Varlog sighed as he walked back into the camp, rubbing his cheek.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk… How troublesome," he murmured to himself, glancing at a mark on his palm as it glowed.
He frowned.
"Master Varlog," a rough voice called from inside a tent. A large horned demon emerged, bandages wrapped across its body. "Something happened?"
"Ah, yes. It appears our negotiations failed, and I unfortunately must be elsewhere by the command of our Lord." Varlog looked up at the mighty demon, who kneeled before him.
"Broken, are you healed?"
"Yes, Master. Fully. The potion you gave me finally kicked in at full strength. My subordinates have also recovered." His voice was low enough to rattle the tent flaps.
"Good, good. Then release everything you have at them. Immediately. Before they have a chance to form a plan… Remember to exile yourself a second time from the demonkin in case you have to meddle in yourself." Varlog folded his hands behind his back.
Broken nodded.
"They have a few more troublesome allies, but I trust even they can't defend from all directions with you at the vanguard. The most troublesome one has strength equal to yours, so do proceed with caution…"
The general bowed. Several other demons bowed alongside him as Varlog addressed him.
"Oh, mighty general of ours." Varlog concluded with a smile. "Do look out for yourself, please."
"Worry not, Master Varlog!" He roared. "The elves shall be brought down today! Our reinforcements arrived while you were gone, too!"
"Splendid. Though, one of them seems to have returned to full strength. The same one who brought you to near death."
"Vaelthir," he growled. "Understood. That was mere luck. I've learned from my mistakes."
"Very well. Best of luck." Varlog nodded, and left.
—-----------
"They're coming…" Van muttered as he looked around.
Vaelthir's and the other elves' heads snapped to the sides.
"Where!? I don't hear anything!" Vaelthir shouted.
"Footsteps," Van said. "Thousands… Maybe more. From all directions. And,"
Van pointed at the front.
"A big, big one. From there. Running really fast."
Vaelthir's jaw tightened.
'To think he'd hear something before us. I was about to dismiss it as nonsense, but he says a big one… A big one, he says,' Vaelthir thought.
'That could mean that big bastard survived our fight. CURSES!'
"You said thousands."
"Yeah."
"From all directions. All at once?"
"Yeah."
Vaelthir ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek. Turned to the treeline. Elves were already scrambling, some grabbing bows, some pulling children further into the canopy. An elf stumbled over a root and spilled a quiver of arrows across the dirt. No one stopped to help him pick them up.
"DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!" Vaelthir barked. "ARCHERS TO THE OUTER RING! MAGES, CONSERVE YOUR MANA UNTIL I GIVE THE ORDER!"
He whipped back to Van.
"How long?"
"Minutes until they get here. Maybe less for the big one."
Vaelthir's nostrils flared. 'That bastard recovered… But so did I. I'll kill him for good, this time… All he has to do is land the first strike so the Gods would be pleased. Then I could go all out.' He looked at the ground, then up.
"I'll take a squad and meet their general at the front. We'll buy time. Likely die doing it. You," he pointed at Van, "defend the interior. Keep the abominations from reaching the—"
"No." Van said. "Stay here. I have a plan."
Vaelthir's mouth opened. Closed. His brow furrowed deep enough to crease.
"Nonsense! Formulated a plan on the very first day you come here, while we struggled for over a year!? Quit your ramblings!"
Other elves turned around as they scrambled, looking at Van. Frowning at him.
"We don't have TIME for your human ego games!!" They shouted.
The ground shook.
Something heavy hitting the earth again and again, getting closer. The leaves on the nearest trees trembled in time with it.
Then a roar split the air. Low, guttural, rolling across the plains like thunder dragged along the ground. Birds erupted from every tree in the forest at once.
Sato covered his ears. Takeshi planted his feet wider.
"What… What is that!?" Sato squealed.
Through the treeline, past the incomplete wooden spike perimeter there were shapes. Hundreds. Then more. Pouring over the hills from every direction like water filling a basin. Skinless, crooked, stumbling over each other as they closed in. The plains turned dark with them.
And at the front stood the general, Broken. Towering. Horned. Bandages still wrapped around one arm.
He stood several kilometers away from the forest clearing, yet he could be heard and seen clearly.
"ELVES!" His voice hit the forest like a wall. The canopy shook.
"YOU ARE ALL TREMBLING ON YOUR FEET! YOUR QUEEN IS ON HER KNEES! YOUR FOREST IS SURROUNDED!"
