Part 1

[Hey Ferrex how does this situation seem like to you?]

Godou, being the perfectly average teenage boy that he believed himself to be, was no expert in large scale warfare or in any other large group battles in anything but sports. Thus, he decided to ask for the opinion of his vastly more knowledgeable companion.

[Well the situation seems quite bad.]

“…”

Noticing that Godou was still waiting expectantly, Ferrex signed and asked.

[I take it that you want the long explanation?]

“Well yeah I guess.”

Godou had the impression that Ferrex was taking a deep breath for he started speaking again.

[From memory, the town/city of Tellap has a dimension of a bit more than 1km by 1km. From what you have told me there are 1000 defenders capable of fighting in the city and about 10% of the attackers are expected to make it past the first walls so about 100 of these defenders will need to remain on standby to fight them in the second line of defence.

Now let’s think about the walls themselves. If 900 defenders are supposed to defend 4 walls then that means that 225 defenders are protecting each wall. One wall is 1000 metres long so that means each defender is responsible for guarding almost 4.5 metres by themselves. Or to put it a different way, each party has to defend about 20 metres of the wall themselves.

On the other hand, the enemy army has 4000 attackers which means that 1000 monsters will attack each wall. This means that for each defender, there will be almost 5 monsters. Or for each party, there will be 20-30 monsters at once, even more so when our side starts to suffer casualties.

So statistically speaking we are at a disadvantage. However, statistics mean nothing once the real battle starts and there were many things I did not consider in this including the role of the milta, the wall advantage, magic, weather, teamwork and tactics, the types and levels of combatants on both sides, luck etc.

Truth to be told, I believe the battle can or either way but the monster army seems to be slightly more favoured than us.]

As expected of the human encyclopaedia, no the worshiper of the War Goddess of Wisdom, Ferrex sure gave a detailed explanation.

Godou was now currently with his party on top of the west wall waiting for monster army to arrive, just as they had been ordered to do.

About an hour had passed since his party had rendezvous at the bench in front of Mark’s pub and during that time, he had become acquainted with the members of his party. The composition of his party was pretty much a mixed bag in terms of levels with the members ranging from the low 100s to the mid 200s.

The other members were:

The archer who had become their de facto leader was level 241. He had a coolheaded manner of doing things and Godou was certain that he had met him before but just couldn’t recall where. His name was Harris.

The dagger armed teenager was a level 100 assassin. He had a lively personality that seemed to contradict his class and was a self-proclaimed devotee of the Bro code. Despite this, Godou found that he could get along quite well with him. His name was Spade.

The Kallamore Knight was level 217. Although he was a Kallamore Knight, apparently he was more like a trainee in the final stages of training which could only be done by gaining more first-hand combat experience. He had introduced himself as Hel Bladerton.

And lastly of all the child-like priestess of Freya who was apparently the same age as Godou. She was level 163 and specialised in barriers and summoning magic. She seemed very attached to Hel and seemed to know him before the party met up. The rest of the party however were not nosy nor close enough to query further in that matter. Her name was Inori Smith.

Speaking of which, Godou had tried his best to sort out the problem between him and Inori during this waiting time period. After all, purposely avoiding someone for such a petty reason was not his preferred way of doing things.

Godou believed that he managed to get his message across and so the atmosphere between the two was slightly less awkward now. However, he catch Inori peeking some shy glances at him every now and then but pretended not to notice.

Hel also seemed wary of Godou once the full story between them had been told and now seemed to be staring at him with a look of reproach. Sort of like a tiger sizing up its prey or a jeweller looking for faults in a diamond. It was hard to tell when half his face was covered by the helmet though.

Harris whistled innocently as he looked over the wall pretending not to notice anything while, Spade had sidled next to Godou and nudged him saying:

“I can be your wingman anytime bro”

Hurriedly, Godou corrected Spade, trying to prevent any further misunderstandings from developing.

The idle chatter stopped as the bell rang to signify that the monsters were 5 kilometres away. Tension filled the already strained atmosphere on the town walls. Harris then decided that now that everyone had gotten to know each other it was time to assign some roles.

Godou, Spade and Hel would fight in the front as the vanguard, kicking down ladders and engaging the monsters that manage to breach the walls.

Inori was to keep a track of everyone’s health and mana levels and apply healing magic appropriately.

