Chapter 400. Fracture
The battlefield began to get noisy little by little, and the long silence sweeping the warzone was broken. The commotion came from humanity and the Cassiubia League. From murmurings of admiration to loud cheers, then a shout that rang throughout the whole area. Everyone raised their arms and exclaimed, shaking their hands wildly. When the Sky Castle first attacked, humanity and the League had fallen into despair. They couldn’t find a reason to fight while risking their lives when one blow was all it took to shatter them even if they fought with everything they had.
That was when Chi-Woo said he had found a way, and he actually succeeded. As he promised, he perfectly stopped the Sky Castle’s Particle Beam Weapon. This completely changed the story. There was now meaning behind risking their lives, and they were now motivated to continue fighting this war. To be more exact, the hope that they would live if they endured and stood firm had been revived. The exhilarating shouts and cheers from humanity and the Cassiubia League showed no signs of stopping. It was as if the whole world was clapping and jumping in happiness. In contrast, the enemy coalition might as well be attending a funeral. The morales of the two sides had been reversed once again.
“…What the?” Bael, who had been staring with wide eyes for a while, managed to open her mouth. “What just…happened?” She asked again, but no one replied. “What the hell just happened!” She couldn’t stand it any longer and yelled, but everyone remained silent.
No one knew what had happened because what Chi-Wo did went far beyond anyone’s imagination. The Abyss King was silent, but he was also surprised. Just the fact that he had jumped up from his seat and was silently glaring at the last gate was proof that he was completely baffled. Bael and the Abyss King were especially taken aback because they had been certain that this attack would finally mark the end of the war at the last gate. However, their prediction went wrong twice.
The Sernitas were in the same boat. Inside the Sky Castle, opinions were being exchanged more intensely than ever. If they had allowed a hundred openings, it was understandable that their attack could be blocked. Then they could just analyze the situation thoroughly like when the first attack was blocked, make appropriate adjustments, and start preparing again. However, two new problems prevented them from carrying out their usual method.
–Error. Error.
First, they failed to analyze the problem. They knew that it was an ability that fell under the summoning category, but they had no idea what had been summoned. Chi-Woo had dared to summon a great god as he pleased and merely used them as a shield. This was unimaginable for the Sernitas. The Sernitas managed to damage the being, but they had no idea what information to consider so that they could pierce through the obstacle with certainty.
The second problem was time. After the Sky Castle’s first attack, it took about five days for them to make the second attack, and even that was the result of the Demon Empire and the Abyss continuously supplying nutrients by pushing ahead with the siege at the expense of their own troops. Now that the second attack was over, the Sky Castle’s main body was more overloaded than before. What if their opponent set up the same shield during their third attack? Then even with simple calculations, they concluded that they needed to increase their output. In short, they needed to collect more nutrients than for the first and second attacks, but they also needed to wait until the Sky Castle cooled down. The preparation time would thus be longer, and there was no guarantee that they could pierce through the enemy’s shield since they had failed to conduct a thorough evaluation.
This all meant only one thing. The coalition’s efforts to secretly keep each other in check and keep their main forces intact as much as possible had all become meaningless. Since they weren’t able to pierce through the last gate, they all ended up wasting their reserve troops. Moreover, the Cassiubia League’s main troops would soon arrive. Originally, it wouldn’t have mattered whether the League’s main forces joined the battles. In a way, the coalition had hoped they would come in a hurry, since this was a great opportunity to wipe out troublesome opponents in one go. However, the situation had changed, and they were the ones now in a hurry to resolve the situation.
“…” Bael’s face hardened as she stared at the gate without saying a word for a long time. Her mood was foul; instead of going smoothly, their plans seemed to go awry one by one at every important moment. She had been certain that it’d take only a day for them to break through the last gate when she first arrived, but it’d been six days, and nothing had changed. They had been in the same place since day one. Perhaps they would never get through the gate even after going this far. As soon as this thought flashed across her mind, Bael shook her head vigorously to disperse it. She couldn’t bear thinking about the possibility.
No, it was too early to fall into despair. She knew their side had suffered greater losses, but they still had the advantage in numbers and power. In this regard, their side far surpassed humanity and the Cassiubia League. Moreover, humanity and the League were just barely holding out. They were also very tired due to the losses they had accumulated from the non-stop fighting. Thus, there was still an opportunity to break through the gate. Right now was the time.
Bael’s expression turned into a scowl. It was irritating to keep hearing humanity and the League cheering as if they had already won. Bael made her move at that moment. She roughly grasped the handle of the giant sword behind her back.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! She let out a loud roar that overwhelmed the shouts and cheers and drew the sword high up into the sky. In an instant, the Demon Empire troops behind her became high-spirited. The Abyss King did not stay still, either. His thoughts were the same as Bael’s. An ominous premonition that if they didn’t do it now, they’d never be able to capture the gate pervaded his mind. Capturing the gate was no longer a matter of unconditional certainty. In other words, they were no longer in a position to save their troops and plan what to do after cleaning up humanity and the League.
