"Your Majesty!" Grand Duke Andrei, despite wearing a red robe and black armor underneath, was covered in blood from killing, with many pieces of flesh and internal organs on his cloak.
However, neither of them felt revulsion or disgust at this. It was simply a matter of habit. When Artoria killed one person, she would feel guilt; when she killed ten, she would feel like vomiting; when she killed a hundred, she would feel self-loathing. But when she killed a thousand, she would start to feel numb, and when she killed ten thousand, she would feel that humans were, after all, nothing special.
Otherwise, why say that killing one is a crime, slaughtering ten thousand is a fiend, but slaughtering nine million makes one a hero among heroes!
Only now, it was not nine million, but rather more than ninety thousand. Artoria held her longsword high, and in the darkness, the sword emitted a brilliant light. This was not some special ability, but the powerful force of victory sung by ten thousand people and entrusted by thousands upon thousands of Knights. This power would accompany Artoria from the moment she drew her sword until the last moment of her life. This was the privilege of a King, the Goddess of Victory.
In fact, in the near future, Artoria's sword and Artoria's scabbard, as a matched pair of weapons, would be sung by all people. Of course, they wouldn't know what Light Restoration Magic was, nor what a Magic Constant Matrix was. All they knew was the undefeated King who brought them endless victory and endless glory, who would never be injured and would never die. She, like a god, led them through battle after battle, achieving peak after peak. After Kailar's appearance, they would never know that they would come to resent this incredibly proud King who guided them on the right path, and fear "God."
And so, betrayal.
Shameless betrayal.
You can never happen again. Here, you can only be my secret.
Kailar stood on the giant rock, looking down towards Red Leaf Ridge. There was thick smoke, red light illuminated the sky, shouts of battle echoed all day, and horses neighed. Even from here, the golden light was clearly visible.
"Go, Lily, lead them to victory, lead them into a golden age with your victorious radiance." Kailar suddenly burst into laughter, a wild, unrestrained laugh like a madman. His meticulously swept-back silver hair was now disheveled and flowing, yet it carried an air of elegant nonchalance.
Kailar was like a mad scholar, but not for any particular reason, but because he had already seen the retreating Barbarians!
The Barbarians were routed!
Excellent! The plan was almost entirely proceeding according to his steps. Like a dance, the music could no longer stop Kailar's feet. Kailar himself was leading the Barbarians, stepping to the rhythm, slowly towards death.
"The timing is perfect. Next... it's up to you, Joan of Arc!" Kailar smiled, his eyes half-closed, as he projected his photons into the harbor.
At this moment, the Barbarians below Red Leaf Ridge had completely collapsed.
The stampede caused by the sheer number of people turned the outer city of Red Leaf Ridge into ruins. Many people directly smashed through walls trying to escape, only to be pushed down, trampled, and cut down by those behind them. That night, the people gathered below Red Leaf Ridge numbered a full 220,000, and a continuous stream of routed troops was still arriving. However, a full 80,000 people died below Red Leaf Ridge!
Of these, the Knights beheaded no more than 40,000, while the remaining 40,000 died from mutual trampling and slaughter.
Leaving aside the remaining Barbarians who were like headless flies, running around senselessly, there were about 100,000 Barbarians slowly gathering and retreating towards the harbor. However, at this point, all their food was left behind, and they were in a state of panic and fear, like startled birds, without any thought of fighting again.
Since it was a retreat, Inglish had no idea how many enemies there were, or how many had broken through his main camp.
He should be glad he wasn't in ancient China, where there were so many fierce heroes. How many heroes dared to directly attack the enemy's main camp with just three hundred iron cavalry? The most famous was Huo Qubing, but counting forwards and backwards, there were countless others.
Kailar still used a cautious method, having Artoria first defeat 100,000 people before launching a full-scale assault. Otherwise, in a face-to-face charge, the Camelot Knights, despite their numbers, would still lose to the Barbarians. Kailar simply didn't want to engage in a head-on Knight duel with the enemy.
The essence of a Knight duel is: the opponent must also be a Knight!
There's nothing to discuss with Barbarians! This was something the entire continent knew, and even the Knights had no objections.
At this time, the Barbarians began to slowly gather towards the harbor. Their thoughts were the same: those who had been through two battles wanted to go home; those who had been terrified by Camelot's surprise attack last night, and those who had been under siege for a month and a half, wanted to go home even more. Facing such a morale, even Inglish had no choice but to follow the general trend and begin to retreat.
However, the continuous line of ships blocked the harbor. Nearly ten thousand ships, all large keel ships, were needed to transport 500,000 people. They were very clumsy. In China during the Three Kingdoms period, there was a type of ramming ship called a 'Zou Ke' specifically designed with iron plating to ram large ships, creating large holes and sinking them. These ships would be easy prey for a Zou Ke in China.
But here, they had a great advantage. These large ships were all thick-skinned, had a large carrying capacity, and a deep draft. They were something the Barbarians were deeply proud of, almost invincible on this sea except for the Roman ships.
Even so, for some reason, Inglish still felt a sense of unease. His two thousand iron-clad berserkers, in an attempt to hold back the chaotic crowds, were reduced to only twelve hundred, and the remaining three thousand eight hundred-plus (out of a full five thousand) were all unaccounted for.
Camelot was too unpredictable. Inglish couldn't help but be greatly wary of them. Whether it was the red-robed Valkyrie on the castle who blocked their attacks or the leader who led the Knights in their night raid, both were outstanding individuals, which made him wary.
His intuition was correct, because suddenly, almost simultaneously, over a thousand ships caught fire, followed by a chorus of desperate screams, and finally, a woman leading five thousand Knights jumped from the burning ships to appear before the one hundred thousand Barbarians.
She was seen holding a snow-white longsword, her hair in a single large braid, wearing only light armor. Her heroic aura, despite being smudged with smoke, was unmistakable. She raised her longsword high, and the Knights behind her all roared. In an instant, the Barbarians, who had just endured a long, hungry, and exhausting escape and had no morale whatsoever, also let out a collective shout, completely disregarding their numerical superiority, and simply turned their heads, scattering like headless flies...