I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 341

Avalon, which had now taken on a new national name rather than El Dorado.

Even though it hadn’t been long since receiving its new name, a crisis had struck the nation.

The Wild Hunt phenomenon originating from the Forest of the Four Seasons. Had it been just the Wild Hunt, it would have ended with mere vigilance.

However, the problem was that the destination of the Wild Hunt army was the Balkan Kingdom.

Having quickly realized this, the Hero, Asella, urgently deployed the Paladin Order to the border.

Since the people of Avalon had also witnessed the Wild Hunt with their own eyes, they faithfully followed Asella’s orders.

"More of them are swarming in!"

"We need more Holy Water over here!"

The border line dividing Avalon and the Balkan Kingdom.

On the ramparts stationed along the border, numerous soldiers called for Holy Water for their respective reasons.

Some to repel the undead pouring in like a tidal wave. Some to heal injuries.

To the undead, Holy Water exhibited effects far deadlier than rat poison.

Thus, Holy Water was essential, but the problem was that there were far, far too many undead.

"Eliminate the ones climbing the walls first!"

"Bring stones rather than Holy Water! Roll them down here quickly!"

In this world, due to powerful magic, the effectiveness of castles was not particularly outstanding.

Indeed, it was common for a single skilled knight to bring down a castle.

Even so, the reason castles were essential was because of monsters. At the very least, they served as a ’fence’.

Right now was no different. Had there been no wall, they wouldn’t have been able to block the nauseatingly swarming undead.

[Ttadak! Ttak!]

[Ttadadak! Ttadak!]

It had been over thirty years since the Immortal King incident occurred.

Most of the undead were skeletons, and exterminating them was not difficult.

However, as mentioned earlier, their numbers were astoundingly massive.

"They’re building a tower again!"

"Pour Holy Water over there quickly! Hurry!"

"We’re running low on Holy Water!"

"Priests! Call the priests!"

Normally, tools like ladders are required to scale a wall.

However, the skeletons used other skeletons as stepping stones to crawl up, and as that repeated, a tower naturally formed.

The sheer volume of them was terrifying enough to crush morale just by looking at it.

Had Grylls seen this, he would have said he saw it in a movie, calling them a zombie horde rather than skeletons.

"O Aris! Guide the specters wandering the netherworld!"

Yet here existed the natural enemy of the undead. The existence praised by the world as the Hero.

Asella raised the Holy Sword, Revolution, high into the air and shouted.

Kwaang!

The moment she cried out, a pillar of light struck down upon the horde of undead scaling the ramparts.

Quite literally, a pillar of holy light descended, causing the undead to fall like autumn leaves.

[Kyaaaaak!]

[Ggiaaaaak!]

That wasn’t all. The light itself held holy power, making it exceptionally effective at purging them.

With a slight exaggeration, Asella alone could repulse the entire undead legion.

However, the assault of the undead legion wasn’t a one- or two-time occurrence. They flooded in endlessly.

It was a situation where corpses buried in the Balkan Kingdom had reawakened due to the Wild Hunt phenomenon.

"Hero-nim! Those bastards have bunched up into a ball again!"

At a paladin’s shout, Asella turned her head.

Skeletons are undead with nothing but bones, and their forms resemble humans.

However, when they occasionally get tangled up in a jumble with one another, they often mutate into grotesque shapes.

Kureureureu!!!

Just like the massive clump of skeletons rolling over from far away, shaped into a giant ball.

Asella gritted her teeth as she watched the skeleton sphere rolling from afar.

With so many bones assembled together, it bound to possess enormous mass.

If that collided with the wall, it would cause terrifying damage.

In the worst-case scenario, the ramparts would crumble, making the casualties uncontrollable.

"Lich spotted at 3 o’clock! It’s preparing magic!"

"Group of Death Knights appeared at 12 o’clock! At least 10 individuals!"

That wasn’t all. Elite undead emerged one after another.

Including spell-casting Liches and knight-tier Death Knights.

Nothing was easy. As the days passed, increasingly dangerous foes swarmed in.

Just as Asella firmly gripped the Holy Sword Revolution upon seeing this, a change occurred.

Hwiiiiing—

A strange sound echoed from the sky. Asella and the soldiers on the walls looked up.

A meteor glowing with crimson flame was falling somewhere.

A slender streak of the meteor drew a line across the sky as if painting a picture.

