Sheldan’s periphery had been thrown into disarray.
A shooting star had fallen and turned the night sky to noon. A gust of wind and a roar shook the whole city. And then, they had all seen how a mountain had evaporated in an instant, turning into flowing lava.
Any man brave enough to continue sleeping after so many natural disasters striking the city might as well be a god.
“What’s going on?”
Through the referee statue—that had appeared as a special convoy of Her Majesty The Queen—, the 10th Queen’s Army corps had been given the task of aiding in the evacuation of the Sheldan residents.
However, the corps commander Jococker had only brought with him 300 people. No matter how burly they might be, 300 soldiers wouldn’t be able to evacuate all the residents.
“It’s no good, we can’t use horses.”
Norlin climbed the hill, gasping for breath.
After seeing the flash of light that vaporized the mountain before their eyes, the army horses had neighed in fear and refused to move anymore.
The fact that horses couldn’t be used meant that they couldn’t count on using the long-distance carriages that originated in Sheldan, and many of the citizens had been forced to escape on foot. In addition, the city had been divided by buildings that collapsed after the shocks and the gust of wind, causing many casualties.
“Norlin… are there any carts of the supplies division left?”
When he heard Jococker’s words, the adjutant’s lips curved into a grin.
“Are we going to do *that*?”
“Hm… If we don’t have horses, we should become the horses.”
“Just like the Northwest Run.”
The Northwest Run was a situation where Jococker’s team, during a regional conflict against the Earl’s territory, had once found themselves in a mountain road through which horses couldn’t pass.
By mobilizing the soldiers themselves to carry a large amount of supplies, in the end they had created a supply base deep within enemy lines, a strategy that meant a successful surprise attack from the Queen’s territory.
“Can we pull it off?”
“We know there’s a big difference between us and normal soldiers. It’s high time we let the people know.”
Norlin flexed his trained muscles for an answer.
Each member of the Warhammer corps had the strength of ten horses, they should be able to work more than a horse.
“I’ll leave it to you, Norlin.”
Jococker took out a telescope, turning his eyes towards the sea, where the day hadn’t broken yet.
“We can’t fall behind on the battlefield, not with the Thundercloud General here…”
Beyond the telescope, there was the figure of a warship displaying the flag of the Thundercloud General’s army corps.
***
The eastern sky was changing from bluish black to reddish brown. It would be near dawn soon.
After climbing the huge neck of the Golem Warrior, Leina finally reached the top of its head.
“Kuh… ah… haa…”
She fell breathless before the sight that welcomed her there.
On the golem’s head, there was a lady moaning, her skin dyed in a cherry blossom color. She was buried on the head up to her waist, and the tentacles coming from around her crawled all around her, subjecting her to all kinds of vexations.
Besides her, there was Airi—her hair now blonde—, floating in the air as pale flames flickered around her feet.
“Oh my, you’re still alive.”
The blonde maid spoke to the warrior who had just climbed so far.
“I can’t die until I get Fio back.”
The Vance girl scowled at her, standing on the creature’s head with steady steps.
Hearing the boy’s name made a sad shadow cross Airi’s expression for a moment.
“Regrettably… the young master is no longer in this world.”
Her words were tinged with a sad tone.
“What do you mean?”
“The strongest proof is that the Golem Warrior is moving. This huge destruction god was revived after absorbing all of the young master’s regenerative power.”
The golem roared as if agreeing with those words.
“L… Leina…”
The woman whose body was buried into the creature turned around, her hair damp with sweat following. In her seemingly bewitched gaze, there was the dimmest light of free will yet.
“To think you’d have some consciousness left…”
Airi couldn’t help making a surprised expression; Maria’s consciousness should have been sealed after they put the black crown on her to manipulate the golem.
“Mother…”
The heiress could barely speak, seeing how the figure of the Master Swordswoman had changed so drastically.
“Leina, kill me…”
She begged, her eyes hollow.
