Chapter 130
Grrruuuk.
A groan from the Dragonkin whose head had been stepped on echoed across the battlefield where the heat had cooled.
"Grrrrrk...!"
"It's really disgusting when a lizard squirms like that."
At the sight of him thrashing his limbs and tail like a spasm, the Imperial Princess's gaze pierced down, filled with disgust.
When she withdrew her foot, he rose spasmodically and lunged, but was blocked by the knights. Spears pierced his legs and torso.
Gurgle, foaming blood, unable to contain his anguish, he forced his mouth open.
"Even though... my martial prowess was lacking and I was captured! The tribe's chief will soon pierce and tear out your heart!"
"Who is this chief."
"Philomatur! The young and! Strong warrior of our tribe! You will not escape the swamp...!"
Crack!
The Principality's princess who had been watching from behind.
Rebecca swung her warhammer, smashing not just his skull but his entire body as if tenderizing meat.
"Did you really have to do that?"
"The God of Warhammers, Radon, has spoken. That which is swung shall be purified."
Such was the doctrine.
Wherever the warhammer strikes, sin is erased—that is the Principality's mercy.
The Imperial Princess clicked her tongue at the warhammer's bizarre doctrine.
The Principality was truly the real madmen.
"Anyway, it got quite troublesome."
"Indeed. What was that? The nets suddenly poured down all at once."
"...I suspect it was a type of Divine Art."
The Imperial Princess raised her eyebrows.
"I've never heard that Divine Art could exert such power. Unless it was used through holy stones as a medium. Those mere lizard folk?"
There was no way they possessed that many holy stones.
"Someone else must have done something. By a method we don't know."
She was interrogating.
Saying wasn't it that guy who did it.
"If so, then it must be the work of an ally."
The princess smiled gently and brushed it off breezily.
"Tch, it's gotten quite annoying."
The Imperial Princess clicked her tongue and surveyed the forest.
The forest already had swamps formed in various places, making advancement difficult.
Furthermore, it was narrow.
It was quite difficult to swing spears.
Those wielding short spears had it somewhat easier, but even they found it hard to maneuver once they entered the swamp, which was cumbersome.
It was said that the foundation of martial arts came from the lower body, but with swamps spread out in all directions, they couldn't even use their lower body strength.
This place was completely their land.
A battlefield advantageous to them.
'Thanks to that, the casualties are greater than expected.'
The soldier Kibaek died, and dozens of knights were killed or injured.
"Quite a few of my soldiers died."
But the Principality's forces were mostly unharmed. Because they had stood in the rear.
"We'll take the lead this time. Anyway, in the forest, a warhammer is better than a spear."
Unlike spears that get caught in the forest, a warhammer could advance by blowing away everything in its way.
The Principality could be more active here than the Imperial army.
Saying her soldiers died was no different from telling the princess to take the lead.
But there was one thing that bothered her.
"Voitra's Forest is vast."
They didn't know where the enemy was hiding.
Even if they pursued, if traps and ambushes were prepared like now, they would taste humiliation again.
"So we need to go quickly. If we lose them, we'll have to pour in a lot of time and resources again."
"I think we need to be careful. If he sets traps with Divine Art again and waits, that's also dangerous in its own way."
They didn't know the forest's geography.
They didn't know where the ground was, where the swamps were. If they blindly pursued and it turned into a prolonged war, they would be the ones to tire.
The Empire and Principality being bested by mere lizards was highly undesirable.
They had to finish this decisively.
Moreover, this forest was Voitra's Forest.
A bizarre forest where instead of everything dying and rotting away, it became swamps and formed woodlands.
Caution was necessary.
"A bit more carefully..."
While she was speaking.
The Imperial Princess cut off her words.
"Burn it."
"Imperial Princess? Voitra's Forest connects to other forests. If something goes wrong, the entire region's forest could burn. Besides, there are many swamps, so it won't burn well."
Why was she telling them to burn it, forgetting such obvious facts.
Voitra's Forest was humid.
It wasn't winter, but gradually full spring.
The frozen ground had thawed and held moisture, and the forest and swamps spread across it were the same.
