There comes a time when steel grows stronger than fire.
They are no longer the iron they once were.
The Metallum Empire’s assault on the Ignis Empire was not yet over.
Aureus, the White Dragon of Metallum, was still very much intact.
Of course, the flames of Ignis had not been completely extinguished either.
Two or so hastily summoned Destroyers of Hell were defending against Metallum’s army.
“Continue the advance!”
Commander Carden shouted.
The soldiers of Metallum did not move ahead of Aureus.
They followed Aureus’s movements, protecting him as they snuffed out the embers around them.
“Wooooong……, wheeeeeeing!”
Once again, Aureus’s arm sliced through the air, and soon it struck the head of a Destroyer of Hell.
Kwaaang!!
Part of the Destroyer’s head fell away.
Fwoosh!
The Destroyer, refusing to yield, spewed fire toward Aureus.
“Bring that monster down!”
At Carden’s command, three Siege Titans confronted the Destroyer of Hell.
The Siege Titans that strode forward in great steps were, in truth, not in good condition.
They were already scorched and melting in various places.
Even so, they did not give up until they collapsed completely.
Fwoooosh……!
The Destroyer of Hell breathed flames at them once more.
One Siege Titan lost an arm.
The Siege Titan attacked the Destroyer even with its remaining arm.
Crack!
The body of the Destroyer of Hell, made of burning stone, crumbled slightly.
The Destroyer breathed fire at the Siege Titan, and in the end, the Siege Titan collapsed.
Whoosh!
This time, a massive steel fist flew at high speed from another Siege Titan toward the Destroyer.
Struck hard in the torso by the fist, the Destroyer of Hell spat flames and staggered backward.
Then the remaining Siege Titan struck the Destroyer’s head as well.
Kwaaaang!
Scarlet sparks fell pattering from the Destroyer of Hell like blood.
Kugung……!
The Destroyer’s body collapsed onto the ground and shattered into pieces, but only after putting up a considerable fight against the Siege Titans and Aureus.
“It’s down! We advance with this momentum!!”
Clank, clank, clank, thoom……!
Neither Aureus nor the soldiers of the Metallum Empire showed any sign of fatigue.
Once the Destroyer of Hell collapsed, they penetrated even deeper into the Ignis Empire’s territory.
Of course, the flames of Ignis did not die down easily.
While the previous Destroyer of Hell held them back, Ignis sent out reinforcements from within.
Metallum’s army once again collided with Ignis’s heat, which had yet to cool.
“Wooooong……, wheeee……, woooong……!”
Aureus, the White Dragon with a body of steel, walked across the burning earth.
Aureus’s surface still held a pure white sheen.
But as the war dragged on for a very long time, traces of scorching slowly began to appear beyond that luster.
“It seems Aureus’s strength has weakened. His movements have become slower than before.”
Carden reported to Agnon.
Agnon replied.
“We will never retreat. I will continue to deploy additional troops.”
Once again, soldiers of fire appeared from the far side of Ignis.
Metallum’s side also prepared new forces to oppose them.
“Two Destroyers of Hell spotted ahead!”
Carden shouted.
Having barely managed to bring down one Destroyer of Hell, Metallum now had to face two more Destroyers.
Fwoooosh……!
Two enormous fireballs poured down over the Steel Knights.
While they were thrown into confusion, Aureus once again allowed an attack from a Destroyer of Hell to land.
“Aureus is sustaining severe damage!”
Commander Robic also shouted urgently.
Agnon was considering his next move.
Whether he should decide to retreat at this point, or fight to the end.
But the White Dragon Aureus did not listen to the commanders, nor even to the orders of Emperor Oruma.
From the beginning, Aureus had moved toward Ignis of his own will.
Even if Metallum’s army withdrew, Aureus seemed likely to fulfill his role to the very end upon the territory of Ignis.
Aureus staggered for a moment, but he did not stop.
Even as his body swayed and his wounds steadily increased, his eyes alone did not waver.
He continued eliminating the Ignis soldiers before him one by one as he advanced little by little toward the heart of Ignis, Volcanium.
Agnon shouted to the soldiers.
“Our Aureus will never step back. Nor can we retreat!”
The Steel Knights reorganized their formation and surrounded Aureus.
So that Aureus could hold out for as long as possible, the soldiers regained their courage and faced the flames that came rushing at them.
How much longer did the war continue?
The Metallum Empire and the Ignis Empire were still locked in confrontation.
Neither side had been pushed back.
The reason Ignis could endure despite Metallum having deployed Aureus, the White Dragon, was that flame held the advantage in its opposing relationship against metal.
Carden spoke in a grave tone.
“The more time passes, the more disadvantageous it becomes for us. Aureus’s wounds are gradually accumulating, and if he ultimately falls, our chances of victory after that will be almost nonexistent.”
Agnon nodded.
“In the end, there is no helping it. Deploy the crystal troop types. I will commit the Crystal Infantry and the Crystal Archers as well.”
Unless the Aqua Empire and Silva Empire continuously supplied resources to one another as they did with slime cores, the amount of dual-attribute cores they possessed was bound to be limited.
The Aqua wave cores held by Metallum were not numerous enough to be used freely in actual combat.
But in an urgent situation like this, even the few crystal troop types they had needed to be used.
Agnon continued.
“Hold out just a little longer. Crystal forces will arrive here soon. Once they come, the advantage will shift back to us.”
“Yes, understood.”
