# 48 Hours
The air was torn apart. From high in the sky, the wind was ripped as a thunderous roar plunged toward the ground.
Their numbers weren't great. Barely three hundred at most. The silhouettes falling like dots would clearly struggle to significantly impact the battle.
But there was something about their momentum. Like the inevitable fear infantry feel when facing a cavalry charge. Each warrior pouring from the sky like a blanket could be classified as an elite knight.
Lances pointed downward gleamed red in the evening glow. They were now close enough for the demons on the ground to clearly see the figures falling toward them.
"Eternal glory to Tilles!!"
A shout that was almost a scream. And before the shout could even be heard, already—
*CRASH—!!!*
The first collision occurred. Falling with the force of a meteorite, literally grinding everything and every demon in the vicinity.
And such collisions were happening simultaneously across the entire area beneath the shadow of the airship.
*CRASH—!! CRASH—!!*
Each impact carried a force close to a meteor strike. These amazing cavalry twisted their bodies just before impact, striking their targets with all their might as if driving in a lance.
Demons grazed by lance tips were torn to pieces, while those standing near the impact zone died as they lost limbs or were flung away.
*CRASH—!!*
A knight rose from a small crater ringed with blood. Clad in full armor with a surcoat, the knight shook his head vigorously then grabbed his helmet with trembling hands and threw it roughly aside.
"Ptooey!!"
After spitting blood onto the ground, he looked around. Though his vision, shaken by impact, showed nothing but demons, he sensed the presence of other knights within his awareness.
"Fortunately, no one died!"
He shouted cheerfully, then sliced off the head of a dazed demon standing nearby. Raising high a banner that had somehow maintained its form through the intense descent:
"Eastern Knights—!! Assemble!!"
"Assemble!!"
Shouts returned from all directions. Knights who hadn't regained their senses from the impact shock began to regroup through instincts honed by years of training. They called out assembly signals and forcibly pulled up comrades who were still staggering.
Mounted knights can perform the same role as heavy infantry. That is, lance-wielding mounted knights can move in formation like a phalanx. Especially when they're superhuman.
*CRACK! CRUNCH!*
The superhumans moved in a turtle-like defensive formation. On Earth's battlefields, knights were often compared to "armored vehicles." They were called medieval tanks. Considering their overwhelming breakthrough power and defensive capabilities, it's quite an apt comparison.
In a world where magic exists, it's no longer just a comparison. They can actually perform exactly the same function. The knights advanced, literally smashing everything that blocked their path.
The demons didn't dare stand in their way until the knights barely managed to enter between the formations of Krasilov's 2nd Corps.
The young man commanding them from the front planted his banner in the ground and bowed his head in military salute.
"Oskar de Etakrich, commander of Tilles' expeditionary force, greets the sovereign of Krasilov."
"Welcome. Oskar, no... Lord Protector. Is the King of Tilles well?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Thanks to you."
As Elizabeta responded with a smile, Oskar briefly looked around and said:
"If this were a better place, there would be appropriate time to pay respects, but for now, I wish to escort Your Majesty."
"Is this all of you?"
"The support troops haven't arrived yet. The situation was urgent, so we had to descend as soon as we arrived."
"I see."
A bitter expression crossed Elizabeta's face. Several hundred knights. Certainly a powerful force, but not enough to turn the tide of battle.
It seemed as if they had arrived only to die together in the encirclement. Had she detected them before their descent, she would have directed them to the rear defensive line.
Wouldn't such troops be better used elsewhere than dying alongside the survivors here?
But Oskar's eyes were not those of someone who had jumped to commit suicide. Elizabeta gathered her thoughts briefly and asked:
"Your plan?"
"Kalion's airship will soon begin bombardment. The bombardment direction is west, toward the setting sun. With the bombardment, we will open a path."
Indeed.
Elizabeta nodded briefly. With bombardment, perhaps. Superhumans never die from bombardment, so it might be possible to retreat under the knights' escort.
However, she soon shook her head.
"I refuse. You should leave with the bombardment. I will hold this position."
"Pardon? Your Majesty, however..."
"To retreat through the ground during bombardment, wouldn't we have to abandon all these people?"
Elizabeta answered, pointing to her soldiers.
She had indeed led the 2nd Corps infantry to their deaths. She had carried out the plan without informing them of an escape route, and now the underground tunnel, which had been their only way out, was occupied by the enemy, leaving them surrounded.
But ultimately, it could be seen as a strategic move for victory from a broader perspective. After all, they had held out for a long time while concentrating the demon army.
But she hadn't abandoned them by hiding the escape route. Despite casualties and sacrifices, after achieving the mission objective, they could have begun a retreat that would have saved more than half of them.
It was a gamble for the minimum necessary sacrifice and the maximum possible objective.
But if she escaped through the ground with the Tilles knights, the infantry couldn't follow. They couldn't find a safe path through Kalion's wide-area bombardment without line-of-fire detection.
Moreover, to break through the encirclement westward and reach the great plains, the infantry would become a burden. They couldn't outrun the demons across the rasputitsa.
So the knights' plan was essentially to throw all the infantry to the demons as fodder and escape. They were a suicide squad solely to rescue the queen.
"Then, Your Majesty, if you have another plan, please tell us. I will listen."
"We'll break through the underground tunnel. It would be impossible with just my forces, but with you, it should be possible. Break through the underground tunnel, open a path, and with Kalion's air support, cut off the rear to stop the enemy's offensive."
"Indeed. But can we find our way underground?"
"Even if they were isolated by the goblin raid, not all dwarves could have been wiped out in just two days. We should make contact with them underground and move to the rear. Can you do it?"
"I will do as you command. Lead the way."
