Crimson personally carried Iron out of the cave.

Officers flocked to them as soon as they came out. They were shocked to see him staggering on his feet while carrying the unconscious Iron on his back. Although there were countless drakes and airships flying over them as well as hundreds of soldiers moving to kill the monsters, their focus was on their staggering commander.

“Commander! Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Take this friend straight to the medical corps.”

One of the officers hurriedly approached and took away Iron, who had fainted on Crimson’s back, to bring him to the medical corps.

“Yes, sir!”

After Iron, who was personally carried by the commander, was hurriedly taken away by the officer to get treatment, all of the officers turned to look at Crimson.

They felt strange staring at their commander. His injuries were light and only his head was bleeding so it was most definitely something to make a fuss over. However, this was the first time that these soldiers have seen their commander get this battered. Ever since they got stationed here, they had only seen this master with an upright and unchanging appearance. As someone who was hailed as one of the strongest, it was rare to see him hurt.

“What… in the world is going on?”

“Just like what we have heard from the report, a dimensional crack has opened. The culprits are the dark elves… Some of them were so powerful that they were able to inflict injuries on me.”

When the leader of the Northeastern Knights, Cassim Nights, heard Crimson’s words, his expression turned solemn.

“A master level?”

“That’s right. In addition, the dark elves all had considerable strength. Even the Northern Commander who came with me suffered from injuries.”

Just like the saying that went, speak of the tiger and the tiger will come, the Northern Commander appeared with a frown after Crimson’s words. 

“I didn’t suffer that much.”

“Even if you look like that?”

The Northern Commander looked at the smiling Crimson awkwardly. Jayden Wicks looked like a middle-aged man but he and Crimson were only ten years apart in age. All he could do was sigh when he saw Crimson smiling mischievously at him. 

“I thought I would experience less trouble if I became the commander…”

“Do you think that’s possible here in the North?”

Crimson rebuked Jayden Wicks and proved to him that everything that he thought of was just a pipe dream. 

Jayden Wicks was once called the Flash. He was someone who flew around all over the place and showed off his might. But right now, he looked just like an exhausted old man as he sank down on the snow. 

“Dimensional crack… I don’t know how I should report this.”

“Report it as it is. If you don’t want to see the downfall of the North, then you have to apply enough pressure so that they can give us enough support.”

As Crimson spoke of this, the report that Iron had made a long time ago suddenly flashed in his head. 

Threatening the Center to get as much support as possible and laying the foundation for the Northeast’s independence.

He thought that he could probably implement that plan with this incident. 

‘Northeast’s independence…’

Iron was also the one who said that the signs of a monster wave had been increasing in the Northeast. 

No, it’s something that’s sure now.

A dimensional crack was created and enemies that the Northeast couldn’t handle with their strength alone had also appeared. 

If a monster wave really happens in the future, can the Northeast block it? What if more dark elves appear in the process?

Just the thought of it brought chills down Crimson’s spine. He could already foresee the annihilation of the Northeastern Army if this happened.

“I’ll have to send a request to the Lion Family.”

“Will they help us?”

“We should ask them at least… We should ask them to send us support if a monster wave occurs in the Northeast.”

Crimson smiled bitterly when he heard Jayden Wicks’ words. 

Even if a monster wave occurred, he was sure that they would be able to stop it if those madmen intervened and used their forces. But the Leonhardt Family was a group of arrogant people who only saw themselves.

“You worked hard today.”

“You’ve worked harder, old man.”

“Aren’t you an old man too?”

“I’m still middle-aged.”

Jayden Wicks quickly stood up and insisted that he was still young when he heard Crimson telling him that he was an old man too. 

Not long after, the elite soldiers of the vanguard corps arrived one by one. Even the rangers and the knights joined the Command one after the other. Seeing that their trusted men had come, the two commanders finally felt the exhaustion. They left the arrangement to them with warnings not to provoke the cave at all as they entered the tent that was temporarily set up to take a break. 

