Originally, a fierce siege battle between the regular army and the rebels should have taken place over the fortress of Bebratum.
However, the letter that Siyoon had asked the elves to deliver reached Melinda earlier than expected, changing the course of the future.
As the enemy arrived, a confrontation between the past and present empires unfolded.
“Disciple.”
“Yes, Master.”
“You shall be the one to open the curtain of war.”
“Understood.”
Since Siyoon was the one who had caused this whole situation, there was no way he could escape from the battlefield.
Nodding, Siyoon drew his sword and took a deep breath.
“Hoo…!”
He kicked off the ground, shooting forward like an arrow.
Tilting his sharpened blade, he swung it in a long, crescent-shaped arc.
Swish!
Siyoon’s sword cut through the air.
The sword energy that followed its trajectory slashed through space itself.
A moment later, from the soldiers standing in the front lines, a chorus of death cries erupted, along with fountains of blood.
“Your skills haven’t rusted, I see. Hounds! The hunt you’ve long awaited has begun! Charge forward!”
“Uwoooooh!”
“The enemy is upon us! Maintain formation, all troops!”
“Tear apart and crush anyone who stands in our way!”
“Archers, suppress their advance! Mages, cover the front line!”
As the full-scale battle began, both sides shouted commands relentlessly.
Deonar’s orders were more detailed and his voice louder, but it hardly mattered.
Melinda and the Hound Division had fought alongside each other on the battlefield for decades.
Even without explicit commands, they displayed perfect coordination.
“What are you waiting for?! Target that giant first!”
“Hahaha! Shall I have a proper brawl with these youngsters?”
Despite his age, Darkin still boasted a massive physique.
Surprisingly, he wore no armor and had stripped his upper body bare.
His battle-hardened muscles were covered in countless scars, and the veins between them throbbed ominously.
Seeing their soldiers cower under Darkin’s overwhelming presence, Deonar quickly ordered them to take him down first.
With his large body making him an easy target, the archers nocked their arrows and took aim.
The moment they released their strings, Darkin swiftly grabbed two soldiers standing nearby.
Lifting them up with both arms, he used them as human shields to absorb the incoming arrows.
Then, he hurled the arrow-riddled corpses at the enemy ranks with tremendous force.
“Take good care of your fallen comrades!”
Boom!
The impact was far stronger than expected.
Even though the enemy tried to block the incoming bodies with their shields, their formation was immediately disrupted.
“Ha! Young men these days are weaker than an old man like me! And you call yourselves soldiers of the Empire?!”
Despite his brutish appearance, Darkin was an incredibly cunning hound.
He did not simply rely on brute strength—he devised and executed the most efficient ways to crush his enemies.
With his exceptional combat instincts, he had managed to survive countless wars despite his massive size.
“Now, let’s see… it should be about time…”
While Darkin was busy breaking the enemy formation, countless magic circles flickered to life in the enemy’s rear ranks.
The enemy mages, growing increasingly desperate at the sight of their comrades being slaughtered, were preparing a massive spell to exterminate the Hounds.
“In battle, maintaining composure is the most important thing when casting magic. Yet every single one of you is failing.”
“W-Who goes there?!”
“An assassin has infiltrated!”
“If you mistake this old man for an assassin, then your eyes must be as useless as knots in wood.”
A mysterious old man suddenly appeared in the middle of the enemy’s mage corps.
The overwhelming presence he exuded sent the mages stumbling backward in fear.
At the same time, their guards quickly surrounded him.
Yet, the old man remained unperturbed, casually stroking his beard.
“Let me give you some advice. In war, magic must be activated within three seconds, or it is meaningless. Like so.”
With a mere flick of his fingers, an intricate magic circle formed in an instant,
and bolts of lightning struck down all the surrounding guards.
Electricity coursed through their nervous systems, paralyzing the soldiers who had been poised to strike.
Gasps of shock and terrified screams erupted from every corner.
“A-Are you a mage like us?”
“This is impossible! No mage would dare infiltrate the enemy’s ranks alone!”
“But… he’s far more skilled than us…”
“Tsk, tsk! To think that you believe mages should only sit in the rear and bombard from a distance! Your minds have already hardened like stone.”
This old man had always worked alone, eliminating the most dangerous threats like an assassin.
Though his specialty was magic, his actions more closely resembled those of a strategist—or an executioner.
Nevertheless, he always succeeded in infiltrating and wreaking havoc within enemy lines.
In some ways, he was an even greater menace than Darkin—a true hound of war.
“Allow me to show you what true magic is. If you manage to survive, consider it a valuable experience.”
As he waved his arm, a massive magic circle emerged above the ground.
The soldiers barely had time to be shocked at the sight of a large-scale ritual spell being conjured in an instant.
The real shock came afterward.
The symbols within the enormous magic circle materialized and interfered with the other magic formations nearby.
The magic circles that had been targeting the rampaging Hounds suddenly shifted direction.
Instead of striking their intended targets, the elemental spells rained down upon the unsuspecting archer units, who had been blindly loosing arrows without looking back.
“Guaaah!”
“What the—?! Why are the mages attacking us?!”
“S-Save me!”
“Is this treason?!”
Having no way to comprehend what was happening in the rear, the soldiers naturally assumed that the mages had turned against them.
