Karnak, Monarch of Death

Chapter 239: The Siege of Strauss (1)

Emil Strauss’s rebellion was nothing short of blatant. It was clear from the declaration he had sent to the royal family of Ethriel.

To the Kingdom of Ethriel: if you desire the loyalty of Strauss, proclaim your worship of the true god, Tesranach. If you do not, we shall enthrone a rightful king of our own.

People were dumbfounded. Of course, Martial King Gellard was a terrifying force, and the Strauss family held enough power to rival a kingdom of its own. But even so, they were not an actual kingdom.

And the moment they declared allegiance to the Dark God, they made mortal enemies of the Church of the Goddesses. A single noble house had just made enemies of the entire world.

—Has he gone completely mad?

—What is he thinking, pulling a stunt like this?

But this was only the perspective of the common folk, of those who were unaware of the deeper situation. The governments of each nation and the Church of the Goddesses quickly realized that Strauss’s move was far trickier than it appeared.

Technically, it was the Ethriel Kingdom’s responsibility to quell such unrest. The problem was that Ethriel’s greatest military force was the Strauss family. The kingdom’s strongest sword and shield had turned its blade on their own homeland, leaving the kingdom helpless to respond.

And it wasn’t as if the royal family of Ethriel could be blamed for incompetence. The royal family and the Strauss family had been tightly bound by blood ties for generations.

The queens had always come from the Strauss line, and the Duchesses of Strauss had always been princesses of Ethriel. The two families were, for all intents and purposes, a single household.

There were even times, when the royal line lacked an heir, that a cadet branch of Strauss had ascended the throne. Why had a direct heir never taken the crown?

Because the direct line of Strauss already bore the title of king, albeit not politically. Instead, they had reached the pinnacle of martial arts and were crowned as martial kings.

To sit upon the throne was to burden oneself with the affairs of a kingdom, but not a single heir of Strauss’s main line had ever forsaken the path of the sword for such trivial matters.

For this reason, the Kingdom of Ethriel now lacked the power to stop the rebellion of Strauss.

They needed assistance from other nations. But that, too, was no simple matter.

—Could the Strauss house have allied with the empire?

—No way. There’s no way the empire would ever tolerate the Cult of the Black God.

—If not, then why are they making such moves?

The empire’s western garrisons had begun massing along the border with the Seven Kingdoms in perfect coordination with Strauss’s rebellion. At first glance, it might not seem strange for imperial troops to move within their own borders.

But unless they were already at war, massing troops along a shared border was tantamount to a declaration of war. The Seven Kingdoms could not ignore it. Because of this, the forces of both the Eustil and the Atringen Kingdom were effectively pinned down.

Pulling troops from other kingdoms wasn’t an easy option either. If they sent their forces to besiege Strauss, their own rear lines would be left dangerously exposed. And Strauss had openly declared their allegiance to the Dark God.

It was clear what would happen once the kingdoms’ defenses thinned. The cultists were widespread, lain hidden like poisonous mushrooms. At the first chance, they would all rise.

The war between the cult and the kingdoms had been ongoing, and the kingdoms could easily grasp their enemy’s intent. They had already begun preparing countermeasures. In other words, they could not devote too many forces to subjugating Strauss.

They also had to prepare for provocations from the empire and uprisings by the cultists. But facing Strauss with an undisciplined rabble was also out of the question. Strauss commanded a military force equal to that of a kingdom.

Thus, they needed an elite force, a force powerful, but not yet entangled in current deployments. Fortunately, the Seven Kingdoms already possessed such a force: The King’s Orders of each kingdom.

The King’s Orders were, by nature, special detachments held in reserve for emergencies. And what better time to deploy emergency forces than during an actual emergency? The off-duty members of the Seven Kingdoms’ King’s Orders were summoned to form the strike force.

Thanks to this, a significant number of aura users and mages were able to gather. The only question remaining was: who would command them?

The one with the clearest claim was, naturally, the second heir of the Strauss ducal house, Leven Strauss. But he was too young, and his experience too shallow, to take command of the entire army.

Such a force needed a commander of great skill and universal respect. The problem was, given the situation, most of the existing generals were unable to leave their posts. Nor could they simply choose one of the assembled King’s Order members to take command.

These troops had come from across all seven kingdoms, and there were natural rivalries among them. To unite them under a single banner, they needed someone recognized across borders, a figure of truly great renown.

And as if that weren’t difficult enough, that person also had to be conveniently unoccupied at the moment.

”And for this reason, we would like you to take command of the subjugation army.”

Faced with the proposal brought forth by the church, Karnak couldn’t help but wear an expression of utter disbelief. ”What? Me?”

At first, he had intended to refuse. Of course, Karnak had to admit that, in terms of reputation, he far surpassed the other members of the King’s Orders. But even so, wasn’t he far too young for the role?

Regardless of what resided within, his physical age was a mere twenty-two. No matter how qualified he might be, would the other King’s Orders truly follow the lead of someone so green?

”No one held any objections,” came the answer.

