Arc-7 Ch-50

"Wait, Ariel."

"What is it, Father?"

"Before we go in, let's figure out a few strategies."

In the heart of the ruins, I stopped Ariel right in front of the door to the room where I believed Angie was being held.

Ignoring the wary, suspicious looks aimed my way by the twins and the lone Lost Item, I ran through every possible scenario I could think of in my mind. After all, the only things waiting beyond that door were a xenophobic extremist elf and a ruin with completely unknown intentions—nothing but trouble no matter how you looked at it.

I remembered the very first time I encountered that "Sphere." We’d jumped straight into a fight without even exchanging proper words, and I’d nearly gotten myself killed for it. Even during today’s exploration of the ruins, there’d been several moments where death had been right on my heels. Honestly, the fact that we hadn’t taken a single casualty or even a serious injury felt like nothing short of a miracle.

And I wasn’t the kind of man reckless enough to just charge into a room like that, blindly trusting in luck I might not have.

I was a coward, the kind who scurried along like a rat hugging the ground. But that was exactly why I kept my wits sharp and trained my body relentlessly, managing to survive all the way to today even after taking wounds that should’ve killed me. In a fair-and-square martial arts tournament or a proper duel, cowardice and dirty tactics would be slammed with a storm of condemnation from everyone watching.

But on an actual battlefield, they’re allowed. More than that, when human lives are at stake, they’re practically expected.

"Strategies? Can’t we just ask this ruin to return Mother to normal and call it a day?"

"Now, Ariel, that’s a naive way of looking at it."

"Lionel’s right. Plenty of adventurers never made back after being attacked by monsters. Even we got jumped by a whole horde of them. It’s safer not to assume we can sit down and have a proper negotiation with something like that."

"Then, Father, do you have any idea what kind of traps might be waiting for us?"

"Honestly, I don’t. If this were a battlefield, I could make some educated guesses, but this is an ancient ruin we’re talking about."

Most of the doors throughout the ruins had been sealed shut, and the path leading here had been a single, straightforward route. If there had been standard dungeon traps like pitfalls or collapsing ceilings along the way, we wouldn’t have had any way to avoid them and would’ve ended up at a dead end long before reaching this point.

And yet, the ruins’ defenses consisted of nothing but monsters. There were no guards stationed at the entrance, no physical barriers meant to keep intruders out. Looking back through historical records, elves had certainly served as personal attendants and elite bodyguards for nobles, but they had never once fought in a war that put the survival of their entire tribe on the line.

Maybe it was because they lacked traps designed specifically for humans, or even basic small-unit tactics, that they resorted to unleashing monsters with superior physical abilities to do the fighting for them. Could it be that these elves had never even experienced combat between floating islands, let alone an outright war between nations?

It was almost laughable to think I’d nearly died because of opponents like that. Even so, underestimating them would be a fatal mistake. There was always the chance they were deliberately lulling their enemies into a false sense of familiarity by repeating the same tactic over and over before suddenly switching things up. Being paralyzed by too much fear wouldn’t help, but brushing them off as insignificant and leaving an opening would be just as bad.

"Well, the most likely situation is that they’ve got a few monsters tucked away as bodyguards."

"Ugh... you’re saying we have to fight those things again?"

"Father, Ariel’s already worn out, and she’s running low on magic cartridges. If we get hit with the same numbers as before, there’s no way we’re coming out of it alive."

"I know. If we were only dealing with elves, I’d have a whole mountain of ways to handle them."

"...Normally, shouldn’t armed people be considered just as terrifying as monsters?"

『Don’t underestimate him. Leon Fou Bartfort is one of the most capable talents in the present Holfort Kingdom when it comes to small-unit command.』

"Was that meant to be a compliment?"

I really didn’t want my children to become aware of that side of me, the part that excelled at the "cut, thrust, and shoot" of combat. If my kids started seeing their father and head of the household as nothing more than a killer who’s taken countless enemy lives and watched just as many allies fall on the battlefield, I wouldn’t be able to take it. No matter how much the House of Bartfort had built its name and status on military achievements during times of war.

