II
In the early stages of the battle, Sutherland’s armies met with great success. But as the days went by, the shadows crept ever closer. In addition to the unforeseen problem posed by the mountain of corpses, the ghouls had unlimited reserves of physical strength—an advantage Sutherland’s armies could not match. While they had known that going in, the reality of fighting day and night without rest was taking a greater toll than expected. On top of that, the soldiers the ghouls killed turned into monsters themselves. The experience of being attacked by their former comrades put extraordinary mental strain on the troops.
Main Command of the Sutherland Army
“Things are not looking good,” Lion said as he sat down. Half of those present frowned, while the other half raised their eyebrows.
Leisenheimer, who had shown impressive leadership in the first block, spoke up for the latter group.
“It’s true we still don’t have a solution for our problem, but intelligence tells me we’ve exterminated more than half the ghouls. The soldiers on the front lines have gotten their ‘experience’ too. As far as I can tell, it’s fair to say things are going well.”
By “experience,” Leisenheimer meant actually trying out their spears on the ghouls. Observing the monsters from afar and actually fighting them were two very different things. Lion wanted to strengthen his forces by having all the soldiers go head-to-head with them.
“For now, we still have enough forces to allow them to rest, but it won’t necessarily stay that way. While we waste more strength with every action, our foe has no such concerns. Fatigue—it’s not noticeable so long as we have the upper hand, but as soon as things begin to go against us, we won’t be able to ignore it. If the battle drags on for too long, a small advantage in numbers can easily flip the other way. I need you to understand that this is the enemy we face.”
Apparently, Leisenheimer was unsatisfied with Lion’s explanation. His mouth twisted. “I see your point, but as I just said, we’ve taken out more than half of them—and in only ten days of fighting. By my reckoning, even taking fatigue into the equation, we’ll have exterminated all of them within a month. The responsibility of being supreme commander must be weighing on you, Lord Lion. You’re getting cautious.” There was a hint of a smile on Leisenheimer’s face. The lord of the Fifth City took the opportunity to voice his agreement. Both, it seemed, were too cocksure to bother with the uncertainties that, by rights, demanded consideration.
Or maybe those haven’t even occurred to them, Lion mused. That would explain the idiotically sunny outlook.
Julius, who stood at his side, gave a tiny shake of his head. Lion suppressed a sigh, then turned to Shaola, who had been quiet since the start of the war council. They ought to listen if it came from one who was their elder.
“Do you agree, Lord Shaola?”
Shaola, without raising his eyes from the table, said ponderously, “You are forgetting something important, Lord Leisenheimer.”
“And what might that be?” There was a dangerous note in Leisenheimer’s voice. Shaola fixed him with a piercing gaze.
“Reinforcements.”
Leisenheimer let out an inarticulate groan and drew back as though shrinking away from Shaola. Despite his advanced years, Shaola was still the true warrior who had built a nation by dint of his spear. He was in a league apart from the others.
“Even setting that aside, this is an enemy that defies all common sense. There is no telling whether what we see now is all there is. I have no idea how Darmés raised his army, nor have I seen the land of the dead, but I do know this: the dead far outnumber the living.”
With this, Shaola hit at the heart of the matter. Leisenheimer and the others who shared his sunny outlook were all left speechless.
“You think there will be reinforcements, my lord?” asked the general from the Thirteenth City of Leddeheim, the blood draining from his face. Shaola gave a firm nod of affirmation, then looked at Julius.
“What is the death toll?”
Julius looked down at the documents in his hands. “Approximately two thousand as of yesterday.”
“How many of those came back?”
“Perhaps a third.”
“So we have around six hundred new enemies baying for our blood. And undead or not, these are soldiers who had been fighting alongside us. Imagine the anguish of the survivors who must now turn their spears on their former comrades. Though I assume all of this factors into the supreme commander’s concerns.”
“B-But we made sure the troops knew the dead would come back,” Leisenheimer spluttered, still refusing to back down. Shaola gave him a stern look.
“The mind may understand while the heart does not. Have you already forgotten the confusion that ensued before the battle began, Lord Leisenheimer?”
Leisenheimer gave a sort of grunt and then, like a different man entirely, he fell silent. Even the lord of the Fifth City, who had overtly supported Leisenheimer, proceeded to fold his arms tightly, turn his eyes down, and act like this had nothing to do with him.
Lion thanked Shaola, then coughed once. “The plan remains the same. Assume reinforcements will come and act accordingly. In addition—”
He was about to begin an explanation of how they would use the armored mage cannon when a soldier interrupted them, tripping over his own feet as he burst into the room. Naturally, all eyes turned to look at him.
“What happened?” Lion asked, but the soldier seemed unable to speak. He only pointed frantically outside the tent.
“Someone—” Before Lion could finish, Julius offered the soldier a canteen of water. He drank it down in a single gulp.
“Th...Thank...you...”
“Can you speak?” Julius asked. The soldier’s breath was ragged, but he nodded.
“Y-Yes, ser. I...the ghouls...” He was positively incoherent. A harsh note came into Lion’s voice as he questioned the man again.
“What are you trying to say?” Just then, the commotion from outside suddenly grew louder. Lion didn’t bother with further questions; he rushed out of the tent. Outside, the soldiers were shouting and crying out, all their gazes fixed on a single point. Lion immediately understood why. The sight rendered him speechless.
The bulk of the creature before them was many times greater than any human. It was covered in golden fur and from its forehead protruded a single, vicious white horn. Roaring in every direction with a voice as black as thunder, it easily scaled the earthen fortifications that were supposed to be their line between life and death, and was now on an unopposed killing spree.
