Ch.581Walking into a Dream

Beyond the wall depicting “God’s Punishment,” there were several other sights to see inside the cathedral. Things like imaginative paintings and sculptures depicting me rescuing women who were being exploited in this town.

A mural showing me embracing a naked woman kneeling with her sword thrust into the ground, comforting her with benevolence.

The expression was so compassionate that Leonore had to cover her mouth and shake her shoulders to hold back her laughter.

Come to think of it, all I did was wipe out all the men, and wasn’t it Frider and Demian who actually rescued the women…?

Since those two were outsiders with no connection to the Church of Elpinel, it seems they simply attributed everything to me.

After finishing our brief tour, I reluctantly agreed to the bishop’s earnest request to leave a message stating that I had visited and looked around. It seemed like the least I could do since they provided us with plenty of food and holy water.

The bishop bowed his head several times in gratitude, saying this alone would deepen the religious significance of this town manifold.

“To make this town, blessed by His will, prosper into a city worthy of being a holy site. That must be the mission He has bestowed upon me.”

The bishop’s eyes were filled with the characteristic sense of mission and passion of a religious person. Lena praised it as a noble mission, while Leonore laughed, saying that in a decade or so, this might truly become a holy site.

Unable to find the right words to respond, I left only moderate encouragement before turning away.

Afterward, we departed from the town and headed back toward the Carmine Forest.

That town must have been the last one that hadn’t completed evacuation, as all the villages we encountered afterward were completely empty, without even livestock remaining, giving off an eerie ghost town atmosphere.

Well, from our perspective, it was actually welcome to be able to rest comfortably in empty inns without unnecessary disturbances.

—-

Two days later. We finally encountered our target monster.

A specter atop a heap of ruins, clad in swirling darkness like armor. The Knight of Ruin, wielding the Sword of Collapse, looked down at us from atop a broken castle wall.

“……”

With ghostly blue eye-light flickering like flames.

======[ The Great Plains ]======

While Haschal was responding to monster activities and Ludwig was gathering troops and reinforcing defenses in preparation for the wall battle, what was Orhan doing?

Sending scouts deep into the eastern territory would be tantamount to suicide, so only the Ka’har knew the answer to that question.

“…Heaven favors me.”

Orhan was smiling. He couldn’t help but smile. How could he suppress his laughter when his long-cherished desire was about to be fulfilled?

“Ooooohhh!”

The warriors’ roars tickled his ears. Excited war horses stomped roughly, tearing up the ground with their hooves.

On the plains seven days and nights east of Ordos.

Behind Orhan, mounted on his black king, was an army close to the entire military force of Aishan, arranged in perfect order. With fierce, savage smiles, preparing for a war festival that would stake the fate of their nation.

Across the plain that Orhan was looking at, countless Ka’har warriors filled the horizon.

Warriors of the Clan Union. After the peace treaty with the Empire was broken due to Amin and the sorcerers’ actions, these were the ones who had pursued Orhan’s army as it returned to Ordos after halting its eastern expedition.

They came to defeat Orhan and destroy the Aishan clan here, to ensure they would never dare attempt another eastern expedition.

With the combined forces of all tribes existing in the eastern plains, the Clan Union’s military scale was more than double that of Aishan.

However, Orhan merely laughed heartily in the face of this overwhelming numerical disadvantage. There was no fear or dismay. Rather, he was filled with joy.

One of his three wishes. The conquest of the Great Plains, which he had been forced to abandon when choosing to return to Ordos, had come directly to him.

Once he defeated them all, not a single tribe would remain to oppose him. For Orhan, it was like having good fortune fall right into his lap.

“Such a large army… it seems they’ve brought every warrior they have.”

“Are you afraid?”

In response to the warrior chief’s words as he looked at the enemy camp with a hollow laugh, Orhan smirked and offered a light joke.

“How could I be? Our Khan is here with us.”

The warrior chief also bowed his head and showed a smile full of fighting spirit.

There was no reason to fear the enemy’s numbers. As long as their Ser Khan was here, defeat did not exist for them. It was a faith-like belief.

After the previous conquest war, which had been like rolling a wheel of blood, they had become even stronger than before. Because they, too, grew stronger with each kill.

Satisfied with the warrior chief’s answer, Orhan raised his crescent blade high and shouted loud enough to make the entire Great Plains resound.

“Listen! Warriors of Aishan! The day has finally come! The moment you have all been waiting for. The day when the great descendants of the Sky Wolf will conquer the Great Plains, and all Ka’har will kneel under our banner is before us!”

