Lucian woke the instant the first ray of dawn touched Tempest — not out of habit, but because All Seeing Seer screamed through his mind like a blaring alarm. His body moved before his thoughts, rolling out of bed as a second sound hit:
Tempest's real alarm bells.
A deep, booming clang tore through the quiet morning, rattling windows and kicking soldiers into motion. Magicules trembled in the air. Voices shouted from every corner of the city as armor clattered and footsteps hammered across stone.
Lucian didn't waste a second. He teleported straight to the central meeting hall.
Within minutes, every commander and elite officer crowded inside. The tension was thick enough to taste.
Souei materialized beside Rimuru in a ripple of darkness, bowing slightly as his shadow clones settled along the walls like silent phantoms.
"Souei, report," Rimuru said sharply.
"We've been surrounded," Souei replied, tone steady despite the chaos. "Four divisions — north, south, east, west. They teleported simultaneously. Judging from the distortion patterns, it was long-distance and mass-scale. Most of their soldiers are disoriented from the leap. That is their only advantage in our favor."
Lucian closed his eyes briefly, letting All Seeing Seer expand its reach. Threads of power spiraled across the landscape, mapping every presence like stars in a constellation.
"I feel three major auras," he said. "The strongest is in the west. North has a presence rising fast — almost too fast. By noon he'll be catastrophic. South is strange… infinite mana but not overwhelmingly powerful. The east is full of trained fighters but no major elites."
He opened his eyes. "And I recognize the north and south presences. This is going to be extremely hard."
Rimuru's expression tightened. "Plan C?"
Lucian nodded once. "Plan C."
"Target?"
"South. If we can keep her busy for even a short while, the rest will fall into place."
Rimuru exhaled slowly. "You're going west then?"
"Yup." Lucian loosened his shoulders. "That's the real problem area. You take the north. Finish him before noon. I'll eliminate the west and come help."
Her eyes flicked with concern — or irritation — or both. Hard to tell with Rimuru sometimes.
She turned to the room. "Benimaru — east is yours. Take all Ogres. Geld, form a defensive circle with every Orc. Tempest Riders, hit them from all sides and disrupt formation. Stamina attrition will work in our favor."
"Yes, Lady Rimuru!"
"Yes, Master Lucian!"
Voices echoed like thunder.
Lucian snapped his fingers. A rift tore open beside him, and Eve stepped out — elegant, composed, and radiating the calm menace of someone who had seen Purgatory and grown bored of it.
He transmitted the situation directly into her mind.
"They like surprise teleportation," Eve noted. "Why not allow me to teleport behind their ranks and release my latest hybrid creations?"
Lucian grinned. "Perfect."
He turned to the others. "Questions?"
"None!"
He raised his hand, fire dancing in his eyes.
"For Tempest."
"""FOR TEMPEST!"""
---
Astra stood among the Church's forces, breathing in the cold morning air rolling across the battlefield. Once an adventurer, now a Holy Envoy — one of few allowed to drink the blood of the forgotten goddess and learn her true name.
Even so, he felt uneasy.
The commander had teleported their entire army here — surrounding a monster nation in one flawless move. Even Astra felt awe at the feat.
That awe lasted exactly three seconds.
A soldier screamed from the rear. "We're under attack! Something— something BEHIND us!"
Astra spun — and his breath hitched.
Descending from the sky were Flying Black Spiders. Bigger, twisted, mutated — with enormous black wings and glowing runes carved across their abdomens.
They unleashed torrents of sticky silk.
Hundreds of soldiers were instantly cocooned, lifted into the air like prey. Mages fired up spells instinctively — bolts, arrows, beams.
Light barriers flared around the spiders, deflecting every attack like rain bouncing off stone.
"What kind of—?"
Astra didn't get to finish.
The second wave hit.
The earth beneath the Church's forces swelled, cracked, then collapsed. Screams erupted as dozens of soldiers plunged into darkness.
Giant earthworms exploded upward, their bodies lined with crackling runes. They swallowed immobilized men whole or detonated beneath them, launching troops skyward in bursts of dirt, gore, and shattered armor.
Panic rippled through the ranks.
Astra's heart pounded. "Hybrid monsters…?"
He had no time to think.
A roar shook the ground.
The Monster Nation charged.
---
Ogres surged forward like a living storm. Their bodies glowed with newly evolved magicules, flames flaring around some while others radiated killing intent thicker than blood.
Astra barely processed the sight before a shadow crashed down beside him.
Shion.
Her Odachi cut the air with terrifying force, slamming into Astra's shield with such impact that even deflecting it sent him tumbling back like a ragdoll. His arms went numb instantly.
Shion grinned, eyes blazing with battle-lust.
"Don't die too fast! I'm enjoying this!"
Astra phased just in time, slipping through the dirt to escape the follow-up blow that blasted apart a ten-meter crater.
