Chapter 179: Resistance
“Bodies, aren’t they…”
Just as Eleonore-san murmured, multiple mangled bodies lay before us.
Moreover, they were bodies we sort of recognized.
“If I recall, they were ‘Swift Lightning’…”
Like us, ‘Reginleif’, they were one of the National Selection Parties entrusted by the country to subjugate the Evil God. Had they already progressed this far into the Demon God Castle? To do so well without any information. As expected of the cream of the crop of adventurers chosen for a National Selection Party.
But it seems they ran out of strength halfway.
If they had the skill to come this far on their own, how great it would have been if we could have cooperated…
The reason there were fewer monsters on this floor might be thanks to them, ‘Swift Lightning’, clearing the way.
After offering a silent prayer for a while, I knelt beside the corpse of the small man who was the leader of ‘Swift Lightning’.
The man’s eyes were wide open, and his hand gripped his weapon tightly. The other corpses were the same. It was clear they hadn’t turned their backs on the monsters, fighting until the very end.
An indescribable feeling of frustration washed over me.
Shaking off that feeling, I reached for the man’s body.
“Onii-sama?”
“Dee? What are you doing?”
“This man was the leader of ‘Swift Lightning’. He might have an item needed to clear this floor.”
Answering Cornelia and Claudia, I rummaged through the man’s belongings.
I didn’t want to do this either. But right now, I wanted to subjugate the Evil God as quickly as possible for the sake of the living, rather than showing consideration for the dead.
“In that case, let’s retrieve their adventurer IDs as mementos. We can’t recover their bodies, of course, but at least that much…”
“Yeah, please do…”
Responding to Eleonore-san’s voice, I found it. A triangular, silver item. About the size of a fist. And there were three of them.
“They’re all here.”
“What’s that?”
“Lily, huh? This is the key to get through this floor.”
“A key, is it?”
Everyone’s attention gathered at Claudia’s voice. I nodded in response.
“That’s right. On this floor, there are three mid-bosses… Well, guys stronger than the regular monsters around here. When you defeat them, they each drop one of these keys. Collect three and insert them into a designated spot, and you can go to the next floor.”
“It’s an important item, isn’t it…”
Eleonore-san’s pitying gaze turned towards the members of ‘Swift Lightning’.
“It doesn’t feel good, like we’re stealing someone else’s achievement, but right now, we need to hurry. We’ll make use of them.”
I stood up and, with everyone else, headed for the elevator’s location.
The puzzles on the next floor, and the puzzles on the floor after that, I solved them relying on my past life’s memories, without wandering around searching for hints.
Avoiding monster encounters, I aimed for the fastest clear, using any cheats or bugs I could. It felt like I was doing an RTA challenge.
But thanks to that, we, ‘Reginleif’, minimized our stamina and Holy Power consumption, clearing floor after floor and ascending the Demon God Castle.
◇
“Volley!”
Under Cassandra’s command, countless whistling sounds echoed. The sound of crossbows firing.
The fired crossbow bolts pierced through a wide variety of monsters, taking their lives.
“Spear unit, charge!”
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
People wielding spears charged at the monsters who had been showered by the crossbow volley. Among them were those who could already be called elderly, and young ones who looked doubtfully like they had even reached adulthood. They weren’t soldiers. They were civilians.
Looking closely, those hurriedly winding the strings of the fired crossbows were women and children.
The Baumgarten Territory Army boasted a force of four thousand, but that was nowhere near enough; even after mobilizing every able-bodied youth, it still wasn’t enough, so they had mobilized the elderly, women, and even children.
It was truly an all-out war.
“Spear unit, withdraw!”
“Crossbow unit, take aim!”
Cassandra herself, while aiming a crossbow, used the power of her Gift to monitor the monsters’ movements and continued to issue precise commands.
What Cassandra and the others were defending was the westernmost town in the Baumgarten Territory, formerly known as West Village. The main town, where the Baumgarten Mansion was located, had also fallen, and this was the last remaining stronghold. If this place fell, there would be nothing left. Because they understood this, even the residents who were non-combatants suppressed their fear and participated in the battle.
“Volley!”
Again, countless whistling sounds echoed as a storm of bolts tore through the monsters.
“We’ll fire again! Take aim!”
Cassandra, while winding the string of her fired crossbow, yielded her firing position to a girl behind her. The girl immediately aimed a loaded crossbow and waited for the moment to fire.
Forming groups of three, they continuously fired the crossbows, with those who had finished loading rotating to the front.
It was the rotating volley fire Cassandra had devised.
“Volley!”
The western town had no decent walls. There hadn’t been enough time to construct them. Therefore, they had built cheval de frise-like barricades throughout the town, barely managing to slow the monsters’ advance.
However, Cassandra felt a sense of urgency as they were gradually pushed back. But having been driven this far, their only option was to employ delaying tactics, believing that Dietfried and the others would defeat the Evil God.
“Dee… I’m counting on you…”