“How on earth did things come to this?”

A deep lament escaped from Teur Rognir’s mouth.

He, who was essentially acting as the supreme commander for the Tower of Control side, was a capable man in many areas.

Not just in magic or politics, but his skill in commanding troops was also the same.

The Tower of Control had been training mages and soldiers for large-scale military operations for quite some time, and this was also their home ground.

Even if the individual skills of the Protection side mages were on par with the Control side, they had never trained assuming large-scale battles and were in a position to fight away from home.

Considering tactical movements and the defender’s advantage, their victory was as good as decided, even if there would be casualties.

That was why he couldn’t help but lament the current situation even more.

“If only they had followed my instructions instead of acting independently…!”

At a glance, it seemed like he was blaming Valdeus’ arbitrary actions, but in reality, it was aimed at the witch Mombi.

Originally, he hadn’t planned to put Mombi at the forefront, but to hide her among allied forces and use her like a blade in the shadows.

The chaos of a melee was the most suitable environment for Mombi to properly utilize her magic.

A witch who could freely change her appearance and instantly kill people just by touching them, how many could calmly engage in battle with such a being nearby?

In Teur’s view, Mombi was a being who could lead the enemy camp to confusion and self-destruction just by subtly revealing her presence while hiding her appearance.

If only she wasn’t fighting like that now, with her position clearly exposed on the outskirts of the battlefield!

“At this rate, it’s like fighting with more than half of her strengths tied up!”

Mombi’s gambit to infiltrate the enemy lines and take down the enemies in one go was now showing the worst results.

She probably thought she could withdraw her body at will, but on the opponent’s side, there were two magic dolls strong enough to forcibly hold her down and simultaneously immune to her instant death attacks.

Teur had no choice but to exclude Mombi from the forces and try to grasp victory on his own, but even that wasn’t going as planned.

— Groooooan

— Ugraaaah

Corpses were walking around the battlefield.

The Tower of Control could easily turn dozens or hundreds of undead into ashes, but if their numbers exceeded five digits, and moreover, if their numbers increased as the war intensified, it was a different story.

Precious firepower that should have been poured on the opposing mages was being wasted on mere corpses, and conversely, the enemies were freely pouring firepower using the undead as shields, or even pouring auxiliary magic on the undead.

If there had only been the undead army, no matter how many there were, they would have been nothing more than kindling in the end.

Conversely, if there had only been the Protection forces, Control could have defeated them on their own.

But when these two combined, no matter how hard Teur tried, the flow of the battlefield was tilting to one side to an extent he couldn’t overturn.

Teur suddenly recalled the words his father had uttered.

“The Queen of the Dead can raise an entire nation’s army alone.”

“If it were her, she wouldn’t resort to such petty tricks and would just invade the tower head-on.”

Those words, which he could understand intellectually but not accept emotionally, Teur could now feel to his bones.

That a necromancer beyond a certain level was itself like an irrationality of the battlefield.

Teur gritted his teeth and shouted to his subordinates.

“Is the magic cannon not recharged yet!?”

“It’s about 90% complete now!”

“It doesn’t have to be perfect! Prepare to fire right now!”

Magic cannon. A large-scale attack formula using ley lines as fuel and the tower itself as the barrel.

The first shot was used to shoot down the giant undead flying from the sky, but its original purpose was to repel ground enemies.

“B-but there are intruders inside the tower now! If the formula goes berserk due to internal disturbances—“

“It’s equally dangerous if our forces keep getting whittled down like this! Hurry!”

At Teur’s resolute order, the subordinates quickly shouted something at the crystal ball.

Then shortly after, a large amount of mana began to surge near the top of the tower.

Signs of response were seen from the Protection side formation as they noticed this, but perfect avoidance or defense was simply impossible.

“Fire!!”

As the gathered mana reached its peak and was finally about to be emitted as a beam, at that moment.

Crack.

As if a light bulb had suddenly gone out, the gathered mana dissipated in vain.

“What…?”

Teur’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

He didn’t know.

That just before, Tower Head Lotbart had been subjugated by Adelaide.

That with the death of Lotbart, who had become one with the crystal pillar that could be called the core of the tower, the ley line mana they had been using at will had lost control and scattered.

And the loss of the tower’s ability brought about an immediate change on another battlefield as well.

Clang!

[The ‘Tin Knight’ protests that there’s no boss character that runs away as soon as their invincibility is removed!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ declares that you’ll never escape from here!]

“Kuk, you persistent doll! Stop it and get away from me!!”

The Tin Knight’s battle stance changed in an instant.

While until now he had minimized mana consumption to avoid being caught off guard during exchanges since he couldn’t inflict damage anyway, now he started focusing on attacks even if it meant using a bit more mana.

One might think that changing position from supporter/tanker to dealer would reduce the ability to suppress the enemy that much, but that wasn’t the case.

Ratatatatat!

“Kuk!”

Under the White Knight’s fierce consecutive attacks, Mombi’s tentacles aiming for the Tin Knight’s rear were intercepted one by one.

While he might not have the transcendent skills of the Tin Knight, the White Knight was also the latest model of magic doll.

His artificial brain was extremely excellent, and his superior computational ability had long since completely analyzed Mombi’s movements.

Every time the mana of sword and spear scattered, the magic letters protecting Mombi’s body were rapidly shaved off.

