Resolve To Move Forward

At the time when the war on the Korean Peninsula was intensifying, 5 years and 8 months ago.

“What kind of bullshit is this because of those damned Chinese Communist bastards?”

It was my first time entering the battlefield after being appointed as the commander of the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion.

“Whew, it can’t be helped. For now, dealing with the ones swarming in is the right call. Besides, it looks like the situation around Busan is getting worse too, so the government won’t be able to just sit back and do nothing much longer.”

“Do you really think the Japanese bastards on Tsushima are going to invade?”

“I heard a localized war has already broken out. A lot of personnel will be rushed over. In the meantime, we have to exterminate those bug-like Chinese Communist troops sneaking into Incheon. Otherwise, the guys on the front line are going to have a hard time.”

“With China and North Korea, it’s complete chaos. I wish they’d all just go to hell….”

Even talking like this was only a brief moment of leisure. If full-scale war were to actually break out, there would not be even a single moment to talk.

“Check the supplies and equipment….”

At my words, most of the unit let out hollow laughs.

Even if we wanted to inspect them, we did not have any decent equipment. Most of it was taken by the 1st Generation, and they never handed it down.

At best, all we could do to obtain relics and artifacts was roll around on the battlefield and seize intact ones from enemy corpses.

Even then, if operations command demanded that we turn in the spoils, we had no choice but to hand them over.

It was an unpleasant situation, but the reason was simple.

Unlike us, they claimed the relics had to support the Awakeners who fought on the very front lines with their bodies. We also risked our lives in battle, but compared to those bastards on the front line who endured everything with their flesh, we were in a far more comfortable and safer position.

It was regrettable, but there was nothing to be done about it. If a truly critical situation came, we would have to struggle barehanded just to survive on a collapsing battlefield without any help at all.

“I’m sorry. If I were a more capable company commander, you wouldn’t have had to give up relics so easily….”

“No, sir. In practice, isn’t the only company that hasn’t had its relics taken away the 1st Company?”

In reality, the 1st Company had a 1st Generation black mage as its company commander, so their influence was quite strong. And because they performed quite impressively on actual battlefields, the current military naturally treated them better.

It was unfortunate, but all I could do was fight as actively as possible so my men would not lose their lives in vain.

Sixty people looked at me.

It was a small company made up of 2 platoons and 6 squads, but on the battlefield, we had to become demons and absolute beings.

“Whew, if you’re done preparing, let’s go. Move out!”

In accordance with the operation order, we had to move to the designated place at the designated time, and so we began moving in secret to launch a surprise attack on the enemy position.

And once the operation began, it did not take long to realize that something was wrong.

“Company Commander, our allies are… not here.”

“Ah, fuck. What the hell happened? Why aren’t these bastards coming?”

All around us, there were only enemies.

‘Was the operation… wrong? If not, then what the hell is going on?’

It was a situation I simply could not understand. The operation had definitely been delivered, and I had personally received and confirmed it.

But the situation had gone far beyond expectations, and the place was filled only with enemies.

Then one person stepped forward from the enemy group and shouted.

“Was it only you lot?”

“…A trap?”

“A trap? How laughable.”

The other side sneered. Then, looking around, the Chinese officer spoke.

“You came here claiming it was a surprise attack with only yourselves? Did you really believe that with those numbers you could do anything to us?”

Realizing the situation had gone completely wrong, I thought of the one who had delivered the orders.

‘The 1st Company, those fucking bastards?’

In that instant, I understood the situation. For the past several months of war, they had always competed with us for first and second place in military merit.

But the 1st Company was a self-proclaimed “superior unit” made up of 1st Generation Awakeners, while we were a unit patched together from 2nd Generation members who had at least shown some promise.

So those bastards, always riding high on their superiority complex and looking down on us, had pulled something.

‘At this rate, it’s total annihilation. What do I do?’

We had attacked by surprise and inflicted heavy damage with the opening strike, but the problem was that the enemy outnumbered us too much.

It was the reckless act of charging at what looked like a force of at least 500 men with only 60 men.

‘Even if I raise the undead, there’s no room in this situation. At best… we’ll be wiped out in 10 minutes.’

They were enemies close to elite level, so no matter how formidable a black mage unit we were, there was no answer. It was then, while we were reeling in confusion.

“We treat black mages favorably. And we do not intend to kill everyone. So surrender and defect. We will treat you as prisoners with due courtesy, and if you change your minds, we will guarantee you appropriate positions.”

In the end, it meant we should surrender and be incorporated into the Chinese army.

Looking at my wavering subordinates, I spoke.

“It seems we’ve properly found the place where we’re meant to die today. So… let’s die honorably, like the vicious bastards we are.”

“Fuck, can’t be helped. See you after we die.”

“Operation Number 3!! Execute!!”

With my shout, the unit split into two groups.Then, as they raised their momentum, they began pouring out the spells they had Memorized.

The undead rose, and those undead were strengthened by ‘Bone’-type magic. Then, at the same time as confirming that they were charging at the surroundings without discrimination, part of the force concentrated destruction magic to the rear, pouring their strength into securing an escape route.

