Chapter 22 – Battle of Thermopylae

“This is Thermopylae Pass… A natural fortress indeed.”

Lee Hanseong, who had joined the Spartan army, arrived at Thermopylae Pass.

Thanks to continuous testing during the journey to Thermopylae, the Spartan warriors had grown accustomed to the command method where King Leonidas’s orders were relayed through Pheidippides’s Six Harmonies Communication.

Of course, it wasn’t just the Spartan army that had become familiar with Six Harmonies Communication; the Greek allied forces accompanying them were the same.

“With our army united by your ability and the terrain of this fortress combined, no matter how many troops Xerxes’s forces have, they won’t be able to breach this place!”

“It shall be as Your Highness wills.”

King Leonidas, seemingly pleased with the utility of Six Harmonies Communication he had confirmed so far, laughed heartily and confidently predicted victory.

However, Lee Hanseong couldn’t wholeheartedly share Leonidas’s joy.

He knew that on the third day of fighting the enemies at Thermopylae, a traitor would emerge, leading to this place being breached.

Concealing his regretful feelings, he repeated to himself that he should only take what he could get.

He had already obtained one thing on the way here.

[Rare Skill <???> responds to King Leonidas’s <Command>.]

[Conditions met. Rare Skill <???> blooms into <Command>.]

While relaying King Leonidas’s commands from his side, Lee Hanseong gradually understood his intentions, and at some point, <Command> skill sprouted within Pheidippides as well.

With this, the first condition for Historical Alteration was fulfilled, leaving only the traitor and the Last Stand of Thermopylae.

‘Should I identify the traitor? Or just leave it be?’

If he wasn’t going to change the history of defeat, leaving it as is would be correct…

But the fact that the traitor appeared as the second clue bothered him.

While Lee Hanseong was pondering the traitor, the approaching Persian army began to slowly come into view.

“How many are coming that we still can’t see the end?”

“Can we really win?”

“With numbers like that, just their arrows alone would blot out the sky!”

With the appearance of the Persian army, equivalent to a million troops, voices of declining morale could be heard among the Greek allied forces.

In contrast, the number of Greek allied forces commanded by King Leonidas was a mere 7,000 or so.

Given the characteristics of the pass terrain, they wouldn’t have to face all of them at once, but just as the despair brought by the overwhelming numbers began to swirl…

“Hahaha! Then we’ll be fighting in the shade?”

The captain of the Spartan royal guard laughed heartily and cracked a joke.

As if in sync, other Spartan warriors burst into laughter as well, deflating the despair that had been swirling among the soldiers.

There was also the fact that they knew the enemies wouldn’t attack immediately.

With a million troops needing to establish their positions and prepare for battle, there would be several days’ leeway before the actual attack.

* * *

And so, the standoff between the Greek allied forces and the Persian army continued day after day, with both sides wary of each other.

One day, a commotion arose where the Spartan warriors were staying.

“What is happening?”

When King Leonidas heard the commotion and went to investigate, a hunchback was there, displaying dazzling Spear Arts and engaging in close combat with the captain of the royal guard.

Clang! Clang!

Despite the physical flaw of being a hunchback, his Spear Arts surpassed those of most warriors.

“Please allow me to fight alongside the Spartan warriors as well!”

“You dare speak such presumptuous words for a hunchback! Your Spear Arts are decent, but do you think that’s enough to stand with us?!”

No matter how excellent the hunchback’s Spear Arts were, they were inevitably lacking compared to the captain of the royal guard, who stood at the pinnacle of the 300 Spartan royal guards.

Eventually, the hunchback was pushed into a disadvantage and faced the crisis of having his neck severed.

“You shall pay for that insolence with your head!”

“Wait!”

King Leonidas stepped forward and stopped the captain of the royal guard who was about to behead the hunchback.

“What is your name?”

After momentarily dismissing the captain, he asked the hunchback’s name.

The hunchback, with a moved expression, performed a respectful bow and spoke.

“E-Ephialtes.”

“Hmm. I saw your Spear Arts. They were good.”

“Then…?”

“However, you cannot stand with us.”

At King Leonidas’s refusal, a despondent Ephialtes suddenly noticed Pheidippides standing beside the king and shot him a jealous look.

“That mere messenger, the Athenian, gets to, so why can’t I fight alongside you?”

“With your hunched back, you cannot raise a shield to a sufficient height. If you truly wish to help, tending to the wounded or clearing away corpses would be good roles. And Pheidippides has already proven his qualifications.”

“Ah…”

Hearing the clear reason, he could no longer argue.

His slumped, trudging figure as he turned away was pitiful to see.

