Chapter 478: The Man Who Turned the Tide (2)
"What... what kind of power was this?"
What kind of greatness?
What were they witnessing?
The birth of a legend .. right before their very eyes.
Frey Starlight had destroyed the entire right flank of the Ultras’ army ..
sending them all into a merciless hell.
And as the second Nameless Judgement ended, Frey smiled .. ominously.
But then he dropped to one knee, trying to regain his strength.
In front of him, a second massive rift split the sea in two...
But Frey himself was no longer in peak condition.
Still .. he didn’t allow the Empire’s forces behind him to notice his moment of weakness.
"We all know... that a single warrior of the Empire is worth dozens of them."
It had started with 35,000 Ultras vs. 10,000 Imperials .. not counting the nightmare beasts.
Now, it was 10,000 vs. 4,000.
Even after launching Nameless Judgement twice, the Empire was still outnumbered.
But the difference in morale?
It was vast.
The Ultras had fallen into chaos and despair, terrified by a monster whose power could shake the heavens.
The Empire, on the other hand, had witnessed the birth of a living legend...
A hero they would speak of to their children .. and their children’s children.
"Forward, soldiers of the Empire...
Let’s give death something to write about .. for eternity!!"
Frey roared one final time.
And that roar ..
it made the hearts of every soldier behind him nearly explode in their chests.
Their tear-filled, bloodshot eyes stared at him with awe...
with a blazing fire they could no longer contain.
The man who fought for them.
The hero who destroyed their enemies for them.
The one who recognized their worth.
He now stood at their head, offering himself as a shield.
And all of it... all of it ignited at once ..
Unleashing the dammed flood of emotion in their chests.
They say that on that day...
the scream of the Empire’s soldiers was heard for thousands of kilometers.
It was as if they had all become monsters,
driven by a power beyond human comprehension.
They ran, ignoring their injuries.
They fought, unshackled from pain.
And as they did .. they shook the world...
With a war cry that would echo through time.
Before the eyes of the Imperial Vanguard, led by Bloodmader...
Snow and the others could only stand in silence, watching the breathtaking display unfold before them.
From beginning to end, they didn’t understand a thing about what just happened.
The Imperial soldiers had charged forward, ignoring them entirely, following Frey and targeting the left flank .. what remained of the Ultras’ forces.
Those weak soldiers who once had no significant role suddenly transformed into terrifying beasts that shook both land and sea alike.
At that moment, they looked ready to follow Frey to the deepest pits of hell if need be.
Even their own allies felt a chill run down their spines.
Let alone the enemies...
Enemies who had just endured two consecutive Nameless Judgement strikes .. merciless and absolute.
"This is terrifying... who would’ve thought a monster like that existed on the Empire’s side?"
Standing at the bow of one of the ships, Emperine Maria gazed at the Imperial forces mercilessly slaughtering the Ultras .. so brutally that they made the Ultras seem gentle in comparison.
In that moment, Maria remembered something Mergo once said...
That perhaps the answer they had long searched for lay on the other side.
Now, the Ultras were in total disarray. They had no idea when the next Nameless Judgement might descend and end their lives.
That fear and despair made them easy prey for the Imperial army, now burning with unshakable morale.
The Ultras suffered massive losses the moment the two sides clashed.
Magical artillery shells never stopped raining down from start to finish.
The Imperial soldiers poured out their strength until the very last drop, fighting no matter the condition of their bodies.
As long as Frey stood before them ..they would keep moving forward.
No matter the obstacle. No matter the enemy. No matter the danger.
Many died in that madness.
But one thing was certain: the number of Ultras who died at their hands far exceeded that.
Within the Ultras’ command, their leaders could do nothing but watch as the first round of war ended in total catastrophe for their side.
"How terrifying... that boy .. I’m not sure I could even defeat him if I faced him."
Positioned on one of the command ships, the Hollow Smough spoke grimly. His appearance was ragged ..torn clothing, scattered wounds across his body.
Unfortunately for him, Smough had been positioned on the right flank, which took the Nameless Judgement head-on.
Thanks to his resilience, he survived.
