Demon King's Ca...stle (2)
Demon King's Ca...stle (2)
The Demon King Castle's barrier opened, and its forces surged out.
Countless corpses dragged from death, dolls of metal and stone, and spirits formed from mana and elements.
A massive wave rushed out to block the cadets who were trying to break the barrier.
"Impact!"
Gellium, the cadet leading the charge, shouted and raised his shield. The shield, heavily saturated with mana, released a unique pulse.
Unique Ability Shield Arts. And the Expansion Ability Protection Barrier.
The spreading pulse wrapped the cadet group in a translucent barrier. Gellium coiled aura around his shield, bracing for the collision.
The undead horde was the first to clash. All manner of corpse monsters rammed into the barrier without slowing.
- Crash! Bang!
A succession of impacts struck the barrier. Yet it held its ground firmly.
Gellium nodded, watching the undead clawing and gnashing at the barrier right in front of him.
'No specials. Are they all just meat shields?'
Typically, the advantage of necromancy lies in its overwhelming numbers. Assuming mana can sustain it, one can amass countless troops by binding corpses together.
Mass assault using them is the primary tactic of necromancy.
Of course, one could modify undead to field special entities, but as far as he could see, none of these appeared to be special types.
"The barrage stopped! Clean up the riff-raff first!"
"Got it!"
Cadets who had burst out from Gellium's sides swung their weapons. The swords and spears of those accustomed to fighting alongside him phased through the pale barrier.
Slashing strikes severed the necks and limbs of the undead, and the trajectory of a thrusting spear skewered several at once.
- Boom!
The rear guard wasn't idle either. They manifested relatively light low-grade magic and lobbed it into the heart of the undead mass.
- Screeeech...!
The undead horde was cleared out in an instant. They were merely low-rank monsters for meat shields, not special types. They couldn't effectively block the cadets.
However, the cadets didn't let their guard down.
- Woooooom...
"They're blowing up!"
That's why they didn't miss the signs. The fallen undead corpses swelled, as if inflating like a balloon. The mana-tainted corpses gleamed.
Boom! Eventually, dozens of corpses detonated simultaneously. The barrier trembled slightly under the thunderous roar. Gellium gritted his teeth and gripped his shield tight.
Corpse Explosion, one of the main tactics of necromancy. He had experienced it even in external practice, facing Lee Ji-yeon of the Green Faction.
When the undead became useless, they were used as bombs. Even the corpses of low-rank monsters produced considerable output, making it dangerous to be caught in the explosion of dozens at once.
- Thud!
The aftermath of the explosion cleared with a heavy footstep. Gellium narrowed his eyes at the new form visible beyond the trembling barrier.
A body of rock and metal. Heavy armor adorned it. At least 4 meters tall.
'Golem... a familiar? Just how many techniques can he handle...'
Gellium was weary of Lee Ha-yul's combat power, despite the cadet only having been a superhuman for a year, but he wasn't worried.
A familiar is an entity created and controlled by a mage. Usually used for various errands or experiments, but also deployed as meat shields to buy time for casting magic.
'Those Golems serve the same purpose as shields, just like the undead.'
It might be different if they were carefully crafted, but dozens of these golems were pouring out. Too many to have been individually refined.
'We clear out the Golems and undead quickly and break through.'
While the undead and Golems pinned down and obstructed the cadets, the spirits were running rampant.
The Golem pulled its fist back. Gellium steadied his shield. The fist was massive, but he wasn't afraid.
He could block that heavy punch. He straightened his self-assurance. He possessed his innate talent. He could block it...
- Woooong!
Gellium heard the distinctive sound of flowing mana.
Lines of mana were drawn on the pulled-back fist of the Golem. Mana flowed into the engraved formulas. A circuit glimpsed on the fist extended up to its shoulder.
Magic activated in sequence. It increased the Golem's durability, amplifying its physical strength.
- Rumble!
Pure mana burst from the seams of its armor. The fist, using the fierce mana as a propellant, pushed down the wind and rushed forward.
The barrier collapsed.
Gellium was stunned.
"What the—"
- Slam!
"Ugh...!"
His scream was cut short. His vision went dark, and the massive fist plowed into his shield. An involuntary groan escaped his lips.
Crunch! His legs drove into the ground. His bent knees shook uncontrollably, and the arm holding the shield throbbed as if it would fall off.
A blow far more powerful than he had imagined. Roar! The propulsion didn't stop. The Golem's fist pressed Gellium down, shield and all.
'A special variant...!?'
Gellium was appalled as he adjusted his posture to avoid collapsing. Spells had been engraved into the Golem. Moreover, its armor had been crafted into a magic tool for combat.
This was a meticulously crafted Golem. Was only this one a special entity? Or...
"Hey, hey! Don't fall over!"
"What the hell is a cutting-edge Golem doing here!"
While Gellium held on, other equally stunned cadets kicked off the ground. Spears and swords thrust from both sides, aiming for the Golem's wrist that was pressing down on the shield.
