Chapter 173

“So since things have already come to this, let us simply lay out a massive stage so the two forces can settle the score directly.”

“I apologize, but simple-minded as I am, I fail to fully grasp your profound foresight. Could you explain it just a bit further?”

At that, she wagged her index finger and began her explanation.

“First of all, the battlefield must be set in a third location, neither within the empire nor the imperial state. Otherwise, we will end up just like those kingdoms belonging to the Union of the Scales and Scythe. We must choose a place that is as vast as possible, entirely free of cumbersome obstacles. I believe somewhere like the Soizmiz Plains or the Nemuri Wilderness would be ideal.”

“Ah, I see. There is absolutely no need for us to bear the brunt of that clash ourselves.”

“Next, as I mentioned, we blow this layout up into the grandest stage possible. We need both the angels and the force presumed to be the Demon King to feel that this is the place where the ultimate score will be settled. And we must ensure it is decided in a single match. From our perspective, no matter who wins, as long as it ends quickly, it is an absolute win, is it not?”

“Certainly… If the angels win, we can follow Plan A, which assumes the disruption of the Oath of Hope. If the Demon King’s side wins, we can stick to Plan B and maintain our current stance.”

“Exactly.”

“But there is one problem. How on earth do you plan to make only the two of them fight? Do you honestly think the angels will just sit back and watch us step away?”

“Of course not. Naturally, we will mobilize our forces as well. The absolute cream of our elite troops, enough to thoroughly satisfy the angels.”

“Hmm? Are you implying we should use them as mere sacrificial pawns?”

“No. How could I ever do that? Losing such elite forces would deal a devastating blow to both the imperial state and the empire.”

“Then… don’t tell me you intend to rely on the Demon King’s mercy? That is an incredibly rash judgment. I have no idea why an entity of that caliber is so reluctant to kill humans… but just because he has done so until now does not guarantee he will continue to do so in the future. Do you not realize how naive it is to plan anything based on the mercy of another?”

“What does it matter? After all, the only reason we kept pouring our airships into the fray until now was precisely because we held that exact belief—that at the very least, our people would return alive. It would be rather ridiculous to suddenly become prudent now when we’ve been acting like that all along, wouldn’t it?”

“…Grumble.”

“And we won’t be blindly relying solely on their mercy either.”

“Then what?”

“We will play along as though we are entirely on the angels’ side, testing the waters… and if it looks like the angels are going to win, we will simply continue to fight alongside them. However, if the opposite happens and the angels are utterly overwhelmed…”

“…Wait. Octavian, don’t tell me you mean?”

The elf let out a razor-sharp smile.

“Exactly. In that case, we will stand on the Demon King’s side and stab the angels right in the back.”

“……!”

“Wouldn’t that give us the perfect excuse? Even while we were in a state of hostility, he was a gentleman who spared our lives and sent them back… surely he wouldn’t do anything reckless to those who suddenly choose to stand on his side. If it were me, I would spare them out of sheer appreciation for their cleverness.”

“…Even if everything goes exactly according to your plan, the aftermath will be formidable. Standing with the Demon King to openly antagonize the angels, the direct apostles of the gods… that is truly, deeply sacrilegious…”

“Do not worry. As for the justification, did the other celestial gods aside from Equos and Morta not provide it for us themselves?”

“Hmm?”

“Those supreme entities personally handed down oracles stating that the Demon King is fully intact and warning us not to act rashly. And as their devout children, we merely sought to obey their words.”

“D-Did they?”

“But who was it that shattered our obedience? It was those lawless angels. Those fallen angels who insolently denied the very gods we believed in and demanded our submission, forcing apostasy upon us.”

“…Ha.”

“Of course, Lords Equos and Morta could not possibly be involved in this. This must simply be the ungrateful, arbitrary judgment of the angels acting on their own. So what must we do? Punishing those rogue angels is precisely our duty as devout children, is it not?”

“……”

“The gods who handed down the oracles, as well as Lords Equos and Morta who were betrayed by their own angels, will surely praise us for a job well done.”

“…And that is our justification?”

“Yes. Well, it certainly feels like a blatant corporate loophole, but if my imperial state and your empire both agree to close our eyes and play along, who would dare to utter a single complaint?”

“Good grief. Putting the justification aside… what is your true motive?”

“This is purely my own conjecture… but I believe something major has occurred within the Celestial Realm as well. Most likely, Lords Equos and Morta have locked horns with the other gods for reasons we cannot possibly fathom. In such a situation, is there any reason for us to abandon the majority and take the side of Equos and Morta, the distinct minority?”

“…Mmh.”

