Chapter 247

Deballo Debius stepped forward alone.

Leaving behind the seventy-thousand-strong army, leaving behind his dependable daughter and grandson, he approached the stone wall, his armor clanking.

His back was so immense that one would hardly dare to speak to him.

“Secundus.”

He decided to give his grandson a lesson.

He already knew that Secundus was intentionally dragging out this war.

It wasn’t that Secundus was lacking that he was showing inferiority to the West.

But Secundus was also human, so he was bound to have flaws.

Deballo intended to use this event as a learning opportunity for his grandson.

“I shall tell you what you lack the most.”

The towering stone wall of the West.

The dense ranks of the Empire’s soldiers.

A single old man standing between the two.

“You have no flashiness.”

And yet, the old man overwhelmed them all. Because he was Deballo Debius.

“I dislike flashiness too, but I have no choice but to admit it is necessary at times.”

Over a hundred thousand pairs of eyes were fixed solely on Deballo.

They were eyes looking at something unknown.

They simply could not understand the man named Deballo Debius.

It is the nature of the small not to be able to fully comprehend the large.

Several elderly knights of the West recognized Deballo’s armor, ‘The Steel Nest’, and trembled in terror.

The degree of that fear was severe.

Renowned old knights drooled or wet themselves.

They knew about the war from 53 years ago.

They knew the Deballo of that era.

So it was a natural reaction.

No, in truth, it was only because time had dulled the terror that they didn’t all faint.

Deballo gave the crowd ample time to recognize him.

Fear spreads.

The western soldiers felt doubt.

The old masters they respected endlessly, the distant commanders they hardly dared to look up to, the knights they had aimed to be their entire lives—as soon as they recognized Deballo, they began to whimper like frightened mutts.

The old man snorted.

The sight of them getting scared just from seeing his face was laughable.

And yet they must have lived swaggering and boasting until now.

Deballo spat out.

“At times like this, flashiness is needed all the more.”

The Imperial soldiers’ morale was utterly dead.

It was because of fighting the three heroes of the West.

The White Lord, the Widow Queen, Shion.

After experiencing those three, who didn’t seem human at all, they couldn’t help but be steeped in helplessness.

Therefore, Deballo had to be flashy.

He had to prove that if he was a monster, he was more of a monster than the West’s heroes, absolutely not less.

And this was a very easy task.

At Deballo’s gesture, there were those who burst out from behind on horseback.

It was the honor guard of just over a hundred men he had brought.

They all held something in their hands, but they were not weapons.

“…Hmm. Are they, perhaps.”

“That’s right. They are the ones Dad brought.”

“The honor guard that Grandfather brought…”

Secundus let out a groan.

They were well-trained. But they were not combat troops.

What they held in their hands were things like flutes, drums, or giant brass instruments. Secundus realized the role of those men and muttered.

“…An orchestra?”

Dung, went the sound.

A magic-enchanted drum resonated across the battlefield.

Following that, a resounding Bbaam-. Dung, and Dudung, then Tak, and Dududung, and Tak, and Dung once again. Sound piled upon sound. Note mixed with note. Amidst the blood and dust of the battlefield, the drum sound buried the sound of hooves and gained even more momentum.

[Behold!]

[Solta!]

Soon, the leader of the orchestra opened his mouth.

He was a Two-Star Mage.

The back of his head flashed, and the orchestra’s voice also became an instrument, roaming every corner of the battlefield.

Moreover, whatever other magic he had cast, though he spoke in the Cordis tongue, the meaning directly reached the hearts of the Western people.

[Behold, behold, behold!]

[Solta, solta, solta!]

Their voices were more powerful than any instrument.

A hundred men shouted in one voice, yet the inner meaning conveyed by the magic overlapped, making it sound like two.

[His Imperial Majesty the Emperor’s greatest sword!]

[Ed hominaus nem OM CORDIS ite gladium!]

This grandeur was for Deballo Debius.

