The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 282: Locking The Door After The Horse Is Gone (4)

Chapter 282: Locking The Door After The Horse Is Gone (4)
0% One sun blazing in the night sky.
Rosemary slowly raised her head and stared blankly for some minutes.
A flame that was far more immersive than a mere bonfire.
With an ‘ah’, Rosemary barely managed to snap out of it and turned on Scope to find out what was going on.
“D-damn it, what is that.”
Although she said that, she knew what it was.
That was undoubtedly the atomic bomb that Aether had made, a monstrous thing that the other idiots were mistaking for ‘Dark Day’.
And that bomb had dropped as soon as the Demon King returned.
And not in the front but in the back.
It couldn’t be Aether. If it had been a Corrupt Aether, she’d have dropped it where there were a lot of people; there was no reason for her to strike the practically ghost town of a capital.
In warfare, there were two purposes to dropping it directly onto the capital.
Paralyzing the administrative network and cutting off supplies.
“It’s the method the Demon King tends to use.”
A technique of striking the rear and cutting off supplies from the beginning; it was recorded as a strategy that the Demon King would whenever possible.
This was bad.
Rosemary quickly cleaned up the campfire.
Now wasn’t the time to be leisurely camping outside the city.
Whether she fled south or went elsewhere to save humans, she had to do something.
Rosemary naturally wanted to choose the former.
“Save humans? Me? What a laugh.”
Snickering, she cast a flight spell.
After a moment of watching the mushroom rise into the sky, she flew skyward at full throttle.
**
The Demon King only gave a week’s grace period.
They weren’t able to make that many bombs in that time, because it took that much time to manufacture it.
So having only absorbed a dozen or so atomic bombs, the Demon King immediately prepared to march.
He was planning to destroy the Empire and elf country before the Elementals completely repaired the damages to the World Tree.
“The two countries are great powers, after all. They must have become much more advanced while I was asleep.”
“Then what will you do?”
“We will destroy communications between the two countries and defeat them separately. The elf bastards must not come to the Empire’s aid before it has been destroyed, either. Understood?”
And so, a nuclear bomb fell upon the Imperial capital to take them by surprise and cripple communications.
It was an attack by no other means than the Demon King throwing the bomb he had consumed himself.
The bomb that had flown hundreds of kilometers landed right on the palace, and it oxidized into the sky with a magnificent explosion.
It had all been futile. Despite the antiaircraft network and the utmost struggles of the last Emperor to normalize the country was reduced to ashes.
That was the kind of magic the atomic bomb was.
“Now is the time. Take advantage of the enemy’s confusion and deploy the first line.”
The Demon King waved his baton and deployed four divisions.
The first of them was Castle Bravo, Sextus of the Great Nine Mechas.
It pushed back the second line of defense at once with a barrage of regular bombs.
- Arggghhh!
H-help me!!
The atomic bomb wasn’t even necessary.
The mages struck by the white phosphorus shells spat out by Castle Bravo suffered until they died.
Although the military doctors who knew how to cure them stepped forth, doctors on the frontline were the perfect prey for Beasts.
- You crazy bastards, have you no mercy even on doctors!
It was obvious if anything.
The battle of the Demon Army was no normal battle between countries, and so they had no obligations to comply with any conventions of war.
In order to kill all the Elemental Kings and the Goddess, they would use any means necessary.
And that was why Parcelsus had gained the name ‘Demon King’.
“I , my lord. The capital of Philiut Empire has ceased functioning, and the Imperial family in the palace have all died.”
The Demon King nodded in satisfaction.
With this, the Empire was basically destroyed.
“Foolish authorities, thought you’d be safe if you were in the rear, did you?”
“If it weren’t for the weapon Winter Heaven made, they would have been. Hurhur.”
“She might have betrayed me, but Winter’s merits are greater than I thought. When I subdue her, I shall eat her painlessly.”
Once he absorbed Aether, it would become very much possible for him to destroy the Goddess.
There had been a reason why he brought the girl who was once insignificant and sat her as one of the Heavens.
“My thousand year of waiting is finally coming to fruition.”
It was literally ‘raising to eat it’.
Because the ten or so shots of Dark Day he had now would increase to hundreds and thousands of shots if he ate Aether herself.
Only a few hours after the Demon King was thinking such happy thoughts–
“My lord, a great many mages have gathered on the first line. They have camped out in a large formation and are preparing Flare and White Night spells.”
The humans had begun their retaliation.
“Your Majesty, the vanguard is being pushed back!”
“Pushed? How?”
“Because of the White Night mentioned. It’s a magic equivalent to Dark Day, and if we get hit even once, there would be no way for us to be revived.......”
