Ch.1209Situation in Each Country

The Empire secured regional safety by reorganizing its central army with vast resources and magical engineering technology and dispatching them to various regions, but other countries without such capabilities couldn’t afford such luxury.

Though the Empire did provide airships to some countries as a gesture of friendship, they were naturally not the latest models, and having just one or two ships was far from enough to defend an entire nation.

Moreover, they only provided armed vessels without additional support like mana cannons or hand cannons, forcing other countries to still rely on knights engaging in close combat.

Consequently, unlike the Empire, these nations had to accept casualties whenever they went out to subjugate magical beasts.

“Crusaders of Seals, advance! Break through!”

“Charge! Follow His Majesty the King!”

Dane, the country of runes and crusaders, was performing relatively well.

Perhaps it was thanks to King Knut of Dane, who led by example in every battle, annihilating magical beasts with the power of runic seals and his magic sword Dainslief.

“Volberg—no, no. Astraea!”

The Crusader of Seals, who had lost their power as crusaders after abandoning the Volberg faith, achieved remarkable results by supplementing their strength with rune magic.

Some warriors even converted completely to the Order of Order, becoming paladins who could invoke Astraea’s miracles.

Though the power of these miracles wasn’t particularly strong since their conversion was recent, the mere ability to use miracles represented a significant increase in fighting power.

*Crack!*

“Kieeeeek!”

The light of judgment, powerful even against magical beasts rather than just sinners, poured onto the battlefield, piercing countless monsters.

“Now! Charge!”

As a path opened in the middle of the battlefield, other seal crusaders rushed forward as if they had been waiting, cutting and stabbing the injured magical beasts, widening the gap further.

In this way, Dane subjugated the magical beasts that appeared everywhere one by one, relying on the might of their rune warriors.

“Urgh…! Not yet, not yet…!!”

Of course, they didn’t always achieve overwhelming victories, and sometimes not only soldiers but even seal crusaders fell in fierce battles.

—-

If there are peaceful countries and countries that manage to endure despite hardships, the universe’s balance requires countries on the brink of complete collapse.

“It’s a tomb guardian! Run away-!”

“Kyaaaah! Please, please spare me!”

Panam, a country without a reliable king, magic swords, magical engineering, or rune technology, was collapsing like a textbook example of a dying kingdom.

“Where have all the knights gone?!”

“Those idiots all died fighting among themselves!”

After a long civil war, knights and soldiers died in droves regardless of rank, the king had fallen and fled, and the capital was completely devastated.

The current Panam had no strength left to withstand the increasingly frequent magical beast attacks.

“…This country never ceases to amaze me. Just when you think it’s hit rock bottom, it shows you an even lower bottom.”

“Lord Hardret, please refrain from such remarks while on deployment. They are still our allies, after all.”

The situation was so dire that the Empire had to dispatch knights to subjugate the beasts on their behalf, fearing that if left unchecked, the magical beasts might cross over to imperial territory.

Of course, there were limits to the quantity and quality of forces that could be dispatched this way, so they could barely put out the most urgent fires, let alone defend the entire kingdom.

The northern and central parts of Panam, closer to imperial territory, could still be managed by imperial forces, but the southern regions, being farther away, had become virtual hell on earth.

If Dane or the Holy State had been in better condition, the scale of support might have increased and the situation might have improved somewhat, but both countries were already struggling to defend themselves and had no resources to spare for helping others.

“Run! Run as far as you can! While we buy you time!”

“Goddess of the Sun, please protect them and us…!”

Knights who had somehow survived, remnants of the rebel forces, and church factions that had preserved their strength by maintaining neutrality throughout the civil war did try to protect civilians by confronting magical beasts in various regions, but…

“Brother Elio! Everyone’s at their limit, we need to retreat for now…!”

“Kuk…! Damn it, if we just had three times our current forces…!”

In the end, these were just sporadic resistances by small groups. They couldn’t reach the level needed to subjugate the magical beasts of a world where Heaven’s Wall had mostly been destroyed.

As a result, Panam was slowly but surely being consumed by demonic territories from the roots up.

The southernmost cities had long since fallen and transformed into demonic realms.

The streets were filled with refugees fleeing north, while some deserters and defeated soldiers turned into bandits, increasing the number of civilian casualties.

The slain civilians even rose again as undead, so the number of monsters only increased no matter how many were killed, showing no signs of decreasing.

Panam, once a country of luxury and passion that had accumulated vast wealth through intermediary trade between Himmel and the Empire, was perishing in this manner.

Just as intended by the sixth apostle of the Forgotten Gods’ Church.

A smooth destruction.

—-

Unlike the collapsing Panam, the Holy State was somehow managing to withstand attacks from magical beasts and other monsters.

In terms of power compatibility, they should have been able to push back against magical beasts rather than merely enduring, but even the Holy State couldn’t manage that much.

