Chapter 267: The First Continental War (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 267: The First Continental War (5)
At first, no one realized the White-haired Mage was casting 8th Circle magic.
They had never seen such a thing, let alone heard of it. Even when the sky flashed, they placed absolute faith in the magic defense formation layered over the walls.
Flash.
The sky lit up.
From the thick, dark clouds, a single bolt of lightning struck the wall with full force.
Boom!
Crash! Crash! Crash!
A colossal explosion rocked the battlefield.
The magic defense formation activated, instantly manifesting dozens of magic shields in the air. Yet, the lightning struck with enough force to shatter them, sending the soldiers of the Cairo-Dmitry Allied Forces tumbling to the ground. Looking up with dazed expressions, they saw a sky that felt like an omen of doom—completely obscured by the violent clash between the magic shields and the lightning.
The problem was, that was only the beginning.
The sky turned a blinding white, unleashing a relentless barrage of lightning as if spewing pure wrath.
Rumble!
Boom!
Crash! Crash! Crash!
It was a truly overwhelming sight.
The mages who set up the magic defense formation had confidently boasted it could withstand even 7th Circle magic for at least ten days. But with every strike of lightning, cracks spread across the shields before they shattered, one by one. Even those ignorant of magic understood what this meant. At this rate, the magic defense formation would be completely annihilated in less than thirty minutes.
At that moment, Marquis Vandenberg shouted.
"Raise the magic defense formation's output to the maximum! Even a mage of Kronos cannot maintain such magic for long! If we buy time, an opportunity will surely present itself!"
It was a desperate struggle. A hope born of common sense rather than solid facts.
The mages stepped forward. They channeled their mana to reinforce the magic defense formation, but the reality they faced was pure despair.
Boom!
Rumble!
"Ugh!"
"Blegh!"
The mages were thrown back.
Infusing their mana created a direct link, causing the shockwaves striking the formation to transmit back into the mages. Even that minor feedback was too much to bear. Some collapsed screaming, while others vomited blood. The lower-circle mages, in particular, had their circles shattered by the indirect shock and lost consciousness on the spot.
It was clear. They could not hold out.
The power wielded by the White-haired Mage utterly shattered the common sense Marquis Vandenberg had lived by for his entire life.
'…So this is what Count Fabius meant.'
Count Fabius had previously relayed Duke Bamford's words to the leadership. It had sounded like an incredibly arrogant statement. Vandenberg had thought the claim—that the Duke lost interest in the war after learning of Kronos's true power—was merely a bluff meant to break their morale.
But the scene before his eyes proved otherwise.
The Cairo-Dmitry Allied Forces could only watch the enemy's attack helplessly, unable to formulate a countermeasure. In the end, like death row convicts offering up their necks, they stared blankly, knowing the magic defense formation was bound to break.
He swallowed hard. Only now did he truly realize what a war with Kronos meant.
'The magic the White-haired Mage is using is definitely 7th Circle or higher. If he truly is an 8th Circle mage… the Kronos Empire was called the strongest nation on the continent even without revealing such an existence to the world.'
It was suffocating.
The Kronos Empire was a nation capable of speaking of continental conquest with its public forces alone. If its hidden strength was this unimaginable, there was no hope of winning this war.
Roman Dmitry was undoubtedly a historical figure. Considering his achievements at such a young age despite hailing from a weak nation, he was certainly the only one who could stand against the Kronos Empire.
However, Kronos's history was built layer upon layer; there was a wall here that could not be scaled by the power of a single individual.
At that moment—Boom! The magic defense formation shattered.
The lightning that struck immediately after blasted the wall, instantly collapsing the barrier they had believed to be an iron fortress.
Rumble!
The wall crumbled.
Barely ten minutes since the war began, the Cairo-Dmitry Allied Forces faced a despairing reality.
* * *
The moment the wall crumbled, Duke Bamford roared a thunderous command.
"All forces, charge!"
"Charge!"
"Uwaaaah!"
The empire's forces surged forward all at once.
