The Royal City of Eclaraheim (3)
Splash. Splash.
The thin layer of ice covering the muddy ground shattered beneath his feet. Rats, out scavenging for food, scattered in all directions, startled by the sudden noise.
The sewers beneath the city reeked of a musty odor. Dalen walked through them, half-lost in thought.
”…”
Three days.
Three days had passed since Charina mentioned a week’s grace period.
The reinforcements, which had arrived from the eastern front, had been relentlessly busy for the past three days.
‘First, there’s Lucia Castachald… the battalion commander.’
The combination of words made him chuckle involuntarily. Of course, a battalion of the Holy Knights was no laughing matter.
The reinforcements Charina secured from the Holy Knights were substantial.
Three battalions composed of knights and crusaders. Around three thousand troops had gathered in the royal city.
Lucia was in charge of one of those battalions, working to synchronize their efforts over the past few days.
Known as the sharpest white blade of the war god and a demon slayer, the inquisitor had both the skills and the standing within the order.
‘Bjorn is upgrading the Ironblood Army’s gunpowder weapons. It was wise to establish trade with the Tsar Kingdom in advance.’
Dalen had previously facilitated trade with the Tsar Kingdom through a special unit, as a reward for guiding them through a labyrinth.
The Tsar Kingdom supplied Bjorn with legal gunpowder materials and technology, and in return, Bjorn, the one-eyed master craftsman, participated in research agreements with the royal family.
The Ironblood Army’s efforts in preparation for war were nothing short of extraordinary.
Bjorn was receiving unprecedented support, allowing him to upgrade the entire army’s gunpowder weapons on a grand scale.
‘It’s not surprising when you think about it. Felber was given command authority outright.’
Elgaia’s tower master and archmage, and Dalen’s subordinate, Felber Valentino.
He was granted full command over the mercenary mages, a key component of the magical forces.
‘I never thought they’d entrust command to an outsider… but then again, there hasn’t been a time when so many mercenaries gathered during the Sume invasion.’
Charina’s large-scale request for support had brought in no less than four hundred mercenary mages from various towers across the continent.
Normally, they would have been integrated into the royal mage corps, but the sheer number made that impractical.
Moreover, while the Tsar Kingdom’s mages were elite, their focus on ice and wind magic due to environmental conditions made them less suited for managing the diverse mercenary mages.
‘On the other hand, the old man is a perfect fit, being from the labyrinth city and an archmage, not to mention a tower master.’
Falcion, a massive city where branches of various towers gathered, forming alliances and engaging in power struggles.
Felber had managed to secure the position of tower master there, despite being absent for nearly a year.
This was not only due to his abilities as an archmage but also his adeptness at managing people, a skill necessary to achieve such a feat.
For these reasons, Felber was appointed as the head of the mercenary mage corps.
In recent days, he had been busy communicating with the royal mages and categorizing the mercenary mages by affiliation and ability to deploy them effectively on the battlefield.
‘Barshabak is supposed to arrive in a day or two… we need to sort things out before then.’
The support from the Tsar Kingdom didn’t end there.
Barshabak, one of the six great towers on the continent and a sanctuary for storm mages.
Charina had promised something in return for their support, and even the reclusive spellcasters were bringing their floating fortress down from the clouds.
‘Altogether, we’re looking at an army of about a hundred thousand. This isn’t some Three Kingdoms scenario.’
As a result, an unprecedented gathering of forces was taking place in the royal city of Eclaraheim.
Including the reinforcements Dalen brought from the eastern front, nearly forty thousand elite Ironblood troops formed the core of the defense.
With mercenaries and conscripted militias from across the continent, the numbers swelled to twice that. The three thousand Holy Knights were an added bonus.
Supporting this near-hundred-thousand-strong army were the royal mages scattered across the Tsar Kingdom and the four hundred mercenary mages led by Felber.
Once the war began, the sky fortress Barshabak would unleash devastating thunderstorm bombardments from above, while the one-eyed master craftsman’s modified gunpowder weapons would blaze from the ground.
‘Never in hundreds of cycles has the northern front seen such a concentration of forces. Perhaps… it’s because the end is approaching too rapidly.’
The current onslaught of the apocalypse was faster than any previous cycle.
However, the invasion was so premature that the continent had not yet plunged into prolonged chaos.
Typically, the demon armies would arrive when the empires and kingdoms were embroiled in wars, with logistics and transportation paralyzed.
At that point, towers and guilds would be too preoccupied with their immediate crises to even consider sending reinforcements.
But the continent was still intact.
Localized unrest and tensions were present, but that was all.
The fuse of a time bomb was burning, but the explosion had not yet occurred.
Thus, the situation was not merely hopeful.
While it couldn’t be declared advantageous, it certainly wasn’t disadvantageous either.
‘Even excluding a few hidden variables like myself… with this level of force, the odds of victory are over thirty percent.’
That’s a sufficient probability.
Having turned the tide from less than ten percent odds numerous times before.
A thirty percent chance was more than enough to prevail.
Moreover, the variables in their favor, though difficult to quantify, were powerful wild cards capable of overturning unfavorable situations multiple times.
“Stop.”
Splash.
The chain of thoughts was abruptly interrupted.
A thick hand blocked his path.
