Chapter 246: To the Red Land

The owner of the golden spear immediately jumped in, kicking the Siege Golem with both feet and retrieving the spear.

The feet of the Siege Golem, weighing tens of tons, momentarily lifted off the ground before crashing down. The sight of cold weapons combined with a martial art from several generations ago was enough to make not only the Empire, but even the forces of the Union Kingdom momentarily stop their attacks and watch.

The Lizardman in golden armor came walking, twirling his spear with ease, and his presence alone dominated the battlefield.

Someone among the Empire's soldiers exclaimed, "The Dragon King has arrived!"

The one who held the spear was Lakrak.

A roar of cheers erupted along the front lines, loud enough to drown out the gunshots.

Lakrak, standing on top of the fallen Siege Golem, extended his spear toward the army of the Union Kingdom without a word. The Empire’s soldiers crouching in the trenches to stop the Union Kingdom's army saw Lizardmen in golden armor rushing forward, leaping over the trenches on giant Cockatoos.

Yur, a warrior of massive stature, brought Anakse to Lakrak and handed over the reins. The two exchanged words, and the Empire's soldiers saw Lakrak laugh heartily. It was as if a legend had returned.

Lakrak declared, "Warriors, listen!"

The Lizardmen, deflecting bullets with their shields or glancing them off helmets and armor, stood their ground, serving momentarily as living shields for the Empire's soldiers behind them. They only turned their heads to look at Lakrak.

"Night Sky has prophesied that this day, when the Angry One from the Union Kingdom is defeated, will be a day of celebration in the future. So today marks the first day of the festival! Who among you wishes to miss out?"

Tatar said, "I have never even seen our usually reserved second-in-command miss a drinking session."

Then Sairan Muel coughed and said, "I am only aware of manners."

"Ha, the most excellent drinker who even sits at the table with His Majesty speaks so."

The warriors laughed heartily.

It didn’t feel like a battlefield. A mysterious vitality filled all the soldiers.

"Today, I will get drunk on the tears and blood of the Angry One. Those who wish to join the feast, follow me!"

Lakrak spurred the flank of Anakse. Together with their king, the warriors charged out. The commander in the trench raised the unit flag high.

"The one who clears the path is with us! Hold the defense line!"

Lakrak and the warriors aimed for the giant guardians, tanks, and walking armors, which had been too much for the Empire's insufficient firepower to handle. The warriors smashed through the guardians of the Angry One, shattering tanks and walking armors as they advanced, and behind them, the remaining infantry were annihilated by the Empire's bullets. However, their momentum did not reach the end of the coast.

"...Lakrak!"

Something plunged from the sky, crashing down with a thunderous impact.

Even the walking armors of the Union Kingdom and the formidable warriors of Lakrak’s were repelled by the massive reverberation, as Lakrak twisted Anakse’s reigns. Lakrak hurled his spear in midair and then charged toward someone.

"The day of the decisive battle has come! ...Salkait!"

Salkait, the first apostle of the Angry One, laughed and stood up.

"The day has finally arrived, Lakrak. Today, we shall stake our lives."

Lakrak simply smiled without a reply and spurred Anakse’s flank once more.

Now called a divine bird rather than a monstrous bird, Anakse let out a piercing cry and then, with a step, became faster than any other creature, nearly approaching the speed of sound with its second burst, and by the third, it had become faster than sound itself.

In an instant, Lakrak and Anakse turned into a streak of lightning and crashed into Salkait.

…Boom!

Suddenly, the sky and earth split, creating fissures. The lightning-drawn crack rose into the sky, and the earth's fissure widened slightly, crumbling inside.

"The two apostles are clashing! All units, detour!"

The command was given, but it was not an advantageous one for the Union Kingdom. Due to Lakrak taking the battleground for his duel with Salkait, the areas where the Union Kingdom could attack were narrowed. This favored the Empire in the artillery warfare since they were now on the defense.

