Chapter 199: Descent (2)

Fwoosh—!

From the end of a form falling like a star, flames poured down.

The fire swept over the mass of orcs and goblins that densely filled the ground and began burning them away.

Kraaaargh!

Kraaaargh!

The sharp screams of monsters echoed in all directions.

It was a situation no one could make sense of.

A gigantic griffin, and an unidentified form.

Then, from the mouth of the griffin that was circling wildly in the sky, a pitch-black breath burst forth.

Kiiiaaaaaa—!

With a shriek that felt as if it would tear one’s ears apart, the monsters charging from the rear were reduced to scorched ruins.

It was a terrifying sight.

The Count of Neju and the troops under his command, who had been in despair before the castle gate, tensed up, unsure of what was happening.

“What is this? Are monsters helping us?”

No matter how much they thought about it, the situation was impossible to understand.

Kooong—! Craaack!

At last, the falling form struck the ground.

Given the tremendous height, the shock spread directly through the earth.

The problem was what followed immediately after.

Shwaaaak!

A long streak of blue light shot out, slaughtering the surrounding monsters.

Any knight would have found it hard not to recognize what that light was.

“…Aura?”

It was the same aura that had been faintly emanating from the Count of Neju’s sword.

However, the density and power were on an entirely different level.

Meanwhile, the griffin descended into the very center of the battlefield.

Pushed back by the beating of its massive wings, the monsters faltered and retreated, cowed by its momentum.

That was not the end of it.

Several people began dismounting from the griffin’s back and fought the monsters.

“W-What is this? Are they reinforcements?”

Seeing a gigantic griffin was a first in itself.

But the skill of those who appeared after it was equally terrifying.

“If it’s them……”

Most of the monsters, their instincts writhing, abandoned their formation and fled.

The atmosphere of the battlefield wavered. The balance tilted toward Neju Castle.

Perhaps the camps of the Dior Empire and the Moratz Kingdom sensed the shift as well.

Those who had been quietly observing from the ridge beyond the hill began to move.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As if boasting of something, their forces charged toward Neju Castle amid thunderous drumbeats.

At that moment, the gigantic griffin that had been devouring monsters unleashed its pitch-black breath once more.

This time, its direction was toward the advancing Dior and Moratz encampments.

Shwaaaaaaaak!

With a dreadful streak of light, hundreds of people vanished on the spot.

After that, for reasons unknown, the griffin rose again and flew wildly through the sky.

The battlefield atmosphere, which had nearly tipped again from that single attack, did not move.

Then, from the mouth of the form that was emitting a terrifying aura, a resounding voice boomed forth.

“All forces…! Leave nothing behind!”

At the power-laden command, even the eyes of those who had dismounted from the griffin and were fighting changed.

It felt as though the real battle began from that moment.

Lower- and mid-tier monsters such as orcs and goblins were seized by fear and mostly fled.

Here and there, ogres, trolls, and the chimeras that had been breathing fire until just moments ago remained behind, fighting the knights.

Chwaaak!

At that moment, one chimera collapsed as both of its necks were severed by a knight’s sword.

“Hoo! I never thought I’d end up fighting a chimera.”

“Sir Jade! Why are you over there! We’re on the west side!”

A woman’s shout rang out from the middle of the battlefield, where she was firing arrows at the enemy commander.

It was Negis, the Archer Master.

At her cry, Jade muttered an “Ah!” and hastily changed direction.

“Sorry, sorry. I got mixed up.”

“Please get your directions right! That’s not it!”

It seemed Jade had gone off in another strange direction again, as Negis’s complaints burst out.

It was an oddly relaxed atmosphere, as if they were toying with the battlefield where tension should have been at its peak.

A very peculiar sight.

In that situation, the Count of Neju began to feel hope.

“Can we… survive?”

“We don’t know who they are, but they’re incredible!”

“Just where in the world did people like that come from?”

Questions piled upon questions, but there was no opening through which answers could emerge.

Unless they asked the parties themselves directly……

“Shouldn’t we go and help them as well?”

But they were already pushing forward and leading the charge on the battlefield.

If those who had been waiting only for death rushed in now, they might only become a hindrance.

“For now, we wait. Deal with the remaining monsters first. That takes priority.”

There were still plenty of ogres and trolls.

Among them, packs of kobolds that had not fled bared their teeth and charged at the soldiers.

“There is hope for us! So do not die—survive no matter what!”

The battle that had been nothing but death thus flowed in a different direction.

The battlefield, filled with monster corpses, became even more chaotic as the forces of Dior and Moratz charged in.

Shuaaaak! Pak! Pak! Papak!

At that moment, blue arrows pierced straight through the heads of the two armies’ commanders.

As the men who had been mounted on horseback tumbled to the ground, the surrounding troops hesitated.

.

.

.

“Just where are those arrows being fired from?!”

Count Bolton of the Dior Empire, the overall commander of this battle, hurriedly hid himself among the soldiers.

He had just witnessed the heads of the knight commander and the centurions standing at the front being pierced by arrows in an instant.

Yet no matter how he looked, he could not see any archers within his field of vision.

And arrows that even those who had reached the threshold of Sword Mastery could neither block nor evade……

He could not help but be bewildered.

