Volume 7 Chapter 9 The Morning of Slaughter
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
A shock hit them. It felt like a hand reached inside their bellies to crush their organs. Right after, over a hundred bodies slammed into the mud. A storm of screams raged through the narrow pass. The air was violently stolen.
”Gaaaaah!”
”What the-?! What just happened?!”
”The front… there’s nothing left of the front! The people… they’re just gone!!”
This was the center of ‘Atmospheric Void (a spell that crushes with air pressure)’. Iron bits were crushed under huge pressure. Remains of bone and flesh turned into a reddish-black paste. They clung to the dead leaves like a foul, ugly carpet. Right at the edge of that line, survivors crawled. Dark blood spurted from their broken ears. They threw up yellow stomach juice into the mud. Their balance was completely gone. They clawed blindly at the dirt, unable to tell up from down.
The sour smell of rot. The smell of iron rust. Mixed with those was the raw smell of torn organs. It tangled with the sharp smell of waste from pure terror. A haze of yellow spores hung heavily over it all. It turned the narrow pass into the stomach of a giant monster.
Beside that sea of flesh, Lehmann the grenadier froze in the mud like a stone.
Inside his helmet, his panicked breath turned to white frost. It blocked his view from the eye holes. A high ringing scraped through his brain. It pushed the outside screams far away. The only sounds he heard were his loud breathing. And the wild beating of his heart in his throat.
A mass of men pushed against his back. There was no room to look back. Front, back, left, right—everything was a wall of wet iron and flesh. The shoulder pad of the man next to him dug into his side. His face was buried in the sour smell of the man ahead. It was a bad mix of sweat, urine, and rust.
”Don’t push! Stop it!” a voice cried out from the crowd.
He could not tell if he was the one screaming or if it was someone else. To his broken eardrums, everything sounded far away.
His boot crushed something large. An arm, or maybe a face. He stepped right through the fallen soldier with his spiked boots. He forced his next step forward. He felt the tearing meat under his feet. If he stopped, the huge weight of the men behind him would crush his spine.
The man next to him went down. His knees gave out.
If you fall, it is over. The crowd was too thick. Once you went down, you could never stand up again.
”Get up! Get up, damn it!” Lehmann shouted. He fought against the crowd.
His hand grabbed empty air. The man was swallowed into the bottom of the human wave in an instant. A short scream. The sound of many boots kneading the mud and metal quickly covered it.
Forward. Forward. Forward.
He was pushed. His breath stopped. His view was completely white from his own breathing. Seeing nothing, he was just shoved along by the crowd.
Bang! Bang!
Dry gunfire popped in the haze. Someone was shooting. But the crowd was too thick. There were only the backs of allies in the direction the gun was pointed. A shriek went up. Friendly fire. The gunshots would not stop. Fear was pulling the trigger.
Suddenly, three shapes blocking his front collapsed at the same time.
His mind could not keep up. Right after a red flash drew a line in the air, burned cuts showed on the three men’s necks, chests, and bellies. Steam from boiling blood erupted from the wounds.
”Hih…” a rough gasp slipped past his lips.
The wall of flesh split wide open.
Beyond the eye hole of his helmet, past the yellow haze, a wall of corpses had been built. Men cut at the waist. Men missing their heads. Men melted right through with their armor by strong heat. They filled the narrow pass, piled on top of each other. From the cut edges, a sweet, sick steam of boiling fat mixed with blood rose into the air. It clung to his skin.
His frozen legs stuck to the mud. But the mass behind him ruthlessly pushed him toward the mountain of corpses.
A red light turned toward him. Jade eyes.
Platinum hair drew an arc. A white heat ray cut his view in two. The world turned upside down.
……Sylvia’s burning blade scorched the air. It sent out a blade of vacuum (a cut of empty air).
Four, then five soldiers pushed out from the crowd. They turned back into lumps of meat before they could even speak. The steam of burned flesh melted into the yellow haze. She did not give them a single look. She turned the force of her swing into her next burst of speed. She slipped deep into her target’s blind spot.
Behind her, through the gaps of the cut-open space, the Elves’ bowstrings snapped. The dry, popping sound of snapping strings echoed. A moment later, soldiers pierced through their weak points were slammed down into the mud.
