Ch.343The Outcome of the Great Invasion

# The Northern Wall

During the time when Rurik and the final strike force were engaged in battle, the Werebeast warrior who had headed to the northern wall to summon reinforcements as ordered by the king was struck with horror.

There was no one at the northern wall.

Only piles of snow had accumulated on the ruins of the collapsed wall, and there was no sign of Baryachrus reinforcements that should have arrived long ago.

“What in the world…!”

The warrior groaned, unable to comprehend the situation before him.

Why was no one here? Were they delayed due to unforeseen circumstances, or had they never departed in the first place? As a mere warrior, he had no way of knowing the truth.

What was certain was that without reinforcements, his king and the other warriors fighting in the distance had no means of escaping death.

‘I must inform His Majesty…!’

They shouldn’t wait and fight for reinforcements. Even if it meant sacrificing the slower ones as scapegoats, they needed to run to the Sky Mountains.

Once inside the mountain range, it would be impossible for humans to pursue them.

As the warrior hastily turned to change direction, his world flipped upside down.

“……!”

A severed head cannot even release a scream of shock.

In his fading vision, all he could see was his own headless body spurting blood and a human sheathing a blue-silver longsword.

‘A human, a woman…?!’

A girl in winter clothing with long gray hair.

She appeared no older than fifteen with a youthful face, but the expression cast over her small face was unnaturally cold, as if carved from ice.

‘…how on earth…!’

In his fading consciousness, the warrior harbored one final question.

How he had failed to notice a person standing right beside him. He hadn’t detected any presence, footsteps, or even smell.

It was bizarre.

Despite clearly being right in front of him, she had no perceivable presence.

Like a ghost.

‘…….’

With his unsolvable question, the warrior’s consciousness sank into darkness.

The severed head rolled across the snowy field.

—-

The girl, who had been staring emotionlessly at the Werebeast’s head with its eyes wide open in death, turned her gaze to her right arm.

Her right hand trembled as if convulsing. Even worse, her fingertips had hardened like powder and were gradually eroding away.

‘…how pathetic.’

The girl frowned and clenched her fist tightly.

She was thoroughly dissatisfied with both this fragile body that deteriorated after just one sword technique and her own predicament, having been deceived into this state by what was essentially a fraudulent contract.

“Hmm. Truly worthy of your reputation.”

A young man’s voice addressed the girl.

A man in a robe emerged from among the ruins of the northern wall.

He was the mage who had been feeding information about the Empire to Rurik, deliberately manipulating him until recently.

The man known as the Fourth Apostle in Feirius’s organization.

“The ghost’s killing blade that cannot even be detected. It’s quite impressive to see it firsthand. To think you could use it even with a resurrected body. I’m curious about the principle behind it.”

“Resurrected? Hardly.”

The girl glared at him, not bothering to hide her irritation.

“You merely settled a dead person’s soul into a dead body. And in such a weak vessel that crumbles after swinging a sword just a few times.”

The girl was extremely dissatisfied with her body.

Originally, strictly speaking, it wasn’t even her body.

Perhaps because she was forcibly moving a dead girl’s body, her strength and stamina were pathetically weak, and when she forcibly moved by drawing on the power of Karma, her extremities would necrotize and crumble.

It was a body far inferior even to her original aging one.

“That can’t be helped. Even Feirius said creating an artificial body capable of utilizing Karma is a delicate matter. Until the most suitable vessel is completed, you’ll have to make do with temporary bodies like this. Well, you’ll get used to it eventually, Werner Valenstein.”

The Fourth Apostle casually dropped a surprising name.

Werner Valenstein.

The former First Sword of the Empire who had lost his life to Aishan-Gioro Haschal at the Battle of Zeren Plains.

After death, Valenstein’s soul had been bound by the necromancer Feirius according to their contract, placed under constraints to prevent disobedience, and settled into a suitable corpse.

That was the true identity of the girl who was looking up at the Fourth Apostle with a sullen expression.

“Of all things, a young girl’s body. Is this Feirius’s mockery directed at me? If he truly wanted to use me at full strength, preparing a knight’s corpse would have been better than this body.”

Valenstein muttered in a cold voice.

The shock he felt when first opening his eyes still hadn’t faded.

He had screamed in astonishment twice.

Once upon realizing that he, who had certainly died, had awakened again.

And once more upon seeing his slightly lowered line of sight and the body reflected in the mirror.

The elderly man who had been nearly seventy had become a young girl who barely reached his former waist height.

“What? Ah. I doubt it’s mockery. While I’m not particularly versed in necromancy… I do know that stably combining different souls and bodies is no simple task. So, perhaps… he sought stability by combining concepts of opposing forces.”

The Fourth Apostle shook his head, defending Feirius.

He provided an explanation simplified enough for even Valenstein, who had no expertise in magic, to understand easily.

“Opposing forces?”

“Yes. Naturally, opposing forces tend to clash with each other, but when suppressed and well-integrated, they transform into surprisingly strong and stable power. Though failure results in a massive explosion… Anyway, I believe Feirius chose a girl’s corpse for that reason. What could be more opposite to the soul of an aged man than the body of a young girl?”

