I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 185 [8k] The Battle of Chokepoint Peak (Final)

"Wow!"

In the dense rain, in the rear of the Throat Peak Imperial forces, in an area where no troops were deployed.

As an inconspicuous metal pillar suddenly trembled, it seemed to be activated, and a transparent barrier suddenly spread outward from the pillar. Then, as the air twisted, countless figures appeared in the open area under the flashing light.

"despair!"

In the center of the formation, Roxie, dressed in a gray-green camouflage combat uniform, glanced around but couldn't help but frown slightly. He neither gave the soldiers the next marching order nor cast a spiritual spell to buff his own soldiers. Instead, he inexplicably fell into deep thought.

"General, what's wrong?"

Seeing Roxie lost in thought, Orion, who had just deactivated the Phase Teleport spell, couldn't help but feel a hint of doubt in his eyes.

“…Orion, don’t you think this place seems too empty?”

Meeting Orian's surprised gaze, Roxie's golden eyebrows had inexplicably furrowed, and strange golden eyes had appeared. After scanning the surrounding environment, which appeared particularly empty and gloomy in the rain, the initial excitement in his eyes had vanished, replaced by an unprecedented solemnity.
"Just now, I used a spell to sense things within a ten-kilometer radius, but I didn't detect any enemy presence within that range."

"Even if this location is far behind the enemy's front-line troops, it is still too illogical."

Roxie spoke to himself, his golden eyebrows almost twisted into ropes.

From the commander's perspective, the current situation can clearly be described as abnormal.

After all, a battle involving more than 10 participants has already transcended the scope of a small-scale battle.

Even if all the troops responsible for the battle have been deployed, at least corresponding supply troops and transport routes should be set up on the rear front.

Although John Maslow's magic soldiers could fly, and the anti-magic devices on their side limited the effectiveness of explosive magic, the magic soldiers were unable to inflict effective damage on their side.

But it's impossible for the enemy to send a thousand magic soldiers to transport supplies to the front lines.

Therefore, the enemy would need to set up supply lines in the rear no matter what.

However, in the ten-kilometer radius of her current location, she did not sense the presence of a single Imperial soldier, which was clearly abnormal.

So, I've fallen into their trap?

Orion's information and the effects of his spells have always been top secret in the kingdom. There are probably no more than ten people, including myself, who truly know the specific distance and effects of phase teleportation.

Furthermore, the others are all high-ranking officials in the Kingdom of Victoria, and it is impossible for them to voluntarily disclose relevant information.

John Maslow had no reason to know this and use it to set a trap for himself!

Am I overthinking things?
"..."

The more Roxie thought about it, the more puzzled he became, and his thin face grew increasingly bewildered.

But after thinking for a while, he realized that the possibility of John Maslow knowing the specific information about the Orion spell was completely zero, let alone setting up a trap here to ambush him in advance.

Roxie believed that John Maslow most likely used the 64 Black Hawk Special Forces members to conceal the supply unit's presence through illusionary magic, which is why his magic did not detect them.

After all, only this explanation can clarify the current situation.

As for the possibility that the other party had prior knowledge and set a trap in advance...

"Phew, maybe I'm overthinking it."

Shaking his head, dismissing the absurd idea, Roxie's expression returned to its usual calm. He then turned his gaze to the main battlefield, the key to victory, visible through the rain, a sharp killing intent flashing in his eyes.
"Everyone, prepare to advance. Target... hmm?"

However, before Roxie could finish giving the order to advance and unleash the Spirit Mind Technique to attempt to break through the enemy lines with unprecedented force, catching them off guard, Roxie led his troops to continuously breach the enemy's defenses.

The next second, several familiar, deep red magical lights blooming in the sky from directly in front of her instantly caught her attention.

Are the Empire's magic soldiers using explosive magic in front?
But there don't seem to be any of our troops at the location where the enemy detonated the explosives, do you?
What is this...

Looking at this inexplicable scene, Roxie was filled with doubt and confusion. However, just as she was pondering what John Maslow's purpose was in ordering the explosions of locations where it was impossible for their own troops to exist, she realized that...

Suddenly, in the distance, they glimpsed a large flock of birds that seemed to sense an extremely dangerous presence rapidly approaching from the jungle. Instinctively, they began to flap their wings and fly away from the jungle in the pouring rain, and the ground began to tremble inexplicably.

This is……

At this moment, seemingly finally understanding what kind of attack they were about to face, Roxie's pupils constricted to the extreme.