Harris was to keep track of new enemies appearing and alert the others as well as take down any monsters that broke though the vanguard.

During this time, Godou saw several people who seemed to be part of the milta appear on the back portion of the wall armed with bows. When he asked about it, he learnt that they were volunteers who would support the soldiers and mercenaries on the wall by throwing rocks over the wall onto the army below or shoot monsters off the wall with weapons with knockback bonuses.

Having their assistance bolstered defence army’s morale and made up for their lack of numbers.

Part 2

The bells started to ring again signifying that the opposing army was coming into sight.

Godou felt tense.

It was the sort of feeling you get before an exam.

The sort of feeling before an important sports match.

Amplified by several times.

A dust cloud approached, now clearly visible from the town walls.

Godou could barely make out the inhuman soldiers of the army.

The army of monsters had arrived!

The army stopped out of range of the defender’s arrows as if observing them for about 10 minutes. During this time, the monster army spread out and surrounded the town, still out of range of the defender’s attacks.

Then the siege began.

The first wave of monsters simultaneously attacked the four town walls. The first detachment seemed to have contained at least 2000 monsters attacking at the same time.

Arrows flew from the town walls, and magic spells rained down. The attackers perished easily from this onslaught.

The monsters that survived ran at the walls, placing ladders and attempting to climb up them to. The milta rushed forwards, dropping stones and boiling water down the ladders and onto the monsters.

Godou, Spade and Hel ran to kick down the ladders before anything reached the top of the walls.

In the span of about 10 minutes this force of 2000 monsters as completely destroyed without any of the monsters reaching the top of the walls. The defenders cheered. According to reports, the opposing army was 4000 strong. This meant that they had been able to take down half the army without so much as a single casualty.

Godou felt suspicious. Surely he hasn’t ever going to be in such an easy fight right? After all, not matter how hard he tried, he always seemed to run into insanely powerful adversaries. Surely fate wouldn’t be as kind as to let him off so easily.

He almost felt a sense of disappointment over the fact but quickly suppressed the feeling before it would grow into something more dangerous.

Godou did not know much about warfare, but his instincts were telling him that the monsters were just testing the water before jumping in. Strangely enough, the size of the monster army didn’t seem to have decreased by that much considering the fact that they had just lost half of their forces, though the dust cloud made from the first wave made it hard to tell.

The second wave of a similar size charged out from the monster army only to be met with the same result.

As the defenders celebrated over their victory, a third wave of 3000 monsters charged.

And hell broke loose.

Using the ladders which had been brought over by the first and second waves, the third wave began their assault.

Magic spells and arrows rained down on them as usual but for some reason the attacks did not seem as effective as were against the first and second waves. Several monsters leaped at the walls and climbed over without the need to use the ladders at all. Rocks suddenly fell from the sky as aerial monsters ambushed the defenders when they were concentrating on the ground troops.

A humanoid monster climbed over the ladder. Godou swung his sword at it like a baseball bat. It died easily. Another two humanoid monsters attacked him from the side before he could react.

You lost 41 Health

You lost 30 Health

What the-

Godou kicked one of the monsters and struck the other one with his sword. They both died easily.

[What the hell are these things? They’re as weak as level 10 wolves. No wait don’t tell me… they’re smoke screening their strong units with weaker ones?]

Godou heard Ferrex’s musings but as unable to listen careful as another monster that looked like a giant lizard leap over the wall. Godou rushed to intercept it and found that this one was a lot stronger than the others.

It lashed at him with sharp claws, hissing as it did so. With unrefined and forceful movements, Godou evaded. While it was distracted by Godou, Spade snuck up on it and slit its throat from behind.

The lizard hissed angrily surviving the blow and tried to slash at Spade but Godou barely managed to block its claws with his sword, locking it in place. It tried to attack with its other hand but Spade stabbed a dagger though it, pinning its hand to the ground with his body weight.

While the two were stuck in a stalemate against the lizard, more monsters had continued to climb up the wall and they now found themselves in a situation where they were surrounded by monsters.

Morale is falling. Confusion status has been afflicted.

Amidst this chaotic situation, Godou heard Harris’s voice clearly shout:

“EVERYONE SNAP OUT OF IT! THE FIRST FEW WAVES WERE MADE OF SPAWNABLE FODDLERS! THE REAL BATTLE STARTS NOW!!!! SO WHAT IF THEY HAVE A FEW STRONG UNITS HIDDEN BEHIND THEIR FODDLERS! DEFENDER’S OF KALLAMORE COME BACK TO YOUR SENSES!!!! REGROUP WITH YOUR PARTIES AND KILL THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!”

