In the southeastern region of the Black Forest, a group of demons advanced toward the next village. If someone looked behind them they would see a completely devastated field covered in blood. With traces of destruction everywhere, burned areas, flooded sections, chunks of ice coming out of the ground, circular craters as if existence had been erased in those spots, and much more.
The reason for this scene was that, unlike Mashiro, Ai, and Kaguya's team, they had not encountered anything special. In fact, the first village surrendered as soon as they saw Sonya and the entire army. The second village did not surrender, the result was what could be seen behind them at that moment, completely annihilated.
Both Kirito and Asuna did not participate, they simply let the demons act.
Soon they arrived at the next village. As expected, a full army was already waiting for them, prepared to face them.
As soon as they met, the demons, still excited from the previous battle, wanted to attack but Sonya stopped them. She stepped forward and spoke directly to the captain of the guards. Even though he was taller than her, Sonya's presence was far more intimidating.
Sonya told them to surrender in the kindest way possible, but at first glance it sounded like a threat. The captain began to sweat cold, nervous with fear growing inside him, he could feel the power of the person in front of him. The tension was interrupted when a voice sounded behind them.
"Make way, make way."
The soldiers separated, forming a path while an elf walked through the newly opened space. The newcomer was a dark elf with blond hair and a normal appearance, wearing expensive and exaggerated clothes.
"Lord of the city" said the captain immediately, kneeling. But the lord of the city ignored him and instead approached Sonya with a fawning attitude.
"Miss Sonya, if I had known that a guest from the noble Shadeward house would come, I would have personally come out much earlier.
I hope we can talk calmly inside my residence."
Sonya clicked her tongue in annoyance, recognizing the elf in front of her.
"Siphon, so you are a city lord now. There is no need, I already said everything I needed to say to the captain" she said, pointing to the kneeling man.
Siphon looked at him and the captain quickly explained everything, after which Siphon put on an exaggerated expression of surprise.
"Miss Sonya, you must understand that this is treason. I cannot decide something like this so quickly" he replied with a smile that Sonya found irritating.
"Hey you" said Sonya, looking at the captain. "What is your name?"
"I, I am Leon, no surname" he replied, trembling.
"Good. Do you accept the proposal, Leon?" asked Sonya.
Leon looked at the city lord seeking an answer, but Sonya interrupted him.
"I am asking you. I know this bastard well enough to know that no one owes him loyalty.
We will simply replace the city lord and you will keep serving. What do you think?"
Upon hearing this, Leon nodded immediately without speaking, clearly disgusted with the current city lord.
"Wait, Miss…"
Siphon did not finish. Sonya grabbed him by the neck with force and lifted him into the air. Although he struggled, trying to break free, she squeezed even harder.
A crack echoed in the silent battlefield when his neck snapped. Sonya opened her hand and the body fell to the ground, and as soon as it hit, it was swallowed by a shadow shaped like a canine jaw rising from the ground.
Sonya looked at Kirito and Asuna.
"Anyone wants to take care of this place?"
"I still want a good fight" replied Kirito shaking his head.
Asuna nodded instead.
"I will take care of it. You can keep going."
"Are you sure? I thought you wan…" Kirito tried to say.
"It is fine, I am already tired of walking" Asuna interrupted him.
Kirito did not believe her excuse, but he had no reason to doubt her, so he assumed the lie was for some unimportant reason.
"A battalion will stay with her" ordered Sonya before continuing forward.
Kirito looked at Asuna for a few seconds and then followed her.
After a while, far from the village, Sonya murmured:
"Smart girl"
"Who?" asked Kirito.
"Your girlfriend. Taking one of these villages now will become a prestigious position in the future, even if not, her starting point will be much higher."
"S, she is not my girlfriend" muttered Kirito. Then he processed Sonya's words. "So I should do that too?"
"There is no need" replied Sonya. "Currently at the top of the hierarchy of the territory is Kaito. Then his partners, and almost at the same rank are those of us who are extremely useful, like me, you, Kaguya, or Lala. Everything else is still being defined. But most likely, after this battle, the battalion leaders will remain high in the hierarchy. Taking a city now places someone at their same rank."
