The Evil Army Special Forces had split into several squads, wandering through the thick, pure white mist.
Ose had ordered them to claim the head of that lion-faced god, the enemy's ringleader.
"Do you think this mist is some kind of enemy ability?"
When the bearded commander of the squad tossed the question to his vice commander, the second-in-command merely sneered.
"What else could it be? Disrupting our vision... what a petty trick. To think such a pathetic gimmick could stop the elite of the Evil Army is truly laughable."
"Ha! Don't be too hard on them. They're desperate, after all. Besides, we've got permission to play with them however we like once they're captured, so this ought to be plenty entertaining."
As the commander licked his lips, breaking into a grin fitting of pure malice—
(There's something ahead!)
One of the squad members on scout duty sent a telepathic warning to the entire unit.
Up ahead stood a tall, slender, white-haired old gentleman with a neatly groomed beard, holding an oddly long, tattered longsword.
The man appeared completely defenseless. That should have been obvious, yet the commander felt a suffocating, eerie chill crawling down his spine.
Spurred by that instinctual dread, the commander raised his right hand, signaling his men to surround the old gentleman.
All six squad members took up lethal striking positions, weapons at the ready.
"Hm? This presence... Don't tell me you're—"
"I am a human."
"A human? You?"
"Yes, I am merely human."
Undeniably, the unique presence he gave off was human. Yet the crushing pressure rolling off him—like standing before a ravenous beast—felt utterly inhuman.
"A human, huh..."
"Poor bastard. Unlucky enough to wander onto a battlefield, were you?"
Hearing that he was just a powerless human, the subordinates relaxed their stances, smirks returning to their faces. If he truly were just a man, the Evil Army Special Forces—hailed as the absolute finest elite of their military—would butcher him in a fraction of a second. Their dismissive attitude was hardly unwarranted.
"Do not lower your guard! That thing is no human!"
Seeing the vice commander roar in terror, the subordinates exchanged bewildered looks. And reasonably so—the vice commander's face had turned pale as stone, beads of cold sweat clinging to his brow.
"My, you seem to be the most troublesome one."
The instant those chilling words left the old gentleman's lips—
"Gugh!"
From behind, the rusted tip of the tattered longsword burst straight through the space between the vice commander's brows.
"Damn it! Scatter!"
Before the commander's shout could even finish echoing, the squad members leaped backward in unison to create distance, raising their weapons. Not a single trace of their earlier arrogance remained.
Half of the white-haired old gentleman's rusted blade had vanished into thin air, its severed point wreathed in a pure white haze. The old gentleman smoothly drew the longsword out from the black mist, giving it a light flick to shed the blood. Beside him, the corpse of what had once been the vice commander slumped face-down onto the ground.
"Just what in the hell are you?!"
The vice commander had been a captain—a full-fledged officer. An Evil Army Officer was a powerhouse occupying the upper echelons of their military. On top of that, this Special Forces unit was composed entirely of combat specialists, making his combat prowess rival even that of a major. For someone like him to be slain in a single incomprehensible strike... no human should ever possess such power.
"Ah, forgive me. I have yet to introduce myself. I am the first kin of Lord Drekavac and a member of the Evil Wickedness Myriad Realms. I am one of the priests who conveys the will of that Supreme Great One—Lucas Gisedore. Though our acquaintance will be brief, it is an honor to meet the warriors of the Evil Army."
Placing a hand over his chest, he bowed with graceful deference.
Drekavac?! Did he just say Drekavac?! That was the name of the Lieutenant General once feared above all others in the Evil Army—the most terrifying evil god of all, whose immediate promotion to General had been considered an absolute certainty. Yet, for reasons unknown, he was also the god who had vanished without a trace from the Evil Army long ago.
"If you're the kin of Lieutenant General Drekavac, you should be on our side! Why the hell are you attacking us?!"
In truth, that single question served as the trigger.
"We are... the same as the Evil Army? D-D-Did you just say that?"
Shattering his calm, polite facade in an instant, the old man's face twisted into the grotesque visage of a demon.
"Eek?!"
"M-Monster...!"
The Evil Army Special Forces were literal masters of slaughter—hardened veterans who had never known defeat in single combat. Yet every single one of them trembled in sheer terror before this monster claiming to be human.
"That is an unforgivable blasphemy against our god... Unforgivable... Unforgivable... Unforgivable! U-N-F-O-R-G-I-V-A-B-L-E!"
Muttering incoherently with dead, hollow eyes, he swung his sword in a careless arc. At that range, the blade should never have reached them. Yet, with a sickening slide, the upper halves of the squad members' heads severed and slipped away. They collapsed to the earth like puppets whose strings had been cut. Before the commander could even process what had happened, all of his men had been reduced to lifeless corpses.
"W-Wait! This is a mistake! We're not your enemies!"
He was utterly desperate, stammering out pathetic pleas for his life in a frantic attempt to survive the horror before him.
However—
"Of course you are our enemies! Our god finds the very existence of you filth in the Evil Army thoroughly repulsive!"
Bellowing in fury, the old gentleman drew a knife with his left hand, striding forward with his arm dangling limply at his side.
"Eeeek?!"
The commander scrambled backward to escape this walking nightmare, but—
"Aaargh!"
A searing agony ripped through his right foot. Looking down, he found the knife driven clean through the top of his boot, pinning him to the earth.
Nothing made sense.
—He didn't understand why they were being slaughtered by the kin of Lieutenant General Drekavac.
—He didn't understand why this absolute monster called himself a human.
—He didn't understand why being called allies had provoked such unhinged, violent wrath.
The only thing he knew for certain was that this creature was an utterly pitiless monster who would never grant him an ounce of mercy.
"S-Stay back!! You freak of nature!!"
The moment he squeezed every last shred of air from his lungs, the white-haired old gentleman appeared directly in front of him. And surrounded by the absolute depths of terror and despair, the commander's consciousness snapped into dark oblivion.