Shattered Tooth: the eastern defensive border of the Country of Light.
The devastation caused by the Chaos creatures in the past was still visible. The towering walls were dented and filled with various holes. Shattered, collapsed walls seemed to fall to the ground like wounded beasts. The armies of players and battle angels that were previously stationed here had all been evacuated. However, the place wasn’t completely uninhabited. The silhouettes of heavily-armed soldiers could be seen vaguely beneath the shattered walls. However, they weren’t very serious or tense. Instead, almost everyone wore an expression of fear, unease, and confusion on their faces. It wasn’t surprising because they weren’t ordinary soldiers. But rather, they were the ones who gave up their positions and fled in the previous battle against Chaos.
After that battle ended, all of those guys were captured by the players sent by Rhode. Although they tried to resist capture, they were no different from little pigs against the formidable players. Moreover, the players were also very upset that the soldiers abandoned them and fled on their own, resulting in them having to face a larger number of Chaos creatures themselves. Dissatisfied with the situation, it was only natural that great efforts were made to capture these deserters.
It was due to this reason that these unfortunate deserters were able to be recaptured in such a short period. In fact, they were baffled as to why they were captured. They could only blame themselves if they were discovered. As a matter of fact, there were actually quite a number of soldiers who had chosen to enter deep, uninhabited forests and wilderness to hide their tracks. But to their amazement, no matter where they hid, pursuers who seemed to fall from the sky appeared before them in the shortest possible time, knocked them unconscious, and took them away without a second thought. And when the soldiers woke up again, they found themselves sent back to the front line—the same place they had escaped from in the first place—once again.
Of course, they didn’t know what was going on. But Rhode had put a lot of money into catching these deserters. This rout of the Country of Light’s soldiers was arguably the most unpleasant part of his plan and was demoralizing as well. Such behaviors were contagious and once the rest of the world knew that they were working hard against Chaos while those idiots in the Country of Light fled to safety, it definitely wasn’t good for their morale. Not only that, but in order to prevent such a situation from happening again, Rhode had also chosen to punish an individual as an example to others. If he didn’t let others witness how harsh the punishment was for deserting, this would continue to happen again and again.
That was why, this time, Rhode was considered to have put in a considerable amount of effort. As for hunting down the deserters themselves, it was much simpler. After the battle was over, Rhode found Alice and used her ‘Historical Tracing’ ability to search for all of the deserters’ names. Since the History Deity Warden held records of history in this world, Rhode was able to determine who fled at the beginning of the battle, who shook the army, and who held on until the very end. That was why he was certain that he wouldn’t wrong a good man or spare a bad man. Of course, this was all based on the basis of Alice’s historically accurate records. But for Rhode, her historical records ‘must’ always be accurate.
Or rather, ‘had to’ always be accurate.
There were nearly 5,000 deserters gathered here and they were the first and second in Rhode’s classification (in other words, soldiers who fled first and those who fled second). As for the soldiers who fought to the end and ran away when there was no hope was in sight, though Rhode also captured them, he didn’t punish them severely. After all, in a situation like that, where their comrades were being hindrances, it wasn’t unforgivable for them to retreat. But even so, they were still subjected to rather serious punishments. Thereafter, the soldiers who were recaptured were sent by Rhode to the second defensive line to be in charge of the front line’s patrolling and preparations. In other words, if the battle spread to the second level of defense, they would be the first to come into contact with the enemy. This was already an unimaginably cruel punishment for those soldiers who had experienced firsthand how terrifying the Chaos creatures were.
However, if they knew what happened to their comrades, they probably wouldn’t be bemoaning how unlucky they were.
As for those soldiers who fought with the players until the end, Rhode gave them very generous rewards. Not only did he give them a considerable amount of wealth, but he also elevated their status and even allowed soldiers who had lost their ability to fight after the battle to leave the front line. This brought a renewed surge of confidence for those soldiers who were stationed and stuck to the front line of battle. After all, merit should be rewarded; this was Rhode’s creed.
