Ishura - Volume 2 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Togie City's Supply Base

“D-dammit, what… What the hell’s with all this…?”

Surveying the miserable state of the army base, Bihat the Outstanding Tool groaned. It was the supply base on the outskirts of Togie City. Even for a high-ranking Old Kingdoms’ officer like himself, who had engaged in a number of military operations in the past, he had never seen such an instance of a rearguard camp being hit with such a destructive raid.

“Over half the soldiers stationed here confirmed dead. Enormous damages to resource storehouses… All of it was true? Th-this is a helluva lot worse…than what the report said, right?”

Bihat timidly walked through the ocean of blood. In truth, it was in a dire state.

The foul odors mixing together made his back tremble. The corpses of soldiers with more than half their bodies missing littered the ground. The lack of a sharply cut cross section suggested the impact from a high-speed blow was the cause of death.

Examining one corpse’s cross section, he questioned his assistant.

“…This here. Is this what happens when an ogre punches you? Are there any records of a gang of them being let through a checkpoint?”

“According to the report…the enemy was airborne. That would mean it was a direct attack from the sky, but…”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You think a flying enemy could do this to someone? What was it then, a dragon? Impossible.”

“What about Alus the Star Runner, who joined up with Aureatia? Or worst-case scenario, Second General Rosclay… Rosclay the Absolute might have carried out the attack directly… I mean, they say he managed to slay a dragon all by himself.”

Holding back his urge to vomit, Bihat pointed out the corpses stuck to the roof.

“Mnghh… I think I’m gonna be sick. There’s nothing efficient or planned about that method of killing. Our enemy’s no warrior.”

“…And by that…?”

“They might have been testing the limits of their power. The people outside weren’t slowly killed by the blast, either. Basically, look… That explains why some bodies have been ripped to shreds. Some of them were thrown up against the walls and the ceiling. Sheesh…”

“B-But, wait…! If someone can do something this messed up just to test their strength, then that makes it all the more likely some monster did this.”

“…It’s gotta be a monster. When I heard the report, I had thought it was some Aureatia army sabotage, but…”

This base hadn’t only stored the new model guns delivered days prior, but also kept other rare items including several magic tools. Although the gun storage had been dispersed to a number of different places, included among the stolen items was Charijisuya the Blasting Blade, the Old Kingdom army’s trump card.

There was no doubt the damages would have a profound effect on the war situation. Supposing Bihat had commanding authority over military operations, the results here would have put any imminent actions on hold.

“Yikes. General Bihat, this body…”

“…Burned to death, looks like. There are cracks in the bones. The heat must’ve been incredibly intense. Could the enemy use Thermal Arts? There’s no way they meaninglessly shot fire everywhere after they were done killing, right…?”

When he turned his eyes elsewhere, he realized there were other strange corpses as well.

It was still the same wanton destruction, but this wasn’t the result of direct blows as before. The wall behind one corpse was riddled with bullet holes.

“No. No, no, no, give me a break… I’m about ready to lose my mind here.”

“Several dozen enemies…circled around him and all fired at once, maybe? A battalion of ogre soldiers capable of using Thermal Arts flew in from the sky, punching and gunning everyone down, perhaps?”

“We might as well consider that a possibility at this point. There are too many unknown variables to suggest some invincible monster just swooped in and did…all of this,” Bihat replied, continuing to rummage through the debris for evidence.

“If someone was capable of spraying this much gunfire, that should have been more than enough to wipe out all the guards here. When there’s this much of a power gap, it doesn’t make any sense to go out of your way to punch them, burn them, and decorate the battlefield with this much gore.”

“So, when you mentioned an inefficient method of killing…this was what you meant.”

“That’s right.”

One thing was certain. The enemy wasn’t a martial expert. The destruction was absolute, but unrefined. That fact only served to make the situation even more perplexing.

“There were two enemies.”

Bihat smacked the ground with a branch.

“Are those the enemies’ tracks?”

“Probably. They look to be going against the flow of all the soldiers running to escape. A dwarf or an ogre, maybe—something with a massive body. The footprints are deep, so they must’ve been wearing some sort of heavy armor. On the other hand, these footprints belong to someone small and petite. Likely a young girl.”

“You’re telling me an ogre and a little girl did all this?”

Bihat followed the footprints. The fleeting vestiges of the massacre at the hands of some unidentified monsters.

“…And, here, the damn things totally disappear. I figured as much, given they can fly and all.”

“I-If this was really an attack by Aureatia…there’s basically no way we can fight back against this, is there?! Ugh, the damn rear encampment is supposed to be safe from harm. What are we even supposed to be on the lookout for…?”

“I don’t have any answers, either. If they’re hitting us back here before the war’s even kicked off, I’d say we’re in a really bad situation.”

As his assistant said, the possibility that the rear encampment could be hit with a sudden direct attack would become an even bigger threat to their forces than their loss of goods.

Nevertheless, the top brass was unlikely to call off their opposition. He would just have to do his best.

“…Given that they raided the relatively weakly defended supply base, it might mean our enemy’s trying to make it hard for us to pursue them. They really did kill all the damn eyewitnesses. I’m going to use this incident as a bargaining chip to pressure the city council. We need to double our reconnaissance efforts and blockade Togie City.”

“U-Understood…sir.”

The soldiers who had joined up with them from the New Principality of Lithia would talk about it in secret. When their country fell, they witnessed multiple eccentric, deviant, and monstrous beings in the chaos.

A young messenger dashed in from the entrance, but they retched upon being met with the stench of blood and entrails.

“General Bihat! Koff, koff, urgh… We’ve gotten testimony from a survivor.”

“I know this scene’s pretty harsh. Just try to take a load off. I’ll wait for the report, so drink some of your canteen.”

“Koff, forgive me, General. It’s regarding the enemy’s infiltration route, sir.”

“I know about that. The guy that reported to us only told us that they came from the sky. Anything else?”

“Well…this next bit of information came right before the speaker lost consciousness, so I wasn’t able to ask them to clarify. But…they said the enemy was a demon king’s soldier. I-it was a g-giant…monster.”

“…A demon king.”

It went without saying, but they couldn’t possibly be referring to the True Demon King. Otherwise, the way the victims died would’ve been so much worse.

So which self-proclaimed demon king was responsible for this? Everything from their method of infiltration to their means of attack was impossible to decipher.

“What should we do? Do you think we can win a war with Aureatia in this condition?”

“It’s too late to put things off now… We can win. We should be able to.”

The soldiers there didn’t know the whole strategic picture that the army’s leaders were currently advancing along. They had long ago factored in the fighting strength of the shura at Aureatia’s command. Even if Aureatia was indeed aware of this strategy, it was already too late for them to try to defend against it.

“These men’s lives… Dammit, we’ll immediately turn the tables and get revenge for their sacrifice.”

True calamity, enough to make even gut-wrenching slaughter like this no more than a portent of what was to come.

“The storm’s coming.”

There were six days left until the disaster’s arrival.