Chapter 339

They could see a light in the distance, atop the wall.

But the area below was shrouded in darkness.

They couldn’t sense any guards.

It meant that the inner wall was completely unguarded.

It was understandable.

No one would even imagine that the enemy would appear from within the Imperial City.

Max, who had been observing the situation, gave the signal.

The Celtrine raiding party approached the inner gate, their footsteps silent and stealthy.

They reached the gate, which was massive and imposing.

It would have been impossible to conquer it from the outside.

But the mechanism to open the gate was on the inside.

Right before their eyes.

They exchanged nods.

Duncan and Norman approached the gate’s mechanism.

Now!

Max gave the signal, and Duncan and Norman turned the mechanism with all their might.

*Creak! Creak! Creak! Creak! Creak!*

The inner gate, which had stood as a wall of despair, began to open.

The guards on the wall finally noticed them.

“W-What?!”

“W-What’s going on?!”

“T-The gate?!”

“What’s happening?!”

They were caught off guard and panicked.

The Celtrine raiding party, on the other hand, was calm and collected.

And fast.

“Next!”

Max shouted, and they started running.

They were no longer trying to be stealthy. They were sprinting with all their might.

Towards the next gate.

The guards finally realized that this was a serious situation. The enemy had infiltrated the city.

“E-Enemy! Enemy!”

“We’re under attack!”

“S-Stop them!”

“T-The alarm! Sound the alarm!”

*Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!*

The alarm bells rang, signaling the enemy’s attack.

The guards rushed down the stairs.

But it was too late.

The Celtrine raiding party had already passed the halfway point by the time they reacted.

The guards on the opposite wall also reacted to the alarm, but they were also too late.

“Open the gate!”

“No shit!”

Duncan and Norman rushed towards the gate’s mechanism and started turning it.

*Creak! Creak! Creak! Creak! Creak!*

The second gate began to open.

* * *

Lobel’s eyes gleamed as he heard the alarm bells ringing from within the city.

He had been waiting for this moment, like a lion lurking in the shadows.

*Thud!*

He jumped to his feet.

“Now!”

His booming voice echoed through the Celtrine allied forces’ camp, which had been silent until now.

“It’s time to attack!”

They were ready.

The soldiers were ready.

They had just been waiting for the signal.

“Charge!”

“Woooooo!”

The Celtrine allied forces’ roars ripped through the dawn air.

* * *

*Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!*

“What’s going on?!”

Marius, the Black Knight, was startled by the unexpected sound of the alarm bells.

The area outside the city was quiet. There was no sign of any enemy activity.

“I-It seems like something’s happening inside the city!”

His lieutenant rushed over and reported.

“Inside the city?”

“Yes, the alarm bells are definitely coming from inside!”

“Then send some soldiers to…”

Before Marius could finish his sentence,

“Woooooo!”

“Charge!”

A commotion erupted from the Celtrine allied forces’ camp outside the city.

They had suddenly launched a night attack.

“V-Vice-captain! T-The enemy is attacking!”

“Tsk.”

Marius frowned.

He wasn’t a fool.

For the Celtrine allied forces, who had been quiet until now, to suddenly launch a night attack?

They had planned this.

But even so, a simple night attack wasn’t a problem.

They could just repel them, as they had done before.

The problem was,

That it coincided with the unknown incident that was happening inside the city.

The timing was too perfect.

It couldn’t be a coincidence.

“I’ll deal with the night attack! You go and investigate the incident inside the city!”

“Yes, sir!”

His lieutenant was about to leave,

When,

*Creak! Creak! Creak! Creak! Creak!*

The second gate began to open.

Marius’s face hardened.

“Which idiot opened the gate at a time like this?!”

His lieutenant also looked bewildered.

“I-I don’t know! I’ll go and check…”

But,

There was no need to check.

People who were clearly not their allies emerged from the open gate and started running towards them.

There were about three hundred of them.

Marius recognized them.

They were unforgettable.

“Those damn Turtle bastards! How did you get in here?!”

The enemy’s elite unit, which had repeatedly inflicted pain on the Crown Prince’s forces.

But then, he saw someone he wanted to kill even more.

A face he had only seen once, during the ambush at Celtrine Castle, but a face he could never forget.

“M-Max Celtrine?! You bastard!”

A face he wouldn’t be satisfied with killing even a hundred times.

That face was right there, before his eyes.

He suddenly snapped out of his daze.

“T-The gate?! Stop them! Stop them! Don’t let them touch the gate!”

He shouted, his voice filled with urgency, and ran towards the gate.

The soldiers also rushed to stop the enemy.

Fortunately, the outermost gate was guarded by soldiers who were stationed nearby.

They were startled, but they quickly formed a defensive line and blocked the gate.

“V-Vice-captain! What about the enemy outside?!”

His lieutenant shouted in alarm.

It was understandable.

Even the sturdiest wall was useless without defenders.

But all the defenders were rushing towards the gate.

Marius, who had been running towards the gate, also realized his mistake.

“Damn it, half of you stay here! You idiots! Who’s going to defend the walls if you all go down there?!”

He shouted, and the soldiers who were rushing down the stairs stopped in their tracks.

But their movements were chaotic.

They were panicking, and their discipline had crumbled.

Lobel noticed this.

“Push forward! Attack with all your might!”

The Celtrine allied forces charged towards the wall like a tidal wave, unleashing all their pent-up energy.

It was an all-out attack.

They knew that this was the decisive moment.

