“However, can you really go alone?”
Kneeling before the anxious Hilbert, Lawrence powerfully struck his chest.
“If that is Your Majesty’s command, I, as your loyal subject—”
“Enough of that! Can you do it alone or not? What are the chances of success?! Speak objectively.”
Chastised, Lawrence thought for a moment before stating his opinion, seeming hesitant to speak.
“It is a result of my own inadequacies, but to be perfectly honest, I would say the chances are less than fifty-fifty.”
“Then you should use the same tactic as when we repelled them the other day.”
Hilbert said this as if it were a matter of course, but this time it was Lawrence who looked surprised.
“…Are you sure? Our other forces will be spread thin. In that case, the danger to your person…”
Lawrence seemed concerned.
The more forces gathered to ensure the subjugation force’s certain victory, the thinner the defenses would be in an emergency. If Hilbert were to be slain, it would all be for naught.
But Hilbert had not grown desperate.
He wore a ferocious expression, like a cornered beast baring its fangs.
“We still have that, do we not, Lawrence?”
“!!”
“Even if that is something on loan from the Federation, no one at this point would complain about us using it in this situation.”
His words also carried a tone that seemed to keep Lawrence himself in check.
“B-But, are you truly sure…?”
“What of it? It’s common practice to use weapons left behind by the enemy on the battlefield. Or are you dissatisfied with me simply painting over the Federation’s national emblem?”
“D-Dissatisfied? Of course not!
To strike down those who sided with the Federation with a sword of the Federation. Indeed, this too shall be a wonderful form of poetic justice.
Then… I shall entrust His Majesty’s protection to that.”
From the bell tower of a small shrine in the southern part of the city, Renée was watching the castle.
This small shrine had been abandoned and was unmanned, so she had made it her provisional headquarters. Since there was nothing to protect anyway, a place to spread out a map and arrange the Callers was all she needed. Beyond that, being able to block the wind and arrows was sufficient.
To Renée, the sanctuary felt as eerie and repulsive as an underground sewer, but the holy aura wasn’t strong enough to interfere with her actions.
Sometimes, a single grand temple is not enough for a city, especially one as large as the royal capital.
There were numerous small shrines scattered throughout the capital, serving as places for citizens to visit for their daily prayers. These were called minor shrines, or sometimes churches. In some cases, they were dedicated specifically to the gods who assisted the Great God.
In any case, religious buildings were sturdy and impressive, second only to military facilities. Not a bad choice for a temporary base.
A glance upward revealed a hippogriff, set ablaze by a wyvern zombie’s fire, plummeting from the sky.
The battle in the air was also reaching its conclusion.
Fighting for extended periods in the sky was an unnatural situation for humans to begin with. The tireless undead were picking off the living, whose movements had begun to lack their earlier sharpness. Since the battle had been a precarious stalemate, once their line began to crumble and their numbers dwindled, the end was swift.
“Oh?”
Suddenly, Renée noticed that the drawbridge of the closed castle gate was being lowered.
“Doesn’t look like a welcoming party or the ‘empty fort stratagem‘.”
Crossing the drawbridge was… someone who looked like a knight, though it was too far to see clearly. Following behind was a single group of several dozen people.
She recognized this formation.
—So you’re finally making your appearance…!
Kicking off the roof, Renée jumped down and grabbed onto the eaves of a second-floor window, dangling there. Her left hand held her own head, while her right, holding her sword, supported her body with some difficulty, making her a bit unstable.
“Alaster, the great Captain of the First Knightly Order is sallying forth!”
Called to from the window, Alistair, who had been looking over a map inside the room, stood up and opened it.
“Sooner than expected.”
“Yes. We’ll be making our move as well.”
Renée let go, kicked off the wall, and landed on the ground below. She didn’t forget to hold down her skirt.
Passing through a garden that seemed to have once been used for growing medicinal herbs, Renée stepped into the cemetery adjacent to the church.
A host of grotesque figures loitered in the dreary graveyard, which was filled with nothing but tombstones.
There were skeletons and ghouls in knightly armor. A robed skeletal mage, a lich, its eyes glowing eerily. Zombies dressed like adventurers. This was her elite unit, which had been guarding the palanquin the entire time. Mixed in were some ‘locally procured’ units—knights who had been killed and reanimated as undead.
An undead’s abilities vary depending on their skills in life and the power invested in them. This elite unit was composed of champions who would likely not be outmatched even against the remaining members of Lawrence’s First Knightly Order.
The undead soldiers, lined up in neat rows, knelt in unison, showing their fealty to Renée. Seeing this, Renée smiled.
“Now… let’s go and destroy Ciel-Terra.”
The grotesque army closed in on the royal castle from all directions.
They flooded the main boulevards, blocked even the alleys, and tightened their siege, leaving not enough room for a single rat to escape.
