Chapter 114: 063. Angel of Death -3 (Part Two)

**

“Evacuate the citizens, now!”

Harman loudly roared out.

The knights from the Paladin Corps and Humite’s security forces continued to cut down the undead creatures running loose in the city. But even then, their numbers didn’t show any signs of decreasing at all.

Right around that time, a huge beast pounced in Harman’s direction. It was the monster with a lion’s torso and a lamb’s head, the chimera.

It raised its sharp claws and took a swipe at him. Harman urgently raised his divinity-infused sword and defended against the attack.

“What monstrous strength…!”

Although he staggered back from the impact, he still didn’t forget to swing his sword. The chimera leapt back as if it got smacked away.

Harman glanced in another direction.

Necromancers were chanting their magic spells while hiding inside a building.

The members of the Paladin Corps were trying their best to stop the Necromancers, but the amount of the summoned undead exceeded their expectations and the knights of the empire couldn’t even approach the building in question.

The scale of this dastardly scheme was far greater than he thought. Harman already knew that the Black Order boasted a considerable scale, but to think that a force of this size was hiding within the city…!

“…I shall deal with it.”

Harman flinched in surprise and shifted his gaze.

He spotted Charlotte kitted out in a silver-white armour that flowed and danced like an elegant long dress.

The gentle, soothing light seemed to ooze out from not just her brilliant armour, but even from her smooth, lengthy divine sword.

Her current figure as a holy knight reminded Harman of a brave warrior from ancient fairy tales.

She sucked in a deep breath and then lowered her posture while cocking her sword back.

“C-Charlotte?! It’ll be too difficult for you alo…”

Before he could finish his sentence, though, Charlotte kicked the ground and dashed forward.

In the blink of an eye, she arrived before the chimera. And while rotating her whole body in 360 degrees, she slashed with her sword.

As the flash of light rapidly approached the monster, the chimera’s eyes widened. It screeched out in pain as its large frame was sliced apart left and right. Blood gushed out like a fountain while its ashes began scattering away from the fatal wounds. Soon, the chimera burned away out of existence.

Just one strike. That was all she needed

Charlotte took another deep breath.

The soldiers and Harman bearing witness to this scene all gasped out in admiration.

Harman muttered out. “…I did hear she was getting stronger, but this…”

He had no idea that she was this strong now.

While he was standing there stewing in his amazement…

“Sir, I bring urgent news!”

Harman quickly turned his head and looked at the approaching guard captain.

“Sir, a Lich leading a group of Necromancers attacked the residence of his highness, the Third Imperial Prince Ruppel Olfolse!”

The very first person to react to the news was Charlotte. She flinched in surprise and paid closer attention to what the guard captain was saying.

Strength began gathering in her leg muscles as if she was getting ready to dash in that specific direction right away, but then…

“…Everyone inside the residence has gone missing, sir.”

…Those words managed to drain all strength from her body.

After she managed to stop herself from plopping down on the ground, she asked the captain while swallowing back her dry saliva. “W-what happened to his highness? Do you know?”

“W-we still don’t know anything yet, ma’am. The palace magicians are trying to figure out the end coordinate even as we speak, but the magic involved in whisking them away was too high tier and it’s proving quite difficult to analyse it. If those bastards have been making preparations for a long time, then there’s a possibility that his highness may already be a captive at this stage…”

“How could this be…!”

Charlotte’s lips clamped shut. Her eyes trembled in shock and she seemed to be deeply shaken right now.

However, even as Charlotte reacted like this, the guard captain didn’t stop his bad news there. “Also, Aslan’s forces numbering over one hundred thousand have reached the border region as well!”

This time it was Harman’s turn to respond. “What did you say?!”

In the end, the one event they were all worried about happened for real.

So… this was the true end goal for the Chaos plan?!

