I Became the Commander in a Trash Game Who Copies Skills-Chapter 160 : Chapter 160

Chapter 160. Seed of Disaster (3)
[[Selective Loss of Taste] deployed.]
The sizzling smell of something burning.
The fishy smell of iron.
As I blocked my sense of smell with the trait, I could finally breathe.
The cavern, covered in flames, blood, burnt flesh, and spilled entrails, was overflowing with a nauseating stench.
It was the stench spewed by the flames of a high-level mage, poured out to their limit, which lingered even after the spell had ended, devouring the already dead or barely breathing Ratmen.
Woooooong---
The path of light laid out in the middle of the cavern, in contrast, created an impression as if heaven and hell were captured in a single painting.
The Imperial Secret Knight Order was running together on that path.
Towards the altar at the far end of the cavern.
“The Creator of the universe said, ye shall not make idols of the forms of the earth and the sky…”
“That friend is Priest Castro. Among ourselves, we call him 'the Bishop'. Do you know why?”
The Emperor, running beside me, said with a hint of a smile.
I knew, but I asked.
“Why is that?”
“He's a priest, but he lives with a wall between himself and the church. He doesn't attend the weekly services, let alone prayer meetings, believer gatherings, or scripture readings. A devout follower of the Luark Church like yourself would find it hard to understand.”
“That is… certainly unique.”
“Exactly. Ella probably attended more than he did.”
The Emperor smiled, gesturing with his head towards Siollus.
The flame mage, her vigor restored by divine power, was still intercepting the Ratman reinforcements rushing in from afar with large and small spells from the rear.
“He prays and reads the bible, but he doesn't fulfill any of the duties the Imperial Church presents to its priests, so the church officials generally dislike Priest Castro. On the other hand, there are people who follow him precisely for that reason.”
“Is that why he's called the Bishop?”
“Exactly.”
Come to think of it, I think the elders of old had a term for people like Priest Castro.
It was a word like ‘nylon’ or ‘Canaan’.
In any case, it seemed that the Luark of this world had no intention of casting out even such a believer.
If divine power was a sign of faith, then Priest Castro's faith was second to none in the Empire.
[[Warrior’s Insight] deployed.]
[Skill acquired.]
[Miracle: Heavenly Melody (Level 5)]
[Miracle: Warm Light of…]
A barrage of miracles, fired off as if a mage were casting spells.
In an instant, I had learned over twenty new miracles.
I had even learned so many that some of them were consolidated.
[Skills consolidated.]
[Luark's Mercy (Level 3)]
[Luark's Grace (Level 5)]
“The grace of He who protects our faith is always like steel…”
Every time the priest uttered a word, a sacred light settled on the straight path.
A light that climbed up from the feet with every step, spreading throughout the whole body, making the body and mind strong and clear.
It went without saying that the barrier of divine power erected on both sides of the path was also reinforced.
This sight was likely the reason the Emperor had recruited the Bishop into the Secret Knight Order.
Considering he ignored even the church's principles in the use of miracles and killing, it was no exaggeration to call him a perfect weapon of war.
Thanks to him, my condition was at its peak despite the successive battles.
Even so, I couldn't be careless.
The enemy was close.
“Right! Two o'clock! Enemy artillery deployed!”
A knight who seemed to be of elven descent shouted.
Kwa-gwagwang-!
With the sound of cannon fire, the Radiant Highway shook violently.
“……!”
The cannon fire was blocked by the wall of light.
However, the Bishop's expression was not good.
He had blocked the attack of dozens of artillery pieces with his divine power, but it was likely because the burden was placed on him as well.
I checked the distance.
We were about halfway to the altar where the bomb was placed.
The Ratmen were reinforcing faster than I had thought.
Even though Siollus had burned ninety percent of the Ratmen in the cavern, the wave that had now flooded the cavern was larger than the number of their dead kin.
“……”
Yes.
Advanced technology and bizarre curses aside, this was the true strength of the Ratmen.
Endless numbers.
A gray wave of hundreds of thousands, millions.
The fast ones had already approached the Radiant Highway.
Hundreds of Ratmen, with blades in their mouths, ran on all fours and slammed into the wall of light.
Chijijijik-
Chiii…!!
Ratmen, burned alive.
The acrid smell of burning pricked my nose again.
They had no intention of stopping.
