--In the midst of the fading light from the ceiling as night approaches, the big tree with the grand council building is lit up by red flames.

　The sounds of fierce battles and various screams are constantly echoing, and blood splatters and doll splinters are flying everywhere, a picture of hell.

　Sakura was running around the corridor around the interior of the substandard large tree, engaging in a series of battles with the invading automatic dolls.

　Without warning, a group of automatons attacked the city of Asropolis, including the Great Capitol, without warning.

　Luke White Wolf, who had left to meet the Demon General Norsulli, had yet to return, and with the identity and purpose of the enemy still unknown, the leaderless White Wolf Knights were developing a joint front with the demon clans of Asropolis based on field decisions.

''Haha!''

　As soon as she saw the shadow of a person at the back of the corridor, Sakura activated 【shrinkage】 and closed the distance in an instant and swept out a light red blade as if drawing an arc.

　A slash that would have been settled in a single sword if the opponent was an ordinary person.

　However, the human figure - an automatic doll disguised as a mature man - literally held its right arm over the trajectory of the slash with an inhuman reflex, and received the blade without the slightest movement.

　The cut was only as deep as a fingertip.

　Cutting the surface material of the doll itself is easy, but something metallic is planted in the arm.

　It's not a so-called skeleton or anything like that, but a type of weapon hidden inside the body.

'Kooky......!

　A single-bladed sword blade emerges from the side of the forearm that prevented the sword from popping out of the side of the plate repellent (spring), and begins to bristle with Sakura's sword.

'...... Mithril alloy?!　No wonder it's so hard: ......!
Don't think it's not fair.

　The next moment when the automatic doll opened its left hand wide, the joints that made up the palm of its hand deformed to widen, and a tremendous amount of light and heat tried to flood out of the empty hole.

　Sakura swiftly slid the blade that had been in a battle with the sword in a tug-of-war and let the belly of the scarlet-gold alloy sword blade cross into a line of heat rays.

　The scorching heat that was released.

　However, that enormous amount of heat was absorbed by the scarlet scarlet-gold components that made up the blade, resulting in an increase in the destructive power of Sakura's sword.

''Whoa!''

　Sakura stepped in even more forcefully from close range, and pushed the mithril alloy blade with the scorching blade blade of the automatic doll's arm.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about this in the future.

　I'm not going to be able to say that I'm not going to be able to do anything about it.

''(The weapon planted in the left arm is a clever device that emits scorching heat ...... If it's built to be exposed to high heat, is melting by heat less effective or ......!

　But this also took away both arms.

　A moment after he was about to swiftly pull out his sword blade and resume his attack, the abdomen of the automatic doll's clothing was torn apart from the inside.

''Nah......!''
Sweet!

　What emerged was a pair of hidden arms.
　If it were human, the third and fourth arms were folded up and hidden in the space where the internal organs were packed.

　Each of the five fingers had a slender blade, and ten convenient cutting points attacked Sakura at a terrific speed.

''Heavenly Sword Invocation!''

　At that very moment, as if to snatch Sakura's side from behind, an unprepared sword woven with magic power flew in and deeply pierced a pair of hidden arms.

　Sakura didn't miss a moment and spun her body around vigorously to deliver a sideways kick to the automatic doll's abdomen.

　The torso, which had become unusually thin at the cost of concealing the hidden arms, was kicked down by the strengthened leg power and snapped in two, splitting into an upper and lower body and rolling down the corridor.

　The upper half of the body immediately tries to escape with four arms.

　The sword of the brave Ezell was thrust into its neck, completely silencing its motor functions.

''I'm sorry, Sakura. I got stranded in a strange place.''
'Thank you, Ezell the Brave. To be honest, it was quite a close call. The skallion (lizardman) demon who was accompanying us left due to injuries.

　Sakura wiped the sweat on her forehead with her sleeve and let out a breath filled with fatigue.

''I must say that even with the Scarlet Gold trait blocking the scorching attack, we are still at a significant disadvantage in a one-on-one match. I even have the feeling that we are lagging behind in our basic physical abilities.
The fact that each one has a different weapon in it is also really hard to do: ...... You never know what's going to pop up next.

　I've fought several automatons so far, but there was just never a single battle where we were able to overwhelm them with our own strength.

　Either we would have to fight together with our allies, including the demon race, to defeat them, or we would have to make use of Scarlet Gold's characteristics to take them by surprise, and even that is a series of tightrope walks that could cost us our lives if we make a mistake.

　If you use the God Descent or--Sakura quickly shook off the thoughts that popped into her head.

　It was true that even an automatic doll might be able to overwhelm her, but due to the heat that would be scattered with the activation of the divine descent, she could now become the source of the fire.

　Even if I had the total scarlet metal construction sword that was still in Luke's possession, for once, the exercise of the divine descent was out of the question.

''By the way, where's your brother (Ototogimi)?''
I'm sending Edward around to put out the fires. I had some mages left over that I could use.
'Then she might have joined Noir by now. She said she'd be assisting in the firefighting effort, too.

　Briefly exchanging information, Sakura and Ezell continued to run down the inner corridor of the great tree, looking for their next enemy.

　From time to time, they could peer out through the wide openings like windows.

　Outside the Great Tree, Lionel of the Golden Fang Knights was demonstrating his troop commanding abilities, giving instructions to the demon clans he had improvised and having them accurately respond to the current situation.

　It's a way of playing an active role that goes beyond the individual's fighting ability, which is typical of a member of a knightly order that controls military activities.

　If you look out the next window, you can see the corpses of the demon tribe that fell in the battle with the automaton lying in a haphazard manner.

　And furthermore, as I was about to walk past the next window, a shocking scene of two automatic dolls being crushed at the same time on the branches of a large tree jumped into my vision.

'Nah, what a ......'
...... lie ......

　Sakura and Ezell are in a state of exasperation.

　The one at the center of the too one-sided destruction was Dustin, the A-ranked adventurer's two spear users.

　He grabbed the two magic spears that had returned from throwing and grabbed them at the same time, leaping high and disappearing from sight in search of the next target.

''As expected, that was not helpful!　"If you're going to copy the 'Demon King Hunt', you'll get hurt in the opposite direction!
'Yes, sir!　You can't have more than a few lives!

　Sakura and Ezell made up their minds to leave the outside to Lionel and Dustin, and decided to continue intercepting the puppets that had invaded the interior of the great tree.

　Right now, I just have to do what I can do.

　There's nothing more foolish than to overdo it and get wounded and no longer have the strength to fight in this situation where I want to have even one person to fight.