Those bastards from Aslan really did want to invade the Theocratic Empire, after all. Judging from how they targetted the Imperial Princes, the enemy also probably wanted to use them as hostages and bargaining chips in the negotiation that would surely take place after a period of conflict and the ensuing ceasefire. A negotiation where those bastards would brazenly demand a portion of the empire’s territory to be surrendered.

Harman gnashed his teeth.

The safety of the two Imperial Princes should take precedence above all else, but he had no way of knowing where they were at the moment. This meant that, for now, stopping Aslan’s invasion took top priority instead.

“As soon as we sort out the situation in this area, we shall depart to protect the bord…”

“A-and finally…” The guard captain suddenly cut Harman off. While buckets of cold sweat rolled down his face, he finished the rest of his sentence. “…The border gate has been opened.”

Harman flinched greatly and stared agog at the guard captain.

Could it be that the border had been broken through already?!

The mighty border wall of the Theocratic Empire was overcome so soon…?!

But… how?

The greatest combat forces of the empire had been amassed in that region. The Orders of the Crimson Cross and Verdant Cross, the dwarven legion, the Heavenly Army, over ten thousand elite soldiers, private forces employed by major nobles, and even the convict soldiers were stationed there.

Harman just couldn’t understand how such a place got overrun in a matter of less than a couple of hours.

“S-sir. It’s not that the enemy broke through, but the gate opened by itself from our side.”

“Are you saying that there was a spy?!”

“N-no. The thing is… he… he himself has opened the gate, sir.”

“What are you saying, man?”

The guard captain wiped the cold sweat off his brows and responded, “His majesty personally opened the border gate, sir.”

**

Aslan’s Field Marshal, Gallas, appointed as the top commander of this invasion, could only stand still and doubt his own wide-open eyes.

An army of fifty thousand undead and one thousand members of the Necromancy Corps to support them, another seventy thousand slave soldiers and elite troops were standing in rank and file before him.

This massive army had been marching towards the border region in order to invade the empire.

And once they reached the massive border wall and its gate, Gallas did issue the command to keep advancing forward, but even before the great army could take another step, the wall’s large gate opened up by itself.

Could this be a trap?

However, he had to revise his thoughts pretty quickly. Gallas’s mouth clamped shut as he continued staring toward his front. More correctly, at the lone figure standing in the middle of the wide-open gate.

“…I came here to apprehend a traitor, and yet, he’s vanished on me.”

An old man spoke while walking out from the open gateway.

“The filthy bastards that dared drag the name of the Imperial Family through the mud also ran off to somewhere.”

The old man held a massive golden warhammer with his right hand, while his left was busy massaging his temples, almost as if he was trying extremely hard to maintain his composure.

“My trusted knight, Oscal, has disappeared, and so did my precious grandson.”

The old man’s physique seemed to be frail and skinny. He might be wearing a luxurious-looking outfit, but his overall attire was simply too ill-suited for a battlefield.

“So, I ask of you. How should I go about venting my rage?”

The old man abruptly raised his head.

He was clenching his teeth as his enraged glare firmly locked on the great army before him.

“This is a mess you started, oh the fools of Aslan.”

The old man, Kelt Olfolse, gritted his teeth loudly. In the next moment, he gripped the warhammer even tighter.

“This war is something you wanted to wage first.”

The weapon’s handle and his flesh ground against each other and issued a bizarre, unsettling noise that resounded out to everywhere.

“If it’s a war that you seek, then yes, why don’t we have one?! If it’s total annihilation that you seek, then I shall make it happen for you!”

The previously-clear skies above their heads were gradually being covered up by the gloomy storm clouds.

“If you wish to be wiped off from the continent’s map, then I shall make it come true for you!”

Suddenly, loud thunderclaps reverberated throughout the heavens.

“Oh, Aslan. Oh, your foolish king Rahamma…”

Kelt Olfolse loudly gritted his teeth once more and continued glaring straight at Aslan’s Field Marshal, Gallas, in the distance.

“…You brought this event of death and destruction upon yourselves.”

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