Ch.111Burning Fahrenheit

My chest.

It hurts.

An itching sensation like being bitten by an insect.

And a shock like being hit by a ball flying from somewhere.

That strange, foreign feeling was disturbing Marcus’s chest cavity.

Clatter! Clatter!

“Hya! Hya!”

The coachman’s shouts and the sound of horses’ hooves conveyed urgency.

Where exactly did it all go wrong?

Marcus thought and thought again.

He believed he had been leading the nation well.

The population grew, the economy expanded, and he increased the nation’s territory by absorbing fragments of the earth’s core.

And for hundreds of years, as other nations in the north bowed before him, he thought he had elevated Fahrenheit to become the hegemon of the north through his own strength.

But in the end, it had come to this.

Just as great and powerful empires throughout history collapsed not from external invasion but from internal power struggles, corruption, and decadence, his nation too had fallen into the inevitable grasp of decline.

Like weeds growing on a waterwheel that no longer turns, Fahrenheit had lost its drive for innovation. Though it held the position of a great power, it neglected the duties of a great power and failed to properly exercise its rights.

It was like a large child who says nothing, making those around assume he is simply taciturn.

Agriculture was disregarded as merely producing enough to eat, industry was left to adventurers and alchemists, and commerce was entrusted to lowly merchants.

This might be divine punishment.

Perhaps it was simply time for an ordinary nation—one that had merely been lucky with timing and blessed with favorable conditions—to come down from its undeserved luxury.

At least thinking this way made it somewhat easier to breathe.

However, Marcus could not escape this catastrophe.

He was the Grand Sovereign who led ten million subjects, the master of Fahrenheit with over 300 years of history.

Fahrenheit lived because he lived, and he could be called the Grand Sovereign because ten million subjects served under him.

He could not escape his responsibility, nor should he.

“For Fahrenheit! Eradicate the heretics!”

“Follow the Standard-Bearer! Knights forward! Soldiers form an encirclement!”

From outside the carriage came the shouts of soldiers and knights.

Knights drawing their swords, soldiers extending their spears and nocking arrows to their bowstrings.

And between them, the cries of priests spreading God’s gospel while smashing the heads of heretics.

They were fighting.

And the reason they fought was for him.

Then he too could not give up.

“Your Majesty. We will soon arrive at the palace. You will be able to see the royal physician shortly.”

“I see…”

As he heard the knight’s concerned words, the carriage arrived at the palace.

The news must have traveled quickly, as the royal guards protecting the palace were on high alert in battle formation, and at the entrance, royal physicians were rushing over with first aid kits in hand.

“Your Majesty! We heard you suffered an unspeakable attack! Please show us your wound immediately.”

“Do not worry too much. I was wearing armor, so there’s not even any blood.”

“Ah… thank heavens. But the daggers of heretics are coated with all manner of vile substances, so you must rest absolutely for the time being.”

The physicians looked embarrassed upon seeing Marcus’s unharmed body.

The only information they had received was that “His Majesty collapsed after an assassination attempt by heretics,” so they couldn’t help but make a fuss.

“…”

“Your Majesty?”

“I apologize. From now on, I must move quite vigorously.”

“Pardon?”

“Aide!”

Leaving the bewildered physicians behind, Marcus called for his aide.

“Yes!”

As the aide who had arrived with the physicians answered, Marcus gave him an order.

“Send a request for assistance to the Allied Nations.”

“A request… for assistance, Your Majesty?”

“Yes. We need help.”

Help.

At those words, everyone present, including the aide, froze for a moment.

Their Grand Sovereign had just said he would ask for help from those who had pointed swords and spears at them during the last war.

“…Understood.”

But they had no choice.

Because while it was difficult to distinguish between demonic humans and actual demons, they were certainly not the same.

No matter how hard 99 tries, how could it ever surpass the magnitude of 100?

*

“Damn it! How many of them are there?!”

“Burn the lambs! For the true resurrection of God!”

Slash!

“Gaaack!”

“Those who sell their souls to the devil shall find no rest even in death!”

The central square of Fahrenheit was filled with corpses, blood, and entrails.

For hours now, Fahrenheit’s forces and the demon worshippers had been engaged in fierce combat.

