Academy’s Barbarian

A few minutes ago…

The priest of the Bølberg Church Order, Heibern, looked around in astonishment. Enemy flags were everywhere.

The battle situation was rushing toward defeat. The warriors engraved with runes displayed astonishing firepower and fought valiantly, but it wasn’t enough to stop the breakthrough of the black-armored cavalry.

The Black Armies of Ka`har. Their strength was nothing short of a nightmare for the people of Dane.

“What on earth is Ragnar thinking?”

Could it be that he intended to sacrifice even us? As suspicion and anxiety gnawed at his mind, Heibern trembled with betrayal, recalling Ragnar, who had orchestrated this entire situation.

This couldn’t be happening.

If things had gone according to plan, Ka`har and the Empire would have clashed, and all they had to do was sweep up the handful of survivors.

But from the moment the sudden order to retreat was given, everything had gone awry, collapsing away from the original plan.

“Has Ragnar betrayed us…?!”

Thus, Heibern couldn’t help but suspect that Ragnar intended to abandon them.

In reality, Ragnar had already been smashed to pieces along with the royal palace by the Empire’s strategic weapon in Edricksa.

Regardless, Heibern believed that if things continued this way, instead of standing tall by reaping the benefits between the Empire and Ka`har, they would simply become meaningless sacrifices trampled under Ka`har’s hooves.

“Then…”

After a moment of contemplation, Heibern made a decision upon seeing Burgund, the commander of the defense forces, being overwhelmed by the enemy’s War Chief.

Since all plans had gone awry, he too no longer needed to act according to the original plan.

“…Bølberg. I offer the souls of the fallen warriors. Open the gates of the Heavenly Palace and send the angel of war to our side.”

Heibern scooped up the blood soaking the ground and raised it toward the sky, offering a prayer. The secret ritual of the Bølberg Church Order, established by Cardinal Wolfgang of the Holy Kingdom. To summon the Valkyrie.

The Warrior God answered the prayer.

—

– Kwaaaarung!

A gray pillar of light descended from the sky with a thunderous roar, blocking Ibamai, who was about to split Burgund’s head.

“What kind of trick is this now?!”

Feeling the ominous aura from the pillar of light, Ibamai quickly retreated, abandoning his attempt to extract Burgund’s brain. The newly appeared presence felt several times more threatening than the nearly dead man.

‘These damn sorcerers, casting some incomprehensible spell again…!’

Ibamai, tense with instinctive wariness, threw aside his ruined axe and grabbed the Crescent Moon Blade embedded in the ground.

Though he couldn’t tell what kind of spell had been cast, his nerves were fiercely warning him. The emergence of a new formidable foe. His black eyes glared piercingly into the pillar of light.

Soon, as the gray pillar of light dissipated like mist clearing, in the midst of the battlefield,

【óvinur. athugaðu.】

An angel of war with black wings spread wide descended.

The souls of all who had fallen in this battle, a sacrifice more than sufficient to open the heavens and summon the angel.

—

“What the hell are you…?”

Ibamai, his brow furrowed under the tension pressing down on his shoulders, glared fiercely at the new formidable foe who had suddenly appeared.

A spear of divine light wrapped in a storm, a circular shield shaped like condensed fog. A female warrior clad in gray chain armor and a winged helmet.

Though she resembled a human, there was an indescribable sense of otherness about her.

The aura she exuded was on par with his, perhaps even greater. Unless it was Or-han or Glar, Ibamai, who had lost his former prowess due to his severed leg, found it difficult to gauge his chances against her.

【 ……. 】

The Valkyrie did not respond.

Whether she was a being incapable of communication or simply didn’t understand the Eastern Language, she merely raised her storm-wreathed spear and flapped her wings toward him.

“Ha, no need for words, huh? Fine. I’ll smash that thick skull of yours and find out who you are!”

Ibamai firmly gripped the hilt of the Crescent Moon Blade with both hands and charged headlong at the Valkyrie flying toward him like an arrow. The War Chief’s blade, filled with killing intent, swung through the air.

—

The summoning of the Valkyrie brought a new wind to the battlefield.

The angel of war, a symbol of Bølberg. Her descent was proof that the Warrior God’s blessing was with them in this fight.

