As the monsters advanced northward, roaring and stomping, tearing through the earth and sky, the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' moved forward with quiet, graceful steps.
Amidst the pitch-black wave of monsters, she stood out in her white burned dress.
"It's time for our guerrilla unit to take action in earnest."
Lucas said, looking at the heroes checking their equipment and preparing to deploy.
"We'll use every possible method to… delay the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' from advancing towards the city."
Apart from blocking the infinite monsters.
Holding back and dragging out time against an invincible enemy commander who cannot be killed or stopped.
This guerrilla unit — the 'Final Lightning' — was tasked with executing this impossible operation.
'The main fortress will handle the monsters. We'll do our part.'
Lucas took a deep breath and looked at the team to be deployed first.
"Sword Demon. Spear Demon."
Led by the disheveled couple — Sword Demon and Spear Demon — the immortals who had joined from the bottom village and the immortal adventurers who had joined from the base camp…
All the immortals who had joined from the dungeon under the lake were ready for deployment and looked at Lucas.
Lucas carefully asked one last time.
"Are you really sure about this?"
It was Sword Demon and Spear Demon who had first proposed this operation.
And it was Lucas who had recognized its efficiency and planned the operation.
But he had to ask one more time at the end.
Are you really okay with this?
Sword Demon and Spear Demon grinned simultaneously.
"What's good about being immortal?"
"We have nothing to boast about except that we come back to life under that lake even if we die."
"In return, make sure to tell the prince later, okay?"
"Hehe. Tell him we've accomplished such a great feat. Make sure."
The mission these nonchalant immortals were to carry out was to lure the enemy.
To provoke the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' and make her turn back southward — away from Crossroad.
Monsters attack the nearest living being. This behavioral principle was no exception for the 'Sleepless Lake Princess'. Ash had confirmed it from past experience, and it had been verified during the recent northward advance.
So the immortals had volunteered.
They, who wouldn't die and would come back to life anyway, would act as bait to try and stop the enemy commander's advance.
"Whew!"
The immortals lined up at the edge of the airship's deck one by one. Sword Demon and Spear Demon slapped their own cheeks.
"Even though we know we won't die, even though we've trained so many times, my legs are shaking seeing the ground so far below…!"
"We've lived long enough to fall from the sky before, isn't it strange, old man?"
"That's right. We can still try something more because we're alive!"
All the immortals were equipped with emergency landing parachutes on their backs. It was an improved version of the equipment Lucas and Evangeline had used when they encountered the beetle legion before.
Everyone was ready, and Lucas commanded.
"Airborne unit!"
Lucas made eye contact with the immortals and nodded heavily.
"Good luck."
Sword Demon and Spear Demon smiled back, and Lucas extended his arm to the side.
"Descend!"
"Yee-haw!"
"Let's fall into hell-!"
The immortals ran across the deck and fell one by one, each letting out piercing screams and shouts.
Their total number was 20. 4 parties.
Watching those embarking on a literal suicide mission, Lucas pressed his lips tightly.
Whoosh!
The 20-member airborne unit fell from the airship to the ground, then deployed their parachutes at the exact timing.
This equipment designed by Ash was crude compared to Earth's parachutes, but it had one excellent feature — the ability to set the landing point.
By combining wind magic, earth magic, and flight magic, it could gently guide them to land at the desired point.
Despite this feature, 1 out of 4 parties landed in the wrong place. But 3 parties were able to land at the planned points.
In the midst of the advancing monster horde.
And at a precarious distance south of the 'Sleepless Lake Princess'.
"Charge-!"
"Out of the way, you monster bastards!"
Led by Sword Demon and Spear Demon, the airborne unit rampaged and slaughtered the local monsters in an instant.
All of these were those who had been living unable to die in the darkness of that lake kingdom.
They were all proficient in close combat ability to handle monsters.
'But our original purpose isn't the monsters!'
Sword Demon and Spear Demon rolled their eyes and looked back.
They had to catch the princess's attention!
"Let's rampage spectacularly!"
"We need to go absolutely crazy to catch the princess's eye!"
And fortunately or unfortunately, there was no need to try to attract attention.
Crack-!
The 1 party that had fallen behind and landed much closer to the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' than the planned point died with their entire bodies crushed.
The Lake Princess had clenched her fist once, instantly taking the lives of the five immortals.
"…"
Then, the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' slowly turned her head southward and stared at the remaining 15 members of the airborne unit.
Goosebumps rose all over Sword Demon and Spear Demon's bodies.
They thought they had become as numb to death as possible, and had long forgotten things like pain or fear.
But just meeting those empty eyes under that veil of the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' –
"…feels like I'm gonna piss myself."
"I, south!"
Sword Demon muttered honestly, and Spear Demon, who came to her senses first, shouted urgently and led the airborne unit members.
"Run south-!"
"Lure the enemy commander! We need to buy time!"
As soon as the words fell, the airborne unit members cut down all the monsters blocking their path and ran southward.
Their purpose was solely to lure the 'Sleepless Lake Princess'. However.
Now they were truly running away.
Sweating cold sweat in fear, to avoid being caught by the incarnation of nightmares…
"…"
In the sky. Blue Pearl.
Lucas observed the battle situation with the scouts.
It was going according to plan. The 'Sleepless Lake Princess' had turned around to slaughter the airborne unit members and was now heading south again, reversing her northward course.
However.
'It doesn't seem like they'll be able to buy much time.'
Lucas groaned as he observed the situation.
The airborne unit members, all immortals, were powerful heroes with above-average combat abilities, but their mission was too difficult from the start.
To break through the endless rising monsters, flee southward while luring the enemy commander.
