This is the story of a magician and an elf girl.

"!" "!" "!" "!"

Before she could finish her words, Hera emerged from the sandstorm and with a wave of her slender wrist, the annoying storm quieted down in an instant. After all, sandstorms are one of the natural phenomena caused by the climate. As long as she has the power in her hands, not even a grain of sand can touch her charming eyebrows.

"...No...No way..."

In addition, the phoenix behind her - although the feathers in the center of its chest and on the left side of its wings were gone, the flames burning on its body showed no signs of extinguishing, as if it was still gradually filling in the missing parts by burning.

"They were all attacked so strongly..."

"Are they... not dead yet?"

"Indeed, I have said that neither your magic power nor your weapons can penetrate the coat of the phoenix. But even if you did, so what? The body of the phoenix is ​​made entirely of karmic fire. Even if you really have that kind of power, you have to extinguish all the karmic fire all over its body before you can kill it. Last time, the magician also failed to do it. Now you want to defeat my pet with just that immature elf? Hahahaha! What a joke! The title of the Immortal Phoenix is ​​not just for show!"

"Well……"

Hearing Hera's annoying tone, Linnae gradually regained consciousness from her coma, but she could hardly move her body, and could only be treated as a wounded person - this was no different from a lamb waiting to die in front of the Phoenix.

"I can definitely kill all of you right now, but I will be merciful and make an exception today to let you live. I will only use Athena to exchange for this right. If you still don't make a decision within three days, I will burn you all to death with the fire of karma."

"……Well……"

"Tsk... Damn it... I..."

“No… Linna, stand by, we’ll handle this.”

"But……"

"Lady Athena... No!"

Athena, who knew very well that she had to stand up for the people, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when she saw Linna's worried eyes.

As it turned out, she was very similar to that person, the type who couldn't hate others from the bottom of her heart. People like them who wanted to live in this world full of lies and deceptions really didn't need a goddess like me who could only use adventurers as a shield.

"... Linna... Perhaps we have lost the only hope of victory in the past... Facing a large amount of malice, we really have no chance of winning... The end of the world is coming... But the future of adventurers will not end because of this - we still have you here, you are our last hope, just like the "light called mercy" nurtured from that dazzling dawn, your soul is more dazzling than anyone else."

"..."

"...If you say so... you will definitely be able to do it."

"Have you finished talking?"

Hera did not give Athena any time to finish her last words - she had already thought about how to treat this traitor who had betrayed her. First, she would torture her soul for ten thousand years with humiliation, then use her children to raise more powerful pawns for her own use, and then use the election method of the King of Poisonous Insects to let those children kill each other in front of Athena. It must have been a very exciting scene.

"There's no need to be so anxious. I have plenty of time. Let's spend some quality time together, shall we? I'm really looking forward to it... Let's go have afternoon tea together like we used to... Ya... Dian... Yo..."

"..."

Athena had given up from the bottom of her heart, without any regrets. At most, she looked at Xiaoxue and the expressions of Jack and the others a few more times, and then she willingly embarked on this road of no return.

Ah... I guess... this must be the punishment for me over the past few thousand years... Maybe... It's fine like this... After all, this is the retribution I deserve... It would be nice if I could apologize to you in the end...

John...

"Sickle Moon Wind Slash."

Just when Hera and everyone thought that no one would stand up again, a man holding a sharp long sword in the distance swung a blow that was enough to tear apart the atmosphere of despair.

“Swoosh!!!”

The arc-shaped magical outline, which was full of power, easily left a huge gap in front of the phoenix's head. The aftermath of the attack even split Hera's left half.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!"

"Wow...what...is this..."

"...This magic power is...courage..."

"So it's... that werewolf bastard!"

"At least remember my name, Orc Warrior Light, is the timing just right?"

A bold and fearless werewolf warrior appeared, and after severely injuring the phoenix with just one blow, he walked towards the crowd triumphantly. The other adventurers followed him and came to Athena, preventing Hera from taking away their only think tank.

"I'm sorry, I accidentally chopped it off. I was going to chop your head off, but I'm still a long way from that."

"Assholes... those two assholes, Eris and Aite... they never get things done... the ones left are just trash... they're leaving the most troublesome guys behind..."

“Eris… and Aite… are they as expected…”

Athena, who had some idea about the two names, was saved by Light's help and was not caught by Hera and treated as a plaything. However, given the current situation, she still did not think that the injury to Hera's "body" would affect the future situation.

"...Wright, be careful. The two guys she mentioned are the prisoners who once controlled you. Although they are insignificant gods, their power can easily manipulate people's consciousness. You must be especially careful."

