Roooaaar!
The twin-headed cyclops let out a monstrous roar as it charged toward the Grand Duke of the North.
Without its war mace, the beast seemed intent on crushing her under its massive body.
At that moment, the Grand Duke of the North, who had been watching, raised her greatsword.
She lifted the massive greatsword, nearly as large as her own body, with one hand and dashed forward. With a running leap, she hurled it straight at the cyclops.
Kuuuuaaaang!
The greatsword tore through the air with a deafening sound as it flew toward the cyclops.
Caught off guard by the unexpected attack, the cyclops tried to halt its charge, but it was too late.
The greatsword thrown by the Grand Duke of the North pierced the cyclops's forearm and drove straight through its chest.
Thud!
With a massive hole torn through its chest, the twin-headed cyclops collapsed to its knees.
The Grand Duke of the North walked over leisurely and placed her foot on one of its heads.
Crunch, crunch—
As she slowly pressed down, the head shattered like it had been struck by a giant's hammer falling from the sky.
Kwaaack—
She then crushed the remaining head as well.
Stretching her hand toward the sky, the greatsword that had vanished into the air flew back from somewhere and settled into her grasp.
The Grand Duke of the North turned her head toward the other cyclopes, who were stumbling back while clutching their greatswords.
She leaped into the air, greatsword in hand.
Cleave in a Single Stroke.
It was the most fitting description of the Grand Duke of the North's swordsmanship.
With every swing of her greatsword, the cyclopes were bisected at the waist.
The ground was littered with the halves of cleaved cyclops corpses.
The horde of dozens of cyclopes that had swarmed in had all been reduced to corpses, scattered around the barrier in no time.
Step, step.
Having dispatched the monsters, the Grand Duke of the North stepped across the snowfield stained with beast blood and approached where Sven and Nikolai were.
She pulled something from her bosom and tossed it to Sven.
It was a potion effective against external injuries.
Sven quickly administered it to Nikolai and applied wound treatment salve to his shoulder and leg.
Fortunately, it didn't seem life-threatening.
At that moment, the barrier gate opened, and rangers and knights rushed out pulling carts.
"Load him up quickly and get him inside! Take him to the healers!"
The rangers swiftly splinted Nikolai's shoulder and leg to prevent movement, secured them, and pulled the cart back inside.
The other Northern knights, including Sven, bowed their heads toward the Grand Duke of the North.
Seeing this, the Grand Duke of the North removed her wolf-shaped helmet.
A delicate girl's face appeared, one that made it hard to believe she had just mercilessly annihilated the monsters.
Her braided golden hair fell naturally.
Her eyes shone like embedded sapphires as she gazed at the knights of Himonas.
Sven looked at the Grand Duke of the North and said.
"My lord, these damned monsters keep coming endlessly."
Though Sven restrained his harsh language as much as possible, he couldn't hide the anger in his voice.
Alicia turned her head and looked toward the Ice Mountain Range.
With her gaze fixed on the mountains, she said.
"Assemble an expedition force."
Her voice was husky, utterly unlike her slender appearance.
She drew the Fang-Wolf Sword "Fenrir," the symbol of the Grand Duke of the North, and continued with a fierce aura.
"Go and sweep away those dog bastard monster pups."
*
Thud thud thud thud!
Zeke galloped toward the Northern Continent, accompanied by key knights from the Black Sword Knight Order, as well as the Knights of the Giant.
The Black Spirit Unit—composed of Liam, Felix, Diego, Aster, and Rick as Zeke's personal guard within the Black Sword Knight Order—followed right behind him.
These individuals, who had gained experience in various battlefields alongside Zeke and trained in Shattan's aura training method under Duke, had astonishingly all reached the level of blue knight.
Zeke had formed them into a personal guard unit to give them even more real combat experience.
Following the Black Spirit Unit was the Barbarian Unit, their massive builds mounted on fierce monoceros, charging forward with wild abandon.