-Meow.

But then, the cat meowed and, just as it had at the dungeon’s midpoint, began to show the history of another timeline.

A vision of the original history unfolded before his eyes.

Flicker!

It was a dark night.

The wavering light of a torch illuminated a figure sitting in a tent with a weary expression.

It was Xerxes, the Emperor of Persia who had started this war.

Before him stood the hunchback they had just seen.

“I know of a hidden path that leads to Thermopylae. If I tell you of this, what reward might I receive?”

“I am generous. You shall have what you desire. Speak of the hidden path.”

“It seems I have come to the right place. Unlike King Leonidas, you are a man of great stature.”

With Xerxes’s promise, Ephialtes became the guide himself, leading the Persian Immortals toward the hidden path, and the vision before his eyes ended.

‘So the traitor was Ephialtes.’

Lee Hanseong gauged the Constellation’s intention.

By revealing the traitor, did it mean he should be dealt with before his betrayal?

But if Thermopylae isn’t breached because of that, then the Battle of Salamis wouldn’t happen, right?

He couldn’t figure out what the Constellation’s intention was at all.

“What do you wish me to do?”

He even asked the cat directly, but the cat remained silent.

The choice was solely Lee Hanseong’s.

For a moment, Lee Hanseong looked around at the Spartan warriors.

The time spent together, combined with the Battle of Marathon ten years prior, was barely over two weeks, but it was enough to become familiar with each of their faces.

‘What do I want to do?’

He asked himself.

They were all fated to die here.

No, they were already dead.

Knowing that, he had also maintained only a superficial relationship with them.

As if dealing with strangers whose deaths wouldn’t matter.

‘Really?’

But the very fact that he was agonizing over this now meant that, in his heart, he did not wish for their deaths.

If his initial plan was just to complete the Three-star promotion, he could simply turn a blind eye and ignore the traitor.

To be honest… he didn’t want to see King Leonidas, the captain, or the other warriors of the royal guard—his comrades—die.

But if Chungmugong failed to get promoted due to this Historical Alteration, it would be his real-world comrades who would be in danger.

So he tried hard to ignore it…

But still, he disliked seeing people he knew die.

‘Therefore, I will try to change the history of Thermopylae as much as possible.’

He hadn’t given up on the plan for Chungmugong’s promotion at the Battle of Salamis.

It was just a thought to try and find a path where he wouldn’t have to abandon either side.

He felt that if he didn’t do it here, he would greatly regret it later.

-Meow!

As if affirming him, the cat meowed.

Having made up his mind, Lee Hanseong sought permission from King Leonidas.

“Might I speak with that fellow Ephialtes for a moment?”

“You, Pheidippides?”

“Yes.”

“Very well, then come with me.”

King Leonidas, as if not allowing Lee Hanseong to act alone, moved his steps toward Ephialtes’s quarters with him in tow.

* * *

“Ephialtes. If you truly desire it, there is a way for you to be with us. Would you like to hear it?”

“What is…?”

When Lee Hanseong sought out Ephialtes, he didn’t outright accuse him of being a traitor.

After all, he hadn’t betrayed them yet.

Instead, he found a way to keep him by their side.

A method only possible now, when tactical actions remained feasible even after the phalanx formation was scattered through Six Harmonies Communication.

“My plan is to make you a piece that only enters the fray during individual combat, where personal capability becomes crucial, specifically when our phalanx formation collapses.”

“…Hmm.”

“If our side is dominant, you would only have to wait in the rear ranks. But if our formation collapses and we are at a disadvantage, you too could fight to your heart’s content.”

[<Persuasive Speech> attempts to persuade Ephialtes.]

……

As long as he could fight, some restrictions didn’t seem to matter, and Ephialtes ultimately accepted his proposal.

A minimal shackle had been placed on one who harbored the seed of betrayal.

It was the moment the Last Stand of Thermopylae changed into an unknown variable.

* * *

On the fifth day since the standoff began at Thermopylae, Emperor Xerxes’s attack order finally came down.

“The enemies are coming!”

Due to the constraint of that massive military force, the Persian army had to commit its strength sequentially.

Thus, the Persian vanguard stepped forward.

Confirming them, King Leonidas gathered the Greek allied forces and spoke.

“Here we stop the enemy!”

“Here we fight the enemy!”

“Here the enemy dies!”

“Remember this day, warriors.”

“From now on, it shall forever remain your day!”

With each word King Leonidas spoke, Pheidippides’s Six Harmonies Communication echoed it in unison, carrying his words even to places the sound couldn’t reach.

