A Warm Comrade's Bond Among the Betrayers
“W-what... w-what the hell is going on? Why did they just fall so easily?”
The native warriors in front of him had been wiped out in an instant.
William was gripped by a deep wave of bewilderment as he watched the very shield that was supposed to block the enemy’s attacks and carve through their ranks crumple and vanish without a trace. The same stunned disbelief colored every soldier under him.
“Muraka... he just...”
“How are we supposed to... this can’t be right. If it keeps like this we’re all going to die!”
The sight of reliable fighters dropping like flies in the blink of an eye began to crush the morale of the entire line.
With the army’s very nature demanding a fast, relentless charge into enemy territory, their momentum was suddenly strangled in place.
While he watched, William forced himself to steady his nerves as the commander he had always been. His voice rang out with as much authority as he could muster.
“W-what are you all doing?! Stop staring like idiots and keep pushing! Fire your guns and your spells! No matter how many of them there are, we’re still better than half their number!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
The brigades officers, carrying William’s order forward, began to rally their men once more.
The soldiers, their fire dampened but not extinguished, resumed the advance with renewed effort.
Behind them the mages and archers moved into position, loading arrows and chanting the next spells.
And then.
“Fire!”
The Empire’s counteroffensive roared forward exactly as William had ordered.
Muzzle flashes belched acrid smoke. Brilliant magic circles bloomed in the sky, pouring forth blazing red flames and jagged lightning that carried far more raw power than the rebels had managed earlier.
The forest terrain had robbed them of cannon support, but this was more than enough.
The sheer difference in firepower made William’s palms slick with sweat, yet the corner of his mouth curled into a smug smile.
*They really are outnumbered. At first it shocked me, but with power like this they’ll have no choice but to...*
Suddenly.
*Pop!*
“...Eh?”
The spells streaking toward the enemy ranks simply vanished, snuffed out like candles in a hurricane. The fiery streaks across the heavens, the cascading bolts of lightning—every last one of them erased as though they had never existed.
The bullets were another matter. William didn’t know why, but the enemy’s forest cover and elevated positions had probably blunted their effect.
Yet the response on the rebel side was immediate and merciless.
“Fire!”
Another wave of bullets and spells screamed forward, their potency no higher than the Empire’s previous barrage. But where the earlier attack had been nullified, this one slammed straight into the already staggered Imperial vanguard.
The soldiers who had been running at the front toppled like dominoes. Their bodies tumbled, tangling the men behind them and multiplying the casualties.
Worse, the defensive barriers that should have protected them remained stubbornly inactive. The slaughter spilled indiscriminately through line and veteran alike.
“T-this... what in the world is this?! What are you all doing?!”
William’s voice tore free in a raw, frantic scream as he watched his own men stand frozen, helpless, while their comrades fell.
*
“Kraaah...!”
“Ugh...!”
William’s subordinates crumpled one after another in front of his eyes.
From his high ground Richard clenched his tongue with a bitter hiss.
*Still... I had half hoped, but no. William truly is that blind. He charged in here without the faintest clue about Cromwell-nim’s true power.*
The general who had been strutting about so arrogantly only moments ago now looked completely hollowed out, staring at the hopeless slaughter of his vanguard.
William’s face was a mask of pure panic as he tried to grasp what was happening.
*Pathetic bastard... that’s exactly why you don’t belong. Acting so high and mighty to be called a general, and look where it got you.*
While his heart ached for his friend’s stupidity, Richard simply watched in silence as the Empire’s magic continued to be rendered useless by the hand of Cromwell.
*As I thought... even now it’s astonishing... the power Cromwell-nim wields.*
Paladins were known for their modest combat strength. Aura attacks existed, but they were notoriously inefficient.
Still, even accounting for that, Richard judged Cromwell’s own prowess to be far above hers. If the man had been a mage, he could have turned an entire village to ash with one spell. If a warrior, a single swing of his blade would have claimed dozens of lives and trampled an army of hundreds underfoot.
