Emperor of Steel

Removing the remnants of the Veritas Magic Tower which controlled the Undead, including the Elder Zemerton.

Once the warlocks disappeared, the Undead who lost control began to wander in random directions, and the pressure on the defense got reduced.

But that was just for a day or two.

The Undead, pushing from behind made the wall crack a little, and defense lines were already in extreme fatigue.

“Commander, it is said that Fort Chase is on the verge of breaking through!”

“The gunpowder is out in area 16!”

“Sire! The number of riders and soldiers who are exhausted is constantly increasing!”

“The War Mages have run out of mana and are requesting for temporary withdrawal.”

Reynold sweat at the reports which came for him.

It was said that most of the forts were being pierced, or the military supplies such as gunpowder or arrows were running out, and the exhausted soldiers fell.

‘Damn it, things are only getting worse!’

Before the Undead came over, he shared opinions with his brother and other staff about the rough movement of the battle.

Even stopping wasn’t that easy, they thought that weapons such as artillery and Gigants, when used to maximum would do considerable damage to the Undead.

It wasn’t easy to confront 5 million Undead, especially when the soldiers would be in fear.

However, the battle which was actually happening was a lot more serious than imagined.

The enemy didn’t know how to retreat and they didn’t stop unless they were beheaded or burnt.

Rather than being afraid of the Gigants which were crushing them, a few Undead would hang on the Gigant gloves or bite the gloves.

‘They are unusual enemies. Besides, our allies have no experience in fighting such enemies!’

Inexperienced work would lead to a lot of mistakes.

Which was why the military supplies such as gunpowder were depleting rather rapidly. The soldiers who were in fear were using them excessively.

In addition, the Symphonia troops didn’t have enough rest nor time to build other barriers or prepare for the battle.

It was natural for fatigue to increase.

‘The 5 million number itself must have put great pressure on the minds…’

In the end, the important thing was that they had to overcome the difficulty.

In any war, there would have been decisions to retreat, but they couldn’t do that with the Undead.

“Put in the reserve troops!”

“Sire, the reserve troops are…”

“If there are none, I will go by myself!”

Reynold once again led his knights and went out of Verange Castle to battle.

The Undead struggle and fight slowed down, but the war wasn’t in the advantage of the Symphonia Kingdom.

“Uh-huh! Brother, when was His Majesty going to come?”

Reynard, who was in the battle along with his brother, asked.

Reynold, who was slaying off the Undead like ants, answered.

“When His Majesty feels like it, he will come. You keep on fighting!”

“Damn it, it looks like the Verange Castle will be in trouble… I mean, seven Gigants of the Iron Heart Knights are already down!”

It wasn’t the Gigants which were the problem, but the riders who were exhausted from the constant battles.

Sword Masters like Reynold and Reynard were also tired from constantly fighting with aura’s, so they knew how the other riders would have been.

It was when they were conversing with tired voices.

A messenger came from the wall behind them.

“Sire, we are in trouble! Area 38 has been pierced and the Undead are coming in!”

Area 38 has a 700-meter long barrier to the left of Verange Castle.

As they didn’t have the time to use bricks, they built three layers of barriers.

“Wh-what?!”

Shocked, Reynold used the telephoto artifact on his Orion and looked at Area 38.

Some of the barriers were indeed broken, it seemed like the barriers weren’t strong enough to withstand the constant Undead offense, and the Undead which crossed were fighting with the soldiers.

“No! No! stop them!”

Knowing that it would be difficult to solve such a situation, Reynold rushed to Area 38.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

He ran by trampling and kicking any Undead which came in front of him.

He tried to block the barrier point which had been pierced by placing his Orion.

However, quite a few Undead had already entered the barrier, and it wasn’t enough for a single Orion to seal all the openings.

“F*ck! All these!”

Reynold came out of the hatch, grabbed his sword, and cut the Undead which were randomly coming in from other points.

He somehow tried to prevent the rampage of the Undead, but it wasn’t possible to restore the barrier which had already been broken.

“Ahhhh! The Undead!”

“The Undead passed through the barrier!”

“Don’t back down! Keep fighting!”

Around 10,000 Undead seemed to have passed through the collapsed parts of the barrier.

Compared to the huge number, it was really small.

However, the Symphonia troops were already exhausted and had no energy to stop them.

They were barely blocking the barriers by leaning onto them, but the Undead were like beasts, there was no way humans could overcome them.

Hundreds of soldiers were bitten in the blink of an eye, and the rest of them were busy withdrawing.

Those who had no energy to fight, closed their eyes shut and gave up.

“Uhh, rather than getting bitten by the Undead…”

One of the soldiers tried to stab himself in the neck when Viscount Kaper came over running and stopped him.

“Don’t do anything so stupid!”

“B-But…”

“It is alright. Even if you turn into Undead, Her Holiness will bring you back to life!”

Kaper, who said so, swung his sword around the numerous Undead.

In order to protect their subordinates who were trying to flee, they decided to turn into baits and earn some time for a new defense to be built.

‘Your Majesty will come! He will definitely come and save us!’

Kaper had been following Luke since the early days of Fort Torlot.

In spite of any adversity, he believed that Luke would come up with a way, just like he always did.

But faith would remain as it was and so was strength.

