Book Eater

Chapter 276: General War (3)

It was entirely unreasonable to confront an entire army head on. Killing ten was easy, and a hundred wasn’t difficult, but once it became a thousand people, he would have to consume a significant amount of magic. Ten thousand people would be able to stall him long enough to have elite forces surround him.

So Theo shot across the ground as he came up with the most efficient way to steal the great shields.

First, I need a trick.

His red robes and brilliant appearance attracted enough attention to ensure the safety of his unit. Now that they had the chance to escape, there was no more need to be so eye-catching. Magic power burst from Theo’s body.

“In the name of Aiolos!”

Uttering the name of an old and forgotten deity had the same effect as summoning magic. Of course, it couldn’t be manifested by name alone, but it was enough to awake the divinity in Theo’s body. The divine nature of the wind god, deeply immersed in Theo’s soul, responded to his call.

―What do you want?

For a moment, Theo’s wind affinity and magic comprehension rose to the extreme. If Theo shared a little bit of the divine vision, he could produce spells beyond the limits of his magic. Theo chose a climate spell from the Book of Clouds. It was a spell that the White Tower Master Heathcliff had used on a long forgotten battlefield to produce a storm.

“Go crazy… Maelstrom!”

As magic power erupted from his body, Theo was convinced that the climate spell was successful. The air around Theo gradually started to move in circles, accelerating rapidly to send dust flying high. The puffy clouds also spiraled as a whirlwind connected the sky and earth.

Huuuuuuong!

At first, it was difficult enough just to keep one’s eyes open, but the wind was soon so strong that it became difficult to keep one’s feet on the ground. Even the knights in full plate armor were getting lifted off their feet, while their horses, who were several times heavier than people, were whinnying in distress. How was this natural disaster a spell that a magician cast?

“Waaaaahhhhh!”

“Drop your center of gravity! Don’t confront the wind head-on... Uwacck!”

“S-Sir Bradley!”

Theo’s spell wasn’t even done, but the storm it had wrought was already sending knights flying.

It is quite spectacular in many ways... but it isn’t enough.

Theo had certainly reproduced it, but Heathclif’s Maelstrom had been so powerful that it had torn flesh from bones and ripped giant rents in armor. However, Theo didn’t originally intend to use this spell to kill his enemies. It was just cover for his next move.

Invisibility.

As he chanted a spell, Theo disappeared from view. While the spell deceived an enemy’s eyes, he quickly removed his eye-catching crimson robes and placed them in his Inventory. This phase of his plan demanded quick and quiet movement.

As the soldiers were scattered by the storm, Theo skimmed five meters above the ground toward the nearest titanium shield. It was large enough that it was immediately obvious as a landmark in the whirling storm. When Theo saw the blue-gray shield two hundred and forty meters away, he quickly sped past the confused soldiers.

If he tried to break through with force, it would have taken him at least ten minutes. However, the Andras army formation had fallen into chaos thanks to Maelstrom, and they didn’t catch sight of a certain transparent magician.

“... Good.”

Theo landed lightly on the surface of the great shield, frowning when he felt mana scattering. As expected, this metal was the natural enemy of magicians. It would be difficult to break with direct magical interference. If it wasn’t for his Inventory, Theo might’ve retreated at this point.

Then please, Gluttony.

- Mhmm.

The tongue slipped out of Theo’s left hand and touched the surface.

[Titanium Shield has been housed in Inventory M1.]

The giant shield that was twenty to thirty meters wide disappeared from above the soldiers’ heads. The soldiers grew anxious as they realized their shield had suddenly disappeared.

“T-The shield disappeared!?”

“No way! My palm was just resting on it!”

"Find it! If there is no shield, we’ll-!”

It was truly chaotic. Some of them looked around in desperation, while another just stared at his palms in confusion. However, no one knew what had happened to the great shield, and Theo had already moved onto his next target.

This time, it was a shield around a hundred and eighty meters to the southeast.

“What...”