He spread his arms wide, the abominations halting behind him in a rough semicircle that stretched past the horizon on both flanks.
"SURRENDER NOW! LEAVE THIS FOREST! AND WE WILL LET YOU LIVE! REFUSE—"
He slammed one fist into his open palm.
"—AND THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT TO BURY!"
Silence across the forest. An elf's bowstring creaked as her hands shook.
Vaelthir's teeth ground together. His hand drifted to his bow. Drew it. Nocked an arrow.
"Human," he hissed without turning, "Quit your nonsense and get ready to fight. This is no time to measure sticks."
"I'm serious." Van replied. "The reason I want you to stay here is that—" but was then cut off by an elf.
"How dare you STAND there," an elf shouted at Van from behind, bow drawn, "while our home IS ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED!"
"He's just a human," another muttered. "He just wants to have his ego stroked! Everyone, follow me!"
Vaelthir clicked his tongue.
'There's no time.' He thought as he turned around, following the rest.
They all left, leaving Van with Takeshi and Sato.
Takeshi gripped his greatsword, blinking at the general and the army that surrounded them.
"Now what…?" Takeshi said with his hoarse voice.
Van remained quiet.
'I could try to kill that general right now.' He thought.
'But that would leave this place exposed, and I'm not sure what abilities he has. I don't know where I'll respawn after death, so I need to stay alive for as long as I can. Guess I'll just do what I planned. I just need to see just how big this forest is for myself.'
"V-van..?" Sato said as he turned to him. "Your plan. You said you had a plan, right? Can you tell us?"
Van's head turned to Sato, his fist suddenly tightening until it was white under his gauntlet.
Van held his breath in.
'Somehow, only him caring…'
A flash in his mind.
'... Feels like I'm stared at by Rina after saying something embarrassing.'
His body tensed.
'Those caring eyes as if they look at some dumb kid who drew a sun with crayons before eating them. Like I just pissed myself in public… Or that time I said something awkward in class… Something that everyone then ignored.' He looked at the back of the elves as they all ran away. Then back at Sato.
'Then Rina would tell me it's alright before walking to the sunset with her beloved Kazuya.'
He clenched his teeth.
'You PoOr bRoKeN uGlY thInG. ArE YoU OKaY? Is what you thought. Otherwise, why'd you stay with him and not me, right?'
"V-... Van?"
'I'm stronger than all of you now, you fuck. You think I need to tell you my plans anymore? Think I want to? I gave up reviving my mom just to help these ungrateful—'
"Van!" Sato called louder.
"Shut the fuck up," Van hissed, "that's my plan."
Sato blinked rapidly, stepping back.
"... And let me work."
Van concluded as he turned around, walking deeper into the forest.
"R… Right… Okay." Sato replied as he looked down.
'What was that about…?' Takeshi thought as he narrowed his eyes at Van. 'Fuck is his problem?!'
He turned his head to Sato, his gaze softening.
Meanwhile Van kept walking until he stood alone at the heart of the forest. He could hear Vaelthir's voice as he talked to the loud general.
'... This is better.' He exhaled. 'I could hear myself think.'
'Anyway… The dungeon was too small for what I'm about to do. I never really checked how high I could jump. This is a good chance.'
Every muscle in his legs pulled taut. The dirt beneath his boots cracked in a spiderweb pattern. A low whine of pressure, like a cable about to snap.
"HRM—!"
BOOOOOOOM.
The ground exploded. A crater formed where he'd stood. The shockwave flattened the grass in a perfect circle outward.
Van shot straight up. The forest shrank beneath him. The canopy became a green circle. The plains opened in every direction — and he saw it.
All of it.
'This is… Nice…'
The abominations. Packed in rings around the forest from every angle. No gaps. Thousands and thousands of them, pressed shoulder to shoulder in an unbroken siege line.
The general's eyes followed him upward, looking away from Vaelthir, his neck craning.
For one second, Van's helmet met the general's gaze.
'Is that the human Master Varlog spoke of?' The general squinted. 'That troublesome ally?'
'What's he doing…?'
Vaelthir looked at Van.
"What's he planning..?"
Then Van looked away from him. At the forest. At the ring of bodies surrounding it.
'It's big.'
Wind roared past his helmet as he reached the peak of his arc. The whole battlefield laid out beneath him like a map.
'That elf said the abominations couldn't destroy the wooden spikes. If that's the case...'
'Then it'll work.'
