Ch.972Recent Developments

The Forest Sea, a secret art of Alvheim that sweeps away enemies with waves of trees imbued with the World Tree’s power.

The surprise attack by elves wielding the Forest Sea—a disaster that rendered resistance impossible—collapsed the Holy State’s seemingly impregnable border with shocking ease.

The Holy Brigade guarding the border swallowed their rage as they retreated, then regrouped their surviving forces to launch the First Border Reclamation Battle to retake the frontier.

A battle led primarily by Richard, Perlien de Genes, Ceylon, and two cardinals. As the “First” in its name suggests, it ultimately ended in defeat.

Though they managed to destroy spirits and burn forests while pushing forward, they were eventually forced to retreat under the relentless attacks of guardians that emerged like mass-produced goods from a dwarf factory.

Cardinal Ernlitter was wounded during that battle.

Having expended too much power protecting those retreating, his fundamental life force was severely depleted, causing him to collapse while coughing blood.

Though his strength had somewhat recovered thanks to rest in the rear, he was still not well enough to return to the battlefield.

After the defeat of the First Reclamation Battle, the front lines quickly stagnated, turning into something resembling a power struggle between forest and fire.

To resolve this stalemate came Lacy’s Imperial Diocese and Hestella’s core forces.

Judging that sufficient forces had gathered, the Holy Brigade’s leadership launched the Second Border Reclamation Battle immediately after reorganizing their troops, attempting to reclaim territory lost to the forest.

Thus began the Second Border Reclamation Battle.

The Holy State concentrated all its forces in the center, advancing with unstoppable momentum and burning back the forested former territories, but the elves would not simply stand by and watch.

“The forest… those despicable pointy-ears, this again…!”

Instead of confronting the Holy Brigade head-on, Alvheim swept through the outer border areas—where defenses had weakened as forces were withdrawn—with a reduced version of the “Forest Sea.”

As if challenging to see whose advance would be faster.

“We’re under attack! The elves’ detachment is targeting the supply depot!”

“They’re after Lord Elmaine! We need support…!”

And that wasn’t all.

Mass-produced guardians rode wind spirits to infiltrate behind the Holy Brigade’s lines, conducting guerrilla warfare and, when conditions seemed favorable, attempting to assassinate key figures.

“…No, I don’t need support! She burned them all!”

Of course, such assassination attempts weren’t always successful.

“You burn quite well, like trees. It would have been better if you had remained rooted in the forest like proper trees.”

Suddenly ambushed, Lacy annihilated all the guardians’ spirits with a miracle of purification, then spewed holy fire to turn them into three pieces of firewood.

Her face showed a strange mixture of contemptuous sneer and joyful delight.

—-

Elven assassins weren’t the only ones infiltrating the Holy Brigade’s camp.

In fact, they were the minority; most infiltrators were not elves but humans.

“For the great Mother World Tree—!”

“Suicide slave soldiers! Stop them!”

“Long live Alvheim—!”

*BOOM!*

With a violent explosion, an elderly man in shabby clothes wrapped in bandages burst into pieces, scattering bone fragments everywhere.

The treatment center where the wounded had been groaning in pain instantly transformed into a scene resembling hell in chaos.

Human bombs who swallowed fire spirits, disguised as refugees to sneak into cities, then detonated themselves when enough people gathered.

They were truly troublesome enemies for the Holy State.

These suicide bombers were nearly impossible to detect without thorough physical examinations, as the spirits were hidden inside their bodies.

The priests couldn’t reject all refugees just because suicide bombers might be mixed among them, so they had no choice but to waste holy power on body inspections that could have saved dozens of lives.

Additionally, they had to care for those who suffered severe mental and physical shock from witnessing fellow humans praising the World Tree before exploding.

Because of this, the clergy became convinced.

The elves’ oath to release all their human slaves after the treaty eight hundred years ago had been a blatant lie.

They were still abducting and breeding humans as slaves, and their methods had become even more vicious than before.

Alvheim now openly revealed that they were brainwashing humans and using them as tools, not even bothering to hide it anymore.

“How dare they…!”

“Calm yourself. It’s the enemy’s provocation.”

It was a blatant provocation.

A challenge saying: if you cannot forgive us, if you want to save your kin being raised like livestock, then try entering the deep forest.