Of course, so was punishing soldiers for their wrongs. At the same time, while conducting merit commendations of the brave soldiers, Rhode didn’t spare the deserters any punishments. To be on the safe side, he withdrew all the battle angels and players stationed here. Although the Shattered Tooth was the closest point to the front line in the first level of defense, it wasn’t the only one, after all. So even if this place was occupied by Chaos, it wouldn’t affect the entire defensive line too heavily. Of course, he wouldn’t let this place fall so easily either. Because he had already prepared enough ‘soldiers’ on his side.
As for the other point, the scene of punishing the soldiers wasn’t suitable to be seen by anyone else.
One could imagine the surprise on the soldiers’ faces when they woke up from unconsciousness and opened their eyes, only to find themselves back on the battlefield they had escaped from before.
“What’s going on here? How did we get back here?”
“What the hell is going on here?!”
Upon opening their eyes and seeing the familiar and almost frightening scene before them, many soldiers stood up almost immediately, staring at their companions with disturbed gazes. Although many of them belonged to different legions, they still knew one another well. In just a few moments, they became aware of their current situation and the true identity of those people around them, which instead made them even more uneasy.
At that moment, the soldiers were in the drill ground of the Shattered Tooth, which was normally used for training, so accommodating these deserters naturally wasn’t an issue. The soldiers remained as they were when they were unconscious, and even their weapons hadn’t been taken away from them. Not only that, but they were also stunned to find that the entire drill ground was devoid of people other than themselves. There were neither the heavily-armed guards that they expected, nor nobles in flashy clothes. On the contrary, the entire fortress looked so deserted that there seemed to be no one around. The black windows and ajar doors seemed so hollow that they made some soldiers shiver instinctively. For a moment, they thought there were no living beings except for themselves in this world.
But just at that moment, a proud voice echoed.
“Finally woke up, huh? What a bunch of losers. How dare you make me wait for so long.”
Upon hearing this voice, the soldiers instinctively looked in the direction the voice sounded and were taken aback.
Seated above the towering city wall was a beautiful young lady with maroon eyes and long, black hair, donned in a pitch-black dress. At that moment, she crossed her hands, narrowed her eyes, and put up an expression as if she were staring at garbage. She swept an unsentimental glance at the bewildered crowd, which was at a loss for words. And upon sensing her stare, many of them felt a chill running down their spine. Her maroon eyes were so ice-cold that they felt as if a snake were slithering down their back.
“Who are you?! What do you want to do to us?!”
Perhaps after realizing that it was a delicate-looking young lady who appeared before them, a few courageous ones shouted in rage. Although the situation before them was absolutely bewildering as anyone could tell, perhaps due to them owning weapons, they became a lot bolder. And along with their furious cries, the other soldiers also gathered and looked around with wary and uneasy gazes.
“You scum have no right to know my identity.”
In the face of the angry screams, Celestina snorted and raised her head high and proudly spoke, staring at the soldiers before her. Celestina had no kindness for these deserters, and the punishment for defectors in hell made them hate themselves for not fighting to their death in the first place. And now, with Rhode’s authorization, Celestina planned to revive hell here.
Celestina’s eyes glinted with a cold flash. Then, she spoke with a smile.
“Listen up, lowly deserters. You have turned your backs on your duty and fled the battlefield where you belong. And now, it’s time to punish you incompetent fools. By order of Master, from now on, all of you will be on guard duty here. No one will be allowed to leave without permission, or you will be killed on sight…” Celestina came to an odd pause before revealing a smile of anticipation. “Now, do you understand?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Although Celestina’s proclamation stunned the soldiers, perhaps due to the fact that there were no armed guards around or powerful beings to suppress them, and only Celestina, who appeared just like an ordinary noblewoman, was around, the soldiers erupted in anger and displeasure after hearing her words.
“You want to lock us up here?! We’re not going to get ourselves killed. We’re just humans; there’s no way we can deal with those monsters! It should be a monster’s duty to deal with monsters!”
“That’s right! Those officials are always hiding in the back while putting us on the front lines against enemies that are impossible to defeat. They just want us to die and buy them some time to live! Why do we have to die for those guys! If they are that capable, they’ll go to the front lines themselves!”
“Yeah! We’re not that dumb to do it! Kill us if you’ve got the guts——”
But that was the end of their complaints.
