CH 216

“The Saintess was very firm in her opinions… It doesn’t seem like she has been threatened, but maybe she has been brainwashed. Ah… If only I had better talking skills to convince her,” Dismas said, sighing.

“So you’re saying that there is no change in your opinion, Doctrinal General Dismas?” Imil asked.

Dismas looked at Imil with a strange expression.

“Change in my opinion? Why would there be a change in my opinion? There is no doubt that the holy body that we are serving in Cabragh right now belongs to His Majesty, and His Holiness acting on behalf of His Majesty to execute his will is proof of that. But the Saintess is not listening to me when I say so…”

Dismas clicked his tongue and looked out of the wall.

“Well, that will change after I cut off that fake emperor’s neck. Defeating the fake emperor is an important matter for everyone.”

The Capital Army was in the midst of the preparations for the charge, ready to attack at any moment. Siege equipment that was usually only seen in the siege war was nowhere to be found in the Capital Army. This was not only due to their rapid advance, but also because they did not need it, since they had Juan on their side.

“But it won’t be that easy this time,” Dismas muttered to himself.

The wall wouldn’t be easily destroyed by magic attacks this time, since it had already been blessed by Helmut. At the same time, Helmut had become quite accustomed to using Telgramm. In addition, only the elites of the Western Army were gathered in the fortress of Cabragh.

“Please begin, Your Holiness,” Dismas spoke briefly.

***

“They are moving.”

Pavan lay down atop the ridge to keep his eyes on Cabragh.

The Capital Army had completed the preparations for the charge, but they couldn’t rush toward the wall, since they were without any help from Juan. Although Juan wasn’t with them at the moment, they knew that his signal for them to begin the attack would be clear enough to be visible to everyone.

At that moment, a huge spire built to the West of Cabragh began to tilt. The tower tilted at an angle and cast a huge shadow across all of Cabragh.

Seeing this, the Imperial soldiers grew perplexed, while Pavan focused on the reaction of the western soldiers.

The western soldiers barely showed any reaction—which meant that they had already seen such a thing several times.

“Everyone in the cave!”

A brown flag was raised at Pavan’s instruction. A procession of brown flags soon rose like a series of dominoes along the ridge. The imperial soldiers quickly ducked into the caves that they had burrowed out, but Pavan stood up to stare at the tower instead of hiding like the others.

“Captain! That’s dangerous!”

Despite the knights’ concerns, Pavan refused to take his eyes off of the tower. The tower was tilted at such a sharp angle that any other ordinary tower would have already collapsed, but it was still standing strong as it aimed toward the East.

Just as Pavan was wondering when the attack might begin, a terrible wave of heat suddenly surged along with a huge clump of light. The hot wind swept over the ridge along with a roar that was loud enough to rip one’s eardrums.

At the same time, Pavan was pushed down the ridge by a sudden gust of wind.

“Captain!”

However, Pavan soon raised himself up once again and stared at the location where the beam of light passed by. A small rocky mountain had completely disappeared. Despite the soldiers hiding in the caves, all that remained in that place was ash and melted rocks that were boiling to form a stream.

The surroundings were full of soldiers screaming in chaos. A small troop was wiped out in an instant, and so, Pavan’s reaction was simple.

“There is no point in hiding. Get ready to charge right away.”

“I’m sorry? But Captain… We have yet to receive His Majesty’s instruction to…”

“His Majesty probably knows better than anyone that now is the right time to charge if he doesn’t want to see the whole army getting wiped out. Charge!”

At the same time, the knights ordered the soldiers to charge upon hearing Pavan’s instruction.

Soon, the Imperial soldiers rose like wildfire from atop the ridge and began to advance fiercely toward Cabragh.

Meanwhile, Pavan followed the soldiers on his horse, since it was better to directly jump into the battle and lead from the field in a battle where the situation could be changed due to the interference of powerful beings.

Pavan charged forward while shouting an insincere slogan.

“For His Majesty!”

The soldiers and the knights repeated the slogan in a single loud voice. The scene of such a huge number of troops charging toward the huge wall looked like a flock of moths jumping into flames.

Meanwhile, Telgramm slightly changed its position to aim toward the Imperial soldiers again.

Meanwhile, Juan watched the whole scene from the wall of Cabragh which was the target that the Imperial Army was charging toward.

“Well, I guess Pavan is doing things his own way.”

