Creak— Creak creak-!
Crack— Crack crack-!
From the ground, walls, and various structures of buildings, white bones revealed themselves.
The bones that slowly emerged soon turned into a single skeleton.
Dozens, hundreds, no… thousands?
An uncountable number of skeletons shone with dark purple lights in their eye sockets.
And that wasn’t all. They clutched various weapons in their hands.
Their intention to attack was so obvious it was almost laughable.
Of course, it was a laugh of shock.
“Don’t panic and proceed as planned. Defend your assigned areas!”
Kwajik-!
The subjugation force steadily reduced the number of skeletons.
Although they were slightly surprised by the bizarre sight, they didn’t panic.
Because they weren’t weak enough to fall into a panic.
Well, they had also been informed beforehand that skeletons would rise.
The problem was.
Creak— Creak creak-!
“…You’re kidding, right?”
“For skeletons, this is too much of a joke.”
The skeletons they killed rose again.
It was bizarre enough that they crawled when their legs were cut off and crawled with their jaws when their arms were cut off.
But to even gather bone fragments and restore their bodies.
“Th, this is a dream, right?”
They couldn’t even stab the heart. Because skeletons didn’t have such a thing.
Even if they beheaded them or shattered their bodies, they gathered bones from around them and rose again.
No matter how many times they were brought down, the skeletons rose with dark purple lights burning in their eye sockets.
It was enough to instill fear in the subjugation force.
The fear that ‘these things… might never die?’
As the subjugation force was slowly retreating, Adonis’s eyes moved quickly, gathering information.
Weapons coated with holy power potions. The skeletons killed by those weapons never rose again.
But the holy power potions would run out first. The enemy’s numbers seemed to be at least 1,000.
‘Hmm?’
At that moment, something caught Adonis’s attention.
A skeleton leaning against the wall, staggering as it restored its body.
Its resurrection was unusually slow compared to the other skeletons.
It was a skeleton with half of its head missing.
Seeing that, Adonis opened his mouth.
“Crush the heads.”
“Huh?”
“The head is the weakness. Make sure to destroy at least half of it.”
The subjugation force immediately followed Adonis’s words.
Rather than believing his words, it was an action they took because there was nothing else they could do.
But the result was surprising.
Skeletons with crushed heads had slow recovery. Visibly slow.
“Our cutie Adonis is so smart too!”
“After the fight, this big sis will dote on you a lot!”
“…”
Adonis thought his allies were scarier than the skeletons.
Looking at the battlefield where the defensive line was secured stably, Adonis fell into deep thought.
‘This isn’t the end.’
The reason Adonis didn’t step forward was simple.
The Black Mage called Volkan.
‘He’s quite skilled in strategy.’
The information capability to notice the subjugation force’s approach in advance, the utilization of the magic circle, even luring them into a battlefield advantageous to them.
Adonis didn’t think that such a person had only this much prepared for the resurrection of the Legion Commander.
‘He must be hiding a trump card.’
One, two, or even more.
Whatever it was, it was clear that it would be more surprising than the skeletons in front of them.
‘But the same goes for us.’
Caron, Elester, and the members of the subjugation force were also hiding their trump cards.
And he himself was also the Empire’s prepared trump card… moreover, the strongest trump card, a ‘9-star knight with a sacred sword’.
At the decisive moment, he had to appear and shatter Volkan’s schemes.
Yes, even if.
A few of those children died.
‘Because no matter how much we win in battle, it’s useless if we don’t win the war.’
Preventing Crowley’s resurrection and killing Volkan.
That was the top priority of this mission.
It meant prioritizing that over the lives of those fighting hard.
“…”
But why did those children, whom he had only been with for a few days, keep bothering him?
“Tsk!”
Adonis probed for mana.
And soon he could see it. The dark purple mana flying towards the fallen skeletons.
‘I don’t know the exact principle, but… it seems to require a certain amount of mana to resurrect the ones with crushed heads.’
The problem was that he didn’t know where the mana was coming from.
Even for Adonis, who had a knack for mana detection.
