Chapter 132
Chapter 132
"Who the hell are they...?"
At first glance, their gleaming armor appeared to be of high quality, and their numbers exceeded two hundred. Yet the scale emblem emblazoned on their chests involuntarily drew mocking laughter from their opponents.
"A mercenary knight order? They're the vanguard? Has the First Prince Faction gone mad?"
No matter how much the high nobles sought to preserve their own lives, the vanguard was a crucial position. Even if the border lords didn't personally take the field, it was customary for their direct subordinates or those with substantial combat prowess to lead the charge.
In that regard, the Kairos Knight Order was utterly unqualified.
Rather than being trained directly by House Kairos, they were assembled from free knights and S-rank mercenaries—Force Users—recruited from across the kingdom and even the empire.
For Simon Kairos, a self-made man, it had been an unavoidable choice. But as a result, the order bore the stigma of being a "mercenary knight order"—a band of knights who sold their swords for gold.
Despite their large numbers, their qualitative weakness was an inherent flaw—even their captain was merely a mid-tier knight.
And now, that captain, Allen, wore a completely twisted expression.
"To prove our loyalty, our knight order must take the lead."
A statement that conveniently omitted all context.
Allen found it utterly absurd, but his employer—no, his paymaster—was not the type to kindly explain things to his subordinates.
'The beginning of the Great Rotation, and we're the vanguard...? I'm no transcendent!'
If not for his family still residing in Kairos territory, he would have fled on the spot.
"Don't worry about your family. I'll take responsibility for them for life."
That single sentence was all he had to cling to.
The mages of the Tower of Glaciers had cast a few support spells on him and his men, but it did little to inspire confidence.
Before deployment, their leader had handed him something to keep close—an item that, when he thought about it now, only confirmed that they were meant to hold out a little longer before dying.
'Bastards.'
Allen counted it as a small mercy that his helmet hid his expression as he waited for the signal to charge—or rather, the moment of his death.
And then—
"Advance!"
Bwooooooo—
With a war cry and the blare of horns, he weakly raised his lance.
"Kairos Knight Order! Charge...!"
He didn't even consider how his voice might sound to others.
He could only hope that most of his men, who shared his predicament, would keep charging without faltering. Forcing his willpower to the surface, Allen spurred his horse forward.
'There's no rule saying I have to die! If I can just pull this off and retreat quickly...'
But fate seemed determined to mock even that modest hope.
The enemy vanguard charging toward him—the crimson Force blazing at the tip of their lances—belonged unmistakably to high-tier knights.
Despair settled into Allen's eyes behind his visor.
The MacLaines were just as shocked by the appearance of the Kairos Knight Order.
"Kairos?!"
"Why...?"
Father and son exchanged bewildered glances, but no answers came to mind.
Nor did they have the luxury to ponder the inexplicable reality before them.
"Has Simon Kairos lost his mind?"
Not his father-in-law—but Simon Kairos, the Baron.
That single remark erased any lingering concern Logan might have had for his father.
And in that moment, the horns signaling the charge blared across the battlefield.
Bwooooooo—
"All forces, advance!"
Amid the distant roar of marching orders, the MacLaine forces moved forward alongside the Second Prince Faction's command center, pressing toward the enemy lines.
Their deployment was entirely different from two weeks prior—a clear display of their transformed standing.
At the center of it all, Logan clicked his tongue as he watched the Kairos Knight Order being utterly crushed.
An outcome everyone had anticipated.
But what followed was something no one could have predicted.
Kwaaaaang—!
A deafening explosion, followed by a wave of freezing cold that engulfed the allied knights at the forefront.
The epicenter was the shattered vanguard of the Kairos Knight Order.
From the fallen knights, waves of frost radiated outward, indiscriminately swallowing friend and foe alike across a radius of a hundred meters.
"Blizzard!"
"Fifth-Circle magic, cast repeatedly like that?!"
"Scrolls...!"
Fifth-Circle scrolls—artifacts that even a Sixth-Circle archmage would struggle to produce.
Rare enough that their value was incalculable, these near-artifact-level weapons of war detonated one after another—five in total at a glance.
"Huh...?!"
Even Logan couldn't help but tense at the spectacle.
One of the tactical weapons that had defeated the Second Prince Faction in the Great Rotation of his past life had just revealed itself.
'Blizzard Scrolls. Judging by their reactions, even they're using them for the first time. And this can't be all of Juan Douglas's stockpile.'
Fortunately, Fifth-Circle magic scrolls weren't so forgiving.
Common knowledge held that without a mage to control them, their power and direction were uncontrollable.
Since no mage could recklessly cast spells at the frontlines, the Blizzard Scrolls could only be used in a suicidal manner.
'Though it seems they didn't even realize that much.'
Logan clicked his tongue as he surveyed the knights strewn across the frozen wasteland created by the explosions.
Few knights within the overlapping frost zones—spanning three hundred meters—had survived.
The "weak" Kairos Knight Order had served as bait to annihilate three baronial knight orders under the command of the Taltan Border Lord simultaneously.
An absolutely devastating loss.
By all accounts, the first clash was a decisive victory for the First Prince Faction.
"That bastard Juan! Does he mean to end this here and now?!"
A furious roar erupted from the command center.
As the banners fluttered chaotically, the Second Prince Faction's core forces began moving swiftly into action.
"We should go too."
"Yes."
"Advance!"
"Charge...!"
Amid the war cries erupting from all sides, the MacLaines also began their advance.
Logan's gaze fixed on a massive figure sprinting ahead of the allied forces at an inhuman speed—a man whose sheer size made it hard to believe he was human.
'An Aura User. Half-Giant, Luther Kyle.'
Half-Giant.
A man bearing the epithet of the giants—a legendary race said to have rivaled dragons in the mythical era.
