“This... this wall is a little unconventional...”

The Royal Knight beside Muen liked to think he had seen plenty of bloody scenes in his life, but even so, cold sweat still broke out all over him at the sight before his eyes.

It really did suit the reputation of Young Master Muen’s lover. If she dared fight Her Majesty the Empress over a man, then of course she had to have some real ability.

No, this was already a little too terrifying. If she ever fought Her Majesty one day... The Royal Knight shuddered. The image was too horrifying. He did not dare imagine it.

“What are you standing there for? The time An bought us isn’t for you to stare blankly!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

The Royal Knight spun around and immediately began directing everyone to counterattack.

Arrows, spears, magic, magic cannons—every ranged weapon they could use was brought out, even the broken stones scattered across the ground. Amid the thunder of the magic cannons, the soldiers finally found their courage and vented their fury against the Kingdom army trapped behind the steel thorns, making the scene even bloodier.

Muen silently watched it all.

The defensive line An had built was not quite the steel wall he had imagined, but he had to admit that this forest of thorns worked even better than a simple wall would have.

A wall might inspire more confidence at a glance, but without troops already stationed on it, a wall also blocked their own suppressing fire. For the enemy, it would have been nothing more than an obstacle that took a little time to climb over.

But steel thorns were different. They could not only halt the enemy’s advance, but also slaughter the enemy as they attacked.

Watching those Kingdom soldiers, unafraid of death and unafraid of pain, throw themselves straight into that mountain of blades only to be shredded apart, Muen was suddenly reminded of a famous war from his previous life.

On that battlefield, for ordinary infantry, the most troublesome thing had not been enemy guns and artillery, but all the trenches, ditches, fortifications—and before all that, the dense stretches of sharp wire lined with blades and spikes.

Barbed wire slowed soldiers down, turned them into living targets, and hindered any advance as much as possible.

That was why the front in those days had often moved only a few yards a day, and every push forward had cost countless soldiers their lives.

Not until those famous steel beasts of the battlefield later appeared... tanks.

Thank God this world doesn’t have tanks. Steel thorns won’t be that easy to break through.

Muen allowed himself a faint flicker of satisfaction, and then—

Boom!

Blazing fire exploded outward and instantly blasted a semicircular gap into the forest of steel thorns.

Muen’s cheek twitched slightly. His gaze followed the firelight, and very quickly he spotted an old man in a tattered robe amid the countless deranged soldiers. The man was waving a battered staff that looked ready to snap in half at any moment, muttering as he pieced together another spell.

No tanks—but there was magic.

“Damn it! They’re that far gone and they can still use magic?”

Muen hurriedly drew his blade. A sharp streak of sword light cut through the air, and from over a hundred yards away, the shriveled mage’s head flew from his shoulders.

But even with his head severed, the mage’s dry, pale lips kept moving. Mana continued to gather without interruption, and a second spell came crashing in a moment later, widening the breach again.

“Shit...”

Muen cursed under his breath again and swung once more, cutting the mage into mangled chunks so thoroughly that not a single syllable could leave his mouth.

But that only solved the problem for the moment.

In an army formation this vast, there was no way there was only one mage. The moment Muen dealt with one, another swaying figure rose up and began chanting a spell.

Those mages had clearly grown much weaker after losing their sanity. They could only cast the innate spells they knew best, the kind branded into their very bones. But even so, if there were enough of them, breaching the steel-thorn forest was only a matter of time.

And at that moment, Muen also realized that the steel-thorn forest was not hindering those Kingdom soldiers-turned-monsters nearly as well as he had hoped. As more and more soldiers threw themselves into the thicket, the sharp steel blades were gradually being packed full of flesh and blood.

In the face of an army that vast, the steel-thorn forest had become like reinforcing bars driven into a foundation, and those waves of flesh were steadily pouring in around it like cement.

Soon, it would all be filled in and hardened into a smooth road.

“Young Master...”

An was still doing everything she could with her Divine Favor, making the steel twist and grind to delay the process, but even from this far away, Muen could sense her growing weakness.

The steel-thorn forest was about to fail.

“Young Master Muen!”

The Royal Knight rushed back over, and this time he made no effort to hide the urgency in his eyes.

“Please leave!”

“No.”

Muen stood at the very front, closest to the forest of steel thorns, and therefore closest to the enemy.

A holy gleam had already begun to flow over Elizabeth.

“You cannot stay!”

“The magic cannons are out of power, and the mages have burned through all their mana. We’re out of arrows—we’ve even run out of stones to throw! We really can’t hold them this time!”

“We cannot leave. If the formation collapses, not a single one of those ordinary people will survive.”

“The ordinary people are one thing, but Young Master Muen, you—”

“I said... we cannot leave!”

Muen suddenly turned his head. The authority flowing through his blue eyes forced the rest of the knight’s plea back down his throat.

