Chapter 172: Battle Fortress

The Great Ashurada felt pain inside its mouth. At first, it didn't bother it too much.

Ashurada had swallowed countless things with its mouth until now—countless Abominations, divine beings, insignificant mortals of various species, occasional dragons, and even apostles of god.

Even if they put up a final struggle, once Ashurada ripped them apart with its jaw or swallowed them, it was the end. By moving its tongue or shaking its head, they would lose consciousness and slide down into its throat.

The Wizard in its mouth at this moment, too, would eventually meet the same end as the countless lives Ashurada had restored its own power with. However, before Ashurada could even shake its head, it sensed something other than pain. The bones connecting the roof of its mouth and its nasal cavity were not just transmitting pain.

Through self-modification with magic, Ashurada had a more thorough and sensitive nervous system than normal creatures, so it realized that something was going into its nasal cavity.

-What are you doing?

The Dragon opened its mouth wide and used its tongue to flick Mazdari out. It was planning to crush him with its jaw. With no skill to withstand it, Mazdari’s body plummeted to the ground.

Ashurada was going to crush Mazdari right away, but even after spitting the Wizard out, not only was the feeling still present, it realized that something was trying to crawl higher up into its nasal cavity. The Wizard wasn't the source of this feeling.

Ashurada carelessly threw Katuru aside with his left front foot and scratched the roof of its mouth. The Dragon's senses located a small hole gushing out blood there, but there was nothing it could do about it.

-How dare you!

Furious, Ashurada tried to step on and crush Mazdari again. It didn't know what this thing inside its head would do, but it couldn't stop it, so it wanted to at least have revenge on the source of this incident, Mazdari. However, one of Ashurada's front feet was still held by the Talajin’s hand, which Mazdari had summoned.

Due to Mazdari’s light body and wings, he was able to gain control of his body even after falling to the ground, and he was getting further from Ashurada.

With a fierce growl, Ashurada grabbed the Talajin’s hand, twisted and broke it, and rotated the broken part to leave it hanging. Only then did the Talajin's hand release Ashurada's foot and disappear into the magic circle as if it was sucked in.

In the meantime, Ashurada felt something inside its nostrils digging between its nasal cavity and brain, a place it had never given a name to, and then Ashurada realized it had one option left.

-Alright, I’ll burn you up.

The Great Ashurada held its breath magic. As it breathed in, the pocket of fire beneath its jaw, mouth, and nasal passages burst into fiery flames.

The movement suddenly hesitated. The heat filling the mouth was affecting it, but it couldn't be stopped.

-No, no…

Ashurada was a Dragon. There was no giving up. So Ashurada began to plan out new magic. For a Dragon, reimagining the structure of magic and creating entirely new spells that had never existed before was not a difficult task.

-Yes, it will be over soon…

Whatever was inside its head was tiny and moving to a position that could be fatal if mishandled. To directly kill it, a magic that had never existed before was needed.

Even if Ashurada had to blow half of its own head off, it came up with a spell that could stop the thing in its head.

Then at that moment, a voice was heard.

-It’s over.

Ashurada thought it was its own voice. And it became reality. Flames erupted from Ashurada's nostrils, followed by blood pouring out.

Vasen Lak Orazen, who was going to command his troops to get into formation again and fire, raised his hand to stop everyone from doing so.

Ashurada swayed and almost fell, but managed to keep itself upright with both front feet on the ground. Its head, which was also swaying and close to touching the ground, lifted again. Its pupils dilated, and its dark, cloudy eyes looked up at the night sky, regaining its brightness soon after.

***

[Notice: The creation ‘Gordius’ has taken over the body of the ‘Great Ashurada.’]

Sung-Woon casually swiped the notification window to close it and said, “It’s done. Let’s move on to the next phase.”

***

A surprising rumor spread among the Rakshasas. Their ruler, the Great Ashurada, would no longer interfere with the Rakshasas and would not accept sacrifices anymore. This sparked a major controversy among the Rakshasa tribes.

Initially, the common belief was that Ashurada was testing them. The story of foreign invaders from across the sea and the Pangolins attacking the Moving Castle was already known. Many Rakshasas had died in that battle, and the Rakshasa tribe directly associated with Ashurada, known as the Ashurada Tribe, was reported to have been wiped out, but the Great Ashurada lived.

Furthermore, there were stories that the foreigners and Pangolins were assisting Ashurada in rebuilding the broken Moving Castle. Although the Rakshasas had all died honorably in the battle, it was still the Great Ashurada who emerged victorious in the end, and it seemed that Ashurada had subjugated the foreigners and Pangolins. However, since the Moving Castle had deviated from its original path and entered Pangolin territory, there was no way to confirm these facts.

The Rakshasas argued that there was no reason for Ashurada to abandon them, the ones who had established the most powerful nation, after defeating the foreigners, and that they should maintain their current system for the day Ashurada returned.

