And in the next instant—
Crack!
The magic circle shattered.
The five mages' vision suddenly went black. Their legs could no longer support their bodies, and they were all pressed flat onto the ground. A mouthful of blood was forced out from between their lips. If nothing unexpected happened… this should be blood from deep within their lungs.
———
On the chaotic battlefield struck by the meteor, the distant horde of magical beasts had already plunged down from above the canyon, instantly filling the already chaotic army with shouts of battle and heart-rending screams.
Along with it came the scalp-numbing roars of the beasts.
Even from several hundred, even over a thousand meters away, Ludwig, with his excellent eyesight, could still clearly see by the distant firelight those massive magical beasts. For some reason, they had suddenly rushed out from the forest and were attacking their own soldiers, treating them like toys, constantly tossing them into the air, tearing them apart, playing with them.
At the kingdom's pass, countless cavalry were charging this way with earth-shaking hoofbeats.
Their own vanguard had already lost the will to fight after suffering heavy damage, collapsing in defeat.
The two legions that had entered this canyon from behind had already fallen into chaos after being struck by the meteor. Now they were under attack by a swarm of magical beasts, and on the front side, enemy cavalry were advancing.
If this continued, those two legions would likely face a grim fate. After all, the opposing army would never miss such an opportunity.
If Ludwig himself failed to escape, the rear defensive forces would lose their pillar, the pass behind them would fall, and his family's territory would be swallowed up.
These mages were also the hope of the family. Including the two who had already fallen, seven elite mages, along with those knights who had been swatted away earlier, their fate unknown. If they were all wiped out like this, then even if his son managed to escape later, the family would still face total ruin.
In the end, chasing or fleeing from a mage in this kind of open terrain… didn't seem to have much meaning.
Thinking this, Ludwig ignored the knights' attempts to stop him. He suddenly turned back, glaring at the boy who was looking sideways at the fallen mages. He gave up escaping and directly threw his glove over.
"You must be a noble too, I challenge you to a duel!"
"A duel? Now? At a time like this?", Ash glanced at the glove that hadn't even landed in front of him and couldn't help but let out a laugh, "Are you joking? In the end, even if I give you a chance, can you even grasp it?"
"I've roughly figured out how your magic works. Every time the range of your gravity enhancement expands, it happens as you move and step onto the ground. And every step you take, the speed and distance don't change. That means, although your magic is strong, if you want to expand its range, you have to maintain the same movement each time. So I already have—"
"Heh! Wait a second," What he said made Ash shake his head, amused.
Ludwig immediately frowned, "What are you laughing at? What's so funny? Are you bluffing because your weakness was exposed?"
"No, I know you're testing me, trying to see from my reaction whether you're right. But I just don't get it. Why does powerful magic have to come with all sorts of strange restrictions?"
"Then every time you walk—"
"Are your steps always exactly the same?", Ash spread his hands helplessly, "If you're just walking normally, you wouldn't suddenly take one big step and one small step, or suddenly speed up or slow down for no reason."
"If you're asking why every time I step on the ground it gets a little stronger… it's just that ending things all at once would be too boring. After all… all the skills you've trained so hard, your martial arts, your archery, and your subordinates risking their lives to resist, all of it, in front of me, means nothing. Honestly, I don't really have the heart to tell you that with cold facts."
"Bluffing—guh?"
Ludwig had wanted to release the arrow he had been preparing. Clearly Ash hadn't moved an inch, and the distance between them was over thirty meters, yet the gravity field suddenly expanded and intensified. His legs gave out and he dropped to his knees. His head didn't slam into the ground only because he was desperately holding himself up with both hands.
The two knights guarding him were also instantly crushed to the ground.
The mages not far from Ash, their magic already overdrawn, could no longer withstand the crushing force at such close range. They burst apart all at once, turning into a puddle of flesh.
At that moment, Ludwig suddenly felt a chilling cold, like being thrown without warning into an ice cellar, or into a polar glacier. An overwhelming despair seeped into his bones.
Because now he realized, the boy hadn't been lying. What he was facing wasn't some genius mage at all, but a monster humanity could never contend with.
And the one who caused all of this, Ash, merely glanced coldly at the pulp on the ground and said casually, "I told you, ending the fight all at once would be too boring. And I'm not some demon either. I already promised the kids at home I'd try to get back early. So as long as you surrender, I can still give you—"
"Never… I will never betray His Majesty the Emperor!"
As if trying to throw off the suffocating despair clinging to him, Ludwig roared with all his strength, carrying the pride of a knight. Taking advantage of the moment Ash had lifted the gravity to talk, he immediately threw down the trump card meant to save his life.
