Several voices of opposition could be heard amidst the fighting and struggling.

It couldn’t be helped. We were still at the opposite side of the spectrum and even I felt that it was laughable for us to be working together with our enemies. This hatred had been going on for generations, it wouldn’t be easy to just put that aside.

But between pride or hatred and survival, I’d choose survival. It was a simple logic.

 

Then, the biggest monster—the multiple-eyed big creature—suddenly ate some more of our people—both Onis and elves.

“If you don’t want your life, then do whatever you want! Those who want a chance at life, follow my command!” I huffed.

“We will all die if we continue to do this! Do you want a chance to survive or do you want to continue fighting and be eaten by the monsters?!” The crown princess shouted in an angry tone.

After that, voices of opposition faded out. I was unsure if it was because of our angry shouting, or due to the monsters managing to crush and eat more people as they were arguing, or perhaps the combination of both.

What I knew was that we were suddenly united against the unknown creatures.

There wasn’t much time nor choice, anyway.

 

Scenery that I never dreamt of seeing was now unfolding before my eyes. The elves that were usually looking down at us, Onis, actually lent their hands to help us. And likewise, the Onis also helped the elves around them.

I felt weird looking at this spectacle that was so unbelievable, but I didn’t have the time to think about it now. Defeating the monsters and surviving took priority.

 

“Heiyahh! Take this!” The elven crown princess’ voice could be heard near my ears, and when I noticed, a beam of holy magic attacked the monster that was going to my direction.

“…Thanks,” I said.

“Hmph, don’t let your guard off,” the cheeky princess said.

“Graaaarrr!” The one who responded with a roar was definitely not me. It was the attacked monster, whose body was oddly not injured. Instead, it seemed to absorb the power of the light magic as its body faintly glowed in white. Then, surprisingly, it let out a similar light magic back.

 

“No way, it’s a light element monster?!” The princess was as surprised as I was.

"If it has the ability to absorb attacks of the same element and grow stronger because of the absorbed attack, then I screwed up...," the princess muttered.

The light magic beam seemed to be aimed at the wrong direction when it suddenly took a sharp turn and was actually directed at the princess, who was too surprised to run. I quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the attack.

“Watch it,” I said.

“T-thank you…,” the princess snapped back to her senses.

 

“Take this!”

I didn’t have the time to answer her as the monster readied itself to attack again. Before that could happen, I hurled dark magic balls at the monster in an attempt to stop it.

“Gyaaahhh!”

Surprisingly, the monster seemed to be writhing about in agony upon receiving my dark magic balls.

“This…”

“The monsters seem to be weak against dark magic now?! I don’t know what changed from earlier, but this is good! My Oni kins, let’s show these elves who’s stronger!” The young and hot-blooded Onis were so thrilled by this and started to attack the monsters with their strongest dark magic.

But I noticed some who didn't seem to be thrilled and was confused instead. Perhaps they had tried attacking using their dark magic just now and noticed that it wasn't really that effective against the monsters...

 

However…

“It doesn’t work…?”

“It worked in my case, that’s odd?”

“Huh, this is bad, the monster that’s just writhing in agony has now risen up again! Attack!!”

Another wave of dark magic attacks was launched.

But the monsters—all of them now didn’t respond. Even the ones that had responded badly to the previous dark magic attack.

 

“…Could it be?” The princess mumbled something before she suddenly attacked the monster that we were attacking, with yet another light magic.

“What are you doing?” I was about to ask when I noticed the monster writhing in agony, this time against light magic.

If the monster was indeed a light-attributed monster, it explained how my dark magic substantially injured it before and how it absorbed the princess' light magic attack. Thus, the fact that the princess launched the same attack and to have it effective against that very same monster, this time...

 

“Huh?” Everyone gasped upon seeing this.

“As expected,” the princess seemed to have figured something out.

I had a hunch that I had to confirm. So, I observed the enemies to see what the princess had found. Then, I recalled that the monster’s body that was glowing faintly in white before I attacked it, turned into a dark glow after I attacked. Then, after the princess attacked just now, it was glowing in white again.

“…! I see, so that’s how it goes,” I finally realized.

