novelraw Chapter 242: 242. Abyssal Holy War – Final Resistance (1)
Chapter 242: 242. Abyssal Holy War – Final Resistance (1)
Episode 242. Abyssal Holy War – The Final Resistance (1)
Whizzz-
Wheee-
An unpleasant roar flew in without end.
Flames scattered by a chain of exploding rockets dotted the Allied Camp, and soldiers, their bodies aflame, cried out one after another.
But we were not just taking the hits.
Dark clouds spread as firebolts rained from the sky, and lightning struck, turning the demons firing the rockets, along with their artillery batteries, into burnt charcoal as they fell.
While the rocket batteries and magicians hurled calamities at each other, the demons' artillery and our artillery were exchanging counter-battery fire.
Artillerymen, struggling to push back the recoiling cannons to prepare to fire again, were swept away by cannonballs.
The gruesome sound of steel balls flying at furious speeds, crushing bodies as they passed, echoed without rest.“Uwaaaak!”
Unluckily, a cannonball directly hit a cannon that was preparing to fire, causing it to explode with its shell still inside, scattering fragments everywhere; the artillerymen met a gruesome end.
“The, the gun emplacement has been destroyed!”
“They’re taking heavy damage too! Don’t stop, keep firing!”
Nevertheless, neither side stopped pouring on the shelling.
“His Excellency the Marquis, the losses are severe! Already, thirteen cannons have been destroyed or require repairs, and artillery casualties number in the hundreds!”
A messenger rushed over, his face urgent, but I have eyes. I can see it for myself.
This is not just some ragtag army.
Both the Allied Forces and the Demon Army are elite troops who have gathered their full strength, possessing firepower incomparable to ordinary forces.
And since they are mercilessly unleashing that excessive firepower on each other, it is only natural for the sacrifices to mount.
It’s already this bad with just the artillery engagement; once the all-out war between the infantry begins, the damage will snowball.
Even knowing all that, there was only one order I could give.
“Continue the engagement regardless.”
The losses for the Allied Forces, especially the heavy damage to the Revolutionary Army serving as the center army and main force, were unavoidable.
But the moment we retreat to avoid immediate losses, this war ends in the demons' victory.
The Eastern Empire invasion force, which we had misjudged as their main force, was nothing more than a tribute to them.
If we pull out here, that enormous army will push straight into the Eastern Empire, and once the Empire falls in an instant, the population of that vast territory will become the demons' puppets.
At that point, no one will be able to stop them.
We cannot abandon everything we must protect just to save the lives of the soldiers dying before our eyes right now.
“...The demons have a far smaller population size than we do. If we exchange equal losses, it's a much more severe blow to them than it is to us.”
Of the enemy troops before us, the forces made up of demons are less than 20%. The rest are all Drones.
When you consider that each one of them has a lifespan of at least several hundred years and how much harm they will inflict on humans in the future...
Even if all of us die here, it will not be a meaningless death.
I turned to my somewhat anxious-looking staff officers and said,
“What we are fighting now is not a simple war. Keep in mind that this doesn’t end by signing a treaty and exchanging territory and money.”
If there were still those who thought this was a war between nations that could be ended and withdrawn from in such a manner, that very perception had to be corrected.
The words that we are the barrier of the Central Continent and the frontline of humanity were not empty talk.
“If we are defeated here, we will have nothing left. Not our lives, our freedom, not even our future.”
The staff officers swallowed dryly, so I added, fiddling with my scabbard,
“So, until the moment we've used everything in our hands, all of you, including myself, must be resolved to stand with the soldiers. That is the duty of those who have entered a fight for the entire Central Continent, so we will resist to the very end. Understood?”
“Ye-yes, sir!”
“Good. I trust you will all do your duty. Above all, the Allied Forces are watching us now.”
This is a struggle for humanity's survival, but at the same time, it is a battle where Francia is fighting at the center.
“We must show them something here, only then will they trust and follow us.”
“Then, what will you do?”
At Chief of Staff Berthier's question, I narrowed my eyes and looked at the battlefield, then moved a flag on the map.
“Seizing the initiative is important, too. If the entire Allied Forces falter from the early stage of battle, we'll lose a fight we could have won. Let’s use it before we lose everything by holding back.”
*
The frontline.
The Light Infantry, which should have broken the enemy's momentum by firing at them in the early stages, had to retreat one-sidedly without even a proper engagement against an enemy armed with breech-loading rifles.
“Light Infantry retreat complete!”
“Reorganize! We’ll fight again!”
Seeing a unit bearing the flag of the Revolutionary Guard join the chaotic front line, the frontline Line Infantry commander, General Nicolas Nere, brightened up.
