Vel lay on the ground, his torso sliced clean in two. Ara watched him for a moment before scanning her surroundings with a growing sense of unease.
Her gaze swept the area, finding only four Beast Soldiers sprawled on the earth, unable to move so much as a finger. Though five had originally been stationed here, only four of those manipulated by Vel lay dead.
"Where is the last one...?" she muttered, searching the field.
All she could see were distant skirmishes against other Beast Soldiers. Since Ara had been fighting in this sector, many of Elena's Escort Knights were visible nearby, but the fifth soldier was nowhere to be found.
It was only natural; staying close to Vel meant risking death at his hands. The sole survivor, a Beetle Beast Soldier, had already fled the immediate vicinity. However, while racing to report Vel's status to Siance, it had run directly into Rei. It had shared its master's fate, ending its life with its body bifurcated by a single stroke.
"...The Escort Knight Order, then?"
"Commander Ara!"
Just as Ara stood reflecting on Vel's wretched end, a voice called out from behind.
She turned to see a middle-aged man with blue hair, roughly ten years her senior. As the Vice-commander, he managed the Escort Knight Order with far more precision than she did. Despite being his superior, Ara often found herself unable to hold her head up around him.
"I see you're safe as well, Mechen."
Mindful of her position as Knight Commander, Ara spoke with a stiff, formal tone, quite different from the warmth she showed Elena or Rei.
"Yes. Current reports indicate two dead and thirteen seriously wounded among our ranks."
"I see. Two..." Ara let out a heavy sigh, her eyes clouding with grief, before turning back to the fallen Vel.
Following her gaze, Mechen's eyes widened as he recognized the distorted features of the man sliced in half.
"Vel?! Commander, is this...?"
"Yes. Vel Sails—or what remains of him. He was once our comrade."
"This is Vel? He’s... changed quite a bit."
Mechen echoed his superior’s sigh. Between the tree root tentacles sprouting from his left shoulder, his charred face, and his four eyes, Mechen would never have recognized him without being told.
"Honestly, when I heard Vel had betrayed us, I wanted to kill him with my own hands," Mechen admitted. "But seeing him like this... that feeling vanishes."
"I agree. Even I, who witnessed his betrayal firsthand, can feel nothing but pity. He spent his final moments being swatted aside like trash, completely ignored by the very person he hated most in the world."
"Wait, you didn't do this, Commander? His torso is split perfectly in two."
Ara gave her lieutenant a sharp, flat look. While she was well aware that her physical ability was far beyond the norm, there were some things she, as a woman, found insulting to have attributed to her.
"Those words tell me exactly how you view me, Mechen. Unfortunately, I wasn't the one who finished him. Ironically, it was the man Vel loathed from the depths of his soul—Lord Rei."
"Lord Rei? Ah, the one Elena-sama..."
As the Vice-commander, Mechen had been briefed on Elena's feelings for Rei. Ara had shared the information personally, hoping to ensure that Mechen wouldn't clash with the often-brusque Rei.
"He arrived by chance while searching for Elena-sama. He saw me being cornered by the soldiers Vel was controlling and stepped in. Though, all he really did was sweep that Great Scythe through Vel from behind."
"The Great Scythe... The Larkus Territorial Army reported that it was a massive weapon. To wield such a thing as easily as his own limbs, his strength must be even greater than yours, Commander—"
Mechen’s words were cut short when Ara caught a flicker of movement. From the severed halves of Vel's torso, tree roots began to sprout, reaching out to stitch the body back together.
Acting on instinct, Ara shoved Mechen aside. Given her Herculean strength, the "shove" sent him flying several meters to tumble across the dirt.
"Whoa! C-Commander! Even for a joke, that’s a bit much, isn't—"
Mechen’s protest died in his throat when he looked up. Ara stood over Vel, her Power Axe already entangled in writhing tree roots. The source was the very man lying on the ground.
"He's still alive?!"
Mechen scrambled to his feet and drew his sword.
"Commander!"
"I'll pin the roots! Mechen, destroy the body—crush his head!"
"Understood!"
"Keh... Kehi... Rei? You said Rei?! The one who cut me was Rei?!"
Despite being bifurcated, Vel screamed with a manic energy, showing no sign of pain. Tree roots burst from the raw meat of his waist, stretching between his upper and lower halves in a desperate bid to reconnect. Ara’s face twisted in revulsion.
"Vel, have you even abandoned your pride as a human?!"
"Kehi! I didn't want this! I b-b-became this because I failed to kill Elena... Get out of my way!"
Vel tried to lash out at Mechen as the lieutenant brought his sword down, but Ara forcefully ripped her Power Axe free, shredding the roots entangled in it, and closed the distance. Vel was forced to defend himself.
"You were once our brother-in-arms," Mechen said solemnly. "Rest in peace."
He thrust his sword toward Vel's head. Realizing his roots were too slow to intercept, Vel used his right hand—his only remaining human limb—to vault his body upward.
His physical ability had been vastly enhanced by the Beast Soldier procedure. With only the strength of one hand, he launched himself nearly two meters into the air.