“Behold! The Valkyrie! The Warrior God has sent an angel for us!”

The morale of the Dane army soared. Trembling with religious fervor, they began to fight with several times more ferocity than before. If they had been fighting without regard for their lives earlier, now they were fighting as if to die.

“The Warrior God watches over us! The gates of the Heavenly Palace are wide open!”

The paradise of the brave who died in battle, the Heavenly Palace.

Now that the Valkyrie, who would guide them to the Heavenly Palace, had appeared, the people of Dane raged like lunatics, seeking to be allowed into the Heavenly Palace under Bølberg’s gaze.

Eternal life and deathless battle, bountiful feasts and the service of Valkyries awaited them.

Though the Valkyrie, who had descended with great momentum, was currently held up by a single War Chief, her mere presence exerted an influence dozens of times greater than her actual combat power.

“These lunatics. Are they going all out now? What’s with that winged monster?!”

Of course, for the Grassland People, who neither knew nor cared about Dane’s faith, it was merely a situation where the enemy had suddenly gone mad.

For the Grassland People, whose faiths had been completely eradicated, the concept of religious fervor didn’t exist, so they could only see their opponents as lunatics.

A man with both arms gone rolled under a horse’s hooves, being trampled while biting at the horse’s ankle. If this wasn’t lunacy, what was?

Even the elite Black Armies hesitated somewhat in the face of the Dane people’s ferocity as they threw themselves into the fray.

The scales of the battlefield, which had been tipping toward Dane’s defeat, briefly balanced. Though it was a fleeting change that would tip back the moment the Valkyrie’s summoning time ran out.

—

======[ Inner Fortress ]======

– Kwaaaaang!

With a deafening explosion, the marble of the garden shattered into pieces.

Frederick, embedded in the ground, convulsed as he vomited blood. The result of Or-han’s fist strike, which had broken through after deflecting Einfeldt’s flash.

The fist of Divine Blood, protected by the Indestructible Body, crushed Frederick’s arm like soft tofu and easily pierced through the sturdy black iron breastplate, shattering all his ribs.

A fatal wound without a doubt. The broken ribs pierced his lungs, leaving Frederick unable to even breathe properly.

“Fre…derick…sir…!”

Seeing Frederick’s collapsed form, Joshua, trembling violently, forced his head up and screamed as if vomiting blood.

He too was in terrible shape. His sword was broken, leaving only the hilt, and his left arm was barely attached at the shoulder. Both legs had been torn off at the joints and were floating on the garden’s pond.

Or-han, who had begun to unleash his power without reserve to end the battle as quickly as possible, was like a human-shaped landslide, and the two heroes, struggling with all their might, were eventually crushed like beasts caught in a disaster.

Heinrich, unable to stand by, joined in, exposing a gap to War Chief Hatan, but the heroic tale that shook the earth was utterly powerless against the superhuman who walked the heavens.

“You fought well. Better than I expected. If you had been born as warriors of Ai-shan, I would have praised you without reserve and bestowed upon you the rank of War Chief.”

Or-han, breathing heavily, praised them. Having intended to annihilate them and return as quickly as possible, Or-han had no choice but to expend considerable strength to overwhelm the two heroes.

His muscles ached with heavy fatigue, and he felt a sense of emptiness as if his body had been hollowed out.

Having fought by maintaining the Indestructible Body at all times and unleashing attacks of unstoppable force, his Feats had dropped to a third of their usual level.

Though it had only taken about ten minutes to crush the two heroes.

“But…unfortunately, you were born as Westerners. Enemies of our Ka`har. Thus, all I can bestow upon you is a Westerner’s fitting end.”

Or-han pressed the blade of his Crimson Blade against Joshua’s neck as he spoke.

“To lose, to be robbed, to meet death. That is the fate you deserve.”

“……Your words are unnecessarily long.”

Joshua spat out a bloodied cough as he replied. A complete defeat. He had no strength left to resist.

‘Elpinel, oh heavenly gods. Why…have you granted such barbaric strength to this one…?’

Joshua, his lips twisted in resentment, looked up at the sky. To convey his lament to the gods in the heavens.

And then he saw it.

Something crimson, flying through the clouds at lightning speed.

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