Chapter 557
I will permit it. (1)
Upon hearing the news, Ghislain shook his head.
I told them to run.
Just before the coalition forces were about to be divided because of Helgenik, Ghislain had sent word to the Kingdom of Grimwell.
They had plenty of time to escape.
But in truth, Ghislain had already expected that they wouldn’t run.
They’re far too proud for that.
The Kingdom of Grimwell was a military powerhouse, comparable to the Kingdom of Ritania. At its core stood three transcendent individuals, known as the kingdom’s three pillars.
They are undoubtedly strong, but...
The Salvation Church was stronger. Even excluding the half-baked priests, they had numerous transcendents who were considered strategic weapons. Among them was Aiden, who would one day become one of the Seven Strongest on the Continent.
But what was even more terrifying—
—was the tactical genius, Count Biphenbelt.
Thinking of him, Ghislain felt a slight bitterness in his mouth.
In his past life, when the hidden Kingdom of Atrode eventually joined the Human Alliance, Ghislain had witnessed Count Biphenbelt’s strategic prowess firsthand and had been impressed more than once.
Of course, Count Biphenbelt had also admired Ghislain’s combat skills. In the end, the two had come to acknowledge each other as comrades-in-arms.
When Ghislain first returned to this time, he had considered recruiting him. But once he learned that the Kingdom of Atrode was aligned with the Salvation Church, he knew it was impossible.
‘One of us has to die for this to end.’
Ghislain brushed aside his bitter feelings.
Commanders, transcendents, elite forces despite all these assets, the Kingdom of Grimwell was no match for the Salvation Church.
They had ignored his warning and fought anyway, and the outcome was exactly as expected. In the end, the royal capital of Grimwell was seized, and even the king was captured.
A messenger arrived with an update.
“The entire kingdom has not fallen yet! The Atrode army moved solely to seize the capital. Lords from various regions are gathering their forces.”
Ghislain nodded. Others might struggle to understand the Salvation Church’s strategy.
This war was not just a conflict between nations; it was a battle between humanity and a cult. Capturing the king would not bring it to an end. Their goal was total domination so complete that they didn’t even need justification for extermination.
But Ghislain knew why the Salvation Church was moving so hastily.
The relic.
Had Gartros gotten his hands on the relic he sought? Aside from this necklace, what other relics might exist?
Suddenly, Ghislain recalled the vision of the Saintess from his dreams.
That’s right...
The Saintess had been wearing a necklace the very same one he now possessed.
And there was something else.
As she prayed, a bracelet dangled from her wrist. Just like this necklace, it had been a simple, unadorned piece.
Could it be that?
He couldn’t be certain, but something told him it was.
He had already taken the goblet the Saintess had used. How would he confirm this new lead?
As Ghislain pondered, he suddenly let out a quiet chuckle.
‘What a strange dream. Those bastards have made me curious about too many things.’
In the past, he would have simply ignored it. But this time, for some reason, he couldn’t let it go.
Even though it had nothing to do with him, too many things were bothering him. His mind kept dwelling on them.
That so-called Adversary… He looked incredibly strong. Is he the 'king' that the Salvation Church speaks of?
He bore an uncanny resemblance to himself when he used Dark to amplify his power. But on the other hand, before obtaining Dark back in his days as the King of Mercenaries he hadn’t used such power either.
Did that mean the Adversary possessed something similar to Dark?
Since he still didn’t fully understand what Dark truly was, he couldn’t be certain.
And the more dreams he had, the stranger he felt.
It was as if he had lost something.
‘I keep getting caught up in that dream.'
Ghislain quickly shook his head, brushing aside his thoughts. Losing focus would do him no good.
Whether it's dreams or the Salvation Church’s strategies, I won’t be dragged along. I’ll simply do what needs to be done.
“We’ll wipe out the remaining forces. After that, we march on the Kingdom of Grimwell. Deliver a message to Grimwell’s remaining lords tell them not to engage recklessly.”
Sticking to his original plan, Ghislain resumed his advance.
As expected, the Ritania army, being a massive force, moved slowly. But when it came to battles, they ended them quickly. Because of this, their overall advance was the fastest among the coalition forces.
The alliance continued capturing strongholds without much difficulty. The toughest fortresses were already assigned to the Ritania army, so their conquest proceeded smoothly.
Receiving regular updates via Dark and his messengers, Ghislain maintained a relaxed demeanor.
“This won’t take long.”
With their main forces absent, the Atrode army was no match for the coalition. The enemy knew this as well.
And yet, they continued to hold their ground.
That was because, in order to send supplies to their main forces attacking the Kingdom of Grimwell, they needed to defend Atrode.
If the Kingdom of Atrode were to fall completely, their forces in Grimwell would struggle to continue fighting.
Count Biphenbelt knew this better than anyone.