“The shield disappeared again?”

Once he had stolen four shields, Andras had caught on. The scattered knights quickly surrounded the remaining shields, making Theo’s task even more difficult. He floated in the air as he tried to find a way to steal the eight fortified shields.

What should I do now?

Should he seize a few more or retreat now here?

If possible, I’d like to take one or two more…

Before Theo could abandon this lingering thought, he fell into trouble.

Kiiing-!?

He heard an unpleasant ringing sound that was quickly building to a headache. It was like something was scraping the inside of his skull. Once he realized it was his super sensitivity, Theo felt something piercing through the air toward him, and reflexively dodged.

Ping-

A second later, an arrow was quivering in the ground right where Theo would’ve been standing. He might have dismissed it as a stray arrow if he hadn’t sensed through Mitra that the arrow’s force had penetrated rocks hundreds of meters underground.

A person who can shoot an arrow like this has to be a bow master!

Moments after the realization hit, a shower of arrows descended from the sky like lightning. Theo frantically dodged as blue flashes erupted around him. The arrows’ speed and penetrative power seemed even higher than Magic Bullet. They would tear right through if he tried to block them.

To make matters worse, Theo’s super sensitivity was completely numb, except for a rising headache. The supersonic arrow’s speed exceeded his foresight!

Pajijik.

Theo’s body quickly turned into lightning as he zigzagged with every ounce of agility he could muster. Nevertheless, he suffered a few scratches and lost a few strands of hair as the arrows barely skimmed past him. Each arrow contained enough killing power to pierce the scales of a dragon. Theo didn’t understand how the archer was so accurate since the shots seemed to be fired from so far away.

Don’t tell me the person has the power of foresight?

It was said that the power of seeing the future, foresight, would collide every time two users saw the future simultaneously. Was it because the future became favorable to each viewer that an image couldn’t be drawn?

As such, Theo’s super sensitivity was giving him a headache because it was clashing with the opponent’s foresight. The barrage of an arrow per second lasted for exactly ten seconds, before falling away. His Invisibility had been unraveled, but he was too high in the sky for the knights to reach him.

“...Ten seconds.”

Theo’s garments were covered with blood as he guessed the limits of his opponent’s foresight. The whole exchange had lasted exactly ten seconds from the moment of the first attack. It was only then that the sense of numbness from his super sensitivity disappeared. Judging by the power of the arrows, his opponent hadn’t held anything back. The bow master’s arrows could only hold Theo down for ten seconds.

But that’s their limit.

Theo reassessed the situation with a calm gaze. He hadn’t taken more shields, but he had revealed the presence of an enemy bow master. An unseen master was a powerful hidden card. It may have been worth it if Theo had been killed, but now it was just an irreversible error.

“Well, we’ll meet again next time,” Theo ridiculed the opponent before heading back to camp.

He felt a few arrows chasing after him, but Theo was already too close to Meltor’s camp, so he used Umbra to slip through space. Once the distance was doubled, the arrows had no more power, so the archer stopped firing. Theo’s judgment had borne fruit in this clash.

From now on, I need to move more carefully.

The unidentified bow master, with an ability related to foresight, could kill a skilled warrior with one blow. A supersonic shot that could strike accurately over a few kilometers… It was a foul ability that didn’t give anyone a chance to respond unless they possessed foresight like Theo or a strong defense like Veronica. If the archer had targeted his unit instead of Theo, half of them would’ve been wiped out even with Orta’s skills.

At that moment...

“―What?” Theo looked into the distance, confirming what looked like a volcanic eruption.

The amount of magic power he could feel was on such a scale that it didn’t compare to tactical-class spells or great spells. This was the peak of humanity, befitting the one who reached a higher realm...

Her dragon’s blood and eight Circles sang to each other as burning magic power descended on the plains. It didn’t take long for Theo to find her. She was framed by four pairs of gigantic wings, as the magic power of an 8th Circle magician distorted space around.

