The Swordmaster Who Returned After 1,000 Years

Chapter 101

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]

Chapter 101

The Viltre Fortress, located in the northern region of the Oblaine Duchy.

Nestled between the canyons, this fortress boasted towering walls, making it a natural stronghold that had never once allowed an enemy invasion.

Before dungeon portals appeared, when wars were waged fiercely among humans, armies would go out of their way to bypass this fortress—no one dared to take it head-on.

But that was only when the enemy was human.

Now, the undefeated fortress was facing a dire crisis due to a monster wave.

—"This is relentless."

Lioness let out a sigh as he gazed up at the sky.

It was midnight, with the moon hanging high above.

A time when any human would naturally be asleep.

However—

—"Grrrr!!"

The monsters’ assault was even more intense in the dead of night.

A horde of monsters climbed over the mountain of corpses piled up beyond the fortress walls.

They neither slept nor ate, advancing ceaselessly.

—"Lioness, we’ll have to push through once again."

—"Haah… Brother, do those things ever get tired?"

—"No. They don’t eat, drink, or sleep. Even monsters that wouldn’t normally cooperate march together in perfect formation. If we weren’t fighting from Viltre Fortress, we’d have already fallen."

Lioness nodded.

If this weren’t a canyon fortress, where they only needed to defend from one direction, there would be no way to withstand such a relentless assault.

Especially if the walls weren’t as high as they were, the monsters climbing over the corpses would have long since overrun the fortress.

—"Still, at this rate, we won’t last more than a few days."

—"We just need to hold out a little longer. The Second Prince is coming with Princess Violet as reinforcements."

—"That woman is coming? Hah. She ignored me when I begged for help before."

—"I just received the news myself… Seems like something happened in the capital."

Guntrian, the second son of the Oblaine Duchy, spoke with a hint of excitement as he looked at his younger brother.

—"More importantly, a Sword Master has appeared."

—"Brother, a Sword Master? You must have received some nonsense report."

—"And that Sword Master exposed the First Prince as a servant of the demons and eradicated the demon forces hiding within the palace."

—"…Does that even make sense?"

A Sword Master has appeared?

The First Prince is a servant of the demons?

There were demons hiding within the palace?

His brother must be exhausted from standing guard at the battlefield for days without rest.

Lioness couldn’t think otherwise.

—"Well, I didn’t believe it at first either… but there’s no way the duchy would joke about something like this over communication channels."

—"That’s absurd."

—"Heh. That Sword Master is coming to reinforce the fortress, so if we hold out long enough, we’ll see him with our own eyes."

Guntrian, his eyes weary from exhaustion, looked down from the fortress wall.

Towering monsters, standing over four to five meters tall, were forming the vanguard as they advanced.

Crunch. Crunch.

The monster army slowly pressed forward, trampling over the piles of corpses below the fortress.

Their eyes were vacant. Their footsteps synchronized.

Even compared to an elite human force, their formations were perfectly aligned.

Guntrian let out a long sigh as he watched.

Where were these endless waves of monsters coming from?

After two days without sleep while commanding the defense, he felt like he could collapse at any moment.

—‘I have to hold out, even if only to see the Sword Master.’

Guntrian, the second son of the Oblaine Duchy.

Lacking talent as a mage, he had chosen the path of a knight and reached the level of Knight Meister, making him one of the greatest knights in the kingdom.

For someone who had devoted himself to the sword for so long, the emergence of a Sword Master was nothing short of a shock.

He understood it well—having walked the path of knighthood himself.

A Sword Master was a realm that should be impossible to attain.

That made him want to see it all the more.

To witness, with his own eyes, the Sword Master spoken of in rumors—alive and in person.

—“Knight Meisters, equip your Mana Suits!”

Shiiing—

At Guntrian’s command, the knights activated their Mana Suits in unison.

Ordinarily, using Mana Suits was considered wasteful.

