The northern lords who received letters from the Ron family showed a variety of reactions.
“A disaster caused by the god of death is about to begin…? Tsk, Ron Camillo. Has he finally lost his mind?”
Some dismissed it as nothing serious.
“An unidentified ancient cave was discovered in the North, you say? Hey, is there anyone here who knows the northern mountain routes well?”
Some began by verifying the information Camillo had sent.
“A disaster, you say?”
“Is it something like a Dimensional Reverse?”
“But the Gate of the Abyss is already sealed…what now?”
Some chose to observe silently under a temporary alliance.
“Father, are you really going?”
“Yes. It’s a blood pact passed down from our forefathers. Of course I must go.”
“But the current state of our territory isn’t good.”
“Even so, I must go. He’s not someone who would summon us without a good reason.”
Despite difficult circumstances, some rallied their forces and set out for the city.
The residents of those territories had no choice but to leave their homes with confused expressions.
But one thing was certain: even at this moment, the crack in the northern sky was gradually widening.
***
“Only three families responded to the letter.”
Despite being a message from the lord who ruled the North, only three of the fifteen noble houses answered the call.
This starkly demonstrated the fallen status of the Ron family.
“Haa…”
“…Brother. Still, you need to consider this carefully. It may only be three out of fifteen, but… this matter is what it is.”
“…You’re right. It’s just that no one feels the weight of it yet.”
Once the incident occurs, they’ll surely scramble to act….but by then, the sacrifice might already be enormous.
And even they couldn’t begin to estimate just how great the damage to the North might be from this disaster.
There might even be a massive wave of refugees.
Many people were giving up their livelihoods and fleeing in this bitter cold.
How many of them would end up dead?
Just a short while ago, I couldn’t even imagine such a situation.
He looked up at the northern sky.
Even as the wind cut like frost, the crack in the sky showed no sign of disappearing.
No….if anything, it seemed to be growing.
“……Still no word from the White Whale Mercenaries?”
“Yeah. Seems they’re busy too.”
Just as Camilo said, Jun and his group were moving busily even now.
“Ughhhh… My eyes are about to fall out!”
Eleanor was mass-producing holy magic scrolls through enchantment magic.
She extracted divine power using mana flow and End of Sorrow, drew the patterns of the enchantment spell, and embedded them onto parchment.
It was repetitive labor at its worst, but even so, Eleanor couldn’t stop.
She knew very well that the pain she endured now would one day save many lives.
“Hup!”
“Empty!”
“Guh!”
Aiden and Maya were focusing on sharpening their senses in preparation for the coming battle.
Before a major fight, this sort of warm-up always helped bring their coordination to its peak.
And as for their leader, Jun—
“Hoo… Finally done.”
He had just finished analyzing the pocket watch he’d received from the ancient spirit.
“Heh, unbelievable.”
A hollow look filled Jun’s eyes as he realized the exact time the disaster would begin.
There were only two days left.
The hour hand had just passed 11 and was now moving steadily toward 12.
***
Even as preparations slowly moved forward, life continued on in Stunheim.
But underneath it all, a heavy tension hung in the air.
“Are we… really on the brink of war?”
“I heard the Warun Merchant Guild is buying up food in huge quantities…”
“Isn’t Warun run by the lord himself?”
“Come to think of it, didn’t they say something was happening in the northern sky?”
“Huh…? Is there actually something? I can’t see—wait, what is that?”
“You see it too, right? They say the sky’s tearing open and monsters are going to come pouring out!”
“Di… Dimensional Reverse?”
“No way… The Gate of the Abyss is sealed right now, isn’t it?”
Anxiety soon gave way to fear. The women of the city began locking their doors, and the alleyways where children once played had grown quiet.
An unmistakable tension settled over Stunheim.
And when the troops from the three vassal families who had confirmed their participation arrived, the rumors spread even faster.
“They say refugees have come from two of the three territories.”
“Refugees…?”
“Apparently from the domains up north.”
“Did a monster wave break out or something?”
“No, they say something even worse is coming.”
“Damn it, so frustrating! Doesn’t anyone know the full story?!”
Fear quickly turned into chaos.
And just as the sense of unease in the city was reaching its peak—
Count Camilo, who had read the mood with precision, finally appeared.
He stood on the terrace of the castle where he usually resided.
Only then did the crowd in the plaza look up and spot their lord.
“Armor…?”
“So the rumors were true?”
He wasn’t dressed in leather to guard against the cold. He was clad in solid steel.
While Camilo stood before the people—
Jun and his companions were on top of the city wall, looking out toward the northern sky.
Click.
When he opened the pocket watch he’d taken from his coat, the hour hand pointed precisely to twelve.
And at that very moment—
“Ah!”
Eleanor pointed at the cracked sky.
Though it wasn’t visible to others, something clearly appeared to her eyes.
“The rift is opening!”
“…It’s true. It’s definitely growing.”
“The sky… It’s really tearing open…”
It started with Eleanor’s urgent cry, followed by Maya frowning as if something was deeply unsettling, and Aiden widening his eyes in disbelief.
“So, it’s finally begun.”
Before long, the rift grew large enough for even Jun to see clearly.
And then, from the shattered hole in the sky, like breaking glass, red light began to spill out.
“That light…”
“Invaders…?”
“It’s them.”
Among the group, the one with the most intense reaction was none other than Maya.
At that moment, Maya felt it…. undeniably.
And she wasn’t the only one.
Countless ancestral spirits within her were erupting in fury.
They were telling her: the one who brought ruin to their tribe was beyond that rift.
“Maya…”
Aiden looked at her with concern.
