SWNOVELXO Chapter 556
Chapter 556: You Showed Up in My Dream. (2)
“……”
Ghislaine, having just woken up, wore a blank expression for a moment. Then she burst into a short laugh.
“It was just a ridiculous dream after all.”
But why was Yulien showing up there? That didn’t make any sense.
More than anyone, she knew what kind of life Yulien had lived. So it was nonsense for him to appear in a war from some unknown past.
“This necklace is indeed mysterious.”
There was still no guarantee that the dream the necklace showed her was real. It could be mixing her memories and presenting a falsehood.
Ghislaine carried the necklace around just to see if it would provide clues to satisfy her curiosity.
She wanted to know the true purpose of the Salvation Society and the vanished Erlhardt.
“I’m thinking of seeing it a few more times… but at this rate, it can only lose credibility.”
Even if she watched this dream to the end and got answers, it would be meaningless if she couldn’t trust that it was true.
She considered consulting someone else but dismissed that thought because of today’s dream.
— Yulien, you showed up in my dream.
If she voiced such nonsense, she would definitely be misinterpreted. Especially the knights who were former mercenaries would have a field day teasing her.
Not to mention Claude. That guy might use this to pull some trick.
Others like Kaor or Alfoy wouldn’t stay quiet either. They were all out of their minds trying to get her into trouble.
“I can’t let myself fall for it, even if I know.”
Ghislaine, who usually didn’t care about her reputation, couldn’t afford to this time. There were too many oddballs around her.
— Hahaha! Master, what’s up with that? Why is he in your dream! Why is Yulien in there!
“……”
Look at that. One already popped out.
— Didn’t that priest get conjured up in your dream or something? Hmm? I didn’t see his real form, but the aura he used is strikingly similar, right?
“……”
— So why did you two meet in the dream? Hmm? Why as enemies? Is it more fun that way? Huh?
“……”
— Even if it’s a dream, that’s pushing it too far, right? Hahaha! If you want to see him, just go see him in person. If your taste is… Kyaaa! I’m sorry!
The chattering Dark was trapped in Ghislaine’s mental prison and suffered for a while.
Ghislaine shook her head and got up.
‘It’s not that important, so let’s not stress about it.’
They were delving into matters that didn’t even need to be known, all because of this guy’s curiosity.
And the more she watched, the more amusing it became. She was also curious about what kind of story would come next.
So she just needed to watch the dream as it came and take down the Salvation Society to gather information.
‘Well, if it gets more confusing later because of the dreams, that can’t be helped.’
That wasn’t the main goal, so it didn’t matter. Ghislaine’s real objective was to eradicate the Salvation Society and stabilize the continent.
After getting up, Ghislaine gave orders to the entire army.
“We’re departing now.”
The mobilized troops and the Ruthania Army finally moved.
Although the operation was slightly delayed because of Helgenik, it wasn’t bad. In the meantime, more armies had joined the allied forces.
A massive army, reaching 300,000 strong, marched towards the Kingdom of Atrode. The allied forces, excluding the Ruthania Army, split into four legions of 50,000 each.
The legions were formed by combining forces from various kingdoms. Only the 100,000 Ruthania Army acted as a singular force.
“We’ll penetrate the center.”
The Ruthania Army chose the route where the fiercest fighting was anticipated.
No one opposed. The Ruthania Army had the strongest force among the allied forces.
Yulien was required to be with the Turian Army, but there were still strong warriors in the Ruthania Army.
“Let’s thoroughly capture all strongholds. Think of it as hunting down every cockroach hiding inside.”
Ghislaine had clearly warned Erlhardt. She would sweep away without leaving a single one behind.
Now it was time to turn that warning into reality.
The Kingdom of Atrode was aware of the approaching allied forces. They prepared for battle at the Forward Fortress.
Facing their fortress first, Ghislaine stated,
“Execute the Meteor operation.”
It was the first time that the main force of Ruthania would use their power against humans.
A total of 100,000 troops of Ruthania. Although the speed was somewhat slowed, they possessed an enormously vast number of military devices.