- Crunch!
"Whoa, it's tough as hell!"
The cadet who struck with his sword was appalled.
A downward slash that fully utilized aura and his unique ability. Yet it failed to sever the wrist. Only traces remained, more like a crushing impact than a clean cut.
"Take it down, fast!"
But the assault didn't end with a single strike. A fluid sword-slash rushed toward the Golem. The cadet on the opposite side also relentlessly stabbed with his spear.
- Crrrunch...!
No matter how tough the Golem, the cadets' successive attacks gradually increased the damage.
"Shit, the Golem's even using martial arts...!"
It didn't break easily. The Golem moved its legs smoothly like a person, throwing punches and hammering down at the smaller cadets, putting them in danger.
A cadet who had overcome some unknown number of dangers swung her sword, dripping with cold sweat.
- Clang!
"Huh?"
Her sword bounced off. There were traces of having been attacked. She couldn't understand it.
'I definitely cut through this spot just now...'
In a world that seemed to slow down, her gaze fixed on the damaged section.
The surrounding area writhed like mud, then filled in the destroyed part.
It wasn't strange. A Golem isn't alive anyway, so such patching is possible.
But the performance had been restored too. Not only the quality of the armor and body, but the spells that moved it, the strengthening spells, the various spells engraved on the armor... all at once, at first speed.
'???'
She blanked out for a moment at the sight defying her common sense.
- Smack!
"Oof!"
"Isabel!"
The Golem's fist swatted her while she was airborne. She blocked with her sword, but the brutal impact sent her body flying like a baseball.
"Aow..."
She barely landed on the ground, rubbing her smarting arm. A light cluster burst, and her exposed skin was turning blue with bruises.
Of course, since this was the Tower of Growth, there was almost no pain, but her head felt like it was floating after being smacked by a hammer.
"Whoa, that thing even restores its spells?"
"I saw it too."
Gellium, who had hurriedly run to her side, replied with a grim face.
"Don't tell me all the Golems can do that crazy shit?"
"It's similar... Still, that one seems to be a special entity."
Indeed, the Golem Gellium and the cadets had just fought was larger than the others, and its armor was more ornate.
"Maybe he made it as a commander unit... Hey, mage guy, can't you do something like that?"
"...A mage might be able to, if they put in the effort."
"Wow... so that junior, Lee Ha-yul, got the title of Mage in just one year? That's completely batshit."
"No, I said even a mage might not be able to do that."
"Gasp."
Gellium, overhearing the banter flowing amid the tension, subtly surveyed the surroundings.
After Gellium's group neared the barrier, the workshop's bombardment had stopped.
Thanks to that, other cadets had pushed in, turning the area near the barrier into a chaotic battlefield.
A melee where undead, Golems, cadets, and spirits clashed haphazardly.
A peculiar point was that it wasn't just Gellium's Blue Faction; there were also cadets from the Red and Green Factions.
They weren't sabotaging each other but cautiously keeping watch while cooperating to assault this Demon King? Castle.
- Woof woof!
"Hey hey hey! Attila! Elemental barrier quickly— ack!"
"Ah, sorry."
Among the clashing forces, the spirits naturally drew the most attention.
Dark clouds gathered in the dry sky, and cluster lightning rained down.
Fierce flames engulfed cadets, and a razor-sharp windstorm raged like a bomb in the middle of the formation.
The ground beneath them shook, sprouting hundreds of hideous spikes, and cadets swept by surging waves froze solid.
A junior cadet was headbutted by a dog-shaped fire spirit and went poof— bursting into light. Gellium wore a bitter expression at the scattering light clusters.
'That's a mid-level spirit...?'
It was a profoundly bizarre sight to see a cadet who could comfortably hold their own in a death trap die from a single headbutt by a puppy.
While the undead and Golems tied down the cadets' feet, a small number of spirits were rampaging freely across the battlefield.
'Dear lord...'
Gellium, assessing the war situation, was appalled. Of course, he hadn't thought they could easily breach dozens of barriers, but to struggle this much against the forces that had rushed out from within...!
Even with the three factions tacitly cooperating, it was like this.
"What on earth..."
Gellium muttered blankly.
Then it happened.
A fire spirit that had taken down a few cadets kicked off the ground. A long trail of fire extended into the sky. Many glanced at the spirit at this bizarre phenomenon, wondering what it would do next.
"Huh?"
Someone gasped. Next to Gellium, a cadet checking her sword's condition blinked.
The fire spirit that had soared into the sky landed on the helmet of the commander-type Golem (presumed) they had just been struggling against.
- Woof!
The fire spirit perched on the helmet and let out a cute bark.
Its gently wagging tail was utterly adorable. But considering the number of cadets burned by that spirit, it was hard to feel that way.
Instead, she swallowed nervously, wondering what the hell it was about to do.
- Fwoosh!
As if to answer that anticipation, the fire spirit melted. Transformed into pure flame, the spirit seeped into the Golem's helmet.
"Ah."
