Chapter 287: Auzria Preparing for Destruction and the Eastern Continent in Chaos (3)

Translator: Pai_

The entire archipelago had completely fallen into corruption.

Howling echoed endlessly from the blackened archipelago and the surrounding sea.

“Are they the Wolves of Hell?”

Iron murmured with a frown.

The hellish beings, writhing in agony as they wailed under the divine power spreading across the archipelago, were horrific to behold.

Ordinarily, not even Iron would have been able to sweep away the enemies so overwhelmingly.

However, they had lost their strength in the process of crossing the barrier of the world.

Moreover, since Destruction had not yet begun, they were bound by the system’s restrictions and had been downgraded to below the level of a normal monster.

Thanks to that, Iron was able to sweep the enemies away by himself.

Nevertheless, Iron hesitated and did not fully purify the entire archipelago.

‘I’d like to use this chance to check out the Eastern Continent’s military as well…….’

A full-scale war would be difficult, but a localized battle could be handled sufficiently by the current Empire.

“A localized battle should be fine, right?”

“Yes. I’ve already received a response from the Eastern Command regarding that.”

At Iron’s question, Faulden handed over the related report.

Iron then turned around and asked,

“Do we have any priests?”

“Yes!”

At Iron’s question, a few priests stepped forward.

Special personnel trained with a primary focus on preparation for the battle against Destruction.

They were the priests.

They existed to restore areas polluted by corrupted beings and purify those wounded by the tainted energy.

Although the priest profession had hit rock bottom due to the influence of external gods, it had been revived thanks to the Lord God.

“Can I leave it to you?”

“Yes! Please leave it to us!”

At Iron’s command, the military-affiliated priests began moving swiftly.

Like magic, divine power had also seen much advancement.

The development brought about by Iron's initiative to combine magi-engineering with divine power through the Mobile Field Army had extended to the current priests, and it had even been applied to the aerial warships.

“Not bad.”

Though not to Iron’s level, the light emitted by each aerial warship purified the corrupted energy in real-time.

The beams of light, created by amplifying the priests’ divine power through magi-engineering, were so powerful that most corrupted beings couldn’t withstand them and vanished.

Though he had read the reports, there was nothing more certain than seeing it with his own eyes.

As a result, Iron confirmed that the report stating they would be ready even when Destruction arrived was indeed accurate.

“Enemies are coming.”

Ships from the Eastern Continent could be seen in the distance.

In addition, dragons as large as the aerial warships could be seen.

“They must’ve regained some strength.”

Iron muttered while looking at the dragons flying from the sky over the Eastern Continent.

Most of the dragons approaching now looked stronger than those fought in the Northeast.

Some of the dragons, on par with the one Iron had faced after leaving the Northeast, openly released mana waves toward Iron’s fleet.

“They don’t seem to be trying to hide it.”

“They’re blatantly releasing mana waves, huh?”

The mages wore disgusted expressions.

True to their arrogant nature, the flow of mana seemed as if they intended to suppress the entire Imperial army of the Auzria Continent.

“Can we respond?”

At Iron’s question, the mages stood at attention.

“We can!”

At the booming response from the mage who appeared to be the leader, Iron smiled.

“Give them a taste of it.”

“Yes!”

At Iron’s command, the mages moved all at once.

Not only the aerial fleet but also the naval fleet's mages began unleashing powerful mana waves toward the dragons.

The area saturated with dragon mana instantly shifted to the mages’ mana, shattering the dragons’ mana fields.

“As if relics of the past could stand a chance…….”

“We know a thing or two about ancient magic theory now, you know?”

“And we even know the essence of modern magic theory too.”

As the mages scoffed and shattered the dragons’ mana fields, the dragons openly revealed their murderous intent.

‘The mages have come a long way too.’

From Iron’s perspective, who had stood on battlefields across the entire Empire, the level of the mages had risen significantly.

‘They’ll develop even more.’

With ancient magic theory and magi-engineering, they would soon wield weapons that could assist them, becoming even stronger.

Although preparations would be made as much as possible before Destruction, that wouldn’t be the end.

