Chapter 675

Crunch!

“Grooooaaaaar!”

Gigantes slammed his massive hand onto the fortifications, letting out a deafening roar.

Screech!

A blinding flash of light sliced through the air, severing Gigantes’ wrist entirely.

The titan, who had been scaling the rampart, shrieked in agony as he plunged back down to the earth below.

Aina, responsible for the cleanly severed limb, fluidly shifted her stance and gripped her blade once more.

Kiiiaaak!

Suddenly, a pack of Fafnirs tore through the clouds, screeching wildly as they dove straight toward Aina.

Whoosh!

“Don’t even think about it!”

Iliana’s weapon cut through the air with astonishing velocity, cleaving a diving Fafnir completely in half.

Having expertly intercepted the airborne threat atop the fortifications, Iliana turned and offered a small smile to Aina.

“Are you unharmed?”

“Yes.”

Iliana gave a single nod, entirely accustomed to Aina’s cold, unchanging expression, and extended her open hand forward.

Zhiing-!

A brilliant stream of raw energy erupted from a glowing magical circle formed over her palm, vaporizing the horde of beasts charging the walls.

“Senior Iliana is incredible, as always.”

Luke cheered aloud, captivated by the display.

Though she belonged to the Swordsmanship Department, Iliana was fundamentally a magic swordsman.

While her disposition heavily favored the blade, her raw capability in the magical arts was in no way inferior to her mastery of knighthood.

Even among fellow magic swordsmen, her versatility far surpassed that of Luke, whose application of magic was strictly limited to reinforcing his physical strikes.

Right then, Habidan darted into the fray with his spear aloft, driving the tip violently into an approaching demon.

“You insolent mortal…!”

“You’re dying by the hands of that mortal, so what does that make you?”

Habidan sneered at his foe before executing a sweeping diagonal slash, splitting the demon open.

“Archers! Loose your volleys!”

Following Kal’s booming directive, the ranged combatants stationed at the rear stepped up to the edge of the rampart, pulling their bowstrings taut.

Pababababat-!

A torrential downpour of arrows fired by dwarves and beastfolk rained down upon the creatures scaling the stone walls.

Yet, a few resilient monsters managed to withstand the fierce barrage.

“Bring up the artillery! Fire!”

Kwagagagagang-!

The heavy magical cannons roared in unison, acting on Kal’s immediate signal.

Grooooaarr!

Colossal demons, mutated beasts, and corrupted monsters collapsed under the bombardment, reduced to mangled heaps of flesh.

Habidan whistled quietly, taking in the carnage.

“Senior Kal has a remarkable talent for reading the battlefield’s momentum.”

The sector of the rampart currently held by the hero candidates was proving to be an unbreakable bastion.

Whenever the frontline forces, comprised of the candidates, pushed back the forces of the Giant King trying to breach the walls, artillery fire and arrows instantly saturated the resulting gaps.

Under Kal’s precise tactical management, the defenders were performing far beyond their normal capacities.

Tatata tatat-!

Pababababak! Kwajik! Kwadududk-!

“Wooahhh!”

“Enniha-nim!”

Suddenly, loud acclamations erupted from the ranks.

The lone elf present on this gruesome battlefield, Enniha, was sprinting along the vertical surface of the outer wall, effortlessly cutting down the demons threatening to breach the defenses.

Her fluid movements were nothing short of breathtaking, bordering on the divine.

Hwirik-! Tak-!

With a final leap, Enniha vaulted over the edge and landed gracefully back onto the platform.

“Incredible, that was amazing!”

Luke cheered enthusiastically.

“My thanks. However…”

Enniha shifted her gaze toward the open sky.

Flash! Kwagagagagang-!

Leo, soaring through the heavens upon a Pegasus, was devastating the terrestrial forces below with a barrage of magical spells.

“She wasn’t exaggerating when she claimed to be an All-Class, was she? Heavens… are all surviving heroes of that caliber?”

An involuntary gasp of admiration escaped Enniha’s lips.

Leo functioned as one of the two foundational pillars holding this entire theater of war together.

Naturally, the matching pillar was none other than…

“Khaaaab!”

Dweno leaped aggressively from the high walls, hurtling straight toward the battlefield below.

