Chapter 194: Unwelcome Reinforcements
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
The unnatural amount of divine corrosive power was beginning to infect the world. As a True God, Felix had already stayed in the mortal plane for too long, and his divine power had started to rewrite the natural laws of this world. The space itself was transforming into his Divine Country.
Grayish-purple clouds began gathering in the air, and the snowflakes that fell from them were actually dark purple. The fierce winds had a faintly sweet smell to them, but anyone that accidentally inhaled this air would feel dizzy in their heads.
With Felix as the center, a large area was now devoid of all plant life; all the plants in a circle had withered to death. As for small animals, if they hadn’t died already, they would have become distorted and transformed into frightening magical beasts that preyed on humans.
The battle between the humans and the True God continued. Even against the True God’s descent into a vessel, the defending army still didn’t give up, and they kept adding more members to make up for the ones that had fallen. Perhaps it should be said that they were stalling for time and surviving the best they could…
This was a battle where victory couldn’t be seen, or if I described it more directly, then this was a suppressive slaughter.
In the increasingly distorted world, the poison had already infected the very air itself; every moment someone would suddenly fall over and die.
And the brave warriors of the vanguard fighting against this humongous spider were dying even quicker in front of Felix’s sharp claws and God-level poison.
If it weren’t for the heroic spirit squad that didn’t care about sacrifices or Felix’s poison and the Borealis’ constant aerial bombardments providing enough of a bother to Felix, perhaps this battle would have been over already.
Yet merely stalling like this wasn’t a good idea at all. Even if the heroic spirit squad was dealing with the brunt of Felix’s wrath, for the northern countries’ strongest warriors to simply die like this, without even a chance for a direct battle—it was only a chance for them to be sent to Wumianzhe’s Hall of Valhalla together with the heroic spirits that fell again.
“Is this the power of a True God? How despairing—if such an existence appeared in Auland…”
Hemet, who had an expression of worry, could only shake his head as he watched the battle through his binoculars from a distant observation tower.
At first, the Auland Empire had sent him and a White Wolf Squad as only the in-name reinforcement guest army. Their goal was to collect information on the north—Darsos’ ambition had always been burning—while also transporting goods, but nobody expected that yet another beastman assault to occur just like so many times in the past, transforming the place into a cruel battlefield.
“Is this a Holy War? Everyone has become red-eyed with bloodlust, and even those rarely seen Legend-rank heroes and True Gods have come out. Every country’s most treasured Silver and Gold-ranked warriors have actually become nothing more than cannon fodder on the battlefield—oh? Another dozen or so have just died. It takes us a minimum of ten years to train a strong Silver warrior that doesn’t rely on equipment.”
Hemet sighed in his heart. Not a single person had expected the battle to escalate to such an extent.
Up until now in this battle, the northern humans, elves, and beastmen had given their all in order to obtain greater benefits and land for their own species.
In the short period of just two months, many undying existences had already perished. Not just the Elemental Gods but even a True God had died previously. Merely the ascension of the new True God Felix was major news that would shock the entire world.
And apart from the war fought out in the open, the Elemental Gods and the citizens of the Underground were also getting secretly involved. Countless new weapons of war were changing this generation, and now even the True Gods weren’t caring about their appearances and participated directly in battle. There now wasn’t a single person who would dare say that the battle in the north was just a small affair.
“If all Holy Wars are battles to such an extent, then even a mega-empire probably wouldn’t be able to survive for long. It seems that I really need to have a good discussion with His Majesty and Her Majesty when I return. Heh—I need to be lucky enough to survive past this, however.”
Hemet shook his head and got rid of his idle thoughts. He then proceeded to hand over a magic crystal that had recorded large amounts of information to a griffin knight who had been waiting for his orders for quite some time.
“Hand this over to His Majesty Darsos.”
“What about you? Do you intend to stay here? I recommend that you leave together with me.”
It was quite natural for the griffin knight to be worried about Hemet. If Red Maple Castle was lost, then the beastmen and the Poison God wouldn’t spare Hemet just because he was from Auland. Hemet, however, shook his head at the griffin knight.