“I… my body, they’re using it as a tool to operate the Golem Warrior… aah… please… I can’t take it anymore…”
Her pink skin got dyed red along with an ardent sigh. At the same time, the creature opened its mouth wide, and a beam of light spread towards the sea.
The next moment, the sea surface that had been exposed to the light evaporated all at once in a big explosion. The warships who had prepared a formation to meet the giant at sea were quickly wrapped in flames and a high temperature steam, and disappeared.
“GWOOOOOOOOOOH!”
The golem raised a shout of victory to celebrate the instant destruction of the fleet.
“Aah… y-you understand, don’t you, Leina…”
The daughter held down her chest. It wasn’t just due to the might of the Golem Warrior; she also shuddered to think of what condition Maria’s lower body would be in, buried as it was inside the creature.
“Kill me. If you don’t, the world will perish.”
“But…”
Leina wasn’t able to hide her reluctance at her mother’s plea.
She had seen that power which could blow off a mountain or evaporate the sea, but it wasn’t possible for her to weigh the world in the same balance as her mother.
“I only have Maria’s form… the golem’s core… your mother, Maria, is already dead… aah…”
The woman’s upper body collapsed suddenly.
“Mother…”
“Should I break up your mother-daughter talk?”
Airi, after watching carefully the exchange between the two, descended slowly to the mother’s side.
“If you only had some consciousness, it would be bad enough, but…”
The evil spirit looked down at Maria—whose body shook amidst pants—, and took up her scythe:
“It’s troubling if you have any free will remaining.”
Then she glared at the heiress, a faint smile on her lips.
“You guys, keep Miss Leina occupied.”
Acting upon her orders, a myriad of lower spirits oozed out of the golem’s head.
“Your opponent is unarmed, toy with her as much as you like!”
“Uhyuhyuhyuhyuu!”
“Popoupoupou!”
With weird cries, they flew towards Leina.
“Both mother and daughter, please get along and die together with your bodies tainted by evil beings.”
Airi was convinced of her victory; her opponent had no weapon on her. The evil spirit couldn’t help being bothered about how the other had managed to make it that far without being absorbed by the Golem Warrior; merely a trivial question.
“With this, my prolonged battle with you will be over. Farewell, Exiled Warrior.”
The blonde maid closed her eyes, removing the warrior from her sight. The heiress might have been her nemesis, but as a woman the same, she wished not to see her disgraced figure.
“Gyauh!”
“Guhaurah!”
And yet, the screams didn’t seem to be coming from Leina.
“What’s happening!?”
The lower spirits tried to coil around the Vance girl, but made strange voices and disappeared without even being able to touch her.
“That’s impossible, the Sword of the Unicorn shouldn’t be still in this world, right?”
Silently, Leina took out the bottle with the Soul Drops from inside her pouch.
“W-What’s that!?”
“Soul Drops… an elixir among medicines that the forest elves gave me to treat the curse you subjected Fio to…”
As she explained, she poured the remaining drops into her cleavage. The cool liquid flowed through the valley, moistening her navel spreading along the abdominal muscles, wetting the thicket through her underwear.
The drops that drifted through her body made the flesh of the golem evaporate, raising a white steam.
“I see, that was it then. That was why you hadn’t been absorbed.”
Now that the maid finally understood, she grabbed her scythe.
The flesh of the golem that had been lost due to the elixir started restoring itself as if nothing had happened.
The maid didn’t know how many Soul Drops Leina had left, but then again, they didn’t seem to have caused a fatal injury.
Still, she couldn’t afford to ignore her. It was her responsibility to dispose of the warrior now, so that the Master Swordswoman never ended up regaining her consciousness due to her daughter.
***
A flash mowed the surface of the sea. The next moment, the ships that had been in contact with the flash flared up, and the sea surface boiled up, steaming.
One of the ships burned and fell, maybe because the fire shot they had been prepared ended up catching fire itself.
And what awaited the sailors that had escaped a direct hit was no less of an inferno; the dense fog created from the high temperature steam boiled alive many of the surviving seamen, killing them in an instant.
