346. Advance (3)
346. Advance (3)
- 1 -
The plume on his helmet fluttered in the wind.
Feeling that sensation beyond the helm, Grimbart let a small smile show.
It had been years since he had personally taken to the field. Yet the feel of the spear in his hand remained the same.
The Duke raised his spear high and roared.
"Show them the majesty of the Norn Empire, and the might of our Aririt! Champions, let us trample the arrogance of Orbis!!"
- Waaaaaah — !!!!
With a thunderous war cry, the Aririt army began its adVance.
They were filled with confidence, knowing that forces from the Empire firmly supported both their vanguard and rear, and with the will to avenge the humiliation suffered in the small-scale skirmishes of days past.
But that momentum-fueled onSlaught faltered for a moment.
- Uuuuwooooaaaaaaahhh ——— !!!!
A fierce war cry erupted from the front, shaking the battlefield.
A roar that could scarcely be believed to come from a human throat.
So thunderous was that shout, one might have taken it for the bellowing of a giant or a demon beast, and the soldiers at the very front hesitated, their strides halting.
The adVancing host recoiled, like a wave crashing against a sudden wall.
"Do not stop!!"
Grimbart frowned, muttering involuntarily.
"A formidable warrior..."
The army soon began moving again under the shouts of its commanders and the lashes of the provost officers, but momentum once lost was not easily regained.
That was an undeniable truth.
Momentum, or morale.
On the battlefield, it was a weapon far more important than the blade.
They absolutely had to restore what was lost.
His gaze shifted toward one of the knight commanders beside him.
"Kal."
"Yes! Your Highness."
"Can it be done?"
"Leave it to me!"
Kalart En Okseus. The commander of the 'Black Howl' knight order, one of the three knight orders Grimbart trusted most, struck his chest and bowed his head.
"Guwaaaaaah —— !!!!"
- Waaaaah — !!!
Immediately after, Kalart's shout spread outward.
Listening to the cheering of the soldiers, Grimbart narrowed his brows inwardly.
The volume of the sound was equal to the enemy's.
That was the problem.
Considering the distance, Okseus's shout should have overwhelmed the one from the other side.
Still, it was fine. To the soldiers, it likely did not seem much different.
Having him expend his mana had been worth it.
'It was, but... the other side is definitely superior.'
Realizing that the enemy warrior's mana was far from ordinary, his mood sank, displeased.
"My apologies, Your Highness."
"No, it is fine."
However, he was not so foolish as to reveal that here.
As he had said, what mattered was the soldiers' morale. Kalart had done his part.
Now, all that remained was to use this regained momentum to trample them.
"Show me your strength. Kal, and Gregor."
After encouraging the two knight commanders, Grimbart soon turned his gaze to the side.
A young man came into view, much younger than the other two, yet wearing armor adorned with similar trappings.
"Heinrich."
"Yes. Father, Your Highness."
The commander of the Guard Knights and the Archduke's heir of the Arilit Duchy, Heinrich Sen Arilit.
Grimbart placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke with a stern look.
"You are not alone; you are a pillar of this nation. Therefore, you must absolutely resolve matters wisely."
Looking up at his father with tense eyes, he bowed his head slightly.
"Yes, Your Highness. Do not worry."
Turning his head from Heinrich back to the front, Grimbart saw the army of Orbis advancing toward them in perfect formation.
One could tell at a glance. That army was well-disciplined.
But.
'We, too, are an undefeated army.'
Never once had a battlefield where the Duke himself took command ended in defeat.
The ability as a general inherited from the ancestral dukes had manifested in him and his son as well.
Therefore.
"Advance —— !!!"
They would never lose.
Above the sky.
Gigantic 'birds' looked down upon them, beating their wings.
- 2 -
"It has begun."
The moment Ran's calm voice rang out, I set down the tea I was drinking.
As she placed a crystal orb upon the table, the table that swallowed the orb began to transform.
"Yes. I see."