With a loud bang!, the glass bottle containing a miniature golem shattered. The tiny golem instantly expanded, turning into a giant over three stories tall, wearing a horned helmet and wielding a massive sword.
"That's Lernen's golem, right? Didn't expect it to be used as a trump card. And it's even a completed combat model… honestly, pretty boring."
Looking at the giant golem, Ash recognized it at a glance, but only felt bored. He had seen this kind of thing before. There was no surprise at all.
He roughly understood it too, Lernen must have sold it just to get more funding for golem research. Making golems was extremely expensive, though they also sold for a high price.
In terms of effectiveness, Lernen's golems were worth the cost, especially the combat types. They were far stronger than the escape-type golem from the second exam.
But their biggest flaw was that once their magic ran out, they were finished. They couldn't last long. And using one against him was… not quite enough.
"Kill him!"
After using his trump card, Ludwig gave the order while drawing his bow to full once more, preparing for a final desperate strike.
Upon receiving the command, the giant golem had no doubts about its master. Without hesitation, it swung its two-story-tall greatsword, the air splitting with a terrifying roar, straight toward Ash's head.
At the same time, Ludwig moved so fast his arms left afterimages, firing arrows like a machine gun, sending them flying from every angle.
"So that's your answer. What a shame."
The howling greatsword could easily cleave through a city wall, yet Ash simply caught it with one hand.
Boom!
The paved stone road, built for trade, couldn't withstand the force. Under the immense pressure, a terrifying shockwave spread outward from where Ash stood.
The ground surged like a tidal wave, dirt and stone flying, dust filling the air.
Yet he himself didn't have a single scratch. Holding the blade, he slowly raised his hand. The giant, unable to adapt to the sudden disappearance of gravity, still held the hilt, but its feet lifted off the ground.
The mismatch in size made it look like a baby casually lifting a two-meter-tall man, making Ludwig feel like his mind was breaking.
But Ash simply swung the blade. The golem's body was flung around, blocking all the incoming arrows.
It couldn't hold onto the hilt anymore and was thrown away in the next instant, tracing a perfect arc through the air before crashing dozens of meters away, flattening people who were still trying to flee.
Though the rolling giant wasn't critically damaged, it slammed its hands against the ground to get up. But without even looking, Ash tossed the greatsword in his hand.
As the giant raised its head, the spinning blade flew out and pierced straight through the center of its chest, precisely destroying its core. With a dull boom, it collapsed to the ground, unable to move again.
The scene filled Ludwig's face with shock and disbelief, as if he had just witnessed something impossible. His hands stopped moving without him even realizing it.
Even if he didn't think the golem could defeat the opponent, it should have at least delayed him a little, right?
But now… how was this any different from being treated like a toy and tossed aside?
He couldn't believe his eyes. But whether he believed it or not, reality lay before him in blood, just as Ash had said, every form of resistance was meaningless.
The opponent's calm, overwhelming composure made Ludwig unable to suppress his emotions. If this continued, he would lose his territory and his trusted retainers. Even if he escaped, it would be hard to recover.
But if he died here, the morale of the defending army would collapse…
"Forget it. There's no point playing with you anymore. Since you insist on resisting to this extent, I can't be bothered to keep talking. At worst, I'll just have to put in a little effort to break the barrier."
Before Ludwig could finish thinking, Ash had already decided to give up persuading him. He had completely lost interest and didn't want to waste any more time. He was even slightly annoyed at Ludwig's stubbornness. He simply reached out and clenched his hand in the air.
A strange gravity instantly centered on the man's waist. His body twisted out of control, limbs compressed and broken.
"Gah—GAAAH!", Ludwig let out a scream of agony. Regret filled his heart, yet he couldn't even beg for mercy.
In that scream, his entire body was crushed into a ball of mangled flesh in an instant, unrecognizable.
No, at least his head was protected by his helmet. Even though his limbs and waist were broken, his face remained mostly intact.
Of course, that was because Ash needed it and deliberately left it that way.
As one of the three great knights of the northern nations, Ludwig died almost no differently from his grandfather when he encountered the Golden Land's Macht, killed effortlessly without even forming resistance.
Tragically, even though the commander had died, none of the soldiers realized it.
The kingdom's cavalry had already charged in from behind. When Ash casually kicked the ball of flesh, it flew straight onto the banner of a flag-bearing rider.
The rider was startled at first, but after recognizing who the mutilated corpse was, he realized it was the enemy's commanding officer and immediately raised the flag, charging forward.
In reality, the imperial soldiers only felt the trembling of the ground under the iron hooves of the cavalry. A quick glance back filled them with terror. No one dared look further.
Faced with death, the already disorganized army threw away armor and weapons, fled in panic, cursing that they hadn't been born with two extra legs. Some even shoved their comrades aside, scrambling to escape.
