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Chapter 452 - The Departure (2)
“This is Krenrem.”
At the words of the aide, Darius looked at the huge wall in the distance. It was the capital of Ikasha, once the largest nation in Haron, and the largest city of Krenrem, which was located in the very center of the Leon continent.
As befitted the place where the most active trade took place on the continent, it boasted a scale far different from the cities they had seen until now.
The high walls were amazing enough to show how great the past kingdom was.
“If we attack that place, it’s safe to say that we have almost overtaken Haron.”
“Right.”
Darius agreed with Ann’s words.
Krenrem was a historical city where various nations and countries traded things, so the roads led to different places.
And there, they could become more active. If they could get their hands on that place, it would help with the future war.
The problem was that they had to make thorough preparations for such a city.
“It will be on a different level from the Beorak Castle that we captured yesterday.”
When they arrived at Beorak Castle, it only had a few troops.
As if it were the last gateway to Krenrem, Beorak Castle could be considered a strategic point. So it was difficult for them to understand why such a place had been given up so easily.
However, there was one thing that felt natural.
The aide asked Ann,
“When will there be a response?”
“It will be in about an hour.”
“What will you do?”
Darius asked while fixing his leather gloves. Ann replied by gently brushing the mane of the galloping horse,
“Looking at the situation, it will be difficult with only these troops. It is said that the protection of the fighting spirit for the troops can be maintained, but if their plans are what I think they are, then we will be annihilated.”
“Then.”
“We can wait too.”
Ann said as she lightly tapped the calm horse’s neck.
“Until there are enough troops to handle them.”
It was at that moment that a pigeon landed on the arm of the aide.
Then the aide opened the letter that was hanging from the pigeon and passed it to Ann.
“They say they have gone out.”
Caterpilt was watching the enemies from the high walls of Krenrem with his hands behind his back.
“Damn it… Their troops have suffered almost no casualties.”
They must have gone through several battles on the way, but the fact that their troops didn’t decrease at all meant that the battles ended one-sidedly.
The result was inevitable.
Since most of the mercenaries were summoned here, it should be possible to cause some damage. Even so, it was unpleasant.
“Was it Ann Myers?”
He found out the enemy’s tactician.
Caterpilt was a veteran who had spent decades on the battlefield, but he hadn’t heard of that name before. He didn’t know all of the commanders, but he couldn’t be ignorant of this tactician who was causing a mess.
Still, it was a name he was hearing for the first time.
In this case, it was one of two things.
It was either someone who went to the battlefield with a new name. or it was a new person.
And according to what he had found out through his sources, Ann Myers was a girl who hadn’t even reached adulthood yet.
He didn’t believe it at first, so he took a closer look.
“Jamie Welton’s disciple…”
The Lord of the Black Tower and the greatest magician in the world.
The nemesis of the Sun God.
It wasn’t strange for such a disciple to do such absurd things at such a young age. No, rather, she might not even be at her best yet.
“But it ends now.”
“Commander. Everything is done.”
“Okay. Go down.”
However, no matter how brilliant her strategies were, they wouldn’t work. He wanted her to know that nothing would work in front of their overwhelming troops.
He would make them feel like ants in front of elephants.
“How many have gathered?”
“Around 1.3 million.”
“Wonderful.”
It was safe to say that all the troops that could be sent from each continent had been mobilized. The enemy’s current force would have been 30,000, and even if they added more, it would be around 100,000.
Even if they assumed the maximum number of troops, they wouldn’t go past 200,000.
The difference in their numbers was too much.
In particular, since Krenrem was a vast land, it would be impossible for them to retreat when the battle started. It would be hard for them to run away, but the opponent didn’t seem to have the slightest intention of doing so.
“Can they handle such a situation?”
Caterpilt smiled.
“We have urgent news! A large force is said to be heading here from the East!”
“From the West too! It is said that an estimated 500,000 troops came through a large-scale portal!”
“Movement of troops has also been confirmed in Krenrem. At this rate, we cannot escape the siege, so we should retreat now.”
“Movement of the enemies has been detected in the rear. Retreating is impossible…”
Ann’s face went stiff at this information. She knew they were aiming for something and expected it to be a large-scale thing, but this was far beyond what she had imagined.
If the enemy had gone past one million in number, it would be impossible for their current number of troops to handle them.
“Ann.”
Lennon looked at her with concern, and so did the others.
“With my and Mr. Simon’s flames, we can make a way out.”
Siegfried gave the advice with a serious look.
“I don’t know if we have an advantage with our position, but in such flatlands, no matter how good our strategy is, we cannot handle one million people. Make a decision.”
“If you want to retreat, now is the time. If we delay it even further, we will all be killed.”
Darius was also hoping to retreat this time. It was because this fight would be a dog’s death for them.
