Emperor of Steel - Chapter 737 - Undead Wave 2
Less than an hour after Vladimir’s request, the heads of the six nations gathered at the Old Libiya Imperial Palace where Luke was staying.
Everyone was stiff as they were already informed of what was happening around.
No, the heads of the nations, who shared borders with Libiya Kingdom, were more nervous.
And among them was Luke.
“As we don’t have much time on our hands, I will go straight to the point. I think it is important for us to know the actual number of the Undead.”
Starting with Vladimir, the heads of each nation reported what they were relayed from their nations.
“I received a report just before I came here, and it seems like there is more than 3 million Undead who are invading the western border of Volga.”
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“Ugh, our Navarre Duchy is having around 1 million of them.”
“According to the reports given by our Castia Army, which is in the western army, the number of Undead entering Baroque is estimated to be around 2 million.”
When King James II of Castia was done, everyone looked over to Luke.
It was because the Symphonia Kingdom was the nation that bordered the Libiya Kingdom but hadn’t spoken yet.
Luke being silent for a moment, opened his mouth with a heavy sigh.
“Currently, there is at least 5 million Undead coming in from the Pamire Mountains of the Northwest.”
“5-5 million!”
King Charles of the Irea Kingdom jumped at the number.
There was a reason why a man who never showed any temperament was displaying all sorts of emotions.
If the Symphonia Kingdom got wiped out, the next target would be the neighboring nation, Irea Kingdom.
Reina, who had already heard the news from Luke, sighed.
She knew that the Veritas’s warlocks had already taken over the Libiya Kingdom, but she never thought that they would have such hate directed toward Luke.
‘Maybe we should be glad that they didn’t send all of their Undead toward Symphonia.’
Well, the total number of Undead that was reported was 11 million.
Everyone gulped at realizing the number.
“Uh! If that is the number, then doesn’t it mean that more than half of Libiya Kingdom has turned into Undead?”
“What the hell were the intelligence men even doing?! I don’t understand why they weren’t able to figure something out till this point!”
Before the war, the heads of each of the nation heard from Luke about remnants of the Veritas Magic Tower taking shelter in the Libiya Kingdom, helping them with the Undead.
To determine the authenticity of the information given and the changes in the Libiya Kingdom, they all sent their own intelligence officers into Libiya Kingdom.
However, they weren’t able to see any reports from there.
Then, the Baroque Empire’s attempt to weaponize Vers was known, and they all ran with their troops.
Meanwhile, the Libiya Kingdom did the most unexpected thing of supporting the Baroque Empire and even spread the zombie poison, and it confirmed that Libiya was indeed creating the Undead.
And once the division of the Baroque Empire’s land was done, it was their plan to invade the Libiya Kingdom right away, but they got attacked first.
“Who on earth would create 11 million undead?”
Luke answered Vladimir’s question, “It looks like something other than the normal process has been done.”
“What do you mean…?”
“It was expected, but I think that they developed a new zombie poison that can create tens of thousands of zombies at once, or a new zombie poison that could turn the infected people into Undead only when necessary.”
Luke decided that the former one was more likely.
According to the reports from the spies who infiltrated the Libiya Kingdom, there was a story about Shaikan or Arsene sending in priests to all places of the Libiya Kingdom to heal them or give them food.
‘They weren’t real priests.’
At that time, he thought that Arsene was trying to simply solidify the ruling and gain the public sentiment, but it seemed like he had planned something sinister.
“Anyway, we need to figure out a way to wipe out the undead right away.”
At Luke’s words, James II glanced at Reina and asked, “There is a way to clean them… like the last time. Why not bring them all to one place and destroy them or purify them?”
Reina, who helped the 2nd squad of the Continental Alliance, helped soldiers that turned into Undead.
However, Henry III of Navarre Duchy declined his request.
“I am well aware of Her Holiness and her power… Can she really wipe out 11 million undead?”
“There might be a lot more people who got infected before we even make a trap, and it will make the purifying more troublesome.”
“Before that, we also need to see which nation has to be saved first.”
At President Vladimir’s words, the eyes of each head changed. The first nation would be given the helping hand would be the least damaged one.
While everyone was silent, King Charles opened his mouth.
“Of course, I think that we need to deal with the Undead in the Symphonia Kingdom right away. Most of the Undead are over there.”