"Well, it’s just the absolute basics of tactics. Before we make contact, we’ll use flashbangs to knock out their vision and hearing."

『I see you’re still relying on the same tactics as always.』

"Shut it. It’s the simplest and most reliable method there is."

"But hold on, will flashbangs even work on those monsters?"

"That’s the problem."

From everything I’d observed in battle so far, along with what I’d learned from dissecting their corpses, their senses of hearing, smell, and taste were incredibly sharp. On the other hand, their eyesight seemed poor, likely because they’d adapted too deeply to living in darkness. I’d often heard from hunters that creatures desensitized to light don’t react at all to sudden flashes; if that were true here, then simply blowing out the monsters’ eardrums might not be enough to stop them.

"I do have a few stench bombs with me, but..."

"Then why not just use those?"

"They’re difficult to handle. Especially in an enclosed space, the smell tends to linger, so if things go south, it could end up restricting our own movement."

『Organic lifeforms certainly have their hardships. It’s a struggle I, as an inorganic entity, cannot truly comprehend.』

"Don’t talk like it’s someone else’s issue, you damn Sphere. We’re stuck in this mess in the first place because you can’t take control of these ruins."

『That responsibility does not lie with me. The problem stems from the ruin’s artificial intelligence, which is currently blocking my access.』

"Always nitpicking and splitting hairs."

"Hey, how do those monsters always know exactly where we are?"

"Based on the Sphere’s analysis and what we’ve seen in combat so far, it’s probably sound, scent, and body heat."

"But they were packed so tightly in that hallway. Isn’t it weird that they never mistook each other for us?"

When Ariel, who usually relies more on instinct than analysis, pointed something like that out, I found myself without a clear answer. She was right. With that many of them crammed together, it wouldn’t have been strange at all for them to misidentify one another and descend into chaos. After all, even in human battles, misidentification caused by conflicting information, poor confirmation under intense adrenaline, or even friendly fire due to lack of proper training happened all the time.

Why was it that these monsters, with bodies more than twice the size of a human and such extreme ferocity, didn’t end up tearing each other apart even though they didn’t seem to be communicating at all? Something kept nagging at the back of my mind. Was I overlooking something important here?

"It’s possible they were communicating through those growls."

"But it didn’t look like they were taking turns or exchanging sounds like that."

"Then could it be noises outside the range we can hear?"

『I have performed a thorough analysis of the combat data, and there is no evidence suggesting they produced sounds beyond the human auditory range.』

"Hmm, I’ve got nothing."

"……Father, I don’t know if this will count as a useful lead. But there is one case we might be able to use as a reference."

"Go on, tell me. Right now, I want even the smallest scrap of information."

Lionel, who had stayed quiet up until now, finally stepped into the conversation. His breadth of knowledge was on a completely different level compared to mine, since I’d never received a proper education, and Ariel, who was far more suited to physical action than thinking things through. Lionel, on the other hand, had grown up reading books from all kinds of fields that Angie had given him since he was young.

Even though Angie had once been the daughter of a duke and was highly capable in matters of governance, she actually had a strong passion for adventure. I knew she used to slip in books related to adventurers among his study materials, hoping to spark some interest in him. Well, it didn’t seem like it ever really caught the attention of my gentle, mild-mannered eldest son, though.

"It was mentioned in a biology book Melanie was reading earlier. There are insects that treat anything coated in the scent released by the corpses of their own kind as an enemy."

"The scent of corpses?"

"Yeah… it looks like right before they die, they smear a scent onto their enemy—one that only their own kind can pick up—so the swarm marks them as a target and goes after them."

"Father, what do you think?"

"……It’s possible."

『It has been confirmed that certain insects exhibit cannibalistic tendencies, being attracted to pheromones released by the corpses of their own species. As Lionel Fou Bartfort pointed out, the existence of organisms that coat external enemies in a scent to provoke attacks from their own kind is also an established fact.』

It’s true that plenty of living creatures are highly sensitive to the smell of blood. Blood spilled by one of their own puts them on alert, and I’m well aware of predators that can track and relentlessly pursue the scent of an injured animal. We’d already slaughtered a large number of monsters on our way here. There’s no doubt their senses could easily trace the exact location of these three humans, now thoroughly drenched in the scent of their fallen comrades.

