Alexander III charged at the front, leading by example.
"Kill—"
"Charge—"
"For Uruk! For Lord Hokage!"
The five thousand soldiers charged forward without hesitation, crossing the land of flames and following Alexander III into the forest, where they clashed with demonic beasts that outnumbered them by more than tenfold.
At that moment, on the outskirts of Uruk, Siduri watched the smoke signals drifting across the sky and said to Higashino Kanade:
"Lord Hokage, the time has come."
"Summoning Technique!"
Without another word, Higashino Kanade slapped one hand onto the ground. A massive fifty-meter-long battle axe was summoned before him—the very Marduk's Axe he had found over the past few days.
The axe bore a ribbon tied on by Merlin, which served as a guide. Higashino Kanade only needed to throw the axe toward the Blood Temple, and it would strike the Blood Temple without fail.
Higashino Kanade gripped one end of the axe with both hands. After taking a deep breath, the muscles all over his body swelled as he suddenly exerted force, lifting the fifty-meter-long axe and spinning on the ground to build momentum.
"Ha—there you go!"
The whirlwind stirred up by the spinning axe quickly grew into a terrifying storm. The ground beneath Higashino Kanade's feet shattered like broken glass. Once the force reached its critical point, he hurled the axe away. The fifty-meter giant axe instantly turned into a meteor and vanished over the horizon.
"Ritsuka, Ayako, do your best."
Without breaking a sweat, Higashino Kanade gazed toward the northern horizon and silently prayed for his two daughters.
In the camphor forest to the north, with the Northern Wall's army drawing away most of the demonic beasts, Ritsuka's group advanced straight ahead and smoothly arrived outside the Blood Temple.
"So disgusting... so cold..."
Staring at the Blood