Chapter 367: War

"...General Eve, are you going in?" Gallian asks me as I look at him, recognizing him. He's that soldier who lost his index finger to Evelyn-sama while she was commanding troops in that small, remote village.

"I see you never regenerated that finger," I say, looking at his finger.

"...It's way too expensive, and besides, a single finger isn't missed. It's a gift from our current queen, so there's no point in regenerating it, right?" He says, opening his hand and showing the missing finger.

"Do you still think she's weak? Or do you now believe more concretely in Evelyn-sama's power?" I ask him while looking at the bloody battlefield. The battles of the war have begun. We are currently on the plain in front of the angel kingdom where our armies clash.

"Hahaha, of course not. I've seen her finish off a city in seconds myself. She's not weak. If she were, she wouldn't be our queen," he says, keeping that same irritating tone.

"What a shame you think that. I wanted to see you challenging Evelyn's legitimacy and becoming a puppet," I say, as a mix between something serious and a joke.

"I know my place... I see you've gotten strong... really strong... but you didn't answer my question. Are you joining the battle now?" He returns to the question. I have to say, he's far too audacious, and bold for repeating a question I obviously didn't want to answer.

"I will, yes. I'm just waiting a bit. As for my strength..." I look at the sword in my hands, the newest weapon Evelyn-sama made for me a few days ago.

[Divine Blood Huntress] A long-bladed and slightly thin sword measuring 1.5 meters. It becomes stronger and more durable with every impact, absorbing damage to make itself increasingly stronger. It also has the ability to absorb enemy blood and convert it into Hikishin for the user. It's a sword with a red and gold blade and a black hilt. As long as the blade is bathed in blood, it can regenerate if broken and can cool heat rapidly.

'I'm dying to test this sword...' It's the first sword I've had that allows me to use plasma electricity without easily compromising the blade. And even if the blade breaks, it can be regenerated and cooled with blood. Evelyn-sama spent days creating this weapon for me. Her forging skills have become impressive.

"I really have gotten a lot stronger, Gallian... if I recall correctly, you were a soldier because you needed money for your wife and two kids, since you had debts to pay." When I say this, he seems a bit tense.

"Yeah... things are going well, I think... should I consider that a threat or a warning?" He asks, and I realize why he got tense.

"No, I'm not planning anything. It was just a question to lighten the mood," I say to calm him down. I'm not planning to kill his family or anything like that, if that's what he's thinking.

"...I have to get back now. I'm just a soldier in the end! Thanks for the conversation... it was... interesting," he says and leaves, perhaps not quite believing what I said.

'I guess it's time for me to go in too... I have to test this blade, and I think the angels will be well contained as long as no one strong enters the fight...' Just as Evelyn-sama didn't send anyone strong to the battlefield, the angels also didn't send anyone truly powerful.

'Evelyn-sama, can I enter combat? Don't worry, I won't use much magic,' I send a message to Evelyn-sama asking if I can go in already. I really want to do something soon.

'[Alright Eve, you may enter combat, but conserve magic, please. And you don't need to bring back the bodies of dead angels. I won't use the bodies to create new standard model marionettes. Leave them there to rot],' Evelyn-sama says as I grab my sword.

'Ok, thanks for the permission. I should be back in a few hours.' I look at the battlefield in the distance and take a deep breath. Shizuka is currently in the rear guard, so she can fight and gain experience in safety.

I don't know how she'll fare considering it's her first time entering battle, but I decide to focus on what's in front of us. There are thousands of enemy angels and allied demons.

"..." I stomp the ground hard and take a leap using all my physical strength. This makes the ground crack as I easily jump the two-kilometer distance, landing on the battlefield.

My landing causes a crash on the ground as everyone around looks on. I grip the sword skillfully, and when some angels advance on me, I cut off all their heads in a single clean stroke.

The movement is so clean that there isn't even time for blood to spill before their bodies fall to the ground. The heads roll, disconnecting from the bodies on the ground, as I look at the completely clean blade.