They had to attack with all their might from the outside to increase the chances of success for their comrades who had infiltrated the city.

“Good, the time is ripe.”

Max smiled.

There were defenders blocking the gate, their faces grim and determined.

But they could break through.

He was confident, and he had Regina with him.

And the Turtle Unit.

He had absolute faith in them.

In his own strength.

And in the strength of his comrades.

“Out of my way!”

Max, who was at the forefront of the charge, raised his sword with both hands.

He was going to use a powerful technique to create an opening.

– Explosion Slash.

*BOOOOOM!*

“Aaaaaargh?!”

“Ugh!”

The defenders blocking the gate were blown away, their shields shattered.

It was an incredibly powerful attack.

And that wasn’t all.

Regina, who was running beside him, also created an opening with her swordsmanship.

She swung her sword horizontally, as if she was cleaving the air in two.

– Great Snow.

*Whoosh!*

Her sword hummed.

A terrifying gust of wind, like a typhoon, swept over the defenders.

“Ugh?!”

“W-What kind of wind is this?!”

The defenders, despite their heavy armor and shields, were blown away like straw.

Gaps appeared in their defensive line.

And the Turtle Unit wouldn’t miss this opportunity.

“Now! Charge through the gaps!”

Gwen shouted, leading the charge.

“Hahaha, crush them all!”

Duncan roared.

“We can’t let the Savior and Madam’s efforts be in vain.”

Milia said, her perspective always aligned with Max’s.

And the rest of the Turtle Unit followed them.

“Ugh!”

“W-We’re being pushed back!”

“D-Damn it!”

The defenders couldn’t withstand the Turtle Unit’s charge.

Their defensive line, which had started to crack, finally collapsed.

It was completely broken, and they had lost all their momentum.

“Hahaha, good! I’m going to open the gate again!”

Duncan ran towards the gate’s mechanism, his face filled with excitement.

But,

A new wall appeared before him.

Reinforcements had arrived from the wall.

And there were even more of them this time.

“Tsk, more pests? Bring it on!”

But it wasn’t just the reinforcements from the wall.

More defenders were rushing towards them from behind.

They were the defenders from the middle and inner walls.

Regina glanced behind her.

“We can’t stay here for long.”

If they wasted any more time, they would be caught in a pincer attack.

They had to avoid that.

“Yes, we have to finish this quickly.”

Max’s gaze landed on someone.

Marius, the Black Knight.

He was the biggest obstacle to their plan’s success.

“Max Celtrine!”

Marius charged at Max, his eyes burning with murderous intent.

Max smiled.

“We have good chemistry, don’t we? Even at the ball.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think our teamwork would be amazing, even though it’s our first time.”

Regina’s lips curled into a faint smile as she realized what Max was planning.

“As you wish. I’ll follow your lead.”

“Heh, thanks. I’ll attack first, and you follow up.”

Max moved first.

His opponent was Marius, the vice-captain of the Imperial Knights, a formidable warrior.

He couldn’t afford to underestimate him.

“Die, you bastard!”

Marius’s greatsword suddenly turned black and started swirling.

A black storm and thunder descended upon them.

*Rumble!*

‘That’s…’

Max’s face hardened.

He had seen that technique before.

Marius’s secret sword technique.

Black Wind Strike.

Marius was using his strongest technique because he knew how crucial this battle was.

No ordinary technique could withstand its power.

Not even Max’s Explosion Slash.

It was a technique that couldn’t be countered with brute force.

Even if he managed to overpower it, he would suffer heavy damage.

He couldn’t block it head-on.

He knew another way.

A way to weaken the technique’s power.

‘Strike it multiple times, quickly.’

That was the technique’s weakness.

It could withstand any attack, but each attack would weaken its power.

But it would be pointless to clash swords with it directly.

Because the technique’s power would still be too much for him to handle.

But Max had another method.

*Thwack!*

He threw his sword to the ground.

And then, he drew his bow.

“You bastard!”

Marius glared at him, his face filled with disbelief.

Max ignored him and nocked an arrow, jumping back.

“You think you can escape?!”

Marius tried to close the distance.

But Max fired a volley of arrows at him.

Hiresia’s secret technique, Multishot!

Seven arrows flew towards Marius.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*

But even Multishot couldn’t penetrate Marius’s Black Wind Strike.

The arrows exploded one after another.

However,

The black storm swirling around Marius’s greatsword was clearly fading.

Its power was weakening.

“You bastard! You’re playing dirty!”

Marius’s face contorted with rage, but he still didn’t doubt that he could kill Max.

A bow was no match for his Black Wind Strike.

“This is the end, you bastard!”

*Rumble!*

The Black Wind Strike, using its last remaining power, unleashed a bolt of lightning towards Max.

It was then that,

A figure who had been hiding behind Max suddenly jumped out.

– Fine Snow.

A thin blade of condensed aura.

A thrust that could pierce through any armor.

The Erenbert family’s secret sword technique pierced through the weakened Black Wind Strike.

And,

It penetrated it.

*Thud!*

“Gah?!”

Marius gasped as he felt a sharp pain in his chest.

His body slumped forward, his eyes wide with disbelief.

*Thud!*

His gaze landed on Regina as he fell.

“C-Cough… Y-You cowardly bastards…”

“Who said war was a duel? You’re so naive.”

Max scoffed and winked at Regina.

Her sword flashed again.

*Thwack!*

Marius’s head flew off.

His eyes, filled with resentment, seemed to foreshadow the fall of the Imperial City.