Epilogue

When the great wings of light had spread across Faltra’s North District—

Alicia Cristela was in the middle of the large Fallen army. She was surrounded by various monstrosities of all shapes and sizes, who were waiting for the opportunity to advance on Faltra. Edelgard was standing by her side.

“Ohhhh, Lord Krebskulm!!”

As she let out a cry of rapture, the Fallen around her followed suit: “Just, like Alicia, said!”

“I have only done as the Fallen priests had told me. I created a person who was important to Lady Klem, and then arranged for said person to be crushed and taken away from her.”

“No, easy task... Amazing.”

“For a member of the weak races such as myself, this is all I could do...”

“If Demon Lord, resurrected... Everyone, will get, magic power! If hurt, will be healed! Can we, win, against races? Yes, we can!”

The Fallen let out a series of cries and shouts at Edelgard’s words.

The wings of light that had appeared in Faltra pierced the heavens. A magic circle filled the sky, and the Fallen rejoiced, claiming it to be proof of the great Demon Lord Krebskulm. Alicia’s plan had went off without a hitch. Her greatest ambition was slowly being realized. She waited in silence for the time of joyous tidings to commence.

The Fallen were waiting for the barrier around Faltra to be broken.

If the newly awakened Krebskulm could destroy either the Mage’s Association or the barrier towers, the Fallen could invade the town. The city of Faltra would become a place of celebration for the true rebirth of the Demon Lord.

There were a great number of Fallen who had accepted Edelgard’s proposal, and not only the one hundred followers from her faction: Fallen from the Vahl faction were there; even Eulerex appeared as well.

The wings of light had appeared as a magic circle indicative of the Demon Lord was spread across the sky.

When would the barrier finally shatter...!?

The time of joyous tidings—

—never came.

Everything went silent.

As soon as Edelgard whispered that Krebskulm’s presence had shrank, Alicia knew her plan had been a failure.

Eulerex was the first to approach them: “What is the meaning of this? Both the wings of light and the magic circle of Lord Krebskulm have disappeared.” The enormous, one-horned owl spoke harshly, his voice dripping with condemnation.

The other Fallen began to throw blame onto Edelgard and Alicia. The members of the Vahl faction, however, only cared about killing the races, and had already returned to the forest. But perhaps because of the grudge they bore from the fight with Diablo the other day, the Eulerex faction was not so easily pacified.

“I shall have you take responsibility for wasting the time of so many Fallen on this fool’s errand.”

The other Fallen chanted their assent, raising their fists in the air.

Though there were some Fallen from Edelgard’s faction who came to her defense, others started to voice their support for Eulerex instead. But that was to be expected; this would mark the second time Edelgard had mobilized troops and failed. They had never made it past the Bridge of Ulug.

Not only that, but Alicia was also responsible for the failure of this plan. And yet, being killed in retaliation by the Fallen for her failure, without destroying the races... It was all too pointless for her to bear. Alicia was filled with regret.

“On, my signal... Run. To town,” Edelgard whispered into her ear.

“...!?”

The voices of the arguing Fallen grew louder. They were much more savage and vicious compared to the other races, which was why they lived so far apart from one another. It was all for the purpose of never making contact with other Fallen face-to-face. It wouldn’t take long for these arguments to turn into a bloodbath.

The Fallen bared their fangs at Alicia, the Human who was the source of their failure today, when Edelgard swung her spear around in a grand revolution.

“《Swing Spike》!!”

She mowed down the encroaching Fallen using a sudden Martial Art; the hostilities had commenced.

Their comrades suddenly taken down, members from the Eulerex faction came after Edelgard. It was then Edelgard’s most trusted steed came barreling through the Fallen, scattering them left and right.

Being a 《Grand Dragon》, it was a monster possessing a durable body that could outrun any monster on land; no Fallen could keep up with it.

“Run!”

At Edelgard’s command, Alicia took off running, never looking behind her. The fangs of a Fallen could sever her torso from the rest of her body at any moment; if that was the case, then the only thing she could do was trust Edelgard.

If her death would have become the cornerstone needed for the destruction of the races, then she was fine with being killed—but falling prey to the Fallen taking out their frustrations on her would be nothing more than merely dying in vain—

An impact struck her side. It felt like her innards were being crushed.

—Am I dead!?

The source of the shock was an arm, wrapped around her waist. It was Edelgard, blood flowing steadily from her head.

“What!? They got you, Lady Edelgard!?”

“No, talking... You, will bite...tongue...”

“I have an adequate understanding of horsemanship. I would never make an amateur mistake like that.”

As said, she was perfectly capable of speaking on horseback without injuring herself.

Edelgard nodded. “Then... Leave, to you.”

After Edelgard pulled Alicia up onto the grand dragon so that she was straddling it, Edelgard collapsed in a heap. If the grand dragon hadn’t caught Edelgard with one of its hands, she would have fallen off.

“Lady Edelgard!?”

Alicia desperately grasped at the reins. They were covered in countless thorny spikes, so despite her gloves, a sharp pain assaulted her. Blood from Alicia’s hands smeared over Edelgard as Alicia tried to support her.

They pulled away from the pursuing Fallen. The grand dragon was abnormally fast as they crossed over the Bridge of Ulug which, strangely enough, had no guards present. They had most probably received orders to retreat in the face of the Fallen hordes.

Approaching Faltra, Alicia bit her lip. She wanted to destroy the races, and to have the beautiful Fallen rule the world—

But right now, with every fiber of her being, Alicia wanted to save Edelgard.

To be continued...