“I will go out and see myself.”
The Demon King took his enlarged body and set out on an inspection.
Despite the capital having evaporated, the mages on the front lines were maintaining their formations.
They were even using some magic tool that he had never seen before and killing Calamities left and right.
“...What is that piece of paper?”
“It’s called a scroll, my lord. It’s a magic tool that was invented 200 years ago and it’s very useful.”
“Well, I did expect that there would be some technological development.”
He wanted to snatch that scroll or whatever it was and use it, but couldn’t find the opportunity.
And they weren’t able to make them either, as the Beasts who were experts at scroll-making had all left the Demon Army.
“Where have all the learned Beasts gone.”
“They were all followers of Winter.”
The situation was getting increasingly frustrating.
“This was why I had said we could lose this war because of this.”
If only Winter had been here, they would have crossed the Bruglium River by now.
“How is the situation with Autumn?”
“Autumn Heaven is slowly making her way in from the west. It seems that it’s taking some time to unite the beastkin.”
“Hmm.”
Meaning that the west side of the Empire was still intact.
He didn’t have time to be concerned with the western land right now. The only thing that the Demon Army had to do was advance south.
“It’s a shame, but I will have to fire another one.”
**
The Hasfeldt family were assigned to the westmost part.
It was the area that bordered where the beastkin was.
“Will the beastkin really come?”
“They said there was suspicious activity. This is probably the most difficult area.”
The two who had respectively been discharged as colonel and major general were now back to wearing their rank badges and patrolling the battlefield.
Now Klais was major, and Klara lieutenant general.
Of course it was amazing that they had returned alive from being captured by Beasts, but their promotion had been due to too many people ahead of them dying.
“Do not lose focus, girls.”
The Beasts were coming.
Klara summoned the Elementals, and Klais flowed mana into the scrolls she finished beforehand in unison.
The Hasfeldt sisters began to take on the oncoming wave using each their abilities as strengths.
Thanks to building a good formation, they were able to stop the first wave without much effort.
“I wonder if Meri is doing well.”
“This isn’t the time to worry about your friend. There, here they come again!”
And so continued a war of attrition for hours.
Klais was out having used up her mana first, then Klara started to get dizzy.
But the Beasts also seemed to be wearing out as their attacks dwindled by the eleventh wave.
“Now is our chance.”
Thump.
Renawill, who brought back a mana stone he cut from a Gigantopia, observed the situation.
“There is a salient in the east. If we go through there, we should be able to push the battlefield up.”
“You’ll go yourself?”
“The main forces are exhausted and neither of you can move, so I’ll have to lead the charge and raid them myself.”
Having also looked at the situation with a telescope, Klara and Klais frowned.
“You can’t, Father.”
“Something isn’t right.”
It was suspicious that just the eastern part was protruding and not anywhere else.
“It could be a trap by the Demon King. We shouldn’t just break away from the front.”
“Yes, that is also true.”
Having spent a long time in the military, Renawill was thinking of every possibility.
In his experience, a salient like that could be a weak point of the enemy, but also at times a trap to turn the tides of battle.
So in the end the attempt would either be a hit or miss.
Even while this was happening, the front was gradually moving towards a stalemate.
Then at dawn, they received shocking news from the rear troops.
“...Th-they say the capital is gone.”
“......?”
None of them understood what the scout was saying.
“Explain.”
“The Demon Army launched a surprise attack while we were away here and wiped out the rear with tactical magic.”
“.......”
“And so all administrative networks and supplies have been cut off, and His Majesty is nowhere to be found....”
“Nonsense!”
“No, sir, here...! We have photos that were taken from the city outskirts at the time as evidence!”
“Show me.”
Renawill hurriedly took the photos and looked over each one.
The sphere of light that burst with a flash. A pillar of fire blazing into the sky. And a mushroom cloud that thickly covered the capital’s skies.
At the heat that radiated from the photos, the officers who saw it all turned speechless.
“What, in the world is this.”
They lost the Imperial court and their capital. The Empire which they had been trying to revive had been destroyed in an instant.
Of course the country could be maintained if Renawill and all the others worked together, but the Empire could no longer use the name of ‘Philiut’.
“Our country has been destroyed from the back while we were out at war.... Do you think this is a that makes sense!!”
“Commander, we cannot waste anymore time. Without supplies, we will not last long at this rate.”
Breakthrough, or retreat.
Right now, the mages of the Empire stood at a crucial crossroads.
“There will be no turning back once news of the Imperial family’s demise spreads. Loss of morale is inevitable, and there will be a rapid increase of deserters. Then, we will be doomed.”