Dalen looked up. The owner of the hand was a giant, nearly two meters tall.
Judging by the attire, he seemed to be part of the Ironblood Army’s security forces. Dalen raised an eyebrow.
”…What is it?”
“We’re conducting a random inspection for suspicious individuals. State your name and affiliation.”
Dalen didn’t respond. Silence lingered for a moment.
“I’ll ask again. Name, affiliation. It’s not a difficult question.”
The man asked again.
Northerners were generally tall. And this man seemed slightly taller than Dalen.
Dressed in chainmail emblazoned with the Ironblood Army’s insignia, with a rank insignia of a security officer on his shoulder.
Dalen scratched his chin, staring through the gap in the man’s helmet. He spoke.
“Dalen.”
“Ah, Dalen. Good to hear the truth. If you’d lied, you’d have found a knife in your gut.”
“You bastard, you knew and still asked?”
”…What?”
The eyes behind the helmet wavered. Dalen casually placed a hand on his belt.
Splash.
The man instinctively took a couple of steps back. He struggled to regain his composure and continued.
”…You’ve been poking around the back alleys of the Tsar Kingdom for the past three days. While your comrades are busy preparing to fend off the demon army, you’re off on your own little side quest.”
“So?”
“The Ironblood Army suspects your actions… of espionage in Eclaraheim.”
Espionage, my foot. Dalen chuckled.
It was true he’d been scouring the back alleys of the royal city for the past three days.
While not as labyrinthine as Falcion, Eclaraheim was still one of the continent’s largest cities.
He’d been searching for four corpses in total. Three had been found: ‘the fake dealer stabbed in a casino,’ ‘the pilgrim seeking the witch’s whereabouts,’ and ‘the holy knight who witnessed the city’s fall.’ Only one remained.
Naturally, he had already secured permission from the royal family, albeit under a slightly different pretext.
With mercenaries and all sorts of people converging, the back alleys were a cauldron of chaos.
As a collaborator with the Tsar Kingdom, he had the freedom to roam for ‘personal training’ and even rough up some thugs, which the royal family had no reason to refuse.
“Given the wartime situation, a severe punishment is warranted, but considering your contributions as a platinum-ranked mercenary to the Tsar Kingdom, if you cooperate with the arrest…”
“Hey.”
”…”
“Cut the pointless act. It’s not entertaining at all.”
Splash.
The man took two more steps back. He asked.
“How did you… ugh!”
The axe was faster than any answer.
With a thud, the axe handle sprouted from the man’s head.
The split steel helmet splashed into the sewer muck.
“Your preliminary research was thorough. I’ll give you that. Knowing that magical or shamanistic disguises are easily detected, you brought in someone with innate physical transformation abilities.”
The man’s face was slightly deformed.
His features were sharp enough to be considered striking, but the long strands of beard trailing down his cheeks were another matter entirely.
Of course, with a helmet that covered his entire face, a few stray hairs didn’t really make a difference.
Unless someone had extraordinary vision, even the most perceptive wouldn’t easily see through his disguise.
“But there’s one thing you overlooked. Do you know what it is?”
[…What is it?]
A voice echoed from somewhere in the sewers, slightly squeaky. Dalen grinned.
“If you were planning to lure me with a disguise, you should’ve brought someone less competent. Do you really think someone with instincts sharp enough to react just by me touching my belt would be stuck as a mere guard captain?”
[…]
The voice didn’t respond. It didn’t matter.
With Ackerman’s drafting technique in his hands, that single exchange was enough to track his opponent.
He took a deep breath.
In that brief moment, the entire layout of the sewers unfolded in his mind.
Not just the paths he had walked, but even the hidden spaces between walls began to reveal themselves.
Ssshhh…
His vision, extending beyond the realm of the mind, met Ackerman’s drafting technique, and a miracle began to take shape.
The power left by the gray-white warrior, the ability to color the world with his own hues, completed the miracle.
“Dream Pursuit: Gray-White Panorama”
The scene unfolded like a frame from a black-and-white film.
The map of the surrounding area, depicted in shades of shadow, resembled a game’s minimap.
The difference was that this wasn’t just seen with the eyes; it was a landscape perceived with all senses, even a sixth sense.
And that was more of an advantage than a drawback.
“To think the shadow Charina mentioned would mean the Dark Moon Guild. I hadn’t planned to provoke them, but since they’ve made the first move, they must be ready for the consequences.”
His low murmur echoed through the empty sewer passage, and he turned, raising his hand toward the wall.
According to the mental map, the voice’s owner, an assassin from the Dark Moon Guild, was hiding behind several walls.
No matter how fast Dalen was, the assassin was a high-ranking member of the continent’s most elite guild.
If he pursued through the passage, the assassin would surely escape through some hidden route.
He had no intention of giving them that chance.
In the upcoming battle, it was rational to eliminate any potential obstacles.
The Dark Moon Guild was an adversary he would have to confront eventually, so it didn’t matter if it was a bit premature.
Whoosh—
His hand, raised over his shoulder, blurred for a moment.
Swish—
The axe, poised before the wall, vanished into thin air.
And a few seconds later.
Crash— Rumble…
Somewhere in the sewers, the sound of something collapsing echoed faintly through the passage.
Amidst it, a faint, squeaky scream could be heard.