Chapter 296: While He's Away (1)

Thick snowflakes, carried by fierce winds, pelted the earth from the sky. The slanting snowstorm was more ferocious than usual, so bitter that even lifelong residents of the Winter Continent trembled from the cold.

Yet on the Great Wall, the easternmost point of the Winter Continent, thousands of soldiers remained motionless, their gazes fixed on the horizon, undeterred by the savage blizzard.

Of course, not all were so composed.

Tak-tak.

On the castle wall, a young soldier’s spear tapped rhythmically against the ground. The faint vibrations traveled up his arm.

Tak-tak-tak.

This wasn’t the trembling caused by the cold.

It stemmed from tension and fear.

The tremors came from two senses heightened to an extreme.

Perhaps the senior soldier sensed the new recruit’s anxiety.

“Junior.”

“Yes? Oh, yes!”

The grizzled senior soldier, standing beside the young soldier, kept his eyes fixed forward as he spoke.

“Relax.”

“Right away!”

“Don’t you know that tense muscles increase your chances of dying? If you’re too tense, you’ll only manage one thrust when you should have done two. That one thrust could cost you your life—or your comrade’s.”

It was unclear whether these words were meant to soothe or further rattle the nerves.

But on the battlefield, warm comfort was a luxury.

Especially on the eve of battle.

The warmth that lingered in his heart was a useless emotion.

What he needed now was cold rationality, ambition, and the primal instinct to survive.

“We’ll survive today. But tomorrow, we’ll face death again. Even if each day is an extension of death’s shadow, strive to live, but never fear death. That is the mindset… every warrior of Kanburk must possess.”

“Ah…”

The trembling of the young soldier subsided as he listened to the senior soldier’s words.

The panic and fear in the new recruit’s eyes transformed into steely resolve.

“I’ll remember this!” the young soldier answered with conviction.

Boom… Boom…

A deep drumbeat echoed from somewhere nearby.

Then, astonishingly, the snowstorm gradually began to subside.

Boom… Boom… Boom…

As the drumbeats grew louder and faster, the soldiers gripped their weapons more tightly.

Boom-boom-boom!

The rhythmic beats sounded like a warning.

Boommm!

The final, prolonged reverberation echoed through the air.

Simultaneously, the fierce snowstorm ceased as if by magic, and the previously obscured horizon suddenly widened.

Gulp.

The clear view revealed the creatures that had unnerved the valiant warriors of the bitter cold.

Cr-r-rk.

Kieeeek!

They were demons—monstrous beings of grotesque appearance, the archfoes the Winter warriors had battled their entire lives.

The soldiers’ tension stemmed from a single, terrifying fact: the sheer number of demons.

Kieee!

Kuraaah!

This was no longer the simple raids of dozens or hundreds from the past. Now, they came in the thousands, sometimes tens of thousands. Today, it seemed nearly 30,000 demons had appeared.

High atop the watchtower, King Lokan VII of the Kanburk Kingdom watched the swarming demons advancing across the frozen Maha and let out a low groan.

“So many…”

The massive demon invasion had begun years ago, when the Maha, which had never been thought to freeze, suddenly froze over. That day marked the beginning of winters growing increasingly bitter, with temperatures plummeting and snowstorms raging without cease.

But the greatest problem were the demons. Twice or three times a week, massive hordes would invade alongside fierce snowstorms.

Without external assistance, even the Kanburk Kingdom would have crumbled by now.

Lokan VII watched the demons charging through the frozen Maha River and barked, “Prepare the Starlight Cannons!”

“Prepare to fire!”

Hwooooo!

The ram horn’s call, signaling the king’s order, echoed across the Great Wall.

Then…

Creeeech…

Massive cannon barrels across the wall aimed at the approaching demons.

As the demon horde drew closer, Lokan VII’s eyes flashed as he gauged the distance between them and the Starlight Cannons.

“Fire!”

Hwoot!

At the short horn signal, mystics channeled attribute power into the cannons.

