The beastkin powerhouse's sword cut through flesh, drawing blood that dripped to the ground slowly.
But he could not bring himself to smile.
Because the sword had not pierced Louise's back, and instead, it had been grabbed by someone's hand.
Black hair, black eyes, and features so beautiful that they seemed taken out of a fairytale.
But her expression was so cold that it seemed to freeze everything around her.
"Die." Rose's mouth opened.
In the next instant, the head of the beastkin slid down his body.
He did not even manage to see Rose's sword move. His last memory was Rose's ice-cold black eyes, and after that, he was dead.
"T-Thank you," Louise murmured with an expression of relief.
Rose nodded to her calmly before looking to the rest of the battlefield.
At this moment, every beastkin powerhouse had stopped in their tracks.
They were completely frozen, unable to gather the courage to attack the black-haired girl.
Rose's aura was so overwhelming that it felt like the world itself. It was not something that a fifteenth-layer powerhouse could face. Perhaps, not even gods could defeat her.
After all, Rose had already surpassed the world's limits.
She had forged her own path, gaining the qualifications to be an Irregular.
And even among Irregulars, she could be considered rather strong.
If she wanted, she alone could kill all the fifteenth-layer powerhouses in the beastkin side.
But there was a reason she did not.
Since the moment she appeared on the battlefield, she could feel tens of powerful auras locked on her.
Every one of these auras belonged to beings that had surpassed the world's limit. Being beyond the fifteenth layer.
"… How troublesome," Rose muttered to herself.
She was confident in her own strength, but she did not dare to underestimate her enemy.
They had been trained by Emilia, and Immortal being much stronger than her. They surely would not be weak.
At the same time, I heaved a sigh inside the command center.
This time, it was our loss.
Emilia's strategy was great. If that attack would have landed on Louise, she could have died.
Thus, it forced out one of our trump cards, Rose, into the battlefield.
It did not seem like much. But just this is enough for Emilia to get an estimate of Rose's abilities and prepare countermeasures for her.
However, we did not have any other option. In that situation, only three of my girls could have saved Louise, and revealing any of them at this point in time was disadvantageous for us.
In the end, though, revealing Rose was better than revealing the other two.
But now Rose could not move easily. If she moved, she would be attacked by the beyond-fifteenth-layer powerhouses of Emilia, and this was not the time to face them yet.
Thus, despite Rose appearing on the battlefield, she could do nothing but just stand there.
Fortunately, it was the same for the beastkin.
The powerhouses of the beastkin did not dare to attack as long as Rose was there.
But the situation was favorable to them.
I focused my senses on the main battlefield, where the soldiers of both camps were clashing.
Right now, the beastkin were overwhelming the human army. Every second, human soldiers were killed right and left by the beastkin.
Since the start, the number of beastkin was greater than the number of humans, but the situation turned worse after the beastkin powerhouses self-detonated. They were smart enough to self-detonate close to the human troops, killing a group of them in the process.
Due to that, the human army was in disorder, while the morale of the beastkin was rising.
At this rate, the beastkin would overwhelm the humans, leading to us losing the war.
But I did not panic.
I just moved one of my chess pieces.
"It's your turn." My voice reached to my subordinates hidden among the human army.
In the next instant, a group of 250 soldiers suddenly changed their movements.
Until now, they had been fighting like normal soldiers, but when they heard my order, they gathered together and charged towards the beastkin like a sharp knife.
They were [Eternity's Fangs].
I had trained and taught these men for a few months now, turning them into cold and effective killing machines.
The sudden change startled the beastkin. They hurriedly tried to stop the charging humans, but their efforts were futile.
Like a hot knife cutting through butter, these 250 men cut through the ranks of the beastkin easily.
"Dammit, stop them!"
"W-What is happening!?"
"D-Demons!"
None of the men of Eternity's Fangs was that strong. Even with my help, the strongest of them was not even at the twelfth layer. But their fighting strength was much greater than that.
Every one of them was comparable to twenty people of their same layer. Moreover, their teamwork was flawless, and they had learned some techniques from me that enhanced their teamwork to make them even more deadly.
In fact, I had the confidence that this group could face a fifteenth-layer powerhouse as long as the powerhouse fights on the ground.
Now, imagine the result of a fifteenth-layer powerhouse rampaging in a battlefield of normal soldiers.
"Agh!"
"H-Help!"
"Fuck you!"
It was hell.
Every second, hundreds of beastkin were killed. At the same time, the human soldiers recovered their morale when they saw the change in the situation, charging towards the beastkin again.
In just a few minutes, the situation had been turned completely around.
Now, it was the empire's army that held the advantage.
But I was not excited.
Even now, we were only probing each other. In the grand scheme of things, both the beastkin soldiers and the members of Eternity's Fangs were just chess pieces.
They could change the battle situation, but they won't be enough to claim the victory.
I was just observing the battlefield, waiting for Emilia's next move.
I also talked to Alice occasionally to ask her if she saw anything through her powers over fate, but unfortunately, I never got a positive answer.
That was normal, though. As an Immortal, Emilia knew enough about Seers to block their sigh.
Perhaps it would have been different if Ysnay was here, but Alice was not strong enough to see through something that Emilia was concealing.
All of sudden, I saw the corners of Emilia's lips curve up.
"It's time." She muttered. "Activate the plan, [Backyard in Fire]."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
I frowned and heaved a sigh. I fear that Emilia is finally turning serious.
At that moment, a messenger came running towards Dina and me anxiously.
"B-Bad news, Your Majesty. W-We got news that a group of beastkin infiltrated the empire."
"What!?" Dina was surprised.
The messenger gulped a mouthful of saliva and explained the situation.
"Right now, several cities of the empire are under attack!"