Gandalf and I moved back toward the great hall. There was so commotion in front of it, so we went to see. Denethor, with manic eyes, was grabbing Gríma by the collar and shaking him in front of his sons' bodies.
"You said that if I did as you asked, you would protect my family's lives and give the throne of Gondor! Bring my sons back to life right now!!"
"Ugh! This was an accident! Who knew the two of them would charge out like that! Please, let go of this first…"
Gandalf, unable to ignore that, went over and confronted them.
"What did you just say? 'Do as you asked'! Don't tell you fell for Sauron's sweet whispers?! And do you actually believe that's possible? Do you truly not know that all they want is the destruction of humanity?!"
At Gandalf's words, Denethor released his grip and collapsed to the ground.
"What have I… done…"
Denethor, uncharacteristically, seed to be trying to co to his senses. Then Gríma, watching his chance, suddenly drew a dagger from his robes and lunged at Denethor.
Thwack!
Clang!
"Ah!"
Gandalf struck Gríma's arm with his staff, making him drop the dagger, then raised the staff and began brutally beating Gríma.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Aargh!! Stop!!"
Gandalf was showing without reservation that he was a staff-wielding wizard. anwhile, I glanced outside. Originally, Faramir was supposed to return alive, leading to the scene of the great Orc army approaching, but there was still no sign of that.
'Unlike the original, Osgiliath fell quickly too.'
Certainly, many things were different from the original story.
Anyway, Gríma, who seed to have several broken bones from Gandalf's beating, was locked up in the dungeons of Minas Tirith. Gandalf also confiscated the palantír that Denethor had received and stored away, putting it in the subspace bag I had given him.
But Denethor—whether it was the influence of the palantír or the shock of his sons' deaths, I don't know—just sat on the Steward's chair inside the great hall, muttering to himself, doing nothing. I thought he had co to his senses, but he hadn't.
'As expected, Denethor wouldn't actually snap out of it. In the original novel, he was a capable character, but…'
Gandalf saw that too and sighed. "I worry for the future of Gondor. The one who should be preparing for war is in this state…"
A day passed, and the next day ca. I checked briefly with the [Nano Buckle] to see where Frodo was. It showed that Frodo was still climbing the Ephel Dúath.
'Around now, is Gollum starting to sow discord between Frodo and Sam?'
Certainly, Frodo's side had fewer variables, so I thought that if nothing unusual happened, things would go as in the original story.
I ate and went outside. I saw Gandalf walking around, inspecting Minas Tirith's defenses and preparing for war. Gandalf was a famous wizard among the people, and with no objections from above, the soldiers seed to follow his orders well. Besides, the soldiers roughly understood: now that Osgiliath had fallen into enemy hands, war would co.
I was watching that sight when I saw flas shooting up from the direction of Osgiliath and sothing huge flying around. To see what it was, I used the 'telescope' ability of the [White Eye] to check Osgiliath. I saw dragons, similar to Smaug, flying over Osgiliath.
Gandalf must have seen sothing too, because he hurried over to and began asking urgently.
"Did you see that too? A great fla rose from Osgiliath. I fear the Balrog has co."
"No, dragons have co. I counted at least three."
At that, Gandalf looked utterly shocked.
"What???!!! Is that true?!"
"Yes. They're smaller than Smaug, but they are my kin."
At that, Gandalf frowned and rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. That bastard Sauron seed to be pouring out everything here that he should have kept for when Morgoth is released from the Void.
'Is it because of ?'
Gandalf thought for a mont, then said, "This is terrible. Balrogs are dangerous enough, but dragons… First, I need to find out if that Gríma fellow knows anything."
Leaving those words, Gandalf went to the dungeon. He ca back after quite so ti, with blood on his staff, so it seed he hadn't asked nicely. Whether that was because Gríma was too uncooperative or because of the urgency, I couldn't tell.
"You're back. Did you find out anything?"
"He truly knew nothing. His purpose in coming here was to give the palantír to the Steward and goad him into wasting Minas Tirith's forces. In exchange, he was supposed to receive the throne of Rohan."
