Chapter 687

As soon as the barrage of throwing spears ceased, Or-han charged toward the city wall once more.

Leaping over the deep and wide moat in a single bound, he kicked off the ground and soared up the wall, scaling it as lightly as a bird.

Joshua and Frederick tried to stop him, but the Giant Hunting Sword lacked sufficient power, and the recoil from Ainfeldt’s relentless barrage of flashes made it impossible to unleash another attack.

Just as Frederick gritted his teeth and summoned the Power of Feats to grasp his spear, Or-han had already reached the top of the wall.

“He’s finally up…!”

“Or-han!”

Joshua and Frederick swung their sword and spear at Or-han. Instead of relying on their inefficient Heroic Tales in close combat, they poured all their heroic feats into physical enhancement.

The strongest swordsman of Landenburg and the Empire’s greatest spearman. The combined strike of the two heroes flew toward the ruler of the east like a thunderbolt.

“Weak and clumsy. Is this truly your best?”

Or-han tilted his Crimson Blade like a shield, deflecting Frederick’s spear, and with a swing, he knocked away Joshua’s sword, shouting.

The slash, infused with the Blessing of Divine Blood and immense life force energy, carried a ferocity that even knights who had reached the Realm of Heroes couldn’t hope to block.

“Ugh…!”

Joshua groaned through clenched teeth, stopping his body from being pushed back. His wrists throbbed, and his forearms went numb.

‘To think a single-handed slash could have this much power. He truly is a monster…!’

The force reminded him of Ha-shal-leur’s slashes during training. Blocking, let alone countering, was beyond his ability.

“Not yet!”

Frederick seized the opening and unleashed a torrent of spear strikes. He thrust as if throwing the spear, quickly retracting and thrusting again in rapid succession. The speed was so fast it seemed as if ten spears were attacking simultaneously.

“Huup!”

Or-han stomped the ground with his leg, channeling his feats. The wall beneath him erupted with a deafening roar, flipping over. The shockwave sent boulders flying, obliterating the shadows of Frederick’s spears.

– Whoosh!

A crimson arc followed, slicing through the boulders like tofu. The Crimson Blade aimed straight for Frederick’s neck.

Frederick, staggered by the boulder strike, hastily raised his spear to block Or-han’s attack. With a loud crash, he was sent flying and slammed into the ground.

“Kuh…!”

The impact felt as if his organs had been turned inside out. Frederick spat blood and barely managed to rise.

‘Even as fellow heroes, how can there be such a gap…!’

Frederick clenched his teeth.

He had expected that he wouldn’t be able to match Or-han, that at best he could barely hold on. But facing him head-on, the difference was overwhelming.

Holding on was nearly impossible.

‘The Indestructible Body isn’t the issue. His strength, movement, reaction speed—everything surpasses me by leaps and bounds.’

Before even considering the depth of feats or the compatibility of Heroic Tales, the fundamental performance of his body was on a completely different level.

The Blessing of Divine Blood, inherited by those of the ‘Swallowing Wolf’ lineage.

Before this transcendent blessing that elevated humans beyond humanity, the two heroes, mere humans, could only feel the fundamental limitations of their species.

—-

Of course, even if holding on was difficult, running away wasn’t an option.

Joshua and Frederick fought Or-han with all their might, and Heinrich, who had been waiting as a reserve force, joined in, swinging his halberd with earth-shaking force.

The longsword, spear, Slaughter Sword, and halberd raged like a furious storm, carving into the wall.

A three-on-one battle.

At this point, even Or-han had to occasionally activate his Indestructible Body to fight. With only one arm, he couldn’t perfectly block the attacks coming from all directions.

“Khaaaah!”

The three heroes managed to land occasional hits by having two block the Crimson Blade while the third targeted Or-han’s left flank.

…Yes, they could land hits.

But all they did was tear his armor and dent it, without drawing a single drop of blood.

“Damn that Indestructible Body!”

“How the hell did Sir Median manage to cut through this…!”

Or-han’s body, protected by the Indestructible Body, boasted a sturdiness that not even their full-powered strikes could scratch.

Or-han swung his Crimson Blade relentlessly, ignoring the blades embedded in his body. The Empire’s heroes, having gained nothing from their attacks, barely managed to block his counterattacks, taking wounds one after another.

They fell from the wall like rain, staining the ground below with their blood.