Wiping the lingering smile from her lips, the elf took a quiet sip of her tea.

Then, in a thoroughly calm tone, she opened her mouth once more.

“And… to be completely frank, I have thoroughly disliked those angels from the very beginning.”

“You know this, do you not? While scriptures contain different teachings across various denominations… the absolute beginning and end of every single scripture remain entirely identical.”

“…The Chief God Yuel spoke, saying, let there be light.”

“And the end?”

“…The Chief God Yuel spoke, saying, we depart now, so the world is yours.”

“Exactly. When the Age of Legends drew to a close, the Chief God Yuel and the other deities ascended to the Celestial Realm, entrusting the world entirely to us. In other words, this world has officially become our responsibility and our right.”

“…”

“Yet who on earth do those angels think they are to descend and arrogantly dictate what we should or shouldn’t do?”

“……”

“I firmly believe that the reason the other gods are merely handing down oracles during this crisis instead of intervening directly is not because they lack the capability, but because they choose not to. It is because they love and respect their children just that deeply.”

“…”

“Therefore, if the situation allows, shouldn’t we scrub them away? Those massive stains on the world known as angels.”

“……”

“……”

The dragonkin clutched his head with a deep groan, sitting in silence for a brief moment before finally letting out a sigh and extending his hand forward.

“Whew. You truly are a silver-tongued devil… Fine. Let’s give it a shot.”

Three days after the day I detonated the Mystery-Flavored Tsar Bomba and turned the angels into celestial dust in the sky.

“A joint statement issued by the Emperor of the Olfen Imperial State and the Emperor of the Tubilan Empire, huh…”

I let out a low chuckle as I skimmed through the proclamation Disis had handed to me.

“They want to settle the score directly on the Soizmiz Plains? Where exactly are the Soizmiz Plains?”

At my question, Ailet answered.

“It is a vast grassland spanning the northern region of the Tubilan Empire. It was originally named ‘So-Izumium,’ which translates to ‘Sea of Miracles’ in the ancient tongue.”

Kelly quickly chimed in to supplement the explanation.

“It is a dangerous place inhabited by a wild population of nearly ten million wild orcs. Because the soil itself is highly fertile, the Tubilan Empire attempted to annex it several times… but I hear they ultimately abandoned the project because it simply wasn’t worth the headache.”

“So the gist of it is that the angels and the two empires have teamed up and want to square off against us in a straight-on head-to-head match, right? What exactly is their angle?”

Sitting snugly on my lap, Shia looked up at me and spoke.

“If they simply sit back and do nothing, their collateral damage will only continue to accumulate… so they likely wanted to arrive at a definitive conclusion as quickly as possible by any means necessary. From their perspective, no matter who wins, having the situation sorted out swiftly is the absolute best outcome.”

This time, Disis opened her mouth to speak.

“I’m not sure there is any reason for us to blindly accept their proposal. The fact that they went out of their way to do this simply means they are cornered. It proves that what we’ve been doing is working well enough.”

Shia rarely chose to express her absolute agreement with Disis’s opinion.

“I concur, my dear. There is no justification to accommodate them. Stepping onto a battlefield decided by your opponent is the absolute height of folly. Who knows what kind of trap they have laid out for us.”

“…Hmm.”

“Do you happen to want to accept it?”

“To be completely frank, yeah.”

“And why is that?”

I offered a light shrug.

“I’m starting to get tired of this routine myself. Seriously, why on earth am I working this hard on a continuous Monday-to-Sunday grind?”

“Ah… true enough. It has already been an entire month, after all.”

“My point exactly. Which is why there won’t be another opportunity as perfect as this to wrap this whole thing up.”

“Hmm…”

“Alongside the remaining bastards of angels, if I completely crush the full military might of the two most powerful nations on the Western Continent in a straight-on head-to-head match… no one will ever dare to question the existence of the Demon King again. Once that’s settled, even the baldies alone should be more than enough to handle the everyday operations of the Demon Territory.”

“I suppose you have a point… Even now, there are still fools out there trying to belittle us, muttering nonsense about how they wouldn’t have been defeated so easily if it hadn’t been a surprise ambush, or that we only resort to terror attacks because we lack the confidence to win a straight fight.”

Hearing that, Hest carefully opened her mouth to speak.

“Master.”

“Yeah?”

“Instead of blindly accepting their proposal, how about we dictate the location of the battlefield from our side? I believe that much should be well within our leverage.”

I fell into thought for a brief moment before shaking my head.

“No, let’s just go along with what they want.”

“And why is that, sir?”

