050 The Black Legion

Outside the city of Aldo in the Kingdom of Bourbon.

When Meda led those twenty thousand ragtag soldiers, inflamed by blind fervor, into a desperate charge, the undead—previously standing still as so many silent statues—suddenly surged into motion.

The moment they moved, every single spectator watching from the walls of Aldo city felt a chill run straight down their spine.

Before the undead army began to stir, the people of Aldo had not fully grasped their terrifying nature. But now, witnessing them in actual combat, they finally understood just how horrifying Karen’s legion truly was.

High combat power was only part of it; far more frightening was the fighting style of these undead creatures.

It could no longer be described merely as reckless or fearless of death.

Before that horde of undead, the concept of death simply ceased to exist. From the very moment the battle commenced, they had only a single objective: to annihilate their adversary.

They did so with utter abandon, in a frenzy of absolute hysteria.

Just one glimpse of that merciless style of warfare was enough to completely shatter whatever misplaced courage the onlookers in Aldo had previously mustered.

The fat young man who, moments before, had loudly proclaimed word by word that he would defend the glory of the kingdom and never make concessions to Karen, now did not even dare to draw a full breath, let alone consider sending reinforcements.

While the people of Aldo remained frozen in terror, Meda and his forces were suffering a catastrophe.

The twenty thousand troops under his command could not possibly compare to Karen’s fifty thousand undead. The two sides were simply not on the same level.

They were thoroughly crushed by Karen’s undead army in both sheer numbers and individual quality.

As for morale, while his twenty thousand soldiers had indeed been gripped by a surge of hot-blooded fervor, that fervor had its limits. The moment they realized the true horror of their enemy, that heated passion instantly curdled into sheer terror.

In the very first exchange, they were beaten flat to the ground, and subsequently thrashed without mercy by Karen’s undead host.

At this rate, in less than an hour at most, their entire force would be completely wiped out.

Yet even so, Meda had not entirely lost hope.

He was well aware that even if the cowards in Aldo lacked the guts to intervene, he still had reinforcements on the way. Three thousand of the kingdom's true elite troops were rushing to the scene.

"Hold on a little longer! The kingdom's elite forces are about to arrive!"

"The moment the kingdom's elite step onto the field, victory will be ours! This undead legion is no match for the kingdom's finest!"

"As long as we hold out until this battle is won, every single one of you will be a hero of this war!"

Amidst the chaos of the battlefield, Meda continuously shouted to boost the morale of the soldiers huddled defensively around him.

His rallying cries actually had a noticeable effect, pulling his men—who had been utterly stunned and brought to the brink of psychological collapse by Karen’s undead—back from the edge. They pulled themselves together, reformed their ranks, and stubbornly resumed the fight against the undead legion. Ah, and then they were beaten right back to the point of collapse once more.

There was simply no helping it; the gap in strength between the two sides was far too vast.

No matter how passionately Meda encouraged them or how hard the soldiers tried to steel themselves, the outcome remained identical: a relentless, humiliating thrashing.

Had Karen not been deliberately holding back, this entire force would have been obliterated long ago.

Yet, after all, Lady Luck favored Meda. Before Karen could completely steamroller his army and drive them into total rout, the reinforcements he had so desperately awaited finally arrived.

A rumble of hooves shook the ground as five thousand elite kingdom cavalry surged forward from the southeastern approaches of Aldo city!

The sight of those dark-armored horsemen brought a radiant smile of triumph to Meda’s face.

"They are here! Warriors, the elite legions of the kingdom have arrived!"

"The vanguard cavalry leading them is none other than the kingdom's premier Black Cavalry Regiment!"

"They are the very same regiment that once routed five thousand goblin infantry of the Silver Hand with just five thousand men—one of the mightiest cavalry divisions in our Bourbon Kingdom."

"Right behind them march twenty-five thousand soldiers of the kingdom's Black Legion. They too fought against the Silver Hand, and they remain one of the finest infantry forces in our realm."

"With their arrival, crushing this undead legion will be effortless!"

Buoyed by Meda’s thunderous, stirring shouts, the morale of the two thousand ragtag soldiers—who had previously been battered into total submission by Karen’s undead—soared once again.

Where they had previously offered only passive resistance, clinging to survival beneath the crushing weight of the undead horde, they now puffed out their chests with arrogance and even began organizing counter-attacks.

It was not just Meda’s ragtag army; upon witnessing this development, the fat youth in Aldo city, who had been paralyzed by terror only moments before, saw the panic vanish entirely from his face.

"Warriors of the kingdom! Tell me, as honorable soldiers, can we simply stand by and watch filthy undead ravage the land before our very eyes? Can we endure their invasion of our kingdom's soil?"

"Never!" As soon as the reinforcements arrived, the courage of the soldiers within Aldo city returned in full force, and they roared back in unison with resounding firmness.

"Very well! All troops, prepare yourselves! Follow me into battle and purge the undead!"

"Charge!"

In an instant, the army of Aldo city—which had previously cowered in the corners, trembling and utterly lacking the nerve to advance—surged forward under the command of that stout officer.

Convinced that they were participating in a guaranteed victory, the soldiers of Aldo suddenly appeared remarkably valiant.

Faced with the desperate counter-charge of Meda’s two thousand men and the sudden, swaggering sortie of the Aldo garrison, the flames within Karen’s eyes flickered with deep mockery. He slowly turned his head to look at the figure standing beside him—Ailuo, whose skin had already turned largely charred and blackened.

"How should I put it? The soldiers of your kingdom have truly opened my eyes."

"It is the first time I have ever learned that military men could turn out quite like this."

Ailuo’s pupils constricted sharply, but he offered no reply. Indeed, at this moment, he was utterly incapable of offering any response. The process of his transformation into the undead was nearly complete, leaving behind only a faint remnant of consciousness that Karen had intentionally preserved.

Though he could perceive everything happening around him, he retained not an ounce of control over his own physical actions.

Had it been otherwise, he would have long since screamed at the top of his lungs, telling the idiots before him to get lost and stop wasting their meager strength trying to defy Karen.

"I hear that vanguard force is the Black Legion. As far as I recall, the Black Legion happens to be the very unit you once commanded. Under the circumstances, it would be rather inappropriate for you to simply stand here and watch. Go on, then. Go greet your former subordinates, and be a good guide for them along the way. After all, the path to hell is not an easy one to navigate."

Karen’s words caused Ailuo’s eyes to contract violently. A tidal wave of white-hot fury and smoldering hatred surged through his chest, making him yearn to cleave Karen in two with a single sword stroke.

Yet at this moment, let alone striking down Karen, he could not even raise his arm without Karen’s explicit command.

No matter how intense his hatred, how deep his lingering resentment, or how desperately he wished to resist, it was ultimately all in vain.

At Karen’s cold command, Ailuo, alongside Little Green, led their expanded force of one thousand undead cavalry, charging directly to meet the oncoming Black Cavalry Regiment...