“Yes, we must endure for now. Falling for their tricks would only cause us great harm.”

The high-ranking officials who understood the situation knew it was a provocation and didn’t take the bait, but among the lower ranks, opinions were brewing that they should advance despite the sacrifices.

“…I was too naive. This isn’t enough.”

Lacy added several items to her management plan for elven prisoners that she had been considering—ideas inspired by seeing horses, cattle, and pigs tied in livestock pens.

—-

Anyway, the Second Border Reclamation Battle was progressing sluggishly with advances and retreats.

They had reclaimed some territory but lost just as much elsewhere, and even the basic strategy of setting fire to the forest was yielding less success than expected.

When they set fires, the trees would burn, but either headwinds would suddenly blow the flames toward their own forces, or rain would immediately fall and extinguish the fires.

It felt as if the climate itself was siding with the enemy.

I don’t know who came up with that metaphor, but they probably deserved the Metaphor of the Year award.

The climate being on the enemy’s side wasn’t nonsense but an undeniable truth.

The power to control the climate within its domain—this was the manifestation of the World Tree’s divinity, turning the great forest into an impregnable fortress.

—-

Oh, I heard in passing that Leopold was also taking this war quite seriously.

Though he couldn’t spare troops to send to the Holy State front, he did provide Lacy with one airship.

One might wonder what good a single airship would do compared to Imperial troops, but the Empire had its own difficulties that prevented it from dispatching forces.

Monsters appearing in various regions and dragons occasionally showing themselves. Moreover, it seemed another major incident had erupted in Panam.

They had installed Prince Evian as a puppet king to make it a pro-Imperial nation, but suddenly a large-scale rebellion broke out, causing quite a commotion.

Some marquis or whatever claimed a child was King Danon’s illegitimate offspring and started a rebellion, with many nobles supporting the cause.

They probably resented the taxes they had to pay to the Empire, as it was money leaking from their own pockets.

Panam’s capital had fallen to the rebels, and King Evian’s whereabouts were unknown—either dead or fled.

Apparently furious at the news, Leopold planned to dispatch an entire legion and one airship to the south to annex Panam.

In the past, the Holy State would have raised a huge fuss, claiming the Empire wasn’t established to oppress other humans.

However, the current Holy State, engaged in war with the elves, had no capacity to interfere with the Empire’s movements.

In fact, rather than interfering, they had to be mindful of the Empire’s attitude.

Since the Holy State’s power alone was insufficient to hold back Alvheim, the Empire’s assistance was essential for reclaiming territory and retaliating.

In other words, this was the perfect opportunity to annex a troublesome kingdom. So much so that Leopold was squeezing out troops to deploy a legion to the south despite the shortage.

Of course, Leopold wasn’t focusing solely on the south.

He tried to draw another country into the war to help the Holy State—specifically, the dwarves of Himmel.

He sent a letter to the dwarves, inciting them that now was the time to attack the elves and settle old grudges.

His plan was probably to form an alliance with the dwarves and pressure Alvheim from both sides.

Unfortunately, this failed.

It wasn’t that the dwarves rejected Leopold’s proposal. They simply lacked the capacity at present.

According to information obtained by the Holy State, the dwarves of Himmel were currently overwhelmed just recovering from the destruction of two cities.

One underground city was destroyed by a dragon that claimed a mountain range as its territory immediately after resurrection, and another city was destroyed when they failed to subjugate this dragon.

Honestly, it seemed strange that dwarves with modern-level weaponry would be defeated when even airships could kill dragons…

“The dragon, self-proclaimed as ‘Wyvern Vritra,’ repeatedly rammed and collapsed the mountain range, then retrieved every cannon from the buried city and fired them.”

Hearing that, it made more sense.

The dragon that attacked the dwarves wasn’t a traditionalist using magic or breath, but a madman who wielded artillery like pistols, living up to its nickname.

The dwarves normally attached self-destruct mechanisms to all their weapons to destroy them if captured, but they failed this time.

Apparently, Vritra removed the mechanisms before they could activate. It seemed to be a dragon with expertise in machinery.

Anyway, for these reasons, the dwarves of Himmel were in no position to attack the elves. Subjugating Vritra took precedence over the elves for now.