Even as the divine power that made up the wall tore through their fur and burned their bodies inside and out, they stubbornly rubbed their bodies against the wall of light.
Kiik-!
Then one or two.
There were individuals who, with parts of their bodies missing, managed to climb over the wall and crawl inside.
It was the duty of the knights to deal with the creatures that charged in desperation.
Swish-
Aura sliced through fur and bone.
Crack-
A Ratman with its claws raised froze solid.
Not just the captain-class like Siollus, but every single member of the Imperial Secret Knight Order was an elite.
Even the lowest-ranking knight was skilled enough to hold a position in any other knight order.
That was probably why they could face an almost infinite number of enemies with just a handful of troops.
The enemy's numbers were increasing.
More Ratmen were crashing into the wall, and the number of those getting over the wall was also increasing.
“Behind us!”
The rear of the highway was already occupied by Ratmen.
A multitude of grotesque Ratman hordes followed us like a shadow.
The moment I turned my head forward again, a real shadow fell.
It was a giant fist.
“Watch out…!”
Bam!
A knight was sent flying.
Even his aura-clad shield crumpled helplessly.
Flung over the wall, he was torn to shreds by countless excited Ratmen before he even hit the ground.
Kuaaaaaa-!
The giant that had sent the knight flying blocked the Radiant Highway.
It was huge.
A behemoth the size of a small building moved whole.
It was a troop type called a Rat Giant.
The highest-grade mutant among the various mutants created by the Corruption Priesthood.
“Karok.”
The Emperor said.
There was no time to stop our advance.
And we had the blood of a true giant.
The half-giant, twice the size of a normal person, kicked off the ground, jumped up, and brought down his fist.
“Uwooooah!”
Kuaaaaaa-
The other one was louder, but our side had the upper hand in strength.
His already massive muscles swelled in an instant, blowing away the Rat Giant's entire arm.
“Just a big! Idiot!”
Karok, who had climbed on top and blown off its head, grabbed the giant's leg and threw it off the highway.
As the body, weighing hundreds of tons, turned hundreds of Ratmen into pulp, the Emperor and the knight order advanced further.
Chiiik-
Chitter! Chitter!
Things were getting precarious.
The number of enemies blocking our path in front had become as numerous as the wave chasing us from behind.
For a moment, I thought about teleporting, but it was a poor choice.
That altar was surrounded by a barrier.
A barrier filled with plague inside.
The moment I entered, I would die.
The miracle Alina had cast on me would be useless in there.
[Luark's Protection] only postponed death once.
There was only one answer.
To just move forward.
“Kugh!”
“Heup…!”
An endless onslaught of rat-people.
Their poison-laced blades.
Sniper rounds and cannonballs that luckily pierced the barrier of divine power.
Knights, injured and falling, suppressing even their groans.
On the Radiant Highway, something like a broken bone would heal immediately.
Even if a part of them was crushed, it would regain its original shape in the time it took to take a few deep breaths.
But it was impossible to reverse the shock of the injury itself.
Even the knights with their ironclad willpower were leaving the ranks one by one.
The advance was getting slower.
“Just a little further!”
Yet, we finally reached it.
The Ratmen had already formed a hemispherical dome with their own bodies to protect the altar.
I gathered all my remaining mana and slammed curses on top of it.
[[Inevitable Disaster] deployed.]
[[Rakkash's Eight Senses of Death] deployed.]
[[Chincharina’s Shortened Breath] deployed.]
[[Scream of the Flesh] deployed.]
The dozens of curses taught to me by Chincharina of the fallen Indika and the Archpriest of the Weird Priesthood.
……!!
“Get out of the way!”
Karok cleared away the dome of Ratmen, who had frozen or died without even being able to scream, with his strength.
Finally, the altar surrounded by the barrier was revealed.
Along with the plague bomb on top of it.
The bomb was fixed on a complex device on the altar.
Their Archpriest was nowhere to be seen.
The detonation switch was with him.
It didn't matter.
“Yula!”
[[Warrior’s Insight] deployed.]
[Skill acquired.]
[Frozen Sword (Level 8)]
The Frozen Knight.
Yula Katran.
She brought her sword down.
A pure white aura extending from the tip of her sword smoothly cut through the barrier.
And.
Crack-crack-crack-
Everything it touched froze.
The barrier surrounding the altar.
The plague that filled the inside.
