The Evil Artillery Division and the Defense Division were the cornerstones of the Evil Army. Their strategy was simple: use their defenses to Cancel any long-range enemy attacks, then bombard the opposition from afar to systematically wipe them out. This method had consistently led the Evil Army to victory—an invincible, lethal formula. And this battle was supposed to be no different.
A grand command bellowed out toward the distant, majestic pack of silver foxes:
"Fire all artillery!"
Fired simultaneously from five thousand Evil Artillerymen, arrows brimming with colorful magic and curse power—red, yellow, blue, black, white, green, gold, silver, and platinum—streaked across the sky, raining down upon the foxes in a torrential deluge.
Standing at the head of the silver foxes, a beautiful silver-haired woman let one of her nine tails glow. Instantly, a transparent, dome-shaped membrane materialized around her. The millions of incoming artillery rounds were sucked entirely into the barrier, and in the next heartbeat, as though winding back through time itself, the volley reversed trajectory and hurtled straight back toward the Evil Artillery Division.
"Huh?"
The Evil Artillery Division Commander barely had time to let out a dumbfounded gasp before the Evil Artillerymen were struck down one after another by the very onslaught they had unleashed. A single blow. Struck by the absolute pinnacle of their own firepower, they were either killed on the spot or left mortally wounded on the brink of death.
"I-Impossible! Reflected?!"
The Evil Artillery were no fools. They were well aware that certain monsters within the Heavenly Army could reflect attacks, and their countermeasures had been foolproof. Every single projectile was woven with anti-reflection properties, and even if an attack were somehow reflected, the troops possessed inherent immunities and resistances against their own arsenal. For the division to be wiped out in a single blow was completely unthinkable under normal circumstances. Without question, that reflection had somehow altered and amplified the very nature of their attacks. And most baffling of all...
"What in the world was the Defense Division doing?!"
They were supposed to have their ultimate barrier deployed—one capable of Canceling all attacks. Naturally, it should have protected against reflected fire as well. For it to fail to function in the slightest could only mean gross negligence on their part.
"W-Well, sir, they seem to be in a complete panic over there too! The barrier itself was almost certainly activated!"
That made it all the more incomprehensible. Making a barrier outright vanish should have been utterly impossible. Above all, there was no way the specialists of the Defense Division would cast a barrier so fragile it could be Canceled with such ease.
"Give it up. The very existence of that barrier was dismantled and erased from this world. You won't ever be putting that same thing back up again."
The sanpaku-eyed man with horns on his forehead stood before them, flanked by a contingent of figures clad in horned armor and wrapped from head to toe in bandages.
"Y-You bastard—"
"Ah, save your breath. No point wasting time giving our names to a corpse."
(A corpse?)
The moment the thought flickered through the commander's mind, their vision began to fracture like shattered glass. Seconds later, the Evil Artillery Division Commander was completely broken down, dissolving away into dry, fine dust.
"Not much decent prey left, but go wild, boys! Leave the barrier bastards to Nine-Tails! That's the deal, after all!"
The sanpaku-eyed man with horns on his forehead barked the order, and the rest of the armored warriors raised a resounding war cry, charging straight into the fray.
—The Evil Artillery Division was annihilated.