Ch.51Imperial Invasion (9)

# Imperial Commander Marquis Lorza couldn’t believe what was happening before his eyes. Weren’t elves supposed to be a superior race to humans, living in harmony with nature and communing with the World Tree for hundreds of years?

They were known as a mysterious race whose ecology remained veiled in mystery, alongside the dwarves and fairies who no longer showed themselves. Who would have thought they would commit such barbaric acts?

However, these creatures’ actions had the opposite effect of raising the imperial army’s morale. They probably intended to amplify fear by displaying such horrific sights to lower our spirits.

But… the imperial soldiers, Masters, Magic Corps, and even the mercenaries trembled with rage at the sight of their actions.

Thanks to their barbaric behavior, the imperial army’s morale reached its peak. The Masters and S-rank mercenary Rabid Dog, along with the Magic Corps, were already warming up and preparing. The four magical cannons on the fortress walls had already begun charging.

No matter how formidable the Elven Knights were, they couldn’t guarantee victory against the empire’s full military might gathered here. Just as he was thinking this, the Elven Knights began to move.

“The Elven Knights are moving! Everyone be careful!”

The enemy was a monster that lived for hundreds of years. While he urged caution against whatever unknown tactics they might employ… the enemy exceeded all imagination.

Their aura began climbing up the flagpoles, gathering around the human heads impaled on the spears.

Then… the impaled heads began to emit sounds like human screams.

Aaaah———

Hiaaaaaagh———

Aaaaaaagh———

Five hundred such flagpoles. The screams from the human heads impaled on the Elven Knights’ spears resonated throughout the battlefield.

“Wh-what…?”

While Marquis Lorza and the mana users were disturbed, the soldiers who couldn’t use mana reacted differently.

“Aaaagh——!!”

“Hiaaaaaagh———!”

“Aaaaaaagh———!!”

They were screaming as if resonating with those sounds. Blood trickled from the ears of the screaming soldiers.

“Mages! Is this a magical attack?! What the hell is that?!”

“I don’t know! What’s certain is that it’s not a magical attack! It seems to be a new attack method using aura…”

“I’ve been a Master for over 20 years! I’ve never seen or heard of such an attack!”

While the commanders were panicking, the elves were rather surprised. They had merely sent a greeting, yet the humans couldn’t even block this and were panicking?

“Hmm… humans seem to have regressed. Don’t they know about aura resonance? Even a hundred people gathered could perform it.”

“Perhaps they don’t even have a hundred Masters? The kingdom we destroyed hundreds of years ago had around 100 at most, so now… probably even fewer.”

“Still, since they call themselves an empire, they should easily have over a hundred. Unable to properly respond to our greeting… how disappointing. All units. The humans can’t handle our gift. Switch to throwing spears.”

“Yes!”

At Commander Rune’s order, all Elven Knights spread out and took throwing positions.

When the elves stopped the resonance, the soldiers who had been bleeding from their ears also stopped screaming, but… most of them had already half lost their minds due to the aura resonance.

But… their ordeal was just beginning.

Swoosh——!!!!

Hundreds of six-meter-long flags were flying toward the wall.

“Mages! Barrier!!!”

“Absolute Barrier!”

Following Marquis Lorza’s command, the Magic Corps deployed their barrier.

A massive barrier spread before the imperial wall, quickly completed thanks to the defensive magic memorized by the Magic Corps. The pinnacle of 8th-circle defensive magic, Absolute Barrier, was deployed.

This barrier was triple-layered, and the imperial walls were equipped with various defensive magic spells. Among them was the Dimension Barrier installed long ago by the great 9th-circle Master Duke Clion.

This defensive magic, which deflected attacks to another dimension, was said to be able to block any attack. He thought it would be enough to block such an attack.

Crash——!!!!

But the 500 flags wrapped in aura broke through the Absolute Barrier with tremendous force and continued toward the imperial wall.

Despite the Magic Corps’ barrier containing more mana than those cast by other 8th-circle mages, the elves’ flags shattered all three layers of the barrier in an instant as if they were nothing.

Then the defensive magic arrays installed on the imperial wall activated. From the 8th-circle Absolute Barrier that the Magic Corps had just deployed to multiple 7th-circle Sage Shields.

He thought this would be enough to stop the spears that had lost some momentum. But…

The spears crushed all such resistance and continued forward. Hundreds of the flags thrown by the elves fell to the ground, unable to advance further, but dozens of remaining flags continued approaching the wall.

Woooong——!!

