Chapter 318: Fortress Assault Operation (5)
Davi’s hacking ability reached only a portion of the thousands of turrets mounted on the fortress.
But even that portion amounted to hundreds of muzzles, firing hundreds of shells.
There was no need to explain how fatal a bombardment striking the defenseless rear of the Defense Force’s main strength, who were fighting with their backs to the fortress, would be.
Rumbling gunfire!!!
Shells spat fire from hundreds of muzzles, instantly lining up to form a massive path of flame.
In an instant, over hundreds of Defense Force soldiers were engulfed in the barrage, turning to ash and dust, and desperate screams erupted from all sides.
“Aaaahhhhhhh!!”
“Hot, it’s so hottt!!”
“Th-the fortress is attacking us!!! It’s friendly fire!!”
“Order the control room to cease fire immediately!! Do you all want to die?!”
Under the immense firepower pouring in from behind, the main formation of the Defense Force began to crumble instantly.
Through the gaps, freelancers began opening a path from the front, aided by Aris’s rear support.
Barclay looked down at the scene, gritted his teeth, and lifted his comms device.
“The fortress’s shelling system has been taken over! Cut off that network immediately and renew the authority!! What are you dawdling for?!”
“[I-it’s in progress. Even after renewing the authority, the shelling hasn’t stopped…!!]”
“Stop making excuses and fix it quickly!!”
Barclay gritted his teeth and yelled into the comms device.
“The fortress system itself is no different from existing fortresses!! Are you going to wait until it shoots all our allies dead?!”
“[They are cleverly seizing control of individual turrets without touching the central control system. The invader’s processing power exceeds that of the defense network. Unless we open the entire network and respond…!!]”
“Dammit…”
He could feel it clearly, even without being told.
Even through Barclay’s magic perception, he could see what was happening on the fortress deck.
If he regained control of the front turrets, the invader would seize the rear turrets and unleash a barrage.
If he got control of both back, the invader would take over the side defense turrets and rain down explosions.
It was no surprise that untimely explosions continued to erupt near the reactor located directly beneath the fortress.
At this rate, it was highly likely that even recharging the fortress’s power source would be impossible.
Even in this situation, tanks and fighter jets strewn across the deck continued to explode, steadily taking out command soldiers.
The shouts of other commanders could be heard over the comms.
“[Barclay!! What are you doing right now!!]”
“[The forces on the rear flank have been cut in half by friendly fire from the fortress. At this rate, we’ll have to fully retreat and entrench ourselves inside the fortress.]”
“[Do you think the Commander will leave you alone if he finds out about this!!]”
Barclay, who had been bowing his head, lifted his gaze.
“Open the central network. If our processing power is insufficient, we must borrow it to stop this situation now.”
“[But then, it will become relatively vulnerable to external intrusion…]”
“Before that, I’ll find Adamant Thunder and kill him.”
Click!!
Barclay, regripping his greatsword, answered as he hooked his foot over the edge of the deck.
“I was too distracted earlier to notice, but there’s only one place for him to escape on top of this fortress.”
What if there were no traces of him on the fortress deck, and he hadn’t shown himself anywhere in the vast sky above?
If the opponent hadn’t soared into the sky, it was obvious they must have gone underground.
And when it comes to ‘ground’ on this fortress—
CRACK!
Barclay embedded his greatsword into the fortress’s outer wall and threw himself downward.
Simultaneously, he descended upside down along the fortress’s leg, quickly scanning its underside.
Barclay’s eyes widened as he found what he was looking for.
“…Found you, you damned bastard.”
A dense net made of magic threads. He followed its traces with his gaze.
At the center of a net woven from magic threads on the inner underside of the fortress’s leg, like a spider web,
a wizard sat with a cigarette in his mouth, smiling at Barclay.
“[Third defensive line breached! Main Defense Force formation collapsed! The mobile fortress’s friendly fire has opened a path, attempting to penetrate the fortress now!!]”
“[Two colonels neutralized. One missing. Three are currently engaged, Aris is providing support!!]”
“[The bombing near the reactor has opened a path. All specialized forces, except Major General Alban, have been killed. Other Agents, excluding me, are occupying the reactor.]”
“[This is Felix. Major General Zhelich is lightly wounded. A significant portion of enemy forces have retreated due to the fortress’s friendly fire on the rear gate. Proceeding with the operation.]”
Victory reports poured in one after another through his earpiece.
