The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 127

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#127

After enjoying a brief respite of peace, the crew aboard Atlas faced the relentless waves of insectoid monsters with spirits considerably lighter than before.
The only difference from previous encounters was that whenever my phantom materialized through the walls to hand out unfamiliar canned goods, the soldiers’ eyes would gleam as they asked, “Do you happen to have any alcohol?”
Each time, I would answer that “what I retrieved last time was all I had left,” yet not a single soldier believed me.
Even if there truly were no alcohol remaining, they would have preferred to believe otherwise—it was far more enjoyable that way.
Of course, alcohol did remain in my Subspace, but I saw no reason to inform the soldiers of this fact.
Instead, I maintained an ambiguous stance—neither strongly denying nor confirming—which only made their hearts ache with longing.
After all, they would believe the alcohol remained regardless of my denials, and the moment I admitted its existence, soldiers would relentlessly pester me for it.
Hope itself became the strength to endure this tedious battle, so I subtly manipulated the soldiers’ psychology, allowing them to continue fighting with hope in their hearts.

“Just one bottle. Truly, just one bottle would suffice?”
“I’m afraid the alcohol I distributed last time is ‘officially’ all that remains in my possession. No matter how skilled a Mage I am, I cannot create something from nothing.”
“So ‘officially’ none means ‘unofficially’ there is some?”
“I have no comment on that matter.”
“…Ah… suddenly I lack the strength to pull the trigger….”
“By the way, I am comprehensively reviewing all the data from your combat performance here within Atlas. Depending on your achievements, the priority of distribution might change ‘in the future’ when alcohol is obtained.”
“Are you making a promise?”
“I’m saying it could be that way.”
“That’s enough for me.”

We continued our conversation with laughter, yet the unfolding situation was far less optimistic than our tone suggested.
The enemy numbers had increased even further, and the exterior armor plating of Atlas—freshly cleaned just moments ago—had become dirtier than before the cleaning, evidence of the intensifying enemy assault.
Yet I evaluated the increasing enemy numbers as a positive development.

“More enemies concentrating here means fewer are being drawn toward the Hornet Hive. It means we’re properly drawing aggro as intended.”

Since the feint operation began, Atlas had defeated three Level 8 monsters thus far.
This brought the total number of Level 8 monsters I had confirmed on the American Continent to five, and I aboard Atlas had defeated every single one, imprinting Atlas’s capabilities upon our enemies.
This level of achievement was sufficient to capture the attention of even the Level 9 Corrosion Entity that had appeared on the American Continent. After eliminating the fifth Level 8 Corrosion Entity, I expanded the range of my detection magic to prepare for any potential encounters with unexpected enemies.
My assessment was that Atlas’s power alone was still insufficient to confront the Corrosion Entity that had appeared in the United States.
I still lacked enough cards prepared to face the enemy directly.
And those cards were not ones the soldiers aboard Atlas with me needed to prepare, but rather ones the soldiers at the Hornet Hive in the Southern Region had to ready.

***

“Are you asking us to participate in combat as well?”

While Sung-jun aboard Atlas lured a massive horde of enemies northward, creating distance between them, the Hornet Hive—a converted aerial carrier fashioned from the decommissioned USS Hornet, once a museum piece—conducted educational sessions for the civilians housed within its hull.
The objective was to transform civilians capable of joining the battle into operators for the steel golems being continuously produced within the Hornet Hive’s hangar.
Asking survivors who had witnessed the complete annihilation of the U.S. Military—whom they believed to be the world’s strongest on D-day—to emerge from the forests and mountains where they had taken refuge and return to the battlefield was an unreasonable demand, so many survivors flatly rejected the proposal that General MacFarlane himself had extended.
Yet General MacFarlane refused to give up, persistently persuading them and attempting to change each person’s heart one by one.
For some, he triggered their desire for vengeance; for others, he kindled their sense of heroism.
Through persuasion tailored to each survivor’s individual characteristics, those who had begun to open their hearts gradually became steel golem operators and assisted in recovering materials for new golems, while those who had kept their hearts closed began to experience subtle shifts in their resolve upon witnessing their peers’ transformation.

