Chapter 1176: Ruler of Evil

A bunch of half-insectkin suddenly appeared on the battlefield.

「Black Lightning Princess-dono! We’ll provide support!」

I don’t see Neidhart, but they’re definitely allies. Perhaps they’re members of his mercenary brigade, Antennae and Shell.

The half-insectkin seemed to grasp the situation quickly, since they headed over to handle the soldiers. Fran shouted a warning.

「Don’t kill them!」

「Roger that!」

I know we’re asking them to do something quite reckless, but they nodded firmly and started fighting the soldiers without killing them.

All of them were originally normal soldiers, but they’ve become much stronger due to their berserk state. I think that caused them to lose their sense of pain.

Despite dealing with such troublesome opponents, the half-insectkin fought with ease. They were remarkably strong.

The woman who spoke first seemed to be a scorpion half-insectkin. She had a hard shell, and a long tail extending from the back of her waist. Of course, her tail had a stinger at the end of it.

She could manipulate her tail, wrapping it around her opponents or using it like a whip. I bet she’d use her venomous stinger too if she wasn’t being forced to fight non-lethally.

Apparently, she could also transform one of her arms into a pincer. The woman intercepted the weapons the soldiers wielded with her pincers and shattered them.

Rather than “powerful”, I would describe her combat style as “skillful”.

There’s one more guy who was notably stronger than the rest. He appeared to be a stag beetle half-insectkin.

Though he didn’t have any special abilities, he’s incredibly tough, fast, and strong.

He deflected the attacks of the soldiers with his armor and then smashed them away with his drum-sized thick arms. Some he grabbed tightly and hurled them into the air.

In any case, his fighting style was physical and powerful.

Apart from these two, the others were also seasoned veterans.

I noticed a butterfly and moth half-insectkin from a distance, but I’m not too sure about the rest. Many of them hardly looked any different from humans.

They intentionally engaged the soldiers in a conspicuous manner to draw their attention. Since Onslaught seemed intent on using the soldiers as hostages, we found that quite helpful.

We should be able to leave the soldiers to them for a while.

Furthermore, we had more good news.

Some of the adventurers who went berserk due to evil energy had regained their sanity. Much to our surprise, they managed to wake up on their own.

What’s more, this happened on a wide scale. Each and every one of them was a familiar face.

「UROOOHH! CURRY!」

「Curry!」

「Captain! Curry!」

The former delinquent adventurers from the transport unit. Perhaps surviving Fran’s boot camp strengthened them mentally? Or maybe seeing Fran gave them some kind of mental stimulus?

Either way, it seems the evil power driving them mad wasn’t as strong as we thought. It’s not like the Evil God was controlling them directly or anything.

「Don’t cause trouble for the Captain!」

「You guys! Don’t get in the Captain’s way!」

「Now is the chance to repay the Captain! Charge!」

Man, they adore Fran so much… I-I still won’t give Fran to you though!

But I’ll make sure to thank them later!

The men who regained their sanity were punching the nearby soldiers and adventurers to wake them up. Astonishing decisiveness and judgment. Fran’s boot camp must have awakened their potential.

In addition, I learned from watching the former transport unit members that waking up the berserk soldiers wasn’t that difficult.

『Fran, pin Onslaught down for a moment! I’ll try something to bring everyone back to normal!』

（Okay!）

I activated Evil Conquest to gather the surrounding evil energy, but I found myself getting way more than I bargained for.

It wasn’t just the evil energy drifting in the surroundings; I was also absorbing power from the rampaging soldiers and adventurers themselves.

This should allow me to restore their sanity, but…

「B-Black Lightning Princess-dono!」

「No!」

Both the half-insectkin and the adventurers who regained their sanity screamed in despair. Shit, from their point of view, it looks like Fran is under attack by a ton of evil energy!

However, seeing the rampaging men waking up one after another, they realized that Fran was doing this on purpose. Our allies quickly regained their composure.

「Everyone, evacuate!」

「「「 Understood! Curry! 」」」

Great! Thanks to them immediately beginning the retreat, the other soldiers started running too!

『Let’s take this chance to deal with Onslaught! I have to maintain Evil Conquest, so I’ll leave the offense to you.』

「Nn!」

「Woof!」

I may have restored everyone’s sanity, but they’ll simply go berserk again if the area is still steeped in evil energy. Thus, I had no choice but to continue concentrating on Evil Conquest.

「Tch! In that case…!」

Onslaught seemed like he was about to do something… Then he froze, his expression filled with astonishment.

「Why?! Damn it! Why can’t I move!? The evil energy is leaving my control!」

It seems he tried to escape via teleportation after realizing that he was at a disadvantage. But once his spell failed, he went into a panic.

『Haha! Success!』

All the surrounding evil energy belongs to me now! Even the evil energy Onslaught was trying to use immediately fell under my control!

Seems like I’m better at handling evil energy than him.

Teleporting was your last lifeline. How does it feel to have that taken away?

「Shit! Fine, I’ll simply devour you first and absorb your powers!」

「Just try me!」

You tried to run in the first place because you knew you’d lose! It was checkmate the moment we backed you into a corner!