Dictator From Outer Space

Meteor Strike was one of the most notorious mass-destruction spells, as it could not be canceled once activated.

The meteors were not very large, but they fell at supersonic speed, resulting in megaton-level kinetic energy.

The two countries of Zaium and Elvrande had aimed Meteor Strike spells at each other’s capitals and maintained a 24-hour surveillance system.

It was to retaliate immediately if attacked.

However, their countermeasures were weak, as they had no way to stop the falling meteors.

Zaium had practically given up, while Elvrande had a method, but it had severe side effects and was not very reliable.

In any case, it was certain that Meteor Strike had been activated towards the capital Medea.

It was an unprecedented event that threw the Elvrande leadership into chaos.

—Who the hell fired it?

—Could it be Zaium? Did those lowly humans decide to annihilate themselves?

—No! It’s not Zaium! If we retaliate rashly, we’ll face a counterattack!

Kelodian desperately tried to spread the news that it was not Zaium.

He was not trying to protect them, but to prevent a chain reaction.

If another Meteor Strike spell was activated due to a misunderstanding, it would be an uncontrollable disaster.

He could not tell the truth either.

How could he bear the anger and hatred of his kin?

Anyway, once the impact site was confirmed, it was obvious that they had to stop it.

Kelodian immediately issued an evacuation order for the first district.

“All personnel must evacuate to 10km away, immediately!”

Hundreds of elves screamed and fled.

The spell was so destructive that they could not feel safe even 10km away.

The imperial family, of course, as well as various departments of the imperial administration and the ether tracking system were all doomed to be destroyed.

It was an amount that could not be converted into gold coins.

Kelodian evacuated first and then hurriedly looked for the director of information.

“Director, activate the defense system immediately!”

“A barrier won’t be enough to stop it completely. We have to use the final defense measure.”

His thick eyebrows twitched.

The final defense measure that the director mentioned was the Shield of God.

It was not a simple metaphor, but a real invocation of a god, using the Infinite Circuit installed in Yggdrasil to extract divine magic from a divine essence.

It was powerful enough to be a candidate for the Elven Pantheon and could block most spells.

However, it was not certain if it could stop Meteor Strike.

He was also afraid of what damage it would cause to Yggdrasil.

It was clear that the divine essence would be shocked by forcibly extracting divine magic from it.

In summary, even if they used the divine essence, they could not be sure of stopping it, and the side effects were expected to be significant.

More than anything, he feared being attacked by other executives and the council.

—What did you do to use the divine essence without notice?

—You activated Meteor Strike and it backfired on us? Are you joking?

—You must take responsibility for making Yggdrasil look like that.

—It seems that you are not fit for being a triarch.

Kelodian felt dizzy thinking about the insults that his enemies would pour out.

The other two triarchs would aim for his expulsion and the council that approved the activation would blame him for it.

They only needed one scapegoat.

He barely calmed his trembling body.

He did not want to face a bleak future, but it was better than being completely destroyed by the meteor.

“We have to stop that spell by any means necessary. Execute it immediately.”

“Yes, sir.”

The divine essence sleeping in the Infinite Circuit was top secret among top secrets, so activating it was not difficult.

As soon as the director contacted the Tower of God near Yggdrasil, the Infinite Circuit started working.

The entire world tree that had been emitting golden light seemed to faintly float up.

The elves panicked at this unprecedented event.

“Why is the world tree suddenly like this?”

“It’s screaming… It’s feeling unbearable pain…”

Princess Margareta sensed that something had gone wrong with the leadership.

She was one of the elves who had the deepest connection with Yggdrasil as a member of the imperial family that protected it.

She did not know about the Infinite Circuit, but she could feel that a huge power was being drained from Yggdrasil.

“This is not normal…”

She hastily asked around and barely got in touch with Kelodian, but he just dodged her questions.

“Don’t worry. And this is none of your concern.”

“How can I not be concerned? The world tree is crying out in pain!”

“…We will suffer more pain if we leave that spell alone. So it’s natural that we devise some defensive measures.”

“So you’re saying I have to know what’s going on, right?”

“I’m telling you again, I have no obligation to tell you.”

The communication was cut off and Margareta let go of the communicator weakly.

It was always like this.

She was a member of the imperial family, but she was excluded from all matters.

The other imperial relatives seemed to enjoy the material benefits provided by the leadership, but she could not.

Margareta shivered at the intense ether coming from the sky.

‘Meteor Strike… It’s not from the humans.’

