Chapter 103 - Army of Defiance (4)

Even in the midst of that overwhelming sight, Vincent did not forget what he had to do.

"Pour the oil!"

As soon as the gates opened, the monsters that had been clinging to the walls and rampaging began to swarm in. Oil poured down over the swarming monsters.

"Light it!"

The veteran Rangers stepped past the recruits and fired flaming arrows.

FWOOSH!

The oil caught fire. In an instant, flames surged to the left and right of the gates.

But it was not enough.

A mere few jars of oil could not stop the completely maddened monsters.

"Shoot!"

Leaning precariously over the walls, the Rangers loosed their arrows in unison toward both sides of the gates. The monsters were turned into pincushions by the barrage of arrows rained down simultaneously by hundreds of Rangers.

Even so, the monsters charged at the gates, and the Rangers desperately tried to hold them back.

"The sallying forces! They've all passed through the gates!"

"Lower the gates!"

The moment he finished speaking, the gates dropped with a deafening roar.

The monsters that had been charging at the gates while on fire were crushed into bloody pulp under the massive gates.

"All knights remaining in the castle, slaughter the monsters that made it past the gates!"

Vincent continued to bark out orders, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead.

Through his eyes, he saw the cavalry that had exited the gates sharply changing direction on the distant snowfield, galloping toward the western wall.

"Hmm?"

Looking at the vanguard, Vincent's eyes widened.

The First Prince, who had just been riding at the very front with a sword radiating a blue flash, was nowhere to be seen.

All he could see was a white horse running alone without a rider, followed by the black lancers.

Vincent frantically searched for the First Prince in shock. However, the First Prince could not be found anywhere in the formation.

"Where is His Highness the First Prince?!"

FLASH!

As he shrieked out in search of the First Prince, a sudden flash of light surging from below the wall caught his eye.

He looked down beneath the wall, chasing the flash as if possessed.

"Ah..."

The First Prince was down there. Firmly gripping a vividly shining blue sword with both hands, he stood with his back to the flames, accompanied only by the female knight who followed him and the elf swordswomen draped in green cloaks.

"Your Highness! Why!"

The First Prince did not answer. He merely raised his sword and took a step forward.

Just a single step.

But that one step was by no means small.

THUD-THUD-THUD.

The heads of dozens of monsters that had been clinging to the wall and shrieking dropped to the ground.

The bodies of the monsters, unable to realize what had happened to them until the very moment their necks were severed, continued to scratch at the wall before collapsing. A golden flash followed a step behind, hacking the fallen monsters to pieces.

That was just the beginning.

The First Prince started running alongside the wall. The golden flash and the green shadows followed right behind him.

A bloody wind blew beneath the wall.

All that remained in the wake of one man and twenty women were the dismembered corpses of monsters.

"Waaaaah!"

The soldiers pressed tightly against the wall let out a roaring cheer.

Their shoulders, which had shrunk back at the ominous presence lurking at the entrance of the mountain range, were now standing straight, and their faces, previously drained of color from the fear of the screaming monsters below, were flushed red.

There was no longer any sign of fear. The soldiers were simply cheering, intoxicated by the power of a Sword Master that they were witnessing for the first time in their lives.

However, Vincent could not just cheer along with the soldiers.

At first, he too had simply cheered at the First Prince's exploits alongside the men.

But when he belatedly realized a fact he had forgotten, he had to clench his jaw and stifle a groan.

For he remembered it clearly.

When his father reached the stage of a master, he had secluded himself for a time, dedicating his efforts to assimilating his newly gained power. He never carelessly showed off his stage, fearing that the energy he hadn't fully digested would leak out and be lost.

It was only after a full year had passed that his father finally stepped onto the battlefield.

And yet, the First Prince was recklessly drawing and using Aura Blade without a moment's rest to do so.

Unaware that the energy he should have taken the time to digest and make completely his own was scattering into the empty air.

He had to stop him, even now. He ran toward where the First Prince was. But then, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Did the First Prince really not know that fact?

The conversation he had with the First Prince right before the sally flashed through his mind.

When he asked if there was really a need to open the gates and head out, the First Prince replied that they somehow had to turn the tide before night fell. As he described what the battle against the dead would be like, he hadn't seemed to have any room to spare.

Vincent bit his lip as he watched the First Prince from afar.

The kingdom's youngest Sword Master was giving up the limitless potential granted to him, burning himself up instead.

Solely to become the light that the soldiers could rely on in the fast-approaching darkness.

It was devastating.

The prince was struggling like that, incinerating his own potential and future, while he, the lord of Winter Castle, was just flapping his gums from the safety of the wall.

He wanted to open the gates and run out to join them at once. However, he could not leave the wall.

Because he was not a knight, but a lord.

