The War Begins
The commanders shouted with all their might, and the soldiers broke free from panic to carry out the orders for firing with perfect precision. Hundreds of magic cannons stood ready, their barrels gleaming under the weak sunlight.
"Fire!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Before the commanders' command even finished, hundreds of fire cannons and wind cannons launched from the magic cannons, soaring far into the distance toward the hordes of undead.
Kwaaaang! Kwaaang! Kwaaang!
"Kyuuuuh!"
"Clack! Clack!"
Fire cannonballs and wind cannonballs slammed into the undead army, triggering explosions that rocked the battlefield. Many undead soldiers collapsed, their bodies torn apart.
The ogre zombie hit by the fire cannonball burned fiercely as it fell, the blast not only scorching its flesh but sending shockwaves that scattered hot flames everywhere.
The wind cannonball, with its even greater power, shattered the skeletons into pieces and sliced through the surroundings like a butcher's knife, carving deep wounds across the undead bodies.
In particular, limbs were severed and torsos torn apart, leaving the undead crawling with broken limbs in a grotesque display.
Living creatures would have died from the previous attacks, but these were already corpses. One more strike wouldn't fell them.
Their bodies burned and were damaged from the earlier assaults, yet they refused to fall. They continued pressing forward, ready to tear through the castle walls and eliminate every living being except the Forces of Darkness.
"Hot fire rain, Fire Rain!"
"Fire storm, the storm that burns everything!"
As the undead horde surged closer, the mages waiting in the rear finally launched their powerful fire magic.
High-level mages at the 6th and 7th circles fired their devastating 6th and 7th circle flames in unison.
No 8th circle or higher archmages stood among them, but there were plenty of 6th and 7th circle high mages deployed.
Venice Kingdom was a small nation, surrounded on all sides by the sea.
Among the nations of the continent, it was the only one without land borders, making it exceptionally well-defended across its entire territory.
Once the northern border was Calmar Kingdom, and the west and south belonged to the Holy Kingdom of Astraea. But since the Holy Kingdom had become the Dark Empire, Venice now faced the entire western front against the Dark Empire.
In the past, the northern part of the west had been the Frank Kingdom. After its fall and the defeat of the Demon King Laylana, Venice absorbed part of its territory. Other nations took even more from the fallen three kingdoms, so Venice remained small.
Sardinia Kingdom, claiming they had received a significant portion of Frank Kingdom's land from Venice, expanded northward and now threatened to swallow up Venice's northern regions entirely.
For Venice, surrendering the northern territory to Sardinia would be a bitter loss, but it was the lesser evil.
The Valois Kingdom and Gallia Kingdom existed, and Sardinia bordered Valois directly. Facing a border with a strong power brought constant anxiety, but facing Sardinia and supporting them from the rear was far safer.
The Holy Kingdom of Astraea had no need to invade other nations, but they remained uneasy. That was why they had stationed 6th and 7th circle mages for defense, and now that defense had allowed them to withstand the Dark Empire's invasion.
Even though Venice was small, it was no match in level for the others, yet it still possessed Grand Sword Masters and archmages above the 8th circle.
The wars had greatly reduced humanity's numbers but refined its elite. Venice was no exception.
Having fought at the forefront against the Forces of Darkness, they had few heroes but a greatly increased number of powerful individuals.
Among them, archmages of 9th circle or higher lived in the palace, and those of 8th circle or higher guarded the border with Sardinia, ready to support Sardinia if needed by going against Gallia or Valois.
The border with the Dark Empire was vast, and they could not concentrate all troops at a single fortress. Soldiers were scattered across multiple positions.
At present, the garrison at this fortress numbered approximately twenty thousand.
Inside the fortress lay villages where the soldiers' families resided. If this fortress fell, those families would die as well.
Since the time this fortress was built long ago, the soldiers here were local born, raised alongside their families from childhood.
They were also paid well, so their morale remained high. They continued serving as soldiers, enjoying their rest days with family, living without complaint.
The fortress had two layers of walls: the outer and inner. There was also an inner citadel prepared for emergencies.
Most soldiers' families lived inside the inner wall. In the past they had only used bows, stones, and boiling water or oil, but now that the outer wall fell, the prepared magic cannons and defenses on it would become useless.
The inner wall had little meaning in that case.
If the outer wall fell, the families would die along with everyone else.
The soldiers therefore fought with desperate resolve. They would die, but they would take as many undead with them as possible.
Not for the king, not for the kingdom. For the families they were sworn to protect behind them.
