Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 385



Only Noblemtl

Episode 385. Breakwater Against Chaos (4)

Tukhalin squinted his eyes and stared at the barrier blocking him.

Fortifications, like weapons, are constantly being improved and evolved, so modern front-line fortresses like Belslav are equipped with all sorts of wicked things like moats, gun embrasures, bulwarks, turrets, and more.

However, Fort Gertrude was more like a breakwater than a castle, as its nickname suggests.

The walls were low, old and shabby in places, and even the bastions were not properly installed. It was natural that a fortress located in a remote area for a thousand years had been neglected without much development.

To Tukhalin, who was a craftsman before becoming a warrior and also an architect as a dwarf, this poor thing was too shabby to be called a fortress. That is why he could not help but be angry that this ‘Gertrude Stone Wall’ dared to block him.

“I can’t stand it.”

“You’ll have to endure it.”

Next to him, Lycanthrope Warrior Commander Raulrock teased him.

Tukhalin felt the urge to bash his head in with a hammer, but decided to save Raoulok’s head for the Gertrude Stone Wall.

And he was right.

“What the hell… … is that terrain?”

The reason why Fort Gertrude was able to fulfill its role of repelling the monsters of the outer world without being maintained for so long was because of its exquisite location.

Fort Gertrude was built on a huge hill, with a slope of about 45 degrees. It stretched from north to southeast all the way to the horizon. Some great tectonic movement had lifted the land to the east, creating a huge step.

Fort Gertrude was built on a relatively ‘gentle’ slope among the large steps, in a way that allowed for the concentration of defense. However, if you were to go around to another place, a hill, or rather a cliff, with a slope of over 60 or 70 degrees, awaited you a hundred meters away.

An ordinary human being would not be able to stand still even at a 45 degree incline.

“The original purpose of a fortress was to secure a certain location and show off. But it’s not like you can’t climb up if you wear a wolf skin. What can we do about it in the middle of the night?”

“The undead have sharp night vision. It’s no use moving around at night. They can’t sleep either. That way, you’ll be the only ones isolated. Let’s just proceed as we discussed with the Grail Knight.”

I thought about taking a detour, but according to the map Isaac had drawn, the vast geographical gap was over a hundred kilometers. Even if I had agreed to take a detour from the beginning, I couldn’t take a detour alone since I had decided to meet up with the other members of the Dawn Army here.

“We are the world’s crucible cult. We can’t afford to be held back by those damn stone walls. Now that we’ve come to this, let’s show them what a siege is.”

Tukhalin took out the luggage he had brought and began preparing for the siege.

Secret crystals of knowledge that the world’s forge cult had not revealed for hundreds of years began to appear. As the dark lumps of metal were mixed and combined, a sleek, gigantic form soon emerged.

It was a massive cannon.

This was the first time that they, who had fought only with their own bodies after joining the Dawn Army, showed their ‘sincerity’.

“Let’s make a rag before the others come.”

***

Unfortunately, Tukhalin’s goal was only half successful.

They succeeded in reducing the walls of Fort Gertrude to rags. Some of the walls had collapsed, and the ground had collapsed, flowing down to the floor where Tukhalin was. However, the main body of Fort Gertrude was not the walls, but the hill itself.

If we can’t do anything about those natural obstacles, it’s meaningless.

“Well, that’s what happened.”

Tukhalin tried to act calm and reported to Isaac, who had arrived without him noticing. He had been trying to attack the world’s furnace by revealing its hidden power, but Isaac ended up arriving first.

But of course, Isaac was neither disappointed nor laughed.

“No, this is enough. I didn’t think Fort Gertrude would fall so easily. The Ellir Army hasn’t even arrived yet. Above all, isn’t it because Tukhalin’s strength is lacking?”

“Hmm. Actually, we almost conquered it with just our own strength… … .”

It was a steep hill that ordinary people would have difficulty standing on, but it was a distance that the lycanthrope warriors could run up in an instant. As soon as Tukhalin’s cannons shattered the wall, the lycanthrope warriors led by Raulok howled and rushed through in one breath.

However, the number of warriors was too small compared to the undead waiting inside the walls.

“Raullock said that we could attack it by destroying more of the walls and increasing the number of entry points… … .”

Tukhalin gritted his teeth and glared at Fort Gertrude.

The huge steps, which had previously been yellowish in color like the desert, had changed to a whitish grayish white.

Isaac realized what the trace was.

“Pale has appeared.”

“Yes. Suddenly, a flock of beggar-like birds swarmed the sky and froze the cliff. I saw the lycanthrope warriors slipping helplessly and ordered them to just fall back.”

Pale didn’t seem to be able to create areas of death like before. However, she seemed to have decided to focus her efforts on strengthening the fortress rather than her own strength, as she even made the walls that Tukhalin had destroyed into ice, stone, and sand.

Just like reinforced concrete, ordinary ice can be made much stronger by mixing various ingredients into it.

The steep slope and the cold power she wields combine to create an even more impregnable fortress.

‘Well, that’s originally Pale’s long-term strength.’

Pale’s power to manipulate cold is remarkable, but it is merely a tool for her to create ‘art’.

The foundation that made her a great angel, the part where her genius shines, lies in her creative side, like Wintermaw. Now, she has only used Fort Gertrude as her canvas.

“Have you tried the holy relic I gave you?”

