Chapter 222

“That sounds way more chaotic than I expected.”

Meanwhile, at that moment.

As the battle in Shulfern was coming to an end thanks to Laurea and the Knight Order’s intervention.

Chug, chug! The train carrying Ulan and his crew struggled to slow down. They had spotted a horde of Undead on the tracks from the engine room.

But there was no need to worry.

[Notification]

*Short Skill No. 25, Activate

*Advanced Sorcery: 【Spirit Barrier】

– Summons a barrier to isolate a specific area using the spirit bound to the talisman.

Thanks to Noa’s preemptive strike that spread talismans in all directions, the Undead on the tracks were all flung outside in unison.

She even sent any potential enemies that might come up onto the tracks tumbling down into the canyon below, allowing the train to come to a safe stop.

“Next up, it’s my turn.”

A girl clad in purple Magic Armor.

Delia Arpen pulled up her magic power. Maybe because it was getting closer to evening, the power of the stars reacted even stronger than usual.

A little while later.

Delia unleashed the highest-tier Stellar Magic at the enemies that Noa had neatly gathered with her barrier.

『Extreme New Star』

Strategic magic of rank 7.

It concentrated the star’s power intensely, exploding it in a wild attack that obliterated the battlefield.

Unlike the Meteor Shower, which caused widespread damage over a large area, this magic inflicted far greater damage within a certain range.

Meanwhile, the explosion of light from Extreme New Star soon dwindled and created strong gusts of wind.

The sheer power that could tear rock apart meant there were no Monster survivors in sight.

Well, except for the army of the Immortals.

“Tricky opponent, indeed.”

Delia frowned.

She tilted her head in confusion as well.

No matter how resistant to magic they were, it raised doubts that a single Undead Soldier had endured a 7-star Stellar Magic spell.

“Well, that makes sense.”

If they were Undead arising from the South Desert, even a 5-star Stellar Magic would have reduced them to dust.

But this time was different.

That was the army created by the Lord of the Immortals using the Power of the Abyss. They were powerful monsters far beyond the ordinary Undead.

“But there’s really nothing to worry about.”

No matter how different a monster they were, they couldn’t withstand Divine Power and Spirit Art.

And just then, someone wrapped in spirits exited the train. A hulking figure clad in bulky Magic Armor, wielding a massive axe in each hand.

The Barbarian Warrior, Ulan.

“I’ll go ahead.”

After leaving a short message.

Ulan jumped down into the canyon immediately.

As he broke through the pitch-black darkness down to the ground, a battlefield full of Undead came into view.

[Graaah! Kraaah!]

[Krrrrr!]

The twisted voices of the corpses howled.

Ulan surveyed the battlefield with indifferent eyes. He was trying to gauge the size of the enemy.

‘Looks like there are more than a hundred.’

There was no need to count any more than that.

After all, he was planning to shred them all to bits anyway. Convinced, he readjusted his grip on the axe and swung it fiercely.

Before the rampaging Ulan, the Undead were nothing but dry leaves. They couldn’t even resist and crumbled to dust.

No need to use a domain

“Faster, faster!”

Then, one more thing.

Ulan employed a battle tactic he had often used when facing Undead in his past life.

He crossed the axes and spun into the enemy ranks, turning rapidly to chop through all his foes.

『Huh? What’s going on? Why is he spinning around?』

『Is he suddenly trying to dance?』

『Hahaha! It’s making me dizzy but it’s fun!』

Hearing the laughter of spirits, Ulan spun wildly with his axes extended.

And as a result.

Whack! Thud! Splat!

The Undead were literally ground to pieces.

With no chance to even approach Ulan, the Undead crumbled into dust at a rapid pace. Meanwhile, someone showed up a bit late.

“Ulan! I’m here to help….”

Ivella, wearing lightweight Magic Armor, came sprinting with a specially crafted three-blade sword in hand to aid Ulan.

However, she quickly halted in her tracks.

She was shocked to see that the canyon, which she thought would be swarming with Undead, was completely empty.

“Huh? Is, is it over?”

“Yeah. Just took them all out.”

Ulan responded while shaking the rotten flesh and bone dust off his axes. Then he patted Ivella on the shoulder, who was standing dazedly.

“Let’s head back.”

“Uh-huh. Got it.”

She awkwardly smiled and turned her body.

But returning to the train was unnecessary. The train had already crossed into the opposing canyon while Ulan was fighting.

After rejoining their group, Ulan explained what he had seen and experienced in the canyon below. He then added his opinion.

“It was different from what we saw in the crystal.”

The size of the Undead horde was smaller than expected.

Sure, they hadn’t counted beyond a hundred, but compared to the thousands of forces they had seen in the crystal, it was significantly fewer.

Delia nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, the numbers are way too few.”

She had used the Eye of the Stars to see the enemy’s size just before they arrived at the canyon. And even then, she had mentioned the numbers were small.

Why had the enemy’s numbers decreased?

While pondering that, Fertisha, who had been conversing with the spirits, widened her eyes.

“Oh! They say there are traces over there!”

Beyond the canyon, in a small forest on the path to the Northern Border, numerous footprints were haphazardly etched on the ground.

All the footprints split into two distinct directions, and seeing this, Noa quickly grasped where it was.

“It’s towards the Arpen Duchy and the Serne Kingdom.”

Footprints divided towards the east and west.

According to the map, following this path would eventually lead to the borders of the two kingdoms.

Meanwhile, Noa’s guess visibly stiffened the expressions of Melt and the rest.

“You don’t mean it’s not just Endrak…?”

“Are they planning to attack other places too?”

It made sense to think like that.

As everyone wore serious expressions, Ulan looked at Delia. After all, the Arpen Duchy was her homeland.

Did Delia catch Ulan’s gaze?

