“You must be kidding me… There’s no way we can fight them with our numbers.”

[Captain!]

“I know! We’re withdrawing! Inform the others as well!”

It was a cowardly move, however I couldn’t order them to sacrifice themselves knowing we couldn’t win.

‘So this is as far as we go…’

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇　

A Suzaku member lent me his shoulder in order to help me walk. I left dumbfounded by the countless battleships that had appeared in the sky.

‘So, in the end, we didn’t succeed…’

“Pathetic…”

I wanted to be of some help… Honestly with these numbers even if Gojo appeared I couldn’t see how even he would win…

My hope had completely left me.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇　

“Kaede, do you think they’re okay? Sakamoto and the others…”

“Definitely. I’m sure they’re fine…”

In a room inside the Gifu Airbase me and my colleagues were watching the videos covering the situation unfolding in Mongolia on the TV and our phones. The situation that was originally in our favor suddenly turned, putting us in dire straits.

‘I’m worried about Sakamoto and the others, but it’s hard to imagine what will happen to our world if we lose this battle…’

“Gojo…”

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇　

“This is…”

Supreme Commander Matthew was left lost for words when he saw the situation in Mongolia being broadcasted on the monitor. And it wasn’t just him, everyone who was watching at the monitor had the same reaction.

Countless fighter aircrafts appeared from the jet black battleships.

It was a number that couldn’t be matched even if Earth had gathered all of its forces. The several million fighter aircrafts went beyond everyone’s expectations.

In regards to the sea, several tens of thousands of battleships landed on the air and the air forces as well as the newly landed sea forces began attacking our warships and aircraft carriers. A number of our war fleets were sunk and the remaining fleets had no choice but to withdraw.

Furthermore, surrounded by the jet black battleships, in the heart of the enemy’s formation there was something that looked like an enormous . It looked like an impregnable fortress and gave off an eerie feeling.

“So that’s where the enemy leader is… Guess we have no chance but to bring it down. Focus our attacks on that fortress!”

Over ten ballistic missiles collided with the fortress but were blocked by a barrier. The same happened with the attacks from the fighter aircraft.

The fortress’ barrier was way stronger than that of the other battleships.

“No use…”

Just as Matthew was feeling dejected a fine ray of light was shot from the fortress, drawing an arc from northeast to southeast.

A silence covered the area for an instant and then…

The place touched by the light exploded, clearing a terrifying explosion. A fierce flame rose up, creating something akin to a wall and everything caught in its path was disintegrated.

“China’s 71st to 77th squads and Russia’s 6th Independent tank brigade were wiped out! We don’t know if there are other damages!”

Matthew doubted his eyes. He felt he was seeing a nightmare.

“It’s no use. We should consider surrendering… That is if they are willing to listen to us in the first place…”

Hearing the military executive’s proposal Matthew made an anguished expression.

‘It’s impossible to turn this around.’

While thinking that Matthew allowed the option for surrender, which would reduce the casualties to a minimum, enter his mind.

That’s because he thought that even if Gojo came back, it would still be hard to turn this around.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

“It can’t be… There’s no way we can win.”

“It’s all over…”

Despair covered the hearts of all the reporters who saw the sight of the enemy battleships covering the sky.

On top of that their despair grew even more when they witnessed the fortress’ attack.

In the midst of the slumped down reporters Matsuda stood up and went in front of the TV gluing himself to it.

“Not yet… It’s not over yet.”

“Matsuda…”

There was still hope in Matsuda’s eyes.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

“What the! What in the world is that!”

Just as the ray of light left the fortress in the next moment an explosion occurred in the distance. It was like the fortress was in another league compared to the battleships.

“Leo what should we do?” asked Carlo, however there was nothing that we could do.

“We’ll retreat. Though I don’t know if we’ll be able to escape…”

We left the place in retreat while lending a hand to the wounded. The only way to escape the battlefield would be by boarding a transportation aircraft.

We hurried to a place where there was a transportation aircraft waiting on standby. It was at that moment that…

“What’s that!? It’s coming here.”

I looked up when I heard Freya’s voice. Right in front of us the sight of three large sized battleships preparing to land entered my eyes. There were also two more battleships behind us that were lowering their speeds.

There was also a single battleship coming from each of our flanks, slowing making their way towards us.

It was obvious that we were their target.

“So we can’t escape…”

The doors, situated at the bows of the ships that had just landed, opened and from the inside over a hundred people appeared. And they weren’t the gun wielding soldiers.

There were three that donned silver armor and were gripping their swords.

The people walking behind those three were a bit different, however they also donned silver armors. They also had swords, bows, spears, axes and all other kinds of weapons.

