Black Badger

Even if you didn’t grow up in a temple, it was a song every Imperial citizen heard from childhood.

It was also the very first hymn I ever learned.

A song that could be sung as a duet, a trio, or solo.

In a duet, the alto begins first.

Slowly, I recited the lyrics.

「Holy branch of grace.」

It wasn’t a difficult song to memorize.

「Almighty tree, be praised.

Be praised.

Humble veins of leaf praise you beneath your shade.

They praise you beneath golden blessing.

Holy branch of grace.

Almighty tree, look upon the most fragile veins of leaf.

Lowly leaves praise you beneath your blessing.

They praise you beneath dazzling mercy.

Tree of the world....」

Lyrics composed in archaic Imperial tongue.

At some point, Deltei’s round, steady voice joined in with mine.

Divine power works in mysterious ways.

Singing while holding my sword, I watched the massive insects gradually stiffen.

One of the few kinds of Creatures that had survived even contamination.

「Please look upon your tender branches....」

The instant I confirmed they had stopped moving, I stopped singing.

When the song ended, I felt the surroundings grow noticeably quieter.

Igor, who had been watching my back while I sang, grinned.

“Still good.”

“Thanks.”

“It’s been a while. Hearing you sing.”

Kairos chuckled softly and added,

“Every time you went out to sing as the knights’ representative, it was nothing but praise. Brings back memories. You still sing well.”

“Captain...! Captain...!! Captain—Captain...!”

“Calm down, kid.”

“Well, how many knights receive early hymn training anyway? And the Knight Commander’s singing, at that.... Even the High Priest was always pleased.”

“You need to carry the breath farther.”

Unlike the others, Deltei didn’t let it slide.

I deliberately pretended not to hear her.

The red-haired Saint poured out rapid-fire nagging regardless.

“It’s an incantation prayer. And when you say ‘praise,’ you need to draw it out longer. Don’t drop the power so sharply on the final line.”

“You nag me every single time I sing.”

I flicked my sword, cutting down the Creatures coming from the south.

I deliberately didn’t look toward the trench.

“It’s been a while. Cut me some slack.”

“That’s because you actually learned how to sing! You can do better!”

“Let’s start closing them one by one.”

Letting Deltei’s nagging go in one ear and out the other, I addressed the men standing nearby.

Thanks to the immobilized ones, the speed of the Creatures surging from the east had slowed.

This was the window to split the troops.

I decided it would be easier to cover the spatial gates from the west and north first, and turned my head.

“Hm?”

That’s when I spotted the seniors, staring in shock.

They were nearly out of ammo and had assumed melee formation.

From inside the trench, they were all staring at me with wide eyes.

“...Is something wrong?”

I asked awkwardly.

Had they been startled because I suddenly started singing in the middle of a horde charging in?

That was understandable. It wasn’t exactly a rousing battle anthem. I’d abruptly sung a random hymn as a duet, after all.

They probably thought I’d lost it.

I gave an embarrassed smile as I bisected a lunging Creature with a swing of my sword.

“Sorry. Sometimes incantations made of song do work.”

If the pitch is off, the effect weakens, though.

Fortunately, even after so long, my pitch hadn’t wavered.

“It’s nothing special. Just a hymn.”

The shocked stares didn’t fade, so I added more unnecessarily.

This wasn’t a musical or an Indian film. Even I knew how absurd it must have looked.

Still, it stopped a troublesome Creature, so I hoped they’d let it go.

Yehyeon aside, even my own mentor was blinking at me, which made it more awkward.

Seeing Jonathan holding onto Ricardo, who showed no sign of waking up, unsettled me.

We need to finish this quickly.

Things are this urgent—please just overlook it....

“Good singing.”

Someone commented.

Surprisingly, it was Chen Koenig.

“What’s with you. Choir background or something?”

He really looks terrible.

Worried, I nodded vaguely.

“Yes.”

I neatly split a diving aerial Creature in half as it descended for my neck.

“Up until my voice changed.”

“Oh? Actually kind of suits you.”

“Are you Christian?”

Someone asked.

It was absurd, but I answered earnestly.

“No.”

“Then what?”

“Uh.... A different religion.”

“Catholic?”

“No....”

“Huh? Then Islam?”

“No.”

“Then what the hell—”

KABOOOM!

The impact cut the conversation short.

Everyone’s heads snapped east.

I immediately looked toward the source as well. The sound came from the headquarters side—more precisely, from the medical wing east of the main building.

Faint smoke was rising from the base of the medical wing.

A herd of pigs was dying just inside the collapsed front entrance.

Visible between pill-bug-like Creatures nearly two stories tall.

“Ska!”

Yehyeon urgently asked whether there were any civilians left.

There shouldn’t be. We’d swept everything thoroughly.

Worrying about the building collapsing was one thing, but....

Were pigs even a Creature that acted in groups like that?

The Creatures Badgers called “pigs” weren’t easy to control in numbers.

Individually they weren’t difficult, but group control was tricky—these were one of those types.

Creatures that never moved in groups....

“Holy shit, the building’s gonna collapse!”

BANG! KABANG!

Herd after herd of pigs hurled themselves into the hospital building.

THUD! THUD! BOOOM!

“Did they all go insane?”

“What’s scary is that it doesn’t look like insanity.”

Someone said with a sigh.

“No matter how you look at it, that movement’s intentional.”

Exactly.

Someone was controlling them en masse.

Turning my body eastward, I adjusted the angle of my blade.

So my kind has arrived.

I consciously suppressed the curl trying to form at the corner of my mouth.