“…Just this once, I’ll follow you,” the Abyss King inhaled deeply and muttered.
* * *
After immediately recovering the Kobalos’ magic fire pit with Armed with the Sixth Element, Chi-Woo hurriedly searched his pockets. Before going back to the past, he had once restored the completely ruined fire pit as a result of the World’s Milestone’s effect. Since the Sernitas could make adjustments again and attack the third time, Chi-Woo tried to hurriedly recover the fire pit. Suddenly, a tremendous roar struck his ears; it was a terrible cry of intense wrath.
—Ohhhhhhh...!
In addition, a heavy and imposing sound that seemed to come from a deep, deep hole vibrated all over the area. Soon after, enemies who had been watching from afar began to make their move. Not only the Demon Empire, but the Abyss as well. The main forces the Demon Empire and the Abyss had been saving up so far finally moved out.
It wasn’t just the ground. Countless enemies also covered the sky. It was clear from a glance that the coalition was launching an all-out attack. The last gate became instantly quiet as humanity and the Cassiubia League watched their enemies rush toward them like a black tsunami. Ismile immediately realized that the enemy coalition was furious. It was unexpected in a way; he hadn’t expected them to immediately strike through this gap without hesitation. Ismile thought they would remain guarded against each other while precariously holding each other’s hands till the very end of this war.
‘Did we rejoice too much?’ He hadn’t expected the enemies to suddenly grasp each other’s hand tightly like dear lovers. On the other hand, it wasn’t completely surprising since after seeing Chi-Woo block the Sky Castle’s attack without letting their side suffer any damage, they would have realized that this event could have a considerable effect on the future tide of the war.
Frankly, humanity’s situation was still not very good. Humanity and the League have lost a lot of their strength due to the constant brutal fighting, and if they had to face an all-out war here, they wouldn’t last even half a day. Thus, although the Demon Empire and Abyss were in a crisis, this could also be an opportunity for them. A golden opportunity to make their dreams of absolute victory at the last gate into a reality.
“Block them! Hang in there at all costs!” At the same time Ismile shouted, two camps entered the battle. Standing in the stronghold, Chi-Woo furrowed his brows. He saw enemy soldiers he was seeing for the first time take the lead and rush towards them. Even though it was a siege battle and not a field battle, they were riding horses and charging like crazy. They didn’t care whether or not they were hit by arrows. Several cavaliers braved through the rain of arrows and reached the last gate before throwing themselves into the wall.
‘What?’ The moment Chi-Woo doubted his eyes, a series of explosions ravaged the bottom of the walls. Only then did Chi-Woo realize what those enemy soldiers were. ‘They’re suicide bombers!’ Although the fires and explosions from the bombs were huge, fortunately, the gate didn’t even budge thanks to the dimension distortion magic. Chi-Woo sighed in relief. Even though their enemy’s momentum was extremely fierce, they would be able to hold out as long as the gate was intact.
“Ahhhhhh!” However, this thought disappeared as soon as Chi-Woo heard someone scream and tilted his head. It looked as if someone had sprayed black paint all over the clear sky without a single cloud in sight. Black smoke that looked like a swarm of mosquitoes was crowding the air. Then a sudden wind swept by, and the black smoke swept down riding the wind and settled safely on the wall. Soon after, the black smoke took concrete shapes and morphed into a figure.
“Kyhaaaa!” Then the figure soon showed her teeth and rushed forward like an agile tiger. Screams broke out everywhere.
There was no time to think further. Light automatically extended from Chi-Woo’s hand and transformed into a club. Just as he was about to swing the ghost-busting club toward the figure causing havoc, his intuition rang out a fierce alarm. Startled, Chi-Woo ran back quickly. A giant sword slammed into the exact spot where he had just been and destroyed the ground. Then, to Chi-Woo’s shock, the gate cracked vertically where the huge sword was buried as easily as tearing a sheet of paper in half. Despite its height, despite the dimensional distortion magic protecting it, the enormous wall was split straight across in a single stroke. After a while, a figure slowly emerged through the rising dust smoke.
The moment he met the figure’s eyes, blazing with anger, Chi-Woo felt a chill run down his spine. He’d only met eyes with her, yet the pressure he felt was at a completely different level than any other great demon he had faced. It was to the extent that his AI armor automatically reacted to the dark energy swirling around her.
“I was wondering who it was—” His opponent soon twisted the giant sword on the ground and said, “But it was you.” She looked at Chi-Woo with piercing eyes. “It’s you from that time, right?”
Surprisingly, the figure, Bael, brought up memories from a long time ago. Since Chi-Hyun had ambushed her and knocked her out, her memory of Chi-Woo was in fragments. However, Chi-Woo left such a strong impression that she didn’t forget about him even though it had been a short meeting. It was the first and last time she saw a being that could overwhelm the legend. Although she wondered why this mysterious human she had had a brief encounter with was standing in front of her in this space and time—it didn’t matter. She was different from back then.