'The reason the elves lose is because they can't pinpoint the source. And now the demons attack from all directions for the finishing blow. I only intended for my plan to hold off the attacks until the elves could recover, but...'
He narrowed his eyes at the general as he started to fall.
'... The dumbfuck source just showed itself.'
The wind screamed as he fell. The forest growing bigger the nearer he drew.
'Man…' He thought as he looked at his arms pressing against the wind pressure as he fell, giving it a whirl.
'I should do it again when I'm not fighting anything. Jumping like this for no reason.'
Van plummeted. He hit the ground inside the treeline hard enough to buckle the earth beneath him, one knee down, fist planted.
Silence from every direction.
Then…
"What WAS that?!"
"Did he just jump?!"
"He went above the canopy—"
"Is he insane?! What was the POINT of that!?"
Takeshi stared at where Van had landed.
"Is he showing off? What the hell was that supposed to accomplish!!? Damn it, we're about to get overrun and he's doing acrobatics after acting like a dick!?"
Two elves exchanged glances. One shook her head. "Humans," she spat.
A SECOND boom. Van knocked out several elves as he dashed past them, standing at the vanguard suddenly.
"WHAA!!?" the elves shouted as they rolled to the sides.
Vaelthir shook the dirt off his shirt, looking at Van as he stood at the front.
"... Hold," Vaelthir signaled to the rest.
'Just what is he planning?'
—------------------------------
Van had not learned anything complicated in the Abyss Dungeon.
He had learned simple things.
Things people forget when they're not about to die anymore. One of which; reflected perfectly in the demons' strategy; is that when something can't sleep, it eventually dies.
So to prevent that, he needed to enable sleep again for the elves, he thought, as he opened his inventory, looking at the one item he had collected meticulously to clear several levels in the Abyss Dungeon:
[Granite Slab (7x7x7m) x8,163]
The other thing he'd learned, reflected in the abominations themselves…
... Is that granite is too strong for them to break through.
"Bottomless Inventory" Van called, opening the digital interface.
Then, he pulled a granite slab from his inventory and slammed it into the ground a distance away from the forest's edge.
Then he sprinted to the side.
"What..!?" Vaelthir gulped.
The air itself split behind him as he tore along the perimeter of the forest; a continuous, deafening crack of speed that ripped grass from the earth in his wake.
SLAM. Another slab.
[Granite Slab (7x7x7m) x8,131]
SLAM. Another.
[Granite Slab (7x7x7m) x8,098]
SLAM. SLAM. SLAM.
[Granite Slab (7x7x7m) x8,020]
Each one placed flush against the last. A wall materializing out of nothing, curving along the forest's edge.
The general's eyes widened. His mouth opened.
Then his face contorted.
"ATTACK!!!" He roared, throwing his arm forward. "CLOSE IN!! NOW!! ALL UNITS, CHARGE!!!"
The ring of abominations lurched forward from every direction at once. A tide of twisted bodies flooding toward the forest.
Sato's jaw dropped as he watched the granite slabs appear one after the other, faster than he could count.
"What... What is he..."
Takeshi squinted through his visor. His head turned, following the sound as it raced around them.
"Is he... building a wall? Where's he taking out all these slabs!?"
Vaelthir's eyes widened.
His pupils dilated. His lips parted. He took one step forward, then another. His gaze traced the emerging wall as it curved, and curved, and kept curving around the forest's perimeter.
"C-CLIMB ON THE WALL!!!" Vaelthir screamed, his voice cracking at a pitch none of his soldiers had ever heard from him.
"EVERY ARCHER, CLIMB ON THE WALL!!! SHOOT THEM ALL FROM ABOVE!!! THEY CAN'T GET US FROM UP THERE!"
The elves flinched at the volume. Then moved.
"ONE OF YOU; RUN THE FULL PERIMETER! CHECK FOR ANY BLINDSPOT!! ANY GAP!! MOVE!!!"
An elf broke into a sprint along the interior, following the wall's curve.
"MAGES, TOP OF THE WALL! FOCUS FIRE ON ANYTHING THAT GETS CLOSE TO THE BASE!"
Sato stumbled forward, his spellbook nearly slipping from his grip. His restored arms were shaking.
"He... He had something like that... this whole time?" Sato whispered. 'Just what more crazy shit can you do!?' He chuckled.
'You crazy bastard,' Takeshi thought. 'You absolute lunatic.'