“I intend to watch his battle to the very end. It is worthy of me exchanging my life for firsthand information. And… I still believe that humanity can win!”
The griffin knight took off into the air and flew southward. Just as a feather from the griffin fell on Hemet’s hand, heavy footsteps sounded out from behind him.
Hemet already knew who they belonged to.
“You guys want me to approve sending you out to battle? You saw it for yourselves; you are equivalent to nothing more than cannon fodder in a battle of this level.”
Everyone behind him was silent and didn’t respond, but this was evidence of the White Wolf Imperial Knights’ determination. Even if they were merely a guest army, watching the deaths of other humans and the slaughter of ordinary citizens without doing anything was something they couldn’t stand as knights.
They could only be cannon fodder? These knights were no greenhorns to the battlefield, so of course they knew the difference in level. Yet even though they were aware that they were walking a thorny path, the knights still had expressions of resolution and steadily held on to their weapons. From the start of battle until now, their desire to fight had been continually burning, and their blood had always been boiling.
“Knights fight for justice! We swear to sacrifice our blood in order to resist the injustice and evil.”
“Knights fight in order to protect! We treat the weak with kindness, but when butcher knives are aimed at the innocent, weak, elderly, and ill, we shall transform into the most solid walls of flesh and blood.”
“Knights fight for the royalty! We protect our homes and swear loyalty to our lords, but justice is what we listen to above all. If there’s a conflict between justice and our lords, we shall choose according to our hearts.”
At this moment, the ancient spirit of chivalry seemed to be in full effect. The silence was the choice that all these knights made even with their oaths of loyalty towards the Auland Empire.
Hemet shook his head; he had expected this outcome.
“…It seems that I said something unnecessary. It would only bring humiliation upon the White Wolf Knights to have you guys retreat; it would make these northern hick countries look down on the Auland Empire. Go and perform well, and don’t let the northerners look down on Auland! Make the Auland White Wolf Knights proud!”
“White Wolves…”
“…victory!”
That was the angry roar of the White Wolf Knights. They all left with such a short battle cry, fully intending to not return. Hemet shook his head again as the knights left and returned to paying attention to the combat situation.
Knights had a knight’s duty, while a tactician had a tactician’s duty. The most important thing for Hemet to do right now was to obtain as much combat information as possible. Some information could be worth lives. Every minute was precious, and he wouldn’t allow himself to relax and miss anything.
But, the next thing he saw through his binoculars confused him.
“That Roland; why did he stop? Hmm? Are they trying to dodge something?”
Karodian, the temporary leader of the Tiger Tribe, had been chosen by all the beastmen of the plains. He was also the one who summoned all his fellow beastmen for this attack.
In a way, he was also familiar with Reyne. Last time, during their previous invasion two years ago, he was among the beastmen that had been defeated.
Karodian was known throughout the entire beastmen society for being a tremendously aggressive war hawker. Every year, in the tribe leaders’ conference, he would always shout “we should demolish the East Mist Communal Country and fight our way to San Antonio.” Yet the beastman, who was always so decisive, now had an expression filled with hesitation; he seemed to have some regret.
“Fighting here with the elves for no apparent reason? This seems absolutely pointless.”
Battle was the product of politics. Nobody would want to fight a battle in which there were no benefits. Amon had promised the beastmen of the plains that they would cooperate in attacking the humans and splitting the humans’ territory.
Of course, if they won in the end, how much Amon’s side and Karodian’s side could obtain still depended on their strength after the war. If Karodian used up some of his precious military strength for no apparent reason against this enemy that he felt like he had no reason to fight, it wouldn’t be worth it at all.
“Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a dragon knight! It’s Superman—wait, no, it’s just a naked muscular man wearing nothing but underpants! Pfft! So disgusting!”
Soon, however, Karodian didn’t have to hesitate anymore, as the huge figure that descended from the sky happened to land right between the two armies.
*Boom!*
When that person fell to the ground, he instantly moved himself into what he considered a dignified thinking pose. And when he realized that everyone was looking at him, he suddenly lifted his arms, flexed his muscles, and placed his fists against each other in a pose that was obviously to show off his muscles. Then, he smiled.
