A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 288 : Primordial Demon (6)

The endless forces of the Demon King’s Army revealed themselves.

The sight of the magical beasts filling the horizon and drawing closer evoked an indescribable feeling.

It was a sensation located somewhere between fear, tension, and anxiety—something only those who had personally stood on a battlefield could truly understand.

It was an ambiguous emotion, perhaps closer to 'madness.'

‘…There sure are a lot of them.’

The army of magical beasts shimmering through the haze stretched so far that the eye could not capture it from one end of the horizon to the other.

A force equivalent to two legions.

Calling it "legion-class" was no small matter.

It meant a force exceeding one-tenth of the total power possessed by the Demon King’s Army.

With two such legions, it was a massive force capable of holding any one of the fronts—East, West, South, or North—of the Anti-Demon Front, depending on the Church Allied Forces' defense.

The Order had deployed two legions of its own to match that scale, yet it was such a monstrous army that no one could guarantee an easy victory.

“…….”

Naturally, the characteristic atmospheres of the Order’s Army and the Demon King’s Army were polar opposites.

The Order’s Army presented the image of a textbook military, maintaining ranks and files, clutching identical weapons, wearing the same armor, and forming phalanxes.

In contrast, the numerous magical beast races under the Demon King’s command moved according to their own traits, lacking any discernible phalanx or tactical structure.

Their messy, sparse appearance varied by race and lacked the formal discipline of the Order, but they possessed a far more violent and dangerous energy.

“…It’s certainly different. Though last time, I didn’t think it was this overwhelming.”

“I share the sentiment, Ludwig. This is the first time I’ve seen a force of this magnitude as well.”

As Ludwig muttered quietly and Louis agreed, the situation was clearly different from the Northern Subjugation War.

Back then, the strategy was a sort of ‘defeat in detail,’ capturing each Demon King’s Territory one by one. It hadn't been a full-scale head-on collision where both powers slammed into each other like this.

To begin with, this style of combat was not what the Demon King’s Army preferred.

Just as they had been deploying the demonic species into the Church Alliance to cause disruption, the Order’s specialty was siege and guerrilla warfare.

A full-scale battle on an open plain naturally favored the organized Order’s Army. Because of this, the Demon King’s Army had never engaged in a total war under such conditions before.

“…At this point, it wouldn’t be strange to feel that something is off.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

Come to think of it, this might have been what was affecting the soldiers' morale, which had been inexplicably suppressed.

It was inherently strange for the Demon King’s Army, which had never desired a large-scale battle on the plains, to suddenly initiate one.

When facing such an unprecedented event, one couldn't help but feel an ill omen, even if it was difficult to put into words.

Whether they realized it or not, this likely played a part in the current peculiar atmosphere of the battlefield.

But that wasn't the important part anyway.

What mattered was ‘that thing’ which would emerge from behind that vast army of magical beasts.

Grrrrrrrr—

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr—

Sure enough, a bizarre sound began to echo through the characteristically messy noise of the moving magical beasts.

It sounded as if the ground was being dragged, or perhaps as if the earth itself was collapsing.

A truly colossal sound.

Following the rhythmically repeating flow, people instinctively intuited that it was the sound of something moving.

—…Wait, is this the sound of a magical beast?

—T-That can’t be. That makes no sense….

The soldiers could not bring themselves to accept that this sound was produced by a single moving entity.

The reason was simple.

Since the sound came from far away, it was difficult to grasp accurately, but there was such a thing as ‘scale.’

Though they couldn't analyze the exact wave units, judging by the volume and distance, the noise at its source was intuitively comparable to an ‘earthquake.’

It was a gargantuan sound one might experience only once in a lifetime.

To think that such a noise was merely the sound of ‘something’ moving.

Common sense dictated that it was an implausible story.

…Yes.

By ‘common sense,’ that is.

Boom—!

Amidst the grinding noises, a more intense sound—a roar like the very foundations of the earth shattering—erupted. Soon, a giant head began to reveal itself above the army of magical beasts that packed the horizon.

In that moment, the vivid descriptions from the Apocrypha that Louis had mentioned naturally surfaced in U-jin’s mind.

『Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook? Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words? Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?』

『…….』

『If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form. Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor? Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth? Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together….』

Even though he had only read it once pre-regression, U-jin found himself naturally reciting the following sentences aloud.

