The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military

The Duke’s Eldest son Escaped to the Military (220)

Translator: Master of Djinn

69. The Great Southern War (3)

Something that had never before existed on the Auzria continent had appeared before them. The tank, something that had existed in the world where Iron had been, and had been created during the world wars and several other wars, had now also appeared on Auzria.

It was a strategic weapon that had been created for the southern command army long before the apocalypse started, taking into consideration the advice from the other-worlders. It was created in order to make up for their lack of magic technology.

The southern confederation’s troops fell into confusion as the iron cannons approached them.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As soon as this trump card of the southern command army appeared, the southern confederation’s army also took out the weapons they had been hiding. The iron giants pushed against the collapsing wall, but it was difficult for the wall to remain standing in the face of the southern command’s attack. Eventually, iron giants that had been placed in different places started moving.

“A surprise attack…… you really racked your brains for this one.”

Carlos gritted his teeth as he charged, his sword drawn, to block the southern commander, who was at the vanguard. As if that was not enough, Carlos had also brought with him all the 6th stage swordsmen and knights under his command.

‘I’ll finish you once and for all.’

He had to force the southern commander into close combat, a magician’s weakness, and then kill him.

Even if that monster named Iron could defend against their secret weapon, the Empire’s troops would still need a large number of masters in order to overcome the overall inferiority of their forces. For that reason, Carlos decided to throw away all his pride and draw all his strength to kill the southern commander.

Carlos only had one destructive ability, so his levels did not match with that of the southern commander who was a Great Wizard. Fortunately, even though the southern commander had reached the level of Great Wizard, he had been judged as having a weak sense of qi.[1]

‘I must kill him.’

Even if he couldn’t kill the commander in one go, he thought it would not be difficult to do so if his knights joined in.

‘Even if I can’t kill him with one blow, if he sustains a fatal injury……’

As that thought ran through his head, Carlos gathered all his strength and stabbed his sword forward. His sword was as fast as lightning as he charged, but he suddenly felt as if he had been entrapped, caught in an enclosed circle.

“Ho- how?”

His movement slowed for only a moment. But that was enough. As was fitting for a Great Wizard, strong magic flew towards Carlos in the form of lightning.

“As expected, like the insidious person you are, you did a surprise attack.”

“Southern wizard tower master……”

Carlos clenched his teeth as he looked at the woman who appeared by the southern commander.

Sierra Leonar, master of the southern wizard tower.[2] At a young age, she rose to the ranks of the 6th stage great magicians, and was known for being so close to becoming a Great Wizard.

“A colossus!”

As Carlos said hastily, a colossus flew down towards the southern commander and Sierra, with a black spear in hand.

Several tanks were instantly crushed by the attack, but as a consequence, the southern confederation’s army had several casualties because of the immense number of cannons that flew out of the tanks.

With the attack of Carlos and his knights, as well as that of the giant, the war between the Empire’s southern command army and the southern confederation had now started in earnest. Different from the little clashes they had had here and there, this was a true and proper fight.

All around the battleground, several people groaned in pain, while many others died, but the expressions of the southern commander and Carlos, the two who were right at the heart of the battle, remained unchanged. Sierra, on the other hand, had a smile on her face.

“Things are becoming interesting now.”

As Sierra spoke, she looked up at the sky, Carlos also following suit.

As if they had been waiting for most of the southern confederation’s troops to become embroiled in battle with the southern command army, the eastern army also began moving.

Of course, they also had a trump card they had set aside. A giant object flew at the southern confederation’s defence barrier, and there was a deafening sound once it hit the barrier.

Boooom!

There was a tremendous explosion, and at once several layers of the barrier were torn apart like they were flimsy sheets of paper.

The eastern command too had taken the advice of the other-worlders that joined, and had built a large, long-range magic explosive similar to a missile. The missiles they had built, so large they took up the length on an entire ship, tore the barrier apart.

However, even after the barrier had shattered, several large magic missiles continued to fall, and soon all of the confederation’s capital was caught in the large explosion.

“Ple- please, save me!”