“Hmph, too slow,” the cheeky princess just had to make an offensive comment.

 

“Princess, could it be that…!” It seemed that the princess’ aide figured it out as well.

“I know! The monster will change element depending on what magic it receives, then its weakness will also change depending on the element of the last attack it received!” Luckily, one of the Onis quickly said before the elves took credit of what we managed to notice at almost the same time.

“That’s right,” I nodded in approval towards the man who was wearing glasses, his hair tied up tidily in a ponytail, his horns were curled down around his temporalis. The smartest one in my troops as well as my most trusted aide, Osamu. He sure didn't disappoint.

 

“Everyone! Attack repeatedly with opposite elements one by one!” The princess quickly took command.

“Do as she says!” I added to make sure the Onis also listened. That little princess sure wanted to get ahead of me by quickly issuing the command first, huh?

 

“Ouuu!”

Our people who initially had an air of despair and fear seemed to finally regain their hopes as everyone coordinated very well in fighting the monsters.

And the method we found was proven to be effective.

 

“No wonder there was a period of time when I felt like my attack was effective. I thought I was imagining things as I tried the same thing yet it didn’t work. So, it turns out…,” someone mumbled.

“Contrasting elements work wonder, huh? I guess that’s why it’s the most effective to have the Onis attack using their dark magic then have the elves attack using the light magic. Interesting.”

Several people commented while still attacking.

Eventually, all the monsters collapsed on the ground lifelessly.

 

“We won…,” The princess said as she controlled her rough breathing.

I looked at the surroundings and it seemed that all of us were equally exhausted.

“Indeed. Let’s find a place to take a rest for now,” I said.

Logically speaking, if we were raided by monsters in this place, this area shouldn’t be a safe spot to rest. Even after we had defeated the monsters that had come. There was a possibility for more monsters coming, especially if they could sense the defeated monsters’ bodies.

“Right,” the princess nodded although it was apparent that she was tired.

It was good that she understood this much.

Then, the two of us looked at each other.

So did our people.

 

“Great general, are we still going to join forces with those elves?”

“Princess, are we still going with them or are we going our separate ways?”

Though the others might be hesitant to voice their thoughts, as expected of our aides, the two of them spoke. We had no other choice but discuss it as the leader of both parties.

 

“What do you say about it? Shall we join forces until we can figure out our situation and probably return?” I asked.

Be as prejudiced as I was, I had to be rational and prioritize surviving first. If I couldn’t do this much, I wouldn’t be worthy of my title as the great general.

I was afraid that the emperor would never agree to my choice, but luckily we were away from his gaze. And the Onis who were here with me were all my trusted people, none would snitch to the emperor. Anyhow, once they understood that I chose this option so that all of us could have a better chance to survive, I was sure they wouldn’t mind.

But what about this young princess…?

 

“…Yeah, that’s probably for the best. We don’t know if there are stuff we’d need each other’s help for, just as what the previous situation proved,” the princess luckily wasn’t as prejudiced and prideful as I feared she would be, and accepted this offer.

“B-but, until when is that?” A concerned person asked.

“We don’t know,” The princess answered.

“But how can we coexist peacefully with them until who knows when?!”

“Why must we do that…?”

“To survive,” I said.

“Can we just try to find a way home quickly? It isn’t that hard, right?” A frustrated voice resounded.

“…”

I opened my mouth but closed it again. The princess seemed to be at a loss for words, too.

I had a hunch of our situation, but I wasn’t sure how to break the news to them…

 

“…Listen carefully,” Osamu, who was done squatting and examining stuff, stood up, tidied his glasses, and said with a clear enough voice, albeit not too loud.

He scanned all of us with a serious look on his face—even the elves were focusing their attention on him, on what he was about to say.

Lastly, he looked at the young princess and then me. His gaze lingered at me when I noticed what he wanted to say. He was only looking for my approval, so I nodded.

Osamu took in a deep breath before opening his mouth and revealing the shocking and unbelievable news to everyone, “I’ve read this carefully before and based on what I have observed so far... If I may suggest, we were engulfed in a phenomenon known as [dimensional distortion] and ended up in another dimension—simply put, we are in another world, not the Sphaela we have been living in for our whole life.”