Chapter 136: Hope and Despair
Calix willingly answered Nergas's call.
Though instead of words, he answered with steel.
The Dance of the Wilderness—the Niborian offense-heavy sword style—erupted. Falling Fire surged from the blade's tip and split into five streams.
Fwooosh!
In a single stroke, chests were torn open. Throats sent flying. Skulls cleaved apart.
Cut, thrust, drive forward. The force of destruction carved deep through the heart of the battlefield.
BOOM!!
The essence of mana pierced through the monster's body, leaving gouges in the ground.
From within the heat that had been lting through enemy armor and flesh, an extre cold began to bloom. Ice crystals coiled and fused into a single line, then erupted outward with a rasping shriek.
Hundreds upon hundreds of those sa spikes grew in every direction. In an instant, the Corrupted's feet were seized. The follow-up cavalry handled the rest.
A thousand warhorses empowered by Mana Stones surged forward like a tide.
"Keep pushing! Maintain speed!"
At the center of it all, Calix's gaze shifted toward the enemy's rear. There was a reason the large-scale raid had gone undetected.
'Tunnel Worms. I thought the direction of the attack seed off—they ca around from below.'
It was cunning beyond what one would expect from creatures of evil.
Just then, the distinctive coloring of a massive monster caught his eye. The ground swelled and sank slowly, as if breathing, and with each cycle, the mound of dirt beneath their feet shifted faintly. From the cracks rising between, hot steam billowed up alongside the stench of blood.
From below, an enormous shadow stirred.
The Tunnel Worm's maw disgorged hundreds of Corrupted in an instant.
"Volga! Stay close behind !"
Calix pushed his warhorse Lunos to full speed and cut in front of Imran Akran and the thousands of knights.
Fearing a collision between allies—the lead knights flinched—but the Mountain Rabbits' horsemanship was no small thing. The two groups rged naturally, bringing their combined numbers to three thousand five hundred.
Peeee!! Peeeee-eee!!
The command in that whistle was one thing. Advance, and advance again. Blades and spear tips flashed, rising as one. The clash of steel and battle cries tore across the plains.
[How very human. To resist to the very end, even knowing it is futile.]
Ignoring Nergas's words, Calix thrust his sword toward the sky.
The core in his heart pulsed. Vast mana coursed through his body before erupting from his fingertips. A powerful wave of force surged—enough to make his Neural Accelerator sound a warning.
Crackle.
Mana the color of sothing sinister flickered across the surface of the masterwork blade Srna like an electrical current. It borrowed the form of Falling Fire, yet within it, darkness and chaos were intertwined.
'The Divinity is gone.'
In that mont, the sound of his own heartbeat rang unusually loud. His vision trembled and his breath grew short. It was as if the counterweight inside his body had been ripped away, leaving him tilting precariously.
Yet at the end of it—there was a brilliantly sharp, cutting sensation of pure destruction.
[You... That power is—!]
Calix swung his blade, launching it toward a target so fifty paces away. His acceleration output had already reached '3.8', and the sheer motion of the swing tore through the air. Even so, it fell short of the circular projectile's destructive force.
Unlike before, this was not ant to face many enemies at once. It was an all-out strike aid at a single target.
Grrr-r-r-crack.
Stone fragnts burst outward in every direction, swept up in the torrent of force before shattering into pieces under the pressure they could not withstand.
As clumps of earth and boulders tangled together and shot skyward, even before the orb of mana touched the ground, the earth crumbled apart and the massive monster's head ca into view.
SCREEEECH!!
The shriek ended quickly. The Tunnel Worm's enormous jaws twisted and tore apart. The sword strike Calix had launched bored straight through into the soft inner tissue.
The hard, black-crystal-like shell split apart in several long fractures. Through the gaps, viscous fluid and dark crimson blood gushed out like a bursting dam.
There was no explosion, however.
The projectile held fixed in midair, drawing everything in the vicinity toward it.
Gr-r-r-r-rip!
The monster's organs were wrenched from their place, and the Corrupted it had disgorged were yanked into the air like puppets on a string. Bones and flesh twisted as they were crushed alive. Outside, not a single thread of sound escaped.
It was as though sothing had been pressed into a single point inside an invisible mold.
What remained afterward was a hollow space several ters across. The Tunnel Worm's head had been swallowed without a trace. On the ground, blood mixed with foam bubbled and seethed.
