G*nocide Trap

René shed her injured body.

"What!?"

What had been René's body was quickly transformed into the beheaded and stabbed body of a girl with wavy blonde hair and wisteria eyes.

Lawrence was astonished when he saw René jump out of the body.

The translucent spirit was clad in a white, delicately decorated dress over René's original body.

This was the body of the "Rose Princess of Hellrage". This was the form of the highest spiritual entity, the Undead Abyss Spirit.

Turning back on her heel (or rather, floating in mid-air), René distanced herself from Lawrence.

“Oh, so that's how you've escaped!"

Immediately, Lawrence unleashed a follow-up 'Tendan'.

Even though she was a spirit, she can still be damaged by a sword that has been applied with «Consecraction».

However.

"≪Countermagic Field≫"

"Kuh...!"

A bubble of magical power enveloped René's spiritual body, and the light of holy energy ruptured on its surface.

Only special magic, including holy energy, would be able to damage the spiritual undead. In short, it was magic damage.

However, there existed in this world "defensive magic" that completely blocked out magic damage as long as MP lasts.

≪Countermagic Field≫.

It canceled out the enemy's magic by draining magic power, which was a terribly inefficient defensive magic, but if René used it, it would become a powerful and tough defense magic. Even the holy magic unleashed after a long delay cannot reach René.

Then René ran up to a girl captured by a skeleton (or rather, floating in the air), held out her hands for an embrace, and jumped in.

The other girl was Gillian, who first introduced herself.

"Ah ..."

René's hand touched Gillian's. And then.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

A scream, which can only be described as a desperate yell, rushed out of Gillian's throat.

As René melted into Gillian, her apple-red eyes and black hair turned to a silver shine.　

The thin neck spurted blood and tumbled down, and the left hand grabbed it. As the right hand held it up in the air, the blood spurting from the neck loosely formed into a sword and settled in the hand. The excess blood was wiped away, carving a fresh blood red rose on her dress.

Gillian's body took on the form of René's and became hers.

"Gillian...?"

"No, no, ahhh!"

One of the knights dropped his shield in dismay, and another girl who had been captured screamed in despair as she realized her fate.

"Don't worry, girls. Although the result of death may be the same, you will not experience even one one-hundredth of the pain I have experienced."

Although she tried to reassure them, the captive girls were screaming and crying, and it was not clear whether they had heard René's words or not.

Even Lawrence stood there in shock.

"Ki, you... what have you done...!"

"I mean, this is subtly uncomfortable ..., like I just peed..."

René tugged at her cold, wet, sticky underwear a bit through her skirt.

It was a trace of Gillian's behavioral incontinence after René had frightened her.

"Now, let's go for round two. If you still want more victims."

"Guuuuh!! ... Perhaps the spirit that comes out after destroying the body is the main body! We can destroy it with holy magic before she gets her next body!"

"Correct. But can you do it?"

Lawrence was sending out instructions, but if that could be done, there would be no trouble.

If they wanted to deal with René in her spirit state, they would first have to hit her with magic attacks until she ran out of magic power.

"Now, think about it again, people. I don't want to do this either. I will release the rest of the children right now if you will die. I will kill infants and the elderly if I have to in the process of revenge, but I don't like to unnecessarily add to the death toll. Do you find me so hard to believe? You do realize that there have been no civilian casualties in this battle, don't you?"

"Don't listen to her!!"

Lawrence yelled over René's words.

Even René didn't think these words would be listened to. It would be a big lie to say so. As daughters of First Order members, they 'barely mattered' (closer to the target for elimination).

The call for surrender was just a foreshadowing. It was just foreshadowing to drive a wedge into the hearts of the knights. To make them think that there was, a way to save the girls, that if they abandon the king and Lawrence, they could protect only their own families.

The power of emotional detection communicated the unrest.

"As long as I kill the Knight Commander, all that's left is a bunch of zombies, so I guess I won't be needing the spare body anymore."

After talking to herself as though she wanted to be heard, René started to run toward Lawrence.

Three steps before Lawrence, who was about to intercept her, she used ≪Short Teleportation≫ and closed the distance at once.

Lawrence then...

--You can't avoid it!?

No, he avoided it. With minimal movement, she missed only the vital point.

The red blade pierced through Lawrence's armor and dug into his left shoulder. But then.

“Raaaaahhhh!!!"

The sword being thrust forward meant that René was there.

Terra Ayur's blow had cut René's torso in two.

The red blade that pierced his shoulder fizzles out. The wound was quickly closed by the recovery magic that was sent from the "Turtle Formation".

--Throwing away the body! You're being reckless, no matter how much recovery you have!

"≪Countermagic Field≫!”

Gillian's body was discarded and René's main body jumped out.

She immediately put up defensive magic again.

"Now, do it!"

"≪Ray≫!”

"≪Holy Arrow≫!”

"≪Foreign Light≫!”

