Chapter 230 : Chapter 230
Chapter 230
Ancient Weapon ‘Uvula of Abundance’.
The weapon that dominates the great earth.
Ancient Weapon ‘Moon-Shadow Cranium’.
The weapon that summons soldiers without bodies.
The Widow Queen Aida held two Ancient Weapons within her body.
This was a very rare occurrence.
Ancient Weapons choose their masters very stringently.
It was to the extent that there were members of the Ten Great Generals of the Empire who couldn't handle an Ancient Weapon due to lack of aptitude.
Two Ancient Weapons did not simply mean twice the power.
When two distortions combine, they give birth to dozens of distortions.
Enough distortion to capably make Aida, who had never trained, like a hero.
Aida was attended by Earth Soldiers.
The soldiers, made of dirt and stone, moved just like people and protected the Widow Queen.
Their numbers were in the thousands.
Nana Nereyades broke out in a cold sweat.
“…There was no sign of an ambush.”
It was a narrow, single path after passing the great mountain range's central pass.
It was a place where ambushes were likely, so they had put particular effort into scouting.
The reason they had brought along the Director of the Intelligence Bureau was also to receive help with their scouting abilities.
But even so, to have not noticed soldiers of this scale, it didn't make sense.
“How would you know, when they sprung from the ground?”
The Widow Queen Aida smiled, covering her mouth.
Her black hair fluttered.
Despite her beautiful appearance, the Cordis soldiers felt fear.
It was because anger shimmered in her eyes.
“Just like the calamity you all sent to us.”
“…….”
Nana kept her mouth shut.
It seemed the Widow Queen had learned about the Empire's calamity.
If so, that anger was understandable.
Instead of exchanging more words with Aida, she moved her eyes here and there.
Nana Nereyades, 11th Legion Commander.
She had roamed many battlefields under many names.
When she belonged to the Intelligence Bureau, she had even served as the Deputy Director.
Because she was abundantly experienced for her age, she could get an estimate just by glancing over the situation.
‘Those earth soldiers, there are about three thousand visible…’
At first, she was flustered and thought there were tens of thousands.
But counting calmly, there weren't that many.
Of course, an ambush of three thousand was still a shocking number, but she was leading 38,000 soldiers.
It meant they held a numerical superiority of more than ten to one.
“Cavalry.”
At Nana's word, Bukenos raised a horn trumpet.
At the Bu-uuuuu- sound, the 15th Legion's cavalry unit came forward.
Their number was eighty-eight.
Long spears flashed.
“Oh my. I wanted to talk more.”
“Charge.”
Nana's voice was frigid.
“Bring me that head.”
The eighty-eight cavalry charged.
The number of hooves was three hundred and fifty.
The dagadak sound was exhilarating.
The Earth Soldiers blocked the way, but they crumbled back into dirt before the charge.
The Widow Queen was still lying sideways on the palanquin.
Nana interpreted her attitude as arrogance.
She must be able to be so composed because she had never tasted the charge of Cordis cavalry.
The horses of the Cordis cavalry are not simple horses.
They are artificial magical beasts created with the technological prowess of the Imperial Academy of Magic.
Doesn't a blue light shimmer every time they snort angrily?
“Oh my… they run so frighteningly.”
As the cavalry's momentum proved extraordinary, Aida raised her body slightly.
She thought they had just started charging from far away, but they had already closed the distance to right in front of her.
It seemed that if she blinked a few times, those spears would reach her neck.
Aida smiled beamingly.
“It will hurt if you fall.”
The ground jjeok gaped open.
About thirty of the eighty-eight cavalry fell into the earth.
It was the power of the ‘Uvula of Abundance’.
The ground that had swallowed thirty cavalrymen closed its mouth again.
The fifty cavalry who had barely stopped their horses just stared blankly at the spot where their comrades had disappeared.
“You should watch your step.”
The ground gaped open again.
Twenty-two of the stopped cavalry fell.
