Chapter 262

Chapter 262, The First Wave

Once… Asley, Pochi, Giorno, Lylia, and Weldhun had fought in the region of Regalia, the Holy City, in the battle against over twenty-thousand monsters and the powerful Devil officer Bathym.

Asley’s awakening to his Holy Warrior powers had enabled them to prevail over unlikely odds.

This time around, however, the army they were up against was more than double the size of the one before. If not stopped, these monsters could swallow the town of Sodom whole in the blink of an eye.

Facing them, Giorno drew his sword, rested its face on his shoulder, then tapped it a few times. Then he rushed straight ahead, as if he was a little boy running into a playground across the street.

The first wave of the Devil King’s army was fast approaching.

Leading their charge was a horde of Ogres. None of them were normal Ogres nor Ogre Fighters; the weakest of them were the A-ranked Imperial Ogres, making the horde a force to be reckoned with.

Behind them were the Ogre Queen and Ogre Kings, shaking the land with every step forward they took. And there was so many of them that made the other Ogre horde Asley had faced in the past look like a mere band of thieves.

Giorno keep a cool head and face as he plunged into the midst of them. He charged onward without stop, as if he was needling through the blanket of Ogres.

He was so fast that, in fact, the Imperial Ogres did not see him coming at all. By the time they realized it, their faces had already scraped against the ground — they were already dead.

The Ogre Queens and Kings did notice that something was not right, but then again, Giorno had already beheaded one of them by the time they held up their oversized weapons.

“Things aren’t looking so good for you all, hmm?”

Giorno quietly muttered, sending chills down the Ogre Kings’ spines.

The rest of the Devil King’s army, taking Giorno’s attack as the sign of the battle’s beginning, started stepping forward.

Numerous SS-ranked monsters instantly closed in on him from all directions, forcing him to stop and hold his ground.

As Giorno fought on, completely surrounded in the front-front lines, approaching from the sky was…

“Gravity Stamp!”

Bright, astride the Violet Phoenix Chappie.

“Time to try out the Zenith Breath that mother has taught me! KAHHHHHHHHH!!”

They both helped out Giorno without a moment’s delay.

Despite the trio’s resistance, however, most of the horde managed to slip their way through and resumed their charge toward the town of Sodom.

Going up a gentle slope, what awaited them at the top was a gigantic ox in full-bodied, red mottled-patterned armor — it was none other than the Crimson King Ox, Weldhun. His red eyes, peeking out of the little gaps in his helmet, stared the monsters down.

And on the back of the legendary Ox was an Elf with light green hair. Her eyes, the same green as her hair and just as beautiful, turned fiercer than the violent Ox she mounted, and her mouth widened into the shape of a crescent moon. Her monstrous grin was so intimidating that the Devil King’s army momentarily stopped all movement.

Weldhun, taking advantage of that brief moment, instantly rushed down the slope. All the monsters in his way either burst into pulp or were crushed to death under his hooves.

As for the ones that tried attacking Weldun’s flanks, they met their end at Lylia’s blade.

Weldhun’s armor rendered him impervious to most attacks, and whenever the monsters would aim for his vulnerable spots, he could trust Lylia to make quick work of them.

Lylia’s fighting style matched up perfectly with Weldhun’s movement; she mowed down enemies while seated on his back, and sometimes she even stood up and kept her balance while reaching for monsters higher up.

“Die! DIE!!”

“MOOOOOO!”

This was the ultimate combination built on mutual trust — Lylia and Weldhun had each other’s backs, bolstering their combat effectiveness.

The pair behind them, on the other hand–

“Milady, if we go straight north from here, we’ll eventually get to Brunnera! Would you like to join me!?”

“No way in hell! Just keep your eyes forward and move it– bwah!?”

Pochi was thrashing all over the place, distracting all the nearby monsters with her wild moves.

And Ferris, still not all that tall after all this time, was just the right size to sit on the back of the non-Gigantified Pochi. This proved to be an advantage, as Pochi could make use of her full speed, becoming practically imperceptible to even the high-ranking monsters.

Ferris had been caught off guard by just how fast they were going, but she was gradually getting used to it.

Pochi’s main role was to support Lylia, attacking any long-ranged enemies trying to snipe the warrior. She went around the battlefield, taking down strong monsters that were throwing huge rocks, and strange creatures that spit acidic projectiles from their mouths.

