Chapter 157
Chapter 157
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 157
Chapter Title: The Uninvited Guest
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It was impossible.
No matter how much they called the Sachsen family's 'Black Prince' the greatest genius in the empire, no matter how absurdly powerful he was for his age.
What Dale was demonstrating now was something that transcended even the realm of monsters.
Thud!
The cavalry of the Templar Order thrust their lances in unison, only to be futilely struck down by the formation of heavy infantry armored in the mail of the undying.
Elsewhere, where the battle lines of Lancaster, York, and other noble houses clashed, the scales of power began to tip.
There were fronts where the Church's forces pushed forward with an advantage, and others where the Sachsen side broke through and advanced. The lines became entangled and twisted, some clockwise, others counter-clockwise. In such moments, only one thing was crucial.
The center, the very axis supporting the battle line.
And guarding that center was the Shadow Lord and his Black Armor Company, while the Black Valkyrie and Shub's tentacles held back the Master Templars, all Aura Masters, in the sky.
This was the nature of war. No matter how exceptional Dale was, he couldn't grasp the situation at every point along the sprawling battlefront and maneuver his forces accordingly.
There was a vast difference between observing the battle from afar and seeing it as a participant in the fight.
Just then, a report came in. Far in the distance, the Blue Rose Order was retreating, pushed back by Lancaster's Rose Cross Knights.
Even in this chaos, messengers rushed between units to deliver their reports, and amidst it all, Dale made his decision.
“Relay this to the entire Black Armor Company.”
The Shadow Lord spoke.
Shhhk!
He swung the Peacemaker at a Templar charging right at him.
“Maintain the wedge formation. Our heavy infantry will pierce the depth of the enemy's central formation.”
“We will obey the captain's command!”
Lord Yones shouted, and the order simultaneously spread through the chain of command to the one thousand heavy infantrymen.
“To the Night Raven Knights on the left flank, and to the Grave Guard.”
Dale said to the messenger awaiting his orders.
“After we break through the center, I will give a signal. Until that signal comes, do not break formation or advance ahead. Focus on holding your position.”
Typically, the strongest cavalry is placed on one flank to break through the enemy and execute an enveloping maneuver. This is the standard tactic for large-scale battles.
But this was no ordinary battle. The Master Templars in the sky, with their ability to fly, could maneuver freely across the battlefield at a moment's notice. If they rushed toward the flanks, Orelia alone could not tie them all down.
And yet, the reason they were so desperately fighting Orelia and Shub directly above Dale was singular.
Because the 'Black Prince' was there.
As long as Dale stood on the front line of the center, acting as bait, the enemy could not ignore his presence. Although there was a risk that the battle could end abruptly if he were defeated or captured, Dale continued this tightrope walk for one simple reason.
It made the enemy's thoughts easier to read.
The enemy commander standing at the forefront was not something that could be ignored, especially when considering the significance of a powerhouse like Dale, an outlier in this world.
And so, the Shadow Lord and the 'Black Armor Company,' renowned as the empire's greatest mercenaries, began to move.
From the center where the two forces were locked, they began a single-point breakthrough aimed at the enemy's heart.
As they were not mounted cavalry, their speed and mobility were by no means superior.
Nevertheless, the presence of the heavy infantry, steadfastly advancing through the fiercely contested battlefield, was impossible to ignore.
Above all was the weight of the Shadow Lord's presence, leading the charge as the standard-bearer of the black armor. As if flaunting his notoriety and cruelty as the Black Prince, the Shadow Lord, commanding the darkness of a winter's night, was advancing toward the heavens.
Like a demonic host marching on the celestial realm.
Desperate to hold the line, the Church's Templars dismounted and began to form a defensive line.
“Gatling type, 20mm.”
Just then, a dozen black gun barrels began to materialize behind the Shadow Lord.
The first weapon of mass destruction to change the course of the war.
A barrage of darkness rained down.
But their opponents were no mere grunts. They were not so weak as to be annihilated by a hail of bullets.
As expected, the celestial world protecting them, accompanied by the hymns of the white mages, began to emit a protective light.
Simultaneously, the Blood Angels engaged in a desperate battle in the sky began to descend.
Dodging Shub's swirling tentacles and Orelia's sword, they flew toward Dale, who was clad in the armor of dark blood.
“My lord!”
Lady Shadow's cry rang out, but Dale showed no signs of panic. Instead, as if he had expected it, he turned his back.
“I'll handle the sky.”
“Protect the captain!”
Dale muttered briefly, and a hundred members of the Black Armor Company, clad in the armor of the undying, quickly formed a defensive perimeter around him.
At the same time, the black gun barrels shimmering behind Dale all raised their muzzles toward a high angle.
Black bullets rained down upon the Blood Angels.
They urgently spread their wings to evade the downpour of bullets, and Shub's tentacles seized the opening to strike.
Puk!
A jet-black tentacle pierced straight through a Blood Angel's wing and emerged from the other side.
“Ah, ahhh!”
At the same time, the crimson angel began to plummet toward the ground in agony.
Toward the Shadow Lord's feet.
“—Do you think spreading your wings and flying through the heavens will protect your lives?”
The Shadow Lord asked the fallen angel. Before he could answer, a barrage of Shub's tentacles descended upon him.