While feeling disbelief, I was even more horrified.

At this moment, she had no time to think about how John Maslow had learned about Orion's phase teleportation technique and deliberately set up an ambush at this location, completing the ambush against her in an almost impossible way.

Realizing the impending crisis, she immediately and without hesitation used her spiritual power to cover all the guards. Amidst the soldiers' puzzled gazes, she forcibly manipulated them to quickly retreat in the opposite direction from the dangerous aura that made even her scalp tingle.

At the same time, he sternly ordered Orion, whose expression had also changed drastically:
"Orion, use magic to create a large-scale barrier, and be quick!"

"Yes, General!"

They also sensed the enormous number of beings, including one that even Orion himself felt a strong and inexplicable threat from.

Realizing something was terribly wrong, he immediately took a deep breath, his cold sweat already mixed with rain. Without hesitation, he stopped retreating with the troops and instead slammed his right hand on the ground.

"Buzz!"

As a massive azure magic circle rapidly spread outward from his palm, the originally unremarkable magic circle began to radiate a dazzling blue light under the infusion of a large amount of magic power.

Then, a large amount of cold air appeared out of nowhere, and then froze the ground in front of them at an astonishing speed, and began to grow and rise on its own.

Almost instantly, a massive ice wall, ten meters thick, four hundred meters wide, and at least six meters high, was created behind the troops.

Through the numerous complex magical circuits covering the surface of this massive ice wall, and the terrifying aura it constantly emanates.

All of this is enough to conclude that even if a super-level magical beast were to charge at it, it would probably be difficult to break through it in a short time.

After expending magic to create this ice wall, even though Orion's own magic power far exceeded the level that an ordinary super-ranked mage should have.

However, because he had already expended a lot of energy using the Phase Teleportation spell, Orion's expression began to look rather unpleasant.

However, he suppressed the discomfort caused by the depletion of his magical energy and quickly caught up with Roxie, who was leading his troops in an attempt to escape the monster horde attack. At the same time, he solemnly reminded her:

"General, something is wrong. The enemy commander seems to have anticipated our arrival here. There may be a traitor within our ranks. My advice is to retreat immediately!"

"Retreat? No, it's too early!"

Upon hearing Orion's suggestion to retreat, Roxie rejected it without hesitation, and a long-forgotten feeling of annoyance welled up in his heart.

Although she still doesn't know exactly how John Maslow managed to carry out this targeted ambush, if he only wanted to lure a monster horde to attack her, she was willing to give up her plan to break through.

Her response was that the other person's idea was rather naive!

"If we can avoid the attack range of that monster horde behind us, as long as we can avoid it, then we will..."

"boom!"

However, before Roxie could finish muttering to herself, the next second, to her disbelief, the same hellish light reappeared in the distance directly ahead of where she was leading her troops in their retreat.

Then, after that terrifying explosion, with an incredulous expression on Roxie's face and a sense that she herself refused to believe, a massive horde of monsters, no weaker than what she had previously sensed, surged straight toward their location.

Another Warcraft wave?

And it happens to correspond to the direction of our evacuation?
How can this be?

At this moment, a rare feeling of horror arose in Roxie's heart. Although she quickly suppressed this feeling with her proud rationality, she felt her fists clenched tightly because of humiliation, and her hair roots starting to stand up uncontrollably.

At this moment, she was still clearly aware that she had always regarded John Maslow as one of her own, or even as prey.

Just now, I was surprised to see this man, whom I had never actually met before.

It instilled in her a fear she had never experienced before!

Even if it was only a trace, that fear truly existed!
"Crench!"

Roxie clenched her teeth, her azure eyes flashing with unprecedented coldness, but she did not waver. Instead, she immediately and expressionlessly commanded her soldiers to retreat to the northwest, a direction completely different from the two monster tides.

Furthermore, in order to speed up their pace, she has even begun to expend magical energy to imbue her soldiers with psionic threads, manipulating them in a puppet-like manner to allow her troops to move at explosive speeds.

Thus, they attempted to extricate themselves from this deadly attack before the monster tide truly arrived.

But just as she had controlled her troops to advance rapidly for about a kilometer, the familiar infernal light burst forth from the sky in the next second. And unlike before, it seemed that Roxie had realized that he was deliberately using a single inducement to deplete Orion's magic power, who was responsible for creating the barrier, so as to push the other party into the abyss.

Having realized that the Morning Star would not fall for it again, John did not attempt a single attempt to lure him in as before. Instead, he directly ordered all the waiting mages to unleash explosive magic simultaneously.

