Chapter 245
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 245
Chapter Title: Clash of the Apostles
The Apostle of the Furious One, Bounnda, and the Apostle of the Pantheon, Obin Mavru, could be said to share a deep connection.
Though Bounnda had become an apostle far earlier, they had steadily crossed paths ever since the war between the Empire and the Allied Kingdom.
Bounnda believed he had won their frequent clashes handily, but bragging about it was another matter entirely.
Obin always made strategic choices. Even if he lost a personal fight, it would lead to victory in a larger battle—or if not, it would secure gains elsewhere for the Empire.
Bounnda hated that.
He thought that even if he had met the Furious One before Yacheon, he still wouldn't have joined them.
The Pantheon's world—Yacheon's world—didn't grant the honor due to victors, and it often skipped the humiliation that losers deserved. On top of that, Obin was hailed as a hero even when he hadn't always won.
Bounnda saw it as utterly unfair.
"This time, I'll turn you into mush."
Obin shook his head slowly.
"That's why everyone calls you an idiot."
The moment Bounnda swung his club, Obin pulled the trigger.
"Bounnda and Obin are facing off."
"Is it going according to our predictions?"
The Pantheon's players muttered as they kept peering into the scrying orbs.
Choi Seong-un nodded.
"How's the coast?"
Solongos replied to Seong-un's question.
"Yes, Big Bro. They're completely losing their minds."
It was just as Solongos said.
The forces gathering at the western hills had first been forced to scatter thanks to Obin and the special forces' exploits. Then, as Bounnda and Obin's fight dragged on, they lost any chance to dodge the bombardment, even briefly.
Of course, even without Bounnda handling it, each unit had its own commanders, so they weren't thrown into total disarray. But there was no clear way to evade the Empire's relentless shelling.
Seong-un said,
"But the units will move soon. Tell me the moment you spot any signs."
"Got it."
Seong-un peered at the map.
'Well, Hegemonia? What's your play?'
There were two options.
One was to skirt north along the coast to avoid the bombardment.
Starting from the western hills, the terrain offered ups and downs that could block shells, minimizing casualties.
The transport fleet's rear guard was being utterly ravaged by the madman Toolbo and the Empire's submarine flotilla, but plenty of landing forces still needed to link up.
To maximize their strength, it made sense for the units to take up positions and strike the Empire's front lines simultaneously.
'The other option...'
Solongos spoke up.
"Big Bro, the landing forces are moving!"
"Where to?"
"Straight for our trench lines!"
Seong-un nodded.
'As expected from the best.'
It wasn't easy to think of, but a frontal breakthrough was viable.
The landed forces currently outnumbered the Empire's trench garrison—but only just.
There might not be another chance.
The units from the coastal fortress hadn't fully settled into the trench lines before the Rasdasil Ruins. They were still in disarray.
Plus, with the coastal fortress gone, the Empire was hastily reinforcing the trenches. Even if the landing forces bypassed and minimized losses, the attacks would only get harder proportionally.
Most importantly, in a gunpowder war, forming a front line quickly could buy time for follow-up reinforcements to extend the line or bolster it.
Above all, it was obvious Hegemonia was confident she could win even starting with fewer troops.
It was understandable.
The biggest hurdle, the coastal fortress, was gone. And they likely guessed Seong-un had burned a ton of Faith to pin down Skypiercer Castle's forces—which was true.
'But isn't that too arrogant?'
Attacking the Rasdasil Ruins directly and fighting a war to farm Faith for a Greater Domain to topple it afterward? That felt overly ambitious to Seong-un.
'No, maybe she's not overconfident at all?'
Seong-un pondered briefly, but soon envisioned the next phase of the battle.
His whirlwind assault on Skypiercer Castle's Allied Kingdom forces hadn't been pointless. There was something specific he was waiting for.
With a light wave over the system window, the whirlwinds blanketing Skypiercer Castle gradually faded, then vanished.
"The whirlwinds have stopped!"
In the depths of Skypiercer Castle.
Ankard, the second apostle of the Furious One and orc commander of the ambush force, decided he could wait no longer.
The Furious One ordered all Allied Kingdom troops on solid ground to advance.
The ambush force had originally planned to hit the Empire's retreating forces from behind after they fled the coastal fortress.
'I didn't expect this delay.'
With the blocking whirlwinds gone, they had to hurry and link up with the landing forces.
'It might be a trap, but no choice now. Staying here means getting picked off one by one while our allies fall. Even if Yacheon's whirlwinds return, we have to break out.'
Ankard commanded,
"Everyone, advance."
Once his order was confirmed, the engineer units waiting underground blasted open the sealed exits.
Flames and smoke briefly erupted from spots across Skypiercer Castle, and then the Allied Kingdom forces poured out.
