Chapter 231
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
-Demonkin! The demonkin just keep coming!
-The battalion is on the verge of annihilation!
Cries of despair spread from all directions.
Things were unfolding as Ferda had expected.
Usually, they say that eight out of ten sieges involve scaling the outer walls, but this was the opposite.
The place they were entering was a canyon and forest of buildings that could not be brought down—the home turf of the predators living within.
Monsters swarmed in, and demonkin revealed themselves.
His orders were simple.
-Advance! The knights will be your shields!
-Move forward even more boldly! Kill every last one!
Just as King Hudret had planned, he was driving them into the jaws of death.
It was cruel, but they could feel that he was right.
If they did not advance boldly, there was no way to break through this place.
The terror born of chaos lasted only a moment; once it wore off, madness took its place.
The soldiers realized one truth on the battlefield.
If they did not kill, all that awaited them was death.
“Leave not a single one alive!”
“Stab everything you see! If you’re uneasy, cut off its head!”
Like barbarians invading a civilized land, they stormed into homes and began stabbing and cutting down everything that was alive.
The only difference was that the buildings neither burned nor collapsed.
But King Heinkel did not seem content simply to watch his people die defenselessly.
Purple magic circles began rippling beneath the soldiers who had raided a home.
“A-A trap!”
The magic circle erupted, and something like a black cloud engulfed the soldiers.
“Cough, cough! Is everyone all right?”
“Ghk…… Grrrgh…… Gkrr…….”
The groans of pain turned into wet, phlegmy rattles.
At the same time, their appearances began to change. They became the ghoul monsters Ferda had seen until he was sick of them before entering this place.
-Kieeeeeek!
“Aaaaargh!”
“Kill them! Hurry up and kill them!”
That was the black mages’ scheme: even allies could become enemies.
They were reducing the enemy’s numbers, but their own numbers were dwindling as well.
“Regent Ferda!”
When Ferda turned around, Ureas was standing there.
He had not drawn his sword even once.
“Clear a path for me! Enter my inner city and settle this!”
The damn bastard was ordering him around like one of his subordinates.
Since the situation was urgent, Ferda set his feelings aside.
It did not matter, since Ferda had intended to do that anyway.
“William!”
“Yes!”
“Switch to urban-warfare tactics.”
“Understood. Switch to platoon-level formations! Platoon leaders, organize your units and report!”
The knights changed formation in an instant and advanced toward their assigned sectors.
-Kieeeeeek!
“Monsters ahead!”
“Grenade!”
The knight pulled a grenade from his belt, removed the pin, and threw it.
A mana explosion erupted in the middle of a place teeming with ghouls.
Those nearest the center were reduced to chunks of flesh,
while those farther away were poisoned by blue mana.
-Krrk, krrrk!
The ghoul monsters twitched as if paralyzed.
“Kill them all!”
The knights drew their swords and advanced, cutting off the ghouls’ heads and splitting open their hearts.
“Advance!”
“Watch the rooftops and doors as we move!”
Casualties began appearing even among Ferda’s army as it advanced in a tight formation.
The demonkin had begun throwing sharp projectiles from the rooftops of high-rise buildings, whittling down the tactical infantry.
“Ghk!”
“Jason!”
“Maintain close formation! If we scatter, everyone dies!”
Leaving the corpses behind, they did nothing but advance and attack.
Since the buildings would not collapse, even pushing forward felt as though nothing was moving.
At last, Alberto, who had been standing at the front of the shield wall, moved back and came to Ferda.
“Regent.”
“Whoa, this man can talk?”
When Alberto opened his mouth, Zed and Arwen reacted in surprise.
Regardless of their reaction, he said what he wanted to say.
“I don’t want to dawdle.”
There was only one reason Alberto had followed his orders so obediently during this operation.
It was for when they entered the inner city.
“Breaking through would be good, but I don’t think that’s possible right now.”
“……”
Alberto returned to the vanguard.
No—he walked even farther forward.
“What’s that man doing?”
His intention was so obvious that there was no need to speculate.
He gripped the enormous shield and braced himself.
What followed was a charge.
Kwagagagak!
He was brutally breaking through, pushing aside everything in front of him.
The ghoul monsters, unable to withstand his strength, were flung away and slammed into the walls like rotten tomatoes, painting them with green blood.