"But Asuna does not count as extremely useful?" asked Kirito.
"Yes, but not in the same way you do. Even though she is strong, it is clear that her potential does not compare to yours. Even if you keep growing, she will reach her limit much earlier."
"Even so… Asuna is not the kind of person who cares about that" commented Kirito.
"Maybe she does not really care"
"Then…"
"Maybe she just wants a rank high enough so she does not get in the way of someone with an even higher rank. Maybe someone close, with great potential, someone she wants to stay with without holding back their growth." Sonya speculated before getting serious. "We are here, focus."
Kirito had no time to process Sonya's words before getting into his stance.
In front of them, Sonya clicked her tongue again.
"First Siphon and now you? Are all city lords my stalkers?"
A red haired elf with an aggressive face and heavy armor laughed.
"Ha ha ha. Sonya, I did not expect to see you leading a group of strange mages to overthrow your kingdom. Where is your pride as leader of the fourteenth generation of the royal academy?"
"There is no pride in defeating a bunch of weaklings, Darred" said Sonya with contempt.
"That attitude of yours is what makes you adorable. Let us fight and dance under the moonlight like the old times" he replied theatrically.
"It is daytime, idiot" sighed Sonya. Then she looked at Kirito. "He is a swordsman. Even if he is a fool, he meets the minimum to graduate in the class where I set the average by myself. He will serve as training for you.
I will leave you a battalion for the soldiers and I will go to the next one."
"You think I will let…"
Darred did not finish. He had to draw his sword to block the two blades that attacked him at once.
Kirito stepped back, watched him for only a second before advancing again.
Darred growled in annoyance, but Kirito ignored it and aimed directly at his neck, though the elf dodged easily and counterattacked.
Kirito crossed his swords to defend himself. Darred pushed hard to break his guard, but Kirito removed one blade with surprising speed. The strength that had been pushing Kirito now threw Darred off balance for an instant, making him stumble forward, the moment Kirito used to stab him in the side.
Darred stepped back carefully. Looking at Kirito with new caution.
"What a peculiar style, this will be fun" he commented before charging at Kirito again.
But it did not take long before he noticed the irregularity of his opponent, Kirito's style was not just peculiar, it was improvised.
While fighting, Kirito used explosive speed and superhuman reflexes combined with foresight to overwhelm his opponent without rest.
He learned the enemy's style as if it were a game pattern and attacked accordingly.
Against this style, Darred was quickly surpassed. He barely moved a muscle and Kirito already knew what attack he would attempt.
Even if Darred had not noticed at the beginning, it soon became obvious, Kirito even struck places that were empty at the moment, only for Darred to appear there an instant later, landing blows before Darred even executed the movement.
Fifteen minutes passed, and in that short time Darred was already covered in wounds, gasping and struggling to breathe. Meanwhile, Kirito remained unharmed and calm, with a smile on his face as if he were having fun, and with the look of someone who was learning.
Finally, the elf dropped to one knee, using his sword as support.
"You are a monster. You have no fighting style, yet you are the enemy of every existing style" he said with difficulty, acknowledging Kirito.
He stood up slowly and pointed his sword for one last attack.
Both disappeared in a blur, ending up with their backs facing each other.
Kirito only had torn clothes. Darred, on the other hand, bled from several wounds before collapsing.
---
At the same time, in the next village, Sonya stood in front of thousands of soldiers, but advanced without any fear.
She raised a finger in front of her face, above it appeared a small black orb that seemed to swallow the light.
She lifted it and, closing one eye, aligned it with the sun. In that instant, the sun turned black and a large semi transparent brown eye appeared in the sky. A false night suddenly descended upon the city.
The soldiers could not react. Their shadows fused with the darkness. A normal person would think their shadows disappeared, but Sonya knew that was not the case, their shadows had grown, becoming a giant target.
She only moved her hand and all the shadows impaled their owners. Everyone died instantly regardless of what shields or spells they used.
After confirming that no one was left alive, Sonya closed her eye again.
She aligned her thumb and index finger toward the sky, as if she were holding the sun, and the orb appeared in her hand again before disappearing inside her body.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
(They don't reach 15 at this moment, since there is a marathon of my other fic because it is ending.)
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)