323. The War of Puppets (20)
“Piel, what about the Empire’s support?”
“The Emperor’s main force is following at a day’s distance.”
“A day… just a day.”
Kirhas fiddled with her mask, lost in thought. Her instincts were screaming at her to advance immediately. But how? No matter how scattered the enemies were, their main force still outnumbered hers by dozens of times.
When cavalry clashed with cavalry, she didn’t think the Beastman cavalry would fall far behind. But assuming the quality was equal, the problem was the numbers.
“Chieftain, what are you worried about? If the Empire advances and we flank them, we can handle them just fine.”
“Their forces are gathering by the minute. By tomorrow, their camp will have at least twice the current number of troops.”
They’re not fools. No matter how perfectly the Beastman Warriors executed their ambush, it was impossible for there to be no survivors from the initial skirmish. In fact, the main camp of the Hundred Tribes was now seeing the return of troops that had been sent out for tracking and patrol.
-Tap, tap.
Kirhas drummed her fingers on the table, deep in thought. The table was adorned with a riot of flowers. Watching the flowers bloom and wither in real-time, Kirhas let out a deep sigh.
‘Your Excellency is approaching them.’
A single deep blue flower, symbolizing Fernandez, was slowly making its way toward the red flower mound representing the enemy. She felt as though she could read his thoughts even from this distance.
‘If the enemy completes their battle preparations, we can’t be certain of the Empire’s victory.’
Even if their numbers have dwindled, they still have a massive legion of two hundred thousand. Most of their forces are cavalry—a colossal disaster. Against such a force, no matter how impressive the Empire’s legion is, victory isn’t guaranteed.
‘Your Excellency is aiming to assassinate Karadskar.’
A deep-strike tactic. No matter how skilled a warrior and mage Fernandez is, he can’t take on an entire legion alone. So far, Fernandez has focused solely on striking the enemy’s leadership.
It’s a perfect division of roles. Like an arrow shot, he has established a strategy to precisely target only the enemy’s key personnel. A massive legion with its leadership paralyzed would be easily crushed by our forces.
But in this situation, Fernandez is acting alone without contacting her. Even though he can’t possibly infiltrate such a large legion and take the enemy commander’s head by himself.
The meaning is clear. He trusts her. He believes that when he penetrates the enemy’s rear, she will disrupt their front. With Piel and Freya by her side, she will surely coordinate with him.
“We need to buy a day.”
“…Huh? Chieftain, surely not?”
“Tell the warriors to eat well tonight. There will be no rest until tomorrow morning.”
“This is madness! Even if we gather all our warriors now, we won’t have more than ten thousand!”
“And the enemy has over ten times that number?”
“Yes! Chieftain! Why not just wait one more day…?”
The elders’ opposition was fierce. Despite Kirhas’s authority within the Federation of Nobles, the elders couldn’t accept this decision.
Kirhas didn’t respond to them, instead turning to Piel.
“Do you think we’ll wait another day?”
“No, Chieftain. As you wish, it seems we’ll set out tonight.”
“Then, will we win?”
“That… I don’t know.”
Piel bowed her head. The elders trembled with anxiety, murmuring among themselves. They knew what it meant when a prophet said, “I don’t know.”
“Are we all going to die, Chieftain!”
“No, it could mean that something is lurking behind this war.”
No matter how skilled a prophet is, they can’t perfectly control the future. A prophet can’t read information from places where higher beings are at work.
[Or maybe it really means all of them will die.]
‘Not everyone will survive.’
[Even if you die?]
‘If I can die just one day before Your Excellency, that’s enough for me.’
As long as I don’t have to watch his death, it doesn’t matter. Kirhas looked at the trembling elders with resolute eyes.
“We can’t throw the Federation’s warriors into a gamble! Chieftain! There’s no reason to act so hastily!”
“Please reconsider. This is madness.”
“If one side holds doom and the other holds survival, and the only way is to gamble, then of course we must stake our lives.”
“Chieftain!”
In response to the elders’ protests, Kirhas slammed the table and shouted.
“The outcome of this war depends on this one day! Even at this very moment! Countless lives are being staked for the end of this war! Are you afraid of death? Even at the moment of your most miserable death, your god and your chieftain will be with you!”
-Clang!
Kirhas placed the Golden Mask on her head and shouted. The elders flinched at her intensity, lowering their gazes.
“I will hear no more objections. Go back and tell the tribal warriors. At sunset tonight, they are to follow the Chieftain’s military flag!”
* * *
The sun was setting. Fernandez crouched low in the bushes, avoiding the gaze of the patrolling troops.
-Clack, clack.
“Damn it, they’re gathering, and what is Kagan thinking, holed up like this…”
“Shh, do you want to die?”
The guards grumbled as they passed by Fernandez. Without even needing magic, it wasn’t hard to divert the gaze of moderately trained soldiers.
Troops are coming… If even the low-ranking soldiers know, the battle will start within a day or two. The tense atmosphere in the camp seemed to confirm this.
Fernandez hid beneath a boundary stone, slowly gripping the sword hilt.
-Pop!
Right in front of where he was lying, a green flower bud burst open. Just moments ago, it had been dry and yellow…
The flower bud was now safe, a sign that Freya was secure.
– Swoosh.
Their military encampment had roughly cleared the surrounding weeds, but like nomads who move from place to camp, they didn’t seem too interested in landscaping. After all, with such dense guard forces, who would care about shrubs scattered everywhere?
