Temelikan Warriors fell like autumn leaves.
Warriors who charged without knowing pain?
Those whose body parts had been physically blown away, leaving them unable to charge, lay face down on the ground, waiting only for death.
The crossfire pouring across the open ground, where there was no cover, literally ground people down. Warriors who recklessly entered the Kill Zone could not endure even a minute before collapsing.
The one most bewildered by this was the Shaman of the Temelikan Tribe.
The charge tactic that had always worked suddenly stopped working, and the panicked Shaman hurriedly tried to cast a spell.
The Mage in the company, who was casting detection magic, soon detected traces of that spell.
" Bearing 0-4-2! Distance about 2500m! I sense traces of a Shaman's spell!"
Soon, three Cannons aimed at the Shaman. Boasting a rate of fire of six Shells per minute, they turned the spot where the Shaman stood into a wasteland.
Then the spells placed on the warriors began to unravel one by one.
By then, the enemies had already advanced too deep into the Kill Zone to turn back.
"Huh...?"
One by one, the Halos floating above their heads disappeared.
Until then, even as their comrades died, these men had felt no fear. Now, however, fear forced its way into their hearts.
"Wait, why am I here—"
Thwack—!
The head of a comrade who had stopped in confusion disappeared.
Bullets flying at unavoidable speeds shattered limbs, while a Shell that scored a direct hit made more than ten warriors vanish.
Everyone slowly turned around and began to flee.
Even Barbarian Warriors who routinely slaughtered, plundered, and burned could not escape this kind of fear.
There was at least something one could resist when facing death by spear and blade.
If it was a fair engagement, fought at a distance where both sides could harm each other, even Barbarian Warriors could accept death honorably and fight on.
But this was different.
Something they could neither perceive nor properly see was tearing their bodies apart.
It was a miserable end in which not even a corpse remained, let alone an honorable death. They were dying without ever seeing their enemies' faces—a truly pointless death.
The warriors of the Temelikan Tribe, known for never retreating on the battlefield, began turning their backs and fleeing one by one.
What punishment awaited those who retreated?
What about the hell that awaited those who fled the battlefield?
What meaning did any of that have?
Hell was already right before their eyes.
"What is that—Gwaaak!"
"I don't want to die like this—"
"Kuhak..."
The 7.62mm rounds that reduced people to rags and the 20mm Autocannon rounds that blew their bodies apart left them no time to utter their final words before death.
Of course, some natives wielded a peculiar energy. They were the equivalent of knights in the Western Army.
Those wrapped in green energy bravely charged toward the Machine Gun position.
"Enemy Aura User spotted!"
"We will respond."
The ones assigned to deal with such Aura Users were the Imperial Guard Heavy Infantry.
The Southern Army did not underestimate the potential of magic, either. They knew all too well how powerful magic could become when combined with technology.
At least one Aura User was assigned to each company.
Even soldiers who had trained only in simple Aura techniques and basic knight training possessed tremendous power.
"Dieeee!"
Clang—!
The Barbarian Warrior's axe could not pierce the Magic Stone-steel alloy gauntlet wrapped in Aura.
In response, the Heavy Infantry unleashed a point-blank barrage from the Machine Gun attached to their right hands. The tens-of-kg weapon was enough to shatter the Aura protection of a warrior whose strength had already been heavily drained.
With a chilling chainsaw sound, the Barbarian Warrior's body was split in half.
The Heavy Infantry, essentially Tanks in human form, held the line and dealt with the warriors who charged them alone.
Before anyone noticed, nothing remained on the plain but corpses.
All 1,000 warriors had been killed.
It was a perfect victory that no one could dispute.
The ones most surprised by this result were the soldiers of the domain.
After all, they had never expected much from the Southern reinforcements in the first place.
"It would be good if they could handle just 200 of them."
That thought vanished the moment all the Machine Guns on the front line opened fire.
Drrrrr—!
The Machine Gun reports echoed simultaneously, startling the soldiers. Meanwhile, the Barbarian Warriors who had begun their brave charge collapsed one after another, even from a distance.
Their ranks were dyed red. Every time the Southern Army's weapons spat flames, groups of Barbarians were swept away in droves.
The solemnity of battle? The tension of worrying that their allies might be harmed? None of it existed.
No, could this even be called a battle in the first place?
It felt like a young child tormenting a swarm of ants.
Whenever the Southern Army's new weapons fired beams of light, the Barbarian Warriors died in droves, like ants being trampled underfoot.
"Is, is that magic...?"
The Barony of Eirene lay at the very edge of the West. Located in the most remote part of the region, it was slow to receive news.
As a result, the soldiers had no idea what kind of weapon a Machine Gun was.
"You idiot, would Mages come in such numbers to a small domain like ours?"
"But if that isn't magic, what is it?"
They say sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The soldiers could not even comprehend what kind of weapons they were witnessing, yet the battle was already nearing its end.
When the Shaman disappeared, the Halos that had floated above the Temelikan Warriors' heads vanished as well.
Those who understood what was happening slowly backed away before beginning to flee one by one.
"Those bastards are running!"
When the sharp-eyed soldiers first shouted this, no one believed them.
They knew all too well how insane the Temelikan Warriors were.
Madmen who would chase their enemies for several minutes even with a spear stuck in their heads. Warriors like the undead, who refused to die even when killed. A crazed war tribe that regarded death on the battlefield as salvation.
Those guys were running away?
Such a thing had not happened even once in the past 50 years.
