『Who could possibly matter that much to her?』

From what the Eye Demon had said earlier, the North Marshal had figured something out—and immediately grew irritated with someone.

『But look on the bright side: the battle’s almost over!』

Trying to reassure themself, the North Marshal soon leveled the sharp spear. Once it had locked onto its target, it shot forward.

This was the finishing blow. As long as Isabella remained under the illusion’s influence, there was no way she could dodge it.

It’s over!

The Eye Demon and the North Marshal both thought so.

But in the very next instant, the latter suddenly jerked their head aside at an astonishing speed, as if they’d been stabbed in the back. Their gaze darted in fear toward a certain direction.

One way to dispel an illusion:

The caster’s attention suddenly shifts, even if only for an instant.

The illusion blocking Isabella’s path vanished. At the same time, she turned her wrist......

Clang!

After a clash too fast to follow, the spear that had collided with the holy banner was knocked back, sending its owner staggering with it.

The Eye Demon’s momentary distraction had turned a battle that should already have been decided into an unpredictable contest once more.

『Hey, hey! If you’re going to back me up, at least pay attention!』

But the Eye Demon’s attention was elsewhere—not on that fact, nor on the North Marshal’s obvious displeasure.

He’d been staring outside the city this whole time.

Something out there was the only reason he’d been distracted.

He could clearly sense a powerful presence there—one he couldn’t ignore.

The owner of that presence was so terrifying that even the Eye Demon, who’d seen his share of the world, couldn’t help trembling.

What’s going on? Did I make an enemy of someone that terrifying?

Even now, as the thought crossed his mind, he still hadn’t realized:

The moment he chose revenge and stepped into the city as the Empress’s enemy, there was only ever one possible ending for him.

The same was true for the Papal State’s many members, including the Human Guardian!

The North Marshal wasn’t on the same level, and at such a great distance, they failed to sense the threat bearing down on them.

Isabella was different. Her senses were no less keen than those of that demon.

The moment she knocked the North Marshal back, she realized who had arrived outside the city.

『A-at last......』

She wasn’t happy because the situation had turned in her favor.

The feeling rising in her heart was pure and simple: she was sincerely overjoyed that he had returned.

She’d never think he was late. As long as she was still standing here, everything was only just beginning.

As if to prove her right, the nightmare of the Papal Army began now!!

Wang Xiaole had spent more than fourteen hours crossing tens of thousands of miles. At last, he’d returned here.

Now, he was racing toward the capital without stopping for even a moment, launching his attack as he went.

『Thunderclap falcon, slaughter everything beneath this sky;

beast of the final flames, burn away every living creature’s flesh and marrow;

dragon of ruinous winds, tear armor and people alike into a thousand pieces;

vicious serpent of water, drown loathsome creatures alive—the wicked sound sweetest when they howl on the brink of death;

earth-shaking giant, snatch countless lives as easily as crushing ants, and smear the blood beneath your feet;

ice lion of the apocalypse, nothing is more beautiful than ice stained red—go make every living thing suffer.』

With six incantations, Wang Xiaole unleashed six different “Super-High-Tier” spells, each with a different attribute, all at once.

In the sky, birds of prey and wicked dragons wheeled overhead, their cries and roars shaking the heavens.

Beating wings brought down bolts of lightning; sweeping dragon wings commanded hurricanes that tore hundreds and thousands of people into chunks of flesh.

On the ground, ferocious beasts galloped on four legs, slaughtering soldiers as casually as they crushed dust beneath their hooves.

Giants wielding enormous weapons rampaged through the ranks. With every step, scarlet flowers bloomed beneath their feet.

Raging floods swallowed countless lives. Then a terrible cold descended, freezing the waters and the weak who struggled within them solid.

Next, a gigantic water serpent spun its tail, personally smashing the ice it had just created.

A mighty lion forged from ice ground its claws, easily crushing the people trapped within.

Elementals in inhuman forms descended upon the battlefield in every shape imaginable, slaughtering tens of thousands in one manner after another.

This was a blood-soaked execution ground where the living could sincerely believe that even hell was paradise.

At the same time, the man holding the black sword advanced at a measured pace, deliberately slowing down to make sure he killed every target.

He wasn’t a spectator. He was a true executioner, killing faster than the beasts could.

What was kindness? What did mercy mean? And what of compassion?

They were nothing compared to the scarlet that filled his sight, the pitiful screams that rang in his ears, or the boundless killing intent that seemed ready to turn him into a demon!

『Please, don’t kill......』

Someone had given up fighting in despair and begged in a trembling voice. Too bad—the descending sword was much faster than the plea.

『Spare me. There’s someone at home waiting for me to come back.』

Did it matter whether that was true?

