Ch.853Can’t help!

Haschal flew off to the inner fortress with Meiharin, leaving Demian alone to battle against Sahalran and all of Meiharin’s close associates.

The difference in strength between the two sides seemed obvious at first glance.

Sahalran, who had surpassed the wall through a spell that forcibly awakened his talent, versus Biyan, who stood before the wall with the same spell.

Three Champions from the Clan Union who were brainwashed into obeying Meiharin, plus six high-ranking sorcerers from the White Valley.

Unless one was an incarnation of the Thousand Killing Star, this force would be considered excessive against a single hero.

However.

*Slash!*

“…I’ve been cut. You couldn’t ‘see this far,’ could you?”

Though he had been underestimated due to constantly appearing to suffer violence disguised as sparring, Demian’s combat prowess had already been among the top wall-surpassing heroes even before obtaining the holy sword.

“Eyes that see the future. Impressive, but… your limit seems to be only 3 or 4 seconds ahead. That’s an ability I can handle.”

Now that he had the holy sword in hand, he could confidently say he had no equal except for Haschal.

“Such martial prowess at that age. Not even of divine blood, yet how…?”

“So the monster’s subordinate is also a monster?”

Sahalran and his forces, who had been confident of an easy victory, were bewildered by the battle’s unexpected direction.

They had dismissed him as an insignificant opponent when he was knocked back during their initial surprise attack, but when they actually fought him properly, they found themselves facing a true monster.

Demian, covered in blessings from the Church of Elpinel, was like an unstoppable tank to them.

His physical abilities, enhanced by “Heaven’s Protection,” rivaled Sahalran’s body, which had awakened divine blood to obtain power far beyond ordinary humans. The mental defense blessing “White Night” made the sorcerers’ curses largely ineffective.

When they resorted to offensive spells instead of curses, these were blocked by the divine barrier that seemed to protectively envelop Demian’s body.

Even if wounds did penetrate the divine barrier, the Elpinel Church’s healing miracle “Embrace of Grace” would erase minor injuries as if they had been washed away.

Faced with this cockroach-like vitality and defense worthy of a wall-surpassing paladin, Meiharin’s subordinates could only taste the futility and helplessness of swinging a sword against the ocean.

Moreover, their opponent wasn’t just proficient in defense like a paladin.

“If you can see it, try to block it! If you can!”

A chain of slashes that constantly changed trajectory like a child’s scribbles, bending at impossible angles.

The massive iron greatsword, larger than a human body, became a pure white storm that raged around him.

“Kugh…!”

Sahalran, who had activated his mental technique of combat precognition, gritted his teeth and desperately created distance.

His mental technique, which could glimpse several seconds into the future, was powerful enough to counter even Haschal’s specialty of ultra-high-speed surprise attacks, but it was completely powerless against the young man before him—Demian.

‘…I can see it. I can see it, but…’

Demian’s slashes, unaffected by inertia, drew trajectories that were beyond unpredictable—they were incomprehensible.

What good was knowing that his right shoulder would be cut four seconds from now?

The moment he raised his sword to defend against the greatsword flying toward his right shoulder, the slash that was clearly heading for his shoulder would bend as if under a spell and target his left knee instead.

‘What kind of attack is this…!’

Slashes that couldn’t be countered even with precognition. The only option available to Sahalran was to retreat beyond the reach of the greatsword.

Even Sahalran, who had enhanced his physical abilities by awakening his divine blood, could barely retreat in time. Biyan, who was merely at the level of an ordinary pre-hero, would have been cut down long ago if Sahalran hadn’t helped him.

—-

While the battle inside the palace was proceeding with one-sided aggression from the Hestella side, the group battle near the fortress walls was showing a much more even flow.

The fact that they could hold their ground despite being at an overwhelming numerical disadvantage was entirely thanks to the three masters who had surpassed the wall.

“—You call yourself a war chief? What a waste of a title. You don’t even match Hatan and Ibamai, let alone Glar!”

Joshua, Landenburg’s First Sword, was engaged in a fierce battle without retreating an inch against War Chiefs Garun and Hadar who had joined the battlefield.

Instead of wielding the “Giant Slayer Sword,” Joshua had poured all his karma into physical enhancement.

Joshua’s combat power, accumulated from decades of battle experience plus the karma gained during the bloody battles of the Aishan invasion, proved that his reputation as Landenburg’s First Sword was no empty title.

“This is Joshua Blake, the First Sword of the Wall…!”

“…He’s strong.”

Despite their two-against-one advantage, Garun and Hadar, who had forcibly surpassed the wall through awakened talent, found it difficult to gain the upper hand.

It wasn’t that Garun and Hadar were shamefully weak for heroes.

Although they had forcibly crossed the wall using sorcery, that sorcery had merely accelerated them to a level they would eventually reach, rather than bestowing excessive power on incapable humans.

If they had lacked the talent to reach the hero realm in the first place, no talent awakening sorcery would have allowed them to cross or even glimpse the wall.

