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Arkul gate was a fortress located to the South of the Loen Basin, and functioned as the gateway to connect Torra and the West. Its original purpose was to act as the final fortress meant to prevent the Western Giants from invading the Capital, but now it was being guarded by the Giant slaves to prevent the emperor from advancing to the West.
The appearance of Giants who were lined up on top of the huge and thick walls that were originally designed to prevent Giants from being able to climb up was enough to make just about anyone feel pressured. It had already been a long time since tourists and merchants had stopped visiting the West, but the Western Army had no major problems due to a lack of supplies, since they had collected enough food during the fall.
“This is wonderful. How spectacular!”
Dismas made a satisfied smile while standing on top of the tallest tower at the Arkul gate. Numerous fire beacons could be seen rising over the horizon, indicating that his plan was successful.
“It’s a huge success, Imil!”
“All I did was to move around those carriages.”
“We wouldn’t have been able to see such a spectacular view if it wasn’t for the excellent trade network of your family. None of this would have been possible without you.”
“We could have pressed our enemies with the power of Cainheryars alone. I’m afraid that our power might have become dispersed due to scattering them everywhere for no good reason. Besides, some of the Cainheryars look like they have lost their chance at resurrection due to the horsemen carrying their carriages running away in fear.”
“Oh don’t worry about it; after all, we can’t be perfect as long as we’re human beings! That’s why we need the eternal teachings of His Majesty.”
Dismas’s plan was rather simple. When the Cainheryars attack the various parts of the empire and the power of the fake emperor is dispersed to take care of the Cainheryars, Dismas would appear to defeat the fake emperor. Then, by once again placing all the Cainheryars back to sleep as soon as the fake emperor’s rebellion is over, Dismas will be able to regain the emperor’s empire and also gain the respect of the humans who still lacked faith in the emperor.
“The fake emperor is not the only enemy we have, Imil. Those who lack faith in the emperor are also going to be subjected to edification and punishment. Those types of people do not have any fear of gods, and at the same time, they have no respect for His Majesty. I think we should constantly remind them of how His Majesty saved us from bizarre beings like this.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Doctrinal General Dismas.”
“All right then. I’ll go back to Cabragh for now. I need to make sure that His Holiness has learned how to properly make use of Telgramm. Then, I’ll advance eastward as soon as I have confirmed it.”
“I must inform His Holiness that all of the Imperial people might die if he does not hurry.”
“That’s not a bad result either. Starting anew on a white drawing paper where there’s nothing drawn on it. The current empire is wrong and polluted right now, so it might be better to start over. Anyway…”
Dismas, who was about to go down the stairs, suddenly came to a stop with a strange expression on his face.
“Doctrinal General? Is everything okay?” Imil asked.
“Hmm… We might need to hurry more than I expected.”
“I’m sorry?”
“One of the Cainheryars has just been destroyed. And… there’s more than just one or two that are under attack right now.”
***
Winter citadel had no specific name for it, and was simply called the winter citadel. The winter citadel of the North served as the Capital of the North, as well as the last bastion to protect the empire from the Crack.
All the people living in the city except for the children were all trained to play the role of soldiers. Over the years, the winter citadel had been attacked by all sorts of mysterious monsters that had crawled up from the Crack, while at the same time, the chilly wind of winter wasn’t new to them either.
Crash!
Walter from the Order of Fenrir hastily hid behind the wall upon hearing a deafening noise. Soon after, screams broke out from all directions as the ground started to tremble.
Walter looked out of the window with a pale expression. One side of the wall which had protected the winter citadel for hundreds of years had collapsed and red lava was soaring into the air from everywhere. The earthquake and the heat that were unfamiliar in the north shook the winter mountains, causing avalanches in the surrounding mountains.
Countless people were burned to death or crushed to death by the avalanches. And in the middle of all the surging lava stood a huge giant while looking down at all of them with burning eyes while holding a hammer in his hand.
Walter recalled a record of that giant in the library.
