The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 141

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

#141. Final Battle

The enemies, having lost as many as ten Level 8 Corrosion Entities in the intermediate battle that took place in Kansas, had now marshaled every remaining force at their disposal to construct their final defensive line.
To protect the “Level 9” entity in the center of Manhattan, which no longer retained its original form, the enemies had constructed a massive defensive perimeter spanning the New York and New Jersey regions—their numbers easily exceeding the pre-D-day American population of 340 million.

“I anticipated their numbers would be significantly reduced after Kansas, but they’ve managed to gather quite the force in the interim.”

From the Situation Room aboard the Hive Hornet, I displayed the real-time footage being magically captured to General MacFarlane.
Captain Cooper’s face, which had been brimming with confidence about annihilating the enemies before arriving in New York, grew darkly grave.

“The numbers are alarmingly high. This exceeds our projections.”

The enemy count I had ascertained through magic was approximately 400 million.
Considering that we had eliminated over 200 million enemies in the Kansas battle, the sheer magnitude was staggering.
The problem lay in the fact that each individual entity possessed formidable combat strength that could not be dismissed.
The vast majority of Corrosion Entities that had appeared in America originally possessed combat power sufficient for armed civilians to engage them in battle.
One-on-one encounters required some degree of caution, but with three or more armed personnel, one could reliably subdue a single entity.
However, the Corrosion Entities now defending New York were creatures whose smallest specimens exceeded three meters in height, possessing massive frames.

“That’s strange. I don’t see the weaker entities that usually appear.”

At Captain Cooper’s observation, my phantom nodded and displayed footage from another location.
There, a one-meter-tall “weak” Corrosion Entity, as Captain Cooper had described, was being attacked and consumed by another Corrosion Entity.

“That is….”
“Predation? They’re devouring one another?”

It did not appear to be driven by hunger, with them attacking each other out of desperation.
Otherwise, they would have precisely targeted and torn away only the portions containing the mana stone.
Moreover, the behavior of the entity being consumed was equally abnormal.
As though it were the natural course of action, the victim actually exposed its abdomen and revealed its vulnerabilities, positioning itself to make it easier for its attacker to deliver the killing blow.
And moments later, the body of the entity that had absorbed the mana stone from its similarly-sized companion began to undergo a transformation.

“Grrrrgh! Grrrraaagh! Kweeeeeaaaaahhh!!”

I couldn’t say whether Corrosion Entities felt pain, but the enemy’s condition visible on the monitors was dire.
The rigid shell containing its body ruptured from internal pressure, and bodily fluids gushed out like blood.
It resembled an invisible colossal hand forcefully kneading a living creature into a different form.

“It’s grown larger.”
“So that’s how they were creating higher-tier Corrosion Entities.”

General MacFarlane and Captain Cooper spoke with grave expressions.

“What you’re seeing is relatively presentable. The sight of higher-tier Corrosion Entities engaging in the same process is far too grotesque to show. In any case, the enemy has been repeatedly elevating their levels through this method. That’s why you won’t find any lower-tier Corrosion Entities on this defensive line.”
“Are you saying they combine two Level 1 Corrosion Entities to create a Level 2?”
“Based on our reconnaissance, the efficiency isn’t quite that favorable. It appears efficiency decreases at higher tiers. For instance, a Level 1 Corrosion Entity only needs to consume one other Level 1 to become Level 2, but a Level 2 requires consuming at least two Level 2s to reach Level 3. For Level 3 to become Level 4, it seems four are necessary.”

“By that calculation, creating a single Level 4 Corrosion Entity would require thirty Level 1s?”
“That’s likely why they’re not multiplying indefinitely.”
“Wait—by that math, creating one Level 5 would require eight Level 4 Corrosion Entities to be consumed?”
“It appears so.”
“If the same pattern holds all the way to Level 8…”
“If the same formula applies through Level 8, the number of Level 1 Corrosion Entities required to create a single Level 8 would be 9,845,550. Roughly ten million, you could say.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask, but Level 9…”
“1,270,075,950.”
“Now I understand why there’s only one Level 9 Corrosion Entity.”

If a Level 9 Corrosion Entity emerged through the same formula, it would require 128 Level 8 Corrosion Entities to be consumed to create that single specimen.
The problem was that even after consuming all those entities, the resulting Level 9 wouldn’t possess strength equivalent to the combined power of those 128 Level 8s.
For that reason, the probability of another Level 9 Corrosion Entity appearing was virtually zero.

“Even if they devoured all 400 million entities present, it’s questionable whether they could create even one additional Level 9. We can safely disregard the risk of a second Level 9 existing. The real concern is the Level 8 Corrosion Entities—we’ve confirmed twenty so far.”
“We barely managed to kill ten, and only by preparing for total annihilation. Twenty…”

Watching General MacFarlane exhale heavily, I smiled.

“That was before Atlas and Hive Hornet joined us. Now both can operate simultaneously. Moreover, the overall quality of our armaments and the number of Steel Golems have increased. I’d argue our situation is far more favorable now than it was then.”
“However, in the last engagement, we had to expend one Hive Hornet’s mana reactor per Level 8 Corrosion Entity. Though you and Barden upgraded our main force Steel Golems, that alone won’t suffice against Level 8 Corrosion Entities, will it?”