“What…… He’s doing that alone……”
It was a performance that inspired awe even in the other knights.
They could only think how fortunate it was that he was not their enemy.
He was not merely breaking through.
The floor tiles that had remained unshaken even after several bombardments were being ground apart.
Ferda did not miss that information.
‘Even after being bombarded day and night for three days, it remained unshaken…….’
It was evidence that the mana sustaining this city was weakening.
He wondered whether Alberto might break through to the inner city on that momentum, but he could not.
Kwoong!!
What even his shield could not break through was the barrier before the inner-city gate.
That place was being protected by an even more powerful force.
As a result, they had ended up in the middle of a road where monsters lay in wait.
The monsters and demonkin instinctively charged at those who had thrown themselves into the jaws of death.
They would pass judgment on the fool who had charged into the middle of the enemy formation.
“Zed, Arwen, Luri! Move!”
They moved swiftly whenever a path was opened.
Ferda was worried about Alberto, but that lasted only a moment.
Kwoong!
Ppak!
The bodies of monsters and demonkin flew through the air amid the sound and vibrations of something breaking apart.
Shockwaves erupted again and again, crushing everything around him.
By the time Ferda arrived, the situation had already been settled.
Alberto stood there, covered in green and purple flesh.
Without caring about his appearance, Alberto held his shield behind him, gripped his club with both hands, and brought it down hard against the barrier.
Kwoong!!
“Urgh!”
The shockwave was so powerful that his legs nearly gave out.
Ferda barely escaped the shockwave by floating slightly into the air.
“Alberto.”
Kwoong!
“You’ll never break it that way.”
Kwoooong!!
“Gamigin’s protective magic is created by placing totems both inside and outside. That’s why it can’t be broken until the totems are destroyed.”
“……”
Perhaps he understood Ferda’s words, because only then did he withdraw his club.
With the way into the inner city blocked, the enemies continued to pour in.
“What do we do now?”
Ferda raised his head and concentrated mana in his eyes.
For a barrier this powerful, its totems had either been created in great numbers and spread out, or only a few totems had been placed with their power concentrated.
The former was difficult to track but easy to destroy, while the latter was difficult to destroy but easy to track.
‘Fortunately, it’s the latter.’
Only mages could see it, but the flow of mana was clearly visible.
There were seven totems in total, scattered throughout the area.
He could not do this alone.
Ferda sent a telepathic message to the mages of the allied and Imperial forces.
“To enter the inner city, we must destroy the totems. Any mage can find their sources through the flow of magic power, so track them down and destroy them.”
-Understood.
He shared similar information with the Imperial Army as well.
Those desperate to enter the inner city by any means would certainly prioritize this information.
“What do we do?”
What else would they do?
“We destroy the totems too. There are two totems near us.”
Ferda looked at Alberto and said,
“You take care of one of them.”
“Where is it?”
“Judging by the flow of magic power, you should be able to reach it if you run in that direction.”
In the direction he pointed, numerous buildings stood diagonally across the street.
Unless one had an excellent sense of direction, they would surely get lost in the maze-like alleyways.
But Alberto did not seem concerned about that at all.
He fixed his gaze in the direction Ferda had pointed and picked up the shield he had propped upright.
Then, just as he had on the main road, he charged once more.
Kwoong!
Kwoong!
Kwoong!
If there was no road, he made one.
The obstacles in his path were being cleared away so neatly that the saying seemed made for him.
“What kind of strength is that……?”
“Indeed.”
Arwen and Zed let out exclamations of admiration.
It was not simply because Alberto possessed monstrous strength.
The buildings that had not suffered so much as a scratch began collapsing one after another, unable to withstand the explosions.
‘That means many humans, the source of the mana, have died.’
The Legion was wavering.
That was the only way to interpret it.
‘But even with such ideal magic, can it really be this weak?’
It was puzzling, but such things were commonplace in magic.
When the spell Mana Burn had first been developed by a single man, people had called him the Lord of Mages.
But a solution had appeared within a month.
If one possessed an artifact containing an external-blocking spell used for meditation, they could not even attempt Mana Burn.
Magic was nothing more than a ridiculously complicated game of rock-paper-scissors, where no absolute advantage existed.
