A few days earlier.

Parion Empire’s top elite unit—the fifty-thousand-strong Blood Ghoul Corps—arrived on the Asgan Continent by ship, along with their monsters.

In response, Goyard’s best forces and users gathered at Colrod Fortress.

The NPCs were there to defend Colrod Fortress, a strategic chokepoint. The users were there for quest rewards.

It was the first Continental War to break out on the Korea server, so media attention was blazing hot.

-Do you see it? Our Korean users have gathered with NPCs to defend Goyard.

-The one in overall command is Goyard’s only grand mage and a count—Balladin.

-The number of NPCs assembled at Colrod Fortress is eighty thousand, and users number thirty thousand.

-The army Parion Empire sent from the China server is only fifty thousand.

“FOR VICTORY!”

“WAAAAAAAH!”

-With Grand Mage Balladin’s shout, the soldiers’ morale surges.

-Having a numerical advantage gives you that kind of power.

-The Goyard Kingdom Defense Alliance formed around Balladin is elite—they aren’t even accepting anyone below level 380. At this level, they might be able to take on the Blood Ghoul Corps, said to be Parion Empire’s top elite.

-What exactly is the Blood Ghoul Corps?

-The precise details haven’t been revealed yet. Which means Emperor Bolond likely anticipated the outbreak of the Continental War and secretly nurtured them as an elite force. But Goyard’s side has also filled Colrod—the strategic chokepoint—with eighty thousand capable troops from across the kingdom, determined not to let a single enemy through.

-The knights’ levels are in the 390s as well.

-It’s proof that NPCs grow along with everything else.

THOOM, THOOM, THOOM—!

-The Blood Ghoul Corps is revealing itself.

-The Goyard army atop the fortress stops cheering and focuses.

Balladin.

He wore a confident smile.

Through this invasion defense, he intended to cement his standing as Goyard’s only grand mage.

And by showcasing the performance of the mage corps he’d built, he wanted to shatter the prejudice that Goyard was a nation that only excelled with swords—and force a leap forward.

But what emerged made Balladin’s face stiffen.

What is that...?

Ten meters tall. A presence as high as a typical castle wall.

Ash-gray fur, and a named monster Korean users had never once hunted.

[Legendary monster.]

[Fenrir has appeared!]

“AWOOOOOO—!”

With a single howl, the troops atop the fortress panicked.

[Fenrir’s Howl.]

[You are afflicted with Morale Decrease (status ailment).]

[You are afflicted with Fear (status ailment).]

[Attack and defense drop by 9%.]

[Your movement slows. Movement speed and attack speed drop by 10%.]

[Legendary monster Fenrir Lv.493]

And then the massive Fenrir began its sprint.

“Mages! Prepare your strongest spells!”

Balladin, momentarily shaken, forced a grin.

Something as huge as a mountain meant one thing: a higher hit rate. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

And here, he had three hundred mages he’d trained, along with the strongest mage users in Korea.

Fifth- and sixth-class magic activated simultaneously.

“Fire Wall.”

Balladin’s sixth-class magic went first.

A wall of flame surged up to eleven meters tall.

The commentators gasped.

-Eleven meters...!?

-Incredible. That’s the might of Goyard’s only grand mage!

A colossal barrier nothing could break through.

The instant a body touched it, Balladin’s high magic attack would melt it down to bone.

But Balladin’s eyes widened.

WHOOSH—!

Fenrir drove power into its hind legs, leaped fifteen meters, and surged straight into the fortress.

Only then did Balladin—and the commentators—understand why Fenrir had come.

-Fenrir fragments are widely spread even on the Korea server.

-The Legendary monster Fenrir is infamous as a beast that once brought down dozens of territories.

-The reason is likely that most of Fenrir’s power is specialized for collapsing walls and neutralizing the advantages of fortresses.

At the same time—

“Frozen.”

“Fire Storm.”

“Explosion.”

Hundreds of spells slammed into Fenrir.

The mages who’d hit it were about to show looks of exhilaration—only for their brains to freeze.

Fenrir crashed to the ground, then instantly rose.

[Fenrir’s HP drops below 94%.]

They’d only dealt six percent damage.

In their vision, that slick ash-gray fur gleamed.

-And it’s known that Fenrir’s defense is 50% higher than ordinary named monsters...!

