Rei and Set reached a part of the sky where the fire whirl could no longer affect them. Meanwhile, there were many casualties on the ground as people where either burned to death, slashed to death or wounded in the confusion and panic.

Although he could still see the ground, Rei had risen to an altitude where he could no longer discern faces or even individual people. Stroking Set’s back, he opened the Misty Ring’s list of items in his mind as he retrieved the one he wante.d

From the outside, it looked like an ordinary barrel. But inside, there was a large amount of garbage that had come from a blacksmith’s shop. Swords with their blades broken in the middle, sword tips, spears without their tips and broken sword blades missing the hilt. Their were also things like rusty kitchen knives and many other pieces of scrap iron ore and trash that the blacksmith had decided to discard because he could no longer use. But even though it was called trash, it was only trash to a blacksmith. There was not doubt that they were still dangerous items. Holding the 1m diameter barrel filled with loose items in his hand, Rei looked towards the ground.

The fire whirl was still ranging as it continued to take the lives of the Bestir Empire’s army.

「Now then, let’s finish up.」

Looking towards the ground, Rei released the barrel in his hand……naturally, the barrel started to fall towards the ground. Then, right after he dropped the barrel, Rei took another one out from the Misty Ring and repeated his actions.

After doing this about five times, more than half the barrels that had been dropped had been caught by the fire whirl and destroyed. The blades that had been packed inside were swallowed by the fire whirl as they spun around inside. Confirming that, Rei didn’t bother to see the results as he tapped Set’s neck lightly to send the signal to return back to the Mirena Kingdom’s vanguard.

At he left, the vanguard of the Bestir Empire was further damaged by the barrels of dangerous materials that Rei had dropped from the sky.

Countless pieces of iron ore and blade scraps were mixed into the fire whirl. Some were thrown out from the fire whirl, and like bullets, they would pierce, slash and destroy, taking the lives of those who were some distance away from the fire whirl.

Because that was what it was like outside the fire whirl, anyone who was swallowed up by the fire whirl fared even worse.

Some mages who were sucked into the fire whirl when it was first created managed to set up barriers to protect themselves. Others managed to use magic items that enhanced their defences or created barriers. However, the wind speeds inside the fire whirl were upwards of several hundred meters per second and there was no way to defend against the countless bullets of blade fragments and iron ore as their barriers and armour were slowly torn apart. In the end, they were unable to escape and died helplessly.

The fire whirl itself didn’t move and remained in one place, so the damage caused by the barrels thrown into it was limited. Still, it was impossible to stay calm after seeing a blade fragment or piece of iron ore shoot out and kill someone next to you. Furthermore, heated to temperatures over 1000°C, the molten metal would fly out and stick to the skin of those who had been injured and had fallen to the ground unable to walk. They could already barely move and the additional pain only made them scream louder.

In other cases, at further distances, after rapidly cooling due to the effect of being thrown out by the fire whirl, the metal fragments would penetrate into people wearing non-metal armour, such as leather armour. Those who wore metal armour were able to prevent fatal injuries, but they were still unable to stop the impact from the metal fragments hitting them. The fragments could also still easily penetrate into their body if it hit places where their armour didn’t cover.

As the huge fire whirl was over 100m in height, it was no exaggeration to say that the damage brought about by it was a disaster that couldn’t be prevented.

 

 

This had all happened after the start of the war between the Mireana Kingdom and Bestir Empire and just before their forces were about to clash. Naturally, the first to be thrown into confusion were the ordinary soldiers. Adventurers had more or less gone through the experience of overcoming dangers and knew about the effects of magic. Knights had also undergone fighting on a regular basis. That was why the adventurers and knights were able to keep their composure and not panic, even though they were astonished by the scene before them. But, it was different for the soldiers. Rather, to be accurate, it was different for the volunteer and conscripted soldiers. Among the soldiers, those that had be trained for combat as their job had been initially confused by the presence of the fire whirl but had quickly managed to recover. Unfortunately, most of the soldiers were made up of volunteers and conscripts. Of course, they had undergone some combat training for this war, but it was only the bare minimum and only for fighting against other people. They had not been trained to deal with natural disasters like what was happening before them.

Because of that, volunteer and conscripted soldiers were thrown into confusion as the fire whirl engulfed them. In turn, this meant the Bestir Empire needed more time to contain the commotion, spreading the damage further.

Taking that into consideration, but Mireana Kingdom’s army was much less confused. After all, it wasn’t their army that had been hit by the fire whirl, but the enemy’s. Even so, the shock was more than enough to halt the feet of those who had been leading the vanguard to fight the enemy. Some started to become scared as they saw the sight before them.

「Hey, hey, hey, hey, what the hell. That Rei, how can he get away with something that crazy.」

Out of the vanguard troops, one at the very front muttered in a stunned voice.

In his hand was a giant battle axe, a magic item great enough that it had become the name of his party.

「Elk-san! That was……」

Three people stopped walking as they called out to Elk.

Elk nodded at them when he saw that they were people who were on close terms to the person who had caused the scene before them.

「Ah, as Milein said, it’s probably Rei’s work. ……I heard from Min that Rei had a great amount of magic power, but I never thought it was this much.」

「It’s Rei after all……」

「Ah. He said that he would launch a preemptive attack to reduce the amount of damage we may take as much as possible as a means to deal with the Royalists’ petty schemes……」

「I see. Well then……are we just going to sit here and watch?」

At Milein’s words, her party members beside her, Ecryll and Sulunin, the archer and mage, nodded.

No, not just them. Everyone around them also nodded as they looked towards Elk, who was the most skilled among them.