Juan muttered to himself, but he had no complaints; he too would have ordered the charge if he was in Pavan’s position. Although preparations were not yet complete, there was no time to hesitate in a situation where the troops waiting on standby over the mountain could be wiped out in an instant.

Just then, Juan shook off his hands and was getting ready to move, when he suddenly encountered the western soldiers.

“Who is it!?”

Juan stopped upon hearing the voice asking for his identity.

Meanwhile, the western soldiers were perplexed to see a black-haired man wearing unusual-looking armor while standing with iron pins stuck all around him. It was only after they saw the bodies scattered all over the place that they realized all the ‘iron pins’ were actually the armors and weapons of the dead western soldiers.

The western soldiers’ mouths widened in shock, since they couldn’t understand how Juan had managed to slaughter dozens of people without making a single sound.

“What… what’s going on…?”

“I recommend jumping down the wall if you wish to live,” Juan said.

The western soldiers looked under the wall without even realizing it. The wall seemed to be at least tens of meters tall, causing the soldiers to turn their heads back toward Juan, thinking that he was crazy.

However, Juan was nowhere to be found. Then the soldiers belatedly spotted Juan, who was running down the wall.

“But how…”

At that moment, another beam of light was fired from Telegramm with a loud bang. Although Telgramm was the subject of fear among the western soldiers in the beginning, they were no longer impressed to see it fire; they had already seen their enemies getting ripped apart by Telgramms’ enormous power numerous times.

Yet, at that moment, beyond anyone’s expectations, the beam of light fired by Telgramm was bent at an irregular angle. And that was the last thing these soldiers ever saw.

The obliquely bent beam of light swept through the wall of Cabragh in a blink of an eye.

***

Crash! Crash! Crash!

Screams broke out from all directions when the beam of light fired by Telgramm swept through the wall of Cabragh.

Meanwhile, Dismas, who was smiling contentedly at the power that blew up a whole mountain up until just a moment ago, couldn’t understand what had happened just now.

Many soldiers and Giants helplessly disappeared without even leaving behind any ashes, while the soldiers whose bodies caught on fire jumped down the melted and broken walls with terrible screams.

Although the Pope’s blessing alleviated some of the damage, Telegramm was powerful enough to ignore such a blessing.

Shock and anger filled Dismas’ face.

“What is going on! Didn’t you tell me that His Holiness had already mastered how to handle Telgramm?”

Imil’s face turned beyond pale. He looked like he couldn’t understand this situation at all.

“It seems like something has gone wrong. I saw Telgramm bending in the air for a brief moment. Perhaps the enemies have messed with the Telgramm.”

“You’re telling me that the enemies can get their hands on Telgramm?” Dismas grabbed Imil by the collar.

“You said that Telgramm is a weapon that is capable of killing gods, you bastard! But I had been thinking that it’s power was not as strong as I had expected. Yet, I entrusted you to do whatever you wanted with it, since it looked useful enough, but you’re telling me that other people can use Telgramm as well now that the battle has begun!?”

Imil tapped on Dismas’s hand while hanging in the air. He couldn’t say a word, as he was being suffocated. When Dismas angrily threw Imil to the ground, Imil finally opened his mouth with difficulty while gasping for air.

“The only ones who can use Telgramm’s power to its maximum capability are the Hornsluines. Even if an ordinary human borrows the power of the emperor’s Grace, they can only use a part of Telgramm’s power. Although it’s true that Telgramm is a powerful weapon, its principle only uses a natural phenomenon. If we have enough energy and preparation, we can still…”

“Enough with your excuses.”

Dismas pushed Imil toward the stairs.

“Go to His Holiness and assist him right away. There better be no more mistakes… or else.”

Dismas glanced angrily at the wall. Cabragh’s wall, which was swept through by the beam of light fired from Telgramm, had turned into a total mess. One-third of the wall was destroyed and the Imperial forces were climbing along the collapsed area.

Seeing this, Dismas burst into a rage and directly jumped into the battlefield.

***

‘Telgramm’s bombardment has stopped.’

It was only natural for the enemy to be unable to use Telgramm again until they found out the cause behind it attacking their own allies and inflicting a fatal blow on their defensive line. Furthermore, the western army’s morale must have sunk to rock bottom, since they now knew that Telgramm could end up attacking them as well.

This was a relief for Juan. Changing Telgramm’s trajectory was only possible once, since Juan’s magic circle had been completely destroyed after one use.

