Rumbleeeee.......
A deafening noise echoed even from far away.
Massive vibrations shook the earth.
Until not long ago—
Most awakened individuals had feared making noise, terrified it would attract monsters.
Humanity had struggled to handle even a single horde of incoming creatures.
But...... things were different now.
“Advance!”
As the shout of their commander—
Lieutenant General Kim Hyeon-seok rang out.
KUUUUUUUUUNG......!
Massive tanks surged forward, crushing across the earth.
An overwhelming physical force that brutally trampled everything in its path.
Around them followed combat vehicles so vicious in appearance that simply seeing them inspired fear.
And beside them marched gigantic warriors so enormous they hardly looked human at all.
The strongest armed force to successfully occupy most of the Korean Peninsula.
Weapons of war manufactured and modified by the engineers of the Steel Legion.
“......All artillery batteries deployed and calibrated.”
And that was not all.
While the tanks advanced—
Far away on elevated terrain, distant enough to overlook the entire battlefield, steel artillery emplacements anchored their stabilizing legs into the ground.
“Coordinates, X-45, Y-33. Distance is.......”
Each artillery battery aimed its barrel toward the designated target.
And shortly afterward—
“Artillery strike preparations complete.”
“Commence bombardment!”
PUBUBUBUBUBUBUBUBUBUBUBUBUNG!!!
An overwhelming storm of shells erupted from the artillery batteries.
......The war had begun.
***
Fweeeeeee.......
Red streaks tore through the air.
And—
There were those watching those trails from afar.
'Those trajectories.......'
Ordinary humans would have dismissed them as nothing more than red lights in the sky.
But the people gathered here could no longer be called ordinary humans.
'The eastern and northern defensive positions......!'
Even before the artillery shells landed—
The awakened individuals staring at the crimson trajectories realized where the bombardment would strike.
The believers who read the artillery paths were inwardly horrified.
'They shouldn’t be able to identify them just by looking from the outside.'
'And yet they’re targeting our defensive strongholds with perfect precision!'
The two sides had once fought together as allies.
But they had never become part of the same faction.
Naturally, both the Order and the Legion had thoroughly concealed the locations of critical military facilities from each other.
In fact, the coronation not long ago had been the very first time the Legion had entered the Order’s important strongholds.
'They identified our major facilities from just that single visit?'
Impossible.
And in reality—
That was not how they had discovered the locations in the first place.
Wooooooong.......
Above the battlefield’s skies—
A being hovered there, observing the ground below.
A spirit with stealth capabilities so overwhelming that even awakened individuals could not detect it was gathering information from the battlefield beneath.
'If those bombardments destroy the strongholds.......'
'The tanks’ advance will become impossible to stop.'
In the end, the artillery barrage existed to smooth the advance of the tanks and combat vehicles pushing forward.
If the Order’s main defensive positions collapsed, they would never be able to withstand the incoming armored assault.
'How are they capable of this.......'
......However.
'Everything is unfolding exactly as His Holiness predicted......!'
The Order, too—
Was not merely standing still and watching the bombardment.
“Brothers!”
“Begin interception!”
PAAAAAAAAANG......!
The red trajectories raining toward the earth—
Met streams of light fired upward toward them.
The Order’s awakened individuals created a web of fire to intercept the incoming artillery barrage.
At first glance—
It resembled the scene from the past, when the awakened members of the Military Commission in China had resisted artillery fire.
The difference was—
PABABABABABABANG.......
“......!”
Where the awakened members of the Military Commission had failed to intercept every shell and watched parts of their island stronghold be destroyed—
The Order’s defensive barrage intercepted every single incoming round.
'Impossible.'
The Legion soldiers who witnessed the scene could only stare in shock.
Even though awakened individuals possessed abilities surpassing humanity—
There was a reason the Legion continuously seized, modified, and manufactured military equipment.
The war machines created by the Legion’s engineers might be slower than awakened individuals—
But their firepower vastly surpassed that of ordinary awakened fighters.
And yet—
KWAANG!
“......!”
“Black Panther Unit 17 destroyed!”
The Order’s firepower was not merely intercepting the Legion’s artillery—
It was also raining down directly upon the advancing ground forces.
'No matter how many ordinary awakened individuals gathered together, this should be impossible.'
No matter how large the Order’s forces were—
This level of firepower was beyond comprehension.
And every Legion member understood the reason.
“Cooking.”
Back then—
The Legion too had repeatedly fought battles considered impossible.
And every single time, the power that made the impossible possible had been—
“The Commander’s cooking......!”
The dishes created by their commander—
Were elevating the enemy’s strength to incomprehensible levels.
'The Commander really is.......'
Only a tiny minority of the expeditionary force surrounding the Order had participated in the battle within the Order itself.
Most Legion soldiers had heard the rumors but found them difficult to believe.
But now—
'He’s really standing on their side.......'
With undeniable proof unfolding before their eyes—
Even they were forced to accept the horrifying truth that their commander was cooperating with the enemy.
“Do not panic.”
The Commander’s status within the Legion could not even be described simply as “high.”
Fear spread among the soldiers charging toward enemy lines, but—
“You all know Sergeant Shin would never oppose us without reason.”
“Sergeant Shin is not acting of his own will against us. The enemy must be controlling him through some unknown power.”
The Legion had grown stronger through countless battles fought in this world.