“Damn it. The one asking us to come is the same one we’re supposed to fight. Why should we go to the battlefield?”

George Gershwin, who had abandoned the reasonably well-established Survivor Camp to join the Hornet Hive, was one of the first civilian survivors Sung-jun had encountered upon arriving in the United States.
He had been overseeing the Japanese pilots Sung-jun had left behind when departing Japan for the United States, and he had been persuaded by soldiers piloting steel golems who came seeking him, deciding to board the Hornet Hive; the Japanese pilots accompanying him immediately accepted the proposal to become steel golem operators.
It was beneficial to Sung-jun, and for those Japanese pilots who had grown up watching giant robot anime since childhood, the proposal to become pilots of colossal machines was nothing short of a dream come true.
The problem lay not with the Japanese pilots accompanying Gershwin, but with the civilians who had been protecting the original Survivor Community.
For those who had witnessed with their own eyes the collapse of major cities and the complete annihilation of the U.S. Military after D-day, the flying aircraft carrier and the ten-meter-tall steel giants offered no reassurance whatsoever.

“It’s nothing but a toy. Do you really think we can defeat them with something like this?”
“If you’re so dissatisfied, why didn’t you simply remain at the Survivor Camp?”
“Because of these damned creatures, that’s no longer an option.”

Though Sung-jun’s Atlas had drawn an enormous legion of Corrosion Entities northward, the massive Hornet Hive and its thousands of steel golems did not escape the attention of the remaining enemies.
Many of the remaining enemies continued to devastate the Southern Region daily, attempting to destroy the steel golems that stood guard near the Hornet Hive, and in the process, countless remaining Survivor Camps were trampled and obliterated beneath their feet.
The Survivor Camp where George Gershwin had been was itself barely holding out against enemy attacks thanks to the efforts of Japanese pilots who had become Awakened after receiving artifacts from Sung-jun, so Gershwin could not possibly refuse the Hornet Hive’s offer to bring him to safety.

“If these creatures hadn’t started digging around trying to reclaim American territory in the first place, our camp would have been safe.”
“It might have been safe for a while. But it wouldn’t have remained safe forever. I believe Sung-jun is right. If we simply hide and live for the sake of immediate safety, eventually the last human on Earth will meet their final death. Isn’t this a wonderful opportunity? A chance to become a hero who saves humanity by piloting that magnificent robot? I don’t understand why you’re refusing.”
“Isn’t this a great opportunity? A chance to become a hero who saves humanity by piloting that magnificent robot. I don’t understand why you’re refusing.”

When Yamamoto, who had volunteered first to become the Golem’s Pilot, spoke to Geoseuwin, Geoseuwin replied.

“That’s quite a negative perspective.”
“There’s a reason I feel this way. Not long after I entered the Survivor Camp, a man came with his young daughter, saying monsters were chasing them and asking me to hide them for just one night. I went against the camp members’ objections and let him and his daughter stay. I bandaged his wounds and even gave him precious medicine. Do you know what happened the next day?”
“There’s a reason for everything I do. Not long after I joined the Survivor Camp, a man came near the camp with his young daughter. He said a Monster was chasing them and asked me to hide them for just one night. I went against the other camp members’ objections and let him and his daughter stay. I bandaged his wounds and even gave him precious medicine. Do you know what happened the next day?”

Then Gershwin forced the broken conversation to continue.
Geoseuwin then forced the broken conversation to continue.

“He pointed a gun at me. Said, ‘This is the only way to save my daughter.’ Then he tried to blackmail me into accepting him into the Survivor Camp I’d built. While I was working to establish that Community, this man—who’d done nothing but mock me—suddenly demanded entry.”
“Did you know him?”
“Damn it, he was my neighbor. Every payday when I’d load up the car with bulk emergency rations from the Mart, he’d ridicule me. He’d say the mighty U.S. Military would protect us just fine, so why waste time on such pointless preparations. He never even invited me to his barbecue parties once. But then he had the audacity to demand the food and weapons I’d stockpiled. Said he was weak, so naturally I—being strong—should protect him.”
“…So what did you do?”
“I won’t answer that.”

