It seemed he could understand why they formed the backbone of the army. But the danger did not end
there……
Kwaooooo.
It had been a magical attack of tremendous power, but unfortunately, the ogre survived and continued its charge.
Its entire body was wreathed in flames, a hideous sight, yet the ogre rushed toward
Doil, streaks of blazing light pouring from its eyes. Along the path of the ogre’s charge, the stench of burning flesh spread
thickly through the air.
“B-block it!”
Three or four soldiers threw themselves forward to block the ogre’s path, but it was useless. The soldiers who stood in its way were swept aside by the club swung with the creature’s
incredible strength, collapsing as though brushed away by a broom.
Riding that momentum, the ogre charged at Doil. Its speed was so great that the soldiers were
helpless. But Doil was no low-ranking mage who would be defeated by an ogre. A fierce
incantation burst from him reflexively.
“Hold.”
The body of the charging ogre slowed sharply. But because the ogre’s movements were so swift to begin with,
its charging speed did not seem to have slowed all that much. Having gained a brief moment to breathe, Doil
cast even a Binding spell, fixing the ogre’s body to the ground. Tree roots rose from the earth
and coiled tightly around the ogre’s legs without leaving a gap. With its legs bound, the ogre
ended up pitching forward onto the ground.
“Kraaaagh!”
As if refusing to go down without doing anything, the ogre, before it fell, hurled the club in its hand straight at
Doil. With a terrifying sound of tearing air, the club flew in a straight line toward Doil.
Unable to cast a spell to prepare in time, Doil’s face instantly turned pale.
Judging from the situation, if it struck him, there was no doubt he would not come away unharmed. In the current situation, even if he raised a shield,
it was clear it would not hold. At that moment, someone rushed in and
blocked the way before him. A slight figure—it was Damon.
“Kugh!”
With a heavy groan, Damon’s body was struck by the club and sent flying a considerable distance. The armor over his chest
was crushed beyond recognition as he flew for some time before being violently
hurled to the ground. It was truly horrifying power. The faces of the soldiers guarding Doil
were clearly filled with horror.
“Hurry and finish off the ogre!”
At the commander’s urging, the soldiers rushed in from every direction and thrust their spears and swords
into the fallen ogre. It was a monster with extremely tough hide, but because so many soldiers swarmed it, the ogre
soon became a lump of meat separated into several pieces.
But the situation was not resolved simply because the ogre was dead. More than half had died screaming under Doil’s magical attack,
but the surviving orc infantry were charging forward with shouts.
Their spirit was not at all broken by the ogre’s death. The commander shouted continuously, controlling the unit.
“Heavy infantry, forward! Cavalry, cut off the enemy’s retreat!”
Although they had no archer unit on this side, their numerical superiority was so overwhelming that the support force was soon
able to annihilate the orc infantry. Considering the number of orcs they had encountered, the damage they suffered
was extremely light. But since an easy victory could never have been guaranteed without
Doil’s magical support, the commander approached Doil hesitantly.
“I sincerely thank you for your assistance.”
“I merely fulfilled my duty.”
Doil glanced at the commander, briefly uttered those words, then turned and strode
toward the wagon. For him, the top priority was treating Damon. A group of
soldiers had already gathered him up and laid him in the wagon. His disciple, who had unhesitatingly thrown away
his own life to save his master. Doil’s heart was filled with anxiety,
afraid that something might have gone wrong with him. The commander, left awkward, soon ordered the unit to march.
“We march again. Hurry.”
The soldiers soon loaded the wounded and the corpses onto wagons and sent them back to Feldrian, then once again began
the long march to the battlefield. Among them were some who looked enviously
at the wounded soldiers being carried away on the wagons.
“Magic is a discipline in which the training process is far more difficult than the theory.”
Damon was receiving a magic lesson from Doil while lying in the swaying wagon. In a way,
this could be said to have worked out well for Damon. Although, as the price of being struck once
by the ogre, two of his ribs were broken and his whole body throbbed with pain, in return,
he was able to travel while riding in a wagon and learning magic.
The way Doil looked at Damon was truly warm beyond measure. Who would unhesitatingly throw their own body forward
in such a desperate situation? In that respect, Doil was truly pleased with Damon,
the first disciple he had taken this time.
“To use magic, the first thing you must learn is how to draw in mana. In the atmosphere,
mana of various attributes is spread throughout. If, among those mana, you draw in the mana
of the required attribute and go through the process of rearranging it, magic is activated. For example, mana
with the attribute of fire becomes Fire Ball. Mana with the attribute of electricity becomes Lightning Bolt. Like that.”
Damon listened silently to Doil’s words. Through observing classes for a month,
he had already learned quite a bit of theory, but he was still at a stage where he could not even draw in
mana. Therefore, he was concentrating every nerve on Doil’s explanation.
“Drawing in mana. This is not something accomplished in a day or two. Through painstaking
training and mental focus, you naturally train it into your body. In the case of most magic
trainees, it takes at least three years or more just to draw in mana like this.
And that is taking into account the fact that most trainees begin magic training at a young age, so
in your case, it may be said that it will take even longer.”
Damon’s mouth fell open. To think it would take that long merely to reach the level of drawing in mana……
“T-three years?”
“Magic is a discipline that profound.”
