TMHR - Chapter 49

Episode 49: The Hungry Walls and Vanguard Kian

A massive, grayish-white rampart encircled the outer perimeter of the imperial capital. Atop this magnificent wall-which had symbolized the grandeur of the Great Empire and an impregnable absolute fortress, having fended off countless brutal invasions by foreign enemies throughout centuries of long history- a silence far more horrific and wretched than the Grim Reaper was now weighing down. 

The thousands of Imperial Guards manning the watchtowers lacked even the slightest strength to stand holding their spears. Leaning against the ice-cold stone floor of the wall with pale faces, they gasped for miserable breaths like beasts. The biting winds of late winter blowing from the north mercilessly dug into the cracks of the wall, tearing at the soldiers' skin. 

Long, long days had already passed since Liliana, the acting merchant of Castillo, had completely cut off the distribution of all food and iron ore to the Empire and blockaded the domestic market. The food ration wagons for the garrison had completely ceased operations three days ago. In the sunken pupils of the soldiers clutching their starving stomachs, any loyalty to the Emperor had long since evaporated; instead, they were filled only with a desperate yearning for survival. 

The old, tattered supply armor they wore offered no protection whatsoever against the deadly cold of the harsh winter. With the firewood for sharpening weapons and the iron at the blacksmiths completely depleted, the swords and spears in the soldiers' hands were in a miserable state, sharply chipped and covered in red rust-no different from scrap metal found on the street. 

"I am so hungry my vision has gone dark, Captain. When on earth will the Imperial Palace send us food? At this rate, we will starve to death before we are killed by the enemy's swords." 

A young soldier, bleeding from his cracked lips, clung to the garrison captain's trousers and wailed in agony. The commander of the garrison, too, had gone without food for days, his cheeks hideously gouged. Unable to bring himself to meet the young soldier's eyes, he simply pounded the innocent stones of the castle wall with his fists. It was a terrible reality where these powerless soldiers on the front lines were the first to pay the price with tears of blood for the Emperor, seated on the throne, having provoked the monstrous capital known as Castillo while consumed by incompetence and arrogance. 

It was a moment of miserable and desolate despair. 

Kugugugugu !!! 

A massive earthquake, sounding as if it were brutally tearing apart the frozen earth from the very bottom, began to shake the parched plains on the outskirts of the capital like a madman. The garrison members, who had collapsed from starvation, recoiled in terror, staggering to their feet and gazing down at the dizzying horizon below the castle walls. 

"W-what on earth is that? Is it an earthquake, or is the mountain moving?" 

Someone let out a scream of astonishment. An overwhelming and wondrous formation, cleaving the white snowfields far to the north like a tsunami of pitch-black storm clouds. The 10,000 Black Lion Iron Cavalry of Grand Duke Caelon of the North, boasting the continent's greatest military power, were charging forward, baring their ruthless and ferocious teeth to completely trample the heart of the Empire. The hot breath exhaled by the snorts of these massive, well-fed, and well-trained northern warhorses burned the cold winter air white as they advanced furiously. 

The soldiers' finest black iron armor and sturdy shields radiated a chilling, blue killing intent in the morning sunlight. Their eyes gleamed with fanatical fighting spirit, as if ready to shatter the fortress walls before them and tear at the Emperor's leash at any moment. They were perfect combat machines and a magnificent legion of beasts, their very existence fundamentally different from that of the Imperial Guards, who were nothing but skin and bones after starving for three days, trembling with rusty swords. 

In the very center of that overwhelming army, Eleanor, with a pitch-black uniform coat draped over her shoulders, sat atop a massive black horse, gazing up with a noble posture at the firmly closed walls of the capital. Her silver hair fluttered in the wind, yet her red eyes pierced coldly into the rotten heart of the empire without the slightest wavering. 

Beside her, Grand Duke Caelon of the North, shouldering a greatsword even larger than himself, rode his horse, silently guarding her while maintaining a distance like the world's most solid and reliable shield. Simply by exchanging glances toward the battlefield, the two perfectly shared absolute trust and the heavy sense of solidarity they bore as rulers of the continent. 

Caelon's golden eyes watched the enemies ahead with a cold and rational killing intent, ensuring that not even the slightest obstacle lay in the path his great liege, Eleanor, walked. 

"The enemy! The enemy is swarming in! It is the mad monsters of the North! Assume battle stances immediately!" 

From atop the castle wall, the captain of the garrison shouted at the top of his lungs in a hoarse voice, swinging his rusty sword in the air. 

"Pull the bowstring! We must stop those monsters from approaching the gate for His Imperial Majesty!" 

Although the captain's desperate command was given, none of the soldiers on the wall moved. No, they could not move. Their fingers, muscles withered from starvation, had lost even the minimal grip strength needed to pull the bowstring taut. The old bows and arrows the soldiers tried to lift fell limply to the ground with a dull thud. 

"Captain, we cannot possibly fight. We have gone without food for three days straight and do not have the strength to stand." 

Dozens of soldiers burst into tears and slumped to their knees on the spot. 

"If we wield these rusty swords against those monsters, we will all be annihilated, reduced to mere chunks of flesh, without even a shred of bone left. Let us rather open the gates and surrender. Please, spare our lives." 

