A Sword Reached the Sky (1)
The Allendia forces, based in Fort Fieldrocks, immediately received additional troops and began to mount a defensive on the walls.
Five thousand people from the Fairy Kingdom and six Churches each had joined together, bringing the total power to 22,000.
Afterward, Fieldrocks formed a large-scale defense line linked to the Northern Alseed and Southern Poltaron.
The three fortresses assumed a so-called triangular defensive formation.
Pointing to the map, Sabine Asil spoke.
“This strategy used to be impossible.”
Even during the Great Battle of Fieldrocks, where Han-bin’s party had reduced the power gap, the combined power of the Kaldris-Mado Kingdom was four times that of Allendia.
For that reason, distributing power to each fort would only lead to an improvement. They had more troops than Allendia’s main camp.
The gap was so wide that it was impossible to establish a defense line itself.
“But now that we don’t have much power difference…”
Instead of saying more, Sabine Asil clicked her tongue.
“The power gap was intense, and we didn’t have a solution. But we finally caught up to them.”
The Allendia army had been on a roll more than expected
It was all thanks to Han-Bin and his party’s air superiority.
It was something to be pleased about, but Kibie’s expression wasn’t so bright.
“Instead, many people died like dogs.”
For her, the Kaldris and the Mado Kingdom people were also believers of Latna, whom the Goddesses had to care for.
Although they were inevitably bleeding, she could not help but feel remorse as an incarnation.
“Because of their greed, too many people had died when they didn’t need to.”
Effir soothed her.
“But we can’t stop it, can we? If we do, more people will die.”
If the Thunder King and Archmage became god and goddess, and if all the remaining areas except the Three Continental Powers were abandoned, the damage would be incomparable.
“Well, anyway…”
Leon Hart changed the subject.
“The building of the triangular defense line is well underway. The commanders of each corps are fine-tuning at their posts.”
At present, the backbone of the Allendia army did not directly establish a defensive line.
It was a common military action so that the commanders could solve it without them.
Of course, if they stepped up, they would build it up more efficiently and quickly.
Nevertheless, he deliberately left it to his subordinates.
It was because there was a more important mission for them.
Leon Hart looked at the crowd at the barracks.
“Now, it’s time to do what only we can.”
* * *
The castles of Fieldrocks, Alseed, and Poltaron were built along the southern branch of the Rantea Mountains, which bordered Allendia and Kaldris.
There was a Deryu basin between Fieldrocks and Alseed.
It was a plateau with high peaks and large craters, and small lakes in the center.
It was not a geographically important place. It was just a small mountain village whose villagers had been evicted.
Instead, dozens of outsiders were swinging pickaxes hard throughout the basin.
“Come on!”
“Alright, this place is complete!”
“Can I bury this now?”
“Wait, the parts are wrong.”
“Eh? Wasn’t it ER-135?”
“It’s 125. Look at the numbers carefully.”
They diligently dug, moved soil, measured location, and placed something while sweating a lot.
It was ordinary civil engineering work.
But the identity of the workers was not ordinary.
“Oh, the ground is harder than I thought.”
“Use Aura, then. It’s easy.”
“I’m a magic Swordsman.”
“Then use your force.”
All of them were high-ranking knights above level 70, among the best in the Fairy Kingdom and six Churches. They were by no means low-classed enough to do such simple work.
Nevertheless, no one was complaining.
The best swordsman on the ground was pickaxing hard right next to them.
“Come on!”
The ordinary pickaxe hit the ground, emitting red light. Every time, cloud columns soared, and the earth cracked.
Boom!
While wiping sweat, Ryu Han-bin grabbed his pickaxe as if he was in a good mood.
“Phew, it’s been a while since I’ve done this.”
Artis, who was magically digging the ground next to him, smiled.
“Sure, you are the nova of the physical labor.”
Kibie blinked at their incomprehensible conversation.
“Nova? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, it’s just an old story.”
Ryu Han-bin and Artis smiled bitterly.
“At that time, we were both busy making a living.”
“You’re right. Han-Bin, you were pretty clumsy.”
Only the two of them understood.
After just shrugging her shoulders, Kibie pulled Aura again.
“Huh!”
The black Aura dug up the ground and drew a helix.
She murmured, holding her breath.
“Is this good enough?”
Leon Hart, who was measuring something next to her, glanced and replied.
“Dig a little deeper. It should be at least a meter long.”
“But it can’t be too long, can it?”
“Yes, it’s said that it wouldn’t work if it’s over 2 meters.”
“That’s tricky.”
“Magic is tricky.”
Two of the Top Four worked hard, and even the incarnation of darkness was sweating. Still, who could dare complain?
At first glance, there was a reason for the elite knights and Han-Bin’s party, and the six Templar Lords had been mobilized for this seemingly simple work.
If things went according to plan, it would be the final battlefield against the Thunder King and the Archmage.
“… The info won’t leak out.”
Instead of moving the soil, Lord Frederick looked worried.
Lady Angelica shook her head.
“We can trust only these people. Didn’t Kibie check them with the shadow-reading skill several times?”
In addition, they had dome complex fake operations on several locations to hide their absence. Even their allies had no idea about the basin work.
“We’ve paralyzed the intelligence network of the Kaldris Kingdom and kept it as confidential as possible. If information is leaked by chance, then we’ll have to blame the heavens.”
