Although the joint forces had quickly taken over the fortress and suppressed the betrayers, Bellid followers, and the undead, they had failed to fulfill their ultimate goal of preventing the destruction of the Horus Gorge. Accordingly, the stream flowing in through the gorge continued to expand at a frightening speed from the heavy downpour. However, their efforts weren’t completely in vain.
“If we consider the power that the statue diffused, the explosion should have been much bigger. Then, there would’ve been a bigger commotion at the Horus Gorge and there would have been many more stones blocking the gorge. Then, naturally, the damage caused by the flood would’ve been bigger,” Zich said.
Weig agreed. “Now that I think about it, when the statue was emitting light, there was a lot of power seeping out of it. Those guys must have tried to use the power solely for the explosion, but we must have arrived before their preparations were done. We probably cornered those guys to speed up the explosion while also forcing them to sacrifice their lives,” Weig said. He exactly saw through what just happened. However, his voice lacked strength as he added, “However, it breaks my heart that people would suffer a lot even from this incomplete explosion.”
If the Bellids who had caused this were right in front of him, Weig would’ve surely bit his teeth into their bare skin. Zich could swear on this fact. In the end, Weig stared at the scene in front of him gloomily. Zich also turned to see what he was looking at. It was the Steif Fortress, and the scenery he made out between the heavy downpour of rain was depressing. Standing near the Horus Gorge, the Steif Fortress couldn’t escape the bombardment of stones coming from the area.
The buildings inside the fortress were already in shambles because the Bellids had resisted in the deep corners of the building till the end. Thus, the shelter which had already been lacking to shield the people inside decreased even further and exposed the considerable number of troops there to the rolling stones. The number of people suffering from injuries and casualties increased as a result.
Even the people who had escaped inside the buildings weren’t completely safe. Most of the buildings had been built with wood, and they failed to block the large boulders. Holes easily penetrated through the walls and hurt the people inside. For instance, a boulder as big as a house completely crushed one building and killed everyone inside it.
Of course, the knights and holy knights tried their best to stop the boulders and the priests immediately healed the injured, but they couldn’t save everyone. Ordinary soldiers, priests with little offensive power, inexperienced knights, and even some holy knights were on the death list. Their decision to gather as many troops inside the Steif Fortress to quickly dispatch them to investigate the gorge led to such a dreadful result.
Fortunately, since Karuwiman priests were with them, there weren’t that many deaths, although many were injured from the falling stones. Now, the injured were quickly being healed. However, that didn’t mean the atmosphere of the place was becoming better. The soldiers and knights had been determined to die in the middle of battle, but these deaths came so suddenly that it made them all the more tragic. Weig appeared to be in deep sorrow. But unlike Weig, Zich appeared surprisingly calm.
‘We couldn’t have prevented this situation.’ In the first place, Zich had already predicted the possibility of failing this mission. Even though they had moved as fast as they could, the Bellids had shown that they were thoroughly prepared, and Zich thought that there was a high possibility that they would be too late from the beginning. Even if Zich was a rare-to-come-by genius, he couldn’t do everything by himself, nor was he such an emotional human to lament about it. Even if he had grown soft, it wasn’t as if his personality from the pre-regression demon lord days had gone anywhere.
Of course, Weig had similar thoughts as Zich. Yet, as a just Karuwiman holy knight, he couldn’t erase his feelings of sorrow over the injured and dead. In contrast, Zich, who used to be a demon lord, assessed the situation with cold logic.
‘Glen definitely didn’t participate in this battle to establish honor or fame.’ Specifically, he didn’t come here to gain the fame of blocking the destruction of the Horus Gorge. ‘If he wanted to gain the title of the hero who blocked the gorge’s destruction, he would’ve set up a solution.’ However, Glen showed no sign of that, and Zich thought it was unlikely that Glen failed to use the solution he had prepared because Zich continually hindered him.
‘Glen had the chance of gaining huge fame by saving several nearby estates at once. If his plan was to gain fame here, he would’ve shown some intention of finding a solution.’ Considering that Glen was extremely obsessed with the hero title, this was especially true. Yet, instead of acting like it, Glen was the first to suggest everyone leave the explosion site. This meant one thing: that Glen had no intention to block the Horus Gorge from getting destroyed in the first place. This would change the reason why Glen had hastily run to the Bellids’ secret area too.
‘He didn’t come to block them, but us who were trying to stop the destruction from happening.’
The destruction of the Horus Gorge must have been a necessity for Glen. If Zich’s party looked like they were going to immediately break the statue and the magic circle, Glen might have sneakily tried to hinder them. However, in the end, Zich’s party failed to stop the Bellids’ resistance, and naturally, Glen didn’t have to hinder them either. So, the reason why Glen so desperately ran towards the Bellids’ secret hideout was probably for a completely different reason than everyone else.
‘He came here to stop everything, yeah, but what he tried to stop was not the gorge’s collapse. He wanted to stop us to keep it from collapsing.’
