Ch.631Flame Filial Daughter

The seal of collapse that reduces everything to dust. The destructive mana, lowered in output but spread wider in range, breaks through a section of the wall, shattering it and finally bringing it down.

Like ice on a lake breaking under the weight of someone standing on it, the dozens of meters high wall, with its core structure completely crumbled, could no longer support its own weight and began to collapse like a mountain giving way.

True to its name of “heaven and earth overturning,” it was a sight as if the sky were flying away and the earth turning upside down.

“Aaah, aaaaaahhh!”

The ground collapsed, opening up like an ant lion’s pit.

Soldiers on the wall screamed with pale faces like ants whose queen had failed to defend them, falling dozens of meters below along with the wall’s debris.

They flailed their limbs desperately, as if swimming or flapping wings.

Of course, this wasn’t the ocean, and they had no wings, so no amount of desperate arm-waving could make them rise into the sky.

– CRASH!

Falling boulders collided with each other, breaking apart with thunderous noise.

Warriors caught between the kissing rocks proved that the human body is indeed 70% water as they burst into red spray and flattened. Human bodies were crushed into pulp and mixed together.

It wasn’t just the soldiers on the wall who were screaming.

The avalanche of falling rocks swept away the siege towers that had been pressed close to the wall. Unable to withstand the collision of such enormous mass, the wooden towers shattered like sandcastles hit by waves, taking the soldiers inside as companions.

A collapse like a natural disaster. In an instant, thousands lost their lives. Warriors, soldiers, and Champions alike.

—-

“This is insane…!!”

Orhan cursed in shock, forgetting all dignity.

Yes. He might have expected traps, but he couldn’t have imagined the mad idea of collapsing the wall to bury thousands alive. Right?

From the beginning, no one could have imagined the wall would collapse this way. When I proposed this operation, even Ludwig had looked at me like I was crazy.

“No, I need to get away first…!”

Orhan, standing on a falling boulder, bent his knees. He was planning to jump off the debris and escape into the air. A predictable reaction.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Defying Fate. In a world that slowed to a crawl, I kicked off the rock beneath my feet, lunged at him, grabbed his ankle, and pulled with all my might to flip him backward. Orhan fell, unable to counter my speed.

I climbed on top of him like a spider, entangling his lower body with my legs and pinning his forearms with my hands.

It was a perfect restraining position. Even with a physical body stronger than the Dragonborn, Orhan couldn’t escape since his raw strength wasn’t much different from mine.

The next moment, the world regained its color, and Orhan’s bewilderment at being subdued in an instant was clearly audible.

“Urgh…! Get off me!”

“You’re the one who should get off. All the way to the bottom of the abyss!”

Orhan struggled to shake me off, but with his limbs firmly restrained and the karma tentacles interfering, it was impossible to dislodge me.

In the midst of this disaster with boulders raining down like meteors, we fell entangled toward the gaping maw of the collapsed wall below.

“Do you think you can kill me this way?!”

“Who knows!”

I expelled karma flames from my back, increasing the momentum of our fall.

Unlike Orhan, who needed to flail his limbs to propel himself into the air, I could fly in any position as long as I had mana and karma to spew fire.

Though extremely inefficient, I could increase the output of my karma flames to produce several times Orhan’s thrust.

Like now.

– WHOOSH!

The karma flames erupted beyond mere fire. Massive acceleration was added to our falling bodies. Using Orhan’s back as a shield, I pierced through all the boulders blocking our path, plummeting toward the underground like a burning comet.

“Urgh…! Can’t… shake you off…!”

“Go down!”

As Orhan realized there was no way to avoid being buried alive—

Finally, the end came.

– CRASH!

The underground cavity beneath the wall had been dug in advance with the help of mages. The red comet fell into the dark pit that had been precariously supported by pillars to hold up the ground.

The underground bedrock, unable to withstand the impact, shattered into pieces, and wet soil surged like a tsunami.

Using the rebound from driving Orhan into the underground floor, I flung myself toward the wall of the cavity. Staying in the center would have meant being buried under the wall’s debris.

“Ah.”

Orhan, finally free from my restraint, looked up at the sky and let out a single exclamation.