”Arrow of light, pierce……’Element Arrow’” Elza chanted.
Her armor-breaking magic arrow slipped right through a fleeing back. It broke the spine. The soldier fell face-first into the dead leaves. His body was frozen in a running pose.
Lumi kicked off the cliff wall, dropping down. Her curved sword carried the force of her spin. It cut a belly like a dance, cutting the neck artery.
The silent ‘Wind Arrow’ fired by Reaf pierced a distant head. At the exact moment the man fell onto his back, Reaf spoke briefly to the person next to him.
”Left, three.”
Celda thrust his palm forward. “Flames, burst forth……’Fireball’” he ordered. A precise hit right at the center of the group. Inside the red-hot armor, body water quickly boiled. This made a muffled explosion as flesh burst open.
Hearing those death cries behind them, the infantrymen of the First Battalion ran sideways. They acted like they had gone completely mad.
If the front was no good, go sideways.
They threw off their helmets. Subtropical humidity clung to their skin. The terrible heat of a steam bath drained their strength. A group of about thirty closely packed soldiers stampeded into the wall of the narrow pass. They ran into the hard tree trunks and the poison tree zone.
There were no torches. Even the morning light did not reach this place. Only the yellow spores floated dimly. Armor caught on branches. Vines tangled around their necks. But they ran, shaking them off wildly.
”This way! There’s a path this way-” a soldier shouted from the front.
The man in front froze in a strange way.
His eyeballs stuck out to their limits. His lips swelled into a bruised blue-purple. Foaming at the mouth, he fell while clawing at his own throat.
A strong spasm seized his whole body. It bent his spine backward so hard it almost broke. A branch of a poison tree had merely touched his skin.
”Don’t touch it! Don’t touch the trees!” an urgent warning echoed from behind.
The warning was too late. A second man lost his balance. He pushed his hand against a trunk. From his palm along his blood vessels, blue-purple veins raced up to his shoulder in a flash. The man died while staring hard at his own arm.
The third man was running. He caught a face full of the strong acidic gas of black-green magic moss. It came up from the dead leaves. His skin instantly blistered red. With half his face melted away, the man thrashed in pain on top of the mud.
Every breath of the forest was a deadly poison. There was no escape.
”Go back! Back to the narrow pass-” another panicked voice yelled.
An arrow feather suddenly grew from the throat of the man who had shouted.
There was no sound of a bowstring. There was no rushing wind. It was simply there. Turning around in panic, they found the same arrows buried deep in the heads and backs of two other men. They had no idea when they had been shot.
”Where?! Where are they shooting from-” a voice cried out. Then it cut short.
A dull hit struck the center of his chest.
Lowering his eyes, he saw an arrowhead had gone through the gap in his chainmail. It pierced right through the wall of his heart. Before the pain could arrive, the strength left his knees. His mind sank to the bottom of the yellow haze. Beyond the deep fog that Corporal Martin saw in his final moments…
……Above the leafy roof, Zeid’s fingers released the string.
The wind chime1 at his neck kept shaking at a silent frequency. It was given to him by the Spirit King.
The haze blocking his view did not matter. The tiny shakes of the chime constantly told him the direction and distance of enemies. Arrows clad in the Mana of wind were pulled into the weak spots of unseen targets. Even the sound of impact was swallowed by the silence of the forest. The count of shakes simply vanished one by one.
Soldiers who managed to slip past Zeid’s line of fire were accurately shot from their blind spots. The arrows came from Fei, who had hidden himself in the trees.
Above the heads of the soldiers who luckily crawled through, Nax dropped from a branch. His dagger pierced straight down into a heart through the gap in the collarbone. Before he could even speak, the man sank into the mud.
Ahead of the escape route, Ciel caused thorns to surge from the ground. “Thorns, grow thick……’Thorn Bush’”. Having no place to flee, the soldiers who fell backward into the thorns had their flesh torn away. The more they struggled, the worse it got.
”Earth, shatter……’Stone Blast’”. Serena’s many stones pierced right through the soldiers. They could not move anymore.
In a slightly separate part of the forest, the guerrilla unit led by Farrell was dealing with the remaining troops.
Tree roots raised by Gael’s magic tangled the ankles of several men at once. They dragged them down into the mud. War hammers struck their struggling backs one after another. The blows broke bones as they bit deep.