Even within the battlefield, technology would continue to advance, and humanity’s level would keep rising.

‘It’s doable.’

With that thought, Iron looked ahead.

“They even have Dragonkin.”

Dragonkin revealed themselves after the dragons’ magic was shattered.

Seeing them, Iron realized once again that the Eastern Continent had truly been conquered by dragons.

But that wasn’t the important part.

What Iron wanted to confirm was whether these beings had formed contracts with Hell Ghosts or Demons.

“Can’t tell like this?”

Iron tried to sense the dragons’ mana but couldn’t feel any corrupted energy.

He thought that if the beings of the Eastern Continent had fully allied with Demons or Hell Ghosts, they might have received power from them, but it didn’t seem to have gone that far.

‘Well... even this isn’t clear at this point.’

It was difficult to grasp the full picture of the Eastern Continent just by looking at them briefly.

As he fell deep into thought, the largest dragon flew up to the aerial warship where Iron stood.

- Humans of the Western Continent… this is the territory of the Eastern Continent. Why are you invading?

The dragon spoke solemnly from a distance.

At that, Faulden stepped forward at Iron’s signal.

He placed a mana orb that automatically translated into the Eastern Continent’s language to his mouth and began to speak.

“We received reports that corrupted energy was detected here, and from the Empire’s perspective, this could not be ignored.”

At Faulden’s words, the dragon closed its mouth.

“Let me ask in return. Why did you leave this corrupted area alone? Judging by how you rushed over here, you seem to have the strength to handle it, don’t you?”

At Faulden’s question, the old dragon fell silent for a long moment.

- …Regarding that, it’s classified on our side, so we cannot say.

At the old dragon’s response, Faulden spoke again.

“The Auzria Continent has already succeeded in purifying all corrupted areas. If it’s difficult, then request our help…”

- So noisy.

Another dragon interrupted Faulden’s words.

Unlike the old dragon, this one was a bit smaller in size, but his strength was by no means inferior.

- Whether or not we purify corrupted areas, that’s our business. You’ve invaded our land.

“So it’s your land, huh…”

Iron quietly looked at the archipelago.

Strictly speaking, it was hard to consider this place part of the Eastern Continent’s territory.

Had trade continued, this place would’ve been a neutral zone.

- Kneel and apologize, or die at our hands…

- Enough!

The older dragon cut off the younger dragon’s words.

- Why are you stopping me? They’ve invaded our territory.

- In the current situation, we must not engage in battle with them.

- It doesn’t matter anyway, does it?

At the younger dragon’s reply, the old dragon’s expression darkened.

The young dragon was speaking as if the old one were trying to avoid responsibility.

He wanted to kill him on the spot, but the young dragon was the Lord’s son.

He couldn’t do as he pleased with the son of the one who had become emperor of the Eastern Continent. Even now, though he still held command authority, it was hard to defy the words of the crown prince.

- I would like to guarantee your command, but just this once, please follow my words.

With things having gone this far, there was nothing more the old dragon could do.

‘It must end as a localized battle.’

Just as the old dragon thought that, the younger dragon, as if there was nothing more to see, opened his jaws wide and fired a breath attack.

At that moment, a massive white shield formed and blocked the breath.

Then all the dragons and Dragonkin who had accompanied him began to fire breath attacks.

Cracks began to form little by little in the white shield.

- With divine power at this level...

The old dragon’s eyes widened even more, as if he had guessed something.

At that very moment, a man floated silently in the air, calmly watching the dragons.

Seeing him, the crown prince once again opened his jaws.

-Ah… No!

The old dragon tried to stop him too late, but the breath had already been released.

“An attack… It doesn’t seem like that was your order, though…”

The man who had appeared before anyone noticed calmly looked at the old dragon and spoke.

-Are you the Apostle of the Lord God?

“That’s right. I’m Iron Carter.”

The old dragon looked at Iron, who had flown right up in front of him.

“I’ll ask just one thing. Have your kind formed contracts with demons or hell?”

-…….

Iron’s eyes narrowed as the old dragon gave no reply.