Lennok slowly rose, lowering the volume of the boisterous comms network once more.
Barclay’s gaze, upside down on the fortress’s underside, was eerily chilling.
He gritted his teeth and slowly walked towards Lennok, muttering,
“I don’t know what you did, but it’s not a pleasant feeling.”
“…”
“To make us kill our own comrades with our own hands, what a nasty hobby. Were you aiming for this from the start?”
“No way.”
Lennok, calmly drawing up his magic, smiled and shook his head.
“I was just exploring various methods and found the most efficient solution.”
What Lennok had attempted wasn’t actually that complicated.
While confronting Barclay, he realized there was a hidden passage, and simultaneously identified a hidden route into the fortress through Davi.
He then sent Davi to infiltrate the fortress through one of those routes.
Davi, having sneaked in, then hacked the nearest fortress turret control system.
The moment he confirmed this, Lennok postponed his battle with Barclay and focused on supporting allies on other infiltration routes.
He had hidden himself on the underside of the fortress because the magic threads he had set when he first climbed up the fortress leg were still there.
Rather than engaging in immediate combat, he was concentrating on actively supplying magic to Davi, plunging the battle into chaos.
“All this catastrophe now… is merely improvisation?”
Barclay narrowed his eyes and asked.
“Are you telling me to believe that?”
His suspicion was valid.
Though brief, the series of bombardments Lennok unleashed by seizing control of the Mobile Fortress’s turrets was fatal enough to turn the tide of the battle in an instant.
Firepower pouring from a fortress they had considered an absolute ally, now turned against their own backs.
It was not hard to imagine how shocking such an attack, exploiting a moment of unguarded complacency, would be to the main Defense Force units engaged in battle all around.
Formations that had previously shown no openings collapsed instantly, and the tide of battle swiftly turned in favor of the three infiltration routes that seized the opportunity, drastically changing the situation.
Although Major Generals Alban and Zhelich were still holding out, it would only be a matter of time before the path into the fortress was given up.
And only these two people here knew the cause and effect of all these events.
The result was almost unbelievable even to witness: that the Mobile Fortress’s entire security and defenses had been breached by essentially a single wizard.
And the only person who could rectify that mistake was Barclay himself.
“Now I understand what those Machine Cult guys were talking about.”
Swooosh…!!
Between the blades of the greatsword, which hung down towards the ground, sharp winds began to gather.
It was the Miniature Universe of a superhuman who had perfected their Mind Imprint and built it into an inner world.
The will of a swordsman who controlled the atmosphere and wind as freely as their own mind.
Barclay said, raising the sharply honed blade-wind above his sword:
“You’re too dangerous. I’ll kill you here before you reach the Commander.”
“Barclay. You already know.”
Lennok smiled, standing on the magic threads that were snapping and swaying bit by bit.
“That this battle means nothing.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.”
Barclay also smiled.
“My job was set from the start!!”
WHIIIISH!
At that moment, the sharp edge of the swirling blade-wind instantly cut through the surrounding magic threads and surged towards Lennok.
Yet, a few strands of magic thread that survived held onto Lennok’s body, curving long and beginning to traverse the underside of the fortress like a swing.
An impossible movement unless he had anticipated the magic threads being attacked from the start.
“The signal from the control room. I’ve got it firmly.”
Whoosh!!
Lennok turned to Barclay in mid-air and said.
The reason he hid behind the fortress’s underside, waiting for his opponent’s reaction.
It was to pinpoint and backtrack the signal location sent from the control room to regain control of the seized turrets.
Barclay, realizing Lennok’s true intentions from that one statement, twisted his face, and Lennok smiled.
“Now I just need to kill you and seize control of the fortress.”
“Shut your mouth!!”
Barclay, dashing upside down along the fortress’s underside, became a thick streak of light and pursued Lennok.
An extraordinary speed. But the sharp energy mixed with his charge rotated far more menacingly towards Lennok than his speed.
Severed magic threads clung to his body like spiderwebs, hindering his movement, but they were cut and scattered by the sharp edge of the wind.
Lennok ignored Barclay and lightly brushed his right hand over his coat sleeve.
Click!!
The rechargeable shotgun in both his hands glowed a brilliant blue.
He calmly gazed at the streak of light approaching him and pulled the trigger.
The rechargeable shotgun, pre-heated several times, fired in an overheated state.
