Lord of Disease (JP-GL) 357

357: The Shield of Corpses

A single line was drawn across the world.

An afterimage, as if burned into my retina. A shooting star, which had streaked across the sky, leaving a trail of light, had become a single flash and had shattered the countless magic barriers—the swarm of [Shields]—that had been deployed at full strength as a pre-battle precaution.

The sound of breaking glass echoed, in succession. A sound that might have been made if all the crystal glass chandeliers in the world had been shattered at once. At the same time as the roar, as if the world itself were screaming, I could feel the ground tremble ominously, and the air creak, unable to withstand the immense energy. And as the light from the annihilation of the barriers shone brightly, the aftershock reached me as a wind, and the hem of my robe fluttered.

The enemy army—was still intact, but there was a large hole in the center. Not a metaphorical hole, where the enemy army was missing.

A giant hole, where the ground had been gouged out, the center was boiling, and a part of it had turned to glass from the heat and was sparkling. The Itria Crater… or so it would probably be called.

A scene of devastation, as if ten percent of the enemy army had been blown away.

And yet, the enemy’s defensive mages seemed to be excellent. What I had been worried about was not that we wouldn’t be able to inflict damage on the enemy, but that we would be blown away along with them.

The decisive battle spell, [Meteor].

According to Your Majesty the Demon King and the Old One, Listrea-sama, it had been theoretically complete, but had had operational problems. In other words, “we didn’t have enough mana to activate it.”

And what had solved… ‘solved’… that was the blood contract. I and Samarkand had, in effect, pushed Listrea-sama, who had come to me for advice, and the blood contract had raised her mana to a new level. And besides, it had established a mana line between the two of them, who were probably the strongest couple on the continent, magically speaking. They said that they could now split the mana consumption of a spell.

In fact, Samarkand and I should have been able to cast a spell at the same time—but since it was on the premise that both of us could use the same spell, it was a meaningless story. For me.

In their case, they could simply pour two people’s worth of mana into a single spell, and since Listrea-sama’s portion had increased… they would have enough activation mana. And to go to such lengths, I had wondered what kind of a spell they would use… and their idea had been insane.

[Meteor] was a spell that ‘just’ reached out its magical hand beyond the stratosphere and pulled down a star.

It was no wonder they hadn’t had enough activation mana. Apparently, they had first tried to interfere with the ‘moon,’ a conspicuous celestial body. At that time, Listrea-sama’s words had been, “I had no intention of dropping it, but even if the moon were to disappear, the night would just get a little darker.”

I had couldn’t help but shout, “Apologize to the moon!”

There were the tides, and the balance of gravity was, to be honest, at a miraculous level. And besides, the insects that flew at night used it as a landmark… in any case, it was a celestial body that had a great influence in many ways.

And if they had succeeded, the continent would have undoubtedly been annihilated. No, the planet would have been in danger.

The fact that a day was twenty-four hours (probably) and the gravity was 1G (by feel) meant that it was alright to apply the same data as Earth. If we were to assume it was the same as Earth’s moon, then its diameter was over three thousand kilometers. The ratio, about a quarter of this planet, should also be the same. Incidentally, the meteorites that were said to have triggered the mass extinctions that had occurred several times in Earth’s history were all estimated to be about ten kilometers in diameter.

Literally, a different order of magnitude.

I had been worried about the negative effects on astronomy, but since it was a matter that would affect the fate of the planet, I had released some of my knowledge of Earth. That said, I had just conveyed a basic image of the universe and the celestial bodies and had told them that the thing they were pulling down should be a small rock, not something that could be called a ‘star.’ That a shooting star was a phenomenon where a small pebble entered the atmosphere and the air in front of it was compressed, and it became hot and glowed. That there was no need to drop a huge celestial body like the moon.

It shouldn’t burn out, and we wanted to inflict as much damage as possible. But… honestly, the ‘damage’ if the power had been too high was not a laughing matter. Not just the country and the race would be destroyed, but there was a possibility that all living things would cease to exist, for all eternity.

Even though the enemy army should have been deploying their defensive magic… I think I was the most scared person in this place. The people at the epicenter were probably also scared, but there was a possibility that the entire surface of the earth would be scorched, the axis would shift, and this planet would enter an ice age. In fact, I thought that the greatest achievement of the Lord of Disease in this war might have been to have avoided the tragedy of Your Majesty and Listrea-sama pulling down a rock of the maximum size.

It would have been easy if the entire army had been crushed, but if a destructive power of that magnitude had been born, it was doubtful whether we would have been safe, so I thought this was for the best. Though it wasn’t conspicuous due to the immense damage to the enemy army, the barrier on our side had also been shattered.

The ‘effort’ of Your Majesty and Listrea-sama was on a scale that made me think that the heroes of the founding of the nation were on a different level. But the ‘effort’ of our necromancer was not to be outdone, in terms of appearance.

From the Dark Forest behind us, a giant of flesh rose.

An Undead Gargantua.

It was not that it was not dead; it was not alive. From the mass of pink flesh, some of which was rotting, a few dirty bones protruded. It had a head and hands, but no legs, and its lower body was an amorphous mass of flesh. And its head, too, was a mass of flesh with three indentations, a grotesque, anthropomorphic face. In what corresponded to its eye sockets and mouth, the eerie blue-green will-o’-the-wisps of an undead burned.

It dragged itself forward, using its hands. Its movements seemed slow, but due to its massive size, it was surprisingly fast.

Offensive magic, mainly [Fireballs], from the enemy army, pierced the rotting flesh of the giant, and it exploded, scattering pieces of flesh and foul liquid.

Its head was missing, its left arm was blown off, and it was being chipped away at an alarming rate. Some of the fallen pieces of flesh were re-integrating, but the pace of being blown away was faster. And with a large hole in its torso as a starting point, it was hit by a concentrated barrage and, after becoming a charred wreck, it stopped moving.

And yet, it still tried to move, and its emotionless movements seemed to have stirred their fear, and they continued to pour [Fireballs] into it.

With that size, and without any defensive magic, it was only natural that it would be a target. Since it was well-done, the smell of roasted meat was mixed in. Was it because it was originally the meat of livestock?

Rebecca had said she would use it well, but at this rate—

…No.

This was the optimal solution. I knew, because Rebecca had told me. That the Undead Gargantua was an unstable and weak undead, with only its size as its merit, which a first-rate necromancer would never use. That its materials, which did not suit its imposing figure, were leftover bones and meat.

The humans probably didn’t know. A monster of that size, that looked so abominable—with a face, no less—could not have not been frightening. The reason they had not chosen to approach it, but had rained down a concentrated barrage of offensive magic from a distance, was because of that.

But that was a waste. They had just been caught in a grand decoy operation, which had used that imposing figure. Of course, since it was a large undead, even if it was rotten, if they hadn’t dealt with it, the ordinary soldiers would have been crushed, but if they had had the knowledge, they could have dealt with it in a better way.

Stepping over the remains of the Undead Gargantua, which no longer retained its original form, the death knights of the Sixth Army—the Order of Disease—led by Harken, charged, with the Black Hound Barghests in tow.

A countless number of offensive spells, mainly [Fireballs] and [Blizzards], flew towards them and rained down, but the defensive magic, [Shield], which had been deployed at full strength on the upper surface, absorbed them, though it flickered.

The dragons, who had been on standby on the ground, kicked off the ground and rose into the air.

The increase and decrease in morale due to the speech, the decisive battle spell, the decisive battle weapon (decoy), were the flowers of war. But from here on, the essence of war was the dirty, bloody battlefield, where forces, soldiers, and lives were chipped away.

In a true sense, the war had begun.