Record of a Thousand Lives - Chapter 86

Chapter 86
Kartheon’s mummies were very strong; they were considered to be undead, but they had unconditional loyalty toward the ancient king. They marched while staying in formation, and they carried out any orders from the ancient king—no matter what they were.

“Kill the enemies,” Kartheon commanded. The mummies immediately charged as soon as his order was given.

The ancient king’s mummies came in all shapes and sizes. Some were the size of adult humans, and others were the size of ogres. Some of them used their monstrous strength to crush their enemies, and others used their bloodstained bandages to infect their enemies.

“The enemies are mummies! Be careful not to get caught by their bandages and focus on attacking!” the Grave Soldier commanded from the vanguard position as he cut down mummy after mummy.

“The enemy leader is the ancient king Kartheon! All ranged units! Focus your fire on Kartheon!” the Grave Soldier commanded.

The Skeleton Archers drew their bowstrings and fired. Kartheon waved his left hand, and a wall of mummies appeared in front of him and shielded him from the incoming arrows.

“The enemy numbers just a meager thousand! The enemy is powerless in front of us, who number seven thousand! Do not falter and attack!” Kartheon commanded.

The undead army was severely outnumbered, and the tide of battle tilted heavily in favor of the ancient king, but Kartheon could not relax one bit. He thought, ‘This is too easy. There is no way they would have carried out an ambush that was certain to fail.’

The enemy had accurately pinpointed their location and launched an ambush, and judging by the presence of a commander, these were not average, run-of-the-mill undead. It seemed someone had formally declared war against Kartheon.

‘It matters not who comes at me. I will turn you all into dust,’ Kartheon thought.

At that moment, the Grave Soldier charged into the enemy lines and struck down three mummies with one swing of its sword. It charged deeper behind enemy lines and finally reached Kartheon, swinging its sword at the neck of the ancient king.

However, Kartheon leisurely rolled back time five seconds by five seconds. Then, the ancient king avoided the Grave Soldier’s sword with relative ease and grabbed the undead assailant with his right hand.

“Ku-kuheok!” The Grave Soldier struggled.

“That swordsmanship… It seems familiar. Are you made up of someone from ancient times?” Kartheon asked.

“I d-despise you!” the Grave Soldier shouted angrily, its voice full of hostility.

“Well, it does not matter.” Kartheon shrugged and absorbed the Grave Soldier’s life force. The ancient king’s level rose by 5, and he also obtained the sword used by the undead.

[Sword of Remaksia]

‘This is the sword of the corrupt soldier I executed in the past,’ Kartheon thought. The sword was still sharp despite the time that had passed.

The undead army was easily annihilated after they lost their commanding officer, and Kartheon cleaned them up, turning them into temporal power.

Katz followed behind Kartheon, exclaiming,, “Phew! It’s a relief that the battle finished quickly.”

“The enemy’s strategy was so simple, I did not even have time to scoff at it,” Kartheon said.

“Huh? What do you mean, your majesty?” Katz asked in confusion.

“The undead were only bait,” Kartheon said as he pointed toward the surroundings with his new sword.

The place they were in was surrounded by sand dunes. A cloud of dust rose from all four directions toward them, and then…

“Haaaaaah!” The coalition of Fire Trolls and elves charged toward Kartheon.

***

Kang Yoon-Soo used his Earth Staff to shift the desert sands and create traps. He continued to use the staff even as he was recovering his mana.

[The staff has reached its limits.]

[The staff’s durability will drop and the staff might be destroyed if you continue using it.]

Kang Yoon-Soo was not fazed at all, using the staff to its full capabilities to dig a large hole in the desert. The staff broke in half as soon as he finished digging the final trap.

Crack!

“Lure them here,” Kang Yoon-Soo said. The elf magicians nodded and transmitted the message to the army.

The Fire Trolls in the vanguard clashed with the mummies; the mummies were instantly crushed without even having the chance to properly gauge the Fire Trolls’ strength.

Puseok!

A few of the mummies fell into the traps, creating an opening for the coalition army to charge deeper into the enemy force.

The Fire Trolls released their body heat as they excitedly went on a rampage.

“It’s been a while since we had a battle like this!”

“My power is overwhelming!”

The Fire Trolls flexed their muscles, causing the blood vessels on their arms to swell, and swung their clubs at the mummies. Their overwhelming strength made the mummies explode as soon as they made contact with the trolls’ clubs.

“Mere weaklings,” Kartheon muttered.