Bael was extremely worked up, and she only had one goal; there was nothing in her mind except for the thought of fulfilling this goal. The amount of struggle and trial she had to endure and overcome to achieve this age-old wish was immeasurable. In order to realize that dream, she needed to make it through this gate without fail, at any price. Bael revealed her teeth, and Chi-Woo clenched his.
Since reaching a certain level, Chi-Woo had never felt his life threatened while facing a great demon. However, it was different this time. Alarms rang in his mind that if he made one mistake, he could really die. Looking back, Bael was a great demon with whom even his brother temporarily formed an alliance and kept as his comrade in the past. Although obvious, Bael was on a completely different level than all the other great demons he’d met so far. Moreover, this was not the only problem.
“Watch carefully in real time while fighting me,” growled Bael as she drew her giant sword. “How the things you desperately sought to protect get trampled on.” If one lined up those who had played the biggest part in keeping the gate intact so far, Chi-Woo would be put at the front as the number 1 contributor by everyone on the battlefield. Even the Abyss King became curious as he watched Chi-Woo and thought, ‘Who the hell is that guy running around like a grasshopper?’
However, Chi-Woo couldn’t run around and help cover the other parts of the battlefield anymore. Bael alone was too much for him to handle, so he couldn’t go around controlling the flow of the whole battlefield going forward. In fact, with Chi-Woo’s absence, the gate was collapsing helplessly as a black wave led by a great demon at the single-digit rank hit it. The sky was black. Things were flying all over the place and disrupting his vision. The tower of the dead was still being built, reaching the walls and pouring out countless skeletons. The various legions of soldiers who followed behind arrived and climbed up the tower to reach the gate’s wall. At the same time, a huge army also flocked to the gate’s door with siege weapons.
“A tunnel! It’s a tunnel!”
“Arghhh!” From the back of the gate, the earth suddenly soared upwards, and legion soldiers rushed out. Humanity and the Cassiubia League, who had been desperately defending the gate, fell into chaos. Screams and explosions erupted everywhere. Everything was a complete mess. The Demon Empire finally revealed their full force and was pushing ahead recklessly with sheer volume and numbers. Although their strategy could be seen as simple and brutish to the extreme, it was the most effective tactic considering their power difference.
“Blo…!” Chi-Woo tried to shout something but couldn’t finish. He was going to tell his allies to block the attacks, but there was no one to listen to him. ‘Our forces…’ Were gone. He wasn’t exaggerating. He couldn’t see any allies in sight, and only enemies filled his vision. The only allies he could see were the dead bodies that were being swept away by the pouring torrent of enemies. The wall was abound with all kinds of darkness. In the end, the gate couldn’t hold out any longer. It was safe to say that except for the few places where some heroes were fighting back, they had crumbled under the enemies’ relentless attacks, and even those parts looked ready to collapse as soon as great demons flocked.
Bael smiled when she saw Chi-Woo’s expression change instantly. Although it was unexpected that the Sky Castle’s attack was blocked again, that was all there was to it. It wasn’t even work to capture a mere gate like this in the first place. Bael had merely put too much faith in the Sernitas and had prolonged the fight to keep the Abyss in check. By pushing aside everything and putting in their all-out effort, she intended to clearly let everyone know who she was. She would announce a spectacular finale by taking down the gate and cutting down the human in front of her.
At that moment, a huge fire suddenly erupted behind Bael’s back as she lunged at Chi-Woo. Bael turned around without thinking and narrowed her eyes; she saw a pillar of fire that suddenly descended diagonally from above the clouds, and all the towers of the dead arranged in a row collapsed one by one after getting hit. Something descended from the cloud then, and a large shadow covered the wall. Bael, who was about to tilt her head and look up, paused. She saw small embers flow in all directions. The pellet-like embers fluttered and disappeared beneath the walls.
Bael stared blankly and sharply narrowed her eyes. “This is…!”
Baaaaambambammm! Before she could even finish, a tremendous explosion rang out from under the wall. Fire columns and embers billowed everywhere like a volcanic eruption. It was so powerful that the soldiers, who were shouting around the gate, were wiped out. Chi-Woo was also surprised. Then he saw who it was.
Flap…Flap… It was an enormous dragon twirling in the air with her wings—the Last Dragon. Chi-Woo’s mouth slowly widened. The fact that she was here meant one thing. His face trembled slightly when he hurriedly turned around. From a distance, he saw an enormous army that he couldn’t even see the end of. Their size was comparable to the enemy’s coalition. An indescribable emotion came bubbling up from his heart. Memories of six days worth of suffering and pain passed quickly through his mind. However, it was alright now. Everything was now alright.
“They’re here…” A husky voice came out of his trembling mouth. In a desperate moment when all hope seemed lost, the main army of the Cassiubia Mountain Range, led by the Last Dragon, finally reached the last gate.
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