Before long, upon the table was a precise magical miniature reproduction of southern Orbis—the wetlands, plains, and hills where the fierce battle was now taking place.
This was no mere terrain model; it was a reconstruction of the living battlefield.
Dalgak —
The blue horses symbolizing the Aririt army and the black horses representing the Orbis army moved in sync with the actual troop movements, and as the number of men decreased, so too did the size of the horses gradually shrink.
Those of division commander rank and above were rendered as miniatures, making even the imposing figure of Duke Grimbart or the massive silhouette of Axe fairly distinguishable.
This technique, which I had named 'Battlefield Chess,' was no simple magic.
It was the power to collect visual information in real-time from the demon beasts under my command, deployed throughout the skies of the battlefield, and reconstruct it here.
The idea of synchronizing with Fa (緣) creatures and borrowing the eyes of stealthy demon beasts was Bergrisa's, who excelled in sorcery, and visualizing the gathered information as a three-dimensional battlefield was my dark magic, specialized in 'replicas surpassing the original.'
"Their momentum is good."
I watched the Aririt deployment method quietly.
Duke Grimbart himself led the vanguard, and beside him the 'Black Howl'—the Black Roar knight order—was deployed.
At the rear, his son Heinrich and Aririt's other pride, the 'White Wings'—the White Wing knight order—had taken formation.
Elite troops thought to be reinforcements from the Empire were evenly distributed between the vanguard and the rear, thickening the battle lines.
In that state, the advancing momentum of the Aririt army was truly fierce.
Kung!!
A sound like a great drum being struck resounded from the table.
The vanguards of the blue horses and the black horses had finally clashed.
Tak — ! Dalgrak!
At the head, Axe's war cry burst forth once more like a storm.
No sound could be heard, but that roar shook the horses of the Aririt side.
And immediately after, the horses representing Axe and Kalart collided head-on.
A translucent projection rose above the two horses.
Kwang!! Kwakwang!
Axe and greatsword, each wreathed in similarly hued power, repeatedly clashed and disengaged.
Axe, with his bulk rivaling that of a warhorse, was by no means disadvantaged even against a mounted knight.
A fierce close-quarters battle between the giant warrior and the mounted greatsword knight unfolded.
"Admirable."
My warrior was gradually giving ground, but there was no sign of distress.
Even in the midst of that, he steadfastly guarded the vanguard, waiting for the soldiers of his rear line to withdraw.
The guard captain I trusted.
This was the power of an undead who had now become an undeniably high-ranking demon beast.
I watched that fight for a long while, then turned the scene on the table to another place.
Binggeureureu
Among the black horses, the only burnished gold one—the horse representing Serica—spun her parasol around.
The mana extending from that horse's fingertips was covering the top of the battlefield like a parasol.
Without revealing her own power carelessly, she amplified the abilities of the undead legion in real-time, helping to orchestrate the battlefield.
Though her true abilities were not revealed, roughly half of the achievements occurring on this battlefield were thanks to her power.
Ttaak!
The sound of a long staff striking the table.
「Left flank! Orbis forces withdrawing first!」
Command was Bergrisa's role.
To be precise, it was about accepting the advice of my army's commanders, who were looking at the same table as I was, and reflecting it on the battlefield.
Originally the daughter of Zarkra, a dungeon lord who had been hostile to me.
She had washed away any potential grudge from the conflict between her dead mother and me, and was now working for me.
The fact that she utilized sorcery in the right places while never missing a single message coming through her ears showed me that her qualities were quite decent.
"The Duke's ability is better than expected."
I nodded at Ran's words.
The horse representing the unit Duke Grimbart belonged to was swiftly penetrating deep into the center of my army.
The same was true of the iron cavalry and guardsmen thought to be his direct subordinates.
"However, look."
I pointed to several horses on the battlefield.
Axe was holding off Grimbart's attack from the front. Serica's undead legion was firmly supporting his side.
Also, our horses that were withdrawing maintained their size, but the enemy ones that were penetrating were gradually shrinking.