You have heard a Rallying Call. Confusion has been dispelled, morale has been regained.

- Guys regroup and remember your roles. Going off on your own defeats the whole purpose of fighting in a party.

TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG

With a series of quick shots, the monsters on one side of them were sniped down one by one. Additionally, Harris reminded the party what they should be doing using the party chat function.

“Hah!!!”

With a light shout, Hel rammed an armoured goblin on his shield and contradictory of his slim frame, managed to charge at the other monster surrounding them, ploughing through them like a juggernaut. He smashed into the lizard, armoured goblin and all.

The shock of the charge knocked Godou and Spade from their positions and knocked both the armoured goblin and the lizard off their feet. Godou’s sword snapped in half from the force of the impact.

As Hel moved to finish them off, the lizard quickly regained its bearings and leapt at him. Godou was about to shout a warning but Hel easily avoided the attack and killed the lizard with a swift diagonal slash which somehow killed the armoured goblin behind it as well.

Following Harris’s reminder, the three regrouped with the rest of the party and started fighting the monsters with greater efficiency then when they fought alone. Hel seemed to want to say something to Godou but then stopped as if he thought better of it.

Since Godou’s Hard Iron Sword had broken, he was now forced to use his mana weapons and unarmed combat to fight. Upon using the mana weapon creation skill for the first time since his class change, Godou found a pleasant surprise.

You have created a Mana WeaponMana Weapon has absorbed the Divine Aura around youMana Weapon has been converted into a Divine Mana Weapon.

Divine Mana Weapons have the ability to absorb spells and elements. You cannot be damaged by your own Divine Mana Weapons. While in the presence of a Divine Aura, they no longer require mana to maintain a physical state. Divine Mana weapons deal both physical and magical damage

Because he had used Mana Weapon creation so often, Godou had a firm understanding of the abilities of the skill.

Previously, Mana weapon creation had had a constant drain his mana whenever he had used it. This prevented him from spamming the skill carelessly.

The larger a weapon was, the more time it took to create and thus Godou found it more efficient to create smaller weapons. For example a 50cm dagger would take about 1 second (20 mana) to create and continued to drain 20 mana per second until it was destroyed or until Godou cancelled the skill. A 1 metre (100cm) sword would take about 2 seconds (40 mana) to create and also continued to drain mana out of him at a rate of 20 mana per second.

However, now that his mana weapons had been “upgraded” into divine mana weapons, the mana draining per second problem had more or less been fixed. Now the only mana cost with the skill came from the time it took to create the weapon.

The second drawback of using mana weapons in close combat was that the mana weapons broke very easily which resulted in an indiscriminate explosion that also hurt Godou if he was too close. However, now it seemed like he didn’t have to worry about that probably any more.

With the addition of his now large mana store and mana regeneration due to the Divinity stat, he should be able to make it through the siege using this skill.

Thus, the siege raged on.

Part 3

The natives of Versailles go to different versions of the “afterlife” when they die. The “afterlife” they end up in is dependent on many factors such as the Gods’ they worship and the actions they take in life.

These “afterlifes” were managed by powerful entities that were said to hold powers rivalling those of gods. However, they were not gods of death themselves. In fact, they were fundamentally different from gods in the first place.

A god is defined by and worshipped by their attributes. For example, the Goddess Freya had the attributes of beauty and abundance.

These powerful entities governing these “afterlifes” were instead defined by a single element. They were the Elemental Lords.

These so called “afterlifes” could be considered another world separate from the living “mortal” world as they contained more that the souls of the dead. They were also the home of various elementals and phenomena related to the element of their Elemental Lord.

Thus, these “afterlifes” were alternately known as elemental realms.

The outside of the Divine Realm, the strength of Gods were proportional to their number of followers. Similarly, the strength of the Elemental Lords was proportional to the number of Gods using their elemental realm.

In the elemental realm of light, an important conversation was reaching its end. A white robed figure sat on a throne, arguing to a floating ball of light.

There were two other white robed “people” were present. Both of them kneeling down.

