novelraw Chapter 77.1: Great War (1)
Chapter 77.1: Great War (1)
Translator: Dreamscribe
Arsilan was peaceful.
The cities and villages were full of vitality, and even the cloudy weather felt warm and beautiful. However, the change that occurred at the edge of the boundary constantly made the hearts of the Heroes uneasy.
It was impossible not to notice.
The end of the boundary always flickered ominously, and at some point, that flickering intensified and began to form something enormous.
It was a massive gate.
It reached as high as the sky, and its width was enough to swallow an entire village and more. Gradually, the hazy gate became clearer, tearing through space to reveal itself.
Gate of Invasion.
The gate looked as though it was made of bones. The pillars of the gate seemed to be built with bricks, but through the broken gaps beyond space, countless bones could be seen.
They looked like the bones of giants, or perhaps like the skulls of monsters. It might even have been the bones of Arsilan’s people.
“Ah...”
“Crazy...”
The Heroes stopped what they were doing and blankly stared at the scene. From the broken gaps, black dark clouds leaked out, horrifically decorating the Gate of Invasion.
Everyone knew that Arsilan Saga was a world inside a game, a fantasy world, but even so, that scene was just too unrealistic.
It was beyond the realm of understanding for the Heroes. So it felt like a dream.
The Heroes hurriedly turned on their broadcast or started sending messages.
Bones sprouted from the pillars of the gate, and the black dark clouds turned into bandages. In an instant, enormous arms were formed. That appearance resembled the melted hands that had appeared when the Lord of Erosion invaded in the past.
Creeeak!
The massive arms bent inward and reached for the tightly shut gate. It appeared to move slowly, but it was incredibly fast. As the air and magic collided and compressed around the arm, flames flared up. The arm bent inward completely, and its grotesquely long fingers scraped across the surface of the gate.
Kyaaaaaaaaak!
Kuaaaaaaaak!
As the fingers scraped the surface like nails on a chalkboard, a horrific noise echoed. That noise sounded like a scream.
“This is...”
“Yeah, it’s definitely dark fantasy.”
“Ugh, yeah.”
The Heroes murmured blankly as they watched the scene.
Arsilan was a precarious world on the brink of destruction. It had been so peaceful for a while that they had forgotten that fact. Heroes who had joined from Episode 2 didn’t even know about it.
It was when the massive hand gripped the surface of the gate as if to tear it open.
A huge blue chain sprang up from the ground, grabbing the arm and wrapping around the gate. The massive arm trembled violently in resistance, but chains continued to emerge, wrapping around the gate as if sealing it.
Before long, both arms were wrapped in chains along with the gate.
Boom!
A pillar of light shot up from the village of Arsilan. In the capital Solis and the international city Marogo, even greater lights burst forth, brightly coloring the surroundings. The dark clouds flowing out from the Gate of Invasion were being disintegrated by the light. Nevertheless, the sky continued to darken.
[The Gate of Invasion has appeared, tearing through space.]
[Arsilan] Prelude to the Great War
The power of Ella has prevented the Gate of Invasion from opening. But it cannot be held for long. The seal will break, and once the Gate of Invasion opens, enemies will pour out.
Goddess Ella is gathering the power rising from the cities and villages to cast a Magic Barrier. Hold out until Ella casts the Magic Barrier.
Heroes, people of Arsilan!
The most horrifying Great War has begun!
Survive the Great War!
Difficulty: Mythic Difficulty
Target: All beings of Arsilan
Duration: Until the Magic Barrier is cast
Reward: ???
The final scenario of Episode 2, the Great War, had arrived.
* * *
Arsilan Worlds was noisy with preparations for war. The Tower of Trials was sealed, and the Path of Penance could no longer be used. Everything was sealed except for select gates for leveling up. All of Arsilan was engulfed in a war atmosphere.
Title: I'm nervous.
Reached level 55 and got my rank too.
Got the Senior Soldier title. If you reach level 60 or verify as a guild leader, they give you a Junior Officer uniform, and the quality is insane. Even the soldier uniform looks so cool that I might wear it around all the time.
HalfHalfSeasoning: The mood really changed in an instant. Everywhere is prepping for war now.
Anonymous1 (FR): Let’s show the power of the Alchemy Workshop! We’re engineering soldiers!
└GoldSilverAward: How’s the work uniform?
└Anonymous1 (FR): I love it because it actually looks like workwear! And it has buffs, so hand skills get faster!
Anonymous2 (KR): Have you seen the trainees? All the newbie Heroes who logged in recently are training at the Solis training grounds.
└HandGenius: Whoa, that’s a lot of people.
└Anonymous2 (KR): I heard a big batch of Soul Links got released again. That’s probably why so many newbies are logging in.
└Anonymous3 (KR): Becoming a trainee the moment you log in… feels like re-enlisting... damn.
└Anonymous2 (KR): Foreign players love it though ㅋㅋ Only Korean Heroes are struggling. But apparently, the level-up speed is insane... like, on par with a jump ticket.
