Chapter 647

The endless waves of black-haired madmen relentlessly charging to break through the wreckage of the barrier.

Counting their numbers was meaningless. No matter how many you killed, there was no end. It was like a swarm of cockroaches surging forward. Both in terms of despair and disgust.

Frederick gritted his teeth and cut them down. His Heroic Tale, “Ainfeld’s Flash,” could no longer be used.

Having unleashed it multiple times to bind Or-han near the siege tower, the depletion of his Power of Feats was immense. Moreover, its nature of exploding thrown weapons made it unsuitable for chaotic combat situations.

It was the same during the fight a few minutes ago when he held back the Ka`har pouring out of the siege tower.

Using Ainfeld’s Flash against the warriors leaping from the siege tower would have been suicide. The moment the exploding throwing spears pierced their bodies, they would charge straight at Frederick, determined to take him down with them.

Explosions don’t discriminate between friend and foe. His Heroic Tale, Ainfeld’s Flash, boasted overwhelming destructive power at a distance, but in close combat, it was nothing more than a suicidal act.

Thus, Frederick had to cut them down one by one instead of obliterating them with a few throwing spears.

The inability to use Ainfeld’s Flash wasn’t limited to the siege tower battle; it was the same for the defensive fight atop the barrier’s wreckage.

It wasn’t impossible from the start. When the Ka`har were at a distance, he could hurl spears and stones, literally shredding their vanguard into pieces.

Countless Grassland People died in explosions as they charged down the rocky slope.

Though he hadn’t destroyed the siege tower or stopped the War Chief, Frederick was undeniably the knight who had slain the most Ka`har on this battlefield.

Except for Ha-shal-leur, who had caused the barrier’s collapse, burying thousands alive.

However, the Ka`har didn’t stop their charge even as they were torn apart by explosions. No, they only sped up, as if determined to take the Imperial Army down with them.

“Stopping is pointless! Charge! Break through their ranks!”

“Push them back!”

After that, there was no choice but to engage in chaotic combat. In a situation where enemies and allies were tangled together, setting off explosions would only sweep away the already struggling allies.

“They’re human too! Cut them down, stab them, and they’ll die!”

“Ugh, these bastards…!”

And in such chaos, even a knight who had reached the Realm of Heroes couldn’t exert overwhelming power. Even a hero’s body is still human. Blind strikes can wound, and hitting a vital spot can bring them down.

Even the Paladins mixed among the Ka`har forces could pierce and shatter even the armored parts.

They relentlessly targeted Frederick’s openings in the chaos, forcing him to maintain constant vigilance as he balanced command and combat in a desperate struggle.

It was an overwhelming task for him, already drained of much of his strength.

Even if he cut down five in one strike, ten more would surge forward the next moment. The heavy infantry’s formation cracked, and warriors slipping through the shield gaps sprayed blood.

“Hold the line! If this point is breached, it’s a straight shot to the Command Headquarters!”

Frederick fought desperately. The mountain of corpses atop the rocky slope grew another layer. But sheer willpower alone couldn’t stop the Ka`har, driven mad and throwing their lives at him.

‘…We’re being pushed back.’

At the forefront of the retreating defensive line, Frederick, drenched in blood, exhaled a sigh-like breath.

‘I misjudged. Alone, I can’t hold this place…!’

With each step up the slope, the despair in his chest grew stronger.

The black-haired barbarians surged like a tidal wave. The Imperial heavy infantry had already lost the high ground, tumbling down the slope as if pushed by an unstoppable force.

Frederick’s stand was the only thing preventing a breakthrough, but it was a precarious situation. In other words, the moment Frederick’s strength gave out, their doom would be sealed.

And that moment was drawing closer.

– Thud!

“Ugh!”

Frederick stifled a groan between his teeth. A sharp spear tip had pierced his calf. It was a throwing spear hurled like an ambush by a Paladin hiding among the corpses.

The excruciating pain in his exhausted body caused Frederick to freeze for a moment. A fatal opening. Seizing the opportunity, warriors rushed at him.

The next moment, a crimson mist surged like a tidal wave, engulfing them all.

“What, what is this?!”

“Cursed sorcery! It’s the Empire’s cursed sorcery!”

