I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 681

The breath slammed directly into the shield.

KWA-AAAAAH!

The steel frames, nails, and screws securing the shield melted instantly. Torkel desperately clung to the handle with both hands, trying to withstand the force.

“UAAAAAAAH-!”

Although the ultimate skill [Steadfast Belief] was active, preventing physical damage, the pain was intense. The black flames swirled fiercely, as if trying to devour Torkel’s entire being.

But Torkel endured.

He was accustomed to pain.

Once the black flames hit him, they were no different from any other flames. Hot, stinging, and that was it.

“Is that all…?”

In the flames engulfing his body, the corners of Torkel’s mouth curled into a smirk.

His life had been a constant struggle with pain.

What were a few more seconds of heat and stinging? He could endure it as long as he needed to…!

KWAGWAGWAGWANG!

The breath, shattered by colliding with Torkel’s firmly held shield, split into several streams, tearing and burning the southern field to shreds.

The split breath streams twisted like living snakes and continued to rush forward. Even though Torkel had initially blocked and shattered them, they relentlessly targeted Crossroads as if they had a will of their own.

Thus, the second line of defense was engaged.

Here, skilled shield warriors with ice shields were waiting.

The King of the Arian Kingdom, equipped with the Eternal Snow [a legendary shield], the warriors of the Arian Kingdom equipped with the Thousand Year Snow [another legendary shield], and the veterans of the World Guardian Front.

And even Evangeline, who had activated the ice spirit residing in her family’s shield, her personal equipment.

Wearing the divine power armor that the priests had provided, they raised their shields and prepared to guard at the rebound points that the mages and alchemists had predicted in advance.

“…?!”

At that moment, an unexpected situation occurred.

They had precisely experimented and verified several times to predict the trajectory of the rebounded breath.

But the split breath streams stretched out and flew in unexpected directions.

Even though errors were inevitable in actual combat, the actual trajectory of the breath streams deviated from the predictions by an absurd amount. The heroes with shields were all flustered.

Malice-

The breath streams, with their flickering tongues of flame, flew in trajectories that completely avoided the shield heroes’ positions, as if each had a will to annihilate humanity.

And,

“I see it all-!”

Evangeline, with her green eyes flashing, moved first.

JJEEOOEOEOK!

Evangeline rushed forward, matching the trajectory of the largest breath stream, and raised her shield.

She had not only the ice spirit residing in her shield but also had ice spirits temporarily enchanted by the spirit mages.

Blinding ice formed on Evangeline’s shield, and the split breath stream crashed down on it.

‘Kuh! I can hold on!’

The ice was rapidly being consumed, but she could hold on for now. Evangeline quickly turned her head back.

‘But, what about the others…!’

It was then. A loud voice rang out from the front.

“Change formation according to my instructions!”

It was Torkel.

The helmet he wore, Nightmare Slayer – [Original Sin], was emitting a fierce magical light.

This equipment, forged with the magic core of the Goblin God King, began to unleash its original abilities as Torkel embraced the darkness.

That was the ability to command.

To maximize his capabilities as a War Commander.

In an instant, without a word, the battlefield layout in Torkel’s mind was shared with all the heroes in the second line of defense.

“…!”

“Ugh-”

“Runnn!”

Among those who remained here, there was not a single one who was not a veteran.

They had all carried out at least ten operations, and they were all battle-hardened warriors who had slain more than a hundred monsters.

With just one shared layout from the field commander, everyone was moving accordingly.

The split breath streams twisted erratically, trying to break through the defense line, but the shield warriors all reached the positions to block them.

“Ugh…!”

And Miller Arian as well.

Although his experience in monster battles was lacking, with the determination to save his country.

“UAAAAAAAH!”

He succeeded in receiving the end of the breath stream that was trying to slip past him with his shield.

KWANG!

KWA-AAAAANG!

JJEEOOEOEOK-!

The dispersed and split breath streams touched the Eternal Snow and the Thousand Year Snow.

Even the ice brought from the peaks of the world began to melt. The heroes screamed as they were burned even through their divine power armor by the terrible heat.

