Dictator From Outer Space

To wage a war, one needs a justification.

That was not an exception even when facing a common enemy like Elvrande.

They needed at least a minimal justification, even if they had to endure the criticism of having a weak one in the future. In that regard, Zaium was lucky.

They were given an amazing justification: the assassination of the emperor.

However, that could not be seen as a good opportunity.

They had to win the war, but they could not see any possibility of winning.

The Zaium Empire had been losing to Elvrande in every battle, and they could not remember the last time they won.

They were able to maintain their territory despite the terrible win rate because of the great distance between the two countries.

Many kingdoms and rugged terrains acted as shields, and it was very difficult to break through them with Goliaths.

Even if they were Belial-class, they could not fly in the sky.

Anyway, Zaium was in a situation where they had to wage a war, and so were the neighboring kingdoms.

The deadline for the royal bloodline was set on the same day, so there was no room for hesitation.

The war was also necessary to ventilate the explosive atmosphere inside.

The elves scoffed at them for heading towards their doom, but they could not stop now.

Thus, preparations began in each country.

The mass movement of Goliaths began, and Zaium’s leaders focused on two kingdoms that were suffering from famine due to the recent branches of Yggdrasil.

—Liberating Resort and Banover is our top priority.

—The two kingdoms are experiencing severe famine due to the branches of Yggdrasil planted in the nearby border areas. The elves must have done something.

The assassination of the emperor was enough justification, but freeing the two kingdoms from the oppression of the elves was also a plausible one.

So dozens of countries’ Goliaths began to gather in the two kingdoms, and this was not a small number for Elvrande either.

They mobilized airships to confirm that there were nearly a thousand Goliaths, and they hurried to deploy their Elven Knights.

Their justification was to protect Yggdrasil.

—The human’s sense of victimhood is truly appalling. Yggdrasil is a god who promises abundance. How can such a god bring famine?

—It is barbaric to display some elf corpses as a mockery. It can only be described as uncivilized.

—They should first accept the reasonable doubt that it is all a staged play by Zaium. Who knows if there was a coup and the emperor got caught up in it?

There were some efforts from both sides to avoid the war, but as always, it went in vain.

Zaium and other kingdoms had to wage a war no matter what, and Elvrande had to stop them.

The only thing that was fortunate for the elves was that Goliaths were so big and slow that they could see where they would attack.

Zaium’s strategic goal was clear.

—Burn down the branches of Yggdrasil and completely destroy them, and expel the elf army stationed nearby.

Naturally, Elvrande’s goal was focused on preventing that.

So both armies gathered around Yggdrasil and the two kingdoms, and this was an enormous scale with more than 1,500 Goliaths.

Elvrande’s army was only 500 Goliaths, half as much as theirs, but everyone knew that they were not easy to deal with.

Belial-class Goliaths had incomparable output to other Goliaths.

Even Zaium’s Bephar-class could not match them, so no one could be confident of overwhelming them.

Moreover, Elvrande’s army was tightly united, while the coalition army had many loose ends.

It was inevitable that dozens of countries gathered together, and there were many differences in command structure and supply.

It was not a big disadvantage considering that the core of the war was Goliath and Knight, but it was a problem that there was no clear center of gravity.

And that problem was exacerbated when Tirendell appeared on the battlefield.

He used to receive insults as a blind half-breed elf, but on the battlefield, everyone cheered for him and forgot about those words.

The coalition army also greatly feared him.

—Elvrande showed an amazing exchange rate on the battlefield where that half-elf participated. Even if we have twice or three times more Goliaths, we can’t be relieved.

—Tirendell uses a Goliath with enhanced output as his exclusive machine. He is so skilled that he has never been stopped by more than 10 Bephar-class machines.

—Therefore, how to stop him will be the key issue of this war.

As analysis poured out on him, there were also people who lamented.

—He is a half-elf, which means he is half human. I don’t understand why he sides with the elves.

—Because he is half elf.

Anyway, Tirendell was a target of caution in many ways.

The coalition army leaders in the two kingdoms looked for one person.

“We need only one person to stop Tirendell. Count Vandus, he is the one we need.”

“I heard he is participating, but where exactly is he now?”

“According to the communication 10 hours ago, he is in the final preparation.”

“Damn, it will take at least a week to join us even if he leaves now. Isn’t that too careless?”

“No. He uses a method of transporting his Goliath by airship. He can be here in a few hours.”

“That’s amazing… How does he do that? Goliath is not only heavy, but it also suppresses the surrounding ether.”

“According to rumors, he adopted a metal called living metal extensively and reduced the weight significantly.”

“How did he solve the output reduction of the ether engine?”

“No one knows. Anyway, because of using living metal, even the elves are coveting it.”

“When he arrives, assign him to deal with Tirendell.”

“I hope he can stop him, but I wonder if he can…”

“Count Vandus is undefeated so far. Even if we ignore his battles in Bagran, his achievements of subduing the Shadow Elf pirates and killing the monster that assassinated the emperor are unparalleled.”

“To be honest, I find it hard to believe. The assassin was weakened, but the pirates were thousands in number. How did he manage to handle them?”

