Volume 9 Chapter 1 Part 11

Julio’s heart was filled with joy as he activated the 「Fanatic」Banner. Even in the face of strong berserker warriors, he did not feel the slightest fear. The same was true of the knights and soldiers in his entourage. Their eyes were bright and their bodies was shaking with excitement.

「The Nords are the enemies of the Only God! All the churches in Bretland have been attacked and destroyed by them! The believers have been enslaved and forced to renounce their faith if they wanted to stay alive! 」

Julio called out to the Ismeian soldiers.

「Enemies of the Only God! 」

The faces of the soldiers who worshiped the Only God of the Order of the Crest were distorted with anger.

「Defeat every single one of them left! 」

Julio gave the order, and he himself took the lead and slashed at the berserkers.

「U R I I I I I I I I I !!!!! 」

「G U R U U U U U U !!!!! 」

「H A R A A A A A A A H !!!!! 」

Strange screams were heard coming from the throats of the berserkers one after another as berserkers and holy warriors began to fight in various places on the deck of the ironed ship.

Neither of them were afraid of death at all; in fact, they even find it joyful. Driven by a mysterious emotion, their physical strength was rising inexhaustibly.
「HA! And you lot thought that all the Lords from the Fantasia Union were weak! 」

Julio faced one of the berserkers and raised his voice.

Although not many people know, Julio is a collector of weapons. He even hired an Arts user who was a specialized martial arts master as his personal instructor, and thanks to his rigorous training, he was now able to fight swiftly with all kinds of weaponry.

When Clovis still belonged to the Factory Alliance, Ismaia was on the front line of the war, just like Artuk and Leclerc, so learning how to fight properly was the least he could do to defend his country from possible invasions.

King of Clovis was a cautious person, so he never crossed the border. However, there were several skirmishes near the border, and the Ismeian Lords were always prepared for an invasion from the Factory Alliance and their allies, to the point where training themselves and never missing their drills became a habit of everyone who was able to carry a weapon in their hand.

Back when they were still alive, Vilar Constance of Artuk was known as a master swordsman, and Kurt Gallas, the Earl of Leclerc was known in some circles as The Boar due to his resilience and bravery. But if he were to be placed in a fight with these two, Julio Bellini was certain that he’d be able to compete with them as an equal. He specializes in long swords, but now he was using a saber. It is a slender curved sword, but it is enough for him to take on lightly armored opponents. Of course, the blade had been strengthened with the power of his Crest.

With that saber, Julio easily blocked the axes swung by the berserkers. They were a formidable force to be reckoned with, sure, but that doesn’t mean that they cannot be overpowered. Rather, Julio was doing just that by pushing them back and aiming for the opponent’s necks faster than his opponents can could swing their next blow at him.

With each flash of Julio’s blade, the heads of his opponents were falling down from their necks like wheat during the time of harvest. With every gush of fresh blood, more severed heads were rolling across the deck of the ship, all the while Julio maintained a joyous look on his face.

The headless torsos of the Nords still tried to fight back against him, but soon their legs got tangled up with one another and the headless bodies started falling to the ground, never to get back up again. They fell down and flapped their arms and legs for a while, but then stopped moving.
「And that’s about it from you. 」

Julio laughed. He had never laughed like that in his life. Ismeia is near Elam, and was the first country where order was restored during the time of The War of Restoration. Because of that, a unique culture has sprouted and developed there in their attempt to compete with Elam, where dedication and sophistication were required for everything.

But right now, Julio felt like a Nord, the very same people whom he despised and denounced as being nothing more but barbaric beasts. As he continued to behead the berserkers that were coming towards him one after another, Julio felt as if he was getting addicted to the act of murder and the feeling of taking lives with his own hands.

Even if their hearts get pierced, the berserkers will continue to fight, but if they lose their heads, they will be powerless. Of course, this is not something that everyone can do. But for Julio, it was something that couldn’t have been easier.

By the time the effect of his Fanatic Banner was lifted, all the berserkers had lost their heads and were unable to move. And when Julio woke up from his battle trance, he was stunned beyond words.

The deck of the sailing ship was turned into a sea of blood, pieces of flesh were lying around everywhere, and the injured were groaning in pain.

「What is this… ? 」

Julio came to his senses and unconsciously began to feel nauseous. He ran to the edge of the ship and vomited all of the contents of his stomach.

(Is this what a Holy War is supposed to be? Is that how a Holy Warrior is supposed to act?!)

Julio screams in his mind.

This naval battle was likely to be remembered as a major victory for the Fantasia Union. The enemy’s fleet has already been destroyed, and the casualties of the Union were minimal. With that loss, the Nords would completely lose control of the North Sea. It would probably be difficult for them to even maintain all of their the settlements. With this victory, the Fantasia Union has freed itself from the Nordic threat.
With this, if Fantasia Union decides to join forces with the Artuk Treaty and fight together with its army, it might even be possible for them to invade the territories of the Factory Alliance, but that was an extremely unlikely scenario, since the leader of the Artuk Treaty insisted that the goal of the Treaty was to establish peace between the Fantasia Union and the Factory Alliance, and Alexis himself probably has no intention of fighting against the Alliance anymore than it is going to be necessary.

For the time being, Alexis planned to have the Fantasia Union and the Artuk Treaty gain military superiority over the Factory Alliance to make Marine Kraische give up her idea of unifying the entire continent by force. In the end, the three forces were supposed to come together, and the Era of Chaos was supposed to end, ushering in an Era of Peace.

(However, if a new force ended up appearing, that would mean that the war would continue.)

Julio felt this premonition when he was fighting under the influence of his Crest, and he imagined himself standing at the forefront of that battle…

* * *

Eric the Ocean King was seeking nothing but slaughter right now. He must have already killed more than a hundred people, but he’s still looking forward to killing many, many more.

(To live… is to take the lives of others… before they can take yours…)

Everything in this world revolves around taking the lives of others and continue living by eating their blood and flesh.

(Fight, kill, steal…)

Humans are beasts, and our beastly instincts require us to do only those three things in order to survive. It is a contest in which strong creatures always win against the weak creatures.

Humans are undoubtedly the strongest creatures in this world. The only thing that can take a human life, apart from accidents and Chaos, are other humans, and humans despise, hate, and fear others because of even the slightest differences. This leads to murderous intent and the breaking of battles and conflicts over the most trivial of reasons.

The only way to avoid conflict is for humans to become the same.
It’s a simple logic.

Turning the entire continent into Nords… that is what Eric was aiming for. He as the Emperor would be a the top and all humans would be his family. He would hold one absolute value in his hands and share it with his subjects, and those who’d reject his gift would be left with no choice but to be turned into slaves.

However, that dream was now crushed, and Eric will soon depart for the world of Valhalla.