“General Ne, we have come under the orders of His Excellency Marquis Lafayette!”
Ne returned the officer's salute and immediately asked,
“Welcome to the frontline! The order, so what is the order! What did Marquis Lafayette say?”
“We’ve received orders to deploy the Revolutionary Guard's Grenadier Regiment as the vanguard!”
“From the very beginning?”
“Ye-yes, so he said…”
Nicolas Nere scratched his head roughly.
The Revolutionary Guard, formed after the Revolutionary Army's reorganization and renowned as an elite army, had ironically been expanded and reorganized after the war.
Even so, deploying the most elite regiment from the very beginning was not a normal course of action.
Grenadiers were fundamentally treated as elite troops, and among the Revolutionary Guard, the Grenadier Regiment was naturally the elite of the elite.
“Damn it, that nobleman must have his reasons! Deploy them!”
“Yes, Sir!”
As soon as Nicolas Nere's approval was given, the Revolutionary Guard's Grenadier Regiment began to advance, playing cheerful music to soothe… or perhaps deceive… the anxiety of the battlefield.
What appeared before them was the triumphant Musketeer Corps of the demons, and following behind them, a swarm-like procession of Drones that seemed endless no matter how far one turned their head.
Above their heads, cannonballs flew in with a roar, falling upon the approaching demons and exploding.
“Uwaaaaah!”
“Kuhak!”
Ironically, the screams let out by the demons as they were torn to shreds by cannonballs were not so different from those of humans.
The Grenadiers, seeing this, raised their momentum and advanced further.
“Fire!”
Once they got close enough, the demons immediately began to fire their rifles.
Unlike the Line Infantry, who stand in orderly lines and fire in volleys as much as possible, some fired standing, some sitting, shooting sporadically, yet the bullets still flew much faster than from a musket.
However, the bullets that flew in were blocked by the Magic Barrier deployed by the Revolutionary Guard and fell away.
“Wh-what!”
“Th-the likes of inferior humans are using a Magic Barrier!”
“Don’t panic! Get down! Take cover and keep shooting!”
The demons were slightly panicked, but following their commander's orders, they immediately got down, took cover to avoid the fire, and continued shooting.
“Advance, forward march! The Revolutionary Guard knows no fear!”
But in response, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard's Grenadier Regiment yelled at the top of his lungs, and the Grenadiers, instead of firing, sprinted forward with all their might.
“Huh? Huh?”
In that moment, as the demons were stunned by the sudden situation.
“Grenade Preparation!”
“Grenade Preparation-!”
The Grenadiers simultaneously took out their grenades and lit the fuses. The demons fired their guns frantically to prevent the catastrophe, but the Magic Barrier of the Grenadier Regiment, the elite of the Revolutionary Guard, did not collapse so easily.
“Uh, uhhh! Ev-evade—”
Reacting too late, the demons who had been busy shooting while prone couldn't possibly jump up and run away immediately.
“Throw grenades to the front!”
“Throw grenades!”
“Eat this!”
While they panicked in confusion, the grenades thrown in unison by the Grenadiers flew over, beside, and in front of them—
A chain of explosions erupted.
In the storm of fragments scattering in all directions and scraping the ground, there was little difference between human and demon.
Bodies were torn to shreds all the same, and screams filled with pain burst out.
“Aaaak, uwaaaaaa!”
The morale of the demons, who had been at the vanguard, their spirits high after defeating the Light Infantry with the power of their superior weapons, was shattered to pieces along with the explosions of the grenades.
Rather, because they had trusted in their superior technology and the strength of their race, the shock from the unforeseen, gruesome sacrifice was even greater.
“R-ruuuuuun!”
“D-don’t you dare run off on your own!”
“W-wait. What is this—”
The demons, thrown into immediate chaos, abandoned their prized breech-loading rifles, jumped up, and tried to flee, which only brought about greater ruin.
“Aaargh, move!”
“Damn it, these damn puppets of an inferior race!”
Because behind them were not living organisms that could assess the situation and make judgments, but Drones that would only carry out the orders they were given.
The Drones had no such idea as to make way for the retreating demons, and only great chaos ensued from the Drones trying to advance and the demons trying to flee.
If the demons had just stepped aside and let the Drones rush in first, they could have acted as cannon fodder, but faced with the shock of seeing their comrades turned to mutilated flesh by a grenade barrage they had never imagined, no such rational judgment remained.
“Prepare to Fire!”
“Aim—”
“Fire!”