From the ships behind us, close to a hundred people began making their way towards us as well.

And from each of the ships to our sides tens of people got off as well. In total we were surrounded by close to 300 enemies.

Furthermore each one of them seemed to be quite strong…

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

[Oi oi… There was a response on my Hostility Detection so I decided to come down just in case but this… Are these people this world’s ability users?]

[It’s good that they’re assembled. We can kill them all at once.]

[More importantly, there’s no response from Cronus and the others. I don’t think it’s possible, but could they have been killed by them?]

[It’s unlikely, however I don’t see them abandoning their duties as well… It’s best to think that they were killed.]

[You mean to say that a lowly human managed to kill a Demon… A Divine General on top of that!?]

[We should slaughter all of them.]

Apollo gave a signal to the Demons that were surrounding us. As the Demons picked up their weapons and got ready for combat, a human fired a single arrow embedded with magic.

However, the arrow just collided with one of the Demons’ barriers and exploded. This assured Apollo that the humans really were ability users, and quite the strong ones at that… And then…

[KILL THEM!]

With the order close to 300 Demons began attacking with magic and arrows at once. The humans desperately tried to put up their barriers as well, however their barriers weren’t able to block everything and a number of people were hit.The humans decided to focus on their left flank where the enemy’s numbers were fewer. Close to ten humans, wielding swords and spears, slashed at the Demons to their left.

[Useless struggles… Hermes!]

At Apollo’s order Hermes took out his sword with a laugh.

[Leave it to me.] saying that he made a single step and disappeared. He then appeared before the humans who were trying to push through the left flank and in an instant separated the lower and upper half of two humans.

The human side didn’t falter and without mercy began attacking from long range. The human side’s damages were tremendous and they were falling one by one.

[If all of this world’s ability users are gathered here that means that if we kill all of them, there won’t be any way left for them to oppose us.]

[That’s right, however don’t let your guard down. Take them down one by one.]

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇　

“STOP IT!!”

A number of Suzaku’s members were killed. I couldn’t just sit back as their leader and watch while my companions were getting killed.

I blocked the sword of a silvered armored man with the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod gazing at him up close.

[It seems like there’s someone who can fight.]

“YOU BASTARD!”

In an instant the man disappeared. I looked around to see where he had gone when…

“Urgh!?”

My back was cut with a sword.

‘This speed… It’s the same as that of the BOSS Gojo fought with in China.’

“WAN!!”

Leo and Freya rushed towards me to help. However, with him as our opponent there was a chance that we’d all die.

“DON’T COME!!”

‘The wound on my back is deeper than I thought, I probably won’t last very long.’

“While I hold him back you escape with everyone! 　Leo I’m leaving Suzaku’s members to you…”

“Don’t…”

Freya looked at me with tears in her eyes.

‘The kids as well as the talented one… Noah, Emily and the others I can’t let them die here. It’s impossible for all of us to live in this situation.’

I made up my mind and focused my remaining Aura to the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod. I prepared for a final battle with the man in silver armor who was showing me a composed smile.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇　

That day despair buried itself into the hearts of the people around the world, who saw the sudden appearance of the countless enemy forces on TV and videos.

For a time they were relieved when there was news that the situation was going in our favor, however it was precisely due to that the shock was even greater.

Some prayed to god, some sunk to despair, some depended on a miracle.

In the midst of that…

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

“WHOAAAAAA!?”

When I stepped through that door that Rhazes opened I found myself thrown in mid-air.

I was shocked for a moment but then I used Gravity Manipulation and Wind Magic to stable myself. I stopped my descent and floated in mid-air while looking around the surroundings.

I didn’t know where this place was, however between the clouds I could see something black.

“What’s that?”

There were a tremendous amount of black ships. They seemed to be floating in mid-air and from the explosions that were occurring to as far as the eye could see I managed to figure out that they were fighting.

“So those are the Demon’s forces…”

‘Apparently I came right in the middle of the battle.’

Furthermore, I felt a peculiar presence that I hadn’t felt before.

‘He’s here… The Demon Lord is somewhere there…’

I looked at Hades’ Ten Fingers. They were gloves with ten crystals attached to them, however I didn’t know how to use them.

‘Guess I’ll just have to figure it out.’

I clenched my right fist and began gathering magic power. Out of the five crystals on the right glove, the orange one broke into pieces and a tremendous amount of magic power surged forth in the area.

A chant suddenly appeared in my mind.

“I see… So that’s how you use it.”

I crossed my hands before my chest and concentrated while letting myself fall down.

“Grand Summoning Magic”

Orange light began surging from my body and the atmosphere became still.

“RAGNAROK!!”

Twelve enormous magic circles appeared in the middle of the open sky.