Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant novel Chapter 573

Just like a judge handing down a verdict, the system’s warning fell upon them.

A system notification appeared before everyone’s eyes, and the people despaired and grieved as though they had just been sentenced to death.

At the same time, Phaidiak, the orange barrier that had divided east and west in the Demon Realm for so long, vanished.

“Kiaaaaaaaaah!!”

A blood-curdling cry.

The moment Phaidiak disappeared, a chilling shriek rang out from the Western Demon Realm.

By some unknown principle, that cry astonishingly reached even those standing at the farthest edge of the Eastern Continent.

It was, at last, the tolling bell that announced the age of great despair.

But unlike some Eastern Demon Realm resident who had fled all the way to the very end of the Eastern Continent, the person standing at the exact opposite end of that spectrum received that bell of despair with somewhat indifferent eyes, without getting chills or feeling the hairs rise on the back of his neck.

It was Su-ho.

Standing atop the only watchtower at the center of the natural fortress created near Phaidiak with the help of the Olympian gods, Su-ho looked out beyond the gorge.

And before long, just as expected, the curtain rose on the full-scale war.

Rumbleeeeeee!

The ground roared.

The earth shook.

The air trembled.

All of it was the sound of the Western Demon Realm’s mindless barbarians, mobilized for the system’s amusement, charging east as one.

It looked like a pitch-black tidal wave.

Like a swarm of ants rushing forward in a line, they came surging in like a flood. To the people of the Eastern Demon Realm, they were a tragedy from afar and still a tragedy up close—a massive catastrophe in itself.

But Su-ho remained calm.

Cold.

He had to.

Because he stood in a position where he could not allow himself to be swept up in emotion like everyone else.

As he watched the army of the Western Demon Realm advancing, Su-ho thought,

‘Not a single notification related to me until the very end, huh.’

At most, there was the notice saying Phaidiak had been removed.

It didn’t matter.

If any other notice appeared, someone else would tell him.

Su-ho then shifted his gaze and looked at the person standing beside him.

The only one standing at his side while everyone else remained floating in the air and holding their positions.

It was none other than Leihian.

For now, he had decided to follow Su-ho’s decision.

A fair number of the things Su-ho had said made sense, but among them all, the one thing that had earned Leihian’s trust more than anything else was, without question, his level.

In the end, whatever else one might say, there was no surer guarantee for a Player than level.

So he had first sent the hastily gathered volunteer army to the rear.

As Su-ho had said, if victory could not be guaranteed even with their participation, then it was not a bad idea to first send that otherworlder—someone they had never met before, yet who claimed he would fight for them out to the front as a scout.

And as he looked at the army of the Western Demon Realm closing in before his eyes, he was able to reaffirm that judgment once more.

‘There’s no way we could ever win.’

A volunteer army?

It sounded noble, and the meaning behind it was noble, but looking at the Western Demon Realm army advancing in full force, they themselves were no different from candles in the wind before them.

Putting everything else aside, the difference in scale alone was at least several dozen times over.

Maybe that was why.

Even though Leihian had decided to trust Su-ho, whose level far exceeded his own, even if only once, it was still hard to truly believe.

No matter how large the gap in level might be, once he had actually come to the very front lines and inspected Su-ho’s preparations for war, there were simply far too few things that could even be called troops.

‘Of course, the natural fortress this man created is awe-inspiring, but...’

He had lifted up the entire central stretch of the continent’s bedrock to make a wall, and in front of it he had created an enormous waterway.

Calling it a waterway was putting it nicely. It was practically the size of a dam or a river.

But defensive warfare did not succeed simply because the terrain and fortifications were good.

Still, since he had nothing to offer, he could hardly stand there complaining, criticizing, or offering unsolicited advice. So he had decided that, if nothing else, he alone would stay by Su-ho’s side and watch everything unfold.

That way, he could respond later if he had to.

Eventually, the army of the Western Demon Realm closed in until the faces of those at the very front could be seen with the naked eye.

That was when Su-ho raised one hand like a commander.

[ Blessing is activated. ]

Blessing came first. Then—

[ Eclipse is activated. ]

[ You receive sunlight and moonlight. ]

[ The Rune of the Sun and Moon reacts. ]

[ The Power of the Sun and Power of the Moon are activated. ]

[ You receive the Blessing of the Sun and Moon. ]

[ All stats increase by 2%. ]

[ All recovery increases by 2%. ]

[ Fire attribute is activated. ]

[ Light attribute is activated. ]

[ Ice attribute is activated. ]

[ Dark attribute is activated. ]

[ Experience is granted according to the set experience distribution ratio. ]

[ Your level has increased. ]

[ All stats have increased by 1. ]

[ You have obtained 1 bonus stat. ]

Su-ho’s expression lit up the moment he saw the system notification.

Yeah, this was it.

This was the true thrill of war.

There was something Su-ho had coordinated with the Greek gods in advance.

It was the experience distribution ratio.

He could not form a party with Demi-Constellations, but because their rank was what it was, he was able to gain experience through proxy hunting via them.

Naturally, that kind of thing did not come free.

That was why he had volunteered to act as the mana battery.

And everything was going exactly as expected.

‘Sitting still, sweating a little, and soaking up experience. This is the best!’

Maybe that was why.

Leihian’s jaw could do nothing but fall open.

“What in the...!”

So this was what an otherworlder—no, a Player in the 300s—was like?

Su-ho was clearly just sitting there meditating, yet a Great Flood had suddenly erupted and swallowed that enormous Western Demon Realm army.

He—no, even if the entire volunteer army joined forces, they would never have the confidence to launch an attack like that. No, they would not even be capable of it in the first place.

Of course, Great Flood was not invincible.

This East-West War was a supermassive event created for the system’s amusement.

It was not something that would end so easily that an attack on this level could wrap everything up.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Sure enough, beings against whom the Great Flood was ineffective—large-bodied monsters, for example—burst out and opened a path forward.

The people of the Western Demon Realm had clearly been described as little better than mindless barbarians, but for the sake of its own entertainment, the system had not allowed them to act like pure idiots in this war.

Watching the enemies advance again behind the large monsters, Su-ho continued focusing on recovery.

It was for the second phase.

During that process, his level rose once more from enemies who died later, but it did not help much.

Eventually, the army of the Western Demon Realm that had been driven back closed in again until their faces could be made out.

That was when Su-ho used voice transmission to issue another command.