"All dead?" Viktor Asano asked.
"Each and every one of them, whether monsters or berserkers" Jake nodded, his expression hardening. "Even worse, before dying there was no energy surge at all, meaning they didn't even activate their berserker mode."
"You're the analyst, what do you think?"
"I think we're facing an extremely stealthy entity, capable not only of hiding but of concealing its actions. It has to be hiding at a mental level, because even if none of them see corpses, noticing all their companions missing would be strange, but if they all died without ever defending themselves, meaning they never noticed anything unusual, then we're facing someone capable of controlling the very perception of their actions."
"And then?" Viktor asked.
"Then nothing, we have no countermeasures against that.
However, judging by each one's moment of death, it seems its speed and strength aren't that great, no matter how well it hides, it won't be able to harm the strong" Jake explained.
"Good, because it looks like it's our turn to act, are we sure about this?"
Jake adjusted his glasses while smiling with a sinister grin. "Completely."
...
Inside the Lord's mansion, Hikigaya and Miura were focused, both with their eyes blank, since their sight wasn't really there.
Miura was in a kind of mental space controlling hundreds of wyverns at once, while Hikigaya observed through the vision of his summons.
In an instant, Hikigaya's previously white eyes returned to their natural color and he immediately sent a message through the system.
The next second, he felt something, one summon less.
When he returned to the wyverns' vision, he noticed that after the previous one, more were falling extremely fast in succession.
Although it was due to several reasons, since many attackers were focusing on the wyverns, Hikigaya recognized one who was taking down most of them.
It was a white haired man, flying through the air thanks to armor with metallic wings while shooting at the dragons with a weapon so small it shouldn't be able to harm them.
However, as soon as one of those bullets hit, the dragons fell to the ground before completely disintegrating.
As if he sensed his gaze from one of the farthest wyverns, the man switched his weapon to a sniper rifle and fired a bullet straight at the wyvern's eyes.
Immediately, Hikigaya canceled all summons, not wanting to waste strength.
Miura opened her eyes as soon as that happened and looked at Hikigaya with frustration, clearly wanting to keep fighting.
"No need, we did everything we could," Hikigaya simply said as he sent a message to Kirito.
...
[They're coming, at least 200000.]
[This is as far as we go, they can already defeat the wyverns easily and prevent them from reviving, continuing would be a waste of resources.]
Kirito saw Hikigaya's last two messages and nodded in understanding.
At this moment, he was in the military zone, and right behind him stood the army of 10000 men from the territory, eagerly awaiting his words.
Kirito looked at them and spoke in a loud but firm voice.
"Begin, split across the entire territory, make sure no one gets hurt."
The demons didn't need to be told twice, they immediately spread their wings and took flight.
The beastmen and other races, whose numbers were smaller, also began marching at once toward the outside.
Being the military district and already prepared, they were close, so it didn't take them long to arrive.
There, Korran led all the beastmen and the few other land based races against the approaching humans, creating a particular situation.
While the human side was full of humans using abilities, creating a colorful scene, the beastmen relied on their physical strength to withstand all those abilities and defend themselves.
"Come on, finish off those beasts!" a human shouted.
"For Lord Lucifer, defend our home!" Korran replied, increasing his speed.
Behind him, everyone followed with the same determination.
The beasts attacked, those at the front reached the humans and struck immediately, causing the entire human wave to be pushed back several meters.
Before they could recover, the same beasts were already grabbing them by the neck with force until breaking it.
Without even looking at the bodies, the beasts kept moving toward their next victims.
Korran saw this and nodded in satisfaction, all the training had paid off.
Not only did they know how to attack, but they were willing to do so, without freezing despite it being their first battle.
At the same time, he saw a mage conjuring a large fireball heading toward his subordinates.
Korran stepped in front of the fireball without thinking, and when the mage thought he had taken down a big one, Korran's hand came out of the smoke and pierced his chest.
Korran grabbed the mage's staff only to stab a man approaching from behind.
Continuing forward, he pierced three more men like a skewer before letting go and kicking backward, sending several men trying to attack him from behind flying several meters away.