"...Oh...I see...So the guy who sent the dark elf to my place...is also responsible, right?...Heh, then there's really no reason not to kill you beasts."

"Then why don't you come out earlier to help us..."

"I'm not as relaxed as you, Jack. My whole body still hurts, but it's more than enough to take down these two guys."

Light, with his enchanting blade exuding power, stared at Hera's almost distorted expression with a confident smile. She should be very clear now that Light, who could severely damage the Phoenix by 10% with just one blow, is very troublesome. If he had other skills in his hands that could launch such attacks several times, the Phoenix, which now has only 40% of its health left, would not be able to completely defeat them.

In addition, they still have servants of the earth spirits there, and the puppets' human wave tactics have been almost exhausted by half in the previous battle. There will be no result if they continue fighting like this. The best way is to continuously send puppets to attack their strongholds in the next few days, reduce their sleep time and rest time, and the best strategy at present is to use a war of attrition and tug-of-war as the premise.

Also - Hera felt that this "container" had almost reached its limit and it was time to discard it.

"Hmm... I'll let you guys call it a draw this time... Anyway, there's still time. I'll give you one last warning, spirit. In three days, I'll make sure you hand over your intellectual inheritance. Otherwise, I won't let you off next time."

"Want to escape, Hugh—"

“Swoosh!”

Jack pulled Light behind him and opened a magic barrier, barely blocking the lightning released by Hera's hand for everyone - at the same time, her hand turned into scorched earth and shattered.

"This body is almost reaching its limit. After all, it is a body that is thousands of years old, and its shelf life has passed. I originally planned to tear her whole body apart in front of the magician to perform a show. After all, she is the first princess of the original human continent. They have a close relationship and are very valuable to me, so I have kept her until now. But now, there is no use for her."

"Wait…Hera! Stop it!"

Before Hera could stop her, Athena saw that she had already turned the body into pieces, which melted into the sand like a clay doll that cracks after drying.

At the same time, the Phoenix also flew high into the sky, putting a great distance between itself and the crowd, leaving only those annoying puppets and Linnai and the others behind.

"... Ugh... Too late... to stop it..."

"Tsk... So it turns out that this is really not Hera's true form?"

"...Ah... the real her is somewhere else... I'm afraid she will appear next time... and just as she said, the body just now... was originally the body of Princess Leia... In the past, after the war... most of the corpses on the human continent were collected by Hera and made into puppets... but I didn't expect that the princess' body would be used like this..."

"...Tsk...what a bad-humored fellow...I will never let her go next time I see her, but shall we retreat now?"

"No, I can still... woo..."

Linnai managed to stand up but fell into Wendy's arms again. After twenty hours of fighting, her spirit and body had reached their limits. An ordinary person could not even last an hour.

Even Wright, a werewolf, was in awe of that tenacity.

"Don't be so stubborn. I'll watch them here. Take her back to rest. I'll take over during this time."

"Wright...your body isn't..."

"This little injury is nothing. Let's go. We don't know what tricks that woman will play the next time we meet. You should rest your mind for that time. Now we don't owe each other anything, okay?"

Wright raised his fist to Jack and swore, then he put the blade on his shoulder. Jack, who had agreed to this in order to recover from his fatigue, could only accept his kindness and raised his fist: "...Good luck, Wright."

"Leave it to me."

"Ms. Linnae... let's go... I'll carry you..."

“Ouch… Damn it…”

After Linnae and the others left, the only ones left who could fight were the self-sufficient earth elf warriors and a few adventurers.

Naturally, those who were not allowed to stay were also driven back underground by Light, and the only ones left were Xiaoxue and him, the servant.

"Are you okay?"

"That's my line... Your wounds haven't healed yet. If you move now, you will definitely die. Do you understand your situation?"

"…I don't want to leave anyone here because I know about it. It seems I can't hide it."

"...The earth elves can hold out for a while longer. Don't try too hard. These guys are monsters that can't think for themselves. The problem is the snipers standing among them who are constantly attacking us from behind."

"Sniper..."

"It looks like a half-human, half-beast monster, but according to Lady Athena's information, it seems to be a subspecies of monster born from the fusion of a monster called a hedgehog tiger and an elf. I can still protect you at a certain distance, but if you walk out of range, you will definitely be shot to death by them as a living target."

"Heh... What a disgusting monster. No wonder the elf became so messy."

"We'll talk later... they're coming."

"Ah, I know it without you telling me. Let's start."

The two who were left behind for the descendants of the heroes took a step forward after declaring war to the puppet army. Seeing their figures getting smaller and smaller, Linna involuntarily closed her heavy and tired eyelids and fell into the world of dreams.