Ch.131Chapter 131. The Beginning of War (2)

“In the end.”

“So it’s come to this again.”

Cynthia and Emily muttered as if they had rehearsed it together.

Elaine silently sipped her tea beside them.

In just a few days, the continent was undergoing dramatic changes.

The official announcement of Satan’s resurrection in the north and his declaration of war.

An unprecedented alliance of all nations across the continent.

All of this had happened in just two days.

“And Ryu is gone again.”

“Yeah.”

*Slurp-*

Once again, only Cynthia and Emily spoke while Elaine merely drank her tea.

All three knew very well that Ryu would be busy.

Unlike them, Ryu wasn’t really a student but someone who worked with Yuria, the leader of the Peace Alliance Forces.

Not to mention he was also a member of the Black Shadow Corps.

“But is it right for us to just sit here doing nothing?”

Cynthia muttered with a dissatisfied voice, as if feeling frustrated.

Seeing this, Elaine, who had only been listening until now, finally spoke up.

“Even if we went, we wouldn’t be much help anyway.”

“I guess that’s true, but…”

Cynthia clicked her tongue in disappointment, though she agreed with Elaine’s assessment.

She knew she wouldn’t be much help skill-wise, but Cynthia still wanted to do something.

After all, the whole world was in a state of emergency now.

Although they were academy students, they were still in a position to do something compared to ordinary civilians.

Cynthia’s righteous personality made her uncomfortable with sitting idle in this situation.

“I wanted to be with my aunt too…”

Emily added, expressing her own disappointment.

*Slurp-*

Elaine continued to quietly drink her tea without joining the conversation.

That day, having witnessed the battle between Ryu and Satan up close, Elaine had come to a painful realization.

That she would be of absolutely no help in a battle against Satan.

Far from helping, her presence would actually be a burden.

If Satan had taken her hostage during that midnight battle to threaten Ryu…

‘Then both of us would have been done for.’

Elaine took another bitter sip of her tea.

The battle scene between Ryu and Satan had given Elaine much to think about.

Watching their fight, she had felt a wall between them.

She had never felt this way before, not with anyone else, not even when watching her father, known as the Iron Wall Knight.

While she admired and respected her father’s swordsmanship, she had always been confident that someday she too could reach that level.

But watching Ryu and Satan, she felt no such confidence.

It was truly a difference in class.

Like glimpsing a realm that seemed unreachable no matter what she did.

Normally, watching powerful fighters would ignite one’s competitive spirit and motivation, but this time was different.

It was more like feeling despair rather than competitiveness when facing an insurmountable wall.

Perhaps that’s why.

Elaine felt that Cynthia and Emily’s conversation was pointless.

With their current abilities, they wouldn’t be much help in a battle against Satan anyway.

As she had worried earlier, they would more likely be a hindrance.

“Elaine, isn’t there any way we could go back north through your father? Or maybe through Professor Kassis?”

“It would probably be difficult.”

Elaine answered Cynthia’s question immediately, without even properly considering it.

And that’s when it happened.

*Ding-*

With a clear, crystal-like sound, the communication devices of all three vibrated simultaneously.

“Hmm?”

Without anyone taking the lead, Elaine, Cynthia, and Emily each took out their communication devices.

As they infused mana, light emanated from the devices and images began to play.

“What is…?”

The images showing on the communication devices were of monsters moving in an orderly fashion.

“Is this happening in real time…?”

Cynthia muttered in disbelief.

The monster “legion” in the footage appeared several times larger than the group that had broken through the barrier days ago.

It was truly a surreal scene.

**

“Shit…”

Someone’s muttering expressed the feelings of the entire Peace Alliance Forces as they watched the approaching monster legion.

What they saw in the distance was undoubtedly monsters.

So many monsters that one might wonder if this many had always lived in the north.

*Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-!*

Once the black mass that had appeared as mere dots from a distance was clearly identified as monsters, alarm bells began to ring throughout the camp, signaling an emergency.

There were far more monsters than on the day when the barrier was destroyed and Satan made his declaration of war.

“Why now?!”

The adjutant of Yuria muttered in disbelief after confirming the monsters’ advance with his own eyes.

The “three days” deadline Satan had mentioned hadn’t arrived yet.

So why were the monsters advancing now?

