The entire battlefield seemed to be still for a few moments, a break from the chaos. The entire battlefield was suddenly filled with an immense feeling of power. The sky opened up, the clouds making a circular shape, as if making way for something. Everyone looked up, wondering what was about to happen.
But Velgrynd paid no attention to it, fully focused on Artoria, who she saw as the biggest threat out of everyone present. Whatever was happening, as long as she got to her first, then everything would be taken care of.
But that chance never came.
From the sky, a massive pillar of light descended. Gabiru immediately ordered his men to move away. Carrera, noticing it, also quickly made a tactical decision to get as far away as possible. Shion decided to just get away by rampaging further into the Eastern Empire's army.
The pillar of light descended, landing directly on top of Velgrynd's head, forcefully slamming her to the ground. A loud, bellowing roar that vibrated through everyone's body was felt at the same time.
Even though the pillar of light slammed down on Velgrynd, like a smite from the heavens, it didn't let up. It kept coming down, spreading around, and forming a massive crater with spiderweb-like cracks around it. The force spread further outward, killing opposing soldiers indiscriminately.
For what felt like hours, but was only a few seconds, the pillar of light brutally struck down Velgrynd before disappearing, but still leaving a lingering effect on the battlefield.
On the battlefield, there was no body of a dragon. Instead, it was Velgrynd in her human form, lying on the ground, still and unmoving.
Artoria jumped down from her ship and grabbed Velgrynd's body, putting her on her shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Artoria walked calmly to the wall, not caring about the reactions to what she had just done.
"That's it? I've had river catfish put up more of a fight. I guess I should've put my hand in your mouth and wrangled you; might've been a bit more entertaining, but this'll do. Rather this than a long, drawn-out fight. It's clear where things are headed, so I'll end things as quickly as possible. At least you're not dead, impressive for taking a direct hit from an anchor and pillar of the world. Let's how the others fare."
As she got closer, the wall started shifting slightly, making a small room akin to a jail cell, before throwing Velgrynd in. As soon as she did, she turned and looked over at the airship, where all the other important people were.
The soldiers from the Eastern Empire, seeing what just happened, seeing their guardian deity so effortlessly taken down, lost any remaining hope. Sure, they kept fighting, but it was purely self-defense at that point. There was no desire to fight for any cause or purpose anymore; it was all just survival now.
And it wasn't long before small mutinies started to take place in pockets throughout the army, slowly growing.
And while all this was happening, Artoria calmly walked forward, focused on the airship. Seeing Artoria advance, Gabiru returned to bombing. Carrera also joined back in after making sure the lingering energy left behind wasn't too harmful to her.
Artoria held Rhongomyniad calmly, the lance still glowing intensely and with power. She stopped as she looked up at the airship. She lifted Rhongomyniad and pointed it at the airship. Once again, the sky changed, dark clouds rolled in as the entire battlefield darkened; yellow light danced across the dark clouds, focused on a single point.
And from a burst of bright, yellow light, a massive spear descended from above, aiming directly for the airship.
"Yeah, that's cool. Morgan was definitely on the right track with this. Wait, could I, like, do the same thing in theory? Nah, one is good enough. And besides, not like Morgan is here or anything. Well, would Morgan count as a saber-face? She is Artoria's older sister. Nah, I'm dumb, it's literally in the name 'saber', Morgan isn't a saber."
Artoria spoke to herself as she saw the spear descend ruthlessly. It hit the airship, immediately destroying it, but it didn't stop there. It kept descending until it hit the ground, causing another quake and killing more troops, adding to the already massive casualty count for the Eastern Empire.
'Alright, time to look for Michael and Feldway. The other knights they have, what were they called? Something about being numbered, ah, whatever, not like it…wait a minute. They're knights. I'm the king of knights. Oh, yeah, time to exert some influence. I can already see mutinies happening. This is good. We can turn them to our side and turn their weapons against their own country. Them having a mutiny was unexpected, but it is very welcome.'
Artoria thought to herself as she spread her senses across the whole battlefield, looking for Michael and Feldway before they got any ideas of doing anything else.
'Feldway is there, Michael is there. They survived, but I doubt their condition is any good, especially with the faith of their subjects crumbling. That little wall isn't going to help much. This might be a bit tough because of all those dumb angel skills, but it's alright. Oh, there are a couple of those knights as well. Oh, look, there's Kondou, and how lucky, he landed near Carrera. Must be my luck stat. Anyway, time to go. I'd better get there before he summons all those stupid angels.'
Artoria used her magic and disappeared. Though it was a relative break from all the fighting, it quickly resumed as Artoria disappeared, joining the fight.
/\\//\\//\
Carrera was going through the Eastern Empire's troops like a lawnmower cutting grass. Rimuru, who was with her, didn't even need to do anything.
At least until they came across a particular fellow who happened to crash in front of them after the airship exploded from the spear that Artoria summoned from the sky.
"Whoa, he's different. Not like these other fodder," Carrera said as she examined the person who crashed in front of them.
"Hey, does he have a gun?" Rimuru asked as he saw the equipment on the person. It was a weird-looking gun.
'I wonder what Artoria would think of it. Raphael, what gun is that?'
[It's a Nambu pistol, mostly known for being used by the Empire of Japan during the Second World War]
'Really? That awesome. If he's using it, it's probably a good gun.'
[Depending on the type, it has different problems, such as difficulty reloading.]
'I don't know much about guns, but a gun being difficult to reload sounds like a pretty major flaw. Anyway, who is this guy?'
[Kondou]
Rimuru was slightly stunned at hearing the name. Isn't that the guy Artoria said to look out for? And he just landed in front of them? How lucky is that? '
'Huh?' Rimuru thought to himself before realizing that he was spacing out and quickly relayed the information to Carrera.
"Carrera, that's the guy Artoria was talking about!"
Carrera looked at Rimuru and then at Kondoud, who was quickly getting back up. If she had known sooner, she would have already attacked before he got a chance at any kind of recovery. "Seriosly? Finally, I can get to see what's in that box she gave me!"
Carrera charged at Kondou, fully intent on killing him. She was ready to unleash what she could on him.
"Huh?" Kondou grunted as he quickly started on the defensive.
"Give me your soul! Rimuru, help me kill him!"
"Maybe we don't need to?"
"Nonsense! He's the enemy! And he looks kind of important!"
'Oh, boy. Raphael, use auto-battle. This guy looks skilled. Oh, and make sure to capture his soul and give it to Carrera when he dies.'
[Auto-battle starting. Goal: kill]