The calm night sea had quickly become a pandemonium of hell.
[In just one flash…]
“It can destroy so much…”
Seeing the overwhelming difference in power, Claudette clenched her fist. Fortunately, the Glorious, located at the tail end of the fleet, hadn’t dived into that hell.
Still, she couldn’t show despair in front of the soldiers.
“Maintain formation, and don’t neglect to rescue any soldier that has escaped from our sister ships!”
She issued an order to the captain.
[Even if we can’t defeat the Golem Warrior, the fact that the navy has fought here will remain. What will come first, the golem entering the range of our fire shots, or the fleet getting destroyed?]
Her judgment had her worried.
“Older sister!”
“Elina!? What happened?”
The younger sister, who had been looking at the golem through the binoculars, pointed to its head.
“Older sister, it’s our Sister. She’s on top of the Golem Warrior’s head!”
***
“Now that I recall, you have kept getting in our way each and every chance, haven’t you!”
As soon as she said so, the blonde maid rushed towards Leina, scythe in hand.
“As unsightly as slashing an unarmed opponent is, please don’t hold a grudge!”
“Unarmed? Oh no, I do have a weapon!”
The heiress shouted, pushing up her breasts from below, as if calling for it.
A serenading blade coated in Soul Drops flew up from her cleavage into the air. The name of that sword with a blade in a complex shape resembling a unicorn’s horn and a grip harking back to a male genitalia was… the Sword of the Unicorn.
“W-What was that!”
The evil spirit’s eyes were open wide in amazement; that characteristic shape left little room for doubts.
The Sword of the Unicorn was Fio’s other half, and it should have disappeared when its main body vanished, but despite so…
“Fio! Let’s fight together.”
Leina cried, reaching for the sword dancing through the air.
(I was waiting for the moment thou would call my name!)
A voice brimming with power and dignity filled her ears. It was the same voice she had heard back when she had experienced the crisis at the Elven Forest.
(Now is the time to give all my power to thee!)
Without hesitation, she went to kiss the rear end of the Sword.
Immediately, with a momentum comparable to an explosion, a wall of Holy Sound spread.
“Kuuh!”
With Airi charging at her, she couldn’t dodge, and her clothes got blown off.
“How can this be!”
The maid reconstructed her clothes in midair, and looked below her.
It hadn’t been just her who had gotten blown away by the Holy Sound; at Leina’s feet, the Golem Warrior’s skull had gotten exposed. Even the very flesh of the golem had been forced to disappear before the sound emitted by that heavenly treasure.
And along the release of that sound, the Sword had only grown bigger.
“Golem Warrior! Blow Leina away from your head.”
The creature roared at her order.
If it hit its own head with its huge fist, Maria would also be getting caught up in it. It seemed the creature could understand that much, since it used a different method.
The monsters similar to the leeches constituting its body rose up, letting out a putrid smell, and rushed at the heiress.
However, they could never touch her; before the Holy Sound emitted by the weapon, they froze stiff and shattered.
Even if she took her lips away from the weapon, it kept emitting the sound.
“This is…”
The Sword pulsated violently. It was a similar phenomenon as when she had fought the Frost Dragon at the Elven Forest. A straight line ran through the rear end of the weapon, and a brilliant liquid came out.
Leina didn’t avoid it, just took it into her whole body.
[If I am to defeat this golem, I need this power. The power that destroyed the Frost Dragon in a flash!]
The light that fell on her body changed immediately into a silver armor that protected her. The sword’s spiral blade came undone, becoming a wing that expanded and attached itself to Leina’s waist, letting her body float in midair.
(Now, it’s time we fight together, my Knight!)
The moment she grasped the Sword of the Unicorn anew—whose blade had changed shape into a sharp, long, transparent one similar to crystal—, his voice sounded in her mind.
Along the voice full of majestic might, a dazzling light extending from Heaven shone on the golem’s head.
“GWAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”
The creature seemed unable to endure the brilliance, for it raised both hands to try and block the light.
In turn, Leina looked up, straight at the light. Something seemed to be coming down, clad in a heavenly light.
“A horse?”
It was basically like a white horse, with a size comparable to a gigantic elephant. In the face of the Golem Warrior, who was trying to block its way, the horse came down running straight towards her.
“Fio?”
For some reason she couldn’t logically comprehend, she felt that the horse was Fio.
When the golem stretched a hand to shake off the white horse, a big hole opened in the creature’s hand.
“GWOOOOOOOOOOH.”
Raising an extremely horrifying scream, the golem looked at the hand it had held out itself. The white horse came out of the hole that had opened in it. And the hole didn’t just stay there; it spread until the whole hand fell off.
Touching the white horse had caused the connections of the monsters composing the golem’s body to get dissolved for that area.
Maybe it felt pain, or it was trembling with anger; in any case, it let out a roar that shook the whole atmosphere.
(Fly, Leina!)
Prompted by him, she moved her legs as if she was going to kick the golem’s head. Then, her body floated gently, and she soared up into the sky.
The huge white horse rushed straight to her side, and scooped up her body so she sat astride him.
“Fio, is it really you?”
(Of course, I’m Fiotiel Shelagleed, king of the mythical beasts, the Great Unicorn, that’s me.)
The Great Unicorn ran around the golem, drawing a trajectory of light.
(Leina, you can’t defeat this thing unless you have a weapon from the age of the gods.)
“A weapon from the age of the gods?”
(The half of my body thou are holding.)
She grabbed the crystal blade even tighter.
“If I defeat the golem, what will happen to Mother?”
(Thy mother has already died, not even with my miracle can I revive someone who has died once. Besides…)
“Besides?”
(She is fused with the golem’s flesh now. Reviving her would be equivalent to reviving the golem… However, even if you can’t save her body, you can save her soul!)
Leina bit her lips when she heard that.
***
“GUGWOOOOOOOOH!”
The golem raised a roar, tearing off its collapsed arm.
“What is it doing!?”
After waiting for the signs of the Sword of the Unicorn to disappear, Airi returned to the head of the Golem Warrior and asked Maria, who kept gasping for breath.
“Removing… the contaminated area…”
The woman explained the creature’s actions with no intonation to her voice.
“How pathetic, to lag behind one mere mythical beast… and this is one of the evil creatures that made the gods tremble!?”
The golem roared at her reprimand, and bent its upper body at a sharp angle. It spread its wide chest even further, its ribs almost popping out.
“What is it going to do?”
“Light bullet for large-scale destruction… arming… aah…”
A pant overlapped with her emotionless voice.
The attack power of the golem was proportional to the ecstasy of Maria, who was its central body. In other words, the more pleasure Maria felt, the more powerful the blow would be.
“Please reach as intense a climax as you like. As wretchedly and obscenely as you wish.”
Airi hugged Maria from behind.
***
The Golem Warrior’s chest was wide open, the ball of light shining in the center only growing bigger. It intended to release another light bullet like the one that had blown away Sheldan’s mountain.
“No good! If it shoots *that* again…!”
As one would expect, it wouldn’t miss its mark a second time.
“Fio!”
Before Leina even finished shouting, the white horse ran through the air, getting between the golem and Sheldan.
Despite being before dawn, the projectile was creating a shine as if the very sun had fallen on the ground.
“GWAAAAAAAAAH!”
The golem screamed as it fired the small sun.
(Leina! Let’s go!)
Fio rushed towards the light bullet. Riding him, Leina stuck out her crystal blade straight ahead.
(It’ll be decided in an instant! Send it upwards!)
She had no choice in the matter. If she didn’t send it up, some place on the surface would take great damage.
“Deeyaaaaaaaaah!”
With a cry full of fighting spirit, Leina rushed into the bullet along with Fio.
Among the dazzling brilliance, she thrust her sword into the core—its blue shine so exceptional it seemed to be pure.
