Chapter 512
Let’s End This Here. (3)
Darkness engulfed everything, devouring every particle of light that had been spreading.
The eyes of those staring into empty space regained focus. Horses neighed, shaking their heads wildly.
In an instant, everyone snapped back to their senses. The illusion vanished as if it had never existed.
Whooosh!
Ghislain’s body became shrouded in black energy. Hundreds of magic spears materialized around him.
The defensive troops were charging toward him as he rode alone.
"Uwaaaaaaa!"
They let out a thunderous battle cry. The renowned reputation of Fenris Count as the strongest in the North had long been forgotten.
They believed Elois, a 7th-Circle Master, would stop him.
That illusion shattered the moment Ghislain’s spear moved.
Kwaaaang!
"Arghhh!"
The soldiers at the front were torn apart by his sweeping spear. The magic spears radiating outward broke through the enemy formation.
Like a wolf in a flock of sheep, Ghislain rampaged through them, sending bodies flying in every direction.
There were simply too many enemies for him to take on alone, and many passed by him. But the crucial thing was no one could stop him.
The one who should have stopped him, Elois, stood frozen, trembling.
"W-What… What the hell is that!?"
The soldiers charged forward, unaware of what had happened, but Elois knew.
A massive, ominous force had erupted from Fenris Count, covering the entire battlefield and shattering his magic.
Even Elois, the kingdom’s greatest mage, couldn't identify what it was. Faced with an unexpected phenomenon, an incomprehensible existence, his mind simply shut down.
Ghislain’s voice once again rang across the battlefield.
"Charge!"
Hiiiiiing!
The cavalry’s horses neighed loudly at his commanding cry. The knights and soldiers gripped their lances tightly.
"Let’s go!"
Lucas, the senior knight, shouted, and the cavalry began moving again. Though they had momentarily stopped, their momentum remained strong.
Paah!
The horses at the front leapt high, striking the ground with tremendous force.
Kwaaaang!
Using that power, they launched forward once more.
Dudududududu!
Seeing them gallop towards them at full speed, the defensive troops recoiled in terror.
"T-They’re moving again!"
"What’s happening?!"
"Weren’t they caught in the illusion?!"
They could no longer advance and instead hesitated. The cruel smiles of the approaching cavalry sent chills down their spines.
If they clashed, they would die. Their bodies would be torn apart in an instant. Even without being trapped in an illusion, the mere sight of Fenris' forces instilled enough fear to freeze them in place.
Raul, witnessing this, shouted in panic.
"Lord Elois!"
Elois still hadn’t regained his composure. As a mage, he was too fixated on understanding the current situation.
‘They’re not transcendents, so how could they break free from this?!’
He had expected Fenris Count to be immune to the spell. After all, transcendents establish their own reality. Mental domination magic rarely works on them.
But the others weren’t transcendents.
This was an illusion that had been meticulously crafted over decades. Countless Runestones and an enormous magic array had been inscribed into the land.
With that setup, his illusion spell could completely dominate this area. Here, he was akin to a god.
Yet, his magic was shattered in an instant by a force he couldn't comprehend.
‘This is impossible!’
Moreover, he was no military commander and had no battlefield experience. His fixation on solving the mystery distracted him from the urgent reality of the war.
Taking advantage of his lapse, the Fenris cavalry stormed into their lines.
Kwaaaaang!
"Arggghhh!"
The defensive army, composed entirely of infantry, was obliterated with laughable ease. Their morale had crumbled the moment the illusion magic failed.
And above all else, there was no one who could stop Ghislain, the rampaging beast.
With a grin, Ghislain slashed through enemy throats.
‘Yeah, of course, they wouldn’t understand.’
In his past life, Dark had instantly broken Elois’ illusion magic when he had come to heal Edwin. He had dominated space itself, rendering magic powerless.
As Ghislain, he had to stop Elois’ illusion magic at all costs. Otherwise, most of his troops would have been neutralized in an instant. That was why he had sought Dark.
And just as he had predicted, he was able to break the illusion magic using Dark.
Even if it meant consuming nearly half of his power in an instant.
Kwaaaaang!
Half of the defending forces were annihilated in an instant. Only then did Elois come to his senses and charge at Ghislain.
“You bastard! Stop right there!”
Mind control was not very effective against a transcendent, but that did not mean magic itself was ineffective. While he could not dominate Ghislain’s mind completely, he could at least show him powerful illusions.
Ziiing—!
