I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 767

The Asura Tamjinchi surged forward, roaring.

《Om(ॐ)-!》

The rooster, snake, and pig mouths opened simultaneously, and the mantra burst forth, resonating powerfully.

Golden currents, extending from the giant statue’s core, solidified on the halberd, twin glaives, and spears held in its six arms. Then, they poured out like a storm in all directions.

Kwaang! Kugwagwagwang!

If we had been within that range, we wouldn’t have been able to gather our bones. We would have been obliterated.

However, we were aboard the [Night Bringer], a mobile fortress that generates rails in real-time and moves along them.

We narrowly pulled the fortress back, escaping the Asura Tamjinchi’s attack range. Run, Night Bringer!

Kung! Kugwagwang!

The three weapons swung menacingly, and each time an attack narrowly missed, the plywood on the fortress’s outer wall was dented or chipped away.

Lukas, gauging the power of the passing attacks, broke out in a cold sweat.

‘That’s terrifying destructive power. If something like that reaches the Crossroads…’

‘Our defensive facilities would be completely destroyed.’

The Asura Tamjinchi, now in its second phase, had lost all the special abilities it had in the first phase.

Instead, it was now exhibiting much greater physical power.

If we were hit even once by that thing in its current state, even a fortress made of black dragon scales would be crushed. It was highly likely to inflict fatal damage on our defensive facilities.

‘So, we need to inflict as much damage as possible before it reaches the Crossroads.’

Kung! Kung! Kuuung!

Continuous, close attacks rained down, but each time, the [Night Bringer] accelerated or twisted its path to avoid them. It was as if it had a will to avoid being hit.

‘What’s the plan to finish it off, my lord?’

Lukas asked, as if he assumed I would naturally have a strategy. I sighed.

‘This is the interesting part…’

Thanks to my [Unyielding Commander] skill, we were able to block their mental status attacks without any damage in the first phase.

However, only by being mentally corrupted by those mental status attacks could we launch a counterattack into the Asura Tamjinchi’s mental world in the second phase.

This is the second phase’s clear gimmick.

In other words, we could only clear the second phase easily if we had allowed the mental corruption attacks in the first phase and were somewhat out of our minds.

To acknowledge the agony in order to remove the agony. How faithful to the concept, I must say.

However, due to my [Unyielding Commander] effect, all of us are mentally sound. In other words, there is no way to utilize the second phase gimmick……

What can we do? I can’t just cancel [Unyielding Commander]. Who knows what might happen later if we deliberately get mentally corrupted just to break the gimmick.

So, we have to break through the second phase without the gimmick, with sheer grit and determination! Until that huge and sturdy Asura Tamjinchi falls!

After briefly explaining this to Lukas, I chuckled and nodded.

‘So… we have to beat that Asura Tamjinchi hard for the next three days as it heads north! Since it’s a very sturdy fellow, we have to use all the means we have! With perseverance and tenacity!’

‘…….’

Lukas, who had been quietly watching the pursuing Asura Tamjinchi, suddenly let out a hollow laugh.

‘Somehow… it reminds me of when we stopped Jormungandr before.’

‘That’s right, that’s right. We’ve already experienced worse things before.’

During the Jormungandr incident, we dispatched a small elite force onto Jormungandr’s body and painstakingly destroyed the three protruding parts. We even had to deal with attacks from the werewolf bastards.

‘Thinking about that time, wouldn’t you say this is a pretty manageable operation? Ah! Back in my day…’

Listening to my grumbling voice, Lukas smiled wryly without a word and drew his [Bestowed Sword].

Then, with a light blade extended like a whip, he struck the body of the approaching Tamjinchi.

***

For the next three days.

We continued a precarious game of tag with the Asura Tamjinchi, relentlessly pouring attacks on it.

Pung! Pung! Pung!

From atop the moving fortress train, our ranged attackers, led by Damian, unleashed a barrage of attacks from the cannons. Lukas struck with his light blade.

