Steel moves like a precise calculation.
A great commotion was surging toward the southeastern border of the Metalum Empire.
Commander Karden said,
“So they’ve finally come. We’ve been waiting as well.”
As expected, the army of the Ignis Empire was attempting to invade Metalum once again.
But Metalum’s forces were not to be underestimated either.
It was the moment when Metalum’s Steel Knights and Ignis’s Crimson Flame Knights clashed head-on.
“They’re here! Defend with everything you have!”
Karden’s shout rang out.
The battlefield turned scorching in an instant.
The Steel Knights formed ranks as one.
The flames of Ignis opposing them grew fiercer as well.
Whoooosh……!
Clank, clank, clank……!
Ignis’s vanguard finally reached Metalum’s front line.
Their Crimson Flame Knights charged like blazing fire and slammed into the wall formed by the Steel Knights.
The impact melted portions of the defensive line and warped the metal plates of several barriers.
Since fire was, by nature, stronger than metal, the Steel Knights were being hard-pressed.
“Do not fall! We have waited only for this day! We are steel!”
Even so, metal was tenacious.
Steel was enduring the fire.
As the result of countless rounds of repeated tempering, the durability of the Steel Knights was difficult for anyone to overcome.
The Steel Knights did not advance, but neither did they retreat.
They endured the searing flames.
They were on an entirely different level from the metal infantry.
“The entire defensive line is holding!”
“Good! Trust yourselves! Show those bastards what steel is!”
As time passed, it was instead Ignis’s flames that began to die down.
Fire was fast.
But steel knew how to retain heat.
“Haaah……!”
“Guh!”
The Steel Knights held their positions and swung their hammers at the Crimson Flame Knights.
The hammers blocked the flaming swords, and the severed fragments of flame soon weakened.
Even from a disadvantageous position, the Steel Knights did not lose courage.
Metalum’s battlefield was not strategy, but structure.
A predicted impact cushioned at a precise location.
Ignis’s attacks were sharp, but the Steel Knights’ defensive line was not easily broken through.
It was the moment that proved Oruma’s predictions and judgment had been correct.
Even when Metalum lost troops, it replenished them almost immediately with additional forces and blocked Ignis’s army.
“D-damn it……!”
“There’s no end to them!”
Just as Ignis’s army could not hide its bewilderment, an order came from the far side.
And at once, the flames withdrew.
“Retreat! They’ve ordered us to retreat!”
Metalum had once again repelled Ignis’s invasion.
The battlefield, which had been burning hot, quickly grew quiet, though it still retained its heat.
Karden shouted,
“Everyone, well done. This is steel! Steel does not melt so easily before mere fire!”
Metalum had succeeded in defending itself again, but the Crimson Flame Knight unit of the Ignis Empire had also been extremely powerful.
Metalum’s losses were not insignificant either.
They had allowed Ignis to inflict further losses on their metal cores.
That was unavoidable once battle had broken out.
Oruma still wore his blunt, impassive expression as he paced inside the watchtower within the fortress.
His retainer Peron approached him.
“Your Majesty, the researchers say they have completed preparations for their research into Aqua’s cores.”
“Is that so?”
Oruma stopped walking.
“Then I shall go down and see.”
An underground laboratory.
Inside a water tank, several wave cores from the Aqua Empire were floating.
Their clear, tranquil ripples produced faint vibrations whenever they drew near the metal walls.
In addition, dozens of wave cores were piled up inside the laboratory.
“It is no different from a windfall. Negotiations with Aqua failed, yet we ended up possessing this many cores.”
Peron replied,
“We still cannot say for certain what Terra’s purpose was, but we have undeniably gained from them.”
“Indeed.”
As Oruma and Peron walked toward the tank, the laboratory director, Keldren, spoke.
“The wavelengths follow a fixed cycle. The attribute of being organic does not suit us, but if we analyze the commonalities and attempt fusion through that point, it should be possible.”
The tank was made from thin metal plates, and metal cores were fixed in the corners inside.
The researchers repeatedly induced reactions from the wave cores toward the metal cores.
“Natural fusion appears to be nearly impossible.”
“What if we insert a control medium?”
“For fusion, we must also concede a certain degree of our metal attribute.”
Standing before the tank, Oruma watched the scene in silence.
Peron murmured to himself,
“We demand form, while water seeks to flow……”
Oruma said in a low voice,
“Rather than absorbing their flow, what if we create order and lattice it?”
As if he had heard Oruma’s words, Keldren nodded and gave instructions to the researchers.
“Switch the internal wave control rings to the third series. Strengthen the velocity dispersion matrix.”
The cores’ reaction wavered briefly, then slowly returned to a stable vibration.
Oruma and Peron turned toward the exit of the laboratory.
A conference room inside the fortress of the Metalum Empire.
Oruma’s retainers arrived around him.
“What is the current state of our forces?”
