Chapter 84
“Use Gregorian Chant Bombardment.”
“What? Commander!”
“What, do you have a problem with that?”
“Will the priests obey without a fuss?”
It was true that Leonhardt de Bretus was the supreme commander of the Holy Kingdom's forces, but he was ultimately a Crusader.
Rather than having a clear hierarchy, Crusaders and priests had their own separate domains, much like the army, navy, and air force.
So even as captain of the Crusader order, he couldn't issue commands to the priests; the proper procedure was to request their cooperation.
But...
“Isn't this a Grand Consecration, specifically a Gregorian Chant Bombardment that drains the priests' stamina to an extreme degree? Bishop Erenio won't agree without a fuss.”
“His Holiness the Pope gave me the authority to command them.”
“What?”
Then why...
had he asked the priests for their cooperation one by one until now?
Hadn't the priests been incredibly high-handed?
It was hardly uncommon for that to tarnish Leonhardt's honor.
The matter had even become a topic of discussion among the Crusaders.
At the questioning looks, Leonhardt spoke as if it were obvious.
“His Holiness granted me this authority to erase Maggis's traces. He didn't give it to me so I could push the priests around and force them to obey.”
“Ah, I see...”
What he was witnessing now was the very nobility of a devout Crusader.
“That means, now...”
“Even if the successor isn't Maggis, they're deceiving people and claiming to wield God's providence. If not at a time like this, when would I use the authority His Holiness granted me?”
At last, he carefully took out and raised a small staff symbolizing the Pope's authority.
When he infused it with divine power, it shone brightly, and the Pope's emblem appeared in the air.
The priests, who had been treating the engineers rather listlessly, were startled. They fell to their knees, raised their hands toward the emblem, and began to pray.
Bishop Erenio, the head of the priests, also stared at the Pope's emblem in surprise.
Then, recognizing the person who had manifested it, he was even more startled, his eyes widening.
“Commander Leonhardt...”
“I am acting on His Holiness's behalf now. Address me as His Holiness's representative.”
“... His Holiness's representative.”
“As His Holiness's representative, I command you. Prepare a Grand Consecration, a Gregorian Chant Bombardment, against Constance Castle at once.”
“N-no! You want us to use a Grand Consecration right now?”
Bishop Erenio raised his voice in anger and pointed behind him.
“You're saying that to the priests who've spent three days and nights treating the engineers without rest? A Grand Consecration that drains their very life force, no less?”
“It can't be helped. A little fatigue is better than missing an opportunity in battle.”
“A little fatigue? What the hell are you...!”
Before Erenio could finish speaking, a sword—no one knew when it had been drawn—was already at his throat.
“Are you challenging His Holiness's authority?”
“......”
“I am not Leonhardt, captain of the holy knights and a Crusader. I am His Holiness's representative. If you challenge that authority, I will excommunicate you and cut you down here and now.”
He trembled.
The bishop stared at him for a long moment with shaking eyes, then clenched his teeth and took a step back.
“I'll report this to the archbishopric.”
“By all means.”
“... It'll take a little time to prepare.”
“Be ready within twenty minutes.”
“That's impossible!”
“... Would you still have called it impossible if His Holiness had told you to be ready in twenty minutes?”
Gritting his teeth as he glared at Leonhardt, the bishop abruptly turned toward the priests and shouted.
“Prepare Gregorian Chant!”
At last, exactly twenty minutes later, the first strike of Gregorian Chant descended upon Constance Castle.
To ordinary people, it was nothing more than warm light. But for any being even slightly connected to the unnatural order... it was a devastating bombardment of divine power.
Had even Maggis, the Mage of old, retreated with a bitter smile when the Holy Kingdom's elite priests unleashed their bombardment?
So...
even Maggis's successor would be no different.
“Huff... huff...”
The priests were drenched in cold sweat, and steam rose from their bodies as they expended an excessive amount of divine power.
But...
“Prepare a second strike.”
“A-are you insane? You want us to prepare a second strike in this state?”
“Then everything will be over. I promise. If you use the second strike properly, I will never again exercise this authority on any future expedition.”
