Ch.285285. Southern Desert (3)

In the middle of the Euphtes Desert, a false hanging garden rises from deep within the earth.

In the depths of this pyramid-shaped building—the headquarters of the “Euphtes Skull Army.”

The Grade 1 undead who serves as both their leader and monarch—the Lich Lord—is now…

[“What? The legions were annihilated?!”]

[“Y-yes, my lord…”]

Enraged by the news of his offensive force’s annihilation delivered by his subordinate, he slammed his fist on the sandstone desk in his office and berated his underling furiously.

[“Three hundred thousand! We deployed a full three hundred thousand to a single city, with reinforcements continuously flowing in!! …And yet these incompetent fools somehow managed to what?!”]

[“…They were… completely annihilated!”]

[“Damn them all!”]

In truth, from the Lich Lord’s perspective, their performance could only be described as a pathetic failure.

Of course, they were mostly composed of low-grade skeleton infantry with only about 2,000 elites and just one mid-tier or higher combatant—essentially disposable troops.

But still, three hundred thousand is three hundred thousand. A continuously reinforced army of that size.

No matter how superhuman someone in this world might be, when numbers reach 300,000, quantity becomes a quality of its own.

An immortal army of 300,000 that needs no supplies and suffers no consequences even if they die as long as their commander survives—they should have won even if they just mindlessly charged forward from a distance, yet they were defeated.

Either they got cocky and exposed themselves on the front lines only to get their heads lopped off, or the enemy broke through 300,000 troops with overwhelming force and assassinated the commanders in the rear…

From the perspective of the Lich Lord, who absolutely refused to believe that mere “slaves of the gods” could penetrate all the way to the rear… those fools must have grown complacent and careless, resulting in their collective annihilation.

…In reality, the enemy would have broken through those 300,000 troops using Steam-Rune Tanks regardless of rear positioning, though the Lich Lord’s assessment wasn’t entirely wrong either—a peculiar situation indeed.

BANG!!!

After fuming for quite some time, blaming his subordinates for their incompetence, the Lich Lord suddenly remembered someone he had forgotten and asked the liaison officer in a hopeful voice.

[“…Right. Sidum. There was Sidum. What about his cavalry?”]

Sidum. A high-ranking warrior and Death Knight, he was the finest warrior leading the Euphtes ground cavalry and a reliable cavalry commander trusted even by the severely paranoid Lich Lord.

Sidum himself not only rode a zombie dragon, a high-tier monster, but also commanded around 100 mid-tier warriors riding mid-tier monstrous undead.

In addition, he led an undead cavalry exceeding 30,000 in number—undisputedly the most mobile unit in the Euphtes Skull Army.

[“My Lord… Sidum is…”]

[“…Contact with Sidum’s cavalry has been lost. The last message mentioned pillars of light attacking them. Not even their remains have returned.”]

However… the situation was far worse than the Lich Lord had imagined.

The Lich Lord covered his face with trembling hands, seething with rage, and spoke quietly to his inner circle surrounding him.

[“Only those I name shall remain. Everyone else, leave. Commander-in-Chief, Reactivation Officer, Weapons Bureau Director, Court Magician.”]

As soon as the Lich Lord’s words, boiling with anger, fell, everyone except the four most important named individuals hastily departed.

And the moment the office door closed—

[“That was an order!!”]

The Lich Lord’s genuine rage-filled roar made his quarters tremble.

[“Sidum’s attack was an order! How dare they ignore my command?!!”]

[“My Lord, please regain your compo—”]

[“Silence! Commander-in-Chief, what were you doing while things deteriorated to this point?!!”]

[“I was faithful to my duties—”]

[“I don’t need excuses! Tell me the reason!!”]

Perhaps it was a habit from when he was alive, despite his undead body being nothing but bones.

The Lich Lord, clicking his jaw and exhaling heavily, seemed to try calming himself down, but then—

—CRASH!!

[“Damn them all!!”]

As if completely unconcerned with others’ opinions, he vented his emotions, using his inner circle of four as emotional trash cans.