As a result of the Metallum Empire invading the Ignis Empire with Aureus’s aid, they advanced to just before Volcanium, the capital of Ignis.
And at last, soldiers who seemed to carry the hue of the deep sea appeared on the battlefield.
“W-what are those?!”
A Crimson Flame Knight shouted when he saw them.
Their identities were Crystal Infantry and Crystal Archers.
They were products of crystal cores, blue like water and yet as hard as metal.
Carden shouted.
“Charge!!”
The crystal soldiers, made of translucent crystal, silently moved according to Carden’s command.
The moment they spotted the soldiers of Ignis, they charged straight in and attacked.
Shiiik!
One Crystal Infantryman swung his sword at a Crimson Flame Knight.
Slash!
“Urgh?!”
The Crimson Flame Knight was startled by the chilling sensation transmitted from the Crystal Infantryman’s sword.
“W-what is this?!”
The Crimson Flame Knight sensed danger in that instant.
“This cold energy, could it be……”
The soldiers of Ignis had no experience clashing with Aqua.
Thus, they did not know what the existence called Aqua felt like.
And yet they felt that sensation from the crystal.
“W-wait, this situation is bad!”
The Crimson Flame Knights shrank back at the unexpected appearance of soldiers bearing the aura of water.
However, it was still too early to be surprised.
Then, the Crystal Archers took formation in a line from a distance.
Agnon’s voice rang out.
“Extinguish their flames! Suppress their heat with cold!”
The Crystal Archers raised their bows.
Arrows of crystal were nocked against bowstrings that flowed like streams of water.
Soon, dozens of crystal arrows were fired all at once.
Slash!
Pssssss……!
“Aaaagh!”
“Kuhuk!”
The soldiers of Ignis screamed as crystal arrows lodged in their bodies.
“We will deploy the Embers as well!”
Varkas, the commander-in-chief of Ignis’s military, shouted.
Ignis, which had deployed golden soldiers only to stir up Aureus’s wrath instead, once again produced Carbonized Infantry with its remaining ember cores.
However, since they had already lost a considerable number of them to Aureus at the beginning, their numbers were pitifully insufficient compared to the crystal soldiers.
Crack!
One Carbonized Infantryman was struck by a crystal arrow and collapsed in vain.
After him, the other infantrymen also fell in a chain.
“Wheeeeing……!”
As the obstacles before him disappeared one by one, Aureus began moving forward again.
Robic reported in a voice close to a cheer.
“We can see the possibility! There isn’t much farther to the Ignis fortress!”
Agnon said.
“Good. We continue. Aureus is still safe.”
Aureus was now entering Volcanium.
Metallum’s metal soldiers and crystal soldiers moved with him.
Ignis’s forces were not what they once had been.
Too many soldiers had already fallen, and the remaining soldiers were insufficient to stop them.
If Metallum seized victory in the war against Ignis, it would become a glorious achievement in which Metallum overcame an opposing relationship.
Iron normally melts in fire, but cold, hard iron instead swallows the embers.
This was the moment Metallum sought to prove those words.
Carden ordered the soldiers.
“Crystal Archers, provide support from range. Crystal Infantry, take the front. Do not stray from Aureus!”
Aureus continued forward, still scorched by fire in various places.
Meanwhile, in the fortress, Emperor Oruma was leisurely receiving news about the battle against Ignis.
He let out a sinister laugh.
“Heheheh…… Those Ignis bastards seem to be struggling quite a bit. Now we will put an end to that struggle for them.”
At that moment, Peron approached him and bowed his head.
“Your Majesty, unexpected news has arrived.”
“What is it?”
“It does not seem to be related to the battle…… but they say a dragon has appeared on Silva’s side.”
“What?”
Oruma narrowed his eyes.
“You mean a dragon has appeared in Silva, not Terra or Ignis?”
“That is correct. Because we were focused on the battle, we were late in confirming it. My apologies.”
“Wait.”
Oruma turned for a moment to look at the map engraved on the wall.
“Where is it headed now?”
“Judging by its direction, it seems to be moving toward Terra.”
Silva’s Blue Dragon, Nemorensis, was moving westward, and that direction was close to Terra.
Oruma was still lost in thought.
“Are those Silva fellows planning to wage war against Terra as well? How unexpected.”
Peron answered.
“I think so as well, but in conclusion, it also seems to be an incident unrelated to us.”
However, Oruma was still pondering.
“Is there any possibility that it could affect this battle?”
“I have thought about it a little myself…… but I could not imagine any way it might have an effect. Nothing in particular has been confirmed regarding the recent relationship between Silva and Ignis. I think it may truly have no connection at all.”
Oruma’s eyes flashed for a moment.
“In any case, the fact that we must end the war quickly remains unchanged. The longer the war continues, the greater the possibility that Silva’s dragon will act as a variable. First, we will take this opportunity to eliminate them, and think about that dragon afterward.”
“Yes, understood.”
Peron bowed his head once and then left.
Beyond the place where metal and flame continued to clash, a single blue presence summoned from nature was moving.
Terramont sat atop his own fortress, silently watching Ignis to the south and Silva to the east.
Silva’s Blue Dragon, Nemorensis, which Metallum had decided not to pay attention to.
However, Terramont’s mutter was meaningful.
“Could the timing be any more appropriate? A dragon appears while Ignis is suffering hardship.”
Terramont, one who reads the world in silence.
Now it was his turn to speak on how he interpreted the present situation.