But even then she knew there was one other weapon Cromwell possessed that no one else could match.
The very heart of a paladin’s power—Holy Power.
Everyone knew the healing aspect. What terrified her most was the second.
Holy Power and Aura were diametrically opposed to Mana. Mana bent the laws of the world. Holy Power corrected them, nullifying magic at its root.
If Mana was a pencil sketch, Holy Power was the eraser that wiped it away in a single breath.
That was why paladins had always been mages’ natural bane, and why, rare as they were, they commanded the highest respect—and the highest pay—from the Empire.
And among them, Cromwell was considered the pinnacle.
Through years of experience Richard had learned that he could wield a power one step beyond simple defense.
While the ability was active, not only did he block incoming spells, but every hostile spell within a two-hundred-meter radius was nullified outright. Offensive magic, defensive wards, everything. His presence alone rendered the enemy powerless.
Even on a broad battlefield the range seemed modest. In this narrow mountain pass it was more than enough.
*Mana is the lifeblood of magic. Cut it off and the mages and warriors become nothing more than ordinary soldiers in Cromwell-nim’s presence.*
Richard felt a chill race down her spine as she witnessed the legendary power of her former superior with her own eyes.
Yet she felt no anxiety. Only perfect calm.
She had fought alongside Cromwell for years and had never once seen him overuse the ability. Even with the 200% Aura recovery buff currently easing its drain, the limit was barely an hour at best. After that a full twenty-four hours of cooldown followed.
*Still, it’s rare for someone to know this trick... but that Richard over there clearly saw it coming.*
The traitor generals among them were watching William’s forces being beaten to a pulp, quietly calculating the exact moment Cromwell’s power would fade.
It was a shrewd, calculating move—wise and ruthless at once. And from the way their troops were already widening their formation, Richard could tell they planned to strike the instant the ability ended.
The numbers themselves were staggering. Two thousand rebels against the Empire’s two thousand remaining soldiers. Every last eye in the main camp was now fixed on this narrow pass.
Two hundred men had pinned down an entire force of two to five thousand.
And now the only thing left was...
*If you two keep drawing their attention the way you’re supposed to...*
William and Richard were the two traitors sharing an oddly warm camaraderie. William, half-delirious with confusion, continued to issue orders while frantically popping popcorn as though the battle were a show. Richard simply leaned against a tree, munching chips, eyes half-lidded in perfect composure.
Their combined strength was roughly two thousand.
And the rest of the Imperial army was entirely focused on this sector.
Richard watched William’s troops bleed out, then glanced at the horizon.
*All that’s left is to keep the bait alive a little longer. Cromwell-nim, please hold on just a little longer.*
*
“Haah... man, what a time for an ambush. The rebel brats never sleep, do they?”
“You’re telling me. These cod-sized soldiers are acting way too aggressive for this hour.”
Hans, one of the guards stationed at the southern ammunition depot, let out a deep yawn and grumbled irritably to his comrade.
They were supposed to be asleep at this time, but orders had dragged them here instead. Most of the army had already marched north to confront the real threat, leaving only a handful under Hans’s command to guard the depot.
They had been standing half-asleep and half-bored for who knew how long.
“Even if the enemy shows up on the north side, we could just go back to sleep. Why wake us up just to stand here?”
“Same. I’ll be on double night shift because of this. I hate the rules high-ups make... kuuaaaak!”
“!!!”
“Huh?”
Suddenly something freezing cold slammed into the back of his head and exploded his skull.
Hans and his men froze in stunned silence, then slowly turned to look.
What they saw next made their blood run cold.
“What... what is th—”
“R-rebel...?”
Hundreds—perhaps thousands—of figures emerged from the darkness, surrounded by an unnatural chill and a storm of jagged ice crystals.
At the center of it all stood a woman radiating an aura so cold it stole the breath from their lungs.
Blue eyes. Blue hair.
The general who had appeared before them looked like she had stepped out of a winter storm itself.
“Well... shall we begin?”
The end.