Ch.696Descent

======[ Minutes Ago ]======

The priest of the Church of Volberg, Hivern, looked around in astonishment. Enemy flags filled every direction.

The battle situation was racing toward defeat. The warriors with engraved runes fought with remarkable firepower, but that alone couldn’t stop the breakthrough power of the black-armored cavalry.

The Ka’har Black Banner Army. Their power was like a nightmare itself to the Dane.

‘What is Ragnar thinking?’

Could he really be planning to sacrifice us too? Amid the doubts and anxieties gnawing at his mind, Hivern trembled with a sense of betrayal as he recalled Ragnar who had orchestrated this entire situation.

This couldn’t be happening.

If they had moved according to the original plan, the Ka’har and the Empire would have clashed, and they would only need to sweep away the handful of survivors.

However, everything had been falling apart from the original plan since the sudden retreat order came down.

‘Have you betrayed us, Ragnar…!’

So Hivern couldn’t help but suspect that Ragnar was planning to abandon them.

In reality, Ragnar had already been shattered along with the royal castle by the Empire’s strategic weapon that had fallen on Edricsa.

In any case, Hivern thought that at this rate, rather than standing tall by gaining an advantage between the Empire and Ka’har, they would simply become meaningless sacrificial lambs trampled under the hooves of the Ka’har.

‘Then….’

After a moment of contemplation, Hivern made his decision as he saw Burgunt, the commander of the defense forces, beginning to be overwhelmed by the enemy’s war chief.

Since all plans had gone awry, he decided that he too no longer needed to move as planned.

“…O Volberg. I offer the souls of the fallen warriors, open the gates of the celestial palace and send the angel of war to our side.”

Hivern scooped up the blood that had soaked the ground and raised it toward the sky as he offered his prayer. The secret magical technique of the Church of Volberg, established and completed by Wolfgang, the cardinal of the Holy State. For the descent of the Valkyrie.

The war deity answered the prayer.

—-

– Kwarrrrung!

A gray pillar of light struck down from the sky with the sound of thunder, blocking Ivamai who was about to split Burgunt’s head.

“What trick is this now!”

Sensing the ominous presence within the pillar of light, Ivamai gave up on extracting Burgunt’s brain and quickly retreated. The owner of this newly appeared presence felt several times more threatening than the dying man.

‘These vermin sorcerers, casting some unknown sorcery again…!’

Ivamai, with instinctive tension, raised the corners of his eyes, threw away his broken axe, and pulled out a crescent blade stuck in the ground.

He couldn’t tell what kind of sorcery had been cast, but his nerves were fiercely warning him. The appearance of a new powerful enemy. His black eyes stared intensely into the pillar of light.

Eventually, as the gray pillar dissipated like clearing fog in the middle of the battlefield,

【 óvinur. athugaðu. 】

An angel of war with black wings spread wide descended.

In exchange for the souls of all those who had fallen on this battlefield, more than enough sacrifices to open the heavens and summon an angel.

—-

“What are you…?”

Ivamai frowned with tension weighing down on his shoulders as he fiercely glared at the powerful new enemy that had suddenly appeared.

A storm-wrapped spear of holy light, and a circular shield formed as if from condensed fog. A female warrior wearing chain armor of gray light with a winged helmet.

Though she had a form similar to a human, there was something alien about her appearance that somehow didn’t seem human.

The presence she exuded was equal to his, perhaps even greater. Unless it was Orhan or Glarra, for Ivamai who had lost his former prowess after losing his legs, she was an opponent whose chances of victory were difficult to gauge.

【 ……. 】

The Valkyrie did not answer.

Whether she was a being incapable of communication, or simply didn’t understand the eastern language. She merely raised her storm spear and flapped her wings toward him without answering.

“Ha, saying words aren’t necessary? Fine. I’ll smash that skull and confirm what you are!”

Ivamai firmly gripped the handle of the crescent blade with both hands and charged toward the Valkyrie who was flying at him like an arrow. The war chief’s blade, filled with killing intent, slashed through the air.

—-

The summoning of the Valkyrie brought a new wind to the battlefield.

The angel of war, virtually synonymous with Volberg. Her descent was a phenomenon proving that the war deity’s blessing was with them in this fight.