No matter how many soldiers with rifles you assembled, they couldn’t face a tank.
Unless our ‘firepower’ could penetrate the enemy’s ‘defense,’ rifle rounds alone would never pierce tank armor without specialized weapons like anti-tank missiles.
Yet despite the General’s concerns, I gazed toward the enemy’s position with an easy smile, my expression composed and unhurried.

“It’s not just the Steel Golems that have been renewed, is it? Allow me to show you firsthand with your own eyes, General, just how formidable the power a Mage can wield becomes when operating within a moving Magic Tower.”

As my phantom dissipated like smoke and vanished from sight, the Atlas beneath the Hive Hornet began to move.
The colossal mobile Magic Tower, standing sixty meters tall, spread its legs wide to lower its center of gravity, and a torrent of magical energy so immense that even ordinary civilians could feel it with their skin began to swirl around the Atlas.

“That is….”
“Could it be attempting to cast a spell?”

The entire body of the Atlas, now channeling magic, glowed with intricate magical circles inscribed across its surface, creating patterns as beautiful as luminous tattoos.
More than that, upon the ground where the Atlas stood, a colossal magical circle hundreds of meters in diameter—befitting a caster of sixty-meter proportions—blazed with dazzling light as it hungrily devoured all the mana from its surroundings.

“SCREEEEEECH!”
“KIEEEEEEE!!”

In that instant, the Corrosion Entities, sensing the overwhelming surge of magical energy that could be felt even ten kilometers away, suddenly surged toward our position.
As if they understood exactly what calamity would befall them the moment my spell activated.
Detecting the enemy’s movement, General MacFarlane urgently issued combat orders to our forces.

“All units, assume maximum combat readiness. Do not allow the enemy to approach under any circumstances until the Atlas completes its spell!”

The flying Golems waiting on the deck of the Hive Hornet, the aerial carrier, launched skyward in unison, while the drop ports below opened and ten-meter Steel Golems poured down like rain.
Simultaneously, a torrential barrage of artillery fire from the Steel Golem legions rained down like a downpour against the wave of Monsters cascading across the ground like an avalanche.

-BOOM! KABOOM KABOOM BOOM! KABOOM KABOOM BOOM!!-

“KIEEEEE!!! QUEEEEEAK!!”

As the insectoid Monster struck by the direct hit burst apart like a watermelon, the anguished roars of enraged creatures pierced through the sound of artillery and echoed across the battlefield.
While massive mandibles, capable of severing even the sturdy waist of a Steel Golem in an instant, snapped and tore at the Golems in showers of sparks, a Pilot, enraged by his comrade’s death, swung a colossal blade and severed a Monster’s head from its body.
Forty thousand against four hundred million.
Despite the overwhelming numerical disadvantage—requiring each soldier to eliminate ten thousand creatures just to achieve parity—the Golem legions under General MacFarlane’s command stood firm without a single retreat, fighting with unwavering valor.
After all, their objective was not to reduce the enemy’s numbers, but merely to prevent those creatures from reaching me.
Ma Sungjun would find a way.
Ma Sungjun possessed the means to overturn this catastrophic disadvantage.
This belief did not stem merely from experience accumulated fighting alongside this man named Sung-jun.
The intense surge of magical energy raging like a tempest at their backs was emanating a wave so powerful it instilled the conviction that it could reverse the overwhelming odds.
A spell of absolute magnitude that would ordinarily require thousands upon thousands of Mages channeling their full power within a city-scale magical circle to activate.
An absolute-tier spell so formidable that even my Teacher could not activate it through their own power alone was now appearing for the first time in a world where the very concept of magic had never existed.

“Reducing our numbers while strengthening individual units may be strategically sound—after all, no amount of eggs can shatter a rock. But you chose the wrong opponent. That strategy might work against ordinary foes, but against Mages, it’s nothing short of catastrophic.”

My teacher Minastrias’s words echoed in my mind.
How every fool who had adopted a “defensive” strategy against Mages in the past had met their doom.
My teacher had said the only way to face a Mage was through relentless “offense.”

‘In the world I came from, foolish warriors would sometimes barricade themselves behind fortified defenses, attempting defensive warfare against Mages. They’d coat their strongholds in holy magic and protective enchantments, buying time against their adversaries. Do you understand why that’s such a foolish choice?’

Young Sung-jun pondered deeply upon hearing his teacher’s question.
Then he shared his thoughts with his mentor.

‘Because giving a Mage time to cast is a foolish move?’
‘Exactly. You’re sharp, as always. If you wish to defeat a Mage, you must never grant them sufficient casting time. Mages are beings who can grow nearly infinitely stronger given time.’
‘Then how did you handle enemies who chose defense against you, Teacher?’
‘I gathered every Mage at my disposal and gifted them one of the most devastating spells in a Mage’s arsenal. Only overwhelming offensive power can shatter overwhelming defensive power.’

Suddenly, a shadow as vast as a total eclipse descended upon the earth.
A colossal darkness that suggested the sunlight illuminating the enemies moments before was the last they would ever see on Earth.
It was the supreme spell of Mages—a mythical calamity capable of reversing ten thousand times their numerical disadvantage in a single stroke, a magic so destructive that even on a world without magic like Earth, it was defined through imagination as the most devastating force imaginable.

“Meteor Strike.”

As my voice rang out like the knell of annihilation, the azure sky shattered asunder, and a second firmament burning black revealed itself.
There was no time to flee.
There was no space to evade.
Like an inescapable sentence of death, dozens of burning stars descended from beyond the Dimensional Gate, becoming apocalypse itself as they fell toward the surface.

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