In an instant, the Starlight Cannons erupted with light.

Kaboom! Kaboom!

The deafening blasts sent beams of light crashing down onto the demons charging toward the castle wall.

Kwarruum! Kaboom!

The roar of thunder echoed as the Starlight Cannon’s beam pierced through the demon horde in a straight line. In an instant, gaps appeared among the demons. But only a fraction of them had been eliminated. Unfazed by the attack, the demons continued their relentless charge.

The soldiers of the Great Wall, veterans of years of large-scale warfare, remained utterly composed, as if they had anticipated this very outcome.

“Archers, prepare!”

Whoosh!

At the command, the soldiers on the castle wall raised their bows.

“Fire!”

As the demons entered effective range, they unleashed a merciless volley of arrows.

Shwip, shwip, shwip, shwip…

The sky filled with a dense shower of arrows.

Thud, thud, thud…

Kaboom!

The arrows not only pierced the demons’ bodies but also detonated upon impact. Demons caught in the blasts collapsed, and those following behind stumbled and tangled in the chaos.

The demons had already been thinned out considerably by the first and second waves of ranged attacks.

Meanwhile, another command was issued:

“Open the castle gates!”

The order was relayed swiftly, and the response was equally rapid.

Creeeeeeeak!

The castle gates creaked eerily as they swung open. In fact, ten gates were opened in total.

Although the hail of arrows had slowed the demons’ advance, they still remained a mere 200 meters from the castle walls. Under such circumstances, opening the gates seemed like a suicidal move.

If one hadn’t witnessed what emerged through the gates, that’s precisely what they would have thought.

Thud… Thud…

The moment the gates swung open, a massive steel giant from the second rank charged forward. In their hands, they carried small Starlight Cannons. Their number totaled over a thousand.

Fwsssh… Boom!

In an instant, the Transcendent Machine Unit formed a single-file line and unleashed a barrage of Starlight Cannons at the demons.

Boom! Boom!

Where the light struck, chunks of demon flesh flew into the air.

When their mana ran out, they discarded the Starlight Cannons without hesitation and charged toward the demons, swinging their massive weapons.

Crash! Boom!

The Transcendents’ overwhelming dragon-like strength swept the demons aside like a snowstorm.

Swords, axes, spears, hammers—these colossal weapons, befitting the Transcendents, reduced the demons to pulp.

The performance of the particularly large Second-Class Transcendence Technique machines among the group was especially dazzling.

Occasionally, lower-tier Transcendents were overwhelmed and buried under swarms of demons, their efforts obscured.

Despite these setbacks, the Transcendents’ power was undeniable. The corpses of demons piled up around the Transcendent Machine Unit.

Despite their valiant efforts, countless demons breached the Transcendent era and closed in on the castle wall.

“They’re coming!”

“Infantry, prepare!”

“Hold the wall!”

The commanding voices of the unit leaders rang out, urging the seasoned soldiers to grit their teeth and rush to the wall. Below, demons climbed up using the bodies of their fallen kin as ladders.

“Stab them!”

“Uwaaah!”

“Die!”

Cries, screams, demonic roars, explosions, and the sickening sound of flesh tearing filled the air, mingling into a cacophony that swirled around the castle wall.

Those who fought to live, those who fought to kill, those who killed to survive.

If hell exists, this must be it.

The agonizing minutes stretched into eternity.

Cr-aaaaah!

Kieee!

Pfshuk!

Uwah!

How long had passed? The sounds swirling around the castle wall gradually faded, replaced by the triumphant cheers of the humans.

Waaaaah!

The corpses of demons littered the base of the castle wall.

Yet there were even more humans standing there.

Once again, a spontaneous cheer erupted from the joy of having survived.

That’s when it happened.

Dong… Dong… Dong…

The sound of the drum began to reverberate again.

The cheering stopped as abruptly as if someone had pressed a mute button.

The faces of the soldiers who had been celebrating moments before froze.

“Why again…?”

“How is this possible…?”