“If not, do you plan to call the God of War again?”
It wouldn’t matter if the enemy’s number went past ten million as long as Isis stepped forward. To a God, no matter how strong humans were, they were meaningless.
But Ann couldn’t hastily say that. It was because the law of causality would decrease.
Their primary goal was to accumulate causality and create an environment where all the Gods of the Black Tower could run around. And if she called them now, the gap would be too high.
And that couldn’t happen.
“Let’s hold on for now.”
“… Is that a sane statement?”
Since Darius had sunglasses on and couldn’t see, he squinted his eyes.
The words she said right now weren’t any different from committing suicide.
“You believe in the reinforcements?”
“Yes.”
“Even so, it will be difficult to find an army that can handle one million.”
“Please trust me.”
“Several. No, hundreds of thousands of lives depend on you, and one mistake will cause all of them. The burden would be indescribable. If you aren’t feeling the pressure now, you are going through a mental problem, and I will not forgive you.”
Simply put, it was about knowing what a life was worth.
Ann nodded.
Darius was blind, so he couldn’t see her, but he could feel her nodding. Then he sighed and ordered the aide.
“Hold on until the reinforcements arrive. Set up a defense camp.”
They didn’t know if it was possible, but handling one million troops was too much. To be honest, if it were someone other than Ann, they would have dismissed the idea.
Ann Myer—the way she showed them how her mind worked had been amazing, so they just followed her now too.
Even then, their chances of survival seemed slim.
‘She must have some sort of plan.’
She wasn’t a child who only thought of one situation. She was a child who could see through dozens of situations and deal with them.
And this time, they had no choice but to depend on this genius again. Darius thought as he felt Ann beside him.
‘If you can overcome this situation that is impossible, I will call you the Battle God.’
“The enemies are coming!”
At the words of the aide, Darius widened his senses and swallowed a laugh.
He had lived for more than seventy years, but he had never felt so dark since he began to use aura.
However, this darkness wasn’t about not feeling anything.
‘I cannot understand it.’
Even though he had opened up his senses, he couldn’t figure out the exact number of the enemies who were rushing in. They were just like the sea—the sea where the waves were crashing.
“Prepare for battle!!”
Darius shouted with all his might, and the soldiers, who went frozen at the number of enemies, came to their senses and assembled in formation.
Still, their eyes were trembling. All of them had witnessed deaths.
It could be said that the blessing of their God was with them now, but the drop in their morale at the sight of their enemies was to be expected.
And it was up to the commander to raise the morale that had fallen.
Darius dismounted, approached the soldiers, and began a short speech.
“We will not die! The God of War will be with us, and the great tactician who has won every battle is by our side! Do not be afraid, men of Olvia! Shake off all the bad things that have been forced onto us until now and go forth for the sake of winning freedom with our own hands! We can do it. You will survive, and you will win! I am with you. Let us take down the enemies!”
Silence fell.
All the soldiers looked at Darius, who stood tall, and he smiled.
Then one of the soldiers held his spear tightly and shouted,
“Long live Olvia!”
Could that have been the start? His words began to be chanted everywhere.
“Long live Olvia!”
“Long live Olvia!”
“Let us be free!”
“Let us be free!”
“We will survive!”
“We will win!”
“Long live Olvia!!”
The ground below them shook like an earthquake.
It felt like the sky was shaking more than when the one million troops came running, but even in such a situation, the soldiers continued to chant while pointing their spears forward.
The magicians prepared their magic, and the archers readied their bows.
“As expected, Mr. Darius. Such a short but manly speech. Nice.”
Siegfried laughed and flew into the sky. Then he looked behind him.
Simon was in charge, so he could handle the rest.
Everyone was going to give their best here, so he had to do everything he could.
“Lennon. Help out.”
“Yes.”
Lennon, who appeared behind Sieg, nodded and grabbed his staff.
Lava was boiling in the sky from a distance, and he rushed for the enemies. Then Simon used his wide-area magic.
Sieg looked at that scene and told Lennon,
“We should do it too. The struggle to live.”
The space was compressed hundreds of times.
This state had been reached after three years of polishing, experimenting, and thinking.
Sieg opened his mouth and looked troubled.
“I am defenseless now, so protect me.”
“No matter what happens, not a drop of water will touch you.”
“You have grown so much.”
“It just happened like that.”
“Wonderful. Then let’s do it.”
Lennon set up a barrier around Siegfried to prepare for any attacks aimed at him, and Sieg continued to memorize the spell.
Mana began to get concentrated where the two were, and on the ground, soldiers collided in earnest.
Blood was already spilling onto the land.
And yet their morale wasn’t broken.
Everyone knew that it was a battle without retreat, and the moment they stepped back, they would die.
So they clenched their teeth and held on.
They had to be stubborn and tenacious until their tactician put her plan into action.
