Chapter 133: West’s Frontlines in Crisis (1)
Chapter 133: West’s Frontlines in Crisis (1)
The solid and sturdy Western frontline.
Unlike the North who had the image of being the strongest, the Western Army had the image of being the sturdiest in the Empire. The army that stayed in place despite countless howls and cries. That was the Western Army.
And that Western frontline is breached?
Everyone was shocked by the news.
“I can’t believe that the West has been breached! What the hell is going on?!”
The communications officer immediately relayed what he had heard after hearing Crimson’s outburst.
“An internal attack had broken their frontline.”
“Internal?”
“Yes, sir. The Western front seemed to fail to hold out when monsters came down on them from the Center.”
“How the hell… tell me more about it!”
The communications officer shook his head in apology at Crimson’s words.
“I’m sorry, sir. We don’t know much details since the information was urgently sent by the Western Command.”
“Contact the West right now…”
“We’ve tried to do that but we can’t contact anyone. We tried to find other ways to contact them but… the Command is not responding at all.”
Crimson gritted his teeth at the words of the communications officer.
“Is it confirmed that the monsters truly came from the Center?”
“…The communication that we received clearly stated that sir.”
Crimson held his head as he collapsed back into his chair after hearing the communications officer’s confirmation.
Earth-shattering silence enveloped the entire conference hall.
News about the Western front being breached soon began to spread all throughout the Command.
Perhaps it was because the news was too shocking that everyone focused on the West to learn about the situation in detail. Because of this, they were able to gather a lot of information. They were finally able to infer the current situation in the West by gathering the information that they had all collected.
Just when everyone was having a meeting trying to find out what to do about the situation in the West…
“New information! The… The South is also facing a crisis from the sudden appearance of mysterious creatures! The Southern Army is urgently gathering all of its troops to fight but they’re still in a difficult situation.”
“Did those mysterious creatures come from the Center?”
“Th… That’s right!”
The communications officer immediately answered Crimson’s question.
Silence immediately covered the entire conference hall. No one here was so tactless that they wouldn’t understand the reason why Crimson asked such a question.
‘Is the Center crazy?’
This thought flashed in the heads of everyone present in the conference hall.
The West and South were already at war and in a difficult situation but the Center willingly let out the monsters that they were dealing with and sent them to those regions.
“Investigate the North and the East.”
The communications officer immediately went outside at Crimson’s orders.
Even though the communications officer had already gone out to find out more information, none of the officers stood up to leave. All of them waited for the news in an uncomfortable silence.
After a long time, the officer returned to the conference hall.
“Some monsters flocked to the East but it was not as big as the amount that were sent to the South and the West.”
“The North?”
“There are no monsters in the North.”
Crimson let out a short burst of laughter at the communications officer’s words.
‘You’re aiming for the weak spots?’
This was the same idea that was running through the heads of the officers in the hall.
It seemed like the beings were aiming for the Empire’s weak spots. But strangely enough, none went to the North. The Northern Army was already reduced by more than half after the Great Northern War. That was why if they were aiming for a weak spot, then they should have clearly targeted the North.
‘Are they only aiming for places where there are wars?’
It was understandable since they aimed for places that wouldn’t be able to create a double front or places where they couldn’t care less about their rear, but their opponents were none other than the monsters. No matter how intelligent they were, they still needed to understand and know how to use the information in their hands to make the best judgement in every situation. In other words, those who were fighting a war against the Center had already reached a level where they knew how to collect and analyze the information about the humans.
There had been no problems so far since the Center had blocked them and Ghosts had been supporting each region. It also seemed reasonable to have such a conclusion since they aimed for those places shortly after the Ghosts had been recalled.
‘Was it because they’re in a hurry… or…’
This thought flashed in Crimson’s head as he waited for more news.
He needed to gather more information first before deciding if they should go send support or not. He also had to see whether they could see an end to the situations in the West and the South.
While the Command was flustered by the sudden turn of events, Iron was busy rolling his troops.
“Keoheok!”
“Sa… Save…”
“Stop exaggerating!”
Hundreds of soldiers were in a formation as they tried to pressure Iron while the knights moved to dig into the gaps in his movements.
Iron was taking the role of a large monster or a high-leveled monster that was equivalent to it. But the problem was, he was still continuing on grinding them relentlessly in this training. Even though he deliberately chose a blunt iron sword, this consideration was meaningless as long as he had his mana.
“Stop him!”
“Hang in there! If you don’t, we’ll end up rolling until midnight!”
The knights quickly jumped forward to stop Iron as they shouted at the soldiers. All of them used their mana swords to attack Iron but Iron was not someone that they could attack easily.
Bang!
Iron easily parried the dozens of mana swords that came at him as he flew towards the knight at the center. Then, Ariel, who suddenly appeared, aimed at Iron at high speed. The Galactic Meteor Swordsmanship, known for being the extremely swift swordsmanship, aimed to hit and tear Iron’s back. However, the difference between their stages was extremely vast.
Clang!
“Keup!”
Ariel was just right around the corner of the 5th Stage but Iron was already in the 6th Stage. Even if she had attacked him from behind, she had no choice but to lose with the huge difference in their level.
“Next.”
Iron, with a come hither gesture, spoke after smashing a knight order squad and a company of troops.
