Three Barbarians rushed at Sungchul.
Sungchul, without casting a glance at the Barbarians, brandished Krumbui.
After a flash of his blade, all three Barbarians were left spewing blood like fountains as they fell to the ground in a heap.
Leaving behind the Barbarians dying and foaming at the mouth behind him, Sungchul looked up at the fortress that served as the front lines.
It was the fortress that stood at the center of Daintite.
The dwarves guarding the fortress were fighting fiercely for their lives against the Barbarians that appeared out of nowhere.
Seeing him kill the Barbarians in the way, the Dwarves opened the fortress gates to let Sungchul through.
Sungchul followed the stairs to reach the top of the fortress.
At the top was series of catapults and canons manned by the dwarves, and the commanding officer leading them.
“How goes the battle?”
Sungchul asked the dwarven commander.
The dwarf officer was quite surprised at the sight of Sungchul’s face, but he quickly understood the gist of the situation after seeing the elders and generals guarding Sungchul’s rear. He then reported to Sungchul.
“Currently, we estimate that about 500 Barbarians have made it inside the capital.”
“Fewer enemies than I thought.”
As Sungchul stood atop the fortress, where he could see the entirety of Daintite at a glance, his suspicions hardened into certainty.
‘This is not an organized attack. While we were caught off guard, the Barbarians look equally unprepared.’
The Barbarians who had invaded the capital were like wild beasts, rampaging individually throughout the city, slaughtering and looting anything in sight without any visible cohesion or semblance of a battle plan.
Having confirmed in the fields of battle up north that the Barbarians were capable of an organized attack, such behavior from them was enough to raise questions for Sungchul.
“Five hundred individuals you say.”
It was certainly a small number in the overall scheme of things.
But even just 500 was enough to cease all Daintite’s ability to function as a city. This was the power of the Barbarians.
Sungchul looked at the rising flames and the screams coming from below the ramparts and asked the officer again.
“What was the invasion route of the Barbarian?”
This was his biggest question.
Dwarves, more than any other race, was a race of people obsessed with defense. They possessed a natural talent bordering on genius for the creation of fortresses and the defense against larger number of foes with only a few.
Especially Daintite, the capital of the Dwarves, was protected by a large chain of fortresses.
Even for Barbarians, it shouldn’t have been so easy to reach this far.
Not unless the entire defense network was overcome.
“Someone has opened the gate.”
The officer said.
“A gate?”
“Yes. Someone constructed a gate connecting the territory of the Barbarians and Daintite, and through it, the Barbarians are pouring in like a flood.”
“Where is this gate located?”
In response, the guard pointed at one of the upscale residential areas located below the Citadel.
“That building.”
Sungchul recognized the building.
The building used to serve as the embassy building of the Human Empire, where he had stayed before in the past.
“It’s the former embassy building of the Human Empire. The ambassador left when the diplomatic ties were cut, leading the building to be abandoned. Someone must have installed a gate inside that building.”
A gate opened without warning at the embassy of the Human Empire.
Sungchul suspected that the opening of the gate was an unexpected development not only for the dwarves but also to the Barbarians themselves.
‘There’s a possibility that a third party, allied to neither the dwarves nor the Barbarians, to have opened the gates.’
After all, even now, there ones at least one group currently in the King’s Audience Chamber who wished to plunge the Dwarven Kingdom into chaos.
“There’s no time to waste.”
Sungchul looked down at the former embassy of the Human Empire without any particular expression.
‘The Barbarians destroying the city is merely a vanguard, a scouting force. The main army will descend upon this city very soon.’
It will be the end of the Dwarven Kingdom if that comes to pass.
It didn’t bother Sungchul one way or another if the Kingdom of the Dwarves were to be destroyed or not, but he didn’t want useless death of those who were willing to fight by his side.
Sungchul shared his idea with Arkaard, the elders, and the generals.
“I will close the gate. But the Barbarians already in the city will have to be handled by you all.”
He knew it would not be easy.
The dwarves looked afraid.
After all, each of the individual Barbarians were on par in strength with the Champions of the Continent.
And there were hundreds of them.
But no matter how bad the odds were, it had to be done.
“We’ll do everything we can to stop them here. So please… survive.”
Arkaard said gravely.
“Can you just not say things that way? It sounds like you’re setting a flag!”
Bertelgia seemed horrified and scolded Arkaard.
Sungchul chuckled and raised his hand.
“Then, I will be back.”
With that, Sungchul jumped toward the spires of buildings connected like towering stairs from the top of the fortress.
The strong gusts made Sungchul’s hair and coat flutter.
“How Nostalgic! To be fighting along your side once more!”
Krumbui exclaimed with an excited voice.
“…Though I seem to recall bringing you out not too long ago.”
With those words, Sungchul spun once in the air before landing on a stone pedestal.
Thud.
The impact resonated like it might shake the entire ground.
The densely packed stone tiles sprang up like piano keys and seemed to descend back into place.