Hwarrrrrruk-!

Radiant golden flames erupted across his entire form.

Like a falling star, Dweno crashed violently into the earth.

Kwagagagagagagang-!

After obliterating a massive portion of the Giant King’s vanguard with the resulting shockwave, Dweno began hacking through the remaining demons with his massive axe, driven by an unyielding fervor.

In that exact moment.

Bwoo-!

The resonant blast of a war horn sounded from somewhere in the distance.

Prompted by the signal, the retreating forces of the Giant King began to pull back from the walls.

“They’re falling back!”

“The cowards are running!”

“Waaahhhhh!”

Exultant shouts erupted across the entire length of the rampart.

The defenders’ spirits skyrocketed upon realizing they had successfully driven away the Giant King’s formidable horde.

“Glory to Dweno-nim!”

“All hail the Iron-Blooded Gatekeeper!”

Praise for Dweno echoed passionately through the ranks of the defenders.

It was Dweno who had undeniably left the greatest mark on this defense, not to mention his recent execution of Gimeon, the notorious turncoat.

Up in the sky, Leo watched the retreating columns of the Giant King’s army in absolute silence.

“The day is ours.”

Eliza, who had been securing the airspace alongside Leo, guided her mount over to him.

Hearing her words, Leo replied quietly,

“So it seems.”

“Is something troubling you?”

“It feels as though it concluded far too easily.”

His skepticism was justified.

The forces of the Giant King were far from depleted; they clearly possessed the numbers to keep fighting.

Yet, they chose to withdraw.

Granted, Ivaldi currently held the upper hand in the engagement.

‘But Gias was nowhere to be seen.’

Leo’s gaze sharpened.

An army cannot unlock its full lethality without its primary commander present.

Simply put, the force deployed by the Giant King today was only operating at a fraction of its true potential.

At the same time, Dweno, who was making his way back inside the fortress walls, paused to glance back at the withdrawing enemy.

On paper, this clash was an absolute triumph.

Yet, a deep-seated feeling of unease lingered within him.

‘That bastard… is plotting something.’

“Wahahahaha!”

“Let the feast begin!”

As twilight gave way to night, the entire fortress city of Ivaldi became consumed by an atmosphere of wild celebration.

Massive fires were lit across the sprawling courtyard before the ramparts to roast meat.

Beastfolk warriors and dwarf craftsmen emerged from the storage vaults, rolling massive kegs upon their shoulders.

Citizens from the residential sectors gathered to prepare a massive spread of food.

It was a grand banquet intended to celebrate their survival and victory.

“Keep pouring! Drink up!”

Chelsea watched the boisterous, heavily drinking dwarves and beastfolk with a highly flustered expression.

“We certainly won a major battle, but is it truly wise to cast off all alertness like this?”

The Age of Calamity was an era where the demonic legions of Tartarus could strike without a moment’s notice.

Because of this, she had assumed the mood would remain perpetually stoic and tense.

In truth, the initial atmosphere within Ivaldi had been incredibly grim.

Yet, following this massive triumph, all restraint had seemingly vanished.

“What happens if an unexpected assault begins right now?”

As Iliana voiced her anxieties, Leo replied in a relaxed tone,

“The guard rotations on the ramparts are still active.”

Poking at the campfire, Leo glanced up toward the battlements before continuing,

“The soldiers here are battle-hardened veterans. They are more than capable of shaking off the effects of wine to answer a battle cry, wouldn’t you agree?”

Crack-

Leo snapped a dry branch in half, tossing the pieces into the dancing flames.

“Furthermore, if they aren’t permitted to let loose like this occasionally, the psychological toll would break them.”

During this brutal era, it was standard practice across every surviving settlement to throw a massive festival whenever a major offensive from Tartarus was successfully repelled.

It was a matter of psychological survival.

Every single day, these people lived under the suffocating dread of total annihilation.

This was a time completely devoid of long-term hope.

Merely making it to the next sunrise was a monumental blessing.

After surviving a catastrophic event, they required an outlet of this scale to release their pent-up terror.

Even if only for a night, they needed to drown out their lingering dread.

Hearing Leo’s perspective, the remaining hero candidates looked at him with tilted heads, finding his words logical yet fundamentally difficult to fully grasp.

