Do Your Own Revolution

#137

Southern Front.

A plain stretches out, serving as the Republic’s main granary with its abundant sunlight and heavy rainfall.

A bountiful land where golden wheat fields and orchards once spread.

However, what existed there now was far from such a peaceful sight.

The fields cultivated by farmers were torn apart by trenches dug by soldiers.

Instead of children’s laughter, there was only the sound of armored train shells and gunfire.

And the screams of soldiers from both sides.

“Die! Die–!”

The Kalhyram Army gunner positioned at the machine gun post showered bullets at the approaching armored infantry.

Visible in the sky were the Republic’s airships, spraying poison gas as they advanced.

Just as they wiped clean their gas masks clouded by gas and smoke.

The armored infantry, not missing the pause in gunfire, fired their arm-mounted grenade launchers into the trench.

Kuwaaang–!

“Aagh?!”

The machine gun post turned into wasteland in an instant.

The soldier glared at the slowly approaching armored cavalry, gritting his teeth while firing his pistol.

“You crazy bastards! You want to win this badly?! You want to kill us that much?!”

“……”

“You know better than anyone what happens to land soaked in poison gas! You’re killing your own land while waging this war-!”

The soldier fired his pistol wildly.

The armored infantry who coldly watched him aimed a flamethrower at his face.

“We know.”

Just as he said that and was about to spew flames.

Kiing-!

A streak of red light from the sky pierced through him.

“Magic! Impossible. We killed all the mages…”

Before he could finish speaking, the fuel tank exploded.

The soldier who hurriedly got up with his head down looked up behind him.

Ratatata-!

Firing machine guns at the enemy airships was the Kalhyram Army airship fleet.

From one airship with a black gas bag, Special Magical Power Unit mages were descending.

A golden emblem drawn on the black airship’s gas bag.

Seeing that, color returned to the soldier’s face.

“Ah…!”

The assault high-speed airship, [Emperor’s Spear]

It was the airship carrying Eugene Lorentz, Commander of the Special Magical Power Unit.

Bam-!

The mages who appeared on the battlefield amid clouds of dust.

Armed with gas masks and lightweight reinforced suits, they began firing magic mercilessly at the Republic’s armored infantry.

“Kaaagh?! Why are there mages here…!”

“Don’t fall back! Just a little more forward! Don’t let those Imperial bastards live-!”

Though the armored infantry tried to resist desperately, it was futile.

Fuel running low, and drive systems creaking from prolonged combat.

And the firepower of the mages overwhelming them in formation.

The armored infantry advancing toward the trenches began to fall back hesitantly.

“This will be our death at this rate! Company Commander!”

“All forces retreat…!”

“Where do you think you’re running?”

Just as the officer commanding the Armored Infantry was about to speak.

Dozens of magical power chains erupted from the ground and began binding their bodies.

Magical power crystals glowing golden, blocking their path.

While they hesitated trying to remove them, red energy swirled above the armored infantry’s heads.

“Uh, uuh…?”

What appeared above their heads was a massive magic circle.

Upon confirming this, the Special Magical Power Unit members who had their guns aimed immediately activated their barriers and shouted.

“Everyone, brace for impact!”

“Duck! Quickly–!”

Why deploy barriers now when they didn’t even use them fighting armored infantry?

That thought lasted only a moment.

The soldiers, intimidated by the shouts of the members deploying barriers, ducked their heads.

Simultaneously, a scorching sensation from above.

When one curious soldier raised his head, he froze in place.

“What… is that.”

Kugugugu…!

Red light shining in the sky.

And the massive Fireball floating above it.

They had heard of it before.

The mage who creates a sun on the battlefield.

This was the bombardment formula of Eugene Lorentz, the seven stroke mage of the Kalhyram Army.

“Pushing us back was… for this…!”

The Armored Infantry commander muttered with a pale face.

Drive the enemy back, concentrate them, then incinerate them all at once with a bombardment formula.

The armored infantry who realized the situation tried to flee in panic, but that too lasted only a moment.

Kuu-!

The sun that pierced into the ground caused a massive explosion on the spot.

Kuooo–!

Flash, heat, pressure, wind pressure.

The explosion that bloomed with a thunderous roar instantly melted thick armor and burned their bodies inside the reinforced suits.

