319
Chapter 319
"Stop them!"
A tall female knight holding a massive longbow shouted at the Imperial garrison soldiers on the fortress.
Every time she drew her bow, monsters climbing the wall fell with SCREAMS.
Daria Calvi, a knight of the Horse Palace, surveyed her surroundings with cold eyes.
'How dare these filthy monsters…?'
The Imperial garrison camp set up on the outskirts of the ghetto area was under attack by monsters.
Beside her, the Second Prince Leo was encouraging the soldiers.
"Everyone, stay strong! These evil monsters cannot overcome the sacred wolf's banner!"
Daria, who was dispatched to the garrison to protect the Second Prince, had a duty to safely escort him back to the Empire.
The problem was the monsters surrounding the entire camp.
'The Empire's mages definitely guaranteed that monsters couldn't invade this far...'
The Imperial mages had boasted that their special magic barrier would prevent monsters from approaching the garrison.
That's why the Second Prince, first in line for succession, was able to come here for inspection.
But from the day her legion arrived at the fortress, dark clouds suddenly filled the sky, fog surrounded the area, and countless monsters kept pouring in endlessly.
While shooting arrows at the monsters, Daria shouted to her vice-commander.
"Prepare the knights! We'll go out and sweep away these monsters ourselves!"
No matter how many monsters there were, they were no match for well-armed knights.
The vice-commander bowed to Daria's order.
"Yes, Commander."
The vice-commander went down the wall and shouted to the waiting knights.
"Go and sweep them all away!"
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The Horse Palace knights, unlike other Imperial knight orders, consisted of commoner-born knights.
This was because they were a knight order that specialized in archery, which regular knights rarely mastered.
Originally the most persecuted and discriminated against among the 13 legions, their treatment had improved significantly after the talented female knight Daria Calvi became commander and achieved great merits.
However, within the Empire, the Horse Palace knights were still often dismissed as commoner knights.
Because of this, the Horse Palace knights were completely loyal to their commander Daria.
SWOOSH!
The Horse Palace knights fired arrows at the monsters, and the creatures hit by them collapsed simultaneously.
The atmosphere changed immediately once the knight order engaged.
The black swarm of approaching monsters began to hesitate and retreat.
Watching this from the wall, Daria Calvi's eyes flashed sharply.
'Something's strange.'
While there appeared to be thousands of monsters rushing toward the garrison, the number actually attacking seemed far fewer.
Daria Calvi raised her longbow and fired an arrow toward the monsters beyond the wasteland.
WHOOSH
Her aura-filled arrow flew toward the distant wasteland.
BOOM! BOOM!
The aura-laden arrow exploded upon impact.
Daria Calvi listened to the explosion and analyzed the situation around where the arrow had flown.
'There was no sound of monsters exploding. This is illusion magic.'
She instantly saw through Visco's blood ability illusions and realized the monster numbers were inflated.
However, even so, she couldn't understand why monsters were heading toward the garrison instead of the ghetto area.
She spoke to the garrison commander beside her.
"I heard the Red Lion Sword is here. Though Morgan, the person in charge, is missing, the Red Lion Sword should know about this situation. Find him quickly."
The garrison commander, well aware of Daria Calvi's sharp personality, nodded with a tense face.
"Y-yes, Commander."
While the garrison commander went to find Abel, Daria spoke to Leo beside her.
"Your Highness, these monsters will be suppressed soon. Wouldn't it be better for you to head inside?"
While she knew Leo possessed excellent talent as a knight, the battlefield was always dangerous regardless.
Even excellent knights frequently died from stray arrows.
In response to Daria's words, Leo instead drew his sword and said.
"Commander, how can a ruler retreat first while knights and soldiers are fighting with their lives at stake?"
While Daria usually valued Leo's sense of justice highly, it wasn't very helpful in the current situation. If Leo were to die here, the empire would surely be thrown into another succession dispute.
Remembering the recent intense conflict between the First Prince faction and Second Prince faction that had thrown Rome into chaos,
Daria said to Leo.
"A ruler must value their life above all else. If Your Highness falls, the entire empire will be shaken..."
But that's when it happened.
Something could be seen flying through the sky.
RUMBLE!
A massive dragon with four pairs of wings came flying through the thundering storm clouds.
ROAAAR!
Even the monsters trembled in fear as the Draco Lich with its black horns and fierce red eyes let out a terrible cry.
Daria frowned as she gripped her longbow.
Leo also started in surprise and tightly gripped the sword in his hand.
Blue lightning crackled from his Herscion.
"Commander. If my eyes don't deceive me... isn't that a dragon?"
To Leo's words, Daria replied calmly:
"The enemy is currently causing confusion by mixing monsters with illusions. That too is likely to be an illusion..."
ROAAAR!
Suddenly, massive black flames erupted from the Draco Lich's mouth.
BOOM! BOOM!!
The black flames poured down toward the garrison's walls.
WHOOSH!
The black flames melted not only the soldiers on the walls but even the solid stone itself.
Seeing this, Daria clenched her teeth.
"...It seems that's real. Rather than a dragon, it appears to be a dragon-like monster."
Suddenly the Draco Lich turned and began flying toward where Daria and Leo were.
ROAAAR!
Black flames erupted once again from the Draco Lich's mouth.
Daria raised her bow and shot an arrow at the Draco Lich.
SWOOSH!
Her arrow struck precisely in the Draco Lich's eye.
ROAAAR!
The Draco Lich let out a cry of pain and flew higher into the sky.