”Earth, capture them……’Earth Prison’”. Elara pushed her hands against the ground. Solid rock locked the lower knees of a runner. He had sprinted past her husband. Hugh’s two-handed sword cut off the heads of three soldiers in a row. They had lost their footing and fell mid-stride.
Beside him, a fireball unleashed by Baldo exploded right in a soldier’s face. His wife, Yvette, burned another soldier who had tried to flee.
Thoom…!
At that moment, the center of the narrow pass flashed white once again.
A second ‘Atmospheric Void (a spell that crushes with air pressure)’ hit. The front-center of the narrow pass was completely torn away.
A pale white flash burned the eyes of the soldiers. The violent, heavy air pressure swept up human bodies. It swept up the leaf mold and tree roots, too.
Torn fragments of iron buried themselves deeply into the surrounding giant trees. A jarring ringing echoed through the empty space.
Amidst that ringing, Commander Vogel of the Fourth Battalion began sprinting toward the rear.
The front and sides were dead ends. The only thing left was the rear.
He threw both his helmet and sword into the mud. He inhaled the yellow spores that burned his lungs. He simply ran back the way he came in blind desperation.
Around him, five or six subordinates had thought of the same thing. They were sprinting through the dark, coughing like they were spitting blood.
”Just a little more! If we run just a little more-” a soldier said from beside him.
The man running ahead of him vanished.
Blown away from the side, he struck a thick trunk. He was turned into a lump of flesh with no shape. A wet, destructive sound, like smashing rocks into a soaked cloth bag.
Standing in their way was an overwhelmingly huge wall. A golden mane swayed within the haze.
The soldier running beside him swung his sword in a crazy panic.
A backhand was unleashed from a brawny arm that looked like a log. The upper body, along with the sword, was snapped in two. The terrible sound of ribs and spine breaking inside the armor vanished into the fog ahead.
Hooking his fingers around the weight at his waist, Vogel tore away a spare firearm. The grip was slick with greasy sweat. With a shaking finger, he squeezed the trigger.
A dry, popping explosion.
The Magic Stone (a rock that holds magic power) blew up behind his eardrums. His view clouded white for a moment with gun smoke.
It hit. Point-blank range. However, the slammed lead flattened with a dull sound. Bounced away by the hard ridge of muscle, it dropped into the mud at his feet.
”Hih…!” Vogel gasped in terror.
The golden mass slowly focused its attention on him.
The trembling in his knees would not stop. He could not run.
His ankle was grabbed and hoisted up by thick fingers. They felt like a tight clamp. His view turned upside down. His eyes met golden slit pupils.
With a heavy crunch.
He was crushed flat.
Gauz opened his hand. A flat lump of iron, blood, and flesh spilled into the mud.
A front kick unleashed from that exact same pose caved in the breastplate of the next soldier charging forward. It broke the lungs along with the ribs.
The body turned into a cannonball. It rolled across the mud while taking down the comrades behind him. Anyone who stepped within Gauz’s striking range was turned into filth.
An Oris Longsword (a magical blade) sharply thrust out toward a soldier. He was trying to slip through the blind spot of that huge frame. “Wind, smash……’Air Hammer’”. A stake of compressed air unleashed from the blade pushed back the soldier’s chest bone.
Volos planted his large shield into the mud. It took a three-man charge directly from the front. “Ice, pierce……’Ice Bullet’”. That single moment of freezing stiffness was accurately hit by three ice shots. They were unleashed by his wife, Elysia.
Mireille crouched beside several soldiers who had fallen in the mud. “Freeze, burst……’Frost Nova’”. The water inside their bodies froze solid. Frost spread outward from their internal organs. A brief spasm. Silence.
Thoom…!
A third ‘Atmospheric Void (a spell that crushes with air pressure)’ erased the final cluster of soldiers.
A flash. And this time…… the sound did not return.
The shouting. The screaming. The sound of military boots that had filled the narrow pass. Everything was gone.
The only things left were the footsteps of a few hundred men. They had scattered like spider babies escaping into the depths of the forest. And the cold bowstrings of the Elves harvesting them.
Those who touched poison trees and foamed at the mouth. Those whose faces were burned by the acidic gas of magic moss. Those whose heads were blown open by Zeid’s unseen sniping. Those caught by the green afterimage draped around Farrell. Their chests were cut to pieces.
