Part 7
“Are these ‘higher Integrity Knights’ really that strong?”
Gabriel Miller asked during a bumpy ride inside of a gigantic tank dragged by a dinosaur-like two-headed monstrosity. However, this “tank” was more similar to a box on four wheels without treads or a turret.
The silk-covered bench softened shaking somewhat but did not suppress it entirely. Still, in comparison to the nightmarish roller coaster Gabriel had to experience in the military vehicle known as a “Bradley” [7] , this ride was nothing. Wine rippled regularly in a glass that stood on a folding table in front of him.
Three days have already passed since they left Obsidia, but even though Gabriel had never experienced continuous movement for this long in the real world, he was almost completely unfatigued. This was most likely unrelated to the pleasure of sitting in this so-called tank and actually because this was a virtual world.
Besides Gabriel’s feet, lying on a soft carpet, the beautiful woman in unkempt clothing massaged her bandaged right leg and nodded.
“They are very strong indeed… In nearly three hundred years of combat history, not a single one of our Dark Sorcerers or Dark Knights has managed to kill one… I don’t know if you can understand this kind of example? Of course, the opposite has happened countless times, as many times as there are stars in the sky.”
“Hm…”
In place of Gabriel who fell silent, Vassago, who was sitting on the opposite side with his legs crossed holding a bottle of distilled wine, asked in a half-suspicious voice:
“But listen, D, baby. If those weirdly named bunch of Integrity… Knights are really that awesome, how come they never invaded us themselves?
The leader of the Dark Arts guild, DIL, smiled seductively and raised her index finger.
“Good question, Vassago-sama. Each of them does have the strength of a thousand, but in the end, each of them is just one person. If this warrior would be surrounded by ten thousand fighters in an open space, he’d start to incur wounds, those wounds would accumulate and eventually his entire Life would deplete. That’s why these cowards never go too far over the Mountain Range at the Edge. They are afraid of being surrounded.”
“Heh, I see. It’s like how you can take care of all of those tough mobs even if your DoT [8] is very low but you stay in a safe place and shave away their HP bit by bit…”
“Hah?… Mobs?…”
Gabriel glared at Vassago, who had completely confused D’s artificial Fluctlight with his comparison, coughed lightly and said:
“Anyway, you’re saying that if we force these Integrity Knights to fight us in an open space, we’ll be able to surround and exterminate them, correct?”
“That’s how it is in theory. But we’ll probably have to sacrifice tens of thousands of Goblins and Orcs.”
Giggling, D picked a brightly colored berry out of the cup on the carpet and licked it with her lips that were just as crimson red.
Needless to say, Gabriel was completely indifferent to the loss of infantry units. He would not care if he had to sacrifice the entire army, including even D. In a sense, this battle was the same as the tactical simulations he went through countless times back at GlowGen.
He will become the new ruler of the Human Empire with his throne on a mountain of corpses, and issue a simple order across the entire country: find and bring him the girl known as Alice. After that, his mission in this strange world would be finished.
As he thought, the exotic high-class wine in the glass became increasingly precious.
Raising his glass, Gabriel sipped the dark purple liquid.
At this time, Gabriel Miller’s mind unconsciously molded together the figure of «Alice», with the flawless, beautiful figure of his first prey that had an extremely similar name, Alicia Clingerman. Living in some place that would be similar to his home, Pacific Palisades, she would be gentle, beautiful —and absolutely powerless. That was the image in his head.
That was why Gabriel failed to consider another possibility.
He did not even begin to imagine —that the «Alice» he sought would be one of the Integrity Knights leading the enemy army.
A long military convoy, with the command car with a waving Emperor flag bringing up the rear, was slowly but surely moving to the West. At the edge of the blood-colored sky, the saw-like pitch-black Mountain Range at the Edge slowly revealed its silhouette.
On the fourth day of the march, the seventh day of the eleventh month.
The main forces of the Dark Territory approached the base of the Mountain Range, where they could see the huge gate that was just about to collapse. A countless number of black tents set up by the vanguard covered the wide plain.
Boom.
Boom.
The earth trembled from the thunderous war drums played by the tribe of Giants.
At the end of the line, Gabriel looked silently from the roof of his command car — as though they were countless blood cells pumped by a giant heart, the attack unit slowly expanded into the final formation.
The first vanguard unit consisted of several light infantry regiments composed of Goblins and heavy Orc infantry, numbering fifteen thousand overall. They lined up in a column barely the same width as that of the valley piercing through the Mountain Range. Here and there among the formation, Giants resembling siege towers were stationed; they numbered less than five hundred, but as the main force tanks supporting the infantry unit, they were worth it.
Behind the Mixed Demihuman Unit, there was the second line, comprised of five thousand Fist Fighters and five thousand Dark Knights. The young new leader of the Dark Knights wanted to wash away the shame of his predecessor and asked to be part of the vanguard, but Gabriel refused. That could cause a drop in morale of the other Knight Units and he must eliminate such this unsure factor.
The third line was built up of seven thousand Ogre Archers and an entirely female Dark Sorceress division that numbered three thousand. Their task was to charge into the valley behind the infantry and annihilate the enemy army with long range attacks. According to the head of the Sorceresses, D, even if they used long-range attacks, if they could recognize the main force of the enemy army — the shadows of the Integrity Knights, they could kill them with by concentrating their fire onto one point.
Honestly, Gabriel really wanted to take on those invincible Knights by himself and consume their souls. However, any sort of accident could result in his high-level account being lost. Besides, he could create as many Underworldians — that is, artificial Fluctlights, as he wanted in the future. Right now, the primary goal was to control «Alice» and escape the «Ocean Turtle».
From logging to now, eight days of internal time had passed, which corresponded to about fifteen minutes in the real world. After Gabriel assumed complete control of the Human Empire, the amount of time it would take to spread the order to find Alice to each corner of this world would take about ten more days. Thinking like that, he must end this war as quickly as possible — the longest being an entire day.
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