swat Amur—who was still gripping the spear lodged in its brow—with its forelegs. But—
"Die already!"
This time, it was my turn. I swung Dad's greatword down from overhead onto the red dragon's neck.
That single swing sliced clean through the red dragon's neck—a neck so thick it would take several people to wrap their arms around it—and the foreleg it swung missed Amur entirely, striking nothing but air.
With such razor-sharp precision, the red dragon's body kept moving for about ten seconds as if it hadn't even realized its head had been cut off... then crashed to the ground with a tremendous thud.
"Is it... over? ...Amur!"
I couldn't immediately believe what I was seeing before me and stood there stunned for a moment, but then I remembered Amur falling together with the dragon's head and looked around. That was when—
"Nnn... guhh..."
I heard Amur's strained voice and rushed over in a panic. But—
"Amur... what are you doing?"
"Huh? Grandpa Kei's spear is stuck and I can't get it out. Mom, help me!"
There was Amur, fighting tooth and nail to pull Grandpa's crimson spear from where it was embedded in the red dragon's brow. He looked so much like his usual self that my earlier worry about him being hurt seemed downright foolish.
"Fine. Move aside a bit. Ready... nnghhh..."
That crimson spear, which had pierced in so effortlessly before, was now impossible to pull out no matter how hard I and Amur strained—so stubbornly lodged that its earlier sharpness felt like it must have been an illusion.
"Heeeey... sister-in-law... Amur..."
That was when Branca and the surviving soldiers of the Southern Baron's army began to gather around. At first, they approached with cautious, half-disbelieving steps, unsure whether the red dragon was truly dead. But gradually they forgot even their wounds, crowded in with growing noise, and began celebrating their survival in loud, joyful voices. As for "that person" while everyone was making merry—he had been unconscious, so someone had carried him to a patch of flat ground and laid him down. He showed absolutely no sign of stirring despite the commotion all around him, so quiet it almost made you wonder whether he was dead.
To be safe, I checked his breathing and listened for a heartbeat. Both responded, so I knew he was alive at least—
"When you feel up to it, I'll put a flower on your grave for you."
"I'll drink all your precious sake in your stead, so rest easy."
"With him gone, nobody's left to handle all the hassle of festivals..."
The moment they confirmed he was alive, Amur and a few others immediately started cracking jokes like that, so I slapped every single one of them for good measure.
"Branca, immediately issue a headcount—find who can still move, who needs rest, and who didn't make it. For any unit that's lost its commanding officer, the most senior member takes charge."
The Southern Baron's army that set out from the south clearly no longer bore any resemblance to what it had been when it departed. And yet, the real battle was only just beginning. Our role was to pin down, suppress, or better yet annihilate the rebel forces led by Duke Dalam that would surely be attacking from the west.
For that, we need to know exactly what forces we have on hand, and depending on what we find, we may need to dramatically revise our entire battle plan.
"Understood. Give me a little time."
With so few people able to fight, I'll need to get my hands dirty too since I'm the one giving orders — but the hardest part isn't who's alive.
It's
who
d
i
e
d.
Fortunately, the people closest to me — that person, Amur, and Branca — have already been confirmed alive. But the rest of the soldiers have people precious to them, just like I do. Or had. If I left this alone without doing even the bare minimum, it could easily fester into something far worse down the line.
"For now, roughly six thousand survived. Of those, about three thousand are injured but can still move. A little over two thousand have serious wounds. The rest aren't exactly immobile, but it'd be better to keep an eye on them."
"I see... Not to sound callous, but it's remarkable nearly six thousand made it through."
It might sound insensitive, but when you consider we were ambushed by that kind of monster and still had enough people left to function as a fighting force, I think you could call it a miracle.
"We're from the Hidden Village. Three of our people are dead. Of the survivors, four are fit to move immediately. The remaining three... please, let them rest..."
The man with the tiger-like face who served as the Hidden Village's representative — the chief's adjutant — delivered his report. Those remaining three, I suspected, were people who were still alive but beyond saving.