It scattered bluish flames into the air and unleashed a massive shockwave.
BOOM!!
“Kuaaaak!!”
An incredibly powerful charge, strong enough to directly push back the impact of Barclay’s charge.
With that recoil, Lennok’s body was pushed far out from the fortress’s underside, soaring onto the deck.
Lennok’s body, buoyed by levitation magic, landed precariously on the deck and tumbled along with his coat.
“Ugh…!!”
Although he used all sorts of common magic to balance himself and protect his condition, it was still difficult for Lennok’s body to handle such intense movements.
Unable to suppress the rising nausea, Lennok gagged a few times, then slowly stood up, his face pale.
A sense of déjà vu as he grabbed a nearby supply box and stumbled to his feet.
Before he could shake off that unfamiliar feeling, a streak of light dashing up onto the deck from beneath the fortress’s underside caught his eye.
BOOM!!
The streak of light that had shot into the sky plunged straight down to the ground, unleashing a heavy gust of wind.
From the center of the furiously spinning whirlwind, a figure with ash-gray hair stood up.
“Don’t even think about running away!!!”
White magical light streamed from between his eyes as Barclay snarled.
Lennok, seeing his murderous appearance, brought his hand to his coat sleeve.
Lennok pulled out a rosary from his left wrist and slowly extended it forward, saying,
“The outcome is decided, there’s no need to waste power.”
“…What?”
The artifact Charm of Earth’s Embrace began to glow fiercely, slowly rotating in Lennok’s hand.
Barclay, instantly sensing that the artifact was extraordinary, regripped his greatsword and crouched.
‘He took off the rosary from his wrist. An artifact used directly. The magic I feel suggests it’s close to a binding item.’
With decades of accumulated combat experience, he instantly discerned the rosary’s ability.
It was definitely an object that felt somewhat out of place to pull out in this situation, but as long as he didn’t get hit, it would be fine.
With a wizard’s reflexes and reaction speed, it would be impossible to even bring that bead to his body.
The moment Barclay contracted all his muscles and surged forward like an explosion.
WHOOSH!!!
An unusual magical light burst from between his lapels.
Shining brilliantly from between his uniform sleeves, it was an old pencil with all sorts of runic characters engraved on it.
“…!!”
Before Barclay could even react, having recognized the object, his body was forcibly Translocated a dozen meters.
His neck was forcibly pushed into the activated rosary.
“Uwaaaaah-!!!”
Only then did he realize what Lennok’s words meant, and he screamed, veins bulging in his neck, but it was already too late.
His body, instantly frozen solid along with the space around him, stiffened and collapsed onto the deck.
Barclay’s face, frozen and screaming with bloodshot eyes. A desperate expression that made one guess how utterly furious and defeated he was.
Lennok looked at Barclay’s face and slowly sat down.
He bowed his head and vomited his churning insides.
“Ughh…!!”
The after-effects of swinging up onto the deck from the fortress’s underside, like a pendulum, still hadn’t subsided.
It had been an extremely long time since he performed such intense maneuvers with this body.
In the past, it wouldn’t have been strange if he had fainted the moment he generated such recoil with the rechargeable shotgun in mid-air.
The fact that he was still conscious was likely thanks to the regular consumption of the pill from Yakson’s treatment.
If it weren’t for the diagnosis that not only addressed his mana addiction but also generally raised Lennok’s overall condition and baseline, he would have struggled much more than he was now.
“[Master, please calm your breathing.]”
Davi’s voice, still infiltrating the fortress’s internal circuits.
“[If you struggle with your esophagus blocked, the possibility of asphyxiation increases. Calm your breathing and slowly focus on expelling the remaining foreign sensation.]”
“Hoo, hoo…!!”
Lennok, half-collapsed on the ground and trembling, gave a bitter smile.
A sense of helplessness he hadn’t felt in a truly long time. A feeling he hadn’t experienced even after surviving numerous battles recently.
When falling from mid-air, hadn’t he focused on casting levitation magic and maintaining balance?
Attempting such intense aerial maneuvers as this was virtually a first.
Lennok gazed idly at what he had spewed out, then slowly stood up.
“…When I get back, I should start researching how to make a personal airship.”
“[Like the one you used in the Pilenom Autonomous Region?]”
“Since the autonomous flight algorithm was also completed in the Autonomous Region, the software is sufficient.”
Lennok wiped his mouth, put away the shotgun he was holding, and turned his head.