Ghislaine intended to use that to instill genuine shock and fear among both enemies and allies.
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
The mobile army deployed Galbarium movable catapults.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Then, the massive dwarf-made catapults, brought along by the 100,000 troops, were assembled and moved to the front line.
With all preparations complete, Ghislaine smiled as she stretched out her hand.
“Destroy everything.”
At her command, hundreds of catapults began to rain stones towards the fortress.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
No army in the continent possessed such a vast number of catapults. That level of funding and production capacity simply didn’t exist.
Only Penris, who had poured all the resources of his territory into the war for years, could produce this kind of number. Ghislaine had even managed to scrape together catapults from other territories.
The amassed multitude of catapults swiftly started to demolish the fortress.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Forward Fortress of the Kingdom of Atrode was gradually transforming into something that could no longer even be called a fortress.
The fortress commander, Count Gailan, was at a loss facing the overwhelming attacking power of the Ruthania Army.
“W-what should we do?”
There was no chance of counterattacking at all. The forces guarding the castle walls were already in retreat.
Not only did they retreat, but everyone had to dodge stones raining down like a storm inside the fortress.
“Why are stones still flying? How much did they bring!”
It couldn’t last this long unless all 100,000 troops had been quarrying stones.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
There was no place to hide. The indiscriminate stones were smashing the buildings inside the fortress.
“Your Excellency! You must evade!”
Count Gailan was no exception. Because the command post was destroyed, he had to move around like other soldiers.
The only difference for Count Gailan was that he was escorted by knights.
“Crazy… How many catapults are there! We need to shoot back! We need to shoot!”
Count Gailan’s words were nothing more than a lament.
Initially, they also retaliated with their own catapults. However, when a stone was launched from their fortress, over a hundred were flying back in response from the enemies.
Their catapults didn’t even get a chance to fire properly before they were destroyed.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Watching the devastation all around, Count Gailan tore at his hair.
“Ugh, ugh… This is nonsense.”
In this world, what kind of attack could be so one-sided? If it’s this unbalanced, there’s no point in fighting at all.
Just as Count Gailan was frantically dodging, at some point the sky started to flash with light.
Zap!
Flashes erupted and vanished repeatedly.
Boom!
Lightning began to fall from the sky.
“Uaaah!”
Dodging the catapult stones was hard enough, but now with magic raining down, it was completely unbearable.
Count Gailan shouted in panic.
“W-what are the mages doing! What’s going on with the mages!”
Given it was the Forward Fortress, there were quite a number of high-level mages guarding it. They were certainly conducting mana suppression successfully.
But why was the opposing side casting spells?
Confirming the situation among the mages, Count Gailan finally understood.
“Evade!”
“Block for now!”
“The mana barriers are down!”
The mages themselves were in chaos due to the stones raining down like madness. Naturally, they couldn’t concentrate solely on magic.
There were fewer mages than the Ruthania Army. If just a few lost focus, they couldn’t deal with the opposing magical power.
In reality, Ruthania’s mages could have broken through with pure force from the start, but they simply hadn’t done that.
Vanessa, leading the mages, said,
“No need to overexert yourself. We need to be ready for after. Jerome is making it all alone right now. Let’s do just enough and retreat.”
“……Alright.”
As the mana barriers fell due to the catapult assault, the mage corps led by Vanessa easily inserted their magic into the fortress.
Boom!
Fire pillars erupted throughout the fortress, and lightning struck down.
The mages of the Kingdom of Atrode couldn’t even counterattack properly and fell one after another. Many smart ones quickly fled.
Count Gailan gritted his teeth. There was no way to tackle them.
“I should have just gone out and fought.”
He couldn’t win anyway, but that would have been better than being beaten without even having a chance.
The mages scattered and fled. The 30,000 troops that had been stationed at the fortress never got to fight and were taken down by stones and magic.
Watching the fortress crumble in futility, Ghislaine smiled slightly.
“Isn’t this what a meteor is? When stones fall from the sky like this, it’s a meteor, right?”
