Ch.194194. Kagan (2)

After confirming Kakan ‘El-Temur’s’ approach through shared vision with the trackers scattered throughout the Slovakin region.

“Sophie, I’ll leave it to you.”

“….Yes.”

Having entrusted Sophia with the role of explaining this situation internally, I began to carefully observe ‘El-Temur’s’ warband to assess their strength.

As I recall, even though ‘El-Temur’ holds the position of Great Khan, he cannot control the entire orc race.

Orc society is fundamentally structured through force and suppression, making it difficult for groups to easily grow large. Once they exceed a ‘certain threshold,’ orc groups don’t expand directly, though indirect expansion might be possible.

And El-Temur’s orc warband doesn’t deviate much from these characteristics of orc society.

About 16,000 regular orcs serving as infantry and handling miscellaneous tasks (supplies, livestock management).

Approximately 20,000 orc warg cavalry who could rightfully be called the backbone of the orc army.

In addition, there were 4,000 elite orc boar heavy cavalry that surprised me with their military discipline—something unheard of in orc society.

Plus 30 great warriors (mid-tier fighters) and 20 shamans (mid-tier magic users).

This army of approximately 40,000 regular troops, 50 mid-tier fighters, and one high-tier warrior could undoubtedly sweep away the Slovakin Margraviate.

And…. most unfortunately, the warband of El-Temur, the chosen one of the orcs, didn’t end there.

About 10,000 low-grade slaves serving as food, laborers, and expendable combat resources. At least 30 special-purpose mid-tier slaves deliberately raised for combat.

When you factor in their trained combat beasts and various asymmetric forces, there’s obviously no chance of victory.

The Slovakin Margraviate, exhausted from prolonged siege warfare and offensives, is effectively out of commission, and there’s no way our guerrilla unit alone could face such a force.

Of course, we do have two high-tier druids—myself and Sophia—as high-tier magic users.

But their only high-tier, Kakan ‘El-Temur,’ is likely a formidable opponent that even Sophia and I together would struggle to defeat.

Previously, during a brief return from my journey, I heard from my mother about those who are chosen by gods (the Chosen).

Conventional deities are beings belonging to the divine realm called the celestial plane, and because of this, the constants of this world reject and push away these external dimensional (celestial) beings.

Therefore, gods cannot send down even fragments of themselves to the material world without believers to use as anchors, let alone manifest their true forms. Instead, as a kind of workaround, they bestow their power upon beings that already belong to the material world.

I’ve heard that in the mythic age when the ancient empire existed, these chosen ones, known as “Chosen,” were quite common, and their power levels, though varied, were generally high.

But the mythic age ended unexpectedly at the hands of the ‘Myth Destroyer,’ during which a significant number of ancient gods were damaged or destroyed, and crucially, the channels through which gods could intervene in the material world narrowed considerably.

As a result, gods can no longer freely dispense blessings and miracles as before. They now either focus on promising individuals or, in the case of racial deities, manipulate things from the moment of birth….

The power of these Chosen, those selected by gods, is naturally transcendent.

The Chosen after the end of the mythic age are essentially elite few, typically blessed to maximize the output their race can achieve.

Literally becoming the greatest genius of their race, Kakan El-Temur is essentially a bug character.

Standing at 3.5 meters tall, far exceeding orc limitations. A physique so massive it rivals subspecies giants like ogres or trolls. Muscles that could likely deflect bullets without even using aura or magic power.

And that’s just his physical attributes. His close combat techniques, weapon mastery, and aura manipulation skills are beyond my comprehension, as I have no knowledge in those areas.

….But considering that Yesukhei, another high-tier but more evil individual, can kick the air to perform air-walking, El-Temur’s abilities must far surpass this level—and that’s no exaggeration.

Therefore, after completely setting aside personal feelings and coldly deliberating, I could reach a conclusion.

‘There’s absolutely no way we can stop this with our power alone.’

Since it’s clear that we need our main force to intervene to have any chance, we decided to do the best we could for now.

※ ※ ※

Thus, the first thing we two did was, naturally, evacuate the citizens of the Margraviate.

I worried that people of this era, who have at least a thousand times more patriotism than modern people, might resist excessively, but surprisingly, the people of this Margraviate had a different mindset from others.

The moment we announced the need to evacuate, everyone began packing their belongings without complaint—showing me how frequently they must have experienced such crises or been exposed to danger.

Anyway, thanks to the active cooperation of citizens, which was contrary to our expectations of resistance, we were able to smoothly prevent civilian involvement. The next thing we started was….

“Council Leader! Kakan El-Temur has appeared!”

[….What?! He disappeared without a trace, and now you’re saying he’s appeared there?]

“Yes! Please send reinforcements quickly, or at least people who can stop ‘him’!”

Through the Council Leader, we reported El-Temur’s appearance and requested reinforcements to subjugate him.

Although El-Temur possesses transcendent combat power as the Chosen of the orc racial deity, he has merely reached the extreme of the high-tier realm without crossing beyond it.

Therefore, if the allied forces respond to my request for support and combine their strength with ours, we could certainly handle El-Temur. Moreover, this is an incredible opportunity.

Until now, El-Temur has been leading a massive army including not only his own warband but also the warbands of the great warriors under his command. But here, El-Temur has appeared with only his direct warband.

Rather than facing El-Temur while breaking through an unimaginable number of troops, it would be best to quickly end the great invasion by eliminating El-Temur here and now.

For such a critical matter, I was confident they wouldn’t engage in petty politics.

….Though I can’t rule out the fear that my death might bring my enraged master to the scene.

Anyway, after completing the evacuation of troops, Sophia and I headed to the eastern plains of the Margraviate, leaving even our guerrilla unit members behind.

The orc army spread out so far that even my extremely sensitive high-tier perception could barely detect them, and among the numerous life forces, I could sense the presence of the orc Great Khan, El-Temur.

The emotion conveyed to my heart by the sight of this majestic army slowly approaching like a black wave was indescribable.

And… amidst all this, I’m thinking.

If I wanted to, I could easily escape alone, or even take my cherished guerrilla unit members and withdraw.

But I stayed here, and whether out of some petty heroism or whatever, I volunteered to stop that army.

….My commoner’s mindset, contrasting with the high-tier power I possess, secretly considered this clearly foolish and meaningless.

But… so what?

With sufficient power to do so, who would be stupid enough to criticize someone willing to risk their life to stop them?

Therefore, I….

[Earth, quake! You are the emperor of the twisted underground, boil and split to bring apocalypse to the surface!]

For the first time since becoming high-tier, I began chanting the incantation to activate nature magic.

The elven language, filled with magical power, seeped into the surrounding environment with each word, and then, with a thunderous shout, violently stimulated the land in all directions.

[….Shuera! All shall crumble!]

And, as I finished the entire incantation—

-….KUGUUUGUUUGUUUGUUNG!!!

With a deafening sound that seemed to shake heaven and earth, a tremendous vibration struck the ground, and then—

The vast plains before my eyes split in half, as if drawing a line between me and the orc warband.