The soldiers threw their weapons down the wall and began to wail in unison. The soldiers' spirit to defend the walls with their lives completely evaporated in the face of the primal terror born of empty stomachs and the overwhelming might of the Northern Army. The commander of the garrison, too, dropped his sword to the ground as he looked down at the wretched sight of his despairing soldiers. 

Beneath the walls, amidst that miserable and desperate chaos, a single knight at the forefront of the Northern camp charged fiercely, spurring his massive black horse. It was Knight Kian, who had once hovered between life and death while trying to protect Liliana from an assassin's raid. Powered by the sacred energy of the Northern Grand Duchy and the continent's finest elixir poured by Liliana, he had not only completely recovered from his fatal wounds but was now spewing the spirit of a beast-far larger and more ferocious than before like a volcano. 

As he galloped toward the capital, Kian's eyes burned madly, directed solely toward the heart of the Empire where his great liege, Eleanor, who had taken his life, and Liliana, the only woman he was to protect with his entire life, waited. 

"I will open a path through these rotten walls for my liege!" 

Kian's massive, beast-like roar struck the thick walls of the capital like a bolt of lightning. The guards trembling atop the walls recoiled in terror at the sheer volume of his voice and fell backward. Reaching the very gate, Kian nimbly leaped from the saddle of his galloping black horse and firmly gripped a greatsword, much taller than himself, with both hands. 

Whoosh -!!! 

An overwhelming, deep blue sword aura burst from his massive torso, creating a fierce vortex that perfectly enveloped the blade of the greatsword as it soared high into the sky. It was a manifestation of the highest-class aura that ordinary Imperial knights could never reach, even with a lifetime of training. 

"No! Defend the gates! Stop that madman's attack!" 

The captain of the defense on the ramparts screamed as if spitting blood, trying to grab a stone from the ground to throw, but it was already too late. Without a moment's hesitation, Kian raised his massive greatsword high above his head. The hot tears Liliana had shed while holding him, and the glorious position of Vanguard of the Northern Knights bestowed upon him by Eleanor. All those emotions and loyalty flowed through Kian's blood and condensed perfectly at the tip of the greatsword.

"Open!" 

With Kian's roar, his greatsword struck like lightning toward the massive steel gate on the outskirts of the capital, which boasted a thickness of tens of feet, tracing a merciless diagonal trajectory. 

A terrible and astonishing roar erupted, sounding as if thunder from the sky were plummeting to the earth. The entire wall shook and trembled wildly, as if an earthquake had struck. This colossal steel gate, which had boasted of being impregnable for centuries, fending off the fierce invasions of countless enemies, was the Emperor's last shred of pride and the Empire's flimsy shield. 

That massive mass of iron shattered into pieces like a thin sugar candy under the overwhelming blow of a single knight, collapsing miserably inward. Clouds of dust and sharp fragments of iron scattered in all directions like an exploding bomb. The massive marble pillars that had firmly supported the castle gate tumbled down like dominoes, plunging the defenders behind the walls into a cauldron of hellish terror. 

"The castle... the gate has been breached. That is not a knight. It is a monster! It is not human power! Flee immediately!" 

The Imperial infantry, who had been haphazardly forming a defensive line in the inner fortress behind the gate, completely lost their will to fight in the face of that overwhelming and unreal destructive power. Throwing down their spears and shields without a second thought, they scattered in all directions, screaming as they fled toward the inner alleys of the capital. It was a desperate moment of the final line of defense, meant to protect the Imperial Household, collapsing in the most futile and miserable manner, completely shattered by a single blow from the North. 

Amidst the shattered remains of the gate as the dust slowly cleared, Kian stood towering like a colossal statue, breathing heavily like a beast, with a greatsword shimmering with a blue aura slung indifferently over his shoulder. He emitted a chilling, murderous aura toward the remnants of the Imperial forces trembling in fear while hiding beyond the collapsed castle walls. 

"The Great Mistress of Castillo is entering. I will slice through every rat that dares to block the path of my Lord without a trace with this greatsword. If you wish to preserve your lives, prostrate yourself on the ground immediately, kneel, and open the way wide!" 

Unable to flee at that brutal and overwhelming roar, the remaining Imperial soldiers flattened themselves on the ground, their hands clasped together in begging, and desperately pleaded for their lives to be spared. Eleanor, who had been waiting outside the walls, gazed down at the scene of destruction from her black horse, wearing a deep and noble smile befitting a ruler.

Standing beside her, Caelon also nodded silently as if sincerely acknowledging Kian's overwhelming martial prowess, and lightly stroked the hilt of his massive greatsword. 

"You are truly a magnificent and dependable vanguard. My daughter-in-law's eye for keeping a loyal dog by her side is indeed precise and fierce." 

Eleanor pulled on the reins of her black horse and began to walk slowly toward the rubble of the shattered castle gate. 

The murderous aura emanating from the 10,000 Northern Ironclads following behind her enveloped the sky over the capital. The sound of the Empire's rotten power crumbling echoed majestically in Eleanor's ears, like the most enchanting symphony in the world. 

"Now, it is time to go and completely sever the Emperor's breath, Grand Duke. All troops, enter the center of the capital." 

No sooner had Eleanor's firm yet dignified command been given than 10,000 Black Lion Ironclads poured unhinderedly into the destroyed gate like a waterfall, shattering the earth. 

It was a historic moment when the capital's defenses collapsed without the Imperial army shedding a single drop of blood.

Previous                Next