Chapter 230 - Because There Is No Hero

The army moved. With every step, boulders hurled from the trebuchets swept past overhead as enormous shadows. As they crashed down inside the city, the tremors beneath the soldiers' feet grew stronger.

The soldiers could feel it keenly. They were walking into death. They were advancing toward death.

At last, the lifeless gray city began to stir. Something finally started to emerge.

"Wh-what are those?"

They were unmistakably demonic creatures. The difference was that, unlike the animal forms of those encountered before, these resembled humans.

"Merciful Alte..."

"What... what hell did those things crawl out of?"

Things that had crawled out of hell. They were grotesque enough to warrant the description. They had human torsos, but crawled on twisted arms and legs. Skin covered the places where their eyes and noses should have been, and their mouths were split unnaturally wide.

Ferda had seen them at Gyeonghui Palace.

'Ghoul demonic creatures.'

SKREEEEE!

With the shrill roars characteristic of demonic creatures, they descended from the walls. No, they poured down. As though someone had torn open an anthill, demonic creatures streamed out from within and charged to punish the intruders.

"Halt!"

"Sound the defensive formation!"

Responding to the horn signals, the soldiers leveled their long spears to form a defensive line. Archers, engineers manning catapults, and mages all prepared a ranged bombardment.

Olivia began issuing orders as well.

"Front ranks, halt! Form defensive ranks!"

Her ringing voice carried to the knights. More than a hundred of them formed two ranks, planted their shields in the ground, and knelt to brace them. They became the supports holding those enormous shields upright.

"First Infantry Company! Take position in the rear! Load and report!"

The tactical infantry took up their magical engineering rifles and stood before the knights' shields. They inserted large cylindrical cartridges and rested the weapons on top of the shields.

"Loaded!"

"Loaded!"

"First Company, all weapons loaded!"

Olivia raised her sword high.

"All firing lanes, open fire!"

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

The thunderous report disrupted the spearmen's movements beside them. Then they witnessed an astonishing sight. Blue beams streaked straight ahead, striking the charging creatures and dropping them where they stood.

SKREE!

The creatures' relentless charge faltered. The commanders, who had been waiting for the right moment, stared wide-eyed.

'This is beyond anything I imagined!'

'I expected these rifles to have exceptional firepower and stopping power, but this much?'

Seeing them in action surpassed all expectations. Their stopping power was so great that the battle line curved into an arc centered on Ferda's army. A hundred tactical infantrymen fired thirty rounds apiece. A full three thousand mana bullets streaked forward, laying waste to everything ahead.

When the mana stones inside lost their light and became ordinary rocks, the company commander shouted.

"All firing lanes, firing complete!"

"Rotate the rear ranks! Second Company, open fire immediately!"

They carried out the rotation they had practiced endlessly, pouring out fire without a break. For a moment, it seemed they would hold back the incoming tide of ghoul demonic creatures. Only for a moment.

"Commander! Those morons have started using their heads!"

The humanoid creatures seemed to be using their intelligence, no longer charging blindly. They were grabbing dead creatures and rushing forward with the corpses as shields.

"Keep firing!"

When one of the charging creatures fell, another picked it up, adding layer upon layer to its shield of flesh. Stopping them with rifle fire was now all but impossible.

But William had anticipated even this. As adjutant, he took over command.

"Second Company, fall back! Front ranks, rise!"

Second Company withdrew from its barrage, and the knights rose, gripping their shields firmly.

What rifle fire could not penetrate...

"Ready shotguns!"

...they would blast through with still greater firepower.

The knights raised their muzzles over their angled shields. Once the ghouls were close enough, they flung aside the creatures they had used as shields and leaped at the top of the shield wall.

"Fire!"

If the rifles had been thunder, this was an upheaval that overturned heaven and earth.

[Insert]

BOOM!

KABOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Blue explosions spread from the muzzles, shooting the airborne humanoid creatures down. Those nearby flew backward, their bodies riddled with holes. Those hit at point-blank range were blown to pieces. The force was staggering, as befitted a shot that consumed an entire magazine.

"Aim forward!"

And they still had one shot left.

"Fire!"

KABOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

The wide spread of projectiles drove the creatures back helplessly. Reading the situation, Olivia swiftly issued her orders.

"Front ranks, advance ten paces! Form a wedge!"

The knights pulled their shields from the ground and moved as ordered. Like a spearhead piercing the battle line, they advanced without hesitation and drove their shields into the earth again. Their new position became another weapons rest for the tactical infantry, another fortress.

The other commanders could only marvel at the sight. Every maneuver defied their knowledge and experience. Ferda's army was small, with knights bearing enormous shields at its head, so they had assumed its formation was defensive. And a defensive formation, they had thought, would be the slowest to move. Yet a mere five hundred men were advancing like a spear piercing the enemy line.

The commanders had also expected Alberto to make the greatest contribution in Ferda's army. His monstrous strength and defensive prowess befitted his nickname, the One-Man Army. But he simply held the center of the formation, silently shielding the others like every other knight. Alberto had become part of the army. He made no moves of his own.

And so magical engineering shone on its own merits.

"Is magical engineering truly that remarkable?"

Because there was no hero, everyone was a hero. They had created the very ideal of military tactics.

["We may be slow, but we will never retreat."]

The bold claim Ferda was said to have made suddenly came to mind. Indeed, only the two siege towers behind his force were still advancing. The commanders revised their tactics.

"Battalions nearest the far eastern troops! Send your shield infantry and knights to support their flanks!"

"Help build a defensive line around the far eastern force! Do not let the enemy get around their sides!"

Even if it meant losses, the far eastern army offered the surest breakthrough to victory. Filling the gaps in its wedge formation made its maneuvers more secure and allowed it to advance more boldly.

