They didn't advance any farther, waiting for the order to launch the main assault. But when the Dead Apostles came looking for them, they showed no mercy.
In this city, which was practically hell on earth, Rimuru stood utterly impassive atop the Duke of Cornwall's estate, gazing out at the flickering shadows scattered across the half-city, half-countryside landscape beneath the night sky.
Suddenly, amid the dark-red glow, a light like the dawn broke through the hellish scene. Its dazzling, sacred radiance seemed like a signal, instantly dispelling the darkness over the entire region.
Rimuru paused slightly at the sight. "They're here?"
"Then..." He lowered his head and chuckled softly. When he raised his eyes again, thick fog had already shrouded the entire sky. "Dead Apostles, get ready to welcome our guests."
In an instant, doors splintered and windows shattered across building after building, accompanied by an endless chorus of frenzied howls. The scent of humans ignited their "passion" in a flash, and the magi who had just crossed into Cornwall couldn't help shuddering in alarm.
Cornwall was a seaside town in southwestern England. And now, there on the coast, after the magi and Executors had sailed around and landed from the sea, the first thing they saw was a vast expanse of blood-red eyes and crazed faces. They weren't Dead Apostles, only the more lowly Ghouls, but even so, the hellish sight made several magi stumble backward, muttering, "What... happened here?"
But before he could finish speaking, the frenzied Ghouls charged with a roar, their monstrous jaws snapping toward the group's necks like those of zombies.
Caught off guard, the mage seemed to freeze with fear. He could only watch as a Ghoul lunged for him!
Boom!
A surge of water swept past, forming a sturdy barrier around them. At the same time, the raging currents became a dragon that roared as it smashed the Ghouls charging at the front to pieces.
Beneath the curtain of water, Rimuru's golden eyes shone with a mysterious light. He gently roused the young mage from his shock. The mage flushed, then hurriedly thanked him and agreed.
Rimuru said nothing more. Anasa was a head of his family, but in truth he had only graduated two years ago and had barely inherited the position. Rimuru had already given him the necessary warning. If a family head couldn't even handle Ghouls... then there was nothing to be done if he died.
Thinking this, Rimuru glanced at the magi, who had begun spreading out and clearing the Dead Apostles from the coast, and curved his lips into a faint smile. At the same time, more and more Ghouls gathered in the woods along the shore, slowly baring their claws.
Atop the tallest estate, White Knight Rimuru closed his eyes slightly and carefully spread his perception over Cornwall. The region covered fewer than four thousand square kilometers of mountainous plains, so it was easy for him to encompass the whole area.
"Even if fewer than one percent of the 530,000 inhabitants were turned, that would still leave fifty thousand Living Corpses. Ordinary magi couldn't eliminate that many in a short time. The human vanguard will probably be torn apart, won't it?"
"Are we not going to act?" Altrouge gazed coldly at the distant flames and heard cries, then lifted her eyes to ask.
Rimuru smiled at that and replied softly, "You're the great Demon King, Your Highness. Only a hero who makes it all the way to you is worth your effort."
Altrouge nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. As she watched the figure before her, seemingly in command of everything, a flicker of color passed through her crimson eyes.
The first wave of the Magic Association and the Church's assault was even weaker than Rimuru had expected. The Magic Association probably lacked the Church's ability to act decisively. Compared with the Church's discipline, magi were more suited to fighting on their own. Even though the Magic Association had done everything it could to rouse those who were available, or recall Lords and heads of mage families who were away on other business, the first-rate magi who came had still arrived in scattered groups.
Their cooperation was even more laughable. As a former member of the Twelve Lords, Rimuru had naturally taken command of the waterborne forces through his influence. But once they actually reached shore, only a few magi were willing to follow his orders. Most of the Executors had simply gone off on their own.
But that was fine.
Rimuru narrowed his eyes slightly and thought, If you're determined to get yourselves killed, you can't blame me.
Amid the complex mountains of Cornwall beneath the night sky, a poised, intelligent-looking woman with an orange side ponytail and an orange coat stepped onto the land. She casually pressed a foot to the brake, tilted her head back and tossed her hair, then took off her glasses and tucked them upright into her coat pocket. As her long legs touched the ground, the roaring motorcycle slowly fell silent.