‘They can’t truly understand.’

Only those who actually belonged to this bleak era could fully empathize with that reality.

“Even now, there is a visible divide between us.”

Aina, seated near the crackling fire, spoke in a quiet murmur as she watched the native dwarves and beastfolk celebrating a noticeable distance away from their group.

“It’s only natural. Sharing a single battle won’t instantly dissolve the boundaries between strangers.”

Chelsea shook her head in agreement.

Just a few hours prior, they were viewed as untrustworthy outsiders.

It was unrealistic to expect these people to open up completely after a single engagement.

Right as she concluded that thought.

“Hey, everyone! Look at what I managed to secure!”

Kal came sprinting over, his face flushed with excitement.

Floating right alongside him, suspended by a levitation spell, was a massive wooden container.

“I managed to get our hands on a barrel of liquor!”

“Brilliant! Kal! How on earth did you pull that off?”

Iliana clapped enthusiastically, prompting Kal to strike a thoroughly self-satisfied pose.

“Did you honestly doubt my resourcefulness?”

“You never cease to amaze, Kal!”

Iliana offered him a supportive thumbs-up.

It was a genuine feat for Kal to secure a prized barrel of alcohol from a population that had been explicitly hostile to them just hours before.

“Are you implying that you intend to consume alcohol while still possessing the status of a student?”

Suddenly, Artian approached the group, her arms tightly crossed over her chest and her eyebrows heavily knitted in disapproval.

“Ah.”

“Gasp, Professor Artian.”

Both Kal and Iliana recoiled slightly under Artian’s piercing gaze.

“W-Well… given the festive nature of the evening, surely a small taste wouldn’t hurt…?”

“A small taste, you say?”

“I’ll return it immediately.”

As Kal instantly shrank back, Ar and Drian moved closer to inspect the floating barrel.

“Hehe, since we technically belong to an entirely different academy, those regulations shouldn’t apply to us, right?”

“Don’t worry about it, Kal. We’ll ensure your hard work doesn’t go to waste by drinking it all.”

By nature, both beastfolk and dwarves possessed an innate, cultural love for strong spirits.

Artian spoke up, narrowing her eyes at the two who were hungrily eyeing the prize.

“Regardless of your affiliation with another institution, does that alter the fact that you are both still students?”

“To be fair, our academy doesn’t strictly forbid the consumption of spirits…”

Smash-!

“Aaaah?!”

With a swift motion, Artian’s small fist completely shattered the sealed lid of the barrel.

Recognizing that a powerful Spirit had taken hold of her, Ar and Drian immediately backed off in terror.

They had already witnessed firsthand just how terrifying Professor Lumen could be when provoked.

Leo, observing the chaotic exchange, let out a soft chuckle.

“Let us overlook it for tonight, Professor. Everyone pushed themselves to the limit today.”

“As the student council president, it is your duty to maintain decorum!”

“Isn’t it simply human nature to desire something more intensely when it is forbidden?”

“…”

Artian glared at Leo for a long moment before letting out a sharp huff.

“Fill a cup for me.”

“Ohh!”

With her begrudging approval secured, Kal quickly distributed drinking vessels to everyone.

The celebration officially began.

Spurred on by the alcohol, the candidates began boasting loudly about their individual feats during the siege.

Leo shifted his gaze upward.

Elves and humans… or rather, dragons were entirely absent from the crowd.

‘Even when considering humans and elves, it’s really just our group and Enniha.’

Ivaldi was fundamentally a bastion populated entirely by dwarves and beastfolk.

Among the remaining sanctuaries of the Age of Calamity, it stood out as an isolated, cut-off fortress.

It was arguably the most beleaguered city of them all.

“All hail Lord Dweno!”

“We are truly blessed to have Lord Dweno watching over us.”

“To Lord Dweno’s health!”

Shouts of praise for Dweno echoed from every corner of the courtyard as warriors raised their tankards high.

‘Indeed… the people of this city are entirely loyal to Dweno.’

As Leo quietly observed this, a voice broke his train of thought.

“What are you doing over here by yourself, looking so brooding?”

Enniha walked over, a bright smile on her face as she held a drink.

“Where is Dweno?”