“Isn’t that because the Irea Kingdom is very close to Symphonia Kingdom? Among the Continental Alliance, the Navarre Duchy is the smallest and has the weakest military power. This means that our nation is in a state where we are already in fire!”
At Charles words, Henry jumped out.
Unlike the other nations where they had troops governing their homes, he had no troops left as he sent everyone for the war.
It was because he believed that after the Baroque got taken down, he would get an estate of the Baroque Empire.
And his gamble was a success, but it turned into a hell in a short time.
At that time, President Vladimir intervened.
“I understand what His Majesty Henry III is saying. We are also in such a position. So, can’t be of any help in this situation,”
Having said that, he looked at Reina and begged her.
“Your Holiness, well, princess. I know it is wrong of me to say such words, but the Volga people were once the people of the princess. Please don’t abandon the people of Volga. Direct your hate toward me and the leaders.”
Vladimir got up from his seat and knelt in front of Reina.
The knights in the room, who were escorting President and Duke Dimitry followed him and knelt as well.
And the situation made Reina feel more guilty.
She wanted to save everyone, but she knew that she didn’t have so much power to do that.
With nothing coming to her head, she turned to Luke.
Even in the toughest situations, her companion had always found answers and solved her problem.
However, she wasn’t simply looking at him with expectant eyes.
Although she wasn’t expecting a massive scale rescue, she knew that Luke would have already started to devise countermeasures to deal with large hordes of zombies.
Vladimir, who saw where her gaze headed, asked impatiently, “I will ask King Luke. Is there any way to overcome this situation?”
If things went like this, all the people of the Republic would turn into zombies.
Therefore, Vladimir wanted Luke to say something optimistic, that it was going to be alright, so he could head home with some hope.
Luke thought about it and opened his mouth.
“A way? There is one. We have already succeeded in purifying a large amount of Undead during the process of taking down Baroque. Of course, this one can’t be compared to the previous one, but I don’t think that it is impossible to solve it like that.”
“It is easy to talk, but…”
Henry III grumbled because it wasn’t the answer that the heads were expecting.
Luke continued, “The most important thing is to believe that we can get through this. If you give up and start being pessimistic even before the war starts, the body will never follow.”
“…”
“As what was said earlier, the Navarre Duchy is in the most dangerous situation. How about evacuating all the people if there are no troops to stop them?”
“Refuge? Where will we send them?”
‘This man, he lost his reasoning.’
Luke sighed as he thought that the king had forgotten his role. A role that Luke had constantly reminded himself.
From what he knew, Henry III wasn’t a very great governor.
However, he was glad that the man wasn’t as rotten as his daughter—Margareta.
Well, he was still a troubled person, so he couldn’t calmly make judgments when a crisis broke out.
However, for the sake of the alliance, instead of blaming him or scolding him, he had to leave the man.
“I heard that there is a mountain range in Veron, the one on the North of the Navarre Duchy. I heard that there was an underground city built by the ancient men, is it not?”
“Ah! The Veron Mountains!”
In ancient times, the Veron Mountains had an underground kingdom that was built by the dwarves.
However, due to the volcanic activity and earthquakes, the underground kingdom got destroyed, and the dwarves who were residing in it scattered throughout the continent.
So naturally, the underground cities were abandoned too.
Yet, the interior of the city wasn’t completely destroyed, and at one time, the explorers even went into the cities and came back with ancient relics. But after being robbed of its relics, the underground city turned into a ghost kingdom once again.
“It is devastated, but I heard that it could still serve as a temporary shelter. If just the entrance is blocked, it will be safe from external attacks for some time, won’t it?”
“Well, definitely…”
People forgot about it as it had been abandoned for a long time.
But when Luke mentioned it, it seemed like the place could be used to safeguard the refugees.
“I will take responsibility for cleansing the Undead. Therefore, please do your very best to prevent any further damage to the Navarre Duchy and the other nations.”
“Fine, we’ll try and see how this goes.”
“I will do whatever I can to help.”
At the end of Luke’s idea, all the heads of the nations shared their opinions and the measures to slow down the process of the Undead spreading and evacuating the people.
The nations, which couldn’t be directly invaded, such as the Castia Kingdom and the Irea Kingdom, promised to provide maximum support with troops and supplies.
Once the meeting was done, they all hurried back to their home nations.
There was no one who missed the point that it was necessary to take action as soon as possible to reduce the damage by even a little.