A few days later…

Iron, who had been stretched out on the bed after fainting, finally woke while grabbing his head. 

“Woke up?”

“Commander…”

“Sit down.”

Iron was shocked to see Crimson sitting next to him.

He hurriedly tried to get up but his injuries were so serious that he couldn’t help but let out a groan. When Crimson heard his groan, he grabbed Iron’s shoulder and helped him lie down. 

“Are the others alive?”

Crimson nodded bitterly when he heard Iron’s question. 

“Carl Gustav was seriously injured. Billie Brandt had one arm cut off and Lintel Verner had one leg cut in half. Tunace and Jimmel received injuries while Weber and Span are still wandering at the brink of death. But all of them are still alive.”

“That’s a… relief.”

“It’s all thanks to you, boy.”

Iron’s eyes widened when he heard Crimson’s words.

“Yes?”

“Because you successfully awakened the phoenix, all of the fighting dark elves flocked to your location. Thanks to that, they miraculously survived.”

“Ah…”

“In addition, Billie and Lintel’s arm and leg are both safe because of their calmness. We roughly poured some potion on them so there would be no problem even if they get surgery later. Well… they had to connect it to their mana circuit again since it has been cut off but the work is something that they can endure.”

Iron looked extremely relieved after he heard their exact situation.

The Ghost was one of the key forces in the Northeast. Although it was important to cultivate a large number of people who had awakened their mana, it was more important for them to develop people at a higher level than the knights. And all of the members of Ghost had power at the 5th Stage. This meant that if a monster wave ever occurred, they would be the main force that would deal with the high-leveled monsters. 

“How many days has it been?”

“Three days. You have been unconscious for three days.” 

“Ah…” 

Iron nodded blankly. 

“Just like you said, the void insects did not really come out of their own territory.” 

After Crimson had confirmed that the void insects would not really come out just like Iron said, he quickly took vigil and sat on guard here to wait for the boy to wake up.

“Boy, you said that you know how to seal dimensional cracks. At first I did not believe you but now I have no choice but to believe you.” 

Crimson might look old but his stare was still sharp as he looked at Iron. It was reasonable that he would doubt what Iron had told him. After all, he was too young to know about such information. But since he was an experienced veteran, he did not ask the hows and whys. He knew that Iron would not answer even if he asked so he did not try. Besides, the most important thing right now was dealing with the dimensional crack. Everything else could be pushed aside after this disaster had been solved. 

“It’s impossible to completely close the dimensional crack.”

“Is that why you told me about sealing?”

“That’s right. But since the hole is small, it won’t take that long for it to close naturally. However… there are prerequisites that need to be met.”

Crimson nodded as if to let Iron continue his words.

“First, we have to push away the void insects.”

“That’s a matter of course.”

The giant cave that the dark elves had created was now filled with contaminated mana from the void insects. It was necessary for them to prevent the increase of areas that will be polluted from the contaminated mana coming from the dimensional crack. 

“We have to completely wipe them out. And… we have to keep sweeping the area near the crack until the dimensional gate breaks down.”

Crimson frowned the longer he listened to Iron.

No matter how confident he was with his strength, he knew that achieving what Iron wanted to happen was too much for him. He was sure that he would never be able to accomplish such a feat all by himself. At most, he would be able to last for a few hours and that was assuming that he had already squeezed out all of the power in his body. Anything more than that would be too far out of his reach. 

“We need the Northern Commander too.”

“That’s right.”

“So… what comes after that?”

“We break the gate by stimulating the dimensional crack with large-scale magic.”

Crimson looked at Iron as if he heard him wrong. 

“If we break the dimensional gate and stimulate the dimensional crack…”

“It will explode.”

“Boy, are you insane?”

Crimson unknowingly blurted out those words when he heard Iron’s plan.