Watching the Draco Lich circling overhead, Daria grabbed Leo's shoulder.
"Your Highness, it's dangerous to be in high places when there are flying monsters. Let's go down first."
Leo nodded at Daria's words.
"Understood."
When Leo and Daria descended below the walls, the soldiers had already set up anti-air weapons. They immediately began firing crossbows and magic cannons at the Draco Lich.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Magic cannons and crossbow bolts flew toward the sky.
However, the Draco Lich easily avoided the attacks by maneuvering in the air.
On the Draco Lich's back, Zeke and Richmond stood observing the imperial garrison's situation.
"Tyrant, go over to that back area."
Zeke had named the Draco Lich, which had become his summon, after Balrog who had been the original owner of the horn.
The Draco Lich that Richmond had summoned using the bloodstone and dragon species transformed from Balok's horns and teeth was reborn as a summon just as powerful as the original Tyrant.
With Tyrant at his side, Zeke had been pressuring the imperial garrison by creating illusions of monster hordes using Bisco's blood ability and the Superior Demon Judge Pan's fantasy mirror.
'Daria Calvi, Knight of the Human-Demon Palace.'
Zeke had directly encountered Daria Calvi in his previous life.
When he met her on the battlefield, she was a rare imperial knight who had rightfully earned her position through her own abilities.
'I remember she had quite bad relations with Abel when he became Commander-in-Chief of the imperial army.'
When Abel committed ruthless massacres and various evil acts, Daria Calvi criticized his actions and even deserted the battlefield, refusing to follow his orders.
The Northern Alliance that Zeke was part of had tried to persuade Daria Calvi to desert the imperial army by offering various conditions, but she flatly refused.
Her reason was that while she had refused the orders of Commander-in-Chief Abel, she had not betrayed the empire.
Zeke wondered if Daria Calvi would have made the same decision if she had known all of the empire's atrocities.
'Perhaps we could draw away a major force from the empire.'
Zeke surveyed the imperial army camp while riding Tyrant.
That's when it happened.
"Master! Something's coming!"
Dark winged magical beasts could be seen swarming in from the sky.
Zeke stroked Tyrant's neck while watching the magical beasts.
"Tyrant, go show them your power."
GROWL!
At Zeke's words, Tyrant beat its wings powerfully.
The harpy-like magical beasts flew toward Tyrant.
Then Tyrant opened its mouth and spewed black flames at them.
WHOOSH!
The magical beasts caught in Tyrant's flames all turned to ash and scattered.
The other magical beasts that had avoided the flames tried to slowly retreat, overwhelmed by Tyrant's presence.
But Tyrant didn't let the magical beasts escape.
ROAAAR!
Tyrant swiftly flew at the magical beasts, tearing them apart with its sharp claws and ripping them with its teeth.
The magical beasts were nothing but sacrificial lambs to Tyrant.
Zeke wore a satisfied expression seeing Tyrant's power.
'Looks like we can leave the sky to Tyrant.'
Zeke said to Richmond.
"Richmond, keep pressuring the imperial bastards from here."
"Understood."
Zeke, equipped with hisHersion, jumped off Tyrant's body.
With his stealth skill activated, Zeke's form was completely invisible to others.
He stealthily infiltrated the imperial garrison's camp this way.
* * *
"Where is the Red Lion Knight?"
When the person responsible for finding Abel didn't return, Daria stormed into the barracks where he was staying.
The knights guarding the barracks blocked Daria's approach.
"You cannot enter here."
At those words, Daria stepped forward.
"How absurd. This is an imperial army camp. There is nowhere that I, a Commander, cannot enter."
The regular knights were no match for Daria's intimidating presence with the Black Knight right in front of them.
The knights broke out in cold sweat and slowly backed away.
As Daria and the Red Lion Knights were in this standoff, the barracks door opened.
"So the Knight of the Horse Palace has come."
Abel appeared, his red hair flowing.
Only when Abel emerged did the knights finally back away.
Looking at Abel, Daria spoke.
"Red Lion Knight. I demand an explanation of what's going on here."
At those words, Abel sneered.
"As the Commander said, this is an imperial camp. But why are you asking me about this situation?"
Daria frowned at Abel's words and said.
"Abel Drake, I know that you and Morgan Buffon, Knight of the snake Palace, were in charge of the Ghetto area. With Morgan Buffon missing, you're the only one who would know about this situation."
Abel could sense the hostility toward him in Daria's eyes.
'She may not know we released the monsters, but it seems she's noticed we're up to something here.'
Morgan Buffon was someone who handled all sorts of dirty work for the empire along with Information Bureau Section 13.
It was perhaps natural that Daria, who valued chivalry despite her commoner origins, would despise him.
Looking at Daria, Abel said.
"I don't know what you want to hear. Aren’t you curious why monsters that would never attack the empire are attacking?"
Daria's eyes wavered greatly at those words.
She continued speaking calmly.
"The mages said monsters wouldn't approach our side. But now someone is deceiving our eyes with illusion magic and even mobilizing dragon-type magical beasts to attack the imperial army. This is a clear provocation against the imperial army..."
"The imperial Commander sure talks a lot."
At Abel's words, Daria Calvi frowned and raised her bow.
"Abel Draker. Even if you are Draker Guardian Knight, I won’t allow you insult the empire...!"
Daria couldn't finish her words.
RUMBLE!
She couldn't even move her body due to the pressure Abel was emitting.
Her fingertips trembled slightly.
Looking down at Daria, Abel said.
"If you move even slightly... you die, Daria Calvi."