...

A large xenobeast rivaling the size of the first one Yukinari had beaten was slowly circling him. They were exactly the movements of a large predator with an eye on its next meal. Being forced into a stare-off with a beast over three meters in length would cause any normal person to piss themselves, but Yukinari looked relaxed, if anything.

“You get it now, huh. I’ll bet.”

The reason it wasn’t immediately attacking must have been because it had seen the other xenobeasts fall.

It was wary. Of Yukinari, yes—but moreso of Durandall.

“One of us has gotta do something,” Yukinari said, pulling a new bullet from his pocket and slipping it into the gun. “I guess that’s gonna have to be me.”

Triple-charged. And the bullet was a frangible safety slug.

He took a single step towards the xenobeast. The next moment—

GROOOOOOAAAAAARRR!!

Roaring loudly, the xenobeast charged. It may have been trying to do what Yukinari had done once before: confront the charging enemy head-on. It had its neck and back curved to point its blade-like horns and dorsal fins at him. If it hit him dead on, he would probably be skewered and torn to shreds. So—

“You think a god can beat me? You’ve got your head up your ass!”

He thrust Durandall towards it and pulled the trigger. There was a deafening boom, and the special bullet sunk into its mark. The xenobeast’s body—or rather, its head—burst open wide like a red flower blooming.

Safety slugs are a special type of bullet specialized for use against flesh. They have low penetrating power, but if they hit, the birdshot inside them scatters everywhere, blasting a huge hole in their target. They are so powerful, in fact, that not a single government agency wanted to adopt them, because virtually everyone shot with them died.

On top of this, three times the normal amount of explosive charge was being used to propel that bullet. The energy of the explosive, converted to speed, forcibly buried that special bullet deep into the head of its target and then burst it into fragments. The result—

Ggh...grghh...

The xenobeast tottered, a huge chunk of its head missing.

The point of Durandall’s blade was embedded deeply into it only a moment later.

●

Berta couldn’t believe her eyes. She had witnessed this sight once already here, just yesterday; but even on the second occurrence, her common sense insisted it was impossible. It was as real as could be; it had unfolded right there in front of her. Yet this knowledge only forced her to doubt her own sanity.

The xenobeasts attacking them... had all been exterminated by Yukinari and Dasa. No—Yukinari had pretty much done it all on his own. Dasa had merely provided backup and kept the monsters attacking them at bay using that weapon that roared like thunder.

He had felled an erdgod and a group of xenobeasts; on top of that, he didn’t look to have been injured in any particular way. He looked awful, covered all over in xenobeast blood spatter, but he himself didn’t seem like he’d gotten hurt anywhere. He was even grumbling about how he stank of blood and wanted to take a bath, as if the whole thing had been no big deal. Did he not think this was amazing? Was he not even proud of himself? How could that be when, in her eyes, this was nothing more or less than a miracle? He looked so natural. If someone had told her that this man was God, she would have believed it without a trace of doubt.

“This... This is the power that felled an erdgod...” Fiona said quietly from next to Berta. She, too, was staring stunned at Yukinari.

“Aaahhhhh...” A word like a breath. Berta unconsciously fell to her knees, struck with awe, like a devout believer present for the earthly advent of God. And almost without awareness, words of prayer slipped from her mouth. “O Lord my God... I give myself to thee... Please, grant this land tranquility and good harvests...”

●

A single road led through Friedland’s town wall to the outside world, dodging the thick forest to link up with the mountain valley. Wide for a country road, it had been painstakingly cleared of any stones that might frustrate passage and carefully trampled so that no weeds would grow. That was because this road joined to the major roads that connected these outlying regions to the rest of the country. It was likely the only road around here that would allow the large wagons that the street sellers used to pass through without problems. For the towns and villages in this area, like Friedland, this road was an important public good enabling them to connect with others.

A bizarre band of people were traveling down that road in single file. Leading the way were around thirty people on horses. They were knights, it seemed. A few covered wagons followed behind them. There were a dozen or so people walking alongside the wagons, perhaps to make sure that the cargo didn’t fall off. So far, unusual, but surely not bizarre.

The thing responsible for making this procession look as odd as it did was following behind the wagons. It was another wagon—but this one was extra large. Almost double the width of the other wagons and quadruple the length, its gigantic frame was supported by twelve steel wheels, six to a side, and it was being drawn by a team of more than twenty horses. White cloth covered it, making it impossible to tell from the outside what it was hauling. However, from the fact that its load had not been split among several ordinary-sized wagons, it wasn’t difficult to imagine that it had to be something pretty big.

A dozen people were riding on the back platform of the huge wagon and keeping an eye on its cargo. There were another thirty knights bringing up the rear to match the ones in front. And moreover, the knights, the people on foot, and the wagon drivers were all armed. They had swords and wore armor—some more than others, but regardless, they all looked as if they were headed to the battlefield.

Whose army was this? And what exactly was it that nearly a hundred fully armed soldiers were transporting?

With no one to question them, the bizarre armed group moved along in silence, down the long, long road to Friedland.