The steel lion was still approaching the West’s stone wall.

Not too fast, not too slow.

So that the West could savor the fear sufficiently.

[Behold, behold, behold!]

[Solta, solta, solta!]

[The most val-iant- beneath the imperial crown-!]

[Umt OM hudos pen bos-mante-!]

The drumbeat and the dust.

The majesty and the overwhelming presence.

[LION-!!!]

[DEVIO-!!!]

Whom none would dare approach,

The Cordis Grand General,

Deballo Debius.

[For His Imperial Majesty the Emperor!]

[Fe OM CORDIS!]

[For the Millennium Empire!]

[Fe sintica peiovum!]

[For our subjects!]

[Fe ust nosma humantas!]

The steel lion slowly stopped its steps.

It was within range of the West’s attacks.

But they could not attack.

Deballo Debius, clad in his own majesty, was no different from the emotion of ‘overwhelm’ itself.

[-Lion, lion, lion!]

[DEVIO, DEVIO, DEVIO!]

[Our Li-on- clad in The Steel Nest-]

[Adame gui qastas set DE-VIO-]

[-Shall protect the honor of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor!]

[-Terogas nepot uni OM CORDIS!]

* * *

The West was entirely gripped by fear.

Even though Deballo Debius had not done anything yet.

The fear of the elderly, in particular, grew ever more intense.

It was a matter from 53 years ago, so it had been buried, but the fear of Great Emperor Continua and his three confidants still remained in their hearts.

It was understandable.

Great Emperor Continua and his three confidants were those kinds of men.

Among the 71 members of the Dawn Brotherhood’s Lower House, there were also many who were terrified.

Still, fortunately, among the Seventeen Elders, there was no one trembling in fear.

Grand Duke Pret was also overwhelmed, but he did not tremble in fear.

Only Shion sighed alone.

“This is dogshit….”

I grabbed my face.

Tearing at the skin that was dying black from the aftereffects of the ‘Dragon of Six Horns’ was piercingly painful.

But I didn’t have the slightest mental leeway to care about such pain.

My blue eyes glared fiercely at the steel lion.

“…Deballo Debius! Why so soon…!”

Shion Pollinglight was a regressor.

It had been 7 years since he regressed, and it would soon be 8.

Therefore, I knew.

Deballo Debius shouldn’t have appeared already.

If things had gone as they were supposed to, I shouldn’t have even had to run into him for another five or six years.

‘Dammit, dammit! It’s twisted… it’s all twisted! There’s no way Deballo Debius would move alone. All three confidants must have moved!’

It was obvious where the other two confidants, Hermai and Kerenneus, would have gone.

The other battlefield, the Throat Gate where the Widow Queen was.

If so, it would fall in an instant and more than anything, the fact that Deballo had moved meant….

‘…In the end, it means Great Emperor Continua has moved…!’

I bit my lips raw.

I wondered if I had provoked Ferbias too much.

I had thought that with his pride, he wouldn’t easily bow his head to Great Emperor Continua, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

Then again, it was understandable.

In this life, Shion had brought many failures upon Ferbias.

He snatched away his most important confidant and friend, Amethus.

He picked up all the calamities tossed into the West and raised up the White Lord and the Widow Queen again.

Even in an all-out war, the Empire seemed to be pushed back, so Ferbias’s anxiety must have been beyond words.

Emperor Ferbias was an arrogant man, and precisely because of that, he was a man who would do anything to protect his position.

‘The biggest piece, twisted up like this…. Great Emperor Continua’s three confidants are the most powerful card the Empire holds…’

I felt a sense of resentment toward Secundus.

But it soon subsided.

I had no way or heart to blame him.

It wasn’t as if Secundus could have done anything about it.

Only frustration remained, and my irritation soared.

I had to do something.

Even if the stone wall was safe, the soldiers’ morale was completely dead.

They were a ragtag army to begin with; if I didn’t do something, I might have to give up the Waist Gate.

