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Chapter 117: The Mage of Ashes (7)
“Pour boiling oil over the wall!”
“There’s no more oil to boil!”
“Damn it, then boil water or something! Just stop them from climbing up no matter what!”
The lieutenants on the fortress wall screamed at the top of their lungs.
With one side of the wall already collapsed, they couldn’t afford to lose the ramparts as well.
“What’s the situation on the collapsed wall?”
“The knights and mages are working together to hold them off, but…”
The trailing end of the report hinted at the grim reality.
Mana was not an infinite resource.
Moreover, during wartime, even using half of one's usual strength was a struggle.
‘When casting spells under stress, more mana is consumed, and their power diminishes.’
In other words, while they had managed to hold out so far, it was clear the situation couldn’t last indefinitely.
Grinding his teeth, the lieutenant looked down below the wall.
Over the past several hours, the corpses of orcs they had killed had piled up into mountains.
And those living orcs were desperately climbing over the wall using those corpses as footholds.
‘...Hell.’
This was hell incarnate.
A surge of fear gripped the lieutenant, and his pupils trembled.
With the mighty star Theodore Bale missing in action, the only hope left for the allied forces lay with one man.
A mage known solely for destruction, leaving everything he passed in ashes.
The interim commander, Lloyd Schultz.
“Give me the telescope.”
Receiving the telescope from a subordinate, the lieutenant scanned the enemy's position.
In the center of the chaos stood Lloyd, wreaking havoc, though his condition was visibly dire.
“Huff, huff.”
His combat robe was torn in multiple places, and small wounds covered his body.
Drenched in sweat, Lloyd couldn’t even think to wipe it away as he stared down his opponent.
“You can’t seem to focus on our duel, human mage.”
Ulgur, a massive orc carrying a colossal axe on his shoulder, spoke in a booming voice.
The two were standing in a vast open space, a sacred dueling ground formed by a wall of living orcs.
‘A duel…’
Of course, an orc chieftain would never engage in a duel that didn’t serve his purpose.
This was a duel in name only.
‘If it were just one-on-one, this would’ve been much easier.’
But Lloyd wasn’t fighting just one opponent.
‘It’s coming.’
Feeling the vibrations beneath his feet, Lloyd dove to the side.
Yet escaping the attack range of the colossal King Sandworm that burst from the ground was impossible.
“Gah!”
The impact was like being hit by a car at full speed, shaking his entire body.
Thanks to his mana mitigating the impact, he barely avoided instant death.
As Lloyd steadied himself, a massive shadow loomed over him.
“Your back is exposed.”
“...!”
Whoosh!
Ulgur’s axe descended toward his neck with a fierce sound.
『Sunflower of Protection』
Just in time, Lloyd snapped his fingers, and a giant sunflower bloomed behind him.
Crash!
The sunflower blocked the axe once before scattering into pieces, as Lloyd whispered.
“Blossom Inferno.”
“That spell won’t work.”
Fwoosh!
A fiery magic engulfed Ulgur’s body.
Flower petals erupted into powerful explosions, but they left no significant wounds on him.
“Hmph. So this is all a high-ranking human mage can do?”
“...”
Lloyd didn’t respond and glanced back.
He had long since been separated from the knights who had stormed the enemy camp with him.
Ulgur had cleverly isolated him from them to set up this situation.
‘The reason for that is clear.’
After all, this was the middle of a battlefield.
There was no reason or loyalty compelling his comrades to return and save him.
Lloyd took a deep breath.
‘At least now, I won’t risk dragging any allies into the range.’
World Liberation.
A power allowed only to those who had reached the exalted realm of Level 7 magic.
‘In a way, this is perfect.’
He was grateful there were no allies nearby.
All his world would bring was utter devastation.
“...World Liberation. Eternal Blossom Revival.”
As Lloyd began channeling mana to liberate his world, a massive magic circle buried beneath the desert sands began to glow.
“...!”
At the same time, Lloyd’s face went pale, and he vomited blood.
“Cough! Cough!”
His mana circuits had tangled, causing a violent backlash.
He collapsed onto one knee, coughing up blood, as Ulgur slowly approached him.
The orc chieftain grinned, revealing yellowed teeth.
“Kehehe, it works perfectly.”
“Cough, cough… What is this…?”
“A gift from the humans.”
Specifically, a trap set by the Black Finger—when someone attempted World Liberation, the magic circle would disrupt their mana flow and cause severe damage to their circuits.
‘Damn it…’
Wiping the blood from his lips with the back of his hand, Lloyd cursed himself.
To think he’d fall for a strategy devised by mere orcs.
‘Or perhaps this is the natural outcome of my arrogance.’
As a Level 7 mage, he had thought himself invincible against orcs.
That pride had led him to this moment.
“Any last words?”
Ulgur demanded Lloyd’s final words, but Lloyd said nothing in reply.
“The pride of humans, huh.”
Vroom!
The massive axe came flying toward his nape with a vicious sound.
Lloyd hastily conjured a barrier, but he knew full well.
It was impossible to block the enemy's attack with this.
“Damn it…!”