Only thirty-three survived.
They turned their horses, trembling in fear that the ground would gape open again.
The Widow Queen cheerfully let them go.
Earth Soldiers were also swept up and disappeared into the ground.
However, they were originally from the earth, so they soon rose up from the ground again.
Nana Nereyades didn't even think to reprimand the thirty-three cavalrymen who returned.
The 38,000 Cordis soldiers were also dumbfounded, staring at Aida.
“You should know, all of you. You are the ones who started it.”
The Widow Queen had lived as a madwoman.
Trusting no one, hating everything she saw, she had continued a life that was like walking on the blade of a sharp knife.
If asked what for, the reasons were the ‘Mimic Crumb’ and the disappeared Yulan.
If asked because of whom, the reason was Four-Fiend General Karkarsso, that is, Belrsasal.
Meaning, it was all the Cordis Empire's fault.
“Ah, I already want to go back, so I'd better finish this quickly.”
The Widow Queen who was no longer a widow gestures.
The thousands of Earth Soldiers move according to her gesture.
“Yulan is waiting, you see.”
***
The battle unfolded.
Earth Soldiers and soldiers clashed on the remote road.
The aspect of the fight was making Nana nervous.
Those Earth Soldiers were exhausting beings.
They were incomparably strong compared to ordinary soldiers, as they were phantoms summoned by ‘Moon-Shadow Cranium’ and given flesh by ‘Uvula of Abundance’.
They recovered quickly even when wounded, and they did not know fatigue.
Their strength and speed were also beyond the bounds of an ordinary person.
They could take on three or four regular soldiers at once, and their number was three thousand.
‘On top of that, she moves the ground at will…. It completely turns strategy into garbage.’
Nana knew.
One of the most important elements in a large-scale battle is the terrain.
But the Widow Queen Aida shaped it or destroyed it as she wished.
There must be a limit to the power of the Ancient Weapon, so she would get tired eventually, but even so, she was overwhelmingly threatening.
‘Schmeizen should have had Four-Fiend General Karkarsso… was he defeated too…’
Nana Nereyades clicked her tongue.
It wasn't even strange.
It was obvious whose doing it was.
Shion of Merion! It must be that bastard's doing it again.
Having experienced it herself, she knew very well.
She ground her teeth, making an adeuk sound.
Three thousand Earth Soldiers and a queen who moves the ground.
They were a difficult opponent, but it was not an unwinnable fight.
It was just that their formation was delayed because they were passing through the single path.
Even now, look, as the giant-form magi-soldiers and the Commanders of a Thousand stepped up, the horde of Earth Soldiers was crumbling and returning to dirt.
But Nana was not pleased.
‘If the first battle is this fierce, morale will be ruined…’
Even if 38,000 defeated 3,000, it was actually a loss.
No, to be precise, weren't these 3,000 Earth Soldiers summoned by Aida alone?
The very fact that nearly 40,000 elite soldiers were held up by a single person was enough to become a laughingstock.
“Bukenos.”
If there was one outstanding person on that side, there needed to be one on this side, too.
To stand against a hero, a hero was needed.
Nana realized she had to take on that role.
Regardless of whether she could or couldn't, she had to.
“Send an urgent report to General Zeronimus.”
“Yes, Legion Commander.”
“Contact him three times, with slight intervals. And then report back to me.”
Nana leaped lightly.
She leaped as if flying across the battlefield, with the super-sized oar, four times taller and larger than herself, tucked under her arm.
Her three-stranded hair scattered beautifully.
The Earth Soldiers blocked her way, but it was useless.
One swing of the super-sized oar was inherited from Niko, and ten Earth Soldiers returned to dirt.
Nana felt a sense of disappointment.
If it had been Niko, if it had been the Whale of Hobel Bay, not ten, but thirty Earth Soldiers would have been defeated.
“Ha.”
Not all Earth Soldiers were the same.
Among them, there were ones that were exceptionally hard and strong.