‘…The only comfort is that it won’t be easy for even Deballo Debius to break through this stone wall…’

I snapped my eyes open wide.

“…Wait.”

I hurriedly calmed my mind.

And then he sensed the presence of things drifting in the surroundings.

He was not a mage, but he was the disciple of the First Mage, Sen Sorti.

He knew how to sense the presence of mana, and because of that, his face couldn’t help but harden.

“…Those Imperial bastards deactivated the magic interference field. Why…?”

I repeated, why, why, why.

Why deactivate the field that was protecting them?

What were they trying to do by deactivating it?

If they deactivated the field, their mages over there would have more leeway.

But there was no way they could withstand our attack magic…. No, even if they could, what on earth were they trying to do…….

“…Deballo Debius! For this!?”

I quickly realized the full extent of the event.

The Empire’s aim was incredibly sharp.

“Amethus!”

“Yes.”

“Hohopran, relay to Hohopran Magul!”

“…What must I relay?”

“‘Blanking’!”

I raised my voice.

“The Empire is preparing ‘Blanking’! They’ve seen right through our stone wall’s weakness!”

“!!!”

“We can’t let them finish preparing ‘Blanking’! Tell the mages to unleash a simultaneous barrage!”

“Understood.”

Amethus leaped.

He headed toward the master of Hohopran Magul with astonishing speed.

Shion once again bit his nails raw.

That was all he could do.

He was sometimes helpless, and he was used to it.

Still, he had wanted not to be so in this war.

But it seemed things weren’t turning out that way again.

“…What’s the point of returning?”

He ruminated on the past years.

Anger surged.

“…There are times when it’s even worse than before.”

* * *

Heindel was a Five-Star Mage.

In the West, he was the greatest mage, and also the master of Hohopran Magul.

He was of such high status that his main duty was usually to just float around bobbing with a benevolent smile (he was also one of the Seventeen Elders), but now, he couldn’t help but pour sweat, his white beard fluttering.

“Fire! Fire!”

“We’re already doing it, Elder!”

A mage beside Heindel shouted.

“The eighty elites of the Emission School are pouring out magic simultaneously!”

“What about the bastards from other schools!”

“They’ve already poured out all their mana and are resting for a moment. They’ll be put back in when their rest is over. We’ve already poured out enough magic to destroy several mountains!”

“Then why!”

Heindel roared without realizing it.

“Why isn’t there a single scratch on that armor! Why!”

In truth, it was a question Heindel already knew the answer to. It was because that steel lion, the man enduring the West’s magic bombardment all by himself, was Deballo Debius.

“Whatever it takes, whatever it takes, we have to stop that old, old Debius!”

Heindel, unable to overcome his frustration, gripped his staff.

And then, ttuuk, he snapped it in half.

He felt as if he were crying tears of blood.

The Schmeizen Forest-keeper tribe cut down only one tree, just once a century, from their forest.

This tree was called the Ho-teu-om tree, and it was the best magical material, incomparable to anything else; it was also the main material of the staff Heindel had just broken.

When a Ho-teu-om tree is well-refined, it holds the efficacy of enormous mana amplification.

But this tree has a core, and if this core is destroyed, it bestows a power that makes the mana amplification from being well-refined look laughable.

Of course, it was only for a very brief moment.

Heindel, having broken his cherished staff, filled up with power.

He couldn’t become a Six-Star Mage or anything, but it became possible to cast about ten times the amount of magic he normally could, simultaneously.

Five-Star Magic, ‘Thirteen-fold Simultaneous Chant’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘Blade Space’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘Storm March’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘Scorching Heat’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘Rapid Senescence’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘Those That Come From Below’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘Boil the Blood’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘One-Hundred-Twenty-Eight-Sided Extra-Large Section’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘Kem Herem Kerhem’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘Sulfur Downpour’

Five-Star Magic, ‘Black and Yellow’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘To Only One’.

Five-Star Magic, ‘The Singing Blood Clot’.

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