[“You’re all garbage, garbage! Without me, you would have lived as slaves to the gods forever… and you don’t even have ability! Die, you should die!! I should have killed you instead of letting you live!”]

As if all that mattered was venting his frustrations, the Lich Lord continued raging and causing a commotion for quite some time before finally seeming to calm down as his anger subsided.

[“…What forces remain?”]

[“Plenty! We still have the immortal legion—”]

[“Isn’t that immortal legion gone now?!! What? Plenty? When variables arise, shouldn’t you consider them first?!!”]

Was he ignoring the fact that this situation arose because of his own impaired judgment due to fears of betrayal from his undead subordinates?

As the Lich Lord was about to once again directly express his anger and berate his subordinates—

[“…Wait, what is this?”]

Suddenly, he showed a puzzled reaction to a faint but clearly perceptible alien energy signature that had begun to manifest.

[“Pardon?”]

[“My Lord, what do you mean?”]

[“…Quiet. Something is coming.”]

Something that only he had noticed, while even his other close aides failed to detect it.

Thinking it might be something that emerged with changing times, the Lich Lord turned his gaze outward.

[“…???”]

What entered his vision was a small but incredibly concentrated mass of magical power, falling from the high sky and about to make direct impact.

—KWAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!!

Moments later, the sun descended upon the earth.

※ ※ ※

From beyond, Ben Gaitenpang’s Level 5 thermonuclear spell, “Tsar Bomba,” descends upon the center of the Euphtes Desert.

And the moment the source of the explosion emits light and releases energy—

Centered on the Euphtes Skull Army’s headquarters, everything burns.

The ground, the sky, the tower that blasphemes against the gods, the corpses that cling disgustingly to life—all are incinerated without exception, swept away by the heat.

An immense explosion reminiscent of the end of the world or divine punishment.

It went beyond simply sweeping away everything in its range, leaving tremendous aftereffects.

The ultra-high-density magical mass that someone from beyond dropped using Lisa’s Vampiric Dragon as a relay point became a massive explosion the moment it hit the ground, repeating infinitesimal fissions.

The enormous red mushroom cloud reminiscent of a fungus, encircled by cloud rings, symbolized this catastrophic strike.

The heat accompanying the magnificent explosion that shook heaven and earth was perfectly described as returning everything to nothingness, sweeping away the entire area.

And the state of the Euphtes Skull Army, the target of this ultimate magic…

It goes without saying—it was so devastating that it would be faster to count what remained, as most things vanished without a trace, buildings and all.

Ashes? Dust? They didn’t even become that much.

The overwhelming heat literally “vaporized” their skeletal bodies, and even areas not directly hit saw sand turning to glass from the aftereffects.

There was no way the bodies and souls of mere undead rabble could remain intact.

Particularly devastating was the destruction of the temple that served as both the Euphtes Skull Army’s headquarters and the site of “reconstitution.”

The Euphtes Skull Army’s forces had their souls bound to the headquarters, meaning that no matter how many times they were killed, ancient necromancers could reconstitute their bodies based on their souls.

But now that the headquarters where troops were to be reconstituted had completely vaporized and the necromancers were annihilated, this was a devastating blow that would make them weep tears of blood.

Of course, not all of the Euphtes Skull Army’s foundations were destroyed yet.

There were at least ten other buildings serving the same function as the headquarters, and in reality, only about 10,000 souls were stored at the main headquarters.

However… those 10,000 included all the elites and necromancers that the Lich Lord had gathered for central control. Frankly speaking, the only necromancer capable of reconstitution remaining in the Euphtes Skull Army now was the Lich Lord himself.

[“AAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!”]

Thus, at the epicenter where the mushroom cloud had dissipated, abandoning all dignity and authority, he screamed with hatred.

The Lich Lord—suddenly realizing that the cause of this entire catastrophe was still in the sky—cast a hateful gaze upward.

Toward the massive blood-red dragon with an undead-like aura and the priestess riding it—Lisa Raeldotir.