"Boom boom boom!"

The muffled explosions echoed across the battlefield along with the trembling ground. After the ear-piercing roars, powerful magical beasts, disturbed from their slumber, instinctively roared as they chased after the more than forty figures in the sky who were converging on a single location—the true culprits who had destroyed their lair.

The massive horde of monsters gathered together, galloping and surging, causing the ground to tremble violently, as if an earthquake were about to strike, under the dense thud of footsteps.

At this moment, Roxie, an Allied soldier, was in the center of a storm formed by terrifying monsters, with one foot almost hanging over the abyss.

His originally ferocious face strangely fell into peace.

She stared blankly at the sky above, under the curtain of rain, at the schemes of the being she regarded as one of her own, schemes that even she couldn't help but marvel at, and even comprehend.

With only a few dozen magic soldiers who posed no threat to them, they instantly cornered her and forced her to retreat in a humiliating manner.

The person who wasn't even on this battlefield made her feel powerless, something she hadn't felt in a long time.

It was as if, when she was young, she had finally gained her father's recognition for the first time because of her talent, and was finally able to step out of that closed and dark room that she had never stepped out of since she was born, and look up at the starry sky for the first time.

That feeling of insignificance that arises uncontrollably when gazing at the vast sky with the naked eye.

"I lost!"

Roxie tilted her head back and murmured softly, letting the light yet extremely heavy raindrops fall into her crystal-clear, sapphire-like eyes, and then slide down her cheeks.

Finally, the water struck the gleaming epaulets of her soaked military uniform, bursting forth in a dazzling, dreamlike spray of gold.

But his face did not show any resentment or humiliation; instead, it wore an ambiguous smile.

And the light in his eyes did not dim because of this setback; on the contrary, it became even more resilient and bright.

It was as if this defeat was not a humiliating experience for her.

Instead, it was a climber who had left countless others behind, always climbing alone to the top of a towering mountain, who, during a brief rest, in a casual glance upwards, was surprised to discover a climber who had climbed even higher than himself, and was equally aloof and ruthless.

Surprise? Resentment? Anger?
Perhaps both, but more than anything, it should be joy?

After all, climbing to the summit alone is certainly impressive, but what if you never encounter an opponent who can threaten your path of ascent?

So, even if such a life could reach the pinnacle of perfection, wouldn't it still seem incredibly boring?

"So this is what defeat feels like. What an interesting experience..."

Roxie murmured to herself, but quickly took a deep breath, dispelling the oppressive feeling in her chest, and then spoke calmly to Orian, who had been waiting beside her:

"The plan has failed. Prepare to evacuate, Orion."

"Yes, General!"

Looking at General Roxie, who had never suffered a defeat since joining the army, and now faced a real defeat, he not only did not show any shame, but remained extremely calm and did not make any impulsive moves.

Orion's worries vanished instantly, replaced by admiration.

He immediately wanted to take out the spellbook and connect to the spatial markers placed in his own base camp, intending to use the remaining magic power to safely evacuate his own troops using the phase teleportation spell.

Before he could even attempt the communication spell, the next second, a dense mass of deathly white light suddenly burst forth from the sky. Then, to Orion's astonishment, dozens of blindingly white bolts of lightning simultaneously struck down from the clouds, striking the surrounding mountains in a bizarre manner.

"Crack!"

The lightning struck the five surrounding mountain peaks, precisely the moment the metal pillars erected atop the peaks long before the dark clouds had fully gathered.

A torrent of lightning, like a crawling centipede, began to flow uncontrollably along the mountainside, igniting the trees along its path with the power of the secondary ether, before quickly dissipating under the dense rain.

It eventually disappeared completely halfway up the mountain, leaving behind an exceptionally beautiful natural trace on the mountainside that inspires awe in all who see it.

However, upon seeing the magnificent traces created by the power of nature, Orion felt no awe whatsoever; instead, his expression turned extremely grim.

Overwhelmed by intense horror and rage, his usually prized wisdom and composure seemed to vanish at this moment.

In the past, when recording spell circuits, I was so calm that I could write out two completely identical ones without any mistakes, as precise as a magical machine that is so accurate that it never makes a mistake.

At this moment, while holding the magic book, he began to tremble uncontrollably.

He was almost completely exhausted!

I can't sense it!

I can't sense it at all!

Why, why do spatial coordinates become disordered?

Overwhelmed with horror and fear, Orian stood frozen in place, his mind in turmoil.