On the opposite flank, knights from the Thurn Family, whose physiques rivaled even the barbarians, followed Zeke while driving their rugged tumas.
At that moment, someone rode up beside Zeke.
"Zeke Draker, the information about monsters appearing in the Ice Mountain Range and invading—is that accurate?"
It was none other than Reina Draker.
Reina, whose hair had grown longer than before, had shed all traces of her youthful innocence and grown into a dignified knight of the Draker Family.
Zeke nodded as he looked at her.
"You've become quite suspicious in the time we haven't seen each other, Reina Draker." Reina frowned and said.
"It's not suspicion—it's about being precise!"
In his previous life, Reina had been one of the five-star knights renowned in the continental war, known by the epithet Knight of Flash.
Given her immense potential, she had shown remarkable growth in the time he hadn't seen her.
She had surpassed the purple knight level and reached blue knight.
The reason Reina had advanced faster than in her previous life was none other than her relentless efforts to keep up with Zeke.
However, Zeke had grown far faster than her.
Upon hearing that Zeke had become a black knight and the family's guardian knight, Reina had come to hold not rivalry, but admiration and awe toward him.
So when Zeke requested reinforcements from the Thurn Family and specifically named her, she had gladly agreed to go.
It had been several years since the Trial of Strife, and with Zeke personally selecting her, Reina had set out with her knights, her heart fluttering inwardly despite not showing it.
But Zeke's reaction upon their reunion was nothing like what she had expected.
His attitude toward her was the same as before—casual and unreserved—which left Reina feeling a twinge of disappointment.
Perhaps because of that, her words toward Zeke came out sharper than intended.
As Reina rode on, hiding her complex emotions, Zeke's mind was equally preoccupied.
The reason the Thurn Family had joined this Northern Continent expedition was none other than instructions from Arthur Draker.
And one of those instructions concerned a marriage proposal with Reina Draker.
"A marriage with me and Reina."
Though Zeke and Reina were cousins, Reina's mother had been adopted from a collateral line into the direct line, making their actual blood relation quite distant.
In fact, the Draker Family, which valued pureblood above all, had once encouraged marriages between close relatives in the past.
Since cousin marriages had been permitted in the Central Continent anyway, even a close relation wasn't much of a scandal.
Moreover, with both Zeke and Reina being pureblood awakeners of the Draker Family, the family had actively pushed for their union.
Arthur had conveyed the family's opinion and arranged this meeting with Reina.
But Zeke himself had little interest in marriage.
Beyond marriage, he had mountains of issues to handle.
However, he couldn't completely ignore Arthur Draker's words, so Zeke devised a clever plan.
He would request the reinforcements needed for this Northern expedition from the Thurn Family.
Reina, the Knight of Flash, was a talent Zeke himself coveted.
It would allow him to assess her skills, respond to Arthur's message, and secure the necessary troops all at once.
In requesting reinforcements from Thurn, he actively leveraged his own reputation.
Under the banner of blocking the monster horde invading the Northern Continent, he asked them to join the expedition of salvation.
Zeke's fame, having thwarted the Principality of Vadoka and then the Dorta Republic's invasion, soared to the heavens. There was no way the Thurn Family would refuse the hand extended by the Knight of Salvation heading out to battle the monster legion.
Rex Thurn, moved by Zeke's passionate zeal for battle, not only sent his knights but also provided necessary supplies.
Zeke proceeded north with the Black Spirit Unit, the Barbarian Unit, and the Thurn reinforcements, while Bacchus and Carmilla headed north covertly to rendezvous separately.
'Things are going even better than I expected. The Black Sword Knight Order is in a position where it's hard to move them easily right now.'
The Black Sword Knight Order was currently stationed in Heli, a Midland territory once managed by Abel, after resolving the Principality of Vadoka affair.
Heli was one of the key hub cities connecting Midland and the Rom Empire.