A peculiar resonance and presence. A cadet who had learned spirit arts went pale, and the spirit fighting beside her flinched back.
Spirit Assimilation.
Similar to the previous use of the Sky Wing Feather as a vessel, this was an application using the Golem as the vessel.
The spells added to the Golem for the 'spirit' activated.
- Fwoooosh!
The pitch-black armor was dyed red and yellow. Fierce flames erupted from the armor's seams.
The ground beneath the Golem melted, and steam rose as the fire spread.
The flames streaming from the back of its helmet whipped like a mane.
"...What the."
A ferocious, murderous aura rapidly skyrocketed. Everyone broke into a cold sweat at the crimson mana gleam shining through the helmet's slit, and soon even the cold sweat evaporated.
- Vwooing... Fwoosh!
On top of that, something flew in from the peak of Rocky Mountain. An orange-tinged flame shot down at high speed, not targeting the cadets, but hitting the Golem.
Lee Ha-yul's Calamity Flame mixed into the Golem's blaze.
- FWOAR!
The flame swelled dozens of times over.
Hellfire had arrived on the chaotic battlefield.
* * *
'...They're fighting well.'
Lee Ha-yul, sitting in a rocking chair placed in the heart of the citadel built atop Rocky Mountain, thought as he observed the war situation.
The Golem assimilated with the fire spirit was rampaging like a one-man army.
Dozens of cadets rushed to try and do something, but the Golem crushed even that, flaunting its power.
'It was worth withdrawing the magic and deploying the spirits. Their growth is incredibly fast.'
Its combat power was steadily increasing. The spirit assimilated with the Golem was growing in real time.
The additional Blessing of Growth applied within the Tower of Growth. That applied not only to the cadets but also to the spirits contracted with them.
Most of the spirits hadn't been mid-level for long, but with the realm of upper spirit still ahead, they had no intention of being satisfied here.
Plus, the spirits had volunteered to enter the battlefield because they were bored, so...
'I already seemed to have ample forces, and the spirits can grow and then head out.'
Lee Ha-yul pushed the rocking chair with his toes, observing the focus of the drone aimed in this direction.
The rocking chair manifested by the Authority of Knowledge, the one Ariel used, didn't even emit a common creak.
'Authority of Knowledge.'
Unlike the other two Authorities, this one wasn't fully intact. To be precise, the parts I couldn't handle were locked away, and the default settings had been arranged for easier use.
That's why, as soon as I received the Authority, the memories in my head were organized, and I could perform basic operations.
The function of the Authority I was using now was an application of that.
Could it be called a kind of copier?
I record what's needed into 'books' processed with knowledge, take them out when necessary, and invest mana to print them out.
Of course, it's not an entirely comfortable ability.
Even though it's called an Authority, its performance ultimately changes depending on the user's skill.
If I'm bad at it, I might struggle to copy a simple chair. If I'm good at it, I can instantly pull out the vast spell formulas of a workshop.
'What a headache...'
Feeling the rocking motion, I gently rubbed my brow.
On the surface, I might look utterly comfortable and carefree, but deep down my head is spinning like crazy.
On the battlefield I'm grasping with the Observation Authority, more than double the usual amount of information is crashing down in chunks every moment.
I have to organize that, make the right decisions, use magic, harmonize the workshop, control the Golems and undead, manage the spirits...
Some might think I have it easy, but it's quite a tough situation for me.
"......"
The rocking chair didn't creak, but I found myself vaguely wishing that it did.
The rough citadel, plastered with defensive magic. It was cold and lifeless, with no trace of human presence like the Tower of Knowledge.
Still, in the Tower of Knowledge, Ariel had been there.
I wasn't sitting alone in the rocking chair. Ariel always sat there, and I was held in Ariel's arms.
There was a cozy sensation and a living warmth.
There was a hand that stroked my head and patted my back.
Not anymore. I was sitting in the rocking chair alone, pushing it with my toes.
Thinking about that made my heart feel unsettled.
I'm lonely. It hasn't even been a full day yet, and just this morning I had someone with me, but my heart is not at ease.
I can feel the presence of others through Observation right now, but it's not the same.
I'm lonely.
Pouting, I opened my subspace. Then, as if it had been waiting, a pure white staff shot out.
Purification, the artifact that Ariel used. I held it tight as it quivered, as if angry at being called so long after, and hugged it to my chest.
...I felt a little better, but I was still lonely.
I was alone.
- Thump!
My heart resonated. Lee Ha-yul grimaced at the sensation that squeezed his heart tight for a moment.
There was still a bit of time left until the Tower Entry ended. Plus, the event that would start from the flag remained...
'...Who should I bring...?'
Lee Ha-yul felt a small impulse.
* * *
Meanwhile.
"We will now begin the meeting for the assault on the provisional 'Demon King Castle'."
The 4th plain occupation zone, close to the 1st Rocky Mountain occupation point.
The meeting for the assault on the Demon King? Castle, convened by the temporary commanders of the three factions, commenced.