Episode 20
Screams echoed across the earth.
The twilight dyed in crimson sunlight evoked a vision of hell.
Crushed to death, burst to death, impaled to death.
Weak humans faced with death forgot even the will to resist and fled helplessly, turning their backs.
But rendering their resistance meaningless, the reapers wearing the faces of the dead mechanically claimed their lives.
Aum watched the scene blankly.
"Hah... Haha... Please... Stop...!"
At the sight of human lives being trampled like insects, Aum laughed as if deranged.
"Aum Rinia. This is your defeat."
Aum turned his head to the side.
Right beside him stood Loki.
"Ha...! It's not... over yet...! Yes! Not yet!"
Killing intent filled Aum's eyes. He raised his sword and pointed it at Loki.
"If I kill you, victory is mine!"
"You think you can kill me? Even if you swing that sword with all your might, you won't scratch this armor, let alone my body."
"..."
The muscles around Aum's eyes twitched.
He knew. The more he faced the figure before him, the more deeply he realized how powerless he truly was.
"...I've lost. Stop this massacre right now! This is violence! Killing even those who have already given up fighting isn't war!"
"Yes, it isn't war. This is..."
Loki thrust his face right up to his.
"A game."
"...!"
"If you had handed Kudan over from the beginning, this disaster wouldn't have occurred. You brought this upon yourself."
"Something... I did?"
"Your arrogance in thinking you could kill me brought about this result."
Like a shaman's prophecy, it seemed Aum had brought a terrible calamity upon the Nod tribe.
'Of course, even if he had brought Kudan, there would have been friction eventually.'
The more Loki built his forces, the more the Nod tribe would have risen up in great numbers, sensing a crisis.
Loki taking action like this was akin to a warning to forces that might oppose him, as well as a test.
However, the reason Loki had stepped to the forefront was because Aum himself had come seeking him, providing a 'clue' worth obsessing over.
Without that clue, Loki would have spent his time quietly in the Palace of Valhalla.
"All of this is because of me...?"
Aum collapsed to the ground. Feeling the sword in his hand, he brought it to his own throat. He was the one who had invited this calamity. If he took his own life, perhaps the disaster before his eyes would stop.
The moment he tried to kill himself, Loki flinched in surprise and distanced himself from Aum as much as possible.
Boom!
At the same instant, that spot was pulverized by a massive hammer.
Aum blankly stared at the figure who had appeared before him.
"Kudan?"
Kudan kicked the sword from Aum's hand.
"...Ending yourself now will accomplish nothing."
"But... I am the only one who can end this war. So...!"
"It might be the opposite. We simply need to kill the demon, don't we?"
"...?!"
Kudan turned his back on Aum and properly gripped his warhammer.
"You... you're the real one, aren't you?"
Only now was Kudan certain that the being before him was the demon he had seen in the Holy War.
Soon, he pointed his warhammer at him.
"I've waited for this day, you demon bastard! I will tear you apart!"
At Kudan's words, Loki looked at the warhammer he held.
"Rather than tearing me apart, the correct expression would be turning me into minced meat. That warhammer is quite the item. Were there craftsmen here other than dwarves?"
"I heard from Aum. That you're taming Kankun! I'll kill you and set her free!"
Kudan gripped the warhammer in both hands and leaped. Miraculous superhuman strength swelled his muscles like balloons.
At that sight, Loki took a step back.
Two Death Knights blocked the path with their shields.
Clang!
Kudan's warhammer had easily shattered the shield walls of Skeleton shieldsmen.
But it couldn't penetrate the shield held by the Death Knights.
Accompanied by crunching sounds, the Death Knights staggered, but that was all.
"What...?!"
'My attack was blocked?!'
"These are among the highest grade of Undead. Even if they aren't raid boss level, they're just below. Not opponents a human can defeat so easily."
Kudan clenched his teeth at Loki's sneering tone.
The Death Knights swung their shields, knocking him back. Then they wielded huge greatswords like iron maces in one hand with fierce speed, as if holding straw.
The attack patterns of greatswords are simple. Their weight and the environment restrict them to top-down and left-right slashes. But the Death Knights before him executed 'swordsmanship' while ignoring such limitations.
Spinning their bodies to strike, slashing diagonally, whirling in spirals, even pulling back to thrust.
Their speed was so overwhelming that Kudan couldn't counterattack and was forced to focus solely on defense.
'Oh! Impressive! I knew he possessed considerable strength when he wounded my hand, but to think he was at this level...!'
Loki sincerely admired Kudan's martial might. But in the end, he was only human.
"Kudan, no matter how far beyond human limits you have gone, surely you don't think you can defeat them?"