Then, Cardro’s aerial assault unit’s squadron appeared.
Everyone slowly began to set a siege against Iron as if their lives depended on it. They had repeated battles like this everyday and were slowly being able to develop some sense in fighting against high-leveled monsters. However, they still felt like dying.
Iron did not go easy on them whenever he hit them so they felt like they were going to break something with each hit. However, even if they did their best to avoid getting hit, they couldn’t win against him since the difference in their skills are too big.
In addition, their training time was not short. Their biggest problem was Baepsae, who was perched on Iron’s head. After their training, Baepsae would immediately use its power of healing and vitality and tend to their wounds even before the medics arrived.
In other words! Their hell-like training continued day after day.
“Commander!”
“Huh?”
Iron, who was about to start training, turned his head at the call of an officer.
There, he saw an officer from Command looking at him. He handed a towel to the sweaty officer and received the letter from him.
“Crazy shits!”
The letter that he received contained information on the reason why the Western frontlines had been breached and the sudden changes in the situation of the Empire.
The letter, which was personally written by the Commander, briefly summarized the situation like that. However, no matter how much he looked at it, the contents seemed to be unusual.
Iron closed his eyes for a moment to think about the letter that he had just read.
Everyone present looked at him nervously.
“The training ends here!”
Iron’s eyes looked brutal the moment he opened his eyes and looked at his troops.
“I’m afraid it’s time for us to move.”
Everyone turned tense when they heard Iron’s words. Some of the veterans had relaxed expressions but the rest were so nervous that cold sweat even began to pour on their backs. This was an inevitable scenario especially since his unit was mostly composed of rookies.
Seeing the soldiers act like this, Iron showed them the letter in his hands.
“The Commander gave us the order himself. We will go to the Western front.”
Everyone’s eyes widened.
“The Western front has been breached and the cause is the strange monsters that came from the Center.”
Iron gritted his teeth as he spoke.
His anger couldn’t help but flare whenever the thought of the Center doing something this crazy to the West, who was already having a hard time dealing with the birdmen, flashed through his head.
Everyone gulped dryly when they saw the brutal momentum that Iron was currently releasing.
“We will move as soon as we collect the bare minimum information. Keep in mind that the enemies that we will deal with are the enemies from the Center. Remember that and get ready.”
Iron sent off the officer from Command and began his preparations to go to the West after giving his orders.
Then…
Ariel approached Iron.
“Brigade Commander.”
“Since it’s just the two of us, you can let go of the formalities.”
Iron told her to speak comfortably after seeing Ariel trying to speak carefully around him.
“Ahem, ahem…”
Ariel cleared her throat for a moment after hearing Iron’s words.
“About… what you said earlier. Did the Western front collapse because of the monsters coming from the Center?”
“That’s right.”
Iron just nodded lightly when Ariel asked him with disbelief on her face.
“Then, does that mean there’s a problem in the Center?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He couldn’t infer anything because the information that he had was limited. However, there was something that he was sure about, the forces of the Center that had been stopping these monsters had begun to pop out one by one.
‘That Shadow did not speak nonsense.’
Iron’s expression turned serious the moment this thought flashed in his head. It wasn’t just a threat. Perhaps the situation was truly dangerous even for the Shadow.
‘But even so…’
It was impossible for them to antagonize the World Tree. It was impossible for them to bring the North into another vicious cycle of wars. For the North, it was like they had brought them an option that they would never choose.
“One thing is for certain, something’s going on.”
“Uhm…”
Ariel was speechless at Iron’s words.
“It’s only going to get harder from this point on.”
“Harder than the Great Northern War?”
“Yes. If there really is a problem with the Center then… the regions wouldn’t be the problem at all. The entire Empire will be fraught with problems. And if that happens then…”
“The danger could even go beyond the Empire and affect the entire continent.”
Necessary evil.
That was exactly what Iron saw the Center as.
No matter how rotten they were, once the Center collapsed, the entire Empire would soon follow.
“So, why aren’t they asking for support?”
Iron sighed at Ariel’s question. He had thought about this problem when the Ghost had been recalled. And he had only made one conclusion.
“It’s most likely due to the Center’s weakness.”
“Weakness?”
“Yes. There’s a possibility that the ones who attacked the West and the South this time are related to the Central Government.”
Ariel tilted her head in confusion. It seemed like she couldn’t understand Iron’s words.
However, even if she was curious, it was difficult to answer her questions. He was not yet certain and it was very likely related to Shadow. However, if it was truly related to Shadow… then, it was highly likely that those who had been disturbing the Center were their ‘victims’.
“Ha… So annoying.”
Iron frowned when he suddenly felt annoyance rising in him. He couldn’t understand why he had to go and clean up the Center’s shit every damn time.
“Are… are you alright?”
Ariel carefully asked him when she saw him gritting his teeth in annoyance. This was the first time that she had seen him this annoyed so her voice was filled with questions.
The thought ‘Should I just explain everything to her?’ passed through Iron’s head but he still kept his mouth shut. Ariel might be a tight-lipped person but there would be problems if rumors started here for no reason at all so he swallowed his anger and kept his mouth shut.
“Go. We should do what we have to do first.”
“…Yes.”