"Group operations aren't really my thing, old men." Aozaki Aoko drew a deep breath. The smell of blood in the air made her frown faintly. At the same time, an elderly voice sounded in her ear again.
"According to the plan, while the frontal assault serves as a feint, you'll need to determine whether the White Winged Duke has allied with the White Knight and whether any other Ancestors have already infiltrated Cornwall..."
Because Aozaki Touko possessed the unusual ability to return from death, the Magic Association had hesitated over placing her under a Sealing Designation, but in the end, it had accepted the decision to send her out as a scout to gather intelligence in the first wave.
For magi, intelligence was extremely important, because it determined whether they could face the enemy adequately prepared.
As mentioned earlier, magi were skilled at defensive battles, but that didn't mean they were bad at attacking.
A mage who was fully prepared and one who wasn't prepared at all might as well be in completely different professions!
The battle in Cornwall concerned the Magic Association's reputation and dignity. For that reason, it had spared no expense in deploying every Lord it could and paying out a great many favors. That was why Rimuru had arrived at the scene so quickly.
There was no helping it. They'd offered him... far too much.
What was more, the fee for the appearance of Aozaki Touko, the supreme Puppeteer, was no small sum. They'd even agreed to... lift her Sealing Designation.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Aozaki Touko looked up impatiently. She was just about to speak when a huge shadow came crashing down at her. Boom!
Aozaki Touko rolled sideways to dodge the attack. A massive fist of earth slammed into her motorcycle, triggering a violent explosion!
Rumble!
At the sight, Aozaki Touko raised an eyebrow and said, "Looks like you'll have to reimburse me for the motorcycle."
"That voice... Have you run into an enemy?"
"Yeah, and it's a bit... troublesome." Aozaki Aoko rolled her wrist and looked up at the huge earthen puppet. Then she spotted a plump figure beneath the moonlight, and her lips suddenly curled into a suggestive smile as she licked her lower lip. "Hey, old man, I can give you a piece of information right now."
"What?"
"Are you reimbursing me for the motorcycle?"
"...Aozaki Touko!!"
"Tsk." Only then did Aozaki Touko lift her face with a cold, haughty expression and look at her opponent. "Looks like I've hit the jackpot?"
"You're not wrong." Fim chuckled cheerfully and said, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Van-Fem, one of the Dead Apostle Ancestors and a Puppeteer."
"A Puppeteer..." Aozaki Touko raised an eyebrow. "Did you come all this way to find me?"
"You could say that." Fim smiled faintly. "After all, it was the White Knight's arrangement. As an ally, I have to listen."
"Tsk."
At the same time, one of the feinting forces—a squad of Church Executors.
Explosions and flames burst in a corner. The blazing light engulfed and destroyed an entire three-story building, wiping out several Dead Apostles and Ghouls inside along with it.
Outside, Kotomine Kirei watched without expression. Then, as if sensing something, he suddenly turned to look at the sky.
A vast shadow loomed there, blotting out the moon. Wrapped in endless darkness, it silently swooped down. In the next instant, all Kirei could see was unending blackness. His hands and feet had vanished from sight.
Calmly relying on his senses, he raised a hand and tried casting several spells, but he couldn't sense the slightest light or sound.
Silence and darkness seemed to be all that existed in this world.
This is... Kotomine Kirei lowered his eyes slightly, suddenly recalling information from a classified file...
Reality Marble: Nevermore?!
Suddenly, a sharp presence swept toward him. As danger and cold sweat washed over his whole body, he threw himself to the side. He felt himself collide with a sharp stone that scraped his face, and then a faint smell of blood reached him from behind. In that instant, he thought he heard his comrades scream—
Was it an illusion?
No!
It really was him. Kotomine Kirei's pupils contracted slightly. The legendary... Black Winged Duke!!
Chapter 60: The Magi's Way of Waging War—Deploying a Bounded Field!
The sea glittered beneath the dark-red moon, making the fish restless. The sea breeze carried gusts of salty air laced with the smell of blood.
A grotesque Ghoul roared and lunged at a fist-clenching priest. The next moment, the priest spun around, and bang! The Ghoul's body flew like a cannonball into the crowd, smashing into several of its kind.