“I was thinking about that anyway.”

Tukhalin grimaced as if his pride was hurt just by saying that fact out loud.

“I tried to do as much as I could with the power of our church. No matter how cold the corpses are, wouldn’t the heat of the furnace be worse than those guys?”

In the end, it means that he couldn’t use it because of his pride. Still, it wasn’t a bad thing for Isaac, since he succeeded in drawing out the power that the world’s furnace had been tightly hiding.

Coincidentally, this siege battle was a showdown between a furnace craftsman protected by the Angel of Absolute Zero and the Angel of Absolute Zero’s creations.

Isaac decided to start by judging Tukhalin’s creations.

“May I first examine the relics of the World Furnace Sect that you used in the siege?”

“Well, let’s do that.”

***

Tukhalin guided them towards the cannon made by the World’s Furnace Cult. When he removed the cloth that had been covering it to prevent it from being seen, a lump of iron in the shape of a wolf with its mouth wide open, the size of a grown man, appeared.

Isaac’s thoughts paused for a moment, but he soon realized that this was a cannon from the Church of the World’s Furnace.

Actually, as soon as I saw the cannon, I felt a little rude.

‘It’s smaller than the one Olkan discipline used.’

Of course, I didn’t show it because I knew that if I made a comparative statement, Tukhalin’s racist hate speech would pour out like a waterfall. Size didn’t matter in the first place. The cannons used by the Olkan discipline were heavy and primitive, carried around with the barrel and fixed on the ground to fire.

However, this cannon was small and light enough for Tukhalin to carry around without difficulty throughout the expedition. Even so, it was only as big as an average adult. And the cannons used by the orcs were a deteriorated version of the knowledge stolen from the world’s furnace cult. In the meantime, the world’s furnace cult had refined and improved the design of the cannon.

Isaac examined the cannon for a moment and then spoke tentatively.

“It’s not cast or forged, but punched?”

A look of shock appeared on Tukhalin’s face.

“Have you ever been to a conversation room?”

Usually, cannons of this era were either forged, made by bending a plate to make a barrel, or cast, made by pouring molten metal into a mold. The former was difficult to use in the military because it was difficult to make a standardized standard, and the latter was the method used by the orcs.

The cannons used by the Olkan Discipline were cast. If bronze was used as the material, they would be tougher and more stable, but the Orcs, who did not spare their lives thanks to reincarnation, used iron, which was more common and easier to handle. More importantly, the design itself, stolen from the world’s furnace cult, also used iron.

But the world’s sect of the furnace used a much more advanced method, the perforation method. They used a perforator to penetrate solid iron of much purer and stronger metal to create a much lighter, much stronger, and much more reliable cannon.

“I just know a little bit.”

I was really just pretending to know a little bit about the game and trivia. If I was going to give advice to Tukhalin, I couldn’t seem like I was completely ignorant.

Isaac pretended to know everything and talked about the gun carriage, which balanced the cannon and controlled recoil, and the rifling inside.

Of course, Tukhalin would have quickly seen through this superficial knowledge. However, Tukhalin seemed to be dazzled by the fact that Isaac had even a shred of this secret knowledge.

“I thought I knew you well, but the more I know, the less I know. Where on earth did you learn such knowledge? This is a state-of-the-art relic that even Wolsten has never heard of.”

Here the unfortunate differences between the Olkan discipline and the world’s crucible sects are revealed.

To the Olkan Discipline, knowledge is merely a practical tool of war. But to the world’s crucible cult, it is a precious gift and a wisdom that must be hidden. In fact, this cannon, while faithfully performing its function as a cannon, is closer to a beautiful work of art.

“I just happened to find out. More importantly, Tukhalin, this cannon is faultless, but… … may I give you some advice?”

“advice?”

“Actually, I have had many concerns while looking at the crude and inferior products created by the Olkan Discipline. I would like to talk about some ‘improvements’ to this sacred object.”

The unfortunate thing about the world’s melting pot sects is that they do not like to mix with other faiths and do not like to share knowledge. However, progress happens when they mix and collide. And Isaac came from a world where countless pieces of knowledge were constantly colliding and mixing.

He already had several ideas for strengthening Tukhalin’s cannons several steps beyond what they were now.

Tukhalin thought for a moment.

A different faith, and a paladin who wasn’t even a technician, giving advice? Anyone else would have hit his head with a hammer and told him not to be ridiculous, but Isaac showed that he was not ignorant at least.

And one more powerful motive drove Tukhalin.

The values ​​pursued by the World’s Furnace Church are change and progress.

The more you knock, the harder it becomes, and the more it melts, the more naturally it blends. The desire to improve and develop further fueled Tukhalin.

“Okay. Let’s talk about it.”

***

One side of Fort Gertrude.

In the innermost part of the building, which was poor but could be called a fortress, a pure white pile of clothes was piled up. The cold air around it froze and the frost on the walls and floor made it look like snow, but it was all the bones of birds.

The pale angel was barely able to pull himself together in the stillness and silence.

Undead do not need sleep. However, the Pale, who suffered spiritual wounds, entered a kind of sleep-like state in which they tried to restore some of their torn souls.

‘Isaac… … .’

But her rest was not easy. When she tried to fall asleep, pain and anger would come to her. Every time Pale felt a faint anger, the walls would crack in the cold.

‘What did that monster do?’