Zeke had ordered Boris and the intelligence unit to eliminate the remnants of the Siemens scattered in Heli, and at the same time, he had deliberately stationed the Black Sword Knight Order there to prevent Rom's influence from reaching it.
Duke, Andrei, and Aul, who had newly joined the Black Sword Knight Order, were reorganizing the unit's structure and strengthening its forces.
Moreover, after the Dorta Republic incident, Consul Julius had fully aligned with Zeke's side.
He was preparing to dethrone Abel from the throne by promoting the Second Prince and Fourth Prince as the legitimate heirs to the imperial authority of the Rom Empire.
As a result, Daria Calvi and the Inmagung Knight Order, who had been hesitant, changed their minds and decided to join the effort to reclaim Rom.
Kaliso, skilled at riding the tides, also joined and worked to bring the 20,000 imperial troops who had surrendered from the Principality of Vadoka over to Julius's side.
Thanks to this, Julius was rapidly gathering both legitimacy and power to prepare for reclaiming Rom.
Additionally, Julius was staying in Heli, continuously exchanging letters with the imperial legion commanders beneath the surface to pressure Abel and the Siemens faction.
The problem was that the empire's black knights had yet to make a move.
The moment the empire's black knights stirred in any direction, it seemed the Rom Empire's civil war would begin.
As Zeke briefly pondered Heli and the Rom Empire, he raised his gaze.
The Northern Continent expedition led by Zeke was heading not to Himonas, but to Barkal.
Since Himonas was at the northernmost tip of the continent, the roads leading there were not properly maintained.
The safest and fastest route was the highway built during the old Holy Empire era, connecting Barkal to Himonas, so they were heading to Barkal first.
Moreover, they needed to stop in Barkal to purchase necessary supplies and coldweather gear before entering the highway to withstand the northern chill.
This was familiar to Zeke, who had experienced the Northern Continent's battlefields in his previous life, but to the Central Continent knights, the idea of removing their armor and donning cold-weather gear was utterly incomprehensible.
As he refocused on the ride, Felix approached Zeke and said.
"My lord, it looks like we've almost reached Barkal!"
Zeke was also peering at the distant cityscape of Barkal through his dragon eye.
But then, something odd caught Zeke's eye.
'What is that?'
He spotted riders with banners and troops arrayed in formation before the city of Barkal.
Zeke checked the banners of the deployed forces.
'The imperial army's banners... and the Knight Order of the Cancer Palace.'
The Knight Order of the Cancer Palace, one of the thirteen legions that had sided with Abel, had unexpectedly appeared in Barkal.
Seeing the city gates firmly shut behind them, it didn't seem like the Knight Order of the Cancer Palace had come with good intentions.
Zeke recalled that the Knight Order of the Cancer Palace had aligned with Azmun Barrios, the sly schemer.
'They've chosen Barkal as a forward base for invading the Northern Continent.'
If the monster horde attacked Himonas, the northern knights would have no choice but to focus there.
In the meantime, if the Knight Order of the Cancer Palace seized Barkal—the key to communication between the Central and Northern Continents—the empire would gain a highly advantageous position.
It would allow them to check Himonas while pressuring the central kingdoms and Midland cities.
'Itʼs a scheme Azmun would come up with.'
As they drew closer to Barkal, Reina also spotted the imperial army encamped before the city.
"Why are imperial troops in the Northern Continent...?"
Zeke halted the march briefly and called Reina aside to explain the situation.
"It seems the imperial army is planning to invade Barkal." Reina was startled by his words.
"They're invading without even a declaration of war?"
"These are the ones who turned Rom into a sea of blood and usurped the throne. What meaning would a declaration of war have now?" Reina nodded as if convinced by Zeke's words.
Zeke looked at her and said.
"Do you think they'll just let us pass quietly to Himonas?" Reina shook her head.
She knew full well the imperial dogs wouldn't do that.
Zeke lowered his voice and said to her.
"Let's strike them first."