"Eww… do we seriously smell that awful right now?"

"Well, we’ve been through hell getting this far, covered in grime and blood. It’s not like we can just stop and wash our gear with water here."

『Blood has the characteristic of coagulating over time. Once it has seeped deeply into the fibers of clothing, removing it with water becomes extremely difficult.』

"So then… if the monsters show up, are we gonna be the first ones they go after?"

Lionel looked visibly discouraged as he checked the remaining number of his magic cartridges. For my eldest son, who lacked the assertiveness of his younger siblings, it must’ve felt like his idea had been brushed aside. Still, that didn’t mean what he said was useless. History is full of examples where something seemingly trivial ended up deciding the outcome of an entire battle. We didn’t have much time to plan, but we had to reduce as many unknowns as possible.

"Lionel, don’t be so hard on yourself."

"I don’t need your pity, Father."

"If anything, you’ve just given us a crucial piece of information for dealing with the monsters when they show up."

"Like what, exactly?"

"That’s what we’re all about to figure out now."

『So in the end, you’re just leaving it to everyone else, I see.』

"Shut up."

While muttering a curse at the floating little nuisance, I pushed my mind to its limits, running through every possible scenario I could think of. If we lost here, that’d be the end of everything. No matter how many victories you rack up along the way, if you fail to achieve your objective, then the entire war is still a loss.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※

"I woN’t let yOU humans esCApe from the rUins!!"

"And what exactly do you think you can do about it?"

"I’LL shoW yOU thIS!!"

The bespectacled elf slammed his hand against a nearby machine. At the same moment, cylindrical tanks packed full of monsters began rising upward. The liquid spilling out from them flooded across the floor as the creatures emerged, looking like beasts freshly torn from the womb. To put it bluntly, they were so grotesque it made my stomach churn.

Just seeing them was enough to make it clear. The technology hidden within these ruins was far too dangerous for the world as it is now. It’d probably be better to erase every trace of it completely.

I quietly slid my hand to my waist and gave a signal to the twins behind me. Out of the multiple strategies we’d considered, the situation unfolding now was dangerously close to the worst-case scenario. That was exactly why we’d been able to prepare ahead of time and brace ourselves mentally.

"DIE!! Die!! DIeeeEE!!"

"You don’t look anything like a refined race, Mr. Elf. Care to show me a slightly more noble and wise side of yourself?"

"SHUT UuuuUP!!"

With a casual motion, I checked the position of my rifle. It was already loaded with magic cartridges and equipped with a suppressor. Ever since I ran away from home in my mid-teens and enlisted in the Kingdom Army, I’d become intimately familiar with firearms. Whether I was operating in total darkness where night vision was useless, marching through the brutal cold of midwinter with fingers gone numb, or even staggering from blood loss and injury, my body would still move with machine-like precision to kill. Even without conscious thought, it knew what to do.

"Why do you always have to provoke them like that, Father!?"

"You’re the worst!! I seriously can’t believe you!!"

My own kids were treating me coldly, even though they’d been acting like fresh recruits right up until we stepped into these ruins. If this was supposed to be an act to deceive the elves, there was way too much real emotion mixed into it. Come on, at least show your old man a little consideration.

"Kekeke, what’s this? Infighting? If you’re going to surrender, now’s your chance."

"I think you’re the one who should be surrendering."

"Don’t MESS wiTH ME!"

The bespectacled elf slammed his hand against the machine again. At the same moment, the monsters that had remained silent since emerging from the tanks let out a unified groan. It seemed he was issuing commands to them through that device. In other words, they weren’t reacting to the elves’ voices at all. They were obeying signals transmitted by the machine. Even so, their obedience didn’t appear as absolute as that of the humanoid machines from the ruins where the floating ball had once been. Living creatures inevitably vary more than machines, and their actions are hindered by sensory input and pain. That’s exactly the kind of gap a coward like me can exploit.

