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Chapter: 48
It was as if the waist of a gigantic living creature had been severed—the locust-type monster legion was split cleanly in two.
The corpses of the familiars slain by the ambush fell from the sky and crashed into the ground. The ants below, lacking even basic intelligence, cluelessly gnawed on the bodies that had dropped among them.
Where did this come from?
Abaddon halted and surveyed his surroundings. Then his gaze fixed on a single point.
A hazy cloud of dust rose at a perpendicular angle to his army. Along with the thunder of countless hooves moving as one, human battle cries rang out.
Humans? An army? What kind of idiots would—
It didn’t take long to identify them.
A banner dyed white and red, emblazoned with two crossed swords forming a cross.
He had seen that flag before—through the eyes of his familiars in a previous life.
…The Army of Loren?
It made no sense. Loren’s forces should have been defending the area near Brienne’s capital, not here.
Why?
The deviation from the flow of his past life left Abaddon visibly shaken. His agitation spread directly to his other familiars, throwing them into disarray.
“Charge!”
At the thunderous command, the blades of the vanguard riders of Loren flashed sharply. Charging at full speed, they swung their swords in unison. Dozens of streaks of reflected light stretched horizontally across the battlefield like a single line.
[Evade!]
Abaddon urgently sent the command through thought—but it was too late.
Dozens of slashing waves flew like giant birds of prey, followed by an uncountable number of arrows that carved arcs across the sky.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gang!
Pa-ba-ba-ba-bak!
The familiars were torn apart, pierced through, and exploded. Like lifeless black eyes, they dropped helplessly to the ground.
“Kiiiiiieeek!”
Under the relentless assault, rage surged to the monsters’ limits. They could not tolerate being attacked by nothing more than prey.
[Kill them!]
[Kill!]
[Kill the humans!]
The monster armies of land and sky surged toward the enemy like a tidal wave. In response, the human forces—who had been advancing as one—split into dozens of branches, like tree roots spreading outward.
Monsters bound by murderous intent and humans bound by valor—neither side slowed.
Three seconds.
Two.
One.
Boom!
The two forces collided.
Crunch!
Neigh—!
The monsters began to falter. Familiars were knocked aside by charging horses, cut down by enemy blades, or pierced by arrows raining from the rear. They fell one after another.
“Fire!”
“Attack!”
Certain of their advantage, the humans pressed even harder.
They cut, stabbed, and pierced through. Each time a Master unleashed sword aura, more than a dozen monsters vanished from existence.
Watching the scene, Abaddon’s expression hardened. It wasn’t because the loss of his familiars pained him—they were nothing more than consumables.
He was simply irritated.
Because the time he had planned to plunge that woman into a pit of suffering had been delayed.
[The Masters are the greatest obstacle. Ignore the other soldiers—kill them first.]
Human Masters were indeed dangerous opponents. But without divine power, they were merely a bit more troublesome to Abaddon.
Without the Masters, the rest are nothing but rabble…
As Abaddon marked his targets one by one, he suddenly froze.
A woman caught his eye.
There was no way he could fail to recognize the woman he had engraved into his mind at the moment of death.
Those green eyes stained with vengeance, chilling to behold.
Platinum-blond hair that swayed with arrogant grace.
Sword aura mixed with divine power—a terrifying blade.
He didn’t know why she was here. But even in the face of the unexpected, Abaddon couldn’t suppress his vile grin.
“Found you.”
For the first time, Abaddon abandoned his position and descended toward the ground.
The time for revenge had come.
* * *
Slice—
As Jeanne swung her sword, the sensation of cutting through a monster’s flesh transmitted clearly to her fingertips. No matter how many she killed, the monsters kept coming without end.
The moment the Loren army spotted the enemy moving along the river, they launched a ferocious assault. In an instant, allies and enemies became hopelessly intertwined, turning the plains into a hellscape of slaughter.
Amid the intensifying battlefield, the exploits of the Aura Masters stood out. With a single swing, they cut down multiple monsters and bolstered allied morale.
Among them, Jeanne—the Goddess’s child who wielded divine power alongside aura—was unmistakably prominent.
Judged as the top priority target, monsters swarmed her in groups, surrounding her completely.
“Lady Jeanne!”
“Leclerc!”
Blocked by the monsters encircling her, the voices of Iris and the senior members of the First Division grew faint. Her vision was choked off, making her feel suffocated.
“Just a bunch of grunts.”
With an icy expression, she focused both aura and divine power into her blade.