They swarmed like an ant colony to prevent Nana from reaching Aida.
Nana Nereyades bared her teeth and smiled.
Thick veins bulged on her arms.
“-Ha-!!!”
It was as if a wave was crashing.
Atop the battlefield where dirt and humans were intermingled, she darted about here and there like a group of large waves.
As she leaped like that, it soon became as if she were swimming.
Nana hummed.
She wanted to swim.
She wanted to swim forever.
But life pushed her onto the land, and further onto the land.
At the end of the land, where she had been driven.
She met the White Whale.
The White Whale taught her.
How to be strong, even if she bled.
How to breathe the Great Sea.
That life, itself, is swimming.
Nana's Ars, having learned the name of swimming.
‘Freestyle’.
***
Nana swam.
From here to there, between land and people, she darted all over with the single super-sized oar tucked under her arm.
No one could stop her.
It was because she was not fighting, but swimming.
The Ars ‘Freestyle’ became freer than before.
It was because she had further confronted the self she had always ignored.
She had always ignored it.
No, she hated it.
She hated Niko for ignoring his bloodline, so she, too, had tried hard to ignore Niko.
So how could she be free?
Longing for freedom was proof of an unfree person.
Whatever her choice, whatever her feelings, doesn't Niko's blood flow in her veins?
Isn't it the undeniable bloodline of the Great Sea?
“Clumps of dirt.”
Nana smiled, her lips twisting.
Bukenos, who was sending an urgent report to the Eight-Impact General, saw Niko in her.
Nana Nereyades leaped into the horde of Earth Soldiers without hesitation.
She has a small frame, despite being over twenty.
Leaping into the Earth Soldiers by herself, she became unseen.
But that, too, was brief; soon, a wave crashed.
When she swam, everything was a wave.
Regardless of whether this was on land, or if the opponents were clumps of dirt, just, like a large wave, a wave rippled.
Riding the wave she herself had summoned, Nana strode forward.
Her feet were not as large as cauldron lids like Niko Nereyades's, but when she strode, she was suddenly far away.
“……!”
A stride, and another stride, and then a stride, and she was right in front of Aida.
Aida, who had been lying sideways, hurriedly tried to get up, but Nana was faster.
The super-sized oar at the swimming woman's side was aimed at Aida.
“This is the price for blocking His Majesty's army.”
This super-sized oar belonged to Niko Nereyades.
With an iron core embedded in the center, it was something about a dozen strong men had to cling to just to barely move.
Striking down with such an object, Aida was quickly shattered into pieces.
“……?”
Nana frowned, looking at the shattered Aida.
She had struck a person, but dirt and stones scattered.
“Oh my. Did you perhaps think that was the real me?”
“…No way.”
The laughter came from the side.
One of the Earth Soldiers changed its form and became Aida.
It wasn't just one or two Aidas that appeared like that.
Dozens of Aidas, all with alluring figures, sent indistinguishable smiles.
A chill went down Nana's spine.
“No matter how much of a madwoman I've become, I don't come to places like this in person, you know.”
“…Dammit!”
“Such foul language, Legion Commander Nana.”
Nana was still swimming.
She destroyed the clump of dirt in Aida's form, but the real Aida was in a place she couldn't reach.
Bukenos's voice reached the ears of Nana, who was venting her frustration.
It was spoken through a magic tool for exchanging voices.
[…Legion Commander Nana.]
“Speak.”
[…We cannot contact General Zeronimus.]
“…Right.”
Nana lifted her head.
An Earth Soldier rushed at her, but she turned it into a pile of dirt in an instant.
A Tsk sound came out automatically.
Whatever the reason, whatever her struggle, the result was clear.
The horde of Earth Soldiers in Aida's form smiled beamingly at her.
It was as if to say, Are you going already?
It was as if they were gloating.
Nana turned her sharp eyes.
Her pride was wounded.
But pride was nothing.
It was because she carried the weight of many lives.
“……All forces retreat.”