The soldiers, finally seeing daylight, ignored the ruins of the capital and slid down the hills that had once been Skypiercer Castle, charging toward the Rasdasil Ruins.
-KABOOM!
But the lead Allied Kingdom platoon vanished in a burst of light and dust.
A soldier who barely survived by following right behind caught a glimpse of a shadow plummeting just before the blast, managing to look skyward.
"Above us!"
But those were his last words.
The bomb that dropped on his head detonated massively.
Ankard looked up.
High in the sky floated the Empire's airships.
'The Empire still had air forces left?'
Ankard watched them closely and realized that wasn't quite right.
The airships were in rough shape.
Gondolas damaged, prows torn off, hulls aflame.
Some had so few crew they looked like ghost ships.
Yet they still seemed capable of staying aloft.
'Airships that already fought... I see.'
Ankard understood immediately.
These Empire airships bombing the ground were the survivors from the battle against Skypiercer Castle's escorting Allied Kingdom airships.
They were too high up to hit.
Ankard focused and whispered to his chief of staff, Alma Alloi.
-Enemy airships appeared from the coastal fortress position. What happened?
The reply came swiftly.
-Sorry, Ankard...!
The whisper link was unstable.
-Our fleet lost as command range expanded during the air battle.
-Under attack?
-Firebird Aruna and Archmage Mazdari's assaults continue.
-...Focus on the fight. I'll handle my end.
-Understood.
Ankard growled.
'Have we hit our limit?'
It was inevitable.
The Pantheon had more troops, more apostles, even more gods.
And the Furious One hadn't spent any Faith challenging for a Greater Domain.
But Ankard knew this wasn't his first rodeo.
When the Furious One first reached the Second Continent, his trolls were treated as invaders and faced the entire continent's wrath.
They endured that grand alliance and conquered the continent, forming the Allied Kingdom under the Furious One.
'This time too, I'll stake everything.'
Ankard shouted at the troops huddling to dodge explosions.
"You cowards! Charge into the blasts!"
He grabbed one soldier by the collar and shoved him down from Skypiercer Castle.
"Shove your heads into the muzzles! We're all dying today! The path to Rasdasil is the path to the 'Demon Mountain'! I, Apostle Ankard, guarantee that the last survivor will claim the foot of the mountain and suffer eternally!"
The Allied Kingdom army charged into the explosions.
The battle began.
Before the trench lines, an Allied Kingdom troll soldier charged most bravely.
Unfortunately, this era's warfare wasn't kind to troll-kind.
The Empire's bullets rained down on the troll, a massive target.
One to the left forearm, then one to the chest.
Yet the troll tried to take another step.
Then a large-caliber sniper round shattered his jaw.
The troll died before he could fall.
The Empire's Nix sniper who felled him immediately sought the next target.
The foremost was a small goblin soldier.
He aligned sight, crosshairs, and target, exhaled fully, and gently squeezed the first knuckle of his index finger toward his chest.
Satisfied with killing the goblin, the Nix sniper suddenly felt a shockwave and his vision went black.
The Nix sniper was killed by an Allied Kingdom hobgoblin grenadier.
The hobgoblin grenadier, wielding a grenade launcher, spoke to his squad leader crouched in a small crater ahead of the Empire's trenches.
"Sniper's down, I think."
"Machine gunner?"
"Not spotting him from this battery. If the Empire's fortified the front fully, there might be gaps in machine gun coverage on the flanks."
"Maybe."
The orc squad leader pondered briefly.
The Empire's mortars had elevated their angles to pulverize the visible Allied Kingdom forces up close—not distant ones.
With shells pouring like the barrels might melt, there wasn't much time to think.
"Everyone, fix bayonets and grab grenades. We charge the trenches like this."
"Yes, sir!"
With the orc squad leader's charge cry, the squad leaped from the crater and rushed the Empire trenches.
The orc squad leader, firing his rifle from the hip as he ran, realized his judgment was a mistake.
The Empire's Satyros machine gunner hauled up a hidden battery from the trench floor.
It wasn't meant to be hidden; ammo supply delays had just pushed its deployment late.
But the timing was perfect.
The machine gun roared, and the charging Allied Kingdom squad tumbled and rolled across the ground.
The half-vulpin loader beside him swapped the glowing barrel and aligned the belt feed to prevent jams.
But even the Empire's superior munitions couldn't prevent mechanical glitches.
"Malfunction!"
A dud jammed it, and the half-vulpin loader yelled urgently.
That's when she noticed the Satyros gunner's face frozen in horror.
Reflexively, she looked past the gun.
A house-sized siege golem loomed right there.
The siege golem smashed the machine gun battery with its massive stone fist.
Machine guns alone couldn't stop such a foe.
The half-vulpin loader sensed death and squeezed her eyes shut.
At that moment, a golden spear flew in, piercing the chest harboring the Furious One's siege golem's core.