Finally, the Dimension Barrier installed on the wall managed to stop their attack by sending the spears to another dimension.

However, having to use the empire’s last resort against just one attack…

Everyone on the wall seriously began to wonder if they could win this war.

* * *

“Hmm… The empire is weaker than I thought… Didn’t the empire from quite some time ago start by throwing a Meteor at us first?”

“Commander, that was 700 years ago. Few of our members even know about that.”

“But you understood what I meant. Well, that’s good enough. Anyway… I never expected the human empire to become this weak. Should we let the rookies gain some combat experience by supporting them?”

“Oh… that’s not a bad idea. We could support them using spirits, magic, or archery.”

“Then let’s first remove that annoying defensive magic. Let’s throw some magic to strip away their defenses.”

With those words, mana began to surge from Commander Rune’s body.

The rapidly rising mana became visible to the naked eye, an enormous amount that could be detected even by the distant humans.

* * *

“Such an amount of mana…! It’s not 8th-circle magic but 9th-circle! Everyone, prepare for impact!”

At the words of Plon, the Magic Corps commander, everyone prepared, but what could they do against 9th-circle grand magic?

They could only hope that the Dimension Barrier installed on the wall would protect them.

Eventually, as if the spell preparation was complete, a black sphere slowly, very slowly approached from the elf’s hand.

They didn’t know what kind of magic it was, but what mattered was that there was no way to block it. The Magic Corps tried to block the sphere by emitting magic, but…

The black sphere simply absorbed all that magic and continued advancing.

“Could that be… Dimension Crash! It’s magic designed to destroy the Dimension Barrier!”

“What’s the solution?!”

“Unless we emit destructive power strong enough to distort that space with equally powerful 9th-circle magic… that spell won’t disappear…”

As Plon, the Magic Corps commander, said, Dimension Crash slowly approached and collided with the Dimension Barrier that activated just before impact.

Crackle——

Space distorted from their collision, and while the soldiers right behind the wall were going mad at the sight…

…

The Dimension Crash that had collided with the barrier disappeared. The two spells had mutually annihilated each other, leaving only the wall with no magical protection.

What was merely a casual attack from the enemy was a fatal blow to the imperial forces.

“Heh… hehehe… we’re going to dieeeee… hehehehe…”

“Kyaaaaaaah——!!! Die——!!!”

“Abuh—!!! Bubaba—!!!”

Overwhelming fear drives people mad.

Human heads screaming to disturb the mind, and a single attack destroying all the defensive magic arrays on the wall.

And seeing even the only 9th-circle defensive magic vanish, the soldiers who had been half out of their minds completely lost their sanity.

Some soldiers just laughed madly. Others attacked their comrades with spears. Some even regressed to acting like babies.

All 150,000 soldiers on the wall were neutralized. No, they went mad, which was worse than just being neutralized.

Seeing the proud imperial soldiers completely lose their minds, Commander Marquis Lorza made a decision.

“Magic Corps! Put all troops to sleep!!”

At his command, Mass Sleep was deployed. This magic, cast on everyone on the wall, put to sleep all those who couldn’t use mana.

In the end, all that remained were several thousand knights, just over two hundred mercenaries, 79 Masters, one S-rank mercenary, three Magic Corps units, several hundred mages, and a wall with no magical arrays.

Of the 150,000 soldiers, those who had lost their minds were now asleep, leaving only these forces. In this grim situation, Marquis Lorza made a decision.

“Jump down from the wall and engage in close combat.”

“What—!? There’s no need to abandon our defensive advantage…”

Smack—!!

“You fool! What advantage do we have on this wall? We’re nothing but targets! How do we know if that 9th-circle magic was a one-time attack or if more will come? This happened with just one elf stepping forward! What if all of them can use 8th and 9th-circle magic? If we stay on this wall, we’ll just die as magical test subjects! Instead, we should charge out and exchange at least one sword strike, one spell with them!”

Waaaah——!!!!

Everyone who heard those words cheered in agreement. Everyone on the battlefield already realized it.

This war was their defeat.

The enemy was casually throwing punches, while for them, a single hit meant death.

So with the thought of at least swinging their swords once to land a hit on the Elven Knights, everyone jumped off the wall.

Thud—!!

People reinforced their bodies with mana to jump down from the eight-meter wall. And as if acknowledging their resolve, the Elven Knights and Minotaurs simply stood and watched.

“Charge!!!!”

And so the empire’s brave knights, mercenaries, mages, and Masters…

Drew their weapons against the Elven Knights.