'As expected, the Imperial Princess's head is empty...'
The moment she was about to scoff inwardly.
"If it doesn't burn well, there'll at least be smoke."
"...I see."
"And, we didn't come empty-handed either."
As soon as the Imperial Princess finished speaking, as if they had been waiting, soldiers dragged carts over.
"What's that?"
Inside the barrels was pitch-black powder.
"Coal?"
"Ground coal. And it's enhanced with the Empire's Divine Art. It doesn't have any special ability. But."
Burning this forest was possible.
"When did you..."
"When I said we were in the forest, I ordered them to bring it. They're not easy foes."
A thoroughness in execution that was different from her usual disposition.
And a ruthlessness that would stop at nothing for the sake of her objective.
'Whoever takes her, they'd have to be quite the person...'
No one would be able to handle her.
"What are you doing? Burn it."
The forest began to burn.
The blazing conflagration reflected in the Imperial Princess's eyes, burning fiercely.
Her red lips curved into an arc.
* * *
A bow.
"Thank you so much."
"Life is all like that, isn't it. Helping here, helping there."
"But that person..."
Aldu, who had his chin beard braided into two long strands like twin braids, recalled the sense of incongruity he had been feeling for several hours.
'Why is she using honorifics toward Serena, Philo, and Callis.'
Ever since Serena chased after Callius, Aldu had felt it.
It was partly because he was sensitive to the vibrations of the earth, and even more so because their home was underground.
Thus, upon sensing a large army approaching, he joined up with Serena outside the village, and from then on, he noticed her attitude was completely off.
Originally, they were not ones to be so polite. Serena, being an elf, was of noble blood and generally viewed races other than elves as beneath her.
It wasn't that she had a bad personality, but her innate environment made her that way.
And Philomatur was originally a guy who ate politeness for breakfast.
Even when meeting Aldu, who was clearly his senior, for the first time, he would speak rudely, but now he was speaking very cautiously.
Even using honorifics.
Aldu felt somewhat slighted for some reason, but didn't show it.
"A new comrade."
"Comrade..."
Serena was fretting anxiously, but no one paid her any attention, so they didn't notice. Their attention was entirely focused on Callius.
Beside him, seated in a corner of the cave, was a vividly condensed light of fairies encircling him.
"I've felt it since yesterday, but there are quite a lot of fairies here."
Honestly, they were concentrations of energy that were hard to even call fairies.
Those things were circling around Callius's body as if drawn to him.
Thanks to that, even though it was a dark dawn, his surroundings were bright, and it even looked sacred, as if seeing the form of a god.
Some among the Dragonkin trembled with fear looking at Callius, while others wept with overwhelming emotion.
"Perhaps... are you the Master of the Forest?"
"This person is..."
The moment Serena stepped forward to say something. Callius stopped her.
"I am merely a pilgrim."
Understanding his intent, Serena simply stepped back for now.
"Then those divine manifestations..."
"I merely borrowed the power of the fairies. Nothing special."
That alone was already incredibly special, wasn't it.
Philomatur continued that thought and cleared his throat.
"Ahem. On behalf of the tribe, I express my gratitude. Thanks to you, we minimized our casualties and annihilated a large number of enemies."
"It was merely coincidental."
That was not a lie.
He had obtained spirit power at the right time, and wanted to see what kind of power would be generated when combined with Divine Art.
Naturally, the effect was outstanding.
If he had used holy stones, the power would have been even greater.
The Three Miracles' artifacts had a structure where their power amplified according to the potential and efficiency of the spiritual objects.
'What I used were the corpses of fallen gods.'
He had merely utilized a large number of fallen god weapons he had picked up while wandering.
He placed warhammers in the swamp and hid spears on the ground.
He simply detonated them all at once with spell formulas and performed the Three Miracles' artifact, Manggyo.
Manggyo used the character for net and the character for teaching.
Teaching using a net.
Roughly that meaning.
'As written in the Tome of Sullivan, artifacts have good one-shot power and low resource consumption cost.'
Moreover, given enough time, simultaneous deployment of spell formulas through preparation was possible, and depending on how it was used, its versatility was infinite. Of course, there were disadvantages.