The immense mana of a 7th-Circle Master shot toward Ghislain. It dulled his perception and distorted his awareness.
Shrrrk!
Ghislain’s surroundings began to warp. Fractured images, like shards of broken mirrors, filled the space around him. His sense of balance and direction collapsed, and unknown entities emerged from the shifting landscape.
Before he knew it, the Fenris Mobile Corps and the Delfine defenders had vanished. Only Ghislain and them remained on the battlefield.
‘As expected of a 7th-Circle Master.’
A 7th-Circle Master was someone on the verge of reaching the 8th Circle. Their mana capacity and depth of understanding surpassed that of any magician in the kingdom.
Grrroooar…
The black masses that had appeared around him began to emit eerie sounds as they slowly transformed into human figures.
They were people whose deaths had left deep scars in Ghislain’s memory.
“My lord…”
“Why did you abandon us?”
“Please… save us…”
Ghislain gazed at them. The ones approaching him were subordinates who had perished in his past life. Soldiers who had died fighting against the ducal army and the priests of the Salvation Church.
And they were not the only ones.
“Uuugh…”
The dead from Ferdium appeared as well his father, his retainers, Belinda, even old Fergus.
All of them wailed sorrowfully as they approached him.
Elois’ magic forced its target to confront the depths of their own mind, showing them their most painful and sorrowful memories, shaking their heart to its core.
It bewildered, deceived, and ultimately drove its victim into madness. In the end, they either fought against the illusions or succumbed to despair and took their own life.
A weaker person would have been utterly consumed. That was the true terror of illusion magic, distinct from elemental spells.
As the ghostly figures swarmed toward Ghislain like zombies, Dark spoke.
— “Master, should I get rid of them?”
As expected of a 7th-Circle Master, the sheer density of mana surrounding Ghislain was overwhelming. Even Dark had to ask before consuming such immense energy.
But Ghislain shook his head.
“No, leave it.”
He deliberately chose not to resist. He wanted to see firsthand the nature of Elois’ magic, and he was confident he could overcome it.
There was another reason as well.
A trace of longing flickered in his eyes.
“To think I’d see you like this again.”
He had already reclaimed many of the subordinates from his past life. Some had become knights, others had joined the Mobile Corps, and some had taken up mercenary work in distant lands.
But there were still many he had yet to find, those whose fates had changed as the future diverged.
Ghislain gazed at them with nostalgic eyes. One day, he wished to reunite with them all.
“Are you all doing well?”
Surely, they were. The ones he had already reclaimed were doing just fine.
That was why he could smile.
“Uuugh…”
“Lucas, what are you doing here?”
Seeing Lucas staggering toward him like a zombie, Ghislain burst into laughter. Lucas was right beside him, fighting fiercely at this very moment.
The same went for Belinda; she was currently standing guard beside his father in case the Salvation Church launched a surprise attack.
The others were no different. They were all alive and well.
Elois’ illusions had no effect on Ghislain.
His memories and his reality were now completely different.
Yes, this was precisely why he had returned to protect them.
With a smile, Ghislain closed his eyes. Though the illusions clung to him, his expression remained serene.
Shatter!
The countless mirrors surrounding him shattered. The fragments mingled with the distorted space, floating eerily.
It was as if time itself had stopped.
And from a crack in the fractured space, Elois emerged. He was the only one who could move freely in this illusionary realm.
“You’ve fallen for it.”
Unlike before, when he had exuded composure, Elois' face was now twisted with rage.
He, the kingdom’s greatest magician, had just witnessed something incomprehensible. A trap he had spent decades preparing had been rendered useless. His pride was deeply wounded.
Thus, he poured every ounce of his mana into a final attack. No matter how powerful a transcendent was, they would be unable to move properly, even for just a moment.
That moment was all he needed to kill this dangerous man.
Elois extended his hand toward Ghislain, who stood there, eyes closed, surrounded by the remnants of the illusion.
“Die!”
His hands were dyed with a violet aura. Soon, they would pierce through that bastard’s heart in an instant.
At that moment, Ghislain opened his eyes.
Flash!
A blinding light streaked across his vision. Elois felt a chill run down his spine.
‘Did he… not fall for it?’
His eyes gleamed with radiant clarity. Not even the slightest hint of hesitation could be seen in them.
It made no sense. He had poured all of his mana into that spell, and yet those were the eyes he was met with?
Just how strong was his mental fortitude?!
Swish!
