Episode 662 The Preparation of the Demon Army (2)
The news of Victor Dreadful’s betrayal-
Verom’s tone was casual, as if he’d seen it coming all along.
“I’m not surprised.
Ludger had heard of Victor’s betrayal, too.
He knew better than anyone that the mad scientist was not the kind of man to work for someone out of loyalty.
But he still had a question.
“You let that happen?”
Rudger asked, turning to Surna.
Surna had taken a laissez-faire approach to what the other First Orders did, not interfering much, but that didn’t mean she didn’t watch them at all.
If nothing else, it made sense that Victor, who had the most influence across the continent, at least, should be kept under surveillance.
“He’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t hesitate to flip the palm of his godly hand in the hand of the devil if it meant he could experiment-”
“You mean he’s joined hands with the Lumensis Sect?”
The words were met with astonishment from everyone around him-.
Especially Tenaron, who was well aware of Victor Dreadpool’s experiments, asked in disbelief.
“You mean the Order would accept such a mad scientist?”
Tenaron could only say that because he didn’t know what had happened in the Inner Sanctum.
The Order of Lumensis, at least as far as Tenaron knew, was a religion that, while corrupted, was still faith-based at its core.
But that, after all, was Tenaron’s illusion-
“Quite the contrary-”
Surna denied Tenaron’s words.
“What do you mean the opposite—-”
“It’s not that the Order accepted Victor- because they didn’t have to, he was on their side from the beginning-”
Rudger remembered the experiments he’d seen in the inner sanctum.
“Is that why-”
From a giant of a man on death row to a strangely small man in a mask with oddly long arms.
and, worst of all, the brutal body modification procedures performed on Benedict’s own kin.
“Victor Dreadful- I was wondering where the hell such a mad scientist came out of nowhere, but if he was part of the Order of Lumensis from the beginning, it makes the story easier-”
“No wait- doesn’t that make a little less sense- why would a guy like that abandon the Order and suddenly become a First Order member?”
Helia frowned, her head spinning- “Why?
Victor, First Order and criminal, was actually from the Bretus Kingdom.
“Yeah- let’s say he’s from the Holy State- the experiments in there prove it- so what’s wrong with him that he became a First Order?”
“To do experiments that the Holy State wouldn’t allow-”
It was Surna who answered.
“This is my fault- I never thought such a psychopath was originally from the Holy State.”
All the experiments that had been conducted within the Bretus Kingdom.
Victor Dreadpool was at the center of it all.
Using the shards of a saint to create a fake saint.
Turning other failures into priests.
Tinkering with unwanted humans to turn them into battle-ready death row inmates.
That alone was remarkable, but Victor’s ambition for research was not satisfied by such things.
“He’s been living on the continent, away from the Holy Land, continuing his own secret experiments-”
Until one day, the Holy Kingdom suddenly locked the gates, and Viktor decided it was time to pursue the research he wanted to do.
Bretus wouldn’t allow him to experiment with science and the dark arts.
He used his black magic experiments to study the Cryptids and turn humans into werewolves.
He used his scientific experiments to create gunpowder that was impervious to the Silence of Fire and a new form of golem called the Liquid Golem.
He has created artifacts and secret laboratories utilizing all manner of magical experiments.
His influence spread like a plague across the continent.
“I had no idea he was a double agent.”
No wonder Surna didn’t know.
Victor didn’t really do much espionage after joining the First Order.
He was literally just doing his research.
That’s why he took Surna’s hand, and now he’s betrayed her and aligned himself with Bretus.
“It’s just as well- I didn’t like the idea of fighting alongside such a fellow-”
Ludger was glad that Victor was an enemy-
It gave him a chance to kill him with certainty.
“The question is, where is Viktor now?”
“There’s no sign of him anywhere on the continent, at least- he’s evacuated all of his old labs- it’s as if he knew this was coming-”
If Surna said that, then there really was no Victor on the continent-
“Are you sure?”
“Part of what I’ve learned with my powers involves tracking, which allows me to keep tabs on people- I don’t know about the rest of the First Order, but Viktor has a sort of ‘eye’ that I’ve put on him because I’ve been keeping a close eye on him- but I’m not seeing anything right now- at least, if he’s on the continent, there’s no way I wouldn’t have seen him-”
“You mean to say that Victor is not on the continent now-”
“That’s right-if he’s not on the continent, there are only two places-”
One is Isla Makina, the mechanical island that keeps the world afloat.
But Isla Makina had recently been visited by Surna, so we ruled it out.
If Victor was hiding there, there was no way they wouldn’t know about it.
“Then-”
“There’s only one place left, isn’t there?”
Surna and Rudger’s gazes simultaneously turned to the Galaharad Citadel.
“The Bretus Kingdom- It seems they’re hiding somewhere in the citadel as well-”
“He’s hiding even though the blood of the Holy Kingdom is fighting in person- I guess the Holy Kingdom doesn’t hold Viktor in the highest regard- or maybe he’s just being a jerk-”
“With enemies on the outside, and the enemy on the inside just around the corner, is it really necessary to keep them on the inside- it’s disturbing-”
Alex interrupted then-
“Then shouldn’t we try to get the rats on the inside somehow?”
“I’d like to, but I haven’t yet found a means of getting inside the citadel-”
“Well- what if we smash it all down?”
Alex gave the simplest answer possible-
It was Seridan who was rather enraged by the words.
“What the hell- didn’t you hear what I said earlier- that citadel is a device- what if we mess with it and ruin its functionality?”
