I Am a Villain, So What?

Chapter 203: Winterguard [5]

Lucien closed his eyes and funneled his mana into the Primordial Earth Crown. Instantly, his consciousness expanded, sinking deep into the frozen bedrock beneath Winterguard. He felt every crack, every fault line, every grain of dirt stretching out into the Wilderness.

Then, he triggered the Rosary of the Weeping Saintess.

[All conditions met. Unlimited Divine Force is supplied to the user!]

"Arise," Lucien whispered.

The frozen earth outside the fortress violently shuddered.

Commander Viktor grabbed the parapet to steady himself as a localized, catastrophic earthquake ripped through the battlefield.

CRACK! RUMBLE!

The charging monster horde suddenly lost their footing as the frozen tundra directly in front of the fortress physically split wide open.

Before the beasts could even shriek, massive, jagged pillars of solid bedrock erupted from the earth like the fangs of a subterranean god. But these weren’t just ordinary stone pillars. Because Lucien was channeling the Rosary through the Earth Crown, every single stalagmite that tore out of the ground was radiating a blinding, blistering golden light.

SHLUCK! SQUELCH!

It was an absolute, one-sided slaughter.

The holy stone spikes effortlessly pierced through the thick, mutated hides of the behemoths as if they were made of wet paper. Hundreds of massive monsters were instantly impaled mid-stride, suspended high in the air, their corrupted flesh violently burning to ash from the inside out by the concentrated Divine Force.

The sky, previously clouded with winged chimeras, was instantly cleared. Lucien commanded the earth to rise further, sending a barrage of blessed stone shards shooting upward like anti-air flak, shredding the flying monsters into bloody rain.

The ground itself turned into a divine meat-grinder. Fissures opened up, swallowing entire packs of corrupted wolves, before slamming shut with the crushing force of a tectonic plate.

And then, Lucien turned his attention to the fragile right wall.

With a subtle twist of his wrist, a colossal wave of earth surged up from the ground, wrapping itself securely around the cracked masonry of the eastern flank. The stone hardened into an impenetrable, glowing bastion of holy rock, completely shielding the fortress’s weak point from the remaining, terrified horde.

A golden shockwave of pure, unadulterated holy energy swept over the battlefield, purifying the corrupted air and melting the snow.

In less than sixty seconds, the massive, apocalyptic invasion force that had threatened to wipe Winterguard off the map had been reduced to a smoldering field of ash, impaled corpses, and blindingly bright holy statues.

Not a single monster had even reached the gates.

On the walls, thousands of bows remained drawn, their arrows unfired.

"The monsters..." someone on the wall muttered, their voice violently trembling.

The massive, terrifying wave of corrupted beasts that had threatened to wipe Winterguard off the map had been turned into a forest of impaled, burning corpses in an instant. The advancing horde—hundreds of towering behemoths and rabid chimeras—suddenly slammed on the brakes, their claws tearing up the frozen earth as they hesitated.

Only a handful of monsters remained at the very front. At this rate, they wouldn’t even reach the barrier.

Swoosh—!

"Huh?" Commander Arthur, watching from the courtyard, let out a dumbfounded noise at the sight of the boy on the wall.

What the fuck was that? Arthur’s stunned attention violently snapped back to the battlefield as a deafening, collective shriek echoed across the tundra.

The monsters now knew exactly what they were facing. The feral instincts buried deep within their corrupted bloodlines completely overrode whatever orders their hidden commander had given them. They turned their massive bodies around and ran back the way they had come with all their might, trampling over each other in absolute, primal terror.

The mass escape of the monsters from the ’Outside’. It was a sight the hardened veterans of Winterguard had never witnessed in the centuries this fortress had stood.

Splurt! CRACK!

But whether they fled or not, the earth offered no mercy. Massive, golden spikes kept erupting from the ground, relentlessly chasing the retreating horde. The bedrock tore through their massive bodies, pinning them to the permafrost.

Arthur watched, his breath caught in his throat, as he sensed the sheer, overwhelming energy emanating from those glowing spikes.

Divine energy. It was pure, undiluted holy power. It was making the regenerative beasts completely helpless, instantly searing their flesh and permanently neutralizing their ability to heal.

*****

Not just against the monsters of the Wilderness, but in any major battle humanity had faced on this continent, a siege had never ended so anticlimactically.

When the last golden spike faded and the earth settled, a suffocating, eerie silence descended upon Winterguard.

The knights stationed on the walls slowly lowered their weapons. They scratched their heads, exchanging wide-eyed, terrified glances before silently moving to check the perimeter. The soldiers on the ground returned to their barracks, their movements stiff and robotic.

The death-row prisoners, who had been fully prepared to be torn limb from limb, were herded back inside. Among them, several hardened murderers and thugs fell to their knees in the bloody snow, continuously bowing their heads toward the boy on the wall, thick tears streaming down their soot-stained faces.

Until now, the knights would cheer, holler, and occasionally praise Lucien’s pinpoint accuracy. But this time? There was none of that.

As if there had never been a battle to begin with, the men mechanically went about their assigned tasks. Everyone tried to act as usual, keeping their heads down, because human minds simply did not know how to process or react to the sight of such a biblical, one-sided massacre.

And then there was Princess Rumina.

Watching from the high window of the command tower, the Eldest Princess stood completely frozen. The flawlessly composed, all-knowing expression she always wore like a second skin had completely shattered. Her violet eyes were wide, filled with naked, unfiltered shock as she stared at the boy standing on the parapet.

’...This man,’ Rumina thought, her manicured nails digging painfully into the wooden windowsill.

’Dangerous.’

She had thought she was already viewing Lucien Ashborne in very high regard. She had acknowledged his intellect, his tactical prowess, and his mysterious firearm.

But it turned out she was still vastly, woefully underestimating him. That wasn’t just a clever cadet. That was a walking calamity.

’Count Darius... the Ashborne family has birthed a monster.’

****

Down on the wall, the adrenaline that had been forcefully keeping Lucien upright rapidly evaporated.

The golden light faded from the earth. The moment it did, the backlash of channeling infinite Divine Force and Primordial mana slammed into him like a runaway train.

Lucien swayed dangerously, his vision swimming with black spots.

System... Inventory, he commanded desperately in his mind.

Before his knees completely gave out, he snatched the Primordial Earth Crown off his head and unraveled the Rosary of the Weeping Saintess from his scorched, trembling hand. With a faint shimmer, both artifacts vanished directly into his spatial inventory, safely hidden from the prying eyes of the royal faction and the commanders.

The moment the artifacts disappeared, Lucien’s lungs violently seized.

"Urgh—!"

He lurched forward, violently coughing up a massive mouthful of dark, localized blood. It splattered across the frozen stone parapet. The ancient Rune of Vitality on his chest flared weakly, trying to repair his heavily burned mana circuits, but the sheer scale of the internal damage was too much for the passive healing to handle instantly.

His eyes rolled back. The world tilted violently as his legs completely gave way, sending him toppling backward toward the hard stone.

"Lucien!"

Commander Viktor, who had been nervously watching the boy’s every movement since the golden light faded, sprinted forward with terrifying speed.

Before Lucien’s head could slam against the masonry, Viktor’s massive, armored arms caught him. The Commander of the Ashen Knights carefully lowered the unconscious boy to the ground, his grizzled face pale as he looked at the blood staining the boy’s lips.

"Medics!" Viktor roared, his voice echoing across the silent, shell-shocked fortress. "Get the healers up here right now!"