Realizing the betrayal, Lasha laughed for a while before starting to rampage like a beast.
Every ti she reached out, sothing shattered, soone's life was endangered, buildings collapsed, and screams echoed incessantly.
"Is this all you've got!? Did you think you could kill with this!? Cowards!"
The first to stop Lasha's relentless advance was Benedict’s great sword.
Even before the punch infused with the power of destruction could break, Benedict pushed back, and the sight of it made a smile spread across Lasha’s face.
"Suppressing power with dense aura! Insane!"
"I can’t cut power like so people. Instead, I’ve chosen this thod."
Lucy’s friend, Frey, had shown Benedict how to cut through pure power, but that was only sothing those who reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship, like her or the Swordmasters, could do.
Compared to them, Benedict's sword skills were slightly inferior, and while he could match their level, he could never completely cut through power.
In a battlefield where a single mistake can cost your life, trusting in uncertainty is suicidal. So, Benedict had developed his own style.
A strategy only possible because of his natural body and vast aura. Simply put, it was a thod of suppressing with sheer strength.
"Hahaha! You really don’t look human!"
"And you don’t look like one either!"
Every ti the two clashed, the earth twisted. So parts of the weakened foundation from the previous earthquake sprang up and sank down.
The unstable buildings collapsed.
The constant explosions deafened the people, and the wind stirred by their clashes turned into a storm, pushing people back.
"Even now, this much—what will you look like when you’re fully ford!?"
"I don’t understand your idea of completion, but you won’t see it! You’ll be dead before then!"
There were no weaklings among those standing there.
The knights of Allen, as well as the soldiers Karia brought, were all elite forces ant to confront evil gods.
However, despite being highly regarded everywhere they went, here, it was aningless.
Strength is relative, and Benedict and Lasha were strong, while the others were weaker in comparison.
Just as they had predicted.
"Report to the employer! We’re heading to C! Move!"
The knights and the followers of the God of Destruction, who had infiltrated, moved without hesitation at Karia’s command.
"Looks like you have no faith? To be discarded so easily!"
"They leave because they trust! You, who have lived alone your whole life, would never understand that feeling!"
The knights believed in Benedict’s strength. No matter what happened, they trusted he would not lose to Lasha.
Thus, suppressing their worries, they set off to do their part.
Benedict trusted the knights and Karia as well. He knew they would move according to the plan and secure the victory.
So, at this mont, he could fight a crazy lunatic and risk his life, matching their weapons.
"Hahaha! This is why you get weak! Benedict Allen!"
"And this is why you can move forward! Lasha!"
Amidst Benedict’s wild rampage, Mira had told him.
That people could move toward the future together.
That seemingly aningless honor could protect them.
That good intentions, when called upon, brought good things.
And that when a person decides to protect sothing, they beco stronger than they ever thought possible.
"Then prove it! Prove that you're still stronger than ! Prove that you're the strong one! Right now!"
Hearing the explosions from behind, Karia let out a bitter laugh.
This was a pretty good city, but now it seems they’ll have to rebuild it from scratch. How long would it take to construct it again?
This ti, she would invest in it with the person she had just made connections with, starting from the city's foundational infrastructure.
"It’s been a long ti since the master was a child. Moving without him, just us... this is the first ti."
While Karia thought ahead without concern, Possel spoke up.
His gaze was focused ahead, but all his other senses were following his master.
For a man who saw not his family, but one person as his master, the master was an object of trust and simultaneously an object of concern.
Maybe if it were just once, it wouldn’t be so bad. But to see the man he respected fall twice, he didn’t want that.
Noticing his unease, Karia chuckled and leaped onto Possel’s shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm tired~ Anyway, it doesn't matter to you, does it?"
"In a different sense, it’s heavy."
"Shut up and just run. You muscle pig. This is what a disloyal servant who doubts his master deserves."
"Looks like you noticed."
"n are such idiots. If you're worried, just speak up."
"I can’t burden the master with sothing like that. He’s already carrying such a heavy load."
"Oh? Is that so?"
"And you know this, don’t you, Karia? Since eting Mira, the master hasn’t lost a fight he fought to protect."
"Did he?"
She wanted to ntion how he had looked so dazed in the royal capital last ti, but if she did, the conversation would go on endlessly, so she let it slide.
"By the way, Karia, you once asked about where the master and Mira t."
"Ah, don’t bring up that useless mory. I don’t want to think about it."
"...What do you an by that? It was just a quiet rural village."
"I wasn’t talking about the scenery. I ant about how I was tricked."
The two of them, chatting lightly, had reached the dungeon just before the evil god’s resurrection.
"We have so ti before we start the work. Hmm, should we talk about old stories?"
"Now?"
"Now’s the ti. It's better to wear defeat as a victory. Especially if the person who took my life away was a companion of that bastard."
The first ti Karia t Mira was the day after she had t Benedict.
At the ti, living like a dog for the kingdom, she personally went to investigate what kind of person the woman who had seduced the kingdom’s top warrior, Benedict, was.
She first gathered information from around the area and checked the deep secrets hidden in the village. Then, disguised as a traveler, she sought out Mira.
What she discovered was nearly identical to the information Karia had already found.
Mira was simple, and yet a mysterious sage. People are multifaceted beings.
It’s impossible to be good in all directions. Such a being would only appear in myths.
"Aha, thank you for the complint, but it's too much for . I’m just an ordinary girl."
As she herself said, Mira was ordinary. Except for her appearance that seed too good for a village, she was plain in every other way.
But her normalcy and uprightness made her seem almost out of place.
At least, that’s how Karia saw it.
That’s why she worked harder to uncover more about Mira.
It was almost a certainty. She believed that sothing was hidden within this person’s inner depths.
That there was sothing else to her connection with Benedict.
That through ticulous preparation, Mira was trying to achieve sothing.
However, surprisingly, after all her effort, all Karia gained was a fondness for Mira.
Nothing else existed.
Afterward, Karia apologized for her useless suspicions and helped them live happily together.
She helped them have a serious romance between a commoner and a noble, gain the recognition of other nobles, and make sure Mira would be happy even after the engagent.
Even after Lucy helped her wake up, Karia had no other thoughts.
That is, until the Pope, who had tried to desecrate Mira by resurrecting her, left with aningful words.
That day.
That day.
Karia, recalling her mories carefully, found an unsettling feeling.
So she ran madly and reached the village where Mira had lived.
And then she realized.
The deep sanctity that hung over the village.
"Wait a second, Karia. Are you saying the village was gone?!"
"No, the village was still there."
"Then Mira was a fake?"
"Not that either. People still rember Mira. She was a kind, innocent, and pretty village girl."
"...Then what is it?"
"Well, Mira's origins are unclear. A kind-hearted grandmother took in an abandoned orphan and raised her."
Mira was likely a ssenger of the gods, or sothing similar.
And she probably didn’t even know it herself.
If she had known, Karia would have caught on.
"When this is all over, I’ll ask the employer. If there's a way to kill that damn god."
What the gods intended didn’t concern Karia.
Whether it was for the salvation of the world, she didn’t care.
She just found it irritating.
The person she had first liked without any doubt, the daughter of that first person, who treated her without hesitation—how could she stand a god who used them as pawns?
"Does the master know about this?"
"No. He doesn’t. He didn’t tell . The kind of guy who cries rivers when it involves his daughter, can you imagine the fuss if Mira’s involved?"
That giant would never rise again, not even once.
Karia, chewing the words and swallowing them, fixed her eyes on the massive dungeon that was collapsing from above.
"Everyone, prepare for battle."
To save the world.
To give a warning to the heavens.
"We begin the subjugation of the evil gods."
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