On the Holy City's protective wall, the soldiers on guard were running around in a hurry.

　They were doing their nighttime rounds as usual, and without any warning, the Holy Wards disappeared.

　Following the emergency manual, they hurriedly solidified their defense. However, that defense guideline was based on the premise of maintaining the holy ward.

　There was no way that the manual would have included a method of dealing with the disappearance of the Sacred Boundary. Until today, there had never been a day when the Sacred Boundary had disappeared.

　If it wasn't protected by the Holy Warding, the Holy City would be almost defenseless.
　Although there was a high and solid protective wall, there were not many soldiers to protect it.

　There is a holy ward that refuses to even allow demons to enter the city. Furthermore, this is the Holy City Sanctum, where the Great Temple of the God of Creation is enshrined.

　There was a carelessness that those who are linked to the demons would not touch this holy city.

　In fact, there have been many times when saints have been attacked by demons, but because of the possibility that their faith in God might be shaken, such facts were never communicated to the residents of the holy city or ordinary soldiers.

　That's why the soldiers were perturbed when they saw countless wriggling shadows on the grassland in the distance.

　Something was coming towards this Holy City.


　The head of defense on the west side of the holy city - the side where the grasslands could be seen - called a wizard and had him shoot a lightbulb.

　The light bullets fired by the wizard bounced in the sky above the grassland.

　The light illuminated the figures of a great number of demons.

"Oh, no.
What's all those demons?
Is this... is it going to the Holy City?
Now the warding is gone. It's over. There's no way they could have stopped...

Calm down!　The Holy Wards will surely be fixed by the Saintess. We must protect this protective barrier with all our might to keep the demons from entering the inner part of the Holy City!

　The chief of defense managed to get the shying soldiers to take their positions. However, it was clear that with only the soldiers here now, even buying time would be difficult.

　That's why he had sent his men to call for reinforcements, but...


　There was no time to lose.

''──Higu''

　A sharp claw tore at the wizard's neck as he released a lightbulb.

　Several demons that could fly flew in and attacked him. The wizard who activated his magic to attract the attention of the demons became the first victim of the attack.

''Te, enemy attack!　All hands, intercept!

　That's when the confusion began.

　The soldiers involved in the defense of the Holy City were naturally trained in anti-magic, as long as they were D-ranked demons, they could defeat them individually.

　However, the demons that flew in were all C-rank or higher demons.



　A lightning-clad crow flies through the soldiers at high speed. Even if you don't touch that monster, just passing near it makes it difficult to move as your body goes numb.

　The soldiers, whose movements had slowed down, were attacked by a woman-faced bird-body demon - a harpy.

　The Harpy is a C-ranked demon, but it's not that strong. The fact that it has the intelligence to use weapons and magic means that the danger level is set high.

　However, for the soldiers whose bodies were slowed down by the electricity worn by Ereklow, a harpy that flew freely through the air and wielded a sword gripped by its feet was a threat.

　The soldiers who managed to apply their swords to the fast-flying demon in an attempt to defeat the troublesome Ereklow first were struck by an electric shock that scorched their bodies.

　Elecrow is a demon that should be defeated from a long distance with magic or a bow and arrow. However, its flight speed is so fast that its magic and bows and arrows can't hit it.

　Furthermore, there are dozens of them.

　The number of people who could move on the protective wall was decreasing rapidly.

"d*mn... you!　Shoot as much flashy magic in the air as possible!　Announce the emergency to the entire city!

　The head of defense instructed to the surviving wizards.

　There was an alarm bell to announce the emergency, but it had already been destroyed by the demons.

　Just because the demons were intelligent doesn't explain it. There was no way a C- or B-rank demon could come up with such a thing as destroying the alarm bell first.

　There must be someone to command these demons.

　The head of defense's predictions would be proven correct in the worst way possible.


'That's no good. Just give me a little more time.

　A hand pierced the abdomen of the wizard who was about to release his magic into the sky. When the hand was pulled out, the wizard collapsed to the ground with a zuri.

　Before he knew it, the man in charge of the defense and the man who had appeared behind the wizard had killed the wizard.

'If you are going to cause despair and fear, it would be better to show your march, since the Lord's command this time is to lay waste to the Holy City. We must not make a scene yet.

　Even though no alarm bells had been sounded, there was a fairly intense battle going on on the protective wall. And yet, this commotion had not been transmitted to the living quarters a short distance away from the protective wall.

　In fact, this man - the demon Guzion's subordinate demons had developed a ward of recognition inhibition around this protective wall. Because of that, from the living quarters, it looked like the same protective wall as usual.

　The time was close to midnight, most of the Holy City's residents were asleep, and no one noticed that the holy wards had disappeared.

　Nor had his men, whom the head of defense had sent to inform them of the emergency, nor had the few soldiers who had fled from fear made it to the living quarters.

　Those were the people who were hunting them.

　Another demon appeared behind the head of defense.

''We've killed everyone who moved from here!

Yeah, good job. Now it's just you.

　The next thing I knew, the only person standing there was the head of defense.

'd*mn it!

　The head of defense swung his sword at the first demon that showed up. He was good enough to defeat a B-ranked demon.

　His sword - the demon received his sword - with one finger.

　And when he was promoted to the head of defense, his prized sword, which was blessed by the saint, was easily broken by the demon.

''Yeah...''
That makes good sense. That's about a "B" grade by your standards?　But you're not my enemy.

　The heart of the head of defense breaks.

　The sound of footsteps of a large army of demons that numbered in the hundreds - no, a thousand - could be heard coming towards the Holy City.

　In front of me, there were two monsters that would not be able to compete with me even if there were dozens of them.

　Furthermore, they hadn't even been able to inform the city of this situation yet.

　If we don't call this situation hopeless, then how can we describe it?

　The defense chief dropped his weapon and poked his knee.

''My saint-sama I'm sorry.


We're not ready to give up yet.
''──!''

　The head of defense, who thought he was the only one living on the protective wall, was surprised to be called out from behind.

　When he turns around, he sees a woman standing there.

　It was a beautiful woman, unbecoming of this battlefield where countless corpses were lying around.

　In her hand, she held an unfamiliar curved sword.

''You, how did you get through my wards?''

Warding?　.........Oh, there was some kind of thin membrane, but is that what you mean? Then I cut it off.

Did you cut it?

Also, in case you haven't noticed... you've already been cut.

I...

　The demon of the one who came to this place first was chopped into pieces. At the same time, his physical body began to regenerate, but there were too many areas that had been cut, and it seemed that he had already reached the limit of regeneration.

　The demon disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

''Ki, who are you?　What have you done with my people?

My name is Tina Elnor. My name was originally Tina-Halibel. Isn't that name familiar to a demon?

Tina-Halibel.

　The killing spirit leaked out of the demons.
　For all the demons, Tina was a coping mechanism of hatred.

''And then the question of what you did........I cut. Like this──

　The hand holding Tina's sword disappeared.

　A slash flies from the sword wielded so fast that it appears to have disappeared.

　It was Hurt's swordsmanship master, she - this world's strongest swordsman, Tina, with the weapon given to her by the gods, performed the ultimate sword technique, the 'Rake Sky Slash'.

　The countless vacuum blades easily sliced through the bodies of the demons that ordinary swordsmen couldn't even scratch.

　The second demon also disappeared without a single word, just like the previous demon, along with its hatred for Tina.