“For Olvia!!”
“For freedom!!”
Ann was watching the entire battle from the center of the army. The hand that was holding the reins tightened.
She gritted her teeth as she watched the soldiers who had fallen.
‘As soon as possible…!’
The enemy put everything into the battle. So if they could pass through this, their chances of winning would be exponential.
So they had to endure.
Endure and create an opportunity.
“Damn it! The defense at 12 o’clock has been broken!”
“At 4 o’clock, too!”
“The camp will collapse! The shield troops are down!”
“The magic troops have depleted their mana!!”
“There is a lack of arrows!”
“Master Exio has collapsed!”
“Master Peto is unconscious now!”
But the huge number of enemies was making it impossible for them to defend themselves. Was it really possible for them to get past this by only calling their God?
When would the reinforcements come?
If that happened, everyone would die.
“We cannot leave it like that!”
Ann brought out her staff. She could no longer see the soldiers falling.
Taking down the military was wrong, and retreating would have been better. She shouldn’t have taken a chance that only had a small advantage, but she wanted to win.
‘I am not Teacher.’
She created a ball of fire and threw it at the enemies. The flames exploded and pushed the enemies away, but like ants, they still rushed forward.
It was when she wanted to feel the space expand that the mana began to swirl. Ann raised her arms to cover her face from the wind. And she opened her mouth wide at the sight in front of her.
“Phew. It is a little late, but it worked out.”
Ann raised her head at the voice that came from above. There, Sieg was floating in the air with a tired look.
And next to him was Lennon, who was assisting him.
“M-Mr. Sieg, what was that….”
“Cool, right? Hehe. Ann. The fight has just started. The counterattack has just picked up. Now that this has happened, let us not give up. Trust yourself a little more. You can do it.”
“Mr. Sieg.”
Ann lowered her head again and looked at the scene that Sieg had created.
She couldn’t see it closely because she was looking down, but the image of the enemy soldiers that had filled her vision vanished. In addition, there was a huge pit in the ground.
It had such an enormous size that it was impossible to determine how huge it was. And Sieg said,
“Me, Simon, and you too. Everyone is strong. And I am still working on it. Everyone here is determined to do something. So let us stand proud and move forward confidently. Now let us lead this war to victory.”
Sieg said that and raised his mana.
“Isn’t Jamie Welton on our side?”
The space began to shudder again, and powerful waves swept over the enemies.
“We can never lose. Because your strongest ally is protecting your back.”
Ann’s expression softened at the trust that they had. The situation was bad, but this wasn’t the time to despair.
Weren’t all the soldiers fighting ahead with their lives on the line?
And how pathetic it would be when she was feeling frustrated and not the soldiers who were giving up their lives on the line.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I have come to my senses.”
Sieg smiled and nodded.
Ann hit her cheeks with her palm. Tears came out at the pain, but she was able to come back to her senses.
“Let’s go!”
The moment Ann was about to rush forward, the sky shone again, and the sudden phenomenon made everyone turn to the sky. A lot of things began to descend.
Ann’s face brightened up.
“Finally…!”
Those winged beings that were coming down at a high speed.
“Valkyries!!!”
It wasn’t just them.
Those with long ears and beautiful-looking ones began to descend.
“High Elves! The Valkyries and elves have arrived to help us!!”
There were powerful races that belonged to the Black Tower, and among them, these two were known to hold such strength that no one could go against them.
That wasn’t the end.
“Leave no enemies behind! Kill them all!”
A loud voice resounded from the distance, making the place shake. And the magicians figured out who it was.
Someone laughed as they said,
“Ran, it is the Rans!”
The most impossible strength holders in the world, the Rans, who inherited the blood of the God of War, rushed into the arms of the enemies.
And in the face of those overwhelming forces, the soldiers began to collapse in an instant.
Two of the three races and the Valkyries, who weren’t anything less, had appeared to help them. The difference in their numbers was still evident, but the quality of the fight had just gone up!
‘Still, this is lacking.’
The Rans, High Elves, and Valkyries participated in the battle, but the opponents were those who received the blessing of the Sun God.
Up until now, the enemy held the advantage in numbers, but that wasn’t the end.
They needed more.
The sky turned black.
To be precise, it was the shadow of something behind the clouds.
They were beings that had huge wings and long tails.
One of the enemy soldiers looked up and mumbled.
“Dragon…?”
And at the same time…
Kwaaang!!!
Kwaaaangggg!!!
Rays of light in all colors poured onto the ground.
[It has been a while since we stepped into the outside world.]
[I was dying from frustration in there. Finally, I can run around!]
[Kuahahaha! All of you men of the Sun God, just die!!]
The dragons threw out all their long-standing grudges and anger at the enemies. And Ann unconsciously clenched her fist.
The situation of the battle would finally change.