“The 4th artillery unit has been decimated!”

“Two iron giants down!”

“Part of the aerial recon unit has been hit!”

Reports flew at Muradin from all over.

As he looked at those reporting the casualties to him, about to give an order, the Mobile Field Army too began advancing, as if they had just been waiting for the ripe moment. Watching the nearly a thousand airships move and prepare for air bombing, Muradin urgently gave his order.

“Block them! They can not come here!”

Muradin gave his order to the artillery soldiers and the airforce unit as fast as he could, but everyone had been thrown into confusion because of the eastern command’s shocking move.

If they were hit by aerial bombing now, the confederation would suffer irreparable damage. Muradin ground his teeth, thinking about how the enemy had attacked before dawn, as if they had been lying in wait. And now, the Mobile Field Army was focusing on them too.

‘Are they trying to end things quickly?’

The Empire’s forces had made the first move, guns blazing. This meant that the Empire had no intention of finding out what their hidden move was.

‘The truth about the iron giants was revealed too soon.’

They had hidden the truth about the colossus until the end, but the iron giants were no different from simple golems. The only thing special about them was that they could be controlled from the inside, and had more skillful and fluid movements.

Once they found out about that, the Empire’s forces decided that their victory was sure, as they’d thought that the number of colossus was not that high, after all. Only the giants had high numbers, and the Empire’s side had judged that they could deal with that using the overwhelming numerical advantage of their troops.

“We still have a hidden card with the colossus, but…… things are tough now.”

Muradin said through clenched teeth. The confederation’s air force was unable to win against the overwhelming power of the Mobile Field Army, and was constantly losing ground. Their ground forces had finished repairs and had started a counteroffensive with the artillery unit as their centre, but it was already too late.

“Bring in the colossi. Let them show some force and block them.”

“Yes, sir!”

A commissioned officer rushed off to relay Muradin’s order to the comms officer.

Thinking that this would be the end of them if they were unable to stop the enemy, Muradin decided to use his last card. The colossi they had now in the southern confederation were not as strong as the one that had shown up during the battle in the southeast, but it was able to mimic the former colossus closely enough. In addition, some of the powers of those who had entered inside the colossus could be displayed as well.

As if to prove Muradin right, wings formed on the backs of a few colossi before they flew into the sky. When they charged at the Mobile Field Army’s air force with their immense sizes and their strength, the confederation’s forces that had been on the losing end for a while began to gain strength. Then the colossi that had been guarding the coast, as well as those that had been fighting off the southern command army began to show their hidden powers, each of them exercising a different power.

“They seem similar to the incarnations, don’t they?”

Iron, who was watching the situation from the large airship, saw the colossi using their powers and said. Upon close observation, he could detect a unique power, but one that was different from the unique power of the incarnations. The only reason why the power was not as great as during the southeast war was because at that time, dozens of incarnations had joined their powers together; at present, these one only had their own strength, which was why there was a big difference.

Now that Iron had figured out what the colossi were, he did not hesitate anymore.

“You can handle that, right?”

-Yes, sir!

Cardro, who had personally cultivated the strongest air force in the Mobile Field Army, answered with confidence, after which Iron nodded and ordered all the defence troops’ airships to gather.

“We’ve also got something up our sleeve; time to reveal it.”

“Yes, sir!”

The moment Iron finished speaking, all defence troops moved close to the large airship. Muradin who was watching from the ground saw that and hurriedly urged.

“Stop them! You must block them!”

At Muradin’s words, the colossi that were flying in the sky hurried towards the Mobile Field Army, but of course Cardro would not let them do as they wished. As was fitting for someone who could build the greatest air force in the Mobile Field Army, Cardro skillfully acted to buy Iron time to reveal what he had prepared.

Meanwhile, something appeared above the defence airships that had gathered and began assembling in midair. The ‘snap!’ as it assembled told everyone watching could tell that it was something else the Mobile Field Army had prepared and saved in its arsenal.

“Is it…… fort cannon?”

The cannon on the large airships was an unfathomably large mana cannon. That was what was being assembled in midair. Just by seeing the number of airships gathered, even before seeing the gigantic structure completed, Muradin could tell that this had gone beyond anything he could defend.