‘Is it because of the magic circle floating in the sky… It wasn’t just for buying time.’
It concealed the number of skeletons with ‘Fog’ and made the location of the Black Mages undetectable with ‘Concealment’.
‘I can’t leave my current position.’
Because the Legion Commander’s corpse was nearby.
If Elester, Caron, and Lucia couldn’t do it, he had to step forward.
‘The destruction of the magic circle… I have no choice but to leave it to the special team.’
Then, what was the best move he could make now?
Adonis, who had finished thinking, opened his mouth.
“Otone, sweep the palace and the 1st district with your team.”
“Huh?”
“If you kill the Black Mages in hiding, the number of skeletons will noticeably decrease. The Black Mages will have set up traps, but you, the hero of Ratra, should be able to handle it.”
“Hmm… Thanks for the compliment. But…”
The only ones with the authority to give orders were Elester, Caron, and Lucia.
But not only did Adonis lack the authority to command, he was just a boy.
There was nothing more foolish than following his words.
But strangely.
‘There’s a peculiar power in Adonis’s words.’
Perhaps this was the reason Caron had insisted on Adonis.
Quick situational judgment and appropriate personnel placement. A kind of staff officer role?
Otone made eye contact with Adonis.
Good eyes. Eyes that trusted his own judgment and comrades without the slightest wavering.
Excellent eyes.
‘…This kid is something. After this mission, I should take him to Ratra and raise him.’
The fact that she could dote on him a lot was a bonus.
“Alright. But in return, give me a tight hug when you return.”
“…I’ll think about it.”
“Otone team, follow me! We will sever the heads of the Black Mages!”
Immediately after the Otone team left, the other teams naturally narrowed their spacing.
They instantly filled the gap created by their departure.
A formation with Elester, Caron, and Lucia at the center, surrounded by the others.
Although the number of skeletons each had to deal with increased, it wasn’t enough to be called a burden.
Because the skeletons were so weak.
‘Slightly weaker… than regular soldiers.’
Even though their numbers were high, they were no match for the 6~7-star knights.
“Hahaha! Frail bag of bones! This much doesn’t even sting!”
Asteon, who was crushing skeletons with a huge shield.
Suddenly, something caught his eye.
A huge skeleton in heavy armor. It was even riding a horse made of bones. In one hand, it held a huge spear.
Thud thud thud thud-!
Looking at the charging creature, Asteon thought.
Hmm… that one might.
“Sting a bit?”
Boom!!
“Ugh…”
The huge spear pierced Asteon’s shield.
But it didn’t penetrate the shield. Asteon had endured it.
“It’s not stinging, it hurts! Everyone, be careful!”
“Wasn’t it a problem that you stupidly took it head-on?”
Edwin shot an arrow and shattered the skull of the skeletal horse, and Kiel swung his sword at the skeleton that lost balance and fell from above.
It was when Kiel was about to behead it.
The third secret technique of the Monadan family.
Half-Moon Slash.
The spear swung in a semicircle.
Kiel retreated with a gasp.
“Wh, what?”
“The power is weak, but this is definitely…!”
It was a secret technique of the Monadan family, one of the former royal families of the Rohan Kingdom.
It was one of the families that popularized spearmanship techniques on the continent, so most people knew that technique.
Everyone was shocked. Not only by the fact that what was in front of them was a former knight, but also.
‘It can use the techniques from when it was alive?’
Fear. But before that, there was one emotion that surged.
Anger.
“How dare you… insult knights!”
Knights who closed their eyes in the war against the Legion Commander.
They were beings who deserved respect, but not only were they forcibly raised from their eternal rest, they were made to fight against the next generation of knights.
‘And they can’t even properly demonstrate their original strength…!’
What could be a greater insult than this?
Although from different countries, putting them to rest was the duty of the current generation of knights and their juniors.
Kiel swung his sword.
Kiel’s first original secret technique.
One Blade.
The skeleton’s head was split in half.
Kiel crushed the head into bone powder and scattered it in the sky.
The Black Mages could restore it, but it would consume considerable mana and time.
