Chapter 231
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Barbarians (2)༻
A dozen or so female warriors appeared to stand between Korin and the heated crowd.
Each of them were carrying a unique shield and a spear, and wearing feathered ornaments. Korin immediately realized these were the great warriors of the gods, the Valkyries.
Female warriors of the God King possessing eternal beauty and youth. They were top commanders of warriors, who each had the right to open one of the 540 gates to Valhalla.
Since there were 17 of them in total, it meant that they could open 17 gates.
“So…”
One of them walked forth from the line of Valkyries. The giant woman as tall as 2.5 meters carrying an enormous warhammer that could crush a mammoth’s skull to smithereens was none other than Thrud of Strength.
She was the daughter of Thor, the God of Lightning, and the strongest of valkyries.
“Is it you who dares to see Brunhild?”
Her voice turned the surrounding air into layers of steel that came crashing down at everyone nearby.
Korin knew how strong she was. Thrud was one of the few who could swing the hammer left behind by Thor, the God of Lightning, but he remained composed.
“Yeah. For a negotiation between the leaders of the two factions.”
“How insolent for a mere mortal. If you wish to see her, you must defeat me first as well as my sisters. Only then will you be able to witness the leader of the shield maidens, the keeper of the final divinity ever since the fall of gods.”
“Isn’t it more of a curse from the God King than divinity?”
“You dare…!”
“I will challenge Brunhild’s ‘Wall of Flame’.”
“...!!”
He watched on with a confident smile as their faces crumpled in real time.
****
Brunhild, the leader of Valkyries, had a curse cast upon her for a long time.
As a consequence for disobeying the God King in the past, she had to be walled off by a ring of inextinguishable flames and put to eternal sleep.
One had to pass through the wall of flame and take off her byrnie to lift the curse but… the issue was that the King of Gods, who had cast that very curse, had been devoured by the Wolf of Apocalypse.
The fall of gods.
With the death of the King of Gods, the curse cast upon Brunhild had also been lifted albeit by only half.
When the gods fell, Brunhild woke up from her sleep but the curse of flames was still there.
[Only the one who passes the wall of flame and takes off Brunhild’s vest of mail shall lift her curse.]
Because of that prophecy, countless citizens had attempted to lift her curse by challenging the divine flames. The half-giant wearing the hide of a great bear, the sorcerer widely revered as the wisest, as well as the great warrior who won the most number of battles… They tried but none of them were able to cross the divine flames protecting the byrnie.
There was no-one left who wished to challenge it anymore, at least until this man showed up.
“So… Did you want to challenge the ‘Wall of Flame’?”
Brunhild, the leader of Valkyries, who was now a symbol of eternal chastity due to the god’s curse, asked the man in front of him.
“Will you become mine if I pass the wall?”
The silver beauty nodded with a vacant gaze in spite of that arrogant question.
“But that will be only possible if you pass the flames of the King of Gods.”
That was when all of a sudden, flames started to soar up with Brunhild at the center.
It was the leftover curse of the god – flames which scorched every man that touched it. The flames appeared so divine, that even non-believers, who would normally refuse to believe such things were possible in real life, wouldn’t be able to refute the divinity of it.
- KWAAAAAAAAAA!
The surging pillar of flames melted both the falling snow above and the fallen snow on the ground.
No-one could pass it; no-one could jump over it alive; and no-one could overcome it. That was the power of Odin’s curse.
‘No warrior was able to withstand those flames.’
‘No hero could overcome it.’
The leftover trace of gods was now nothing but a source of grief for the sisters watching from the side. Among the sisters who walked a different path to Brunhild, some had made their decisions due to that very curse of the God King.
All of the valkyries hated that curse which they couldn’t resolve no matter what they did.
“Flames of a god, huh.”
Korin took a step towards the flames that no-one dared to overcome.
“You fool… You’re killing yourself.”
“No-one has been able to pass it for over a millennium!”
They could tell that Korin Lork was indeed a courageous warrior. However, there were few in the past 1,000 years that were on a comparable level.
Countless warriors challenged those flames to obtain the leader of Valkyries for themselves.
However, none of them was able to overcome it.
That was how intense and strong of a curse it was, that the God King had cast for the disobeying shield maiden.
“Flames like this can’t burn me.”
But Korin strided into the wall of flame without a sliver of hesitation. Everyone watching thought he would scream out in pain and be reduced to ashes but the result was the exact opposite.
“What…?!”
“This can’t be!”