Before Elois could even react, Ghislain’s spear moved fluidly.
Whoooosh!
The surroundings began to shift once more. The shattered fragments of illusion were sucked away into the rift of space and disappeared.
The sky and ground returned to their rightful places, and before Elois could charge at him again, the battlefield from before was restored before Ghislain’s eyes.
“Waaaaaah!”
The Fenris Mobile Corps was massacring the defending forces. No one even spared a glance at Ghislain.
The time he had spent inside the illusion had only been a fleeting moment. No one had realized he had been caught in illusion magic.
That was another terrifying aspect of such spells. One could be forced to fight endlessly in an entirely different plane of time.
And the one who had cast that dreadful spell…
“Hmph, not bad. But you chose the wrong method.”
Ghislain, still mounted on the Black King, gazed down.
Elois’s severed head rolled across the ground.
Had he chosen a different approach, the battle might have dragged on for quite some time.
Unfortunately, he had used his strongest magic. But to Ghislain, that was the easiest kind of magic to counter.
“L-Lord Elois is dead!”
One of the defenders spotted Elois’s severed head and cried out.
None of them knew when he had died.
There had been no visible signs, no battle to witness.
They had merely blinked, and when they reopened their eyes, Elois was dead before Count Fenris.
“I-It’s over…”
“We lost.”
“We can’t stop them anymore.”
The defenders’ morale had plummeted to the depths.
Even the 7th-Circle Master they had placed their faith in had perished. There was no stopping the enemy’s advance.
Raul had already fled to the castle. There was no one left to lead them.
The lower-ranked officers tried their best to rally the troops, but they could not turn the tide of the battle.
However, not a single one of them surrendered.
Even in the face of fear, they fought to the end, befitting the elite warriors of the Ducal Family.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Once again, Ghislain charged toward the enemies.
With his return to the battlefield, the defenders collapsed even faster.
Thus, the last remaining forces protecting Eclipse were annihilated.
“Waaaaaah!”
The Mobile Corps roared in victory.
The castle was now within reach.
There were no enemy forces left to stop them.
“Let’s go in right now! Let’s slice that damned Duke’s throat open!”
Lucas, his face flushed with excitement, shouted.
The battle between their allies and Delfine's forces raged fiercely on the southern front.
As long as they captured Duke Delfine, everything would be over.
They had to catch him before he fled.
That was the plan. Ghislain had intended to do exactly that.
Until Dark delivered unexpected news.
From the skies, where he had been keeping watch, Dark spoke.
— “Master, they’re almost here. They should arrive soon.”
“Everyone, remain on horseback and take this time to rest while preparing for battle. We’ll be fighting again soon.”
Upon Ghislain’s command, the Fenris Mobile Corps reformed their ranks.
Taking advantage of the brief respite, they ate their combat rations and drank water.
No one even questioned what was happening.
When Ghislain ordered them to prepare for battle, it meant there was a real enemy approaching.
Dududududu!
Before long, the thunderous sound of galloping hooves filled the air.
“So, the Kingdom’s Strongest Swordsman has arrived, Kaiyen. I didn’t think he’d get here this quickly.”
Even considering that they had taken an alternate route while Delfine’s forces had marched straight south, the enemy’s speed was beyond expectation.
It meant that the moment he heard the news, he hadn’t hesitated; he had ridden straight here.
That level of decisiveness and judgment deserved recognition.
Just as Ghislain had expected, the ones who arrived were Kaiyen and his forty-thousand cavalrymen.
They had not stopped for even a moment every one of them was covered in dust and panting for breath.
By a cruel twist of fate, both sides had arrived at this confrontation utterly exhausted.
Kaiyen grinded his teeth at the sight before him.
“That bastard really did it.”
Corpses littered the battlefield.
The defending forces had been utterly wiped out, while the Fenris Mobile Corps had already reformed their battle lines.
That could only mean one thing Elois’s corpse was among the fallen.
Losing one of the Ducal Family’s greatest assets so futilely…
And in a place riddled with traps, no less.
Kaiyen felt his blood boil.
He had never felt such rage in his life.
With a lion’s roar, he bellowed—
“Ghislain Ferdium—!”
His voice carried the weight of endless fury.
It was filled with a murderous resolve to kill his opponent at all costs.
Ghislain smirked coldly and lifted his spear at an angle.
“Let’s settle it here. Let’s see who truly is the Kingdom’s Strongest Swordsman.”
It was time to surpass his limits once more.