"DIEeee!!"

The instant the bespectacled elf screamed, I gave the signal to the twins waiting behind me. At the same time, a faint metallic clink rang out as metal struck metal. I dropped low, diving behind a nearby machine and curling into myself, bracing for both the deafening blast and the incoming shock.

BOOOM!!

A few seconds after I squeezed my eyes shut and clamped my hands over my ears, a shockwave tore through the entire room. The flashbangs my children had yanked from my backpack detonated, unleashing a blinding burst of light and a thunderous roar that made our eardrums tremble.

"GAAUUHH!!"

"Wh-what the hell was that!?"

"My eyes! My eyes!!"

"OOHHHHH!!"

The screams of both elves and monsters erupted at once, overlapping into pure chaos. Taking the full brunt of a flashbang’s light and sound leaves anyone incapable of coordinated movement for several dozen seconds. Within those few dozen seconds—that tiny sliver of time we’d managed to carve out—our future, no, the future of House Bartfort itself, would be decided.

"Are you two alright?"

"Barely..."

"I can still move."

"The targets are the monsters. Fire."

I relayed our next move using the absolute minimum number of words. My body had already shifted into a firing stance, rifle shouldered and steady. It was loaded with magic bullets, and I had the muzzle trained squarely on the nearest monster. The twins, following the plan we’d hammered out before entering the room, also raised their rifles—each one loaded with magic cartridges and fitted with suppressors, just like mine.

Psh! Pash! Bish!

"AAHAAAHH!!"

"GUGYOOO!!"

Even though the suppressors dulled the sharp crack of the gunfire, the destructive force of the magic bullets remained unchanged. The mana sealed within both the projectile and its casing surged the instant the shot was fired, saturating the bullet and reaching peak output the moment it exited the barrel. We’d deliberately muted the sound as a precaution, in case a missed opening shot revealed our position. Now that we’d already struck, it didn’t matter whether the suppressors stayed on or came off.

The monster I aimed at took a magic round straight to the gut. Lionel and Ariel, whether by coordination or coincidence, appeared to have focused fire on that same target, tearing deep into its head and chest. When struck directly by a magic bullet—something on a completely different level from ordinary ammunition—blood splashed across the floor, chunks of flesh were blown free, and its entrails spilled out, releasing a raw, nauseating stench. The overwhelming reek of blood must’ve reached a density far beyond the "death scent" clinging to the three of us from the dozens of monsters we’d cut down to get here.

"GUGYAAHH!!"

"GYIGIHH!!"

"URURUUAA!!"

The monsters that had crawled out from the tanks had been in the middle of forming ranks, most likely under the bespectacled elf’s control.

First, we’d used the flashbangs to strip these creatures—beings with hyper-developed hearing, smell, and taste—of their sight and hearing. If Lionel’s theory held true, then these monsters would prioritize anything marked with the scent of their fallen kin. If, in their current state, they began to mistake their own kind—now drenched in splattered blood and shredded flesh—for the enemies surrounding them...

What followed would be nothing short of a massacre.

"GYOOHH!!"

"AH! GYAAH!!"

"GIGUAA!!"

A monster with multiple arms and the lower body of a snake; a giant-like creature with horns even larger than its own head; a monster with misshapen, twisted wings and hooked claws in place of proper limbs; a monster with inflamed skin grotesquely covered in swollen lumps. All of them lunged at once, pouncing upon the monsters that had been drenched in the blood and shredded flesh of the ones we had just taken down moments before. To monsters whose eyes had regressed and whose ears had been blasted apart by the flashbang, an "enemy" was nothing more than whatever creature happened to be standing right next to them, reeking of fresh blood.

Naturally, the monsters being attacked fought back with frantic desperation. Even if the ones assaulting them were of their own kind, there was no possible way for them to confirm it in their current state. Then, as those caught in the struggle were wounded by the counterattacks, more injured monsters inevitably began to appear, and those newly wounded ones were, in turn, targeted by other nearby monsters as the vicious cycle continued to spiral. Among these creatures, there wasn't even the slightest trace of camaraderie or instinct that would make them hesitate or stop attacking those around them. Their minds were crammed with nothing but the absolute commands given by the elves: to tear apart, to sink their fangs into, to lap up the blood of, and to gorge themselves on the flesh of anyone who approached the ruins, without exception or distinction.

