As a grand demon lord, the Sky Lord’s strength could indeed be described as terrifying. The magical ability to open a portal through space allowed for instantaneous movement, and could simultaneously be used as a shield or a weapon. However, through careful analysis, one would discover that it was not without flaws.
“We can first be certain that this high-level demon can only open one passage at a time and the entrance of the passageway must be within arm’s reach,” Edith said. “Secondly, although it’s difficult to ascertain the range of the portal, it must be at least over two kilometers.”
“Sounds like the advanced version of Orbit’s ability.”
After spending a lot of time with Roland, Edith learned from him several strange pet phrases that he liked to use, for example: “advanced version”, “special advanced version”, “enhanced advanced version”, etc.
“Just by looking at the range that indeed seems to be the case.” The Pearl of the Northern Region nodded. “However the number of passages Orbit creates depends on the amount of magic she has. The Sky Lord, on the other hand, can only open a new passage once the previous one has been closed. He was in a very tight situation at the time so it’s unlikely that he wasn’t using his true ability. This information is vital because it determines the essence of our countermeasure against him—if the Sky Lord could use multiple passages at once, the situation would be a hundred times more complicated.”
After the other two digested her words, she continued on and said, “Another important point is that even though he can easily expand and shrink the passage entrance and exit ways, Hackzord must be standing nearby the door in order to maintain them. According to Miss Sylvie’s observations, he spent several seconds closing the large Distortion Door when the explosion occurred on Archduke Island before flying to the south side of the island.”
“This means… the larger the door the door he opens, the slower it is to close it?” Iron Axe said thoughtfully.
“It’s very likely that this is the case.” Edith said, spreading her hands. “The final point is his Achilles heel—Hackzord isn’t a Magic Slayer; he cannot stop the movements of witches and doesn’t pose enough of a threat to people wearing God’s Stone of Retaliation. Even though his body is not weaker than that of Extraordinaries, he will be trapped in anti-magic regions if he engages in close combat. I certainly don’t think he will want to not sacrifice his own life in exchange for the lives of two or three mere humans.”
Edith paused. “To summarize, the Sky Lord’s main ability is to open a two-way passageway that is centered around himself, has a radius of several kilometers and can only be opened one at a time. No matter if it is the entrance or the exit, as long as both sides of the door are affected by a God’s Stone, the passage will break apart.”
“So if he appears once again, our countermeasure will be…”
“If he is located at the periphery of the battlefield and the exit of the door isn’t facing the battlefield, Miss Sylvie will directly bombard him with artillery,” Edith said systematically. “If the exit of the door is inside the battlefield, or if he uses the door to directly charge into the First Army’s formation, then get the soldiers to do nothing and leave it to the professionals.”
“Do nothing?” Iron Axe was a little surprised, then, as if he realized her meaning, he said, “…oh I see.”
“Indeed,” Edith revealed a smile, “In reality the Sky Lord’s most effective method of attack is using our own weapons against ourselves. If our soldiers can hold their attack, there is actually a limit to the threat he poses to our lineup—just as I said before; strategically, his ability is irreplaceable for maneuvering troops, but using it to attack is not a good idea.”
With the frontline of the First Army ignoring him, it was not like the grand lord could just charge into the ditch and engage in close combat with the soldiers. If he did that, then when the professionals—God’s Punishment Witches, arrived on the battlefield, his death would be inevitable.
“What if he counterattacks during the intervals between artillery fire?” Agatha asked after a moment of thought. “For example, he first opens a passage to the outside, making us think that he was gathering more troops, and when our artillery fires he opens a new large door and positions the exit inside our battleground, subjecting us to our own artillery fire.”
Just from being able to think of this was enough to prove that the Ice Witch had put a lot of work into Graycastle’s new weapons.
“This is indeed something that could work in theory; however, I don’t believe the Sky Lord will do that,” Edith explained. “Opening a door for only one person can be done in a blink of an eye, but expanding it so wide so that it would completely protect him would need time. The time difference between the two is very limited and if it fails, the result would be being blasted into pieces by the shells that have fallen behind him. To a grand lord, such a move is too risky.”
“All in all, I can take it that the Sky Lord is not as much as a threat to the frontline as we thought, right?” Iron Axe said while rubbing his chin.
“So far that is the conclusion that the General Staff have reached.” Edith gave a definite reply. “Of course, this only applies if Hackzord leads troops into battle by himself. If he was accompanied by other grand lords, then the threat he poses will instantly multiply dramatically.”
—Like bringing Ursrook along and directly charging into the middle of their battle formation.
Iron Axe and Agatha couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief. Luckily, Ursrook had already died in the Fertile Plains.
“But this doesn’t rule out the possibility of a new Magic Slayer appearing; so if it’s possible, it’ll be best if we find a chance to rid ourselves of this problem.” There was a hint of murderous intent in the Pearl of the Northern Region’s tone.”He will only be no threat to us when he disappears completely.”
Upon hearing this, Agatha couldn’t help but feel impressed. Not only was a ‘mortal’ seemingly showing no fear towards a demon, but she was also plotting the death of a grand demon lord. What would have definitely sounded delusional in the past didn’t sound strange at all to anyone at the current moment, as if it was the logical and obvious thing to do.
Over the past four hundred years, humans had indeed changed a lot.
Whether it be people or things.
Perhaps the Union’s silence wasn’t all together a bad thing.
At least, they didn’t pass down the fear of the strong from their era to this era.
Now that she thought of it, there might as well have been many normal people possessing potential like Edith Kant in the Union’s time, but the pessimistic views and fear that pervaded the race restricted their thoughts and willpower. Together with the estrangement intentionally created by the upper classes, the era was very bleak on the whole.
But this time, before humans had gotten the chance to taste real hopelessness, Roland Wimbledon curbed its spreading.
As she was feeling a surge of emotions, she once more recalled the moment when she woke up from deep sleep in the Frozen Coffin, and met Roland for the first time.
“Mortals can also defeat demons”. Everything started from those words…
“Hackzord probably won’t fall for the same trick twice, do you have a good plan?” Iron Axe asked.
“As long as the First Army’s movements are flexible enough, even if we don’t set a trap, we still have the chance to get rid of him—for example, equipping ‘Fire of Heaven’ with a large caliber weapon that can shoot God’s Stones.”
“True,” the commander in chief mused. “But that would need quite a lot of God’s Stones. Don’t tell me you have already thought of a way to process God’s Stones?”
“How could that be possible.”
“Huh?”
Edith shrugged. “I’m the chief of the General Staff, not god. I’m alright at making suggestions but as for how to realize them, that will obviously be up to His Highness, Roland, to figure out. Relax, I’ve written everything in the battle report. In order for the frontline to achieve victory, he should be doing his best as well.”
The other two people couldn’t help but twitch their mouths.
It appears like His Highness’s white hairs… are going to increase again.