But even shedding armor and pushing each other couldn't free them from death's pursuit.
The routed soldiers fled, while the cavalry chased like starving wolves. Their blades flashed coldly under the moonlight, cutting past fleeing soldiers, sending sprays of blood into the air.
Occasionally, some tried to resist desperately, but against the unstoppable flood of cavalry, that resistance was like tiny ripples in a vast river, weak and insignificant.
Shouts, cries, and the occasional clash of weapons intertwined into a grim symphony of slaughter.
Mages unleashed all kinds of killing storms, efficiently massacring groups of fleeing soldiers farther away, breaking what little resistance remained among the magical beast army under Linie's control.
Ash also unleashed his magic without restraint, turning the battlefield further into a hellscape. After all, in a place like this, it's kill or be killed. Once you step onto the battlefield, you have to be prepared to die.
And so, as time passed, the already decided outcome was completely settled before dawn arrived.
Two full-strength regular legions, each over thirty thousand strong, along with auxiliary forces totaling over seventy thousand people, were all left here, either surrendering as prisoners or being killed.
The faint light of dawn at the horizon seemed powerless to pierce the heavy gloom hanging over the land.
The battlefield lay in deathly silence, mixed with lingering smoke and the stench of blood. Tattered battle flags swayed weakly in the breeze, stained with mud and blood.
The former glory and majesty had been reduced to ruin and desolation.
Severed limbs, broken arrows, and shattered blades littered the ground, reflecting a faint, cold light. Once weapons in the hands of warriors, they now stood as witnesses to this catastrophe.
Corpses lay everywhere, some piled together, some scattered alone across the scorched earth. Their faces were twisted, their eyes still holding the fear and despair from before death.
Blood soaked the land, forming winding streams that slowly flowed away, carrying with them the warmth of life.
———
In the vast, blood-soaked plain at the center of the canyon, though the glow of dawn tried to cover it, the thick smell of blood still spread in the strong wind.
The countless corpses painted a picture of hell, yet they no longer moved Ash.
The prisoners had no hope of survival either. Numbly, they carried their comrades' bodies, piecing together severed limbs on the spot… they couldn't even bury them.
Because even if human mages couldn't reach Aura's level of control, many could still perform simple necromancy. Of course, Aura's undead army wasn't exactly necromancy, though it looked similar at times.
Moreover, controlling the dead was opposed by the church, seen as disrespect toward the deceased.
But in real war… who cares about humanity? Especially these days, massacring cities was nothing unusual.
Strong soldiers could be used one more time. Even if condemned, few nations would waste such resources if they had many necromancers. Unless they simply didn't have any.
Even though he had long grown numb to war and death, Ash still looked at the mountain of corpses and let out a quiet sigh.
"I clearly long for peace. So why is it that ever since I was born, I've just been killing nonstop?"
Even as he said that, the soldiers passing by looked at him in disbelief.
Thinking of last night's slaughter, it was hard for anyone to imagine a pacifist doing such things.
But he wasn't lying. He truly believed it. It was just… reality didn't allow it.
He didn't care what others thought. Looking at Ludwig, whose body had been found and thrown nearby, he couldn't help shaking his head.
"I really wanted to give you a chance. What a shame, Ludwig."
"It can't be helped. This world is like this, the strong devour the weak. If you're weak, if you're soft, you'd have died long ago. If you want to live, killing is the only way," Solitar, spotless from head to toe, appeared beside him at that moment, as if becoming someone who understood him. With an apologetic smile, she lowered her head slightly.
"But I'm really sorry~ some people still managed to escape back inside the barrier. Looks like I couldn't completely block the entire army by myself."
"You definitely weren't serious."
"I was serious, more or less?"
"The moment you say 'more or less,' it doesn't count as serious anymore. But whatever… what does it matter if they escaped? They'll find out about what happened here anyway."
At least the main task was complete. The remaining small matters weren't worth worrying about.
Just as he was about to head toward the forward camp, the familiar gothic girl, Linie, came up to him and tugged at his sleeve.
"Lord Ash, Lord Ash."
"What is it?"
"My face… it's dirty. Can I use Lord Ash to wipe it?", Linie tilted her expressionless face up, covered in blood.
The strange request made Ash's expression crack a little.
"Didn't you just wipe it yourself before? No, wait!, what do you mean 'use me to wipe'? That sounds way too weird. Just find something and wipe it yourself!"
"That's different. That's only when I'm angry that I use your sleeve. Actually, I respect you very much."
"Don't you always use my clothes to wipe your mouth and hands when you eat?"
"I said, that's different," Linie corrected him with unusual seriousness.
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