The barbarians were appalled by the sight. Korin Lork had walked beyond the wall of flame.
Even the divine flames weren’t an exception from the absolute ability of Claiomh Solais – full resistance to heat and flames.
While the crowd was baffled by him crossing the uncrossable barrier of flame that no man had been able to overcome, Korin stood face to face with Brunhild. Taking off the glittering byrnie of the beautiful silver-haired valkyrie was his rightful privilege, but he didn’t.
“I have an offer to make.”
He did not wield his rightful privilege. Despite overcoming the god’s curse, he made an offer instead of desiring the result.
“Can you please follow what I say for some time? I will save you guys in return as well.”
“...”
Brunhild couldn’t understand the man in front of her, nor the reason behind the offer.
“Why are you not simply taking off my armor as permitted by the King of Gods, and commanding me as you wish?”
That was supposed to be the right and privilege of the hero.
Although she was a valkyrie and a great warrior of the god, because the God King had prophesied that he would hand the leader of valkyries over to the great hero, she had no choice and had to follow the prophecy.
“That’s too old-fashioned,” jested Korin. “That only happens in old mythologies and fairy tales. If you kiss a sleeping beauty these days, you’ll be arrested.”
He refused to do so with a smile.
“What is it that you are after?” she asked.
“A win-win for us.”
Instead, he showed his respect for Brunhild and raised a fair offer.
“We will accept the northerners into the walls, but they too must participate in the war.”
“Are you… aware of what’s happening in the Northern Kingdom?”
“There’s probably an uninvited guest called Valtazar that’s doing crazy stuff here and there. That man happens to be my martial brother, you see. His puberty has hit quite hard.”
“...”
Brunhild turned to the spear in Korin’s hand, and came to a realization.
It was that the ‘spearman’, who would change the destiny of the valkyries, prophesied by Skuld the prophet could have been about this man, Korin Lork.
“Would you please lend us a hand?” he asked.
“...Why?”
“Sorry?”
“For a long time, you have called our free citizens ‘barbarians’ and have disdained them and ostracized them. And the free citizens had been plundering your kingdom for a long time.”
She was asking him why they were offering their help.
“Hmm… it’s not because of something grandiose but…”
And in response to such a question, there was only one kind of answer he could return.
“It’s best if there are as few casualties as possible. Human lives are the most expensive, after all.”
He had only been hoping for one thing this whole time, and one thing alone.
A happy ending.
****
The treaty was signed in a breeze.
As compensation for accepting the 230,000 free citizens of the Northern Kingdom into the south, the able warriors had to cooperate with defending the walls.
Of course, there were quite a few people that were against it.
Some of the barbarians themselves refused to follow because they couldn’t trust us; the guards and the soldiers, as well as the guardians that came here under my lead were all concerned about the idea.
Although they didn’t explicitly say anything rude, they looked at me like I was a madman.
But soon, the northerners were persuaded by their psychological leaders, the valkyries, and I persuaded everyone in the city as one of the few nobles present.
“If something goes wrong, we will take responsibility for it.”
We weren’t some random people either.
We had Lady Josephine who was a hero written in the history books, the successor of the Dunareff Dukedom, a successor candidate of the Arden Household as well as utmost support from Saintess Estelle.
None of us were people that would be immediately stabbed for bringing the barbarians into this side of the wall.
“Will this be okay?” Brunhild asked.
“What do you mean?”
“This is close to a political suicide. It went through for now because there is no-one here that is higher than you, but it will become a problem in the future.”
“Well… if it turns out well, they will let it be.”
The player was a superhuman; the protagonist and the center of the world. But even so, it was impossible for the player to do anything he wanted by brute forcing everything.
There were too many things to consider in real life.
Political issues, harmony, racism and other discriminations… in that sense, this world was no different from Earth.
“Trying to live a virtuous life allowed me to get a lot of people willing to help me.”
“...I can see that.”
Brunhild said while looking at my comrades who were settling the situation.
“In any case, can you please allocate the valkyries equidistant along the walls? They’re the only ones that can control the barbarians after all. Let’s join forces and fight through this.”
It was right as she was about to nod with a smile.
— KWAAAANG!!
The wall we were standing on came crumbling down.
****
“Damn it…”
I waved away the dust that filled the air due to the crumbling wall, and stood back up.
“Brunhild? Are you okay?”
“Something like this can’t hurt me, but…”
She looked around. The soldiers and northerners who had fallen along with the wall were crying out in pain.
