Advance on Pyongyang

Pyongyang was under siege.

For the past week, the National Army and TTG Temple have been smashing up everything around Pyongyang, tightening the siege.

"No mercy!"

Countless monsters and North Korean soldiers were slaughtered.

"Those who surrender will be rewarded! But those who resist are the enemy, so do not take up arms, lowly creatures!"

Cities, towns, and villages were captured.

Repeating the process, the South Korean army reliably isolated Pyongyang.

The small navy and air force were wiped out, sealing off sea and air routes, and finally, the massive army surrounding Pyongyang cut off all supplies.

"They're not moving."

"Yes, it should have run out of food long ago."

A city of that size it's a black hole of endless food consumption, not just for the citizens of Pyongyang, but for the hundreds of thousands of troops and monsters nearby.

"Do they grow food inside?"

"Modern cities are not food self-sustaining. They're built on top of the land they're meant to cultivate."

"So can they survive on stockpiles?"

"That's not possible either. Even if they did stockpile resources, there are only a few million. Unless there's an endless supply from outside, they're going to run out of food in the warehouses before they know it."

No external supply, no self-production, no stockpiles.

"That's one thing, then. They don't rely on food resources."

"Is that--is that possible as a living thing?"

"Perhaps what is in there is not a creature as we know it."

Leon remembered the mutations he had witnessed in the charge on the serfs. The way creatures degenerated and mutated defied any biomedical laws.

Like the Chaos Lord and his forces that had once driven Lionheart to the brink of destruction.

"We have no choice. We must advance."

"Yes, we must. But if we reach that place."

"The holy ones are fine. Those who are protected by the Holy Grail and the Holy Knights can resist them."

The commander of the national army wondered if he should give in.

The TTG Temple had mobilized nearly ten thousand troops. Even if the Hunters other than TTG Temple, who were armed with extraordinary weapons, were mobilized, that would be enough.

That's more than a full division's worth of troops, but to put it another way, it's only one division's worth of troops.

Attacking the great city of Pyongyang with such a force would be suicidal.

Leon read the look in his eyes and patted the commander on the shoulder.

"But there are times when it must be done. As this king said, we don't have much time left."

"Branches of Doom------"

The commander turned his gaze to Pyongyang. It hadn't been there when he'd first arrived, but now it was reaching for the sky, with the iconic Ryugyong Hotel as its mausoleum.

Leon didn't think it would be finished by the end of the war, but it was at least a ticking time bomb at this point.

"Let's go, then."

"Unfortunate---!"

Leon boarded Stallion and stood on the rice fields surrounding Pyongyang, clad in the unfinished stardust armor Yappy had forged for him.

-Dag-dag, dag-dag!

One by one, the knights gathered before him.

Vulcanus, Holy Knight of War and Flame, and the Fifty Burning Sword Knights.

Beatrice Alighieri Spero, High Priestess of Dreams and Death and Queen of Magicians.

Yakt Spinner, Holy Knight of the Iron and Blacksmiths.

Han Ha-ri, Chun So-yeon, Han Soo-ho, Han Jae-hyuk, and 150 other Knights, representing those trained and ordained at the Naju TTG Temple.

Kim Jin-soo, the leader of the Hanbit Palace Warriors and the Eight Thousand Men at Arms.

Many other Hunters armed with stellar weapons gathered.

Oh Kang-hyuk, president of the Korean Hunter's Association, and members of the Firebird Guild, Lee Yong-wan and Ha Yu-ri, Golden Lion Guild's Golden Chul, Hwang Yeon-ha, and Infinite Guild, Juwon Medical, Divine Sword Guild, and Blue Star Guild. Plus elite Hunters from Japan, the United States, and the European Union.

There were twelve thousand Hunters alone but there's more.

-The Unmanned Combat Integration Platform launched.

Drones launching from containers in unison at Yappy's command protocol.

The TTG Temple boasts 34,000 gate-attacking drones.

They were perhaps the most powerful army on earth.

"All units, march."

Leon led the way, and as he and the White Divine Beast slowly moved forward, the Holy Knights followed, followed by the Knights.

The sight of tens of thousands of troops moving in unison was a sight to behold.

-Crack!

The Ranged Legionary Shield unfurls, bracing for enemy fire, and slowly approaches the 'Point'.

The point at which the creatures were experimented on at the expense of the serfs and the point where the serfs were warned that if they crossed, they would die.