The Grenadier Regiment raised their muskets, already loaded, and poured a merciless volley of fire into the backs of the demons who were frantic to escape.
“Uwaak!”
“Keuk!”
If they had fought head-on with dignity, even the lower-tier demons would have received the faint protection of a Magic Barrier, but there was no such thing for a bullet in the back while fleeing.
“Well done! Grenadier Regiment, get down!”
“Grenadiers, get down!”
The officers reacted instantly to General Nicolas Nere's excited shout, and as the Grenadier Regiment quickly dropped to the ground, the Light Infantry that had been following closely behind them fired their muskets in unison—
The demons who had been trying to push through the Drones to escape were all but annihilated.
“Alright, retreat! Retreat! Fall back quickly!”
As soon as the order was given, the Revolutionary Army, under General Nicolas Nere's command, began to pull back without a second glance.
*
Breech-loading rifles.
The demons, armed with weapons that boasted superiority in cover and rate of fire thanks to their overwhelmingly easier reloading, had seemed to overwhelm the enemy Light Infantry, only to be miserably crushed by a grenade barrage from an enemy unit clad in a Magic Barrier.
Baal, watching the battlefield with his arms crossed, frowned and spat at the sight of the demons being slaughtered, shot in the back as they tried to push their way through the Drones to save themselves.
“How pathetic.”
In Baal's army, they were nothing.
At best, the smallest of small fry among the demon race.
They were nothing more than lower-tier demons with nothing to boast of other than belonging to a faction loyal to Baal.
Nevertheless, the sight of them, who should have been superior to humans, being no different from weak humans…
Or collapsing even more wretchedly, was enough to sour Baal's mood.
“Peace has lasted far too long.”
Hearing Paimon's jeering voice from the side, Baal narrowed his eyes.
In the past, he had slain the Demon King and ended the war.
That Demon King had been incompetent and greedy.
Even that war had not been for the sake of the demon race. Baal had not a shred of regret for slaying the Demon King and ending the war.
In a war that had lasted a hundred years, the demon race, whose population was already scarce, had died in countless, meaningless numbers.
But at least the demons of that era had been warriors so tough they couldn't be compared to such worthless vermin.
At the very least, Baal had not brought them peace to see them act worse than an inferior race.
“In contrast, the Drones are extremely efficient. They are not so-called demonic, nor do they have pride, but at least their unnecessary emotions have been castrated.”
Paimon said this while watching the Drones, which, despite the demons being wiped out, showed no agitation and pursued the retreating Revolutionary Army.
“Hmph.”
Baal snorted—
At the spectacle that unfolded the next moment, even Paimon could not jeer.
The Drones, which had rushed in pursuit of the Revolutionary Army that fled immediately after annihilating the demon soldiers, naturally became exposed—
because the moment they hit the defense line, prepared along the hills and trenches to create a double, even triple-layered field of fire, they practically melted away.
They compensated for the muskets' lack of rate of fire with positions built to allow multiple ranks to fire simultaneously, unleashing overwhelming firepower.
Even as the Drones were wiped out like that, the next wave of Drones would immediately rush in, but then a barrage of concentrated magic and a concentrated bombardment from howitzers would sweep the Drones away again.
The Drones crammed their way back into the area that had been swept by that insane rain of magic and cannonballs, but this time, the reloaded muskets once again formed a field of fire, unilaterally slaughtering the Drones.
As Paimon watched the spectacle, at a loss for words, Baal sneered.
“Compensating for a lack of technology with tactics. They look more innovative than you, Paimon.”
“If, if only I’d had time to improve the Drones after Iberica, it wouldn’t have been like this…!”
Paimon protested, gnashing his teeth, but Baal merely scoffed.
Because he had been careless in Iberica and was defeated by Marquis Lafayette, that time was never granted.
In the end, this one and that one, they were all just fools unworthy of the demon race.
Only he could be the symbol, the savior, the guide who could properly wield the power of the superior race known as demons.
Baal drew the sword from his back.
Soon, as he focused his mind, all the mana in the atmosphere was sucked into his blade—
Baal, who withstood the weight of that immense magical power with overwhelming strength, then swung his sword in a wide horizontal slash.
The very air itself was severed.
An overwhelming slashing attack tore through the air, and an insane wave of aura spread out along the empty space it left behind.
Baal watched as the slashing attack he had unleashed surged toward the defense line where the Allied Forces were meticulously slaughtering the Drones, and he smiled arrogantly.
In the end, no matter how much wisdom the inferior races squeezed out, before overwhelming power—
The moment he thought that.
A light bright enough to burn the eyes appeared as a golden barrier unfolded, blocking Baal's sword attack.