The Game of the Greatest Black Mage
Chapter 179

[Translator - Prøks]

[Proofreader - Prøks]

Chapter 179

At the sound of the bell, everyone gathered at the city wall, and they all could see it.

They were spread out so numerously that they looked like the ground itself.

The undead legion.

Beings that all living creatures cannot help but fear.

What would happen if such beings appeared in such vast numbers that they could be mistaken for the very ground they stood on?

For an instant, it seemed as if the walls of Basilica themselves had shaken.

It was enough to cause such an illusion.

The soldiers moved busily, but far from decreasing, the number of undead only seemed to swell.

“Here!!! Drop the stones here!!!”

“Dammit!!! They're climbing!!!”

“S-Support isn't here yet!?”

Panic-stricken, the forces on the wall were fully mobilized, but it wasn't enough.

There was a limit to what they alone could do.

They were regular soldiers, but their numbers were lacking, and the majority were not very strong.

Just as a soldier had said before, there had been no need to stand guard so diligently here.

It was only natural.

Therefore, in a situation like this, they couldn't help but feel that fact to their very bones.

What on earth are we supposed to do?

They had requested reinforcements, but there was still no movement.

If a little more time passed, those undead would surely move to either climb the wall or break down the gate.

It would be one or the other.

Before that, could the reinforcements really arrive in time?

“Please!!! Please send the reinforcements, you idiots!!!”

As one of the wall commanders cried out that shout like a wail, a giant teal portal suddenly opened up in the ground below.

It swallowed up the undead, who were estimated to number in the thousands, no, tens of thousands.

Is it finally over?

As everyone thought so and rejoiced…

Not long after, the reinforcements arrived.

They were all beings who looked like members of the assassination unit.

They appeared before the commander there with a puzzled look and asked.

“Where is this great army of undead you spoke of?”

An annoyed voice.

Perhaps it was an assassin whose emotional suppression was incomplete, as his voice seemed to be mixed with some anger.

The one who had spoken, similar to the assassin in dark clothes from before, had the appearance of a bat beastkin, but at a glance, he had quite a few human features mixed in.

Red eyes and sharp fangs.

And wings like a bat's membrane were attached around his hands.

‘Isn't that what a beastkin version of a vampire would look like?’

It was exactly that kind of appearance.

However, in this place, it wasn't a particularly unusual look, so no one paid it any mind.

Rather, the only important thing was that he was filled with anger and annoyance.

But it was understandable.

They had gone to the trouble of coming as reinforcements, but there wasn't even a speck of the enemy to be seen.

It was enough to make them wonder why they had bothered coming at all.

However, one of the wall commanders yelled at them instead.

“You should have come sooner!!! The undead army vanished like an illusion!!!”

“Hmph. Shut that mouth before I kill you.”

“W-What!?”

He was a wall commander, with a rank equivalent to a division commander among the soldiers.

To think they would be so rude.

The moment he was about to argue, he couldn't help but swallow hard at the overwhelming killing intent radiating from the assassin.

In Ninyaru terms, the assassination unit was like a knight order, completely different from the regular soldiers.

Because they possessed a level of power on a different dimension from the regular army corps, the division commander shut his mouth.

The assassin who had stepped forward then gestured with his head to a person behind him. In an instant, that person disappeared and returned from below the city wall.

Even just watching, the division commander gulped at the incredible speed.

“It seems there was an attack. There are more traces left on the wall than expected.”

“Hmmm, so it wasn't an illusion.”

“Yes, it seems so.”

“For now, the 3rd Assassination Unit will remain. I will go and report.”

As the commander of the 3rd Assassination Unit said that, its members bowed their heads, then scattered into the surroundings and vanished.

They had used stealth so the enemy wouldn't notice them.

Watching this, the division commander tilted his head, puzzled.

Why are they doing that?

As he stood there blankly with that question, the commander of the 3rd Assassination Unit looked at him as if he were pathetic and spoke.

“To think you climbed to the rank of division commander with a brain like that. It seems we’ll have to change the soldier system as well.”

“W-What!??”

“Try thinking with that tiny brain of yours. If it was a real legion and not an illusion, they retreated their army at the exact moment our main force was scheduled to arrive. Do you really not know what that means?”

“W-What did you say…?”

The division commander finally understood the meaning of those words, and goosebumps rose on his skin from the chilling realization.

The undead legion that vanished right before their arrival.

In other words.

“It means there is either a traitor, or they are watching our movements clearly. We can't see them from the sky, so they could be using stealth, or there could be a traitor.”

“A-A traitor in Basilica!?”

“I'm saying it's a possibility. Therefore, I will go report to the king. You wait here.”

Although he was treated completely as an inferior, the division commander, far from feeling bad, actually nodded his head in agreement.

To have arrived just moments ago and yet see through the entire situation, grasp it, and give appropriate orders.

He could truly be called an outstanding commander.

With that thought, the division commander decided it was best not to step in, and swallowed hard.

They didn't know when the undead army might appear again.

However, for a while, the undead legion did not reappear.

Only a deep silence and an unknown tension remained in that place.

6.

Seonghyun, riding Anemor and flying above the clouds, looked down below and nodded his head.

‘So there really are some skilled people here.’

‘To figure out right after I retreated the undead legion that there was either a spy or someone watching from the sky.’

But they probably didn't think he would know about their conversation.

Because Karisha, who possessed the power of thunder, was amplifying the sound waves for him to hear.

It was understandable that they wouldn't know.