Overall, the disorganized and poorly trained demon worshippers were gradually being pushed back by Fahrenheit’s growing army. However, those who had already given their souls to the power of destruction clung to the soldiers until the bitter end unless their limbs were severed, causing the battle to drag on.

“Kyaaaah!!!”

“Arrrgh!!”

Crunch!

“Wilson! No!”

The casualties among the soldiers, who were weaker and more lightly armored than knights, continued to mount. It was easier to kill soldiers in cloth armor with only metal breastplates and helmets than knights covered in full steel armor.

Of course, the losses weren’t immediately noticeable due to the sheer number of soldiers, but as the saying goes, “you may not notice what’s there, but you notice what’s gone.” The accumulating losses meant more knights were being attacked from behind.

“Form a triangular formation! Don’t give the enemy any openings!”

“Lightning shall follow my command!”

“Flames shall rise from the flint!”

Crackle!

Whoosh!

“Kyaaaaaaah!!!!”

Fortunately, the mages served as a reliable pillar, grinding through more heretics than the knights and soldiers combined, displaying an overwhelming presence in the central square.

Even though their limbs weren’t severed, the apostles blessed by evil gods could only die helplessly when subjected to powerful voltages and extreme heat that burned through their nervous systems.

The tens of thousands of heretics fought valiantly but could not ultimately prevail.

But if they had wanted victory in the first place, they wouldn’t have appeared in the central square. With the blood spilled here, they had succeeded in achieving their purpose.

“Kehehehe! You fools! Do you think They will distinguish between your corpses and blood and ours? Both you and us! We will all become the flesh of the apostles and enjoy eternal life!”

A dying heretic hurled mockery at the priest who was about to deliver the final blow.

“What nonsense…!”

Naturally, the priest dismissed it as rubbish and raised his mace, but soon he had no choice but to lower it.

Rumble!

Suddenly, the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck all of Fahrenheit, and the heretics who had been fighting began to drop dead.

“Guaaack!”

“What… what the hell?!”

Literally, the blood and remains of those who had died began to gather in one place. The Fahrenheit forces, sensing they needed to stop whatever was happening, moved quickly.

“Burn the corpses! They’re trying to summon something!”

“Wide-area purification prayer!!! Quickly!!!”

“Pyromancers, cast your spells now! We must burn the remains before they’re sucked in!”

Soon the square began to burn, and from the sky, a pure white radiance descended, literally erasing nearby corpses.

The holy light from the heavens erased corpses and dissolved blood, but it wasn’t enough.

The few hundred priests couldn’t erase all of the tens of thousands of corpses, and after hours of fierce battle, the mages had depleted much of their magical power, making it impossible to cast proper high-level magic.

“Bring oil! We need to burn the bodies!”

“Bring torches! Damn it! That thing is already starting to coalesce!”

Squelch! Squelch!

Squish! Squish!

Already, at the center of the square, a large sphere made of corpses and blood was floating about 2 meters above the ground, continuously drawing in more bodies and blood.

A bizarre, unpleasant entity that made disturbing sounds, constantly expanding and craving flesh. Everyone instinctively knew that as long as “that thing” existed, the war in Fahrenheit would not end.

Clang! Clang!

Whoosh! Crackle!

“Damn it! It’s not working!”

“We’re wasting time! Just burn more bodies!”

Some soldiers hastily made and threw fire bombs, but they only caused Maillard reactions on the surface, making its appearance even more demonic.

Gurgle… gurgle…

“Ah… damn.”

Whether the flames acted as a catalyst, or because there were no more corpses to absorb, the “mass” suddenly contracted into a single point. It happened so quickly, without any process or noise, transforming into a dark red sphere about the size of a baseball, glowing ominously.

“Father, what is that?”

“No…”

“Father?”

“It can’t be…”

“Father?! What on earth is that thing?! Tell me what it is!”

“The gate of hell…”

BOOM!!!

With the priest’s trembling voice, the sphere burst its form and expanded to the size of a five-story building.

On the other side of that oval surface appeared countless legions of demons.

And the demons that were reflected soon began to project into reality.

Thud! Thud!

Red skin.

Reverse joints.

Grotesquely twisted faces and bizarrely grown horns.

And demons wielding blood-rusted weapons began to multiply, advancing toward the knights and soldiers, mages and priests.

The gate of hell had opened in Fahrenheit.