Remedios gripped her holy sword and slashed a demon - her Vice-Captains had told her its name, but she had completely forgotten it - in half. Imbued with holy power, the blade could inflict grievous wounds upon evil beings, and it was doing so to great effect. She had cut down the demons rampaging through the city one after the other. The fallen demons vanished as thick white smoke steamed from their wounds. Within seconds, there was no trace that the demons had ever been there.
However, the signs of how the demons had ravaged the city remained.
"How could this be!?"
She looked at a fallen soldier - not one of the vanguard troopers, but a local patrolman - and Remedios bellowed in rage.
His leather armor had been cleanly severed, and the hands clutching his abdomen were stained a deep red. She could even see the pink of his innards. His face was well past the point of paleness, now a bloodless white.
While she had almost no medical knowledge, her own experiences supplied enough information for her to make a judgement. There was no time to send the wounded soldiers back to a casualty collection point. She would need to treat them on the spot with magic.
The soldiers were not yet dead, but it was neither a miraculous survival, nor was it because the soldiers were simply that good, so was this the demons' aim? That said, she had no idea what the demons were planning.
Still, the option to simply let the soldiers die did not exist in Remedios's heart. Nobody would ever discard the brave soldiers who had chosen to become a shield for their nation in order to buy their country time. And the most important thing was that she was a paladin of righteousness.
"Begin healing him!"
Remedios was accompanied not just by the elite paladins behind her, but also by several priests. Her order was directed at them.
In response, one of her Vice-Captains stepped up and whispered in her ear:
"Would it not be better to let the medics in the rear aid him? If we use the priests' mana here, we might run out when fighting Jaldabaoth, which might be the demons' aim-"
"-Ahhhh, you talk too much! This is an order! Heal him to the point where he can move on his own! Also-"
At this point, Remedios glanced at the adjutant beside her and said:
"-I can't hear you muttering through your helmet, so speak up!"
"Ah, no, it's fine..."
"Very good!"
The healing magic mended the soldiers' wounds swiftly. Of course, the recovery was not complete. After all, this was only a first tier spell, and it could not fully restore a soldier on the verge of death. Even so, it was enough to heal the soldiers to the point where they could stagger around. Since the soldiers were no longer in danger of dying, there was no need to heal them any further. Remedios still remembered her sister's incessant nagging to wisely use limited resources.
"You brave gentlemen, stay that way and listen. We've performed first aid on your wounds, so fall back. After that, let the medics at the rear tend to you."
The pain of walking was probably enough to drive the soldiers to tears. However, she no longer had the time to hear them out. She had to reach her destination before Jaldabaoth arrived.
The soldiers also sensed the meaning in Remedios's powerful gaze. None of them spoke up or protested; they simply agreed with each other.
"All right! Then let's meet again later!"
Remedios broke into a sprint at the head of her troops. Her metal armor was lighter and easier to move in than it appeared, and given her physical abilities, she could reach her destination faster than anyone else. However, her sister, Calca and her adjutants often told her, "Don't charge in by yourself all the time!" so Remedios throttled back the desire to sprint with all her might and quashed the desire to make up for lost time.
Soon, Remedios reached her destination, which was a corner of the city.
The streets spread out before them. The evacuation had been completed long ago, and so there was nobody there.
"Captain, if we follow this avenue and turn right, then turn right again, we'll be at the plaza where we'll be awaiting Jaldabaoth. Do you want us to scout ahead?"
"No, wait for Calca-sama and my sister - and the adventurers. After that, make your final checks and then hoist the banner high!"
Obeying Remedios's orders, her subordinates tied a flag to a distant building. This was to inform the other units that the elite paladins led by Remedios had arrived.
Their operation would involve Calca and her personal guard, Queralt and the pick of the temples, high ranking adventurers, and a squad of Remedios's elite paladins. The four units had split up and then headed to Jaldabaoth's location.
There were roughly five hundred paladins in the order. Most of them were comparable to difficulty twenty monsters, and among them were great warriors capable of slaying a difficulty sixty monster one on one. All in all, there were twenty five of these ultra-elite warriors, who formed the core of Remedios's forces.
Incidentally, the remaining three hundred-odd paladins were currently standing watch on the city walls against the advancing demihumans.
Originally, they should have formed up into a single group and moved out as one. However, Jaldabaoth possessed an area-attack ability that could bring down the wall, so they had chosen to split up in order to avoid being destroyed when their forces were concentrated. The reason why they had hung the flag in the distance was so that even if Jaldabaoth saw the flag and attacked it, it would not hamper the rest of the group.
"Can Jaldabaoth's wall-breaking attack be used more than once, Isandro?"
There were two Vice-Captains in the Paladin Order.
One of them was an average swordsman, but excelled in other areas, and his name was Gustavo Montanjes. Right now, he was directing the paladins who were reinforcing the city walls, so he was not here.
There was another, who currently stood by Remedios's side. The person to whom Remedios addressed her question was one of the Nine Colors as well, Isandro Sanchez, called "the Pink."
"If he could use it multiple times, then I have no idea why he has not done so already. It might make more sense to consider that there might be some condition or some kind of delay until he can use it again."
"Pretty much. I guess splitting up was being too paranoid."
"No, it's nothing of the sort. Perhaps he's conserving his strength in order to bring forth some great power. We mustn't be careless."
"Yes yes, I know."
Remedios broke off their conversation. She was not suited to thinking, after all.
Politics in particular made her head ache. She was completely baffled by the reason why the nobles frowned upon the fact that a woman had ascended to the throne of the Holy Queen.
They felt the same about Calca's title, which was the combination of Holy King and Woman. They protested both the fact that they had a woman leading them and that a new term had to be coined for her.
On that note, it would be simpler to understand if it was just a matter of who was stronger or weaker.
"-Captain Custodio, the priest contingent and the adventurers have raised their flags."
"How about Calca-sama?"
"Not yet."
"Is that so... well, it's about time to start casting longer-duration defensive spells. Once Calca-sama arrives, we'll advance on Jaldabaoth first and act as bait to draw his attention. Keep your will strong and beware any special attacks the enemy has."
"No movement from the plaza."
They had confirmed that the advance force had been wiped out, and if their target had shifted location, the adventurers responsible for reconnaissance would have told them. If there was no news from them, that meant Jaldabaoth had not moved from the plaza where he had appeared.
"He's looking down on us, that miserable little demon. Probably thinks that if he can kill us all here, he can conquer the country easily."
"No, Captain. It's also likely that he's trying to stall for time. If we're pinned down here fighting Jaldabaoth, the demihuman army will be able to win elsewhere."
"...I see. So that's possible too... this Jaldabaoth is pretty smart, huh."
"I think he's good at scheming because he's a demon."
"...Hmph. He's just a demon who's gotten full of himself, I'll beat him like a dog and make him weep bitterly."
Just as Remedios swore that to the gods, the final flag went up, as though it were waiting for that moment.
"Vice-Captain!"
"Yes ma'am! Everyone, we're moving out!"
"All right! Follow me!"