“Let us earn our shields, comrades!”

At the words to earn their shields, a cheer erupted from the Spartan royal guard.

In Sparta at that time, a shield was given to a warrior upon their first victory.

And King Leonidas’s words meant precisely to achieve victory.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The warriors affirmed victory with rough stomps and cheers.

And finally, the Persian army entered range.

One of the Persian generals stepped forward and shouted.

“Spartans! Lay down your arms!”

It was a surrender proposal urging disarmament.

To that, King Leonidas answered not with words but with action.

Thwack!

A single spear suddenly flew and embedded itself in the chest of the general who had urged surrender.

“Persians, come and take them yourselves!”

Confirming there was no will to surrender, the Persian troops nocked arrows to their bows.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Soon, a rain of arrows was loosed.

Countless arrows enough to blot out the sun.

Seeing that spectacle, the Spartan warriors weren’t afraid; they were even smiling.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just as the captain said!”

“What?”

“That we’d be fighting in the shade!”

The warriors, holding their shields and linking them with their comrades’ to block the arrows, charged toward the Persian army and met the enemies.

It was the beginning of the Battle of Thermopylae.

* * *

The form of the battle that unfolded thereafter was simple.

Since the Greek allies occupied the strategic point, they didn’t need a large number of available troops.

And the phalanx formation, as proven in the Battle of Marathon, allowed a small number to effectively confront a large enemy force.

Furthermore, since not all soldiers were deployed in the formation at once but rotated in shifts to conserve stamina, combat sustainability was not an issue.

Clang! Thud! Thud! Slash!

“Gah!”

“Kuhak!”

As the Median troops who had served as the vanguard were ground down in a blender-like manner and died in countless numbers, Emperor Xerxes, watching the battle from the rear, could no longer remain still.

“Commit the Immortals.”

Rising from his seat, he attempted a second attack with his strongest force of 10,000 troops.

But even the Persian elite, the Immortals, couldn’t achieve better results than the previous attack.

“Retreat!”

The Spartans used a tactical retreat ploy to lure pursuit.

When the Immortals’ formation broke…

“Reversal! Annihilate the enemy!”

They immediately turned back around and slaughtered them—a tactic.

[Leonidas’s <Command> combines with 《Six Harmonies Communication》, applying the 【One Heart One Body】 effect to allies.]

The battle following the attack that struck the enemy’s weak point was closer to harvesting than fighting.

Slash slash slash slash!

On the first day, the Spartan army’s casualties were merely two or three, despite slaughtering hundreds, thousands of enemies.

The next day, as dawn broke, Emperor Xerxes believed he would win today.

“The enemy is few, and they must be incapacitated by injuries from yesterday’s battle. There will be no further resistance. Attack!”

But that was a misconception.

“Uwaaah!”

“You said they couldn’t fight anymore! What is this?!”

On the contrary, the Greek allies, whose morale had risen due to the first day’s victory, seemed to fight even better than yesterday.

And that was the truth.

‘<Command> skill Proficiency is rising rapidly through experiencing real combat.’

While relaying King Leonidas’s commands, Lee Hanseong was also growing.

The king’s intentions, which he had only roughly guessed before, were now being read in detail, and the method of relaying through Six Harmonies Communication was becoming more sophisticated.

Every word and action Leonidas showed became a lesson, nourishment for the <Command> skill.

‘That order just now is more urgent than the previous one.’

It wasn’t just about repeating King Leonidas’s words; his command ability had risen to the level where he could grasp the core of given orders and adjust the sequence of command delivery himself.

[<Command> skill resonates with King Leonidas’s <Command>!]

Even without using the <Empathy> skill, empathy was being achieved with King Leonidas.

Simultaneously, the soldiers receiving commands also began to feel more and more like his own limbs.

‘Now is the time.’

<Overmind> expands to the entire Greek alliance, and <Hivemind> is formed.

In this moment, the Greek allied forces were no different from a single organism.

Thump thump thump thump thump!

“Re, retreat! Fall back quickly and preserve our forces!”

Seeing his troops dying even faster than the previous day, Emperor Xerxes was utterly flustered and had no choice but to withdraw his forces.

With the traitor who would have been a problem on the third day also prepared for in advance, it seemed possible to hold off the Persian army for days like this.

But it seemed the history of defeat wouldn’t change so easily.

“The detour has been breached?!”

Ephialtes was clearly still by their side.

Yet, somehow, on the third day, the Persian army discovered the detour, just as in the original history.

For Lee Hanseong, who had been inwardly letting his guard down while keeping Ephialtes by their side under surveillance, this news was like a bolt from the blue.