Chapter 244: 129. Ronia of the Northern Region (Part Two)
Translated by: A Passing Wanderer
Edited by: RED
**
Zombie Ogres were renowned for their physical strength.
One of them tottered towards the fortress gate, rolled up its fist, and punched at the gate itself.
BANG-!
The gate shook around noisily.
“Prop it!”
Support beams had already been placed on the gate, but the whole thing would eventually break if the Ogre continued to pound on the gate from the outside.
Convicts rushed towards the gate and propped it with everything they had in order to ensure that the gate wouldn’t break down.
In the meantime, the top commander of Ronia, feudal lord Jenald was climbing up to the top of the outer wall.
Convicts saluted him while slamming their weapons on the floor. While standing in a line, they glanced at the zombies approaching the outer walls and whispered among themselves.
“Just how many have shown up now?”
“...Can’t be sure because of how dark it is, but it must be at least around five thousand.”
The convicts maintaining their formation glanced at their colleagues.
“Holy sh*t, that’s more than last year, isn’t it?! We’re still in the middle of November, yet if it’s this bad already, then that means...”
“Yup, we’ll be in dire straits come December twenty-fifth.”
The convicts all groaned under their breaths. However, although they felt tense, none of them were feeling scared at the moment.
They had become quite seasoned already by now. They knew full well that they could fight back if their opponents were merely slow-moving zombies.
Most importantly...
CRUNCH-!
“The gate’s been breached!”
The convicts turned their heads and stared at the fortress gate. A zombified Ogre was trying to force its way inside while flailing its arms about.
The convicts then shifted their attention over to their feudal lord, Jenald Ripang.
He unsheathed his sword and declared loudly. “I now permit the usage of your divinity.”
...They could fight back, since all of them were now capable of utilising divinity!
“Everyone, gather up!”
The convicts quickly gathered into a formation in a spot some distance away from the gate.
“Offer your prayers!”
The Ogre and other zombies began flooding out of the breached gate like some kind of a swarm of disgusting insects.
Feudal lord Jenald Ripang and the convicts stood tall on this spot a bit away from the undead. They all deeply sucked in their breaths before exhaling out.
They temporarily put their armaments down on the ground and went down on their knees. While still in their unguarded state, they brought their hands together and began praying.
“Oh, the goddess of mercy and love, Gaia.”
The convicts murmured softly.
Zombies were still approaching them even then.
Putting your weapons down despite knowing that zombies were right in front of you was akin to committing mass suicide.
All the praying convicts knew this, so a flood of cold sweat inevitably broke out on their skin.
‘Concentrate, concentrate!’
‘It’ll be fine. Those things are slow moving, anyway.’
They inwardly muttered that to themselves and prayed fervently with their mouths outwardly.
“Please grant your protection to us, the ones who have received the grace of Lord Saint.”
They began sensing the power of divinity from somewhere deep in their bodies. All of their fatigue vanished, and their tense, tight muscles relaxed.
At the same time, strength began overflowing throughout their bodies.
Smiles floated up on the faces of the convicts after sensing the sacred power welling up inside them.
Feudal lord Jenald glanced at the others before locking his glare on the zombified Ogre that had come fairly close.
The living began picking up their weapons once more.
“Under the grace of Lord Saint, his highness Allen Olfolse...”
Feudal lord Jenald gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands and raised the blade up high.
To match him, the convicts also gripped their weapons tighter.
“...We shall now subjugate these undead-!”
The convicts all raised their heads in unison and roared out into the night sky.
“Oooohhhhhh!”
‘We gotta psych ourselves up!’
‘Lord Saint is with us.’
‘Even if we die, Saint Allen Olfolse’s blessing will accompany us!’
Divinity exploded forth from them.
Small clumps of divinity coming off of their bodies had gathered in one location to become so much larger in scale, and burst forth towards the incoming undead.
Feudal lord Jenald swung his sword at the faltering zombie and instantly crushed the undead’s head.
The zombie Ogre reached out towards him, but he agilely dodged that and darted in between the undead’s large legs.
