The Duke’s Eldest son Escaped to the Military (221)
Translator: Master of Djinn
The Great Southern War (4)
The ancient gods were able to recreate some of their past powers through the apostles of the fallen gods. It seemed this time would be more tricky than even when they faced the colossus in the southeast.
However, the colossus they had faced that time was a bit stronger. Its power had been an amalgamation of several different powers, so even after its body had formed, those powers seemed to overflow from its body.
Despite that, the ancient gods before Iron’s eyes were tricky to handle. Although their strengths had weakened a little, there were several of them, while there had only been one at that time.
-The Lord God’s lion! Let’s go for a round!
A giant toad on two feet lifted a giant mana spear. Despite being inside the body of a fallen, Iron could still feel the power of the ancient god even from afar.
‘So a god is still a god even if their class drops?’
Even though its rank had dropped, the pressure it exerted was still considerable, as was expected of someone that had once been a god. Given that it was still this strong even though its rank had dropped severely, it was enough to make one worry about what the external gods would be like.
-Come out right now!
Upon hearing what the toad ancient god had to say, the other ancient gods began speaking provocatively too. After watching the ancient gods who were eager to fight him for a moment, Iron looked back.
“It will be hard to look after you all while I fight those ones.”
Iron said to his commanding officers. The faces of the commanding officers behind him and those of the commanding officers seen via the communicating device were grave, but there was no thread of fear on their faces.
“Ariel.”
-Yes, sir!
“Gaon.”
“Yes, sir!”
With a serious expression on his face, Iron looked at Ariel, who was on the comms device, and at Gaon, captain of Raven, as they answered his calls.
“I will leave him for the both of you to deal with.”
Iron was going to play his cards with Ariel and Gaon taking on master-level Muradin, who was in charge of the southern confederation’s city defence. He had thought of assigning the task to Saeriden and the Knight’s division of the defence troops, but he decided against it after some deliberation. Even if he put in both the Knights’ division and Storm Troops, there was no guarantee that they could stop a master. So he decided to take a gamble.
“Besides me, you two are the strongest in the Mobile Field Army. I’ll leave the master to you two to handle.”
Both Ariel and Gaon had received rewards and become several times stronger. It was true that their powers were still incomplete, but they were very close to becoming masters, which was why he decided to entrust them with this task.
“Just hold on for a while. Can you do that?”
-Yes, sir!
“Please leave this to us, sir.”
Iron nodded upon hearing their answers.
“I trust you.”
After saying that, Iron turned to the other commanding officers.
“Starting now, Cardro is in charge of all the air force units of the Mobile Field Army.”
-Yes, sir!
“Saeriden will be in charge of the defence troops. I will give Faulden authority to temporarily lead Raven, and Carl the authority to take charge of the troops, to make sure that there is no shortage of supplies. The defence troop leaders may have complaints, but we are at war here, so swallow your complaints if you have any. Understood?”
-Understood!
All the commanding officers responded loudly.
“I will trust in you all and head out to deal with those corrupted things. Take care of things cleanly until I return.”
-Yes, sir!
Once he expressed his confidence in them, Iron jumped from the battleship. As if it had been waiting for him, Two Moons placed Iron on its back and flew high into the sky, Phoenix and Thunderbird by its sides. With the appearance of the divine beasts that had become the trademark of the Mobile Field Army, the imperial army’s morale began to rise quickly.
“Where is he going!?”
Muradin shouted angrily as he watched Iron fly away. Meanwhile, two people came flying in front of him, one a beauty with silver hair, and the other a young man with blue-tinted silver hair. Muradin’s face stiffened when he saw them.
“He left the two of you to deal with me?”
Muradin stared at the two young people before him. They were the Empire’s famous Ariel and Gaon Temphet. The two were certainly talented individuals who would take charge of the Empire’s future, and who were very likely to surpass Muradin in the future.
But not at this moment.
“How dare he……”
Force rolled off Muradin as he looked at the pair in anger. Even if he was one of the weakest among the masters, it was a blight on his honour for two people who were only at 6th stage to come to fight him. As he thought of how the two 6th stage people, not a knight or even magicians, had been sent to block him, his aura began to overflow.
“If this was meant to humiliate me, I think you have done a great job.”
Muradin said as he created a large aura blade.
“I will definitely take this humiliation up with your commander.”
Ariel raised her sword in response.
“Feel free to bring it up with him after we win.”
Ariel injected mana into her sword as said politely, giving due to the master. She could not manifest mana like a master, but the mana in her sword was well above average.
“That……”
“It was my reward for winning against you all.”
It was star power. As it entered her sword, the sword gained an immense amount of power.
“So that’s what gave you the confidence to fight me. Just that! In that case, I will show you how arrogant you are being.”
Muradin said as he ran towards Ariel.
“By paying with your life.”
As he finished those words, Muradin’s sword came down in a straight line. Of course, Muradin was aware that Ariel was an expert in quick swords, and made his next move with hers in mind. But then…
“Huh?”
Strangely, Ariel did not react one bit and remained standing where she was. When he saw that Ariel did not avoid his attack, Muradin was puzzled. But he soon came to know why. He could see that her sword was changing minutely. At some point, his body had become covered in frost.
‘It’s strong enough to affect even a master’s body?’
As he thought that, Ariel’s sword came at his neck at the fastest speed Ariel could reach. But it was not that easy to beat a master. Muradin managed to narrowly block Ariel’s sword and then stepped backwards. Ariel did not miss the opportunity and continued to attack. Her decision to attack was quite bold, but it was the right one.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
In just a few seconds, Ariel made several moves. But Muradin blocked all of them, even when the situation was especially unfavourable for him, showing the strength worthy of the title of master.