As he instinctively bit his lip, a sharp metallic clash resounded, followed by ragged breathing from behind.
“Hah, hah… Just in time.”
“…Gallahad?”
Lloyd looked at the knight who had saved him with a dumbfounded expression for a moment before snapping.
“What the Fuck—! Didn’t I tell you not to come here no matter what!?”
“What, and you’re scolding me for saving you?”
Clang!
Gallahad deflected the massive axe, but even a single blow left him gasping for air.
He gritted his teeth, glaring at Ulgur’s towering figure, which was twice his size.
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“A mage with no sense of self-preservation, fighting a duel against impossible odds? Have you lost your mind?”
“Do you think I wanted this—”
“Run.”
“What?”
“I said run. We’ll buy you some time.”
We?
Before he could even process the thought, several orcs’ heads rolled to the ground, accompanied by battle cries from behind.
“The First Knight Batallion…?”
The group he thought had scattered and returned to the citadel—why were they here?
Before his confusion could clear, dozens of knights formed an unyielding defense around him.
“…Don’t attach any grand meaning to this act.”
At the forefront, Gallahad muttered coldly without even turning back.
Through this battlefield, the First Knight Battalion had come to understand one thing.
Their commander’s disappearance had nothing to do with Lloyd.
‘A man who would stoop to such vile schemes couldn’t possibly possess this level of selflessness.’
The reclusive and grim mage who always holed up in his quarters, lost in inscrutable thoughts—that was the image Gallahad and the knights had of Lloyd Schultz.
But that impression had completely changed in just a few hours on the battlefield.
‘At the very least, he’s not the type to resort to underhanded tricks.’
A man’s character can be seen in his back.
This mage consistently positioned himself at the front, shouldering the risks and sending his comrades to safer positions during crises.
‘Perhaps we just needed someone to blame.’
Their frustration stemmed from their failure to protect their esteemed commander.
They simply wanted a scapegoat.
Gallahad gripped his sword tightly, his hands still numb from deflecting the axe.
“Go. What the Red Citadel needs now is not a sharp sword, but a steady pillar.”
“…”
Lloyd stared at the steadfast knight’s back before slowly rising and speaking.
“Disobeying commands during a battle. You’ll all face disciplinary action for this later, so be prepared.”
“Are you out of your mind? Don’t make our sacrifice meaningless!”
Ordinarily, Lloyd would have followed those words.
Returning alive would benefit the Red Citadel more and be the logical choice.
But…
He slowly turned to face the Red Citadel.
To be precise, he gazed at the powerful magic emanating from it.
It worked.
Realizing this before anyone else, Lloyd let out a faint smile.
“Well, I’d say there’s no need for anyone to die here today.”
“What are you talking about…?”
“Ten minutes. Just hold out for that long.”
Lloyd’s words trailed off as an intense energy he’d felt earlier began cutting through the battlefield at an unimaginable speed.
He squinted as he turned toward it.
‘Could it be… is the commander recklessly rushing in to save us? No, this speed is…’
The distance closed in the blink of an eye, almost as if space itself was being leaped over.
And soon, Lloyd’s sight revealed the reason.
“Thanks.”
“Hah… hah… no need to thank me…”
Oscar, who had used Blink seven times in rapid succession, was gasping for breath.
But he didn’t regret it—not when the Empire’s Red Citadel commander had been delivered right in front of the enemy leader.
“You look a mess after just a few hours.”
“…You’re back.”
Upon confirming the man’s face, Lloyd finally relaxed, muttering softly.
“Commander.”
Theodore Bale.
The master of the Red Citadel had returned.
“C-Commander!”
“How…? Where were you all this time…?”
The knights who had followed him stared with wide eyes, their disbelief clear.
“Haha, we’ll talk about that later. For now, let’s handle the situation.”
He turned his gaze to Ulgur, who looked utterly baffled, and spoke.
“I’ll take care of their leader. You take care of the rest.”
“Be cautious. There’s a magic circle installed that causes backlash if one releases magic.”
“Ho, such a spell exists? No matter.”
Holding a single sword, he stepped forward casually, as if on a stroll.
“There’s no need to unleash my domain anyway.”
With those words, the commander lunged forward like a bolt of lightning, overwhelming Ulgur.
Simultaneously, emboldened knights began cutting down the surrounding orcs like stalks of wheat.
“…This is war.”
A Level 7 knight or mage is a strategic weapon capable of altering the tide of war.
With the balance broken, the battlefield was no longer a war—it was a massacre.
Rumble!
Suddenly, the ground shook as a King Sandworm emerged with its jaws wide open.
“Lloyd!?”
Oscar shouted in shock.
He had assumed Lloyd would dodge using『Flight』, but instead, he was swallowed whole without resistance.
However, the worry was short-lived.
The massive body of the King Sandworm, which had swallowed Lloyd and soared skyward,
“The Dancer’s Waltz.”
was shredded from within by countless flower petals, leaving not even a corpse behind as it disintegrated in midair.
Moments later, when the commander beheaded Ulgur, Oscar was certain.
‘It’s over.’
The Red Citadel’s undefeated legend had continued once more today.
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