Chapter 358
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 358
Chapter Title: #358. What in the World Is This?
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"We've got the manpower replenished."
After the Continental Alliance was formed.
Rose immediately sought out Rimon.
And with a faint smile, like a spouse returning from a business trip with a souvenir, she said,
"I've already spoken to them, so use them as you see fit."
"Really? You persuaded them better than I expected. I figured there'd be a ton of complaints."
"I told the ones who had complaints to try me with force, then gave a stern talking-to to the boldest few. After that, they all fell in line."
"...Sis, aren't you adapting to Africa a bit too well?"
Chasing strength was the issue, she said.
But once you proved your strength, they'd follow obediently—that was the African way.
Watching Rose deliver such ruthless words with a gentle smile, Rimon was briefly dumbfounded.
Then he scratched his cheek.
"Well, anyway, thanks for setting it up. I'll make good use of them. I was just thinking we needed more hands."
With that, Rimon dumped the 'gift' from Rose entirely onto the Lukuma tribe chief, who was sweating buckets while working with the locals.
"Chief Lukuma, you can handle managing them, right?"
"Manage them? How am I supposed to handle that many soldiers...?"
"Oh? If you can't, hand it off to Chief Umbavu then."
"Just leave it to me! I swear on the honor of our tribe—we'll get it done!"
"Good. Make sure you do exactly as ordered. Mess up, and our sis will be pissed. Got it?"
"Y-Yes, sir. I'll keep that in mind."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
A few days later.
The military leaders from across the continent arrived one after another, leading their armies, only to be left stunned.
Having witnessed Hasneti's prowess firsthand, they had braced for a brutal war.
But the battlefield they encountered was far more grueling than they'd imagined.
Just... in a different way.
"...What are we supposed to do?"
"Dig trenches from here to there. Use vehicles to haul the stone. Check the orders for the details."
"You're telling us to do manual labor?"
"Why not? It's nothing new."
He wasn't wrong.
No army lacked engineers.
And soldiers were used to digging trenches, building fortifications, and handling all sorts of construction on the battlefield.
The problem was the scale.
A massive force of over a hundred thousand from hundreds of nations in the Continental Alliance.
Scattered across the plains, digging with shovels and hauling massive boulders—it looked nothing like fortification work, no matter how you sliced it.
If anything...
"This looks less like building defenses and more like a pyramid construction site."
"So you're refusing?"
"I came here to fight a war!"
They'd rushed in expecting a bloody clash with the Egyptian army.
Instead, they were ordered into hard labor, and the military leaders voiced their bewilderment in their own ways.
But Chief Lukuma's response was always the same.
"If you've got complaints, take it up with our general."
"Urgh..."
Nearly everyone backed down at those words and followed orders.
After the Continental Alliance formed.
Those quietly coveting command had seen exactly how Rose dealt with them.
Having witnessed that, no one dared defy her official orders.
And so, the Continental Alliance's brave soldiers joined the crucial groundwork to halt the Egyptian army.
Shovels in hand instead of rifles.
It marked the start of an unprecedented high-speed civil engineering project, turning nearly every African warlord outside Egypt into manual laborers.
But among them, one laborer stood out above the rest.
Rimon, wandering the plains with nothing but a single carving knife, sculpting stone pillars wherever he went.
Scraaape, scraaape.
"Let's see... if I do it like this, will it work?"
Without chisel or hammer.
Using only his platinum carving knife.
His skill in transforming rough boulders into flowing pillars was truly masterful.
You'd think he'd barely touched it, yet in under an hour, the rock became a pillar. The speed was astonishing.
But what was truly shocking was the craftsmanship.
The same stone, yet...
Differences in roughness or smoothness.
The angle from the ground.
With subtle variations, he captured the feel of cliffs, peaks, or barren wastelands. It was enough to make any sculptor doubt their eyes.
Especially since a top-tier artisan would take days for what he churned out in minutes.
Clang.
"Hmph, trickier than I thought."
Still, Rimon couldn't shake his dissatisfied expression.
Sculpting was just the means.
He was focused on infusing the pillars with dragon psyonic energy.
The issue was the results.
Going beyond mere containment to shape the flow as he desired was tough even for him.
And there was no one to consult.
Infusing objects with dragon psyonic energy was unprecedented to begin with.
"Tch, no helping it."
He tried carving pillars in various ways dozens of times to force the desired flow.
With no satisfying outcome, he clicked his tongue.
And made a decision.
"If quality won't cut it, I'll brute-force it with quantity."
