novelA Subsurface War (16)
| ← Ch.238 | Ch.240 → |
The situation on the ground was no better.
The soldiers of the Allied Forces had managed to withstand the pressure of the Janissary knights, but it would not be strange for them to collapse at any moment.
Their utter defeat was obvious.
In any other battle, the defeat of the Western Kingdom Union would have been all but confirmed.
If it had been 'any other battle'. *Whoong*
It began with a stray Lightning Arrow, a Second-Circle magic, aimed at one of the kings of the Western Kingdom Union.
Left alone, it would have surely claimed his life. The stray arrow streaked through the air, unchallenged by any defense spell. However, this arrow suddenly fell apart into clumps of mana, soon disappearing without a trace.
In such a hectic battlefield, hardly anyone noticed the phenomenon. It was common for spells to miss their target or collapse for various reasons as people fought with their lives on the line. Additionally, it was but one spell amongst an ocean of similar ones.
But when many spells, hundreds, or even thousands of them, collapsed into mana particles, only the most clueless soldier would fail to notice something was afoot.
"What...?"
The magic bombs that had been pouring out of the sky were erased without warning. Even the spells of mass destruction launched by magicians on the ground were scattered into fragments of mana.
A transcendent being able to completely upend the flow of battle, an intangible thing that could not be measured so simply by comparing military might or the number of objectives the respective sides had completed.
And there were two beings capable of such a feat amongst the Western Kingdom Union. One of them was Desir Arman.
"What the..."
Divide's magician forces were simultaneously incapacitated. Their mana circles were left destabilized, making it impossible for them to invoke other spells, but Desir's ability to invert their very spells themselves had played an enormous role in turning the tides of this battle.
His ability to calculate the inversion required for spells he saw for the first time had developed to a truly monstrous level, since the last time he had fought on the battlefield. All spells relying on the modern system of magic were as good as neutralized with him present.
"Now."
As soon as Desir had finished inverting, the magicians of the Tower of Magic, who had been tied up in defense until this point, began to invoke spells for their counter-attack.
Powerful artillery magic streaked through the air as if venting their anger at being stifled by the enemy before.
*Boom*
The Wyvern Army could not even invoke defensive magic properly. Numerous wyverns were struck, many falling from the sky amid screams of terror from man and beast. Their formation collapsed as quickly as it had formed.
With the Wyvern Army no longer a threat, the Allied Forces focused their magic on the ground forces of Divide.
A voice could be heard amongst the chaos.
"Stay back."
Another voice pierced the racket. [End of Ashes]
This other voice belonged to Zod Exarion, the Seventh-Circle Sage.
The level of magic unfolding before him was simply so high that ordinary magicians felt endless waves of awe wash over themselves. He only invoked a single spell and everything within hundreds of meters around his target was left devastated.
The barricades blocking the streets were smashed, buildings collapsed and fell on to Divide's troops. Their army had begun to collapse like the Wyvern Army.
There was no corresponding wizard in Divide. So, to stop him, the King-Class swordsman Brepon had to step up and deal with it himself.
As soon as Brepon, who had grasped the change in situation, pushed Pram away and turned toward Zod, Pram moved again to block him.
*Clash*
"You said it would not matter if I held you here. Where are you going?"
Brepon laughed in vain and gathered his aura. Pram did not shrink away and concentrated his aura too, but the gap in level between them was too wide.
'I have to stop him somehow. '
If the King-Class Brepon went all out, the Bishop-Class Pram had no means of dealing with him.
But Pram was no pushover. No matter how wide the difference between King and Bishop Class was, the Pram who subjected himself to endless spartan training was not willing to give up without a fight.
'I'm confident enough to hold out while Mr. Zod invokes another spell.
Pram tightened his grip on his sword severely, his knuckles turning white from the strength he put into them.
"In the end, this is all I can do."
He smiled in a self-deprecating manner, his tone indicating that he already knew things would develop in this manner.
"What do you really think..."
Brepon gave up on heading over to Zod and released his aura. Pram couldn't even begin to guess what he intended to do.
"... about giving up this meaningless fight?"
Brepon sheathed his sword. The sight embarrassed Pram. Brepon was the one who seemed to be itching for a fight.
"I hope you'll please me a little more, next time we meet."