But the Oblaine Duchy had enough wealth to afford such extravagance without issue.

—“All knights, raise your shields!”

—“Yes, sir!”

At the next command, not only the ordinary knights but even those wearing Mana Suits raised their large shields in formation.

Their goal was singular.

To protect the Mage Meisters.

—“Mages, prepare to begin.”

—“Yes, Sir Lioness.”

Following Guntrian’s lead, Lioness issued orders to the waiting Meisters, and the commands quickly spread among the mages.

—“Equip your Mana Suits.”

—“Another wave is coming! Put on your Mana Suits!”

—“Damn… those things just keep coming.”

Unlike the knights, who were perfectly disciplined, the mages’ preparations were all over the place.

That was to be expected.

The knights belonged to the duchy, but the Mage Meisters weren’t only from the Oblaine Duchy. They had been dispatched from various Magic Towers, so they weren’t as well-coordinated.

—‘Still, we should be grateful they came to this fortress at all.’

Thinking this, Lioness equipped his own Mana Suit.

—“Inferno—Assimilation.”

His body transformed into a radiant form of golden flames.

Fully manifesting Spiritization from the start, Lioness strode toward the fortress wall.

—“Reload—Fire Wave!”

Whooosh!

A massive wave of fire erupted forward, incinerating the piled corpses at the base of the wall before sweeping into the monster horde.

Perhaps because he had used the spell at maximum output from the beginning, Fire Wave engulfed a significant number of monsters.

The corpses burned intensely.

A towering inferno surged forward.

Any living being would have instinctively fled.

But the monsters—

—“Grrrr!”

Even as their bodies caught fire, they continued advancing as if nothing had happened.

The sheer intensity of the flames meant they couldn’t walk for long before being reduced to ashes.

Yet still, the monsters willingly threw themselves into the inferno.

The monsters showed no fear of death.

Seeing this, Lioness felt a chill run down his spine.

—‘With flames this intense, they should be avoiding them instinctively…!’

But instead, the ogres, their bodies engulfed in flames, trudged toward the piles of corpses and began hurling the burning bodies over the fortress walls.

Many of them struck the wall and fell back to the ground, but some managed to reach the top.

—“Use shield magic!”

—“Shield!”

Thud!

The monster corpses were repelled by protective magic.

However, in places where magic couldn't be used in time, knights with shields had to block them directly.

Crunch!

—“Urgh…!”

Their shields were crushed under the impact.

Still, the knights barely managed to hold the line, protecting the Meisters at all costs.

After all, against monsters that could keep advancing even with arrows stuck in them, the Meisters' firepower was essential.

—“Damn…!”

—“These lunatics…”

—“How long do we have to hold out?”

Lioness bit his lip.

Compared to before, the power of the Meisters' offensive spells had noticeably weakened.

They were only human.

Even though they had been rotating shifts in the defensive battle, their stamina and mana were clearly running low.

—‘If those monsters breach the wall, it’s over.’

If massive monsters like ogres got over the fortress walls, it would fall on the knights to stop them…

But was that even possible?

Lioness had his doubts.

He knew the knights' capabilities well.

Aside from raising their shields, most of them wouldn’t stand a chance against an ogre’s brute force.

—‘Still, at least we can hold out for today.’

Even if the Meisters' firepower had weakened, it was still strong enough to keep the monsters from reaching the wall.

They could last through the night.

Yes.

As long as there were no unexpected variables.

—“Kiiiiiiiek…!”

Whoosh!

—“Aaargh!”

It happened just as that thought crossed Lioness’s mind.

A knight beside him was suddenly snatched into the air.

—“The sky…!”

Lioness’s face turned pale with despair.

Flying-type monsters, including harpies, were descending from the pitch-black night sky.

They had struck at the perfect moment—when everyone’s focus was locked on the ogres.

For days, throughout the siege, they hadn’t shown themselves even once.

Now, their sudden appearance was throwing the battlefield into chaos.