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
...The moment hundreds of stone pillars were destined to rise in the Kilimanjaro Autonomous Region.
Even for the quick-handed Rimon, sculpting that many meant days and nights without rest, devoted entirely to the task.
But he persevered.
As a Sword Master who never tired.
And as one whose dragon psyonic energy overflowed no matter how much he poured in—this brute-force feat was possible only for him.
The payoff was certain.
Before the Egyptian army arrived, hundreds of pillars stood across the plains.
"...You really pulled it off."
"That tone—like you doubted I would, sis?"
"Not at all. Just chalk it up to my surprise."
Sensing the majestic yet serene flow, like a river, blanketing the plains around the hundreds of pillars, Rose was genuinely impressed.
Even she had to focus intently, knowing it was there, to barely detect the psyonic currents.
That subtlety was proof the formation was properly complete.
"To erect one of the Seven Dragon Society's supreme barriers—the Stone Soldiers Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation—in mere days... The Black Dragon Clan would be speechless."
"Nah, everyone pitched in."
Perhaps from sheer exhaustion.
Chief Lukuma lay collapsed in the grass, fast asleep.
Umbavu snored atop his chest.
Soldiers partied in their tents to celebrate completion, while Shu tended to the injured from construction.
Namim and Utopia Guild members slumbered on summoned beasts. Rimon chuckled at the sight.
Not quite sleepless like him, but the whole alliance had worked day and night to meet the deadline.
"But as you can see, Count, this formation isn't fully perfected."
Rimon said gravely.
The original Stone Soldiers Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation centered on eight pillars, deployed by Black Dragon Clan experts.
Rimon had substituted their direct psyonic control with hundreds of pillars infused with dragon psyonic energy.
Possible only because he could imbue objects with it.
And from centuries battling the clan, learning their formations through his body.
But imitation was just that.
Compared to the clan's direct control, this version had many shortcomings.
"Quantity expanded the range massively, but the power's probably only half of Leviathan's at best."
Opening (Open).
Resting (Rest).
Living (Life).
Injuring (Harm).
Closing (Gate).
Viewing (View).
Startling (Alarm).
Death (Death).
Unlike the original, freely toggling all eight gates, this had only four.
Plus, controlling flow through pillars made switching sluggish.
Reinforced with magic and shamanism, Leviathan outclassed it in effect, durability, and sustainability.
Rimon stated plainly.
"Even half is plenty against the Egyptian army."
Rose wasn't disappointed.
She smiled, instead.
Her request to Rimon wasn't about perfecting the formation, after all.
"Especially with you commanding our forces."
"...Don't put it so confidently."
He scratched his cheek but didn't deny it.
Just sighed deeply.
"Don't overhype me, sis. First time wielding command since World War II."
Before swordsman.
As a veteran of every brutal war these past centuries.
Handed full command of the Continental Alliance by Rose, Rimon methodically prepared to face the Egyptians.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
'What in the world is this?'
Not just the other military leaders.
Even Chiefs Umbavu and Lukuma.
Most of the Continental Alliance inwardly fretted.
They'd mustered a hundred thousand troops against Egypt, only to do... civil engineering? Erecting weird stone pillars, no less.
They doubted Rose truly planned to win this war.
Especially handing command to some blond, tanned kid.
"What in the world is this...?"
But in this moment.
Regardless of rank, every soldier in the alliance muttered the same words—with a whole new meaning.
Not just from watching the Egyptian army wander lost between the hundreds of pillars strewn across hundreds of kilometers of plain all day.
Boom, kaboom! Bwoom!
As if finally realizing something was off.
The Egyptians, entrenched, began shelling in all directions.
And each time shells crossed pillar boundaries, their trajectories warped wildly before slamming harmlessly into the dirt.
Their jaws dropped.
Whoosh!
"Th-That's...!"
"Africa's tyrant!"
Judging shells ineffective.
Commanders gulped as a fierce vortex of flames erupted from the Egyptian center.
The pillars' barrier was strong, but could it stop Hasneti? Anxiety gripped them.
As if confirming their fears.
The growing flame vortex exploded outward in all directions.
Krummmble!
"Gasp!"
"Everyone, down!"
Like it would incinerate the entire plain.
Soldiers hit the deck before the oncoming wall of fire.
But the lead tank's turret.
Rimon perched on its edge, chin in hand, watched the Egyptians impassively.
He just keyed the radio casually.
⚡ Formation Activated ⚡
Stone Soldiers Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation, Closed Gate.