While the presence of mages in war was overwhelming, it was ultimately melee combat between soldiers that decided the end. Now that the wall had lost its purpose, there was no reason to hesitate. Faced with the fiercely charging soldiers, the Cairo-Dmitry Allied Forces could not afford to just stand and watch.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
Arrows were unleashed.
Although imperial soldiers fell with death rattles under the rain of arrows, that alone could not stop the enemy surging forward like a tidal wave. There were simply too many of them. The archers, their hands trembling as they drew their bows, knew they would soon be locked in close combat.
It was then that mages stepped forward onto the remaining walls.
"Burning."
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
It was Felix and the Phoenix mages. Felix's presence flared intensely as he cast a powerful fire spell.
"Fire Storm."
It was a 7th Circle spell.
Felix had honed his magic, and with the help of Burning, he was temporarily able to cast 7th Circle magic. A tempest of flames swept through the battlefield. It was a disaster that even the Kronos imperial army could not avoid.
Roar!
Boom!
"Aaargh!"
"I-It's hot!"
The enemies were engulfed in flames.
Those directly touched by the fire were charred black, while those within the zone of the flames clutched their throats and collapsed as the heat scorched their airways. The Phoenix mages also cast spells in rapid succession. Flames erupted everywhere, making the advancing wave of soldiers look as if they were evaporating in an instant.
Phoenix. Indeed, in terms of destructive power, they were top-class mages.
The reason the leadership of the Western Front had been confident in their defense was their thorough preparation and their absolute trust in the Phoenix mages. Under normal circumstances, their magic would have settled the situation.
But the White-haired Mage was a variable. In response to Felix and his mages, he cast his own spell.
"Wind Storm."
Whoosh!
The wind howled. It clashed with Felix's Fire Storm, burning violently. Because of this, the Fire Storm could not fulfill its purpose.
While a Fire Storm's strength lay in its ability to sweep across the battlefield with wind-driven flames, the Wind Storm held it firmly in place, preventing it from spreading. Furthermore, in the world of mages, the difference in circles was absolute. Before long, the Wind Storm completely swallowed the Fire Storm.
Whoosh.
The wind dispersed.
Watching the embers scatter, the leadership of the Western Front realized that even their magic could not stop the enemy.
The White-haired Mage.
His presence was overwhelming. He proved right before their eyes what a true mage could do on a battlefield—that a single 8th Circle mage could turn the tide of war all by himself. The realm of Heaven Beyond Heaven was truly different. He had shattered the magic defense formation, collapsed the wall, and rendered Felix's magic useless with a single spell.
In the end…
"The enemy is breaking in!"
"Hold them back!"
The imperial army surged through the collapsed wall.
Just as they were about to strike the Western Front's forces with ferocious expressions, a lightning-like aura descended from above.
Boom!
Rumble!
"You shall pass no further!"
A powerful explosion of aura erupted. The man who swept the enemies away in an instant was none other than Count Nicholas.
* * *
The man once called the First Sword of Cairo had arrived.
Blocking the path of the oncoming enemy, he flared his aura and cut them down.
Flash.
Blood sprayed like a fountain.
Not stopping there, Count Nicholas charged forward, hacking indiscriminately to prevent the enemy from breaching the castle. Ordinary soldiers were utterly helpless. A 5-Star Swordsman, whose swordsmanship was so refined he was once called the First Sword of Cairo, now blocked their path. Heads rolled with every step he took.
During the ranking match with Roman Dmitry, Count Nicholas had suffered a fatal wound. It was a severe injury that required him to focus entirely on recovery for a long time, but it had actually served as an opportunity for him to let go of his burdens.
The title of Rank 1. The pressure that came with it had been immense, whether he realized it or not. Once Daniel Cairo completely seized power, Nicholas stepped away from complex political affairs and focused solely on himself.
In doing so, he fully recovered.
No, with skills even more formidable than before, Count Nicholas's presence exploded.
"Die!"
Rumble!
Kronos knights rushed him. It wasn't just one or two. Two in front, three on the flanks.