Even so, a small, no, an incredibly small feeling of pity stirred faintly within my chest.

"Stop! Stop it! The humans are the ones you're supposed to be targeting!"

An elf standing nearby staggered forward toward the monsters in sheer panic, shouting at the top of his lungs. He was still clutching at his eyes and ears, clearly not having fully recovered from the blinding flash and deafening roar of the flashbang. Even so, he desperately tried to force himself to intervene, struggling to stop the monsters from mercilessly slaughtering each other.

　I didn’t need to focus to know it wasn’t any kind of pity for the monsters.

They were just panicking, scrambling to correct a situation that had spiraled completely out of control, even though they’d originally intended to have those things hunt us down.

In any case, they rushed toward the monsters in desperation, closing in to the exact range where the creatures’ attacks could easily reach them.

Carelessly approaching a monster leads to nothing but a gruesome death; having been on the receiving end of those attacks until now, we understood that better than anyone.

Slash!

The monster’s claws, as long and sharp as small knives, tore through the air.

In the very next instant, a massive gash split open across the elf’s chest, and blood burst outward with violent force.

The elf probably didn’t even register what had just happened to their own body.

Wearing a dazed expression, they pressed a hand against their chest; the moment they realized what the liquid soaking their palm was, they fell into sheer panic.

"Hiiieeegh!?"

That shrill scream was a fatal mistake. The monsters were sensitive to sound, and they instantly picked up on the scent of fresh blood.

Driven by pure hunting instinct, the monsters began to swarm the weakened prey now drenched in what might as well have been "blood sauce."

"S-to—! Gweh! He—lp me!"

Just watching them cough up bubbles of blood while begging for help was enough to drag my mood into the gutter.

If it had been my family or one of my subordinates being attacked, I’d have tried to save them somehow.

But right now, we and the elves are enemies.

I’m not eccentric, and I’m definitely not virtuous enough to risk my life going out of my way to save an enemy.

While my heart recoils at taking the lives of others, my body has been cruelly conditioned to the act of killing enemies.

I’ve despised this side of myself for a long time, and to make matters worse, I’m standing right in front of my son and daughter.

Without bothering to hide my irritation, I swapped out the magic rounds loaded in my rifle for standard ammunition.

"Stop it!!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

This time, a nearby elf started wildly firing a handgun at the monsters, trying to save their comrade.

It was pointless. With a mind as cold as ice, I already understood that elf’s ultimate fate.

If those monsters could be brought down by a handgun like that, adventurers wouldn’t be going missing, and we’d have had a far easier time making it to this place.

Monsters that function so perfectly as slaughtering machines can’t be killed with anti-personnel bullets.

Unless you strike with a large-caliber firearm, prepare an enormous stockpile of magic rounds beforehand, or mow them down with high-output magic like Ariel’s, killing these monsters is impossible.

The compassionate elf who desperately tried to save their comrade only managed to earn the monsters’ wrath, becoming the next target.

It’s a story from long ago, but it reminds me of the time I accompanied my father and older brother to hunt pests that were ravaging our fields.

The scene was almost identical to how carnivores hunt in a pack.

The monsters swarmed the elves, competing with one another to be the first to sink their teeth and claws into them. The panicked elves tried to resist in desperation, but it only delayed their inevitable deaths by a few dozen seconds at most.

Similar scenes were unfolding all across the room; most of the elves being torn apart belonged to the armed faction.

"Hurry!! We have to stop them!!"

"Tch!!"

A voice louder than all the others cut through the chaos of the monsters and the screaming elves.

Turning my gaze toward it, I saw the bearded elf, the former village chief, grabbing the bespectacled elf by the shoulder and barking out orders. Just as I’d suspected, it seemed the elves were capable of more than simply inciting the monsters to attack; they could force them to stop as well.