They continue to advance, approaching the point and when Leon stood before it, it blatantly revealed a black membrane, a warning of sorts but the Lionheart King merely waved it away with a sneer.

"A remnant's tricks."

It was a small price to pay for tying up the unprotected troops, but Leon had no intention of relying on them in the first place.

As he pushed through the black curtain, the troops slowly entered, relieved to see that it hadn't mutated them.

"Here they come."

The plains of Pyongyang lay before them, and beyond them, countless monsters and North Korean troops as if they had been waiting for this.

"There are a lot of them."

"Are you worried, Lord Vulcanus?"

"GRARARARA──!! I'm just glad we have plenty of firewood!"

"Well, Sir Spinner, let's get started."

-Crack!

Yappy mobilized the drones, led by the Kikiruk pilots in their Earl-class aircraft, followed by Baron-class drones, and tens of thousands of drones.

Massive combat drones to maintain a firepower advantage alongside the Kikiruk artillery, which is crucial to the TTG Temple Warriors' emphasis on hand-to-hand combat.

An army of unmanned robots, a drone swarm if ever there was one, dominate the skies, pointing their guns at monsters and North Korean troops.

-A full set of integrated space armament platforms.

Plus a stealth combat satellite that had just finished tuning up and bombarding stardust somewhere north of Pyongyang.

-All Weapon Free.

Tens of thousands of guns about to fire over the heads of the enemy──

[What a waste of money to bring such boring toys.]

It echoed through all the space surrounding Pyongyang. Perhaps it could even be heard in Seoul, a resonance so deep it seemed to have been plucked from the abyss.

Leon knew who the voice belonged to.

"Rakshar?!"

The next moment, there was a roar.

"▀▀▀▀▀""""▄▄▄▄▄────!!!

The roar reverberates.

Leon saw a flash of roar that pierced the sky, stretched across the universe.

More than two hundred years in the past. The roar of Malus, the first chaos lord summoned by the empire, stretched across the sky.

And then──!

"Vulcanus!!!"

"All Flaming Sword Knights, fire!!!"

At Vulcanus' command, the entirety of the Flaming Sword Knights burst into flames. The holy fire unleashed by the fifty Knights and Vulcanus, the strongest Holy Knight of all time, formed a huge shield that blocked the way of all twelve thousand Hunters.

"What, what's going on? Why are they blocking our way?"

The question was short-lived, as something crashed into the curtain of fire and ripped it apart.

The roar's aftermath, a rippling effect, cut right through the curtain of fire.

At best, it was only a ripple of sound, but it was sharp as if it had compressed all the blades in the world.

"Turn it off---my ears------"

"Damn it, what's that sound------"

To think that just letting out a roar could have such an effect. Lee Yong-wan thought that the opponent was too strong.

"Are you okay, Miss Yu-ri?"

"Uh--- It was just a sound. But what kind of sound was that?"

It was then. Ha Yu-ri swung her dagger at the foreign sensation at the top of her head and slashed at it.

-Poof!

The source of the foreign sensation fell to the ground.

"This, this?"

It was the drone that had filled the sky just moments ago.

"What is this?"

Yong-wan looked at the sky, his mouth hanging open.

-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Corps down. 65% loss of Count class, Baron class dysfunctional. Uncontrollable. Uncontrollable.

The drones that had filled the sky were falling in unison.

"Shields up!"

The trusty squadron of drones that had been covering their allies just moments ago was reduced to a pile of scrap metal, pounding the legion.

There were no weaklings here who would be injured by the falling of a bit of hard scrap metal, but the fact that so many drones had crashed was psychologically disturbing.

Besides──

"Ha, look at the sky!"

The sky--or, more accurately, the countless shooting stars raining down from space.

It didn't take them long to realize that those were the satellites humanity had been launching into space all along.

[Let the good old-fashioned war begin.]

Rakshar, Lord of Chaos, smiled.

* * * * *

One roar.

With that one roar, humanity lost everything in space.

Different. So different in scale.

Many times before, mankind has faced demons and defeated them.

Sometimes it has failed, but at least it has succeeded in defeating the demons themselves.

Even the Archdemon Skazakari, the one responsible for the Shanghai massacre, has been defeated every time, and there have been other Archdemons that have appeared from time to time, but mankind has always been able to repel them.

With the advent of the TTG Temple, it was even easier.

The Demon Gate was no longer a melting pot for immortal demons, and the demons that infested the mortal world were eliminated one by one by the TTG Temple sweeps.