In the meantime, Telgramm needed to be neutralized as quickly as possible.

At that moment, Juan flinched and paused for a moment upon finding Dismas commanding from atop the watchtower of the opposite wall. It was true that he had to kill Dismas. However, Telgramm’s bombardment could end up resuming if he were to go fight against Dismas at this moment.

Juan couldn’t help but compare the strategic value of both the choices.

Dismas wasn’t strong enough to change the complete situation of the battlefield, as long as he didn’t use Spirit Calling. At the same time, Telgramm was a very dangerous weapon.

Juan came to the conclusion that it would not be too late to return and face Dismas after he had completely disabled Telgramm, especially when considering that Sina did not participate in the war.

“Your Majesty!” Pavan shouted from a distance upon finding Juan. “Now!”

“I know.”

The Imperial Army was climbing over the collapsed walls to gradually attack Cabragh step by step, but the Imperial Army’s primary enemy was not there. At the same time, the Imperial Cavalry was fiercely charging toward the gates under Pavan’s command.

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Juan felt bitter upon seeing Pavan accurately following his instructions. Pavan was a talented man who was not only good at swordsmanship, but also had remarkable intelligence as a leader.

At that moment, Juan flew through the sky like an arrow released by a bow. The soldiers couldn’t even see Juan flying over their heads.

Juan slowly ignited Sutra, while stomping a few times in the air to gain more acceleration. Meanwhile, the soldiers had an illusion of a meteor passing over their heads.

In the meantime, the knight running at the forefront of the line could see the thick grain of the gate. His heart was beating so loudly that it was almost as if it could blow up at any moment. He was also out of breath. He suddenly thought that he might just end up becoming a part of the gate’s pattern if he slammed against the gate at such a speed.

Then the knight shouted loudly without even realizing it and crashed into the gate after panting for a while.

“For His Majesty!”

At that moment, Cabragh’s gate was smashed and shattered into pieces with a loud bang. The knight running at the forefront of the line was the first to jump into Cabragh while facing the debris of the broken gate. The soldiers who had been waiting on stand by behind the gates were instantly trampled by the knight’s war horse and collapsed.

The Imperial Army quickly began to flood in through the broken gate. Their attack was clean and well-connected, with no separation between the time the gate was broken and the time the soldiers charged in.

The knight in the lead could see Juan holding the burning Sutra in front of him. The knight shouted the emperor’s name while constantly slaughtering the western soldiers he could see all around one by one.

That’s when the knight saw something strange standing in front of him.

It was a Giant.

The knight thought that it was one of the Giant slaves, but the Giant standing in front of him was so huge that he was quite a bit bigger than the ordinary Giants. The moment the knight looked up at the Giant in bewilderment, the Giant also looked down at the knight.

The Giant had a shaggy black beard and was wearing an eyepatch on one of its eyes.

At that moment, the knight remembered a name that he had only read in fairytale books.

“Helgrim…”

Then, the knight was trampled beneath the Giant’s foot and disappeared in just an instant.

The Giant let out a loud roar.

At the same time, the Giants who had helplessly collapsed to the ground, as well as the giants who had been fighting unconsciously raised their heads at once. All of them also let out a loud road—it was almost as if they were responding to the roar of the Giant with the eyepatch.

“It’s King of the Giants! Giant King Helgrim!”

A fearful cry broke out among the soldiers. The identity of the Giant was Helgrim, the king of the Giants, known to be the first among those killed by Dismas and turned into Cainheryars. While he wasn’t as strong as resurrected gods, his strength did not need to be lowered forcibly unlike the other gods—the resurrected gods needed to have their strength forcibly lowered in order to prevent the complete resurrection of the gods.

Helgrim, who had played the role of the villain in all kinds of stories for hundreds of years, caused everyone on the battlefield to be immensely fearful—to them, it was as if he had popped out of the fairytale books they read as children.

Few of the Giants shook off the people who had been controlling them and ran toward Helgrim.

Meanwhile, Helgrim looked around and upon finding Juan, started heading toward him.

However, Juan was not even looking at Helgrim.

Helgrim tried to follow Juan as soon as he saw Juan moving, but he came to a stop when he felt a sudden pain coming from his left calf.

Upon turning his head, he saw Pavan glaring at him with a grotesque smile.

“Do you think you are worthy of His Majesty’s attention? I am your opponent. I’ll make sure to chew you up thoroughly and then spit you out.”