“…Its back is sealed so tight that no sword can pierce it; spears, javelins, and arrows are of no use.”

“…….”

“It considers iron as straw and laughs at the rattling of the lance. Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. Who on earth can contend with it? It is a creature without fear.”

The mention in the Apocrypha recorded by the Messiah contained not a shred of exaggeration.

There was no trace of undue worry.

No disparagement, and no distortion of the reality.

The Leviathan he witnessed was exactly as recorded in the Apocrypha.

The record in the Apocrypha had simply captured the raw appearance without mixing in any personal emotion.

It was just that the reality was so horrific that it should never have been made known to the general public.

Grrrrr—

Grrrrrrrr—

How many times did that unique sound of the earth being dragged and crushed repeat?

The head of the Leviathan, which had been rising endlessly from beyond the horizon, only stopped its ascent after piercing through the clouds.

From then on, it was an expansion of size.

The massive head grew even larger, and the torso that split the horizon drew closer, moving beyond merely bisecting the view to completely obstructing it.

By the time the giant black jewel located in the center of its head could be clearly distinguished, the Leviathan had already become too massive to be captured in a single gaze.

—Ah….

—That… uh….

Even though the brilliant holy light of the Guardian Cross still lingered over them, a wave of unopposed agitation broke out among the soldiers.

There was no resolve or will to not be overwhelmed by its momentum.

Even the faith they held as their highest value was nowhere to be found.

Utter terror encroached upon their minds, and the soldiers, steeped in that fear, were numbly abandoning their lives.

…In truth, it was only natural.

That thing was an out-of-spec monster by its very existence.

The Primordial Demon was a nonsensical entity that no one but the Messiah had ever been able to face.

Only a few High Priests, who had trained for a long time in the Order of the Guardian Cross with strong faith, could barely resist that intense fear to some degree; for ordinary soldiers, it was an irresistible domain.

Clatter—

Soldiers began to drop their weapons one by one, and the phalanxes they had formed began to crumble.

Under the weight of overwhelming terror, the forces of the Guardian Cross, which had been maintained by strong faith and belief, collapsed in an instant.

…The Primordial Demon was a being that grew by feeding on fear.

If things continued like this, the soldiers would lose their will to fight to the point where they might even pave the way for the enemy themselves, let alone block them.

The battlefield was saturated with terror.

Just as the defeat seemed so certain that the conclusion felt already decided, the moment the Leviathan’s head drew so close that it was difficult to look up at—

Something incomprehensible happened.

—□□□□□!

A bizarre cry suddenly echoed from the sky above the battlefield.

—……?

It was a sound impossible to describe in a single word.

If one were to use an expression that could at least convey the feeling, it was like five sounds harmonizing perfectly and simultaneously.

Even though it was a sound emitted by a single entity, it contained five distinct, colorful tones.

The sound rippled through the battlefield, creating an increasingly harmonious atmosphere.

A slightly different energy was scattered across the fear-stricken battlefield.

And then.

Swish—!

Splat!

Before the echo of that preceding cry could even fade, a hole was punched through the clouds above with a powerful sound of rending wind.

What appeared next was a giant bird.

The protagonist of the strange cry possessed an appearance as unique as its call.

It had a crest rising above its head and a long tail, and the feathers making up its body and wings were based in red, boasting a brilliant array of five colors.

Compared to the Primordial Demon before them, its size was relatively smaller, but that was only when considering a single individual.

Swish—!

Splat!

Another hole opened in the clouds next to the first one.

The second bird to appear also boasted the same five-colored brilliance.

The pair of birds that appeared thus began to fly in circles above the battlefield, communicating with each other.

—What on earth is that….

—What is happening all of a sudden… damn it….

—C-Commander, is this some kind of operation we prepared?

The gazes of the terrified soldiers turned toward the sky, and the eyes of the birds circling above also looked down upon the battlefield.

However, there was one difference.

Their gaze was not scanning the entire battlefield.

While all the soldiers were looking at the strangely shaped birds, the birds' eyes were not looking down at everyone.

They were focused on only one.

Their gaze, directed at a clear target, pointed to a single person located in the center of the battlefield.

Toward ‘U-jin.’

And then.

“…Fenghuang.”

U-jin’s lips parted as he looked up at them.