Ch.705The Battlefield Being Cleared

Ibamaiwa and Targiyan, along with other high-ranking warriors of Clan Aishan, managed to drive three spears into the Valkyrie’s upper body after an intense battle.

“Arrrrrr……”

Unable to maintain its manifestation any longer, the Valkyrie’s body of holy light crumbled and dispersed like smoke.

“Good, retreat!”

After confirming the Valkyrie’s disappearance, Targiyan handed the collapsing Ibamaiwa to another Champion and led the remnants of the red and black banner forces toward the southeastern plains.

It was a countercharge that flowed as naturally as water.

The Imperial army cheered from atop the walls as they watched the scene below, celebrating their victory and praising me, Ludwig Wilhelm von Landenburg, and Leopold Wittelsbach.

“Huff… huff… Did we… did we win?”

“Oh Volberg…!”

The Danes, in contrast, had no strength left to shout in victory and simply collapsed onto the blood-soaked ground, gasping for breath.

According to the knights’ reports, they originally numbered eight thousand… but from the looks of it, barely two-tenths remained. The casualties were truly devastating.

“Accommodate them inside the city… and treat their wounds if possible.”

I ordered, pointing to the Danes sprawled outside.

“The Danes, sir?”

“Yes. They don’t know it yet… but Dane is no longer an independent kingdom but a vassal state of the Empire, so we should treat them accordingly.”

The core of Ludwig’s support conditions to Knut was to purge the upper echelon of the Church of Volberg, including Cardinal Wolfgang, and become a vassal state that would obey Leopold’s commands.

Since Imperial soldiers were being sacrificed to protect the Danes, such compensation was necessary to convince others.

Knut agreed after much deliberation.

Though this nullified his ancestors’ struggles for Dane’s independence, he apparently thought it better than letting tens of thousands of Danes die meaningless deaths.

“House the wounded in the inner fortress, and put those who can move to work. And… whatever else needs to be done… let’s rest a bit first before handling it.”

“Yes, I’ll relay your orders.”

After watching Sean nod and pass the commands to other adjutants, I made my way down from the wall with slightly unsteady steps, heading toward the command post.

For the aftermath of war.

Though the war with the Ka’har had concluded, my workload had actually increased. With Ludwig and Frederick dead, I was the only one left to take on the role of commander-in-chief of the Imperial army.

======[ Himmel Front ]======

– Rumble…!

With a thunderous roar that shook heaven and earth, a metal vessel as large as a palace plummeted, engulfed in flames.

The ship’s outer armor was torn away amid explosions large and small, and thick smoke covered the sky like clouds.

Himmel’s airship, the “Alvis,” was being sunk by the concentrated attacks of high-level elementals summoned by the elf guardians.

Even as the heavily damaged Alvis fell toward the ground, it continued firing its cannons at the elves, but giant rock and tree elementals intercepted the shells, shattering into pieces and minimizing damage to the elves.

“The dwarves’ sky-ship is falling! Victory is ours!”

“Have you seen the power of Alvheim, you barbaric half-men!”

The elves cheered. The destruction of the airship that had tormented them marked a clear turning point in the stagnant southern front.

“Everyone’s so excited. Over destroying just one ship.”

Eirnesia, one of the elf guardians, muttered with a disinterested expression while chewing on a leaf.

A leaf from the World Tree. A sacred medicine that temporarily enhanced the blessings bestowed upon elves.

“You don’t seem pleased, Eirnesia.”

Another guardian, Tersilius, asked as he lowered the “Divine Bow” that had been aimed at the dwarf warship.

“How could I be happy? Three guardians died to bring that thing down. In the past, we could have easily destroyed an airship like that with strength to spare.”

To Eirnesia, a veteran guardian who remembered eight hundred years ago, the scene before her eyes was closer to defeat than victory.

During her prime in the Racial War era, dwarf airships were mass-produced weapons that could be sunk with minimal casualties by deploying just two guardians.

Not formidable entities requiring six guardians, half of whom perished in the process.

“That’s… unavoidable. Because humans blocked the celestial passage, the World Tree’s protection isn’t what it used to be. Though things have improved lately. Before, it was hard even to breathe.”

Tersilius, who also remembered those times, shook his head with a light sigh.

—-

Eight hundred years ago.

The agent of Elpinel, who had unified humanity, blocked the passage through which celestial power descended, separating the mortal realm from the heavens.

How such a feat was possible, even Tersilius couldn’t understand.

The elven deity, the World Tree, managed to maintain its existence because its essence was in the heavens while its roots were planted in the mortal realm… but even so, its influence weakened to the point where it couldn’t even express its will.

As the gods’ influence waned, the mortal beings who had grown strong through their protection and blessings began to decline.

Newborns could at best grow only as strong as former patrollers, while existing powerful beings writhed in agony as if the world itself was rejecting them.

The world created by humans forced them to choose:

Lose power and weaken, or flee from the world and hide forever.

Dragons retreated deep underground and fell into endless slumber, while elf guardians either had to abandon their blessings or, like the dragons, sleep embraced by the World Tree’s trunk.

The kings of the werebeasts lost their immortal regenerative powers that could revive them even from ashes, and were hunted down one by one. Orcs perished after losing the protection of their war gods.

The merfolk lost the blessings and wisdom bestowed by the sea god, becoming foolish and ugly creatures that hid in the depths of the ocean, while giants turned to stone alive, reduced to mere landmarks.

For all races except humans, it was nothing short of a calamity… no, an unprecedented disaster.

“But we needn’t worry for now. If we’re in this state, the dwarves can’t be faring any better.”

Tersilius patted Eirnesia’s shoulder lightly, suggesting she relax and cheer up.

“They won’t be able to awaken their machine god, ‘Regin.’ That means they can’t mass-produce the mechanical dragon Fafnir, let alone properly operate their existing weapons.”

Just like the guardians, the dwarves likely hadn’t regained their former strength either.

“Fafnir… Come to think of it, humans these days seem to worship it as a god. What did they call it… one of the Four Evil Gods?”

“Four Evil Gods?”

Tersilius tilted his head at the unfamiliar term.

“Yes. Feilandria told me about it. Vanirgand, Lilith, Fafnir, and… Invidius, was it? They’ve even created origin myths and teach them. Without even knowing what these beings really are.”

Something about seven beasts devouring each other and ascending as evil gods.

When Feilandria related the story, she sneered at humans’ remarkable imagination, and Eirnesia too had chuckled incredulously at the absurdity.

“That’s ridiculous. I can understand calling Vanirgand and Lilith evil gods, but Fafnir too? And what is this Invidius?”

“Who knows? It seems to be a being that attained divinity, but even Feilandria didn’t know who they were referring to, saying the name was made up by humans.”

“Interesting. Not content with falsifying the origins of gods, they even name them as they please. Humans always choose to do the strangest things.”

“They make things up because they don’t know. Short-lived races often do that, don’t they?”

Eirnesia, having chewed and swallowed the World Tree’s leaf, stood up and twitched her ear tips slightly, like how humans shrug.

Though they had been resting after expending much energy sinking the airship, it was time to rise again. Bringing down one warship wasn’t the end.

Eirnesia’s gaze shifted from the burning airship falling like a meteor to the dwarf armored units descending toward the battlefield.

Unmanned assault machines called Colossus and automaton infantry. Most were damaged, perhaps caught in the explosion, but they were still formidable weapons for ordinary elves to face.