The dangers that one would face in the current Winter Mountains, where the incomplete dimensional gate was opened, was completely incomparable to the dangers that they would face in ordinary dangerous areas.

Usually, they would deem this situation unsalvageable and would leave it half-abandoned once a dimensional gate had been opened. However, thanks to Iron’s concept and proposal that was backed by a Wizard Tower elder, they were able to find a method to smash and break the dimensional gate.

The answer was non-attribute.

Contaminated mana was mana that deteriorated from pure non-attributed mana. In other words, contaminated mana was mana that had gained some sort of attribute. 

The law of this world stipulated that the mana that floated in nature had their own unique attributes and characteristics. However, among all of these mana, there existed a mana at its purest form. It was mana that did not contain anything at all. This was a concept that was discovered by the person who they had revered as Magic God a long time ago. He had defined it as non-attributed mana and it was still being passed on to this day. Thanks to the development of magical engineering, the people were able to study and learn how to convert the mana in nature into its purest form that contained nothing, the non-attributed mana.

Although the method was still inefficient, they were still thankful that a method like this existed which enabled them to create non-attributed mana.

“I’ve finished preparing the Non-Attributed Mana Conversion Magic Circle!”

Mailte Preston nodded at the wizard. 

“Preparations have been finished.” 

“Hoo… I’m nervous.”

Crimson looked extremely nervous after hearing the report from Mailte. 

Unlike the beginning where they only relied on themselves, they now had the best troops of the North, the Leonhardts, the Wizard Tower as well as the entire Northeastern Army. However, despite their lineup it was inevitable that he would feel nervous. After all, this was the first time that Crimson saw a dimensional gate. They had no choice but to rely on historical records, records that showed them how it was the worst disaster that ate up an entire continent in the past. Because of this, Crimson was feeling extremely nervous. 

“I can’t believe the world’s greatest, Crimson, is this scared…” 

Mailte Preston shook his head. Crimson choked up when he heard his close friend’s jab at him. But he couldn’t help the tension that colored his face when he turned to look at the dimensional gate once again. 

Then, as if he finally made up his mind, he opened his mouth.

“Activate it.” 

Mailte Preston grinned at Crimson as he activated the non-attributed mana conversion magic circle. 

At the same time, airships began to soar in the air to get into position and drop the bombs that would smash the dimensional gate apart. 

Converting the mana in the surroundings into non-attributed mana was just some means to weaken the gate. The real thing that would smash it to pieces was the magic bomb that was filled to the brim with non-attributed mana. 

―Kkiiiriiiriiik!

“They’re coming!” 

As the mana in the surrounding slowly turned into non-attributed mana, the mana-sensitive void insects were triggered to come out of the cave all at once. The beings that were slowly making their territory came out in a hurry when the contaminated mana that they had piled up in layers slowly turned into non-attributed mana. There were so many that crawled out of the cave that the people in the vicinity wondered how those void insects fit in that cave. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The first attack that stopped the advance of the void insects was artillery fire.

The artillery that they had fully prepared had been aimed and fired. Bullets that were coated with weak but nevertheless non-attributed mana continuously hit the bodies of the void insects as they rained down on them. 

The Northern Commander couldn’t help but frown when he saw the mana-coated bullets raining down on their enemies. 

“I don’t think it’s that effective?” 

“This is not the end.” 

Crimson Halo firmly prepared for the next attack after hearing Jayden Wicks’ complaint. 

Airships and drakes began to soar in the sky as they began to drop the bombs that they had prepared. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the same mana bombs that they had prepared to break the dimensional gate dropped, the antique buildings that the dark elves built began to break down into pieces.

Then, huge void insects suddenly showed up and began sucking the stones that broke down from the dimensional gate as soon as they felt the non-attributed mana bombs pouring out.

“The child is right.” 

The void insects instinctively felt the dangers of the non-attributed mana bombs so they flew up in unison and received the bombs with their bodies. 

