Chapter 296 - I Ask You, Father in Heaven

'I ask You, Father in heaven.'

Audin knelt in silent prayer. From that position, he witnessed Encrid's absurd turn of the head. Then came a sprint, a charge, a sword strike, scrolls, a spell, and an explosion that made him doubt his own eyes. HISSS! Esther sprang out the instant she saw it, but Audin made no attempt to stop her. She was not a panther incapable of looking after herself.

He also saw Ragna step forward afterward. The dim-witted swordsman who was forever losing his way ran straight toward Encrid. His steps looked so very light. 'Am I envious?'

Of that dim-witted blond soldier running over there? "Teresa the Wanderer asks: When do we fight?" What a battle-thirsty sheep.

Even so, Audin did not turn away from his own feelings. "It is said that unripe fruit is sour and astringent. And the Father said, 'Waiting ripens the fruit and the heart alike. I wish to give you good things.' Thus He bade us be patient, and patient again." "Patience. Yes." Teresa quietly knelt beside him. Even then, she was no smaller than the soldiers around her. The same held true for Audin. They looked like two bears quietly biding their time. 'May you learn patience and move forward.'

Audin silently offered Teresa that brief blessing, then calmly continued his prayer. 'What is he doing now, this shepherd who leads the Lunatic Company, who is himself a mad sheep?' The scriptures said to help the young, the powerless, the weak. God commanded those who became shepherds to protect and guide their sheep.

His Captain appeared to be doing just that. He had saved the child, somehow noticed the ominous thing wrapped around their body, and cut it away to explode. 'O Father.' As he silently prayed, demonic beasts began raising their heads in the distance. Soon they came pouring forward. Ochre dust billowed beneath the dark sky. "If those beasts break through, we're all dead! Stop them!" At Graham's command, the heavy infantry marched out. Audin began a new prayer, short and emphatic. 'I ask You, Father in heaven. Might You need a dog to guard Your side?' No answer came. But Audin thought He did. Sending a demonic beast to God's side would surely be the greatest blessing it could receive.

He rose. "I shall go bestow that blessing myself." "Teresa the Wanderer will join you." Audin stepped forward, and Teresa followed. They strode toward the horde of demonic beasts. The allied soldiers waiting behind the lines naturally parted for them, and the two hulking figures walked through.

* * *

AWOOO! GRRRR! WOOF! Three or four wolves, enlarged by their transformation into demonic beasts, pounced as if to bar the soldiers' way. "Hold!" BANG! A wolf slammed its forepaw against a rectangular shield covering more than half a soldier's body. The impact sent a stinging vibration through his forearm. "Thrust!" Block and thrust. The most fundamental tactic of the heavy infantry Company. Several demonic beasts were impaled on the strong soldiers' spears. Heads burst and chests were punctured with dull thuds. There were far too many beasts. A dizzying number. A wave of demonic beasts was an apt description.

Paul, a soldier from a coastal village, knew the terror of the sea well. When joking with his comrades, he often said that even when a towering wave crashed over your head, you had to overcome it to be a true man of the sea.

This was just such a moment. This was neither the sea nor the coast, but monsters were crashing over their heads like waves. "Aaaaah!" Paul summoned strength from deep in his gut. Back in his village, he would have resented being called anything less than the strongest. He would never have come this far if he hadn't flown into a rage and half crippled the village chief's son. But now, the strength that had done it was the weapon and bulwark that would protect him. With all his might, with every last scrap of strength he possessed, he swung the lump of iron in his hand: a mace with a round ball at its end. WHOOSH! CRACK! The mace caught the wolf's head at the crest of the wave and sent it flying. Blood and brains sprayed from its shattered skull, spattering his face. Paul blinked once, drew back the mace, and swung again. "Hah!" With a shout, he swung down from above. THUD! CRUNCH! The mace shattered the beast's shoulder blade and slid off to one side. Buried in the ground, it now swept upward. CRACK! This time, it broke the jaw of another beast that had been waiting low for an opening before springing up. YELP! The beast with the broken jaw rolled aside. Another took its place. "Aaaaah!" Having slain three demonic beasts through sheer strength, Paul roared. "Fucking hell, Paul!" "Nice work, country boy!" "Hold them! Hold them!" Paul had even thrown away his shield to fight. Several comrades beside him covered the gaps in his defense with their own shields. He steadied his breathing and resolved to repeat this goddamned business as many times as it took.

