Chapter 112 – The Hero's Return (2)

War had broken out.

The goddess’s protection that had guarded the city was long gone.

“Damn it!”

“Still no reinforcements?”

“Set up the palisades!”

Soldiers, armed with shields and spears, defended the breached gate.

Zombie soldiers rushed the gate in a relentless tide.

They raised their shields to protect the comrade beside them and thrust their spears to fell the enemy before them.

The phalanx, a basic military tactic, proved effective even against monsters.

*Swoosh, swish!*

The archers on the walls, loosing arrows, grit their teeth as they watched their allies being brutally torn apart.

“Fuck, you goddamn zombie bastards!”

They cursed at the sight of the monsters, which kept moving even after being struck by fire arrows.

The sight of the soldiers holding the line, enduring even as zombies bit and tore at them, was horrific.

The archers gazed beyond the walls.

“Damn it.”

It was a relief that their comrades fighting below couldn’t see that sight.

“Damn it!”

The undead army, once ten thousand strong, had now grown countless.

At a rough estimate, it looked to be ten times that size.

A city that had lost its goddess’s protection.

The drawbridge had not been the real problem.

It was as if this morning’s events had been mere entertainment.

That innumerable army of the undying was swarming forward to devour humanity’s last bastion.

“Kuh, I… I can’t take any more…!”

He had trained every day, had envisioned the manner of his own death.

But he had hoped it wouldn’t be a picture of him being eaten by zombies.

Faced with the endless horde of zombies, the city’s soldiers began to crumble.

“Relief!”

“Relief!”

“Gaaah!”

“Get up! Snap out of it, you idiot!”

They hadn’t neglected their training for a day like this.

Rather than dwell on the terror of the monsters, the soldiers chose to simply move like cogs in a machine.

Thrust the spear forward. Retrieve it. Thrust forward again. Retrieve.

Never let go of the shield.

His arm was already aching and numb, but the moment he lowered his shield would be the moment he left his comrade beside him naked before the enemy.

“Damn it, arrows! We’re out of arrows!”

There had been a mountain of them just a moment ago, but now the quiver was empty.

Just then, someone brought a bundle of arrows to the soldier’s side.

The archer’s pupils wavered slightly as he saw the child who had brought the arrows.

“Here you go.”

“R-Right. Thanks.”

It was a small child.

The archer finally looked around. The townspeople were the ones resupplying them on the walls.

There were people of all ages, men and women alike.

“Damn it.”

The archer glanced down at his fingernail-torn fingers. This was no time to complain about pain.

Even the children, drenched in sweat, were continuously carrying munitions for the siege weapons.

The soldier drew his bowstring again.

The one silver lining was that the undead had no intelligence.

They were simply pushing forward with sheer numbers.

The city focused its defenses entirely around the main gate.

Thanks to this, the battle line that had been pushed back was slowly recovering.

“Huh…?”

Just then, a soldier guarding the wall couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Damn it, the wall! They’re climbing the wall!”

There were undead scaling the ramparts.

A grotesque creature with the body of a spider and the head of a human was climbing up under the cover of the evening dusk.

Horrified at the sight, the soldiers shot arrows at the insectoid humans below.

*Swish, thud!*

The civilians, too, began to participate in the battle to defend the city, no longer just resupplying.

They picked up the stones they had been giving to the soldiers and threw them themselves.

*Crack!*

Struck by a rock, an insectoid human fell to the ground.

Another one continued to climb the wall, indifferent to its comrade’s death.

“W-We’re all going to die! We’re going to die!”

One person clutched their head and wailed.

Even the strongest-willed person couldn’t help but despair in this situation.

“Shut up, you idiot! Use that time to throw another stone!”

“It’d be a damn shame to die before I even got married.”

There seemed to be a variant among them, one that was particularly fast.

In an instant, it scrambled up the wall and tore out an archer’s throat.

“Gaaah!”

The archer died instantly, before anyone could help.

To avenge their fallen comrade, another soldier smashed the monster’s head.

As darkness fell, all they could see was the still-endless advance of monsters.

*Can we survive?*

For a moment, that thought crossed the soldiers’ minds.

No, the civilians felt the same.

The swarming black corpses, preaching an inevitable death, showed them there was no hope.

“Nngh, ungh.”

A boy, his legs trembling from carrying heavy sling stones, came into view.

The adults pushed aside the despair poisoning their minds and picked up the stones the child had brought.

There was still hope.

Normally, they might have succumbed to despair. But fortunately.

As if by fate, the first Hero had descended upon this place today.

“Idiots. Their commanders must be morons too.”

The captain of the soldiers laughed, a sound out of place in the situation.

“If they’d come yesterday, they would’ve taken the city. Why start a siege only after the Hero arrives?”

“Captain, didn’t you know their brains rotted away long ago?”

“You’re right.”

At their captain’s cheerful words, the others also laughed as they loosed arrows and threw stones.

The captain shouted as he lopped off the head of an insectoid human that had climbed the wall.

“Let’s show every last one of these bastards they picked the wrong day!”

Just then, the sound of an explosion echoed from a distant spot.

“W-What is that?”

The outer wall, far from the main gate.

Something with a colossal body began to cast a shadow.

“A giant?”

Where did it come from?

Those who wondered soon felt a wave of disgust as they identified it.

The giant was a creature formed from numerous zombies tangled together.

Looking closely, they could see that each and every finger was a zombie soldier.

The creature, so repulsive it was hard to even look at, was smashing the human city wall with its bare hands.

*CRASH! CRASH!*

The zombies that made up the giant’s hands burst like tomatoes and flowed away. Other zombies filled the empty spaces, and the spent fist continued to hammer the wall.

Only then did the people realize.