On the battlefield after the explosions subsided.

All that remained were the charred remains of the armored infantry.

– Impact confirmed. Enemy Armored Infantry unit neutralized.

“Huu……”

Red smoke exhaled with a sigh.

Hearing the observer’s report through magical power communication, I ejected the spent magic bullet casing from Heresy.

“That makes five. The gap in the front line has been mostly sealed.”

The enemy’s new weapon’s appearance and indiscriminate attacks.

My mission was to prevent the damage from that, and this defensive battle was part of that work.

Having neutralized an entire Armored Infantry division, my job was finished.

Once reinforcements airlifted from the homeland fill the gaps, the Southern Army Group should be able to recover its previous state.

“Now there’s only one problem left.”

As I muttered that and returned to base, Lieutenant General Beckier, commander of the Southern Army Group, welcomed me.

“Mission accomplished, Lieutenant General Beckier.”

“Well done, Eugene. Thanks to you, we can breathe a little easier.”

“For someone saying that, you look quite worried.”

At those words, the man smiled wryly and held his chin while looking at the tactical map before him.

“What’s the matter?”

“No matter how I look at it, something’s strange.”

“Strange how?”

At my question, Lieutenant General Beckier, commander of the Southern Army Group, pointed at the tactical map with his gloved hand.

“The 22nd Defense Army we’ve been facing doesn’t normally deploy forces like this.”

I looked at the tactical map spread on the table.

After the fall of the Republic capital Viselgrad.

The Republic forces, which had been consistently reinforcing defensive lines and maintaining a defensive posture, suddenly changed their attitude one day and launched a large-scale counterattack against the entire southern front. ꞦΑＮǑ𝐛Ěș

The front lines were beginning to stabilize, and a war of attrition between the Kalhyram Army and Republic forces was about to begin.

But Lieutenant General Beckier, who had been in charge of this front for a long time, muttered while shaking his head.

“Lieutenant General Rodion, who commands the enemy forces, is a commander who prioritizes his soldiers’ lives. He had been waging a war of attrition while preserving his forces – holding the line until civilian evacuation was complete, then retreating with minimal losses.”

“And now…”

“Now it’s as if none of that matters anymore as he pushes his forces forward.”

I turned my gaze to the pile of markers on one side of the table.

Annihilation, retreat, mass desertion – enemy units that had disappeared for various reasons.

In the short span of a month, the Republic had expended nearly 100,000 troops.

“Even to break the Southern Army Group’s momentum, would he attempt such a meaningless war of attrition? That’s impossible. Perhaps the commander has changed…?”

“From our perspective, isn’t that not so bad?”

I said to Lieutenant General Beckier.

“The current exchange ratio between the enemy and us is 1:5. Five Republic soldiers are dying for each Kalhyram Army soldier killed. If this war of attrition continues, the Republic’s forces will evaporate before they can dismantle the Southern Army Group.”

“Generally speaking, you’d be right. However…”

Lieutenant General Beckier’s expression hardened as he looked at the tactical map.

Red markers visible throughout the map.

Those marks on the front’s strategic points and fierce battle sites indicated places where the Kalhyram Army had been defeated.

“If this ‘Red Giant’ isn’t eliminated, we’ll be the ones crushed first.”

Red Giant.

After saying those words, the Lieutenant General spread out some photographs on the map.

“We’ve already lost hundreds of mages. Almost to the point of annihilation, I’d say. Losing them is painful but… the real problem is something else.”

“The fact that we have absolutely no information about the enemy.”

Besides the photographs that arrived at Keiren, a few additional photos had been secured.

Other than that, there was no information about the enemy.

How large their forces were.

What powers they possessed and what weapons they used.

What their power source was and what they were made of.

We had absolutely no such information.

“The enemy is thoroughly concealing information about the giant in these photos. Out of three battles, there was only one survivor. And even he went completely mad from poison gas exposure.”

“Then these photos here…”

“They were brought by that soldier. Even in his complete mental breakdown, he screamed that these had to be delivered to me.”

Information delivered with desperate effort.

Through this, the Kalhyram Army knew two things:

The weapon operated by the opposing side took the form of a gigantic human.

And it possessed enough tremendous power to wipe out hundreds of mages in an instant.

