Giants climbed over the Wall and came in.
Facing them, most of the Association’s Awakeners had already given up on everything.
“Th-that... what even is that......!?”
But.
As if they had forgotten they’d had death right in front of them just moments ago,
they looked up at the sky with pale faces.
Han Iseo, who had been wearing a dark expression like she’d given up on everything just before,
also forgot that she had accepted the death about to come,
and looked up at the sky with the same pale face as everyone else.
There.
{Citizens of Gyeonggi Province. Rest assured.}
{We are the Legion.}
An impossibly gigantic structure
was flying through the sky, ripping the Wall open as it appeared.
‘What is that.......’
Was it because of the Wall’s incredible heat?
The entire massive hull was glowing red-hot.
People couldn’t tell what it was.
But.
PAAAAAAAK......!
On this battlefield, there were giants who had brought eternal winter to a world.
Because of the tremendous cold they were releasing,
the heat of the structure that had been heated by the Wall’s heat rapidly cooled.
“Is it an island......?”
“No, no.”
Only after the structure regained its original appearance like that
could people guess what it was.
“It’s a fortress......!”
A gigantic warship flying through the sky.
Or a fortress.
From a colossal citadel that, by the physical laws they knew, should never have been able to fly like that,
a low-quality mechanical voice boomed.
{The Legion has come here for the peace of humanity.}
{A large-scale operational activity of the Legion will begin shortly, so citizens are asked to refrain from any actions that may interfere with the operation.}
“What?”
Peace, operation.
Words no one could make sense of.
GUUUUUUUU-WOONG.......
Before people could even fully understand what that electronic voice was saying,
the massive fortress’s gate opened.
And.
From that gate—
hundreds of shapes whose identities couldn’t be discerned burst out,
and before those shapes even touched the ground—
PUH-BUH-BUH-BUH-BUH-BUNG-!!!!
The gigantic fortress
began spewing fire.
*****
The fortress spewed fire,
and massive shells poured down toward the ground.
Red fragments plunging down at incredible speed.
The history of war humanity had built up.
The purification of violence produced by that history.
The Association, too, had various firearms captured from military units.
Those weapons were definitely effective against most monsters, but there were exceptions.
SAA-REUK.......
Just before the shells pouring out of the fortress could reach the monsters,
a faint membrane of ice formed above their heads.
[Belsnickel] used the bodies of monsters,
and even so, they were powerful beings whose supernatural abilities were carved into their souls.
The Association’s barrage was enough to smash the bodies they had taken,
but the destructive power of a barrage that passed through that protection was greatly reduced.
That was why the Association’s defensive line had no choice but to be pushed back helplessly, but—
BZZZT.......
—......!?
The ice that had formed above their heads.
The shells raining from the sky struck that ice.
And.
KWA-A-AANG!
—KRUH-WOAAAAAAK!!!
That barrage tore through the protection created by their supernatural abilities like paper,
and struck their bodies directly.
—No way!
The Belsnickel had no choice but to panic.
‘It’s completely different from the power of the native species we’ve faced /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ until now.’
With those lords who exuded the strongest cold now awake,
the supernatural abilities they could wield had become powerful to a degree that couldn’t even be compared to the past.
And the protection they created.......
—Hot hot hot hot!!
—It huuuurts!!!
—Brothers......!
Because of that barrage,
it was being ripped apart easily.
The lords who handled powerful magic could realize it.
The barrage pouring down from the sky.
Inside that barrage, the native species’ technology was clearly exerting considerable influence, but—
‘What is this powerful magic, then!’
On top of that.
It was power combined with some other kind of technology!
—Even if the native species have great potential, they shouldn’t have had technology like that—how......!
They possessed the knowledge of the native species they had drawn in as brothers.
And by the knowledge they understood,
that kind of firepower should never have been able to exist.
—Brothers......!
If it had been not long ago,
they would have treated something like their flesh burning as nothing.
But now it was different.
—My soul...... my soul is burning......!
On this battlefield, the power of a [Shaman] was spread through the air.
A powerful curse they had never experienced before,
where physical damage also reached the soul.
Up until now, the battle situation had been overwhelmingly in [Belsnickel]’s favor.
That was why they could keep advancing while enduring a certain amount of consumption.
But that barrage was different.
—......Huuuuup!
Fortunately,
there wasn’t absolutely no one who had the ability to respond to that barrage.
Those called lords.
When they urgently stretched out their arms and focused their power—
PAAAAAAAK!
—Come under protection, brothers!
Centered on the giants’ bodies, a massive membrane formed in the air over the battlefield.
The Belsnickel could avoid the barrage under the lords’ protection.
But.
PUH-BUH-BUNG.......
—S-save me......!
The number of lords was never large.
No matter how they tried to block that barrage with all their strength,
the area they could practically defend wasn’t even half the battlefield.
‘We can’t leave that barrage alone......!’
It was true that the weaker brothers had become stronger thanks to the lords,
but the lords’ power also grew thanks to the existence of those brothers.
They couldn’t afford to lose forces here.
—Brothers!
One of the lords who made a decision,
[Knight Commander of the Frozen Kingdom, Spear of the Icicle Ariadon] shouted.
Most of the lords remaining were specialized for battle,
but Ariadon was the one who had led the king’s knights among them.