A crimson meteor that mesmerized anyone looking at it.

Kwagwagwang!!!

Before long, the meteor plummeted to the ground, scoring a direct hit on the rolling mass of skeletons.

A blinding flash burst forth, and a deafening roar pierced their ears.

Hwiiiiing—This story is hosted at n⁠ovelping.com.

Before they could even check on the skeletons hit by the meteor, another fell in rapid succession.

Not just one or two, but enough to fill half the sky.

Kwagwagwang! Kwaang!

The crimson meteors precisely struck the dangerous spots.

Be it Liches or Death Knights, all was meaningless before overwhelming firepower.

The same went for the undead legion swarming like a tidal wave. They were swept away like autumn leaves in a gale under the meteor bombardment.

Having endured several rounds of meteor bombardment, the momentum of the undead army was thoroughly broken.

"...This won’t be the end. Heal the wounded and repair the ramparts."

"Yes!"

After issuing orders to the paladins, Asella gazed at the sky.

From the sky, a certain mage was descending loftily.

Before long, the mage smoothly landed beside Asella—Kadir.

He stroked his beard while observing the scene he had created.

"Hero-nim. How many times has an assault occurred since I arrived?"

"Five times in total, Kadir-nim."

Asella answered politely to Kadir’s question.

Since both were well aware of each other’s status, they showed mutual respect.

Kadir listened to Asella’s words, pondered deeply for a moment, and spoke.

"It will become even harder from here on out. The increased frequency of Liches and Death Knights appearing is proof of that."

"I am aware of that."

When the first assault occurred, though there was confusion, they easily held it off.

They hadn’t poured out in heaps like now, and there were barely any elite-tier monsters.

However, as time passed, their numbers rapidly surged, and their varieties multiplied.

Including skeletons, ghouls, zombies, Liches, Death Knights, and so forth.

"Is the purification work progressing smoothly?"

"We are continuously supplying Holy Water, but as casualties mount, it is becoming increasingly difficult."

In battles between humanity and the undead, humanity holds the advantage on an individual level.

Because without muscle and left with only bones, their basic physical capabilities are vastly inferior.

However, when armies clash against armies, the dynamic reverses.

While armies have historically been infamous bottomless pits for supplies, the undead do not require even a single drop of water.

Furthermore, when humans are injured, their combat ability plummets, but the undead suffer no such setback.

"Undead corpse poison is extremely dangerous. If symptoms of poisoning occur, administer Holy Water immediately."

"Understood. And... thank you so very much."

Asella expressed her gratitude with deep sincerity.

They were in a position where firepower was severely lacking, and Kadir had come to reinforce them.

It was no exaggeration to say that they had endured up to this point thanks to Kadir’s very presence.

No matter how much of a Hero Asella was, she lacked pure offensive output.

"It is nothing. Reminded of past events, I simply could not stand by and watch."

"Still, thank you. We of Avalon will never forget this deed."

"I shall claim compensation for it someday..."

Kadir trailed off and walked toward the edge of the ramparts.

He then leaned his head slightly forward, looking down at the heaps of bones piled below the wall.

"Have all of those undergone the purification process?"

"Yes. As Kadir-nim requested, the purification process has been completed."

"Then it seems we may begin shortly."

Tuk—

Saying so, Kadir lightly tapped the ground with his staff.

It was a staff with a human skull mounted on it, the kind a dark mage might wield.

Moreover, mana faintly radiated from the skull, feeling almost like that of a Lich.

The appearance of the staff invoked unease just by looking at it. Asella asked cautiously:

"Um... what purpose does this staff serve?"

"You could say it is the culmination of my experiment."

[Nice to meet you.]

Ttak-ttak-ttak!

As soon as Kadir spoke, the skull affixed to the staff clacked its teeth.

Even Asella couldn’t help but be startled by that reaction. She couldn’t get used to it even after seeing it several times.

In particular, a green glow swirled within its hollow eye sockets. Beyond merely being alive, it gave off the impression of possessing intelligence.

"...It really looks like a Lich."

"Thank you."

Though uncomfortable, she moved past it. Wasn’t Kadir famous for being an eccentric anyway?

Even ’Allfather’ in the Gallery wasn’t much different. He was notorious for committing all sorts of eccentricities.

If Kadir were an enemy, it would be troublesome, but right now he was a reliable ally.

