I Stayed Loyal When My Teacher Was Betrayed

28 – The Fall of the Allied Forces 3

Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs.

A coalition made up of four races.

They ran straight to the demon stronghold under the command of the Grandmaster.

They had achieved continuous victories in previous battles, only gaining fleeting victories. Even among the soldiers, there were those who had never even seen the face of a monster.

It was expected that this battle of considerable size, unlike the battles of the past, would be an opportunity to release the built-up tension and show off their skills, especially since the targets were not inferior monsters, but demons.

Thus, the warriors of the Allied Forces were very active in facing this battle, which was possibly the biggest chance and maybe even the last opportunity.

The thing they saw as they rushed over was the demon stronghold with small pillars set up everywhere.

The peculiar and eerie black stone pillars were set up in some strange arrangement, but the soldiers of the coalition did not pay any attention to that.

“Ruahhhh!!!”

“It’s a trap!”

The scene began to appear as soon as they arrived near the enemy lines.

It was… as expected, thousands of monsters.

“Enemies!”

“Commence attack! Wipe all the dirty monsters out!”

Countless monsters pouring out from the stronghold.

From ogres, trolls, and goblins to undead and other strong beings.

Each one may lack intelligence, but they all possessed strength that could not be taken lightly. Despite their numerical disadvantage, they fearlessly, or rather, foolishly, engaged in battle with all their might.

“Ugh!”

“Goodness! Don’t take them lightly! These are quite powerful!”

The coalition’s forces, despite the encirclement, had no choice but to be drawn out by the overwhelming number of enemy troops.

But…

-Kwaaghwaaghwaang!!!

Bevervet, who intervened in earnest by waving his staff with his endless magic power, caused the undead, who had resisted, based on their infinite stamina, to be destroyed immediately.

“Oh…”.

“Indeed, Archmage Veolf-nim!”

“Keep pushing! We will completely annihilate them like this!”

Together with Veolf, the High Mages started casting magic in earnest.

Originally, it was a plan to conserve their magical power in case the demons made a move, but as the battle dragged on, they became certain.

“There are no demons here…”

“Could the information be wrong? Or did we simply mistime it?”

“Perhaps those bastards are also waiting for an opportunity, but if we eliminate all the lesser monsters before that, victory will be ours anyway!”

No matter how strong the demons were, unless they were at the level of the Demon King, they couldn’t withstand an army numbering in the tens of thousands.

Thus, they decided to wipe out the enemy’s forces before the demons could get involved.

The Archmages swiftly swung their staffs and cleared out the masses of monsters one by one.

“Grrr… Aaah…”

In the end, the monsters couldn’t withstand the large-scale assault and were completely wiped out.

Although there were a few hundred casualties among their allies, compared to the thousands of enemies that had fallen, it was a small number.

“Hurrah! Long live the Alliance Army!”

“Hail the great hero Veolf!!!”

The unified army shouted cheers.

Though the expected demons were absent, since it was a significant victory in a fairly large-scale battle, they were relishing their own version of the joy of victory.

“You’ve all worked hard. Now, reorganize the formation and return to the main camp for rest…”

At that moment…

-Rumble…

“Huh?”

“What… What is it?”

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble.

Feeling an ominous trembling reminiscent of an earthquake, the members of the alliance inside the battlefield lost their balance and started to hesitate.

“W-What on earth…”

“Look… Look at that!”

In that instant, they belatedly noticed the black pillars standing within the serious of monsters.

It was night, shrouded in darkness, and made of black ore, so they hadn’t paid much attention to them until now…

At this moment, the ground beneath them rapidly absorbed the blood of the gathered monsters and began to turn red.

“Is… Is that some kind of magic?”

“Judia. Do you know anything?”

“I… I don’t know. Among the magic I know, there’s nothing like that structure…”

Magic that even Judia, the most knowledgeable among her colleagues, didn’t know.

But even though she didn’t know, Veolf still felt that the situation was serious, and urgently gave orders to his subordinates.