In that case, the priority in this situation wasn’t the monsters, but the elves.

"UGOO..."

"GAAHH..."

"OUUA..."

The monsters suddenly began to writhe in pain, collapsing where they stood while letting out low groans. Even though they stopped tearing into the elves they’d been attacking, they still refused to release the flesh clenched in their grasp.

When I checked the elves again, I caught sight of the bespectacled elf frantically manipulating some kind of device. It was safe to assume that machine was what they used to control the monsters.

"Lionel, Ariel. I’ll leave the monster extermination to you."

I mouthed the brief command and immediately broke into a sprint toward the elves without waiting for a response.

With the monsters’ movements halted, the worst-case scenario would be giving the enemy group time to regain their footing. There could be more elves or monsters lurking elsewhere in this room; if they received reinforcements, it would spell our defeat.

I couldn’t let this opening slip away. The best course of action was to crush them all at once.

The group of elves consisted of seven in total: the bespectacled elf, the bearded elf, two elves in white coats who looked like technicians, and three elves armed with handguns.

It was a number I could suppress on my own, but it was also enough to make subduing everyone without anyone getting hurt, ally or enemy, extremely difficult.

My mind coldly began categorizing them into "enemies who must not be killed," "enemies to subdue without killing if possible," and "enemies it can’t be helped if I kill."

The ones who absolutely couldn’t be killed were the ringleaders, the bespectacled elf and the bearded elf. They were necessary for future interrogation, so I had to capture them alive and hand them over to the Kingdom’s authorities.

The ones I’d avoid killing if possible were the elves who looked like technicians; after all, any information related to Lost Items was invaluable.

As for the armed elves, I’d strike them with everything I had. If you truly don’t want to be killed, then you shouldn’t be carrying a weapon meant to kill others.

I shifted my grip on my rifle into a reverse hold and charged at the nearest elven soldier.

Swinging the rifle like a massive sledgehammer, I brought the wooden stock crashing into the side of his head with all my strength.

The reason I didn’t finish him off with a bullet was because I was wary of the monsters. If I were attacked by monsters drawn to the scent of elven blood in this state, I wouldn’t be able to deal with it.

I released the rifle and moved toward my next target, a technician elf in a white coat.

I discarded the rifle because there was no point in holding onto a gun I couldn’t fire, and I wasn’t particularly skilled at using it as a blunt weapon to begin with.

The elf in the white coat was so stunned by my sudden assault that he stood rooted in place, unable to even attempt to resist.

There was no need for anything complicated against an opponent who didn’t even try to fight back. I clenched my right hand into a fist and drove it straight into his stomach.

I felt the soft give of the elf’s abdomen through my knuckles; it shouldn’t rupture his internal organs, but it’d hurt enough to make him vomit up everything he’d eaten today.

Bang! Bang!

"Gyaa!!"

Gunshots echoed out. A few seconds after I hastily used the gut-punched elf’s body as a shield, the smell of blood began to spread through the air.

It looked like the elf I’d used as a shield had been shot by his own ally.

Good grief. Here I was, going out of my way to hold back so I wouldn’t kill them, and they end up shooting one of their own? They’ve completely lost it. It seemed these extremist elves placed almost no value on life, not just human life, but even their own kind.

"Stop! Who the hell shoots their own comrade!?"

The bearded elf desperately tried to restrain the soldier who had fired. It seemed the ones pulling the trigger really were the soldiers.

I cautiously peeked out from behind the elf I was using as cover to check the enemies’ positions. They were scattered all over without forming any kind of line; it was a pathetic sight, with their own allies standing directly in their line of fire. They didn’t just lack military discipline, they didn’t even grasp the basics of group tactics.

Realizing we’d been toyed with by a bunch of amateurs like this made my blood boil. These elves had no actual combat experience and hadn’t even studied tactics. They just clung to the nobles of the Holfort Kingdom to hire soldiers to fight on their behalf, or manipulated the monsters born in these ruins to handle their dirty work.