In other words, Garun and Hadar, while having slightly less combat experience than other heroes, were nonetheless competent as entry-level hero warriors.

The problem was that Joshua had long since surpassed the entry-level hero stage, and—

“Gracious Elpinel of Heaven, look with mercy upon their suffering and grant them your grace and radiance!”

Lacy, standing on the airship’s deck, was showering all allies on the ground with every blessing imaginable.

Joshua alone would have been difficult enough for them to handle, but with the Saint’s blessings added to the mix…

The two war chiefs couldn’t help but feel a sense of despair.

—-

“Against just eight people, what is this…!”

The warriors’ morale couldn’t possibly be high.

Ordos’s “official” strongest forces, Garun and Hadar, were tied up by Joshua alone.

Moreover, the other masters were also flourishing as if they could fly, thanks to Lacy’s blessings.

“I can see it! I can see the wall too! So this is what it is…!”

“That can’t be right. Aren’t you mistaking that visible fortress wall for ‘the wall’?”

“How can you say that! Is it jealousy? A man’s jealousy is quite unsightly!”

Nigel laughed with joy, perhaps finally facing the hero’s wall after fierce battle, while Jahan spun his crimson blade like a windmill beside her, deflecting the warriors’ arrows.

“Haa…haa… I’m dying of exhaustion. No matter how many I kill, there’s no end to them.”

Despite complaining of fatigue from the longest battle she’d experienced since the Great Invasion, Frider pulled two warriors with a broken chain and swung her saw-blade to tear out their vocal cords along with their Adam’s apples.

“You’ll get used to it soon. Ladies’ fights are always like this.”

“…Now I understand why you grew up so fast.”

Leonore smiled wryly, saying such fierce battles were now routine, while unleashing a rain of thrusts against an approaching Champion.

The corpses of slaughtered warriors formed hills.

Unable to stand by any longer, the White Valley sorcerers joined the warriors and unleashed various intricate spells, but even they couldn’t make much of an impact.

No matter how many spells they poured down like a waterfall, Lacy in the sky and Adamante on the ground emitted pure white and golden sacred light that easily blocked all those spells.

Perhaps if they unleashed high-level spells that required dozens of seconds to construct, they might have been able to penetrate the divine barriers, but—

“ᡵᠠᠮᠯᠠᡳᠣᠯ ᠮᠪᡠᠯᡝᡳᡴᡠᠸ, ᠪᠠᠪᡠᡳᠮᠪᡳ ᠠᠮᠪᡳᠨᡩᡠᡵᡠᠪᠠᠠᡵᠠᠮᠪᡳ ᠪᡠᡨ ᡠᠪᠠᠪᡠᠨᠵᡳᠮᠪ ᡳᡤᠣᠯᠣᠴᡠᠨ ᡥᡝᡧ….”

If they tried to gather mana and chant long incantations to manifest high-level sorcery—

*Whizz!*

“ᡝᠨ ᠠᠮᠪᡠᠯᠠ ᠪᡝᡳᡴᡠᠸᡝᠨᡳ ᡥᡝᡧᡝᠨ……Huh?”

*Splat!*

They would be detected by Lacy and sniped by Millia, ending up sprawled on the ground with their brains scattered in pieces.

“What are these guys…?”

The Ordos warriors looked down at the convulsing, headless corpses of the sorcerers with hollow laughter.

If they had at least accomplished something, it might have been different, but if they were going to reveal themselves only to be defeated so helplessly, it would have been better not to intervene at all.

“I-I’m done with this! I can’t take it anymore!”

“Everyone, give up! This dishonorable fight! Even if we die fighting, only those sorcerer bastards will be laughing!”

How must it have appeared to those who knew nothing, to see their own allies and superiors wielding the powers of sorcery that should rightfully be taboo?

There was a limit to how much could be explained away, even using the unprecedented situation of the imperial palace being attacked.

Many warriors and soldiers refused to fight and deserted, or even turned their swords against the sorcerers instead of the westerners, adding further chaos to the already chaotic battlefield.

—-

No reinforcements would come.

Learning this through flame communication, Meiharin had only one option left.

[Is it still far off? How much longer until ‘that’ is completed?]

Instead of contacting her associates fighting Demian in the palace, she sent a flame message to another subordinate hiding in a secret base in a corner of Ordos.

– We’re in the final stages! About ten minutes and…!

[Ten minutes? By then, not even my remains will be left! Just release it now! I’ll somehow manage the finishing touches myself!]

– Y-yes! I’ll wake it right now and send it there! Forty seconds will be enough!

Forty seconds. Meiharin repeated that number as she barely managed to regenerate her limbs that had been blown off.

‘So I just need to hold out for forty seconds… Very well, let’s see if I can do it.’

It was an impossibly long time for her current state, but she thought she could somehow endure that much.

“Meiharin—!”

Perhaps.

Feeling the killing intent approaching rapidly with a thunderous roar, Meiharin gritted her teeth, gathered her mana, and leaped out of the water like a swallow.