'The cut was too clean... I need to dirty the blade with blood to make it stronger and recover it from any damage.' I run straight at an angel that is attacking a demon and deliver a thrust, piercing through its head from one side to the other.

'The sword is indeed wonderful. Very sharp and with an excellent thrusting power due to concentrating a lot of force on the thin tip...'

I learned from Evelyn-sama to be "fair," so I kill instantaneously to avoid causing pain, but in an efficient and merciless manner, because this is a war and the only lives that matter are Evelyn-sama's, Shizuka's, and mine.

"G-General Eve, I-" The soldier tries to say something, but I ignore him, moving forward and attacking the angels. Each movement is fast and strong, but still not at the level I want.

'It's not perfect. My blade and I are not one...' I spin the blade, moving my arm upward. The tip of the blade scrapes against the ground as I let it go and punch an angel in the stomach, piercing through its body.

I move my bloodied hand, grabbing the sword as I see the difference between killing with a sword and with my hand. Differences beyond the reach of the strike.

'...My muscles have to work with the blade, not against it...' An angel girl with a determined look comes at me, her armor gleaming in the scorching sunlight. I think of a martial arts strike, a side punch with the base of the hand.

The punch normally makes the whole center of mass, weight, and balance of the body follow the movement. I move my blade to the right, holding it with my left arm.

And when the angel girl enters my range, I make a quick horizontal cutting motion, tilting my body to follow the blade. The cut sends the girl's head flying immediately as blood sprays onto my body.

'That was... good... the strike is strong, the blade cut through the armor like butter, and the precision was perfect... but it opened up my guard...' I take a deep breath, having partially succeeded. I spin the blade and toss it to my other hand, gripping it with my right hand.

I lower my body and shoot forward, scraping the tip of the blade against the ground. Getting close to an angel, I stomp down hard, decelerating violently. I use all that force that needs to be released to move the sword, transferring the power to the blade as it begins to rise.

The cut starts at the angel's belly and goes up, exiting through its clavicle, splitting its body into two parts.

'I did it!' "By braking abruptly, I felt all the inertia trying to continue my movement. Instead of resisting, I let that force travel through my body and flow into the sword."

But instead of feeling the impact, I managed, for a moment, to become one with the sword and pass all the impact to the blade as if it were also a part of my body.

I feel proud of myself, taking another step on the path to becoming a swordswoman powerful enough that, if necessary, I can fight Esther for Evelyn-sama.

'I'm getting stronger...'

...

...

...

"Hmmm..."

"Miss Shizuka... i-is it over around here?" A woman asks, frightened, while she's so covered in blood that you can barely see her soldier's uniform. I look at my own hands, also stained with blood.

And then I look at the hundreds of dead bodies around us. Bodies with horrible wounds and blisters all over them. A truly horrifying scene. Honestly, I'm scared.

It's my first time in war, but I don't know if I'm more afraid of dying, or afraid of how terrifyingly strong I am. All the dead that make up this macabre and bloody scene were angels I killed.

"Yes, it's over around here... you can go." I still have to fight for experience. Most of these angels died from a single scratch from me, which gave them diseases that killed them in absurdly fast ways.

'This is... unpleasant...' The smell of blood in the air, this sensation of death that surrounds everything, and the cold feeling of war. It's very different from what I had prepared myself for, but I need to fight for the good life I want.

So I try not to think too much, and I avoid looking at the ground as I walk toward the angels that kept their distance from this place. I'll give a hand to the soldiers who are in trouble.

'Are you okay, Shizuka?' Evelyn asks, speaking into my mind.

'I-I am... just very uncomfortable. Killing innocent people in such brutal ways is... strange. But I'm being careful. I'm applying diseases that kill extremely quickly, but that don't infect allies who come into contact with the dead bodies...'

'Good, keep it up, and talk to Eve about it later,' Evelyn stops talking to me, leaving me to deal with this. I guess I really will have to talk to Eve later to calm my mind.