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Chapter 248 ~ Heaven’s Wrath

“Attack… Order the general assault now…!”

Leinas coughed, limping and walking solely with the help of a knight as she clutched her ribs that ached and definitely bruised from the staff of the absurdly strong magic caster, and looked at Loune Vermillion with distress. 

The dark robed commander stood in the tent behind the large table where a large map of the Katze Plains was set with various colored pieces of wood that signified allies and possible foes. By his side was General Garan, who’s attention also focused towards one of the four knights, the only one who returned, and tried to ignore the chaos outside. 

“What? What are you saying? What happen?”

“It was a trap… A hidden time… They used some kind of magic item… They’re all dead before I knew it… And I was injured… They thought  I didn’t see it… But I did. I saw some glass break.”

“But- We had a bargain!”

Loune quickly strode forward and crouched in front of the fallen female knight. 

“They don’t have the troops! They had to do this!”

Leinas coughed a few more times before groaning form the strain. 

“Are you… really going to give up twenty percent of the empire before of three dead knights and a trick?!”

“That-”

Loune began to say, only for words to be stuck in his throat. His eyes trembled as do his hands. 

He looked up at the horrified general, his rough, ever so stern, expression now bore a trace of anxiousness and shock. 

“... Are you sure this is a trick?!”

General Garan Dale Veritrum pressed, shivering at the notion of what the Imperial Knight had insinuated and what she was telling him to be done. 

“I saw! Now do it, or we’ll lose everything when the Slane Theocracy representatives begin the handoff! That fort may hide their forces, but it can only hid a few hundred! That’s why they wanted a duel of champions! They have no army to match ours! They even had to use tricks!”

The general and secretary traded lost, hopless looks. 

“Alright… General assault it is.”

General Garan said and rushed from the tent. 

“Gods be with us…”

Leinas said with a hoarse voice before letting a violent series of coughs spray spittle into the dirt. 

“Yes… Gods be with us…”

Loune said with his head bowed in hushed reverence. His ears soon begin picking up the sound of marching armored soldiers and their clinking, clattering armor through the tent. 

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

Raymond watched the duel with interest, at first. The famous four imperial knights were favorite to win, with good reason. He’d heard of their prowess as the most powerful knights of the Empire. 

But within mere moments… the unknown team from Nazarick in curious metallic colored leather steadily took the four knights apart until only one was left, limping back to her lines. 

The dual wielder made shields useless. Nimble, chased down and forced to engage, only to be crushed later by the templar cleric. The archer defeated the broadsword user at close range, squashing him like a bug. While the magic caster, unsupported, knocked the Leinas Rockbruise to the ground. 

He let out a sigh. 

It was unfortunate. But heroes can be raised. If the Emperor couldn’t afford it, the Theocracy could. It may take months to prepare, but they’d get some new scriptures out of it. The most important part is that the fight ended without throwing away hundreds of thousands of human lives. 

Just then, Raymond’s sense of relief was washed away when he heard the sound of countless metallic clanking and heavy footsteps as the Empire’s knights began to march. 

‘Maybe it’ll end quickly… Hah, I should’ve just sent the usual letter of neutrality and disappointment.’

Raymond shook his head. 

Momonga and Yuuji stepped out of the gate of the fort. Their army, ready to be transported with but a message. Though, judging by all four returning, they wouldn’t. 

They looked, and saw the marching knights approaching steadily. 

“You broke our agreement. This is on your heads…”

Momonga’s voice projected over the battlefield. His voice, powerful though laced with regret, echoed far and wide, and impossible to miss despite the thousands of heavy footsteps that rumbled like a distant thunderstorm. 

“Very well… So be it.”

A heavy sigh escaped his skeletal jaws. 

Momonga clutched his hands before looking up and opened his arms like he was preparing a large embrace. 

Brilliant blue circles began to form over his head one after another, rising ever smaller into a single conical point. Then, more emerged vertical to the ground and began to circle his body, and one more began to grow beneath his feet. 

‘I’m going to kill so many… So many…’

His conscience tore at him, clawed at him, raged at him, enough to make him feel like vomiting. 

To summon the Dark Young was just… too cruel. 

He had seen “himself” unleashing the spell… and it killed tens of thousands in a blink of an eye, and many more in the minutes to come. 

“He” seemed to be fine with it… But he wasn’t. 

He didn’t lose his humanity… No, perhaps he did when he chose to become the Overlord. But “they” returned it to him. 

He wasn’t a heartless monster. 

But he had to stope them.

It was cruel… But he had to stop them. 

It was far too cruel, but he had to stop them. 

They were people, just normal human people who hadn’t done anything, but it was war. 

He had to stop them. He had to protect his precious friends and the children of his friends. 

The army of knights reached the base of the open plane and began to advance past the bodies of the ones that once symbolized the pinnacle of their order. 

“Damn it all!”

He shouted with gut wrenching pity. The blue circles glowed brighter. When just then, a hand on his shoulder snapped him out. 

“Suzuki-san… Let’s do it together.”

“...What?”

He turned to see the white, twelve-winged angel in full shining armor standing by his side. 

And despite the mask covering his expressionless skeletal visage, Yuuji could tell the shock and disbelief from his voice alone. 

“Yuuji-kun… What are you saying?”

“As I said… Let’s do it together. This…”

He gestured towards the incoming army. The sound of clinking and clanking of steel hitting steel and the thunderous rumble of footsteps becoming ever louder. 