Iron smiled bitterly. He had also thought that they were crazy when he heard the Wizard Tower speak of this method in his past life. However, despite being called crazy, their research was still successful.

“If you look at the records from the past, you will see that there are also records of the dimensional crack exploding.”

“Then, this means that you know what will happen if the dimensional crack explodes.”

“Yes. Since the crack will expand tremendously, all sorts of dimensional monsters will appear.”

Once the dimensional crack exploded, there would be a lot of dimensional monsters that would swarm outside of the crack. If that happened, then, it would be extremely difficult for them to handle. However, enduring this was still a better alternative than blocking and protecting the crack for decades. If they blocked it well for a few months, the dimensional crack would gradually decrease in size. The crack, which had been stimulated to grow tremendously from the explosion, would continue to decrease in size until it became as big as a palm and would naturally close by itself. Although it would continue to emit contaminated mana for a while since the natural process would take a bit of a long time, sealing it wouldn’t be a problem. But one thing was for sure, the crack would be closed and they did not need to focus on this for decades to come.

This method was proven successful after the sacrifice of numerous masters and high-leveled knights in his previous life. But thanks to their sacrifice, numerous dimensional cracks had been easily dealt with.

“If you look at the records, you will see that there are no fierce fights in the years after the explosion.”

“But?”

“This meant that there are no risks at all except for the fact that the land would be damaged by the contaminated mana from the dimensional crack.”

“Are there any basis for your method?”

“No, sir.”

Iron sighed when Crimson looked at him and urged him to continue. 

‘I’ll just sell you guys this one time.’

“The divine beasts told me.”

Iron could see Crimson’s brow twitching after he had sold his divine beasts away. Seeing this, he had no choice but to apologize to Baepsae deep in his heart.

“When I heard them talk about this, I thought that it was also baseless so I tried to look for the records.”

“And you found the rest from the records?”

“Yes, sir.”

Crimson sighed as he stared blankly at Iron. Iron knew that he was lost in his thoughts. He was probably weighing in the pros and cons of the matter. So, he just stared at him for a moment before speaking softly. 

“If you’re really worried, I think it would be a good idea to consult with the Wizard Tower.”

“Consult… Hoo! I get it.”

Crimson sighed once again as he gathered his wits together.

The risk of this operation was too high so he couldn’t just blindly follow Iron’s words. However, it was also true that it was too risky to leave the void insects alone.

Even though all the elite troops in both the Northeast and the North had gathered, he still knew that their strength wasn't enough. Nevertheless, there was nothing that they could do but fight. After all, their fate had already been determined once the dimensional gate was opened.

But this time Crimson wanted to gamble. He wanted to at least give this method a shot instead of staying in this situation for more than 100 years.

So, he quickly stood up to go to the Wizard Tower for a consultation.

But before he reached the door, he suddenly stopped in his tracks as if he remembered something. Then, he turned to speak to Iron once again.

“I sent a request to the Leonhardts while you were unconscious.”

“……”

Iron remained silent after hearing Crimson’s words. 

“Knowing the seriousness of the situation with the dimensional crack, the family head said that he would personally come with the Blood Lions to help us.”

Iron frowned when he heard Crimson’s explanation. 

The Leonhardts wouldn’t collapse if the people in there truly cared about these things. But they were madmen who only pursued individuality and strength. And the fact that the family head would personally come here…

“I’m sure you’ve noticed by now… but I believe it’s because he realized that you’re a Leonhardt. If you want, I can hide it for you but…”

“It’s fine.”

 Iron shook his head bitterly when he heard Crimson’s proposal. Seeing his bitterness, Crimson looked at him apologetically as he bade him goodbye and wished him a good rest. 

“I’m XXXX.” 

Iron’s expression collapsed as soon as Crimson left the room.

He knew that he was doomed.

All he could do was sigh while thinking about the Leonhardt’s family head. 

I took the risk and came to the Northeast to avoid those madmen but I think I’ll meet the craziest of them all.