But even though the attack wasn’t directly aimed at him and was launched from afar, he ended up severely wounded.
"He’s worse than his father... I can’t believe one man managed to completely flip the tide of battle so easily..."
Seated nearby was Baylor Moonlight, the new Lord of the Ultras, witnessing the rise of a new star within the Starlight bloodline.
In this critical moment of the war, even Lords and Hollows were hesitant.
They feared facing that merciless sword... and the overwhelming power unlike anything they’d seen before.
But what the Ultras didn’t know... was that Frey had already reached his limit for using Nameless Judgement.
It was truly a transcendental attack ..Frey’s current pinnacle.
But it wasn’t something he could repeat, not even with his SSS-rank aura reserves.
After countless hours of ruthless training, Frey had confirmed: he could only unleash that attack once per hand.
Once with the left. Once with the right.
Any further attempt would cause his arms to explode from the sheer strain.
But his enemies didn’t know that .. and that ignorance was what made Frey smile darkly as he continued fighting the Ultras head-on, with the entire Imperial army at his back.
He alone had turned the war upside down, saving the Empire from a catastrophic defeat.
The vanguard squad, led by Bloodmader, also joined Frey without hesitation, taking on the strongest of the Ultras.
Although the Ultras had superior numbers in the beginning, their forces were utterly annihilated.
Their soldiers fell one after another like flies before the fury of Frey and his allies.
Witnessing this dramatic shift in the tide—and calculating the staggering losses—the supreme commander of the Ultras, Gavid Lindman, found himself issuing an order he never imagined he’d utter:
"Retreat!!!"
With a roar infused with aura, Gavid Lindman declared the end of the first round of the War of Darkness ..with a crushing defeat for the Ultras.
As if they’d been waiting for that order, the Ultras began retreating instantly ..fleeing from the monsters that had devoured them alive.
But the Imperial soldiers gave chase for hours, without pause, without concern for their condition.
As long as Frey pursued the enemy, the Empire’s warriors ran with him, relentless.
The magnitude of Frey’s impact was immeasurable ..but undoubtedly immense.
"Kill them!"
"Wipe them out .. and avenge all those who left this world because of them."
"Tear them apart!"
"Spill their blood, rip them to shreds in the most brutal way imaginable ..just like they did to your loved ones!"
"Destroy them!"
"Show them what true terror means .. make them feel what it’s like to be hunted."
"No mercy! Show them none!"
Every word Frey shouted became an absolute command to every single Imperial soldier.
And that was what drove them to madness .. devouring everything in their path.
That night, countless lives were lost.
Too many souls drowned the Devil’s Sea in red.
The death toll was insane, and the slaughter went on for hours.
In the end, after a long and relentless chase...
The Imperial soldiers finally reached their limit, having burned their very souls dry in that battle.
Even Frey himself had pushed past his limits .. but none of it showed on his face.
Once they no longer had to fight, many soldiers collapsed on the spot, unconscious...
Some dropped into sleep where they stood, overwhelmed by exhaustion ..others simply died where they stood, their strength gone after forcing themselves to keep going for so long.
The final battle and the pursuit lasted eight full hours.
The first round of the war had lasted twelve.
Half a day in which the world witnessed unfathomable destruction .. and even more death.
Surrounded by piles of corpses, shipwreck debris, and the remnants of war...
Only 21 ships remained from the Empire’s once-majestic fleet.
The number of survivors barely reached 2000.
Out of 10,000 proud Imperial warriors, 8,000 were dead.
As for the 2,000 who survived ..most had suffered horrifying injuries, with many left in states between life and death.
It could be said that the Imperial vanguard would no longer be able to fight in any battles anytime soon.
On the other hand, out of the 35,000 soldiers brought by the Ultras, along with 3,000 nightmare sea creatures...
Every single nightmare creature was slain .. and 29,000 men were exterminated.
Lord Gvardiol had suffered a fatal blow, cleaved in half, and whether he would survive or not remained completely unknown.
Although both sides suffered heavy losses, the difference between them was crystal clear.
The Empire had won the first round.
And it was all thanks to him ..
The man who single-handedly turned the tide of war...
Frey Starlight.