“No… You don’t need to do this, Yuuji-kun. Let me bear-”

“Suzuki-san… I’ll have to do… this, sooner or later. If I want to protect… us, then I can’t be afraid to do what must be done. Also…”

Yuuji removed his hand from his shoulder, and in it, a golden gun appeared. 

There was a look of recognition and simple acknowledgement. But in the next moment, Momonga recalled the story of how Yuuji used this gun during his mission with Aika in Tatsuya’s world. 

“It’s not like this will be my first time either. So… I’ll be fine.”

“...”

Momonga didn’t want him to do it. 

The boy, barely into adulthood… He who had grown into someone like a little brother to him. 

As the older one, he should be the one carrying the responsibility when it comes to doing such things. He should be the one to dirty his hands so his little brothers and sisters wouldn’t have to. 

But…

“Let’s do this together… Suzuki-san.”

Momonga lowered his arms, and the brilliant light of the Super-Tier magic circles dimmed down until it vanished. 

“Alright… But don’t get too used to it.”

“I know…”

He nodded, and flapped his brilliant white wings to take off into the skies. All twelve wings spread open in all its majesty and holiness. 

A white golden sun rose. 

Momonga raised his arms up, and magic circles manifested all around him. 

In unison, they released their spells. 

““[Pantheon]!””

The army of armored knights stopped in their tracks and looked up into the skies as a light surpassing the brightness of the sun blinding all living things for a moment 

As the light faded, gasps of awe and shock consumed the field as 12 Cherubim Gatekeepers descended from the heavens above in all their terrible glory. 

They were clad in shining white plate armor, armed with a shield in one hand and a lance of heavenly flame in the other. The shields were all covered in eyes that blinked in disunity, as if each eye was a living thing with a will of its own. 

They had bodies of giant men, with the head and mane of a mighty lion, and four wings of pure white feathers at an x shape on their backs. Each was as tall as a giant, and they roared as one, opening their arms and raising their lance of fire in imitation of their summoners. 

The roar of the heavenly lion shook the sky and earth and instilled fear into the the hearts of fearless knights. Then, the great magic caster and the twelve-winged angel pointed towards the army arrayed against them with their finger and sword. 

The lions obeyed and descended towards the army. Their wings beat with the force of gale winds and storms, toppling weaker men and whole ranks like dominoes given the flick of a finger. 

Burning lances of heavenly flames began to thrust out and pierced entire ranks like a skewer that quickly burned their victims into ash and dust. 

One swung their lance horizontally, and a wave of flames scorched the sinners, leaving nothing but ash on the ground that quickly mixed together and blown about by the beating of their wings. 

A rout. It was an utter, total rout. 

The cowardly men tried to run. But they died. 

The braver men tried to guard, raise their shields and shout in defiance of terror. But they died all the same. The one distinction between the cowards and the courageous, was that the cowardly lived a little bit longer. 

The dead left no bodies on the ravaged plains. 

While the living ran, trampling over the people they called brothers in an effort to live just a bit longer. 

‘Please… Just surrender already… Are you foolish enough to not see your utter defeat?!’

Twenty thousand knights became fifteen thousand. Then soon, became ten thousand. 

‘Do not kill the blonde woman in black armor…’

Yuuji and Momonga both reminded their summons as they soon neared the camp, igniting fires to tents and furniture and people alike. Black plumes of smoke rose into the air. 

Just then, from the corner of their sight, they saw the Theocracy Cardinal racing towards them on horseback. 

Raymond jumped off the horse and immediately fell into one knee.

“Mighty King! Great Chief Angel of the Heavens! I beg of you! Stop the slaughter! You’ve won! You’ve clearly won!”

“... They have not surrendered yet.”

Momonga said, pointing to the burning camp.

“I believe their general and secretary are dead. There’s nobody left to surrender! Please… The Baharuth Empire has always been important in defending humanity! You’ve won… Show mercy on the survivors, like any great victors would… I’m sure the Emperor will concede! You’ve shown your strength! Now show your largesse and noble mercy!”

Momonga let out a sigh of relief secretly. Both him and Yuuji, felt relief. 

““Stop!””

Their voices carried over the open field, and the Cherubims stopped midthrust. Beneath their burning lance, there were men laying on their backs, cringing, crying, crawling away, or frozen where they were. 

“You are spared by the mercy of Ainz Ooal Gown. Go back to your Emperor. Tell him what you saw today… And that I expect good terms to be offered to me within a fortnight. Otherwise… our angels shall visit his capital. 

He bellowed to them with the authority of a divine. 

“Thank you… for your mercy.”

Raymond said in a hushed whisper. 

But his breath of relief was halted when the twelve-winged angel descended from the skies and landed right before him. His wings spread wide, as if encompassing the skies and heavens, and his figure glowed with divine light. 

“Cardinal Raymond. Return to your Theocracy and tell them what you saw here today. Tell them that the ones you consider as humanity’s defenders happily slaughtered humanity on land under my protection. As you were not aware, I shall overlook it once. Consider this… a starting point. Whether we become allies or enemies would be more in your hands than in mine. Think carefully of which you desire.”

Raymond gave a quiet nod and a bow of reverence before he rose to his feet, mounted his horse, and returned to the other observers. They were gone within a few minutes. 

Then, Yuuji looked towards the plains.

The only thing left to do now was to grant the cursed girl their end of the bargain. 

‘Then maybe… I give her to Aika and turn her into a Succubus under Aika’s command. She’ll be a useful agent for abroad missions .’

Yuuji mused, before returning back to the fort and teleporting back to Nazarick along with Momonga and Foresight.