“Are the archers not ready yet? Guard me as tightly as possible! Do not allow even the slightest opening!”

Count Bolton ordered the soldiers and packed them densely in front of himself.

He had made human shields.

“Just where did these people come from? This was supposed to be a battle we could only win…….”

The Dior Empire’s declaration of war. Waging it against multiple kingdoms would surely inspire fear before anything else.

But those who controlled the monsters had appeared.

Lately, the Emperor had been acting strangely as well, but that had been pushed aside when survival and vested interests were at stake.

Moreover, he had even received a firm promise directly from the Emperor that he would be granted a dukedom if he succeeded. That was why Count Bolton personally stepped forward in this war.

Shuaaaak! Pak!

At that moment, an arrow lodged itself into the head of the knight commander who had been guarding his side.

Thud—!

It happened in an instant. And that was despite the fact that, just like himself, the soldiers had been lined up as shields.

“I can’t lose. There’s no way I can lose! I am Count Bolton of the Dior Empire!”

Contrary to his fierce voice, his anxious heart made his legs tremble uncontrollably.

Then the wall of soldiers packed tightly in front of him began to waver.

Under the enemy’s fierce momentum surging from the front, the formation collapsed.

“What is that—.”

Something glinted faintly through the gaps opening between the soldiers’ heads.

That glimmer closed the distance in the blink of an eye.

Puk—!

Count Bolton collapsed, feeling his gaze, which had been fixed straight ahead, suddenly turn toward the sky.

He could not even finish his words.

.

.

.

Clang! Cl-clang! Clang—!

The sounds of weapons colliding filled the battlefield.

Amidst that chaos, Raion, who had been displaying overwhelming martial might, suddenly halted his sword.

“…Huh?”

He had been overturning the Moratz army’s formation.

As he was pushing in almost to where the commander should have been, he came face to face with a familiar countenance.

“Rasfer?”

“You bastard…!”

Rasfer, who had barely managed to escape the Rolarsen Mountains by sheer luck, had inherited the throne of Moratz through sheer opportunism.

That was because all the royal family members had been slaughtered due to an envoy sent by the Dior Empire.

However, the price for that had been mandatory participation in the attack on the Boluzan Kingdom.

‘I could have completely taken the northern continent into my hands…! Why did it have to be now!’

Before Rasfer’s sword could even move, his field of vision dropped downward.

The moment their eyes met, Raion had already cut him down.

“Running into that noisy bastard again here.”

It was a battlefield that needed to be concluded quickly.

Raion extended his aura further and swung it in all directions.

It was nothing short of a massacre.

As red blood sprayed everywhere, the enemies turned deathly pale.

No one even dared to think of stopping Raion.

“Retreat! Retreat!”

A shout rang out from the middle of the formation. It was the voice of Spessen, the knight commander under Rasfer.

With the heads of key figures in the formation falling one by one, he judged that there was no longer any countermeasure.

The same was true for the Dior Empire’s formation.

Terrified nobles began fleeing in droves, parting their own troops like waves.

“What were they planning to do with soldiers like these.”

Muttering so, Raion recalled the imperial soldiers who had once attacked the Kanas Territory.

Back then, Raion himself had been no different from those now fleeing.

He had been more cowardly than anyone, and more foolish than anyone. If he had not lived his life twice, he would never have become who he was now.

“I can’t just leave it like this.”

If the troops escaped, they would surely reorganize and invade again.

With that thought, Raion drew up his mana.

“Concrete Wall.”

With the incantation, magic manifested.

The ground trembled, and from the earth at a considerable distance, a wall of concrete rose high into the air.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was neither something with a gate nor a height that could be easily vaulted.

With their path completely blocked, the enemies turned pale, then blue with dread.

The enemy army was utterly broken. Now all that remained was for his own forces and the Boluzan Neju Castle troops to clean up.

“…Huh?”

In that instant, Raion sensed killing intent.

The direction was north. In a split second, a sharp presence closed in right before his eyes.

Shwaaaak!

‘That was close.’

It had truly been a narrow escape.

If Raion had not swiftly bent his waist backward, his chest might have been split cleanly in two.

As if proving that fear correct, most of the enemy soldiers who had been milling about nearby now lay sprawled on the ground in that very state.

Thud. Thud.

There were even more of them than when Raion had cut people down with his aura earlier. It felt almost as if they were competing in some twisted way.

“Is it there?”

The direction from which the killing intent emanated was atop the concrete wall Raion had created earlier.

There stood a woman with pitch-black hair swaying softly.

From her atmosphere and appearance alone, it was clear what kind of being she was.

“…A demon.”

With that murmur, Raion checked her identity.

[Target Information]

Name : Zelphinia

Age : 2,785

Race : Demon Race

Occupation : Demon World Duke

Life : 9,999 / 9,999

Stamina : 32,500 / 33,000

Mana : 35,000 / 37,000

Seeing the occupation of her existence, he could not help but be shocked.

First it had been a count, then a viscount…… and now it was a duke.

Even her unawakened stamina and mana values were quite high.

Of course, she was still no match for Raion, but…….

“Is she the one leading this place?”

After all, Decarsen Falkahn had also led a massive monster horde before.

Raion dashed toward her at high speed.

In response, the demon woman named Zelphinia moved her hand as if to counterattack.

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