“Maybe he will prove it in this war.”

The leaders did not bother to devise any tactics and just waited for Leobold.

In fact, there was no need for petty tactics in a battlefield where dozens of countries gathered.

There was doubt if they could follow them, and more importantly, they were not very effective.

When there were so many Goliaths, sometimes it was not bad to push with force.

“But we don’t know what those elves will do…”

They all looked at the branches of Yggdrasil and the orderly arranged Goliath troops with telescopes.

They could not see any chance of winning.

***

While everyone was eagerly waiting for Leobold, he was undergoing a procedure.

“Ether Heart reconstruction. Circuit overlay start.”

A few specially modified walkers gathered and implanted thin mithril into his flesh.

This mithril was made by Arma from silver, and it was different from the mithril on the market in terms of purity.

Arma’s goal was to overlay circuits as much as possible and create a more powerful Ether Heart.

It was what she developed by researching what the Ains of Astera had evolved over hundreds of years in less than a year.

When this procedure was completed, Leobold would have a limited but magical ability.

[Permanent magic circle implantation start. Lucia, help me.]

—Okay. I just need to engrave one spatial magic circle, right?

“Yes. That’s enough for now.”

One of Arma’s many researches was spatial magic.

It was opening an ether dimension and storing things in it, and she wanted to implant it into Leobold’s Ether Heart.

It was making him use magic without being a mage.

If successful, Leobold would be able to summon his Goliath anywhere without an ether stone.

But Arma’s real purpose was not that.

Her first goal was to expand the size of the ether dimension and store an assault armor in it, and her ultimate goal was to store a spaceship like Settler and even make teleportation possible.

Opening an ether dimension for spatial magic or teleportation was the same thing.

Even the way Lucia summoned her main body was like that.

She touched his half-cut Ether Heart and gasped.

—What is this ether lump?

“It’s a relic of the prophet that Master got from his hometown. How does it feel?”

—It’s like an ether sun… It’s small, but still.

“Does it produce ether for sure?”

—At least that’s how I feel. How can a human have something like this? Even the gods or dragons of Astera couldn’t handle this.

Maybe this was why Leobold’s body couldn’t bear it.

The relic of the prophet that he absorbed on Mars was the key that led him here and the problem itself.

“I can’t remove it right now.”

—The only way I can think of is for Master to adapt to this relic.

“How do I do that?”

—I don’t know…

Lucia knew a lot about ether, but she didn’t know either.

But there was a clue.

If she could evolve to the next stage, she might find some hint there.

“Do you really think so? What does human and plague have to do with each other?”

—It’s just a guess. But I feel it. They are not completely separate beings. They are connected somehow.

If Lucia could shed her current shell and evolve, she might be able to find something that could cure Leobold fundamentally.

Arma did not agree with that, but she had no better option at the moment.

“Go to Mare after this procedure is over. Master ordered you to dominate the plague there.”

—Are you sure? What if I betray Master after conquering Mare?

“I will use all means to eliminate you if you betray Master.”

—Just kidding, kidding. Why would I betray Master? I wish I had a human body too.

“Why do you need a human body?”

—So I can cuddle with Master and make him worry less about betrayal.

“Sorry, but physical intimacy does not prove loyalty.”

—But you need a human body too, right? Don’t you, Arma?

“…”

She did not answer and silently closed his Ether Heart.

The last work was finished and Arma spoke in a voice.

“Sometimes I think so too. I wish I had a human body.”

—Why? Androids are much better in terms of ability. They don’t age and they can recover quickly.

“Yeah, I know. But I…”

Arma stopped talking and shut her mouth.

She didn’t want to tell Lucia about her personal story with Master.

She also sensed the atmosphere and turned her body weakly.

[Get ready to go to Mare. And I know you have a lot of doubts, but I wish you would drop them about me. I won’t betray you on my own.]

—Of course, that would be the best.

After Lucia left, Leobold regained his consciousness.

He gulped down a glass of cold water and sighed briefly.

“Whew… My right chest hurts. Is something wrong?”

“There was nothing wrong with the procedure. It seems that your body is feeling the burden of the increased output.”

“What’s the output now?”

“It exceeds 10,000E.”

Considering that Kairos, who had accepted the soul of Grakies, had 2,000E, it was an unbelievable number.

However, Leobold could not convert this number into actual combat power.

Neither his Ether Heart nor his body could handle it.

Still, Arma continued to reconstruct his Ether Heart and tried to add various functions.

“Spatial magic is one of them. Now you can store your Goliath and assault armor without an ether stone.”

“Assault armor too? Are you going to put Settler in there later?”

“That’s the plan in the long run. But if Settler comes out, there is a risk of ruining the ether around it.”

“What happens then?”

“This is likely to happen.”

The video that Arma showed with a hologram showed that when Settler came out of the spatial dimension, the surrounding atmosphere shook and a storm raged.

And this was just one of the possibilities.

“Settler has a fusion reactor, so interfering with the spatial dimension is very dangerous.”

“But it passed through the warp gate on Nox.”

“That shows how advanced the prophet’s technology was.”

Analyzing the spatial dimension as well as ether research would be a long-term project.