Fernandez weaved through them, stealthily infiltrating deep into their camp. The stench of blood grew stronger.
‘Their relic must be nearby.’
– The magical interference is incredibly strong. Have you ever seen a relic of this caliber?
‘Not in this lifetime.’
– No matter how you look at it, it’s one of the lost magics from the Celestial War. I’m tempted.
‘Whatever it is, we’ll see after this is over.’
The subordinate on the bronze throne was unusual. An ordinary mage wouldn’t even dare attempt a spell here. Failed incantations inevitably backlash on the caster, and few mages could succeed in such an environment.
‘Found it.’
– Damn it.
The expected scene was before his eyes. A pit filled with countless corpses. Even right in front of the pit, sticky blood still glistened, not yet dried. Fernandez clicked his tongue briefly.
He’d seen far worse than this. But having his heightened sense of smell overwhelmed by the stench of blood was annoying. Fernandez sat down right in front of the pit and flexed his fingers.
‘Kirhas, I’m counting on you.’
It was time for everyone to gamble. Especially Fernandez, who had infiltrated the heart of enemy territory. Unlike others, Fernandez had no way to actively gather information. So now wasn’t the time for analysis or planning. It was time to gamble.
– Whoosh!
A beastman was tied up mid-air. A black halo burned fiercely behind his hair. With one hand, Fernandez skillfully held the beastman, while the other reached into his robe.
“What…? Who are you…? Ugh!”
– Swoosh! Thud!
A dagger embedded itself up to the hilt in the forehead of a passing guard. Fernandez shook his hand, threw the dagger, and reached back into his robe.
The magical distortion was severe. Complex high-level spells were nearly impossible to attempt. But simpler, purer magics, like Asith necromancy, which drew power from deep within the ley lines, were still possible.
All he needed now was chaos. There was no need for advanced rituals to synchronize with the dead or summon thousands of wraiths at once.
– Creak, creak.
From the corpse pit, an arm that hadn’t fully decayed rose. Wraiths with dried wounds and torn skin began crawling out one by one.
‘About three hundred should be the limit.’
– Their performance is mediocre. They’re worse than those raised by modern necromancy.
‘Even if they’re inferior, let’s conserve our mental energy.’
Fernandez stood up, cracking his neck. These weren’t wraiths with memories of their past lives. They were just clumsy corpses, moving sluggishly at his command.
Puppets. That’s all they were. Fernandez adjusted the direction of the corpses with a flick of his fingers and began walking forward.
* * *
“Ugh!”
“Freya? What’s wrong?”
Freya, who had been sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, focusing on the ritual, suddenly clutched her head and collapsed, gasping for breath. Abel hurriedly approached, gently rubbing her back.
Her light dress was soaked with sweat, clinging to her back. Freya trembled in Abel’s arms, taking deep breaths.
“Was the ritual too much? Rest for a while…”
“Lindworm…”
“Yes, Freya. I’m here.”
Freya and Abel had been conducting a ritual deep in the Great Wilderness. For days, they had been focusing on securing a view across the wilderness to relay information to Fernandez and Kirhas.
It was merely an extension of what they had been doing in the north. In fact, it was easier. Unlike the north, the Great Wilderness was a land teeming with life, and the area Freya had to watch over was smaller than the entire north.
“I can’t see it. Lindworm.”
“…Does that mean it’s lost its divinity?”
“The goddess is still a goddess. But… Lindworm, I can’t see it. Fernandez was wrong. This isn’t just a relic.”
Freya looked up at Abel with tear-filled eyes, trembling. Her eyes were filled with terror.
“It’s a trap. This goddess… no. Someone who knows us well… ‘something’ designed this trap. We need to warn Fernandez. He needs to retreat and reorganize the plan!”
“…Someone who knows us well? What do you mean…?”
“In the area Fernandez infiltrated, where Kirhas is about to advance, there’s ‘something’! They’ve been waiting for this moment.”
“Karadskar? How could he possibly know about us?”
“No! No. It’s not just a human! There’s a demon, Lindworm. One older and more evil than Jormungand, lurking in the shadows.”
Four pairs of red eyes glowing ominously in the darkness. And a massive presence burrowing through the earth, consuming everything. Nothing else was visible. Freya bit her lip and sobbed.
“The goddess can no longer wield power in this land. You… you need to go help him. His life is in danger.”
“If a Great Demon has manifested here, he would’ve noticed, Freya. That’s impossible.”
When Mumto ascended, the shock turned this land into the Great Wilderness. Abel, who remembered the Celestial War, shook her head, denying Freya’s words. The manifestation of a Great Demon, a being on par with a god, would have caused a ripple effect of that magnitude.
Back in distant Asgard, when Sadarkelisa merely broke through the seal, the World Tree burned. And this is the Material World. If a conceptual being broke through the dimensional barrier, everyone on this continent would instinctively know.
But there were no such signs. This was too sudden, too impossible. At Abel’s words, Freya struggled to steady her trembling breath.
“No, Lindworm. It knows of Fernandez’s existence. And it knows he’s now within its grasp…”
All the wars that had happened so far were nothing more than puppet shows, with puppets dancing on strings. Like an antlion waiting for prey in its pit, it waited for those who could oppose it to gather in one place.
Freya shivered as she finished speaking.
– Drip, drip.
Rain began to pour. Abel stood up, looking at the dark clouds gathering in the northern sky.
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