The city of Dualcamarte, where the people had died or fled.
The city had now been turned into a front-line base for the Rose Princess’s Army, and undead soldiers were lined up in the rubble piles of the city.
Standing still and waiting under the cloudy sky, a large number of human figures looked like grave markers lined up in a graveyard or a forest of winter withered broadleaf trees.
The stench of death and a stagnant breeze blew through the air, and the city was completely destroyed.
Like a carrot that a child had removed from a dish and left uneaten, the assembly hall existed, unscathed.
“The situation was generally as expected. It looks like the trick is working.”
“Thanks for the reconnaissance, Tracy.”
The hall was just like a church chapel, except that there were no stained glass windows or statues of deities.
Gathered together were the ghouls operating as platoon leaders and the undead with ace-level skills.
The lectern had been removed from the raised platform, and in its place was a luxurious chair taken from the city’s castle hall, where René was seated.
A lone skeleton held a tray at René’s side.
Above it, Tracy’s voice could be heard from the call mark, who was on a reconnaissance mission to Terra Kaine, where he was making a final check before the inevitable invasion.
“I hope the refugees gathered in Terra Kaine are enough already. It’s about time.”
“Huh… A lot of people are going to die from now on.”
“Yes, they are. Tracy, you’re in the shadows this time until we can get to you.”
“…Well, I can’t do anything if I leave. I’ve been working all day, so I’ll just have a snack and watch the world go by.”
As one would expect from a neighboring city, Tracy was out of range of “Emotion Detection”, but without having to listen to his shriveled voice, one could understand Tracy’s feelings.
Terra Kaine was his home town. His personal connections were his assets, and he probably had many close friends there. René was going to take that away from him. She had Tracy himself help her.
He was committing an atrocious act, she thought. When they would be slaughtering an unspecified number of people like cleaving, it would be blurred, but when a tragedy like that befell someone in the immediate vicinity, it could make him recognize what he was doing, even if he didn’t want to.
It felt like a cold hand was stroking the inside of her body.
It was René’s desire to leave a “margin of sympathy” for her actions, even if it was just a tiny piece. The reason was not because she was vain or anything, but because she didn’t want to be abandoned by her mother in her heart.
That was why she was a little scared and unnerved at times like this. Scared of the gaze that shouldn’t exist.
But that didn’t change what René had to do. She has decided to go forward even if she had to crawl, even if her own heart was a burden to her.
“You’re in charge from the rear, Alastair.”
“Understood. Princess, would you like me to do the dirty work for you?”
A ghoulish gentleman seated in the front row hung his head and looked nervously up at René.
A man with a thin body wrapped in a suit, a white beard and hair waxed to perfection. Alastair Darryl Gerald. As the leader of the Hilbert faction, he was at odds with René, and was murdered by René, only to have his body reused as a ghoul after his death.
“You need to get some experience. You were a competent general when you were alive. Even if you lost your experience and memory when you became a ghoul, you would still have the same qualities. I hope you will improve and become competent again.”
“Thank you very much. Then, this Alastair. This battle will be a source of inspiration for me.”
Alastair put his hand on his chest and bowed reverently. As if accepting René’s expectations, he bit down on them.
“We’ll be in action at sundown. The most important targets are Marquis Edfeldt, who gave his support to Hilbert II, and Ghislain, the candidate for crown prince. Now, let us strike terror into the land.”
＊ ＊ ＊
The sun was already setting, but the light from the large magic lamps that cut through the darkness and projected from the city walls illuminated the area like a spotlight on a stage.
Just outside the gates of Terra Kaine, on the road leading to Dualcamarte, a group of armed people formed a line.
Leading the way were, of course, the five members of the “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear”. The rest were mostly adventurers, but there were some knights among them.
And then there were the holy beasts. A white tiger with golden fangs and cuirass, and a golden-masked bird with gorgeous gold ornaments on its wings followed them. These holy beasts, both reliable and eerie, were told by Marks to listen to the instructions of the “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear”, and they obeyed whatever Zeft and the rest of the group said.
The “Rose Princess of Hellrage” was on the move…
This information was brought to their attention by a scout only a short time ago.
“Let’s check it out. According to the refugees, the army of the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” that is crushing the cities in the territory is attacking by attacking the walls of the cities by breaking them down with giant undead with huge weapons. In other words, these giant undead are siege weapons.”
“Oh, ‘Hilbert II’… What a mess.”
When the leader, Zeft, glared at the road stretching over the hill, Cain, the tank, roared like he was crazy.
Among the information brought by the refugees, the one that was received with the strongest shock was a corpse giant who called himself Hilbert. This was the end of the person who ruined the “Rose Princess of Hellrage”.
“I think the job of the “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear” will probably be to stop the giant.”
“I’d really prefer not to go outside the city walls.”
“If a giant bigger than the walls appears, it’s like the walls don’t exist at all. Unfortunately, there are no weapons in this city that can fight it. It is most effective if we … go out there.”