“So you’ve either made the contract or are right on the verge of doing so… Either way, you’re clearly our ‘enemy’ now.”

The old dragon before him didn’t seem to want that, but it didn’t matter.

With their decision, the Western and Eastern Continents had now clearly become enemies.

“What a shame.”

If beings like the old dragon had taken over the Eastern Continent, Iron might have had room for a proper conversation. But unfortunately, that didn’t seem possible now.

Just as Iron regretfully tried to speak further with the old dragon, the young dragon that had appeared suddenly began chanting magic.

To kill Iron, who had evaded his breath attack, the young dragon used magic, and the surrounding dragons also began to manifest their spells.

-You arrogant human bastard!

-No, stop!

The old dragon hurriedly shouted, but it was already too late.

As high-level magic surged toward him, Iron drew his sword and moved.

-Kugh…

The neck of the first dragon that approached fell, and one by one, the surrounding Dragonkin also lost their heads.

-C… crazy…

The dragons faltered, startled by the unbelievable power Iron had displayed.

Even the ancient spells they had begun to cast started vanishing one after another, perhaps due to the overwhelming might that broke their will to fight.

Even so, Iron did not stop attacking.

Kiiiiing!

-Please, stop.

“You’re too late.”

Iron replied coldly to the old dragon who had stepped in front of him.

Their full-force breath attack clearly showed they had no intention of sparing their lives.

There was no reason for Iron to spare theirs in return.

-If this keeps up, it’ll be all-out war!

“All-out war? Don’t be ridiculous… Even if I kill all of you here, an all-out war is impossible.”

Iron said firmly, as if stating a conclusion.

The distance between the Eastern and Western Continents was too great to realistically start a full-scale war.

Besides, Destruction was drawing near.

No matter who they had contracted with, only after surviving Destruction would they even have the capacity to wage full-scale war.

This was the reason why both the governor-general and Iron had decided against a war with the Eastern Continent, despite suspecting something was wrong over there.

-P… protect me!

The crown prince of the Eastern Continent shouted for his protection and pressured the old dragon to fight Iron.

In response, Iron gave a chilling smile and slaughtered everyone except the old dragon.

Whether the old dragon attacked or not, Iron didn’t care in the slightest. He simply cut them down one by one with his own sword.

Seeing Iron, who slaughtered them personally, the crown prince trembled in fear.

Despite Iron standing before him with a sword, he couldn’t even cast a single spell due to the extreme terror.

-Guhak!

After stabbing his sword into the heart of the last remaining dragon, excluding the old one, Iron looked at the wounded dragon barely managing to stay in the air.

“Go and deliver the message. We’ll settle this after Destruction.”

-I… shall deliver it.

The old dragon, his body in tatters, flew off sorrowfully toward the Eastern Continent.

“We’re pulling back too.”

“Yes, sir!”

At Iron’s command, all the fleets simultaneously began their retreat.

And a few days later, as the surrounding dragonkind retreated under the old dragon’s orders, Iron also contacted the Eastern Command and pulled back all fleets.

As a result, the situation that had been on the brink of explosion did not escalate beyond a localized battle and quietly dissipated.

Of course, due to this incident, relations between the Eastern and Western Continents deteriorated to the worst level and became completely irreparable.

Furthermore, Iron had personally confirmed that the Eastern Continent had likely made a contract with extra-dimensional beings, and as proof, corrupted areas were increasingly appearing across the Eastern Continent.

In other words, even if Destruction were to end, the Western and Eastern Continents had already reached a point where reconciliation was impossible.

In such circumstances, news of the Western Continent’s situation began to spread into the Eastern Continent, leading to unexpected developments.

-Let’s ask the Western Continent for help.

-Humans are better than demons.

-An alliance with corrupted beings…?

Several races raised their voices in opposition to the current imperial family, which had allied with demons.

Of course, they could not openly rebel against the imperial family, which had built an overwhelming alliance system.

However, in the shadows, those dissatisfied with the current regime formed their own factions, and they secretly sent letters to the Empire, evading all surveillance networks.

***

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