Tududududu!

Jjeong! Jjeo-eong!

In the sky, mages aboard airships spared no magic, and after returning to the Crossroads, they brought the next mages on the airships to continue the magical assault.

The Asura Tamjinchi was a large, strong, and sturdy enemy, but the damage gradually accumulated under our endless attacks.

Its armor shattered and fell to the ground, and countless burn marks were etched all over the giant statue.

And when we reached the southern plains where the Crossroads wall was visible, its entire body was already cracked and broken…

‘Artillery unit-!’

Our artillery unit, which had been waiting on the Crossroads wall, aimed at the thing all at once.

I swung the flag high, turning the mobile fortress sideways in a drift-like maneuver, moving out of the artillery’s line of fire.

‘Crossfire, fire-!’

Pung! Peobeobeong…!

From the Crossroads wall, which seemed far away to us, the sound of cannons echoed faintly, and then,

Swaeeeeeeek-!

Hundreds of shells, tearing through the air, rained down like a storm.

The metal projectiles, flying through the sky, all struck the body of the Asura Tamjinchi with unbelievable accuracy.

Pung! Peobeobeobeong!

Kwagwagwagwang…!

The hundreds of shells that hit simultaneously exploded.

Watching the epicenter engulfed in thick smoke, I clenched my fist. As expected, the flower of the battlefield is the artillery!

《…….》

When the smoke cleared.

The Asura Tamjinchi, which had been hit by the strongest crossfire of the monster front, was already in a state of combat incapacity.

It could not withstand the crossfire that was poured on top of the accumulated damage from the past three days.

All six of its arms were broken and fell off, and both of its legs were crushed. Its three heads were also horribly broken and shattered.

《…Ah.》

Was it an illusion?

Only when facing death, the six eyes of the statue, which had been burning red, regained a gentle light.

《So this is what it meant. The teachings of the priests that day…》

Then, the monster muttered softly with its mouth crumbling with stone fragments.

《Baekgeopjeokjijoe(百劫積集罪).》 [Sins accumulated over long ages]

《IlnyeomdonTangjin(一念頓蕩盡).》 [Are suddenly wiped away in a single thought]

《Yeohwabungoch(如火焚枯草).》 [Like dry grass burning in a fire]

《MyeoljinmuyuYeo(滅盡無有餘).》 [They disappear without a trace……]

The Tamjinchi, uttering a verse like a last will, slowly closed its eyes.

Towards such a monster, the second crossfire poured out from the Crossroads like a storm.

Kwagwagwagwang……

***

The Three Poisons Agony Legion was thus defeated.

After praising Lukas, Damian, the soldiers, the airship personnel, and everyone else who had worked hard for three days and nights, I personally retrieved the magic cores from the remains of the pulverized statue and looked far to the south.

There, on the distant horizon, stood a clown wearing a mask.

It was Crown. It seemed he had come to see this battle in person as well.

‘…….’

Crown, who had been silently staring at us, turned away and disappeared back to the south.

‘……Hoo.’

I clicked my tongue, taking the three SSR-grade magic cores of Tam, Jin, and Chi, which I had finished collecting, into my arms.

The Rat Legion and the Three Poisons Agony Legion were certainly very powerful as single legions. They were among the strongest enemies left in that hell.

But for some reason, I had a premonition.

‘It feels like something bigger is coming…’

The next stage.

I had a premonition that Crown would bring out something even worse than this.

‘…….’

…And as always, these ominous premonitions tend to be accurate.

***

A few days later.

Stage 48.

Thump-! Thump-! Thump-! Thump-! Thump-!

The sound of drums echoes.

This rhythmic and orderly drumming that makes the heart tremble is not of human origin.

It belongs to the monster legion that is now emerging from the Black Lake.

Booooooo-!

Along with the sound of a huge horn that shakes the earth.

Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!

Monsters in the shape of a human torso attached to a horse’s body, aligned in rows, emerged from the Black Lake, their hooves pounding the ground.