The dense blood fog, thick with an overwhelming killing intent, forced the Grassland warriors to halt in their tracks, even without realizing it.

Fear seeped into their hearts, crushed by the killing intent, and incomprehensible hallucinations burned into their minds like brands.

Something beyond their understanding, like a mountain-sized beast starved for millennia, seemed to be watching them.

“What, what the hell is this…! What kind of sorcery is this?!”

The warriors shouted in horror at the Imperials, but the Imperial soldiers were equally panicked by the crimson mist that had surged like a tidal wave and enveloped everything.

“Sir Frederick! What, what is this? It’s too much to be mere magic…!”

They, too, were clueless about the cause of this phenomenon. Those who had witnessed Hersela’s Heroic Tale, the World of Mortality, were rotting as corpses in the Grimnir Church Order’s cathedral basement.

“Fall back! Get away from the fog! It’s dangerous!”

Only Frederick, who had reached the Realm of Heroes, could sense the remnants of karma and souls within the crimson mist, barely realizing that this was someone’s Heroic Tale.

‘But such a sinister soul…! Is this really a human soul…?’

Frederick couldn’t bring himself to consider the one who unleashed this Heroic Tale as an ally. Even the monsters he had faced had never exuded such a malevolent aura.

From the sensation alone, he could tell. The master of this power viewed human lives as less than insects, found pleasure in slaughter, and was skilled at piling up mountains of corpses.

Frederick unconsciously looked down at his feet. Something more akin to a monster than a knight or warrior lay beneath.

‘What the hell is happening down there?’

Frederick also knew about the trap set beneath the barrier.

However, the battle plan he knew involved Ha-shal-leur and Or-han engaging in a war of attrition within a pit of flames, not unleashing a monster there.

Logically, this power should be attributed to Ha-shal-leur. The color of the mist resembled the Life Force Technique that had earned her the nickname “Red Empress.”

But Frederick couldn’t bring himself to believe it. The Ha-shal-leur he knew, though violent, was no such monster.

The Heroic Tale he knew of Ha-shal-leur was a technique that accelerated her movements to the extreme. Not something as horrifying as this.

No, “horrifying” was an understatement for the scene that unfolded before his eyes the next moment.

“Wh-what the…!?”

The red mist covering the wreckage contracted as quickly as it had risen, enveloping every human within its range. Not just the Ka`har who had been seizing the rocky slope, but even the Imperial heavy infantry who hadn’t managed to escape.

Frederick, drenched in cold sweat, clenched his teeth. Among the thousand men engulfed by the mist, only he could guess what was about to happen.

“No…!”

Frederick’s lament was futile. By the time he opened his mouth, an unstoppable, inescapable death had already seized and devoured them all.

A red lake overflowed atop the wreckage.

—-

Silence and stillness descended.

Even in the increasingly intense battlefield, the wreckage of the barrier, where the fiercest fighting had taken place, had transformed into the most peaceful spot.

Floating chunks of flesh on the water’s surface couldn’t wield swords or spears against each other.

Frederick stood dumbfounded, staring at the carnage before him. A river of blood and flesh created by the simultaneous explosion of over a thousand humans.

He was the only human left standing.

Before his eyes flowed a river of blood, and the soldiers who had fought by his side were now mangled pieces of meat within crumpled armor.

Though only about a hundred Imperial soldiers had been caught in the mist as they were pushed down the rocky slope.

Frederick felt a dizzying vertigo.

Whether it was the thick stench of blood and entrails or the complete depletion of his Power of Feats, he couldn’t tell.

The only thing his disoriented mind could grasp was one fact: his fight was over. Neither the Imperial Army nor the Ka`har dared to climb the blood-soaked slope.

“What the hell kind of sorcery is that…!”

Indeed, even the Ka`har warriors, who had fearlessly charged at exploding throwing spears, couldn’t bring themselves to climb the slope, instead staring in terror at the summit of the rocky mound.

Even those with the courage to leap into flames wouldn’t stick their heads into the jaws of a starving wolf. They, too, had enough sense to distinguish bravery from suicide.

If that mysterious sorcery wasn’t a one-time technique, charging up the slope would be akin to running straight off a cliff.

Thus, the wreckage of the barrier entered an unplanned ceasefire that no one had desired.

Until a massive pillar of fire erupted a few minutes later.