They didn’t even have the resolve to seize their own future with their own hands. All that existed within them was a warped desire to use the power they’d stumbled across to trample others one-sidedly.

I didn’t need to hold back anymore.

I kicked away the white-coated elf I’d been using as a shield with all my strength; at this point, I didn’t care whether he lived or died. The technician’s body went flying and crashed into a nearby elven soldier, knocking both of them to the ground.

As the soldier struggled desperately under the sudden weight of his airborne comrade, I brought my foot down on his chest with everything I had. The military boots favored by our house were reinforced with steel plates, making them incredibly sturdy; when used properly in close combat, they became effective blunt weapons.

"Ah... Agh..."

Even as another of their own was crushed right in front of them, the elves remained in a state of panic, seemingly incapable of mounting any proper response. Even the soldiers holding guns were wavering, their muzzles lowered as they hesitated, torn between following the bearded elf’s orders or trying to attack me.

I didn’t let that opening slip by. Stepping firmly off the unstable elf beneath me, I lunged forward and swung my right arm.

The acceleration from my sprint, the weight and strength of my body, and the pull of gravity from something dropping from above, I merged those three forces and drove my right elbow down into the elf’s right shoulder. The instant my elbow struck, a dry snap rang out through the room.

If the collarbone breaks, moving the arm becomes nearly impossible. If the cervical vertebrae near the shoulder had shattered, he wouldn’t just be immobilized, he’d lose the ability to breathe and suffocate to death.

"Ogueh..."

The elf I struck dropped his gun and crumpled to the floor. At the same time, I shifted my posture to deal with the next target.

I closed the short distance to an elf standing there in a daze, unable to process what was happening as his comrades were taken down one after another. Using the momentum of my forward charge, I drove a kick straight into his groin.

Back in the old Holfort Kingdom, elven exclusive servants also worked as male prostitutes for noblewomen. I remembered how Zola used to keep elves and demi-humans around her simply because they were flashy and attractive.

In other words, the shape and size of their genitalia weren’t much different from a human’s. Male genitalia exposed outside the body is an obvious weakness shared by all such creatures.

"Gyaaah!?"

A particularly loud scream echoed across the room.

To be honest, even though I kicked him right in the crotch, I couldn’t feel anything being crushed through my thick boots. Still, as long as it kept him quiet for a while, that was enough for me. Plenty of people die from the intense pain of crushed testicles, but I didn’t have the time to stop and check.

Three remained. Among them, only the bearded elf was armed.

It was unbelievably irritating. More than surprise, what welled up inside me was disappointment that these hostile elves were falling so easily to my attacks. From the way they moved, how they handled their weapons, and their complete lack of coordination, it was obvious they weren’t accustomed to fighting.

The only reason they’d nurtured such grand ambitions was because of these ruins. They relied on the technology of the Old Humans who created them and neglected their own training. If all elves had been like the ones in the elder’s faction, their relationship with humans would have taken a completely different path.

Even if their race as a whole had been peaceful, the old Holfort Kingdom placed even less value on human life than it does now. For demi-humans, it would’ve been worse; they wouldn’t have been treated as exclusive servants, but as slaves worked to death without even being regarded as human.

The ruthlessness of that past flickered at the edge of my thoughts before disappearing. The enemy’s still here. Focus.

Having watched most of his comrades fall, the bearded elf’s will to fight had nearly been snuffed out. Even so, he desperately tried to raise his gun toward me, whether out of lingering responsibility as a former leader or pure hostility toward humans, I couldn’t tell.

I fixed the resisting bearded elf with a murderous glare.

He flinched for just a split second, and his movements froze. That single moment drew the line between victory and defeat. I closed the distance in an instant and seized the bearded elf’s left hand, the one holding the gun, gripping it with all my strength. Even if the bones didn’t break, he wouldn’t be able to use it properly for a while.

Next, I grabbed the collar of the sturdy clothing the bearded elf was wearing with my right hand. Durable clothing might be excellent for insulation and resisting blades, but it comes with the drawback of being difficult to remove or tear.

When someone’s got you by the collar like this, slipping out of your clothes to escape is practically impossible.