“Ino! Laikashi!”
A Barbarian’s voice echoed from the alleyway.
Soon after, the rushing footsteps of seven Barbarians appeared in front of Sungchul, closely followed by five more from behind.
He was perfectly encircled.
Coincidentally, the number was twelve, just one less than the membership of the Thirteen Champions of the Continent.
In a way, it seemed as though Sungchul was fighting against all of the Thirteen Champions of the Continent excluding himself.
The dwarves in the fortress carefully watched this unfold.
“The Commander in Chief is surrounded by twelve Barbarians!”
“Isn’t that basically the same as fighting all the champions at once?”
Everyone thought that Sungchul was in danger, but the situation ended depressingly quickly.
Crackle.
A current ran through Sungchul’s fingertips, and then a lightning bolt charged through the Barbarians with the ferocity of a wild predator.
The current coursed mercilessly between the Barbarians, igniting and burning them.
Chain Lightning.
The ancient wind magic instantly destroyed one section of the encirclement.
Sungchul ignored the Barbarians behind him and dashed forward.
“Wait, are you sure it’s ok to leave them be like this?”
Bertelgia in his pocket asked.
“They seem to have been guarding the Embassy. This has to mean that there’s already someone beyond the gate sending orders to this side with a battle plan.”
Sungchul’s judgment was accurate.
There were already dozens of Barbarians gathered at the Embassy, preparing to defend the vicinity of the gate that was to become their command center.
Their behavior was markedly different from the other Barbarians rampaging through the city.
Sungchul wanted to break through this defense at once.
However, the Barbarians’ defenses were very thorough.
It would be possible to force his way through, but the dense Barbarian defense would require time.
Sungchul looked up at the sky.
Coincidentally, the red airship Sylphid was hovering above the Daintite airspace.
Sungchul flew up into the sky using Fly, headed straight to the airship, and flew all the way to the deck.
“Marakia!”
There were small golems, clerics, and Marakia on the deck of the ship.
“Destroyer! What’s happening? The Barbarians are invading the city.”
“Cast your most powerful area magic on that building.”
Sungchul pointed precisely at the human empire’s embassy.
“Hoh. Are you testing my abilities?”
Marakia’s eyes sparkled.
“Enough talk, do it now.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Sungchul jumped back down.
Marakia climbed onto the deck and began to chant a spell.
A magic formation of nonhuman origin, the avian magic of the most powerful Nahak of the black feathers surrounded Marakia.
After the soul chant, Marakia drew a staff from his soul storage, brandishing it as though to strike down, and let out an unintelligible cry of a bird.
The next moment, something flashed from the staff.
Then, something faster than the wind flew past Sungchul like a bullet, hitting the nearby embassy and causing a massive explosion.
‘It’s a magic similar to what I had seen Lesser God Sidmia use.’
Its power was not as strong as one used by Sidmia, but it was enough for the Barbarians who had only been watching Sungchul to be left in a disarray.
Boom!
Marakia performed a series of horrifying magic bombardments from the deck. Amidst collapsing buildings and rising dust, the Barbarians’ gaze was entirely focused onto Sylphid.
Seizing the chaos, Sungchul landed in the dust-laden interior of the Human Empire’s embassy.
The battlefield was at zero visibility.
However, Sungchul was not hindered in the slightest.
The bodily odor emanating from the Barbarians and their loud noises were enough to reveal their positions even without the need for sight.
Sungchul swung his Krumbui.
His swing was without hesitation.
In this area, everyone except him was the enemy.
The Barbarians were slaughtered without understanding how, their blood absorbed by the blade of the Krumbui in a cloud of dust and deafening noise.
Dozens of Barbarians who had hastily erected a barricade were slaughtered in mere moments.
The Barbarians’ bulwark of defense evaporated in less than ten seconds.
And all of this was achieved through simple artillary support, without having sacrificed anything of worth.
Sungchul ran past the corpses and entered the embassy.
It wasn’t long before Sungchul was able to locate the gate in question.
The arched gate, built with rock imbued with magic, was constructed right in front of the lobby that was visible as soon as the embassy’s main door was opened.
Inside the arch frame, a dimensional door shimmered like a wave.
‘I should destroy this gate.’
If he had Fal Garaz, he could have easily smashed it with a single blow, but Krumbui was not nearly good of a weapon.
Though, that didn’t mean that it wasn’t possible with Krumbui either.
Sungchul casually cut down two Barbarians who came charging at him and stood in front of the gate.
“Why are you hesitating?”
Bertelgia asked Sungchul when she noticed he wasn’t doing anything to the gate.
“Give me a moment. I’m trying to figure out who made this gate.”
The simplest answer was to just assume it was the Order of Extinction that had opened the gate.
This was the simplest and the most convincing conclusion to arrive at.
But it was not like Sungchul to rush to conclusions thoughtlessly.
Sungchul was examining the material, method of construction, tools and materials left over from the build to see who had created this gate for what reason.
