The high‑level forces of Milis were known and feared by many, but the Iron Legion's war council, after years of fighting them, now possessed detailed information on each of their members.
In these years of war, they had come to be publicly called the Ten Generals of Milis.
Each of them was an immensely powerful warrior and a specialist in a particular skill—ordinary soldiers could not defeat them.
Among them was "The Hill" — he had once been an extremely powerful knight, known throughout the continent and even beyond for being like a moving hill.
As his title indicated, no matter how fast the enemy was, few were capable of piercing his armor.
His shield was a magical item that further strengthened both his physical and magical defenses. His armor was said to be almost indestructible, and his battle aura was firm, solid as stone.
He was a powerful Paladin who had given the Iron Legion many problems over the past years.
But, of course, to Milis's misfortune, he was the first of the Ten Generals to encounter the Beast God.
No preparation. No chance of escape.
Rygar used only his fists to crush the feared general and the crusaders accompanying him.
That alone proved that no one in Milis could face Rygar directly—not even the revered Ten Generals stood a chance.
If there wasn't someone capable of withstanding Rygar for at least a few minutes, escaping the Beast God Style was also nearly impossible—mainly because of the Wild Dash.
Another of the Ten Generals was Galgard Nash Venick, who bore the title of Strongest Man. He was, at that moment, the greatest threat to the Iron Legion.
There was also the White Knight, the one who protected the Pope.
His identity remained a mystery, but it was known that he was an Emperor of the Water God Style. There was also Donar Bonart, the Protector of Milis, whom Rygar had faced once, many years ago.
And, beyond them, six other powerful warriors—two of whom also used the Water God Style as their principal method of combat.
This prevalence further showed the holy country's preference for the Water God Style. It made sense, after all, this style was most suited to be taught to knights whose purpose was the maintenance of order and stability.
Even the Ten Generals had been influenced by this preference—although, now, they were no longer ten...
Of the nine remaining generals, four used the Water God Style as their primary weapon.
Interestingly, the only one to reach the level of Emperor in that style was the White Knight.
It was assumed that he had been a direct disciple of the original Water God Style dojo, since Milis, as a country, did not seem to possess all the knowledge of the secret techniques and refined teaching methods of the style.
They had never even had a Water God among their ranks in the past.
One of the generals, in fact, wasn't even a Water King—he was only a Water Saint, though he was proficient in other styles, which made him as strong as any of the Ten Generals.
In any case, this preference may also have minimally influenced Milis's slow progress in its Crusade against the Great Forest.
The Water God Style was more suited for defense.
Sending a general proficient in that style to lay siege to cities might even work, but it was somewhat inefficient compared to more offensive styles.
During the war council, all the gathered information about the generals was discussed: their items, strengths, weaknesses, combat histories.
One thing became clear—except for Galgard, there was no doubt that if any of them met the Beast God in battle, their end would be almost guaranteed.
Even if the White Knight gave his life to protect the Pope, he would not be able to hold out long. At least, those were Rygar's words.
In fact, he also stated that he could certainly kill Galgard—but, since the exact extent of the enemy's magical items' powers was unknown, how long Galgard could resist remained an enigma.
After establishing the fact that Rygar could defeat all of Milis's generals alone, attention then turned to the other more powerful members of the Iron Legion.
If it were only in terms of titles, right after Rygar would come Ghislaine and Ornthorn.
The North Emperor had already proven his strength by even facing Galgard in battle, but he himself admitted that he would lose in an all‑out fight.
Actually, he had almost been killed the last time, and if Lisena hadn't arrived in time and cast large‑scale ice magic on the enemies, distracting Galgard, and then healed him with Saint‑level healing magic, he would probably have died of blood loss.
In any case, there was a question of who was stronger—him or Ghislaine.
But Rygar was almost certain that Ghislaine would win.
Ghislaine was not only a Sword Emperor, she was also a Beast King. The synergy of those two styles made her almost invincible against anyone below the level of God.
Right after those two came Eris, Gretta, and Taes, whom Rygar judged to be approximately equal in strength.
They were powerful even among warriors at the King level, each for different reasons.
Eris was a Sword King trained by the Sword God himself and a North Saint; with her magically enchanted swords and her battle experience, she was a formidable force on the battlefield by herself.
Gretta was a Demon King with eight hundred years of experience; she had once been stronger, but had grown rusty from not having many fights in the past hundred years.
And Taes, by a hair, did not reach the Emperor level. He was a North King in swordsmanship, but his Chantless Magic made him much more dangerous than any swordsman should be.
And right after them came Kilian and Lerov.
Although also powerful and certainly at the King level, both fell a bit short of the others.
Together with Rygar, these were all the top‑level combatants of the Iron Legion.
There were many other talented ones, but who were still too young to demonstrate great battle strength, like Linia, Pursena, Rufus, and Garrison, among others.
There was also the red dragon Ezkalor; as an S‑Rank monster, he was theoretically classified as a King, even more so if oriented to combat.
And there was Verdia. The mage was a question mark.