Just then... "Mother!" A normally quiet, unfailingly brave comrade flew through the air, crying for his mother. Half his body had been torn away. Entrails and blood pattered down from the sky with the sleet.

What now? GRRR. Among the demonic beasts, Paul saw something horrifying.

What was that?

It was twice the size of the others. No, there was no comparison. Even crouching, its eyes were not level with his. He had to look up to see its face. An enormous demonic beast?

No. It was nothing of the sort. Demonic beasts were animals transformed by demonic energy. What stood before him was a monster. A creature bearing demonic energy passed down from primordial times, a natural enemy of humanity.

A monster. A dire wolf. The gray-furred monster looked down at Paul with red eyes. A comrade barring its way trembled. The mere sight of it filled them with terror. The urge to run surged up inside them.

Yet they held their ground and raised their shields. Years of training brutal enough to make them cough blood kept them standing. That alone deserved praise. GRRR. The dire wolf let out a deep, heavy growl, and the soldier's legs shook faster. He wanted to resist, but could not overcome that primal fear. His entire body trembled.

So did Paul's. The hand holding his mace shook. His knees tingled. Gooseflesh rose across his skin. Fear turned his vision black. 'Am I going to die?'

Paul thought of the young woman who wove cloth. 'I loved you.' He had meant to propose when he returned. To ask her to share his life, if someone like him would do. He wanted to leave his hometown behind and settle here, living happily with her, close and warm. Someday, he wanted to show her the sea.

He wanted children. He wanted to teach them to fish. There were so many things he wanted to do. Paul sensed his death. He was going to die.

That is, he would have died had a bear-like man not been striding up behind him.

The approaching bear laid a hand on Paul's shoulder. "May the Lord protect you." Absurdly, those few words dispelled the pressure crushing Paul's entire body. "Hah, hah, hah." As he panted, drenched in cold sweat, the bear spoke again. "Blessings even upon the lowly creatures steeped in evil." Blessings? What blessings?

The question barely had time to form before Audin, the hulking lunatic soldier, burst forward. His speed was utterly at odds with his size. To Paul's eyes, his figure seemed to blur and vanish. Some fifteen wolf demonic beasts stood in front of the dire wolf. It did them no good. BANG! YELP! WOOF! CRACK! CRUNCH! THUD! What was that?

Bewilderment filled Paul's eyes, and understandably so. Audin, who had vanished, was suddenly standing in the midst of the beasts. Only then could Paul make out his movements. He thrust out fists and feet without slowing his run. It was like watching a war wagon. An ironclad wagon built for charging.

The two clubs jutting from that wagon reduced the demonic beasts to mere wild dogs. No, to mangy mutts roaming a marketplace. Their heads might as well have been tomatoes. He crushed them, burst them, broke them. Paul had killed three through a mighty exertion of strength. Audin killed five or six simply by passing through. Some even flew into the air.

Then the rampaging Audin blurred and vanished again. It was a sudden burst of acceleration, almost as though he were demonstrating it for someone. Showing them what speed truly was. CRUNCH! BANG! Footprints remained where he had stood. The ochre ground caved in, marking the departure of the man who had occupied it. His charge carried monstrous force. The dire wolf's eyes tracked the vanished Audin. Its forepaw swept out, the monster moving with speed equally at odds with its size. Its enormous paw lashed through the air.

Then a monster in human guise met a monster in a wolf's guise, flesh against flesh. CLANG! Their collision sent out a shock wave. Dust spread in concentric rings. Everyone saw the wolf monster facing the human monster.

What name could they give the feeling that replaced their fear and terror at that sight?