"Don't make me laugh! You think I'd let it end like this?"
He meant he wouldn't give up.
It meant they would have to see this through to the end.
"U-Um... Lord Loki."
Then, someone tapped Loki's armor.
It was Kankun.
"Kankun."
"War is horrible."
"It is."
"Aum has surrendered. All of the Nod tribe have lost the will to fight. Everyone except Kudan wishes for this war to end."
"You are among them, then."
Kankun nodded, gently knelt, and bowed her head. She clasped her hands and desperately prayed to Loki.
"Please, stop this war. I will pay any price."
"What can you offer?"
"Anything you desire."
"How?"
Kankun hesitated before opening her mouth.
"B-by working hard?"
Her flustered expression showed that she was still a child.
Loki laughed.
Her words also meant she would grow someday.
'It really feels like I'm playing a character-raising game.'
Loki turned to look at Kudan.
"But it seems Kudan must see this through to the end?"
"I-I'm sorry... That stubborn man is my uncle..."
Kankun rose and stood before Loki, gripping her sword.
"I will face him."
"Your skill is insufficient to defeat Kudan. A miscalculation. He is an absurd monster."
Kankun had grown, but the martial prowess Kudan displayed was far above her level.
"I know. I saw his strength firsthand."
"..."
"But if Uncle truly started this war for me..."
Kankun walked forward.
"He won't kill me."
And this war had to be stopped by the Ragna clan as well.
"Very well, then..."
Loki raised his hand. The Undead hunting the Nods stopped and gathered behind him.
"The battle is already decided. But since some still wish to fight, shall we watch a duel?"
Loki sat down on the frozen ground. Death Knights and a Lich surrounded him protectively.
Kudan Ragna.
Kankun Ragna.
The two faced each other from a distance.
"...Stand aside, Kankun."
"I heard. That Uncle fought to protect me. And... that this happened because of a misunderstanding."
"...It is no misunderstanding."
"...I always think this, Uncle. Curb your stubbornness! That's why they call you a thickheaded bear!"
At her words, Kudan smiled for the first time in a long while.
A conversation with his niece.
Even this meaningless exchange was deeply enjoyable.
But he couldn't afford to enjoy it.
"That one is a monster who will devour your soul and body. Why do you defend such a monster?"
"Because I have chosen to serve him."
Kankun gripped the hilt of Burtgang with both hands, drawing it back behind her shoulder as she lowered her stance.
"Kankun... So you have been thoroughly bewitched by a demon."
"I serve him of my own free will. Even if you are my uncle, if you try to harm him, I must stop you."
"Kankun, no matter how talented you are with the sword, you cannot defeat me—"
Kankun's foot moved.
Pivoting on her left foot, she spun forward, bringing her sword up in a diagonal slash.
Kudan's warhammer moved, easily blocking her sword.
With a metallic clang and flying sparks, he glared at her.
"...Ha. But you've grown."
He promptly knocked her sword aside and swung his fist at her abdomen.
"...Kuhuk!"
Kankun coughed up blood and rolled several times across the ice.
Trembling and clutching her stomach, she gritted her teeth.
Even wearing the armor Loki had given her, she had taken significant damage.
She felt pathetic, having been knocked down before she could even mount a proper attack.
She looked at Kudan.
His entire body was torn like rags, blood continuously seeping through. His breathing was ragged and his eyes were stained with exhaustion.
Yet she had been felled by a single blow from an opponent on the verge of death.
Kankun glanced at Loki.
He simply watched them silently, taking no action.
He was watching over her, trusting her.
'I can't win with strength. So rather than a frontal assault...'
Kankun brushed off her armor. Though it was shaped like a dress with long skirt panels, it was strangely comfortable to move in.
Not only that, it was sturdy enough to have blocked Kudan's blow.
'Of course, Uncle held back on purpose...'
If he had intended to, he could have killed her with a single strike or beaten her to death with his warhammer.
Seeing Kankun barely stand, Kudan clenched his teeth, visibly displeased about something.
"Kankun! Stand aside! You cannot—"
"—defeat you, right? But Uncle."
Kankun twisted her lips into a smile.
"You can't kill me."
"...!"
"Either stop fighting, or kill me! Choose!"
"...Thoroughly bewitched indeed."
"I am not bewitched."
"No, there would be no other reason to embrace a demon so."
"He is not the man you think he is."
"...I can no longer leave you be. I too will go all out."
He pointed his warhammer at her and used the divine 'Superhuman Strength'.
His muscles swelled and his frame grew even larger.
Kankun looked up at her uncle.
"Surpass me, Kankun."