I looked at the rusted tips of their spears and then at the "Shift System" soldiers behind them, who were already staring at us with a mixture of confusion and a dying spark of hope…
"Good Vigilance…"
I nodded as I said…
"I am the Newly summoned Hero…
The Baby---
The Saintess can testify…"
I said casually and raised Clara as the soldiers finally looked at her as she hurriedly stood up from my embrace and looked at the soldiers…
Then she pouted at me and puffed her cheeks for calling her a Baby…
I really wanted to pinch her there a few times…
Anyways…
The atmosphere at the Vesla Fortress shifted the moment Clara stepped forward…
After all she was a Regular on the Battlefield and had only recently been called to the capital…
The soldiers were both happy and sad…
Sad because the Little angel who helps them will be gone…
Happy because this was no place for such a cute Angel to stay and they didn't want her to slave away her youth in this Hell…
The dozen halberds that had been leveled at my chest wavered, then lowered in a clatter of rusted iron as the soldiers identified the Saintess…
A low, vibrating commotion rose among the ranks—a sound of disbelief, of parched throats trying to cheer, and of hearts that had been dead for many months suddenly catching a spark…
We didn't waste time on pleasantries…
We were led through the maze of bone-ash walls and past the weary "Shift System" soldiers toward the command center…
I sighed as I looked at these Soldiers—
No, Heroes with a sigh and continued towards the Fortress Walls…
Indeed, the General wasn't in a tent; she was exactly where a commander should be—on the walls, silhouetted against the roiling sea of Black Ink…
As expected of a General who could command this Hell…
I immediately gave her several plus points…
We found her standing amidst a hailstorm of ashen wind…
She wore Red General Armor, a crimson set that looked like it had been forged from the blood of the fallen, and she gripped a heavy spear with a white-knuckled intensity…
This was Iriel, the General of Vesla…
As I approached, still looking like a "stable boy" in my hoodie, she didn't even turn…
She kept barking orders, her voice a jagged blade of authority…
"Mages, focus the north quadrant!!!
If that ink touches the secondary gate, I'll have your heads!!!"
"General Iriel," the old priest began, his voice trembling…
"The summoning...
It succeeded…
This is the Hero called by the Goddesses…"
Iriel finally turned…
Her face was a mask of scars and exhaustion, her eyes burning with a belligerent, hollow fire…
Despite so she still looked beautiful…
After all, a Heroic woman is still quite Interesting…
She looked at me, then at the sky, and let out a bark of laughter that held zero humor…
"The Hero???
Called by the Goddesses???" she spat, her spear tip tracing a line in the dirt...
'Ohhh???'
"Where were these 'Goddesses' when the Fortress of Erenzil fell???
Where were they when the sky turned black and stayed that way for twenty years???
If they have enough power to pull a hillbilly through space, why couldn't they find the power to save a single kingdom from the mud???"
'Hahahaha!!!
Is she ignorant or does she not even know the cause of all this???'
I thought as I immediately began to deduct her points…
"Mu Zhong..." Alethia's voice whispered in my mind, heavy with sorrow…
"Do not be too harsh…
Her anger has a source…
Her sister, Rena, died while evacuating civilians in a neighboring fortress that was consumed by the Calamity…
Iriel has blamed us ever since…"
'Ohhh!!!
Another person with a Backstory???
Unfortunately—'
I looked at Iriel, a playful smile playing on my lips at first…
I could feel it—the familiar "Face Slapping" trope brewing…
But as I looked at the surrounding troops, at the hollow, lightless eyes of the men who had watched their friends turn to ash, my smile vanished into a frown…
I don't mind a good face-slapping session, but this was a graveyard…
This was a serious place, and I didn't have the patience for her projection…
"Are you done making things difficult for me???"
I asked, my voice flat and cold…
Iriel laughed angrily, her spear glowing with a desperate, red mana…
"Difficult???
Boy, you have no idea what 'difficult'—"
Clara suddenly grabbed my sleeve, her eyes wide with terror…
"Big Brother...
Please…
Don't do what you did in the Capital…
Not to them!!!"
"What did you do in the Capital???"Iriel frowned as she looked at me…
"Relax, Clara-chan,"
I assured her but ignored Iriel, though my eyes never left Iriel's…
"I'm just taking out the trash in the air, not the foundation…"
'Indeed…
Although I don't like her conduct but her Struggle and merits are far too much…
Enough to offset any of my bad mood…'
So I snapped my fingers…
[Chains of Heaven]
From the black void portals of my inventory, the S-Rank golden chains erupted…
They didn't just bind Iriel; they snared ten or so soldiers who had moved to support her, pinning them to the battlements in a flash of clashing iron…
Iriel shrieked in fury, her spear clattering to the stone as the mana-restraints dug in…
The surrounding troops gasped, a wave of fear and confusion rippling through the wall…
But I didn't give them time to panic and lessen the Morale…
I glanced above and reached into my [SSS-Rank Mana cores]…
I condensed a massive ball of Light Element, a miniature sun that throbbed with the light of my Red Light Incarnation Talent…
With a casual flick of my wrist, I threw it into the sky…
It stood 50 meters above the fortress, stationary and brilliant…
The effect was instantaneous…
The [Black Calamity] at the base of the walls began to hiss and melt, the ink evaporating into harmless steam wherever the light touched it…
The Space of the Light's cover was slow but it was absolute…
All Black Monsters within 10 meters of the Fortress walls dissolved without fail…
I easily diffused the dangerous situation of an Army without a Commander and let everyone have a time of respite…
And so…
For the first time in two decades, the "Sea of Ink" was forced to retreat…
I then turned my indifferent gaze back to the restrained Iriel…
"You're weak,"
I said, my voice echoing over the battlefield…
"And because you're weak, you blame the Goddesses…