Leobold put on the uniform that Arma handed him and looked at the ground.

“They’re all gathered. What are the odds of winning in this state?”

“About 5%.”

“Because of Tirendell… Without me, it’s a sure loss.”

He had excellent combat power, but he couldn’t exceed 1,000E in ether output.

It was enough to deal with Balgad, but he couldn’t reveal him right away.

“If I want to show my full ability, I have to use Albion, but then Elvrande will go crazy?”

“They will activate Meteor Strike and erase Bagran if they find out that you are Altema’s champion.”

“What about Zaium?”

“Do you think Zaium will sacrifice Hwangdo instead of Bagran?”

“That’s true.”

It was like America’s nuclear umbrella.

It seemed reliable before it was activated, but once it was activated, it was useless.

Elvrande had a large territory and its capital Medea was also quite large.

And there were all kinds of great mages who might have come up with a countermeasure for Meteor Strike.

Anyway, how far Elvrande would intervene in this war was Leobold’s concern.

“Their goal seems to be Yggdrasil’s guardian, but what they will do if they fail is a problem…”

“I’ll put Settler outside the atmosphere just in case.”

“Do that. And who was going to join me on this expedition?”

“Lord Granden and Lady Catina, plus about ten others.”

Most of the royal knights died because of Kyros, so they had no more power to mobilize, and the airship transport capacity was tight.

“Elwin is busy with administrative work. Let’s leave Balgad alone.”

It would be troublesome if his identity was discovered by taking him to the battlefield.

And it was good to leave a reliable subordinate in the capital for contingencies.

Arma and Jigaleon were there, but they couldn’t cope with all sudden situations.

Leobold asked about the possibility of Galisto picking a fight and got a low answer.

“Well, it’s almost like an emperor’s revenge war. If he moves rashly, he’ll be stripped later.”

“They won’t try to mess with us by force as long as you are here. But they might use other methods.”

“Hmm… Trade?”

“They are likely to put a brake on the export of Goliath parts.”

Bagran and Galisto were hostile, but they did not stop all exchanges.

Especially in Goliath’s parts, there was a lot of trade going on.

If they put a brake on that after the war, Bagran would be in trouble.

They had to produce the consumed Goliaths, but they had no parts.

Of course, this was Galisto’s delusion and there was no chance of such a thing happening.

Arma could produce hundreds of Goliaths within a week if she got an order.

She just didn’t need it.

“I’ll have to use something else when ether research is over. A small aircraft would be nice.”

“I’ve already finished the design. I can deploy it anytime you want.”

“Let’s do it when the empire splits.”

That would be when Leobold revealed his true colors.

There is a saying that war is decided before it begins.

It is because one can guess the outcome from the size and momentum of both sides.

In that respect, the alliance could not easily predict victory despite having twice the size of the enemy.

The movements of the elven knights were so flawless.

Over 300 golden Belials moved as if they were one, with the giant branches of Yggdrasil as their background.

Their actions of pushing their shields forward and raising their weapons were like waves.

The knights of the alliance grumbled as they saw them.

“They say they only feed them for ten years when they get new recruits. Don’t worry.”

“That’s terrible.”

“It’s terrible to feed them for ten years, but I don’t know what else they do…”

Elves boasted a lifespan of three or four times that of humans, and it was a gap that could not be narrowed.

They also invested a lot more time in honing their combat skills, which was the main cause of the gap in combat power.

Plus, their advanced ether engineering added to that.

One elven knight could handle several ordinary knights.

So they couldn’t relax even if their numbers were doubled.

The knights at the front were wary of seeing that all the elven knights were holding black weapons.

“That’s living metal, right…”

“It’s literally a living metal that can be transformed at will.”

“But it doesn’t seem to work properly. They failed to make swords.”

“Count Vandus of Bagran changes his weapons as he pleases, but it seems to vary depending on the person.”

“So when is that author coming?”

Everyone was waiting for Leobold with bated breath.

He was the only one who could face that crazy elf who was holding the front line of Elvrande’s army.

Even if several high knights of Zaium attacked him, it was impossible to stop him.

So there was only one way to deal with Tirendell.

To give up the battlefield where he was and focus on other battlefields.

But in this war, the alliance had to do something about Yggdrasil, the symbol of Elvrande.

Meanwhile, Tirendell was waiting for someone.

He had no interest in this war.

His goal was one thing: to kill Leobold Vandus.

‘I don’t care if you are a hero from another world or the one who defeated Kyros. You will die if you show up on this battlefield.’

Maybe he knew this atmosphere and didn’t show himself rashly?

Tirendell stabbed his living metal sword into the ground and waited for him.

And soon he lifted his head.

Several airships were coming from beyond the sky.

“He wasn’t a coward after all.”

As if he heard that, the leading airship lowered its altitude and soon opened its lower hatch and a Goliath jumped out.

Thud.

A cloud of dust spread in all directions with a slight vibration.

When the dust cleared, everyone could see Leobold’s Goliath.

“It’s huge… At least one head taller?”

“Did he modify a Bephar class? But it looks weird for that?”

Tirendell’s eyebrows twitched.