His hesitation in unleashing the spell caught Roxie's attention, and she immediately sharpened her gaze and asked:

"What's wrong, Orion? Is there a problem with the phase teleportation?"

"...General, I...I can no longer sense the coordinates of our own position within the main camp."

Orion's tone was filled with bitterness, but Roxie, far from being surprised, chuckled and nodded calmly, saying:

“That’s right. Now that we’ve figured it out, how could that guy let his prey go so easily?”

"I just didn't expect that he would be able to understand phase transmission to this extent. It seems that the high-ranking spies that the Empire has planted in the kingdom are much more important than I thought."

"Perhaps it's time to thoroughly investigate the mole within the military and request Her Majesty the Queen to issue an order for a thorough investigation of senior domestic officials."

"Of course, I can only do this if I can leave here alive!"

Roxie spoke to herself, without blaming Orion.

After all, in her view, the one who truly put her side in danger was herself.

Her past arrogance, fueled by strategic brilliance, made her seemingly invincible. But this time, she encountered John Maslow, the new Empress of the Empire, who was even more monstrous than herself.

This arrogance became her biggest mistake.

Of course, besides giving Roxie a cruel lesson, this experience also taught her to grow.

This gave her a deeper understanding of the concept of war.

Even the methods her teachers had taught her, which she had once found shameful, seemed less repulsive in the face of this defeat.

Of course, that's all.

As the sole survivor of the Eye of the Sky family, he possesses both the teachings he received from his father in his childhood and the innate ability to see into people's hearts that comes from the Spirit Heart Technique.

All of this determined that she could not allow herself to accept or carry out what the spiritual heart deemed evil.

Otherwise, the hell created by the brother who was led astray by evil thoughts, slaughtered the entire family, and was killed by the teacher who arrived before he could kill himself.

That is one's final destination.

Therefore, although he knew that abandoning assassination on the battlefield was tantamount to cutting off his own arm, Roxie had no other choice.

She wouldn't do that either.

"Even if I abandon assassination, I can still achieve victory."

"And this is by no means a self-comforting statement, but a fact that is bound to happen."

"Because, as the heir of the Eye of the Sky family, my potential far exceeds that of humans."

"The sacred yet twisted divine bloodline that originated from the two divine bloods of the 'Ionium,' which came from 'wisdom and war,' which were ingested by the two ancestors of the Sancaster family, and which has been passed down for thousands of years through pure intercourse, will prove everything to me with time."

"Therefore, this will not be my final destination, and I will surely reach the throne called 'Perfection' that was created for me!"

Numerous memories flooded Roxie's mind, but she quickly dismissed them, turning instead to look calmly and firmly at the surging tide of monsters that was about to tear their force apart with terrifying force.

Just as she was about to do everything in her power to activate the spell and control the soldiers to launch an attack on the hellish monster horde,

The next second, as if he had made a decision, Orion's expression kept changing, and a resolute look flashed in his eyes. Then, in Roxie's astonished gaze, he suddenly manipulated magic to cut open the artery in his right hand.

"Hey!"

Crimson blood gushed out instantly, but instead of splattering on the ground, it began to gradually transform into patterns representing magical runes in the air through the opponent's powerful magical manipulation skills.

At the same time, a large number of magic circuits began to emerge from Orion's body. In Roxie's constricted pupils and beneath Orion's face, which was contorted with intense pain, they seemed to be forcibly extracted from his body by a controller. Like soaring elves, they began to merge with the floating crimson magic runes along with his gushing blood amidst heartbreaking cracking sounds, and officially began to emerge with mesmerizing colorful light.

This is covered by a unique spell field created at the cost of a one-time consumption by drawing out the body's magic circuits.

At this moment, the space in the air, which had become chaotic and out of control due to the interference of the secondary ether, was forcibly stabilized, and the coordinates that were originally undetectable became clear again in Orion's mind.

Even though his face, contorted with uncontrollable agony from what felt like a tearing apart of his soul, revealed a painful yet ferocious smile amidst the joy of helping his side achieve a safe evacuation:
"what……"

"..."

Seemingly finally recovering from the turn of events, even Roxie couldn't help but feel a complex mix of emotions as she watched Orion relaunch the Phase Teleportation spell at the cost of his own potential.

But seeing the other's resolute gaze, and understanding that the other had already made up his mind, Roxie did not forcibly interrupt the other's spell through the psychic telepathy. Instead, he sighed almost imperceptibly.