Even if Grimbart fought valiantly, with that Seth's cooperation, they could more than hold him off.
"Seth is doing well."
The task of Fa (緣)ilitating their string of victories while thoroughly controlling our side's losses.
And simultaneously, the other movements far from this battlefield that I had ordered.
I let out a satisfied smile.
The tide of this battle was already in my hands.
- 3 -
"Huuu...!"
Shue sat in the lotus position, exhaling roughly.
A pain and fatigue as if every single cell in her body was screaming.
'A little... more...'
It felt like if she let her focus slip even a little, she would lose consciousness on the spot.
Like a blade dangling by a thin thread, her concentration wavered precariously.
'It's been a while... this terrible feeling.'
For her, this act called 'training' fell into a category she greatly disliked.
She was originally the type who grew stronger by killing enemies and feeding on their blood and despair.
The process of sitting quietly, peering into her own interior, and delicately tuning her disordered mana was the polar opposite of her nature.
It was boring, stifling, and made her restless.
But she had to do it.
Her master, Libertas, had personally commanded it.
This was also an opportunity of unparalleled importance for herself.
Chances to commit herself wholeheartedly to tuning her own body and spirit were rare enough, and moreover...
'Because I must never, ever do this half-heartedly...'
In this iteration, it was the earliest opportunity among her master's close aides to ascend to the 'monarch' rank.
For that glorious moment, and to perfectly equip herself with the power fitting for that position, this training was necessary.
Even to avoid repeating the failures of the past, she had to become a 'Blood Demon' more perfect than she was then.
"You are faltering. Focus on your breathing. The flow of your mana is becoming turbulent."
A voice, cold to the point of being chilling, bored into her ears.
Before her stood Saya, arms crossed, looking down at her with an expressionless face.
"Yeah..."
Even answering briefly was beyond her strength.
She would follow any command for the sake of her master, but this training where Saya served as instructor was an ordeal every moment.
Normally, Saya was in a subtle competitive relationship with her over the position of 'first' beside their master, but once their master's order was given, she was a being who approached the task without a shred of personal feeling.
That coldness and strictness were, at this moment, a great help to Shue.
"I will increase the density."
Along with Saya's short words, the pressure pressing down on Shue's whole body grew even greater.
The pressure of highly concentrated mana.
A magical pressure crushing her entire body pressed down, as if it would wring her body dry.
"Keu... ugh...!"
Red blood trickled from the corner of Shue's mouth.
She endured that pressure and, moreover, struggled to control the very mana that was the source of it.
The training she was doing now was to manipulate mana of the 'monarch' rank while still in a higher-rank state.
Naturally, it was not an easy task.
Because the power she was handling now far exceeded the level she could originally manage, a domain that had to be controlled purely through willpower.
"Cough...!"
'I can never disappoint him...'
Her 'last memory' flashed through her mind like a panorama.
The final battle. The collaboration of several monarch-rank monsters and demon realm dungeon lords.
The moment she had been helplessly struck down, lacking the strength.
[My body... use it for the sake of you all.]
That time when she had to watch her master's despair, and the sight of him praying for their survival even in the face of death.
[Let us return.]
And... the moment they had thrown away everything to undo all of it.
The five gathered their mana, and they gathered the mana of traitors and those who had died loyally.
Placed upon that as a catalyst was the body of her most beloved master.
The moment the sword imbued with Evangeline's 'flow' fell, she parted 'time.'
That was not the end.
Regression itself was agony.
The pain of tearing her own existence to shreds and pasting them onto her past self.
What was thus completed was neither her future self nor her past self.
Killing both selves, what remained was love for her master and the memories of the future. And a new self born from the merging of both future and past.
Compared to that, this current pain...
'Is nothing...'
Shue's eyes flew wide open.
From the corners of her eyes, blood the same color as her pupils streamed down.
That moment.
"... You have improved somewhat."
Her strength took one step closer to 'monarch.'