Puk, puk, puk!
A bloody death. The black blood began to corrupt the angel of blood, dyeing its own crimson ichor as black as pitch.
Soon, the angel's blood-red wings swelled grotesquely, as if hundreds of earthworms were writhing within them.
“Pr-pr-praise…!”
The Master Templar, now reborn as an angel of dark blood, began to mutter.
But this was no praise directed to the Goddess of Sisterhood and Mercy.
It was for something darker, blacker, for the indescribably horrific 'Ancient Mother of Darkness'.
That was only the beginning.
From within the armor of dark blood enveloping the Shadow Lord, the armor of black death, jet-black tentacles began to sprout once more.
The 'Black Death' literally began to consume the Blood Angels one by one, like a plague.
As if snatching gnats from the air, one by one.
“Aim for the enemy commander! Concentrate all forces on him!”
Watching Dale slaughter the Aura Masters in the sky one after another, the Church's side finally began to grow desperate.
“Protect the captain! Do not let the formation break!”
What in the world was that armor of black blood? They didn't know. But one thing the Church could be certain of was that the darkness possessed by that armor was a natural enemy to the Master Templars' 'Blood Armor'.
This made them even more anxious. They worried about how the Shadow Lord and the Black Armor Company, currently executing a one-sided, single-point breakthrough, would change the flow of the entire battle.
It wasn't that the bloody struggles happening all over the field were meaningless. It was because of those struggles that neither side had collapsed, and the scales of power were precariously balanced.
In such a situation, the Shadow Lord's presence was an act that would shatter that balance.
“Summon all of House Lancaster's Aura Masters from the right flank immediately!”
“Gather all reserves in the center! Break through the Black Armor Company, no matter what it takes!”
Orders crisscrossed from all directions, and in the already chaotic situation, the Church's battle lines began to tangle as they moved in disarray.
“We die here if we must!”
“Do not allow them to break through!”
Despite this, the defensive posture of the Black Armor Company, clad in the armor of the undying, never broke.
And when Dale at its center, joined by Orelia and Shub, began to consume the 'Blood Angels' in the sky.
The scales of the battle finally began to tip.
The celestial world manifested by the 7th-circle white mage, Borenus, was gradually swallowed by the darkness of the winter's night.
***
The celestial light was fading away into nothingness.
A conceptual world is a reflection of the mage's own mind. And as one of the few dozen 7th-circle mages on the entire continent, the world he manifested was a 'heaven' in itself.
The invincible mage. Whenever he unfurled his celestial world, the soldiers within it never knew defeat.
With only one exception: the monster of the empire… the Hero from Another World.
That world of his, which should have been absolute, was being devoured by the world of a mere fifteen-year-old boy.
As a mage against a mage, and not just that, but as a commander leading the battlefield and a warrior in his own right.
Borenus, accelerating his seven circles from the very rear of his forces, could feel it intuitively.
As the heavens were swallowed by the winter night's darkness, and as the Black Armor Company steadily began its breakthrough toward the depth of the Church's forces.
The Night Raven Knights of House Sachsen on the left flank also began to maneuver in concert.
With the center and left wing executing a unilateral advance on the celestial forces, the fate of the Church's troops, caught between them, was self-evident.
A report came that the Lancaster knights had broken through the Sachsen wing and begun an enveloping maneuver, but at this point, it was meaningless.
“Ah, ahhh…!”
He had been certain this was a fight they could win. They had a clear superiority in the number and quality of their troops, and he had believed the same was true for the gap between their mages. He was wrong.
Despair tightened its grip on Borenus's heart as the celestial light faded like the fleeting twilight.
It was then.
“—So this is where you were.”
A voice came from behind him.
Borenus turned his head and gasped.
A young boy was there.
“Ah, to think the mercy and compassion of the Goddess of Sisterhood and Mercy still linger in this land.”
He was a young boy with his eyes covered by black bandages.
“Identify yourself!”
Seeing him, a few knights tasked with protecting Borenus tightened their grip on their swords.
Not many could carelessly wander into a place where two high-ranking mages had unfurled their conceptual worlds. That was why the Templars were wary as they questioned him, but the boy just burst out laughing.
“I have no business with the dogs of Sistina.”
After laughing, he snapped his fingers. As if their puppet strings had been cut, the knights' bodies collapsed on the spot. It was an undeniable, instantaneous death, and the 7th-circle white mage, Borenus, was no exception.
***
The celestial light vanished.
The magic of the hymn that should have echoed endlessly fell into silence.
‘What…?’
A silence as light as a feather descended, and in that moment, the Shadow Lord held his breath.
‘Don't tell me they're thinking of surrendering now.’
The celestial world manifested by the 7th-circle white mage had disappeared, but that wasn't the end.
Devouring the celestial light, another 'world' began to encroach upon the area. A darkness fell that even the celestial light dared not illuminate. But it was not Dale's winter night.
“Ah, so we meet again at last.”
From within the darkness, a voice spoke.
Simultaneously, the Templars blocking Dale's path parted to the left and right, like the Red Sea.
“My daughter, and the false blood of Sachsen.”
From between them, the silhouette of a child emerged.
It was a young boy, his eyes covered by black bandages.