A flying spear shatters the barrier and smashes the city wall from afar.
The resulting explosion and vibration were enough to panic the soldiers resting inside the city walls, even without any special signal.
“Move quickly!”
“To your positions! Do as you’ve been trained!”
Although it had been several months since the Barbarian Tribe’s last attack, the rookies experiencing their first real battle were flustered. On the other hand, there were also many veterans who had spent months preparing for this moment.
Just as the defensive posture was somehow completed through a mix of rookies and veterans, another spear came whizzing in.
“「Freeze」.”
The spear that had been flying in suddenly began to slow down as if caught by something, until it eventually came to a complete stop.
Kail glanced at the spear that had stopped mid-air and then turned his head slightly.
The fully armored Duke was already standing beside him.
“Weren’t you saying there wouldn’t be an attack?”
“Yes, I thought it would be impossible for them to replenish their forces in just a few months… It seems I was wrong.”
Even after the Duke blocked the spear, more continued to fly in, but their frequency gradually decreased until they completely disappeared.
However, as soon as the spears stopped flying, the Barbarian Tribe began to appear beyond the horizon.
Kail opened his mouth while looking at the approaching forces heading towards the Great Wall.
“Shall I help?”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“Okay.”
With one hand, Kail measured the length of the Great Wall and then started a running start from one end of the city wall to the other.
After running a few steps, Kail converted that energy into kinetic energy and threw the Aura Blade he had taken out.
Contrary to common belief that it would disappear once it moved a certain distance away from his body, Kail’s Aura Blade maintained its form even after flying several kilometers.
When the flying Aura Blade reached the Barbarian Tribe’s unit, a warrior at the forefront stepped forward and grabbed Kail’s Aura Blade.
“Oh─?”
Kail stared blankly at the warrior, not expecting him to grab the Aura Blade directly, rather than neutralizing it with another Aura Blade.
The warrior, pushed back a few meters by the immense power contained in the Aura Blade, immediately turned around and threw the captured Aura Blade back.
Witnessing the miraculous sight of the flying Aura Blade being caught and thrown back, Kail dispersed the incoming Aura Blade in mid-air with a look of great interest.
“Interesting.”
Curious about how much they could block, Kail created another Aura Blade for throwing and, with the Duke’s help, inscribed magic into it.
Unlike the previous spear launched purely by physical strength, the spear, empowered by magic, flew faster and much stronger.
Watching the Aura Blade easily break the sound barrier, Kail looked at the Barbarian Tribe, wondering how they would block it this time.
─……!
Amid some commotion among the Barbarian Tribe, a large monster was dragged out. Resembling a hippopotamus, the monster opened its mouth wide upon seeing the incoming Aura Blade.
An Aura Blade powerful enough to smash through a massive city wall disappeared like melting snow the moment it entered the monster’s mouth. Kail frowned slightly at the sight.
“What is that?”
“Hippocradon. A monster that devours all forms of energy: Magic Power, Aura, Holy Power, Force.”
“You know about it, Master Zhang?”
“Of course. It’s one of the monsters living in the frigid lands beyond the North. To think they’re raising such a creature……?”
The Duke looked at the monster and the Barbarian Tribe with an expression of disbelief. Fortunately, the Barbarian Tribe did not advance any further.
Watching the retreating Barbarian Tribe from afar, the Duke smiled bitterly, realizing that the era of peace they had maintained until now had begun to crack.
* * *
“Bring the materials! We need to repair the city wall before we can set up the barrier!”
“Don’t slack off, move quickly─!!”
Driven by the shouting of senior soldiers, the soldiers worked themselves to the bone. Each carried materials weighing dozens of kilograms and repeatedly climbed up and down the city wall, which was dozens of meters high.
Moreover, the stairs weren’t safe either, causing numerous soldiers to nearly fall off the wall.
Despite these dangers, the soldiers swiftly moved to complete the repairs on the city wall. They knew well that if this wall collapsed, it wasn’t just them who would die, but also their families and other citizens of the Empire inland.
“Your Grace! The city wall repairs are complete.”
“Hmm.”
Upon receiving the report, the Duke ascended the city wall with Yuri to begin casting the barrier spell. Even though it would only take a few spears to shatter, having a barrier was far better than having none.