“Hmm……”
Looking at the several wounds on his arms and sides, Muradin got lost in thought. The sword was able to cut through a master’s aura, and because it had cold qi too, so the wounds were not even healing.
“You tricked me?”
Ariel had attacked Muradin with her quick sword, drawing his attention and allowing Gaon Temphet to make the real blow. He had been aware of what was happening, but as time went by, his reaction had slowed down.
“Hoo…… It’s quite cold.”
As Muradin said that, he brought his aura to max strength. At the same time, he used the skill he’d received from the ancient gods.
Ariel’s eyes darkened as she saw the wavelength of his aura change. She wondered if they would be able to beat the master if he went all out. But soon, she had to focus her attention on Muradin’s sword.
“I’ll admit it, you are strong. But not strong enough to stop a master. I’ll prove that to you.”
Before they knew it, hundreds of steel swords containing Muradin’s aura had formed in the sky, each of them wielding tremendous power.
‘The commander had easily dealt with this power?’
‘He’s a monster, that’s for sure.’
Ariel and Gaon stiffened as they watched the steel swords rain down on them.
What was one to do if their opponent came forth with all their might? The answer was to put their lives on the line and draw on every iota of strength that they had. Gaon and Ariel looked at each other and nodded. The moment their eyes met, Ariel quickly stepped back, and Gaon released all of his power. The ground became covered in frost, after which the surroundings filled with swords made of cold qi that clashed against the steel swords.
“Huh….. are you trying to freeze this old man to death?”
Muradin laughed leisurely inside the cold qi that was almost at absolute zero, wrapping his entire body in aura. Without giving them time to react, he rushed at Gaon, maintaining the deluge of steel swords. The steel swords containing aura completely smashed Gaon’s cold qi swords, and flew at Gaon.
To block the swords, Gaon whirled his sword and created a cold qi storm, but it was to no avail. Muradin’s blow broke through Gaon’s skills, even though Gaon had done his best. That was the difference between the master’s skills and Gaon’s. Even Muradin who had been judged a weakling among the masters on the continent was able to beat Gaon who was a veritable genius.
Despite that, Gaon’s face remained calm. In fact, he even had a slight smile on his face.
“Excellent.”
Muradin smiled as he saw hundreds of meteors falling from the sky. That was Ariel’s swordplay at its greatest capacity. The meteors flew towards Muradin, destroying the rain of steel swords.
Booom!
The sound of explosions came from all around them. The meteors had caused craters to form, but Muradin walked out fine from the centre of all that.
“That was quite a blow just now.”
“……..”
“……..”
Ariel and Gaon remained silent at Muradin’s words. Muradin was fine even though they had forced him to lower his guard and surprise-attacked him. They had known that there was a gap between them and a master when they began the fight, but having seen this, they were now fully aware of the difference between them.
“I wonder how long you both will be able to keep me tied up here.”
As Muradin was speaking, the sound of a huge explosion came from afar. The sound was much larger than the sound that had been heard when Ariel, Gaon and Muradin were fighting, and spread through the entire city.
“I wonder…… Will things on that side end first, or will it be faster to cut you down and then join them over there?”
As Muradin said so, he reformed his aura blade. Ariel and Gaon also gathered all their strength to create mana swords.
While their fight started again, a fierce battle between Iron and the ancient gods that had entered the apostles’ bodies was going on where the loud explosion came from. Thunderbird faced off with a giant sky whale, Phoenix confronted an elephant that vomited flames, and Two Moons fought a giant spider that spewed poison. Meanwhile, Iron was entangled in a fierce battle with an enormous toad that was standing on two feet.
Iron alone was taking on four ancient gods.
But that was not all. Bbaepsae was releasing light beams to stop another apostle that was attempting to squeeze through the huge dimension gate.
Iron alone was fighting this secret move that the Southern Confederation had hidden.
Was it because of this sacrifice of his? The Mobile Field Army drew more strength and pushed back the troops of the southern confederation that were in the city. Cardro had established dominance in the air space with their outstanding air force and was bombarding the city, while Saeriden began to occupy the land. As if answering their call, the Southern Command army also began entering the city and began to build a camp.
“If this is all, I feel a bit… disappointed.”
Iron looked disappointed when he saw that their strength was less than he had expected. Seeing him like that, the expressions of the ancient gods became ugly. But they had no choice but to admit it. With their lessened powers, they could not beat the apostle of the Lord God. This monster had become stronger than they’d heard, and they could not take him on even though they had fused with the apostles of the corrupted gods.
– In the end, that’s all you’ve got?
–Hoo…… I knew it would turn out like this.
-I told you, that bastard’s a monster.
The ancient gods spoke, one after the other, while looking at the giant toad. Even the ancient god that had clamoured to fight Iron alone could only admit it. The divine beasts themselves were fierce, yes, but the human before them had unusual swordsmanship.
-He would have made a name for himself if he were in the mythological era.
Even the ancient god inside the giant toad said as it nodded.
-Hoo… we held on until now, this age of destruction… but things still ended up like this.
The giant toad said to Iron in a voice dripping with self-scorn, while Iron calmly looked at it. He did not know what role it had played during the mythological era, but it must have been at the level of a hero. He had become sure of that as he exchanged blow after blow with it.
-Well…… it was great to be able to fight like this at the end. I hope you overcome that wall. [1]
As the toad finished speaking, all the apostles’ bodies, except its, began disintegrating into powder. Seeing that, Iron and the divine beasts hurried towards the bunker that had been made by the Southern Confederation. However, the toad, who had remained until then, threw its body forwards to step them.
“Get out of the way!”
–Hoo… Hoo… I am curious whether you will be able to fight off ‘that thing’ too. I wanted to stay until the end to see… such a shame.
The moment the toad said that, the black light became stronger and the dimensional gates in the sky began to expand.