“Ser Khan! Ser Khan! Ser Khan!”

“Long live Aishan-Gioro! Long live the Sky Wolf!”

The warriors responded in unison with roars and cheers.

Orhan’s crescent blade pointed forward.

“Behold! The battlefield that welcomes you like no other! Listen! To the song of praise that will continue for generations! Today, here, you will become legends of the plains!”

The enemies were also making speeches denouncing Orhan to raise their morale, but for Orhan, the mutterings of those who would soon be corpses were of no concern to him, regardless of what they said.

“Charge! Fight! Kill! For the glory of Aishan!”

“For the glory of Aishan!”

Orhan’s forces began to advance, spurring their horses.

Led by the Black Cavalry, the heavy cavalry unit that Orhan had painstakingly nurtured, light cavalry with short bows took charge of the rear and flanks, drawing a couple of arrows from their quivers and nocking them to their bowstrings.

“The Aishan bastards are approaching! March forward! Bury the madman who calls himself a conqueror in the mud of the steppes!”

The Clan Union also issued an advance order.

Although they had also trained heavy cavalry after the last war, this was their first time using them in actual combat, so their main force was still the traditional light archer cavalry.

The sound of hooves filled the plains. Dust rose like fog, and the warriors’ battle cries scattered even the clouds.

“Wolf bastards!”

“Kill them!”

It didn’t take long for the first engagement to occur. Unlike western armies composed of infantry, archers, and cavalry, both sides were thoroughly cavalry-focused forces.

– Kwaaang!

The Black Cavalry, advancing through the rain of arrows with their armor, collided head-on with the Clan Union’s heavy cavalry.

Crescent blades, long spears, and curved swords struck each other’s armor, causing many warriors to fall from their horses from the impact.

Most were cavalry from the Clan Union. The Black Cavalry, despite their heavy armor, displayed amazing horsemanship as they mercilessly ravaged the Clan Union’s cavalry.

The difference in training and the qualitative gap between warriors was starkly evident.

At the forefront were Orhan and the warrior chiefs, demonstrating the art of man and horse as one.

“Khaaaaap!”

With a fierce roar, Orhan filled his arms with strength and swung his crescent blade. No one could withstand the slash enhanced by his transcendent strength, the hero’s karma of murder, and the charging power of his black king.

The heavy cavalry’s steel armor shattered like glass as the warriors’ bodies flew high into the air, spraying blood. It was like a whirlwind of blade-wind sweeping through fields.

“You bastard! Orhan!”

Unable to stand by, the leader of the Clan Union, Adanmudur, stepped forward with a massive axe to block Orhan.

He too was a hero of the plains who had surpassed the realm of champion. The crescent blade made from the bones of a mythical beast and the axe collided, producing a thunderous sound. The shockwave swept in all directions, and the ground, unable to withstand it, cracked like during a drought.

“You’re still weak, Adanmudur! You haven’t grown at all! Neither in martial arts nor wisdom! Did you think gathering these weaklings would help you defeat me?”

“I’ll prove it by crushing that mouth of yours!”

Enraged by Orhan’s provocation, Adanmudur raised his axe high and roared.

– Kwarreung!

Thunder echoed across the battlefield. Had lightning struck from a clear sky? No, the sky was still clear. The source of the thunder was none other than Adanmudur’s body.

Blue lightning erupted from Adanmudur’s entire body as he raised his axe, enveloping his form and releasing thunderous roars. It was truly a magical phenomenon.

The technique that had given him the name Adian-Mudur (Thunder Dragon) – the Thunder Dragon’s Will.

It was a heroic tale that manifested the power of karma accumulated over half a lifetime in the form of lightning that swept across heaven and earth.

The lightning imbued in the axe blade tore through the air with endless resonance. A dazzling vortex of lightning. Orhan pulled up the corners of his mouth, revealing his canines in a smile.

“Impressive, but if you want to crush my mouth, you should come back after another hundred years of training!”

His soul dwelled in karma, distorting the laws of the world.

Stronger, even stronger.

The answer he reached after pursuing only that. An extremely strong body that cannot be damaged by anything.

Unyielding Flesh.

“That is, if you can return from the afterlife!”

“It’s you who will die!”

Orhan’s fist, having put down his crescent blade, met Adanmudur’s swinging axe blade—

– Kwarrrrreung!

The lightning that erupted swept across the battlefield.