The glow of Reinforcement Magecraft flowed over the priest's body. But before he could catch his breath, a horde of Ghouls swarmed him again, engulfing him in another storm of bloodshed.
Rimuru stood quietly within the curtain of water. Watching the Executors cut their way forward as if they were unstoppable, he couldn't help sneering. "They're certainly brave, these people from the Church. But they're not very elegant."
With high-level Reinforcement Magecraft, an ordinary person's body could indeed rival that of a Servant, much like that of the teacher who held the class. The Executors, who focused on individual combat strength, and the Church's nuns, who specialized in support, were even more skilled in reinforcement spells—but!
No matter how skilled you were at Reinforcement Magecraft, you were still only one person.
Watching the Executors advance about halfway before being blocked by a dense horde of Dead Apostles using sheer numbers, Rimuru waited until they finally turned around to ask for help. Then he smiled and said, "Are you ready?"
"Just about." The magi who had been behind Rimuru's watery barrier stopped what they were doing and looked up, nodding together. Although this was a waterborne force, there were only four or five magi in all, including Rimuru.
Aside from the fact that the more powerful magi needed more time to prepare and hadn't had a chance to arrive, the main reason was that magi were better at setting up their own formations than working together—unless they were joining forces to cast a large-scale attack spell or a Reality Marble.
Just as an ancient army would often have only one or two magi accompanying it, magi mostly supported the warriors in battle. But that didn't mean they were bad at fighting on their own.
On the contrary, a mage who had made all the necessary preparations was a true... weapon of war!
Seeing that the magi behind him were ready, Rimuru looked up and casually raised a hand. An enormous tsunami surged from the sea behind him. "Then let's begin. I'll scatter them first. Expand the bounded field as quickly as you can."
"Let these brutes who know nothing but charging see how magi wage war... Show them—"
"Who truly rules the battlefield!"
The next moment, the tsunami crashed down with a roar, sweeping across the beach and clearing away all the Ghouls. As only a few Living Corpses remained, the magi behind Rimuru scattered small amounts of silver as catalysts. The ether in the air rapidly shifted and expanded. Pop! A void formed from mana twisted space, and countless steel wires rained down from the sky.
As the bounded field was deployed, the young mage Rimuru had rescued stood behind him with a determined look. He activated his Magic Circuits at once, and a glimmer of silver shone in his eyes. Mana began to spread as countless steel wires slowly bent and folded on their own—Steel Life Imbuement: Reinforced Familiar.
Hundreds of steel birds took to the sky. As they waited for a chance to attack, they spread out, sharing everything they saw with the magi and Rimuru. Meanwhile, countless grains of sand on the beach began to take human shape and charged at the Ghouls rushing in to reinforce their ranks, joining the fight!
Rimuru glanced behind him. The mage was the head of a branch family belonging to the elderly Inorai, who specialized in sand.
At the same time, the traps began to shift, the terrain twisted, and mana cannons were assembled—
One magnificent, well-supplied bounded field after another rapidly took shape, swiftly clearing a path wide enough for everyone to advance. The moment it was cleared, an invisible barrier descended from the sky, preventing the other Ghouls from rushing in.
After nodding to the sand mage, Rimuru released another surge of tremendous mana. Formations created from his Mystic Code, carried by the currents, poured into the sea. In an instant, hundreds of transparent water clones formed and charged toward the endless horde of Ghouls!
For a time, across the vast shoreline, transparent and sand-yellow soldiers clashed with the grotesque, roaring monsters. Though fewer than ten people were fighting, they filled the entire battlefield, making it seem like an army of tens of thousands was battling there!
But this was one of the magi's abilities: one person could form an army and stand against a legion!
The Dead Apostles could create Ghouls without limit to arm themselves, while magi could use group familiar spells, such as Dragon Bone Soldiers, to counter them!
And in Type-Moon, whether you specialized in the dead, summoning, or giving life to alchemical creatures, it all fell under... the Department of Spiritual Evocation!
With soldiers on the field, the next step was to strengthen them!
Seeing this, the Executors finally set aside their old prejudices for the moment. A priest-like Executor was the first to stop advancing. The cross around his neck suddenly shone with sacred light—Baptism Sacrament: Group Reinforcement!
Behind Rimuru, the magi also began using the bounded field's enhancement to amplify their mana!