“Love and peace! Please stop; this world is so beautiful—we shouldn’t fight! We should all love each other! Make love, not war!”
With his white teeth reflecting the sunlight, this muscular man was smiling like the sun. His words kept increasing in volume, and by the end, he was even singing the last few words.
But the most discomforting part of all was that even though he was obviously a ridiculously muscular fellow, he had a handsome and pretty face that seemed like it belonged in a shoujo manga ¹ . He even appeared to have an expression of embarrassment, and this tremendous contrast seemed to add to his ridiculousness.
“Kill that pervert for me!”
Okay, then, Karodian unhesitatingly shouted out what so many people were thinking, and his subordinates instantly attempted to carry out his order.
It wasn’t only the beastmen who acted impulsively; at the exact same time, even Annie and Suana had ordered their soldiers to fire arrows.
Unfortunately, before any arrows could reach that man, they all fell to the ground as if there was an invisible barrier around him.
“Oh my, what disobedient children. Then, allow me, Omar, to teach you what is love!”
Omar flexed his frontal muscles, his back muscles, and his six-pack in a series of exercise fitness routines that made people feel like throwing up in disgust. He glowed brilliantly, and in the next instant, countless amounts of undead armies suddenly materialized out of thin air.
“My heart contains all my citizens, and as a king, wherever I stand is where my country is. My undead are beloved to me, and they love me as well. Come, this is my ultimate love!”
He gave an extravagant kiss towards those skeletons and wiggled his eyes seductively. The brainless skeletons under his control actually made embarrassed reactions in unison, and as for those poor undead that still retained their intelligence…
Annie learned, for the first time, that even the undead were capable of being disgusted to the point of kneeling on the ground and throwing up.
But strength was, by far, the most effective method to get people to listen to you. Even though Omar was obviously a pervert, the hordes of undead caused the beastmen who had been so furious to begin retreating.
“Is it Lord Omar? Those bones—er—Roland probably can’t last much longer; please hurry and support him.”
“Oh, are you the red-haired Annie girl? Small Lionheart told me about you; you’re just like what I heard! So cute—have you ever considered joining me and becoming a star idol? I recently created many new beautiful poses and dances, and if we team up as a dance team, we’d surely shock the entire world.”
“I think it would scare the entire world instead.”
Okay, Annie at least knew that the person before her was definitely quite strong, so she merely retorted and complained in a tiny voice only she could hear.
“Why is he even more ridiculous than what I heard? I didn’t hear that he had all these problems…”
However, in the next instant, Omar’s response helped everyone understand.
“Relax, reinforcements have already been sent to help Father. That guy’s such an interesting person; he helped me learn so much about love, and I definitely can’t match up to him.”
…
When I noticed the black dot in the distance that kept increasing in size, I inwardly realized the truth and couldn’t stop my eyebrows from twitching. It was definitely good that I had reinforcements, but if my reinforcements were that person—well, let’s just say I would have preferred to fight without his help.
“Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a dragon knight! It’s Superman—whoops, no, it’s a Beifeng! Ahh! Hide!”
The black dot kept growing larger in my vision before it suddenly crashed into the ground, knocked over a small building, and created a small crater.
“What? Is he dead?”
The sounds of shock must have been from people who didn’t know him; since, after all…
“No, no. Even if all of Eich is destroyed, that guy won’t die.”
Those who knew him were, of course, aware of this undying gentleman.
“Ah! I almost died.”
As I expected, in the very next instant, that guy’s head poked out from the building’s rubble with an expression as if he had just barely survived a calamity. However, I knew that he deserved whatever he got.
“You bastard half-dragon! If you decide to tug off my scales one more time and touch wherever you please, I’m going to toss you into a volcano!”
From above the clouds was the sound of an angry roar. With a powerful gale, a purple magic dragon descended from the clouds. After landing, it transformed into a human that glared at the Legend-rank hunter who was attempting to look everywhere but at the dragon.
“Thunderspeed Dragon? This is your animal companion?”
I had heard that Beifeng had used his own dragon blood to ally himself and contract a contract with a Thunderspeed Dragon. The Thunderspeed Dragon was known as the swiftest among all dragons, and only it could have brought Beifeng from Antuen to here in just a single night.