Farrell did not chase them. He moved around them.
Green light flickered. The chests of the fleeing soldiers split open at the same time. It showered those behind them in a red mist. The remaining men dropped to their knees and threw away their swords.
”Hugh. Clean them up.” Farrell gave the short command.
The sounds of the battlefield were beginning to drift away.
＊
Rear, Ryuichi’s position. Inside Erland’s barrier.
Strewn around the area were about twenty corpses. These men had managed to claw their way here. But they were cut to pieces by Liana and Mina.
Liana caught the scent of the air beyond the haze. She wiped a bloodied dagger with a cloth. Her nose twitched faintly.
”…There is barely any scent of the living left, my lord.” Liana reported with a calm bow.
Mina wrapped my cold fingers with her warm hands. She opened the lid of a canteen and offered it to me.
”Goshujin-sama’s hands are cold. I will warm them up for you.” Mina murmured. Her voice was full of care.
Amidst a wild battlefield, only the inside of this barrier kept a completely severed peace.
Lara quietly let out a breath from her moist lips.
”…It is over, then.” Lara murmured. She looked on with cool distance.
Over Melis’s shoulder, I looked down at the hell beyond the haze.
”…Yeah. Looks like it is over.” I replied flatly.
The number of heat sources reflected on Melis’s eyes had dropped a lot. The heartbeats picked up by Mimi’s hearing were now down to just a few random thumps.
Lara’s golden tail swayed just once. She was content.
”The remaining men will be entirely dealt with by the poison and monsters of this forest within a day. Now then…” Lara observed smoothly.
She turned around, casting her gaze toward Erland.
Erland nodded quietly and closed her folding fan. She spoke to the messenger waiting at her side.
”Convey the collection of prisoners. Only those marked by the Rabbit-kin are to be taken alive.” Erland ordered clearly.
Aaron and Edwin melted into the bottom of the fog without a sound.
Silence fell upon the narrow pass.
The haze of yellow spores drifted slowly over the blood-soaked dead leaves.
I stood up, gazing past the fog where they had vanished.
The sky that should have been far above the tree tops could not be seen. The light did not reach.
Only a golden mist quietly stained the top of the many corpses.
—
Summary:
Sweeping magical and tactical ambushes completely tear apart the invading First and Fourth Infantry Battalions within a narrow forest pass. Elven warriors, spellcasters, and the physically dominant Gauz systematically cut down all routing forces trying to escape into the toxic tree line or retreat down the pathway. Ryuichi stays safely behind a secure defensive barrier with his attendants while watching the total decimation of the human forces, leaving the cleanup duties to the poisonous local ecology.
—
Trivia:
The spell ‘Atmospheric Void (Atmos Guillotine)’ is cast three separate times to completely erase high-density areas of human infantry.
Touching the branches of the toxic forest trees results in fatal, immediate full-body seizures and purple venous decay.
The magic moss within the leaf mold expels a highly acidic gas capable of melting human flesh instantly on contact.
Zeid relies on an inaudible frequency vibration from a specialized wind chime gifted by the Spirit King to track down and kill enemies hidden through the heavy fog.
Erland selectively commands that only specific prisoners who have been pre-marked by the Rabbit-kin are to be captured alive.
—
Translation Notes:
Notes:
• Lehmann – A grenadier soldier who finds himself frozen in terror within the muddy, suffocating, and panicked press of the infantry during the magical ambush.
• Sylvia – A platinum-haired, jade-eyed commander who serves her master with fevered adoration and ruthless efficiency. Deploying at the front bottleneck alongside elven archers, this highly perceptive operative successfully contained the forward line, unleashing white heat rays and vacuum blades with terrifying precision. Domestically and in battle, she acts with complete deference to her master, uses a sweet tone to torment others, and maintains a complex, sisterly relationship with the broken Lara.
• Elza – An elven vanguard archer and construction director who blends architectural precision with lethal battlefield coordination. Operating from the barracks, she coordinates teams with absolute teamwork, casting light-based, armor-penetrating magic arrows to strike structural cores and break the spines of fleeing enemies. Despite her blunt military focus, she shows direct concern for Erika.