The giant’s identity was Laboros—he was often confused with the god of fire due to his physical characteristics, but his exact title was ‘the mountain builder.’ Some also called him the master of all metals, the blacksmith god, or the god of dwarves.
He held many titles, but what was certain was that lava would soar from any spot that he struck with his hammer to form a mountain, be it land or the sea.
Walter didn’t care about what that meant or why he was doing what he was doing.
What was important was that a crazy giant was making a volcano in the middle of the city.
The city was already covered with surging lava and volcanic ash in many places.
“You son of a bitch!”
Walter picked up the bag he had dropped and began to once again climb up the tower. It was unknown as to when the tower would collapse amidst all the earthquakes and the flowing lava, but he couldn’t stop climbing.
Walter wasn’t the only person who was moving to stand up against the enemy. In fact, there was no one who was panicking or any fugitives in the entire winter citadel. The northerners guarding the winter citadel were ordered by Nienna to protect the winter citadel. They all had the mindset that if it has been ordered, then it must be protected.
They had no intention of leaving the winter citadel even if lava filled up all the way up to their ankles. All they did was to quickly find whatever they could do to help. And if they failed, then their duty was to move on to the next thing that they could do to be of help.
Right now, Walter was trying one of the many ways he could help.
Finally, Walter was able to reach the top of the tower. The tower was inclined at an angle, and there were numerous battles going on underneath it.
Once Laboros struck the ground with his hammer, lava started to flow everywhere. That’s when miniature dwarves jumped out of the thick and sticky lava while emitting small amounts of heat, and spread everywhere to attack the people.
Sharp blades barely left any damage on the dwarves, since they were entirely made up of stones, but when the northerners noticed their characteristics, they started to strike the dwarves’ heads with hammers.
Such unexpected battles were rather familiar to the people of the North. After all, thousands of unknown monsters constantly popped out of the Crack, and the northerners had to be quick to adapt to be able to stand up to these monsters.
Walter tightly clenched his teeth and took out the spears he had filled the bags with. Then he began to load them onto the huge crossbows placed on top of the tower.
“You think you’re so special just because you’re a god!?”
Crack!
The spear, which was fired with a sharp sound, narrowly brushed past Laboros’ head. While it failed to injure him, it was enough to grab his attention.
Laboros turned his head and slowly began to approach Walter.
Meanwhile, Walter gritted his teeth upon seeing a huge burning giant half the size of the tower approaching him. But then he loaded another spear into the crossbow in a calm manner.
“Die, you bastard!”
The spear did not miss this time, since it was fired at a much closer target compared to the previous attempt.
Laboros didn’t seem to care too much about the small spear that was flying toward him, but the moment he was struck in the middle of the forehead by the spear, his neck was bent.
“Ugh, ha! Haha! How does that taste, you asshole?!”
What Walter had fired toward Laboros was no ordinary weapon—it was a divine weapon that was used in the mythological era. Back then, all gods were a threat to humans, but some gods were hostile to each other as well. They created weapons to attack each other, and those weapons that were created for such a purpose came in quite handy even during the emperor’s era.
The gods had disappeared, but the divine weapons that they left behind still remained in their warehouses.
The left side of Laboros’ head flew off due to the divine weapon’s blow.
This caused Walter to be delighted, since he thought that he had defeated Laboros; however, he soon felt a feeling of fear that made him freeze on the spot.
Before he knew it, Laboros was already looking down at him from a higher position.
Laboros aimed his huge hammer toward the tower.
Amidst this situation where he was about to be crushed like a lump of iron placed on an anvil, Walter decided to load the crossbow one more time.
“Ha, haha! You think you’re the biggest and hottest? You will also helplessly freeze and get destroyed once General Nienna comes!”
Laboros’ hammer struck the tower at the same time as Walter’s roar.
Walter managed to dodge the hammer, but ended up being thrown into the air, and the tremendous height made it so that he couldn’t guarantee his survival.
Expecting his upcoming death, Walter raised his middle finger toward Laboros just before he was about to crash.
“Well done.”