There, "Tendan", which had received the «Consecration», was approached by the attacking magic of fire, and the light of judgment woven by the holy magic.

An explosion of magical power erupted.

The aftermath of the raging light became a holy wind that blew away the area.

René, however, was unharmed. Rushing through the rain of magical attacks, she reached out to her second victim.

"Guh... Giiiiiiiiii!!"

With a desperate cry, the girl's figure turned into René's, and a fresh blood rose was carved into the skirt of her country-style one-piece dress.

"So..., what's next? I'll tell you first, I'd rather kill these children as hostages than have them taken back."

Lawrence clenched his back teeth as René questioned.

The azure-silver blade of the Terra Ayur was coated with blood of a disastrous hue. It was the ≪Blood of Resentment≫ that René had used earlier when Gillian's body was destroyed. The holy energy in the blade was offset and weakened. Lawrence was in such a hurry to win that he slashed directly instead of using "Tendan", which avoided being hit by the ≪Blood of Resentment≫.

The smell of despair began to emanate from the knights, and René was about to let out a charming cry. It was the nature of the Abyss Spirit to find grief and despair "sweet".

"Attack the hostages...!"

Lawrence commanded, looking desperate.

"Lord Commander!"

"No way!"

"We have no choice but to do so. ... Do you think you can save the hostages by conveniently killing only the Undead?"

As expected, Lawrence's tone was bloodthirsty.

Even if they could successfully defeat the skeletons holding hostages, it would only be at the head of the thousand-plus troops surrounding the battlefield. The soldiers behind him would soon come to fill in the holes.

The undead soldiers were not even going to help René in a pinch, they were going to stand by and wait. There was no room for them to take advantage of the situation.

It may have been possible to rescue the victims if the nearby undead could be neutralized at once by using magic that did not work on human beings, such as ≪Sanctuary≫.

However, the number of targets and the range of the effect would be difficult to achieve with any of these magic methods. It was necessary to increase the power and range of the effect by making it a ritual magic, even if only a simple one.

If the magician and the others worked too hard to prepare the magic, René would kill Lawrence in the meantime.

It would be best to abandon the hostages. And to prevent René from using their bodies, it was a rational decision to destroy them before they could be used.

"Well, so if you guys are willing to die..."

"≪Fire Ball≫!”

A staff protruded from the gap between the lined shields, and a fireball flew out.

The target was... not René.

Aimed at girls caught by skeletons.

"≪Wind Shear≫!”

René used defensive magic, and a swirling barrier of wind blocked the flames.

The fireball bounced off just before it landed.

" ... What are you doing?"

The knights tried to kill the hostages (or what was left of them), and René prevented it.

Looking at the situation alone, it looked as though it was all a bit of a mess.

The man in the robe, who had thrust out his staff and released the magic, was biting his lip so hard that it bled and staring at the girl with a miserable expression on his face.

"M-my...! My daughter is dead now! For the sake of all the people! The longer we hesitate, the worse our chances of victory!"

"Father!?"

The targeted girl screamed in tears.

"No! Stop, help me, father!!"

"Forgive me... forgive me..."

The father and daughter began to play the pensive scene, but the knights around the father began to murmur.

“Hey, what are you doing!”

"My daughter, my daughter is here!"

"What are you doing? This is an order from the Lord Commander!"

The knights began to scuffle.

"You can say that because you don't have children of your own!"

"The life of your country is more important than your family!"

"As a knight, you must obey the orders of your commander..."

"Find a way to save them without killing them."

"Have you forgotten what we owe His Majesty?"

"If we don't defeat them here, more people will die!"

The crowd was in front of the enemy, René, but they were arguing, and the formation was distorting.

They were all desperate. However, the order of priority of what they were desperate for differed from person to person, and in the extreme situation where lives were at the brink, the differences were exposed.

"It's unavoidable...!"

Seeing the commotion, Lawrence moved.

He stepped toward René.

-- "Tendan" ...! He's going to try to cut!

Seeing that his allies would collapse if he did not do something, Lawrence himself came to clean up the mess.

In any case, if he cut them down, the dispute would be settled because there would be no way to recover. Even if some of them lost their will to fight, it would be better than a collapse.

Lawrence's judgment was probably correct. René sensed that the knights' emotions were getting out of control.

"...≪Shield≫!”

René magically created a wall of light.

The wall, which fanned out around René and stretched over a wide area, was positioned to protect the girls from Lawrence's "Tendan".

Lawrence, swinging his Terra Ayur, did not stop...

He seemed to intend to penetrate the defense with all his might.

A strong step.

And then...

At the same moment that Terra Ayur swung through, René weakened the strength of «Shield» and changed it to the strength level of a Haribo.

(TLN: I think it's the candy, I guess...)

The wall of light shattered and cracked.

With a single swing of Lawrence's sword, nearly 100 undead were blown away.

Of course, the girls who were being held by the undead soldiers.

Even ... René.

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