…Oh boy. This is no good.
I was currently looking down on Gjallarhorn from a height only some high-level flugels would be able to reach, lost as to what to do next. Ahh, yeah. I guess I should say that things have finally gotten started?
Someone's attack on the white town was the spark that had sent everyone on that side on a rampage, and in order to oppose that, everyone on the black side had gone berserk as well.
I'd be willing to bet this is Mercury's doing, though.
To be honest, I felt his timing was too perfect. There was no doubt that he somehow knew that Penny was absent, and that was why he'd attacked. At the same time, I didn't believe that he'd managed that on his own.
From what I could see, all the citizens on both sides had been affected by the 'Berserk' status ailment. 'Berserk' was a status ailment that caused one to lose their sense of reason and enter a state of being controlled by anger. In exchange for their attack power being doubled, they were only able to use standard attacks. It was a truly annoying ailment.
But I didn't know of any skill that could spread this ailment at such a large scale. If there were, it would be a spell. And it wouldn't be from the wood element, but the moon element. So, Mercury, who should've been wood-aligned, should not have been able to use it.
Could it be? Could there another member of Seven Grimms of Purgatory who specialized in moon element be here, too?
At any rate, I should go back down and talk about this with Fiona.
I descended towards the ground once more and entered Fiona's room from the window.
Inside, I found Fiona deep in thought, making an expression like she was pondering something especially difficult.
"Hey, Fiona?"
"Ye—eep?!"
Fiona seemed to have been really deep in thought. When I called out to her, Fiona jumped like a foot into the air.
To be able to sink that deep into thought even with all this ruckus? Just how carefree is she? I suppose that's just a sheep for you.
"Why are you so surprised? We have been examining the situation from the air. They are all affected by Berserk. It seems like there is someone else here who wants to crush this country other than that grimmfolk, Mercury."
"I… see."
"For now, We will attempt to find that grimmfolk man. What will you do?"
"…May I ask you a question before that, Lady Naru?"
While I was considering what sort of action to take next, Fiona turned to face me with a serious expression for some reason. Judging from her expression, she was worrying about something or other.
I decided that I should at least listen to what she wanted to ask. "It is fine. Speak."
"Thank you. That's… uhhh… Supposing that one of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians was involved in all of this… What would you do, Lady Naru? This is assuming that they're doing this out of loyalty for you."
"We would stop them even if We have to punch them back to their senses, of course. Then We would praise them afterwards. Loyalty is a fine thing, but We do not wish to see a country destroyed."
I have no idea why she asked that… No, wait. Is one of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians actually involved? At any rate, Fiona's expression got a lot calmer when I answered, as if her worries were all solved.
Huh? Wait, is there really another one of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians here?
"Thank you, Lady Naru. Thanks to you, I know what I must do."
"Hey, wait a second, Fiona. Could there really be…?"
"It'll be fine. Just leave it to me! I'll go give her a good punch and stop her!" Fiona sounded cheerful, and she left in a hurry without even listening to what I had to say.
Ah, one of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians is totally involved.
I hurried to give chase, but the roads were filled with Berserk flugels. They were all in the way, and I couldn't tell where Fiona had gone. I had totally lost sight of her.
"… ! Agh, such a handful!"
I didn't like admitting it, but Fiona was on the weaker side among the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians. Put bluntly, if she were to fight against the other members, she would lose to pretty much all of them.
If Penny were the one going off, I wouldn't have to worry about her since she'd win straight out against over half of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians. In fact, I'd have to worry about whomever she was fighting. But Fiona was different. If her opponent were Sienna of the Leo constellation, or someone like that, Fiona would be in serious trouble. And she'd still lose against most of the others, too.
Considering the ability to spread the Berserk status, the member of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians this time would have to be… the Capricorn guardian, Tayuya. She was one of the better opponents to be matched up against, but Tayuya would still be a little much for Fiona to handle.
"Fiona… Don't be rash!"
This country can come afterwards. I feel sorry for Hinata, but taking care of my own is more important to me.
***
Looking down at the country that was being taken over by confusion, pandemonium, and madness, Mercury laughed, satisfied.
An accident occurred in the middle when Lunaru Fenris stopped by the country, but everything still turned out fine somehow. Now, the country is finished. All that's left is to have Tayuya continue to agitate everyone, and the people of this country will probably just kill each other.
It's too bad I can't kill Hinata, but I can just find a chance to do that in the future. At any rate, she's now a queen without a country. There's no doubt the opportunities to kill her will only increase from now on.
Not to mention, there's still the chance that Tayuya will just go on to kill Hinata now. After all, she's one of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians… she's more than strong enough to kill Hinata in her weakened state.