A unit of large mummies appeared as the ancient king’s army changed their battle formation. The large mummies used their size and strength to pick up the Fire Trolls easily. Twenty Fire Trolls at the forefront who had been rushing at the enemy were twisted like dolls and killed instantly.

“Korkwi!”

“How dare you kill my brother?!”

Yanak barely managed to calm down the Fire Trolls, exclaiming, “Don’t get too worked up! Maintain formation! The elves will take care of the large mummies!”

The elves who were casting spells at the back waved their staves.

“May the fire of retribution burn our enemies!”

“Burn, children of darkness!”

The elves’ magic doused the large mummies in oil before following up with fire magic. Their combined attacks burned the large mummies away.

“Team 3 of the 1st Battalion. Fire at will,” Kang Yoon-Soo commanded the elves.

The elves let loose their fire arrows toward the ancient king’s army. The elves were miles away from their targets, but the bows they used allowed them to vastly outrange any enemy. Five large mummies burned away.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Kang Yoon-Soo muttered to himself as he watched over the battle from atop a sand dune.

The coalition army that had been divided into four managed to corral the ancient king’s army into one spot, but they didn’t manage to reduce the enemy’s numbers by much.

‘It’s because of Kartheon’s commanding skills.’

The ancient king’s commanding style was different from Kang Yoon-Soo’s. Kang Yoon-Soo had to relay his orders to the Fire Trolls and elves, and they had to be able to fully follow his commands. However, all Kartheon had to do was wave his left hand and the mummies would follow his will to the letter.

‘He’ll just roll back time even if we manage to shoot off his left hand or charge in and cut it off.’

The ancient king who controlled time was a very difficult opponent to deal with. The key to turning the tides of war in their favor would be to boost the coalition army’s overall combat power.

Kang Yoon-Soo stretched out his right hand and muttered, “Summon Sally, White, Acle, and the Mini-Lich.” He called out all the summons he had in his summon dimension.

“What? Did you summon me in the desert again?!” Acle screamed angrily toward Kang Yoon-Soo.

Sally pulled on the boy’s shirt and said, “Acle, don’t yell at papa.”

“Hmph! I don’t want to listen to anything a weakling like you has to say!” Acle retorted with a scoff.

“Waaah! Papa! Acle is being mean to me!” Sally cried out to her father.

“Do not fight; you are siblings. It is bad to fight,” the Mini-Lich said, trying to ease the tension between the siblings.

The commotion from calling on all of his summons at once was chaos itself, but that was the precise reason why Kang Yoon-Soo had divided the coalition army into four groups.

“Pick one army each and join the battle,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Rimarikoro?” White asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and said, “The enemy leader can control time. Prioritize taking care of the mummies.”

Three summons all went their separate ways as they each joined an army, and only Acle was left behind. The Ice Spirit glared at Kang Yoon-Soo, screaming at him with a face red with anger, “Damn it! What are you looking at?! That’s right, I’m useless in the desert! So what?!”

“I’ll lend you this,” Kang Yoon-Soo said as he took out a crown from his backpack and tossed it to the Ice Spirit.

Acle quickly caught the crown and stuttered, “Hmm… You… You are quite the nice guy, aren’t you…? Hehehe…”

“You’ll go crazy if you overuse that crown, so be careful,” Kang Yoon-Soo warned him. Acle went down the sand dune to join the last remaining army, and Kang Yoon-Soo stood up as he watched Acle descend.

The tides of war, which had previously been against them, began to stabilize thanks to the four summons joining the fray. Sally absorbed the heat of the desert and unleashed fierce flames that burned the mummies away, the Mini-Lich replenished their troops by raising the dead as undead, White charged into the battlefield and wreaked havoc behind enemy lines, and Acle ecstatically unleashed ice storms while laughing like a maniac.

‘The summons have grown stronger.’

They had grown enough to be able to adapt to the situation and fight according to their own combat styles.

[White’s wild instincts have been unleashed after killing twenty mummies.]

[White has learned a new skill, ‘Wolf’s Fear’.]

White had learned a new skill after participating in the war. War was never a pleasant thing, but ironically, it was the best fertilizer for a fighter’s growth.

‘So far, so good.’

Kartheon was not an opponent Kang Yoon-Soo could face at this point in time; it was safer for him to attempt to assassinate the ancient king rather than face him head-on in a war.

‘It’d be easy to kill Kartheon alone.’