At that moment, something suddenly grabbed his middle finger. Even before Walter could realize what had grabbed him, the sight of a giant white wolf biting off Laboros’ neck entered his eyes.
‘Fenrir.’
A pillar of steam immediately soared into the air as soon as Fenrir’s icy fangs tore into Laboros’ neck. Any part of Laboros’ body that Fenrir bit and scratched turned gray and dull. While Fenrir’s current appearance made it look like a lump of steam, Laboros’ movements had also gotten quite sluggish.
With a thud, Walter realized that he had once again arrived on a tower. Then he soon realized that he was riding on the back of another white wolf.
A woman with silver hair and skin as pale as snow was holding onto his wrist.
“General Nienna!”
“All right. Fold your finger back down, will you? I’m starting to get pissed off.”
Walter nodded and folded his finger in a hurry.
Nienna casually looked toward Laboros who was standing up in the middle of the winter citadel once again. The burning heat that was still being emitted by Laboros was bothering her.
“You’ve come to a land that doesn’t suit you. I’ll let you know your place.”
***
The emperor’s mouth slowly opened.
“Nienna. Head to the north with the Northern Army. You have left the Crack unattended for too long. The empire will definitely fall into a disaster if the Crack joins the battle to worsen the situation. Make sure to overpower the Cainheryars as much as you can as well,” Juan ordered Nienna right away.
Nienna nodded with a relieved expression.
Although Cainheryars were a huge threat to the empire, Nienna had confronted the Crack even in the days of the gods. Her true enemy was the Crack, rather than the gods. She was relieved to hear Juan’s order, since she had been anxious that the northern city might lose its ability to deal with the Crack due to the arrival of the Cainheryar.
“Leave it to me, dad. I’ll send every one of them back to their coffins.”
***
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The devastation that struck the Eastern coastal city of Orsk came without any warnings or foreshadowing.
A huge deep sea creature called Rahab coiled its huge octopus feet over the wall, while a lump hung from its foot—it almost looked as if a flower was blooming. The lamp which was emitting green light erased the sunlight, as well as the moonlight, causing everyone’s attention to be attracted by it.
People stared blankly at the light, falling into a dream about a quiet, deep sea. Then a quiet whisper came from Rahab’s mouth, causing the desire of wanting to breathe through their gills after swallowing the seawater slowly started to erode everyone’s brains.
[Come! Return to your true home to serve the master of the Abyss…]
Crash! Crash! Crash!
The sudden noise and heat that burst from nowhere caused people to collapse to the ground. The people who were just released from the hallucinations were all gasping for air, and in pain as if they had forgotten how to breathe for a moment—it was like they had suddenly turned back into human beings after they had been turned into a fish for a very long time.
Those who just came back to their senses belatedly found something beyond the wall and screamed in astonishment—Rahab’s lamp that had been luring them in was now burning in the flames of a huge dragon.
***
“Horhell and Haild, you two head to the East with Entalucia. Entalucia, I know that you have decided not to intervene in this war and that your injuries have not yet healed. But I would like to ask you to do me a personal favor—and I request this as the emperor. Please help to subdue the Cainheryars in the East.”
Entalucia, who was still in an injured state, nodded easily upon hearing Juan’s request.
[When will there be another situation like this, where I can make the emperor owe me a debt? I have no choice but to accept it,] Entalucia answered.
“And Anya.”
“No.”
Everyone looked surprised upon hearing Anya’s remark, since they had all thought that she would be the last person to disobey the emperor’s orders.
Anya was still entirely covered in bandages, and everyone belatedly recalled that she had lost her necromancy due to the destruction of Umbra, as well as her mana heart upon seeing her appearance.
In all honesty, she couldn’t play any significant role in this war that could help lead them to victory.
“You were about to tell me to head to the South with the Order of Huginn, right? I always think Your Majesty is right, but I must refuse this. After all, if I have to die, I would like to die beside His Majesty,” Anya said with a firm expression.
“I’m not asking you to go to the South. I have something to give you.”
What Juan pulled out of his pocket was a ring.