The council would not sit still, so they would have to activate it in succession, and that would cover the entire Medea.

If only one was activated, it meant a mistake, and that meant something went wrong in the central continent.

‘The chances are high that we lost the war…’

Margareta was one of the most opposed to this war, as she thought it had no justification.

She had a loud voice, but no real power, so she was eventually ignored and regretted it.

If they lost the war, it would be a relief for Elvrande, as much as she felt sorry for the Elven Knights.

There was nothing more terrible than winning an unjust war.

‘But Lord Tiren should be safe…’

She silently clasped her hands and prayed.

There was not much she could do in this urgent situation where Meteor Strike was approaching Medea.

And then the divine essence was forcibly separated from Yggdrasil.

It was a nameless divine essence that would someday become a member of the Elven Pantheon, and it screamed as it was torn apart.

Ooooh―

A gloomy sound spread throughout Medea.

Meanwhile, Arma detected that the speed of the meteor had slowed down.

“Master, at this rate, it will stop right before it falls.”

“Can you find out why?”

“A huge divine magic has been activated from Yggdrasil. It seems that the Infinite Circuit has been activated.”

It was amazing that they could counteract that kinetic energy.

The situation had tilted drastically.

The blue dragon that suddenly appeared attacked everything in sight, and both sides of the army were busy retreating.

They could not damage it at all, no matter what they did.

—Kneel before Zigarion!

The dragon that had been scared and ran away by the airship bombardment was gone.

Even a simple swipe of its front paw had an incredible force, and magic was constantly raining down around it.

If they barely survived the storm of fire, they would be hit by blue lightning, making it impossible to fight back.

Moreover, this dragon was agile as well.

It moved around the battlefield by jumping with a strange propeller attached to it, dragging the nearby Goliaths along.

It was hard to deal with a large creature that had both mobility and firepower.

Count Croitz sensed that this could not go on.

It was Leobold’s attack, but Elvrande had lost its main force and was retreating in disarray.

It seemed better to withdraw and reorganize the line than to chase them.

“Commander, we have to retreat now. The damage from the dragon is too great.”

“Hmm…”

The commander, Earl Roland, surveyed the situation.

In fact, Zigarion had attacked the Goliaths, but did not completely destroy them.

Arma had ordered him to cause chaos, not to kill them all.

Some of them exploded by mistake, but that was not his fault.

Earl Roland expressed deep concern at that scene.

“The damage is increasing. We can’t stay here any longer without a way to deal with the dragon.”

“We have to retreat to the nearby castle of Banover Kingdom and regroup. If we use magic traps, we can fight it.”

“I accept your opinion. All troops, retreat!”

As the order came from the commander, hundreds of Goliaths began to retreat.

Zigarion pretended to be angry and chased them.

—You think you can run away? No way!

But there were eight airships accompanying Leobold in the battlefield right now.

Admiral Hampton did not know Zigarion’s identity, so he decided that he had to stop him with ether cannons.

“His lordship is fighting hard and we can’t just watch! All ships, prepare to fire!”

Ether cannons had a low accuracy rate, so they were reluctant to use them against Goliaths.

It was too expensive to waste ether stones on thin air.

But if the target was a large dragon, that problem was gone.

Moreover, the gunners under the gunnery chief had gained confidence after several test shots.

“Distance correction, aiming done!”

“Fire!”

A few beams of light hit Zigarion’s body.

—Aaargh!

The power of the enhanced ether cannons was not something that a dragon could ignore.

But Zigarion was currently protected by Arma’s spell, with defensive magic and living metal armor covering his body.

So the pain was not that bad.

‘It doesn’t hurt much? Wait, why are they attacking me?’

He thought about it and realized that Hampton and his crew did not know who he was.

The mage Zion was a weird human from Zaium.

If Stephina had been on board, she would have contacted him immediately and told him to stop.

But she did not show up.

“Damn, I have to run away.”

His role was to infiltrate the battlefield and wreak havoc.

The lord would be satisfied with what he had done so far.

Zigarion prepared to escape from the barrage of artillery fire.

Meanwhile, Leobold was chasing the retreating Elvrande army.

The elven knights boasted the best mobility in the continent, but he was faster.

He quickly closed the gap that was quite wide and finally caught the tail of a Goliath in the rear.

“Die.”

Bang!

The Goliath was split in half by a single stroke and rolled on the ground.

As his subordinates were killed one by one behind him, Tirendell, who was in the lead, stopped abruptly.

“We can’t be hunted like this! We fight him here!”

“Tirendell, no!”

