With the emergence of the corpse aberration army, the situation on the battlefield almost instantly changed.
Previously, it had been entirely normal for the human allied forces to be beaten back step by step. After all, the monsters in this world were indeed stronger than humans. Even a magic kingdom like Seth would flee at the mere sound of a monster army, completely unable to hold them back. Under such circumstances, what was happening here went without saying.
However, the appearance of the corpse aberrations immediately overturned the situation. They could hardly even be considered zombies. Unless they were completely deprived of their ability to act, it was basically impossible to kill them. At the same time, the corpse aberrations' lethality was extremely high. Once they charged forward at the cost of their own destruction and took down the opposing monsters, turning them into corpses, those bodies would soon stand back up under the influence of the divine mark and continue attacking.
As a result, the monsters' offensive was quickly checked. Even so, they were still ferociously dangerous. Each of these monsters could use magic, casually blasting out large-area attacks. And although Duanmu Huai's corpse aberrations were fearless of death, if their limbs were blown off directly, they would become little more than useless corpses.
Fortunately, Duanmu Huai still had a backup plan!
"Come!"
Seeing the battlefield fall into a stalemate, Duanmu Huai no longer hesitated. With a roar, he raised his hand. Along with his movement, the divine mark behind him slowly floated up into the sky. At the same time, the corpse aberrations at the front were pulled backward as if attracted by a magnet, flying back and landing onto the divine mark. In just a short moment, dense masses of corpse aberrations completely wrapped around the divine mark, transforming it into the blood moon Duanmu Huai had seen before—though compared to the one he had encountered in the fragment space, its size was somewhat smaller.
Even so, it was more than enough for the battlefield at hand.
Although it was called a blood moon, from a distance it actually looked more like a gigantic jellyfish—a white, semicircular body with several enormous tentacles hanging beneath it, slowly drifting through the air. From afar, it even looked strangely soothing.
However, just as beautiful jellyfish were all venomous—some even deadly—this oversized "jellyfish" was clearly not just something that looked pretty.
"Whoosh—————!!"
A massive tentacle swept straight across the battlefield, flinging those monsters with no resistance high into the air. Then it suddenly coiled, wrapping up several monsters at once, before swinging back around and stuffing them directly into the mouthparts below.
As for questions like how monsters tasted or whether they needed seasoning, Duanmu Huai felt there was no need for him to concern himself with that.
This time, facing the blood moon, the monster army finally had no power to fight back. They struggled and resisted a few times, but seeing that it was useless, they hurriedly turned tail and fled.
"Hmm…"
Duanmu Huai stood on the battlefield with his hands behind his back, gazing at the blood moon ahead of him, and nodded slightly. This was his first time using this Soul Card. From what he could tell so far, the blood moon's offensive and defensive power scaled directly with the number of corpse aberrations it absorbed. This was an ancient battlefield, and the numbers on both sides weren't particularly large—less than ten thousand combined. If this were in a modern city with millions of inhabitants…
That would be the blood moon's true domain.
Unlike this current malnourished one… well, at least it could still fight.
Seeing the monster army flee until they were practically out of sight, Duanmu Huai calmly took out a [Nature's Guidance] card and recalled the blood moon back into his hand. This was a magic card he had obtained after conquering the fragment world of the Borderlands, and it was also one of the magic cards he used most frequently. Otherwise, if summoned cards couldn't be retrieved, things would become troublesome once they lost control.
Especially something like [Blasphemy Sphere]—leaving that alone was basically asking for world destruction.
After confirming that the battle was over, Duanmu Huai summoned the Sky City down, then grabbed a soldier and demanded a report. The soldier naturally didn't know much, but he still led Duanmu Huai to someone who did.
"Thank you for your assistance."
Standing before Duanmu Huai was a black-haired, long-haired, beautiful girl in armor, and beside her was a hunched old man. According to their introductions, they were Uesugi Kenshin, head of the Uesugi clan, and Asakura Yoshikage, head of the Asakura clan…
Well… how should this be put…
Looking at Uesugi Kenshin in front of him, the corner of Duanmu Huai's mouth twitched. He wasn't familiar with Japanese history, but he had played Sengoku BASARA back in the day. If he remembered correctly, Uesugi Kenshin there had been a rather androgynous character… but no matter what, wasn't Uesugi Kenshin supposed to be male?
Ah, whatever. Zhang Fei could be genderbent—who cared about this?
"No need to be polite. I just happened to pass by. Can someone tell me what exactly happened?"
Duanmu Huai gave a brief greeting and got straight to the point. The two exchanged a glance, and then Asakura Yoshikage began to explain the situation.
Asakura Yoshikage's account largely matched Ling Nü's intelligence, just with more detail. According to them, the current head of the Oda clan, Nobunaga, had suddenly launched an external campaign several months ago. He first wiped out the nearby Oda, Iga, and Ashikaga, then expanded westward.
At the time, this had drawn the attention of other daimyō, but they all believed that the Oda clan was simply trying to unify O.J, and only considered it at that level.
What happened next, however, shocked everyone.
The Oda clan attacked the territory of the Tenshi Church and carried out a large-scale massacre of the entire Tenshi Church!