That fleeting hope of victory.

How arrogant a thought it had been.

Their opponent in this war was not human.

They were monsters beyond all common sense.

“If they break through there…”

There were no defensive forces at that part of the wall. Only a skeleton crew.

If they broke through a place like that.

“We’re finished…”

*Rumble—*

The wall collapsed.

Through the gap created in a cloud of dust, armed Skeleton Warriors began to pour in.

They had desperately defended the front, but this was an enemy assault from an unexpected direction.

Therefore, there were no troops stationed there.

A wide-open breach in the wall.

The incoming tide of skeletons.

The minds of the soldiers watching the scene went blank.

The Skeleton Warriors clattered their teeth, expressing joy at the impending slaughter.

But the humans’ response was a step faster.

“Temple Knights, all units.”

The city’s lord, having sensed a suspicious presence, had already made his move.

“Charge.”

At the lord’s command, knights arranged in a single line advanced toward the Skeleton Warriors.

A knight’s most powerful attack was the lance charge.

But in urban warfare, not on an open field, that was impossible.

That didn’t mean their strength was diminished.

These were knights who had trained relentlessly, assuming such a day might come.

Their order was once called the Invincible Special Cavalry, but the Hero had told them to change the childish name, and so they became the Temple Knights.

*Thwack! Shhlick!*

The Skeleton Warriors engaged the knights, wielding the swords and spears they had used in life.

But the battle.

“Do not let a single one of them approach the city!”

Was one-sided.

No matter that they were monsters, before the rank at which a human, honed through endless training, could become strongest.

Before a knight, all were equal.

*Hiss. Hsssss.*

The skeletons only made a deflating sound, their empty jaws clattering.

Of course, their last words never reached the knights.

Even if they were warriors in their past lives, there was no way a knight would fall to a mindless monster.

*Swoosh! CRACK!*

“Ellen!”

A knight called out to his comrade.

A boulder had suddenly flown in. The knight, unable to dodge it in time, was crushed along with his armor and died instantly.

Lord Roystan frowned.

The massive zombie giant had climbed over the broken wall. Behind it, knights radiating a gloomy aura appeared.

“Death Knights.”

Monsters created by reanimating former knights with undead magic.

Possessing the strength and skill from their living days, Death Knights were a symbol of fear.

“Hoh hoh hoh, what’s this? They’re quite a lively bunch, aren’t they?”

A gray-skinned woman perched on the zombie giant’s shoulder laughed sweetly.

Vertical pupils and horns on her head.

She was a necromancer, one of the more troublesome high-ranking demons.

“Well, it’s better than something boring. Fight hard, everyone. I’ll make a special exception and turn the good fighters into Death Knights for me.”

The necromancer said, gesturing with her hand.

At the same time, the Death Knights began to move, gliding across the ground like ghosts.

“The city’s finances are tight, so we’re short on funds for the bereaved. Try not to die if you can help it.”

Roystan made the grim joke.

The knights also laughed as they readjusted their grip on their swords.

“For the Hero.”

Lord Roystan spoke.

“For the Hero!”

The knights, ready to lay down their lives, echoed the cry.

They had no intention of dying easily.

His arrival in the city at this moment of crisis was surely the goddess’s guidance.

By buying time, they would allow the blade known as the Hero to reach the enemy’s throat.

That was their role.

Roystan also drew his sword from its sheath and took his place at the very front.

Though he had aged, his spirit was still on that field, running alongside the Hero.

There would be great losses.

No, they might even be annihilated.

But they could not hope for the Hero’s help here and now.

They had to survive and fight here with their own strength alone.

The battle began.

Sparks flew as the cursed aura of the Death Knights clashed with the blessed aura of the knights.

The fifty-man death squad did not yield an inch, even as the Death Knights and Skeleton Warriors charged.

Even as they fell one by one, not a single one turned their back.

“For… the Hero!”

A knight met a heroic end.

*Shlick!*

He sliced deeply into a Death Knight’s body.

Dark red, rotten blood spurted from between its armor plates. But it did not stop, charging the knight who had cut it.

“You think this is a dog’s death?”

The knight sneered at the Death Knight.

Blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth.

“As a knight, you things who have retraced death would never understand.”

The Death Knight raised its sword toward the fallen knight’s neck.

“For the Hero.”

He did not regret dying.

He only regretted that he would not see the Hero’s plan succeed.

*Shlick!*

A sharp sound cut through the air.

What rolled across the ground was the Death Knight’s head.

The knight’s pupils dilated.

The mysterious blond, blue-eyed man who had beheaded the Death Knight.

His sword strike was so fluid and clean.

“Do not do that.”

The man, who looked as if he’d stepped out of a fairy tale, muttered gloomily.

He cut down another Death Knight.

His swordsmanship was as picturesque as his appearance.

“The Hero doesn’t like that sort of thing.”

Muttering this, the man began to move slowly.

The Death Knights, as if sensing the sudden appearance of a powerful foe, readjusted their grips on their swords and charged.

“Kuh, dangerous…!”

The Death Knights attacked all at once, their swords forming a deadly net.

The man let his sword hang toward the ground and walked as if on a stroll.

*Shlick, thwack!*

The man thrust and sliced his sword with a fluid grace, as if swimming through water.

A movement so flawless it could be called a textbook on swordsmanship.

His skill was reminiscent of someone from long ago.

“Siegfried?”

Lord Roystan couldn’t believe his eyes.

Captain of the Hero’s Royal Guard.

The genius with the greatest swordsmanship among the Hero’s knights.

The monster said to perhaps surpass even the Hero in pure swordsmanship had appeared here, now.

*’But…’*

Roystan was bewildered.

Because the Siegfried he knew was already dead.