Too late to do anything. The wall’s debris was blocking out the sky, pouring down toward him.

“Haschal!”

Just as Orhan roared and hurriedly tried to get up, the meteor shower of boulders mercilessly struck the underground cavity.

———!

With a world-shattering roar, tremendous shockwaves swept in all directions.

The earth trembled and screamed at this unprecedented disaster. Rock fragments and soil swept through like a storm, scraping and tearing everything in their path.

“Urgh…!”

I gritted my teeth and endured the shockwaves, surrounding myself with karma power like a mage’s barrier. The impact, like being hit by a dragon’s tail, struck my karma barrier several times. Blood trickled between my clenched teeth.

After ten seconds that felt like eternity…

When the destructive storm subsided, a vast darkness stretched before my eyes.

The underground cavity was pitch black. The ceiling, once open, was now blocked by the wall’s debris, not allowing even a single ray of light to penetrate.

“Kenaz.”

As I lit a small flame to illuminate the surroundings, the aftermath of the disaster in the underground cavity emerged through the dust that had risen like fog.

A ruin filled with rock pillars reaching the ceiling. All spaces except the gaps between rocks were filled with debris.

I had been worried about being completely buried, but fortunately, as Ludwig had predicted, the fallen rocks had formed massive pillars supporting the underground cavity by leaning against each other.

He had said it was “designed” to collapse this way. I silently admired the Empire’s architectural engineering as I moved between the rock crevices.

– Splash.

The liquid that had risen to my ankles soaked my boots.

—-

At the center of the cavity where I had driven Orhan, a huge mound had formed. Orhan was nowhere to be seen, presumably buried under the mound, and debris was scattered all around.

Was it because of the crushed and split debris embedded in the ground? Or because of the liquid filling the floor like groundwater? The scene strangely reminded me of a stone cave.

[Did you finish him off…? Just like that?]

‘…I don’t think so.’

You just mentioned a resurrection spell. What a filial daughter, even trying to resurrect your dead father.

I drew Durandal and glared at the rock mound. Seconds later, a fierce fighting spirit erupted from beneath the mound like an active volcano.

– CRASH!

No, not just the spirit, but the mound itself.

“Haschal!”

Orhan burst out, shattering the rock mound. His hair was disheveled, and his armor was crumpled and broken to rags, but his body didn’t have a single scratch.

As expected, the impact of being buried under a collapsing mountain of rocks wasn’t enough to kill him.

“Kyaaaah!”

I let out a fierce battle cry and thrust Frosting toward his fist.

– CRASH!

With an impact sound unbelievable for a collision of fists, our bodies were thrown in opposite directions.

Floating through the air for over ten meters, our bodies crashed into the puddle covering the ground. Two streams of spray scattered into the air.

No, perhaps “spray” isn’t the right word.

I got up from the slippery floor and wiped the liquid from my face.

A viscous smell tickled my nose. Oil thoroughly soaked my armor and dripped down.

“…Oil?”

Orhan, finally noticing the nature of the liquid pooling on the floor, looked at me with a start.

—-

When planning the Heaven and Earth Overturning operation, Ludwig had me and the mages dig under the wall to create a massive cavity. Like digging a mine to create a tunnel.

The underground cavity was completed after countless calculations by Landenburg’s mages and architectural engineers who worked through the night.

It was a meticulous operation—the slightest mistake could have caused the ground to collapse under the wall’s weight before the war even began.

We dug up the earth to create Orhan’s grave, erected wooden and stone pillars to support the ground until the plan was executed, and even buried tools needed for the next phase in the cavity walls.

Bringing down the wall to bury Orhan was just the first step of the operation. Ludwig’s scheme didn’t end there. Rather, it was just the beginning.

—-

I raised the corner of my mouth as I looked at Orhan, who was staring at me with disbelief.

“I wanted to give you a grand burial… but if you don’t like being buried underground, I have no choice.”

The oil puddle, once ankle-deep, had now risen to half my calves. By now, Landenburg was probably pouring all the oil they had collected toward this place.

Through the black iron pipes we had buried in the walls.

“…I’ll have to change the funeral style.”

With a broad smile, I held my right hand over the oil puddle.

“Kenaz.”

The next moment, a storm of flames engulfed everything.