It was successful for now, and they had secured an escape route by clearing the southern monsters with air missile support from Blue Pearl, but…
The encircling monsters were infinite, and if they entered the range of the 'Sleepless Lake Princess', they would die in one hit.
'Still, they've already succeeded in delaying as much as we aimed for.'
The airborne unit had gloriously accomplished their mission.
We must not waste the time they've bought for us.
'We'll use every delaying tactic we can.'
Dozens of measures had been devised to delay the end of the world even by one second.
Lucas turned his head to the side, mentally counting the remaining options.
"Prepare for the next operation-!"
While Blue Pearl and the guerrilla unit were holding off the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' with various delaying tactics.
The main fortress of Crossroad was struggling to push back the intensified main body of monsters.
Artillery fire was completely nullified in the center of the battlefield where the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' had appeared, and monsters that had infiltrated through this gap were now crowding right up to the castle walls.
The endless mines and traps that had been laid, as well as the medium-range ballistas for interception, were doing their job, but it was undeniable that the front line had been pulled in significantly.
To drive away these monsters, the artifact team and dwarf engineers were working together to prepare a defensive field artifact.
"Good! Just a little higher angle! That's it!"
Evangeline, who was commanding this, suddenly sensed something unusual and opened her green eyes wide.
"Huh?"
Evangeline looked down at her hand. She clenched her fist, then opened it.
An unprecedented emptiness, as if the whole world was being drained away, ran down her spine.
"The flow of magic power… is weakening."
The blessing of the guardian tree is disappearing.
The connection with mana, the source of magic, is being severed.
Realizing what this situation meant, Evangeline exclaimed happily.
"It looks like the first phase of senior's plan has succeeded!"
"Sniff…"
Kellibey, who was adjusting the angle of the field artifact, sniffled and grumbled.
"It's already tough dealing with monsters, and now they're taking away our magic power too. That Ash, he's just recklessly reckless…"
"But we prepared for this, didn't we?"
Evangeline grinned like a mischievous child.
"Those monsters probably didn't prepare at all, right?"
Indeed, the monsters were now easily torn apart by artillery fire they had been able to withstand until just before, and their tough skin that arrows couldn't pierce was now penetrated in one shot.
The supply of magic power from the spirit realm to the mortal world is weakening.
This meant that the defensive measures on the mortal side would lose power, but it also meant that the monsters would lose the power that was the source of their existence.
'Meanwhile, we've stockpiled plenty…!'
Because they had planned an operation to cut off the supply of magic power. Of course, they had stockpiled magic power to the limit in advance.
Of course, they couldn't hold out forever, but the same was true for the monsters.
'On this battlefield where both sides are declining…'
Evangeline, firmly grasping her shield, flashed her emerald eyes.
'Let's see who can last till the end, you bastards!'
Meanwhile.
Sensing this anomaly, a change occurred in the sky as well.
The countless eyes watching the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' and the destruction of this world through the crack in the sky began to spin round and round.
The Outer Gods urgently turned their gaze.
Not to the final battlefield of the mortal world, but to behind the scenes.
To the spirit realm where a rebellion was being plotted-
Whoosh-!
I quietly observed the four massive pillars of fire burning in various parts of the spirit realm.
The guardian trees of the 4 major non-human races.
These trees were already in a weakened state. This was because most of their trunks had been removed in the mortal world, leaving only the roots remaining here in the spirit realm.
Of course, they were still fully functional even in that state, but…
When each racial god uprooted and burned them, they quickly lost power and perished.
The problem was the tree before us.
Humanity's guardian tree — Everblack.
The last remaining tree here in the spirit realm did not perish easily.
Even when I issued an eviction order with the authority of a racial god, and the Emperor forcibly set it on fire while riding La Mancha, the tree stubbornly held on.
As if it were trying to survive on its own.
"It's definitely weakening, but at this rate, this tree will endure."
The Demon King, who was watching beside me, spoke up.
"And if this tree continues to act as a wedge, the spirit realm cannot be closed."
"It's like a doorstop preventing the door from closing, huh? How do we remove this…"
As I groaned, the Demon King faintly sneered.
"Do we have time to worry? It's starting now."
"…!"Thê sourc𝗲 of this conte/nt n/o/v/(𝒆l)bi((n))
"Look at the sky."
I raised my head following the Demon King.
Rumble-!
The sky of the spirit realm filled with aurora.
The sky split open, pushing aside the aurora like parting curtains — and like the Milky Way appearing in the night sky, countless eyes began to appear, twinkling like stars.
"…The Outer Gods have noticed our rebellion."
As the Demon King's words fell, the gazes of the Outer Gods that had been spinning round and round all fixed on us at once.
No-
Not just gazes.
Crash! Clang-!
Breaking through the sky of the spirit realm like glass, transparent and gigantic hands…
Began to stretch endlessly towards where we were.
The sight of enormous fingers filling the entire sky and falling to the ground was so surreal it was absurd.
"Well."
The Demon King asked leisurely.
"What will you do now, rebel?"
As if watching a fire across the river, despite being an accomplice himself.
"What else can I do."
I grinned.
There's no way things would go exactly according to the initial plan, right? Of course, errors occur, flaws emerge, and accidents happen.
Then we just modify the plan accordingly and continue the offensive.
That's why I'm here.
'We'll accomplish both removing the guardian tree and repelling the Outer Gods simultaneously.'
Taking a breath, I drew out all the royal authority and power I possessed.
And the power of the two dragons at the same time.
Two flames swirled in a circle in my chest, and immense magical power surged throughout my body.
This is the final battle.
There's no reason to hold back…!
"Now, this is your chance to witness firsthand the troll show of the rogue prince that will never happen again!"
Meeting the gazes of countless Outer Gods with my whole body like concentrated spotlights-
I shouted at them.
"Open those big eyes wide and watch!"