Ch.695Each One’s Battle

“You must continue receiving treatment for at least three days.”

The healing priest from the Church of Imela, whom I had barely managed to find, said this while performing a healing miracle over my wounds.

If it had been Lena or Lacy treating wounds like these, they could have healed me in just a day… Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single healing priest of that caliber in Edriksa now.

There had been a royal healing priest, but they were reportedly missing after being caught in the palace collapse. As a result, I wasn’t able to leave Edriksa until a full 8 days after arriving in the capital.

I wanted to fly toward Ludwig’s main force immediately after defeating Ragnar, but… not only was my physical condition too poor, but the situation in the capital could have reversed again if I had left.

It took four days for Knut and Hrafn to completely secure Edriksa.

One day to find a healing priest.

Three days to complete the treatment.

Only after letting 8 days pass could I finally leave Edriksa and race toward the eastern cities.

Truly, those 8 days felt unbearably long.

‘Is everyone alright? I hope I’m not too late?’

[Don’t worry. They have not only the Imperial Army but also the existing defense forces. Combined, they would be nearly twice the size of the Aishan forces. As long as they haven’t foolishly engaged in open field battle, they should be holding out just fine.]

Hersella tried to comfort me, but… it wasn’t particularly reassuring.

Saying they could hold out if they avoided open field battle meant, conversely, that if they had engaged in open field battle, they would have been utterly destroyed.

======[ Imperial Army ]======

When the cry went up that reinforcements from Dane had arrived, the morale of the Imperial Army, which had been holding back the surging Ka’har, recovered somewhat.

Unable to see the battle situation beyond the walls, they could only know that reinforcements had arrived, not that those reinforcements were being crushed under the hooves of the Black Banner Army. That’s why they were able to continue fighting somehow, even as they were being pushed back helplessly.

Soldiers desperately tried to thrust spears into the legs and bellies of horses even as they were trampled under the hooves of the Ka’har, and knights clung tenaciously to Aishan warriors, disregarding even their own lives.

Men with arrows piercing their bodies threw oil barrels and torches while coughing blood, burning enemy cavalry along with surrounding buildings, and some even threw themselves at the warriors’ blades to unseat the enemy.

“Fight to the end! The future of the Empire rests in our hands!”

The desperate street battle continued. The Imperial Army seemed on the verge of collapse but somehow held on precariously, burning their blood and lives like candles.

At the forefront were the Empire’s Masters.

—-

“Damn it…”

Aibur, a Champion and defector from the Clan Union, gripped the longsword that had pierced his heart while blood trickled from between his clenched teeth.

His legs were giving way and his vision blurring. His life was draining from his body, which was now riddled with holes.

“To think that I would be defeated by a mere girl…”

Aibur glared with hatred at the woman who had thrust the longsword into his heart.

In his increasingly hazy world, those violet eyes remained startlingly clear. Half-loosened blonde hair and a knight’s uniform mixed with red and white.

A woman who appeared not yet twenty judging by her youthful face was facing him, breathing heavily.

“Haa… haa… What are you saying? If you have something to say, say it in the Imperial language.”

Leonore kicked Aibur in the stomach and pulled out her longsword. Blood gushed from his pierced chest, staining the front of her uniform red.

Frowning at the unpleasant heat seeping into her chest, Leonore shook out her garment. Droplets of blood splattered onto the corpse that had fallen without even closing its eyes.

That made two.

The Empire’s Masters were scattered throughout the city, either confronting the enemy’s Champions or supporting areas where Imperial forces were being overwhelmingly pushed back. Leonore too was running until she was out of breath, cutting down Aishan Champions.

Perhaps it was because she had experienced all sorts of battles following Haschal, but her skills had grown incomparably since the time she had cut down Ernst.

She had sustained penetrating wounds in a couple of places, but still had strength remaining after taking down two Champions in succession.

Of course, cutting down two Champions wasn’t enough to improve the overall battle situation.

“…When is Lady Haschal going to arrive?”

Leonore poured recovery potion into the sword wound on her left arm and the hole in her thigh while grumbling.

She had somehow managed to defeat two Champions, but with her remaining strength, she could at most take down one more.

The muscles in her arms and legs had been trembling for some time, and even pouring recovery potion wouldn’t instantly heal her wounds.

Though Leonore had become so strong that she seemed like a different person compared to before, she still lacked the ability to change the tide of battle.

