Chapter 100 – A quarrel with the humans | Part 2/4

Sophia had entered the battlefield between the humans and the beastfolk and pretty much speed ran to the heart of the enemy where their commanders were located. Once she entered the tent they were in, the observation platform of the beastfolk fort turned noisy.

"T-This girl..." Menzor held his head. "She walked right into enemy's army and effortlessly disarmed the elite or whatever guards of their commanders... Not to mention the whole binding them with nature magic."

"She's... She's..." The beastfolk commanders had no words.

"So far, so good..." Maya was glad that her tiger-girl hadn't done anything too outrageous yet. "She's properly holding back."

"E-Eh?!" More than just one beastperson reacted to her claim.

"I-I wonder what she's doing inside that tent now..." The princess seemed curious.

"We'll have to wait for the bang..."

"Bang?!" The king didn't like Maya's wording.

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Back inside the tent, Sophia was currently regretting her choice to enter it. She found three humans in there. Their military attire was decorated with many colorful badges of some sort, but that wasn't the problem. These three commanders were so horribly obese that they resembled more pigs than actual humans. There was no way that any of them had any actual combat experience.

"Of course... ugly, fat bastards... Why am I not surprised...?" Her eyes looked dead when she forced herself to muster them. "Couldn't you be some cute girls, so I at least would've gotten something to look at?"

"Hiieh! D-Don't come near us, you beast!"

"Seriously... People who look like an ugly version of a pig beastperson shouldn't say anything like this. Actually, no, now I feel super bad for having said that… I didn't want to insult my fellow pig friends."

"Don't compare us to these lowly creatures!"

"Oi." Her expression turned even colder. "Let me ask you something... Why is the beastfolk even considered lowly in your eyes?"

"Because you're the descendants of actual beasts! They can't compare to us pure and superior humans!"

"Haa… Even though you lot look like mutated goblins?" She didn't know if goblins were a thing in this world, but she couldn't even try to care about that right now.

"Y-You!"

"What's so wrong about having the blood of beasts run through us? It's clear that it makes us much stronger than pure humans. Cuter, too." She only thought the last part.

"You're not! It was pure luck that you managed to surprise us!" They actually looked serious during their claim.

"Err, it was not. Do you have any idea how much I had to hold back to not kill any of your soldiers? Pathetic doesn't even begin to describe your powers. Humanity should learn to be humble... It's such a joke... You humans are such a joke."

"How dare you, a mere beast, talk about us in such a way?!"

"A mere beast, huh...? Is this the first time you moved your fat asses to an actual battle…?" The tiger just couldn't understand their way of thinking. "How about this, then?" Smoke enveloped Sophia's body, and once it vanished, a different girl was standing there. The hair color was still roughly the same, but her tiger ears and tail were gone. She grew a bit taller and more mature-looking. Sophia had returned to the looks from her previous world. "Am I any more credible now?"

"Y-You're human?!" They were naturally shocked.

"Who knows~? It's pretty easy to change your appearance."

"T-That's unheard of!"

"Ahh... yeah, you need some power for that. Of course, you weak humans wouldn't understand."

"S-So you aren't..."

"I don't want to be associated with you lot. No, I'm not a human. The beastfolk is the much more likable race." While saying so, Sophia reverted back to her original tiger-girl appearance. "Ahh... much better. Yeah, I can't be anyone else anymore. This is the true me, idiots."

"J-Just what are you?!"

"Your enemy." Her gaze pierced right through the commanders.

"Y-You do know that if you do anything to us, you'll be antagonized by the entire human race?!"

"That's the plan." Sophia's cold voice and nonchalant answer caused them to shiver.

"W-What do you want?!"

"For all of you to learn your place in this world."

"We already know! We're at the top!" The commanders were highly stubborn.

"Yeah, that's your problem. You're by far the most arrogant race, that I can guarantee. But even then, you're also one of the weakest. Even with just the beastfolk, have you won even a single battle? Were any of your attempted kidnappings ever a success?"

"..." There was no reply.

"Exactly. These attempts end now. The inferior human race won't ever try to harm the beastfolk again. No matter in which conceivable way. It's over. You've lost."

"There's no way we would ever agree to this!"

"Yeah, I thought as much. Well then," Sophia closed her eyes, and a second later, the tent they were in was set on fire and burned down in an instant.

"Hiieh!"

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This fireball that reduced the camp of the enemy commanders to ash was naturally seen from the beastfolk fort, as well.

"W-Woah!" Menzor sprang up after witnessing the explosion.

"Has she killed them already?" His commanders were also surprised.

"Ahh... it has begun." Maya was focusing on something else.

"H-Hey..." The princess, too, has noticed something. "Is it just me... or are the surroundings starting to turn, uhh, dark?"

"Oh, now that you mention it..." Her father realized it, as well.

"Your Majesty! Have the troops withdraw into the fort!" Maya suddenly shouted at him.

"W-Why?"

"Now!"

"A-Alright!" The king grabbed a horn from one of his commanders and blew into it after taking a deep breath. Immediately after its sound echoed through the area, the entirety of the beastfolk troop began to swiftly retreat. "Now, what's going on here, cat!?"

"Sophia's going on the offense... There, look," She pointed at the place where the remains of the tent were burning. Bit by bit, the flames started to turn dark. A perfect, pitch-black darkness. Once the fire was consumed, the blackness rapidly grew in all directions, swallowing everything in its path.

Before long, a massive radius around Sophia had lost all of its light and even form. The core of the human army was already consumed by the darkness. It was hard to see because there wasn't much visible anymore. Still, judging by the agonizing screams coming from all over the swallowed battlefield, the soldiers were despairing and slowly going insane after being subjected to Sophia's darkness magic and whatever thoughts she was putting into it while using the magic.

It didn't stop there, though. The pitch-black nothingness was still spreading. A radius of at least a kilometer was soon shrouded in it, but it still showed no sign of stopping. More and more, it was rapidly approaching the fort.

"E-Err..." The observation platform turned noisy once. Seeing how the nothingness was creeping dangerously close to them, they also started to panic.

"M-Maya, you have to stop her!" Menzor had a bad feeling about this.

"Don't worry... As I said before, I'm here to protect all of you." The cat-girl walked a couple of steps forwards and closed her eyes while also raising up her arms. A few moments later, the observation platform was enveloped in a blindingly white light.

"E-Eh...?" Once his eyes adjusted to the light, the king looked around in confusion. "W-What is going on?!"

"It's light magic. This will cancel out the effects of Sophia's darkness magic on us. Think of it as something like a shield."

"You can use light magic?!" Everyone looked at the cat-girl in disbelief now.

"Sophia taught it to me before we came here in order to protect everyone from her once she has to resort to this..." She gestured at the battlefield in front of them, or the lack of it because nothing was visible outside the fort anymore. It had turned into a pitch-black void by now.

"W-Wow..." Everyone was speechless.

"W-What's going to happen now...?" Princess Anna, after a while, spoke out what all of them were dying to know.

"Well…" Maya wasn't sure what to reply and urged them to simply watch and wait.