Of course, Salkait wouldn’t just watch this unfold, but the Union Kingdom, unable to stop their attacks, had to suffer the consequences first.

"...Now, to the red land."

Someone recited the prayer of the order of the Angry One and plunged into the barrage of fire.

***

Alma Alloy assessed the situation while the flagship was crashing. None of the fronts were doing well. At the very end of the transport fleet, which could be considered the rear guard, Madman Toolbo and the submarine fleet were attacking.

The Angry One had deployed a creation, but it was killed by Toolbo's walking armor, and instead of creating more creature creations, the Angry One turned some of the existing fleet around to face the submarines. However, none of the battleships had proper weapons to counter submarines.

Already, about a dozen ships had sunk without much resistance, and the soldiers were trying desperately to swim to the shore. But those who had thrown away their guns to avoid sinking wouldn’t be able to fight properly even if they reached the shore.

They were losing the naval battle they had thought they had the upper-hand in with the emergence of the submarine.

The Empire had entrusted the attack on the transport ships to their submarine fleet and engaged in a battle with the Union Kingdom’s ships. Moreover, as some of the Union Kingdom’s ships broke away to protect their transports, the tide of the battle was turning.

‘If it continues like this, the artillery fire from the Union Kingdom's fleet will be directed toward the coast when their numbers are further reduced.’

Even without this concern, the situation on the Rasdasil coast wasn’t very good. They had destroyed the coastal fortress with great momentum, but the delays Night Sky had brought about with whirlwinds and the Union Kingdom’s subsequent defeat in aerial combat had led to continuous bombardment from the Empire’s airships.

‘That reminds me, the fight in the sky is…’

Originally, after the fall of the Sky Castle, Laitla had planned to assist Ankarde and advance together. However, the Apostles Aruna and Mazdari were a problem.

Mounted on Aruna, Mazdari gained mobility and persistently tormented Laitlla, who failed to protect the fleet of airships. Laitla itself had not yet suffered significant damage, but a command for Laitla to descend to the ground would be unwise. If Laitla were to come down, Mazdari would follow, and to Alma's eyes, both held similar destructive powers.

Apostle Aruega complied with the command of the Angry One and took a detour, while Apostle Bounda faced Apostle Obin, who was targeting the rear. Conversely, Apostle Ankarde, while attempting to enter the trenches, was blocked by Apostle Redin BR Oser.

The outcomes of those two battles were unclear, but in the current situation, merely maintaining a stalemate offered little hope. By far, the most significant battle was the one between Apostle Salkait and Apostle Lakrak. This battle that would be mythologized in the distant future was such that even soldiers armed with modern weapons couldn’t approach properly.

‘...At this rate.’

Defeat seemed inevitable.

Alma felt a surge of embarrassment at the fact that such a thought had occurred to her, but as the Angry One's adviser, she reminded herself to assess the situation realistically.

‘...I must report this.’

Not far away, the Empire's flagship, World Watcher, was flying. However, it seemed that they weren’t greatly concerned by the flagship.

Although Alma had never faced Dordol in person, she felt she could read their thoughts well. Despite the relatively large size and slow speed of the World Watcher, it seemed in a hurry to drop its huge payload of bombs, stocked for such occasions, on the heads of the Union Kingdom’s forces. A choice Alma herself would have made.

Their situation was not much better than the Union Kingdom's flagship, but the critical difference was that instead of crashing, it was still flying. A damaged airship could be repaired, but a crashing one couldn’t.

Alma Alloy called her God.

-O Angry One...

-Don’t say anything for a moment.

Hegemonia paused briefly. Then she replied.

-I know what you want to say. I will change the course of the battle within ten minutes. Launch a general offensive with the Apostles.

-...Understood.

Despite the absurdity of the declaration to reverse the unfavorable situation in just ten minutes, Alma neither denied nor doubted those words. If the Angry One said it was possible, it was. However, the implication of that fact made her heart ache.

-We will win this war.