But they succeeded in holding on for now.

JJEEOK-

CHWAAAAAAK!

Again, dispersion.

The breath streams that hit the ice shields tore themselves apart once more.

They burned the remaining field as they rushed north, split into fine pieces like raindrops.

To the last wall of the human world. To Crossroads-

“Prepare-!”

And in front of that wall, the third line of defense was formed.

They stood behind the artifacts prepared by the mages and alchemists, preparing for defense with determined faces.

Lily stretched her hand forward and shouted.

“Activate all artifacts!”

KIIIIIIING!

All the defensive artifacts remaining in the fortress city activated at once.

Like an umbrella opening, the ribs expanded from the base and the membrane unfolded.

Barricades were assembled, and barriers resonated and deployed.

Above that,

KWAJIK! KWANG! KWAGWAGWANG-!

The slender pieces of breath, split and shattered into hundreds, thousands of streams, fell like a downpour.

After passing through the first and second lines of defense, the momentum of the breath had noticeably weakened. But it still held the power to end the human world.

The barricades burned and shattered, and the barriers held for a moment before being torn apart. The artifacts eventually all collapsed.

The breath streams twisted as if rejoicing at having broken through the last resistance of the human world and flew inside.

But it was not over.

Because the real last resistance was waiting.

GWOOOOOOOO…!

All the mages belonging to the World Guardian Front were preparing a joint magic spell.

The caster was, Jupiter Junior.

“…”

Junior, who had been looking at the city with a worried gaze, lightly turned her body and focused her gaze on the thousands of flames pouring towards her.

A clear blue light scattered from Junior’s eyes as they closed and opened.

The magic she would use this time was not lightning or wind.

It was Junior’s own innate attribute.

Water!

JJEEOOEOEONG!

The large magic circle drawn beneath the mages’ feet resonated. All the magic amplifiers in the fortress city activated, targeting Junior.

Junior forcefully raised her staff.

The next moment,

CHWAAAAAAAK!

A water wall of tremendous height and thickness was created, rising in front of the Crossroads wall.

The thousands of split breath streams poured down on it.

HUDUDUDUK!

CHIIIIIIK…!

The black flames stubbornly penetrated the thick water wall, but they were too finely divided.

The breath streams that failed to break through eventually lost their power and died out one by one within the water wall.

“…It’s holding.”

Hope dawned on everyone’s faces.

“If we can just hold on like this…!”

“We can really stop it!”

That’s how it seemed.

The plan to neutralize the dragon’s breath by dispersing it in stages, with Torkel in the first line, the warriors with ice shields in the second, and the mages and alchemists in the third… seemed to be working well.

However, the limit was also quickly approaching.

KUGUGUGUNG!

“?!”

Torkel was holding on, but the ground around him was not.

“What…”

The ground where Torkel and [Steadfast Belief] were placed melted entirely.

He had been continuously receiving the black dragon’s breath. Although they had made efforts such as hardening the ground in advance and installing heat-resistant facilities on the floor, they eventually lost their meaning in the face of the overwhelming flames.

The melted ground caved in, and Torkel tried to maintain his posture somehow, but it was impossible.

The entire shield tilted, and Torkel fell. Even in the midst of that, Torkel desperately tried to raise the shield, but the breath was already twisting its massive body, passing through Torkel and pouring out behind him.

The warriors of the second line of defense all widened their eyes.

The shield warriors, without prior agreement, all rushed to the center at the same time. And they tried to overlap their ice shields together.

But it was an impossible task from the start.

Even the breath that Torkel had dispersed in the first line had melted the shields and burned the heroes while they were receiving it in the second line of defense. And now it was a direct hit.

The Thousand Year Snows that were thrust in front of the main stream of the pouring breath melted away completely without even holding for a moment. The spirits enchanted on Evangeline’s shield screamed terribly and all burned.

The divine power armor of the shield warriors and Evangeline all vanished without a trace, and in the end, they all screamed and were flung in all directions.

“Noooo!”