The abominations reached the wall. Clawed at it. Bit it. Threw themselves against it.
Nothing.
Not a scratch. Not a crack. Not a chip.
The general's fists shook at his sides.
'THAT'S INSANE...!!' he thought, watching the wall extend further and further as a blur of motion circled the forest at a speed that made his eyes ache.
'What kind of ability IS that!? Where is he pulling these from?! HOW MANY DOES HE HAVE!?'
Van completed the first ring. The forest was enclosed. A full circle of granite, seven meters high, without a single gap.
Then he went up.
Jumping onto the first layer, he sprinted again; placing slabs on top of slabs. A second layer. Fourteen meters now. The abominations below looked like insects against the base.
'ANOTHER LAYER!?' The general took a step back.
Van stopped. Standing on top of the wall, fourteen meters above the ground.
Below him, the elven forest. Archers already climbing. Mages gathering energy in their palms, their exhaustion forgotten for the first time in months.
Below him, the army of abominations, clawing uselessly at stone they would never break.
And ahead was the general. Looking up at him.
Van looked down.
The wind pressed against his back. Warm. The evening sun caught his helmet and threw a long shadow across the horde below.
"Well... I suppose we should thank you." Vaelthir said as he stood at Van's side, arms crossed. Below, elves loosed arrows in steady volleys, the thrum of bowstrings constant.
Van didn't speak. He merely turned his head back to the general, who kept his distance from the wall.
"He's dangerous." Vaelthir added. "Like this, we could focus on killing the horde. But he could destroy the wall with a single swing."
"And," Vaelthir's gaze narrowed as movement stirred behind the general. "He has reinforcements."
Four shapes dropped from the sky, one after another, landing alongside the general hard enough to crack the earth beneath them. Each one massive. Each one horned.
"Curses," Vaelthir hissed. "More generals."
The largest of the four, broader than the original general, with a jaw like a battering ram; rolled his neck and surveyed the wall.
"Took you long enough to call for us," he rumbled, grinning at the bandaged general. "Thought this would be over by now. Didn't take you for a chump."
"Watch your mouth, Deimos." The bandaged general growled. "You weren't the one holding this siege for months."
"And yet you still needed us," a woman's voice cut in. She was leaner than the rest, black-scaled, arms folded. A jagged scar ran from her collarbone to her jaw.
"Don't puff your chest, Broken. Let us just be done with this so that we could all go home… Well, to another war, more like."
Broken's fists tightened.
A third general crouched at the edge of the group, spinning a severed abomination horn between his fingers like a toy. Thin. Long-limbed. Smiling too wide.
"You're the one who sent for us, dumbass," he said, not looking up. "Own it."
The fourth said nothing. Stood behind the rest, arms at his sides, watching the wall.
Broken exhaled through his nose. "Just… let's get it done."
Back on the wall.
"Five generals. To think the forest was that important for them…" Vaelthir murmured, his voice low enough that only Van could hear. The archers behind them continued firing, but the volleys felt thinner now. Slower. Fatigue creeping back in.
Vaelthir turned to Van.
"Then... I won't make the same mistake." He paused, as if the words were being dragged out of him by the throat.
"If you have a plan, I suppose we could listen to it."
"..."
Van stared at him.
'Yeah,'
The wind pressed against the wall. Below, abominations clawed at the stone in an endless, mindless rhythm.
'No. I'm done being interrupted. Or play nice.'
"Fuck you."
Van said, turning his head fully to Vaelthir. His voice was flat.
"Fuck all of you. I'll kill them all, so stay out of my way."
Vaelthir's eyes widened.
'This is more effective anyway. This is how I get what I want.'
"Or I'll crush your skulls in."
'Right, Kazuya?'
Van stepped off the wall.
He dropped fourteen meters and hit the ground on the other side like a meteorite. The impact cratered the earth, and every abomination within ten meters of the landing site was flattened; limbs bent backward, bodies driven into the dirt, skulls caved in by the shockwave alone.
Van tore forward through the horde, each stride punching through bodies like they were made of wet paper. A trail of ruined abominations in his wake, flung sideways, split apart, trampled underfoot without a change in his pace.
The five generals watched him come.
Broken's eyes narrowed.
The woman uncrossed her arms.
The grinning one stopped spinning the horn.
Van skidded to a halt. Dirt sprayed forward in a wave that splattered against Broken's greaves.
He stood before all five of them. Alone.
'Your method keeps proving to work every time, after all.'