She could not face a King‑level warrior head‑on, but, ironically, she was the one who came closest to killing one.
Apparently, while troops commanded by her were in the middle of an attack, she suddenly ordered everyone to retreat and began using the King‑level magic "Earth Fissure" in a random direction of the Forest.
And then, by coincidence, there was an ambush army there.
The enemy troops were mostly killed by the earth disaster, and the general leading them, known as Flash Sword, was almost killed in that attack, escaping gravely wounded and later pursued by the Legion's armies.
The elven strategist's tactical foresight was praised to the skies after that feat. This was another reason why few complained about her being the Legion's strategist.
In any case, Verdia was considered a variable.
The same applied to Rufus and Lisena, who could do similar things with magic, and even scarier with their Chantless Magic.
Overall, one could say that the high‑level forces were balanced. There was only one person tipping the scale in favor of the Legion.
One could say that Rygar alone could even kill all the others at the same time, under the right circumstances.
Of course, he didn't say it out loud, but it was what he thought. After all, only he knew the full extent of his abilities.
Still, such a convenient situation did not exist.
It wasn't as if they would all gather on an open plain and allow Rygar to reduce them to ashes with a single Hellish Slash.
But still, Rygar's power was enough for him to wonder: how the hell did Milis plan to win this war with his return?
At that point, they should have sent a letter of surrender as soon as they witnessed his strength.
He shared his thoughts with the council, and they all reached a consensus: Milis could be fanatical, but it was not stupid.
Thinking from that perspective, much of the high‑level combat power was fighting for Rygar.
Ornthorn, Verdia and, consequently, Gretta, Ezkalor, Ghislaine, Eris... For those mentioned, it was a question whether they would continue fighting if Rygar were not alive.
And Rygar would not ask that of them, for at that point, victory would no longer be so clear.
No one spoke those words aloud, but they knew they were true.
Therefore, it was fair to assume that Milis's entire main plan required Rygar to die—somehow.
Various theories arose about how Milis planned to accomplish this. But one thing was clear: whatever the method, they would have to capture Rygar first.
Otherwise, he could escape almost anything they threw at him.
There were also considerations about the high‑level mages in Milis.
They had many capable priests, and several of them were proficient in combining forces to cast magics above their own level.
Therefore, various countermeasures needed to be devised against those priests.
Furthermore, one could not rule out the possibility of an unexpected new ally emerging on the enemy field.
Rygar shuddered at imagining Milis allying with the Dragon God—as irrational as that hypothesis seemed, he still considered it.
On top of all that, there was one especially worrisome factor: Pope Lucios Galard possessed a mysterious ability that supposedly allowed him to see the future—a possible Miko ability.
If this were true, much of the intelligence strategies could be thwarted, should Lucios be capable of anticipating them.
Although the extent of this future vision was not yet clear, it was at least certain that he could foresee things like ambushes.
On this point, unfortunately, there was little choice but to move forward.
In the end, they still had Rygar.
Future sight would not help them summon enough force to kill him.
As for Milis's Memory Miko, she did not represent a great threat: her greatest contribution was the ability to read the minds of the Legion's commanders and extract information.
However, in this particular battle, she would not have a major impact—her ability was powerful but not decisive.
After analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, a battle strategy began to take shape gradually.
A strategy that would make full use of each allied force's potential, ensure greater adaptability on the battlefield, and, ultimately, allow the war to be ended as quickly as possible.
The Iron Legion was powerful, versatile, and formed by exceptional warriors, but it was undeniable that they lacked cohesion, organization, and experience in large‑scale wars—especially compared to Milis and its centuries of military tradition.
After all, the Legion had only existed for about ten years. Growing so rapidly obviously left many organizational holes and structural flaws.
And moreover, if they tried to learn all the things they lacked during the conflict, this war would be extended more than necessary—and that would mean irreparable casualties.
After plotting various possibilities, with different advance strategies and considering the experience and strategic mind of the best there, they decided on a single assault.
A direct offensive, to avoid massive logistical problems.
The Legion would march as a line of destruction across all of Milis's territory, conquering city after city.
To avoid ambushes in their upper echelons, the most powerful warriors would lead armies in pairs, ensuring the total destruction of any chance of counterattack by Milis.
Meanwhile, Rygar would move alone.
He would cover the main battlefront, a sector that would normally require an entire army.
But he would do it alone—acting, in fact, as an army unto himself.
He would take cities and destroy enemies in his path, weakening Milis's battle strength wherever he went.
Throughout the planning, Rygar made an important mental note: he needed to keep Jethou Sand under constant watch.
Although he doubted that the possible traitor would risk exposing himself without having vital information about some secret operation, he still needed to stay vigilant.
Even if he tried to pass messages during the battle, it would be too late—Milis would already be seeing what was happening.
Still, it was better to prevent than to remedy.
After deciding all the advance routes, tribal mobilizations according to their current locations, rendezvous points for the armies and commanders, the meeting, which had already lasted several hours, finally drew to a close.
The only thing left to discuss was what the Iron Legion's final destination would be, regardless of victory or defeat.
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