Fenrir charged the gate.

KRA-KA-BOOOOM—!

-Because it’s as massive as a mountain, it can smash walls far too easily.

-The reason a fortress is advantageous is because you can repeatedly trigger siege weapons and skills, then rotate cooldowns behind walls that don’t collapse, minimizing casualties.

-A normal gate holds for at least an hour—sometimes more than four.

RIIIP—RIIIP-RIIIP—!

But Fenrir’s power was overwhelming.

With only a few impacts, cracks spread across the gate and wall.

“D-GET DOWN! IT’S COMING DOWN!”

In barely twenty hits, the gate shattered, and [N O V E L I G H T] users fell.

And beyond the completely broken gate—

Grand Mage Balladin, who had fallen to the ground, stared in disbelief.

Behind Fenrir—still towering like a mountain—Parion Empire’s top elite fifty thousand, the Blood Ghoul Corps, was now in full view.

The Blood Ghoul Corps. True to their name, they wore blood-red armor, horned helms, and carried crimson swords.

-Blood Ghoul Corps Books Lv.401

“......?”

Balladin faltered.

Each one of them was at the level of Goyard’s finest knights.

Fifty thousand—yet they carried the force of five hundred thousand.

They couldn’t afford to be arrogant because of numbers.

And Fenrir was a creature with high intelligence comparable to humans.

CHOMP—!

CRUNCH—!

Balladin and the mages on the ground were crushed between teeth.

A commentator’s shattered voice spread.

-The fortress has fallen in five hours.

Breaking news exploded outward.

-BREAKING: All 110,000 allied forces wiped out.

-Parion Empire losses estimated at only 3,000.

-BREAKING: Legendary monster Fenrir appears. Parion Empire moves to seize Goyard through the sealed Fenrir.

The alerts kept updating as time passed.

-BREAKING: Second fortress, Calamd, has fallen.

-BREAKING: The final allied army before the capital. Count Calamd’s castle collapses......

The speed of the fall hit Korean viewers like a hammer.

On Gangnam’s huge outdoor screens, footage of the collapse played while experts explained the situation.

-Continental War has already been breaking out across the world, and Korea is late to the party.

-Other nations are locked in a tight tug-of-war, but only Korea is allowing an advance toward Goyard’s capital at terrifying speed.

-Why do you think that is?

-This result shows how different an “event-style” Continental War is from the real thing. We’re still living in a world led by NPCs, and event-style Continental War was a festival for users.

-But this current war is determined by the strength of NPCs, and Parion Empire—being the China server—has a scale that exceeds ours by more than tenfold.

-Host, do you know what mass assault tactics are?

-A tactic where you overwhelm by numbers—break through, encircle, infiltrate. But Parion Empire only has fifty thousand troops, doesn’t it?

-That’s true, and it’s also not. Between one million people and thirteen million people, which side do you think has more talent?

-......Thirteen million.

-Exactly. They already overwhelm in sheer population, so they have far more talent, and that talent surpasses Goyard’s strong fighters by a vast margin.

-Of course, Goyard also has talents like the Blood Ghoul Corps. The problem is, if Goyard’s top elite is three thousand, they’re coming with fifty thousand. And if Goyard gathers every last force under Barad’s command and fights the Blood Ghoul Corps, they can hold them back.

-Really? Then there’s still hope—

-But they can’t stop Fenrir. And even if they stop the Blood Ghoul Corps, Goyard’s army will take massive losses, so the fall is unavoidable.

-......So there’s no way?

-There is one way.

-What is it?

People watching the screens—

Or watching TV in their cars with autopilot on—

leaned forward.

There was a way?

-One person with overwhelming power might be able to change it.

-......One person can change it? I don’t understand, expert.

-Viewers who understand Ares will know. Surprisingly, Barad can cut down over ten thousand Blood Ghoul soldiers alone.

Viewers could accept that.

-If Fenrir weren’t there, this battle would’ve been easy. It became difficult because Fenrir’s overwhelming strength entered the field.

-And strength is relative. One strong fighter can make thousands tremble. One strong fighter can cut down hundreds of commanders. An individual can collapse a command structure.

The MC’s expression brightened.

-But we have Master Blacksmith Hyunsoo, don’t we?

High-level viewers had already caught on.