“You need to get rid of this instinct of yours to make your superior run first at the first sign of danger. You should know that neither I nor your true master, Celicia, are such cowards.”

“I-I know...”

The knight froze, his lips moving.

“But... but this is our duty...”

“Your duty right now is to hold the formation together and keep morale from breaking.”

Muen patted the knight on the shoulder.

“Trust me, all right? I will not abandon a single one of you.”

“...Yes, sir!”

The knight straightened at once.

“Royal Knight Ram Jason will obey your orders to the end, my lord!”

The Royal Knight named Jason turned and quickly led a line of men to the very front.

In that line were elite knights, gang members from the Lower District, and ordinary civil workers whose hobby happened to be fencing. At that moment, every one of them raised a spear and thrust at the Kingdom soldiers, who were now less than a few yards from fully breaking through the steel-thorn forest.

Thrust. Thrust. Thrust.

Against monsters this close to undying, that kind of attack did very little. At most, it slowed their steps.

And yet not one of them gave up.

After all, their leader was standing at the very front.

How could they possibly retreat?

“Well done. As expected of Celicia’s soldiers, and as expected of the people of the Empire.”

Muen smiled as he praised them, radiating a reassurance almost like sunlight.

It was as though, so long as he remained standing here, this fragile-looking line could never be broken.

Even though, in truth, he was panicking like hell inside.

[Somebody please save us save us save us save us already...]

Muen swung the pure-white short blade in his hand and accurately cut down another mage more than a hundred yards away.

At the same time, he kept frantically searching for a solution.

What now? Black flame?

No. His mind could not possibly endure burning down an army this vast. All that would do was leave him collapsed from mental exhaustion °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° in an extremely short time, and he still had no idea where the true culprit behind all of this was hiding.

Cut through them head-on?

He might be able to escape using his speed and footwork, but what about An, who was already exhausted? What about the several thousand people behind him? They had gathered here because of the name Muen Campbell. How could he possibly abandon them?

So in the end...

“This is all Pink Bear’s fault!”

Muen ground his teeth.

Coming up with a trash plan like this, making all of them stand out in the open as bait, and not even preparing a backup plan sturdy enough to keep them safe.

Just wait, you bastard. Even if I die and come back as a ghost, I won’t let you off. Sooner or later I’ll leak every last one of your private stashes to the world.

“Roar!”

The shrill howls were drawing closer and closer. The final layer of steel thorns was finally torn open, and the Kingdom soldiers flooded through the breach like a horde of zombies.

“There’s no helping it...”

As the crisis closed in, Muen took a deep breath and forcibly pushed aside every stray thought.

If he could not think of any solution, then he had no choice but to use the method he was best at...

Risking his life.

“Wuuung—”

Muen leaned half his body forward, almost about to hurl himself straight into that wave thick with blood—

and at that very moment, accompanied by a low hum, a breeze swept past. Muen suddenly felt warmth spread over his body.

The world brightened again, and even the nauseating stench of blood was swept away with it. A golden curtain descended from the sky, falling at exactly the right place to divide the entire battle line.

That golden curtain was semi-transparent, so thin it looked fragile, like a mere film.

And yet even when hundreds of thousands of Kingdom soldiers along the long front slammed into it all at once, it did not budge in the slightest.

“This is...”

Muen murmured, joy flaring in his eyes, because he could feel a familiar holy presence within that curtain.

“My apologies. I arrived late. Is everyone all right?”

That gentle, sweet voice was like warm spring sunlight, driving away all the fear the people of the Empire had been carrying. A figure in a pure white gown descended from the sky, holy radiance spilling out around her and instantly calming every heart.

“Miss Latina?”

That overflowing holy aura was even stronger than Liya’s. In the whole world, there was only one person it could be.

The Church’s former Saintess, Latina.

“You finally made it.”

Muen let out a long breath and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

“You scared me to death. I was starting to think I was really about to die here again.”

“Really?”

Latina blinked, teasing him.

“But weren’t you just saying all sorts of heroic things a moment ago? I thought you still had everything well in hand.”

“I may have said those things...” Muen replied, deadpan. “But did you know my legs were shaking while I said them?”

“That does nothing to diminish how handsome you looked.”

Latina covered her mouth with a smile.

The ladylike gesture she had once disdained had, over the last twenty years, become so deeply ingrained in her bones that it emerged unconsciously whenever she was in front of others.

And along with it came the dignity that had once belonged to a Saintess.

“My apologies.”

Latina let her smile fade a little.

“It took some time to gather people.”

“Gather people?”

“Yes. With something on this scale, even the Church has to make proper preparations.”

Latina turned her head and looked toward the crazed Kingdom army on the other side of the golden curtain. In her clear eyes, cold fury and restrained rage flickered visibly.

“All right. From here on, this is something for us to handle...”

“This is exactly like what happened more than twenty years ago.”

“A new... beast tide.”