He reappeared behind her — only for Shion to whirl and charge, earth exploding under each step.
Phasing again strained him; each use cost a massive chunk of magicules.
And Shion clearly realized it.
"Ohhh? You're slowing down!"
Her blade carved a mountain into dust.
Astra had no choice but to phase deeper into the ranks — slipping through the bodies of his own men as he fled, leaving them unconscious or drained behind him.
"Forgive me," he whispered as he ran, not toward Shion but his goddess.
---
The eastern front erupted as Benimaru strode forward, fire swirling around him like a mantle of light.
Gilthunder struck first, spear crackling with divine lightning.
"LIGHTNING BEAST PIERCE!"
A thunder lion roared through the battlefield.
Benimaru flicked his hand.
A fire dragon devoured the lightning whole.
Guila appeared from the side.
"EXPLOSION — FULL RELEASE!"
A blinding sphere detonated, blowing dirt and debris in every direction. The battlefield lit up with white fire.
When the smoke cleared, Benimaru walked forward unharmed, flames curling around his feet.
"Not bad," he admitted. "But flames don't fear explosions."
Gilthunder lunged again — Benimaru caught the spear-tip with his bare hand, heating the metal until it nearly melted.
Guila unleashed a barrage of rapid-fire explosions, each one shattering the ground into molten rubble.
Benimaru maneuvered through it effortlessly.
"Humans get tired fast," he said, raising his blade. "Let's end this clean."
He unleashed a flame wheel that forced both knights back. Their teamwork impressed him — Guila's offensive aggression paired perfectly with Gilthunder's defensive precision.
But skill didn't matter if stamina failed.
Within minutes, both knights were panting, movements slowing.
Benimaru's flames intensified.
"Checkmate."
He moved once — and the resulting fireblast lit the entire eastern horizon.
When the ground stopped shaking, Guila and Gilthunder lay unconscious, defeated without suffering lasting harm, good to take in some war prisones. Benimaru shook ash from his hair and turned to help his comrades.
---
Further across the battlefield, Ogres clashed with Blessed Warriors in brutal, savage combat.
A Holy Knight swung a blessed sword down with enough force to split steel — and an Ogre caught the blade with one hand, snapping it in half before hurling the knight through two burning trees.
Another knight summoned holy fire — only to watch it sink uselessly into an Ogre's hide before being launched skyward by a punch that cratered the earth.
Magic, fire, lightning, roars — the battlefield roared with violence.
Tempest fought with monstrous fury.
The Church fought with desperate zeal.
The ground ran with blood.
---
Elsewhere, Souei and Ban continued their chaotic duel.
A shadow clone decapitated Ban.
"Ah— rude," Ban muttered as his head reformed.
Ban stabbed a Souei — only for the clone to poof.
"Oh COME ON!"
Twenty Soueis whispered simultaneously behind him:
"Guess again."
Ban swung wildly, shredding illusions, clones, afterimages.
"You little ninja shit— stay STILL!"
"Saya the immortal," Souei replied calmly.
Ban got sliced into pieces again.
He reformed with a groan.
"I swear I'm gonna punch you in the soul."
Souei's whisper drifted from somewhere above him. "Try."
Their battle tore through trees, shattered boulders, and sent shockwaves pulsing across the battlefield — neither able to die, neither able to dominate.
A perfect stalemate.
---
Astra finally broke through the chaos and reached the southern edge of his army — barely standing, invisible bruises covering his body.
That was when the ground behind him trembled again.
Eve's latest hybrids emerged in force — monstrous silhouettes morphing from shadows:
Flying spiders drizzled radiant silk from above.
Crystalline wolves carved through ranks with shimmering claws.
Obsidian-scaled serpents rolled forward like battering rams.
Earthworms erupted with explosive runes lighting their bodies like molten veins.
Chaos swallowed the rear lines.
Soldiers were devoured, impaled, drowned in tunnels, or shredded by overlapping attacks.
Astra watched helplessly.
He said nothing.
He simply ran — phasing through the last lines of soldiers, sacrificing them to buy his escape.
Shion burst through the cloud of dust seconds later, cleaving a crater where he had just been.
"Tch. Coward."
---
Merlin, far to the south, stood atop a jagged rock outcrop, cloak snapping behind her as she surveyed the battlefield through dozens of floating spell matrices.
Her eyes flicked rapidly, analyzing magical signatures, calculating potential outcomes, predicting casualties and counterpoints faster than most supercomputers.
Then something shifted.
The sky itself bent.
The air trembled.
Heat and pressure climbed in a way that broke calculations, broke logic, broke her predictions entirely. The weather changed to announce it's presence.
Merlin's heart sank.
She stared upward, pupils shrinking.
"Oh… shit."
A Being appeared in the air.
Power gathered like a tidal wave.
Merlin whispered the only correct response.
"Fuck."
And the world trembled.