The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military-Chapter 73

22 The Start of the Monster Wave (2)

A phoenix was a phantom species that always appeared in myths and legends. Although it was a species that had little to no traces left in the current times, it was still a rare species that existed along with the dragons. Since it had appeared in myths and legends, there were plenty of records that described its wonders.

A bird that spouted fire.

A bird that was born from fire.

A bird that could live for thousands of years with its fire.

Phoenix was a bird with numerous fire-attributed characteristics. However, there was something that the people had misunderstood about it. Although the phoenix reminded them of fire, it wasn’t ‘fire’ that the phoenix used the most during battles.

“You’ll purify it?”

―Ppiii!

Iron tilted his head upon hearing Phoenix’s words. But he had no time to think. The gate was slowly collapsing and contaminated mana was continuing to soar. He had to do something before the contaminated energy that was generated by the explosion could spread all throughout the Northeast.

“What should I do?”

―Ppii, ppii, ppii!

Phoenix asked him to leave everything to it. All Iron needed to do was to endure and hold on.

“Hoo…”

Iron exhaled after coming near the gate.

There, he could see the void insects exploding and dying after being hit by the overflowing mana.

Then, the fully synchronized Two Moons flew towards Iron.

―Hoooooot!

The gigantic owl reduced its size and settled on Iron’s head. Then, the space beside him distorted as Baepsae and a red bird flew out. It looked like the tiny bird that laid listlessly on his palms from overspending its strength had grown quite a bit.

―Ppiii!

“Just do it!”

Iron shouted despite being warned that it would hurt. Two Moons increased the rate of synchronization to the limit to help him. Even the mana from the entire Black Forest flocked around Iron as Baepsae boosted his vitality and healed his wounds. They did this just so he could withstand the synchronization.

“Kghhhhhk…”

Iron felt like his head would burst when Owl used his divine power to increase the synchronization rate with all three of the divine beasts.

It was already too much to handle with just Two Moons alone but when phoenix, a phantom species, was added to the mix, it became even harder to deal with. He felt like he was about to die.

However, there was a creature that he was concerned about the most. It was Baepsae.

‘Baepsae… what are you…?’

It seemed like Baepsae was hiding more than Two Moons and the phoenix. Baepsae was trying not to put any pressure on Iron but Iron was still able to peek at the tiny bird’s essence from his overly high synchronization with the divine beasts. Just a small peek was able to let him know that phoenix’s, a phantom species, power was incomparable to Baepsae. Countless thoughts passed through his head. He even thought that perhaps Baepsae was some sort of divine being. But he couldn’t delve deeper into that thought anymore.

“Ugh!”

In the end, all he could do was to put his all into enduring the splitting headache that he was currently being subjected to.

Meanwhile, phoenix had already begun to exert its strength. Although its power was still yet to fully recover, its red flames still spread and burned the contaminated mana. The mana that was burned had been turned into pure mana that was absorbed by phoenix.

“Aack!”

―Ppii?

Phoenix hurriedly tried to reel in and stop the influx of mana when it saw Iron vomiting blood. But Iron just shook his head. Phoenix hesitated when he saw Iron insisting that it continue but in the end, it still spread its flames.

The more the flames spread, the paler Iron’s complexion became. But there was nothing that could be done. If he left it as it is, the people in the vicinity would be exposed to contaminated mana once the dimensional crack exploded.

Fortunately, with phoenix’s help, the compressed contaminated mana was being purified. The mana from Two Moons and the purified mana also began to fight against the contaminated mana. Thanks to that, the compressed mana had been decreasing and the mana explosion was being delayed.

―Hooot!

―Tweet!

―Ppiii!

However, Iron’s condition continued to deteriorate. In fact, his body was already in the process of dying.

When the divine beasts saw this, all of them looked at each other. They knew that they had to stop in consideration of Iron’s body. However, stopping meant that the contaminated energy would spread all throughout the Northeast upon the crack’s explosion.

They already knew that Iron’s current abilities were not enough to stop the dimensional crack’s explosion. In fact, it was completely absurd to assume that Iron could stop a situation that was created by a great witch at the expense of her life. They thought that they could at least reduce the impact of the disastrous situation but under their current circumstances, it was nigh impossible. Even if they continued and let Iron sacrifice himself, they would only be able to buy a day or two of time for the people of the Northeast.

So the divine beasts thought…

Let’s seal ourselves and Iron here!

The divine beasts wanted to use their bodies together with Iron’s body as a medium. They would then use this medium to spread their power and enhance the purification process.

Due to their extreme synchronization, their plan was able to transmit to Iron’s head. So, Iron nodded his head in agreement as blood continued to flow down from his mouth.

―Tweet!

Baepsae looked at Iron pitifully when it saw him enduring the pain. It patted Iron’s head with its small wings. The cute Baepsae perched itself on Iron’s head and closed its eyes as it expressed its strength.

Baepsae’s green mana slowly spread and wrapped around them while slowly turning Baepsae into a green stone. The green mana continued to wrap around and harden around Iron and Baepsae as Baepsae’s abilities, ‘healing’ and ‘vitality’, slowly merged with Iron’s body. Thanks to the power of healing and vitality, Iron’s collapsing body had narrowly achieved balance.

However, the contaminated mana began to gain the upperhand as their power slowly ran to its limits.

Then, Two Moons moved.

Two Moons, who was now perched on Iron’s right shoulder, gathered all of the mana spreading in the Black Forest. As soon as the mana began to gather, Owl’s body started to harden into a blue stone.