If they had reacted immediately when the shock hit the barrier this time, it wouldn’t have shattered.
“「Frozen world, endlessly decreasing mass, stealing power─」”
“「Follow, those who cannot follow shall not cross this wall」.”
Combining the power of a Master-level magician who had reached the 6-star level and a 4-star double-casting magician who had nearly reached the Master’s threshold, the barrier began to rapidly repair itself.
Having reinforced the barrier to be stronger than before, the two magicians gazed at the distant white horizon and spoke.
“It will hold for now…… but it’s only a matter of time.”
“That’s right. It’s just a question of sooner or later. Eventually, it will collapse.”
Hearing the logical and situational guesses that leaped several steps ahead thanks to their brilliant intellect, Kail tilted his head, unsure what they meant.
Yuri watched Kail for a moment before cautiously explaining their current situation.
“A Master has appeared among the Barbarian Tribe. Do you understand so far?”
“I understand.”
“Then that’s it. We’re going to lose.”
“……??”
“Yuri, your explanation is lacking. We need a more detailed explanation.”
“I’m sorry, Father. My thoughts were short-sighted.”
The two muttered to each other in words only they could understand before starting an explanation simple enough for even a monkey to grasp.
“Alright, the presence of a Master over there means they can break through our barrier.”
“Can’t we just block it?”
“The only one who can maintain a barrier strong enough to withstand a Master-level attack is Father, but he can’t stay awake 24 hours a day, can he?”
“Hmm…… Is that how it works?”
“The enemy will relentlessly attempt attacks. When a gap appears, they’ll eventually shatter the barrier and the city wall…… If it turns into a war of attrition, it’s our inevitable defeat.”
“What if we attack?”
“Didn’t you see earlier? They’ve managed to raise that monster. How they did it doesn’t matter; what matters is that they can absorb any kind of energy—Magic Power, Aura, anything.”
The Hippocradon, capable of absorbing any energy regardless of its composition. The Barbarian Tribe had succeeded in raising that monster.
This meant their magic would be ineffective, leaving them unable to attack while forced to endure one-sided attacks from the enemy.
And no matter the difference in power, if they could only receive attacks unilaterally, they were doomed.
“You’ve thought of a solution, right?”
“……Two, roughly.”
“Then isn’t that enough?”
“It’s a matter of possibility, not practicality.”
Yuri hesitated to voice the solutions, but Kail, unwilling to give up, looked at the Duke—the only person present who might share similar thoughts with Yuri.
The Duke carefully observed his daughter’s expression before cautiously speaking.
“There are two methods. One, my daughter Yuri becomes a 5-star magician.”
“That’s difficult.”
“The other is similar.”
“What is it?”
Hearing Kail’s question, the Duke grimaced as if reluctant to speak, then sighed deeply. Looking at Kail, he carefully explained the method.
“You assassinate the Barbarian Tribe’s warrior and return.”
At those words, Kail’s eyes widened.
Indeed, it was a method Yuri couldn’t bring herself to mention.
But if that was the only way.
‘……Assassination.’
He would choose that path.
* * *
“Don’t go.”
“I said I won’t.”
After returning to the room, Kail endured Yuri’s nagging. She firmly believed he would rush to the frigid lands beyond the North and throw away his life at any moment.
As if Kail was an idiot with no reason to make such a choice.
“You absolutely must not go. I’ll do something…… somehow.”
“How? What exactly?”
“——Somehow.”
As her words looped back on themselves, Yuri warned Kail not to leave the room before heading somewhere else.
Most likely, the training room somewhere in the castle. If she became a Master, Kail wouldn’t need to embark on an assassination mission, so she went to work hard to reach that level.
‘It won’t happen.’
Of course, Kail thought she couldn’t reach the Master level. If it were a realm one could ascend simply by wishing for it, she would have done so long ago.
But if she didn’t reach the Master level, they wouldn’t be able to defend this place. The Great Wall would collapse.
The Duke, tasked with guarding the North, and his daughter couldn’t just stand by and watch. Duty was heavy. As heavy as their rights.
“I don’t want to go.”
Kail pondered whether her progress would come faster or if the city wall would collapse first while gazing intently out the window.
A fierce blizzard raged outside, obscuring everything within a foot.