The Red Tower Master, Veronica, glared down at the battlefield.

[I command the great one-eyed king.] Her voice rang clearly across the plains as the strongest magician currently in existence chanted a spell.

It was an arrogance that no one could interfere with. The arrows shot at her melted in the air, so Theo knew that defense was utterly unnecessary. The enormous heat she generated was itself her greatest shield and spear. Her only opponent would be another absolute being.

[On behalf of the four rulers, give me magic power. Open your eyes, and render everything it falls on to ashes. See what you want, and kill what you want. Burn to the ends of the horizon, returning all life back to the earth.]

Theo’s eyes widened as he recognized the chant. “Surely this isn’t....”

Veronica was casting an ancient 8th Circle annihilation spell that was commonly believed to be unusable. It was a destructive magic that was forbidden to use anywhere outside a battlefield because it borrowed the name of an evil god.

[Open your eyes and burn them.]

If Theo remembered correctly, its name was...

[―Death Gazer.]

The eyes of death seemed to tear apart the sky and the earth when it appeared. No one could see anything. No, it was more accurate to say that they couldn’t look. Veronica’s 8th Circle spell, Death Gazer, wasn’t a spell that could be witnessed with one’s eyes. Gluttony had once called it a high-density infrared beam.

“No way...”

There weren’t any spectacular explosions or loud noises. However, Theo couldn’t help shivering as he saw the aftermath of the spell on the battlefield.

“... Is it dead?”

Absolute silence fell over the plains. Veronica had fired Death Gazer in a certain direction, and anyone that had been unlucky enough to be in its path didn’t look human anymore. There was just a charred line of ashes that bisected the battlefield. That was the only evidence that around ten thousand soldiers had breathed a moment ago.

This was the death spell that borrowed the name of Balor.

“... Hi, hiiiii?!”

“R-Run away! How can we win against such a thing??”

“Monster! Monster!”

Allies and enemies alike retreated from Veronica, fear shivering in their eyes. There was only one man who could be her adversary on this battlefield—the Empire’s 1st Sword, Crowd von Russell.

Veronica had aimed her spell at the rear of the imperial army where Prince Fermut’s headquarters was located. Yet, despite the carpet of ashes that led up to it, the headquarters remained in the pristine shape.

It was a spell that had annihilated ten thousand soldiers and tried to end the war in one blow, yet it hadn’t been able to surpass one man’s sword. Holding the sword that had cut through Death Gazer, the strongest swordsman of the Empire walked into the middle of the plains.

“You still want to get the jump on me, Witch.”

“You’re still trying to disrupt my work.”

They chatted like old friends who were meeting after a long time as they stopped exactly a hundred meters from each other. Veronica and Crowd faced each other at a distance they could both cross in moments. An instant later, they leaped at each other.

***

Later, an officer who recorded the battlefield said, 「 The battle on Karul Plains was nothing more than an appetizer until the two absolutes were revealed. 」

The clash between the strongest representatives of the two powers, Veronica and Crowd, had continued for nearly an hour. The sky had been torn apart, and the earth carved anew. Both Meltor and Andras’ armies had been forced to evacuate until the duel had come to a conclusion.

However, even evacuation turned out to be a struggle, thanks to the duel. The two foes had reshaped the entire plains before retreating. Had they judged nothing would change if they kept fighting? For those who were a few steps beyond human, strategic analysis had no meaning.

In any case, the battle on the Karul Plains had come to a conclusion. One officer described it as hell razing over the plainscalled it ‘being lowered.’ The battleground had been chewed up so thoroughly by Veronica and Crowd that it was no longer suitable for continuing a war.

The unification war entered its next stage. The two powers retreated from Karul Plains, and reorganized their armies. The holy kingdom, Lairon, and the kingdom of elves, Elvenheim, were originally expected in a fortnight, but both sets of reinforcements from afar managed to reach their respective camps early.

Their arrival signaled the arrival of the second great clash. This time, every drop of military power in the Northern Continent was present.