He felt he could finally understand why his father had chosen to remain in enemy lines as a knight at the very end.

He clenched his jaw tight.

He shook off his sense of shame. He steeled his resolve not as the knight Vincent Ballorhard, but as the lord of Winter Castle.

What the lord of Winter Castle had to do right now was to survey the entire battlefield and lead the soldiers, and—

"All Rangers! From this moment on, use all your might to annihilate the monsters below the wall!"

—to provide the utmost support so that the promising young Sword Master would have to swing his sword even one less time. It was simply to encourage the Rangers to fire even one more arrow.

"Don't hold back, rain them down!"

Right on time, the Black Lancers and the knights, having finished their turn and reached the end of the wall, began to sweep away the monsters from the opposite side.

The Rangers on the wall loosed their arrows in unison.

Vincent stood tall in his spot, glaring at the battlefield with eyes wide open.

He watched every single strike of the sword from the First Prince, who had taken up the heavy burden in the lord's stead. He etched the weight contained within them into his eyes, again and again.

* * *

"Haa!"

I let out a long breath.

Only now did it feel like the indigestion had finally gone down.

But the bloated feeling wasn't completely gone.

There was still quite a lot of undigested elixir energy left in my body. If left as is, it would at best solidify inside my body and disrupt the flow of mana, and at worst, clash with the mana in my heart and turn me into a cripple—it was poison.

This suffocating feeling akin to indigestion would only disappear once I burned away all the poison, so I gathered the elixir's energy onto my blade and continued to burn it.

While I was at it, I killed monsters, expelled toxins, and boosted the soldiers' morale.

It was truly killing three birds with one stone.

How long had I been expelling energy like that?

By the time the remaining elixir energy in my body was no longer a threat, Adelia, the Sword Maidens, and I had reached the middle of the eastern wall.

"Your Highness!"

I heard the sound of horse hooves behind me, followed by the one-eyed cavalry captain calling out to me.

"Step back!"

It was a shout closer to a notification than a warning, and I hurriedly grabbed Adelia's waist and pulled away from the wall.

The Black Lancers and knights swept past me in a flash.

Trampling the monsters that were frantically scratching at the wall.

"Your Highness! Are you alright!"

Karl and the Royal Knights, who had been mixed in with the cavalry, drove their horses and rushed over to me.

"Are you hurt anywhere!"

Waving my hand dismissively at Karl's fussing, I looked up at the wall.

I saw the Rangers glaring down below the wall, repeatedly drawing and releasing their bowstrings. The soldiers who had passively followed orders with faces looking like they would suffocate from fear no longer existed.

Clenched teeth, eyes filled with fighting spirit—the soldiers were completely immersed in the battle.

"Phew."

It felt like the faint, lingering suffocation was finally gone.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Adelia's flailing in my arms subsided. The battlefield's killing intent that had driven her wild was slowly fading away.

And at a certain point, her struggling stopped completely.

"Your Highness."

The bloodied, one-eyed cavalry captain approached and called out to me.

Giving him a nod, I raised my sword high.

"We are victorious!"

And then I shouted.

"We won!"

"We've annihilated the monsters!"

The knights roared.

The Rangers lined up on the wall followed suit, letting out shouts of victory.

However, there was no time to savor the victory.

The sun was already setting.

"Everyone, return to the castle!"

The gates opened.

The knights led the wounded and passed through the gates. Remaining until the end to watch the knights return, I soon followed them and passed through the gates as well.

"Ignite!"

"Light them!"

Hundreds of braziers began to burn.

But even hundreds of embers could not completely drive out the darkness, and the night inevitably arrived.

And at that moment, the dead that had been crouching in the shadows of the mountain range were unleashed.

SSSSSS.

The snowfield, which had been shining pale under the moonlight, was quickly dyed pitch-black.

The faces of the soldiers, flushed with the joy of victory, were once again darkening.

I stood in the middle of the wall and held my sword high.

FLASH!

The twilight began to shine pure white.

Aura Blade—formed not of the elixir's energy, but of my pure mana. Its blazing flash illuminated the top of the wall.

Though it was woefully insufficient to completely drive away the darkness that had already settled deeply over the world, it could serve as an ember the soldiers could rely on through the long night.

I continued to gather light into the twilight.

Following the light, the soldiers turned their heads. Thousands of pairs of eyes were looking at me.

"Tonight!"

Looking at them, I shouted with my status imbued in my voice.

"Among those who are not of the living, none shall cross this wall!"

It was a word of encouragement to the soldiers, and at the same time, a warning sent to the dead gnashing their jaws in the darkness where the light could not reach.

"Drop the cauldrons of oil below the wall!"

At my command, the Rangers hastily pushed the jars of oil over the edge.