“... If we use the Grand Consecration twice in such quick succession, we won't be able to do anything afterward. For at least a month!”
If they truly used the second strike as well, their divine power would be completely depleted, and it would take at least a month of rest before they could recover it.
Knowing that the bishop wasn't exaggerating, Leonhardt nodded.
“No problem. We'll end the war with that second strike. How are the engineers?”
“Hoo... They've almost recovered. But we should keep an eye on them a little longer...”
“We don't have time for that. Do you know what Maggis is doing right now?”
At Leonhardt's explanation, the bishop's face turned pale.
“Blasphemy!”
“Exactly. I hope you understand why I'm in such a hurry.”
“If you'd told me earlier, I would have cooperated without being asked.”
No matter how strained relations between the Crusaders and priests were, their opponent was a black mage guilty of blasphemy.
But Leonhardt firmly shook his head.
“You would have wasted time looking for another way. It was better to force your hand while you were still in the dark.”
“Grr... Very well.”
And so, when the second strike engulfed Constance Castle, fueled by their wrung-dry reserves of divine power...
“Everyone, advance!”
Nearly ten thousand Crusader knights began their advance.
**
Pride, having gained the power of a god, was now free from the influence of divine power.
Then there was nothing to fear.
Just as I was thinking that...
“The Crusaders are advancing!”
At the observer's shout from the watchtower, the general began issuing orders calmly.
He deployed the soldiers who had recovered their strength in suitable positions and prepared for the battle ahead.
“Prepare the mana cannons!”
Mana cannons?
A large number of objects that looked unmistakably like cannons were hauled up onto the walls.
They loaded them with iron balls.
“Fire!”
They harnessed the explosive force of magic instead of gunpowder...
and fired the iron balls.
Wheeeee! With a sound that split the air, an iron ball struck the charging Crusader in the head and crushed it.
It went on to knock several more Crusaders from their horses.
“Check the impact point! Begin reloading!”
The soldiers must have regained their strength properly after eating glucose and meat, because the gunners were handling the heavy iron balls with ease and firing the mana cannons.
Just then.
The observer's urgent shout rang out.
“The enemy engineers are preparing to fire their catapults!”
“Catapults? How could catapults possibly do anything to our walls?”
Constance hadn't earned its reputation as a natural fortress for nothing.
Our walls could withstand even the latest mana cannons. Old-fashioned catapults were no threat at all.
The observer shouted again at the general, who was looking rather smug.
“The catapults are on fire! It's Purifying Fire! Purifying Fire!”
“W-What did you say? Those lunatics!”
“... What is Purifying Fire?”
“It's a fire the fanatics use that won't go out once it catches! It even reignites after you put it out with water...! If they're going to throw that into the city, they have no intention of capturing it!”
White phosphorus... maybe?
They really were lunatics.
They were going to scatter that vicious weapon all over the castle?
“... How long until the catapults fire?”
“The Purifying Fire needs time to react properly, so it'll take thirty minutes.”
Thirty minutes.
Then that was plenty of time.
“Pride, transform into Magmophile.”
After transforming into a heat-resistant bacterium that lived in volcanoes, I first protected my own body...
“What's the largest building in the castle?”
“The inner keep.”
“How many people can it hold?”
“If we pack it to capacity, probably around a hundred thousand.”
“Hmm. That's not enough.”
What should I do?
After thinking for a moment...
“... Broadcloth.”
“Pardon?”
“Find as much cloth as you can. Hurry! Anything will do! The wider the better! And gather the people in the square!”
“Yes!”
They now took almost everything I said as gospel.
The soldiers hurried through the castle, calling for people and telling them to bring whatever large pieces of cloth they could find.
Before long, a few hundred thousand people had gathered in the castle's vast square.
“... Forgive my impudence, Mage, but if this continues, we could all burn to death.”
Of course.
Look at how packed together everyone was.
“Enemy catapults ready to fire! Ready to fire!”
There was no time left now.
