A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 292 : Primordial Demon (10)

Meanwhile, in the North.

The swarms of Demons that appeared simultaneously did not discriminate by direction, emerging from all sides surrounding the continent.

Naturally, the North was no exception.

Primordial Demon appeared in the North as well.

However, compared to other regions, the appearance of Primordial Demon in the Northern Order was bound to be perceived as even more severe.

“- P-Primordial Demon...!”

“- ...It's over for us. It's the end!”

The reason was simple.

Unlike other regions, the northern area of the Church Alliance did not have an existing front line of the Order.

‘The Northern Order.’

The Northern Anti-Demon Front was the most vulnerable flank of the Church Alliance forces from the very beginning.

This was partly because the North had once collapsed entirely due to Black Blood Disease, but more so because the Order had maintained a posture of dependency on the North's structural geographical features.

The Black Sea.

Crossing the Northern Order horizontally, it was a kind of inaccessible area where ‘mana turbulence’ occurred, except for certain confirmed tracks in the central part.

The intensification of this mana turbulence was precisely the Barrier of the Black Sea that had troubled the Church Alliance during the recent Northern Subjugation War.

To put it simply, more than half of the Order’s Northern Anti-Demon Front relied on a natural ‘fortress form’ created by the Black Sea.

Of course, this didn’t mean the Order could be blamed for being negligent.

The Demon King's Army had also used the Black Sea as a geographical feature.

As proven by the long-standing battle patterns where both sides possessed equal power, it was natural for either side to feel a shortage or burden of troops anywhere.

Tactically, it was the right choice to allocate additional troops to other battlefields rather than stationing them in an area where they couldn't cross or fight properly anyway.

Thus, the only forces the Church Alliance had previously deployed in the North were a few division-level units to face the ‘Orc Mountains,’ the only passage leading to the North.

Of course, even by the time the Northern Subjugation Army was victorious, the Order had not abandoned the North.

The reason they could keep the North without a single legion-level force until now was solely because the Anti-Demon Front consisted entirely of the Orc Mountains next to the Black Sea.

To prevent the reclaimed northern territory from being taken again, they had to form a new front line and deploy forces.

The problem was the ‘timing.’

Not much time had passed since the conclusion of the Northern Subjugation War.

From the Order’s perspective, they were still in the process of laying the foundation to understand the geography and other characteristics of the expanded regions, not yet at a stage where they had properly formed a front line to defend against invading enemies.

Of course, it wasn’t as if there was ‘nothing at all.’

They couldn’t rule out the possibility of an immediate invasion, so they had deployed a force equivalent to a legion, primarily composed of the talents who had previously participated in the Northern Subjugation Army.

However, with those numbers, the shortage was evident compared to other regions.

Of course, the lack of troops could be addressed by requesting support from the central Order Army, but from the perspective of the Order’s headquarters, the current situation was not easy enough to readily send troops away.

Primordial Demon had appeared in places other than the North as well.

Even if it seemed cold-hearted, they had to consider deploying troops to places where victory was more visible first.

Furthermore, the real problem did not lie with the soldiers.

In any case, whether it was a brigade, a division, or a legion, soldiers were of no help in stopping the Primordial Demon; at most, their role was limited to blocking the Demon King's Army's magical beasts that appeared alongside the Primordial Demon from entering the center of the Order Territory and maintaining the front line.

The problem of the rushing magical beasts was also very serious, but since it would be the end if they couldn't stop the Primordial Demon anyway, that was a secondary issue.

“……”

High-level power was lacking.

To be precise, ‘Priests.’

The Veil of the Black Sea was still persisting.

In other words, while they had secured Hero-level power to some extent, the Order’s satellite magic still could not reach the North.

In a situation where a Primordial Demon had appeared, this was beyond despair—it was a horrific story.

Just like elsewhere, the appearance of the Primordial Demon was already a bad situation, but to make matters worse, they had to deal with the Veil of the Black Sea as well.

It was a situation that could be called the ‘worst,’ even including all four directions occupied by the current Church Alliance.

Moreover, the ones who played the most crucial role in deterring the Primordial Demon were the ‘Priests’ who could use Holy Magic.

Of course, it's not that Priests could fundamentally defeat Primordial Demon, but that was impossible from the start anyway.

At least the ‘large-scale Holy Magic’ activated by gathered Priests could play a role in deterring them, even if it couldn’t damage the Primordial Demon.

Since the only thing they could do was block the approach of the Primordial Demon, the fact that even that was impossible was the current reality of the North.

However, that didn’t mean there was no hope at all.

This was because U-jin, who had known the state of the North in advance, had placed a certain device early on, considering the situation.

Namely.

“Heh.”

The Floating Territory.