‘This is dangerous if things continue like this…’

Glancing toward the inner castle where thunderous sounds were echoing, Leonore bit her lip in anxiety.

Haschal, who should have arrived long ago according to the plan, had not shown herself. This was evidence that Ludwig’s gamble had failed.

Joshua, Frederick, and Heinrich would not be able to compensate for her absence.

‘They say reinforcements have arrived, but… judging by the fact that they haven’t entered the city, we can’t expect much from them either.’

While frontline knights and soldiers who couldn’t grasp the battle situation might have felt the arrival of reinforcements was like rain in a drought, Leonore had no expectations for Dane’s reinforcements.

Unless tens of thousands of troops had arrived, she didn’t think they could turn this situation around.

‘…Let’s move for now.’

Leonore shook her head roughly to clear away negative thoughts and dashed off again. Toward the battlefield where the screams of Imperial soldiers were particularly loud.

Now was not the time for worrying. If she had time for that, she needed to kill as many enemies as possible.

—-

“Fight without retreat! For the pride of Landenburg!”

Unlike Leonore who was focused on killing Champions, Nigel was leading the knights of Landenburg, directly blocking the enemy.

Against Aishan warriors who were galloping through every alley, impaling and trampling everything with their spear tips.

“Gyaaaah!”

Whenever her sacred artifact, the Holy Spear of Eberond, shot forth spewing lightning, mounted warriors in scale armor fell from their horses with screams.

The power of lightning that no armor or shield could block. Combined with the full strength of a Master, her spear had become a bolt of destruction that neither warriors nor even Champions could dare to block.

“Now! Target the gap after she throws her spear!”

The Ka’har warriors tried to rush at Nigel during the brief moment before her thrown spear returned to her hand, but even that was a futile struggle.

Close combat in narrow alleys was Nigel’s most confident fighting style.

“Come at me as much as you want! The tenth sword of Landenburg is here!”

Nigel danced through the air as if frolicking, kicking off the alley walls. She drew a dagger in her left hand while temporarily holding a soldier’s spear in the other.

Using walls, roofs, and enemy bodies as pivots for her jumps, Nigel rampaged with acrobatic brilliance.

The Ka’har warriors who charged at her were confused by this dazzling fighting style they had never encountered before, and were instantly killed as their necks were severed or hearts pierced.

“We’re not done yet!”

After annihilating the warriors in one go and retrieving her holy spear, Nigel once again shot her spear through the enemy lines.

More than ten mounted warriors were impaled by the thrown spear, spouting fountains of blood, and twice that number were dismounted by the lightning that spread around them.

An overwhelming presence. The alley she was defending was like an iron fortress at this moment.

Of course, even she could not do more than defend a single district of the city. That was the limit of Nigel as merely a Master.

And on the plains outside the city, where Ka’har reserve forces clashed with Dane’s defense forces…

—-

“Volberg, have you abandoned us…”

Burgund, the Crusader commanding Dane’s defense forces, collapsed with a sigh.

Burgund had fought desperately, erasing Ivamai’s Heavenly Ice Peaks with fire runes, but there existed a gap between them that could not be overcome by rune power and spirit alone.

His warhorse had already frozen to death, and his right arm had been severed by an axe blade. His body trembled as the cold emanating from the ice spear lodged in his abdomen spread.

Though he was barely holding on through Volberg’s miracle, his physical body was already as good as dead.

“For a westerner, you held out quite well… but this is the end.”

Ivamai was certain of victory. While he was dealing with the Dane warrior before him, the surrounding battle situation was flowing in Aishan’s overwhelming favor.

The Black Banner Army, having stopped their charge and entered into melee combat, was literally butchering Dane’s infantry, and Targiyan’s Red Banner Army was annihilating the Dane cavalry that had been pursuing them simply by maintaining distance and raining arrows.

Although the Black Banner and Red Banner armies had also suffered considerable damage due to an inexplicably large number of sorcerers… in the end, it was they, the Aishan, who were victorious.

“Now, face your death!”

Ivamai smiled with a blood-covered face as he raised his axe high.

His beloved weapon was chipped and cracked, looking as if it might break at any moment, but even with a damaged axe, he could easily split a human head.

The axe blade, carrying the War Chief’s Karma of Murder, came down like an executioner’s blade.