“M, my legs…!”
“I, I’m stuck! Somebody help me!”
The knights and mages were able to protect themselves in the fall, but the rest were in miserable states.
I was wondering what destroyed the wall until my eyes found the very proof of an attack.
“...A rock?”
It was a massive rock that looked like it was carved out from an entire mountain. That enormous rock had flown into the wall, destroying a portion of it.
‘Who in the world threw this?’
First priority was to identify what was happening. I jumped onto the adjacent wall that was still standing strong.
Seeing that, Hua Ran walked up and asked with a worried tone.
“Korin. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I replied. “But there are a lot of people buried in debris. Can you go help them?”
“...Okay.”
After sending her down, I turned towards the horizon.
“They’re here already.”
It was a shocking spectacle even when I witnessed the 230,000 barbarians, but the scene in front of me couldn’t even be compared to that. Anyone seeing it could only think of one thing.
The end of the world.
- KAAHK! KAAAAAK!
- GUWOOOOO!
Monsters were covering both the sky and the ground. Footsteps were quivering the ground and their roars were becoming more audible despite the distance.
Hundreds of thousands… A stunning number that couldn’t even be counted were marching towards the walls.
The question still remained of who destroyed the wall, but… the answer to that was turning out to be quite obvious.
“T, titans…”
“Titans! There are titans!”
Barely visible on the horizon were dozens of titans walking towards the wall with each carrying an enormous rock.
“How…”
It didn’t make sense – the titan resurrection plan was supposed to have failed. We destroyed the Tower of Magic and their knowledge shouldn’t have reached Valtazar.
“T, they’re throwing the rocks!”
“Run away!”
And yet here they were, and the titans all lifted their rocks at the same time. If those landed on the wall all at once… the border city would be destroyed in the blink of an eye!
“Professor Josephine!”
Leaving the hands of the titans, the rocks began flying towards the wall in a parabola. In response, Lady Josephine activated her spell – she calculated the angle of the parabola and opened up an alternate dimension at the exact location of their fall.
Thanks to the strongest dimensional witch, Josephine Clara, the rocks were all swallowed into the other dimension.
“Ohhh…!”
“Dimensional Witch!”
The soldiers cheered, but this wasn’t the end.
‘We got rid of the rocks, but there could be more. Besides, it’s hard to stop the titans themselves just with the wall.’
Back in the original game, each of them were always as tanky as a mid-boss. We needed large-scale, deadly spells to wipe them all out at once, and fortunately, I had a skill that met the criteria.
“Sun Manifestation.”
The power of Claiomh Solais to manifest the Sun was certainly the world’s biggest and deadliest ability in existence.
“Let’s start off by burning half of them down.”
And wipe out some of that never-ending wave of demonic beasts in the process as well.
“It’s Sir Korin’s Sun!”
“Right! With that, even the titans will…!”
Their eyes were shining with expectation. With every strand of hope they conveyed, the stronger I became through [Battlefront Flag Bearer].
Right when I was about to drop the manifested Sun towards the titans in response to that hope…
“Look! What is that!?”
The Sun, Claiomh Solais brightened up the sky and everything nearby. It also revealed a large ‘wolf’ that was leaping towards the Sun.
“Huh?”
I naturally knew what that wolf was. The Wolves of Apocalypse that were accepted by the golden wolves, Ren and Ron, in the final battle of the last iteration…
One who devours the Sun, Skoll.
One who devours the Moon, Hati.
In other words,
Claiomh Solais’ ability to manifest the Sun was—
- Kajik!
— meaningless before them.
“The Sun…”
“...It ate the Sun.”
The unbelievable sight of the Sun being eaten was not the only problem. As soon as the Sun disappeared, a harsh and frosty wind replaced it and this wind… was clearly abnormal.
“Don’t tell me…”
Beyond the horizon, something of an unbelievable size appeared behind the titans.
It was as sublime and grand as the snowy mountains itself.
A giant on the same level as the Sky Titan that I met at the secret lands of druids to obtain Claiomh Solais—
“...Frost Giant.”
The one behind this eternal winter – the one who hopes to destroy the world hand-in-hand with Tates Valtazar.
The Frost Giant, which was supposed to be waiting for the player at Nastrond, the world of corpses, was walking towards the walls instead.
“...Hah.”
I made plenty of preparations.
Because I was aware of the future, I made tweaks to it.
But it turned out that that ‘tweak’... didn’t always lead to a favorable outcome.