I yanked him toward me with all my strength while driving my knee upward into the space between his abdomen and chest. The combined force of pulling him in and striking from my side produced more than enough power, even at point-blank range.

The bearded elf lost consciousness and collapsed onto the floor, his body twitching in repeated spasms. He was completely out of the fight.

As I stepped toward the remaining two, the elf in the white coat slowly raised both hands and stared at me with eyes full of terror.

It looked like he intended to surrender. Well, he had the appearance of a researcher; he must’ve realized that even if he tried to fight me head-on, he didn’t stand a chance.

If he wasn’t going to resist pointlessly, I had no reason to attack him. I’d already had more than enough of hurting people and killing things today; I felt like I had indigestion from it.

The last one, the bespectacled elf, crawled along the floor, trying to tamper with the machinery while spitting out curses and abuse at humans.

Despite his handsome face, he moved like a crazed insect; watching him stirred exasperation in me rather than anger.

"I’m warning you. If you don’t want to go through something painful, come quietly."

"○●□! ▽◆△◆◎!"

"I don’t have a clue what the hell you’re saying."

I clenched my right hand and slammed my fist into his face with everything I had.

His refined features caved in, and the crazed elf lost consciousness, scattering nosebleed, broken teeth, and shards of his shattered glasses across the floor.

It was finally over. A hollow sense of reality quietly settled into my chest.

『Is it finished, Leon Fou Bartfort?』

"Pretty much. How are things on the kids’ side?"

『They have no significant external injuries, and all monsters have been neutralized.』

"That’s good to hear. Feels like I’ve finally set down a heavy burden."

『However, rather than their combat ability, the primary factor in their victory was that the elves halted the monsters’ movements.』

"Doesn’t matter. They’re alive, that’s enough."

It was far better than them ending up broken like me and needing years to recover.

No matter how much they’d wished for it themselves, it’s not like I didn’t have regrets about bringing my own children to such a dangerous place.

I’d wrap up the capture of the elves quickly and restore Angie to normal. After that, I wanted to dump everything onto the people in the Royal Capital and take a long, proper rest.

『So this is the current state of the elves. Even with superiority in numbers and technology, I didn’t expect them to have deteriorated to the point of being suppressed by a handful of descendants of the New Humans.』

"You’re basically the one who created the elves, aren’t you? Didn’t it ever cross your mind to help them a little?"

『I’m sorry, but what I require of my creations is that they display the specifications I desire and remain loyal to my will. I have no expectations for elves who act selfishly, refuse to share information with me, and end up being suppressed by you.』

"What a disgusting thing to say."

In any case, I was exhausted. My arms and legs felt drained from the accumulated fatigue. Ever since arriving on this floating island, it had been one danger after another, one battle after the next, like walking a tightrope the entire time.

I wanted to get back to the mansion as soon as possible. Once I did, I’d spend several days doing nothing but sleeping.

"Hey~! Father~! Come over here for a second~!"

"Are you unharmed, Father!?"

"...I’m coming. Wait there."

For now, I’d just be grateful that my children came through it unharmed. You can at least grant me that much, can’t you, God?

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Authors Note  

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Combat Against the Elves: End! (Ba-dum!)

Based on my own assessment, and taking into account that even in the manga adaptation they relied on artificially cultivated monsters and mainly used handguns as their primary weapons, I came to the conclusion that the elves’ individual combat ability wasn’t particularly high, which is how I arrived at this outcome.

There’s also a reason, aside from being under the control of the ruins, why the elves didn’t activate the defensive system installed within the room.

In the original version of the story, things conclude with the elves being stopped and Luxion destroying the facility, but in this version, a battle is planned to break out in the Elven Village.

Starting from the next chapter, the final boss of Part 7 will finally make their appearance.

Addendum: At the client’s request, illustrations were provided by Oswani-sama and Deka-sama. Thank you very much.

Oswani-sama: Pixiv (Warning: Adult Content)

Deka-sama: Pixiv (Warning: High Skin Exposure)

I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts and impressions to help motivate my future work!