Chapter 278

Chapter 278

Whoosh!

Crack...!

Bam!

Gravity seemed to have briefly vanished as everything was thrown into the sky.

Lightning crashed down and struck the ground, splitting it open.

Rumble!

Siegfried stood in the middle of the destruction created by the combination of Earthquake—the unique skill of Gaia’s Fist—and Splitting Heaven and Earth.

“Aaack!”

“Ack!”

“H-Help me!”

The papal troops, who were fortunate to avoid getting swept up by Splitting Heaven and Earth, were swallowed up by the ground after it split open.

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

...

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

A string of messages popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Alert: You have reached Level 221!]

He even leveled up.

‘Just how many of them did I kill just now...?’?he wondered.

He was the one who had used the skill, but he had no idea just how many troops he had ended up killing. He hadn’t been paying attention to how many enemies there were in the first place. He simply used his skills to an area teeming with enemy troops.

However, Siegfried was sure that he had killed more than a thousand enemy troops.

The papal troops who had witnessed Siegfried’s prowess stopped their charge.

“M-Monster!”

“Why is such a strong person in Vaper Fortress?!”

The massacre struck fear into the hearts of the papal troops.

Any human being would be scared shitless after witnessing a massacre on such a scale. Those who could remain unafraid were either under the influence of drugs or a spell.

Meanwhile, the imperial troops’ morale skyrocketed.

“Haha! Did you see that, bastards?!”

“Come, and we will show you what death is!”

“Do you have a death wish?!”

Siegfried’s Splitting Heaven and Earth inverted the morale of the two armies, but it only lasted for a few moments.

“Imbeciles! Do you really think he can use that skill consecutively, you morons!” shouted an Adventurer among the papal forces. “Charge! There’s nothing to be scared of!”

The commanders of the papal troops finally realized what was going on and shouted at their soldiers, “Charge! Don’t be scared of the heathen! The Nameless God is with us!”

The papacy’s priests immediately cast their spells.

Wooong!

Then, holy auras started to emit from the priests’ bodies and spread throughout the entire papal forces.

It was the buff Blessing of Courage that increased the morale of allied troops and removed fear from their hearts. The commander of the papal forces shouted at the top of his lungs, “For the Nameless God! Charge!”

Not an ounce of fear could be seen in the eyes of the papal troops as they resumed their siege of Vaper Fortress.

“Tsk...?I thought I gained a minute or two, but they dispelled it with buffs. Cheaters...” Siegfried grimaced and grumbled under his breath.

Buffs were so annoying to deal with that most people would call them cheats, but these Adventurers probably had no idea that there was something far more disgusting than buffs.

Woooong!

Siegfried gathered his mana.

Fwaaaa! Fwaaaaah!

Flames shot up from the ground and covered the entirety of Vaper Fortress.

However, that was not the end of it...

He immediately used Overclocking and activated Irradiate as well.

Sseuuu...!

“They say that Vaper Fortress has fewer troops than anticipated, and they will be able to conquer it earlier than expected! Congratulations, Commander-nim!”

The messenger smiled after making the report and expected the general to do the same. However, the commander’s response was the complete opposite of what the messenger had expected.

“That crazy bastard!” General Mikhael growled in anger.

“W-What is it, commander-nim?”

“That fake emperor, Frederic... I never expected him to have the balls to do something like this!” General Mikahel shouted in anger.

What would happen if the imperial forces emerged victorious in the siege of Crane City and Tenshall City at the expense of Vaper Fortress?

The Hudson River, which was a crucial supply route for the papal forces, was going to be blocked off, and the papal forces would be forced to fight in a severely disadvantageous position.

“So... you decided to stake everything on this...”

General Mikhael was truly shocked at the emperor’s brazenness. How was it possible that someone who calls himself an emperor would rely on such a tactical gambit?

No, this was a gamble more than a tactical gambit.

This strategy had no contingency plans to fall back on.

It seemed like a shallow move on the surface, but it was actually an extremely intricate and cunning plan that had the potential to end this civil war and proclaim the emperor as the winner if it were to succeed.

Surprisingly, the gamble almost succeeded, as nobody had imagined that the emperor would even use such a strategy in the first place.

‘This is a race against time! We need to conquer the Vaper Fortress as fast as possible with minimal casualties. This war will end in our victory if we succeed!’?

General Mikhael realized that timing?was the most crucial factor in this war.

The Vaper Fortress was nothing but bait. The emperor’s main forces in Crane City and Tenshall Territory could drive back the papal forces as long as Vaper Fortress managed to fend off the attackers.

‘Conquering?Vaper Fortress is no use if we get driven back from Crane City and Tenshall Territory! We need to stop the siege at once and not play into the hands of that fake emperor...!’?

Making the troops retreat from Crane City and Tenshall Territory was the best move the general could make at this time.

Why?

Vaper Fortress was bound to fall into the hands of the papal forces sooner or later, and all he had to do was avoid fighting against the imperial forces until that happened. Then, the fake emperor would pay dearly for making such an absurd gamble with his life.

“Retreat! Sound the retreat! Stop the siege and ask our troops to fall—”

It was then that two messengers came and simultaneously made a report.

“Commander! The enemies have sallied out of their castle!”

“We have received word from Tenshall Territory! The imperial forces have sallied out!”

General Mikhael’s face turned ghastly pale at the reports as he cried out, “N-No!”

The emperor seemed to be hell-bent on stopping the papal forces from retreating and fighting the decisive battle right now.

‘No! Was I too late?!’?General Mikhael realized that he had fallen right into the emperor’s trap.

“S-Send word to our forces besieging Vaper Fortress! Tell them to conquer the fort with minimal casualties and attack those imperial dogs from behind!”

The key to the papal forces escaping from the crutches of the emperor was the fall of Vaper Fortress. In other words, the most important battlefield among the three battlefields right now was none other than Vaper Fortress!

***

The NPC soldiers and Adventurers stationed at Vaper Fortress were defending the fort, not knowing that they had become the deciding factor in this civil war’s outcome.

Fwaaaa! Fwaaah!

Siegfried and the Adventurers killed enemy after enemy on top of the two Blaze Fields, and they proved that debuffs were superior to the buffs of the priests. No, it was the mountains of corpses surrounded by flames that proved the superiority of debuffs.

Huff...! Huff...!?

“Hey, owner punk! Slow down! You’re going to kill Hamchi at this rate!”

Hamchi was utterly exhausted from running around to pick up the items that the Adventurers and Siegfried had killed.

Meanwhile, the papal forces were frustrated at the progress of the siege.

They had received clear instructions from the commander to conquer Vaper Fortress as soon as they could and hit the imperial forces from the rear, but they couldn’t progress even a single step toward the fort walls while continuously suffering losses.

It was the same for the Adventurers on the papacy’s side. They had been attacking the enemy with everything they got while being fully stacked with buffs from the priests, but they were helpless against Siegfried’s debuffs.

In fact, the debuffs were so powerful that they not only nullified their buffs but even shredded their stats as well.

“Tsk...?That dirty bastard... Should I just log out and watch Hirumi-chan’s latest video...”

An Adventurer clicked his tongue and retreated from the Blaze Field.

However, he failed to realize that a dark shadow was cast down on him.

Tak!

A humongous hand suddenly grabbed the Adventurer’s head.

“Desertion is forbidden.”

Pukeok!

The head of the Adventurer who tried to escape exploded like a watermelon.