“If they genuinely laid out a master-class trap, that actually works out perfectly fine for us. Stepping right into it and crushing it face-to-face will only deliver a far greater impact.”

At my words, wherever it was that hit her perfectly, Hest’s eyes sparkled brilliantly as she tightly clasped both of her hands together.

“As expected of Master…”

“Cut it out. Disis.”

“Speak.”

“Send one of your doppelgangers to deliver our reply. Tell them we accept the proposal. And while you’re at it, have them do a bit of scouting around that place called the Soizmiz Plains.”

And another week passed.

The Soizmiz Plains.

Step, step…

Arriving alongside my companions roughly thirty minutes later than the scheduled appointment, I looked up toward the thirty-thousand-strong joint alliance army of the imperial state and the empire, as well as the fifty-plus angels already entrenched deep within the plains, letting out a sly smirk.

“Am I a bit late? Well, cut me some slack. The true main character is supposed to show up late, isn’t that how it goes?”

Immediately, a burly male angel clad in a toga slowly descended from the sky high above, violently flapping his two pairs of wings.

Fwaaaaaaaaash!

—Insolent wretch. How dare a lowly, wretched…

I cut him off right on the spot.

“That exact repertoire is getting thoroughly boring by now. You guys get thrashed every single time, yet you still manage to blabber on with words like ‘how dare you’ or ‘lowly wretch’ without a hint of shame. Aren’t you embarrassed?”

—……

“Forget the talk and let’s fight. Let’s settle the score. You came all this way to fight, so why on earth do you have so many useless things to say?”

—…Brace yourself. Your petty tricks will strictly not work against us today.

“Petty tricks? What petty tricks?”

—The specific Law Magic that converts raw matter into pure spiritual power.

“Oh… you guys finally figured it out? I honestly thought you lot were a bunch of absolute blockheads, but I guess that wasn’t entirely the case.”

The angel ground his teeth forcefully as he retorted.

—We have no idea how on earth you are capable of deploying such high-tier Law Magic… but now that we know its true nature, completely neutralizing it is well within our power.

Lifting his hand into the air, half of the angels hovering in the sky clasped their hands together and unleashed a short chant.

A series of highly compressed syllables that sounded like a simple Om! or Um! rippled out through the atmosphere…

Whhiiiiiiiiiir…

…A colossal Law Magic circle bloomed like a giant flower right above the angels’ heads, instantaneously dyeing the blue sky above the Soizmiz Plains into a solid sheet of crimson.

Simultaneously, the angel looked up toward the heavens and bellowed an authoritative phrase teeming with pure mystery.

[Aside from the fundamental inherent power of one’s own vessel, every single tool imbued with mystery is hereby forbidden.]

Immediately following the command, the Blink bracelet tightly wrapped around my wrist trembled violently before losing its luster completely, sliding down and tumbling onto the grass below with a light thud.

“…Huh?”

—It is called the Array of Divine Restriction and Demonic Sealing.

“Oh, so that means…”

As a sudden realization flashed through my mind, I reached into my coat and pulled out the habanite and orichalcum rings.

Sure enough, the two spiritual metals had already completely lost their distinct radiance, transformed into nothing more than ordinary pieces of common scrap metal.

“Ah, so this is how you blocked it? Wow… I fully expected a trap, but to think it would be something like this.”

At my remark, the angel broke into a loose chuckle that was thoroughly uncharacteristic of his holy nature. I suppose his stress had been accumulating heavily for quite some time.

—Now then, despicable mortal. Now that your malice-filled bombs have been completely sealed away, exactly what can you do?

I could fully comprehend the source of the angel’s extreme confidence. From the perspective of an entity belonging to the Archangel tier, how utterly laughable must someone like me look—a being who hadn’t even reached the rank of Equilibrium Heaven, let alone the lofty seat of an Archangel.

But do you know what? That was explicitly the story of yesterday… and the me of today is entirely different.

“What can I do?”

Letting out a soft smirk, I drew Astraphe from its sheath.

Even beneath the massive Law Magic circle that completely blanketed the crimson sky, Astraphe didn’t lose a single fraction of its brilliant golden light, flashing fiercely in the air.

“I can do something like this.”

And immediately after, two pairs of glowing wings of light burst forth from my back, expanding into the empty air.

The seat of an Archangel.

Utterly caught off guard, the Archangel’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.

—An Archangel? How on earth…?

“Hey. I don’t particularly enjoy relying on bombs either. If our weight classes had been even remotely similar from the start, I would have cracked your skulls with an iron club instead of a bomb.”

—……!

“But now… our weight classes are exactly identical, aren’t they?”

—……!!

“In that case, it’s about time you get thrashed, right?”