Chapter 133: Faith, Expectations, and... (3)

The ground shook as the monsters rushed. The soldiers let their arrows fly as soon as they heard the commander's order to fire. Wizards shot magic, and shells from cannons devastated hordes. The soldiers began to move to prepare for the next barrage, and the knights watched the progress nervously.

"It's not working."

One of the knights muttered under his breath. Their advance had slowed, but their numbers hadn't decreased at all. It was less than a minute before the second barrage poured down. The blood was draining from the men's faces, but their movements, fueled by fear, were quickening.

"Fire everything you can and pour the oil down the ramparts!"

The fire was lit. The beasts did not stop. Laura's second spell was activated before they could crash through the walls. Blue flames rose from the ground and grew with oil and began to encircle the walls. The soldiers' faces brightened again. Monsters collapsed, unable to withstand the heat, or ignored it and burned to death as they approached.

"More! Resist more fiercely! We must not allow them to tread the ground the Queen has told us to protect!"

The commander-in-chief's voice rang out urgently. Natalie's black eyes reflected the fierceness of the humans' resistance. They were burning with life. She turned her head. Eugene was ready to cast his third spell. The soldiers and knights were bustling about.

"Are you going?"

Eugene asked, turning his head. Natalie didn't answer him but instead signaled her intentions with a jerk of her chin.

"Don't die."

'Who was worried about whom.' Natalie shook her head and searched for Cora. The young knight was still trying to find her place among the knights and soldiers. 'What a foolish thing to do.'

"Scram."

One of the soldiers looked at her, mesmerized. Natalie stood still and looked down the ramparts. One by one, the monsters that tried to cling to the walls were reduced to ash, unable to leap over the fire the archwizard had lit. One by one, two by two, the number of bodies covering the fire grew, and eventually, a few stood above the flames.

"The fire...."

The burnt corpses became bridges for the more. One stepped onto it. Fueled by magic, the burning embers seared into its fur as soon as they touched, but the monster moved forward.

"The eastern wall is being breached! Reinforce it!"

The commander's scream echoed across the battlefield. Monsters poured into the unlit area like a hole in a dike. Less than half an hour into the battle. The monsters slowly made their way forward. Natalie turned around and locked eyes with Cora and Eugene.

"Stay alive until I return."

Then she leaned back and dropped down. Eugene followed Natalie, running toward the ramparts of the wall. Cora grabbed Eugene, and the two watched as Natalie fell.

For the first time, the monster's gaze was elsewhere than on the wall. Thousands of pairs of eyes flashed through the flames, a sight far different from the stars in the sky. Amidst the crowd that threatened to tear her apart, Natalie found comfort.

"Are you friendly?"

The wind whistled in her ears, and she shifted, her body sprouting armor-like scales. Tentacles sharper than spears grew from her waist. Her eyes that sought out her enemies narrowed to needle-like pupils, and razor-sharp nails sprouted from her fingertips.

"Why am I doing something pointless."

Natalie's muttering and the crash were simultaneous. Her attitude was light, but the landing was anything but. Sucking in the monster's gaze, Natalie appeared on the battlefield. The soldiers on the ramparts gasped at her transformation.

"What the hell, another monster? What the hell is that?"

"Should we attack?"

Natalie's tentacles shot toward the monster before the commanders could explain to their astonished soldiers. The crack of the tentacles was like a cannon blast. The soldiers' faces went blank as the tentacles pierced the monster and cut it to pieces. Eugene looked at Natalie with shaky eyes, her expression unchanged, heartbreakingly so.

"You shouldn't care much for me."

Shadows passed behind the girl's back. Natalie was breakwater and could not hold back the incoming tide alone. It didn't take long for the fiends clinging to the ramparts to crumble in the face of the wall's resistance.

"I see you don't understand the word surprise among the worthy."

Natalie saw a giant beast - an ashen bear - pushing through the horde. It looked at her and asked her a question in a curious voice.

"What the hell are you doing there?"

"I don't get to decide."

Natalie replied nonchalantly, focusing on the bear while the tentacles slaughtered the monsters. Whether its men were dying or not, the bear tilted its head and focused on Natalie. The bear's jaws parted in a mock smile.

"Do you even know what you're doing?"

The bear asked, raising its front paws high.

"Bitch, why are you trying to fight on the side of the humans when you aren't one. I can smell that you're much closer to us. One attack on those walls and our victory is assured. You don't know which side to fight on, do you?"

"Good or bad, I don't care anymore."

Natalie blinked. Neither victory nor defeat, death nor life, held any meaning for her. The only purpose she had was long since extinguished. She glanced back. Holes were opening up in the wall. Desperate screams and shouts were heard. Natalie stood still, listening, and faced the bear.

"Foolish, foolish, foolish, to choose your own death when you could have enjoyed eternal glory with us. He would have approved of you. You smell like us."

"It is futile to cling to things that are dead and gone."

"Even death has meaning. Humans know better than anyone that death is not an end."

"When you die, you die. When people attach meaning to death, it's not because they don't think it's an end. It's just..."

Just as her thoughts were getting complicated, the bear suddenly attacked. Natalie lightly parried its attack with a single tentacle. It was strong enough. Just enough. Slowly, Natalie pushed it back.