FWOOSH!

Below the wall, the unextinguished embers caught the oil. The flames that spread to the oil began to burn even more fiercely, using the monster corpses as fuel.

A curtain of fire formed along the wall.

I glared past the roaring flames.

The creeping darkness shrank back, avoiding the dancing firelight.

But this alone was not enough to get through the long night.

"Pull the soldiers back."

Since we had coordinated this in advance, Vincent pulled the soldiers back without complaint. All common soldiers, excluding the knights, were stationed below the wall, and their swords and weapons were confiscated, placed in the armory, and sealed away.

"Bar the gates and release the pulley chains."

Not stopping there, I had them release the pulley chains connected to the gates and store them elsewhere. Even that wasn't enough, so instead of the guards who normally managed the gates, I had carefully selected knights guard them.

"No matter what you see, and no matter what you hear, never be beguiled."

"We will cover our ears and not listen, and we will turn our heads and not look."

The knights' unhesitating answer; normally, I wouldn't have doubted for a second that they would keep their word.

But not today.

"Keep an eye on each other, and if anyone shows strange behavior, report it immediately."

"If you say it again, that makes ten times."

Even at Vincent's joke, I could not laugh.

Because no matter how much we prepared, it felt insufficient.

"Everyone, brace yourselves."

Today was going to be a very long night.

* * *

The flames, which had been burning by feeding on the fat attached to the monsters' bodies, slowly died down until they were barely enough to illuminate the base of the wall.

As the light weakened, the darkness drew closer. Close enough that its hissing breaths could be heard in our ears.

And the real night began.

"Ugh..."

Groans began to be heard from all over the wall.

The eyes of several Rangers staring at the snowfield beyond the wall were bloodshot. Among them were some shedding tears.

"Your Highness. What on earth is this..."

As I was watching them, Vincent approached and spoke to me.

The face of the man asking that question was heavily oppressed. Even during the brief moment he looked at me, he flinched several times as if he had heard something; his usual rock-steady demeanor was nowhere to be found.

"Do not waver."

"Y-Your Highness. It's not that..."

Vincent roughly grabbed my shoulder and pointed below the wall with his other hand.

"My father! My father is down there!"

Where his finger was pointing, there was only pitch-black darkness.

"I'm telling you my father is alive!"

I raised my hand and slapped Vincent across the cheek.

"My uncle is dead. Get a grip on yourself."

I gritted my teeth and spoke to him.

"If you, the lord, waver, this castle will not survive the day and will fall."

His endlessly trembling eyes finally returned to their original place.

"I-I apologize. Your Highness."

"Rouse your energy and protect your mind. So the dead cannot dwell in you."

I did not blame Vincent.

Because it wasn't just Vincent.

"Ridoval, you're alive... Wait. I'll save you."

"Snap out of it! What are you doing! Grab him!"

Fellow Rangers frantically struggled to hold back a Ranger who was rushing forward as if to jump off the wall.

Such scenes were unfolding all over the wall, no, throughout the entire castle.

Below the wall, recruits were convulsing and exhibiting symptoms of mass delirium. The sane soldiers and knights went around subduing them. Occasionally, some rushed toward the gates with crazed eyes. The knights guarding the gates beat them all down to the ground.

I glared at the darkness lurking below the wall.

The dead could not invade the territory of the living without permission, so they were waiting for the living to open the gates themselves.

『Adrian. My nephew. Hurry and open the gates.』

『The wound is deep. If I don't get treated soon...』

『I have returned, so why do you not open the gates?』

Constantly whispering in the voices of those the living so desperately yearned to see again.

I steadied my breathing.

『Though neither the high places nor the majestic thrones are mine.』

『There is not a single one I cannot sit upon.』

I quietly recited the [Poem of the Supreme King].

RUMBLE.

My status, having reached perfection, spread throughout the entire castle.

The sobbing, groans, and urgent shouts subsided. And finally, complete silence fell.

HISS, HISS.

The darkness flicked its tongue and glared at me.

"Even if the king of the dead arrives today, I will do the taking; I will not be taken from."

Aura Blade was my teeth, and the poem was my roar, so I glared back at the darkness and growled fiercely.

Until the long night had fully passed, I stood tall in that one spot, constantly reminding the darkness that I was here.

How much time passed like that?

From afar, the crowing of a dawn rooster could be heard.

SWISH.

The darkness flicked its tongue one last time and slowly began to recede.

Dawn was breaking in the distance. The twilight drove away the night, and morning finally broke.

"Ah..."

The groans of the drained knights and soldiers collapsing to the ground pierced my ears.

"H-Has it retreated?"

At someone's word of relief, I involuntarily shook my head.

Because I knew.

The real nightmare was only just beginning.