In any case, Seonghyun was lost in thought for a moment, mulling over these things.

‘Gathering the army was good, but…’

He was a little worried about how to use it.

This was Seonghyun's first time in a war like this. He hadn't even played many games in the first place.

What kind of strategic move should he make?

He was concerned.

‘A full-frontal assault as things are... isn't quite right.’

Of course, for Seonghyun, it wouldn't be a true full-frontal assault.

It was just 20,000 undead with empty souls. Their number was overwhelming, but it was hard to see them as Seonghyun's main force. His familiars alone possessed power that surpassed those 20,000 undead.

In any case, he was now wondering how to rattle them again with the undead legion.

He could raise an undead legion, but…

‘I might lose some corpses?’

It would be difficult to use all those corpses for the Explosion Build. Sacrificing a certain amount wouldn't be so bad.

However.

‘When will they arrive?’

The White Knights were quite late.

He thought they would be here by now, since they were said to be fast.

“I don't see them.”

“I do not sense them either,” Nocturnium added.

“I can't sense them with my moon either-yong,” said Serphina.

Even with Helena's vision, Nocturnium's ground detection, and Serphina's moon detection, they still hadn't reached this vicinity.

So, he needed to wait a little. The Explosion Build was sealed until then.

Lost in such thoughts, Seonghyun pondered for a moment before asking Helena.

“What do you think is the best way to proceed?”

“Hmm, let's see? I think it's fine as it is now. We came here with the intention of a war of attrition anyway. It's good to hit and run, with the expectation of losing some undead or corpses.”

With the three items he had recently obtained, his mana recovery and stats had increased, and his maximum mana had also grown a lot, so maintaining the army wasn't difficult.

So it was better to use them, even if it meant losing some corpses.

Once the direction was set, several strategies formed in Seonghyun's mind.

First, the assumption that he would lose corpses was a miscalculation.

“I might not lose as many corpses as I thought.”

“Oho!? Ahaha!! That's our Seonghyun!”

Helena burst out laughing as if she immediately understood the meaning of his words.

As she spoke as if she knew Seonghyun could do it, he also nodded and said.

“Then first, I'll have to completely drain the enemies' spirits.”

He wouldn't be able to do much to that assassination unit, but…

Wasn't there a saying?

“There's no champion against a mob.”

And besides, he had a particular aim in mind.

7.

Before leaving, the commander of the 3rd Assassination Unit had ordered his unit to hide.

He had judged that the enemy would misunderstand that the 3rd Assassination Unit was gone and send the undead legion again.

However, the members of the 3rd Assassination Unit did not think so.

To put it bluntly, much like Ninyaru's White Knights, their emotional suppression was still incomplete, and their skills were inferior to the other two elite units and the intelligence unit.

Because of this, they were thoroughly mistaken.

‘I don't think they'll come at all, even if we're hiding.’

‘Even if they do come, we can just take care of them all anyway, so what does it matter?’

‘Exactly. Why is the commander worried about something like that?’

Although they had such thoughts, they did not disobey the order.

Unlike Ninyaru, where discipline and rules were somewhat lax, insubordination in Basilica meant immediate death.

They had no choice but to listen to their commander.

Honestly, hiding wasn't an easy task either, so they wanted to slack off a bit.

At that moment…

One of the unit members spoke as if in disbelief, using their covert communication method.

‘The undead legion is here!!!’

Despite the stealthy communication, his voice was filled with urgency and tension.

At his anxious shout, the members of the 3rd Unit hesitated for a moment.

Should they immediately go out and wipe out the enemies?

Or should they wait here until the commander returned?

The hesitation continued, but it was shorter than one might think.

‘All units, attack!’

They couldn't handle it if the wall was breached while they waited.

That's why they stepped forward, dove into the undead legion, and began taking them out one by one.

Huh? What's this?

“These guys? They're not as tough as I thought, are they?”

Eventually, someone blurted it out, and voices of agreement were heard from all around.

“They're total pushovers.”

“Exactly.”

“There are just a lot of them, they're nothing special.”

As the members of the 3rd Assassination Unit were excitedly dispatching the undead, two new figures with glowing eyes—one teal, one ultramarine—appeared.

One was an undead that looked like a skeleton knight, its eyes gleaming with an ultramarine light.

The other was a rather large undead with the head of a mole, its eyes glowing teal.

Seeing the two, a member of the 3rd Assassination Unit laughed and spoke.

They looked a little different from the other undead, but their basic appearance—emitting a teal aura and cloaked in black darkness—was similar.

The unit member couldn't help but let his guard down.

The moment he laughed and charged, thinking they were just regular undead…

“Ahaha! Look, a big shot, too? This one is my— Gak!?”

In that instant, the assassin's head was sent flying.

His neck was torn apart, and his head rolled powerlessly across the ground.

Among the assassins, not a single one could comprehend what had just happened.

It truly seemed as if something had brushed past in an instant, and one of their members was dead.

And with that as the signal…

They began to move.

The other undead, different from the majority that were spread out here.

“Kkuaaaaaak!!!”

“S-Save meeee!!!”

“A-Aim for those guys!!!”

“W-We can't beat them!?”

“R-Ru— Uwaaaaaaak!!!”

As the new undead stepped forward, the members of the 3rd Assassination Unit began to die one by one.

Watching them get slaughtered, the division commander, who had been silent on the wall, muttered.

“...Wha...t is... that?”

[Translator - Prøks]

[Proofreader - Prøks]