It was an operation devised to let even one person survive.

At that, when the enemy officer also raised his hand, they responded by narrowing the space all at once, and a fierce close-quarters clash broke out. A desperate exchange continued as both sides tried somehow to break through or hold the line, and casualties piled up.

Then the first death occurred on our side.

“Gyeong-jin!!”

At the urgent cry, my head turned, and I saw a unit member going berserk in grief at the death of Kim Gyeong-jin, whose head had been torn away by a third.

“Don’t lose it!! Raise him… as undead! Hurry!”

“Fu, fuck!! Fuck!!”

Cursing nonstop, the unit member turned the dead comrade into an Undead Mage and raised him.

Another unit member then began strengthening Kim Gyeong-jin, now an Undead Mage, and as a result there was not a major loss in combat power, but it became the spark that began to shake everyone’s hearts.

After that, the damage rapidly began to spread.

One by one, unit members died. Reinforcement grew harder and harder, the tide of battle turned against us, and it did not take long before splitting the unit for the operation became a disastrous move and the two groups ended up isolated. Just as about 30 percent of the unit had died or been seriously wounded, the enemy officer shouted and asked.

“If you continue to resist, you will all die in the end. We will be reborn as an even stronger unit, using sacrifice as our stepping stone. Do you not realize that your deaths will amount to no more than dog’s deaths!”

I knew. That shout might, perhaps, have been our last chance.

But no matter that we had been betrayed and deceived by our own side, we could not submit to invaders and turn our blades on our own people.

“It’s a foolish decision, but let’s all die. I’m sorry!”

With that shout, I released my mana in earnest and prepared magic as if going on a rampage.

At that, some of the unit focused on defense, and seeing me prepare 5th Circle black magic, the enemy officer grew alarmed and hurriedly shouted.

“Interrupt that magic! He’s a high-ranking black mage. Hurry! Move, damn it!”

Countless attacks came flying in, and the unit members desperately defending against them kept getting wounded and collapsing.

Watching that process with my own eyes, it felt as though tears of blood would flow, but the moment I finally completed and cast the spell, the sight of the unit when I turned around was horror itself.

“Darkness Orb!”

Centered on a fixed area, a ring of darkness spread and inflicted massive damage across a wide range. With that single attack, more than a hundred enemies fell, and in that gap, the unit members who had been waiting urgently used the dead enemies to raise undead and resist.

Amid that, as the Chinese forces faltered, an ally who broke through them shouted.

“We’ve opened a path!”

If we kept fighting to die here, we could surely inflict irreparable damage on the enemy, but just as I judged that saving even one person was the right course and was about to order a retreat.

“Stop them at all costs! We cannot let a high-ranking black mage escape. Hurry!!”

The Chinese forces had grown desperate, and they pressured us as they charged in ready to die. Even amid that, seeing my subordinates exhausting themselves, collapsing, and becoming unable to move any longer made my whole body tremble.

If I could have gone berserk right then, I would have burned everything I had to slaughter every last one of them, but the reality that I could not do as I pleased made it feel bitter beyond words. And then, as that hellish time passed, there came a moment when the number of allies still standing around me could be counted on one hand.

A gigantic Corpse Golem rose to its feet.

No one knew whose work it was, and while everyone was confused, I saw a doll hastily approaching the battlefield throw itself toward the golem, then burrow into it, and at that sight one person came to mind.

‘A great black mage!’

A female black mage, famed as a Golem Meister, was active on the battlefield. Just as I recalled the daily news saying she would soon head down to Busan to stop Japan’s ambition, the golem finally moved, and its explosive speed was so brilliant and fierce that I could not help but wonder whether it was truly speed a golem could produce, and I simply could not tear my eyes away.

But with my mouth, I urgently gave orders.

“Take care of the unit members! Somehow gather every bastard still breathing and bring them back. Focus on defense!”

The unit members who still had strength hurriedly rescued our allies, even commanding undead, and when the enemy forces were being shattered in a short time, I could not hide my grief at the fact that only 21 people, including myself, had survived.

‘If only I… if only I had been more extraordinary, if only my skill had been one step higher, if only I… had been as powerful as that woman!!’

Flames surged up inside my heart, and the corpses of comrades who had fallen before dawn due to someone’s envy and jealousy carved a deep wound into my heart.

Afterward, fewer than 50 enemies survived and fled, but this battle could not be called a victory.

The woman who revealed herself from the Corpse Golem looked at us with a pitying gaze, as though sympathizing with us, but as the unit commander, I bowed my head to the benefactor who had saved my subordinates’ lives.

“Thank you to the savior of our lives.”

“No. I’m sorry. I should have come a little earlier.”

After that, once I heard the full circumstances from Go Yu-jin, I returned straight to the unit and looked for the commander of the 1st Company, but he had already become a traitor and fled the camp.

On that day, the black mage unit was devastated, and the surviving 189 soldiers from several battalions had to be newly reorganized and operate together as a single battalion.