They were still recovering from the damage of the Invidius subjugation campaign, yet void monsters continued to pour in steadily from the great forest that had turned into a desert.

They were barely holding on thanks to the greatly enhanced power of miracles due to the shortened distance to heaven, and because the paladins who survived the subjugation campaign had grown stronger.

Without such qualitative improvements, even the Holy State would have gradually declined after a terrible war of attrition.

—-

Unlike other regions, the north was surprisingly peaceful.

At some point, the frequency of magical beast attacks had clearly decreased, and now there wasn’t even a trace of magical beasts to be found.

Was it because even the fiercest magical beasts couldn’t withstand the northern cold?

Or perhaps the frost giants, who had also become strangely quiet, had stomped all the swarming magical beasts to death because they found them annoying?

The scouts of Faelrun never discovered the reason, but thanks to this, the north was able to enjoy a long-awaited peace.

“A calm and silence always precedes the storm. So never let your guard down, maintain your equipment, and focus on training.”

“Yes, Your Grace!”

Of course, Faelrun didn’t expect this peace to last forever, so they devoted all their newfound leisure to strengthening their forces.

Like the old saying: if you want true peace, prepare for war.

“Kwaarooooo—!”

And somewhere on the continent, there were those who interpreted this maxim in a more aggressive and proactive direction, waging war to realize peace through conquest.

“Oleeeeg! Let’s end this once and for all—!!”

“That’s my line, Targiyan—!”

Beyond the Wall of Berengaria and the Barun River, on the great plains at the eastern edge of the continent, the fierce battle between the werebeasts of Baryachrus and the Ka’har continued.

“Grwoooooo!”

“Targiyan Khan! Magical beasts on the flank!”

“What…! Of all times…!”

The situation had changed from before, becoming a three-way battle with the unwelcome appearance of a third force.

“Enemy cavalry! Spread out! Lure them toward those beasts!”

“What…?! You vile bandit scum, how dare you…!”

“Call it strategy! A tactic your beast brains couldn’t come up with!”

Magical beasts were demons that were hostile to all living beings, regardless of whether they were werebeasts or Ka’har.

Therefore, they were enemies to both Baryachrus and Clan Aishan, but unlike the dragonborn, these war-loving peoples didn’t even consider a truce or cooperation in such a situation.

They simply continued to pile up bodies, indiscriminately hostile to both old and new enemies.

As a result, the eastern battlefield was more treacherous than anywhere else on the continent.

Though it couldn’t surpass Panam in terms of tragedy, it far exceeded it in terms of intensity.

And there was no prospect of improvement in that hellscape.

“Good! Come as much as you want! I’ll tear you all apart!”

“Ha! Become monster food! Like the livestock you are!”

Everyone there, regardless of status or race, didn’t try to improve the brutality but rather enjoyed it.

—-

In contrast to the chaotic great plains, the Dragonic Kingdom, which had been suffering from internal strife, surprisingly regained stability.

Had the martial dragonborn faction finally repented and stopped causing all sorts of disturbances?

“Hahaha! These creatures, the feeling of killing them is exquisite!”

Of course not. The martial faction had simply changed their targets from the civil faction to magical beasts.

The civil dragonborn were slaughtering magical beasts in the name of eliminating the demonic threats to civilians, while the martial dragonborn were doing the same because they enjoyed the killing.

The imperial palace was also focused on subjugating magical beasts to protect the people, so all three major forces of the Dragonic Kingdom had united against the magical beasts.

Of course, this was only cooperation in result; they still growled at each other when they met, but usually the civil dragonborn quietly withdrew to avoid conflict.

“Isn’t this desirable? If they voluntarily want to die alongside the magical beasts, why should we interfere? Let them rampage all they want.”

This was the advice and counsel given by Diarma, the Forest Keeper of the Small Forest and leader of the nine great civil faction schools, to other civil dragonborn.

Though the Small Forest’s influence had somewhat declined compared to the past, the civil dragonborn who still respected him followed his advice without complaint.

“Do you avoid dung because it’s dirty or because you’re afraid of it? Don’t step on it unnecessarily. In the end, we’re the only ones who lose.”

“Our role is to clean up after they collapse. These are clearly turbulent times. We should minimize meaningless expenditure of forces as much as possible.”

The other heads of the great schools who had survived the civil-martial war also shared Diarma’s view and disciplined their disciples accordingly.

Thanks to this, the Dragonic Kingdom, despite being a country in a quasi-civil war, could devote all its national power to national defense without waste.

It was a development that would make the people of Panam, whose country was beginning to collapse due to civil war, shed tears of blood with envy if they saw it.

—-

And then.

In Hestella, a theocratic kingdom located inside the Wall of Berengaria, which serves as the boundary between east and west—a bizarre military state with a small territory and limited finances, but nevertheless boasting the continent’s strongest military power—