‘Engaging those creatures with our current forces would be nothing short of suicide.’

Yuria’s adjutant quickly assessed the situation.

The alliance camp was actually weaker now than it had been a few days ago.

After Satan’s declaration of war, many members of the Peace Alliance Forces had returned to their respective countries.

It was like taking one step back to move two steps forward.

With the situation having evolved into a continent-wide crisis, they had left to inform their countries and bring back reinforcements.

Even Yuria, the leader of the Peace Alliance Forces, was absent, having gone to meet with the Black Shadow Corps.

In this situation, engaging in battle with such an impossible number of monsters would have been a decision that even Yuria herself would not have made.

‘We need to retreat quickly.’

The adjutant made a swift decision.

“Everyone prepare to abandon this place and retreat!”

While shouting to the alliance camp, Yuria’s adjutant gave several orders to his subordinates.

First, to broadcast the monsters’ advance in real time to inform the entire continent of the current situation.

Next, to notify the commanders of each country who were marching with their armies to arrive in the north by tomorrow.

‘Damn it, we shouldn’t have trusted the devil’s words.’

The adjutant clicked his tongue in frustration as he looked once more through his telescope at the approaching monster legion.

Not just him, but everyone who had heard the declaration from Satan’s subordinate that day had naturally taken it at face value.

In retrospect, blindly trusting the “devil’s words” was a very dangerous thing to do.

“Hurry up!”

“Prepare to withdraw quickly!”

“Just leave that and go!”

Crossing through the camp where each team was busy preparing to retreat, Yuria’s adjutant headed toward the fortress wall.

The wyvern swarms, which had appeared as mere dots in the sky, were getting closer and beginning to fill the sky.

“This is absurd.”

The adjutant muttered to himself as he witnessed the unimaginable number of monsters.

When the barrier broke, he had thought they wouldn’t face a greater threat than that.

*Gulp-*

Just as Yuria’s adjutant was taking out his communication device after swallowing dryly, it happened.

*Rumble-rumble-*

“Whoa!”

Suddenly, as if an earthquake had struck, not just the fortress wall but the entire ground began to shake.

It seemed like an earthquake, but that wasn’t it.

The ground visible a little distance away was perfectly fine, unlike where the adjutant was standing on the wall.

“What is this…!”

*CRASH-!*

With the adjutant’s confused cry, a section of the wall collapsed with a thunderous sound.

*CRASH- CRASH-*

The thunderous noise didn’t end there.

Starting with one section of the wall crumbling helplessly downward, walls began to collapse all around.

“G-giant centipedes!”

Through the thick dust, someone’s shocked cry was heard.

What emerged through the collapsed walls and dust were giant centipedes.

Monsters that supposedly lived deep underground and were so individualistic that they never traveled with others of their kind.

Yet now, dozens of giant centipedes were breaking through from underground, destroying the walls.

As the walls collapsed, the interior of the alliance camp instantly turned into chaos.

The damage was even more severe because they were in the midst of retreat preparations rather than combat readiness.

‘Was it a trap?’

Yuria’s adjutant, who had fallen from the wall, barely regained his senses and looked around.

The first thing he checked was the monster legion he had seen in the distance.

They were still slowly advancing from far away.

“Haa.”

*CRASH-*

With the adjutant’s sigh, another centipede emerged nearby.

In just a few seconds, the once-solid fortress walls had all crumbled.

“Lady Yuria…”

*CRASH-*

And those were the adjutant’s last words.

Soon the ground where he stood shook, and a centipede burst up from below, opening its disgusting mouth.

“Everyone run!!”

With the barrier surrounding the fortress walls gone, the centipedes had infiltrated right up to the base of the walls without any restrictions.

Even though the tens of thousands of monsters in the legion hadn’t even come close yet, the alliance camp was already all but destroyed by the centipedes alone.

‘Huh, huff.’

The soldier who was floating in the air using levitation magic to broadcast this scene in real time unconsciously took a deep breath.

The alliance forces were suffering casualties without being able to mount proper resistance, either being pierced by centipede legs or crushed by falling wall debris.

‘I need to escape.’

Following the adjutant’s orders to broadcast the current situation, the soldier swallowed hard and slowly began to move downward.

It was an instinctive action.

Informing others of the situation was important, but surviving here was the priority.

This was the beginning of a full-scale war.