“Look! A Valkyrie! The war deity has sent an angel for us!”

The morale of the Dane army soared. Trembling with religious ecstasy, they began to fight with several times more ferocity than before. If until just now they had been fighting without sparing their lives, now it would be no exaggeration to say they were fighting to die.

“The deity is watching over us! With the gates of the celestial palace wide open!”

The celestial palace, paradise for those who died valiantly in battle.

Now that the Valkyrie who would guide them to the celestial palace had appeared, the Dane people raged like madmen to be permitted entry into the celestial palace by catching Volberg’s eye.

Eternal life and battle without death, abundant feasts and the service of Valkyries awaited them.

The Valkyrie who had descended with such momentum was actually caught up with a single war chief, but her mere existence demonstrated an influence more than ten times her own power.

“These madmen. Are they going all-in now? All because of that winged monster!”

Of course, to the steppe people who neither knew nor cared about the Dane’s faith, it was simply a situation where the enemies had suddenly gone mad.

Since the steppe people, who had all forms of faith eradicated, had no concept of religious ecstasy, they could only view their opponents as lunatics.

When a human with both arms severed rolled under a horse’s feet, being trampled by hooves yet still biting at the horse’s ankle. If this wasn’t madness, what was?

Even the elite Black Banner Army hesitated somewhat at the ferocity of the Dane people who charged with desperate determination.

The scales of the battlefield, which had been tilting toward the Dane’s defeat, momentarily balanced. Though it was just a brief anomaly that would tilt back once the Valkyrie’s manifestation time ended.

======[ Inner Castle ]======

– Kwaaaang!

With a thunderous boom that shook the air, the marble of the garden shattered into pieces.

Frederick, embedded into the ground, vomited blood and convulsed. This was the result of Orhan’s fist strike that had broken through after receiving Ainfeld’s flash head-on.

The fist of divine blood, protected by Unyielding Flesh, crushed Frederick’s arm like soft tofu and easily penetrated the incredibly sturdy black iron breastplate, breaking all of Frederick’s ribs.

An undeniable fatal wound. With broken ribs piercing his lungs, Frederick couldn’t even breathe properly.

“Lord… Frede…rick…!”

Seeing Frederick collapsed, Joshua raised his trembling head with effort and cried out as if spitting blood.

He too was in tatters. His sword was broken with only the handle remaining, and only the shoulder area of his left arm remained. Both his legs had been torn out at the joints and were floating on the garden’s lake.

Orhan, who had started pouring out his strength without reservation to end the battle as quickly as possible, was literally like a human-shaped avalanche, and though the two heroes tried to hold on with all their might, they were eventually broken like beasts swept away by disaster.

Heinrich, unable to watch anymore, joined in despite exposing a gap to War Chief Hatan, but the heroic tale that shook the earth was too powerless against the superhuman who walked the sky.

“You fought well. Beyond my expectations. Had you been born as warriors of Aishan, I would have praised you generously and bestowed the rank of war chief.”

Orhan praised them while catching his breath. Orhan, who wanted to annihilate them and return as quickly as possible, had no choice but to expend considerable strength to overwhelm the two heroes.

His muscles throughout his body complained of heavy fatigue, and he even felt a sense of depletion as if his body had been hollowed out.

Fighting by constantly maintaining Unyielding Flesh and delivering attacks of overwhelming power that his opponents could not possibly block, his Karma had fallen to about thirty percent of his normal level.

Thanks to that, it took only about ten minutes to crush the two heroes.

“However… unfortunately, you were born as westerners. As enemies of us, the Ka’har. Therefore, all I can bestow upon you is a westerner’s fitting end.”

Orhan said, placing the blade of his blood-soaked sword against Joshua’s neck.

“To lose, to be robbed, to meet death. That is the fate you deserve to face.”

“…Your unnecessary words are long.”

Joshua replied, coughing up blood. A perfect defeat. He had no strength left to resist further.

‘O Elpinel. O celestial gods. Why… have you granted such great power to such a ruthless person….’

Joshua looked up at the sky with distorted lips in indignation. To convey his lament to the gods in heaven.

And then he saw it.

Something crimson, flying through the clouds at lightning speed.