Having recently trained closely with her, he had sensed more than anyone how her emotions were becoming harder and harder to control.
“… it’s the Legion, after all.”
A force made of shadowy, blood-red soldiers began to fall from the sky.
A scene as if the gates of hell had been thrown open.
And those watching weren’t just Jun and his companions.
The citizens of the city, who had already witnessed the sight, were thrown into chaos.
“Wh-What is that?!”
“D-Dimensional Reverse! It’s Dimensional Reverse!”
“Monsters are falling from the sky!!”
Even though it had begun far away in the canyon, the gaping hole in the sky was impossible to hide, and screams filled the air.
Relatively speaking, the Ron family’s territory was in a better situation.
Thanks to Count Camilo’s quick response, the soldiers were able to calm the panicking citizens.
But the real problem lay elsewhere.
“…They really are pouring out endlessly.”
“No kidding…”
Two members of the Ron family muttered as they looked up at the northern sky.
Where would this endless parade of monsters lead?
No one could say for sure, but one thing was certain:
Just as a certain mercenary mage had once said, this event would be remembered by the world as a catastrophe.
***
The Legion.
A type of Erroder, made up of a crimson army, had descended upon the earth.
“So this is the surface.”
“The surface… it’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
“This cold air.”
“The air of the North.”
“O Empire, we have waited so long.”
Among them, five commander-class entities glowed with red eyes.
From the top of the canyon swept by icy winds, they looked down upon the land.
The sight of Stunheim, made up of sixteen cities, stretched out before them.
And the eyes of the five commanders turned toward one place.
A land to the south, radiating the strongest presence of souls by far.
It was the Ron family’s territory.
“I see the largest prey.”
“But it’s not time to go there yet.”
“Yes. We have only one order.”
“We must gather more souls.”
“The greatest pleasure always comes at the end.”
The army of shadowy crimson figures continued to fill the canyon.
Though no one gave them orders, the army fell into formation behind the five commanders with perfect discipline.
“I’ll head southwest.”
“Then I’ll go southeast.”
Each decided on their direction and began their march.
A time of thorough slaughter had arrived.
It wasn’t a difficult task.
Long, long ago—
It was what they had always done.
War was second nature to them.
***
It took no more than half a day for the crimson-shadow army to mobilize.
“What nonsense is this?! A hole in the sky?!”
“I-It’s true! You have to see it for yourself!”
Even after receiving Count Camilo’s message, the lords refused to believe it until they finally looked up at the sky.
“There… really is a hole…”
Realizing too late that the message was true, the lords hurriedly began raising their armies.
The lord of House Vivaldi was among them.
“What’s the size of the enemy force?!”
“A-According to a local herbalist, it’s around fifty…!”
“Fifty…?”
Things were still falling constantly from the gaping hole in the sky.
Only fifty?
Still, if that’s all there are…
He figured it was a manageable number.
“We can’t ask the Ron family for help now. On the contrary, this is exactly when we must prove we can handle things on our own.”
Why shouldn’t he too like the eastern lords, aim for the position of high lord?
There was no reason the Ron family had to remain the rulers of the North forever.
Having grown complacent from years of peace, and having governed his land with lax hands, that was the limit of his imagination.
“Prepare for battle! Take up your swords and follow me! Let them see who the true rulers of the North are!”
And it wasn’t just the lord of House Vivaldi who drew his sword.
Two other houses also raised their blades against the crimson army advancing on their lands.
“Attack!”
“Kill them all!”
“Make them food for the northern wolves!”
“I, Norne, will join the fight!”
“Horen stands ready too!”
The seasoned hunters of the North, who faced monsters descending from the canyon each year, and the lord’s soldiers clashed boldly with the enemy camp.
And their confidence wasn’t unfounded.. They successfully halted the advance of the army, armed with spears and shields, using their seasoned skills.
“Well now. They’re tough, sure, but…”
“Compared to all that fuss about some catastrophe or god of death, this isn’t much, is it?”
“Hahaha! Come at me, all of you! I, Norne, will defend this place!”
The lords who were watching the scene unfold gave sly smiles, thinking, “Of course.”
We are not weak
They had fallen into a frog-in-a-well kind of thinking.
“My lord! Additional enemies have appeared!”
“Hmph! With that many fallen, of course more would come. How many this time?”
“Fifty, sir!”
At the report, Vivaldi let out a snort.
“Ha! Just as I thought….only that many. ‘God of death’, they said. Let’s go! Let’s win again and show the power of our house!”
He was laughing heartily when—
“M-My lord! The enemy has appeared!”
“Hm? Didn’t we already receive that report? Fifty, right?”
“Uh—n-no, sir!”
“What?”
“Th-There are nearly a hundred of them!”
“What?”
A hundred… That was quite a number.
Still, he had no intention of retreating.
Even if they suffered some losses, taking down that many would give them more breathing room.
“Advance!”
It was as he issued his command from the warmth of his tent—
Another scout….an herb gatherer this time ran in. His face looked far more serious than that of the previous messengers.
“More enemies have appeared!”
“A hundred? We’ve heard already! You fools….what kind of a mess is this reporting system?”
“No….no, sir! Their number far exceeds two hundred…!”
“What on earth…?”
Amid the wave of reports, Vivaldi stepped outside.
And soon, with a dazed look, he saw them….hundreds, even thousands of crimson shadows advancing beyond the canyon.
“Wh… What…?”
And their numbers were still growing.
The expressions of the countless hunters and soldiers who saw that sight weren’t much different from that of their lord.
“Retreat… R-Retreat! Fall back to the keep!”
Even without Vivaldi’s desperate command, they were already turning and running.
Anywhere….anywhere they could escape from that crimson army.
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