"At any rate, my role in this is done. Now then, I need to hurry up and leave before that piece of junk comes back-"
"Before who comes back?"
"!?"
As soon as Mercury heard the voice behind him, he started preparing for a fight.
There was no way he wouldn't know that voice. There was no mistaking it. After all, that was the very voice of the one Mercury most feared at the moment—the one he never wanted to meet.
Mercury turned around, and his expectations were not betrayed even if he'd wanted them to be. There, he saw an inorganic girl dressed as a maid. She was one of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians under the Black Empress, Lunaru Fenris. She was the one with the greatest power of annihilation—the one who represented the constellation of Libra.
She was Penny the Goddess's Scales, one of the Heavenly Twelve Zodiac's Guardians.
"Wh-why…?!"
Why is she back? Mercury only barely managed to shove that question back down his throat.
That golem shouldn't have been able to come back for twenty minutes. I know I took some time moving around and inciting this war, but I should still have had some time. So why is this thing here?!
There was only one reason Mercury could think of.
Damn that bitch. She failed, didn't she…! She might have been exposed, or something unexpected might have happened.
Mercury didn't know why Penny was back so early. But what he did know was that his plans here had now completely failed, all because he couldn't avoid encountering this killer maid for a second time.
"Mercury the Grimm of Wood, one of the grimmfolk's Seven Grimms of Destruction. I have already grasped all of your fighting habits, data, and your alignment in the previous battle. If we were to engage in battle now, your chances of victory would be lower than 0.02%… I strongly suggest that you surrender. I will warn you that if you do not comply, there is a 48% probability that you will end up losing one of your limbs."
On top of everything, there's this, too.
This golem learns all of her opponent's habits and weaknesses during battle, and it all carries over to the next fight. In other words, if you fight her even once, the same tactics won't work a second time. No, they'll probably still work. But she'll definitely have prepared a countermeasure.
Mercury's elemental matchup with her was the worst. He was clearly disadvantaged in levels, and Penny had learned from their previous fight on top of that.
This situation was the worst thing that could have happened to Mercury.
"GODDAMMIIIIITTTT!"
Mercury accelerated using wind magic, tracing impossible trajectories in the air. He was using his extremely agile flight ability with wind, which had shaken off Penny once before.
However, Penny's gaze moved ahead of Mercury himself, as if she already knew where he was going to go.
"I have already seen that."
A streak of light then flashed from Penny's eyes, piercing through Mercury's shoulder.
"Gah?!"
"Target enemy: offensive ability down 15%. Reaction speed: down 20% due to pain. Continuing attack."
Penny continued on to the next attack without a moment's delay, targeting Mercury, who was groaning in pain. She pulled a machine gun from the usual unknown space in her body and fired wildly!
Mercury reacted and tried to dodge, but all the bullets she fired followed after him.
"Wha-!?"
"These are homing bullets that my master prepared for me. You will not escape them."
The bullets chased him at high speed. That in itself was fine. The homing bullets used by the Archer's higher class, the Gunner, may have been rare in this day and age, but several did exist. But the bullets had been made by the Black Empress and were used by one of the Twelve Zodiac Guardians. Their speed, accuracy, and power were all on another level.
The bullets grazed his clothes, pierced his arms and legs, and robbed him of his power to fight.
Even so, Mercury managed to make the sudden decision to cloak himself in wind, causing a tornado and deflecting all the bullets.
Mercury managed to gain a moment's respite. But the sight of Penny charging into the tornado from straight above right afterwards caused his expression to freeze on his face.
"I predicted that, too."
Penny had an iron fist, literally. She used her incredible strength to swing down a fist made of steel at Mercury.
Reacting in an instant, Mercury blew himself away with his own wind, and Penny's fist just barely grazed his cheek.
…It should have just grazed me.
But Mercury flew towards the ground right afterwards, as if he was a meteor.
Assaulted by a tremendous impact and pain through his cheek, Mercury busted through houses. All failed to stop him as he continued to slide along the ground, gouging it out for several tens of meters before finally, miserably, coming to a stop.
I should have dodged that punch. It should have just grazed me. But it still carried all this power. And I took all this damage.
Mercury turned pale and started imagining the worst.
…If I hadn't managed to dodge that, my entire head would have been pulped.
"I will warn you once more. With that attack, your reaction speed has gone down a further 11%, and your current chances of victory have lowered to 0.00072%. I strongly advise you to cease any further resistance and surrender immediately."
Penny's declaration was entirely devoid of emotion. There was no mercy, no compassion, not even any anger towards her enemy.
To Mercury, that was scarier than anything else in the world at the moment.