Ch.121Opening Battle (4)

Slash-! How many had he cut down? Kaisel, his face now completely numb, wondered.

Blood had dried on his face, only for fresh blood to splatter over the crusted layer.

The horses the knights had been riding had long since become mere chunks of meat.

An overwhelming gap, yet the will to narrow that gap remained.

The overall momentum of the battle still favored the imperial army.

Flesh flew through the air. The knights who witnessed this battlefield, filled with scenes too cruel to describe, wondered how long their morale could hold.

“Current casualties?”

“Roughly a thousand, I’d say. We won’t know the exact number until this is over… but we’re putting up quite a fight, aren’t we?”

“We still haven’t managed to break through a single escape route, but yes, we’re fighting well.”

Despite Kaisel’s pessimistic words, Cain couldn’t say anything in response.

Ahead of them still lay countless enemies, too many to even count.

Kaisel wiped the blood on his face, then smiled wryly at the blood that had completely dried and wouldn’t come off.

“Chances of breaking through?”

“I think we can, if this is all they have.”

“…What about Evan Fried’s reinforcements?”

At those words, Cain, who had been watching the approaching enemies, answered with a slightly serious expression.

“They’re on their way.”

“Don’t say that with such a serious face. For a moment I thought they weren’t coming, and I panicked. So, how long will it take?”

“Probably 30 minutes to an hour. They’re coming at full speed, with a thousand reinforcements.”

A thousand. An ambiguous number.

It was enough to replace the soldiers they had lost,

but could Evan Fried and his thousand break through this retreat path?

However, Kaisel didn’t outwardly show his anxiety.

Instead, he loosened his tense shoulder muscles, smiled confidently, and turned his gaze toward the black mages.

“They may have numbers, but individually they’re manageable. If we could somehow take out whoever’s commanding them, we might be able to break through.”

“We need a bit more time to use large-scale magic. Please hold on for just five more minutes.”

“Five minutes… You think the magic will be ready by then?”

“That’s plenty. It might even be ready sooner.”

The battle situation had stalled, but it was time to push forward once more.

As Kaisel’s gaze fell on Theorad, he exhaled while sheathing his sword, sensing that gaze.

Theorad, recognizing the meaning of the five outstretched fingers—that magic would soon be ready—began to organize the knights into formation.

As the formation became sharper and the scattered knights regrouped, the black mages began drawing magic circles to pressure the knights.

Though the sun hadn’t fully set, black magic circles dotted the sky, dyeing it as dark as night.

What burned from those magic circles were green hellfire, purple twilight, and dark black flames.

Ghouls born from the black mages’ magic approached the knights, baring their flesh-covered teeth.

Flesh that wouldn’t rot, exposed bones, dripping organs.

Maggot golems made from stitched corpses dragged hooks with heavy footsteps,

and the knights gripped their swords nervously as ghouls with flowing hair opened their mouths toward them.

“We’re breaking through.”

Kaisel spoke. The goal was a safe retreat,

though he would have preferred to march straight to the duke’s residence.

For now, it was enough to confirm how much power these enemies possessed.

Clashing head-on with so many opponents using knights resulted in heavy losses.

They had already suffered a thousand casualties. From now on, they needed to target the enemy groups individually with smaller forces,

disrupt their command structure, and gradually wear them down in a long-term battle.

‘…Things might change when Evan arrives, though.’

Kaisel narrowed his eyes as he thought about the reinforcements Evan was bringing.

The research conducted under Count Kasim and Gerard.

They were supposedly creating effective weapons against black mages,

and if those reinforcements brought those weapons, how would the battle situation change?

‘Now’s not the time to worry about that, though.’

Kaisel smiled bitterly as the face of a certain person suddenly crossed his mind.

Scarlet Terazein—why was her face appearing now?

He now knew for certain that she was connected to the Extinction, but a part of him still denied that fact.

If she hadn’t been the Extinction, if she hadn’t been such an important figure in the Extinction…

He might have spent a hundred years with someone.

He abandoned his lingering feelings. Kaisel’s eyes turned blue as he gazed at the sky that had been dyed pitch black.

He drew his mana to its limit, determined to hold out for the remaining five minutes.

Whoosh! Feathers scattered everywhere with the blazing flames.

The feathers, carried by the wind, sliced through a ghoul’s neck, spilling murky liquid.

Ignoring the magic that grazed his cheek, he cut through the black flames that soared into the sky.

With one step, he took down two ghouls; with the second step, he stabbed the belly of a massive maggot golem.

Stepping on spilling organs, his mana blocked the impure energy trying to enter his body.

He surveyed his surroundings. The knights were still fighting well. But fighting well wasn’t enough.

Tap, Kaisel’s footsteps began to quicken.

Kaisel and Theorad took the lead. Gradually increasing their speed,

they swung their swords while cutting down the ghouls rushing toward them.

The wedge-shaped formation, created solely for breakthrough, was quickly cutting through the hordes of ghouls.

The occasional incoming magic was defended by Medive’s mages.

Ghouls that were too clustered to handle were directly dealt with by the imperial mages.

Everything else was handled by the knights, Theorad, and Kaisel with their swords.

There were no words. Yet the black mages gradually retreated before the momentum that felt like the sound of galloping hooves.

A perfectly overwhelming army, yet a perfectly retreating momentum.

The wind carried the scent of blood. Swords oiled for battle gradually became stained with blood,

and the pungent smell of iron and blood burned the night sky, carried by flames.

Thump, thump! Footsteps taken in unison resonated with heartbeats.

As if they were one body, the knights swung their swords in unison.

Tearing apart the mouth of a ghoul swooping from above,

crushing the hideous eyeball of a ragged golem whose intestines seemed about to burst,

the knights continued their advance despite being soaked in exploding brain matter and spinal fluid.

“Three minutes!”

Haa-!

The shout from someone’s mouth spread like wildfire in all directions.

They were afraid. How could they not be?

Even knights, who were called superhumans beyond human limits, were still human in the end.

Driven by the primal desire to live,

they were ultimately just moths spreading their wings to the temptation of flames.

They ran.

Their hearts, their legs. Perhaps to the point of forgetting what they were even doing.

Each knight moved with various thoughts in mind.

Some felt doubt, some felt ecstasy,

some felt pain, some felt sadness, then despair, regret, remorse, frustration.

And at the end, hope.

A knight who had sobbed that morning, saying he didn’t want to fight, now gritted his teeth.

A knight who had smoked cigarettes the night before, imagining tomorrow’s battle, dropped his sword.

The sword of a knight who had boasted about his two children pierced a ghoul’s head,

while a knight who had lamented that his wife might be cheating was sent flying by a maggot golem’s fist.

But they never let go of hope. Neither the crown prince nor the captain of the imperial knights.

Because in this moment, they all desired life.

Since they all shared the same thoughts, their actions had become terrifyingly unified at some point.

Dirt from the ground they stepped on got into their eyes.

Despite tears flowing from tightly shut eyes, their sharpened senses detected the ghouls approaching from all directions.

Right, up, down, left, a rotating waist tore apart a ghoul’s jaw, spraying murky liquid into the sky.

The joy from that was brief. An axe swung by a ghoul slashed at ribs.

With a dull pain and saliva spraying from his mouth, another knight swung his sword next to the hit knight.

Crack!

The knight who crushed the head had been sobbing just yesterday.

Despite often being teased for his weak personality, he showed no weakness in this moment.

Even in this chaotic battlefield, where it was hard to tell if what was flowing from heads was blood or sweat, the knights exchanged glances.

Live.

There were still many enemies. But they took steps forward.

They moved despite flesh being buried in their wounds, making even the slightest movement difficult.

Stabbing knives into thick flesh, swinging axes, then taking out clubs to smash heads.

Knights who had been at odds until yesterday now stood back to back.

Boom- A drum sounded. Realizing it was a “signal,” Kaisel looked back.

A pillar of light rose from the rear where the mages were positioned.

“Looks like they’re ready.”

“They’ll need time to cast. We can’t slow down yet.”

“I know. But… will it work? Breaking through with just one spell?”

“We’ll have to see. If not, we can wait for reinforcements to arrive.”

That’s true. Theorad, who had shrugged his shoulders briefly, charged toward the ghouls again and shouted.

What they needed now was a brief moment for the mages to cast their spell.

Woong- Surrounding the imperial army was Medive’s barrier to prevent damage from large-scale magic.

A shield made of hexagonal pieces covered the sky.

One layer, two layers, multiple layers of translucent barriers completely enveloped the imperial army,

and the knights dealt with the ghouls remaining inside the barrier while assessing the situation.

“How much time until the spell is cast?”

“Ten seconds left!”

Hearing the answer from the rear, Kaisel crossed his arms and looked at the sky.

Large-scale magic like Meteor was inefficient.

What they needed in this situation wasn’t to scorch the surroundings,

but magic that would pierce a single point to create a path. What rose from the sky was lightning,

and seeing this, Kaisel smiled faintly and raised his sword.

“…As soon as the barrier disappears, we charge.”

Lightning tore through the sky. It repainted the darkened sky white in an instant,

emitting intense heat that made them forget the chill that had covered the surroundings.

A speed that eyes could not follow, a power that could not be imitated.

The moment the lightning that cut through the sky hit the ground, Kaisel and the knights began running forward.

Crack-zzzzt!

No trace of life remained where the lightning had passed.

What remained on the blackened, ashen ground were pieces of flesh that hadn’t completely burned,

and what had once had human form had long since disappeared, spraying dried liquid across the land.

They ran. The knights, with their increasingly exhausted bodies, ran with all their might across the shattered and burned ground.

The mages drew dimensional gates to attempt escape,

and soldiers who fell behind used the mages’ dimensional gates to move.

Since not many could move at once, only a small number used this method,

while uninjured knights ran straight along the temporarily cleared path.

Exhaling rough breaths, Kaisel gritted his teeth and ran, tasting the metallic flavor rising from his lungs.

The physical exertion was more severe than expected. If they failed to retreat now, the loss of troops would be significant,

and not wanting to miss this briefly opened retreat path,

Kaisel was using all his mana to run.

As they ran, the end began to appear in the distance. The opposite side of the spire,

the entrance where they had first entered this plain. All the knights sighed in relief, and Kaisel unconsciously loosened his grip on his sword.

In that moment of relaxed tension, the burning flame disappeared. Everything was over.

They had succeeded in retreating, and now… they just needed to wait for reinforcements.

“Alright, everyone-“

Thump.

The warning that rang in his head at that moment made Kaisel move instantly.

His body, which had seemed too heavy to move just a moment ago, sprang forward,

and Kaisel, who had rolled on the ground, raised his head with a serious expression.

His heart was beating violently. Not from exhaustion, but from a primal fear of something.

“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Grooaar-

The knights trembled at the fierce roar. Knights who had fought back to back were easily torn apart by those massive claws.

The head of a knight who had briefly regained courage was crushed and fell lifelessly.

The leg of a knight with children was torn off, and the knight whose wife had been unfaithful died relatively cleanly. They all disappeared.

It must have once been covered in scales. The wings that cut through the sky had long lost their skin,

leaving only bones completely exposed.

What burned in the empty eyes was purple twilight.

The knights trembled at the roar coming from the skeletal neck.

Those who met its gaze soon met death,

and Kaisel couldn’t bring himself to stop the knights who broke formation and fled.

Kaisel bit his lip as he saw his trembling hands.

Despite blood seeping from his pale lips, his violently shaking body showed no signs of calming.

As the thread of hope they had so desperately grasped was suddenly snapped,

even Azest, who had been watching the scene, held back a sigh.

“…Your Highness.”

Theorad spoke with difficulty. His body was trembling just the same,

but the experience gained over the years allowed him to hide that trembling momentarily.

Composing his voice, Theorad quietly smiled as he recalled when he first met the crown prince.

“I will hold it off.”

The wrinkled fingers spread wide and gripped the sword. What had he called him when they first met?

Back then, he had worried whether the prince would grow up properly as a person,

but now, seeing the fully grown crown prince, the middle-aged knight burned with regret.

“Retreat. That’s an order from your commander.”

Kaisel looked at Theorad with tightly closed lips. His feet wouldn’t move.

How long could he hold off alone?

But his pounding heart wouldn’t allow any more mana.

If he had judged more wisely, if he had observed his surroundings more carefully before moving.

He didn’t speak those words aloud. There was no point in making excuses now; nothing would change.

When Kaisel, with blood dripping from his clenched fist, looked back as he moved away,

Theorad was still staring at the bone dragon.

He could hold out for only a few minutes at most. Was it right to flee from here?

In that brief moment, countless thoughts followed, countless contemplations repeated.

In that instant, in the fractured time, repeating contemplations.

Crash! From the collapsing ground, Theorad once again deployed his domain.

His sword cut through space and reached the dragon, but it merely scattered helplessly before the dragon that had already regained its full power.

The greatsword in his hand trembled. It was fortunate that at least some cracks had formed.

He could only manage a few more strikes at most.

Hoo- Various emotions mixed in his exhaled breath.

If he died here, could they defeat this dragon afterward?

They had lost 1,500 knights in this battlefield. If they lost a Master as well.

His expression gradually hardened. The massive dragon’s body completely covered the sky, blocking even the light that had briefly shone.

As the surroundings turned pitch black and the voices of approaching ghouls reached his ears, Theorad gritted his teeth again.

The mustache he had always cherished burned in the dragon’s breath. Black flames soared into the sky, clashing with blue fire.

One strike, and Theorad’s knees buckled as his body grew more exhausted with each blocked attack.

His vision blurred with his panting breath, and for a moment his head drooped, briefly regaining consciousness.

As claws approached his body, about to pierce through him in an instant, just as he tried to raise his body—

“Sorry I’m late.”

At the familiar voice, Theorad collapsed to the ground.

Rolling over once, he saw armies that had once again covered the surroundings in black.

Seeing Theorad gaping at the fluttering flag bearing Yuris’s thorn shield symbol, Evan smiled awkwardly.

“…I didn’t expect you to be cornered like this. I said I’d come quickly, but I got held up killing a dragon.”

Behind Evan, who had spread white flames like wings, the corpse of a massive dragon was visible.

A bone dragon even larger than the one that had blocked their path.

After briefly looking at the corpse, Evan shrugged and gripped Ascalon.

From the sword that had only its handle left, a golden blade emerged.

Evan’s eyes, enveloped in pure white flames, turned golden, and soon began to scatter white light across the night-covered sky.

“Let’s advance.”

Looking at Yuris’s soldiers, each wearing pure white armor,

Theorad found himself nodding at Evan’s words.