In the silence, Calix's heart lurched three, four tis. The last edge of that power nagged at him—urging him to push just a little further.
'It's not over yet. I have to finish it before it can use the ability to bring them back.'
But he assessed coldly. The Tunnel Worm had perished, breaking the enemy's montum, yet the ultimate objective remained unachieved.
[......A strange existence, indeed.]
Nergas.
Within that hollow silhouette, the shape of a human face flickered into view. For the first ti, it showed sothing close to bewildernt.
Crk.
Amid the blending of irritation and confusion, Nergas impatiently crushed the neck of a Corrupted underfoot and snapped it.
[My victory should be assured—how is it that sothing like you defies the flow of fate?]
Then, in the instant their eyes t, Calix suddenly understood. Within that gaze lay sothing deep and old. To dismiss it as rely one of Kohtan's subordinates felt wrong—its grain was entirely different.
With that, he felt a surge of urgency and pushed his speed. Royce, Volga, and Adrian followed close behind, and Imran Akran and his knights matched their stride.
Then suddenly, Nergas's silhouette grew hazy. The outline shattered and scattered as it stepped back. But it was still within range.
aning—there was still a chance.
"It's fleeing!"
At that, Calix and Imran Akran raised their blades simultaneously and burst forward. The warhorse pushed past its limits, and in the next mont, the mana gathered at the blade's tip tore through the air.
Cr-crack!
Apex of Annihilation.
The power of a Master—embodying silent, utter ruin—ran clean through Nergas's torso. Along its path, the entire upper-left section vanished like smoke. It was erased alive, with no ti to even feel the pain.
But that was all.
[Do not rush. This is not the end.]
Nergas had already seeped beyond the boundary of reality, into the shadow. Part of its body had been annihilated, yet the legion commander's power would return even its soul.
[Kohtan has promised your annihilation.]
In that mont, Calix sensed it instinctively.
'I have to stop it now!'
He pressed into the opening the Master had created and lunged, but the presence vanished before the blade could reach it. A fraction of a mont—too little.
[In the tomorrow that approaches, we shall et again before the scales of fate.]
What remained was a scattering of shadow's remnants like fine ash, laughter laced with malice, and a gaze that had lingered on Calix until the very last.
"......Missed it."
Imran Akran lowered his sword and said quietly. A half beat later, the knights who had arrived behind them brought down their weapons and caught their breath.
Under a shared silence, they all thought the sa thing.
'Did we win?'
The mont Nergas's presence vanished, the Corrupted shuddered and curled in on themselves. So were sucked away into the air and disappeared; the rest howled like animals and scattered.
They threw down their crude weapons, scrambling through mud and piles of corpses to flee. Only faint traces of footsteps lingered behind like an echo.
As the dust settled, the weeping and screaming gradually faded as well. All that hung heavily over the battlefield was the stench of blood. A wind passed through, carrying the foul sll far into the distance.
And then, the allied forces' encampnt fell silent, as if none of it had happened. Thousands of cavalryn finally ca to a stop, and the flas clinging to tents and wagons slowly died away.
"We'll need to count once the sun rises, but... It seems no fewer than twenty thousand ca at us."
One of the knights made the effort to speak, but no one answered. Atop the blood-soaked earth, bodies of n and monsters lay piled in layers.
From the blackened ground, hot steam rose. Shattered spear shafts and swords without masters lay scattered in disarray. The survivors stood frozen in place, barely able to draw breath.
There was no victorious cheering. No defeated screaming.
Calix looked down at the blade in his hand. Blood and viscous fluid had dried and caked onto the grip.
'We held off the raid. But......'
Even a single blow from a Master had not been enough—Nergas had returned alive. As if even such a grievous wound could be healed at any mont, it had slipped away with ease.
What was even more horrifying was the sight of allied soldiers attacking one another. A man who had been holding a shield alongside a comrade had driven his blade into that comrade's back. His eyes held no focus, and from his lips poured words soaked in pure malice.
That very fact—that was the most lethal blow of all.
"Calix, this was the best we could do. If not for you, they would've destroyed themselves before the fighting even started."
He knew Adrian was right, yet he could not smooth away the creases in his expression. The legion commander Kohtan had released his power only once, and the front lines had nearly collapsed.
"If we face it directly...... It won't be easy."
Calix knew it instinctively.
The storm clouds had not lifted.
What ca next would be an even harder fight.