Jayden Wicks, who saw them sacrificing themselves to protect the dimensional gate, spoke quietly. 

“It seems like it’s time to move.” 

Just like what Iron had said, the non-attributed mana bomb would not be able to smash and break the dimensional gate if they could not sweep away the void insects. 

“Hoo… I’ll go first.” 

Crimson sighed before jumping in the air. He rose high up in the air while drawing his sword gently. With a slash of Crimson’s sword, a huge storm that swept the surroundings away was created. 

The storm swallowed up the void insects and made them collapse and explode. Even the void insects that weren’t fully out of the gate yet had been swept away by the storm. 

Thanks to the tremendous power of a master, the void insects were successfully separated from the dimensional gate. As soon as they were swept away, the airships and drakes began to bombard the dimensional gate with the non-attributed mana bombs in their arsenal. 

The gate that had been fixed and built from contaminated mana began to collapse slowly thanks to the non-attributed mana. However, despite some pieces collapsing bit by bit, it still did not break down that easily. After all, the gate had still been fixed and strengthened by the void insects for quite some time as they prepared for their attack. 

“He looks like he’s struggling.”

The Northern Commander shook his head as he turned away from watching Crimson sweep the void insects away with his crazy storm sword. Whether the master was burdened by the huge amount of void insects or not, his aura blade, a symbol that indicated his master level, was still fully expressed in his storm sword. 

“It’s annoying.” 

Lioner, who sat next to the Northern Commander, frowned. 

“Where have you been?” 

“I went there for a while.” 

Lioner pointed where Crimson was before speaking once again.

“The gate must have already been fixed well. It was hard.” 

“Did you try to break it with your sword?” 

Lioner nodded his head upon hearing Jayden Wicks’ question.

“I can break it if I want to but… I think it would be a bit too much for me so I just came back.” 

Jayden Wicks’ eyes widened when he heard Lioner, the person who was competing for the 1st and 2nd strongest power in the Empire, admit that he would overdo it if he tried to forcibly break it. 

“This… We’ll have to follow the plan.” 

Jayden Wicks smiled bitterly.

After realizing that they really couldn’t deal with it with their own power, Jayden Wicks, Crimson Halo and Lioner followed Iron’s plans and split the job. 

After spending hours swinging their swords like crazy and spending their remaining time for strength and energy recovery. Thanks to the efforts of the masters that split the job between them, the dimensional gate finally began to break down under the barrage of the non-attributed mana bomb.

Crack, crack, crack, crack!

“The real thing will be here starting now! Everyone in your defense formations!”

Caiden Wall shouted loudly as he led the Vanguard Corps forward. And with his lead, the other troops also began to stand in defense. 

After a while, the magic circle that held the dimensional crack completely broke and disappeared into dust. At the same time, the dimensional crack expanded and released contaminated mana all over the place. 

“Stop the contaminated mana!” 

“There will be a lot of void insects! Block them!”

Large numbers of void insects began to flock out of the expanded dimensional crack. Some of them even had wings and were dozens of times larger than the ordinary void insects. But the worst was not the void insects.

“He… Hell's Gate is opening!” 

“We have to block that!”

“Hell cows are about to come out through the open space!

The Hell’s Gate persisted and squeezed through the gap between the dimensional crack. And right now, it was about to open.

Sometimes, there were beings that took advantage of the spatial distortion caused by the dimensional crack to move to this dimension. And the beings that tried to do this the most were the beings from hell.

Because of that, people on this continent would use the curse ‘You’re worse than demons!’ when cursing.

“Hell's Gate is widening!”

Crimson stared at the Hell's Gate in exhaustion as he ordered his troops. 

“Focus on the Hell's Gate from now on! Don’t pay attention to the void insects spreading in all directions and just focus your efforts on the Hell’s Gate!”

“B… But…”

“Hurry!”

The officers scattered to relay Crimson’s orders.

