To the adventurers of the City of Gilm, the duo known as Rei and Seto—one man and one beast—were nothing short of outliers.
Gilm was a frontier city that naturally attracted the Kingdom of Mireana's most elite adventurers. In such a place, Rei was a singular existence who had tamed an A-Rank monster like a Gryphon and climbed to C-Rank at the fastest speed on record after registering with the Guild.
In appearance, he looked like nothing more than an apprentice mage, yet his demeanor was haughty enough to rub some veterans the wrong way.
However, his strength was undeniable. The prowess he had demonstrated time and again to the adventurers of Gilm was at a height that left no room for doubt. Warriors marveled at Rei's overwhelming physical ability and his skill in wielding the Death Scythe, an unwieldy great scythe, as if it were an extension of his own body. Those capable of sensing magic power were struck by his reserves, which were so vast that even the word "immense" felt insufficient.
Now, that same Rei had descended onto the battlefield. While his personality usually made him difficult to approach, the morale of the Gilm adventurers skyrocketed simply because they knew what he was capable of.
Even the adventurers hired by other Neutral Faction nobles, as well as the soldiers and knights, found their spirits lifted as they were swept up in the momentum of the Gilm elite.
To begin with, although the Bestia Imperial Army's lead unit was gradually weakening, their strength and morale had already plummeted thanks to the persistent Firestorm. The chaos among the soldiers made it difficult for them to organize even a basic defense. In fact, as they were caught in a pincer attack by the Kingdom of Mireana from both flanks amidst the carnage, the confusion was only intensifying. For the Neutral Faction, Rei’s arrival with his overwhelming military force was the final push they needed. There was no way their morale wouldn't reach its peak.
"Seto-chan, Rei!"
Despite being in the heat of battle, while the Bestia Imperial Army soldiers hesitated to attack after witnessing the recent events, the members of Scorching Wind fought their way through to join them, cutting down soldiers and firing arrows while utilizing wind magic.
"I see you guys are safe too... Flying Slash!"
Rei spared a brief glance for Mirene and her companions before immediately unleashing a Flying Slash.
The projectile strike, released with a swing of the Death Scythe's blade, severed the right hand of a thief-like adventurer who had been wielding a pair of daggers. The man had been trying to capitalize on a perceived opening in Rei's guard, but now only blood sprayed from his stump.
"Gaaaaaaaah!"
The adventurer wailed in agony, clutching his severed arm as it rolled on the ground. However, in this battlefield swirling with roars and screams, his suffering drew no attention. In the next instant, Rei heard the sound of something tearing through the air and reflexively twisted his body. An arrow whistled through the space where his head had been a second prior and buried itself in the forehead of the wailing thief, killing him instantly.
(If I hadn't dodged, that arrow would have pierced me... was it a stray?)
Rei wondered for a split second whether the arrow had been a stray or if someone had specifically targeted him. However, there was no time for such thoughts on the battlefield.
He cast a glance at the Bestia Imperial Army soldiers, knights, and adventurers who were keeping their distance out of fear of Seto, and then spoke to the approaching Mirene.
"You received the message, right?"
"Yeah. We're going to take advantage of the confusion to annihilate the enemy lead unit in one go, right? And then end this war then and there."
"Exactly. Our job is to just keep killing until there's no one left. We'll carve terror into the Bestia Imperial Army until they break."
A knight thrust his spear forward with a sharp strike, but Rei swung the Death Scythe and severed the shaft with the middle of the handle. The knight, clearly confident in his skill, stared at his broken weapon with stunned eyes. Rei caught the severed spearhead in mid-air and threw it, piercing the knight's face.
Being a knight, the man wore a helmet, but he couldn't cover his face completely if he wanted to see or breathe. Rei’s strike found the narrow gap with surgical precision.
"Won't they eventually retreat anyway? The Flame Tornado you made is still going strong."
The Flame Tornado Rei had created. Those lurking nearby, looking for an opening against Rei, Seto, or Mirene's group, reacted visibly to those words. Realizing that the robed kid who had descended from the sky was the source of that literal hell, their eyes widened reflexively.
Considering the damage the Bestia Imperial Army had suffered from the Flame Tornado, such a reaction was natural. However, it was too large an opening to show in the middle of a fight.
The sound of several objects cutting through the air came in rapid succession. Unlike the previous arrow, Rei knew exactly who had fired these, so he paid them no mind and channeled magic power into his Sleipnir's Shoes.
"Sleipnir's Shoes, activate."
In an instant, he kicked off the ground and then the air itself, passing over the heads of the Bestia soldiers facing them. He leaped through the sky for several steps, heading deeper into the enemy's lead unit. Behind him, several arrows fired by Ekryl pierced the enemies whose movements had stalled. Swinging the Death Scythe, Rei created a rain of blood as he landed in the space where the soldiers he had just slaughtered once stood.
"Guruuuu!"
Watching Rei's departing back, Seto roared and temporarily moved away to provide support to their allies.
"Eh? Wait, Seto-chan?! Is it okay to leave Rei alone?"
"Guruu."
Seto gave a short cry in response to Mirene's concern and leaped into the fray to carry out its own part in the battle.
Mirene watched the Gryphon go with a momentary look of bewilderment, but she immediately put it out of her mind and ran through the battlefield alongside Sulnin and Ekryl.
Perhaps the presence of a Gryphon—a creature that had no business being in such a place—had caused the fear and confusion of the Bestia Imperial Army to come full circle. Those at the front lines who saw Seto gradually began to unite in a desperate attempt at resistance.
Seto itself had no ill intentions, but from this point on, although the Bestia Imperial Army was generally being pushed back, they began to group together and participate in the battle more organizedly.