The easiest way Kang Yoon-Soo had used to deal with Kartheon in the past was by using sleeping drugs. He had wrapped himself in bandages and infiltrated the mummies’ camp, and he had laced the ancient king’s food with sleeping drugs. Kartheon had not even had the opportunity to turn back time, and Kang Yoon-Soo had used that opening to assassinate the ancient king.

‘But there’s nothing much to be gained by taking care of him that way.’

Kartheon’s level was quite low because of his body having degraded over time, and Kang Yoon-Soo would not be able to obtain many experience points by killing him. However, the ancient king’s troops dropped good loot and also handsomely rewarded whomever killed them with a lot of experience points.

‘There won’t be any casualties if I choose to assassinate him, but I have to grow as much as I can to face the Demon Lord.’

Kang Yoon-Soo purposely chose the hard way to maximize his growth in preparation for the final battle.

Kartheon soon massacred the elves. They were victims who should not have died, but they died anyway because of the choices Kang Yoon-Soo made. Those who would not have been sacrificed were sacrificed, and the ones who would not have had to shed any tears had to shed tears at the loss of their loved ones.

‘I won’t make any excuses.’

Kang Yoon-Soo had lived too long to feel any guilt or remorse because of his actions; he focused only on his sole objective. There was only one solution to all the problems in the world, after all.

‘That’s to kill the Demon Lord.’

The intense battle continued, but Kang Yoon-Soo just remained at the rear as he continuously gave out commands.

‘It’s still not time for me to join.’

He tracked the trajectory of the sunset, and he could see that the appointed time was fast approaching.

‘It’s now time for that to slowly make its entrance.’

A large shadow blocked the sun and turned the desert dark. An ear-splitting roar reverberated across the desert. “Krwwaaaaaaaah!”

Katz, who had been busy running away regardless of which side he was on, suddenly shouted fearfully, “I-it’s the dragon Ignus! It’s the ruler of the Desert of Death!”

The dragon covered in red scales flew over their heads; she was large enough to cover the battlefield in her shadow.

Kartheon was amazed at the sight of the dragon, saying in admiration, “It has become larger than the dragons of ancient times.”

“This isn’t the time to admire it!” Katz shouted. However, he thought to himself, ‘Wouldn’t it be better if Kartheon’s army gets annihilated by the dragon?’

However, Kartheon laughed as if he could read Katz’s mind and said, “There is no way that my army will lose. Even if the enemy is a dragon.” The ancient king retained his composure, even in front of the mighty dragon who was feared by all.

The dragon Ignus descended before the thousands of mummies, and the pressure from her wingbeats was enough to stir up a sandstorm. She opened her mouth wide.

Fwaaaaaaah!

Dragon breath that was hotter than the fires of hell blasted out of Ignus’ mouth and engulfed the ancient king’s mummies.

Kartheon waved his left hand in an attempt to make the mummies spread out, but hundreds of his mummies had already been burned to a crisp by the dragon.

“S-save me!” an elf screamed, running away from a large mummy.

Ignus stepped on the chasing mummy; just like that, a large mummy that would have required tens of coalition members to bring down was squashed like an ant. She flapped her wings and muttered, “O, winds of the desert. Sweep away everything in my sight!”

A dragon’s magic was incomparable to normal magic used by other creatures. The winds that had gathered from Ignus’ wingbeats suddenly grew into a fierce desert storm that threatened to swallow everything in its path.

Whirl! Whirl!

Hundreds of mummies flew into the air and were swallowed by the storm, and their bodies were torn to shreds. The storm was so intense that even the members of the coalition had to take care so as not to be swept up by it.

“That’s a dragon!”

“The mighty being is with us!”

The morale of the coalition army rose significantly due to the appearance of one creature, and they felt that victory was certainly on their side.

It was at that moment that Kartheon raised his left hand. He remarked with a smirk, “Would it not be a bit too boring if this war ended just because a dragon suddenly decided to appear out of nowhere?”

Suddenly, an enormous creature stood up from the sand. The creature had no problem standing up even though the storm was right over it, and a single step from it felt as if the whole desert would collapse.

“What the hell?!”

“A giant? No! It’s much larger than a giant!”

The Colossus began to run, and the whole desert shook as if an earthquake had begun in it.

“Graaaaaaahh!” Ignus roared, unleashing her dragon breath once more.

Fwaaah!

The Colossus ignored the flames as it charged straight for the dragon. It grabbed Ignus’ wing with its large hands—and ripped it off the dragon.