• Lumi – An elven warrior and nimble scout who drops from rock walls to dance through enemy lines, using her curved scimitar to deliver logic-defying, bone-severing strikes that gouge abdomens and sever carotid arteries. Alongside Elza, she also excels at high-altitude construction tasks.
• Reaf – An elven archer who fires silent wind arrows to pierce the foreheads of distant targets and coordinates tactical threats with allies.
• Celda – A combatant who uses fire magic to cause localized steam explosions within the armored plating of packed enemy soldiers.
• Martin – A corporal who is shot through the heart by an unseen elven arrow while trying to lead a panicked retreat through the toxic forest.
• Zeid – An elven archer stationed in the tree canopy who excels at zero-range combat, using wind magic and a silent wind chime from the Spirit King to track and snipe targets through thick fog. He fires wind-clad arrows with extreme focus under pressure, famously attempting to strike Gauz’s eye.
• Spirit King – The protagonist and absolute ruler is a male who serves as the sole, detached source of mana for an Elf village ritual. Possessing limitless stamina and dominant magical abilities, he can heal others and completely reconstruct the physical forms of those he subdues.
• King – A powerful, authoritative male lead who possesses immense physical strength and magic. He commands absolute loyalty and submission from the inhabitants of the Silver Moon Village.
• Man – A roughneck wearing a hat who participated in a group assault. He suffers the loss of his right arm and later his left arm during an experiment by the protagonist before being stored.
• Fei – An elven archer who completely unifies himself with the trees to fire lethal arrows at enemy blind spots.
• Nax – A small, agile stealth warrior who maneuvers through treetops to execute precision aerial attacks, dropping from branches to drive daggers straight down through the collarbones of routing soldiers into their hearts.
• Ciel – A tactical warrior and growth magic user who conjures thorny barricades from the earth to trap, disable, and lacerate retreating enemy infantry.
• Thor – A lanky copper-rank adventurer who led a trio to ambush Ryuichi for gold in the forest. He became a past antagonist after being killed during the attempted robbery, an attack originally instigated by Helga’s actions.
• Serena – A voluptuous Japanese-style Elf warrior with lustrous black hair tied at her neck and a loose kimono dress. Married alongside Elara, she experiences physical manifestations of arousal near her husband. She coordinates ground-based earth magic with him, acting as a magic user who fires stone projectiles to pierce through immobilized enemy soldiers.
• Farrell – An elf garrison captain restored by the protagonist, this determined swordsman leads village security and a guerrilla unit with grim resolve and sharp authority. Wearing a green afterimage aura, he uses a vacuum wind blade to swiftly slice open escaping enemies. Driven to regain lost honor after a past defeat by Ryuichi, he respects his King, loathes Gauz, and maintains a tense protagonist alliance.
• Gael – A thick-built, mud-covered elf warrior and stonemason from Silver Moon Village, this disciplined, boisterous field foreman commands tree roots to drag down enemy soldiers. Loyal to the King who spared him, he leads with a warhammer and military authority. Fiercely protective of his wife, Elara, he balances devotion to the Crown with a vigilant pride in his marriage and village duties.
• Elara – A 120-year-old Elf commander and magic user, this voluptuous, silver-haired woman coordinates earth spells from the high ground to pin enemies with stone traps. Rejuvenated by the King, she fights his manipulative influence while hiding deep insecurities over past infertility. Despite her battlefield power alongside her husband Hugh, the intense strain drives her to desperate, emotional outbursts.
• Hugh – A young vanguard warrior who shifted from a dual-wielding blade specialist in precision tendon and core strikes to a two-handed sword user. Operating on Farrell’s command, they execute consecutive decapitations on immobilized targets.
• Yvette – A combatant who incinerates routing soldiers, fighting alongside her husband Baldo.
• Baldo – A cheerful warrior in Farrell’s squad, this magic user fights alongside his wife Yvette. Keeping his team focused on reconstruction, he defeats enemy soldiers by utilizing zero-range fire magic to release fireballs directly into their faces, expanding and rupturing his targets.
• Vogel – The commander of the Fourth Battalion who abandons his helmet and sword to flee to the rear, only to be caught and effortlessly crushed by Gauz.