Even the Expert’s top-notch mana was running out, and everyone was trying to endure the onslaught with their stamina.

Eventually, Karper’s stamina fell and his movements were slowed—making him the target of dozens of Undead.

‘Kuek! Maybe this is how I die?’

The moment Kapre lost his consciousness, a shout of joy came over from a distance.

“The reinforcements! Reinforcements are coming!”

As he was surrounded by the Undead, Kaper couldn’t see, but the soldiers who were retreating saw a legion of Undead and cavalry rushing over.

At the forefront was Luke’s exclusive Gigant, Avenger, shining.

“It is the Guard Knights!”

“Your Majesty is on his way!”

“We are saved!”

Amid the shouts of joy, Luke led his reinforcements and began to wipe out the Undead.

“There is no need to overdo it. Make time for the soldiers to retreat while taking down the Undead which have crossed the barriers.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Luke gave the order and cut down the heads of the Undead.

Orion and the Gaius Gigants followed him and slaughtered the Undead without any hesitation.

Surprisingly, however, the undead which were struck by the Gigant swords were turned into ashes.

Pssssh!

Puck! Puck!

And it wasn’t just the Gigant.

It was the same case as the knights on the horses.

Not only did the Undead get cut by the swords and spears, but they spontaneously flamed and turned into ash by just hitting the horse armor.

“Huh, it works better than I thought, it was worthwhile to gather all the priests from the Kingdom.”

Assuming that the large Undead army was coming, Luke had issued an order to gather priests from the kingdom into a close area near the capital.

There were a few priests who had other things to deal with and didn’t come, but quite a high number of priests came over.

Though it wasn’t the order of El Kassel, they couldn’t stand a national crisis.

Luke instructed the priests who responded to make a large amount of Holy Water, and bless the armor and weapons of the Gigants and the Knights with Divine Power.

There was nothing as great as Divine Power when it came to dealing with the Undead.

There was a limit to how many could be blessed, so the Guard Knights were given priority.

Still, there was a great effect on what the priests did.

The Undead who pushed into the wall ran wildly as they were getting defeated.

“Pour in the Holy Water!”

At Luke’s order, the knight poured the holy water from the large jar which several Gaius’s were carrying.

The Undead changed into a point where they were instantly turned into ashes.

Luke unfolded magic in succession as the enemy’s offense collapsed.

“Stone Edge!”

Dudududud!

Stone pillars rose from the ground and completely covered the collapsed barriers.

The crisis in Area 38 was cleared.

“Your Majesty, my eyes went blind waiting for you!”

Reynold, who was saving Viscount Kaper, yelled at Luke, who opened his Gigant’s hatch.

Reynard too approached him.

“But aren’t you glad I came before you fell?”

“Huh, if you put it like that… we sure are, by the way, what happened to the magic circle?”

“Why? Scared it is still not finished?”

“Is it done?”

When Reynold asked with hope, Luke nodded with a confident smile.

“It is almost done. It was all thanks to you people earning the time here.”

“Well, that is a relief.”

With a breath of relief, Reynold fell into Viscount Kaper’s arms.

It was like he could feel all the fatigue he had gathered during the past few days.

“You people take a break. I will take care of the work from here.”

“Please do that, Your Majesty.”

After telling the Gram brothers to rest, Luke ordered each of the staff through magic communication.

“Let the walls be set on fire, use all the remaining gunpowder, oil, and firewood. We will have enough time to earn for a retreat.”

When a formal retreat was ordered from Luke’s mouth, the commanders cheered without realizing it.

If they were asked to endure it and hit their limits, they all thought that they would either die or turn into Undead.

Through the magic communication, one of the commanders asked.

-Your Majesty, what about the infected soldiers?

While blocking the barrier, around 50,000 soldiers were bitten by Undead.

Among them, around 20,000 were infected at the beginning, and already turned into Undead, so they were in special containment camps.

“Bring those who haven’t turned into an Undead yet, and I will heal them.”

-Huh? Your Majesty will?

At the question of the commander, Luke just shrugged and answered.

“I am not as good as Her Holiness, but even I know how to perform some miracles.”

Spirit power was essential when it came to purifying the Undead.

Luke knew how to convert Aether into Spirit power.

In addition, he could amplify the Spirit power with Avenger’s core engine, and he had confidence when it came to healing a thousand minorly wounded soldiers.

‘Those who have already turned into Undead will be left for Johas and his men to deal with. They did say that their task was done.’

Shortly before arriving there, Luke was contacted by Johas.

They had told Luke about taking down the elder and the other warlocks who controlled the large army of Undead, but told that there were a few remnants who were great at hiding, which made getting rid of them very tough.

However, they reported that they managed to find and execute them.

And told that there was important information they managed to obtain in the process.

On how the Veritas managed to create a mass number of Undead, manipulating them, and all.

‘The only thing left is to activate the large magic circle. The last things are probably done…’

Luke who was worried for a while, soon felt relieved.

All because it was Erwin and Karen who were in charge of the large magic circle construction.

In addition, a large number of talented wizards in the Kingdom and Katarina Magic tower were participating.

‘I can trust them. Because the strength I have isn’t because of my own, it is because of the people who constantly stay around me.’

Thinking so, Luke devoted himself to curing the infected and retreating the soldiers at the wall.