It seemed as if the gorge’s collapse was necessary for his plan. If Zich’s group had immediately broken through the Bellids’ retaliation and showed signs of breaking the Bellu statue or magic circle, Glen would have tried to secretly hinder them. However, Zich’s group hadn't been able to break through the Bellids’ defenses in the end, so Glen hadn't hindered them either. This was Zich’s assessment of the entire situation.
‘If that’s the case, it’s a mystery as to why he revealed the information about the gorge’s collapse to us.’ According to the information that everyone knew, after careful investigation, they found information about the Bellid’s plan to destroy the Horus Gorge at the Bellid temple. However, Zich knew that this whole situation was progressing perfectly according Glen’s plan. Thus, Glen had a clear reason for revealing this information to everyone.
‘If we didn’t have that information, those Bellid bastards wouldn’t have been hindered, and there would have been a bigger destruction.’ However, Zich decided to not think about this any deeper. ‘The situation had already progressed to the extent that even I couldn’t stop it and only could decrease the destruction a little bit. The collapse of the Horus Gorge would have happened regardless. Then, the reason why Glen revealed this information might be something trivial.’ Glen might have wanted to gain some merits while attacking the fortress or for some other reason.
‘The only thing is that there is a high possibility that this event will trigger Glen’s next goal.’ Zich could roughly guess his plan. ‘I’ll need to wait a bit longer.’ If he gained more information, he would be able to specify Glen’s conspiracy a little bit more. He didn’t think that he would have to wait very long to receive the next information. After organizing his thoughts, Zich focused his attention back to the situation in front of him.
The offensive troops’ headquarters, including Mihen, were busy at work. A messenger dispatched to give a report about their current situation had already been sent to the Count. ‘They told me they already sent messengers out to the other estates to be careful as well.’
If the joint forces failed, the catastrophe that followed wouldn’t only affect the Steelwall Estate, so Count Steelwall had already warned the other estates nearby. If the other estates accepted the Count’s warning and made preparations, they would have received less damage than expected. However, they wouldn’t be able to completely prevent all damages.
Zich looked up at the sky. The rainy sky was dark and cloudy as if it was worrying about the pain and troubles that the Steelwall Estate would have to face in the future.
* * *
The troops retrieved the dead and immediately made preparations to return. Since their enemies were gone, there was no need for them to stay any longer while dealing with the harsh weather.
The Steif Fortress was left alone; after investigation, it was clear that the river’s flooding would reach the Steif Fortress and sink it. The river water had already reached the fortress’ walls. The collapsed gorge was still blocking the river’s flow. Mihen and a couple knights briefly looked around the gorge to see if they might be able to clean up the collapsed rocks forcefully, but they couldn’t even attempt to clean it up. Regardless of how many people there were, rocks piled high up between the two cliffs were impossible to clean up without a specific and proper plan.
Mihen even tried asking Snoc if he could resolve the issue; he had been impressed by how easily Snoc broke down the fortress’ walls. However, Snoc shook his head. Even though he had made a contract with Nowem, the magical beast of the earth, and could control the earth, there was a limit to his power. The size of the collapse was so big that even Snoc could not quickly clean up all the rocks. Moreover, the speed at which the water was rising was extremely dangerous. Soon, the river would easily surpass the pile of rocks, and it would get even harder to move the rocks.
In the end, they couldn’t stop the river from flooding. This was also one of the reasons why Mihen quickly decided to return. Large-scale flooding was bound to create victims, and the troops were essential to facilitate evacuations and control the chaos that followed. There was no need for them to surround the gorge for no reason.
The joint forces that returned to Violsa were immediately given tasks and scattered to their respective regions. The holy knights and priests also moved to help the citizens with Count Steelwall’s request. Zich brought his companions and went to Count Steelwall’s mansion.
The inside of the mansion was a complete mess. He saw the Count’s high officials, including Trell, were extremely busy at work. The Count’s long moustache was more tangled than usual. Trell, who always had a calm attitude and clean appearance, was running around without fixing his messy hair. The servants’ faces were also very downcast. He saw many of them gather in pairs and whisper to each other anxiously. Even the Countess who glared at Zich whenever she happened to see him quietly passed him by without showing any signs of ill-intent towards Zich. Her face was as white as a sheet.
Zich thought that the entire Steelwall Estate’s atmosphere was probably similar to the atmosphere in the Count’s mansion. Zich moved his gaze towards the window and he saw that rain was still pouring from the sky. The gloomy atmosphere surrounding the mansion combined with the wet and dark scenery outside to make the atmosphere even more gloomy. However, Zich’s emotion was completely different from the people around him.
Hans and Snoc were worried as well, but Zich was calm. There was not even a hint of a frown on his face. ‘It doesn’t relate to me anyway.’
Since Zich was not interested in the Steelwall Estate, he didn’t care whatever happened to it. Rather than worrying about the estate, it was more worthwhile for him to think about ways to piss off Glen.
However, there was also no reason for him to stop his companions from helping the estate, so he easily accepted their request. All of his companions scattered to find work to do. At this point, Zich also had nothing to do. He thought about helping out the estate a little bit to kill time when—
“You’ve come back.” Lyla came to find Zich.