The holy knights had stopped at one side of the plain, outside the mana cannons' range. It seemed they intended to burn the whole castle down with their catapults before moving in.
“Everyone! Hold the cloth you've brought high above your heads!”
The fire-resistant bacteria didn't need to cling to people's bodies to make them resistant to fire.
If it clung to a wide sheet of cloth, that would make a fire blanket, wouldn't it?
On top of the countless colorful sheets of cloth raised at my command...
the fire-resistant bacteria went and clung to them.
“Fire! Enemy catapults firing! Brace for impact! Brace for impact!”
Bong, bong, bong, bong!
The observer rang the warning bell frantically.
The sound of the bells seemed to pound just as fiercely in people's hearts.
The people, who had only just regained their strength, trembled as they held the colorful cloth high above their heads.
And above those sheets...
Thud! Thud-thud! Thud-thud-thud!
Earthenware pots filled with Purifying Fire—white phosphorus—came crashing down.
The pots naturally shattered, scattering white phosphorus in every direction.
“Fire!”
Not all the Purifying Fire fell into the square.
The Purifying Fire that landed on houses blazed up in an instant, devouring buildings all across the castle.
Fear spread through the eyes of everyone who saw it.
Then the Purifying Fire began falling into the square, too.
Thud! The pots shattered, scattering white phosphorus across the cloth people were holding.
“Aaaah! It fell! It fell!”
The people cried out in alarm at the impact, but...
“W-What?”
“We're fine?”
Fssssss!
Before the fire blankets protected by the fire-resistant bacteria, the flames couldn't even flare up. They only gave off smoke.
“Hurray! Long live the Mage!”
As the people's cheers grew louder...
[The faith in the entity ‘Pride’ has grown even stronger.]
[You can manifest a divine authority.]
[To manifest a divine authority, you must obtain ‘Constellation Avicenna's Research Journal I.’]
Uh, right...
First, I needed to get the skillbook.
And to do that, I had to clear the Gate.
For now, I should focus on the war.
White phosphorus was obviously difficult to obtain, and expensive.
Even more so in a medieval setting.
After that first attack, the catapult barrage paused for a while.
“The holy knights are charging!”
They couldn't see what was going on inside, so they must have assumed we'd suffered devastating losses and decided to attack.
I hurried to look beyond the castle at the charging holy knights.
The walls of Constance Castle were certainly strong.
But the gates...
were naturally bound to be weaker than the walls.
The holy knights always exploited that weakness.
If they hurled spears filled with divine power, adding the full force of their horses' acceleration, most gates couldn't withstand the impact.
The Crusaders were more powerful than any siege weapon.
“Smite Charge!”
The holy knights hurled thousands of spears shining brightly with divine power at the gate, then wheeled their horses around.
Booom! Bang! Bang!
Deafening explosions rang out from the gate over and over.
The gate was battered to splinters.
Fortunately, there was a moat, so the cavalry couldn't charge straight in, but...
“The path before Your children is blocked! Open the way!”
Open the way!
Along with the fanatics' shouts, the earth rumbled, and the moat filled in.
That was the damn unfairness of divine power.
Sufficiently gathered divine power could produce the effects of any magic under the name of a ‘miracle.’
And with thousands of Crusaders gathered together, could they really not make a single bridge?
But you see...
“Who said the gate was broken?”
An evolved strain of adhesive bacteria.
There were cement-producing bacteria, too.
Since I already had the strain, copying its traits was easy.
The Prides instantly imitated the form of the cement-producing bacteria...
and began patching the broken gate with cement.
It wasn't a wooden gate anymore.
A mass of cement stronger than stone began sealing the entrance.
The gate had been open, and now there was even a bridge to the entrance.
The Crusaders charging toward it were visibly flustered.
At that very moment.
“The catapults are firing!”
The people who had been lowering the fire blankets awkwardly hurried to raise them over their heads again.
But...
The Purifying Fire hadn't landed inside the castle.
“Graaah!”
“Aaaagh! Save me! Thessalonica, save us!”
Astonishingly...
the Purifying Fire was raining down directly on the knightly order.
Friendly fire...?