They flared their 3-Star and 4-Star auras, pressing Count Nicholas, but he calmly parried their attacks with concise footwork. Light flashed. A violent impact ensued, and for a moment, Count Nicholas seemed to be pushed back. Yet, with every clash, an enemy's head flew.
"…?!"
They couldn't even see it properly. The moment they tried to launch a follow-up attack after seeing Count Nicholas block, they lost consciousness.
Other aura swordsmen soon collapsed, spraying blood. Like a fine wine maturing with age, Count Nicholas's swordsmanship had fully blossomed.
At the same time…
"Duck!"
Flash.
Above Count Nicholas's head, a wind swept past. It was Chris.
After executing the operation with Roman Dmitry, Chris and the Dmitry soldiers had immediately returned to the Western Front. The only one left in enemy territory was Roman Dmitry. As the wall crumbled, Chris unleashed his aura to assist Count Nicholas.
He was fast. Count Nicholas glanced at Chris's face.
'Has Chris already reached this level?'
Setting aside the difference in aura, it was a strike so fast and refined that even Nicholas himself could not guarantee he could block it cleanly.
It was just as the rumors said. People claimed that the subordinates following Roman Dmitry were monsters in their own right. Though Chris was still young, the swordsmanship he displayed promised a brilliant future.
Following him, Dmitry's swordsmen appeared one after another, plugging the gap in the wall.
Although the wall had collapsed sooner than expected due to the variable of the 8th Circle mage, the enemies surging like a tsunami were not sharp enough to pierce through the narrow bottleneck.
They could still fight.
Count Nicholas flared his aura and shouted, channeling mana into his voice.
Rumble!
"Soldiers of Cairo and Dmitry! Do not give up! The Western Front will not fall like this!"
* * *
On the remaining sections of the wall, Flora Lawrence surveyed the battlefield.
Clack! Clack!
Hooking ladders onto the stone, the Kronos imperial forces attempted to scale the defenses.
Lightning struck relentlessly from the dark, clouded sky, while on the ground, a fierce battle raged as the enemy tried to breach the collapsed wall and break through the castle gates. The situation was grim. Flora Lawrence continuously fired arrows while analyzing the unfolding situation in her head.
'To execute our plan, we need at least three days at the absolute earliest. We thought it would be entirely possible if we held out using the wall, but with the wall collapsing on the very first day, conventional calculations are meaningless.'
Furthermore, there was a glaring problem.
The presence of the 8th Circle mage, who watched the situation from afar as if merely observing, could plunge their already dire situation into an abyss. And perhaps that wasn't the only card Kronos held. The White-haired Mage was an Archmage completely unknown to the public; they had to consider the possibility of more powerhouses beyond imagination appearing.
The Kronos Empire. A nation that, along with Valhalla, monopolized the top ranks of the continent.
In the absence of Roman Dmitry, if their rankers appeared, there would be little chance of victory even in melee combat.
If so, a question arose.
'Is it right for us to defend the Western Front to the bitter end? What Roman Dmitry wanted was enough time to execute the operation, not necessarily for us to hold the Western Front at all costs. Defending a collapsed wall requires sacrificing far more than expected. It would be better to make a swift decision.'
In a war with Kronos, they were no match for the enemy, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Against an elite army that also employed human wave tactics, responding in the same manner would eventually leave them cornered. To her, this situation was truly terrifying.
It felt as though hope was vanishing before the overwhelming presence of Kronos, but she believed in Roman Dmitry.
He would turn the tide.
Therefore, they had to buy at least three days, by any means necessary.
Thud!
She planted an arrow right between the eyes of an enemy climbing the wall. Then, she ran quickly toward Marquis Vandenberg.
"Commander!"
He, too, was directly participating in the battle. As the blood-stained Marquis Vandenberg spotted Flora Lawrence, she spoke in an urgent but firm tone.
"We have no chance of winning like this! Abandon the Western Front and order Plan B!"
Plan B.
In the worst-case scenario, a fitting decision was required.
