The breath attack struck directly against the shield.
Kwooooosh!
The iron frame and nails holding the shield in place melted away in an instant, and Torkel clung desperately to the shield's handle with both hands.
"Aaaaaaah-!"
Although there was no damage due to the activation of his ultimate skill, the pain was vivid. The black flames roared fiercely, as if they would devour Torkel's entire body.
But Torkel endured it.
Of course, he did; he was used to the pain.
The black flames, which he had feared, turned out to be no different from any other fire once he faced them. Hot and stinging, and that was all.
"Is that all...?"
In the flames that scorched his entire body, a grin spread across Torkel's lips.
His life had always been pain.
What's a few more seconds of burning and stinging now? He could endure it for as long as necessary...!
Boom!
The breath, shattered by Torkel's steadfast shield, split into several streams that tore and scorched the southern field.
The split streams of breath twisted and turned like living snakes, continuing to charge towards Crossroad with a relentless determination.
Thus, the second line of defense.
Here, shield warriors armed with ice shields were on standby.
The king of the Ariane Kingdom, equipped with Perpetual Snow; the warriors of the Ariane Kingdom, equipped with Eternal Snow; and the veterans of the World Guardian Front.
And even Evangeline, who had activated the ice spirit in her family's shield.
Clad in the holy power armor bestowed by the priests, they raised their shields and prepared to guard the anticipated deflection points predicted by the mages and alchemists.
"...?!"
At that moment, an unforeseen event occurred.
Despite precise experiments and verifications to predict the deflected paths of the breath, the split streams of breath flew off in unexpected directions.
Though some margin of error was expected in actual combat, the deviation from the predicted paths was shockingly large.
All the shield-bearing heroes were bewildered.
Malevolence—
The tongues of flame licking the breath streams seemed to carry a will to annihilate humanity, flying in trajectories that completely bypassed the shield heroes' formation.
And then,
"I see it all-!"
With green eyes gleaming, Evangeline moved first.
Swoosh!
Dashing forward, Evangeline raised her shield to match the largest breath stream's trajectory.
Not only did her shield contain its inherent ice spirit, but it had also been temporarily enhanced with additional ice spirits by spirit mages.
A brilliant ice formed on Evangeline's shield, and the split breath stream struck it.
'Kuh! I can endure this!'
The ice was quickly consumed, but for now, she could hold on. Evangeline quickly glanced back.
'But the others...!'
At that moment, a commanding voice rang out from the front.
"Change formation as per my instructions!"
It was Torkel.
His helmet, Nightmare Slayer - [Original Sin], was emanating fierce magical energy.
This equipment, forged with the Goblin God-King's magic core, began to exhibit its true power as Torkel embraced its darkness.
The power of command.
[War Commander], it maximized his abilities 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-"
"Charge!"
None of the remaining fighters here were inexperienced.
All of them had undertaken at least ten operations and had slain over a hundred monsters each; they were seasoned warriors.
With just one instance of the field commander sharing his desired formation, everyone moved accordingly.
The split breath streams twisted erratically, trying to slip past the defense line, but the shield warriors reached positions to block them.
"Ugh...!"
And Miller Ariane as well.
Though less experienced in monster battles, his determination to save his country drove him.
"Aaaaah!"
Finally, he succeeded in intercepting the end of a breath stream trying to slip past with his shield.
Crash!
Boom!
Swoosh-!
The dispersed and fragmented breath streams struck Perpetual Snow and Eternal Snow.
Even the ice, said to be brought from the world's peaks, began to melt under the intense heat.
The heroes screamed as they suffered burns through the holy power armor from the terrible heat.
However, for the moment, they succeeded in holding their ground.
Tear-
Sizzle!
Once again, dispersion.
The breath streams that struck the ice shields shattered themselves once more.
Like rain, they split into fine fragments, scorching the remaining field as they rushed northward.
To the last wall of humanity.
To Crossroad—
"Prepare—!"
And in front of that wall, the third line of defense was formed.
Standing behind artifacts prepared by mages and alchemists, they readied themselves with determined faces.
Lilly stretched her hand forward and shouted.
"Activate all artifacts!"
Vroooom!
All the defensive artifacts remaining in the fortress city activated simultaneously.
Like umbrellas opening, the framework unfolded, and barriers were deployed.
Over them,
Crash! Boom! Bang!
The thin, fragmented breath pieces, now transformed into hundreds and thousands of streams, poured down like a torrential downpour.
As they passed through the first and second lines of defense, the breath's momentum had noticeably weakened. Yet it still possessed the power to end the world.
The barricades burned and shattered, the barriers held briefly before being torn apart. Ultimately, all the artifacts were destroyed.
The breath streams twisted and surged in, as if rejoicing at breaking through humanity's last defense.
But no, there was still one last resistance waiting.
Hummmm...!
All the mages of the World Guardian Front were preparing a joint spell.
The caster was Junior.
"..."
Junior, who had been looking towards the city with a worried gaze, lightly turned her body and focused her eyes on the thousands of streams of flame pouring down on her.
A clear blue light scattered from Junior's eyes as they opened and closed.
The magic she would use this time was neither lightning nor wind.
It was Junior's innate element.
Water!
Shiiiing!
The large magic circle drawn under the mages resonated. All the magic amplifiers in the fortress city targeted Junior.
Junior raised her staff powerfully.
The next moment,
Swooooosh!
An immense wall of water, both in height and thickness, rose before the Crossroad wall.
The thousands of split breath streams poured onto it.