These beings, all clad in gleaming helmets and armor, were the Centaur (Κένταυρος) Legion. [A race of half-human, half-horse creatures from Greek mythology]

They were a primordial race that had once taught medicine, politics, agriculture, and life to all the races of this world.

However, for some reason, they suddenly sought to destroy the entire world, and after waging war against all the other races, they were defeated and ultimately perished, according to legend.

Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!

Moving in formations that were unbelievably precise, they reorganized into four large units in front of the Black Lake.

They distinguished the units by the color of their cloaks: white cloaks, red cloaks, black cloaks, and blue cloaks, in that order.

Also, at the front of each unit stood particularly large unit leaders, each holding up their respective symbols.

The leader of the white cloak unit held a bow.

The leader of the red cloak unit held a sword.

The leader of the black cloak unit held a scale.

The leader of the blue cloak unit held a scythe.

‘Hoo…’

In the sky above the Black Lake.

While aboard La Mancha, I glared at them as they organized their formations, spitting out their names.

‘Apocalypse Knights…’

The White Knight of Pestilence.

The Red Knight of War.

The Black Knight of Famine.

The Blue Knight of Death.

And the knights who followed them, 110 in each unit.

A total of 444 Knights of Destruction, galloping towards ruin.

These were the monster legions that would invade the human world in this defense battle.

‘As if it’s the final stage, they’re picking out only the most troublesome ones, really…’

As a single monster legion, they were an unparalleled, formidable force.

In terms of pure combat power, they were comparable to the top 10 Nightmare Legions we had faced so far.

The only reason they were not included in the top 10 monster legions was that they did not have a monarch to represent the entire legion.

There were four knights, field commanders leading each unit, but there was no king to represent their collective will.

That was because they were merely the materialized forms of pestilence, war, famine, and death, destroying the world without their own will. They were just the personified violence itself, rushing towards destruction as they had done in their lives.

For this reason, they were not included in the Nightmare Legion Commander rankings, but their power was truly terrifying.

‘This will be a difficult battle.’

Booooooo-!

The trumpeters stationed in each unit lowered the drums they had been beating and blew their horns powerfully all at once,

Clatter, clatter, clatter……

The Knights of Destruction, consisting of four units, slowly began to move north, and then……

Dudududududu-!

They began to charge across the ground with terrifying momentum.

They were centaurs. A race of half-human, half-horse.

All of them were like cavalry units.

With this mobility, they would reach the Crossroads at an incredibly fast speed.

‘The enemy monster legion has begun to move north!’

The reports of the scouts echoed in my ears one after another.

‘The enemy legion has suddenly split into four units!’

‘They have split into four groups of 111 each and are heading north along different routes!’

‘They are running through places where there are no roads, but their speed is not decreasing! At this rate, they will reach the Crossroads in two days, or even sooner!’

‘What should we do, Your Highness?!’

‘…….’

I opened my eyes wide, which I had closed for a moment.

The defense strategy was already prepared.

‘We will also split into four and stop them.’

The Apocalypse Knights were made up of four units.

And they synergized with each other when they fought together.

These guys, splitting up and heading north, would merge into one army in front of the Crossroads, and if all four units arrived intact, there was no way we could stop them, even if we died and came back to life.

We had to defeat them individually before that.

‘Divide the mobile fortress [Night Bringer] into three sections of three cars each and deploy them to three locations.’

I stood in front of the map that had appeared in the center of the bridge, pointing out the key points from the Black Lake to the Crossroads.

‘At these points, transform the [Night Bringer] into forward bases and each block the enemy. Deploy the units as pre-arranged.’

Then, one of the soldiers cautiously asked.

‘I understand blocking three units with three forward bases… but then one enemy unit will be left out, won’t it? What about the remaining one?’

I nodded.

‘I’ll go.’

My magic fortress is still usable, after all.

I tapped the table and stretched my hand out to the side.

‘Alright, there’s no time! Start the operation immediately!’