"Uh, it looks like those guys really are running away?"
However, once the Barbarians' charge came to a halt, no one could deny it.
Of course, running away did not mean they could survive.
The red light of tracer rounds pursued the fleeing warriors to the very end, wiping them all out.
Even compared with the conflicts against the Barbarians over the past 50 years, dating back to the reign of Kaiser III, this was an overwhelming war record.
***
Edwin, who had been watching the battle from inside the castle, hurried down from the castle walls as soon as the fighting ended.
He was not well versed in politics. While his fellow nobles offered bribes to advance their positions, Edwin had quietly focused on managing his own domain.
He knew nothing of the social gatherings of Central nobles or the political language used by high-ranking nobles.
But there was one thing he understood clearly.
He knew what it meant to wipe out an enemy with such overwhelming firepower in front of a lord who had openly refused to participate in the battle.
'If I'd known things would turn out like this, I should have done something to help.'
He had been foolish to assume that everything would be fine simply because they had said so. Thinking this, Edwin gathered his subordinates and hurried to the Southern Army Trench.
He could only hope that the Southern Army would not form a bad impression of the Barony of Eirene because of what had happened.
"The Barbarians are truly amazing. To think they charged even after seeing this."
"That's all thanks to the Shaman's spell. You saw how they fled as soon as the artillery blew the Shaman away."
The soldiers cleaning up the battlefield showed no sign of tension.
Their composure made the tension felt by Edwin and the domain defense force seem almost foolish.
'Has the technological gap between the South and the West really grown this wide over the past few decades?'
They were clearly armies living in the same era, yet the technology they used seemed generations apart.
The Southern Army did not even appear to have three Mages or Aura Users among its soldiers. Yet their weapons unleashed power that seemed almost magical.
With bullets of such power flying out hundreds of times per minute, mere Barbarians had no chance of enduring them.
"If our domain also had weapons like those, we wouldn't have suffered any damage from the Barbarians."
However, there was no time for regret. Finding Captain James came first.
"Ah, Lord Edwin."
Captain James was inspecting supplies in the rear. The South had provided an excessive amount of supplies for a single company.
This was the result of the South's overwhelming production capacity after it had adopted a Total War system.
It was made possible by the large supply ships being launched one after another and the convenience of transporting materials with military trucks.
'Supplies can be made in 20 hours, but it takes 20 years to make one soldier.'
'An army must eat well to advance.'
Following those words of Kyle Leopold, the Southern Army was prioritizing the expansion of its supply capacity over increasing the size of its army.
Naturally, Edwin could not help but be surprised.
He was a lord who had commanded an army himself, so he knew how difficult it was to deliver sufficient supplies to a remote area.
Feeling the difference between the stagnant West and the steadily developing South, he spoke carefully.
"I am truly sorry for not helping in the battle. I could not step forward rashly because I wasn't certain."
"Haha, it's fine. You trusted us and rejected the proposal, so it's only natural that we share the responsibility."
Unexpectedly, Captain James brushed the matter aside as though it were of little importance.
Instead, he dismissed the people around them and got straight to the point.
"The Barbarians have long been a headache for the West, haven't they?"
"That's right."
"Therefore, Duke Kyle is planning a large-scale Barbarian Subjugation Campaign."
The Barbarian Subjugation Campaign.
It was a long-cherished ambition of the West, pursued for the past 1,000 years.
The eastern part of the territory was entirely covered by the Arbel Mountains, while the sea blocked the southwest. As a result, the West had always suffered from a shortage of land.
The vast northwestern plains occupied by nomadic peoples had therefore remained a concern for the Western Grand Dukes.
"Barbarian subjugation... I'd like to see it happen, if possible, but I'm not sure it's feasible."
The subjugation campaigns attempted by generations of rulers had always ended poorly.
Crossing the border and marching north was difficult, but manageable.
Occupying and holding that land, however, was another matter entirely.
Once the powerful Central Army completed the occupation and returned to the center, the Barbarian Warriors, who feared no death, would rush in and reclaim the land.
But they could not keep sending forces from the center, across the mountains, every time a raid occurred.
Even if they occupied the land, they could not hold it.
In the end, the West's Barbarian subjugation campaigns always became a waste of the budget, with territory repeatedly taken and retaken.
But would this time be any different?
Captain James answered without hesitation.
"Of course it will. His Grace, Duke Kyle, views this Barbarian subjugation as a Joint Operation between the Southern Army and the Western Army."
"Joint Operation? With our army?"
Would the Western Army be of any help against the Southern Army, whose power seemed almost magical?
That doubt quickly faded.
"Participation in the Joint Operation is free. However, we will lend our weapons to the armies of the domains that join us and teach them how to operate them."
"Weapons? You mean those Machine Guns?"
"Of course. Even after the Southern Army withdraws, we must leave behind enough forces to protect the territory we've secured."
There was no way a lord who had just witnessed the Barbarians being ground down by Machine Guns before his eyes would refuse such a proposal.
"Of course, the conditions will be strict. Since the Western Army will be learning our weapon system, they must unconditionally follow our commands and submit to our control. Is that acceptable?"
"Of course. Our army will cooperate as well."
Among the domains along the Western Border where the Southern Army intervened, not a single one refused Kyle's Joint Operation proposal.
Modernization of the Western Army.
Strengthening trust and bonds through Joint Operations.
Establishing a command system in which the South would take command of the Western Army.
The first step toward the merger of the South and the West had begun successfully.