"Really? There's no way they'd give it to him. He's far too easily fooled."
"Indeed."
Certainly, in the world of The Lord of the Rings, there are many who fall to corruption and many who are easily deceived. I didn't quite understand it. What I asked Sauron before wasn't a joke—I ant it sincerely. What do they plan to do in a world reduced to ashes and stupid Orcs after they win? You might as well just die.
About two days later, the Orc army was seen advancing. Gandalf watched them worriedly. Denethor, having apparently heard from his n, also ca outside and stared at the enemy advance for a long ti.
"Steward, I understand you are grieving the loss of your sons. But surely you want revenge against the enemies."
Gandalf tried desperately to make Denethor co to his senses, but Denethor, as if he had made up his mind, simply ran back into the great hall. Seeing that, Gandalf sighed again.
With Denethor in that state, Gandalf was busy running around, giving various orders to the soldiers to strengthen their defenses, when suddenly a soldier ca and inford him that Denethor was doing sothing strange.
We hurried to the royal tombs where Denethor was. Whether Denethor had finally started to go mad, he had piled up firewood on the central dais of the tombs and was pouring oil over his sons' bodies and his own. I just watched.
"He's finally gone mad."
"Indeed."
Still, Gandalf, perhaps thinking he should at least try to stop him, attempted to persuade him with words.
"This is madness. It's not too late even now. Co to your senses and do your best to defend Minas Tirith."
"Do not stop , Wizard! I will die as the great kings did."
If Faramir or Boromir had been alive as in the original story, he would have tried hard to stop him, but since both were already dead, there was no reason to.
"Light the fire!"
At Denethor's command, the soldier beside him began lighting the wood. Perhaps because it was doused in oil, the fire spread quickly. Then the sons' bodies and Denethor himself caught fire. Whether it was too hot, Denethor suddenly began screaming.
"Kyaaah!! Soone help!"
Unable to bear the heat, Denethor thrashed about trying to extinguish the flas, but fire soaked in oil doesn't go out easily. He suddenly jumped over the wood and began running outside. Whether to find water or because of the pain, I couldn't tell.
We went outside and watched his end. Eventually, engulfed in flas all over his body due to the oil, he ended his madness by leaping from the topmost level of Minas Tirith.
"A waste of ti. I'm going. The enemy is at our doorstep."
Even Gandalf did not lant his death.
Anyway, Gandalf began commanding the soldiers again. I also looked down from the parapet. The Orcs were already encamped before Minas Tirith, preparing to attack. An uncountable number of Orcs were arrayed before Minas Tirith, so many that the ground was invisible. It was truly an enormous number. A rough count showed at least 200,000.
'Goguryeo, which held back a million n…'
Seeing 200,000 here made wonder what the wars of the Three Kingdoms and Goguryeo, where troop numbers exceeded a million, must have been like.
I scanned the enemy camp. I didn't see the dragons yet, but I could see the Balrogs standing behind the Orcs. They were highly visible, flickering with flas and large in size. Flapping their huge wings and wielding fiery whips—though I felt a bit sorry for Gandalf—they certainly looked cool.
'The Balrog in The Lord of the Rings was really well designed.'
The people and soldiers, perhaps seeing Balrogs for the first ti after only hearing of them in legends, were panicking. Gandalf tried hard to calm them down.
'I have no choice about the dragons because of my abilities, but I'll definitely turn the Balrogs into Shadow Soldiers.'
Just then, sothing was launched from the Orc formation by catapult. The soldiers blocked it with their shields and checked—it was the heads of the soldiers who had been defending Osgiliath. This seed to be a strategy to lower the morale of Minas Tirith. It looked incredibly cruel, but this kind of tactic was not only used in the Lord of the Rings world but was also common in ancient history.
After throwing the heads into the city, the Orcs began launching large boulders. Buildings were hit by the incoming boulders and destroyed or collapsed. Of course, Minas Tirith wasn't idle either. Minas Tirith had many catapults on its walls, and the soldiers loaded them with rocks and launched them at the enemy.