(Go!)
Matching his timing, she did a great swing upwards.
The light bullet that got shot above her shone as if it was noon.
When she looked below her, she saw a warship displaying Vance's coat of arms, which had formed a fleet to protect Sheldan. Her gaze crossed with Claudette’s, who was looking at the Golem Warrior from the ship.
“Elina, and Sister Claudette too.”
After confirming their figures, she turned to look at the golem again.
“Let’s do this, Fio!”
[I can’t be at a loss anymore.]
In order to save the soul of her mother, the Master Swordswoman Maria, she’d fulfill her wish.
The white horse, with Leina on top, rushed towards the head of the gigantic creature.
Towards the approaching girl, Maria flashed a gentle smile.
‘Now, kill us… And… release me…’
Despite Maria not saying it out loud, Leina was able to read her lips perfectly.
“Kuuh! Anti-aircraft defense! Shoot them down.”
Following Airi’s orders—mixed with screams—, the horns growing on the golem’s head were shot out at the horse running through the sky and his rider to bring them down.
“Feel the power of the horns that can sink a battleship in one shot!”
(Not yeeet!)
The white horse pushed forward fearlessly, repelling the horns shot out by the golem with a barrier.
(Let’s go, Leina!)
The warrior held out her sword straight, way above her head. She focused her consciousness on her arms.
[Mother… I will grant your wish now.]
The crystal blade received her will, and got wrapped in a dazzling light.
“Teyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Along with a scream that showed her fighting spirit, she swung down the crystal blade swiftly.
“GWOOOOON!”
The golem roared, holding out its remaining left arm to protect itself from the blade. However, it couldn’t stop the blade of light emitted from the Sword of the Unicorn.
Like a heated knife cutting through butter, the golem’s arm was cut into two, both pieces raising huge columns of water when they fell to the sea. The light blade pushed forward without slowing down and split the huge body into two—including Maria, buried on top of its head.
Leina stared firmly at the scene so as to burn it into her retina; she wouldn’t be regretting the act that she carried out of her own volition.
“Goodbye, Mother…”
Just before the light blade engulfed her, her mother had a gentle smile on her face. Or at the very least, that’s how it looked to her.
“Like this… it should be fine like this, Mother…”
Illuminated by the morning light, tears kept running down her face, but Leina did nothing to wipe them.
***
“My goodness!”
Airi shook in fear, looking down from her vantage point at the figure of the Golem Warrior being superbly cleaved right in two.
[If that had hit me directly, there’s no doubt it’d have made me disappear as well. Sacred treasures from Heaven are fearsome.
And to say nothing of Leina’s determination too, who knew she’d decide to strike down her own blood.]
“Airi~, are you alive? Heey.”
Suddenly, Melona’s voice echoed from the crystal ball.
“Melona, where have you been until now?”
“Since the Golem Warrior made a mess out of its meals, I couldn’t replenish myself. I was finally able to make it to your feet. Oh, they’re red today!”
“What are you being silly about, sheesh!”
Airi pouted at Melona’s tone, without any tension as ever. Although, thanks to her she had regained her usual mood.
“So, I’ll make a magic circle, let’s withdraw.”
“Withdraw?”
“Well, we can’t continue with the plan anyways, let’s wait for the next instructions from the witch. There’s nothing else we can do.”
All the plans they had poured so much time and effort in had been for naught. If they could at least have the chance to show to the Queen’s Army how Maria was manipulating the Golem Warrior… but the crucial creature had been brought down due to heavenly intervention before it could even contact the queen’s troops. The strategy had ended in a big fiasco.
Above anything else, the whole plan had been conceived with Fio’s super-resilience in mind, and since he had disappeared, they wouldn’t be able to repeat it again. The only silver lining could be that they had been able to let people know about the witch’s troops.
“Or, would you like to fight the Heaven’s messenger? I think you’d better quit while you’re ahead, tho.”