After finishing his words, Doil glanced at Damon’s face.
“I, too, entered the path of magic when I was nearly forty. And it was exactly after four years and six months that I became able
to draw in mana.”
When he heard that even his master had taken over four years to reach the stage of drawing in mana,
Damon’s strength left him. There was no guarantee that Trubenia would not be destroyed during that time.
If that happened, learning magic, returning to the Central Plains, and taking revenge on Sa Junhwan
would all become impossible from the start. Seeing Damon’s face turn extremely dark, Doil
smiled faintly.
“In that respect, you can be called fortunate. Because you have taken as your master someone who learned magic
at a late age.”
“……”
“I barely reached that realm after countless trials and errors. If you think about what that means, it means
you do not have to go through the trials and errors I experienced. Based on my experience, I will open for you the path
by which you can learn magic at the greatest speed. If that happens, for you to reach the realm where you can draw in mana
will take at most two years—no, if you put in the effort, the time can be shortened even further.
Do you understand my meaning now?”
“M-Master.”
Tears suddenly welled up in Damon’s eyes. He could not control the surge of emotion
rising within him. Until now, there had been only one person who had ever cared for him like this.
The holy monk of Shaolin, Huijing, who had performed the Sevenfold Tendon-Severing Art on him. But Damon
had now met another being who poured affection upon him besides that one.
Here in Trubenia, where time and space were utterly different from the Central Plains. Damon continued, his voice choked with tears.
“I-I will not forget this kindness even in death, Master.”
At Damon’s reaction, Doil gave a bitter smile and nodded.
‘Poor fellow. Just how much hardship must he have suffered……’
Doil already understood Damon’s feelings to some extent.
“Then let us begin the lesson. Once you reach the stage where you can draw in mana,
the path to magic will become much easier. Once you reach the realm of the 1st Circle,
you will possess the ability to contract with a Demon King.”
“I understand, Master.”
Damon soon became immersed in Doil’s teachings. Damon, who had longed to learn magic
even while serving as a guardsman at Feldrian’s magic faculty. Now he had come to learn magic in an environment
even better than that of the students of the magic faculty. From his master Doil, who opened the path for him one step at a time
and looked after him with care.
The racial war between humans and orcs was now rushing toward its end. The armies of dragons and orcs,
seeking to wipe humanity from the continent of Trubenia. Opposing them, the allied human forces
fighting with all their strength in order to survive.
Despite their bitter defeats at the beginning, the allied forces were gradually
retaking the territories occupied by the orcs. Knowing that giving the orc race time
to reproduce their kind was nothing short of suicide, the commanders were quite literally pouring in their forces
and urging them into battle. Thanks to that, the allied forces were able to recapture several kingdoms that had been occupied.
But no one was unaware that this could never be called a satisfactory achievement.
The dragons were resting due to their excessive use of magic.
Commanders at every level knew very well what result would follow if they entered the war again.
The dragons’ fearsome attack magic. It was more than sufficient to overturn the tide of war in an instant……
But they still had a sliver of hope worth gambling on. That was the fact that the dragons’
sleeping period was not far off. Moreover, the current orcs were incomparable in number
to the orcs of a hundred years ago. Therefore, if the dragons with their tremendous power did not participate in the battle,
it was a fight they could certainly attempt, and so the allied soldiers did not abandon hope
until the very end. All they had to do was somehow hold out until the dragons’ sleeping period.
In parallel with that, the leaders of the kingdoms were beginning a certain operation
to raise the morale of the soldiers, which had sunk to the very bottom.
“Is that so? Does the High Pontiff believe that such a thing is possible?”
“It is entirely possible. The fact that we were able to find our Order’s Saintess in a time like this
is proof that Lord Berhazel has not abandoned us.”
“Truly astonishing.”
Sergei repeatedly wore an expression of astonishment. Before him stood an old man in priestly robes
patterned with flames, his white beard striking, his expression anxious. Astonishingly, the old man’s identity
was Schreckheimer. The highest-ranking clergyman of the Order of Berhazel, the one who had brought
Damon to Trubenia and explained the history of this place to him. Known to have left for the battlefield
in disappointment after learning that Damon had lost his power, he had now appeared here.
Though his face was somewhat haggard, Schreckheimer’s face shone with a certain expectation. After gazing
at his face for a moment, Sergei revealed what was on his mind, as if he could not hold it back.
“Where on earth does the girl who inherited the Saintess’s bloodline live?”
Schreckheimer gave a lonely smile.
“She was living in a fief of the Kingdom of Ladenburg, located at the western edge of Trubenia.
It is a place with very few people. According to my investigation, she seems to have lived there all along
after being moved there by a group of clergymen during the Dark War.”
“Did you meet her in person?”
“Yes. The clergymen had long since passed away, but perhaps because they were people of deep faith,
they had educated her thoroughly. In my eyes, she was a flawless Saintess of Berhazel.
Because she possessed the Mind’s Eye.”
“Hm! Truly astonishing.”
Sergei wore an expression of disbelief. That was only natural, for in Trubenia,
it had been a long time since a Saintess had existed.
The Saintess of Berhazel. Although now it was a name that no longer existed, in the past,
the being called the Saintess had been one of the truly absolute existences in Trubenia.
Though, with the decline of the Order of Berhazel, the name had been buried in darkness.