Chapter 183. The Observer (6)
It is said that humanity's exploration of space originated from pure military competition.
It was the Cold War era.
A ti when daily life was steeped in tense suspense.
The two factions and the two nations that ford their core competed in every aspect.
In such a situation, a chunk of machinery was born that could look down on one's own country from high up in the sky, where no bullet or missile could reach, and shoot communication signals.
Who could tolerate this?
Naturally, both sides scrambled to launch better-performing satellites, that is, satellites with stable orbits, long lifespans, high-resolution caras, and even defensive—at least according to the claims of the respective countries—weaponry.
It is said that at one ti, a weapon that dropped a huge iron rod from the sky was even conceived.
Although it was reportedly scrapped due to efficiency issues, a person like would never know its true end.
Anyway, before a century had passed, Earth's orbit was dotted with countless artificial satellites.
Thus, the great powers were able to look down upon the lands of their enemies.
The interesting thing is that despite having a view that literally 'overlooked the whole land,' traditional espionage did not diminish at all.
This phenonon was repeated once again even after the Cold War ended and the digital age began.
Despite already operating various reconnaissance satellites and intelligence personnel at astronomical costs, countries around the world scrambled to plant agents directly in rival nations to obtain photos, videos, or at the very least, testimonies.
In fact, many argue that the cost itself has increased much more as the ans, thods, and tools have increased and integrated.
The reason for this may be that underground facilities cannot be seen from the sky, but I think it is a more fundantal problem.
‘The feeling is different.’
It's literally that.
Anyone who has fought on the battlefield will understand.
No matter how high-resolution a photo is taken by a satellite, it's a photo taken from above.
No matter how much information is collected digitally, it's just a combination of 0s and 1s.
It's different from seeing it in person.
Sotis, a single video shot up close, or a single testimony from an agent who witnessed it firsthand, is more effective than a report of hundreds of pages.
The information about the Outer Gods, Sacred Relics, and ancient empires is the sa.
Over the past year, I have collected and organized a vast amount of data through Bart and Brol.
The result of mobilizing all legends, folklore, ancient books, and records could be condensed into a few concise pieces of information.
With that information alone, I could start a fight.
I have also prepared more than ten operational plans.
However, this is a battlefield.
In the end, there is no information as accurate as what is seen with one's own eyes.
Even if the process of obtaining that information is sowhat risky and cumberso, it is much less so than the dangers on the battlefield.
The reason I ca here in person is to confirm that information with my own eyes.
Well, since it has co to this, I should say with hundreds of pairs of eyes rather than two.
“All 266 reconnaissance skeleton vultures are flying normally. 0 returned. 0 lost.”
Anyway, our skeleton vulture drone swarm and its pilot are doing well.
While the Eastern Empire's envoy and escort were rushing towards the Lur Legion, surprisingly, not a single skeleton vulture was shot down.
Well, honestly, it should be seen as the enemy's tolerance rather than good piloting.
Should I call it confidence?
It must have been a 'look if you want to' attitude.
As in, what can a re vampire do even if they see it.
“I forgot to ntion, we also received an envoy. Ah, not that kind of envoy. A ssenger ca to my daughter.”
Of course, it seems the Eastern Empire side is also considering recruitnt.
It is a rational judgnt.
Their target is the Empire, and on the surface, the Vampire Archduchy and the Empire are enemy nations.
It is said that there was indeed a recruitnt attempt.
“That's right. We've t before. I'm also part of the Church, after all. They asked if I had any intention of working with them again like a hundred years ago, now that the masters of the Sacred Relics have been resurrected.”
“Did you answer?”
“Well, I said I'd think about it. The truth is, the answer is no.”
“No?”
Hebrun nodded her head.
“Yeah. I skirted the issue because I thought they'd invade if I refused outright. I did lend them so of my power about 100 years ago when Dad was asleep, but I think I've paid that debt in full.”
“I see.”
“I told you before, right? When Your Majesty joined the Church. Oh, right. I rember that day. I went to all the trouble of arranging it, and what did you say? Was it that you had no intention of showing your face to those yellow-skinned guys from the East?”
“……”
“That's when you started wearing that damn mask. Do you know how dumbfounded I was back then? Well, thinking about it now, I guess it was to avoid revealing Your Majesty's true identity.”
It seems there was a secret history I was unaware of.
Anyway, Tribus.
He's showing the qualities of an original psychopath.
To think he didn't hesitate to make racist remarks even when his opponent was the Church, and a faction from the East that was practically the main body at that.
Anyway, I obtained one piece of information.
The Church does not know Tribus' face.
“And from the looks of it, it seems you and that Eastern Emperor guy are fighting over the Sacred Relics. Right?”
I nodded my head.
Co to think of it, I hadn't told them the details.
To be precise, it's closer to say I couldn't.
The last ti I contacted them, I didn't have the sa knowledge about the Sacred Relics or the Outer Gods as I do now.
Once again, my thanks to Bart and Brol, and to the overwhelming volu of ancient books and the accumulated knowledge of the previous emperors.
Anyway, it's about the point where a clash is expected.
The envoy and the escort stopped at a point about a hundred ters from the front line of the Lur Legion.
There's no particular reaction from the Lur Legion side.
Hebrun tilted her head.
“Don't they have any information about that envoy? That's strange. I heard a good number of the dwarf refugees went south…”
“Unlike the dwarves, they have a way to deal with it.”
“A way to deal with it…?”
I didn't answer.
They'll see soon enough.
That's what I ca here to confirm.