It was time for the southern confederation to make a decision.

‘It is not completely ready yet, but……’

From Muradin’s perspective, the trump card prepared by the confederation was not yet perfect. In order to fight against Iron, that old monster, and against the numerical might of three armies, it had to be stronger, strong enough to cut through all of them at once.

He needed that thing.

At the moment, the colossi had even revealed their powers but their front lines were gradually retreating under the sheer number of the enemy.

“But I have to stop that thing……”

Muradin muttered to himself, but it was useless. The structure had already been fully assembled, and was emitting powerful mana waves. The defence airships had assembled to create an aerial fort, at the middle of which sat a huge fort cannon. Even if felt from afar, the mana particles gathered at that point were powerful enough to blow this city that was covered in every kind of defensive magic to smithereens with one blow. They were strong enough to make even a master quake in their boots, causing Carlos and Yolke who were fighting far away to look up at the sky.

Even the southern and eastern commanders who were on the same side as the Mobile Field army stared in wonder.

“He prepared something really incredible, huh.”

The eastern commander murmured, absolutely amazed. The southern commander was no different.

“Is he trying to finish them off in one blow?”

As a powerful mana storm started brewing, all the mana in the vicinity gathered at the fort cannon, and a ball of light started to form at the front of the cannon.

Upon seeing this, people who had seen many fort cannons would be able to say that this was what happened right before a cannon fired.

Everyone looked at the weapon the Mobile Field Army had prepared, their nervousness clearly written on their faces.

Finally, it was time for the cannon to fire.

Bbooommm!

Suddenly, at the centre of the southern confederation, a huge black column soared into the reaches of the sky, creating a huge dimension gate. , the likes of which had never been seen before.

“Aim for the centre.”

“Yes, sir!”

The moment the re-aimed the cannon that had charged to the limit and focused on the centre, something seemed to have sensed Iron’s purpose and came out of the huge dimension gate. Iron cared not one whit about what it was, and immediately gave his order.

“Fire.”

The moment Iron’s order was given, a dark giant appeared and was hit by a large ray of light.

“It’s not just one?”

Iron muttered to himself as he watched the almost completely melted giant and the creatures that followed behind it.

Every one of them had been corrupted with void energy. They were apostles of fallen gods that he had seen in the east and in the north.

Each of them had a body of immense size. One thing he found fascinating was that he could feel the godheads of the incarnations of ancient gods from their bodies.

These strange creatures from which he could simultaneously feel the powers of both the fallen gods and the ancient gods were what came out of the gigantic dimension gate.

“Get ready again.”

Iron said so and walked with sure steps to the door of the large airship.

This was the last move that the southern confederation had prepared. It was a collaboration between the fallen gods and the external gods. He had no idea what price they had paid to achieve this, but it seemed the external gods could use most of their original powers using the body of the apostles of the fallen gods as a base.

“Despite that, they are still imperfect.”

If they had been complete, they should already have been flattened by these ancient gods.

The ancient gods had long forgotten their lofty ranks of the past, and now possessed the bodies of apostles. Even though they could display most of their powers, it was still at a level that he could handle adequately.

“Is the real war now beginning?”

As soon as Iron said that, Cardro and all the corps commanders attempted an attack, and the southern command army began storming the southern confederation’s city.

Notes:

[1] Weak sense of qi: 기감이 약하다고…; 감 means sense or emotion, while 기 is qi.

[2] I almost typed Sierra Leone lol.

[3] Brief explanation on the giants: The giants mentioned in this chapter are of two kinds: iron giants in the giant army that apparently look like golems(철갑 거인) and giants that are more like mecha (I assume, since Muradin says they can be manned) and are called 거신. When I looked up 거신, I saw this:

And also this, which I think is more accurate, since they are described as flying (Here is a namu wiki link) :

[4] I looked up some pictures, and designs of apostles vary from human(oid) to the other end of the spectrum. Here is one picture of an apostle from the korean MMORPG Mabinogi