Finally, Miller Arian screamed and thrust his arm holding the Eternal Snow in front of the breath,

But the Eternal Snow melted away completely without even holding for a second, and one of Miller Arian’s arms also turned to ashes.

Flung away, Miller Arian, unable to feel the pain from his burned arm and cooked body, turned to look at the wall.

“Reboot-!”

Lily, gritting her teeth, activated the emergency magic source.

The artifacts that had been discharged and shut down emitted light again and activated, but they lost the power to resist in front of the breath and all sparked with electricity before the lights went out again.

“We have to hold on…!”

Junior gritted her teeth and tried to compress the water wall to counter the breath, but when the main stream of the breath, which had merged into one, poured down, the water wall evaporated completely without even holding for a moment, and a large hole was pierced through it.

The first to third lines of defense were all breached.

All of this happened in just a few seconds.

“…”

Looking at the breath approaching after breaking through the last defense, Junior felt a momentary illusion that the world had slowed down.

When the first breath pierced through the city, 30% of the city was burned.

Since the breath, whose output had steadily increased since then, was fired from a much closer distance than before. This time, Crossroads would be completely destroyed.

Should she praise them for enduring this much against such a powerful enemy and such a powerful attack?

‘No.’

In the slowed-down world, the days Junior had spent in this city flashed through her mind.

‘I don’t want to.’

The days of meeting many people.

Reconciling, forgiving, hating, understanding, and… getting to know each other again. The days she had been recording to not forget.

They would all turn to ashes.

Tears welled up in Junior’s eyes. She now truly realized.

That she loved this city.

That she loved all those harsh days she had lived in this city.

‘Anyone, please…’

Junior tightly closed her eyes.

‘Protect this city…’

It was then.

“Block it-!”

A familiar female voice was heard from the wall.

“Skeirian-!”

“…?!”

Everyone who was stationed in front of the wall was startled and widened their eyes.

Following that, a long, black shape flew up from the wall and shot towards the front of the breath.

A long, oriental dragon with a catfish mustache, riding on a black cloud-like aura.

It was Skeirian, the Black Dragon’s Scale.

The oriental dragon, who had thrown off his ridiculously large glasses, grinned and threw his body forward.

《As you commanded.》

Skeirian, who had spun his long, snake-like body in the air in front of the wall, emitted darkness like a mist from his entire body. Skeirian took a defensive stance with his body wrapped in that darkness.

The next moment, the pouring breath and the darkness collided.

JJEEOOEOEONG-!

In front of Night Bringer’s breath, the scales covering Skeirian’s entire body shattered and poured down in all directions…

CHAREUREUREUK!

New scales immediately sprouted from underneath.

《Waaaaah! It’s hot! Is Father really that angry?!》

Skeirian screamed, but even as he was being burned black in front of the breath, he succeeded in defending it to the end.

As a means of breath defense that Ash had originally arranged, he was holding on even though it was a direct hit from Night Bringer’s breath.

“…”

Everyone was gaping and bewildered by the sudden intrusion of this rescue force.

Following that, a large lizard-like dragon slowly revealed itself from the wall and quickly descended below the wall.

It was Parekian, the Faceless Dragon, the Black Dragon’s Claw. And on top of it was a woman with a familiar purplish hair that they hadn’t seen in a while.

“As expected…”

After landing below the wall.

Violet, who was sitting cross-legged on top of Parekian, raised her fancy top hat with her fingertips and muttered with an unnecessarily dramatic pose.

“A hero always appears at the last moment.”

She was dressed more flamboyantly than ever.

A well-ironed brown suit, a luxurious leather coat. Her whole body was adorned with gold thread decorations and dazzling jewels.

“…”

In this state of the world, where on earth did she go to dress up like that?

As everyone stared at her in disbelief, Violet scratched the back of her head with an embarrassed look, glancing at them.

“Um, the gambler who came last year, is back again, not dead…”

“Oh…”

Among the mages.

The members of the Gamble Club, who had joined to add even a tiny bit of magic to the joint magic, all pointed at Violet and shouted.

“Where have you been, you damn thing-!”