He’ll squeeze out as much as he can before resorting to local requisitions.
Soon, the Kingdom of Grimwell would be pillaged so severely that it would struggle to recover.
The Ritania army, though slow-moving, advanced with an uncanny swiftness.
And at one of the fortresses they encountered, Ghislain noticed something odd.
“...They ran?”
The fortress was empty.
Clearly, the enemy had already heard the news and realized they had no means to defeat the Ritania army.
However, they likely hadn’t completely abandoned the battlefield. Their mission was to hold out as long as possible to transport as many supplies to Grimwell as they could.
As expected, the Atrode army had begun responding in a slightly different manner than before.
The enemy had clearly caught wind of Operation Meteor, as all the forces stationed along the Ritania army’s advance route had gathered in one place to form a defensive line.
To assemble like this, they had even abandoned their fortresses and moved out.
Ghislain smirked at the sight.
“...Well, I can understand why.”
For them, this was the best course of action. Rather than being struck down without a fight, it was better to gather and at least land a hit in return.
The assembled forces numbered around a hundred thousand. Though they had drawn troops from multiple fortresses, there was no way the Kingdom of Atrode could have fielded such numbers on its own.
Looking closely, not all of the one hundred thousand soldiers seemed to be in good condition.
Realizing who they were, Ghislain shook his head.
“Conscripts.”
With the main force absent, the Atrode army had left only a fraction of its troops behind to defend the fortresses.
But because of Operation Meteor, they had been forced to abandon those fortresses and fight in the open.
The disparity in numbers against the Ritania army was too great, so to make up for the lack of proper soldiers, they had filled the ranks with conscripts.
No matter how wealthy and powerful the Kingdom of Atrode was, it was impossible to field a hundred thousand regular troops in the current situation.
Ghislain scanned the conscripts and frowned.
“...Did they really think this would work? What a pathetic bunch.”
Most of those in the front lines were either young boys or old men. Their equipment was pitiful, and fear was plain on their faces.
The properly trained soldiers and knights were positioned at the rear instead. It was obvious they intended to use the conscripts as fodder to wear down Ritania’s forces.
“Waaaaaah!”
The Atrode army suddenly let out a battle cry and charged.
Lacking sufficient mages, their only viable tactic was to launch the first attack.
If they hesitated and got hit by magic first, they wouldn’t even have the chance to fight back. So they rushed in without thinking.
Ghislain quietly watched the enemy charge from a distance.
They were screaming, forcing courage into their voices, but that was all. The terror of death was already etched deep into their faces.
“......”
It was a pitifully disorganized charge, almost embarrassing to watch. Clearly, they had received no real training, as their formation crumbled almost immediately.
One young conscript was running forward in tears, while an old man tripped and was trampled by his own allies.
Ghislain gazed at the wretched conscripts with a hint of pity.
“This is war.”
Most of them hadn’t come here of their own will they had been dragged into this, forced to march at the whim of those in power.
They had no choice in how to live their lives.
Even knowing that, Ghislain didn’t spare those who stood in his way. In war, if you didn’t kill the enemy, you would be the one to die.
But at least for now, Ghislain had the power to decide which way this battle would turn.
“...Prepare yourselves.”
Ghislain spoke quietly.
Clank, clank, clank.
Suddenly, the knights dismounted from their horses and raised their shields. Kaor and the assault troops moved in sync with them.
Gillian, Tennant, and Belinda naturally positioned themselves near Ghislain.
Ghislain turned to Parniel and spoke.
"If you assist with divine power, this will be a little easier."
"How about calling Jerome?"
"In this situation, it'll only throw the enemy into further chaos. Besides, that guy has work to do he's pretty busy. Might as well take this as a chance to train the soldiers again after a long time."
"I understand. I was feeling uneasy as well."
Ghislain dismounted from Black King and gestured toward the mages and priests positioned in the rear.
"Let's begin."
Rumble Boom!
A massive stone wall shot up along the path where the Atrode army was charging.
Vanessa and the mages focused more on blocking the path than directly attacking the enemy.
The only open passage was in the center.
"W-What the...?"
The charging Atrode soldiers were thrown into confusion. As mere conscripts, there was no way they could climb or break through such a massive stone barrier.
Their mages should have helped them, but they were too busy focusing on protecting their command structure.
"M-Move!"
"Over there! That way!"
"Don't push!"
With their charge blocked, the sheer number of troops caused them to become entangled in a chaotic mess. No one knew what to do.
In the end, the conscripts had no choice but to funnel into the single open passage.
Ghislain, watching silently, extended his hand to the side. A knight handed him a Galvaniium baton.
Fwoooosh!
All across the Ritania formation, divine power flared to life. Piote and the priests were blessing the soldiers in the front line.
