Finally, after looking at the time, I stood up.

“Alright, that’s one hour. Let’s go.”

Before I could even turn around, Zeshion had already opened a portal leading to the southern end of the country’s borders. The exit location was up in the sky, but for some reason, the air felt solid enough to let us walk forward. Did Zeshion do this too?

Anyway, I turned to look down, and as expected, the Empire’s army didn’t retreat. Not even one of them backed away; they were all standing in attention and ready to fight at any moment.

“…”

I sighed, seeing the empire’s idiocy.

Are they really willing to waste hundreds, no, millions of lives just for their “great visions”? That’s so… The Empire’s prince’s head might’ve been empty.

I stood ahead of everyone, with Zesion to my right, Vermeil to my left, and Blanc further back. I think just the four of us are more than enough to handle the entire enemy army.

Still, to instill a sense of fear in their hearts, we decided to go all out.

After watching the empire’s army staring up at the four of us, I turned to Zeshion and nodded. A few seconds later, hundreds of thousands of portals opened up behind us, whereupon tamers of the 9th stage jumped out of them.

None of them came empty-handed, as they were all holding rifles in their hands. Right, against the enemy consisting of 50 million troops, we prepared a grand total of 10,000 troops.

What? Not enough? As I said earlier, this much isn’t even needed. The 100 thousand tamers we called over were nothing but scarecrows, actually. Ah, though they would be firing their guns, of course.

I raised my hand in a signal, prompting everyone to kneel down on one knee and aim the rifles. Everyone has undergone proper training for it, so the action didn’t seem off at all.

Just like that, I let them hold their position before raising my voice once more.

“It’s really unfortunate, Soldiers of the Empire. The one-hour grace period is over. From now on, every single one of you that has entered our country’s territory will be deemed an extermination target!”

As I was speaking, a few figures started to zip across the sky, flying up, higher than our current altitude. I could also see the tubby from earlier with them. After reaching an altitude that we would need to crane our necks to look up, the leader-like one among them began to speak with a condescending tone.

“President Will, and isn’t this God Zeshion? What a welcome party! I praise you for your efforts in bringing your sluggish bodies over just to present your own necks to the Empire!”

This guy… could he be that idiotic prince? I asked Fatima through the Mental Scape, but it seems like he’s not. Though he’s the general of the Empire’s army.

“General Ymir, I know you have your own complexes, but can’t you fly down a little lower? It’ll hurt a lot if you fall from such a high place.”

I smiled wryly while massaging the back of my neck.

“Craning our necks just to hear you speak bullsh*t isn’t worth it.”

Although I thought he’d snap with anger, he simply scoffed at me before responding with a fearless smile.

“Hah! As expected of the leader of a backwater kingdom, your brain is just as slow as your kingdom’s progress! Our Empire has our standards, and we can’t greet you at the same height!”

“Really?”

I snapped my hands, and, in an instant, their group’s figures suddenly crashed down at a bullet’s speed.

*BAM!*

The five of them, all together, slammed against the hard ground with a powerful thud. I stared down at them, crouching down while placing my hands before my mouth, shouting.

“There! I told you it’d hurt if you didn’t lower your altitude, and you didn’t listen to my warning!”

“Y-You b*stard…!” 𝘪.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The general roared while he kneeled on the ground, fighting the powerful gravity weighing down on them.

“A sneak attack?! How cowardly!”

“Ahh… you’re not one to talk, aren’t you? If we didn’t detect your intrusion, you’re all planning to launch a surprise attack against our country, right? And, I did warn you, so it’s not a sneak attack.”

“…!”

The general’s face turned beet red as if he were a boiled octopus. Looks like this battle of tongues is once again my win!

“Anyway, enough playing around. To the Empire b*tches, run away if you want to live. March forward, and death is the only thing waiting for you.”

I stood up, raised my fist, and swung it down.

*BANG!*

The sound of the rifles firing became unified as a shower of bullets fell toward the army. Each bullet flew at an angle, so it managed to take two or three tamers before it hit the ground. The difference in performance between the degraded bullet copies that the Empire made and the originals that we made was as obvious as day and night.

Cocking the loading bolt to prepare the next bullet took less than a second, so the second volley came down before they could even begin to check who got hit.

*BANG!*

Another simultaneous firing, and another wave of tamers died or were heavily injured. During the third volley, some were finally able to respond, raising their barriers to block the guns, but their barriers weren’t able to block the shots.

It did lessen the power, but the bullets remained fatal to them. Another batch died off!

The army, after roughly a hundred thousand of their tamers died, didn’t miss the chance to fight back. The first one to respond was the 1 million troops aimed at the copy of the rifles. They pulled the trigger, and with a 10% accident rate, some failed to fire while others exploded.

The ones that successfully fired, on the other hand, didn’t have enough force to break the “platform” we were standing on. Their attack touched nothing but the air.

“Pitiful…”

Just as I was muttering to myself, I saw the previous 50,000 troops that were equipped with Ember’s guns. They moved around, scattering all over the entire army, before aiming their rifles.

*TACK!*

But after they pressed the trigger, only the sound of the hammer hitting could be heard. Their bullets didn’t fly! It was a misfire!

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