• Gauz – A massive, steel-furred feline warrior with a golden mane and slit eyes, this hyper-durable predatory commander possesses brawny, log-like arms and an abnormal sense of smell. Armed with the axe Agito, he systematically obliterates enemy infantry, sending them flying like rags. Arrogant yet fiercely loyal, he led 30,000 troops, established a rear-guard barrier, and submits only to the protagonist. Tied to a past security failure, he is now a charred runaway.
• Oris – A Farrell’s squad member and longsword user who projects compressed air spikes to cave in the chests of soldiers trying to slip past Gauz. While they excel at precise stabbing and air bursts, they find the manual labor of lifting heavy pillars physically taxing.
• Elysia – A magic user who fires precise ice projectiles to execute targets pinned against her husband Volos’s tower shield.
• Volos – A muscular giant Elf guard and frontline defender who utilizes Spirit power to manifest defensive barriers. Wielding a massive tower shield to anchor the ground and absorb full-force kinetic impacts, he fights alongside his wife, Elysia. Despite his immense physical power, he is ultimately the first to be crushed by Gauz, suffering shattered arms and severe internal injuries in the assault.
• Mireille – A magic user who crouches by fallen soldiers to freeze their internal fluids instantly via frost magic.
• Ryuichi – Goshujin-sama, a 40-year-old Spirit King with Japanese past-life memories, is a towering, muscular master with short dark hair, black eyes, and a beard. Analytical, cold, and commanding, he ruthlessly controls the Elder’s Manor, an elf village, and his intimate companion, Erika. Using immense mana, gravity, healing magic, and a protective wind-permeating barrier, he rules safely from afar.
• Erland – A 320-year-old elven Village Elder and sharp-featured tactician with glasses and long silver hair, she acts as a protective shield and guide for her deity, the Spirit King, while accompanying Serafina. Wielding a staff and folding fan, she maintains a powerful barrier, uses earth magic, and systematically commands messengers to capture specific prisoners, torn between village order and intense devotion.
• Ryu – A man with Interdimensional Magic who leads a growing household. He acts as a provider and protector for his slaves, while maintaining a pragmatic and blunt personality.
• Liana – A cold, precise elf maid and sister attendant with impeccably braided, shoulder-length silver hair. While serving as her master’s personal household attendant, she hides a deep olfactory obsession. Fiercely loyal to him but cool to others, she disdains corruption, using high-pressure water magic, sharp archery, and a dagger—calmly wiping it clean of blood while scanning battlefields for survivors.
• Mina – A petite, energetic Elf sister and personal attendant who sleeps in the shared bedroom, fiercely devoted and clingy to Ryuichi, warming his cold hands and offering him a canteen inside the barrier. Aside from her doting nature and overnight processing role, she is a skilled garrison archer and mage, wielding thermal combat spells that reflect her unusually high body temperature.
• Lara – An aristocratic Fox-kin tactician with golden hair, fur, and tail, possessing a curvaceous, mature body and porcelain skin. Initially a defiant, virgin military strategist who deemed no suitor worthy, she was defeated and broken by the protagonist. Now a submissive servant who addresses him as her King, she calmly orchestrates ruthless tactical strikes with complete spatial awareness.
• Melis – Voluptuous 160cm elf watchtower guard and tracking specialist with blonde hair in a high ponytail, sweaty hair tips sticking to her neck. Wearing a low-cut tunic under a grease-stained leather apron, she has a seductive aura and speaks like an aristocrat. Married to dwarf Kulum but infatuated with Ryuichi, whose essence altered her eyes to process visual info as thermal signatures, letting her track enemy heat and magic in zero-visibility battlefields.
• Mimi – A petite, pale Rabbit-kin tracker from the Hundred-Beast Federation. Her exceptionally sensitive ears act as a sensory array detecting distant army movements, heartbeats, and breathing patterns through bottlenecks, though she shudders easily at violence. Traumatized by hearing the world’s life force consumed, she serves as a loyal lookout for her allies. She wears only an oversized shirt, her battered body covered in white fluid and fresh blood.
• Aaron – A military subordinate who slides through the mist to deliver concise status reports on containment and flanking maneuvers. A stealthy operative who melts into the yellow spore mist without making a sound.
• Edwin – A stealthy operative who melts into the yellow spore mist alongside Aaron without a single sound.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply