Ch.1265With This Many People, Can’t We Stop This One Thing?

“Air raid warning! Air raid warning!”

“Brace for impact! First wave incoming!”

The sudden downpour of massive rock fragments was truly like a bolt from the blue, but not so much of an unavoidable disaster that we needed to despair.

“Anti-air defense! Intercept as many as possible!”

My subordinates and I had already established and thoroughly trained for a defensive plan in case a demigod or ancient dragon attacked from above, just like last time.

“Where’s the defensive spell formation?! What are the sorcerers doing?!”

“Preparing for activation! 50 seconds remaining!”

“Damn it, deploy the buffer walls first! Everyone gather in the central sector!”

We were all taken aback and our response was slightly delayed since no one had imagined the sky would literally come crashing down…

“Lord Jahan, Lord Nigel! Can you destroy those?”

“I can melt some of them!”

“…Honestly, it would be difficult for me. I can probably only alter their trajectory at best.”

“Then please handle whatever we miss! We’ll try to block as many as possible!”

Fortunately, I—no, we had several reliable and trustworthy comrades who could buy us time to respond.

“Um… what about me? Why aren’t you asking me?”

“You’re specialized in fighting people, not rocks! You don’t have that kind of firepower. It’s not like you can make rocks hear hallucinations!”

Though there were one or two who were completely useless in this situation.

“So Lord Leonore, just focus on protecting Lena! If she gets hurt, our goddess will go berserk!”

“Hey, I’m a hero who’s crossed the wall too, is that really fair…?”

The heroic tale Leonore gained after crossing the wall was a mental-type ability that confused armies with darkness and hallucinations, causing them to fight each other.

Unfortunately for her, it was a completely useless ability against falling rocks.

Moreover, her weapons and fighting style focused on speed and lethality rather than destructive power, making her ill-suited for this situation.

Of course, as a hero who had crossed the wall, Leonore could easily break rocks with her strength… but dealing with this meteor shower was simply too much.

As Ophelia said, Leonore’s best option was to command the evacuees while safely escorting Lena.

If she’s upset about it, she should either acquire some powerful area-of-effect skill or somehow obtain a weapon with such functions, like Jahan.

– KWAAAANG!

Meanwhile, the other powerful individuals who possessed such means fought desperately to intercept the falling rocks until our allies completed their evacuation.

Nigel shattered the rocks with his floating weapons and Eberond’s holy spear, while Jahan and Kudsedra unleashed torrents of flame that instantly melted the boulders.

The resulting lava was scattered by sorcerers who weren’t participating in the defensive spell construction, summoning winds to disperse it.

However, their power was ultimately limited to destroying only a small portion of the falling rock pile.

“Those sword-wielders, I swear. So good at killing but utterly useless in situations like this? What would you do without me?”

The true savior who protected the fortress from the falling rocks was a single woman.

“Seriously, our country’s magical forces are pathetically inadequate. Maybe I should train some apprentices…”

The necromancer who had transcended her natural talent through alchemy research and the karma of countless battles following Haschal, and who had gained immense mana by consuming a dragon’s core.

The youngest archmage of the current era, Ophelia van Sigmillus.

Her specialty, necromancy, like Leonore’s ability, didn’t match well against piles of rocks, but the difference between a mage and a swordsman is the variety of things they can do.

Necromancy wasn’t the only magic Ophelia had studied and mastered; she had learned several spell formations suitable for situations like this.

“It’s convenient that they don’t resist. Their trajectories are predictable too.”

She controlled air currents and warped space to alter the rocks’ directions, making them collide and shatter; transformed rocks into golems to smash other boulders; and even reversed gravity to slow falling rocks, causing them to collide with those following behind.

These weren’t flashy, powerful area destruction spells, so they appeared somewhat crude and modest, but they were dozens of times more efficient than such annihilation spells.

In fact, if she had recklessly used such powerful destruction magic to smash those rocks by force, even the mana gained from the dragon’s core would have been quickly depleted.

Instead, Ophelia only changed the speed or direction of the rocks, utilizing their own power and velocity for destruction, which consumed relatively little mana.

It was a technique that relied more on swift spell construction and precise trajectory calculations than on mana quantity or instantaneous output.

This spectacle proved that her skill as a pure mage, not just in manipulating spirits through necromancy, was worthy of the title of archmage.

– KWANG! KWADUDDUDUK! KUGUGUNG…!

The meteor-like rocks collided with each other in mid-air, crumbling into countless pieces.

The shattered debris orbited around the rock mass like satellites, grinding against the surface and breaking into even smaller pieces, scattering sparks and faint flames as they exploded everywhere.

Though not as spectacular as a barrage of flashy magic, it was still quite a sight to behold.

‘Good, I can leave the lower area to them now.’

[That girl grows impressively well. Despite being busy with her distasteful hobbies and experiments.]

‘Indeed. Though she still has a long way to go.’

Well, ultimately, she was just handling what I couldn’t destroy completely.

“KYAAAAH!”

– KWAAAAAAANG!

My left hand thrust forward with a thunderous roar, embedding deep into the rock mass.

A house-sized boulder exploded into powder from the impact, and the remaining force penetrated and crushed the rocks beyond it into pieces.

“Hagalaz!”

The rune of collapse spread a wide net of mana that crumbled the rock masses into dust, and the shockwaves that burst forth with every swing of my fists and legs shattered everything around like a giant’s iron mace.

The power of a transcendent that I hadn’t had a chance to reveal while fighting opponents of similar caliber.

The immense destructive force, unleashed without worry of counterattack, mercilessly swept through the air, erasing everything within hundreds of meters.

[Keep moving! Light will pour down here soon!]

‘I’m seriously busy here!’

I continued to dash and fly between rock masses, avoiding the sunlight while destroying as many falling rocks as possible.

– KUGUGUGUGUNG…!

“All troops have completed evacuation! Initiating buffer wall deployment!”

“Protective spell is also ready!”

For nearly a minute, until all our allied forces had evacuated to the shelter made of multiple layers of rock domes reinforced with protective spells.

“Good, you all get inside too! We’ll defend from within!”

Then we also jumped into the rock barrier and gritted our teeth to endure until the downpour of rocks ended.

– KUUUNG! KUUUUUUNG!

The thunderous sound penetrated deep underground, shaking the earth.

Every time new rocks collided with the ceiling, the entire shelter shook as if in an earthquake, and the naga sorcerers maintaining the defensive spell groaned, blood seeping between their teeth.

It was like being in an air raid shelter during an aerial bombardment.

I miss it.

I can’t honestly call it a pleasant past, but now that I recall it after so long, even such memories have become a kind of nostalgia, evoking a strange longing.

“My God… the sky, Naraka’s ceiling…”

“Dear Lord… who could have, how…?”

Others who had no such memories were nearly in a state of panic, unable to bear the anxiety.

“Did you see that?! The sky was too bright. It wasn’t fire. What was that?”

“I don’t know! Just keep reinforcing the rocks! If we lose strength, we’re doomed!”

Both nagas and rock monkeys—all soldiers were in confusion and anxiety, not knowing what to do.

After I defeated three demigods, they had absolute faith in me—or more precisely, in my power—and no longer feared enemy attacks, but this was a natural disaster beyond any enemy raid.

The fear blooming in their hearts now was a fundamental dread that couldn’t be dispelled even by the majesty and protection of the divine being right beside them.

– KUGUGUGUGUNG…!

“Another breach! Gather more rocks!”

“Narrowing the protective spell’s range! Focus on the exposed tertiary barrier!”

Well, it’s only natural they’d be trembling in fear, as the barriers were gradually crumbling under the impact of falling rocks even at this moment.

“Is this going to collapse…?”

“Don’t worry, we can hold out! …Probably.”

“Why ‘probably’?!”

“Because we don’t know when it will end!”

Even hero-class warriors who had accumulated power incomparably greater than ordinary soldiers couldn’t hide their anxiety, so how much worse must it be for them?

“…Ophelia, what do you think? Will the barrier hold?”

“It should be fine. I checked just before coming in, and it seems the entire place hasn’t collapsed.”

Among those hiding in the shelter, only I, who had regained composure from old memories, and Ophelia, who had calculated the expected damage with her mage-like brilliant mind, could remain calm.

“That’s fortunate. Then, the remaining issue is…”

Since she was confident—no, certain—that the rocks wouldn’t reach this far, I could organize my thoughts relatively comfortably without tension or mental burden.