The Tenshi Church was O.J's native religion, holding a position among the populace equivalent to the AL Church on the continent. What the Oda clan did was essentially the same as Lisass, Seth, or Hermann directly attacking the AL Church's headquarters and completely slaughtering the city. It was nothing short of a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
At that point, all the daimyō of O.J were utterly dumbfounded, completely unable to understand what had driven Oda Nobunaga mad. After that, Nobunaga proclaimed himself the Sixth Heaven Demon King, consecutively wiped out Tanegashima, Mōri, and Shimazu, and came to rule nearly half of O.J.
Only then did the eastern daimyō finally realize something was wrong and begin considering joint operations.
But they hadn't expected that Demon King Nobunaga was not only backed by an extremely powerful army, but was also terrifying in person. Uesugi Kenshin had fought him directly, and in a single exchange she had almost been knocked down. If not for her retainers risking their lives to rescue her, she would likely have already died at the Demon King's hands.
Duanmu Huai wasn't surprised by this at all. A demonkin's invincible barrier was never easy to deal with, let alone that of a Demon King.
However, the reason Demon King Nobunaga attacked them was…
"He is looking for a gourd."
"A gourd?"
Hearing Uesugi Kenshin's answer, Duanmu Huai frowned slightly, and she nodded.
"Yes. It is a gourd passed down through the Uesugi clan for generations, safeguarded by the clan head. Our ancestors instructed us that we must protect that gourd at all costs…"
"Do you know what's inside it?"
"No. We only know that it was bestowed by the Tenshi Church back then. If we could find someone from the Tenshi Church, perhaps we would learn the truth, but unfortunately…"
Unfortunately, the entire Tenshi Church had been slaughtered.
What followed was simple. Nobunaga's army invaded. The Asakura, Uesugi, Takeda, and Hōjō clans united to resist. But the enemy was far too strong. The Takeda clan, driven by their single-minded desire to avenge their lord, was the first to fall. The Hōjō clan also suffered heavy losses. If not for Duanmu Huai's arrival in time, this allied force would likely have been completely wiped out.
"Hmmm…"
After hearing the explanation, Duanmu Huai had a clear grasp of the situation. From the looks of it, that Nobunaga was definitely not an ordinary person. According to Uesugi Kenshin, who had fought him, Oda Nobunaga was extremely fast, and neither blades nor swords could harm his body. That meant he definitely possessed an invincible barrier. Whether he was demonkin or a Demon King, however, couldn't be determined outright.
After all, both demonkin and Demon Kings could easily crush ordinary humans. Just because he called himself a Demon King didn't mean he actually was one… Duanmu Huai rather hoped that he truly was a Demon King. That way, he could deal with him in one go—quick and convenient.
Unfortunately, in their recent engagements, only the Demon King Army had appeared. The Demon King himself had not shown up.
Since he wasn't coming over, then they would go to him!
With that thought, Duanmu Huai made a decisive decision.
Charge straight into Oda territory and carry out an airborne decapitation strike!
As long as that guy was killed, all problems would be solved!
No one opposed Duanmu Huai's proposal. Everyone present was a military veteran and understood the principle that speed was essential in warfare. Moreover, from the current situation, Demon King Nobunaga already occupied most of O.J, while the allied forces had suffered heavy losses. It was almost impossible to regroup and launch another large-scale offensive in the short term. Charging straight into the Demon King's lair was a better option. If they could kill Nobunaga outright, it would be a good outcome.
If they failed… well, if they failed, then everything would be over.
In addition, everyone had seen the Sky City that Duanmu Huai had summoned. Taking advantage of the fact that Oda Nobunaga hadn't reacted yet, acting as early as possible was the most important thing.
Thus, Duanmu Huai quickly led the group aboard the Sky City once more, heading toward Oda territory.
Asakura Yoshikage stayed behind to reorganize the allied forces, while Uesugi Kenshin followed Duanmu Huai to take part in the operation—after all, only she knew what Demon King Nobunaga looked like. Otherwise, Duanmu Huai wouldn't even know who to target.
Soon, the Sky City set out again, advancing westward toward Oda territory.
Along the way, everything was in ruins. Villages scattered across forests and grasslands had almost all been slaughtered clean by the monster army. Everywhere were remnants of monster troops, as well as living dead that looked like zombies.
Seeing this scene, Duanmu Huai, Magico, and Shizuka were more or less numb to it. When the demonkin army invaded Seth, the situation had been much the same, and compared to that, O.J wasn't any better.
Uesugi Kenshin, however, frowned deeply, staring at the ground ahead. She then looked toward Duanmu Huai and asked,
"May I ask… could you perhaps be that otherworldly hero who killed Demon Kings and demonkin?"
"I didn't expect even O.J to know my name."
For Duanmu Huai, hearing Uesugi Kenshin's question was genuinely surprising.
"They are only rumors."
Uesugi Kenshin shook her head.
"We heard from travelers that there was a powerful swordsman who eliminated the demonkin that rampaged across the continent. That swordsman was tall and imposing, with a fierce appearance… so…"
"...…"
Well, with those characteristics, there really was no one else it could be.
Duanmu Huai let out a deep sigh. Just then, Ling Nü's voice rang out.
"Up ahead is Oda's castle!"
(The End of This Chapter)