Everyone had thought that Two Moons’ power was the powerful destructive light from its eyes. But Two Moons’ abilities were in fact ‘mana compression’ and ‘amplification’. The destructive rays of light that came out of its two eyes were the result of compressing and amplifying Owl’s mana to its limits.

―Hoot!

Owl squeezed all of its strength and turned into stone as all the mana in the Black Forest wound and spinned around Iron’s body.

When two of the divine beasts turned into stones, two divine powers started to tangle in Iron’s body. Two Moons’ abilities and Baepsae’s abilities created a synergy which laid the foundation for Iron’s body to constantly fight against contaminated mana.

Then, phoenix came.

―Ppiiii!

Perhaps it was because phoenix was determined not to waste the sacrifice of Iron and the two divine beasts that it poured out all of its strength. It also concentrated all of its power with the intention of being sealed as it flew over and settled on Iron’s left shoulder while slowly assimilating with Iron.

At that moment, a strong wave of red energy spread around and purified the contaminated mana. Red flames followed the wave of energy as it scattered all over the place while turning the area around the dimensional gate into a sea of red light.

The red flame burned and purified the contaminated energy while nibbling at the structure created by the void insects.

The void insects finally sensed danger. From the void insects that had its bodies burst out from the mana explosion to the void insects that were hidden far away, they crawled and tried to stop phoenix.

“Stop them! Don’t waste Iron’s sacrifice!”

Carl Gustav was the first to move to stop the void insects.

All of the Ghosts gathered and surrounded Iron in a defensive formation as soon as they heard Carl’s orders. They immediately stopped the void insects from rushing forward.

Then, Crimson shouted at all the troops that were entering the forest.

“From now on, protecting Iron is our top priority! This is an order from Crimson, the Commander of the Northeast!”

“Yes!”

Hearing the official order of the Northeast Commander, the rangers scattered and hunted for the void insects. At the same time, the knights formed a defensive circle with Iron in the middle. They formed layers and layers of defensive circles that made it impossible for anyone to touch Iron. And Crimson stayed at the center. He willingly went to protect Iron in order to make sure that they did not waste Iron’s will and sacrifice.

However, as if it was testing their will and determination, a continuous surge of contaminated mana came out of the collapsing dimensional gate. The purple fog that surrounded them even began to thicken. And finally, the beings that Iron was so wary of and the others did not want to come out, appeared.

“Dimensional fish came out!”

“Airship units! What are you doing?! Drop the bombs!”

“Bomb it! Bomb it! Your target is the dimensional gate!”

All of the troops moved towards the finally collapsed dimensional gate while the special forces stayed around Iron and protected him.

This was such an unusual situation where all of the forces in the Northeast participated and coordinated to protect and escort Iron.

But they couldn’t be happy about it. This was because Iron’s entire body had turned into a blue stone. All of the mana in the Black Forest flocked to Iron and hardened his body even further.

Then, red energy spread from Iron’s hardened body which created a fixed safe area.

“Rangers, start an operation to exterminate the monsters around this place.”

“The knights top priority will be here from here on out.”

“Iron Wall Division’s top defense mission will be in this place!”

The elite divisions of the Northeast Command began to gather around the place where Iron was located. Even the Ghosts’ priority was Iron’s escort mission. All of which were personally ordered by Commander Crimson.

And there was not a single soldier or officer who opposed these orders.

***

The Black Forest had turned into the Northeast’s troops’ new center as they gave their all to protect Iron from the void insects and dimensional fish.

Perhaps he also wanted to repay their hard work that Iron, who had been turned into stone, also did his best. The contaminated mana kept on pushing out while Iron continued to purify the mana that was pouring in. It was a fight between the exploding dimensional crack and Iron and the divine beasts that were stopping it from completely exploding. It was a boring and repetitive fight.

But no matter what he did, Iron still failed to stop the future where a monster wave would occur.

There were four dimensional cracks in the Northeast that the witch wanted to trigger to explode. And just like the witch had hoped, the dimensional crack in the Black Forest had eventually exploded which led to the explosion of the other dimensional cracks in the other regions. As a result, the huge movement of monsters that were moving away from the contaminated mana, or the monster wave, had also started.

‘It’s the witch’s victory.’

The scholars, who were obsessed with their theories, saw this as the only outcome.

However, a miracle happened in such a situation.

Thanks to the desperate efforts of Iron and the divine beasts, the result was only half of what the witch had intended to happen. So, even if the monster wave had occurred, the Northeasterners could raise their heads and say that Iron had won the battle against the witch.

“In the end, did it start?”

Crimson looked bitterly at the Command’s report about the start of a monster wave.

Seeing Crimson with such an expression, Jayden Wicks, the Northern Commander, comforted him.

“But didn’t it start after we had finished all of the preparations? It’s a relief that we have avoided the worst possible outcome.”

“Fufu… I know. This was also because of that child…”

Crimson looked out of the window upon hearing Jayden Wicks’ words.

He thought about the young Ghost who was still purifying the contaminated mana with his red flames in the Black Forest, the area that was now called as the second Command.

“Well… If that punk wakes up, he’ll definitely be satisfied with the current results. Didn’t he hate the Central Government?”

“That’s right.”

Iron had shown them, albeit unintentional, that he had a hidden hatred for the Central Government whenever he talked with them. And a satisfactory result was currently unfolding for him.

“I hope he wakes up soon.”

“I know. Even if we’re not that young, we’re still more than enough to handle the current situation now…”

Just like Jayden Wicks had said, both of them were hoping that this young man would stop making any more sacrifices and just wake up to receive his sweet rewards.

Maybe it was because of the wishes of the two commanders that something had changed?

A small crack had started to appear starting from the green stone after having no movements for nearly two years.