I focused my consciousness.
They are doing sothing.
It's not sothing I know by sight.
My sixth sense, which has warned of countless crises, is telling , not the simple visual information transmitted from dozens of kiloters away.
A sixth sense that I hadn't realized was getting stronger as I collected the Sacred Relics one by one, perhaps originating from the unknown source of my character.
Before long, the Duke shouted like a scream.
“Th-that… Y-Your Majesty!”
In the middle of the battlefield.
The envoy and the escort had disappeared.
It happened in an instant that neither I, nor the Princess of Blood, nor the level 10 Vampire Duke noticed.
And the next mont.
“……Huh?”
Where they had been just a mont ago, a black sphere had suddenly appeared.
The very sa round space that had swallowed the dwarves of the Burning Anvil Hold.
Now I know its identity.
“It's an egg.”
An altar for human sacrifice offered to the Outer God, and an egg that hatches by breaking its shell.
I have investigated it.
In the testimonies of the dwarves, in the historical records about the Sacred Relics, in ancient folklore and legends, and above all, in the nightmares that I believe to be premonitions.
‘The Sacred Relic of the Dog that Swallows the Moon.’
Its ability is probably the Advent itself.
It has appeared on most battlefields.
It is also the Outer God that showed particularly weak combat power compared to other Outer Gods.
Well, I wonder if discussing combat power is aningful at the point where it tore apart holds and paradises.
Anyway, its advent begins from an egg made by offering a living sacrifice.
The egg is already tearing.
Like a soft mbrane rather than a hard shell.
Soon, countless tentacles pierced through the shell, and it revealed its form.
It's just like the dwarves' testimonies and the content of my dreams.
A dog.
A dog the size of a four-story building.
It lifted its head towards the sky and opened its snout.
And.
-----.
The visions in my head all went out at once, and the information from the battlefield went completely dark.
***
Not long before I fell into this world, I saw news that the Russia-Ukraine war, which had been going on for years, was coming to an end.
At first, it was a war reminiscent of David and Goliath, but as the war dragged on, as is often the case, I rember it being filled with nurous rumors and speculations.
However, there was one fact that experts of any opinion agreed on.
The protagonist of this war was the drone.
And in this war, where drones made their full-scale appearance on the stage of the battlefield, the soldiers who were there often said in unison.
That surprisingly, the quality or technology of the drone itself is not that important.
What's important is who controls the drone.
“Restored… 37 are in flight.”
In that sense, the Vampire Duke is the best pilot.
Ten minutes after the connection to all the skeleton vultures was severed by the roar of the 'Dog that Swallows the Moon.'
He quickly redeployed the spell, managed to salvage dozens of surviving skeleton vultures and retreat to a safe location, and succeeded in resuming the reconnaissance mission.
He turned what could have ended as a half-baked reconnaissance into sothing more.
Although he had to drop them at a considerable distance to escape the range of the roar, what's the big deal about that.
“Can you see? Even to , both armies just look like sared paint. Of course, since they've summoned such a being, the fate of the traitor legion is already sealed…”
“Let's get a little closer.”
It is indeed hard to see.
Even the 'Dog that Swallows the Moon' looks as small as a grain of rice.
But that's okay.
The emperor's cheat-like trait works well enough even from a long distance.
Through a few skeleton vultures that cautiously approached a little closer and [Genius that Overlooks the Battlefield], I was able to quickly grasp the war situation.
The two armies had entered into a full-scale engagent.
Arrows, bullets, spells, and various projectiles were flying.
Spears and swords were butchering bodies that were either alive or had died once before.
However, contrary to the Duke's expectations, the Lur Legion was holding on.
No, after a while, they even began to counterattack.
That's right.
That's what I wanted to see.
“Another one of those…?”
Right in the center where the forces of the two empires clashed.
Another being descended upon the ocher-colored earth.
“...A human? Is it a person?”
It was in the form of a giant human.
With eight arms and eight legs.
It was sitting cross-legged in all directions.
It also floated in the air as if there were no gravity.
Appearing suddenly in the midst of the Lur Legion's formation, it began to slowly fly towards the Eastern Empire's formation in the air.
The Dog that Swallows the Moon noticed it and charged.
Then, the eight hands that had been clenched into fists opened.
On each of those palms, eight eyes glinted.
- ■■■
- ■■■
- ■■■
It was a sound I knew.
The space of the Outer Gods.
The transmission of aning I had heard in that vast universe, like the belly of a dark beast.
Although only visual information should be transmitted through the skeleton vultures, the sound pierced not my eardrums but my mind, crossing dozens of kiloters.
The magic circle flickered for a mont, and the connection to a third of the remaining skeleton vultures was severed.
“Wh-what…”
Thanks to the Vampire Duke who urgently readjusted the spell and secured the vision, the subsequent war situation was as follows.
The sixty-four eyeballs continued to emit their own condensations of aning, as if they were spells.
Each ti, light, fire, thunder, and wind of imasurable power raged in the air.
The dog that was summoned first tried to block it by swinging its tentacles, but it was not enough.
It barely managed to block the direct hits aid at the main body of the Eastern Empire, but it was clearly being pushed back.
Of course, just the clash of the two Outer Gods alone resulted in nearly thousands of deaths from being trampled or having their bodies twisted.
And before long, one more being descended.
“That looks like a battlefield of the gods.”
Shortly after the third being descended and all connections were severed, the Duke opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
“Was the battlefield where Your Majesty fought four thousand years ago, a place like that?”
It was.
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