At the next moment, a flaming spear punctured the arrogant, screaming soldier. Shortly after, a huge, dog-headed demon strode out of the flames that rose from the ground. At the sight of the flaming spear that penetrated the soldier who was wrought in agony, the dog-headed demon smiled grimly, pulled out its spear, and the soldier collapsed heavily to the ground.
“D-Demon!!!”
Upon seeing the demon before them, many of the soldiers cried out in shock. And it was at that moment that they realized that they were surrounded in bursts of flames. Soon after, a more strange and terrifying-looking dog-headed monster with a flaming spear in hand stepped out of the flames one after another. It only took the blink of an eye for them to surround the crowd completely. The abrupt change in the situation baffled them. The soldiers instinctively drew their weapons and stared nervously at the monsters around them. And at that moment, Celestina’s voice rang out again.
“Isn’t it easy enough to kill scums like you? But I won’t let you have an easy time, huhuhu… I would like to see what else you are capable of.”
“Brothers, go all-out against these demons! Kill ’em!”
Although the dog-headed demons were powerful, there were only around 100 of them surrounding the entire drill ground. Meanwhile, there were thousands of deserters, so it was unclear whether it was out of fear or their number advantage that their confidence was boosted. Shortly after, a number of soldiers drew their weapons in anger, turned around, and rushed toward the entrance outside the drill ground. Upon witnessing this scene, Celestina narrowed her eyes and let out a soft grunt.
“Bunch of scum. Since you’ve already made your choice, there’s no need for me to say anything more.”
Celestina said, stretching out her hand and snapping her fingers lightly.
Shing———!
Along with this action, a scarlet magical ritual appeared on the empty ground, emanating an odd and sinister aura. Shortly after, a thin black flog exuded and the soldiers didn’t even have time to react. Their movements gradually became slower as if they were drunk. They stood for a while before slumping weakly to the ground.
“W-What’s going on?!”
One of the soldiers looked at the sword in his hand in bewilderment. At that moment, he felt really strange. Even though he lay on the ground powerlessly like a drunk man, his mind was still incredibly clear. Although he struggled to move his body, he couldn’t even budge. But soon, he had no time to think of such trifles, for at that moment, with the sound of heavy footsteps, dog-headed demons burning with flames all over their body had arrived at his side. Detecting the ruthless excitement in the eyes of the demons, the soldier trembled from head to toe. He looked up in fear at the demons, gaped, but couldn’t make a single sound. And almost at the same time, Celestina’s pleasant, beautiful voice sounded in everyone’s ears again.
“Master said to kill anyone who tries to escape, so… Be good and die, scums. Please me with your howls and screams!”
With those words, a dog-headed demon raised its flaming spear and pierced the stomach of the soldier in front of it. Then, the demon swung up its spear and slashed open the soldier’s abdomen, while blood and internal organs flew out and scattered on the ground. If it were a normal day, after being treated like this, the soldier would have already passed out from the pain. But it was completely different now. Although he felt agonizing pain, his mind was incomparably clear. There wasn’t the slightest hint of confusion, and for that, the pain of the disembowelment overwhelmed his brain. The unfortunate soldier could do nothing but open his mouth and scream miserably.
“Ahhhhh!”
Horrifying screams filled the fortress. The dog-headed demons strolled along the soldiers, brandished their flaming spears and cut open their bodies cruelly and excitedly, enjoying the unparalleled,miserable, and tragic scene before them. And for those soldiers, it was the most cruel punishment. They had never encountered anything like this before. Obviously, their bodies were slashed open and penetrated, while their limbs were cut off and burned. But there was no way for them to escape. The incomparable suffering of their limbs reached their heads vividly, where apart from enduring the torment, they could do nothing else.
“N-No. I beg you. Please let me go!”
“No! Help…!”
Listening to the pleads of the crowd, Celestina closed her eyes and showed the same ecstasy as if she were listening to a moving symphony of beautiful melodies. Her right hand beat time to the screams as if they were a beautiful song. She raised her right hand and slid it across the air gently.
“Alright then, let’s begin… O’ eternal darkness and death, heed my call and grant these scums eternal pain and torment!”
At Celestina’s call, the dark fog grew thicker as it tumbled to envelop the soldiers who had fallen to the ground, making them disappear in the blink of an eye.