“That stubborn dwarf has locked himself away in his forge again. Considering how much he usually enjoys a strong drink, it’s quite bizarre behavior, wouldn’t you say?”

Enniha gave a nonchalant shrug before taking a seat directly across from Leo.

“More importantly, why aren’t you joining the festivities? The others are having a wonderful time over there.”

Enniha gestured toward Arhi’s group, who were currently engaged in a loud drinking contest.

“You have quite a few lovely companions with you. Shouldn’t you be enjoying a drink with them while you can?”

“They are far too young for that sort of thing.”

“Aren’t you a youngster yourself?”

Enniha gave him a thoroughly amused look before taking another sip of her beverage.

At that moment, the individual consuming alcohol at the fastest rate was none other than Artian.

“Ha-! Behold the capacity of a true adult!! You children have nothing on me!”

“Ohh! Little lady, you’ve got incredible spirit! Just like how you fought on the walls earlier!”

“You’re easily the fiercest drinker in your group!”

A few thoroughly intoxicated dwarves and beastfolk walked over to join her.

“Aaaah?! Who are you calling a little lady! I am vastly older than any of you bastards!”

“Huh? No matter how I look at you, you look the exact same age as them.”

“Just how old are you, miss?”

“Twenty-six!”

“Gasp! You’re actually an elder sister?”

“Who are you calling an elder sister! My true age spans thousands of years beyond your entire…”

“Hahahahaha! Professor Artian, have another! Drink up!”

Sweating profusely from anxiety, Kal hastily jammed the neck of a bottle into Artian’s mouth to cut her off.

It was an incredibly reckless action that he would never have dared to attempt under normal circumstances, but the sheer chaos of the evening had made him desperate.

Artian simply gulped down the offered liquor without protest.

“Bring more to this table!”

“She is completely wasted.”

Leo shook his head with a sigh.

Perhaps loosened up by the continuous flow of spirits, the local warriors of Ivaldi began to actively mingle with the hero candidates.

“Hey there, your performance earlier was spectacular!”

A female beastfolk wearing spectacles, who seemed to be a practitioner of the arcane, walked up to Chelsea.

“You were casting spells one second and immediately trading physical blows the next, weren’t you? You fought like a knight—are you perhaps a magic swordsman?”

“I am a conventional mage.”

“What?!”

In this brutal era, the concept of a dedicated battle mage simply did not exist.

As a result, Chelsea’s highly aggressive, close-quarters casting style was bound to shock them.

Thanks to the alcohol flowing freely, the social barrier between the defenders of Ivaldi and the visiting candidates rapidly dissolved.

Taking in the heartwarming sight, Enniha brought her hands up, framing the scene with her fingers to form a mock canvas while winking.

“My~ what a beautiful composition. It feels like a perfect harmony between the passing generation and the one rising up.”

“Why don’t you ask them to sit for a portrait?”

“Oh, I absolutely intend to. But you know…”

Enniha rested her chin on her palm, her gaze locking onto Leo.

“Out of everyone here, you are the one I desire to paint the most right now.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You… you radiate a presence just like the sun. Sunlight happens to be my absolute favorite thing in existence. I truly wish to capture it.”

“That description doesn’t fit me at all.”

“My, it absolutely does.”

Enniha vigorously shook her head.

“Will you agree to be the subject of my next piece?”

‘A model for the exact painter who inflicted Dweno with his obsession for art…’

“If you truly think I am suitable.”

“Wonderful!”

Enniha beamed with delight, instantly reaching out to grab the fabric of Leo’s shirt.

“…What do you think you are doing?”

“You just agreed to be my model, did you not?”

“And?”

“Then strip down. Reveal the raw form that nature intended for true art.”

Leo stared blankly into Enniha’s dilated eyes.

Looking closely at her expression, it was glaringly obvious that she had completely lost her faculties to the alcohol.

“Take it off! Strip!”

It appeared that her uninhibited, true impulses were thoroughly unleashed whenever she drank.

Leo groaned inwardly as the elf continued to aggressively tug at his garments.

‘Is she simply the elven counterpart to Dweno?’

No.

Dweno was merely the dwarven equivalent of this particular elf.

‘When it comes down to it, this one is a complete eccentric as well.’