Siege battles were generally overwhelming in favor of the defenders. It was possible to overturn a considerable gap in strength. To throw away that advantage and go for it would normally seem s*icidal.
However, after piecing together the information he had gathered, Zeft had come to the conclusion that “using the city walls as a shield is meaningless”, and that a force outside the city walls was needed to make them work. A s*icide squad that would dive into the enemy and expose itself to the onslaught. The “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear” volunteered to go with them, and other adventurers who could no longer say no also volunteered to go with them.
“They call them giants, but don’t you know anything more about them?”
Chenxi crossed her arms in thought with a (relatively) serious expression on her face.
She hated complicated situations and uncertain information. This was because she didn’t know what kind of a solution she would need to strike.
“He is said to have been about ten meters tall. We are told that he had four or six arms, each with a battering ram or huge hammer. The testimonies seem to be mixed up, and that’s about all we know.”
“Well, it’s not like he’s going to suddenly burst into flames or anything. If they were capable of that, the refugees would have seen it.”
“So it’s just a brute force enemy.”
Chenxi laughed fiercely as she clashed her dragon-shaped gauntlets.
The “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear” had plenty of experience fighting giant monsters. Bigger monsters were usually not as agile. Fighting them in a way that they surrounded the target’s body would create an unexpected blind spot. It would be easy for the light Chenxi.
“The ideal way is to catch them at a distance so that their attacks did not reach the city walls, and defeat them while receiving covering fire from the city walls. If they are undead, it would be rather easy to defeat them with «Consecration» because it would give us an advantage.”
“Ah, that’s right! Undead means rotten! I-I don’t want to punch or kick rotten…”
“Hold on.”
“Whoa!”
Chenxi’s scream shook the earth.
No, no.
“Oh … and…”
“Eh, what!? It’s my fault now!?”
“Of course not.”
It was not because of Chenxi’s booming voice.
A tremor ran through the ground. It was like something big had hit it.
“It’s getting closer.”
Tump, Tump. A regular shudder, small at first, then a little louder.
But no matter how long it took, the giant that had been reported was not in sight. What appeared over the hill was an army of corpses. Skeletons, zombies, and ghouls.
The lower-level adventurers in the back of the group were shaken up, but to the “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear” it was nothing to worry about. Small fries were small fries no matter how many were gathered. They should only pay attention to those who were particularly strong.
«Ray» was directed toward the march of undead.
Although it was still too far away to see clearly, they could see that the marching undead were unnaturally leaving the middle of the line.
Footprints were carved in the snow. Like an invisible giant walking on foot.
No, not a metaphor, perhaps an invisible giant walking.
“Invisible…?”
“Well, you can tell by the footsteps and the sound.””
Naturally, Zeft was skeptical.
Even if they were invisible, it would be obvious that they were there. What was the point of hiding them?
The only thing he could think of was that it was a combat enhancement buff to make it harder to fight when they were brought into a fight.
“Let me see, Claire.”
“Understood.…≪Concealment Detect≫”
Claire pushed up her glasses with her middle finger and chanted a magic spell.
It was magic to reveal what was magically hidden. As the chanting concluded, there was a change in Zeft’s view.
A reddish-black blur seemed to drift by, and the figure of a giant became visible, albeit in a flickering manner.
“Hmph… The concealment is very strong. But it’s enough to see the outline.”
“That’s it. It’s certainly big.”
The giant, which looked like shimmering smoke, was slowly approaching.
Though slow, it was only because it was so large that it looked slow, and because of its large stride, it was quite fast. The surrounding undead soldiers were following suit as they ran.
However, the march came to a halt about 300 meters from the city wall. It was a distance that ordinary bows and most magic could not reach.
The blur-like giant crouched down, and the undead soldiers stepped forward to protect the giant, shields at the ready.
Zeft wondered if they were going to form up once they were in position. But the distance between them was too close for that, so he thought they might just attack.
The next moment, the magic of concealment was suddenly lifted.
It was said to be 10 meters tall, but it might have been a little smaller than that. The skin had the texture of carrion, and he carried weapons on his long, strong arms, three pairs of them, six in all. The two heads were unbalanced and small compared to the body.
On the broad shoulders were several tubular objects attached, as though they had been forcibly wedged into the flesh to create space.
–What are those? Those shoulder ornaments.
No, they couldn’t possibly be ornaments.
A heavily textured, cylindrical object pointed at the city wall.
It was almost at the same time that Zeft realized what they were, and that a magic circle was deployed on the giant’s shoulders in formation as the built-in technique was activated.
“Oh, oh, oh! Oh, God! God will rain thunder down on the enemies of the righteous!”
“Oh no, defensive posture!!”
Immediately after the cracked voice came a piercing, ear-splitting sound.
Twelve magic-powered projectile cannons mounted on the shoulders of the giant erupted with fire, and cannonballs slammed into the city walls.
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