“Som… something’s suspicious! For now, everyone retreat…”

At that moment…

– Bang!!!

“!!!”

The pillars suddenly began to emit a red light.

At the same time, the soldiers, feeling a chilling sensation, frantically activated their defensive magic.

However…

“Aaaargh!!!”

“Aaaargh!!!”

The soldiers suddenly started screaming.

Engulfed in the red light emitting from the pillars, the soldiers within the boundaries fell to the ground one by one, with painful screams and struggling.

They decayed, vomited blood, and suffered a painful death.

Witnessing their horrifying demise, Veolf’s face began to turn pale and rigid.

“W… what the hell is happening? What is this…”

“Cough!… V-Ve… Veolf….”

At that moment, another scene began to appear before Veolf’s eyes.

It was…

A brutal sight of his comrade, bleeding and dying in pain before his eyes.

It was Brutal.

Unlike Veolf, she seemed to have been unable to prepare her defense in advance.

Desperately, Veolf tried to expand his defensive magic to save her.

But…

“Crack! Aaargh!!!”

“Br… Brutal!”

“Ah…aaa…”

The sight of Brutal, covered in blood, gasping for breath as if about to explode.

Witnessing a fellow sorcerer, someone who wasn’t an ordinary person like themselves, dying right before their eyes, Beolf and Judia were seized not only by simple fear but by a horrific terror.

“W-What should we do now? If we continue like this, all the soldiers…”

“I-I don’t know! H-How can I…”

“I don’t care if you don’t know! You’re the commander! Everyone is dying! Give any kind of order, no matter what!”

“I don’t know! What am I supposed to do in this situation?”

Shouting with a trembling voice, Judia.

However, Beolf couldn’t think of anything about this.

The screams of soldiers echoed from all directions.

If he had been a more composed commander, he could have minimized the casualties even just a little.

The range was gradually expanding, but the crimson light hadn’t devoured the large army present here yet.

If the scattered wizards deployed defensive spells and retreated quickly, they might have been able to minimize the damage unexpectedly.

However,

At this moment, Beolf’s mind couldn’t entertain such thoughts at all.

It was the first time something like this had happened.

Because of his foolish judgment,

The situation where thousands, millions of people were dying.

What was worse,

How to respond to this, what measures to take.

The fact that not a single thought came to his mind about it.

Even amidst the trembling fear, soldiers were dying one after another,

Judia demanded orders with a quivering voice.

Even as he hesitated to make a decision, people were dying.

The immense burden and pressure caused by this situation

dragged him further into despair as he struggled.

“Ah… Ahhh…!!”

“B-Be… Beo…lf…”

In the end, all he could do was lie on the ground, motionless.

Just trembling alone until this dreadful situation passed.

That was all there was to it.

*

“What… what on earth is that?”

Lokia, who had been guarding the headquarters from the outskirts of the battlefield.

Watching the cries of victory they had just heard turn into screams of agony, Lokia was seized by confusion and fear.

“L-Lokia? What should we do?”

“Our allies are dying! We need to rescue them right away…”

“Ah… Ahh…”

Subordinates spoke with trembling voices.

However, in this moment, Lokia couldn’t gather the courage to approach that place.

An unknown magic.

Allied soldiers being engulfed by it.

In a situation where there were no effective plans, including Beolph and the others inside, she thought that the outcome would be obvious if she were to approach.

But she couldn’t just let them die like this either.

Caught in confusion without making any decisions.

And then…

“!!!!”

Suddenly, she felt a tremendous surge of magical power.

A terrifying presence that seemed to tear through the black sky. Instinctively, Lokia sensed it.

Something was approaching the opening in the sky at this very moment.

It was a being with power that someone like her could never match…

And she had experienced the overwhelming power that even just recalling made her tremble.

The presence of a being with such power.

During this expedition, she had constantly feared it and tried to avoid any confrontation.

“The… King…”