“Hey! Did you just… get bitten by that Ghoul Lord!?”

“You bite it back for me, milady! I don’t wanna even touch it!”

“I don’t want to, either!”

“Then I’ll use my breath attack!”

“All right! Ready!”

“KAHHHHHHH!!”

With the breath attack giving Ferris some reverse thrusting, the swing of her metal rod got a significant power boost.

The attack dislocated the neck of a Diaminotaurous behind them, which Pochi proceeded to use as a pivot to circle back around.

Lylia, Weldhun, Pochi, and Ferris were doing well in their roles to stop the advance of the monster horde.

The smooth sailing did not last long, however.

After all, there was only so much a handful of powerful individuals could do against a wave of seemingly infinite monsters. The number of enemies around them stayed constant — not increasing, but no sign of decreasing, either.

The excess of the monsters rushed like a tidal wave toward the town of Sodom, and before long, a good chunk of the army reached the town gate, right in front of Asley.

“Rise, Earth Control: Count 8 & Remote Control!”

The mage instantly blocked the monsters’ way with several magically-constructed dirt walls — a favorite of mages to effectively limit the opposition’s range of movement.

Certain types of monsters were intelligent enough to predict the danger in front of them, with some proceeding to try and break the dirt walls and make their way through. In the end, however, they were unable to do so because the rest of the army still tried to simply follow the path, sweeping them along like a tidal wave.

“Rise, A-rise! Double Dragon!”

Thanks to Asley’s unlocking of the Holy Warrior title, this large-scale magic spell of his had been upgraded to the Zenith level of proficiency.

As a result, the attack received a dramatic power boost, the double-headed dragon-shaped shock wave sweeping down a large chunk of the monster horde.

And then the monsters that were trying to smash the dirt walls noticed something strange.

“Yeah, it’s not as strong as Drynium Steel… but it’s been custom-upgraded to my liking. C’mon, y’all gotta have some strategy, or you’ll never make it through!”

Even though they looked to be made of mere dirt, the walls were harder than the common steel, eliminating the monsters’ option of destroying them.

At this point, there was only one thing left that the monsters could try: climbing up the walls… but upon further consideration, that was not an option, either.

The reason was that the wall had been bent toward the advancing army, making them impossible to climb from this direction.

“FWAHAHAHA! A Philosopher’s strategies are flawless!”

As the foolish Asley celebrated early, something strange started happening to his the earthen walls — the one in the very front, closet to the Devil King’s army, suddenly collapsed.

“OH MY GOD!!”

And then something… different emerged from the midst of the powerful but otherwise normal monsters.

It was a humanoid figure of average build, utterly dwarfed by many of the fantastical creatures around it.

Asley was unable to avert his eyes from this new arrival.

[It looks and feels familiar… is it a Devil? Yeah, definitely — only they would have that kind of arcane energy flooding from their body. And this one’s managed to get this far without being noticed by everyone else… probably because of its size.]

Asley held up one hand to warn the other adventurers near the gate of the incoming danger.

Everyone was in breathless suspense, tensing up even as they stayed behind the town’s protective walls.

“WHaT a sURprise… nevEr haVE We tHOugHt tHat a mErE HUmAn WOUld bE This mUcH tROuBLE!”

“Sorry ’bout that! I’ve just got a lot of free time back here!”

“My NaME IS Belial. by thE ordER oF King Lucifer, I aM To DEsTroy THE toWn oF Sodom. Now, IT WoN’t taKe loNg for me To TAKe tHAt HEAd oF YOUrs… HAHHHhhH!!”

The moment Belial shouted out, it released an energy wave that caused all of Asley’s earthen wall to crumble to dust.

And once the wave subsided, everyone was shivering — the adventurers within the town walls, and even the monsters, all paralyzed with fear.

However…

“…MUSCLE!”

Asley struck a pose to psyche himself up, helping to ease the anguished expressions on the other adventurers’ faces.

Confused by the phenomenon, everyone looked up at Asley, and sensed that he was radiating arcane energy like a warm, gentle breeze.

Their peace of mind regained and their fighting spirit reignited, they began to clanging their shields with their weapons, stomping their feet, and screaming from the pit of their stomachs.

“yoU iNSOLENt FOOLs…!”