Arrows were useless against the undead. There were no priests here to bless them. Four days had passed since the Dark Empire was founded, but the priests had been deployed to other fortresses. This one had been unlucky and received no priest at all.
If the Holy Kingdom of Astraea had remained intact, they would not suffer from too few priests. But most of them had already corrupted into the Forces of Darkness, and now the very title of "priest" had become a precious asset higher than even high mages.
The soldiers could not receive priestly blessings, so they focused everything on firing the magic cannons.
Besides operating the cannons, they quickly found siege weapons that could be called trebuchets. Although unused for a long time, they had been maintained with constant inspections, so they were still functional.
A trebuchet could reach a maximum range of only four hundred meters. But these had been reinforced with magic and pulled by men who possessed the strength of ogres.
To operate them, special gauntlets were required—artifacts known as Ogre Power Gauntlets, or simply Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
They granted the wearer strength equal to that of an ogre. The gauntlets could only be worn on both hands, and there were only thirty of them available.
This was the age of magic cannons that anyone could use, so the age of trebuchets had long passed. Yet here they were, gathering stones from the ground and hurling them.
The soldiers worked desperately, moving giant boulders and preparing the trebuchets for fire.
"All ready! Fire!"
Boom! Boom!
They fired the magic cannons with all their might.
"Hot fire rain, Fire Rain!"
"Fire storm, the storm that burns everything!"
The high mages continued unleashing powerful spells.
"Fireball!"
Mages of even lower circles, wanting to help in any way, hurled 3rd circle Fireballs at the undead.
"Gwahhh!"
"Kiiiieek!"
The number of undead, once fifty thousand, had now been reduced to around thirty thousand.
The magic cannons and mages were no less deadly to the undead than priests themselves. Especially the Fire Rain of the 6th circle burned the undead bodies from the sky like a fiery downpour, and the 7th circle Fire Storm created a colossal flame tempest that turned countless undead to ash. Using the existing fires from Fire Rain and Fire Cannons as catalysts, it unleashed even stronger destructive power, reducing many more to nothing but ash.
'There is hope!'
The soldiers tasted hope as the undead numbers were halved by the cannons and mages.
The undead horde advancing toward the walls had already reached the area near the outer wall, but the damage was obvious. The undead that had not yet come close were even more numerous, so if they kept removing them steadily, they might repel the enemy without taking heavy losses.
But that was their illusion.
When an undead made entirely of ogre bones finally reached the wall, the soldiers tensed. They planned to focus fire on that ogre skeleton first.
Within a hundred meters, a Sword Master could still attack even without Aura Blades, simply hurling simple aura to cut the enemy down.
Although there were no Grand Sword Masters on this wall, there were Sword Masters. Just as there were 6th and 7th circle high mages, there were several Sword Masters.
"Those damn dead monsters dared to come here!"
The Sword Master drew his sword to handle the huge undead. But just as he pulled it free—
From far away, the Demon King who controlled and commanded all these undead smiled.
At the same time, black space flickered and opened around the ogre skeleton, and something descended from it.
The creature was about 2.5 meters tall. It had a human-like body, brown skin, and no eyes or nose on its face except for countless repulsive holes. Its massively bloated belly was also riddled with those holes. The monster was so hideous it was physically nauseating to look at.
"My god, what the hell is that?"
One of the soldiers muttered with disgust. The zombie-like undead looked almost beautiful compared to this repulsive creature.
"Damn it, my eyes are burning."
The Sword Master frowned at the horrifying, skin-crawling monster and spat out curses.
Then the ogre undead suddenly grabbed that monster and hurled it over the wall. The creature landed exactly on the battlements.
"What is this?!"
"Kill it!"
The moment the repulsive monster appeared, every 5th circle mage and Sword Expert knight wanted to slay it, regardless of class.
But before they could attack, black smoke erupted from the countless holes all over its body.
"Gwaahh!"
"Kyaahhk!"
All who touched the black smoke—knight, mage, soldier—screamed in agony.
"W-wait!"
"Are you okay?"
The smoke quickly dispersed. Just as the unaffected comrades tried to help their wounded ones.
Puff! Puff!
"Eh?"
"Eh?"
As the rescuers reached out, swords and spears stabbed through their bodies.
Artifact gauntlet granting ogre-level strength. Worn only on both hands. Limited to thirty units.
The soldiers, still reeling from the sight, continued their desperate defense, but the new horror had already changed the battlefield forever.