The power varied wildly depending on the value of the spiritual object, and it took a bit of time to prepare. Inscribing spell formulas into a single spiritual object took longer and was more arduous than expected.
It had stronger power than using nature like Jingcheon.
'If I were to divide the measure of strength, it would be Jingin - Jingmul - Jingcheon.'
The advantages and disadvantages were all clear.
If you valued moderate power, efficiency, and speed, you used Jingcheon; if you wanted powerful power in exchange for taking a long time, you used Jingmul.
'If you need the supreme power even at the cost of bodily harm, it would be Jingin.'
Jingin, which uses one's own body as the price.
Its power and casting speed were outstanding, but the price was quite steep.
In urgent situations, use Jingcheon.
When preparing for battle, mix in Jingmul, and Jingin should only be used when preparing for the very last of the last.
Callius had already been studying the Tome of Sullivan and delving into Divine Art since embarking on this pilgrimage.
The secret arts of Sullivan that even the Pope had hidden away.
Because he wanted to learn the Illusion Formation.
The Tome of Sullivan, which could be called the scripture she had passed down, also contained the spell formulas of the Illusion Formation.
But it was still an unfathomable realm for Callius.
'Truthfully, the Divine Art I use was too weak, which was ambiguous.'
Divine Art was relatively easily influenced by the quality of divine power, and the [Tome of Sullivan], which had reorganized and recorded the original Divine Art, had great potential in terms of power and versatility, but the user was virtually a novice, making it difficult to use easily.
Thanks to that, he had only used it a few times on bandits, but this time, having obtained spirit power and combining it with that, the power increased by about three times.
Having once again confirmed the Sullivan-style Divine Art, Callius closed the open book and faced the people looking at him.
"We absolutely cannot abandon this place. For the Dragonkin, Voitra's Forest is nothing short of a natural fortress."
They were in the middle of an argument.
"But elder. Even though we have the advantage of geography, the Imperial army as well as the Principality bastards are here, and their momentum and numbers were no joke. There is absolutely no reason to stubbornly insist on this place."
"We cannot do that."
The elders were obstinate.
At that sight, a sneer naturally emerged.
"How stubborn."
"!"
He glared.
If it had been someone else, he would have immediately barked at them, but had they not seen the divine manifestation just now?
"What does it matter if you die and disappear. Both the tribe you value so highly and the forest you consider your land—if the Dragonkin are gone, they are merely land, forest, and lives that amount to nothing."
Survival comes first.
That was what Callius was saying.
"Who are you to...!"
"Does it matter who I am? Rather than that, I think securing your path to survival would be more important."
Even if you roll in the mud, you have to be alive to do it.
If you die protecting your honor, and even those who would remember that honor perish, what meaning would there be?
"Where would we go, having lost our home."
"Anywhere. Land is everywhere, and likewise, the sky is everywhere. If you set your mind to go, there are bridges to go anywhere, and if you wish to see, you have two eyes that can see anything—what are you hesitating for?"
The elders swallowed their silence.
'His words are overwhelming.'
'He's certainly no ordinary fellow.'
'Words that feel like they've endured eons of time.'
The Dragonkin elders were cowed.
All of them were tribal chiefs.
Seeing Philomatur, he straightened his back.
"First..."
The moment he was about to say something.
His gaze turned upward.
"C-Chief!"
"Oh no..."
The forest was burning.
The forest blazing fiercely was consumed by the heat, and pitch-black smoke consumed the sky.
Was this telling them they were already surrounded? The elders sighed at the black smoke rising from all directions of the forest.
"Are they planning to burn the entire forest!"
The flames were already uncontrollable.
The fire burning with the intensity to burn up all the swamps was already at a level that couldn't be quenched by simply pouring water.
"...."
The Dragonkin despaired.
At this point, even the expressions of Serena and Aldu, who had come to help, stiffened,
"He's fanning the forest's fire."
Serena, having heard Callius's muttering, suddenly sensed an anomaly.
The lights of the fairies that had been circling around him had all disappeared at some point.