Ch.179Total War. (3)

Dawn was breaking. Two forces faced each other across a vast plain. Mages summoned battle creatures like griffins and golems, while priests chanted hymns to boost morale.

The barriers that had been spread across both sides had also completely disappeared.

Livga climbed onto a slightly elevated platform. The choir fell silent at once, and the cheering crowds also closed their mouths.

‘…With so many people here, but sister isn’t among them.’

A pointless thought. But since she might die today, she figured she could indulge in this much complaining.

Livga chuckled and drew the holy spear attached to her waist. Then, as holy knights typically do, she raised the spear and pointed it toward the enemy.

The distant holy power emanating from her entire body.

Whoosh…!

That intense holy power swept like a storm, dyeing the surroundings in pure white.

There was no elaborate speech. Just hymns echoing through the surging light. Angels descending from the sky blowing trumpets. Among the angels created from holy power, Livga spread her eight wings.

“The Goddess of Light.”

The eight fully spread wings radiated light. It was incomparably more intense than when she had six wings in the past.

When the light subsided, Livga’s body was somehow clad in pure white armor.

“Will be with us.”

That was enough to boost morale.

Wow! The holy knights exclaimed in admiration. Among the priests moved by the sacred atmosphere, some shed tears of emotion.

‘…She’s grown so much.’

Olivia, watching from a corner, found herself smiling without realizing it.

The girl giving a speech on the platform was no longer a naive child. She was now a leader capable of commanding an army and a spiritual pillar for believers.

Kuuung…!

The White Dragon Lord, who had been waiting high in the sky, flapped her massive wings and landed in front of Livga. The scales forming her body emitted brilliant light each time they reflected the sunlight.

Glacia roared loudly, then naturally lowered her head to Livga. Livga stroked Glacia once before climbing onto her head.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Lady Glacia.”

[…Well, I can carry a human of your caliber anytime.]

Glacia spoke in an intentionally gruff voice. Even though she was a dragon, she wasn’t bold enough to act tough in front of hundreds of thousands of people.

Livga slowly looked around.

With the elevated view, she could see and hear more things. The cheers of soldiers, the sound of knights adjusting their scabbards…

And far away, the Imperial army preparing to charge.

A clash of powers.

It was clear that whichever side started later would suffer greater damage.

Whoosh…!

Glacia spread her massive wings and soared high into the sky, and simultaneously, the holy knights on white horses charged forward.

“Charge!”

Holy Knight Commander Johan shouted. Thousands of holy knights followed him with lances in hand.

“Break through in one go!”

“Yes! Knights! Formation for breakthrough…”

The adjutant stopped mid-sentence and frowned. In the middle of the plain, someone was rising to their feet. A figure too massive to be called ordinary. And a shield as tall as a mounted standard-bearer.

“…Commander. Over there…”

“Ignore and break through.”

For knights charging as one body, obstacles don’t exist. Unless it’s a sufficiently fortified stronghold, it would be instantly pierced by lances and trampled under hooves.

The Rebel glared at the pure white wave surging toward him.

The holy power was so intense it made onlookers doubt themselves.

It was as if they were the villains.

Thud-thud-thud-thud…!

The ground shook. But there was no fear on the Rebel’s face.

He leaned his upper body backward. Then he placed his shield against the ground and secured it with his shoulder.

Kwagagak! Adamantine magic enveloped the Rebel’s body and shield. The shield, which had been endlessly absorbing magic, instantly grew to the size of a fortress.

Kugugugugugu!

‘…That’s no ordinary shield.’

Johan frowned through the gap in his helmet. This was no illusion. He had heard about it in meetings.

A southerner who wielded adamantine magic.

Colliding with that fortress would result in being crushed instead. Because that man’s magic had reflective properties.

“Can we go around?”

“…It’s possible, but then we won’t be able to withstand the collision with the Central Knights.”

Retreating wouldn’t change anything.

No, doing so would be volunteering to become prey for the Imperial Central Knights. The difference in acceleration between those who change direction and those who don’t would be enormous.

At that moment, as Johan was deliberating…

Swaaaash…!

Something flew at a terrifying speed and collided with the ground. Whether someone had launched a great spell, the impact alone created a massive crater in the ground.

“Halt!”

Johan’s white horse reared up, raising its front legs. Other holy knights also hurriedly reduced their speed, surprised by the suddenly appearing crater.

The Imperial Central Knights were similarly affected. No matter how skilled they were as knights, riding down a slope of this steepness would be suicidal.

The two knight orders stood facing each other across the massive crater.

“Just wasted magic for nothing.”

As the plan fell apart, the Rebel frowned and withdrew his adamantine magic. The shield also instantly returned to its original size.

Thwack!

Before the thick dust could settle, a fierce attack shot out from within. The Rebel widened his eyes as he saw the fist force flying toward him.

‘…So it wasn’t magic!’

The Rebel, who barely blocked the fist force by twisting his shield, roared.

“…King of Martial Arts!”

“I deliberately landed in the center because I couldn’t tell who was the enemy… but if I had known, I would have landed right on your face.”

The King of Martial Arts chuckled.

“Let’s see. How many minutes can you last?”

*****

From high in the sky, Olivia was watching the entire scene.

With the King of Martial Arts’s intervention, the collision between the two knight orders was thwarted. Having lost their characteristic acceleration, the knight orders would obviously become prey for infantry, so both sides withdrew without hesitation.

‘Getting caught up in that would be disastrous.’

Fierce impact sounds echoed in all directions from where the King of Martial Arts and the Rebel were clashing.

[Hahaha! You’re tougher than the turtle I crushed when I was three!]

[Nonsense…!]

Olivia watched their battle for a while, then turned away without hesitation. War doesn’t happen in just one place. Soon the entire plain would become a battlefield.

The knight orders were just the first move.

Olivia closed her eyes. She spread her ki perception to its maximum, identifying the movements of countless people. Olivia’s magic didn’t distinguish between friend and foe. Knowing only her side’s movements wouldn’t be enough to read the flow of the war.

‘….’

Because the numbers reached hundreds of thousands, it was much more difficult to detect than she had thought. But difficult or not, it had to be done.

She couldn’t defeat Aria through ordinary means.

Regardless, the fact that she needed to subdue Aria to obtain clues remained unchanged.

Olivia mentally divided the vast landmass of the plain into sections. Dozens of sections appeared instantly. They were so large that an entire army corps could fit into a single section.

‘Binding the entire 1st Corps together…’

Just as she was about to continue her mental image, massive clouds appeared, casting shadows over the battlefield.

‘….’

Their shape was too peculiar to be natural clouds.

Perfect squares without even the slightest gap. Anyone could see these weren’t naturally formed clouds.

Perhaps due to the shape of the clouds, the shadowed plain also changed impressively. It looked as if a black and white checkered pattern had been drawn on the ground.

Olivia slowly raised her head.

The Imperial army marching with the sound of armor clashing. A small cloud at a dizzying height above the ground.

Between those clouds sat a blonde woman with her legs crossed.

She was fiddling with something. It was an object Olivia knew well.

Olivia stared at the woman’s figure for a moment, then manipulated her magic to create an identical object.

Shape, form, size…

Everything was identical, but there was just one difference.

Color.

Black on that side, white on this side.

The woman, who hadn’t been looking at Olivia until then, slowly raised her eyes to look at the object in Olivia’s hand and smiled.

“Do you think you can win?”

Olivia smirked.

“I have to.”