Firstly, he held the justification. ”Isn’t Sir Leven Strauss a knight in the service of Lord Karnak?”

Moreover, he was more than experienced.

”Everyone knows that Sir Karnak saved the citizens of Harthol City.”

The fact that Karnak was a mage posed no particular issue under the current circumstances. Typically, military commanders were warriors. Mages usually served as advisors, rarely assuming command.

However, the Strauss Subjugation Army was a coalition of King’s Orders from various nations. And in the King’s Order, it was not uncommon for a mage to serve as commander while an aura user filled the role of deputy. To them, it was not at all strange to be led by a mage.

”Taking everything into account, there is no candidate more fitting than Sir Karnak.”

With the church pressing him this far, he had no choice but to accept. ”Very well. I will do my utmost, even if it is humble.”

Thus, the Strauss Subjugation Army was formed, with Baron Karnak Zestrad and Leven Strauss at its core. It was a formidable force, numbering 4,500 soldiers, 300 knights, 20 aura users, and a magical corps of 40.

The people believed, without a shred of doubt, that they would be more than capable of quelling Emil’s rebellion. The Strauss family was undeniably a powerful house, but Gellard was absent under confinement and absent.

And while Emil possessed extraordinary skill for his age, he had only just reached the level of purple-tier. A rebel army without a martial king was hardly something to fear. Unfortunately, it took less than three days after the subjugation army began its campaign for them to realize just how mistaken they were.

***

The Strauss family’s ancestral estate originally lay in the plains bordering the Keliante Forest in the central region of the Ethriel Kingdom. True to the grandeur of a ducal residence, the manor was a beautiful, elegant, and dignified structure.

However, as was so often the case with such descriptions, elegance and dignity did not equate to suitability for warfare. The manor was, above all, a place for social gatherings. While it was sometimes said that high society was a battlefield of its own, fought without swords or spears, it clearly could not withstand an actual battle of steel and blood.

Thus, Emil Strauss and his followers had relocated the family’s forces to a more defensible location. They moved to the mighty fortress of Strauss, nestled in the central Damat Mountain of the Delphiad region.

Named after the great first martial king himself, this fortress had served as the Strauss family’s original stronghold, long before they rose to ducal status. It was a bastion worthy of the name, a fortress both powerful and imposing.

Beyond the gates and steep approach, the thick, timeworn walls encircled the mountainside like a crown. A colossal tower overlooked the village and fields below, its massive stone pillars as unyielding as iron.

The entire fortress was a masterpiece of efficient and functional design. Some claimed, with utmost seriousness, that one soldier stationed there could hold off a hundred enemies. And now, that magnificent fortress blazed with the fires of battle.

”Uraaaaah!”

”Climb!”

”Don’t fall back!”

Brave cries to bolster the troops’ morale echoed across the battlefield. Desperate soldiers scaled ladders propped against the towering walls. But of course, the enemy did not sit idle.

Boulders and arrows rained down mercilessly upon the soldiers clambering up the ladders. To counter this, mages soared into the sky. Settling midair with flight spells, they began chanting incantations.

”Fireball!”

”Ice Arrow!”

”Explosion!”

Fireballs burst forth one after another, ice arrows poured down like rain, and explosions erupted across the ramparts. It was devastation sufficient to wipe clean any signs of life. However, the defenders atop Strauss’s walls were no longer human.

The zombies hurled boulders down from the ramparts while groaning. Cries of agony rang out as soldiers’ skulls were crushed beneath the falling stones. Archers fired volley after volley in retaliation, arrows peppering the zombies’ rotting flesh. Naturally, the zombies were unfazed.

On another section of the wall, skeletons armed with bows began loosing arrows. They, too, were inflicting severe casualties among the soldiers, and could not be left unchecked. The mages unleashed their spells upon them from the sky.

The destructive power of the magic was formidable indeed. A merciless gust of scorching wind swept through the ranks of skeletons, scattering them like dust. Against ordinary enemies, display of such an overwhelming force would have brought additional effects. The enemies would have felt fear and faltered, or even retreated.

But the skeletons were different. They merely stepped over the shattered bones of their fallen, filled the gaps in their ranks, and continued to nock arrows to their bows without hesitation.

One of the soldiers, trembling all over, shouted in despair. ”Damn it! How are we supposed to win this? Those bastards don’t even die!”

In an age when the Shadow of Doom had spread across the world, humankind had gradually grown accustomed to battling the walking dead. Yet, this was the first time they had ever laid actual siege against undead.

What’s more, Emil’s Strauss forces were not merely relying on an undead horde. The zombies and skeletons served only as a shield. The real attacks, which required precision and control, were carried out by living humans.

This strategy was so effective that it turned the already impregnable Strauss fortress into an unassailable stronghold. How much blood had been spilled already? At last, the sound of the war horn rang out, signaling retreat.

It seemed the command had finally decided they could no longer afford to sacrifice more troops.

Leading his men away from the battlefield, Sir Gallibert, captain of the second company of the subjugation army, let out a heavy sigh as he gripped his crimson aura-infused sword. ”Another failure today as well.”