Chapter 705

Ibamai and Targien, along with the high-ranking forces of Ai-shan, managed to drive three spear-blades into Valkyrie’s torso after a fierce battle.

“Arrrrrr…….”

Unable to maintain her divine form any longer, Valkyrie’s body, made of divine light, crumbled and dissipated like smoke.

“Alright, retreat!”

Confirming Valkyrie’s demise, Targien handed the exhausted Ibamai to another paladin and led the remnants of the enemy army and the Black Armies toward the southeastern plains.

It was a natural, flowing counterattack.

The Imperial Army cheered from atop the city walls, praising me, Ludwig, and Leopold, basking in the joy of victory.

“Haah… haah… Did we… did we win…?”

“Praise Bølberg…!”

Meanwhile, the People of Dane, too exhausted to even cheer, collapsed in the sea of blood, gasping for breath.

According to the knights’ reports, they had originally numbered eight thousand strong… but now, it seemed only a handful remained. The losses were truly devastating.

“Take them into the city… and treat them if possible.”

I pointed to the scattered People of Dane outside and gave the order.

“The People of Dane, you mean?”

“Yes. They may not know it yet… but Dane is no longer an independent kingdom. It’s now a vassal state of the Empire, so we should treat them appropriately.”

The core condition Ludwig presented to Knut for support was to purge Cardinal Wolfgang and the upper echelons of the Bølberg Church, making Dane a vassal state that would obey Leopold’s commands.

Since the Imperial Army was sacrificing itself to protect the People of Dane, this was the price that had to be paid to convince others.

After much deliberation, Knut agreed.

Though it rendered the efforts of Dane’s ancestors for independence futile, he likely thought it was better than letting hundreds of thousands of Dane’s people die meaningless deaths.

“Take the wounded into the inner fortress, and assign those who can move to work. As for the rest… let’s deal with it after we’ve rested a bit.”

“Yes. I’ll relay the orders.”

After nodding, Shane began disseminating the orders to the other officers. I glanced at him briefly before stumbling slightly as I descended the city wall and headed toward the command center.

For the aftermath of the war.

Though the war with Ka`har had come to an end, my workload had only increased. With Ludwig and Frederick dead, I was the only one left to take on the role of the Imperial Army’s supreme commander.

======[ Himell Front ]======

– Kuruururung…!

With a deafening roar that shook the heavens and earth, a massive metal ship, as grand as a palace, plummeted in flames.

The ship’s outer armor was torn apart by explosions, and thick smoke blanketed the sky like clouds.

Himell’s airship, ‘Alvis,’ was being sunk. By the concentrated attacks of high-level spirits summoned by the Fairy Guardians.

Even as it fell, the heavily damaged Alvis bombarded the fairies with cannon fire, but the giant rock and tree spirits absorbed the shells, shattering themselves to protect the fairies from significant harm.

“The dwarves’ sky ship is falling! Victory is ours!”

“Behold the might of Alvheim, you barbaric half-breeds!”

The fairies cheered. The sinking of the airship that had plagued them for so long was a clear sign that the stagnant southern front had entered a new phase.

“Everyone’s so excited. Over just one ship.”

One of the Fairy Guardians, Ereneisia, muttered indifferently while chewing on a leaf.

A leaf from the World Tree. A temporary enhancement elixir bestowed upon the fairies.

“You don’t seem too pleased, Ereneisia.”

Another guardian, Tersillius, lowered the ‘Bow of the Divine Tree’ he had been aiming at the dwarves’ ship and asked.

“How can I be happy? Three guardians died just to bring that thing down. In the past, we could have easily crushed an airship like that.”

For Ereneisia, a veteran guardian who remembered the days eight hundred years ago, the scene before her was less a victory and more a defeat.

During the height of the racial wars, the dwarves’ airships were mere mass-produced weapons that could be sunk with minimal losses by deploying just two guardians.

Not the formidable entities that now required six guardians, half of whom would perish in the process.

“That’s… unavoidable. Ever since the humans blocked the heavenly path, the World Tree’s blessings aren’t what they used to be. At least it’s better now. Back then, it was hard to even breathe.”

Tersillius, who also remembered those times, sighed lightly and shook his head.

—

Eight hundred years ago.

The representative of Elpinel, who unified humanity, sealed off the heavenly path, separating the mortal world from the heavens.

How such a thing was possible, even Tersillius couldn’t fathom.

The World Tree, the god of the fairies, maintained its existence by rooting itself in the mortal world while its essence remained in the heavens… but even so, its influence had weakened to the point where it could barely manifest its will.

As the gods’ influence waned, the lifeforms of the mortal world, who had grown strong through their blessings, also began to decline.

Newborns could barely surpass the strength of former patrols, and the existing strong ones writhed in agony as if the world itself rejected them.

The world created by humanity forced them to choose.

Lose their power and weaken, or flee the world and live in eternal seclusion.

The dragons retreated deep underground, falling into an endless slumber. The Fairy Guardians either gave up their blessings or embraced the World Tree’s roots, sleeping like the dragons.

The beastmen kings, who once regenerated even from ashes, lost their immortality and were hunted down one by one. The orcs, deprived of their war god’s blessings, perished.

The merfolk, stripped of the sea god’s blessings and wisdom, became foolish and ugly, hiding in the depths. The giants turned to stone, becoming part of the landscape.

For all races except humanity, it was nothing short of a catastrophe… no, an unprecedented calamity.

“But at least we don’t have to worry for now. If we’re like this, the dwarves can’t be faring much better.”

Tersillius patted Ereneisia’s shoulder, trying to reassure her.

“Their so-called mechanical god, ‘Regin,’ can’t even be awakened. So, their mechanical dragon Fafnir and other weapons can’t be mass-produced, let alone properly maintained.”

Like the guardians, the dwarves too had yet to regain their former strength.

“Fafnir… Speaking of which, humans these days seem to treat it as a god. What was it… the Four Evil Gods?”

“Four Evil Gods?”

Tersillius tilted his head at the unfamiliar term.

“Yeah. Pailandria mentioned it. Vanargand, Lilith, Fafnir, and… Invidius, was it? They even made up creation myths about them. Teaching them without even knowing what they are.”

They say seven beasts devoured each other and ascended as evil gods.

Pailandria scoffed at the humans’ imagination while telling the story, and even Ereneisia couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity.

“That’s ridiculous. Vanargand and Lilith might be called evil gods, but Fafnir too? And what’s this Invidius?”

“Who knows? It’s said to be a divine being, but even Pailandria doesn’t know who it refers to, since the name was made up by humans.”

“Interesting. Not only do they fabricate the origins of gods, but they even name them as they please. Humans always do the strangest things.”

“They make things up because they don’t know. Short-lived races often do that, don’t they?”

Ereneisia, having chewed and swallowed the World Tree’s leaf, stood up and twitched her ear slightly, mimicking a human shrug.

Though she had expended much energy sinking the airship, it was time to get back to work. Taking down one ship wasn’t the end.

Ereneisia’s eyes, like burning meteors, shifted from the falling airship to the dwarves’ armored units descending onto the battlefield.

The unmanned assault units, Colossus, and infantry automatons. Though many were damaged by the explosions, they were still formidable opponents for ordinary fairies.