Ghislain raised the baton and commanded,
"All forces… ‘subdue’ the enemy."
The moment he finished speaking, Ghislain shot forward.
The superhumans, knights, and assault troops silently followed behind him.
They, too, drew the Galvaniium batons strapped to their waists.
Rumble!
The stone wall that had been blocking the enemy's advance suddenly disappeared. The enemy formation was already in complete disarray.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
The Mobile Corps at the front raised their shields and detached the spearheads from their Galvaniium polearms, turning them into solid staves.
Ghislain grinned as he watched the conscripts charge toward him.
"I'm not going to do what the Salvation Church wants. I always feel like doing the opposite in situations like this."
Parniel, standing right beside him, smirked and slammed her massive mace into the ground.
BOOOOM!
"Ugh ack!"
The ground trembled, sending the conscripts tumbling over one another. Ghislain seized the moment and charged in.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
He swung the baton with precision, knocking enemies to the ground one by one. Of course, he controlled his strength just enough to avoid killing them outright.
Thud!
The superhumans following behind Ghislain did the same. As they knocked down the conscripts and moved forward, the knights pushed back the ones rushing in from the sides with their shields.
Even so, there were simply too many conscripts. More kept surging forward, but the assault troops struck them down, carving a path ahead.
Ghislain laughed heartily as he knocked down the charging conscripts.
"Think of this as an intense training session! Opportunities like this don’t come often!"
A rough estimate put their number at around eighty thousand. It seemed they had been gathered from every nearby city.
Even if they were mere conscripts, their sheer numbers were overwhelming. But Ghislain had no intention of stopping.
In his mind, this wasn’t a battle it was a suppression drill.
The knights and assault troops shoved back the enemy with their shields and struck them down with their batons, grumbling as they did.
"Ugh! No wonder things had been too easy lately!"
"How long is this gonna take?!"
"Well, at least it’s not just us doing all the work."
Subduing an enemy without killing them was far more difficult than simply cutting them down. If they had simply charged in on horseback, the conscripts would have been slaughtered in an instant.
Of course, as a training exercise, this was excellent. They were fighting for real, where one mistake could be fatal, but they had to hold back just enough to avoid killing their opponents.
Such a scenario was rare, which was why Ghislain had called this a training session.
Parniel didn’t engage in direct combat. Instead, she focused on radiating divine power and monitoring the condition of their allies.
After some time, the conscripts could no longer even attempt to charge at the assault troops.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
The moment the Mobile Corps arrived, they began clearing a path, striking the conscripts with the shafts of their polearms and pushing forward in a wide formation.
No matter how desperately the conscripts swung their weapons, the Ritania troops remained unscathed. Their Galvaniium armor rendered the attacks ineffective.
It was impossible for the conscripts to break through with their limited strength.
"Our weapons aren’t working!"
"Push them back with your bodies!"
"How are we supposed to kill these guys?!"
One by one, the conscripts were struck by the polearms and sent tumbling to the ground. Those who fell groaned in pain but were, at the very least, still alive.
That was when they finally realized—
The enemy was showing them mercy.
An old man, who had collapsed, grabbed a young conscript beside him, who was struggling to get up.
"Stay down."
"Huh?"
"Just stay down. Duke of Fenris is sparing us right now."
The young conscript, finally grasping the situation, hurriedly lay flat on the ground. From his position, he could see the others groaning in pain but making no attempt to rise.
‘I… I’m alive.’
The boy curled up, trying to steady his racing heart. He had been certain he would die.
He had been so tense that he hadn’t even noticed what was happening around him. But now, he saw it clearly the Ritania soldiers were only knocking them down, not cutting them down.
One by one, the other conscripts began to understand the situation.
They had thrown themselves into the battle with gritted teeth, convinced they would die anyway. But if that wasn’t the case, then the circumstances changed entirely.
They were just ordinary farmers, but even they knew the Salvation Church was the true villain of this continent.
Now, conscripts began dropping to the ground without even being struck, realizing that lying down meant survival.
At last, the exact atmosphere Ghislain had been aiming for had taken shape.
Sensing that the time had come, Ghislain stomped the ground forcefully.
BOOOOM!
The earth split apart, sending the nearby conscripts sprawling.
At the same time, Ghislain roared.
"EVERYONE, GET DOWN! FROM NOW ON, ONLY THOSE WHO LIE FLAT WILL BE SPARED!"
His thunderous voice echoed across the battlefield.
The conscripts had already seen it everyone who had charged at the Ritania forces had been struck down. And none of them had been killed.
It was now clear that the enemy had deliberately spared them. And this was their final warning.
This was their only chance to live.
One soldier threw down his weapon and dropped to the ground.
Seeing this, another followed suit.
Soon, as if a dam had broken, all the conscripts of the Atrode army discarded their weapons and collapsed onto the battlefield.