“Well, it’s not bad that you could come, but you won’t be all that useful here. You might as well have let Adam come instead.”
I wasn’t looking down on him; our opponent was the Poison God Felix. A Legend-ranked hunter and a young dragon wouldn’t help balance the scales by all that much so it would have been better if the dragon had brought Adam here.
But, right then, I heard a familiar foolish laugh.
“Heh heh, I didn’t expect you to believe in me so much.”
I turned around and looked behind me—wasn’t that Adam, the most useful tank? The current him was completely naked except for his underwear and the magical runes that were scribbled all over him.
It turned out that right when the Thunderspeed Dragon had landed, it had unfurled the giant magical carpet it had been carrying—the carpet which had pre-prepared magical runes and spell formations on it. When this simplified spell formation synchronized with the larger, more complex one in Antuen, Margaret had been able to use her remaining magical ingredients to cast another teleportation spell. And of course, Adam, who was currently laughing like a fool, was the person who had been teleported.
“That’s wonderful!”
I laughed raucously in delight as I kicked Adam away.
“Go be my meat shield; I need fifteen minutes of absolute safety!”
Okay then, I’m not going to talk any more about how that naked man went to battle with a face filled with displeasure. With such a top-level meat shield around, it instantly reduced the pressure on the other warriors immensely, and it also opened up the possibility for me to accomplish something else.
When Harloys pointed out Felix’s characteristics, it immediately attracted his attention and enmity. Perhaps there was nothing that could be hidden from Felix in his own Divine Domain, and I would be unable to do anything significant without sufficient protection. However, now that the tank was here, I could activate a new type of trump card.
Cast a Forbidden Spell such as Frozen Age? First of all, it’s a major spell that would require more than one or two hours to finish chanting, not to mention that even if I gave up my life, I wouldn’t be able to cast such a high-level Forbidden Spell. Moreover, even without considering the severe side effects to the environment that such a spell would cause, I felt that such a large-scale Forbidden Spell would probably be unable to defeat Felix.
I also felt that the moment I started chanting such a high-level spell, the tremendous surges in the waves of mana it would generate would undoubtedly make Felix ignore everything else and attempt to kill me at all costs. In the past, I had the protection of the armies of undead, but that was no longer the case.
If my opponent had been an innumerable amount of beastmen, then I wouldn’t have had any way to deal with them, but if my opponent was something like a True God, then I really did have an ace card up my sleeve—well, it wasn’t exactly an ace card since it was a trump card that definitely broke the rules. It would surely cause me endless amounts of trouble, but I had still prepared it for this type of circumstance.
And it was also the existence of this ace card that gave me the courage to face Karwenz by myself. After all, with the passage of so many years, it was quite possible for Karwenz to suddenly turn on me, so I wouldn’t possibly appear in front of him if I, at least, couldn’t protect myself.
Karwenz was nice enough to only chat with me, so I still had this ace card to use right now.
And since my opponent had totally disregarded the rules, this ace card of mine, which was definitely on the borderline of the gray area, wouldn’t cause any trouble for me either.
As I had thought, just the beginning of my casting attracted a large amount of sky-covering poisonous spit to be spat in my direction.
However, I didn’t even glance at it, and I continued to focus on my preparations. I had full belief that someone would block that troublesome poisonous spit for me.
“Ahh—my underpants! It’s over! I’m so humiliated!”
As I expected, Adam blocked the poisonous spit for me, but the corrosive, poisonous mist ended up destroying his only remaining article of clothing—he was now utterly naked.
“Time out! Wait for me to put on some pants! Hey, I even said time out; why aren’t you obeying the rules? This lady over here, could you please loan your skirt to me? Hey—hey—don’t run away, I’m not really a pervert! I just saw that you weren’t wearing much to begin with, and it seemed easy to take off!”
“Pervert!”
Okay then, let us ignore this person who actually tried to borrow clothing from a female mage and ended up getting slapped—the fact was, however, that his presence gave me enough time to safely cast the ace card spell that I was determined to use here.
“God’s Descent!”
Note:
1. Shoujo manga (少女漫画 shōjo manga) is manga aimed at a teenage female readership.