Chapter 499. Disarray
Chi-Hyun noticed that the Sernitas’ main body was smaller than when it first appeared. It was a very slight change, but Chi-Hyun was able to pick it up with his keen senses; and even as he was observing the nest, the Sernitas’ main body was continuing to shrink by a very minuscule degree. Chi-Hyun wondered why that was, but before he could find the answer, a great commotion arose. From his front to his sides, the ground softened like mud and suddenly soared to form giant walls. The giant walls then cracked and bent as if tens of thousands of craftsmen and builders were working on it at once before morphing into a sea of soldiers. Seeing the great wave of enemies rise before them, Shalyh’s expeditionary force looked at a loss for words.
“Wait. Aren’t those…?” From behind Apoline, Astarte furrowed her brows. Then with widened eyes, she quickly turned to Shersha, who was getting to her feet after making a prayer.
Shersha didn’t say anything but nodded with a stiff expression. With a deep frown, Astarte turned back to the soldiers with clenched teeth, her breathing trembling slightly. It was understandable because the army that had suddenly formed was the Demon Empire’s main force. Their eyes weren’t playing tricks on them. Besides the fact that their faces were the color of rotten clay, they bore a shocking resemblance to their past companions. There were the 66-ranking great demons whom they once worked with, their legions, and even Bael.
The demonic creatures at the rear of humanity and the League’s army murmured. But that wasn’t the end. After another great tremor, the ground rose from the left side of the expeditionary force’s vicinity. There emerged a slightly different-looking army. It was the Abyss. After facing them not so long ago, the Abyss King and the Seven Chasms he ruled over came back alive on the battlefield.
Then, the ground shook and rose on the right side. Short bursts of screams and shouts came from Shalyh’s expeditionary force. The army that was carved out from this block of earth after the fallen Demon Empire and Abyss members was the Cassiubia Mountain Range’s main force that was believed to have been wiped out near the Sernitas’ borders. With this, it was confirmed that the Cassiubia Mountain Range’s main force had failed to escape the Sernitas’ army and was absorbed by them. After being eroded and polluted by the Sernitas, they were spat out onto this battlefield again as one with the Sernitas.
The Last Dragon was no exception to this fate. Seeing the giant dragon with an entirely ashy body, wrinkles formed on Chi-Hyun’s forehead. In the end, it appeared that the Last Dragon had failed to escape from the Sernitas and was swallowed up. The expeditionary force couldn’t accept the situation before them. It was the same for the Demon Empire’s previous residents, but the Cassiubia League members’ responses were even more emotionally charged.
“I-I can’t believe it…”
“Those damn bastards!”
Besides the companions who had been like family members to them, the central force of the Cassiubia League—the Last Dragon—was also tainted by the Sernitas. Considering that the League regarded the Last Dragon like humanity regarded Chi-Woo and Chi-Hyun, the loss they felt was enormous. Yet, reality was cold and cruel. Before they realized it, humanity and the League were already surrounded by enemies.
Each of the newly formed pawns was staring intently at them. While they were all expressionless, they seemed to be mocking humanity and the League in some way; it was as if they were asking, ‘Did you think the situation would change because you won a couple of times? Look around you. See how we’ve come before you again, much stronger than the time you defeated us. In the end, everything you did was futile. Nothing changed from the very beginning.’
Pressured by the gazes pouring from all sides, Shalyh’s expeditionary force backed away little by little. They tried hard to overcome their fear somehow, but their fright still showed. They couldn’t help it. If one asked all the League members and humanity what the hardest war they had endured was, they would all say it was the great war—where they had to protect the last gate against the three-faction alliance. Yet right now, they had to face an enemy alliance that had become much stronger than before; furthermore, they had to face enemies who had once been their allies and trustworthy comrades, all without the advantage of terrain or location. It was the worst possible situation where they had to fight while bearing all the worst disadvantages.
Facing such a harsh reality, they found all their other emotions, including courage and even rage, overwhelmed by fear. And this fear quickly colored the Shalyh’s expeditionary force with despair from the old days.
“It’s…really the end…now…” Someone murmured emptily with a dazed stare. Nobody opened their mouths. Though they didn’t want to agree to it, looking around them, they couldn’t find it in themselves to argue against that. The balance of power was way too tilted to one side. It was a battlefield that couldn’t simply be turned with some miracle or coincidence. It appeared that this was their end. It was their fate from the beginning on Liber. Like that, members of humanity and the Cassiubia League lost heart, and their morale hit rock bottom.
Boom! It was then a sudden explosion woke everyone to their senses. Their closed eyes opened again to see a huge hole form in the Sernitasized Demon Empire army. As if a volcano had exploded, the giant crater was empty save for a pile of ashes. Shalyh’s expeditionary force looked up and saw someone soaring into the air. They all tilted their heads and saw that the figure was Chi-Hyun.
Chi-Hyun’s index finger pointed to his left side and moved. Then, it passed the front and made a line toward the right. The line started from the Abyss army, passed the Demon Empire, and reached the Cassiubia League’s army to form the shape of a crescent moon. Soon afterward, the sound of a series of tremendous explosions struck their ears. Bababababooom!