She shook her head and replied.

“Don’t worry about the Duchy.”

“Are you really sure it’s fine?”

“Yep. The Rangers of Arpen are strong.”

Her eyes shone with strong conviction.

Which meant she had considerable trust in the Rangers.

And one more thing. There was a reason she could display such confidence. The Rangers of Arpen were experienced in fighting the Undead.

“They often get Undead coming from the desert.”

The Arpen Duchy bordered part of the southern desert like the Rubens Empire.

So they possessed silver-tipped arrows, swords, and even holy water. That meant they were well-prepared for fighting the Undead.

“So the only remaining issue is the Serne Kingdom.”

“If we keep moving in this direction, we should reach the border city of Shulfern.”

Shulfern. At that mention, Ulan and Noa’s eyes sparkled. It was where Sven Isaac, the Monster Hunter among the heroes, was located.

“We need to move fast.”

“Huh? You mean, you’re heading to Serne?”

“Indeed.”

More accurately, it was to Shulfern.

Ulan nodded. In contrast, Melt and the engineers showed a skeptical reaction.

“Is there really a need to go?”

“Exactly. After all, we’ve already blocked all enemies heading towards Flume, haven’t we?”

“There’s no need to risk ourselves…”

“No, we have to go.”

At that moment, Noa raised her voice with determination.

Of course, this decision was to rescue Sven, but even if that wasn’t the case, there was a clear need to follow behind the Monsters and the Undead.

“If Shulfern falls, the next closest place will be the enemy’s next target.”

The place geographically closest to Shulfern would be the border city of Plume in the Endrak Kingdom. The engineers understood this but still showed skeptical reactions.

“Hmmm, is that really the case?”

“If we go a bit further south, we would get to Murka. There’s no guarantee they would change direction to head this way…”

“They aren’t human.”

This time, Ulan stepped in.

He recalled memories from his past life to explain.

“Undead attack without distinguishing kingdoms. They attack the living beings closest to them, based purely on instinct.”

“Right, just as Ulan said.”

“And if Shulfern does fall, the number of enemies will greatly increase.”

Delia and Ivella also chimed in with their opinions.

After an extended discussion, it was ultimately Melt and the engineers who raised the white flag.

“Yes, I understand what you mean.”

“I get the need to eliminate the remaining forces.”

“However, to move to Shulfern, we have to solve a fundamental problem.”

“What problem is that?”

“There are no tracks.”

Shulfern was a city of the Serne Kingdom.

There was no chance tracks had been laid in territory not belonging to Endrak Kingdom. As he was about to explain that it was practically impossible, Delia raised her hand.

“Then we can just make some right now!”

“What did you just say? Right now?”

“I’m talking about a magic track.”

“Huh? A magic track?”

“Professor, you said so yourself. If we arbitrarily lay down a magic track, we can get a train moving even in places without tracks.”

When they toured the Plume Workshop.

She had definitely said that. Theoretically, it was entirely possible.

However, there was still a problem.

“Of course, while it is possible to lay down arbitrary magic tracks…

“The mana consumption is enormous.”

“There’s no way we could sustain it.”

This journey to Shulfern would take a considerable amount of time. In other words, they would have to keep creating magic tracks the entire time they traveled, which meant they needed an absurd amount of mana.

“Don’t worry about my mana.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I can replenish it.”

After she finished her statement, she placed her hand on the train’s power source, and an incredible thing happened.

The near-empty mana was refilled in the blink of an eye. The engineers, realizing what type of mana it was, were shocked.

“Is that… starlight mana?!”

“Yep. I use the mana from the stars.”

As long as stars exist in the night sky.

As long as she can absorb starlight, Delia’s mana would never run out. That’s why she was called the ‘Witch of the Stars’.

With the mana problem resolved in an instant, Melt still had a frown on his face.

“But there’s still a problem.”

“Do go on.”

“We need flat land to lay down the tracks. However, this area has a rough terrain. Hence, the risk of derailment for the train…”

Melt pointed out the rough terrain issue.

As he began explaining why the messy terrain would be a problem, his words suddenly stopped.

Grumble! Rumble!

The bumpy ground shifted on its own and instantly transformed into flat land. Even the pits were filled in.

As they stared at this spectacle in shock.

“This problem has been resolved too.”

Fertisha smiled brightly.

It seemed she had asked the earth spirits to flatten the ground.

Ulan grinned without saying a word, while Melt, who was unaware of the circumstances, looked at her in disbelief.

“H-How did you do that?!”

“Um, it’s a secret.”

Fertisha replied in a mumble.

With the terrain issue resolved easily, only one problem remained: creating the magic track.

“Construction of a magic track is complex.”

“While the necessary amount of mana is sufficient, we don’t have the strength to create the tracks while matching the speed of the train.”

In other words, this meant Delia and Noa would also have to create the tracks.

And it would take at least two days just to explain to them why that was necessary. Thus, the engineers frowned.

But the two girls remained calm.

“Ah, if that’s the case, it’s fine.”

“We already fully understand how to make it.”

“…Huh?”

The engineers blinked in confusion.

Amidst the skeptical gazes, Delia and Noa produced their magic tracks in a flash.

Not only was it fast, but it also looked sturdier and more durable than what the engineers had created.

“…?!”

“W-What is this…?!”

“What in the world did you just do?!”

The answer was simple. Delia and Noa were both ‘Those Loved by Mana’.

They could see the flow of mana.

Thus, it was natural for them to understand and implement the structure and operation of the magic tracks.

“If the problems have been solved, let’s depart.”

Leaving the aghast engineers behind, Ulan and his crew boarded the train.

The destination of the army of the Immortals.

To reach the border city of Shulfern in the Serne Kingdom, where Sven was located.

Chapter 51: Unexpected Reinforcements

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