He knew that it would be too much for them to chase the void insects that were running wildly with the troops that they had gathered here in Winter Mountains. For now, their top priority was to block as many void insects as possible while preventing any more hell cows from squeezing through the Hell’s Gate. 

While the troops gathered in the Winter Mountains were busy trying to block the Hell’s Gate, Iron smiled at the flying void insects while he waited from the rear. 

“Now’s our time to work hard.”

The company commander nodded heavily at Iron’s words.

At first he was half-confident. This was because the two commanders had gathered all of the elite units in the North and Northeast. Even the Leonhardts’ Blood Lions and family head came here. So he felt reassured that nothing would pierce through their defenses. 

However, Iron’s words became true. And the flying void insects were testament to this fact. 

“From now on, all of the platoons will scatter and perform their own duties. Keep in mind that our task is to inform the place where the void insects are gathered together not to fight. Understand?”

All the outpost leaders bowed their heads and answered in agreement. 

“I’ll take care of it from here.”

“Alright.”

The company commander nodded grimly at Iron’s words. 

“Our operation will begin now. You will never be able to kill a void insect with your skills so if you get caught make sure to focus all of your attention on escaping. Understand?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. Call me with the pagers attached near your necks if something happens. You all know our main strategies. Right?”

“Yes, sir!”

All the soldiers answered Iron’s words loudly. 

“Alright. Let’s begin our operation. Let’s all see each other alive later.”

Iron moved out with a few privates and private first classes followed by Sergeant Sean and Corporal Charles that lead a squad each from behind. 

“Outpost leader! Shall we call for them?”

“No. Not yet.”

Iron shook his head firmly when he heard the words of a private that found a gathering of void insects. He knew that it was a waste of artillery if they used that with just that much.

After a few more minutes of waiting, a lot of void insects had now gathered at the area after hearing the cries of the void insect that looked to be their leader.

Iron fired up a red flare when he saw this.

“Let’s retreat.”

“Yes, sir!”

All of the soldiers retreated at Iron’s orders. A few minutes later, a drake knight hovering in the air checked the coordinates and relayed it. Artillery fire soon rang loudly in the area. 

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

―Kiyeeeeek!

No matter how tough a void insect was, as long as it was hit by several shots of non-attributed mana coated artillery, it was still bound to die. But just in case, the airships and drakes still hovered at the coordinates and prepared for another round of bombing. 

In the end, the group of void insects that Iron and his group discovered were bombed twice before being exterminated.

“Good.”

Iron nodded in satisfaction when he confirmed from a nearby hill that the void insects had been completely exterminated. 

Not long after, flares rose in the sky one after the other as artillery fire rang loudly in all directions. Hundreds of explosions and anguished shrieks of the void insects rang all over the Winter Mountains. 

Although the void insects shrieked pitifully, none of the people present here thought that they were pitiful. After all, they would still spread contaminated mana even after their death. And their appearance, which closely resembled a cockroach, was extremely disgusting to the eyes of the troops.

“Gross.” 

One of the soldiers frowned as he looked at the corpse of the void insect. 

“They’re the ones that you will encounter countless times in the future. If you’re unlucky and stay in close range, there’s a high chance that you will be covered with its body fluid.” 

“Ueeeeeugh!” 

The soldiers looked like they were about to throw up when they heard Iron’s words. They were even frowning to the point that they looked like they were going to receive disciplinary actions. 

Iron bursted into laughter when he saw the clear disgust in his soldiers’ faces.

Then, his pager suddenly rang.

―Outpost Leader Iron!

“Company commander?”

When he heard the company commander’s voice, Iron was so shocked that he only saluted instinctively. 

―We’re in trouble!

Iron tilted his head in confusion. He had no choice but to be confused. After all, he had already explained that this much would happen but it seemed like they were still flustered.

―He… Hell cows are coming!

Iron’s mouth shut tightly when he heard the company commander’s words. The ugliest situation that he could think of had suddenly happened.

“Did the Hell’s Gate… open?”