CHAPTER 35: UNIMPRESSED

The man in silver armor floated in the air.

Below him, the ground was a giant scar. The explosion had carved a perfect circle into the battlefield.

The dirt and grass were gone and replaced by a smooth sheet of black, glassy rock that still glowed with a faint red heat.

Thin wisps of smoke curled up from the cracks in its surface.

He hung in the air right in the middle of it all, completely unbothered.

There was not a single speck of dust on his shining silver armor. His long blond hair drifted softly around his face as he slowly looked down at the ruin he had created.

His face was calm. His eyes were cold and empty.

He didn’t look proud. He didn’t look angry. He didn’t even look satisfied.

He just looked bored.

He let out a quiet sigh, the sound swallowed by the huge, empty silence of the crater.

"They used our spell for this? What a waste," he looked around the battlefield, a sense of disappointment in his voice.

His gaze drifted across the smoking crater, sweeping over the devastation with a detached and empty look.

There was nothing left for the most part. Just ruin. Just silence. He was about to turn away when his eyes suddenly caught sight of something.

Something moving among the pile of dead bodies.

He turned his head slowly, his cold eyes narrowing slightly as they focused on the source.

It was Eunice.

She was on her hands and knees, struggling to push herself up from the blackened and glassy ground.

Her body trembled with each movement she made. Her long purple hair, usually combed back perfectly like a cape, was now a tangled mess, caked with dirt and streaks of blood.

Her armor was a wreck. The silver plate on one shoulder was completely gone, revealing a raw and bloody wound underneath.

The rest of her armor was cracked and scorched black with pieces of it having been blown clean off. Her clothes were torn and smoking in places.

Blood ran from a long cut on her forehead, tracing a path down her cheek and dripping onto the ground.

More blood seeped from a dozen other cuts on her arms and legs, staining her tattered clothes a dark and wet red.

She managed to get one knee under her, shaking as she tried to stand.

A pained gasp escaped her lips, and she collapsed back onto her hands. But she didn’t stop.

Gritting her teeth, she immediately started trying to push herself up again, forcing herself onto two legs before long.

"Fuck..." she said, gasping for air. "We were late..." she mumbled to herself, looking at the man who floated in the distance.

The only reason she had been able to survive was because of her strong resistance against magic spells, and even despite that, she was barely in a condition to walk properly.

This was a privilege granted to her as she had access to various sources to better her skills, being part of the Revoltstar family that she was.

However, not everyone had this privilege.

She turned around, looking at the thousands of corpses of her men lying limp on the ground.

Some were missing limbs. Some had been burned to death. While some were in a condition so disfigured they no longer resembled humans.

"I-I... failed all of you..." Eunice said out loud, a look of regret visible in her eyes as drops of blood laced across her eyelid.

The man in the silver armor gazed upon her for a second more before eventually turning around, seemingly unimpressed.

However, just as he was turning and about to leave, Eunice called out to him.

"Where the fuck do you think you’re going, huh?!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "You do not get to just leave like that after doing all this shit!"

The man turned toward her, his eyes fixed at Eunice.

"Oh? What do you suggest I do then?" the man asked. "I don’t really have a lot of time on my hands, you see? I’m quite a busy person if I say so myself."

"For now, I have to deal with that stupid general who used our spell for a meager task like this and report all these matters above. Do you have ANY idea how troublesome all that is?"

The more he spoke the more Eunice’s soul sank.

It wasn’t that he was trying to intimidate her or anything. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

His words had no weight behind them. It was as if killing thousands of people in one swoop was a casual thing for him.

"Tch... I’d heard about the madness of your kind but this is my first time seeing it in person. I can’t believe how there are people who put up with this bullshit," Eunice said to herself.

"Well, I know one thing for sure though," she mumbled, picking up a sword that lay near her on the ground, gripping it tightly.

"You asked what you should do right?!" Eunice asked, speaking loud enough for him to be able to hear her.

"I would suggest, repent!" she said, gritting her teeth as she disappeared from where she stood.

Only a second would have passed before she appeared right next to the man in silver armor, up in the air.

"Hahh!" not wasting a single second she swung her sword, putting all the force she could muster behind her blade and aiming for his neck.

I have one shot at this. He’s not someone I can fight for even a minute. I realize that much, the thoughts went through her mind as every single muscle fiber in her body cried out in pain.

CLINK!

Eunice’s eyes widened. Her aim had been right. It was perfect, in fact. However, just before the sword could reach the man’s neck it clashed with something.

Something that wasn’t visible.

It was like there was an invisible shield around the man, and Eunice’s sword had just clashed with it, dealing not a single cut to the man in silver armor.

He looked at her, seemingly unimpressed in general.

"Is that all?" he asked.