“Now I understand why the Southern Army Group requested me.”

As I said that, I recalled the content of the original game.

‘The giant in the photos… it must be that thing.’

The Secretary General’s personal laboratory.

Those two huge eyes that confronted the protagonist’s party in that laboratory.

‘If they’ve completed that, it’s not something that can be handled with the power of a single mage. However….’

It’s not like there’s absolutely no way.

I looked at Lieutenant General Beckier and spoke.

“There was an interesting item among the new weapons being developed in the homeland, wasn’t there?”

“An interesting item?”

“You know, the one the Kalhyram Army Arsenal was preparing to break through Viselgrad’s defensive walls.”

At my words, Lieutenant General Beckier slowly furrowed his brow.

“That’s still under development. Stability tests aren’t finished, and there are many uncertain factors.”

“But it’s complete enough to be usable, isn’t it?”

“The enemy is a mobile walking weapon. Even if we can bring it here, how do you plan to hit it?”

“I have a plan for that…”

“Your Excellency!”

As I was speaking, a communications officer with a pale face hurriedly entered the tent.

“Ah, I… I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were in a meeting…”

“It’s fine. What’s the matter?”

After hesitating for a moment, looking back and forth between me and Lieutenant General Beckier.

At the Lieutenant General’s voice, the communications officer spoke without delay.

“The assault unit that infiltrated for reconnaissance encountered the enemy and then contact was lost!”

“Lost contact? Again?”

Lieutenant General Beckier ground his teeth in frustration at those words.

“This is maddening. We assigned two four stroke imprint mages, and they couldn’t even gather information…!”

It was clear that without any progress, casualties would only increase.

I silently put on my uniform and prepared to leave.

“What do you intend to do, Eugene?”

“I’ll head to the point where contact was lost.”

“We have no information about the enemy. I cannot send you, our most crucial military asset…!”

“Now that even high-ranking mages have been defeated, this is something only I can handle. If we leave it alone, losses will only accumulate further.”

I spoke to Lieutenant General Beckier.

“I’d rather go and confirm it with my own eyes. I’ll gather information and try to stop its advance if possible.”

“…!”

“So, Lieutenant General, please prepare what I mentioned as soon as possible.”

If my prediction is correct.

If they really completed ‘Colossus’ and deployed it for actual combat.

That would be the only way to defeat that giant.

After our argument ended, silence fell in the tent for a moment.

“Three weeks.”

As if finished calculating in his head, Lieutenant General Beckier looked at me and said.

“Even at the fastest, it will take that long to bring it here.”

It wasn’t a short time, but it wasn’t exactly generous either.

But there was no choice.

“Three weeks. Understood.”

Well, nothing to do but hold out like our lives depend on it.

I nodded and left the tent without delay.

The mages waiting for my orders, and the Special Magical Power Unit’s airship landed on the ground.

The trio gathered after a long time, along with Leopold and Erich, were smiling at me.

“I asked Commander Beckier. It’ll arrive in three weeks.”

“Heh, they really approved it?”

“To think we’d see the day that thing would be fired in actual combat…”

Hearing my words, Erich nodded and headed to the operations room, while I spoke to the officers gripping their weapons.

“Is everyone ready?”

What awaited beyond the front lines was a monster created by the Republic.

An unknown enemy whose power and size we couldn’t even guess.

A perilous battlefield where we didn’t know if we could win or even survive.

“Got to try.”

Yet even facing that, my friends spoke without a trace of fear.

“We’ve killed giant monsters like they were rats, what’s one huge weapon?”

“Don’t underestimate it carelessly, Ortega. That’s a bad habit.”

“The mission is reconnaissance. Lure out the enemy, gather information, and return, right?”

“…Yeah.”

Such stubborn fellows.

Looking at them accepting the mission without a single complaint, I slowly spoke.

“I’m not asking for victory. Heroic sacrifice? That’s just useless dog shit.”

“……”

“As commander, I have only one order. Survive.”

After speaking in an unusually serious tone for a moment.

I smiled and released the tension, looking around at my friends’ faces as I spoke.

“After this war ends, you all need to help me beat up some magic nobles.”

Deep smiles spread across my friends’ faces as they faced me.

I was probably wearing a similar expression myself.

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