{… Thus, since I am unable to do so myself, I want you to punish the fool who dared to damage one of my divine temples and live to tell the tale.}

The floating ball was the one who made the request. It glowed like a miniature sun, pulsating as each word was spoken. If one were to try and sense its power, they would realise that it was the avatar of an extremely powerful being. Its current form was a result of this extremely powerful entity being too lazy to change its shape into something else.

The white robed figure on the throne gave a frivolous reply, openly insulting this extremely powerful being. However, if one looked carefully, they would also find that this white figure also held unimaginable power.

{You dare say that to me! I was in active since before you came into power! Do you also wish to incur my wrath, the wrath of the God of Light?}

A dangerous null in the conversation was made. Or so it seemed. In actual fact, this sort of barter was commonplace between the two powerful entities of light. Eventually, the white figure, the Elemental Lord of Light spoke:

In reply to that, the shiny ball, the God of Light, Lou, brought out its thump card.

{Do not forget the favours you owned me for these past 100 years. Do this and I will consider your debt clear.}

There was another silent break to the conversation. Then the Elemental Lord of Light finally came to a decision.

{Humph, always compromising what a stingy Elemental Lord.}

{Fine I accept your proposal.}

The Elemental Lord of Light then spoke to the two robed figures and opened up a teleportation portal to the mortal realm.

>

The two vanished without saying another word.

Watching them go, the God of Light, Lou expressed his thanks.

{Thanks for helping. I can’t do anything myself because the decree of Gods stops me from interfering with the mortal world.}

“That’s why you shouldn’t have agreed to join that damned contract.”

{Maybe but huh? Wait you…}

The reason that the God of Light had stopped talking was because it wasn’t the Elemental Lord of Light who replied to his remark. A hooded cloaked figure had somehow approached them without either of them sensing it.

Startled, the Elemental Lord of Light thundered:

The God of Light Lou had also transformed his form into a more humanoid battle ready figure. Both of them could sense a power equalling their own from the hooded cloaked figure.

“Funny you should say that, thief. A certain Elemental Lord has been hoarding my sword here so I came to retrieve it. If you don’t want to give then that’s fine as well…”

The hood of the cloak fell off revealing a woman with shoulder length blue hair and a gaze as sharp as a naked blade.

“…I will just use force to retrieve it.”

The woman gave a cold smile that created the feeling she would cut you down as soon as you approached her, no questions asked.

{No… How is this possible, you should be dead!}

“Dead? No we merely sealed ourselves to wait for a stronger era. After all your Divine Saints were all pitifully weak back then… I wonder how much they have improved by now.”

{Humph if my proxies cannot defeat you then I just have to do so personally!}

Hearing this, the cloaked woman smiled coldly.

“It’s too late. I just retrieved my sword during the time we were having this conversation.”

{Regardless, Divine Overlord: The Sword Saint you will die here now!!!!}

The presences of the Elemental Lord of Light and the God of Light, Lou swelled up dramatically. Obviously, they were serious in fulfilling their threats. That was how dangerous the woman, no the Divine Overlord was to them.

“Fighting an Elemental Lord and a God at the same time. This sounds like a good wake up exercise.”

Smiling at the incoming enemies, the Sword Saint readied herself for battle.

***

Thus on that day, a large portion of the Elemental Realm of Light was destroyed as collateral damage from the battle between the three unimaginable powerful individuals ruling over the power of light.

In the end, both sides had been forced to retreat with no casualties.

Part 4

Unaware of the disaster that had struck their home land, the two Elemental Lord candidates exited the teleport portal and found themselves at the ruins of the Lost Temple of Lou.

Following their instructions, the Elemental Lord candidates used their powers to investigate presences in the surrounding areas and found two large masses of conflict, both about a day’s walk from their current location.

The two Elemental Lord Candidates looked at each other briefly and nodded, coming to a consensus.

Both of them held vast powers over the element of light.

One was a master of close combat techniques.

The other was a master of arcane magic.

They were strong enough to hold their own against most things in the mortal realm.

Deciding to search both masses of conflict at the same time, the two spilt up and went their separate ways.

------

Word count: 3,866 Words.

I’m rushing to try and complete this vol before uni starts (in March) so both the quantity and quality of these chapters might seem to drop a bit until the last few chapters. Either that or you guys will have to put up with the cliffhanger chapters with no releases in the near future because I’ll probably get to that point(the cliffhanger chapters) by then.

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