The drum’s purpose was to warn of a large-scale demon attack. Every time its deep resonance echoed, the demons inevitably struck. But until now, the drum had never sounded twice in a single day.

Dong-dong-dong!

The drum’s warning rhythm quickened, and once again, demons emerged beyond the Maha.

“Damn it!”

“They’ve really got us this time!”

“Those bastards!”

The soldiers gritted their teeth and gripped their weapons tightly.

Two assaults in one day.

The only consolation was that the second invasion seemed smaller in scale than the first.

Poooom!

The ram’s horn sounded from Command, signaling reorganization.

“Come on! Bring it!”

“We’ll kill every last one of you!”

The hardened men of Winter steeled themselves for the second fierce battle.

Crack!

Die!

Below the castle wall, the Transcendent Machines fought fiercely.

Above, the soldiers strained every muscle to repel the demons.

Though utterly exhausted, they clung to the hope that if they could just hold out this one last time, they might survive.

But that hope was shattered in an instant.

Thud!

Crack!

A dark shadow materialized from nowhere, brushed past a Grade 2 Transcendence Technique, and simultaneously, the machine’s body toppled backward.

And that’s when it began.

Kwajik! Kwajik!

Every time the dark blue shadow moved swiftly, Transcendence Machines toppled like dominoes.

The commonality among the fallen machines:

A fist-sized hole had been punched through the cockpit where the operator sat, blood seeping from the gaping wound.

“What… what’s happening?!”

“Frick! Frick, respond!”

The sudden crisis plunged the Transcendence Machine pilots into panic.

Their terror peaked when they saw the monstrous creature proudly stride atop the wreckage of the third defeated Second-Class Transcendence Technique.

“It’s… it’s Waldo!”

“Waldo has appeared!”

Three meters tall,

Clad in dark blue scales,

Three pairs of thick arms ending in palm-like fins.

A bipedal monster with a dragon’s face and a cow’s horns.

News of its appearance was immediately relayed to the command post.

“Your Highness! Waldo has appeared!”

”…?!”

Lokan VII’s face hardened at his subordinate’s report.

Waldo.

The creature had first revealed itself two years prior.

That day…

It caused unprecedented casualties, and only by deploying two Grade 1 Transcendence Techniques in a mutual destruction scenario were they able to finally neutralize it.

I had hoped that such a monster was the only one of its kind…

It seemed the demonic sea had swallowed even that wish of his.

While Lokan VII remained frozen, another report came in.

“Seven Grade 2 Transcendent Machines completely destroyed! Sixteen Grade 3 Transcendent Machines completely destroyed!”

It had been reported only recently, yet the devastation it caused was already catastrophic. If nothing was done, the Transcendent Machine Unit, which served as the sole defense against the demon horde, would be annihilated.

A solution had to be found.

And then, in that moment—

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

A massive silver light approached at terrifying speed from the far side of the Great Wall, accompanied by the sound of something pounding the ground. Then, in a single bound, the silver light cleared the entire wall.

Thud!

The creature that effortlessly leaped over the wall, dozens of meters high, was none other than a colossal tiger.

Lokan VII’s face lit up at the sight. ”…It’s here. I thought it might be late.”

His deep voice carried both joy and unwavering faith.

The king wasn’t the only one feeling this way.

When the soldiers saw the massive white tiger, they cheered with hope.

“Nabi!”

“The Guardian God of the Bitter Cold has come!”

And the reason for their joy was the figures accompanying the Nabi.

Thud.

Two figures leaped out from behind the Nabi.

Thud.

A red-haired man and woman landed lightly on the ground.

The soldiers shouted when they saw them.

“Sword Saint!”

“Power Star!”

Amidst cries filled with joy and hope, Kendrick the Sword Saint and Power Star Tania launched themselves forward like bullets.

Boom!

Having broken the sound barrier in their human bodies, they arrived before Waldo, who was tearing the head off a Third-Tier Transcendent Machine.

Then…

Kwaah!

A wave of crimson flames engulfed Waldo.