Oskar bowed his head briefly. He was here representing Tilles, and a Lord Protector is never subordinate to another country's monarch in diplomatic society. But in the midst of urgent battle, command authority shouldn't be divided.
Elizabeta's military experience was overwhelmingly greater than Oskar's, making her opinion worth following based on command experience alone.
*WHEEEE—!! CRASH—!!*
While their brief meeting continued, Kalion's airship was buying them as much time as possible. As the bombardment continued, the demons scattered and hurriedly summoned their shamans and mages.
However, their crude spells, deployed without proper anti-air defenses, failed to break through the airship's defenses. Spells like fireballs exploded and collapsed near the airship.
[Such pathetic attempts—!!]
Nekinnon rose, grinding his teeth. He had momentarily faltered due to being the focus of most of the bombardment. He appeared, dispersing the explosive smoke with rage as fierce as his wounded pride.
His metallic skin remained smooth without a single scar. There was no sign of damage despite Kalion's concentrated firepower.
Nekinnon's eyes focused on the airship. His hands came together, each forming different seals. Soon, yellowish magical power flowed up his forearms.
[No one can escape from here!! Did you come seeking death? How admirable!!]
"Indeed, no one can escape from here."
As he was about to move forward, a clear voice echoed across the battlefield. Nekinnon hesitated and turned his gaze as he was about to complete his spell with an outstretched hand.
On the bow of the airship he had targeted, a silhouette was smiling down at him.
Magnificent blonde hair billowed and scattered. In the harsh high-altitude winds, a woman smiled as she brushed her hair back.
A woman wearing an eye patch over one eye, with fluttering sleeves revealing she was missing an arm. With her one hand resting on her sword hilt, she lightly kicked off the ship's railing and jumped up.
Nekinnon knew this elf's name.
[Edel...plat...?!]
"Edelplat Koenwolf of the Sword Angle, joining the battle!"
*SWISH—!!*
[I know you, Edelplat, shame of the elves! Aren't you the leader of those half-wits who can't weave a single spell despite being elves! Don't consider me the same as that fool Tumour, swordswoman!!]
"Ah, that's not wrong."
Edelplat grinned as she watched Nekinnon's spell reaching toward her. In free fall, her cape fluttered wildly in the rough wind, revealing her missing left arm.
She drew her sword with her one remaining arm and shouted:
"That's why I brought a spell-weaver too! The direct descendant of the one you feared most, look forward to it!! Elfi!!"
"Yes, Lord Koenwolf!!"
A voice amplified by a spell burst from the airship. As Elfihera Grikenkos on the deck intertwined her hands, the entire airship began to glow blue.
The flow of magical power resonated with a humming sound. The airship's levitation is fundamentally based on powerful magical cores, the essence of magical engineering. It's an irreplaceable ancient elven legacy.
It's the product of a race that once created their own god using only magical power. The magic sleeping in the ship flowed in streams toward Elfihera's fingertips.
*CRACK, CRACK, CRACKLE—!!*
Elfihera is the daughter of Beolgreen. An elf considered a genius even among the geniuses of Kalion, with magical optimization skills said to rival Beolgreen in his prime.
From the moment she operated the Sword Angle's ship, she had been preparing for this moment. The power to face even the Seven Dragon Generals.
Isabelle split the sky, they say?
Elfihera smiled crookedly, brought her hands together, lightly grasped the powerful magic rushing as if to burn her nerves, stretched her arms toward the sky—
"Elfihera's—!!"
Blue magical light shot from both her eyes. Static electricity crackled as her hair rose on its own. Like aiming a gun, she pointed her fingertips directly at Nekinnon.
The powerful magic emitted by the airship's power source took form through her fingers, shaping into a spell.
One hand raised to the sky, for the heavenly energy.
The other hand lowered to the ground, for the target.
"Following Heaven—"
Beolgreen ascended to the sky. He read the will of heaven, questioned the sky, answered to heaven, and ascended to the sky. The greatest astronomer in history tore and shook the sky against heaven's will.
Now, in this place, the astronomer's daughter weaves power not granted to her, using her talent to answer her father.
Looking at the sky her father shook and tore, now the sky of the human era without gods, reading the heavenly energy from nature itself without will or intention, and obeying it.
Thus, not ascending to heaven.
But descending from heaven. That is:
"Thousand Thunders—!!"
Divine punishment.
A thousand lightning bolts woven together formed a white pillar that struck down. In the clear evening, under the sky torn by the airship's bombardment, lightning appeared from the cloudless firmament, shattering the atmosphere.
*ZZZZZAP—!!*
Completely dismantling Nekinnon's spell.
*CRAAACK—!!*
As Nekinnon staggered backward after being directly hit by the spell, Edelplat's longsword, having finally fallen right above him, flowed smoothly. A long vertical crack was drawn from Nekinnon's head to his torso, following her descent.
With a light tap, Edel landed on the ground and looked up at the giant with a smile.
"Go, Your Majesty. I'll bind his feet."
As if to say, I've done this once before, so what's the difficulty?
Elizabeta nodded to Edel with a stern face and turned around. With the Tilles knights in the lead, the army rushed toward the underground passage where goblins were pouring out.
*...!!!!*
Behind them, the god's furious roar and gunfire, the aurora of lightning, and the screams of swept-away demons echoed.
Yet without stopping their steps, they headed straight for the defensive line established by the 2nd Corps artillery.
Toward the battlefield where all the capabilities of the United Kingdom could be deployed at maximum firepower.
Two days had passed since the engagement. It was an overachievement of the strategic objective.
Two-thirds of the mobilized forces were lost in this operation. But Elizabeta did not mourn those who had gone first.
Instead, she had been preparing for the next operation, and the one after that, solely for revenge, and now it was time to see the results.
EP48. 48 Hours.