But there was also the opposite opinion. Some argued that Ashurada had saved its life but was defeated. Still, the idea that a Dragon could be defeated was difficult to believe for the Rakshasas, so this opinion wasn't initially given much attention.

However, as time passed, they realized the merits of the opinion. There was no need to hunt down smaller species tribes anymore to offer sacrifices to Ashurada, and the risk of Rakshasas themselves being offered as sacrifices had vanished. Furthermore, the Ashurada Tribe, which had been the leading tribe among the Rakshasas solely because it had been the first to catch Ashurada's eye, had disappeared; thus there was a need to discuss who would take their place.

Although there was a fear that Ashurada might return someday, the consensus was that whoever held power when that happened would serve Ashurada from the closest position.

The outbreak of a tribal war among the Rakshasas was only natural. Initially, they split into two major sides and began fighting, but soon, internal conflicts within each side led to even greater conflict. The reason why the Rakshasas had unified into one tribe in the first place was due to their fear of Ashurada. But this led to even more division among them.

Additionally, due to the Rakshasas’ internal conflicts, some minority tribes seized the opportunity to fight and unite in order to seek their own freedom.

On the other hand, one player was on the move.

‘This is an opportunity.’

It was the player with the appearance of a rubber duck, RD.

After the crushing defeat the Platys suffered, RD had been keeping an eye on the movements of Sung-Woon and the Pantheon. And immediately after the battle ended, RD mobilized the best army that the Fabirang Union had.

‘This will be the first and last chance.’

Although RD had said that they wouldn't fight under certain conditions, they thought that this virtue wasn't very important among players. Besides, if RD didn't fight now, there would be no future for them.

‘Those damn players of the first continent.’

RD had become a loner on the first continent with the bad strategy forcing them to develop their technology in isolation, thus preventing RD from gaining allies. While they were able to invent unique technologies because of that, unfortunately, they couldn’t win wars with said technologies. No, it was beyond the level of not being able to win in war—they were on a losing streak.

‘How long are you going to keep pushing me around?’

In terms of technological level, the players of the first continent were no match for the players of the third continent. However, they had benefited in Divinity levels from the ongoing wars.

When RD belatedly realized this, it had already become too difficult to fight them with their rubber power technology.

The discovery of the fourth continent was perhaps RD's only way out, but...

‘Now that I was going to lay the groundwork for a counterattack, those damn guys of the third continent…!’

In truth, even if it weren’t for those of the third continent, the players of the first continent had sent ships to find the fleeing RD, so RD had no way to put up with everything. If they remained like this, a future where they would be beaten by both the first and third continent, ultimately leading to the collapse of their civilization, was all that was left.

‘But I won't lose!’

According to RD's judgment, now was when the players of the third continent were the weakest. They had exhausted their strength in their battles against the Dragon, the Moving Castle, and the Rakshasas. Though the losses in troops weren't significant, the damage on the creations likely consumed a considerable amount of Faith points.

There were rumors that the Dragon was still alive, but in RD’s opinion, it was likely a baseless rumor created to provoke conflict among the Rakshasas. While it wasn’t completely impossible that one of the players of the third continent might have gained control over the Dragon's body via a creation, such luck wasn't something that came easily.

‘The problem is the Moving Castle…’

RD had some countermeasures in mind. Firstly, because of the battle against the Dragon, the Moving Castle had become quite ruined, reducing its strategic value. So even if the players from the third continent tried to turn it into a moving fortress, it would be difficult to fortify it in the short term.

‘They probably sent workers from the third continent to urgently repair it. So I need to destroy it before then.’

If the Moving Castle happened to appear on the battlefield, that would be even better. A surprise attack using the Helix Wings, as demonstrated by the players of the third continent, could be launched. After all, the Helix Wings were an invention of RD's own Platys, so RD would surely be more skilled at using them. If the Fabirang Union managed to recapture the Moving Castle when it showed up on the battlefield, victory was guaranteed without a doubt.

‘In the end, what determines the outcome of war is timing…!’

Player RD redirected all the coastal forces that had been waiting to block the invasion from the first continent toward the inland. Collectively, they were an army of over 10,000, an unusually large force for a new continent. Besides the Platy species making up what would be described as a mechanized unit, there were Dwarf knights serving as anvils, and a Human army taking on various roles from cavalry to archers. These were the best forces the Fabirang Union possessed.

RD believed that the most critical point of the war would be the siege in the Pangolin city of Siol, so when a giant shadow started to move behind a small rocky hill, which the Fabirang Union had assumed to be ordinary terrain, RD was frightened and surprised.

"What...what is that?!"

It was the Moving Castle. And it wasn't just a giant waste of space. While it was clearly constructed at the last minute, the guns of warships were aligned on the hilltop.

With a splint on his leg, Vasen shouted from the top of the highest tower of the Moving Castle, “Fire!”

Across the wall of the Moving Castle where cannons and gunners lined up on every tier, the order to fire was continuously repeated.

"Fire!"

"He said fire!"

"...Fire!"

A bombardment of cannonballs and bullets rained down on the army of 10,000.