Kiel bowed his head as he watched the powder fly in the sky.
“Rest in peace. Your sacrifices… will never be in vain.”
Kiel raised his sword and shouted.
“Everyone, raise your weapons! Don’t let them insult the knights!”
“Uoooooh!!”
A fierce battle began between the skeletons, skeletal knights, and the subjugation force.
Watching from afar, Lucia whistled.
“Whew~. It’s passionate. Is it because they’re still young?”
“Some of them are older than you, you know.”
“I’m just saying they need to get moderately fired up. Otherwise, they might die without even realizing their bodies are burning, right?”
In one of Lucia’s hands was a knight’s helmet.
A half-crushed helmet. As Lucia applied force, the skull inside crumbled and turned to dust.
“…Lord Adonis is over there, so somehow it will work out. So focus on what’s in front of you.”
“I know that too? But the situation is terrible? Why the hell is it so sturdy?!”
It was Caron and Lucia who were carrying out the crucial mission of preventing Crowley’s resurrection.
However, they had no choice but to pause their mission and have a conversation.
The unknown magic circle surrounding Crowley and the Black Mages.
They relentlessly pounded on it, but not even a small scratch was made.
‘At least the holy water had some effect, but…’
It couldn’t make a hole large enough to attack through. Even the painstakingly made hole was quickly repaired.
“Cannon Buster!”
Boom-!!
Elester’s magic erupted.
But it only scattered dust, and not a single scratch was made on the magic circle surrounding Crowley and the Black Mages.
‘It seems to ignore the impact from vibrations as well. Does it block all impacts?’
Caron frowned.
The reason the Black Mages had remained until now.
It was clear that they were trying to raise the 5th Legion Commander Crowley again.
They were trying to resurrect the Legion Commander who had nearly brought the continent to ruin 40 years ago.
‘Judging from the fact that the skeletal knights can use their abilities from when they were alive, Crowley will also be able to use his past abilities.’
It was the worst-case scenario.
The plan to inform the continent of their existence and bring in reinforcements.
It had long been discarded.
They had to stop it here. If they couldn’t.
The continent would perish.
“Stake your lives on it!!”
Elester’s voice resounded loudly across the battlefield.
The subjugation force trembled at Elester’s roar, which they were hearing for the first time.
‘Retreat is… impossible.’
No, it was possible.
If they could just destroy that. The corpse of the 5th Legion Commander Crowley.
The magic circle that even a 9-star knight and a 9-circle mage couldn’t scratch.
But the method of attack came to mind surprisingly quickly.
“We have no choice but to collapse the building.”
If they forcibly changed the location of the magic stones that might be anywhere, and neutralized the magic circle surrounding Legion Commander Crowley and the Black Mages.
They could bury them alive as the building collapsed.
The problem was that the palace was annoyingly sturdy, perhaps because it was a royal palace?
The Rohan Kingdom, once called the Golden Kingdom. It was the palace that demonstrated its majesty by only having half of it destroyed even when Crowley appeared.
It meant that it wouldn’t collapse just because he and Lucia went wild.
But there was a way.
“Lord Elester, please collapse the building.”
“Hmm, I understand. I ask for your protection while I cast.”
Elester immediately began casting.
The Black Mages inside the magic circle also seemed to have felt the huge flow of mana and became restless.
“Heh~ I thought you disliked such crude tactics?”
“I only dislike it because it’s inefficient. Anyway, I ask you to guard Lord Elester.”
“What will you do, Uncle?”
“I will find and kill the Black Mages hiding in the building, and that guy called Volkan.”
Volkan, who had disappeared somewhere, taking advantage of the gap while Caron and Lucia were attacking the magic circle.
Honestly, Caron was anxious.
Because he didn’t know what that guy would do.
Lucia pouted her lips.
“Guarding an old man is boring. Let’s switch.”
“…In this chaotic situation, I sincerely wonder what would happen if your secret photo was scattered.”
“Seriously, this uncle! Okay! I got it!”
While feeling truly fortunate to have the photo Zero had given him.
Caron blended into the shadows.
–TL Notes–
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