***
On the road back to the allied encampnt, the knight commanders of the high noble houses exchanged strange looks with one another.
"......Far stronger than the rumors suggested."
"Stronger than rumored? In my eyes, even 'top-rank swordsman' falls short of what he showed out there."
"I agree. I don't have the confidence to produce the sa sight myself."
The seasoned commanders glanced at the deep crater nearby. It was the mark left behind where Calix had finished off the Tunnel Worm earlier.
"His command was excellent too. He clearly knows how to handle cavalry. He responded without hesitation and minimized the losses."
"He didn't even show signs of fatigue. Perhaps he truly has the talent to surpass the wall."
"......Even so, let's not make any hasty judgnts."
When one subtly alluded to the threshold of a Master, a rather cautious rebuttal ca in return. Yet Helmut Barben remained silent throughout.
The mont even a single word left his lips, he doubted he would be able to hold himself back.
'Every last one of them has lost their minds.'
Venting that grim feeling changed nothing. The knights' gazes naturally followed after Calix's retreating back. He had won their hearts in a single battle.
Master Imran Akran felt the sa.
The two n walked side by side. With Kohtan's presence having washed away, every encampnt was consud with restoring order.
"When the mind begins to waver, the outco is decided."
Calix turned to look at him. He was surveying the devastation of the battlefield with an expressionless face.
Imran continued in a low voice.
"Kohtan understands that. He doesn't break people with force—he shakes what lies within a human being, then brings them down."
"......You anticipated that sothing like this would happen."
"Yes. Once you're caught up in it, both mind and body struggle to find their balance again. The madness in our own ranks—that is his thod. Even so...... they held up well. No—without you, it would have already fallen apart."
His gaze lingered briefly on the young man's hands.
"But the power dwelling within you...... it concerns a little."
Faced with a question he could not answer, Calix quietly changed the subject. In his mind, the image of soldiers attacking their own comrades flashed past.
"Why didn't you say anything beforehand?"
"It was sothing that had to be experienced regardless."
In Imran Akran's words, both warning and expectation coexisted.
"I was defeated. Master Sevi Belgrado was badly wounded as well. The Niboria Imperial Army has never once achieved victory. But humans—they learn through failure."
He pointed to hope within the despair. He asked no further about the source of Calix's power, nor about the nature of that unsettling mana.
He simply put forth a single question.
"What is it that you hold in your hands right now?"
"......"
Calix fell into thought. Amid the sound of hoofbeats, Duke Akron's encampnt ca into view.
The Northern Hunters had suffered grievous losses—yet they had not let go of the banners in their hands.
"Cough!"
"Hey, stay with ! You can't die here!"
Even so, not one of them released the flagstaff in their grip. They all looked exhausted and shaken, but whenever their eyes briefly t Calix's, they gave a short bow of the head.
They passed through Count Lugar's encampnt. The soldiers' eyes were thick with distrust, yet among them were those sharpening their weapons and helping their comrades.
The Marquis Ashapel's forces, anwhile, had gathered only those still of sound mind separately. Six thousand soldiers had rallied around their command and minimized their losses.
'Those who can still fight have been separated.'
Only then did Calix understand what Imran had ant. A rainbow blooms even within storm clouds. Though they ca from different origins, those who could be trusted with one's faith had made themselves clearly known.
Even now, behind his back, piercing gazes were pouring into him. The knights of the Niboria Empire. Whatever the process had entailed, they had joined with Master Imran Akran as two pillars, saving the allied forces that had been on the verge of collapse.
Their eyes held unmistakable respect.
This faint, subtle feeling of kinship that had drifted in through tents and flas, blood and mud—it would beco the strength to endure the far greater battles yet to co.
And at the end of that procession were the veterans of the Silver Shield Legion.
"You've finally returned!"
"Not a word all this ti—I thought you'd gone and died on us!"
They had been the anchor that kept the Mountain Rabbits steady. While the newer rcenaries' minds were crumbling, those weathered hands had beaten down the confusion and suppressed the chaos.
Naturally, Gregor stood at the very front.
"You, cook! These young pups have gone completely mad! Reminded of Viscount Erchi!"
A smile brighter than usual. A faint grin ca to Calix's lips as well.
But in that mont, Imran Akran's eyes wavered, just barely. As if he had co face to face with an old comrade-in-arms, a brief ripple crossed his expression.
Even so, in the end, he said nothing at all.
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