While the Tin Knight and White Knight were also battered here and there from their efforts to stop Mombi, their movements never dulled, but rather became sharper.

It was the strength possessed by steel warriors not made of blood and flesh.

Looking at the cornered Mombi, Dorothea in the rear snorted, “No matter how great a witch you are, this is what happens when you temporarily borrow someone else’s workshop instead of your own original one.”

If this had been a workshop Mombi had created with her own hands from the beginning, it would have been impossible to cut off the connection between the workshop and Mombi so easily.

No, even if the connection had been temporarily cut off, Mombi would have immediately reclaimed that domain.

In fact, when subjugating the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothea’s party didn’t use tactics to manipulate the workshop itself like this time. No, they couldn’t use such tactics.

That was why the Wicked Witch Witch of the West Elphaba could fire off consecutive super magic that even made Dorothea gasp.

But Mombi wasn’t like that.

She had just recently set foot in the world after being sealed for a long time, and as such, she didn’t have the leisure to create a workshop slowly.

She probably thought she could take down Dorothea’s party sufficiently even with a hastily created workshop, but that was a misjudgment.

Gale also spoke a cold word, “…Relying too much on clumsily obtaining my mentor’s power was your downfall, Mombi. If it had been your original self, you wouldn’t have done something like taking hostages to draw us out for a frontal battle, but would have thoroughly hidden your appearance and identity to drain our blood through surprise attacks and deception. You didn’t become as strong as my mentor, but rather became that much more half-baked.”

Mombi’s tactics were those of an assassin, deceiving the enemy and striking their weak points.

Orin’s tactics were those of a rear tanker, protecting herself and allies with thorough defense.

She pointed out scathingly that it was arrogance for an assassin to reveal herself under the sun just because she had obtained an invincible defense.

Mombi burst with anger at the two women chattering as if the match was already decided, but now she didn’t even have the leisure to express that anger.

The letter barrier had already been completely shaved off, and the damage that had been endured by the protective shield until now was now directly hitting her health in real-time.

Every time she collided with the two knights, flesh was cut, blood overflowed, and bones were broken.

Mombi was actually quite skilled at healing wounds.

She could just “transform” into a body before it was wounded.

However, that, too, was an action that consumed mana.

When she had the external battery of ley lines attached, there was no problem using mana lavishly, but once the external supply was cut off, she had to bear all mana consumption on her own.

The body of Orin that Mombi had stolen contained far more mana than ordinary mages befitting a great witch, but no matter how much, it wasn’t comparable to ley lines.

In this situation, where mana was rapidly draining as the battle continued, Mombi felt a sense of unfairness.

No, even if she was now using her own mana after using someone else’s until now, why did the guys in front of her, unlike her, still have leeway when they had endured from beginning to end with their own mana?

This won’t do at this rate.

At this point, Mombi acknowledged that her chance of victory had plummeted to zero.

She also realized she had no choice but to use the last resort she didn’t want to use if possible.

Mombi forcibly launched a large attack to pry off the two knights.

At the moment when the two knights tried to close the distance again, her body swelled like a bizarre balloon.

Boom!

And, it exploded.

Countless pieces of meat fragments, divided into numerous pieces, began to flee in all directions like a swarm of mice.

The Tin Knight and White Knight quickly swept away the fragments, but there were more fragments escaping than being swept away.

While fleeing in a way that could only be called miserable, Mombi burned with resentment.

She might have been defeated this time, but next time would be different.

I’ll kill you slowly, surely, as if draining your blood.

How long could they endure in extreme stress where they couldn’t trust anyone they met, and would meet death immediately if they allowed even a single instance of physical contact?

Once she killed just the witches, dealing with the knights who had lost their mana supply and couldn’t move would be simple.

Like that, she aimed for the next opportunity and—

“Having such strong power, yet not hesitating to use endlessly petty and cowardly means must be one of your strengths. But you know what? Did you think I’d just let you go?”

Dorothea’s cold words pronounced her end.

With a thud, Dorothea’s staff struck something down.

It was her flesh fragments that the Tin Knight and White Knight had prevented from escaping and gathered.

The Black Witch’s mouth uttered a curse.

“I offer this one’s warm blood, come and drink, those filled with anger.

“I offer this one’s luscious flesh, come and eat, those with remaining desires.

“I offer this one’s swollen soul, come and take revenge, those screaming in sorrow.

“The name of the offering is the Witch Mombi. The wicked witch who ended your lives.”

The world became hazy for a moment.

Souls that had been screaming while holding their own corpses, souls that had been repeating meaningless battles not knowing they were dead, souls that had been sitting on the ground crying profusely, all simultaneously received Dorothea’s mana and faintly revealed their forms.

Some of the souls shook their heads and quietly disappeared even after receiving Dorothea’s invitation.

However, more than 70% of the souls revealed emotions of anger, lamentation, and despair as they rushed towards the flesh Dorothea had struck down—as well as the fleeing flesh fragments.

Blood touched by souls turned black. Flesh touched by souls rotted and crumbled. Souls touched by souls screamed.

If Mombi had been in her original state, she might have been able to deflect such curses, but the witch who had split herself into countless pieces had no power to resist the curse.

The time of predation and revenge was as short as a flash.

The meat fragments all crumbled like sand, and the souls that confirmed this sight also left the ground one by one.

For the end of a witch who once spread infamy across the world, it was quite a shabby death.

***

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