Soon he was surrounded, and several vines emerged from the ground restraining him, Korran pulled with force, lifting the mages and using them as weapons against their companions, causing bursts of blood wherever they passed.
Without stopping his advance, he ran in a straight line, severely injuring or fracturing everyone in his path, who were then quickly finished off by his allies or by the humans advancing behind.
He continued like that for a while, sure his kill count had reached at least a thousand, when his instincts made him retreat upon sensing danger.
Bang!
A bullet pierced the exact spot where he had been just a moment ago, continuing forward and killing several humans and beasts along the way.
Following the direction of the shot, Korran saw a white haired man in the distance.
Without hesitation, he ran toward him, considering him dangerous.
"Damn, the surprise attack failed" the man muttered as he stored his sniper rifle in a special space and pulled out a pair of handguns, beginning to fire in bursts.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Korran dodged most of the bullets, although he wasn't faster than a bullet, especially since these were much faster than normal ones, seeing the weapon was enough to predict where the bullet would go.
Seeing it wasn't working, the white haired man looked at Korran with annoyance before stepping back and dropping the pistols.
He crouched and placed both hands on the ground, causing the terrain to start changing shape, affecting a large area, including where Korran stood.
At first Korran ignored it, used to uneven terrain, but when the ground began transforming into sharp spikes and blades, he couldn't withstand it and chose to leap directly toward the man.
But when Korran was mid air, about to reach him, he was met with a double barrel shotgun aimed straight at his chest.
Korran barely had time to cover his chest with his arms before being thrown several meters away, managing to stop himself by applying force to anchor his legs to the ground.
The white haired man looked at Korran, whose right arm was completely immobilized, like a run over animal, and whose left had some wounds, and muttered with annoyance.
"Tch, just one arm, huh?"
He then pulled out an AK-47 from the same space and aimed at Korran.
"Awoooo."
But before he could start firing, he was forcefully pushed by what looked like a huge dog.
"Korran, are you alright?" asked the two headed hound.
"Sylver, I'm fine, get away from there" Korran said, worried Sylver might get hurt by the mysterious man's weapons.
Both of Sylver's heads looked toward where they had thrown the man, only to see him protected by a metallic shield the size of his body.
The man tossed the shield aside before looking at Korran and Sylver in sequence.
"Looks like I'll have to use that" he said as he put his arms back into the secondary space where his weapons were.
Unlike before, this time he needed both arms, and even then, from his actions it was clear it was difficult for him to hold what he was pulling out.
When he finally pulled it out, Korran widened his eyes in surprise, he didn't know what it was, but with hundreds of barrels to fire from, he was sure it was extremely dangerous.
Ratatatatatatatatattatatata.
The machine gun began spinning as it fired hundreds of bullets at high speed.
When it ran out of bullets, the smoke in front of the man was enough to make the scene look like the aftermath of a recently dropped bomb.
Even so, not trusting it, he pulled out several grenades and threw them into the area.
Still not trusting it, instead of advancing, he chose to wait and see if they were dead.
"How is this possible?" Although he had considered the possibility they might still be alive, the truth was he himself didn't believe they could actually survive, he was just being cautious.
Yet there they were, completely intact after thousands of bullets had been fired at them.
Before he could even understand it, he was stabbed in the chest with a piercing dagger, going straight through his heart.
"Are you a protagonist?" a female voice sounded, without any malice, just genuine curiosity. "Why didn't you use your strongest weapon from the start?"
Although he never got to see who killed him, he did hear her, so as he closed his eyes he left the world one final complaint.
"Damn it, I... hate protagonists, don't compare me... to them..."
Korran looked at the dead body and approached it, ripping off its head to make sure.
After doing so, he turned to the side.
"Miss Megumi, thank you very much for the help" he said with utmost respect.
"What about me? I brought her" Sylver said with the attitude of a dog waiting for praise.
"Thanks to you as well" Korran smiled as he petted him. "Miss Megumi, will you go help somewhere else?"
"No" Megumi shook her head. "From what I saw while moving on Sylver, there are about five in total at that man's level, but he was the only one with a normal body. I can't handle the others, so I'll stay here and help" Megumi explained.
______________________________________
15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
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80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)
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