Then he just silently looked at the other person, at this person who had grown up with him, who could have had a better future to choose from, but still resolutely refused the military's transfer order and chose to accompany him through this supreme trial.

Now, in order to maintain his undefeated myth, he is willing to sacrifice his future.

Roxie knew that, according to common sense, she should have shown a grateful and sad demeanor, and preferably pretended to stop him, so that this pathetic man would be devoted to her and become a loyal dog who would die for her at her command.

But at this moment, Roxie's golden eyes held no emotion whatsoever.

It was like a creature that was merely wearing human skin, and otherwise had no resemblance to a human being.

A real monster.

As is well known, monsters are incapable of developing emotions towards humans.

Moreover, I, Roxie Sancaster, am a monster among monsters!
"There's no possibility between monsters and humans, Orion. When will you finally understand this?"

Watching Orian endure the excruciating pain while continuously casting spells, Roxie murmured to himself.

As time continued to pass, the massive tide of monsters drew ever closer.

The roars were almost within arm's reach, and the terrifying breaths released simultaneously by five super-level magical beasts were enough to make one's blood boil.

Beneath the flames that could almost set the sky ablaze, and the icy mist powerful enough to freeze all living things.

Just a second before Roxie's guard regiment was about to be completely wiped out in this horrific attack.

Accompanied by a ripple-like trail in the air and Orion's almost roaring shout.

Immediately afterwards, a dazzling blue light enveloped everyone.

The next second, the three thousand soldiers who were originally stationary were pulled away from their original positions by the great force originating from space.

They barely managed to complete the retreat without any casualties at a near-fatal cost.

"Boom!"

The terrifying breaths and attacks, having lost their targets, collided simultaneously. Five breaths with similar or diametrically opposed characteristics met at the moment of their convergence.

Catalyzed by the terrifying magic contained within each of them, they first uncontrollably produced a large number of distortions, then merged, and finally exploded into a terrifying mushroom cloud on the spot.

"!"

A terrifying storm swept up and surged forth, its power engulfing the superior magical beasts that, sensing the impending doom, instinctively tried to escape this horrific battlefield. In an instant, the storm tore them apart into countless pieces of flesh and blood.

In an instant, the entire battlefield transformed into a bloody hell, appearing exceptionally grotesque.

But it's unclear whether the clash of their breaths made the five super-ranked magical beasts feel challenged, or whether the smell of fresh flesh and blood in the arena stimulated these powerful monsters.

So, these five magical beasts, each with a different shape but all of the same terrifying size like small mountains, looked at each other and then roared angrily in unison.

They instantly forgot why they had come here and instead engaged in a terrifying battle toward their respective targets.

"Roar!"

"!"

Meanwhile, Baba Boyi, who was looking down at this scene through the Demon Eye high in the sky, exchanged glances with his teammates and then all tried to increase their flying altitude until they were sure that the group of terrifying monsters would not try to attack them with their mouths because they remembered their few mosquitoes.

Baba Boyi, the squad leader in charge of the deception operation, nervously connected the communication device and then reported to the commander:

"Battalion Commander, the plan has failed; the enemy has successfully escaped."

Huh? It failed?
Inside the dimly lit corridor headquarters, John raised an eyebrow upon hearing this reply, quite surprised.

After all, in order to limit Orion's phase teleportation spell, he had already set up a lightning rod at this ambush point in advance. With the interference intensity of the secondary ether, it should have been impossible for the opponent to successfully cast the spell in such a chaotic environment.

"So, Orion forcibly opened the phase portal by paying a certain price?"

Given the character's persistent admiration for Roxie in the story, it's quite normal for him to act this way in order to protect Roxie's honor.

But unfortunately, Orion, you will never understand that longing is the furthest distance from understanding.

Someone like you is destined to never gain Roxie's appreciation and approval.

"What a tragedy."

John couldn't help but sigh inwardly, but he quickly shook his head, putting his thoughts of the pathetic man Orion behind him, and turned his gaze calmly to the sand table in front of him, a slow smile beginning to appear on his lips.

Although they failed to force Roxie to her knees, the result was still acceptable if they could cripple Orion.

The most difficult part of the Battle of Chokepoint has now passed.

Next, all he needs to do is keep this front in place for ten days, and that will be enough.

In just ten more days, he will be able to lead his soldiers to this battlefield.

And this place will be the key to his complete defeat of Roxie!
Therefore, he only needs to do two things here.

The names of those two events are:

"The game on the chessboard and the necessary waiting for the next battle."

……

(End of this chapter)