His sword, now brimming full with concentrated Mana, danced in the air to slice apart the zombie Ogre’s leg flesh. The large undead tottered unsteadily, only for countless arrows to fly in and turn the creature into a hedgehog in an instant.
The zombie Ogre lost its balance and crashed down to its knees. The spearmen thrust their spears forward, impaled the creature, and finally brought it down.
“Climb on top of it!”
The convicts jumped on the downed creature and began hacking away.
“There’s another Ogre!”
The convicts shifted their gazes. An even bigger Ogre was lowering itself to enter through the much-smaller opening of the gateway. It was carrying a huge club in its hand.
“Son of a...!”
Feudal lord Jenald let out an expletive.
The Ogre took a massive swing with its club, sending a group of shield-wielding soldiers up in the air.
Not even Jenald would dare to confront such a monster!
“Get out of the way!”
He quickly shifted his gaze at that loud yell. A Paladin kitted out in radiant pure-white armour was rushing over here while riding on a horse.
“It’s Marquis Charlotte!”
She unsheathed her divine sword and injected divinity into the blade, unleashing a flood of powerful aura from it.
The Ogre swung its club in the direction of Charlotte rushing headlong towards it.
“Dodge that-!”
Feudal lord Jenald urgently cried out, but Charlotte didn’t bother to dodge. She instead directed her horse to leap up and dig even further into the Ogre’s defences.
Slice-!
The Ogre’s club and its large body were split into halves and collapsed on the ground.
Charlotte dismounted from her horse, and after firmly planting her feet covered in boots of forged steel, she stood alone to block the exit of the breached fortress gate.
Her glare shifted to the front.
A horde of zombies around five thousand strong was flooding through the open gap in the gateway. Even if it was Charlotte, she’d find it difficult to stop them for an extended period of time.
Some amount of sacrifice would be unavoidable at this rate.
But, just as she grasped the divine sword tightly while making a tense face...
“Oh, dear Gaia...”
She flinched at that voice.
A voice she was so intimately familiar with was reverberating throughout the night sky.
“Grant us...”
The convicts quickly raised their heads to look up, before pointing at the spot in the sky.
“What the heck is that?!”
“...A Bone Wyvern?”
“Oh my goddess, Wyverns exist for real?”
A ‘sky dragon’, only a small speck right now, could be seen flying up there. But then, something rapidly descended from its back.
Charlotte’s eyes progressively grew larger and larger. Before long, an individual kitted out in silver-white armour landed right in front of her.
His heavy-looking set of armour rocked the ground upon his flashy landing.
He breathed into his lengthy musket, then muttered out softly as if he was talking to himself. “...Your grace and the necessary strength to purify all these undead.”
He took aim at the undead horde.
Charlotte’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as she stared at the back of this individual.
“Your hi...!”
He pulled the trigger.
A bright flame exploded from the muzzle of the musket.
The projectile made out of divinity instantly pierced through the undead and extinguished them from existence. The aura of divinity spread around like ripples to the surroundings, scorching the flesh of the undead horde.
Charlotte subconsciously reached out to him, only to jolt herself awake and hurriedly retract her extended hand.
She took several quick breaths to barely calm her heart pounding away in excitement and anticipation.
She was a Paladin serving the Imperial Prince, a member of House Heraiz meant to serve the Imperial Family. Personal feelings must not be allowed to take control of her.
She engraved those words multiple times in her mind.
Charlotte went down on one knee and lowered her head. “Charlotte Heraiz of the Order of the White Cross...”
She assumed the correct etiquette to greet the one she so longed to see.
“...Pays her respect to your highness the Imperial Prince.”
“Indeed. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?”
historical
The familiar voice managed to shake up her heart once more. She raised her trembling eyes and stared at him.
“How have you been?”
The man kitted out in the set of impressive armour took his helm off. He then turned around to show her the face she missed so much.
“...Charlotte?”
Allen looked back at her and smiled brightly.
< 129. Ronia of the northern region (Part One and Two) > Fin.