Chapter 246
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 246
Chapter Title: Clash of the Apostles
The owner of the golden spear leaped straight in, kicking the siege golem with both feet as he retrieved his spear.
The siege golem, weighing dozens of tons, momentarily lifted into the air before crashing back to the ground.
This feat from an era of cold weapons, generations past, caused not only the Empire but even the Allied Kingdom forces to halt their attack and stare in awe.
The Lizardman clad in golden armor strode forward, lightly spinning his spear, his mere presence dominating the battlefield.
One of the Empire's soldiers opened his mouth.
"The Thunder Dragon King has arrived!"
The one wielding the spear was Rakrak.
A massive cheer, loud enough to drown out the gunfire, filled the front lines.
Rakrak climbed atop the fallen siege golem and, without a word, thrust the tip of his spear toward the Allied Kingdom army.
The soldiers hunkered down in the trenches to block the Allied Kingdom forces watched as Lizardmen in golden armor mounted massive cockatoos and leaped over the trenches, charging forward.
The elite warrior Yur, with his enormous frame, brought Anakse over and handed the reins to Rakrak.
The Empire's soldiers watched as the two exchanged words and Rakrak burst into laughter.
It felt as if myth had returned once more.
Rakrak shouted.
"Warriors, hear me!"
The Lizardmen deflected bullets with their shields, or glanced them off their helmets and armor, holding their ground. For the moment, they served as living shields protecting the Empire's soldiers behind them.
They turned their heads to look at Rakrak.
"Yacheon prophesied that the day we press down the nose of the Allied Kingdom's wrathful one would become a holy day in the future. Thus, today is the first day of the festival! Is there any among you who would miss the festival?"
At those words, Tatar spoke up.
"I've never seen even that prim-and-proper vice warrior skip a drinking party."
Sairan Muel cleared his throat and replied.
"I simply know my manners."
"Hah, the top drinker who sits with His Majesty till the end says so."
The warriors burst into laughter.
It didn't feel like a battlefield.
An inexplicable surge of vitality welled up in every soldier.
"Today, I shall drink my fill until I'm soaked in the tears and blood of the wrathful one. Those who would join me in this festival, follow me!"
Rakrak struck Anakse's flank with his spurs.
Rakrak and the warriors charged out in unison.
The commander in the trench raised his unit flag high.
"The pathfinder fights with us! Hold the defensive line!"
Rakrak and the warriors' targets were the massive guardians, tanks, and walking mechs that the Empire's limited firepower struggled against.
The warriors smashed through the wrathful one's guardians, wrecked the tanks and walking mechs, and advanced, with the Empire's remaining infantry mopping up the routed enemy under gunfire.
But their momentum didn't reach the coast's end.
"...Rakrak!"
Something leaped from the sky, crashing down with a shockwave.
The massive impact that repelled even the Allied Kingdom's walking mechs and Rakrak's elite warriors forced Rakrak to yank Anakse's reins aside.
Rakrak spun his spear in midair and charged toward the intruder.
"At last, the day of the 'decisive battle' has come! ...Salkait!"
The wrathful one's first apostle, Salkait, rose laughing heartily.
"The day has finally arrived, Rakrak. Today, we stake our lives."
Rakrak smiled without reply and spurred once more.
Anakse, now called the divine bird rather than a mere monster, let out a sharp cry, then accelerated faster than any creature on the first stride, approached the speed of sound on the second, and surpassed it on the third.
Soon, Rakrak and Anakse became a streak of lightning, slamming straight into Salkait.
—CRACK!
In that instant, cracks split the sky and earth.
The golden lightning shot upward into the heavens, while the earthly fissure widened, swallowing everything into its depths.
"The two apostles have clashed! All units, bypass them!"
Though the order was given, it couldn't be called advantageous for the Allied Kingdom.
Thanks to Rakrak claiming the battlefield for his fight with Salkait, the Allied Kingdom's attack routes had narrowed.
This gave the defending Empire the edge in the artillery duel.
Of course, Salkait wouldn't just watch, but the Allied Kingdom, unable to halt their assault, would suffer losses first.
"...To the red lands now."
Someone recited a prayer from the wrathful one's cult and charged into the barrage.
Alma Alloi assessed the situation from the plummeting flagship.
Conditions across all battlefields were dire.
First, at the rearmost transport fleet's tail end, the madman Toolbo and his submarine flotilla were attacking.
The wrathful one's creations had been deployed but were slain by Toolbo's walking mech, so instead of making more, the wrathful one redirected part of the existing fleet to counter the subs.
But no surface ship carried proper weapons against submarines.
Without meaningful resistance, over a dozen vessels had already sunk, and soldiers desperately swam for the shore. Even if they reached it, having discarded their rifles to stay afloat, they couldn't fight effectively.
The ship-to-ship battle, once deemed favorable, was now turning against them with the submarines' arrival.
The Empire had assigned the subs to hit transports while engaging the Allied Kingdom warships, and with some Allied ships diverted to protect transports, the tide was shifting.
'If this continues, once the Allied fleet thins further, their naval guns will turn shoreward.'
The Lasdasil coast situation was already poor.
They'd started strong smashing coastal forts, but Yacheon's whirlwind delay and the aerial defeat led to ongoing airship bombings.