The ‘Floating Territory,’ which had once saved the Order from its worst situation, was being reached out to once again.

“My goodness. It’s like saving a drowning person only for them to demand their bundle back.”

Of course, the Floating Territory had no such obligation.

In the first place, the reason they helped in the Northern Subjugation War was because of the debt Kim Satgat felt toward Isaac Einstein, not because they were trying to gain something substantial.

Even if it was said to be for the sake of obtaining U-jin, it was merely a secondary offer; if that had been the primary goal, they wouldn't have given up so easily at U-jin's simple refusal.

However, for some reason, the Floating Territory did not refuse U-jin's request.

Just as they had in the Northern Subjugation War, the Floating Territory supplied mana power sources, and they didn’t stop there—this time, they even participated directly in the battle.

Of course, that didn’t solve everything.

Even if they managed to deter the movements of the Primordial Demon, the problem of the ‘ordinary magical beasts’ they had set aside remained.

The force the Demon King's Army dispatched to the North was equivalent to two legions.

Compared to the East, it was small, but compared to the current Northern forces, it showed an overwhelming difference in power, more than double.

Of course, if the Floating Territory participated directly in the battle and employed those unfamiliar high-tech weapons, there would be no problem in terms of offense.

But inherently, war requires a certain balance between offense and defense.

It was more important to balance both sides rather than having one superior extreme.

No matter how much strength one had in terms of offense, offense inevitably had gaps in between.

If there was no defensive camp to form a front line and buy time during those periods, they couldn't efficiently achieve their goal, at least from the perspective of ‘blocking.’

No matter how many high-tech attacks were fired at the advancing magical beasts, the enemies could simply use the leading beasts as meat shields and keep moving forward.

It was also impossible for the members of the Floating Territory to go down and form a front line themselves.

As could be seen from their characteristic of gathering those with no talent for martial arts or mana, the members of the Floating Territory were terrible at direct combat.

It was unlikely they would be effective at blocking even if they went down with spears and shields, and it would only result in senseless loss of life; it was by no means an appropriate method.

However.

If it had ended there, it would have been difficult to call U-jin's deployment strategy for the Floating Territory a ‘success.’

U-jin's strategy did not end there.

— Grrrr.

Another thing U-jin considered was the harmony with the ‘Divine Beasts.’

U-jin, who had created a confrontation with the Primordial Demon by ‘deploying Divine Beasts’ to each of the other regions one by one, also dispatched a Divine Beast to the North using the Xuanyuan Sword.

The target was ‘Xuanwu.’

The guardian Divine Beast that protects the North among the four directions, and the black divine tortoise that governs ‘water’ and ‘winter’ among the Five Elements.

With a long neck and tail, a male and female pair sharing the same shell, and the form of a four-legged beast much longer than an ordinary turtle, this Divine Beast symbolized ‘Taiyin’ among the legendary Four Divine Beasts and boasted the strongest defense.

If the Vermilion Bird governs fire as Taiyang and represents the strongest spear, Xuanwu governs water as Taiyin and symbolizes the strongest shield.

In particular, its shell exerted a truly invincible defense, said to block all physical damage as the divine artifact ‘Xuanwu Cold Iron’ that U-jin had previously received from Kim Satgat was compressed to the limit.

That wasn't even the end.

What Xuanwu governed was ‘water,’ but also ‘temperature.’

By extremely lowering the temperature of the battlefield, causing snow, frost, and cold waves, it could drastically slow down the advance of the enemy army, including the Primordial Demon.

Considering the current state of the North, which was extremely lacking in defensive power compared to offense, it was nothing short of the ‘best match.’

With Xuanwu’s ability, all physical damage from the Primordial Demons was blocked, and through the high-tech weapons of the Floating Territory, their advance speed was deterred.

The insufficient troops were managed by lowering the progress speed of the battlefield itself with the cold scattered across the field, somehow forcibly maintaining the front line.

“…How marvelous.”

In Kim Satgat's opinion, unless someone had already encountered such a situation before, it couldn't be handled so perfectly.

It was already nonsensical that U-jin could find the hidden Divine Beasts immediately after being given the divine artifact, let alone command them as if they were his own allies.

Furthermore, U-jin's influence wasn't limited to the North.

From Kim Satgat's perspective, U-jin's existence could only be perceived as marvelous.

...In fact, that was a feeling he had held since they first met at Kunlun.

Among all those he had experienced, U-jin was the only one who gave him a new sense of wonder every time, even though he was rarely swayed by anything.

“Heh. I wonder what he’s up to elsewhere now.”

And while Kim Satgat was thinking of U-jin.

U-jin.

“…We have arrived, Seo U-jin.”

The West.

He was heading toward the Demon King's Castle.