While Valenstein wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about magic, even to him—or rather, her—the explanation seemed quite reasonable, so she didn’t voice any further complaints.

Though it wasn’t exactly a welcome explanation.

…In other words, even the “suitable vessel” that would eventually be completed would likely be a young girl’s body.

—-

Afterward, the two sat perched on the ruins of the northern wall for some time.

There might have been Werebeasts who somehow survived the battle with Faelrun’s pursuit team and were fleeing toward the northern wall.

Their task was to ensure that no Werebeast except Abigeyl and Lyudmila made it back inside the Sky Mountains.

That was the condition Oleg the Snow Tiger had set in exchange for cooperating with the Fourth Apostle.

Valenstein, now a girl, had been sent by Feirius as reinforcement at the Fourth Apostle’s request, who believed he couldn’t handle Rurik alone.

Despite waiting at the northern wall entrance fully prepared, the two never had to take action.

Rurik, Vasili, Viktor, and the other Werebeast warriors had been completely annihilated by the Northern Army.

The Fourth Apostle, who had confirmed the Werebeasts’ annihilation by borrowing an animal’s vision, took Valenstein, who was yawning with boredom, and left the northern wall for their original base.

Oleg’s reinforcements, delayed by the rebellion at the frontline base, arrived at the northern wall almost a day later.

Maksim embraced Rurik’s flayed corpse and wailed, while Oleg stomped his feet and let out a long roar as if unable to contain his anguish.

Although his anger was merely an act, it was impossible for someone like Maksim to see through Oleg’s true intentions, which even Rurik and Nazar had failed to discern.

Thus, the Baryachrus reinforcements that had finally arrived had no choice but to return dejectedly with the frozen, skinless corpses, without even having fought.

The warriors wanted to charge south immediately to tear the humans apart, but Maksim and Oleg prevented this. There was no chance of victory in a siege against enemies that even Rurik couldn’t defeat.

They returned beyond the Sky Mountains, promising vengeance in the future.

==================

While the northern victory was encouraging, the Empire’s power had already weakened more than ever before.

The fundamental strength that had forced other races to follow the human-led order—tens of thousands of Imperial soldiers—had literally melted away in the Great Invasion.

The nobles’ private armies, depleted by civil war, hadn’t been replenished before the Imperial main forces were completely wiped out.

Although the 3rd and 4th Legions remained, they were already overwhelmed just responding to the increasingly frequent monster activities.

It was shocking.

Both to Imperial citizens and to outsiders.

Given that the Empire had built an unshakable myth of invincibility over the past few centuries, the sudden annihilation of two legions was something no one had anticipated.

Every race realized one thing:

The Empire no longer had the military power to restrain them.

Of course, few races were bold enough to consider attacking the Empire directly.

The fate of the Winter Wolves, who had possessed such audacity, was evident from the taxidermy display proudly exhibited by the Duchess of Faelrun.

A human hero appearing after centuries.

The descendant of the Great’s Twelve Knights, the Radiant Paladin of Median.

Her existence provided enough deterrence to make other nations hesitate before choosing to attack the Empire.

Moreover, even though the Imperial Army had been decimated, the casualties were limited to professional soldiers.

Non-military men still abounded throughout the Empire, and if other races were to invade, conscripting them could create an army of tens of thousands.

Therefore, instead of targeting the Empire directly, they focused on strengthening their own national power by exploiting the Empire’s weakness.

Secret correspondence began between the southern kingdoms of Panam and Dane, while in the west, Alvheim marched toward their old nemesis, the Dwarven Republic of Himmel.

A flagrant violation of the Imperial policy prohibiting conflicts between friendly nations.

However, the elves, having half-regained the blessing of the World Tree, feared nothing anymore.

Compared to them, who had instantly regained their former strength when the World Tree’s blessing strengthened, the gradual empowerment of other races seemed as slow as a crawling turtle.

On the day two Holy Grails were destroyed, allowing humans to reach heroic levels, the ten guardians who had fallen to human master level regained power comparable to heroes.

Though half of them had fallen into deep sleep due to mental health issues.

Many patrollers who had been at the level of ordinary knights also regained their former strength equivalent to masters.

Young patrollers who hadn’t reached master level were organized under their command and came to be called patrol members rather than patrollers.

While this was essentially a demotion, in the authoritarian and conservative elven society, it was impossible for young people to express disagreement with the decisions of their superiors.

Five hero-level guardians capable of action, thirty master-level patrollers, plus two hundred patrol members.

The elven kingdom of Alvheim had reclaimed its position as a western power.

It is the instinct of living beings to want to use power once they have it. Nations were no different.

Alvheim began to move to reclaim its former glory.

They waited for the day to aim their bowstrings at the Empire after exterminating the Dwarves to eliminate future troubles.

Leopold sent envoys to strongly criticize Alvheim’s actions that threatened to ignite conflict across the continent, but the elves expelled the Imperial envoys, declaring they no longer needed either the Empire’s protection or interference.

Himmel, upon hearing of the elven invasion, began concentrating all its weapons and forces at the border.

The international situation was rapidly becoming chaotic.

Karl Las Empire, a wounded giant, could only watch helplessly.

Peace had ended.

An era of war was approaching.