* * *
The sun went down again that day. Everyone finished their work and got ready to go to bed.
There was no need to set up separate barracks.
The natives were evicted, so there were empty houses everywhere. It was enough to pick up any house and lay down to recover from fatigue.
Knights might fall asleep, but the leaders couldn’t.
They should discuss the future.
Han-bin’s party, the Templar Lords, and three knights from the Fairy Kingdom gathered at the log house, the village chief’s house.
Drinking wine, Lord Lacrell asked, “In the meantime, things have changed quite a bit. So what’s the main power over there now?”
The advent of Anti-polymorph Necklaces was a big
What if all the Upper Draconium Ancient Dragons were immune from the Polymorph Necklace?
“Honestly, it would be too disadvantageous. We might give up everything and run away then…”
Sabine Asil shook her head.
“Fortunately, that’s not going to happen. The incarnation of darkness figured out the production process with the shadow-reading skill.”
Kibie took a silver necklace out of her arms.
“Only Genovia can make it. The formula involved is too complicated.”
It meant that the Mages of Sinkers couldn’t mass-produce it.
“It’s not even made overnight.”
It took five days to make one.
Originally, it took more than a month, but it had been five days since the design was completed.
“Thanks to that, I was able to infer the date roughly.”
About 20 days had passed since the Allendia troops captured the gate of Merent Karl.
They would have made about four more.
“But the queen of a country who has a lot of work to do can’t just focus on something like this.”
As far as she had confirmed with her shadow-reading skill, Genovia had been sick and tired of staying up all night. But Kibie didn’t think Genovia had struggled for it for days.
“Five to seven because she’s only going to make as many as she needs. I think that’s about it.”
Lord Lacrell hardened his expression.
“I don’t want to disagree with the incarnation, but isn’t it a very complacent judgment? As the situation is, wouldn’t the Archmage do her best?”
Kibie smirked.
“Though she does her best, it’s hard to make over twenty in time. That’s not tolerable, is it?”
The real fear was when all the dozens of Ancient Dragons had immunity to the Polymorph Necklace.
“Even if there are twenty, we’ll move as planned.”
Lord Palmer, who was listening, also added.
“If it doesn’t go our way, we’ll fail anyway, whether there are one or a hundred Ancient Dragons.”
“Oh, I see. I get it.”
Only then did Lacrell shut up.
Afterward, Artis spoke up.
“So, how many of Akhtarun’s Aliens do you think they have left?”
The Aliens would offer Latna’s energy to the Devil Omphalos upon death. Therefore, it was desirable to suppress them as much as possible without killing them.
But they couldn’t even take the Aliens as prisoners.
Because of the ban, even if they surrendered or were oppressed, they would lose their life immediately.
So far, Han-bin’s group mainly cut off the Aliens’ limb to neutralize them.
Of course, they could only do that since they had time. When they didn’t, they killed them instead.
Angelica opened her mouth, calculating the date.
“It’ll take three months to fully regenerate the severed limbs. In the meantime, if we think about the numbers of Aliens we’ve immobilized so far…”
There were about 200 Aliens in Akhtarun who could join the war right away.
“But not all of them are above level 100.”
Thanks to Hollien’s overindulgence during her fight against the Holy Punishers, the number of top-level Aliens had dropped significantly.
“Including the Aliens we’ve dealt with, the remaining ones over level 100 are estimated to be around 20.”
Frederick grinned.
“It’s worth it. It was dark at the beginning of the war.”
The original plan was to endure as much as possible at the risk of countless sacrifices, but now they could gain a more advantageous position.
The Thunder King and the Archmage didn’t have enough power to drive the incarnation’s party to the corner anymore.
Leon Hart looked at everyone.
“With the current power difference, we can easily pull them into the trap. It’s a big achievement.”
The problem was that the advantage of war didn’t lead to the advantage of battle.
Once military-to-military confrontations became closely matched, they could attract the Thunder King and the Archmage to the place they had prepared.
But then what?
Could Han-Bin’s party and the elites of the Allendia-Church win battles against the Thunder King, the Archmage, and their minions?
“This is still ambiguous until we fight.”
For the time being, Ryu Han-bin would take charge of dealing with either the Thunder King or the Archmage.
What if Han-Bin lost?
“That’s the end of the game.”
In the first place, they had planned based on the premise that Ryu Han-bin could win one-on-one, either against Garhan or Genovia.
The other would be kept occupied by Leon Hart, Kibie, Artis, and Effir in unison.
Now that they had also increased their levels enough, the odds were pretty good for them.
“The problem is, besides those two, there will be another power to care about.”
Through the example of Nakterion, they had found that the Thunder King and the Archmage could raise Ancient Dragons of their choosing to level 140.
However, it was easy to guess that not all of them could level up that high.
“Only one Dragon can be ruled over with the Draco Imperium staff.”
The Ancient Dragons themselves could solve the ban made out of mana bombs if their level became too high.
In other words, only one Dragon at a time could be given all the energy at once.
“That’s why they rejected Nakterion as worthless.”
Ryu Han-bin nodded.
“They can recreate a level 140 Ancient Dragon at any time, right?”
“And I received reports that the two are still not moving.”
Leon Hart sighed as he glanced across the sky.
“By now, they might be stuck at the Four Prohibited Areas holding another Ancient Dragon and working hard to make it level up.”
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