“Let’s finish what we’re doing now and talk later.”
There was a reason he pushed himself to capture Barclay.
As the Mobile Fortress Assault Operation progressed, he had felt a strange sense of unease. There was something he needed to ask Barclay about its true nature.
Click!!
“Cough…!!”
Released from the rosary’s restraint, Barclay’s eyes snapped open and his whole body writhed.
Rattling chains!!
“Dammit!!”
Dozens of violet chains bound his limbs.
Common magic, Gravity Chain. What’s more, it was a binding force created by dragging and gathering nearby broken tanks and fighter jets.
Each time he struggled, one side of the deck violently shook, but it was difficult to immediately break through the mass of chains.
Lennok stood before Barclay, a cigarette in his mouth, and loaded bullets into his revolver.
Click-clack, click-clack!!
Barclay’s brow furrowed as he belatedly realized how he had been defeated.
“Damn it, no way, from the underside of the fortress…!!”
“It was over the moment you touched the pile of magic threads I had cut.”
The piles of magic threads he had cut while pursuing Lennok from the fortress’s underside.
In the fleeting moment a part of them brushed against his uniform, Lennok had slipped Enakphil’s five fingers directly into his uniform.
Precision manipulation skills that were unbelievable for something done in a brief moment of flight through the air.
Barclay looked up at Lennok with disbelief.
“…That pencil. I’ve seen it too. But it was never something that could be used like this.”
Enakphil’s five fingers was not an item so convenient that it could just be inserted anywhere to Translocate an opponent.
It was an artifact that was incredibly safe, not activating without a warm-up period, preparatory movements, and the user’s definite will.
It wasn’t used as an emergency evacuation artifact by high-ranking politicians for no reason.
But just now, Lennok had perfectly used the artifact to Translocate Barclay as he pleased, as if those safety features were meaningless.
“It’s not difficult if you understand spatial interference.”
Lennok, having finished loading, replied.
“In fact, artifacts with such thorough safety features are easier to handle. With a few adjustments, they’re easy to manipulate as you wish.”
Lennok lightly stroked the pure white muzzle, then pulled back the hammer and placed his finger on the trigger.
Without the slightest hesitation, he aimed at Barclay’s abdomen and fired one shot.
BANG!!
“…!!!”
A normal bullet would be impossible to even pierce the skin of an Archmage-level physical ability user.
But the bullet fired from Lennok’s revolver effortlessly cut through Barclay’s muscles and lodged itself deep within his abdominal organs.
It didn’t stop there, a chilling cold slowly freezing his body from deep within.
Barclay, gritting his teeth and suppressing a scream, managed a difficult laugh.
“This part, it’s truly wizard-like…!! Absolutely thorough…!!”
“You’re going to die.”
Barclay’s words were abruptly cut off by Lennok’s calm declaration.
“Unless you cooperate, our situation isn’t good enough to deliberately keep a capable person like you alive.”
Although he had attempted to persuade him right before the battle began, that was only before the outcome was decided.
After successfully buying time and having Davi infiltrate the fortress first, it became a conversation of little meaning.
And Lennok had no intention of showing unnecessary mercy to an enemy he had encountered for the first time today.
“…I see.”
“So, you don’t necessarily have to answer the questions I’m about to ask.”
Lennok slightly bent at the waist, met Barclay’s gaze, and then spoke.
Eye movements, expressions, changes in internal heart rate and temperature, and fluctuations in magic flow sometimes reveal more than words.
Especially when one realizes they are facing death.
He asked, taking in all of Barclay’s reactions with his eyes.
“Where is Lieutenant General Treffen now?”
“…”
“If he was watching everything from the fortress control room, it makes no sense for him not to have shown himself yet. At the very least, he should have moved the moment you were defeated.”
Being a fortress commander doesn’t mean simply sitting in the control room and directing the situation is always the best course of action.
In this world where superhumans run rampant, those with martial power, regardless of rank, needed to precisely discern the places and moments where their strength was needed.
And this moment, when Lennok seized some turrets and captured Barclay, was the decisive moment when the tight battle situation tipped to one side.
If he still hadn’t moved by this point, wouldn’t it be impossible unless something had happened to him personally?
And if there was one thing now that could change Treffen’s status—
“I’ll ask again.”
Lennok’s eyes gleamed sharply, and his left pupil rotated, turning violet.
“Is Lieutenant General Treffen still human?”