He simply flicked the blade upward, driving its point into the other person’s mouth. Then it punched through, cleaving their entire head apart from the inside.

Those who knelt would die. Those who resisted would die. Those who put on a pitiful face could die after being tortured to death.

Kill! Kill them all! Kill everything in sight!

The grunts inside the city heard the commotion outside and instinctively ran out. They’d just saved him the time it would’ve taken to circle the city and slaughter them.

Fear and despair spread throughout the capital. The Crusaders, who’d been sweeping up the remaining troops, all rushed to the gates to stop the powerful enemy.

How nice. If the targets line up in a tight formation, they’re so much easier to cut down......

It didn’t matter which body part he cut off first, or whether his opponent wore armor.

An armored arm, severed and still wrapped in its vambrace, hit the ground. A boot came down and crushed it without mercy.

A head separated from its body was caught by the sword’s flash and turned to blood pulp before he even lowered his right hand.

This was death in the truest sense: not a single person left whole, but an entire army.

If the dead retained their awareness, they would lament their ruined remains, their deep resentment drifting over the city.

If the living could start over, they’d rather kill themselves than stay here for one more second.

What was life?

Something the bloodstained black sword snatched away in an instant.

What was death?

It meant that even after dying, you couldn’t find peace.

The “Redeemers” had gathered outside the city, all of them, in an attempt to turn the tide of a battle they were utterly losing.

They surrounded Wang Xiaole, hoping that more than ten thousand self-detonations would drag this enemy down with them.

The instant they began to turn their bodies, before their round heads could even rotate in the opposite direction from their torsos—

A single sword stroke filled the sky with a cold gleam.

In an instant, he struck as many times as there were targets, swinging one-handed with blinding speed.

The explosions still came, one after another. But the puppets in his eyes could no longer hurt anyone.

If monsters without lives intended to die, he’d gladly grant their wish himself.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom......

There weren’t ten thousand explosions, or twenty thousand. In an instant, the count soared far past fifty thousand.

After subtracting the losses they’d suffered in the attack, the forces Wang Xiaole had initially faced were the remaining 98,000 Papal soldiers and a full 70,000 “Redeemers.”

After that, a mighty force of more than 160,000 was reduced to ash and scraps of flesh—or wiped out entirely in every practical sense—in less than ten minutes.

At some point in the future, the Papal State would call this unprecedented disaster the “Great Massacre of the Imperial Capital.”

The man responsible was demonized by the Empire, described as “more vicious and cruel than a demon.”

The families of the soldiers who’d lost their loved ones would curse the killer day and night, praying that he’d die like a worm, writhing in madness-inducing pain.

That was human anger.

And yet, how many people in the Empire understood that

his cruelty came from grief?

If only he’d arrived sooner, could the people who fought to the death have been spared so many needless sacrifices?

If only he’d been more dependable, could the city’s residents have been spared these horrible memories?

Those “what ifs” were enough to haunt him for the rest of his life.

And yet, even if those who knew nothing saw him as the most evil human being in the world;

even if the memory of this day stayed with him for the rest of his life;

even so, what he’d decided to do would never change.

The young man who’d returned here as the Emperor’s husband would protect those left in this world on behalf of the dead.

The Empress they held so dear wouldn’t come to harm.

This empire, which had endured for many years, would remain on the continent long after today.

Crossing a mountain of enemy corpses and a sea of blood, the swordsman headed for the next area.

At that same moment, in this terrifying place where even the air reeked of blood, one person—and only one—laughed from the bottom of her heart.

『Heh heh heh, heh-heh heh heh heh......』

The girl plunged her cruciform sword into the ground and wrapped her arms around herself, hugging her trembling pink shoulders as she laughed like a religious fanatic.

Though he wasn’t particularly close, her joy was so great it was as if he’d appeared right before her.

『He’s not some clay idol someone carved. My god has appeared! He’s come back!』

It was as if her wounds had never been real. In that moment, her injured body returned to its peak condition.

It wasn’t support in any practical, physical sense that had changed her.

In truth, the strength she’d found within her own spirit alone had given her the power to fight on once more.

『All right, let’s continue.』

The moment she raised her cruciform sword again, the force of drawing it alone cleaved open a rift in the space before her.

『I can’t cause that great one any trouble. I can’t make him waste time rescuing his mistress over someone as insignificant as me!』

So she decided to shatter the Pope’s loathsome illusion with her own strength.

With her injuries, she might not have been able to do it before. But now things were different.

Cai’s counterattack was only just beginning.

But even before that, the entire battle had already been turned on its head.

The first place where the situation changed dramatically was the Duchy of Murin, where Qiuyan was......