That’s why the operation was named ‘Meteor.’
“……”
The mage standing next to Ghislaine, supporting her, fell silent. He wanted to object, but there were no words to say.
Seeing the state of the fortress, it genuinely seemed as if a 9-circle magic meteor was raining down.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The fortress was getting pummeled with stones and magic until it was nothing more than a pile of debris, barely able to be called a fortress.
Confirming the destruction of the fortress, Ghislaine raised her hand.
“Now, let’s clean up.”
As Ghislaine dashed out with the Black King, the waiting Ruthania Army charged along with them.
“Waaaaah!”
No need for ladders or siege towers. They just needed to climb over the wreckage.
Ghislaine, arriving first, leaped over the rubble and swung her spear.
Boom!
Nearby soldiers didn’t even get to scream before they died. The fortress was already filled with corpses.
The Kingdom of Atrode had no way to stop the charging Ruthania Army. Most of their forces were dead due to stones or magic.
“Flee! Retreat!”
“Run away quickly!”
“We can’t win anyway!”
The troops of the Kingdom of Atrode began to throw down their weapons and flee. They didn’t want to fight this nonsensical army.
The remaining soldiers scattered in all directions, while Count Gailan wore a dazed expression.
“How could this…?”
He had heard plenty of rumors about how strong the Ruthania Army was. Still, he had received orders to stall for time.
Even though they were outnumbered, they still had an army of 30,000. He thought they could hold out in this strong fortress.
Yet, they couldn’t even last half a day.
Clop, clop.
As the sound of horse hooves slowly approached, Count Gailan turned his head.
A young man riding a fierce black horse.
That person must be the famous Duke of Penris.
“Is that… is that the Duke of Penris?”
“Yes.”
“I will surrender. According to noble customs, you should……”
“Cockroach.”
Ghislaine interrupted Count Gailan’s words and raised her spear.
“Not a single one will be spared.”
Slash!
Count Gailan didn’t even get to finish his sentence before his head flew off.
Having cleaned up the fortress so neatly, Ghislaine said,
“Let’s rest for a day and move to the next stronghold. Leave some troops behind to tidy up the surroundings. And… keep an eye on the stones.”
To completely annihilate the enemy, she needed to secure the surrounding areas perfectly as well. They couldn’t allow any remnants to escape or find a place to hide.
They had to kill them all and force them to gather in the Kingdom of Grimwell.
“Waaaaah!”
As the battle ended in an instant, the Ruthania soldiers raised their weapons and cheered. With Ghislaine, war couldn’t possibly be easier.
The knights, who had followed Ghislaine since long ago, wore nostalgic expressions.
“We used to get right into it back then.”
“We’ve come a long way.”
“There were close calls more than once.”
At that time, they hadn’t had this level of power. They had jumped from the castle and charged, and had even ambushed at night from hot air balloons.
Lucas, resting his spear on his shoulder, chuckled.
“I guess we went through all that hardship just to end up like this.”
They had done everything to win, but now being armed with such overwhelming power filled them with emotion.
The Ruthania Army took just one day to rest and immediately moved to the next stronghold. They weren’t tired since they hadn’t exerted themselves much.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The next fortress was no different from the last. The Kingdom of Atrode was only stumbling around while taking hits.
Seeing the crumbling fortress, Ghislaine wore a disinterested expression.
“Looks like they’ve taken all the superhumans away.”
No fortress could withstand the Meteor operation without superhumans. To counter it, they would need a similar number of catapults or overwhelming magical power.
But no fortress could possibly have that many catapults, and no magical power could surpass the Ruthania Army, which was the strongest in the continent.
In the end, the only remaining option was for the superhumans to come out and engage directly. But the main force of the Kingdom of Atrode was headed toward the Kingdom of Grimwell.
So the Kingdom of Atrode was shattered as the Ruthania Army advanced.
As the occupation progressed smoothly, Ghislaine received new news.
“The Castle of Grimwell has been captured! The King of Grimwell has been taken hostage!”
That meant Gathros had obtained the sacred relic he wanted.