’Necromancy is Love is attached right beside Allfather, though...’

She could roughly guess who this was. But she didn’t bother asking.

There was no good in bringing this fact out into the open unnecessarily.

Right now, resolving the undead assault took priority.

"Skeleton horde spotted up front!!"

"They’re swarming in again!"Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping . com.

Hardly any time had passed before another assault broke out.

Asella looked beyond the ramparts the moment she heard the sentry’s shout.

An undead legion beginning to swarm in to cover the entire land.

’They’re swarming in like a damn pack of dogs.’

Even Asella, who was always dutiful, couldn’t help uttering coarse words internally.

Of course, even calling it coarse, it was quite cute in severity.

Seueuu—

Meanwhile, Kadir watched the approaching undead army and floated into the sky.

Flight magic, which only a tiny fraction among mages could manifest. He cast it effortlessly.

Asella watched him and wondered if he was going to cast the same meteor magic as before.

"This much should be sufficient."

Ttak-ttak!

However, it was different this time. Kadir aimed his skull staff.

Not toward the skeleton horde charging at the ramparts, but toward the bone piles beneath the wall.

Piles of bones that specters could not inhabit because they had been purified with Holy Water.

Uuuuung!

The moment Kadir aimed the skull staff, the gaze of the skull—or rather, the Immortal King Kazan—grew even more intense.

At the same time, vibrant green mana began to emanate from Kazan’s skull.

Ttadadadak! Ttadadak!

Simultaneously, the bone piles began to move.

Bones that were now purified and completely incapable of independent movement.

However, that only meant ’specters’ couldn’t move them; if controlled artificially, it was a completely different story.

Originally, necromancers controlled corpses, but did not infuse souls into them.

Because controlling a soul required tricky conditions.

So calling them necromancers, in a way, wasn’t much different from puppeteers controlling marionettes.

"W-What is that?"

"Why are the skeletons...!"

"Can Kadir-nim use necromancy as well?"

As the bone piles rattled in unison, the soldiers atop the walls fell into commotion.

Due to the Pope’s machinations, necromancy had been designated as a forbidden art, though that taboo had softened recently.

Still, the uncomfortable feeling itself couldn’t be erased. They merely refrained from voicing it because the caster was Kadir.

Deolgeureok! Deolgeureok!

The bone piles rapidly began to take form.

They were not simple skeletons. They were Death Knights mounted on undead steeds!

Because the heaps of bones beneath the ramparts were tremendous, the number of Death Knights was also substantial.

Yet compared to the undead army swarming like a tidal wave, it looked endlessly dwarfed.

"Will this be sufficient?"

[It is more than enough for Us.]

However, who was this skull—no, Kazan?

A being who had reached the pinnacle of necromancy and turned an entire nation into a land of the undead.

Though he had lost his body, his knowledge regarding necromancy remained entirely intact.

And any lacking mana could be replenished by Kadir on his behalf.

[It is not entirely satisfying, but...]

Tududududu!!!

The Death Knights mounted on warhorses charged toward the undead army.

The speed was virtually impossible to track with the naked eye. After all, these were all beings commanded directly by the Immortal King.

[Not bad.]

Kwagwagu-geuk!!!

Before long, the Death Knight order and the undead legion collided.

Simultaneously, a one-sided slaughter commenced. No, calling it a slaughter was ambiguous since they were already dead.

The Death Knight order shattered the undead legion helplessly. A single charge completely collapsed their formation.

Yet this was not the end. Kadir channeled even more mana into Kazan.

Ttadadak! Ttadak!

The undead army crushed by the Death Knight order transformed into even more Death Knights before long.

The hallmark of the undead: the more they kill, the stronger they grow, and the more their numbers multiply.

"Is purification unnecessary?"

[Such petty specters cannot be compared to Our capabilities.]

Purification wasn’t needed either.

Kazan’s mastery of control was tenfold superior to the grudges of those specters.

Knock them down and they revive; strike them down and their ranks expand.

Truly the height of absurdity. One could easily see why the Holy Kingdom had been rendered utterly helpless against the Immortal King back then.

"Still, you’re not doing as well as back in my day. Can’t you push yourself a bit harder?"

[Your body would certainly suffice.]

A full-scale counteroffensive had begun. And...

’I really want to try using that nuke thing...’

Kadir’s desire for experimentation remained unquenched.