—“Meisters, activate your shields! Archers, aim for the sky!”

—“Yes, sir!”

Guntrian and the other commanders immediately mobilized the archers to fire into the sky.

—“Kieeeek!”

Even with arrows lodged in their bodies, the harpies showed no hesitation, relentlessly continuing their assault.

—“Meisters, ignore the sky and focus on stopping the ogres! The fortress must not be breached!”

—“Ugh… ugh…”

Despite Guntrian’s command, the Meisters faltered. Seeing the harpies swarm in like a horde, panic set in, and they began to scatter in confusion.

—“W-We have to retreat! This is impossible!”

Even though the Meisters were members of the Civil Squad, experienced from countless dungeon expeditions, they had never faced a situation this extreme.

They had been fighting a siege battle for days, barely getting any sleep.

Now, attacks were coming from both the sky and the ground at the same time.

—“Damn it…! How many of them are there?!”

The knights, who were meant to act as shields, were being picked off by the harpies one by one.

—“Shield! Shield!”

The protective barriers were already cracking, looking like they could shatter at any moment.

This was nothing like the dungeons, where the knights could properly shield the Meisters while they safely cast large-scale magic.

Guntrian scanned the battlefield, chaos unfolding everywhere, and bitterly regretted his oversight.

—‘We should have prepared for aerial combat…!’

They had known the enemy had flying monsters.

However, those monsters had only ever been used for raids on human villages, never in a siege.

Because of that, most of their forces had been focused on holding back the ground-based monster horde.

Even with their current numbers, just holding the ground was already overwhelming.

—“Damn it…! Wake up all the resting Meisters and bring them here. This is an emergency!”

—“Yes, sir!”

In the end, Guntrian sacrificed tomorrow for today.

The Meisters, exhausted and collapsed from defending the fortress since morning—

If they were forced into battle now, who would be left to fight tomorrow?

—‘At this rate, there won’t be a tomorrow.’

They just needed to buy time until reinforcements arrived.

Clenching his jaw, Guntrian committed every last available force to the battlefield.

—“The enemy has appeared in the sky too?”

—“This is bad. My Mana Suit isn’t even fully charged…”

—“Fireball…! Ah, it failed…”

The Meisters’ magic was noticeably weakening.

—‘At this rate, we won’t last until morning.’

Crunch!

The sound of ogres trampling over corpses grew louder and louder.

—“Ugh…!”

Even where the command center was located, bodies were now falling.

—“P-Please… save me…!”

The harpies were snatching up soldiers and dropping them from the sky without mercy.

And then—

—“Sir Guntrian! L-Look… the rear! A Drake has appeared!”

—“What?! A Drake?!”

Guntrian followed the knight’s trembling hand and turned to look at the rear.

A massive creature was flying toward them.

A dragon-like figure, just like what he had seen at the Knight Academy.

Archers scrambled to fire at it, but their arrows bounced off uselessly.

No—

Not just arrows.

—“A D-Drake…? Wind Spear!”

Even the Meisters’ offensive magic couldn’t reach it.

—“Why the hell is a Drake here?! And why isn’t magic working on it?!”

Guntrian finally snapped, yelling in frustration.

Just what kind of day was this?!

The Drake was flying straight toward the command center.

The Meisters desperately tried different spells to stop it, but none had any effect.

Before they knew it, the beast had closed the distance.

And when Guntrian saw the flames building up in its maw, he let out a hollow laugh.

—“Ha… a breath attack, huh.”

Would it be better to die to the Drake’s breath than to be dropped to his death by a harpy?

That absurd thought crossed his mind as he raised his shield.

—KAAAAAH!

But the Drake’s flames didn’t rain down on the ground.

Instead, they spread through the sky.

Fwoooosh!

The harpies, caught in the inferno, ignited all at once and plummeted from the air.

Guntrian rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

—“…What the hell?”

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]