“I believe that is the class two dangerous beast known as a unicorn,” Julius said calmly.
“It is, is it...?”
It wasn’t every day that one encountered a dangerous beast—especially not one of the higher-class ones. Most of them lived deep in forests and mountains, while humans made their settlements on open plains. It wasn’t that they had arranged things that way; both simply inhabited the environment best suited to their survival.
The unicorn lashed out in all directions with its powerful claws, tearing through the soldiers’ flesh like paper. It trampled those who tried to flee, ripping heads from their bodies with its teeth then serenading them with the sound of crunching bones as it chewed. Brain matter trickled from between its chipped fangs. The soldiers embroiled in the chaos ran in every direction, all discipline abandoned. Almost all of the soldiers posted to the ramparts tumbled from the fortifications to become food for the ghouls waiting below.
As Lion cursed, Julius, spyglass in one hand, said casually, “That unicorn appears to be akin to the ghouls.”
“It’s what?!” Lion stared at Julius, who kept his spyglass pointed at the unicorn.
“Its neck should not be bent at that angle. It is probably broken, and as far as I am aware, beasts, like humans, cannot survive with a broken neck.”
Lion pointed his spyglass in the same direction. “It is definitely broken,” he said at length. “So Darmés can raise dangerous beasts from the dead as well as humans.”
The whole of Lion’s strategy was predicated on the assumption that they would only be fighting human corpses. Dangerous beasts had not entered into his calculations.
Still, I might have guessed. A mistake on my part...
The others who had followed him out of the tent just stood there, stunned.
“Get Heaven here. Now.” A short while later, Heaven appeared. Lion showed her the situation, then asked, “Can the armored mage cannon stop that?”
Heaven shook her head. “No way. The armored mage cannon is an area weapon. Even if I could reduce its power, it’s not made for precision shooting. And even if I could—” Heaven looked directly at the center of the carnage. “Well, when it moves like that...” She gave a shrug of defeat. The unicorn was leaping from fortification to fortification to attack the soldiers. Every now and then there was a scream as it threw something that had once been part of a person into the air. The positions from which they could mount a counterattack were severely limited, and a step out of place meant one of two fates—a gruesome death, or being denied even that by being transformed into a ghoul.
“Abandon the second block,” Lion said. No one made any objections.
Stepping forward, Julius said, “Supreme Commander, do I have your leave to order supporting volleys from the longbows in order to expedite the retreat?”
“Permission granted.”
“Ser!”
Lion turned back to Heaven. “Blast the second block to hell as soon as the retreat is complete.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“You got it!”
All of them jumped into action to carry out Lion’s orders. Soon after, the sound of a horn rang out across the battlefield for the second time. That was the signal to retreat.
“Fall back to the third block!”
“Move it, move it!”
The commanders’ shouts could be heard from all directions. In contrast to the retreat from the first block, the retreat from the second—now a hunting ground for the ghouls—was a desperate struggle. The bridges that connected the fortifications were sturdy, but it was only natural that they would collapse when forced to bear a greater load than what they had been built for. Bridges all over the place snapped, sending crowds of soldiers plummeting down.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“H-Heeelp...!” There was no one there to hear their cries as they were dragged into the abyss.
The retreat to the third block was far from smooth, but the reason they had any hope at all was thanks in large part to Leisenheimer’s courageous efforts.
“You’re the last ones! Move it!”
“Y-Yes, ser!”
Leisenheimer had seen the last group off toward the gate and was about to follow when he became aware of a great shadow that filled the sky above him. By the time he realized, it was too late.
“There I go, screwing things up at the last...” He looked down to assess the situation. His right leg had been completely crushed by the unicorn’s forepaw. The spasm of pain that racked his body followed close behind.
“Lord Leisenheimer!”
“Get the damn gate shut!”
“But ser!”
“Do it!!!” He felt them hesitate, but then came the sound of the gate closing.
Shilly-shallying fools... he thought. Anyway.
He turned to the unicorn as it looked down at him, then roared, “I’ve had enough of you fouling this place up with your damn stink! You died once, so stay dead!”
The only response he got was a mouthful of dirty yellow drool that dripped from the unicorn’s mouth to ooze all over him as numbness washed over his body.
“Urgh! That’s disgusting!” He finally remembered the longspear in his right hand. Still in a disadvantageous position, he stabbed out hard, but found himself hit by a rush of wind as, for a moment, his vision went black. The next thing he saw was his arm flying through the air, still gripping the spear.
That’s my part over. The rest is up to you, you infuriating bastard.
The shadow over his eyes grew darker. Leisenheimer’s booming laughter continued right up to the moment he was crushed in the unicorn’s jaws.
“The retreat from the second block is complete. Lord Leisenheimer, who was commanding from the front line, has failed to return,” Julius said, his face grave.
“That idiot. He could have commanded from the rear, but no...”
“I’m sure Lord Leisenheimer had his own reasons for taking the lead.”
“Doesn’t make him any less of an idiot,” Lion said dismissively. He then dispatched orders for Heaven to fire. The light that surged out of the mage cannon engulfed the second block, reducing even the so-called ruler of the land to dust. It, along with the ghouls, was annihilated.
That should buy us time to regroup. Lion had just let out a sigh of relief when the next piece of bad news arrived.
“The armored mage cannon has sustained major damage! Lady Heaven is badly wounded!”
Lion, unable to so much as respond, let his folded arms drop to hang limp at his sides.
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