Even if fear had rooted itself in their hearts—
“Sergeant Shin has helped us countless times.”
“So now it’s our turn to repay that debt.”
They already knew who the enemy was.
This was not a weak force whose combat strength would collapse from fear alone.
Veteran squad leaders suppressed the unrest spreading through the Legion.
“......Well, honestly, even we think winning might be impossible.”
And still—
They advanced through the enemy bombardment.
Toward the most terrifying enemy they had ever faced.
“To hell with it. We’ll make it work somehow.”
Toward battle—
Against the Legion’s own commander.
***
And at that moment—
The Legion soldiers were not the only ones in shock.
“......W-Was that really.”
“Our magic......?”
When the enemy bombardment had first begun—
The believers had broken into cold sweats, instinctively realizing they would struggle to survive it.
But contrary to their expectations—
The magic they unleashed not only intercepted the enemy artillery with absurd ease—
It also suppressed the approaching enemy forces.
The power was unquestionably theirs.
And yet it felt too overwhelming to believe it truly belonged to them.
Stunned by the sheer force they had displayed, they turned around.
“.......”
A man silently gazed at the approaching enemy.
The Pope, draped in sacred white robes, watched the battlefield.
“The enemy has entered effective range.”
Once the tanks had drawn close enough—
He casually waved a hand.
Then—
[Five Loaves and Two Fish]
Inside the Order’s military strongholds built to resist the enemy—
Countless tiny lights appeared.
[Force-Feeding]
Something burst out from those lights.
It touched the soldiers—
And melted into their bodies.
The exact same phenomenon that had occurred to them mere minutes earlier.
And then—
PUBUBUBUBUBUBUNG......!
Terrifying firepower erupted from every defensive position.
The rapidly advancing Legion forces began to falter beneath the bombardment.
Many believers had already placed enormous expectations upon their Pope.
But even they had not anticipated this.
Though the power he personally possessed was overwhelming—
His ability to empower others was even greater.
'If we stand beside him.......'
A colossal force that had rapidly conquered most of the Korean Peninsula.
Even the Legion was recoiling before their firepower.
Witnessing that scene, the believers became certain.
'It’s possible.'
Not merely defeating the Legion.
This overwhelming power surging through their bodies—
And the Pope who wielded such strength effortlessly.
'Even the resurrection of the System......!'
The god they worshipped.
They truly believed its resurrection was entirely possible now.
PUBUBUBUBUNG.......
As bombardment poured from the enemy defensive positions—
The advancing Legion forces slowed.
Within the scorching storm of artillery fire, the Legion soldiers continued pushing forward while thinking:
'This firepower is absurd.'
They too had eaten the Commander’s dishes distributed throughout the Legion.
And on top of that—
Lieutenant General Kim Hyeon-seok’s [Command], one of the greatest large-scale buff abilities imaginable, was currently empowering them.
Even so, enduring this firepower was difficult.
Considering the Legion’s average combat strength should exceed the enemy’s, this situation was absurd.
There was only one explanation.
'The dishes distributed to us...... were meals the Commander prepared in the past.'
Since meeting the doctor in Seoul and traveling overseas—
The Commander had grown exponentially stronger.
The difference between the dishes of the past and the dishes of the present—
Was creating the current battlefield.
PUUNG......!
“......Black Panther Unit 12 disabled!”
Even after being specially modified by the Legion’s engineers to possess monstrous durability—
Several tanks and combat vehicles were still being disabled by the bombardment.
It was something the Legion had rarely experienced even while conquering the Korean Peninsula.
At least the soldiers inside had managed to escape alive somehow.
But even the Legion healers’ abilities were not limitless.
This resistance would not last forever.
Even if they somehow forced their way through the bombardment and entered enemy territory, the problem remained the same.
Right now, the rear artillery batteries were supporting their advance with continuous firepower.
But once they entered the Order’s territory, both sides would become entangled in close combat.
At that point, support bombardment would inevitably decrease to avoid friendly fire.
And then—
Breaking through the enemy’s defensive firepower with only their own forces would become...... extremely difficult.
'......A difference in power.'
Their commander, Lieutenant General Kim Hyeon-seok, was an unparalleled genius.
But with the enemy so firmly entrenched inside the Order’s territory, even tactics could not create a decisive variable capable of changing the battlefield dramatically.
In the end, what mattered was simple.
Overwhelming force capable of crushing the defenders.
If they fell behind in raw power, the attacking side would inevitably lose the siege.
Defenders already possessed a natural advantage over attackers.
Ordinarily, siege warfare required attackers to possess at least triple the defenders’ strength.
But right now—
Far from three times stronger—
The enemy might actually possess superior combat power.
At this rate, the Legion had no visible path to victory.
PAAAAAAAAANG......!
“......!”
And then, at that moment—
A massive surge of mana erupted from the Order’s defensive positions.
Power concentrated for the sole purpose of devastating the approaching Legion forces.
If it struck directly, even Legion soldiers would suffer fatal injuries or death.
And just as that massive wave of mana surged toward the Legion—
KUUUUUUUUUUUNG!
A gigantic figure flew in from somewhere—
And blocked its path.
—Great bloodline.
That was right.
The reason the Legion lacked a visible chance of victory was simple: insufficient firepower.
So what they needed was equally simple.
—For Karshtein......!
They needed—
Even greater power.