‘This is pointless.’

Or-han was certain. The three knights before him, fighting with all their might, could never stop him, even if they died and came back to life.

If he called War Chief Hatan to handle one of them, all three would be dead in less than ten minutes.

That’s why he was puzzled.

He couldn’t fathom what trap Ludwig and Ha-shal-leur had prepared, but he doubted they would sacrifice three heroes of this caliber so carelessly.

“Where are you hiding, Ha-shal-leur!”

Or-han stomped the ground, shattering it, and swung his Crimson Blade, sending all three flying. He roared like a frenzied beast.

“Do you plan to keep hiding? Until I crush every hero’s skull and tear out every master’s intestines to lay before you!”

The deep, resonant roar echoed, causing the Empire’s soldiers to tremble involuntarily.

Or-han’s overwhelming strength, single-handedly dominating three heroes, had crushed their morale to the ground, even though the real battle hadn’t even begun.

—-

‘As expected, three of them aren’t enough.’

Ludwig, watching the battle from a window in the inner fortress, let out a low sigh as he glared at Or-han.

The Emperor of Ka`har. The strongest of the grasslands, whom he had been watching for over a decade, had become a calamity, just as he had feared.

‘I should have killed him sooner.’

Eleven years ago, nine years ago, or at least two years ago. He should have killed him by any means necessary.

Back then, the Empire’s strength alone might have been enough to bring him down. When even the Empire’s Greatest Sword, Werner Valenstein, had been stuck at the limits of a master, unable to break through that solid wall.

The ‘Sword of Landenburg’ had been trained solely for that purpose. If Or-han hadn’t broken through the wall, a combined attack by ten masters might have been enough to bring him down.

But now, it was too late.

The Battle of Zeren Plains, where Werner Valenstein met his end. There, the new Empire’s Greatest Sword had flung open the gate to the next realm, a gate Valenstein had pounded on for decades without success.

That was the beginning.

Slowly but surely, those who had reached the pinnacle of mastery began to cross that wall.

From mere humans wielding steel, they stepped into the realm of superhumans, capable of creating miracles with their feats.

The Realm of Heroes.

While it was a blessing dreamed of by master swordsmen, for Ludwig, it was a horrifying disaster.

Unlike the past, where numbers could suppress the strong, those who entered the Realm of Heroes could easily slaughter those who hadn’t crossed the wall.

Knights who had obtained the miracle of Heroic Tales were essentially one-man armies, and only other heroes could stand against them.

Before them, traditional strategies and tactics lost their meaning, and war twisted into a bizarre form.

To fight monsters that defied common sense, one had to prepare equally monstrous beings or devise strategies that far surpassed common sense.

Destroying the Berengeiria Wall and burying the enemy in a pit of molten lava, or sacrificing hundreds of thousands of humans to gain immense power.

Acts that would have been considered madness in the world before the rise of heroes had become viable strategies to stop the enemy.

In other words, traditional strategies could no longer stop heroes.

For example, ten masters teaming up to defeat the strongest master—strategies like that.

‘The Sword of Landenburg cannot defeat Or-han. No, they couldn’t even defeat his War Chiefs.’

The fight against War Chief Glar was proof.

Though it was only seven of them, not all ten, the seven Swords of Landenburg, including Heinrich, had been overwhelmed by Glar, losing two in the process.

Facing the corpses of Karim and William, Ludwig realized.

If Glar, who had crossed the wall, had become this strong, then Or-han had become an untouchable being.

As expected, even with all the Empire’s heroes mobilized, injuring Or-han was impossible.

‘It seems… even exhausting his stamina to the point where maintaining the Indestructible Body becomes difficult is out of the question.’

The only one who could stop Or-han, who had transcended even ordinary heroes, was another transcendent being.

The Sword of the Starry Sky, Ha-shal-leur. Only she could face Or-han.

The problem was, she hadn’t returned yet.

‘I need to buy time somehow… but can I?’

Ludwig, trembling with tension and anxiety, called over a magician standing nearby and requested a spell.

A spell to carry his voice to Or-han, who was rampaging near the outer wall, using the wind to spread the sound.

As the magician nodded and began gathering mana to transform it into wind, Ludwig spoke.

“Looking for Ha-shal-leur? I regret to inform you, but she is not here.”

The words, forced to sound calm, reached Or-han’s ears from an unknown direction.