Thus, since the Legion was also based on demanding conditions that were difficult to fulfill, it was entirely possible for it to be overestimated.
Even so, Ferda did not let his guard down.
This was war.
“What if we went that way too?”
“Is there anyone here who can do that?”
“There seems to be someone capable of something similar, though……”
“Do I look like a bull?”
When Luri glared at him with an offended expression, Zed quickly tucked his tail between his legs.
In the end, they moved along the main road, and Ferda wondered whether it might be better to move in a straight line, even if it meant acting like a bull.
The reason was that the demonkin were concentrating their attacks on Ferda.
“Ferda Valdrova!”
“Kill that man! Lord Godwin wants him dead!”
“You seem to be more popular than the other kings, don’t you think?”
“It seems so.”
Ureas and the kings of the allied forces were not being targeted anywhere near as persistently as Ferda.
No, compared to the other soldiers, their enemies’ behavior toward them was closer to indifference.
By contrast, Ferda was being actively targeted, and it was no exaggeration to say that his enemies were using every means available to kill him.
Arwen and Zed did everything they could, and Ferda did what he could as well.
He drew the staff he had hidden in the shadows.
The spell he cast was a third-tier elemental attack spell.
“Lightning Bolt.”
The fastest lightning projectile shot from his staff.
But Ferda’s lightning was no ordinary lightning.
It was heaven-defying lightning, wielded only by the First Witch, Lucy Philiaz, and its destructive power was strong enough to defy the natural order.
‘Now it’s a one-shot kill.’
Unless the target was an agile Butcher-type, if he was given enough time to aim, he could easily kill it with a single shot.
A mere fifth-circle mage was taking down a demonkin with a single third-tier spell.
Yet there was always someone who soared above those who ran.
“Lord Ferda.”
Luri, who had been guarding his side, spoke.
Her expression was as sharp as the axe slung over her shoulder.
“I’ll clear a path.”
She had discarded the human form she usually wore and revealed her true appearance as a dragon spawn.
Pointed horns, wings, and a tail.
As a descendant of Silverwind, Luri cut down her foes mercilessly and without hesitation with her axe.
A masterful blade is still a masterful blade.
Her skills must have rusted while she served Valdrova, but they were still formidable.
As Ferda watched her in silence, his gaze suddenly fell on something.
The tail that bulged out behind her skirt.
Whenever the large tail moved, the hem of her skirt swished along with it.
Its movement was so fluid and swift that it seized his gaze for a moment, as though she had cast a spell over him.
Perhaps she had noticed Ferda watching her, because her silver eyes narrowed.
“Where are you looking?”
Ferda answered directly.
“Your rear is rather thick, so my eyes were drawn there.”
Her cold, steel-like eyes widened in agitation.
She glanced at her rear, then flushed bright red and glared at Ferda as though she wanted to kill him.
She seemed to try to say something, but perhaps the words caught in her throat, because she simply whipped her head around.
Why was she acting like that?
“You don’t know what you did wrong, do you?”
Zed sidled up and asked.
He was practically a mind reader.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“What you just said was on par with, or worse than, something Penelope would say.”
“What…….”
Only then did Ferda realize that his words and actions had been inappropriate.
I should buy her something tasty later.
Luri cleared the path while Arwen and Zed covered Ferda’s flanks and rear, allowing them to move quickly.
They arrived at the cathedral of the Althe Order.
Even Althe’s emblem, which should have been golden, had faded to gray.
Ferda could sense the aura of a totem inside.
A place that worshiped life had become a place that praised death.
“Let’s destroy it quickly and move on.”
Just as Ferda opened the cathedral door and stepped inside, he reflexively turned his head.
It was only for a moment, but something caught his eye.
It was a sensation that made the hairs on his head stand on end.
Ferda realized what it was from Arwen, who stood beside him.
“Ah…….”
Fear took root in the eyes of Arwen, once an indomitable knight.
Ferda recognized that expression.
‘It’s Trauma.’
The unknown monster that had tormented both Luri and Ferda.
It was inside there now.
They had to deal with it somehow before proceeding inside.
As the saying went, it was darkest beneath the lamp; the way through was closer than they had expected.
“Why are there so many eyes?”
Zed calmly looked up at it, a question mark floating above his head.