His subordinates tried to drag his Goliath away, but Tirendell resisted.

“Let go! We have Yggdrasil behind us. We can’t go on like this!”

“What a joke!”

A loud noise was heard and a Goliath soared into the air.

Leobold had wrapped his fist with ether and smashed it with his armored glove.

The elven knights were speechless.

The Belial-class was a relatively light model, but it was not supposed to fly into the air like that.

Leobold cut through the Goliaths that blocked his way and shouted.

“What nonsense are you talking about after running away all this time? Is that all you have for your determination to kill me? Is that all you have for your justice to bring peace to the continent?”

“Leobold, you bastard!”

Tirendell could not contain his boiling rage and charged at him.

But he had no chance of fighting him even in a perfect situation, let alone in his current state of mind.

Several Goliaths were knocked out and he also could not withstand Leobold’s punch.

With a crunching sound, the armored glove panel collapsed and Tirendell suffered a severe shock.

“Ugh!”

Leobold stepped on the abdomen of the fallen Belial-class and mocked him.

“You are so weak. The justice of the powerless is nothing but empty.”

“Don’t think… we are all there is to Elvrande…”

“It doesn’t matter how many weaklings come at me. The result will be the same. You want to rule the continent? It is your fate to be ruled by me. Just like it was in the old days.”

“You damn bastard…”

Tirendell’s eyes sparkled with fire when he mentioned the history of the elves.

He could not tolerate this insult.

But he was so powerless that he could do nothing about it.

As the Black Knight put pressure on his leg, the Belial-class collapsed and the ground began to crack under the pressure.

The Belial-class that was caught in between suffered a terrible shock as well.

“Captain!”

“There’s an allied fleet coming!”

The elves’ faces brightened up.

The airship fleet that had been stationed in the rear to protect Yggdrasil had guessed that the situation was critical and came this far.

Ether cannons rained down fire and some elven knights grabbed Leobold and dragged him down.

“Let’s die together!”

“Tirendell, get out of there now!”

Of course, Tirendell would not just leave.

He was able to get up thanks to Leobold who quickly backed away.

As ether cannons pounded the ground without pause, a lieutenant came to him and reported.

“Tirendell, Medea has been hit by a meteor strike attack!”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“It’s true! Many of the royal family, including Princess Margreta, have escaped! And so have the bureaucrats!”

“Crazy… Is it human’s doing?”

“That’s not certain. According to the analysis of ether waves, it is highly likely that it was activated from the Tower of Magic.”

“…The Council bastards finally did it.”

They ignored his suggestion to retreat and activated it, but something went wrong.

Now that things had come to this, he could not die here.

‘I have to survive… To pay back today’s humiliation!’

He felt like he could not calm down unless he kicked both Leobold and the Council bastards at once.

Tirendell bit his lip as he looked at the Black Knight who blocked the bombardment.

‘You are strong, I admit… But it won’t be like that next time!’

As he turned his body, the elves began to retreat.

The airship fleet concentrated its fire on Leobold and he deliberately dropped his Black Knight on the ground.

‘It’s hard to pretend to be hit.’

His acting skills that he had trained for years worked well enough that Elvrande’s fleet slowly moved away and ran away.

Leobold approached a branch of Yggdrasil nearby.

‘Arma. How does it compare to what’s on the Pirate Island?’

“It seems to be a powerful dark magic. It has the same wavelength as Grakies.”

‘Dark magic to corrupt Yggdrasil… Wasn’t it their god?’

“They use it to create gods, so using it for something else is not a big deal.”

‘Well, that’s true.’

Anyway, this branch was the source of the severe famine that spread over the two kingdoms of Resort and Banover.

As if to prove it, the land around it was quite fertile.

‘Does it absorb the vitality of the two kingdoms? That means it can also emit vitality.’

“Do you want to secure it?”

‘Retrieve it with Settler and display a hologram. They won’t notice since they’re far away.’

If they were close, they would see through his deception, but both Elvrande and the Alliance forces had run away.

A moment later, Settler activated the gravity crane and pulled out Yggdrasil along with the ground.

The hologram was scattered around and it looked like Yggdrasil was burning in a fire.

“That’s convincing.”

Leobold shrugged his shoulders and began to return with his sword in his hand.

Tirendell, who was running away in the distance, turned his eyes at the shout of his subordinate.

Yggdrasil’s branch was burning in fire.

He felt like he could hear the scream of the tree and he pushed back his tears.

“I will stake my life to kill you… I swear!”