I took a position on the top level, took out my greatbow from my inventory, and shot arrows to destroy the Orcs' catapults. At the sa ti, I sniped the trolls pushing siege towers to stop them. The arrows from the greatbow, fired with imnse force, pierced even trolls and embedded themselves in the ground.
Shwoosh! Shwoosh! Shwoosh!
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Kyeek!" "Kwaak!"
Then the Nazgûl began flying in on fell beasts to attack from the air. To , they looked like excellent prey.
"You bastards, you're perfect targets."
Pssh! Pssh!
Pak! Pak!
"Kyeek!" "Kyek!"
When two fell beasts were hit by my arrows and crashed down into the Orcs' position, the Nazgûl, unable to do anything, simply retreated. Unlike in the original story, the Nazgûl failed to accomplish much and only showed themselves briefly.
"What a sha. I wish they'd fought more… it was fun, like hunting."
I began destroying trolls and catapults again. Then, for siege towers that ca too close, I created explosive arrows using my [Energy Bomb] ability and fired them.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The explosive arrows I fired caused multiple explosions, blowing away the upper parts of the siege towers and completely disabling them. Because Gandalf had been busily preparing the soldiers for several days, they were responding systematically and well.
Thus far, apart from the damage caused by catapults, they hadn't lost too many soldiers. Moreover, the walls of Minas Tirith were built very solidly—while catapults could destroy buildings, the walls themselves did not easily collapse.
The Orcs, growing frustrated, seed to decide to target the gate even at the cost of greater losses, so their forces concentrated toward the gate. Of course, the gate of Minas Tirith was also built extrely sturdy and wouldn't break easily, but if it took continuous damage, it might not hold. Gandalf hurriedly directed the soldiers, loosing arrows and throwing down stones and boulders from broken buildings to defend.
"Protect the gate! Those with free hands, bring rocks!"
After about three hours, the sun slowly set and it grew dark. On the Orc side, there were no catapults or siege engines left that were functioning properly, and even walking trolls were hard to see. Beneath the wall, the bodies of Orcs who had died trying to approach recklessly were piled high. The gate was still holding strong.
But in the distance, I saw trolls pushing a giant wolf-shaped battering ram. I tried to shoot and kill the trolls imdiately, but the Orcs had plastered multiple layers of tal shields over it, and had even piled up their own dead to block my arrows.
"These bastards are doing sothing cute."
I test-fired an arrow, but because of the distance and the shields and bodies, it couldn't penetrate all the way to the trolls. So I charged energy into an explosive arrow and began shooting.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The explosive arrows blasted away the layered shields and bodies, and began to gradually destroy the battering ram. Deciding it was no longer possible, the trolls tried to abandon the ram and flee. I imdiately sniped and killed the trolls. When those who moved first to run away died, the remaining trolls couldn't even flee—they crouched behind the collapsing ram and hid.
"This is the terror of sniping."
I made more explosive arrows and gleefully blew up the battering ram. Because of the explosive force, the nearby Orcs couldn't do anything either.
Boom!
Crash! Thud!
Eventually, the battering ram was hit several more tis, the pillars bearing its weight were destroyed, and it lost all function. I then shot and killed the trolls that had been hiding behind it.
Thwack! Thwack!
"Kraak!" "Kueok!"
'This one was definitely fun.'
It was genuinely enjoyable, feeling like I was taking down a giant battering ram as if playing a ga.
Ti passed, and with no progress in the siege, the Orcs were now seen running toward the gate carrying shields and small barrels. Not just one, but many at the sa ti. Thinking they might be bombs like at Helm's Deep, I sniped one—it didn't explode, but a strange black liquid poured out. It looked like oil.
They were probably trying to burn the gate. Since the gate was made of wood, it was inevitably vulnerable to fire. I frantically sniped the Orcs carrying the barrels, but there were too many, and even if I killed one, another Orc nearby would pick up the barrel and keep running, so it was pointless.
Reviews
All reviews (0)