Alex broke out in a cold sweat at the reaction of Seridan, who seemed like the first person to say, “Let’s blow it up with a bomb.
“No why- I was just saying-”
“There are things you can say and things you can’t say!”
Seridan said to Ludger with a fire in his eyes-
“My lord- leave it to me- I will somehow analyze the structure of the device and find that mad scientist in hiding-”
It was hard to say no when she spoke with such determination.
If, as she claimed, this side of the citadel was wrong and the device malfunctioned, the way in could be closed off completely.
“Then it looks like we’re going to have to split into three groups- we’ll need to allocate manpower.”
It wasn’t just about keeping the enemy at bay.
First and foremost, we had to clear a path inward.
Ludger, of course, was the one who held the key.
“From what Deena said, it must be some kind of secret passageway that only those most in touch with the power of the gods can enter.
‘The interior is the reason this Citadel of Galaharad was built, and the place where the true colors of the gods can be seen.
‘If it is indeed inside, then I—-‘
Surna stared off into space for a moment, her eyes complex, then shook the thought away.
The Citadel had noticed her strange reaction, but hadn’t bothered to point it out.
Neither she nor Setadel realized the need to focus on the task at hand.
“Seridan, find as many places as you can where Victor is hiding- he won’t be able to get inside either, so he must be somewhere in the inner city-”
“Sure thing, leave it to me!”
“And the rest of you, I want you to concentrate on holding off the enemies that will soon be coming from the outside-”
In a way, it was the most dangerous part of the job-
“We don’t have to fight for our lives- we just have to hold them off and stall for time-”
It’s a battle of eggs and rocks.
No matter how powerful the people on this side were, the people on the continent were far stronger and more numerous than them.
The simple difference in power alone is more than a hundred times more ridiculous.
If we were to meet them head-on, they would fall without putting up much of a fight.
But this one didn’t need to fight.
All we had to do was dig a trap, stall, and delay their entry.
“Hey, Doc-”
Caroline asked.
“Seeing as you’re asking us to bide our time, there must be a way to turn this whole thing around once and for all, right?”
“I can’t say for sure- I’m just considering the possibility-”
It was Caroline and the rest of the Monarch Mercenaries who would be risking their lives on that uncertain plan.
But Caroline smirked, as if she didn’t care.
“Well, it’s a lot better than zero chance, but there’s still one more problem-”
Caroline surveyed the assembled group.
“I’ll admit, they’re a formidable force, and a feature of this Brettus country is the complex waterways that must be traversed to reach the citadel from the checkpoint towns. It’s not an easy environment for a large army to move through. If they’re determined, they can certainly bide their time with guerrilla warfare, but only on the ground.”
He had a point.
Any troops coming in by land would have to be organized, even to cross the waterways, but the sky was the problem.
“If we move to airships now and send troops down, the three checkpoints will be useless-our geographical advantage to defend them will be gone.”
Then we’d have to assume a dogfight, and we’d need troops to stop it, and the only thing that was currently available was the Caroline-
“If the Golden Monarch’s guns could somehow shoot down any incoming airships, that would be one thing, but they’re not stupid, and they’re not going to use ordinary airships.”
Military airships have defenses against outside attack.
It wouldn’t be impossible to shoot down a Golden Monarch with all three of its guns firing, but that was only true if it was one-on-one.
“Reports indicate that there are at least two thousand airships crisscrossing the skies-”
Over two thousand airships-
Given the firepower they carried and the number of soldiers aboard them.
it was enough to literally wipe out a country.
That’s how much power can only come from the air.
Even if we can stop them on the ground, how can we stop them in the sky?
It was Surna, not Rudger, who answered that question.
“Hmm – perhaps that’s fine – it’s about time he woke up.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Caroline frowned at Surna’s rambling- “Wake him up?
He’s waking up? Does that mean someone’s coming to help? The way he’s talking, it sounds like it’s just one individual, and even then, how are they going to stop over two thousand airships?
There was one person who was the first to react when everyone thought that, and that was Violetta.
“The wind-”
Violetta was the most sensitive to the strange sensation in the distance.
The feel of the wind on her cheeks was different than usual.
“A gentle breeze is coming.”
A gentle breeze?
Not all winds are the same.
Everyone wondered what she meant.
But even Violetta, who spoke, was puzzled.
“What can I say?
She couldn’t think of a clearer way to explain it than this.
“Yes- it’s about time you woke up- that’s what I provoked you to do-”
Surna smiled her usual dark smile.
By now the sky was filled with dark clouds.
The atmosphere rumbled and vibrated through the clouds.
Huge clouds.
A great swarm of clouds, seemingly reaching into the stratosphere, descended upon Bretus.
Lightning flashed and crackled inside the clouds.
The shapes inside the clouds flashed and disappeared with each flash of lightning, created by the enormous atmospheric water vapor friction at incredible speeds.
“My God- what the hell was that?”
“Am I dreaming?”
Beyond the unbelievable meteorological phenomenon, something huge existed in the center of it all- a
People who saw something with multiple wings spread wide doubted their eyes.
What was more surprising was that a storm of that magnitude had accompanied it, and yet the citadel they were in had not been affected in any way.
“So- you came after all-”
Surna stared at the figure in the clouds with a pleased expression on her face.
The storm that had been raging had stopped, as if time had stood still.
The spinning clouds stopped, and the lightning that had been bouncing around ceased.
And then…
Hwaah!
The center of the cloud tore wide open from side to side, revealing the being within.
“Wind Elemental Lord-”
The long-dormant Wind Elemental Lord had arrived in the Bretus Kingdom.