Fading Glory
He exhaled a ragged breath. Biting his lower lip, he bowed his head and let out a faint, humorless laugh.
Dammit. Falling to my death was a first.
Einzel quickly composed his expression. He had to pretend nothing was wrong; he couldn't let his allies drown in anxiety.
"...Cutting across the plains seems out of the question for now."
"Yes, I agree," the commander replied, readily agreeing that the open terrain was far too dangerous.
Einzel felt a bitter irony in his current plight—knowing full well the open plains were technically safer, yet forced to declare them perilous because of that witch.
"In that case, taking a route through the mountains seems best, but... the problem is how we'll respond if the undead ambush us."
"Indeed. It's difficult to invoke large-scale miracles in mountainous terrain as well."
Einzel fell into deep thought. Crossing the plains was impossible regardless. What alternatives did they have?
"...Peria, cast a spell on me."
"What kind of spell?" Peria asked.
He squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment before answering, "A sensory enhancement spell. For twenty-four hours."
"...What?" Peria stared at him as if questioning his sanity. But he was entirely lucid.
"Have you lost your mind? You won't be able to sleep a wink! You'll drive yourself insane!"
"...I can handle it."
What was the torment of sleeplessness compared to the agony of dying? Einzel reasoned.
"No, you can't. No matter how high someone's pain tolerance is, sleep deprivation breaks everyone."
"It's just a few days without sleep. Nothing to make a fuss over."
"Sure, that'd be true if we were lounging in a comfortable mansion back in the capital! We're on a forced march, and we're about to trek over mountains! You think you can endure days without sleep under those conditions? Does that make any sense at all?"
"...Then do you have a better idea?"
"In the first place, sensory enhancement creates immense fatigue for the recipient. It's meant for short, single bursts, not prolonged use."
"...What if we combine it with an alarm spell?"
"What do you mean?"
"Cast the sensory enhancement on me, and while I rest, the alarm spell can detect enemy movement. Wouldn't that work?"
"Look, I'm telling you, sensory amplification isn't designed to last. Every single sense is amplified dozens of times over—just standing upright will make you dizzy."
"...I'll be fine. Isn't that still a lot better than the alternative? I can take it."
"...Are you serious?"
Einzel nodded firmly.
"Fine. But the second you feel even slightly off, tell me immediately. Good grief... where did you pick up such stubbornness...?"
"Thanks."
Peria's cheeks flushed warm, and she snapped, "Shut it! Just get ready to move."
Einzel gathered the soldiers and addressed them:
"Listen to me! We may be caught in the enemy's grasp right now, but we possess an unyielding fighting spirit, righteousness, and a burning desire to live! We will break through their lines and return to our families so we can tell them, 'I'm home.' We are getting out of here alive!"
Unlike previous regressions, he made a conscious effort to bolster the soldiers' morale. Traversal of the mountain range would be grueling, and his words were as much an encouragement to himself as they were to the men.
"Waaaah!"
Roaring cheers erupted. Tightening his grip on the Holy Sword, Einzel took the lead at the vanguard.
This time, we will survive. Just as I always have.
He stepped into the dense mountain forest, where tangled branches reached out like sinister claws, blocking out even the starlight above.
After several hours of marching, he and the soldiers made camp. They did not light a fire; smoke and flame would instantly betray their position to the enemy. Their meal consisted only of dried jerkies and hard biscuits, and even those were rationed strictly.
It seemed as though they had safely weathered their first night.
Then, not long after most of the camp had drifted off to sleep, the alarm spell went off.
"The fuck is that?!"
Lena was the first to react, her sharp elven ears picking up the ward's chime immediately.
Everyone scrambled to their feet, weapons in hand. Einzel rose as well.
"What is it? They're moving a bit too fast to be ordinary undead," Sayne remarked.
Einzel's expression hardened.
He manifested a small mote of miraculous light to illuminate their surroundings.
"...What in the world are those?"
The soldiers stared in confusion at the approaching figures. They were clearly not undead, yet they seemed far too bizarre to be considered living beings.