However, this organized resistance was limited to those who could see Seto with their own eyes. The closer one got to the center—the closer to the Firestorm—the worse the confusion became. Even as commanders desperately tried to rally their subordinates, the soldiers were so intent on fleeing the Firestorm that their efforts were in vain.
And then, Rei descended into the very heart of that absolute chaos.
Slash!
The moment he landed, he delivered a horizontal sweep. With that single strike, three knights were severed at the waist, their lives snuffed out instantly.
Maintaining his momentum, he twirled the handle in his hands to reverse the blade and pulled back his right leg to force his body into a full rotation. An adventurer who had been about to swing a sword down from behind met the same end as the knights seconds before.
Since everyone around him was an enemy, Rei swung the Death Scythe without hesitation. He had separated from Seto specifically to create this situation; in his mind, those before him were no longer humans, but obstacles to be cleared.
Brandishing the over-two-meter-long Death Scythe with total freedom, he cut with the blade, crushed bones with the handle, and pierced through bodies with the butt end.
He danced, a fluttering dance of death. One flash, two flashes, three. Every time the blade shimmered, crimson flowers bloomed in profusion.
He was the symbol of death, performing a macabre dance to lead souls to the afterlife.
Between his preference for flame magic and the sight of him dyeing his surroundings in blood, this was the origin of the epithet later sung of by bards: Rei the Crimson.
"Dammit, you monster! Large Shield Unit, forward! Buy time for the mages! Archer Unit, keep firing! Keep him pinned down!"
"Captain, it's dangerous! Our own men are behind him! If he dodges, we'll hit our own troops!"
A Platoon Leader screamed orders as he watched his allies being torn apart, but he was immediately challenged by his lieutenant.
However, the Platoon Leader grabbed the man and screamed with desperate fury.
"I know that! But you also know that stopping that monster is impossible without being reckless! If you have a better plan, then let's hear—ghrk."
Before he could finish, a horizontal sweep of the Death Scythe severed the Platoon Leader's head and sent it spinning into the air.
"Captai... dammit, kill him! Kill that monster at all co...sts...?"
Just as the lieutenant was about to bark orders, he finally noticed that the surrounding clamor had vanished.
He hurriedly looked around, but all he saw was an overwhelming amount of red. Every single person around him besides himself was dead—their torsos, limbs, and heads hacked off, crushed, and scattered across the ground. Beside the red of blood, there was the pink of flesh, the white of bone, and the various fluids of internal organs. Yet, what left the deepest impression on the lieutenant was the crimson liquid.
"Ha... hahahaha... This is a joke, right? This many people wiped out in less than a minute? A dream... this is just a dream... right? Tell me it is!"
Driven to the brink by what he had seen, he turned his sightless gaze toward Rei and swung his sword with sluggish, trembling hands.
Rei easily evaded the strike by simply shifting his body back. The blade of the Death Scythe swept upward, closing in on the lieutenant's flank...
"!"
Just before cutting the man down, Rei heard the sound of something cutting the air and reflexively pulled the Death Scythe back to deliver a massive parry.
Clang-clang-clang-clang! The sounds of clashing metal rang out in rapid succession, and four daggers were batted down to the ground.
"No way... You swatted down all those daggers from this distance?!"
A man who had appeared behind the lieutenant and thrown four daggers at Rei simultaneously muttered in a stunned tone.
Beside him, a giant over two meters tall stood ready with a halberd.
"...Adventurers, huh."
Their equipment was too well-maintained for volunteer soldiers, yet far too mismatched for professional soldiers or knights. Rei correctly judged them to be adventurers active in the Bestia Empire.
"Correct. You've certainly caused quite a scene... but we're hired for this war, so we can't exactly roll over. Even if we can't win, we're going to make you work for it."
"...We just need to buy time. Fortunately, the Flame Tornado has already vanished. If we hold out, the others will settle down and launch a counter-attack. Though first, we have to deal with this monster."
As the giant said, the Firestorm that had been raging until a moment ago had finally dissipated. While the Bestia Imperial Army had sustained catastrophic damage, the source of that damage was gone. The commanders would soon be able to reorganize and restore the chain of command, ending the one-sided slaughter by the Kingdom of Mireana Army.
The man with the daggers let out a sigh as he watched for an opening in Rei's defense.
"That's the theory, but the lead unit is already beyond help. Our only real chance is to regroup with the main camp and reorganize... but do you think he'll let us? If you turn your back on a monster like this, you can guess what happens next. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire vanguard was cut down from behind before they took ten steps."
"...But it seems he doesn't intend to pursue us just yet."
"What?"
The man with the daggers followed his partner's gaze. While the two were talking, Rei should have attacked, as there was no need to wait for an opponent to finish speaking during a war. However, the monster before them wasn't launching a follow-up. Instead, he was looking toward the sky with a slight frown—specifically, toward a Dragon Knight heading straight for them.
If that Dragon Knight had belonged to the Bestia Imperial Army, Rei would have already thrown a spear. However, the knight was coming from the direction of the command headquarters where Daskar was located. It was an ally.
The Dragon Knight had been ordered to find Rei by looking for the Gryphon, and finding him while he was separated from Seto had been a stroke of pure luck. Nevertheless, the empty circle of death Rei had created in the middle of the battlefield was visible even from high above. It was the most conspicuous spot on the field, and it had allowed the messenger to find his target.
Despite Rei being in the middle of a confrontation, the Dragon Knight—acting on urgent orders—landed his wyvern behind Rei and spoke with a booming voice.
"The main camp is under enemy surprise attack! Lord Rei, you are requested to return and assist the main camp immediately! Reinforcements are being dispatched, but you must head there with all possible haste!"
Thus, a new turning point arrived on the battlefield where the Kingdom of Mireana Army had held a one-sided advantage.