Those who had seen the footage of the battle in Taiwan cheered as they realized that while the demons may be mighty, they were no match for the mightiest creatures on earth--the Holy Knights.

But

This was different.

The scale is so different.

Only Vulcanus and the Burning Sword Knights, who had fought countless Lord-level demons, and the few who had witnessed the final battle at the Gate that marked the destruction of the Lionheart, could 'understand' this moment.

[Chaos Aura]

◆Effects: Weakness, Chaos, Eeriness, Confusion, Tetanus, Screaming, Fear, Horror, Confusion, Despair, Physical Corruption, Mind Taint, Soul Erosion────

[Legendary Demon Lord]

◆Effect: Unrecognizable.

[Demon Lord Rakshar]

◆Effect: Unrecognizable.

[Despairing Existence]

◆Effect:

-Fear, confusion, and despair grips all living creatures.

-Decreases Morale by 99.9%.

- Decreases Physical Resistance by 100%.

- Decreases Defense by 100%.

"Ah, Demon Lord!"

"Oh, no. How can I defeat such a thing?"

"Run──"

"Don't panic, you lowly things!"

The crowd, which seemed to be about to burst into panic at any moment, stood still.

The Lionheart King's shouts calmed them as much as Rakshar's thunderous roar scared them.

"The True King is here! The guardian of the Grail, the agent of the gods, is here!"

[Lionheart's Aura]

◆Effect:

-Grants Legion Upgrade Reinforced Charge Defense.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Fortification.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Battalion Reinforcement.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Valor.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Light Armor.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Tough Skin.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Heavy Strike.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Anti-Magic.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Ranged Resistance.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Keen Gaze.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Anti-Infantry Slaughter.

-Grants Legion Upgrade Pollution Resistance.

"Fear not where I am. What about the Lord of Evil? I am their executioner!"

[Demon Lord Slayer]

"Know the miracle before your eyes: no warrior has ever slain more evil than this king."

[Supreme Demon Slayer]

"Knights lead the way! Living saints and saintsesses are before you, and demigods protect you."

[Yakt Spinner, Holy Knight of Iron and Blacksmithing]

-Trigger emergency repairs.

-Blacksmith's Blessing allows you to sharpen your weapons. Adds 80% Sharpness.

[Beatrice, High Priestess of Dreams and Death]

-Your Mental Resistance is increased by 100%.

-Safe Dream is always triggered.

-Death Resistance has a high chance to trigger once.

[Vulcanus, Holy Knight of War and Flame]

-Modifier: <Flaming Sword> is granted to all Legion members.

-Enemies have 80% reduced Fire Resistance.

-Partial Holy Knight's damage is applied to all Legion members.

-War knight's followers gain clear eyes, harsh breathing, raucous cries, and a fury for evil.

[The Holy Knight of Darkness and Vengeance and the Holy Knight of Gold and Covenant]

-<Spell of the One> is applied. Armor debuffs for 'Demon Species' are triggered.

-<Blade of Darkness> is granted to all Legion members. Successful enemy attacks leave wounds that drain health.

-<The Golden Covenant of Dragonia> is inscribed. Covenant followers receive bonuses based on their specialty.

Finally──

[ Living Demigod]

: Belongs to the family of living demigods. Divine effects are applied.

────

"Therefore, do not be afraid and be brave. As long as you live, you will be favored by the Lionheart King, and when you die, you will go to the banquet of the gods in Paradise."

Leon raises his holy spear high. The spear, from the Goddess of Light, shone down upon them with the holiest of lights.

"Knights of the Burning Sword!"

"Knights of the Naju, spears raised, forward!"

-Eighteen Count-level pilots scrambled. Sharing energy. Deploy.

"Alright, if you're done with the surprise show, raise your shields!"

The Holy Knights, Knights, and Man-At-Arms respond.

Trusting without question the miracles the Lionheart King has performed thus far, they heed his call and raise their swords and spears without hesitation at the Legion of Evil.

Leon Dragonia Lionheart, the mightiest horseman of war in all the planes, with twelve thousand warriors at his side.

"Take up your swords and spears and form up."

He flashed his holy lance and signaled to his oldest ally.

"For the goddess."

The king says.

""For honor!""

The knights shouted in response.

"""For the Lionheart!!!"""

The chorus of soldiers shook the earth.

"Charge. Forward."

Only death to evil.