Rattle-rattle-rattle!
Sizzle...!
The relentless black flames burrowed into the thick wall of water, but they were too finely divided.
In the end, the breath streams, unable to penetrate, extinguished one by one within the wall of water.
"...we're holding them off."
Hope spread across everyone's faces.
"If we can just hold on like this...!"
"We can really stop it!"
It seemed so.
First, Torkel, then the warriors with ice shields in the second line, and finally the mages and alchemists in the third line... This strategy to gradually disperse and neutralize the dragon's breath step by step appeared to be working.
However, the limit approached quickly.
Rumble!
"?!"
While Torkel was holding on, the ground beneath him was not.
"What the..."
The ground beneath Torkel melted away completely.
They had been continuously receiving the dragon's breath.
Efforts had been made to solidify the ground and install heat-resistant facilities in advance, but they proved meaningless against the overwhelming flames.
The molten ground sank, and though Torkel tried desperately to maintain his stance, it was impossible.
His entire shield tilted, and Torkel fell.
Even then, Torkel struggled to raise his shield, but the breath had already twisted its massive body, pouring past Torkel.
All the warriors in the second line of defense widened their eyes.
The shield warriors, without any prior agreement, all rushed to the center simultaneously. They tried to overlap their ice shields together.
But it was a ridiculous endeavor from the start.
Even the breath that Torkel initially took and dispersed had melted shields and burned heroes in the second line.
And now it was a direct hit.
The Eternal Snow shields thrust in front of the pouring main breath melted instantly.
The spirits enchanted into Evangeline's shield screamed in agony as they all burned.
The shield warriors and Evangeline's holy power armor disintegrated without a trace, and in the end, they were all hurled away, screaming.
"Noooo!"
Finally, Miller Ariane screamed, thrusting his arm holding the Perpetual Snow forward against the breath, but it did not last a second before Perpetual Snow melted, and Miller Ariane's arm turned to ash.
Miller Ariane, flung away, felt no pain from his burned arm and cooked body as he turned to look towards the wall.
"Reboot-!"
Lilly gritted her teeth and activated the emergency power source.
The artifacts that had shut down due to power drain lit up again but quickly lost their resistance in the face of the breath and fizzled out, the lights extinguishing once more.
"We must endure...!"
Junior gritted her teeth and compressed the wall of water to counter the breath, but as the main stream of the breath poured in, the wall of water evaporated instantly, leaving a gaping hole.
All three lines of defense, from the first to the third, were breached.
All of this happened in just a few seconds.
"..."
Watching the breath break through the last defense and approach, Junior felt a momentary illusion that the world had slowed down.
When the first breath pierced the city, 30% of the city burned.
Since then, the breath's power had steadily increased and was fired from a much closer distance this time. This time, Crossroad would be completely destroyed.
Should they be praised for holding out this long against such a powerful enemy and such a mighty attack?
'I don't want that.'
In the slowed-down world, Junior's mind flashed through the days spent in this city.
'I don't want that.'
Meeting many people.
Reconciling, forgiving, hating, understanding, and... learning more.
The days recorded to not forget.
All would become ashes.
Tears welled up in Junior's eyes. She realized the truth now.
That she loved this city.
That she loved all those harsh days spent living in this city.
'Someone, anyone...'
Junior closed her eyes tightly.
'Protect this city...'
It was then.
"Block it-!"
A familiar female voice rang out from atop the wall.
"Scalian-!"
"...?!"
Everyone standing in front of the wall looked up in shock.
Then, from atop the wall, a long, black shape flew down directly towards the breath.
A long oriental dragon with whiskers fluttering, riding atop a dark cloud-like aura.
It was Scalian, the Black Dragon's Pure Scale.
The eastern dragon, having tossed aside its ridiculously large glasses, grinned and hurled itself straight forward.
"As you command."
In midair before the wall, Scalian spun its long, snake-like body, and darkness emanated like mist from its entire body.
Scalian assumed a defensive stance, wrapped in that darkness.
The next moment, the breath and darkness collided.
Crash-!
In front of the Night Bringer's breath, all the scales covering Scalian's body shattered and scattered everywhere...
Rustle!
Underneath, new scales instantly emerged.
"Wow! It's hot! Is Father really that angry?!"
Even as Scalian screamed, blackened and burning in the face of the breath, it succeeded in blocking it.
True to its role as Ash's arranged breath defense, it withstood even the direct hit of the Night Bringer's breath.
"..."
Everyone stood with mouths agape, stunned by the sudden arrival of this unexpected savior.
Then, from atop the wall, a large lizard-like dragon slinked down and quickly descended.
It was Parekian, the Black Dragon's Claw. And atop it was a woman with long, light purple hair, seemingly back after a long absence.
"Of course..."
After descending beneath the wall,
Violet, perched atop Parekian with legs crossed, lifted her high-quality fedora with a dramatic flair and muttered.
"Heroes always arrive at the last moment."
She was dressed more lavishly than ever before.
A well-pressed brown suit, a luxurious leather coat, adorned with gold thread and brilliant jewels all over her body.
"..."
In a world in such chaos, where had she gone to get all dressed up?
As everyone looked at her in disbelief, Violet, with an awkward expression, glanced around sheepishly, scratching the back of her head.
"Uh, the gambler who came last year is back again, alive..."
"Oh..."
Among the mages.
Members of the Gambler's Club, who had joined in to contribute even a tiny bit of their magic power to the joint spell, all pointed at Violet and shouted.
"Where the hell have you been, you scoundrel-!"