-...It will be as you wish.

The Angry One began to move.

***

At the rear of the battlefield, aboard a Fiend-class battleship tasked with bringing down the submarine, an Ogre burst into the main gun control room. The Ogre was merely a private, and they had no special expertise in operating the main gun. However, when the Ogre opened their eyes and mouth, the personnel in the gun control room hurriedly stepped aside.

"By the name of the Angry One, I command, step aside."

There was no way the soldiers of the Union Kingdom wouldn’t recognize who it was. This Ogre private was possessed by divine fire, eyes were filled with burning flames.

Hegemonia, who used Divine Control to assume the body of the Ogre private, operated the main gun and fired it straightaway. The captain on the bridge was startled by the unauthorized fire, but after seeing where the shell hit, they stayed silent. The shell hit precisely on Toolbo's walking armor that had just leaped above the water's surface. It was a miracle.

Hegemonia left the body of the Ogre private and turned her gaze toward the coast. Then, she entered the body of a Gnoll corporal closest to her own apostle, the Goblin Bounda. Hegemonia, now in the Gnoll's body, dashed forward and struck a powerful blow to the Bombing Horse Obin Mabru, whom Bounda was facing. It was a speed neither of the Apostles could match.

Assuming control over the Gnoll, Hegemonia looked up to pursue Obin, who had been sent flying.

"Bounda."

"...How could the Angry One be here?"

"It would be wise to distance yourself from me."

"...?"

When Bounda gave them a puzzled look, the Gnoll showed the time bomb wrapped around their arm. Obin Mabru had put it around their arm when the attack hit.

Bounda nodded and ran away, while the Gnoll pulled out a dagger from their chest and swiftly cut off their own arm and threw it.

However, before the arm could fly far, the time bomb exploded, engulfing the Gnoll.

'...Did it luckily explode just after I got out?'

Hegemonia furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, and then turned to observe the battlefield where Ankarde and Redin BR Oser were fighting.

'Because of his knights, the Troll apostle is hard to harm with the strength of body alone even with Divine Control.'

The situation in the Sky Castle was similar. There were currently no soldiers from the Union Kingdom in the sky. While she could use Divine Control on Laitla, it would be better for Laitla to fight on its own.

'Then...'

Hegemonia decided to turn the tide of battle. First, she entered the body of a sniper Kobold holding a sniper rifle. Then she immediately deactivated Divine Control.

'...60 seconds. 59 seconds. 58 seconds...'

After deactivating the skill, there was a 60-second delay.

Hegemonia thought that 60 seconds was enough time to accomplish what needed to be done, and indeed, it was done according to her will.

The sniper took aim with the gun, first targeting the Empire’s walking armor, which was most annoying. With the fire of a single bullet, the projectile burrowed into the gap of the walking armor's body, bounced off the internal armor, and finally embedded itself in the neck of the pilot.

After confirming the walking armor's collapse, Hegemonia reloaded the bolt-action sniper rifle. Next was the machine gunner stationed in the trench. Just one shot neutralized the machine gun nest, stopped a tank in its tracks, and took out a squad leader.

In just 60 seconds, after performing miracles, the Kobold felt the god within them depart their body and was immediately hit by a shell falling from above, killed. Such events were unfolding all over the battlefield.

Hegemonia became part of the special forces, penetrating enemy lines and seizing a trench, became an engineer, detonating bombs to carve new paths, and then controlled a walking armor, turning other walking armors of the Empire into scrap metal.

And just as she had said so herself, before ten minutes had passed, the tide of the battle had indeed begun to tilt in favor of the Union Kingdom.

***

Even so, the Pantheon wasn’t demoralized.

Wisdom said, "So, she did use it after all."

"Yes,” Sung-Woon agreed. "With Hegemonia starting to consume faith, the second plan has come to an end. Hegemonia can no longer challenge the Large Area."

Then Sung-Woon got up from his seat and said, "If we just hold on, it’ll be our victory."