“Hoh?”
The old him wouldn’t have taken this time to investigate.
The past him was a simple warrior who excelled at reacting to situations as they unfold and blindly charged into battle , where as now he was making conscious effort trying to observe the big picture of the battle.
The investigation of the gate. It was the proof of his growth.
‘As I thought. I won’t be able to figure out who did this from examining the gate itself.’
The enemy was also conniving.
They left no noticeable clues or leads.
As is, it was possible that there would be no new information after months of investigations.
However, the existence of an exit implies the existence of an entrance.
‘I won’t play into your hands.’
There was two possible outcomes the enemy could have predicted.
Either, the gate remains open and leads to the destruction of the kingdom, or the dwarves manage to somehow overcome the invasion and hastily destroy the gate as soon as possible.
But no matter how much they’ve thought ahead, they would not have been able to predict what Sungchul was about to do.
To enter the gate and investigate the other side.
Because it was inconceivable, because it was impossible.
But for Sungchul, nothing is impossible.
He walked towards the gate, his hand gripping Krumbui tightly.
“Bertelgia. I guess it’s time for me to prove my worth this time.”
As soon as he finished his sentence, Sungchul threw himself beyond the gate.
After a dizzying blue landscape passed by, Sungchul arrived on the other side of the gate.
A forest, filled with somber conifers.
Burnt buildings and bodies hung from branches as far as the eyes could see occupied most of the landscape.
‘Is this the land of the Varan-Aran Alliance?’
The question of where this was did not really matter.
Because beyond the gate, Sungchul found thousands of Barbarians mustering.
Their objective could not be any more clear.
They were preparing for an imminent full-on invasion of the Dwarven Kingdom.
If they had waited any longer, thousands of soldiers would have crossed the gate in full battle formations.
“My goodness. Why are there so many?”
Bertelgia murmured, shaking in fear.
“…”
Sungchul stared silently at the Barbarian army.
His guess was correct.
The gate opened in Daintite was not opened by the Barbarians. It was the work of a third party.
Sungchul, receiving the gazes of thousands of Barbarians, rose into the sky.
Sungchul’s eyes opened wide in surprise.
The gate on the other side was carried on a destroyed warship.
Someone had driven the warship carrying the gate directly into the occupied territory of the Barbarians, opening the gate.
And the type of this airship was something Sungchul knew very well.
A Procrustes-class battleship of the Floating Archipelago.
It was the same model as the Sylphid that Sungchul had commandeered.
‘So, it was the work of the Floating Archipelago, not the Order of Extinction.’
Sungchul recalled the image of Aquiroa being led out of the Audience chamber, shouting that they will regret this decision.
“…”
He now knew the culprit.
Shing! Shing!
Arrows shot by the Barbarians, carrying terrifying destructive power, flew towards Sungchul.
These arrows contained a force that even Sungchul would struggle to avoid injury from if he were to be struck by even one.
“Brins Arnolt! Zenka!”
The Barbarian shouted as they began to indiscriminately shoot arrows at him.
Sungchul had no time to deal with the Barbarians.
Dodging the Barbarian’s arrows, Sungchul quickly descended, crossing the gate again as the Barbarians watched on.
And as soon as he passed through the gate, he struck the arch-shaped gate with Krumbui.
“Ughhhhhhh! I’m not a hammer!”
Along with Krumbui’s scream, the gate collapsed.
There would be no further threats.
Sungchul left the embassy and stared at the airspace above Daintite.
An airship was leaving Daintite.
A pure white airship. It was one of the Procrustes class ship of the Floating Fortress.
Sungchul immediately cast Fly, flew to Procrustes, and landed on its deck.
The soldiers and crew of the Floating Fortress recoiled in terror.
Sungchul pointed to the bridge with the tip of Krumbui.
“Why are you in such a hurry to leave, Aquiroa?”
No one dared to confront Sungchul.
A woman emerged from the bridge amidst the silence. A woman hiding her face with a cloth covered in indecipherable characters. Aquiroa.
Sungchul had killed two women bearing the same name before. Perhaps Aquiroa, who now stood before Sungchul, could be the third.
Sungchul felt a peculiar sensation.
It was because he sensed from Aquiroa’s demeanor and movements that she resembled not Aquiroa, but a completely different person in his memories.
An officer from the Floating Fortress was closely following behind Aquiroa, trying to dissuade her.
“You mustn’t do this.”
“I don’t want to die.”
Aquiroa said, extending her arm.
This voice did not belong to Aquiroa.
It was completely different, belonging to someone else he knew.
Sungchul’s eyes twitched for a moment.
‘This voice…?!’
Amidst anxiety, unease, and a hint of anticipation, Aquiroa removed her mask.
Sungchul’s gaze became momentarily blurred.
Ryze Himerr.
The woman who led Sungchul to this place once again became entwined with his fate.
“Long time no see.”
Ryze Himerr greeted him with a strange smile.
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