The altar and the complex device on it.
And finally, the bomb itself.
Crack-
As if plunging a burning substance into liquid nitrogen to freeze it whole.
The bomb, altar, and barrier, which had become a block of ice, split in two.
It was over.
This bomb would never go off now.
Because the authority Yula Katran possessed was not simply to freeze, but to truly turn things into ice.
But the battle was not over.
There were still two objectives left.
Rescuing the Emperor, and escaping.
The Ratman horde, which had now completely filled the cavern, began to fire on us.
I poured a mana potion down my throat with one hand and raised my staff with the other.
Wooooo-
The staff resonated with the amulet in my bosom.
A resonance like the wail of the dead spread out.
The moment flames erupted from the enemy's artillery, a purple veil covered the knight order.
Kwa-gwagwagwang!
Cannon fire poured down on the veil.
However-
Thud-thud-thud-
The cannonballs, which caused ripples and were reflected back, fell on the heads of their original owners, annihilating the Ratman artillery force.
“Kashutal’s Amulet…”
The Bishop, who had been sitting down, exhausted, muttered.
I had been shortsighted.
There was a setting that Bishop Castro was deeply interested in heresy, vampires, necromancy, and spiritism.
“……”
Well, that was a problem to think about after we got out of here alive.
And after doing this much, wouldn't they overlook me having one necromancer's item?
With their artillery annihilated, all the Ratmen could do was rain down spells and charge.
This much I couldn't solve without summoning my army, but fortunately, they arrived just in time.
Fwip- KABOOM!!
An axe.
An axe that split the Ratmen's heads and landed like a cannonball.
I turned my head in the direction the axe had flown from.
One of the tunnels that had been spewing out Ratmen like a backed-up sewer pipe exploded with a bang, and something shot up.
“Viscount!”
It was Randal.
Floating in the air, he threw everything he could grab.
Pebbles, bone fragments, blades, and even the bodies of Ratmen.
And those things.
Thwa-thwa-thwa-thwak!
Mercilessly pierced and blew up the Ratmen surrounding the knight order.
Like a heavy bomber strafing ground targets adjacent to friendly forces with its machine guns.
Thud!
The human bomber landed right next to the knight order.
A few knights flinched and stepped back.
It wasn't strange.
It was a sight that was close to miraculous, no, it wouldn't be strange to call it a god of war.
Even I, watching it right in front of me, could hardly believe it.
“Randal, the punitive force?”
“Right behind. They got to the main tunnel just fine, but it took them a while to break through the last part. They were so slow, I came ahead as you said, Viscount.”
Boom!
Sure enough, he was right.
It was the sound of a main cannon.
Soon, with a deafening roar, the mana tanks appeared, tearing down the entire wall.
There was a complex tunnel section of about a hundred meters from the end of the main tunnel to here, and they had come in by practically demolishing it with nearly a hundred mana tanks.
Waaaaaaah!
Following the tanks' tails, the punitive force took up positions, and the second battle began.
It ended anticlimactically quickly, though.
With dozens of tanks firing their main cannons and machine guns in all directions, and crushing them with frontal assaults, how could the Ratmen withstand it?
Their only weakness was spells, but about twenty percent of the punitive force were battle mages from the Magic Towers.
In the first place, the Corruption Priesthood was a group specialized in spreading mutants and plagues.
Chiiiiiik!
Chitter! Chiiik!
Seeing the Ratman horde drain out of the cavern like an ebbing tide, I finally let out a sigh of relief.
We hadn't annihilated all the Ratmen in the subterranean city, but we had at least bought enough time to escape.
“Your Majesty, my apologies. I was very late.”
Archduke Gabir came before the Emperor and bowed his head.
The Emperor showed a tired, yet relieved, smile without a word.
Command was naturally transferred to the Emperor, and the punitive force, centered on the knight order, reformed into a defensive posture.
It was time to go back.
I checked my equipment and relaxed my body.
Come to think of it, since I had witnessed the debut of the tank unit, why not try riding one on the way back?
Perhaps I could introduce not only aerial battleships but also mana tanks to Wolfskrig.
If I spoke to the Emperor nicely, he might consider it positively.
'Tick!'
“…Shit.”
If it hadn't been for the urgent voice transmitted into my head, I would have.
Two ticks meant no problems.
One tick meant an emergency.
'Master.'
Misfortune was at hand.