The mages tried to explain, but no words came out of their throats.
Before departing, the old man had cast a large-scale silence spell, ensuring that they could not communicate.
With all means of explanation stripped away, confusion turned into chaos, and the archers aimed their arrows at the mages in retaliation.
“The rear line! Calm down and assess the situation! This is all the enemy’s schem—!”
“Shouldn’t you be more concerned about yourself?”
“Ugh…!”
Clang!
Siyoon’s sword clashed against Deonar’s, sending sparks flying.
Siyoon shifted his weight onto his right foot and swung his blade with full force, keeping Deonar too occupied to give any further orders.
“You traitor!”
“I’ve always wondered… If I hadn’t lost my arm that day, would I have been the one standing as the knight commander?”
“You could never fill this position, not in a thousand lifetimes!”
“Maybe. But I could have at least been known as the knight who defeated the commander.”
“You arrogant wretch!”
Deonar deflected Siyoon’s blade and closed the distance, gripping his sword in a reverse grip to thrust the tip toward Siyoon’s chest.
Just before the blade could pierce his skin, Siyoon caught it with his prosthetic arm and, at the same time, slashed deep into Deonar’s thigh.
“Grrr…!”
“Impressive, right? My wife had this custom-made for me. Maybe you should ask yours for one too?”
“Shut that mouth!”
Deonar’s sword came slicing toward Siyoon’s forehead.
Siyoon tilted his head just in time, dodging the strike.
He then ducked under an incoming horizontal slash, smoothly stepping forward as if gliding.
When Deonar tried to drive his sword into Siyoon’s torso again, Siyoon deflected it with his prosthetic and swiftly placed his blade under Deonar’s armpit.
“This should force you into retirement, don’t you think?”
“Gaaaaah—!”
Slaaash!
Raising his sword high, Siyoon severed Deonar’s remaining arm in a single, clean stroke.
A fountain of blood erupted as a thunderous scream tore through Deonar’s throat.
Siyoon then clenched his prosthetic fist and delivered a brutal punch to Deonar’s solar plexus.
Though Deonar was clad in mithril armor, Siyoon’s prosthetic was made of the same material.
The impact caved in his breastplate, sending the full force of the blow directly into his body.
Now reduced to a pathetic, armless figure, Deonar collapsed onto the dirt, rolling across the ground in agony.
At the end of his desperate flight, his path was blocked by an old nemesis.
“What are you staring at like that?”
“OO…!”
“You’re a knight, aren’t you? Your enemy is standing right in front of you. You should at least put up a fight.”
Ludis frantically looked around, realizing there was no one left to protect him.
The shield bearers were being crushed by Darkin, who was rampaging through the front lines.
The mages and archers—supposedly allies—were locked in chaotic infighting, attacking each other as if they were enemies.
No matter where he looked, all he could see were fallen comrades and hear nothing but screams.
His only hope lay buried under a layer of dust and blood.
“Or should I come to you instead?”
“A-Aaahhh!!”
Like a madman, Ludis screamed and turned to flee.
But he hadn’t even run far before his foot caught on a fallen soldier’s corpse, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Siyoon let out a quiet chuckle at the pathetic sight and began to approach leisurely.
The sound of his footsteps rang clearly in Ludis’s ears, sending him into a full-blown panic.
Scrambling to his feet, Ludis bolted again, running as fast as his legs would carry him.
However, he didn’t even make it a hundred meters before an errant arrow pierced his thigh.
“Guh…! I don’t want to die! I want to live!”
Ludis was too overwhelmed to even think about pulling out the arrow.
He limped forward, dragging his wounded leg, desperate to escape.
Watching the pitiful display, Siyoon stopped in his tracks and picked up a discarded spear from the ground.
Bringing his arm back, he raised the spear high toward the sky before launching it forward.
The spear arced gracefully through the air before plunging down like a comet, piercing straight through Ludis’s calf.
“Aaaaaaahhh!!”
The spearhead dug deep into the earth, pinning Ludis in place.
Unless he was willing to sever his own leg, there was no longer any way for him to escape.
Trembling, Ludis turned his head back in terror.
Siyoon, Melinda, and the Iron-Blooded Hounds stood behind him.
They wore sinister smiles, like predators toying with their prey.
The hallucination of their grinning faces made his breath come out in ragged gasps.
Eventually, hyperventilation took over, and Ludis collapsed to his knees.
‘It’s all over.’
The outcome of the war had been decided.
Deonar had started the battle already missing an arm, but even if he had been at full strength, the power gap between the two sides was overwhelming.
The kingdom’s tactics—meticulously crafted for this war—had failed completely.
Instead, the battle had been reduced to a cruel game, the Hounds effortlessly tearing them apart with their unshackled, autonomous style of combat.
‘I should have never fought these monsters in the first place. I was a fool.’
Realization always came too late.
Lowering his head, Ludis looked down at the empire’s battered flag.
Torn, stained with blood, and trampled into the dirt, the symbol of the empire lay in ruins.
Yet, despite being marred by blood and soil, the new flag that flew above it remained cleaner than the one below.
‘So this… is the future of the Empire…’
The old empire had fallen.
And in its place, a new empire was about to rise.
Accepting his defeat, Ludis gazed at the flag one last time.