-Do you know what Hyunsoo’s most recently confirmed level was?

It was only one month ago.

-He was in the 330s.

-.......

-After the Server Merge, he hasn’t shown up in any hunting ground, and recently there was a world message saying a new transcendence was created. Master Blacksmith Hyunsoo is only crafting artifacts right now.

-If it’s Hyunsoo—the user who cut down hundreds of high-rankers alone—

-That’s a completely different story. Those were users. The enemies now are NPCs—the owners of Ares.

And it was now two months after the Server Merge.

-User Hyunsoo has focused solely on strengthening troops and crafting artifacts in the new territory he was granted. His level is probably still stagnant from two months ago.

-Korean rankers hunted like crazy for those two months, and even they gathered and failed.

As the expert said, everyone let go of hope.

And then—

-The fall of the capital, Barkna, has begun.

-The screams of the citizens pierce the sky.

-......Parion Empire didn’t even give civilians time to evacuate.

-At this rate, it might fall within two days.

-They’re short on knights. Not long ago, Sword Duke Roman rebelled to drag down the descendant Hyunsoo, and it’s been made public that King Barad purged him.

-Four thousand knights who joined him—plus Sword Duke Roman himself. They’ve lost one means of resistance.

-Despair-stricken key figures of Goyard are being shown all across the screen.

The expert was right.

Marquis Valo, commanding Barkna’s north gate, despaired after a battle that had raged for over three hours.

“......Forty percent of our allies defending the north gate have been wiped out. Enemy losses are only five percent.”

Marquis Lukburg, defending the east gate, understood.

“It’s a force of fifty thousand... but that fifty thousand contains all of Parion.”

Why Sword Emperor Bolond had sent only fifty thousand.

“With those fifty thousand, they mean to proclaim the greatness of annihilating a nation—and to drag Goyard’s name into the dirt and force surrender.”

Lukburg closed their eyes.

Proof enough:

“Just look at the ones leading five thousand soldiers. They should be captains of a thousand, but commanders who should be leading a hundred thousand are commanding only five thousand.”

Those commander-class leaders were around level 450.

It was absurd.

Attaching level-450 commander-class leaders to units of five thousand shouldn’t exist.

Elsewhere—

A prestigious family that led the kingdom.

An old man called one of the twin pillars alongside Sword Duke Roman—Sword Duke Lysen.

Watching knights being swept away, he despaired.

“Lord, we’ve received word that His Majesty was badly wounded while fighting Fenrir and has retreated.”

“......Is the wound deep?”

“Yes.”

Lysen looked up at the sky.

And thought:

“Heh... Prince Ban... half-prince....”

Half-prince.

That peerless genius—someone who held a title that surpassed even Sword King.

Everyone here knew it.

If Ban had lived, he might have become someone who stood shoulder to shoulder with Sword King.

Strength was relative.

If only Half-prince Ban were here, this war wouldn’t feel so empty.

Maybe this kingdom never had hope to begin with.

There was no prince of pure bloodline—only His Majesty Barad, holding Goyard together alone.

Tears streamed endlessly from Sword Duke Lysen’s eyes.

And then—something unexpected entered his vision.

The king’s descendant, Hyunsoo, appeared.

Lysen hurriedly wiped away his tears.

Hyunsoo wasn’t someone who could inherit Half-prince Ban’s talent, but he would still be a meaningful help.

Lysen spoke to the approaching Hyunsoo.

“This is reassuring. Take the south. There are only eight hundred Blood Ghoul troops in the south—you can handle it.”

“No.”

Lysen’s expression twisted.

Right now, he was drowning in too many emotions to find calm.

Then he noticed that no one stood beside Hyunsoo—and anger flared.

He’d assigned Hyunsoo to stop eight hundred Blood Ghouls because Hyunsoo’s territory supposedly had a sizable force.

“The south isn’t the most critical point, but it’s a route into the capital. Where are your soldiers—”

In the middle of his words, Lysen received a report from a soldier.

“......The eight hundred Blood Ghoul troops in the south have been annihilated by someone!!!!”

Lysen’s eyes went wide, and Hyunsoo continued evenly.

“There’s no need to go south. I already took care of it.”

Only then did Lysen feel it.

Hyunsoo had begun walking the path of succession to the throne.

And—

A lantern was illuminating the despair of Goyard.