The soldiers who had been capturing the city walls and those who had been carrying out tasks in various parts of the city all gathered and advanced.
“By the way, I heard there’s a magical weapon on the castle walls capable of wiping out an entire main street?” Renée asked Alistair through her Caller while walking at the head of the army on the southern main street.
“‘Using that would leave the castle walls defenseless for a time. When fighting a transcendent mage like Your Highness, it is not something they should use.'”
“I see.”
“‘In fact, if they had used it, we could have settled things in an instant in exchange for the sacrifice of some soldiers. But there is no sign of that.'”
Geometric lines of pale blue light ran across the target castle walls. It was a magical defense formula. Its energy was supplied by the land’s mana and the magic stones set in the walls. Unlike the previous holy magic barrier, its only power was to ‘prevent destruction by magic,’ but it was a tough defense, at a level that even René would find difficult to break.
Aggressive magical weaponry was usually installed in such places, but the question of where to procure the enormous amount of energy, which humans could not supply, came back to the same source as the wall’s defense: the mana held by the land.
Because of this, going on the offensive would apparently leave their defenses neglected. If that wall’s magic defense value were zero, Renée could probably destroy half of it in a single blow.
Of course, they could have supplemented this by installing a secondary defense mechanism powered by a large number of magic stones… but this was the limit of the small nation of Ciel-Terra.
“Well, we’ll just have to attack normally, then.”
“‘Yes. Please be careful, as we expect them to use fixed cannons that launch ≪Fireballs≫. Though since the enemy’s flying cavalry is nearly annihilated, they will likely be used for anti-aircraft fire.'”
“I’ll keep an eye out, just in case.”
Renée advanced triumphantly towards the group of knights.
But along the way, she noticed something strange.
The castle gate was wide open.
Now that it had disgorged Lawrence, there should be no reason to leave the gate open.
And yet, the castle wall still gaped open.
—What are they planning?
“‘Slap all the remaining talismans on them! These things don’t need enhancement buffs anyway!'”
Suddenly, a loud voice, seemingly from the gate tower, echoed out. It was magically amplified.
The words were likely directed to those inside the castle gate.
—Is that the voice of a frontline commander…? Or could it be Hilbert himself?
The ground trembled with a thud.
“‘Dreadnought-class Mithril Golems, Unit 1 “Phoenix”! Unit 2 “Naglfar”! Launch!!'”
Giant humanoid shadows appeared.
The gaping castle gate was likely four or five meters high, yet they had to crouch down awkwardly to pass through it.
They looked like giant suits of full-body armor come to life. A heavy, angular form. Their grayish-silver bodies shone brilliantly, reflecting the sunlight.
It messed with one’s sense of perspective. Two colossal figures, so massive you’d worry they might shatter the drawbridge stretched over the moat, appeared from behind the knights.
“…Giant robots?”
“‘They are golems, Your Highness.'”
Alistair corrected her over the Caller.
“‘Judging by their names, I surmise they are large-scale combat golems on loan from the Federation.'”
“Hmph… For all their grumbling about being anti-Federation, they sure don’t hesitate to use their stuff when it’s convenient.”
On the shoulders of the two golems were marks that looked as if they’d been painted over. It seemed they had blotted out the Federation’s national emblem.
The Jireshatar Federation, Ciel-Terra’s former ally (or perhaps suzerain state?), was famous for its combat golems.
Although Ciel-Terra was a producer of Glaselm, which was used in the circuits of high-end golems, it did not produce advanced golems itself. This was a matter of both the cost of manufacturing and maintenance, and a lack of technical skill.
While there had been opinions and movements to create ‘domestically produced golems!’, they had only ever managed to produce the same generic golems made by any other country. The prevailing opinion was that it was cheaper and better to sell the Glaselm and lease or buy from the Federation.
Federation-made combat golems, which called themselves the “Fortress of Humanity.”
Among them, the high-end models were said to be a major military asset, capable of rivaling even high-ranking adventurers.
Mithril is relatively lightweight, but a body that massive would have enough mass to blow away a dozen undead soldiers with a single lariat.
In addition, mithril itself is inherently strong against magical attacks, and with talismans added on top, their magic defense would be hopelessly high.
“Do talismans even work on golems? That’s insane…”
“‘Yes, they are effective. Therefore, in this case, they should be taken down with physical attacks.'”
“…Can you do it?”
“‘It’s an unknown, but there is hope.'”
She couldn’t imagine how they could possibly deal with something that looked like a barbell weight using physical attacks, but Alistair’s answer showed no hesitation.
“‘At worst, we will be able to hold them in place.'”
“If you say so, I’ll leave it to you. I’m going to lure out Lawrence and fight him, so I’m counting on you to handle the castle.”
“‘As you wish.
…Your Highness, I wish you good fortune in battle.'”