A smile born purely of adrenaline.

If the opposing handler wasn’t registering on my instincts, that meant magic was involved—or a mage had come along.

To avoid missing the opportunity....

“What is that now?”

I heard the seniors’ confused voices.

“Why are they acting like that all of a sudden?”

The Creatures formed ranks.

I let out a dry laugh as I watched the horde assume formation.

Beside the pigs charging the medical wing—

As the immobilized insects were cleared away, massive humanoid ape-like Creatures wielding spears emerged.

The heavy footfalls mixed with the sound of turrets firing into the pig herd.

Dozens were advancing, yet it sounded like a single person walking.

An unnaturally synchronized march.

I knew exactly what the Badgers called those Creatures.

A simple, intuitive name.

Urkhai.

“Those aren’t supposed to move in packs either.”

Someone muttered in disbelief.

“Aren’t they territorial Creatures, like tigers?”

Exactly.

In the Empire, they’d been called something else, but they never moved in groups.

More than that, even controlling a single one properly wasn’t easy. And now several were being driven forward at once.

A technique no ordinary handler could even imitate.

“Hahahaha!”

Kairos burst out laughing.

“It’s that kid from back then!”

Igor and Yoow shot him sickened looks.

I wasn’t surprised.

KABOOOM!

After pushing back the goats pouring in from the south with a sword strike, I stared flatly at the handler.

His orange pupils were dilated wide.

Kairos made no attempt to hide the smile blooming from adrenaline.

His body leaned toward the Urkhai ranks.

“A talented one was bound to appear.” 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He was genuinely delighted.

“The kid who noticed my interference.”

Interference?

When?

“Dazzling talent.”

BOOOM!

From beneath the ground to Kairos’s left, a water dragon burst upward.

On his right hand—one that had never once lost a match—a venomous bird descended.

Its massive purple wings concealed the face of the one who had summoned it.

The water dragon that erupted from the earth gently coiled around the handler’s body.

The screams the seniors let out probably never reached Kairos.

Kairos laughed.

“Let’s have some fun.”

Adrenaline junkie bastard....

“I’ve missed this so much.”

KRRRRAAASH!

The water dragon darted into the center of the Urkhai formation.

The Urkhai charged it, bellowing threatening cries.

The venomous bird soared above them, scattering poisonous mist.

KRAAAAK!

“Who came?”

Deltei’s stunned voice rang out.

“A handler? Who? From the Empire?”

A newly born one, probably.

Having roughly grasped the situation from Kairos’s words, I let out a sigh.

And decided to leave the eastern front to the handler. Interfering would only annoy him.

Better to let him rampage.

I quickly surveyed the battlefield and continued issuing orders in a tired voice.

“Igor. ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ Keep cutting down anything that approaches the trench.”

“As ordered.”

“Yoow. Rose.”

“Yes.”

“Yes!”

“Go to the spatial gates open in the west and north. Rose, take the gate-closing bomb from Yoow. Once you find it, throw it toward the gate and seal it.”

We needed to close the west and north gates first and thin out the incoming numbers.

The ones pouring in from the east would be held back by Kairos for a while.

The south was the problem.

The medical wing, science wing, and headquarters clustered in the east were concerning, but those buildings had turrets on every floor, offering some defense.

And Ska inside the HQ would be working with Martin to reload turret ammunition nonstop.

But the south—where the main gate was—was an open plain.

Meaning there was nothing to stop the advance from the southern gate.

So I’d push south and close that gate myself.

That’s when—

POP!

Something exploded.

POP! POP! POP! POP! POP!

“Turrets!”

A civilian inside the trench screamed.

“Turrets! The turrets!!”

The turrets were exploding like fireworks.

The ones placed throughout the headquarters.

POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! They detonated one after another.

Starting from the second floor and climbing upward in sequence.

Even as I unleashed sword strikes to clear the Creatures surging from the south, I let out a dry laugh.

What a flashy entrance.

No—hasn’t shown himself yet, though....

“Ska?”

Yehyeon’s stunned voice rang out.

“Ska? You’re okay, right?”

There was no reply.

But since Yehyeon didn’t call his name again, I figured it wasn’t the worst-case scenario.

Instead, I heard Yoow and Deltei swallow sharply. Igor clicked his tongue. Rose murmured a small, “Oh my.”

Even the seniors muttering about invisible Creatures.

As I listened, I watched every turret on the building explode.

Closing the southern gate would have to wait.

The opponent had arrived.

“Igor.”

Calling him without taking my eyes off the headquarters, Igor walked over.

“You want me on the south?”

The skilled Sword Expert grinned at me.

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep pushing them back.”

“Yoow. Rose. Focus on your tasks.”

“Yes!”

“...Yes.”

Unlike Rose, Yoow answered reluctantly.

He hesitated near me, then spoke before heading west.

“Be careful. This is not someone you can afford to underestimate.”

“Meierbold?”

I looked up at the building and smiled faintly.

“No chance of that. He’s an Archmage.”

Five Swordmasters within the Empire. Five outside.

Nine Archmages within the Empire. One outside.

Of the ten Archmages total, six withered and died while attempting to unfold spatial gates.

One went missing while opening a spatial gate.

The one outside the Empire was said to have died of old age.

The remaining two were brought to Earth in a state of mana feedback and never woke until the end of the First War.

One of them was here now.

Meierbold.

Mage of Flame.

「I greet an Archmage.」

Holding my sword, I bowed.

「I didn’t expect you to awaken.」

「Hildebert.」

Only a reply came back.

「Traitorous Knight Commander.」