While the others wondered about the enemies' identity, Einzel recognized them instantly.
They were the Ashen Soldiers—the very fiends that had plagued him during the siege.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. The moment he identified them, vivid memories rushed back.
The Ashen Soldiers who had scaled the ramparts the instant his allies grew exhausted, throwing open the gates. The enemy commander who breached the fortress, obsessively seeking only him. And the ensuing sea of flames. The unbearable agony.
"Dammit..."
Beatrice spoke up. "Um, shall I try invoking a miracle first?"
"No," Einzel intervened. If his memory served him right, unlike undead, these creatures had no particular vulnerability to holy power.
"Lena! Shoot at them."
"...Might be tough. It's pitch black out there."
Einzel gave Peria a nod, and Peria promptly cast sensory enhancement on Lena.
Guided by the subtle rustle of foliage, Lena loosed an arrow into the dark.
A soft thud echoed back as one of the targets collapsed.
"Huh? Down it goes."
Yet even as it fell, the enemy emitted no sound whatsoever.
"These definitely aren't undead."
Even as she said this, Lena picked off the foes one after another. After taking down several, she nocked another arrow, only to lower her bowstring.
"...Did they retreat?"
Undead never fled unless commanded by a higher-tier entity. It was now undeniable that their assailants were not undead, and an uneasy shiver ran through the soldiers.
Einzel, however, focused on something else entirely: the fact that the Ashen Soldiers had retreated. From countless deaths, he knew that drawn-out skirmishes against these creatures relentlessly drained an army's stamina. Their retreat was an exceptionally ominous sign.
"...Let's rest and recover our strength for now."
These foes left no scent or presence, moved far faster than undead, and possessed inexhaustible stamina. Just imagining having to deal with them night after night made Einzel shudder in disgust.
At dawn, they resumed their march. As expected, nightly harassment from these enemies proved more than enough to grind the allied forces down. Yet night marches were out of the question; traversing mountain paths in the dark was suicide regardless of endurance. As a result, every passing night steadily whittled away at their physical and mental limits.
Isn't there any other way?
Einzel wracked his brains. Circling around the mountain range like this was tantamount to being herded like prey. If dying surrounded by the undead horde in his previous loop had been like getting caught in a fish trap, this felt like a noose steadily tightening around their necks.
...Right.
A plan formed in his mind. An insanely perilous gamble.
"We are going here."
"...Have you lost your mind?" Peria stared at him as if he were delusional. Einzel kept silent for a moment.
"Could Sir Hero be exhausted from the arduous march...?" Beatrice voiced her genuine concern.
Einzel spoke up. "No. If we stay on this course, we'll run out of stamina and be slaughtered like sitting ducks."
"...No matter how annoying those enemies are, they're just gnats," Lena chimed in, voicing her objection. "Diverting our path here just to dodge a few gnats is... a bit much, don't you think?"
Einzel shook his head. He had weighed every factor before reaching this conclusion.
"I mean, marching right into the jaws of one of the continent's greatest Calamities just to shake off a skirmish force... that's just insane..." Lena muttered.
The destination Einzel proposed was the territory of the Lich King—one of the Three Great Disasters of the continent.
"...Walking right into that madman's domain is suicidal. Do you have any idea how many kingdoms he's wiped off the map? I bet the Lich King has slaughtered more people than the Demon King himself!"
The undying army commanded by the Lich King was pure terror incarnate. Unlike sluggish ordinary undead, they were, quite literally, sprinting death.
Led by skeletal cavalry mounted atop skeletal steeds and tracked by winged, colossal eyeballs known as Night Eyes, they pursued their prey with relentless certainty.
Those slain by their hand rose once more as undead, returning to trample the very homelands they had loved in life.
A monster rivaling the Black Ocean, said to swallow entire cities in living shadow, and Titan, whose single stride crushed human settlements beneath his heel.
And Einzel had just declared that they would march straight into the maw of that very Lich King.