However, Vel had always been a strategist who relied on his intellect. The transformation had dulled his mind and left his spirit unstable; the sharp judgment that had once been his greatest asset was gone. Had he been his former self, he would have understood the fatal error of leaping into the air.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
A thunderous boom echoed across the field.
Ara gripped her Power Axe and unleashed a strike with every ounce of her might. In terms of raw, singular power, her blow likely surpassed even Elena’s. Vel, suspended in mid-air, had no way to dodge. His remaining roots were too weak to parry such a heavy weapon. The massive blade of the battle axe caught Vel squarely between his four eyes, burying itself deep before his skull detonated.
Brain matter, bone, meat, and a strange green fluid—a byproduct of his transformation—sprayed into the air. When the remnants of Vel's upper body hit the ground, nothing remained above the neck.
"Surely he won't regenerate from that," Ara muttered, though her brow remained furrowed as she looked at the headless torso and the twitching legs. "Just in case, Mechen, we’ll finish the job. I'll destroy the upper body. You take the lower."
"...Probably for the best. I never imagined he could move like that after being cut in half."
Mechen wiped his blade and turned toward the lower half of the body. Even without a head, the tree roots writhing from the severed waist indicated that the spark of life hadn't fully extinguished.
"What was the Bestia Empire thinking, creating such a monstrosity? Vel... this is the final mercy of a comrade. Sleep soundly."
With a heavy swing, Mechen’s sword hacked into the lower half. Beside him, Ara brought her Power Axe down again and again, pulverizing the torso.
Vel Sails. Born the second son of Viscount Sails's House, he had discovered a sadistic pleasure in murder during his youth. He had hidden his dark nature so perfectly that not even his family suspected his true face. After his entire house defected to the Bestia Empire, Vel had been gravely injured. The alchemists of the Ministry of Magic had used him as an experimental subject for creating Beast Soldiers specialized in vitality. Despite a survival rate of only one in five hundred, he had endured the ritual, though it had warped his mind. He had participated in the surprise attack on the Seremuse Plain using a Teleportation Stone. While engaged with his former colleague, Ara, he had been carelessly cut down from behind by Rei. Even with his torso split in two, his unnatural vitality had kept him clinging to life until Ara’s crushing blow finally ended his existence.
"I don't know what you were seeking," Ara said softly. "But this is the end you chose. Accept it."
She turned her gaze back to her lieutenant. As a woman whose heart belonged entirely to Elena, she felt no lingering sentiment for the man who had tried to assassinate her lady.
"Mechen, we're moving to support the others. We need to preserve the Knight Order's strength."
"What about Elena-sama?"
"Lord Rei has headed her way. That is all I need to know."
Ara’s trust in Rei’s strength was absolute. While she felt a pang of regret that she couldn't be the one at Elena's side, she was certain that the moment Rei arrived, Elena's victory over Theoreme was assured.
"Let's go. Even if we repel this surprise attack, the war may continue. We must ensure Elena-sama has as many soldiers left as possible for whatever comes next."
"...My stamina is flagging, but I suppose I can't complain when the Commander is still swinging that axe."
With a weary but determined smile, the two knights turned back toward the chaos of the battlefield.
"Phew... Princess General, your skills have improved remarkably."
Theoreme parried the tip of the whip-sword that had come snapping from his rear right—an impossible angle—and put some distance between them.
Even for a man known as "The Flash," the constant exchange of blows was beginning to take its toll. His breathing was ragged, yet the woman before him remained composed. It was little wonder he allowed a hint of a complaint to escape his lips.
"I wonder," Elena replied. "Perhaps it is not that I have improved, but that you have grown dull. I heard you joined the Third Prince's faction. Have you been so busy with political infighting that you've neglected your training?"
She shifted her whip-sword back into its sword state.
Despite her taunt, Elena was not as relaxed as she appeared. In truth, she was staggered by Theoreme's prowess. She had undergone the Ritual of Inheritance and now channeled the Ancient Dragon's Power. Even if she hadn't fully mastered her new abilities, her physical ability was far beyond what it had once been. For him to match her blow for blow in this state was terrifying. Her claim that he had grown dull was nothing more than a jab to throw him off balance.
"Your strength is indeed greater than before," Theoreme admitted, bracing himself atop his warhorse. "But not so much that you can simply overwhelm me. I only need to maintain this stalemate and trust in Siance to strike down Count Alius. I can hold you here long enough for that."
Elena knew he was right. Stalemate favored the Empire. Every second they spent dueling was a second Siance spent dismantling the Kingdom's command. She ground her teeth in frustration, knowing she was the only one who could stop Theoreme.
At least, she was the only one until that moment.
"Kyuuuuuuu!"
"...?"
"!"
A high-pitched cry, utterly out of place on a field of slaughter, rang out across the plain.
Theoreme looked puzzled, but a brilliant smile broke across Elena’s face. Still keeping her sword leveled, she stole a glance toward the sound. There, just as she had hoped, stood a small dragon and the man she loved, gripping his Great Scythe.