At Oruma’s question, Agnon replied,
“Of the 324 Steel Knights, 39 have fallen. Twenty-five metal cores have been lost.”
A moment later, Oruma asked again,
“Are the Steel Knights still being produced?”
“Yes. As ordered, we are training as many as possible from the remaining cores.”
“Understood.”
Oruma, who had been seated on the throne, rose to his feet.
“I wanted to take revenge on those Ignis bastards as soon as the defense was over, but I have changed my mind.”
The retainers silently focused on Oruma’s voice.
Oruma continued,
“Those Terra bastards have quite the variety of ways to interfere in our battles. An option has arisen that must take priority over revenge against Ignis.”
Oruma walked toward the east and looked out at the landscape where the Terra Empire was located.
“I must meet Terramont.”
Belkar asked,
“May I ask why you have made that decision?”
Instead of answering, Oruma asked his retainers in return,
“Terra handed Aqua’s cores over to us. What do you think their intention was?”
The retainers looked at one another, and Peron answered,
“It certainly was not an act of goodwill. There must have been some calculation behind it. Terra seems to have sensed its limits in protecting the center it seeks to defend.”
This time, Belkar spoke.
“Terramont may have been asking us for help through actions rather than words. They extended a hand to us.”
“I think so as well.”
Without moving from where he stood, Oruma calculated in his mind.
“After Terra launched a surprise attack on Aqua, they must be well aware that Aqua and Silva will soon counterattack. Can Terra truly stop their alliance alone? Come to think of it, there has been recent news that they finally developed a dual-attribute core.”
Peron nodded and replied,
“Yes, that is correct. It is called a slime core.”
“A slime core. Naturally, it must be the result of fusing the energies of Aqua and Silva. Water has no effect on us, and wood is weak against us. However, we must keep in mind that if wood becomes too hard, we may be the ones pushed back instead. I would also like to find out how strong the slime they created is.”
Belkar spoke carefully.
“The threat from Ignis is still ongoing. Even so, will we advance into Terra?”
“That is precisely why we are going to Terra.”
Oruma’s voice was low yet firm.
“Terra’s course of action is giving us the opportunity to become the center. The center must be heavy. It means this is our chance to become the counterweight for balance.”
His hand moved across the map, from Metalum’s eastern border toward the heart of Terra.
“Right now, the center is weak and empty. The one qualified to fill that place is one who understands balance.”
A brief silence flowed.
No one raised an objection to Oruma’s words.
“We march on Terra now. We shall show them our majesty.”
The retainers looked at one another again.
They expressed their silent agreement.
After the meeting with his retainers ended, Oruma visited the underground laboratory once more.
The laboratory’s internal structure had been modified into a form optimized for analyzing Aqua’s wave cores.
The wave cores floating inside the tank were rotating more actively, and the metal devices around them recorded vibration patterns each time the wave cores reacted.
When Oruma appeared, Keldren reported the situation.
“The experiment is continuing successfully. The wave lattice has stabilized, and the fission reactions that appeared in the initial stage no longer occur.”
Oruma looked down at the wave cores without a word.
The surfaces of some of the wave cores were covered in thin metal film.
As if satisfied, he said,
“As expected. Metal does not obstruct the flow of water. It guides the path of that flow. Water will soon remember the order of metal.”
The wave cores undergoing the experiment gradually solidified like metal and grew harder.
One researcher muttered as if to himself,
“Blue metal. We will be seeing a material unlike anything in our lives.”
Oruma briefly looked around and said,
“Terra has supplied us with a considerable number of cores. We can expect more from them in the future. Make certain that our new fruit comes to fruition.”
“Yes, understood.”
At the eastern border of the Metalum Empire, the Steel Knights stood in rows and ranks.
They all wore armor of the same size, fitted at the same intervals and the same angles.
Their formation was so precise that it seemed devoid of life and emotion.
“Move out!”
When the new commander Lovik gave the signal to march, the Steel Knights stepped forward as one.
The ground trembled faintly.
And that tremor continued on to the next soldier, spreading like a vibration.
They did not run or leap, but simply walked steadily.
Yet there was weight in those steps.
Oruma was walking ahead of hundreds of Steel Knights.
He was gazing at a massive mountain far in the distance.
That was where the underground fortress of the Terra Empire was located.
“Calculations must be made precisely. Now it is our turn to answer.”
The march was slow, yet it never stopped.
Passing over earth and stone, Metalum’s forces finally approached Terra’s border.
Simply to deliver an answer regarding balance.
Water was slowly restoring its flow, and wood had begun to extend new roots.
Fire still blazed, and iron was shifting its center of gravity.
Immediately after the war with the Aqua Empire, Terramont, emperor of the Terra Empire, was once again watching in silence.
Feeling the movements from every direction approaching him, he was finally preparing to open his mouth once more.
“At last, they have arrived.”
Sensing their presence, Terramont emerged from underground to the surface.