"Use this medicine. It should ease the pain somewhat. And please pass along the Southern Baron's deepest gratitude for your help."
"Understood. I'll make sure they know."
Ideally, I shouldn't be playing favorites with certain soldiers, but these people had been living in complete seclusion, never showing their faces — until the Southern Baron's forces and the kingdom itself were in crisis, at which point they emerged from hiding to lend their aid. Ten people, yes, but in a sense, they were our allies. Showing this degree of gratitude was the least I could do. Besides, though I called it medicine, what I'd actually given them was a potent drug — the kind that could just as easily be abused as a narcotic. Given what it was and what it was meant for, I didn't think anyone would raise an objection.
"Branca, we're setting up camp here for the night. Tomorrow, we march for the Royal Capital around midday. We'll only get about half a day of rest, but I want the serious wounded treated before we leave... Actually, use up whatever medicine you got from Tenma — do everything you can. At the same time, reorganize the units. Split them into two: one made up of everyone who can move right away, heading for the Royal Capital, and the other made up of whoever's left, staying behind here. The rear guard takes the serious wounded and the medics guarding them, plus keep watch over the spoils of war."
Rather than gathering every last survivor and marching on the Royal Capital to face the rebel army head-on, splitting off only the able fighters and throwing them at the enemy would give us a far better chance of winning. Besides, we were battered beyond recognition — but even if the rebel force outnumbered us ten to one, our morale was at its absolute peak. We had slain the Red Dragon. And if we were anywhere near the Royal Capital, we could reasonably expect reinforcements from the Royalist Faction.
"Yeah, got it, sis. So if we're using up all the medicine, what about the rest of our supplies?"
"Everyone should carry just enough water and food to last until the Royal Capital, and leave everything else here. For weapons, each person only needs to carry what they'll use and a spare."
Once we reached the Royal Capital, even if we ran out of water, food, or medicine, we could always rely on the Ootori family. Still,
"This is insane..."
"What's insane, sis?"
My muttered words had apparently reached Branca's ears.
I knew it probably wasn't the kind of thing a commander should be saying, but—
"No, it's just — if we march to the Royal Capital and fight the rebel army, we're obviously at a disadvantage... and yet somehow I can't picture a future where we lose. If anything, the only image I can conjure is us winning and laughing our heads off."
Thoughts like that kept swirling through my head — the kind that would earn me a disqualification as a military leader, no doubt. But,
"Sis, I feel the same way. There's no way we, who beat that dragon, could lose to some rebel army."
Branca seemed to feel the same — that defeat was simply unthinkable.
Having the two people at the top of the chain of command in this state might be dangerous, but from the looks of things, not a single person around us doubted we would win. And then, on top of all that,
"Amour, what did you do to Raiden?"
"Mm, I tried repairing Raiden in my own way! Of course, I couldn't completely fix what was broken, so I merged it with the tank I borrowed!"
All Amour had really done was strap Raiden's broken rear legs onto a cart-like contraption attached to its torso, but Raiden seemed to be walking just fine. Of course, while walking wasn't an issue, the moment it tried to run, the cart wouldn't be able to keep up with Raiden's speed.
"Branca! Round up anyone among the unscathed who's good with their hands or has experience making horse equipment — and have them improve the parts Amour repaired!"
Having Raiden with us versus not having it would make a world of difference in the damage we could inflict. At the very least, it should further boost the Southern Army's combat capability.
With that thought, I had Branca gather people for the repairs, but...
"We won."
"Yeah. We won."
"I can't see any reason we'd lose!"
It wasn't quite up to what Raiden could manage in peak condition, but the hands that repaired the carriage turned out better than expected. The reinforced joints on the modified carriage wouldn't budge even under hard use, and Raiden himself seemed satisfied with the result.
Hearing this, voices rose from the onlookers suggesting they head to the Royal Capital immediately, but...
"Wha—! What's that? Food? Get me some too!"
Startled awake by the cheers and blurting out his sleepy nonsense, that person had — in a way — helped everyone regain their composure.
— Hana's Side — End