'Speaking of which, the sky battle...'
Originally, after the heavenly fortress Lightra crashed, it was to support Ankarde in advancing together.
But Apostle Aruna and Apostle Mazdari were the issue.
Mazdari, mounted on Aruna, used superior mobility to relentlessly harass Lightra, who failed to protect the airship fleet.
Lightra itself was largely unscathed, but ordering it down wasn't viable. If Lightra descended, so would Mazdari, and to Alma's eyes, they were evenly matched in destructive power.
Apostle Areuga had bypassed per the wrathful one's orders and was clashing with Apostle Bowunda targeting the rear, along with Apostle Obin.
Conversely, Apostle Ankarde's trench breach attempt was blocked by Apostle Redin Bial Oser.
The outcomes of those two fights were unknown, but in the current state, stalemates offered little hope.
The fiercest clash was between Apostle Salkait and Apostle Rakrak.
This battle, destined to be myth in the distant future, kept even modern-armed soldiers at bay.
'...At this rate.'
Defeat was inevitable.
Alma was stunned to even think it but steeled himself—he was the wrathful one's advisor and must judge coldly.
'...I must inform him.'
The Empire's flagship Nuribaragi flew nearby.
But it seemed unconcerned with flagships.
Alma had never met Dordol face-to-face, but he could read his intentions well.
The massive Nuribaragi was slow due to its size but hurried to drop its stockpiled bombs on the Allied Kingdom army, leveraging its huge payload—a choice Alma himself would make.
Compared to the Allied flagship, the situation wasn't much better, but the key difference was it was flying, not falling.
Broken airships could be repaired; plummeting ones could not.
Alma Alloi invoked his god.
—O Wrathful One...
—Be silent for now.
Hegemonia fell quiet.
Then replied.
—I know what you'll say. I'll turn the tide in 10 minutes. Apostles, launch a total assault.
—...Yes.
Absurd as it was to reverse this disadvantage in 10 minutes, Alma neither denied nor doubted. The Wrathful One could do it.
But the implications pained him.
—We will win this war.
—...As you will.
The Wrathful One began to move.
In the battlefield rear, aboard a monstrosity-class warship tasked with downing submarines, an ogre burst into the main gun control room.
The ogre was merely a private, unskilled in main gun operation.
But when the ogre opened its eyes and mouth, the crew hurriedly backed away.
"By the name of the Wrathful One, I command you to step aside."
The Allied Kingdom soldiers had no choice but to recognize it.
This ogre private was possessed.
The ogre's eyes burned with flames.
Hegemonia, possessing the private ogre, operated the main gun and fired.
The captain on the bridge was startled by the uncommanded shot but fell silent upon seeing the target.
The shell struck Toolbo's walking mech as it leaped above the waves—perfectly.
A miracle.
Hegemonia exited the ogre private's body and turned his gaze to the coast.
Then entered the body of the troll soldier nearest his apostle Bowunda.
Possessing the troll, Hegemonia charged and smashed into the bomb demon Obin Mavru that Bowunda was fighting.
A speed neither apostle could match.
As troll-Hegemonia pursued the flying Obin, he looked up.
"Bowunda."
"...How is the Wrathful One here?"
"Best you stay back."
"...?"
As Bowunda looked puzzled, troll-Hegemonia showed the timed bomb wrapped around his forearm.
Obin had coiled it on during the attack.
Bowunda nodded and retreated as troll-Hegemonia drew a dagger from his chest, severed his arm, and hurled it away.
But the bomb detonated before the arm flew far, engulfing troll-Hegemonia.
'...Fortunately, it exploded right after I escaped.'
Hegemonia frowned briefly, then eyed the battlefield where Ankarde fought Redin Bial Oser.
'That troll knight's knight order makes it hard to land blows with just a possessed body.'
The aerial situation was similar.
No Allied Kingdom soldiers remained in the skies now.
Possessing Lightra was possible, but better to let it fight alone.
'Then...'
Hegemonia decided to reverse the tide.
First, he entered the body of a kobold sniper clutching a sniper rifle.
Then immediately released the Possession skill.
'...60 seconds. 59. 58...'
Possession had a 60-second delay even after release.
Hegemonia believed 60 seconds was enough—and he proved it.
Sniper kobold-Hegemonia raised his rifle, targeting the Empire's most glaring walking mech.
The bullet pierced a seam in its torso, ricocheted off internal armor, and lodged in the pilot's throat.
Confirming the mech topple, kobold-Hegemonia reloaded his bolt-action sniper rifle.
Next, a machine gunner in a position.
One shot neutralized the gun nest, halted a tank, and sniped a squad leader.
In a mere 60 seconds, the kobold wrought miracles before a shell from above killed him as the god departed.
Such events erupted across the battlefield.
Hegemonia infiltrated enemy rears as a commando to seize a trench, detonated bombs as an engineer to open new paths, and piloted a walking mech to scrap others.
True to his word, before 10 minutes passed, the tide began favoring the Allied Kingdom once more.
Though the tide had turned, the mood wasn't bad.
Wisdom said.
"In the end, he used it."
"Yeah."
Seong-un agreed.
"As Hegemonia starts burning through faith, the second plan ends. Hegemonia can't challenge the greater domain now."
Seong-un stood.
"We just have to hold. Then we win."