However, seeing their gazes, Elk frowned with a difficult expression.

「I mean. Do you want to dive into that fire tornado?」

「No thanks.」

Milein answered Elk’s words almost instinctively. The people around her also nodded.

After all, even though they were more than a kilometre away from the Bestir Empire’s army, there could still feel the temperature rise by several degrees. In other words, where the fire whirl was, it was a burning hell that would make the midsummer heat feel cool. Even if they rushed forward, they would only take unnecessary damage. That was the honest feeling of everyone here at the vanguard, including Elk.

Under such circumstances, Milein was the first to notice something flying through the sky, which was to be expected considering her love for Set. She gave a shout as she saw the shadow flap its wings as it approached the Mireana Kingdom’s army from the Bestir Empire’s side.

「Set-chan!」

Hearing Milein’s shout, the people around her looked towards the same direction, where they saw a Griffon flying through the sky. On its back was the figure of someone wearing a robe and carrying a huge scythe. It was obvious to those that knew them that it was Set and Rei. They were a famous duo in Gilm that no one was unaware of.

「That’s great, Set-chan is safe……h……uh. ……Eh? Huh? What?」

Seeing Set’s appearance, Milein gave a sigh of relief before making some surprised noises as she saw three Dragon Knights approaching Set.

Still, it was fortunate that the Dragon Knights hadn’t taken any hostile actions such as throwing their spears at Rei. From Milein and Elk’s position on the ground, all they saw was Set quietly following the Dragon Knights back to the main force of the vanguard, where the leaders of the Neutral and Nobles factions were stationed.

「Elk-san, what is going on?」

Milein asked Elk, who was beside her, as they watched Set leave as if being detained.

Elk, who had experienced various things before, roughly understood what was happening. At the question directed towards him, Elk replied with a frown on his face.

「Maybe he was called over to report……?」

Elk glanced towards the fire whirl that was still raging within the Bestir Empire’s army.

From this far distance, he couldn’t see the details as the Bestir Empire soldiers blocked his view. However, he understood that they would continue to take damage as long as the fire whirl remained.

Milein nodded at Elk’s explanation and was about to ask what they should do from here on when a soldier ran up to them from behind while shouting.

「All troops advance! The Bestir Empire’s army is currently in turmoil due to the fire tornado. We will reduce their numbers to even out the difference in strength for now! However, do not approach the area where the fire tornado is and wrap around to attack from the flanks! Neutrals will attack the enemy’s left wing, Nobles will attack the enemy’s right wing! I repeat, whole army advance!」

Hearing the soldier’s orders, the bewildered vanguard immediately took action.

Each unit, party or solo adventurer made their individual moves as they advanced on the Bestir Empire’s army, splitting up to slam into the flanks Bestir Empire’s army.

Of course, the Bestir Empire’s army didn’t watch this silently. The commander, who was still safe, gathered up the nearby troops as started to take action to counter the Mireana Kingdom’s army. However, the confusion of their volunteer soldiers caused a great deal of trouble here as they struggled to organise their forces.

It was at that moment, that the Mireana Kingdom’s army attacked the confused Bestir Empire forces.

 

 

Going back a bit in time, after Rei and Set created the fire whirl and left the Bestir Empire’s army, he returned to the Mireana Kingdom’s army. The two of them were about to join up with Elk when Rei noticed three Dragon Knights flying towards them.

「……You’re on our side, right?」

Since they had come from the Mireana Kingdom’s side, it was clear that they were allies. However, the approaching Dragon Knights seemed to look nervous, so Rei asked them without thinking. If they pointed their spears at him, it wouldn’t be strange for Rei to be to consider them as enemies due to his wariness.

「Y-Yes! I am a member of Duke Kerebel’s knights, the Dragon Knight unit! The Knight Commander and Daska-sama have sent us because they would like to speak with you as soon as possible. If you don’t mind, I would like you to come with me right now!」

The three Dragon Knights positioned themselves either side of Set as the one leading them replied loudly to Rei in a somewhat nervous voice. From the outside, it looked more like they were surrounding an enemy than guiding an ally.

「That’s fine, lead the way. Since I’ve thrown them into confusion, I want to be able to finish this as soon as possible.」

「I understand, this way!」

True to his word, the three Dragon Knights led Rei to the headquarters of the vanguard forces.

 

 

「Daska-sama, as promised, I’ve used a wide range annihilation magic against our enemies. The Bestir army is now in confusion, so we have an overwhelming advantage. We should push our offensive.」

As soon as he arrived at the headquarters, Rei reported to the Neutral and Noble faction’s nobility.

When he heard the report, Daska looked around with a wry smile.

Looking around, most of the nobles were looking at the fire whirl within the Bestir Empire’s army with shocked expressions.

「As you can see, the shock seems to have been a bit much. You’ve gone a bit too far.」

「No, I don’t think so. This man has done his part. He will be rewarded and not reprimanded.」

At Daska’s words, Philma, the Knight Commander of Duke Kerebel’s knights, replied with a wry smile of his own.

It seemed that those words from the leaders of the Neutral and Noble faction brought the rest back to reality. The other nobles started talking to each other excitedly with surprise on their faces.

「……So Daska-sama. Should we push our offensive?」

「Ahh, that’s right. It would be a shame to miss out on this opportunity while the enemy is in turmoil. ……Philma-dono?」

「I have no issue with that. Rather, it would be stupid to waste such an opportunity.」

Morale rapidly rose at the words from the two people in charge. The rise in morale was contagious as it spread to the whole vanguard.

「Send a message to the front! Push the offensive!」

Daska’s shout echoed out from the headquarters of the vanguard.

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