He was the most outstanding at surveying the battlefield and running combat.
After countless battles, having realized strategy, tactics,
and the flow of war, he shouted with certainty.
—A variable has appeared on a battlefield where victory was assured! If we’re careless, the damage may grow large!
A battle where victory and defeat were already decided.
When new forces were suddenly added to the side that had been losing in that battle,
‘Those who were convinced of defeat and giving up instead gain higher morale than before.’
Because of that,
they could inflict damage so great it was hard to believe.
—Then what should we do?
—We cannot ignore that barrage and fight, brother.
The barrage pouring down from the fortress floating in the sky.
And.
‘Before the barrage poured down...... something descended to the ground.’
The beings that had burst out of that fortress
could be anywhere, doing anything.
A situation where they couldn’t know which to deal with first.
Then.
There was only one thing they had to do.
—We must retrieve the king.
—......!
When the king’s soul vanished at first,
they had no choice but to panic because they couldn’t find where it had gone.
But not now.
‘I can feel it......!’
Inside the Wall the native species had erected.
—The one who stole the king’s soul is hiding!
The lords’ power was certainly strong,
but with that alone, it was impossible to bring about the end of a world.
There was only one reason they could reign as the world’s rulers.
—If we retrieve the king’s soul, nothing will be able to stop us......!
Those who filled their power through the cold each released.
And if their king was among them together,
even if he couldn’t open his eyes right now because of that seal,
their combat power would double—no, tenfold.
Dozens, hundreds of times would be amplified.
If the king’s soul hadn’t been stolen in the first place,
they wouldn’t have had to suffer like this.
—Brothers, retrieve the king’s soul!
—......Then Ariadon, what will you do?
—I will, so that my brothers can advance.......
A giant clad in massive, beautiful armor of ice.
In one hand of that giant, dizzying cold gathered and took shape.
—I will capture that fortress and return.
A gigantic spear with something like a chain hanging from it.
That spear—
KWA-A-A-A-A-A-AANG!
pierced into the side of the fortress flying through the sky.
*****
Ariadon’s epithet was [Spear of the Icicle].
True to that name,
he was a master of combat arts that used a gigantic spear.
KWAA-JIK!
A giant over fifty meters tall.
When he threw a massive spear nearly twice his body’s size with all his strength,
the spearhead roughly dug into the side of the fortress flying through the sky.
CHAA-RRRRUK!
Ariadon yanked the ice chain connected to that spear,
and using the recoil as help, he leapt toward the fortress.
PANG!
In an instant, he leapt close enough and managed to grab the massive fortress’s wall and hang from it.
And.
Only after arriving at the fortress could he examine it in detail.
‘What is this impossible structure.’
To begin with.
A flying fortress was already an impossible idea.
Ariant, the world they had conquered.
That empire that resisted their king until the very end in that world.
Even the towering walls covered in all manner of magic that surrounded its imperial capital couldn’t fly.
And that wasn’t all.
CHAA-RRRRUK.......
The gigantic spear that had allowed him to cling to the fortress.
The moment he arrived,
that spear popped out of the wall and fell to the ground.
‘It was a spear I threw with all my strength, but only the tip barely went in.......’
This fortress’s durability also surpassed imagination.
At an altitude ordinary brothers couldn’t even reach,
protected by walls that blocked even his all-out throw,
a fortress that wielded enough firepower to easily smash even the brothers’ defenses.
‘It’s dangerous.’
A piece of equipment that completely ignored the battlefield common sense he had built up.
For the first time in a long while,
Ariadon felt something like
‘My skin is crawling.’
‘We have to bring it down here!’
Ariadon looked at the many artillery emplacements attached along the fortress’s wall.
A spear formed in the giant’s hand.
And.
KWAGAGAGANG......!
When the spear, nearly a hundred meters long, swept across the fortress’s wall,
the emplacements attached to the wall broke, and fragments scattered in all directions.
‘These cannons are certainly powerful, but they aren’t that sturdy. Were they made by different beings than the ones who made this fortress?’
To him, it was good news.
No matter how impossible the fortress’s power was,
if he cleared out every one of these cannons that spewed bombardment from the air,
it would be nothing more than a fancy decoration floating in the sky.
‘Remove every cannon stuck to the wall. Then my brothers will retrieve the king’s soul......!’
KWAGAGAGANG!!!
‘If we retrieve the king’s soul!’
Clinging to the fortress, Ariadon kept moving,
and devoted all his strength to smashing the emplacements.
‘Even if hundreds of these fortresses come, there’s nothing to fear!’
Ariadon’s judgment wasn’t greatly wrong.
If this barrage’s interference disappeared, his brothers would easily cross over that fortress,
and the moment the king returned to their embrace,
this fortress would be named a new ‘frozen citadel’ and be fated to be presented to their king.
But.
If there was one thing he had misjudged—
“Ts.”
Because he had focused too much on destroying the fortress’s cannons,
he didn’t realize that above the fortress.......
“To smash the cannons we worked so hard to make like that.”
A dark cloud
so massive it could flip the entire fortress over,
containing absurdly powerful magic—
PA-JI-JI-JI-JIK.......
had settled there.
He hadn’t noticed.