Some people were difficult to approach in ordinary life, yet nothing could be more reassuring than having them beside you on a battlefield. Encrid's unit of lunatics was just such a group. "Blessings!" Audin shouted again and swung his fist. The dire wolf dodged with incongruously nimble footwork, then lunged to bite him. CLANG! Fist and claw crossed and collided. He had long since discarded his clubs. But why did a fist striking a monster's claws make that sound?

And what was this about blessings? The blessing Audin spoke of was, naturally, something that would send the wolf up to heaven. In other words, what he now held in his hands: violence, founded on brute strength.

The greatest blessing a monster could receive was to die and dwell beside God. Audin intended to arrange that personally. "Are you just going to watch?" The infantry commander's shout rang out. At the sound, Paul raised his lowered mace. "Let's wipe them all out!" "Don't be fucking stupid! Form ranks! Any bastard who charges out first is dead!" "Paul, you country-fuck! If you want to get back and finish what you started with Desiang, shut up and hold formation!" The Platoon Commander snapped at him. Paul obeyed. The joy of realizing he was alive welled up inside him.

Of course, this was no time to savor it. The battle was still raging, and he stood in its midst. Still, Paul felt he wasn't going to die. He had just stood before a dire wolf and survived unharmed.

Would he really die to demonic beasts barely better than wild dogs? "Shields up!" "Shields up!" The heavy infantry, the pride of Border Guard's standing army, once more raised an iron wall of defense. They were not the true spearhead of the attack. For now, their best course was to defend and hold formation.

Their efforts were soon rewarded. "We use everything we've got." Those were Krais's words during the third battle. Graham acted on them. "Deploy." At his single word, spearheads flew into the demonic beasts' flank. "Think you're the only ones with a trump card?" NEIGH! It was the cavalry, never before shown at the front. FWEEEE! A former mercenary at the head of the riders gave a long whistle. At that signal, the horses ran. The men who had been hidden inside the walls charged out in a single file. THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD! As the mounted troops galloped out one after another, the ground shook beneath their hoofbeats. It was a hastily assembled unit that included mercenaries confident in their riding. But being hastily assembled had not cost them their mobility. They lacked training and technique, but they were more than capable of charging into the enemy.

Above all... NEIGH! A wild horse larger than the ordinary warhorses suddenly joined them, took the lead, and did something insane. 'What the hell is this now?' The mercenary was startled, but his hands and feet, honed by years of living by the sword, did their work. He swung his greatsword in time with the wild horse's charge. Angled to match his speed, the blade caught a demonic beast's head. CRACK! The beheaded beast flew sideways. The wild horse, apparently delighted by something, rammed a beast with its forehead, darted aside, then accelerated and charged again over a short distance.

It repeated this several times. How to put it? The mercenary had never seen a horse like this in his life. 'Is this some kind of trick riding?' He was dumbfounded, but he knew the horse was on their side and that Encrid had brought it, so he let it go. Trying to understand would only give him a headache. Amid the melee, Teresa passed alongside the demonic beasts and headed for the rear. A few, taking her for easy prey as she advanced alone, attacked her.

She dealt with them calmly. Blocking with her shield, she gripped her sword by the blade and swung it like a club, batting them away with rough blows. YELP! Several of the beasts she had struck circled around her. Fearless creatures.

Should she kill them before going on?

Teresa considered it briefly, but realized she was too late. "You." The Wolf Bishop stood before her. When had he arrived? Was he truly born and raised in the Demonic Realm, as the rumors said? The question occurred to her anew.

More importantly, he was the one who had sent her here. "Apostate bitch." The bishop spoke, and Teresa replied, "I am Teresa the Wanderer. What are you talking about all of a sudden?" She denied knowing him. Teresa was more brazen than one might think. At the very least, she was not the Teresa the bishop knew. That woman was dead.

Which meant she was perfectly entitled to be brazen. "What?" "I don't know you. I really have no idea why you're speaking to me like that." The Wolf Bishop exploded with rage. "You fucking bitch!"