Inside the square ice prison.
On the ground that had completely turned into charred ruins, under the endless rain of light meteor swords projected by Naoki, the five thousand girl soldier dolls specially created to attack him and Aesc were now all bombarded until not even ash remained.
After all, each light sword was actually transformed from sunlight, condensing and compressing solar heat to form light swords with extreme temperatures. Even those girl dolls had no chance of withstanding them.
The consequence of focusing all enhancements on countering the Holy Sword and Magecraft was that defenses in other aspects became relatively weak. Moreover, Naoki's attacks were entirely products of Imaginary Manifestation, falling under distorted natural phenomena.
"With this, this place is safe."
Sighing lightly while hovering in the air, Naoki glanced at the scorched earth, then turned to look toward Londinium.
Though in terms of distance, the closest to him now was the Wind Clan headquarters, followed by the Fang Clan headquarters, after a moment's thought, Naoki didn't even glance at the Wind or Fang Clans and flew at full speed straight to Londinium.
The life or death of the fairies had nothing to do with him. Being massacred and destroyed by the girl dolls might even be a fitting punishment for the fairies.
Compared to the fairies' situation, Naoki was clearly more worried about Londinium.
"Nothing should have happened, right? Aesc, Melusine."
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
*CRAS!*
Under Aesc's gaze, her eyes nearly shattering, facing Totorot, Ector, and Uther surrounded by them, the girl dolls mercilessly swung arms transformed into sword blades toward Uther.
They all knew about Aesc and Uther.
The human boy Aesc pinned her hopes on, the warrior raised by the Holy Star Sword Bearer—though they didn't know why these two cared so much about this child, killing him certainly wouldn't be wrong.
Moreover, the Naraku Worm's primary goal was to destroy Britain, to annihilate everything on the island—fairies, the island itself, and even humans were actually targets for destruction.
Thus, the girl dolls decided to decapitate Uther.
However, the attack didn't harm Uther. Ector, closest to him, immediately shielded Uther in his arms and took the girl doll's strike with his back!
The sturdy black iron armor tore like paper. The blade pierced deep into Ector's body, even penetrating through, and warm blood immediately splattered across Uther's face.
"Sir Ector!"
Uther, covered in blood, burst into tears.
"Tch, missed. But no matter—the next strike will hit."
Completely ignoring Uther's wails, the girl doll casually tossed the gravely wounded Ector onto a pile of corpses nearby, then raised her butcher's knife again, aiming at Uther.
Her disciple was in danger. Her comrade-in-arms, known for thousands of years, was gravely injured.
These two things reignited Aesc's recently subsided rage!
"Stop!"
Aesc shouted in fury, nearly in tears. Melusine, influenced by her anger, immediately dove at full speed toward Uther. But in the next moment, dozens of girl dolls blocked their path, showing mockery enough to drive Aesc to despair, then opened their mouths and simultaneously spewed intensely burning flames!
(Bad—)
That was the only thought that flashed in her mind before the combined flamethrower barrage from dozens engulfed and overwhelmed Aesc and Melusine's bodies!
"Hehehe, burn, burn to nothing."
"We got the savior—next is the Holy Sword Bearer."
"Five thousand already wiped out—prepare to regroup. We'll give him a big surprise."
"I think this is good—how about we cut off this little kid's head and hang it on the city wall?"
The girl dolls, like fairies in another form, unhesitatingly displayed the hostility and hatred in their hearts.
But quickly, a powerful Mana wave from above drew all the girl dolls' attention. When they looked up at the twilight sky, reflected in their eyes was a massive deep-blue magical array.
Aesc and Melusine hovered at the array's center.
"Eh? Still alive?"
"Did she escape earlier? Seems the power was still lacking."
"Next time, note to increase attack power."
"By the way, wasn't that already maximum power?"
Beneath the deep-blue array, the girl dolls chatted casually and cheerfully, like a group of girls discussing which milk tea to get after school, as if nothing was in the sky.
They didn't take the Magecraft seriously at all.
Aesc realized this clearly.
"I'll make you regret it…"
Aesc gritted her teeth tightly, then slammed her staff hard into the array's center! Instantly, every intersection node of the array's lines blazed with dazzling starlight!
Pseudo-Astronomy Magecraft: Meteor Shower!
*SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!*
The atmosphere trembled under the powerful magical energy. Countless starlights fell from the array like a storm of rain. The dense starlight downpour instantly enveloped all of Londinium. The tiny starlight rain relentlessly swept through everything within!
This was the greatest Magecraft Aesc could complete in the shortest time. With this move—
*WHOOSH!*
A girl doll's shadow suddenly appeared before Aesc.
She was unharmed.
"Didn't I tell you." The girl doll sneered. "We're all configured to never be harmed by your Magecraft. No matter what Magecraft you use—pure magical cannons or carefully prepared grand Magecraft—it's impossible to hurt us."
"Your biggest fang has been pulled, savior."
The sneering girl doll raised her arm—not transforming into a sword blade, but into a hammer, as if to smash Aesc hard with an iron mallet!
*BUM!*
A loud explosion echoed in the sky.
But it wasn't the sound of Aesc being hurled away—it was the sound of the girl doll's body exploding entirely.
Without warning, a brilliant light streaking from afar reflected in Aesc's eyes.
"Naoki…"
"Yes, it's me."
Naoki, back turned to Aesc, nodded slightly.
"I… did I arrive too late?"
"Yes, too late. Not just you—I was too." Aesc's voice carried slight despair. She let Melusine carry her behind Naoki and leaned tightly against his back. "Everything is too late. Everything is over… Just like in the memories—Londinium is destroyed."
"Aesc…"
Feeling the sorrow and despair from Aesc's back, Naoki's eyes trembled several times: "Melusine, here actually…"
"Everyone is dead, Holy Sword Bearer."
Before Melusine could answer, the girl dolls proactively responded to Naoki's question.
"Everyone—humans and fairies alike. Though fairies will soon have the next generation, humans are truly dead. Look—their corpses are still warm." A girl doll said while lifting Uther before Naoki. "Well, I didn't originally plan to kill this one now—but my hand trembled a bit by accident, and he ended up dead. We wanted to kill him in front of you, you know."
"The drama humans and fairies just performed was so entertaining. Both wanted to escape, both wanted to live—so they pushed each other, using the other as shields. We laughed our heads off watching."
"And those self-righteous Knights. At first they seemed spirited, saying I'll fight to protect humans and fairies—but after just one arm was cut off, they were scared half to death!"
"Eh? The one at your place died of fright? Mine fled—but halfway, humans and fairies caught him and threw him back. In the end, I chopped up all his limbs and ate them."
"…"
The girl dolls, as if flaunting their victory spoils, recounted one by one to Naoki what had just happened in Londinium.
Listening to their laughter and words, Naoki fell silent for a long time.
Then—
"Shut up."
A single sentence laced with terrifying magical energy escaped his mouth. The spreading voice turned into Kotodama (word spirit), forcing all the girl dolls to involuntarily shut their mouths!
Next, after taking a deep breath, Naoki turned and grasped Aesc's hand: "Aesc, I… sorry. It seems this time I have to do something you won't like."
*WHOOSH!*
Before finishing his words, Naoki suddenly shot into the sky, reaching an altitude where he could overlook the entire British Isles, raising his right hand high as if to grasp something and pull it down.
*BUZZ!*
The entire British sky was instantly shrouded in deep crimson light.
A blood-red full moon appeared beneath the sky filled with thick red hues!
"Fall."
"Moon Fall."