FS Games released a massive amount of Soul Links ahead of the Great War. It was a bit of a stretch, but it was Jinwoo’s directive to summon as many Heroes as possible.
Knights stationed in each city or village were training the newbie Heroes into capable soldiers. They gave out fair rewards to avoid any hard feelings and even granted titles with emoticons.
The newbie Heroes began calling themselves the 'War Generation'. They were destined to be thrown straight into war without ever experiencing peace.
“War...! Fantasy war!”
“Being part of a war like this was my dream!”
“If I become a war hero, I’ll be more famous than a celebrity!”
Despite the concerns, the response was surprisingly positive. It made sense, newbies who just started the game were now able to enjoy a massive event alongside everyone else.
“It’s finally beginning.”
Jinwoo looked at the gate from the royal palace. He had sealed the gate immediately using enormous magic power and the authority of the magical gate. Since the formula for a Magic Barrier was embedded into it, it bought them a little time.
The process of installing a Magic Barrier at the boundary of Arsilan had begun.
Pillars of light rising from several villages.
These were devices to analyze the gate and the space inside it. Once the invasion began, the safest places would be the cities and villages with walls, so they were installed there.
If a Magic Barrier were set up blindly, it would be pierced in no time. Only by analyzing that space could they properly erect a Magic Barrier.
Once the analysis data was sent to Marogo, Marogo would decode the information and then relay it to Solis and the Magic Tower. After that, all the Magic Stones they had gathered so far would be used to deploy the Magic Barrier.
Solis and Marogo were especially critical.
Evanth had become both a training center for newbie Heroes and a designated evacuation site.
“If we hold, we win.”
The line between game and reality had become blurry. From this point on, there was no script. This wasn’t acting. Nothing was predetermined, it was a real battle.
A real war.
Jinwoo took a moment to take in the landscape of Solis.
“Delivery from Alchemy Workshop Artilden! Thirty cases of magic bombs, right?”
“Yes! Please move them to the storage! It’ll be quite a sight to see if we detonate them all at once!”
“Each one packs an E-rank level explosion, so it’ll be spectacular.”
“Hehe, more... more firepower...!”
War weapons were being born in the workshop as well. They were taking things from Earth and adapting them for Arsilan. There was even a sense of madness in the air.
Seeing the still-lively Heroes calmed the anxiety that had been welling up inside a bit.
“Hoo....”
Jinwoo let out a long breath.
Right, he had done everything he could do.
Now it was time to stake the fate of Arsilan and fight with everything they had.
Jinwoo entered the conference room of the royal palace. Inside were those who had been with him through everything, waiting for him.
Tia and Tiris greeted him. Hasman, Hallon, and many retainers gave him proper respect, and Heina and the knights knelt and bowed their heads.
The representatives of each race welcomed their king, and even the disciples of the Magic Tower were all gathered.
“Tiris, what’s the status?”
“We’re still analyzing. It’s on a much higher dimension than the Erosion Core, so it’s going to take some time.”
Jinwoo nodded. Even now, he was operating vast amounts of magic power and processing capacity. Only he could handle the formula for the Magic Barrier.
“We’ll be stationed at each village to assist with data analysis. I’ll go to Marogo.”
Tiris and the disciples of the Magic Tower stood before Jinwoo.
They were the ones who had worked the longest for Arsilan alongside Jinwoo.
The disciples of the Magic Tower were no longer wearing their old, ragged robes. All of them were dressed in the attire of royal magicians from Sillion.
“Haha.”
Jinwoo laughed.
Because it didn’t suit them at all. The disciples seemed to know that too, as they only smiled at him. When the laughter faded, the disciples of the Magic Tower knelt down.
“From our Master, we learned the greatness of magic and the nobility of magicians.”
One disciple of the Magic Tower spoke.
“As disciples of the Archmage, we will walk the same path as the Archmage. Please watch over your unworthy disciples.”
“Yeah, you guys are pretty ugly, after all.”
When Jinwoo joked, the disciples let out small sighs. Jinwoo looked at them and tried to say something, then closed his mouth. He barely parted his lips.
“...Don’t overdo it.”
As soon as Jinwoo’s words ended, Tiris and the disciples vanished through teleportation.
“What about the unit organization?”
“They’ve been divided by city and village. We’ve assigned commanders with wartime experience.”
Heina reported.
Multiple units had been formed for conducting the war. The deployment of Heroes had also been completed. Placement had considered login rates, affinity levels, and other information.
“I’ll try to keep their numbers down as much as I can.”
Helby, too, would give everything she had.
Astel and the staff would be in charge of supplies and healing the wounded.
This was truly all-out war.
They had mobilized everything they could. Held nothing back. Everything was pushed to its limits.
Jinwoo began the meeting with everyone.
The meeting lasted quite a while.
When cracks began to form in the chains sealing the gate, Jinwoo immediately issued the call-up order.
* * *