─ Pffrrrt!
Dozens of horses screamed pitifully. Greatswords that had erupted from the ground sliced straight through their bellies. The tough, sturdy hide of the warhorses split apart without resistance, spilling pale intestines in a torrent.
"Kaaah!"
The warhorses, unable to control their own momentum, crashed headfirst into the dirt. The cavalrymen fared no differently. Over forty soldiers slammed their faces into the earth alongside their beloved mounts. Dust billowed upward as heavily armored soldiers tumbled across the ground. Their necks had snapped—instant death.
In a single strike, dozens of elite soldiers were annihilated.
Perhaps the knight order deserved praise, after all. They had been caught completely off-guard by the ambush, yet their casualties amounted to mere dozens. With near-miraculous horsemanship, they had dodged the greatswords. Had it been an ordinary cavalry unit, it would have been cut in half by now.
But from afar, Queen Henrietta, who had been watching it all unfold, could not bring herself to offer any praise.
"Now, then. Let's see them dance a bit longer."
"Rain arrows upon them. What's that? You needn't worry about the cost of arrows. I bring you the wonderful news that the Kunkuska Trading Company has agreed to provide full support."
"Issue orders to all legion commanders.—Crush the enemy."
Paimon, Marbas, and Laura de Farnese all issued attack commands in unison.
The slaughter of an encirclement began.
The knight order, still reeling from the shock of the surprise attack, was battered by a furious onslaught. From the front and both flanks—from three directions—arrows, boulders, and spells came pouring in. The cavalrymen screamed in ragged, tearing voices.
"Dismount! Use the horses' corpses as shields and hold the line!"
"You fool—stopping the charge here won't save you. We'll just be sitting targets!"
The deputy knight commander shouted. Her judgment was correct.
"Charge! We push forward no matter what!"
Through the gap that the Green Rose Knight Order had carved open, cavalrymen were still streaming in. If the knight order were to wheel around and retreat now, they would collide with the allied forces pursuing from behind, and a catastrophic friendly-fire melee would erupt.
They were already encircled on three sides—and now they were falling into chaos among their own ranks. There was no stupidity quite like a suicidal panic. Whether they lived or died, pushing forward was still the better option.
"All forces, charge!"
"Do not fear death!"
Their destination was the enemy's heart—the command headquarters. A decisive strike there, and victory would be theirs.
The vice brigade commander charged to the very front himself. The knights raised their hooves once more. They charged forward, wielding their moon blades and curved sabers.
"Impressive."
Laura marveled.
Whether arrows rained down from all sides or magic crashed upon them, they pressed on without hesitation. Death itself probably could not instill fear in those men. Any being born human must accept death in some form, and the sight of a knight order welcoming such death gladly was already beyond human.
But what if a wall appeared that even death could not surpass?
"The fourth defensive line. Repel them."
Laura flicked her command baton. A soldier waved a flag in response.
From afar, the commander of the fourth defensive line watched the flag ripple in the wind and smiled faintly.
"Ah, Laura. There's no need to give the order at all."
The commander of the fourth defensive line—
The unnamed Demon Lord Barbatos.
"The prey for my children is looking awfully vivid and inviting."
Behind the small-framed Demon Lord stood a horde of forty-five hundred zombies and ghouls.
They exuded the stench of rot, their murderous eyes gleaming, cold breath hissing from their lips. Across the vast plain, only this place felt as though it had plunged below freezing. The filthiest, most grotesque army stood there.
Even if their flesh rotted away, even if they were reduced to a state where they could no longer be called living creatures, they desired only one thing—to fight alongside their eternal sovereign for all eternity. Nothing more.
That was precisely why they were called the purest warriors.
A zombie let out a low growl.
─ Here we have an invincible and immortal army.
The skeletal soldiers answer with somber waves of mana.
─ Forever we march, Valkyrie!
The four thousand five hundred undead monsters sang a war song. It was more akin to a dirge, at that. Ghouls whose vocal cords had rotted away, zombies with holes in their mouths leaking the sound. The singing became a hoarse, low drone that settled like a mist, low upon the ground.
"Good, my troops. I, Barbatos, as your eternal employer, fulfill our contract."
Barbatos took a step forward.
Then, the four thousand five hundred monsters took a single, heavy step.
"The sole contract. The terrible contract. The contract warriors share with their souls."
Barbatos took another step, and in his wake, the four thousand five hundred footsteps shook the earth. Before them, a knightly order charging forth, wreathed in Aura and divine power, came into view.
"More battles."
In the blink of an eye, the four thousand five hundred monsters were running.
At their vanguard, something like a wave surged ahead. A pitch-black wave. The black wave grew ever more colossal, and the next instant, Black Knights took form. The Black Knights raised their greatswords and charged.
─ Kyaaaaaah!
A roar erupted, thick with the sound of phlegm. Barbatos' muttered words were already buried under the shouts and roars, inaudible. And yet, Barbatos spoke. After all, she and the warriors did not understand each other through sound alone.
"You claimed you were unafraid of death. Insignificant humans, very well."
Barbatos smiled.
"Then now, I shall show you what comes after death."
The knightly order and the immortal army clashed.
The cavalry was magnificent. Mounted on their steeds, they swung their swords with precision. Zombies had their heads lopped off, and warhorses smashed ghouls' chests with their hooves. But this was not a battle that ended when heads were severed or chests were pierced.
Even with its head gone, a torso remained to bring an axe crashing down. Even with its chest pierced, teeth bit into the neck of a warhorse.
"Damn it! The horses are covered in junk!"