Fierce explosions burst from the front and the back simultaneously. It was as if a thousand landmines planted on the ground were struck by a series of bombs. Winds whirled in the midst of this thick fog. The Sernitas’ armies crumbled and scattered into the air. Watching this, all the expeditionary force gaped with their mouths wide open.
“Oh…” They gasped quietly as they stared at the great destruction Chi-Hyun caused. And soon, their morale rebounded little by little at the sight. Yes, now they realized there was something different from the great war. Now, they didn’t only have Chi-Woo; Chi-Hyun was also with them. If they had these two, then perhaps…
As soon as this thought came to their mind, the commotion soon changed to cheers. Waaaaaaaaah! Shalyh’s expeditionary force let out a huge battle cry. In order to forcefully cast away their fear, they shouted until their throats were burning. Of course, it wasn’t like the Sernitas would remain still and watch as all this happened. As many screamed while waving their weapons, dozens of Shalyh’s expeditionary force suddenly stopped making a sound. Then their voices cut out at once as they looked around, flustered.
A series of magic, curses, arrows, and more attacks blanketed the entire sky and flew toward them, obscuring even the sun and casting a great looming shadow over Shalyh’s expeditionary force. There was no place to escape to. Though the priests quickly created a barrier, it wasn’t enough. Also, most of their AI Armors had been destroyed at the start of the Sernitas’ assault. In the end, they could only huddle closely and raise their shields.
Obviously, there would be gaps no matter how much they pressed into each other, and through the gaps came Sernitas’ attacks. Soon, pained cries rang across the battlefield. Like dominoes, the collapse of one part of the army was followed by the others. While crouching in one corner, Yeriel clenched her teeth at the sight of her allies falling in droves. Then, after ordering the replacement of her and the buhguhbu’s AI Armors first, she picked herself up and jumped out.
“What are you all doing! Fuck, are you all just going to stand still and get hit like this?” While directing the situation, she moved to shoot some of the cannons herself, and soon, the buhguhbus followed Mangil’s lead. They placed the cannonballs inside the cannons and shot them.
“Fire!” With Yeriel’s sharp cry, she shot a magic cannon she had developed with great effort. The bombs flew in three directions and formed a fancy array of fire trails. Her shots didn’t end with a simple explosion. Inside each bomb, sharp blades burst out like minuscule boomerangs and swept the battlefield like mini dust devils.
“Fire! Fire! Keep shooting until the mouth of the cannon is all red!”
Following Yeriel’s order, the cannons poured out attacks nonstop. The army shot cannonballs filled with acid, poisonous gasses, bombs, and more without any restrictions. And as these attacks continued, the battleground got so chaotic that the line between the humanity-Cassiubia alliance and the Sernitas was blurred. It was then a bomb that the magic cannon had shot hit a part of the Sernitas’ main body by chance. Of course, the explosion wasn’t large, and the cannonball soon buried deep into the main body and disappeared.
On the contrary, the Sernitas’ response to that attack was by no means small. Having been inactive until now, the main body suddenly began to wiggle. Then, it opened its mouth, and a hole expanded at the center of the body.
—Kuoooooooh….!
As if a blackhole was coming into existence, there was a great, indescribable resonance that shook the area. The next moment, the Sernitas’ army all shuddered simultaneously. Those who were blasted into pieces regenerated at even greater speed. Then, they attacked again. Humanity and the League finally managed to cut down the number of enemies, but now, the Sernitas’ armies were rushing toward them from three directions like a raging ocean with fluctuating waves. Chi-Woo hurriedly moved to the front and organized his thoughts.
‘Why?’ He wondered. The power that the Sernitas’ Sky Castle showcased was truly overwhelming. For example, the Particle Beam Missile had crushed the final gate in one blast. He didn’t know whether the technology belonged to the Sernitas, or if they had acquired it from another planet, but its source of information was clearly alien. Chi-Woo thought the Sernitas would be giving their all without reservation, considering that this was the war to end all wars. Yet the methods that Sernitas employed until now were to simply strengthen the soldiers that humanity and the League had to deal with. Of course, that alone created a very tricky situation for them, but Chi-Woo couldn’t help but wonder if something else was going on.
‘There’s no need for them to fight with only the information they’ve collected from Liber.’ This wasn’t like the Sernitas, who emphasized efficiency above all things. ‘But…what if there’s a reason they can’t demonstrate their full power?’ What if they didn’t have the luxury to use other methods because they were preparing something and were buying time with the information they got from Liber?
Chi-Woo couldn’t be certain of that yet, but if that was the case, he knew what he needed to do. Time was key. He couldn’t let the enemy have what they wanted. He needed to make it to the Sernitas’ nest even a second faster, and in order to do that, he needed to penetrate through the enemies from the front. He also had to consider the enemies that would rush in from the sides. It would be difficult to do since everyone was trying their best already, but Chi-Woo dismissed all those concerns, remembering the short conversation he had had with Chi-Hyun right before clashing against the Sernitas.
[Don’t pay any mind to what the Sernitas do and how the battleground shifts because of them.]
[You can leave the rest to me, so you should focus on the main body first. I will take over the situation from here.]
Chi-Woo glanced above him, and at that moment, Chi-Hyun was also looking down. The two met eyes and nodded at the same time.
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