"So what meaning should I attach to your death?"

"You...!"

Natalie pulled out more tentacles. They wriggled and slowly began to wrap around the bear's body, not intending to kill it quickly and easily. The tentacles began to tighten around its neck. The ashen bear, which must have weighed as much as a giant rock, was easily lifted. The tentacles wrapped around and began to tighten.

"Why am I talking philosophy with a bear in the first place..."

The sound of crunching bones echoed. The monster had lived for decades, and just like that, it was crushed to dust. Now a pelted mass of meat, the bear oozed blood. Natalie stared down at it with cold eyes. She could hear the sound of the wall rumbling.

"Why am I here?"

It wasn't as if the question hadn't occurred to her. Natalie glanced back and forth between the castle and the monster, then extended her tentacles. Don't overthink it. It's all meaningless, anyway.

With that in mind, Natalie stretched out her tentacles. Dozens of monsters must have already been slaughtered. She could only throw herself into the fray to push the muddled thoughts out of her head.

Natalie could feel eyes on her. They weren't human; they were demonic, recognizing her as a threat, coming to kill. An intelligent monster, perhaps like the ashen bear before.

Natalie felt the eyes tearing into her flesh and began to move, step by step, deeper into the battlefield.

***

"What the fuck!"

Nella screamed. Up on the walls of the Capital, people were fighting tooth and nail. The monsters had been unable to approach the walls for quite some time. Laura's magic and the soldier's efforts had not been in vain. Their numbers were dwindling, and at one point, they seemed to have driven them back almost to the ridge.

"...That's not fair."

Until the ridge was once again filled with a new wave of monsters. They weren't tired. They ran faster, clinging to the walls. It wasn't long before they were all dead, but each corpse provided a staircase for the next.

"It's too early to despair, Nella."

Daphne fired a spell at Nella's side. 'Why was this woman so ignorant of magic?' Daphne was firing powerful spells nonstop. The look on her face as she fired her magic was so stoic that it made her wonder if she was the same person who had once been labeled a low-level wizard.

"The battle isn't over, and the walls are still strong."

'Shit, I know I've fought a Disaster, but what the hell is this? There were much fewer monsters before and a giant octopus which was perfect to land magic on.' If nothing else, she couldn't stand Daphne acting like a senior.

"...You don't have to cheer me on."

Nella drew on her mana. She knew she could allocate it more efficiently than that ignorant woman with too much mana. If she kept up with Daphne's pace, she'd run out of energy when it mattered. Nella frowned as she drove a sharpened flame arrow into a monster's brow.

"Save your energy. The Meteor will arrive sooner or later."

Nella knew. A beam of light would fall from the distant sky at night, stabbing through the darkness. Not a saving light, but one that would plunge the world into a pit of destruction. Suddenly, Daphne put her hand on Nella's shoulder.

"...I'm going to go to another part. It's not good to have all our power concentrated in one place. Do you mind if I leave you in charge here, Nella?"

Nella looked into Daphne's eyes. 'Who was worried about whom now? She's probably worried about the wizards being wiped out before they could stop the Disaster.' Her violet eyes were shifting uneasily. Nella let out a small laugh and gently took Daphne's hand on her shoulder and pushed her away.

"I have Six Circles now, so I'm not going to die, at least not until the Meteor hits, so go prevent casualties."

Daphne nodded stiffly and started to walk away.

"I'll leave it up to you."

It had been a while since she'd heard that phrase. Nella waved briefly at Daphne, looking a little dazed, and when she turned her back, the area had been repopulated with monsters.

"Now, what can we do to keep them from coming up?"

Slowly. Nella channeled her magic. She needed to make one big sweep and buy the soldiers time. In this case, fire attribute was her best option.

Just then, the wall shook violently. Nella whipped her head around, and a mantis-like monster landed on the ramparts and knocked down soldiers like crazy.

"...No."

Nella's face paled. That monster was familiar. It had come all the way down from the north. The crawler had appeared on the battlefield out of nowhere, not even bothering to hide in the shadows as it flailed its forearms like a fish out of water.

'No, no. Even if we manage to kill it, another monster will rise through the gaps in the defense.' Nella shot a shapeless ball of magic.

The crawler staggered and fell off the ramparts, but there was no doubt they had lost the initiative. Monsters slowly climbed, and it was too late to replenish their forces. Nella rushed forward with all her protective magic. A monster crawled up the wall, and the lives of the wounded soldiers were a beacon for the beasts.

Until a warm golden mist descended from nowhere.

"Rise and defend. The walls of the Capitals must not be breached."

Nella's eyes widened as she saw the reinforcements. The Saintess, accompanied by heavily armed guards of the Kingdom, was steadily climbing the ramparts.

But Iris' face was somber, and the Hero who should be at her side was nowhere to be seen.

Translator's Corner

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry for not uploading much in the past few days. I've spent most of my free time in the past few months translating. I've saved up a lot of chapters, and I decided I couldn't wait much longer. So yeah...Amazing timer for the chapter name to match what I failed to bring. Sorry again, and I'll be back to my usual thing. I hope.

-Ruminas