With momentum befitting his title, he tore across the battlefield faster than any horse.
And before him, a slender figure—so small in comparison that he looked like a dwarf—approached like a gust of wind.
"Today's the day I finish you, you overgrown lump!"
"I'll smash you to pieces, you bag of bones!"
Luther Kyle's massive warhammer, as large as his own frame, erupted with an ominous crimson glow as it swung down to crush the diminutive figure.
'Aura!'
Even in this life, it was Logan's first time witnessing the destructive authority of Aura.
His master had never shown him this miraculous power, warning that those insufficiently trained would have their very minds shattered by its presence.
Yet even from a distance, its overwhelming force was palpable.
And in the face of that colossal might, Wicken Calria quietly drew a slender rapier.
The pure white mana flowing visibly along its length marked it as an extraordinary artifact—but against the titan before him, it seemed pitifully small and fragile.
Yet the moment Wicken Calria—the Stormblade—swung his beloved sword, that perception was forced to reverse entirely.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
A whirlwind of blinding white light, four to five meters in diameter, erupted and swallowed the charging giant whole.
And then—
Kwaaaaang—!!
A thunderous explosion rocked the heart of the battlefield, seizing the attention of every combatant present.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
Kwaaang!
"I'll sever that stubborn life of yours here and now!"
"Who do you think you're talking to?!"
Whether due to the distance or his own limitations, Logan found it difficult to follow the battle between these two transcendents even with his heightened senses.
But the clash between these two extremes—one specialized in "physique," the other in "elemental mastery"—was instructive just to observe.
'There, like that... Oh.'
Compared to his past life, where he would have fled without looking back at the sight of transcendents fighting, this was unimaginable progress.
The memories of that past life only deepened his focus on their duel.
But the unfortunate truth was that this wasn't a situation where he could afford to concentrate solely on their battle.
"Logan!"
"Yes, I know!"
Hearing his father's voice, Logan tore his gaze away from the fierce combat at the center.
A massive force had already closed the distance, their expressions now clearly visible along the extended frontlines surrounding the transcendent duel.
Though reluctant, he was no bystander here.
He and the MacLaines needed to leave a lasting impression on the Second Prince and Duke Jordan Waltermein in this battle.
"Victor!"
"Yes!"
The moment Logan shouted, Victor and his 1,500 crossbow cavalry surged ahead, prepared for this very moment.
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
As tradition dictated, the knights from both sides were the first to clash.
Victor's crossbow cavalry maneuvered through the gaps in their own knight formations, taking aim at the enemy forces charging toward them.
"Without their crossbows, they're nothing!"
The Zahid Knight Order, positioned at the enemy's frontlines and closely monitoring the MacLaine forces, raised their shields in unison.
Information about MacLaine's weapons had already spread throughout the First Prince Faction's army, and every knight had prepared at least one countermeasure against this mounted unit's attacks.
Just as the Zahid knights allowed themselves a triumphant smirk—
"Wheel about!"
The crossbow cavalry abruptly pivoted at a right angle, galloping parallel to the enemy lines.
"What the—?"
Rommel, captain of the Zahid Knight Order, wanted to pursue them—but another knight order was already lowering their lances, poised to strike his forces.
'Tch!'
The honor of crushing the ones who had shattered Ulbuth should have been his.
But the knights before him took priority over those already out of reach.
Kwaaang!
Rommel violently shook off an enemy impaled on his lance.
Some baronial knight order that had gotten in the way of his true target—the MacLaine forces—wasn't even worth his attention.
'We can do this!'
All he needed was to finish these fools quickly and then deal with his original objective.
"Charge! Pierce through their lines!"
Rommel rallied his proud subordinates—who had crushed an entire knight order with only twenty losses out of two hundred and fifty—and urged his horse forward again.
Toward a greater prize than the scattered remnants before him.
But at that moment, a hail of quarrels blackened his vision.
"Fire! Fire! Target the gaps in their formation!"
Kaisolon's voice rang out, and with each shift of the banners, MacLaine's soldiers loosed their crossbows with precision.
Among them were many veterans who had survived several brutal battles, including the siege of Tomodo Castle.
They knew they could bring down knights—and so they faced the knight order before them without fear.
Trained around these seasoned soldiers, the troops moved mechanically, firing their crossbows in sync with their drillmaster's commands.
The charging knights, forced to halt their momentum, could only frantically deflect arrows—showing no signs of advancing further.
And soon enough—
Kwaaaang!
An explosion erupted amid the enemy knight order, exposing their vulnerabilities as they began falling one after another.
The sinister-looking mage hurling those explosive weapons from far behind their lines was now their most reliable ally.
"Right flank, second row! There's an opening! Concentrated fire!"
Following Kai's orders, a barrage of rapid-fire crossbow bolts targeted the wounded knights, and the Zahid Knight Order began collapsing one by one.
And as they fell, MacLaine's knight order finally moved.
The MacLaine army didn't adhere to the traditional charge formation—where knights led the assault, followed by infantry, with mages providing support.
Victor's crossbow cavalry skirted past their own knights, maneuvering to flank and target enemy soldiers exclusively.
The charging enemy knight order was being held at bay by mere infantry.
And the mages weren't playing a supporting role—they were actively attacking the enemy knights directly.
Meanwhile, their strongest force—the knight order—remained stationary.
"Don't think of it as cowardice. Think of it as minimizing our casualties."
"Who here would be stupid enough to think otherwise?! There are no fools among us!"
Heinkel's cheeky reply drew laughter from the ranks, but the tension didn't ease.
"We're here to finish off a crumbling enemy knight order! Any of you incapable of that?!"
"None, sir!"
"Good! All forces—charge!"
With Heinkel's cry, the MacLaine Knight Order surged forward, aiming for the gaps in the faltering enemy lines.