The Green Rose Knights had received the Saint's blessing before sortying. That was how they could effectively counter the undead Monsters — but there was nothing they could do about corpses that clung to them even after being torn to pieces.
"We can't keep charging, Deputy Commander!"
The once-gale-like charge of the knights had slowed to a crawl. Cursing through gritted teeth, they tried desperately to drive their warhorses forward. But the zombies and ghouls clung to them like leeches and would not let go. Warhorses bled and fell one by one, in rapid succession.
At some point, the knights had ground to a complete halt.
"All units — prepare to engage."
The Deputy Knight Commander gripped her glaive and issued the order. Her voice was somber.
The Green Rose Knights had given everything. They had broken through a spear wall in the dead of night. They had sustained their charge deep into enemy territory. They had dealt near-annihilating damage to the undead Monsters that appeared before them. And yet — the Deputy Knight Commander looked around.
Monsters had surrounded them on three sides. The creatures had already closed to within arm's reach.
While Barbatos had halted the knights' charge, Paimon and Marbas had completed the encirclement.
Their numbers, by rough estimate, were ten thousand.
A cavalry force of barely a thousand — soldiers whose charge had been stopped — how long could they possibly hold out?
"Hold until the relief force arrives. No — kill as many of the enemy as you can before you die."
"Yes!"
The knights roared their answer with defiant courage.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Knight Commander thought: Her Majesty the Queen will not come to rescue us.
They had ventured too deep. Even if a relief force were sent now, success was far from guaranteed. It would become a meaningless war of attrition… The Deputy Knight Commander sensed death approaching.
This is the end.
The Deputy Knight Commander dipped her head in the direction of the Queen. With that, all lingering attachments vanished. She swung her glaive and charged into the monsters without a moment's hesitation.
The Green Rose Knights slew nearly four thousand Monsters. Every one of the seven hundred knights, the Deputy Knight Commander included, perished in battle. Of this astonishing and magnificent last stand, the military annals record with cold, dispassionate prose:
The order of battle was broken and the knights were annihilated.
This meant that Queen Henrietta's plan for a quick, decisive battle had been thwarted.
"……All forces, pull back from the front line."
At the same time, it meant that Laura de Farnese had succeeded in crossing the river.
The Demon Lord's army crossed safely. Afterward, they destroyed the pontoon bridge and advanced along the riverbank. The Bretagne forces, with no means to ferry their army across, had no choice but to watch from the far bank as the enemy marched.
That did not mean the war had been decided one way or the other.
They had lost a considerable number of cavalry, the Green Rose Knights among them, but the opposing side had suffered equally in terms of troop strength. In terms of relative force, Bretagne actually held a slight advantage.
On the other hand, while Demon Lord Agares had not claimed a decisive victory in his duel, he had ended the fight from an advantageous position by slaying the Earth Spirit King.
Now the question was whether the Imperial Capital, Parisiorum, would fall.
The Emperor of Franc and the Empress Dowager remained in Parisiorum. They absolutely could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands.
"We need to defend Parisiorum to the end, or at the very least get the Emperor and the Empress Dowager out…."
Henrietta murmured, wrapped in the exhaustion of war. The generals surrounded her with grim expressions.
"The Emperor is one thing, but that stubborn old hag of an Empress Dowager—she's not going to follow us."
"We should conduct a defensive stand in Parisiorum, Your Majesty."
"What are you talking about? She won't come on her own, so we knock her out and kidnap her. A defensive stand wouldn't give us a single thing to work with."
Henrietta let out a sigh.
"We kidnap the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, then retreat westward. The enemy's supply lines are stretched thin—they won't dare give chase. But if we resort to pillaging, we lose our justification, so they'll be in quite the bind."
"Retreat?"
The generals wore unhappy expressions. In the end, wasn't this just avoiding the decisive battle?
Henrietta shook her head.
"No, retreat is merely a means. Their justification is nothing more than bringing Agares to justice. As long as Agares is still active on our side, they can't simply withdraw at will. With their supply lines in a precarious position, they can't pull back — so they'll remain holed up in Pariciorum."
"Indeed. They'll slowly wither away without food."
The generals nodded in agreement.
"Correct. At some point, they won't be able to endure it any longer and will come charging out of Pariciorum… and when that happens, we force another engagement."
"Understood. Then we should first dispatch a separate unit to Pariciorum to secure the Emperor and the Empress Dowager…"
It was around the time that the plan was taking shape.
Gradually, the glassy hue of dawn spread across the sky. As the night sky began to lighten, something completely unexpected was spotted rising from the direction of Pariciorum — a billowing cloud of pitch-black smoke.
"Your Majesty! Smoke is rising from Pariciorum!"
a general shouted in alarm.
Queen Henrietta bit down hard on her lip.
"…Those Franch nobles. How dare they."
Henrietta finally understood why the enemy had specifically targeted and disabled their communication magic.
It hadn't just been a ruse to lure in the knight order. They had schemed to leave them completely in the dark about what was happening inside Pariciorum.
While a fierce battle raged throughout the night, the remnants of the nobles had staged an uprising inside Pariciorum. The objective — to extract the Emperor or the Empress Dowager, or perhaps both of them.
"Damn it!"
Henrietta snapped her command baton in two. If the Emperor or the Empress Dowager were to join the enemy forces, even in the slightest, the situation would become catastrophic. That was the one thing she had to prevent no matter what.
"All forces — advance on Pariciorum at once!"
The Bretagnian army, still bearing the exhaustion of the night battle, broke into a full-speed march once more.