Ferda continued surveying the battle from the rear.

'Not bad.'

Many of the infantrymen had faced demonic creatures before and were not easily frightened. They knew that, faced with overwhelming firepower, those things were nothing more than lumps of meat.

'How are things elsewhere?'

Ferda turned his gaze to the rest of the battlefield. While he broke through with an army, the other imperial forces relied heavily on the exploits of a hero. Count Ruster was the man filling that role.

One reason he could do so was his extraordinary warhorse. Though unmistakably a horse, its bulging muscles and horned barding made it look like a bull. And that was no mere appearance: it drove in from the flank, hurling ghouls aside and trampling them, breaking the momentum of their advance.

It looked reckless, but there was caution in the attack. Knowing these enemies had no morale to break, Ruster did not plunge too deep. Instead, he pushed the line forward little by little.

'And Ureas?'

He was sitting quietly in the rear, watching it all. Ostensibly, he was surveying the battle in order to command, but his mouth never moved. Only the commanders were busy. Apparently, Ureas called it a strategic rest.

'As for the coalition...'

Apart from lacking Ferda's force, the coalition was pushing forward in much the same manner as Count Ruster. Heodret had insisted that, with Demons involved, there would be demonic creatures, and his troops were advancing slowly as he had intended. Unlike Ureas, who was taking his strategic rest, Heodret was at the vanguard with his knights, carving a path.

'How very heroic.'

Whether he was a true hero remained to be seen.

They had been locked in battle for some time when a shout rang out.

"The creatures are retreating!"

Ferda looked up at the cry. Sure enough, the ghouls holding the line were withdrawing.

"Run with your tails between your legs, you vermin!"

"Keep shooting! No one survives on this land!"

The scattered ghouls climbed back over the walls and disappeared inside. Once again, the capital exuded an eerie silence.

"Soldiers! Your courage has made this possible! Press the advantage and advance!"

Ureas's cry roused the imperial army's spirits. Someone in the coalition must have said something similar, for cheers rose from the west as well. With nothing left to block them, the siege towers rolled toward the walls.

Ferda moved beside William.

"Status report."

"Status report. Total strength, 504. Survivors, 504. Three wounded. Two of those merely hurt their chins on knights' helmets."

"Virtually no casualties, then."

Naturally, morale was already at its peak. If these had been ignorant meat shields, he would have fanned their fervor to send even one more into the furnace. But every one of these soldiers was the equivalent of a mage. He needed to make them wary.

"Stay alert, soldiers. The real fighting begins inside those walls."

"Yes, sir!"

"Unlike this open ground, the buildings will form canyons where countless butchers will be waiting to take your lives. May fortune favor you in battle."

When Ferda finished speaking, the soldiers began preparing for the next battle.

"Your Excellency."

Olivia and William, who had commanded the troops, approached. He knew what they had come to say.

"I'm afraid this is as far as you can go."

"It's all right."

Olivia was an imperial princess and a future Saintess. Now that the fighting would become truly dangerous, she could no longer take part. This was as far as Ureas had permitted her to go, and Ferda accepted that.

Her blue eyes shone with sorrow. She looked ready to burst into tears at any moment, like a wife sending her husband off to war.

"Please... take care of yourself."

With that, she turned her horse and rode toward Ureas. Beside Ferda, Zed tilted his head slightly and remarked,

"Her Highness seems very fond of you, Your Excellency."

"Her acting grows better by the day."

Naturally, Ferda assumed it was an act. He could not imagine such a strong woman making that expression. Zed stared at his face for a moment, then shook his head repeatedly.

The siege towers reached the outer walls and lowered their drawbridges.

"Move! Move!"

The soldiers waiting inside rushed into the city together. Their eyes wavered at what they saw.

"Good heavens..."

"We bombarded this place for three days and nights..."

Unless they had slept like the dead for all three days, everyone knew it. They ought to have been looking at half-ruined buildings, yet every building stood intact. The streets were cluttered, but only with the boulders they had hurled, not with rubble from anything broken or destroyed.

"Everyone inside!"

"There are no civilians here! To break the power of the king who sold his soul to the Demons, we must kill every human in this city!"

With the commanders shouting for no mercy, the soldiers descended from the outer walls. As they entered the main streets and advanced, the enemy moved again. Something flew out of an empty building and landed among the soldiers.

SHING!

It unleashed several streaks of light and afterimages. The flashes sliced through the soldiers' iron armor, reducing human beings to blood and chunks of flesh.

"A-an ambush!"

"A demonic creature!"

The soldiers cried out in confusion. Only after dozens of heads had fallen in moments did someone finally shout an accurate warning.

"It's a Demon!"

"Fetch the knights!"

Black skin and red eyes. The vicious Demons that had once roamed freely but were now seldom seen were waging war in the streets, making their overwhelming presence felt. Only after hundreds had fallen did the knights finally arrive to face them.

"Alte! Protect the emperor!"

"Evil creature! I have come to pass judgment upon you!"

These were Demons once designated Knight-class, and each possessed power exceeding that of a single knight. It took three knights fighting together, and the sacrifice of one, before they finally drove a blade into a Demon's heart.

"Liam, we will never forget your sacrifice—huh...?"

They had surely pierced the Demon's heart. Yet its form began to blur, then changed into that of an utterly ordinary commoner.

"Wh-what...?"

"Was that not a Demon we were fighting?"

Amid their confusion, a chill ran down their spines. Had their instincts warned them correctly? A door opened in a house at the far end of the street, and a black figure emerged. It was the very Demon they had been fighting only minutes before.

The man gave a cruel smile.

"Now, shall we begin round two?"

Their despair had not even begun.