Before Pram could do anything, Brepon shouted at the top of his lungs."Pull back!"
As soon as his orders were given, the Janissary, who had fought more bravely than anyone else, began to step back.
Like a collapsing house, the commanders of Divide's forces also ordered a retreat. The soldiers fled the boulevard and dispersed into the alleyways. The Wyvern Army, half-defeated by the magicians of the Tower of Magic, had long disappeared.
The retreat was executed in perfect order, as if it had been planned from the start.
Within a minute, all of Divide's troops had disappeared. If it weren't for the marks of battle and the wounded left behind, it would be hard to tell whether there was a desperate battle in that location just minutes prior.
Although the Western Kingdom Union had won the battle, it was not only Pram who felt it was strange.
"No matter how much of a disadvantageous position they may have been in, there's certainly going to be more troops coming through the teleportation gate."
Zod Exarion, who had just canceled his spell, spoke in a tone filled with suspicion towards this unexpected development.
"It looks like he's coming up with a strategy on the assumption of a setback in advance."
Desir nodded in agreement with that remark. There was no other explanation on why they were able to retreat so quickly and orderly.
"One reason for a deliberate retreat is if they didn't intend to stop us in the first place."
It felt like they had been blocked, but they had deliberately not committed everything to it. The Western Kingdom Union did not chase down those fleeing. The most important thing in the present situation was to get out of the Kingdom of Divide safely with their kings and important representatives.
The building where the teleportation gate was installed remained intact. The building was reminiscent of a glass tube that allowed its occupants to see outside.
Silence lingered heavily in the air. This was a relatively lively place when they first came through. A place filled with rich travelers, border control, security, and even magicians tasked with maintaining the teleportation gate. But what the forces of the Western Kingdom Union saw after approaching, was an entirely empty building and surroundings.
In case there were hidden forces or traps, they searched the surrounding area thoroughly but they found nothing apart from a few detection spells to identify their movements.
There were dozens of teleportation gates positioned in the middle of the room. But they couldn't be used immediately. They had been locked down with a security spell of some kind."... To be honest, I thought they would break the gates."
"I thought so too. They sure were desperate to keep us here."
Of course, they had prepared a plan to deal with such a situation. However, that plan had just become useless.
One minute, Divide was going all out regardless of cost, and the next minute, they let them go without resistance. These actions left a peculiar sense of incongruity.
"We'll have to do what we came here for, I guess."
For now, they had to decrypt and invert the security spell on the teleportation gate and then set the coordinates of where they wanted to go. As the teleportation magic itself belonged to a high circle of magic, most magicians could not even think of assisting in this process.
It needed a magician who understood the formula behind teleportation, as well as had more than six circles of power and immense ability to calculate the changes required.
Zod and Hephaestus, Master and Vice Master of the Tower of Magic, as well as Desir, moved into action. They each seized a teleportation gate and began decoding the security system placed on them one by one. In the meantime, the medical staff of the Western Kingdom Union were kept busy.
"First of all, treatment!"
"This way for the seriously wounded!"
"All treatment must be done simply. We need to get moving faster."
The battle had only lasted a few minutes, but it was fierce. Unsurprisingly, there were quite a few injuries and fatalities.
Desir Arman had well and truly buried himself in unraveling the encrypted formula of the teleportation gate, when a soldier's scream interrupted his concentration. Desir turned to state at the commotion. Before him were soldiers, now wounded and some dead.
Desir immediately stopped inverting."All right. This one is complete, Desir."
Zod looked at him in a rare expression of astonishment."Oh, I'm... about to finish."
"You're taking a while. This is not like you."
"I felt a little dizzy. The aftermath of the fight seems to be severe."
"You'd better take a rest when you get back."
"Oh, Mr. Zod! I have successfully dismantled the security on this one. Please help me set up the location."
Not long after, the three of them managed to complete the setup of three teleportation gates. Since there was not enough time to unlock and reprogram all of the gates, let alone pointing each to the respective countries of the Western Kingdom union, they set the coordinates of all three to the nearest Western Kingdom Union, the teleportation gate of the Kingdom of Adeina.
The gate worked successfully, and they soon escaped the Kingdom of Divide.
The sense of incongruity welled up in Desir once again, but he could not quite figure out the source of it.
'Why did they let us go so easily?'
A week later, Desir found out why.
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