Hearing that, Airi looked towards the white horse, who flew towards Sheldan with Leina in tow. She couldn’t imagine living to tell the tale after getting slashed with that light blade that had defeated the Frost Dragon and the Golem Warrior in one shot.
If it had been Leina alone, maybe it’d have been fine, but the power of that huge white horse that had descended from Heaven was one which had a very bad compatibility with her.
“Yes… let’s leave the rest to Mistress. Even if we get punished, we’ve done all we could.”
Everyone was distracted by the golem cut into two pieces and collapsing, in the manner of two towers sticking out of the sea, and no one noticed the small magic circle from Airi’s party.
***
The people of Sheldan looked up with hope at the figure of the female knight riding the unicorn, as they ran through the sky along with the dawn.
A savior who had defeated the demon that had come so close, it was on the verge of destroying the city. Her figure was as if out of a beautiful painting, like a tale from the era of the myths.
“Someone beat us to it, clearly.”
While lifting the huge rubble with his innate muscles, Norlin called out to Jococker, who was looking up at the dawn sky.
“We can’t match a goddess of legend. After all, we’re just humans.”
Jococker only shook his head slightly, and scooped up the citizens trapped under the rubble, one by one.
Taking the brunt of the light shot the Golem Warrior threw, the stone buildings had collapsed everywhere in Sheldan’s old town. It was evident to everyone that this was a situation where they wouldn’t have enough manpower with just their city’s militia.
That was when they had appeared dashingly: the 10th Corps of the Queen’s Army’s, the Warhammer troops, whose prideful strength the citizens had celebrated. This was because it was quite clear they weren’t there for occupation, but for disaster relief.
At the moment, the Warhammer troops were showing off their prowess doing heavy lifting, like the removal of rubble, the likes of which others could never hope to.
“Yes, we’re only humans.”
Jococker said, disappointed, handing out the child he had saved to her mother.
“Please don’t be discouraged.”
The girl he had saved smiled at him in encouragement.
“You’re my savior.”
***
The long dawn broke.
Bathed in the morning sun, the monsters which comprised the flesh of the Golem Warrior evaporated raising voices of resentment. Apparently, without the magical energy from the golem, they couldn’t fight against that sunlight that cleansed all evil.
The peace of the Continent had been protected, a close call as it might have been.
The skeleton of the Golem Warrior got washed away by the waves, falling apart. Because of its huge size, it would still take some time for it all to disappear.
“Notice to all ships: do NOT approach the golem’s wreckage. Any time the ship is prepared, enter the port at Sheldan and rest.”
Flag signaling was issued from Glorious, flagship of the northern navy of Earl Vance’s territory.
“It will be fine now.”
The Thundercloud General nodded approvingly to the captain’s words.
“Hm, thanks for the trouble.”
Even as she spoke her appreciation, Claudette saw off her stepsister—riding through the morning sky on top of a white horse—with a complicated expression on her face.
[In the end, the one who settled the battle wasn’t us, who mobilized our troops, and it wasn’t the Queen’s Army either; it was a sole warrior.]
The name of the Exiled Warrior would spread far and wide. As the warrior who defeated the golem, and the knight of the sacred unicorn…
[We have to bring her back at all costs. If one considers the fact that she’s defeated the Golem, it should be easy for her to bring the Earl territory together.]
“Ah---!”
Elina’s scream echoed through the sea, interrupting her train of thought.
“W-What’s wrong, Elina?”
“Big Sis, you tricked me! You said you’d go home after this fight was over!”
The younger sister shouted at the direction Leina was flying towards, as she kicked the deck, annoyed: *bam, bam*.
“It should be fine.”
Claudette gently placed her hand on the shoulder of the frustrated Elina.
“Older sister?”
“We’ll meet her soon. As long as we participate in Queen’s Blade.”
“Don’t tell me you intend to participate too, older sister? That’s no good, no good at all. It’s Elina’s job to catch you, Big Sis!”
Claudette observed the lovely behavior of the panicked Elina with a smile in her heart, not breaking her calm expression.
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