Aura was itself another weapon. Inexperienced Masters usually limited its use to ranged slashes.
But in her previous life, Jeanne had researched more efficient ways to use aura in combat. Now, she could reinforce her body with it—or extend it from the blade’s edge to vastly increase her attack range.
“Get lost, you bastards!”
Jeanne swept her sword in a wide arc.
Her aura stretched like a whip, slaughtering all the enemies surrounding her at once. Dark red blood sprayed like mist as the monsters collapsed like paper dolls.
With the obstacles gone, her vision cleared.
Staring at the monsters that had been butchered in an instant, her comrades were left speechless.
“…”
“…She kinda scares me.”
Unaware of how she was being perceived, Jeanne continued cutting down the enemies before her.
With only one thought driving her—to annihilate the monsters here—she swung her sword and pierced skulls without hesitation.
Her performance was dazzling. Still, there were casualties.
Death cries of allies echoed throughout the field. With just a slight turn of her head, she could see the corpses of monsters and humans tangled together like nets.
Hot bile rose in her throat, burning as it came up.
She had just severed the neck of a monster attempting to ambush an ally when—
“Lady Jeanne, behind you!”
In that instant, she felt the flow around her change.
A sharp premonition struck, and she turned.
The enemy was moving so fast she wondered how she hadn’t noticed sooner.
That can’t be—!
She regripped her sword too late.
A massive hand blocked her path before her blade could strike.
“Long time no see.”
What?
Her feet left the ground. The battlefield rapidly shrank below her.
Only then did Jeanne realize she was being carried through the sky, forcibly suspended by something’s hand.
Identifying its owner didn’t take long.
Abaddon…!
Her vision spun, but her confusion wasn’t because he had appeared earlier than in her past life.
That greeting.
The direction toward Dongremian.
The attack aimed at her from the start.
As suspicion hardened into certainty, she found herself amid ivory-colored pillars and the ruins of shattered buildings.
The center of ancient ruins.
Wait—if we keep going this way…!
At this speed, they would reach Dongremian before long.
Being dragged home by Abaddon’s hand—she’d rather die.
She had to kill him here.
Condensing divine power and aura into her sword, she aimed for his side.
But just before her blade could reach him, Abaddon released his grip.
She struck empty air as gravity seized her body.
For a split second, she saw his face.
Not startled—relaxed, as if he had let go on purpose.
This bastard—don’t tell me…
Abaddon rapidly shrank from view.
No—she was falling.
Between air resistance and vertigo, her mind reeled. If she hit the ground like this, there were only two outcomes:
Her body would shatter—or she would die.
Spotting a massive ivory pillar beneath her, Jeanne wrapped aura around her limbs and twisted her body midair.
She stretched out and grabbed the edge of the pillar.
Without the aura, her shoulder might have dislocated.
Before she could even breathe in relief, Abaddon charged at her again. Dangling like this, Jeanne was at an absolute disadvantage.
Abaddon clenched his fist and swung at her with full force.
Just before his punch connected, Jeanne released her grip.
She evaded the attack by a hair’s breadth.
Once again, she fell.
The height was lower than before, but still dangerous.
Jeanne stabbed her sword into the smooth pillar.
Crunch!
Reinforced by aura, the blade split the pillar as easily as paper. A long vertical crack formed as Jeanne slid downward.
She landed, pulled out her sword—and the pillar wobbled violently before collapsing like a tree chopped down by an axe.
Boom!
The massive plaster pillar fell, kicking up a choking cloud of dust. The impact might have reached as far as Dongremian—no, even the Brosellian Forest.
But Jeanne had no time to dwell on it.
Through the haze of dust, Abaddon stood there.
The air between them alone was sharp and suffocating enough to kill an ordinary person.
“Remarkable.”
In the deathly silence, Abaddon spoke first.
“To face me without panic.”
“……”
“I was hoping to see you crying, begging for your life. What a shame. Truly disappointing.”
With a smirk tugging at only one corner of his mouth, Abaddon stroked his chin.
Seeing that arrogance and composure, Jeanne became certain.
He remembers his previous life too.
The realization—that another being besides herself retained memories from before the regression—shook her.
But she quickly regained her composure.
Her goal hadn’t changed.
Kill Abaddon here. End the war.
“I’m surprised too.”
Light gathered along her blade, flowing upward along the steel. The tip of her sword, aimed at Abaddon, gleamed like a predator’s fangs.
“That you’d dare come at me again after what I did to you.”