Considering that Geoseuwin was currently conversing with Yamamoto in perfect condition, it wasn’t difficult to imagine what had become of the man who’d threatened him with a gun.
But Yamamoto didn’t deliberately probe that wound by pointing it out.
Such incidents were commonplace in post-D-day America, and Geoseuwin likely hadn’t sought such an outcome.
From Yamamoto’s perspective, the survivors who’d joined the Hornet Hive fell into two broad categories.
Those like himself who simply wanted the power to become heroes, and those like Geoseuwin who refused to suffer losses under any circumstances.
General MacFarlane understood the psychology of such survivors well, which was why he didn’t forcibly conscript every survivor into his forces.
He hadn’t even imposed the condition that they fight alongside his army in exchange for guaranteed safety.
What the General truly wanted were comrades who would voluntarily step forward and fight at his side.
The problem was that such an approach proved inefficient for expanding their numbers.
Once the enemies realized that the Hornet Hive’s operational objective was to rally survivors remaining in the Southern Region of the American Continent, they shifted tactics—instead of attacking the aerial carrier directly, they targeted the Survivor Camps at anticipated rally points. Consequently, soldiers sent to locate camps increasingly discovered only corpses, not living survivors.
To counter this crisis, the General dramatically increased the number of Golem Operators deployed outside the Hornet Hive, leaving the carrier itself dangerously understaffed.
Though Golems were plentiful, Operators were scarce. Yet despite witnessing this shortage firsthand, Geoseuwin and the remaining survivors stubbornly refused to board any Golems.
Nevertheless, even observing what could be called their selfish behavior, General MacFarlane took no forceful measures.
When his Adjutant suggested they should be conscripted by force, the General merely smiled and shook his head.

“Don’t rush. When the time comes, they’ll understand.”
“Understand what, sir?”
“That deep within their hearts, there remains a sense of justice for others.”

General MacFarlane deliberately dispersed his encirclement, instructing his forces to leave several Survivor Camps unassimilated.
Leaving them exposed to potential Corrosion Entity attacks.
Positioned at a safe distance where he could immediately deploy reinforcements if crisis struck, the General summoned the survivors who’d refused to become Operators to the briefing room.
The large monitor in the briefing room displayed a four-person Survivor Camp that appeared moments away from being swarmed by a small pack of insectoid Corrosion Entities.

“That’s….”
“As I mentioned before, the enemy’s priority has shifted to preemptively eliminating survivors who might join our forces. Attacks on our main base—this aerial carrier—have decreased relatively, but conversely, the danger to undefended Survivor Camps has intensified. We’re dispersing available Soldiers as widely as possible to respond, but we’re critically understaffed.”
“So you called us here to witness this? To make us feel like murderers for refusing to become Soldiers? I’m sorry, General, but you’ve got the wrong address. Do you really think the deaths we’ve turned away from on this cursed American soil number only one or two?”
“I understand. I know how much pain you carry inside, how you’ve had to suppress it and turn away from death before your eyes. And I know how powerless and agonizing that experience is. I too had to lock myself in a safe base to preserve my subordinates’ lives while abandoning the crumbling cities, forcing myself to accept it. I cannot sacrifice my soldiers’ lives to save them. I’m making the right choice.”

On the screen, the Survivor Camp began returning fire against the insectoid Monsters.
In close-up, a Young Girl who appeared to be only a middle schooler was visible, tears streaming down her face as she fired bullets at the creatures.

“But there is a fundamental difference between who I was then and who you are now. Back then, I possessed no power whatsoever—I could only stand helpless as death approached. Yet you possess the strength to save that Young Girl you see over there.”
“We don’t have such power.”
“You do. You simply refused to claim it, but if you truly wished, you could grasp that formidable strength in your hands whenever you choose. Whether you wield it to fight the enemy or wait for others to fight in your stead—that is your decision alone.”

Upon hearing General MacFarlane’s words, Geoseuwin spat upon the ground and rose from his seat.

“Dirty tactics.”
“A capable commander must first soil their own hands with mud in pursuit of victory.”

Geoseuwin glared at MacFarlane before sprinting toward the direction of the Hangar without another word.
Moments later, a colossal steel golem standing four meters tall burst forth onto the monitor screen, leaping down toward the enemies assaulting the Survivor Camp.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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