In an instant, wave after wave of magical marks further increased the familiars' combat strength, and they began to advance in a sweeping tide, crushing their enemies.
"Looks like it's working." Just then, a voice from the Clock Tower sounded in Rimuru's ear. It was Liddell, who was in charge of contacting him while working overtime to make potions as one of the most important members of the logistical force.
"It's all right. The enemy Dead Apostles haven't shown themselves yet. It's normal to crush low-level troops like Ghouls." Rimuru spoke softly. "What a pity we didn't have enough time to prepare Mana Furnaces for this operation. Otherwise, we could've expanded the bounded field three times as much."
"...You're part of the feinting force. You should know your place, all right? Once Anasa's familiars have gathered enough information, you can retreat. Don't go too deep."
"When will the reinforcements arrive? I need to prepare." Rimuru asked suddenly, naturally referring to the preparations he had to make as the White Knight.
"Hmm..." Liddell tilted her head slightly as she considered the question, then promptly spilled the Church and the Magic Association's plans. "The Church has already begun its frontal assault. As for the Magic Association, it probably won't arrive until dawn tomorrow. The entire Department of Spiritual Evocation, including Yufilis, is working overtime just like me—they need to prepare a lot of troops to deal with the Ghouls and Living Corpses."
"Hmm... understood." Although terrifying figures like Yufilis could summon an army of thousands with a single thought, doing so consumed an enormous amount of mana. So it was essential to prepare the proper catalysts and bounded fields ahead of time, or even rent Mana Furnaces.
But clearly, all of that took time to make or arrange.
Compared with the Magic Association, which needed several days of preparation just to fight a war, the Church's approach was quite appealing.
Speed was everything in war, you know!
Slap some Reinforcement Magecraft on yourself and get to it!
They didn't care about their grunts, anyway. Executors were a bunch of killers, after all, and they excelled at decapitation strikes!
If the war between the Magic Association and the Dead Apostles was more like a clash between two armies, the Church's tactics were closer to those of special forces... carrying out assassinations and surprise attacks before or during the battle!
At that thought, Rimuru had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"But if it's a covert special operation, people are usually left to die without anyone caring... So don't blame me."
"Lord Rimuru, the enemy is beginning to retreat."
Just then, the young mage in charge of scouting spoke up, pulling Rimuru out of his conversation and making him pause. "They're retreating?"
"Yes. The Dead Apostle directing them probably realized they couldn't win and began withdrawing their forces."
"Oh..."
How interesting. His subordinates actually knew to withdraw their forces. Rimuru smiled softly. "Has not a single Dead Apostle shown their face so far?"
"That's right. But there are definitely a large number of Dead Apostles hiding in the city. The other Church units can confirm that." A leading priest spoke up. "It's strange. It's as if they're deliberately luring us inside."
"We haven't found any sign of the Black Princess or the White Knight, nor have we found traces of the White Winged Duke's faction." The young mage was linked to the vision of hundreds of familiars and sounded slightly exhausted. "But according to the reports, we can confirm that one of the Dead Apostle Ancestors, the Puppeteer, and the Black Winged Duke have both appeared. That means the enemy has no intention of abandoning this city..."
"My suggestion is that we continue advancing," the priest said softly. "For the glory of the Lord."
"..."
At that, everyone turned to look at the dark city in the distance. The Ghouls were withdrawing under their assault, but beneath the pitch-black night, Cornwall seemed to have opened the yawning maw of an abyss, waiting for them to approach so it could swallow them whole.
Cold sweat had soaked Kotomine Kirei's back, but after death had passed him by, it didn't pursue him. The endless darkness had lasted only about three seconds. Once he had dodged the attack, it had vanished, leaving only the bodies of his comrades strewn across the ruins, utterly lifeless, and a few others like him, who had either dodged the attack or held out through sheer strength, slowly getting to their feet.
Ultimately, the Magic Association's goal was simply to reclaim Cornwall and restore it to the Association's territory. If the Dead Apostles couldn't win, all they had to do was abandon the land and flee. The Magic Association wouldn't bother pursuing them. After all, unlike the Church, which could rally people through faith, more than eighty percent of magi were self-interested. Without rewards and benefits, getting them to do anything was practically impossible!!
Before you continue