The Proatine Imperial Army and the allied forces were now facing the biggest threat since the beginning of the war.

None of them had ever imagined, even in their wildest dreams, that the Marchioni Empire would bring a whole army of cloned humans, and the fact that all of them were clones of a Master was practically a death sentence for the Proatine Imperial Army.

‘This can’t be happening. How does this even make sense?’

Siegfried was in great turmoil while the defensive lines were being set up.

He acknowledged that the Marchioni Empire’s technological capability was far ahead of other nations. He also knew that they had been secretly conducting biological experiments and genetic manipulation, as evidenced by their history of producing horrific chimeras.

However, even if Siegfried took into consideration the alchemical knowledge stored in the Emerald Tablet, the accumulated data from biological experiments, their genetic manipulation technology, and their vast stock of Omnistones, the idea of producing more than a million cloned humans still did not make sense.

After agonizing over the matter for a while, Siegfried decided to contact the most skilled alchemist he knew—Verdandi.

He sought counsel about the current situation, and Verdandi offered quite useful advice.

— That is impossible. Cloning humans is an extremely difficult thing to do.

Verdandi was confident with her conclusion after listening to Siegfried recount the situation.

“I know, but...”

— Even alchemists who have reached the pinnacle of alchemy will struggle to achieve perfect human transmutation.

“Then what are those things...?”

— Those cloned humans must be imperfect.

“Do you mean that they have some sort of weakness?”

— Precisely, Father.

“Weakness...”

— And even with unstable human transmutation, producing more than one million clones is impossible.

“But the reports state that there were more than a million of them...”

— Please wait a moment.

Verdandi inspected the Emerald Tablet closely.

— Perhaps...

“Perhaps?”

— They may have produced a few unstable clones and split them up.

“Split them up?”

— From one original body, they forced it to split off into multiple clones.

“What? How do we deal with them?”

— Let me show you!

Verdandi took a snack from her pouch. Then, she used alchemy to create multiple copies of the snack.

— If we break this one...

Crack!

She snapped the snack she took out from her pouch into two.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The copies she made using alchemy snapped and disappeared.

“...!”

Siegfried’s eyes widened in shock. Then, he realized what she was trying to say.

“So if we destroy the original... the other clones will disappear, too?”

— Yes! That is exactly it, Father! If you destroy the original, then all the other clones will vanish!

Indeed, demonstrating it was far quicker than any lengthy explanation.

— The other clones will all vanish once you destroy the original!

“Then we must find the originals and kill them.”

— Exactly!

“But finding the originals will be tricky...”

Locating the original clones among millions of the exact same clones was no easy task.

In addition, they were on a battlefield, where chaos was practically guaranteed, which made things even harder.

– I will calculate it, Father!

Verdandi began scribbling formulas on a piece of parchment. She went back and forth between her parchment and the Emerald Tablet.

After a while, she finished her calculations.

— A single clone can be split into about one hundred clones at most.

“Assuming there are roughly one million... Then only ten thousand are the originals, and the remaining nine hundred ninety thousand are fakes?”

— Yes! Even if they are unstable clones, it is impossible to produce more than ten thousand of them. The more they clone, the weaker the clone's stats will become!

There seemed to be some inflation among the one million clones. Still, even accounting for their weakened stats, their marching speed alone showed that they were likely on par or stronger than most ordinary knights.

Going up against one million conscripts would be an enormous burden, but dealing with one million clones that were at least the level of a knight was no joke.

‘Do I ignore the rest and just focus on eliminating the originals? But how do I distinguish them?’ Siegfried pondered.

What he needed the most right now was a way to discern the real ones from the fake.

‘Hold on... Why does this sound familiar...?’

He recalled an old incident, where he faced an enemy who duplicated himself, one that was quite similar to what he was facing right now.

‘Wave of Truth?’

A skill that could be the key to resolving this crisis popped up in Siegfried’s head.

***

Siegfried remembered killing Count Arial, the descendant of Great Sage Sieghart. At that time, Siegfried struggled against the illusions created by Count Arial, but in the midst of battle, he was enlightened.

Through that enlightenment, he acquired the skill Wave of Truth, a skill capable of nullifying every single one of Count Arial’s illusions.

[Wave of Truth]

[The Invincible Emperor’s dispel skill.]

[This skill is multiple times stronger than the Dispel used by magicians; it is on an entirely different level.]

[Ashes to ashes, dust to dust – Deus]

[Unleash a pulse wave with a powerful dispelling effect. On hit, the buffs of all enemy units are nullified. The duration and range of the nullification increases the higher the skill's level.]

[The cooldown time decreases the higher the skill’s level.]

[This skill can erase all illusions once its level is high enough.]

[This skill does not affect the caster's allies or the Invincible Emperor’s buffs.]

Of course, the clones of Duke Randoll were not mere illusions, but actual beings with a physical body. Due to that, Siegfried wondered whether the Wave of Truth would be effective against them.

However, something told him that the skill would work against the clones.

‘Hmm... I should raise the skill level,’ he thought. In the end, he always came back to his roots—debuffs. Even in the worst-case scenario, he sought a way to break through using his debuff skills.

‘Ugh... It’s a waste but...’ Siegfried grimaced after looking at the skill points he had been saving to raise the level of Five Steps to Invincibility. Then, closing his eyes, he invested all of them into Wave of Truth.

[Alert: The skill level of Wave of Truth has increased!]

[Alert: The skill level of Wave of Truth has increased!]

[Alert: The skill level of Wave of Truth has increased!]

[Alert: The skill level of Wave of Truth has increased!]

(omitted...)

[Alert: The skill level of Wave of Truth has increased!]

Once Siegfried’s stockpile of skill points was completely drained...

[Alert: The skill level of Wave of Truth has increased!]

[Alert: Skill has been enhanced!]

The details of the enhanced version of Wave of Truth were the following...

[Absolute Nullification]

[The Invincible Emperor’s dispel skill]

[This skill is multiple times stronger than Dispel used by magicians; it is on an entirely different level.]

["Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" – Deus]

[Unleash a pulse aura with a powerful dispelling effect. On hit, the buffs of all enemy units are nullified. The duration and range of the nullification increases the higher the skill's level.]

[Everything within the aura’s range is revealed in its true form, and all that is not real will be destroyed or weakened.]

[This skill does not affect the caster's allies or the Invincible Emperor’s buffs.]

‘I knew it!’

Siegfried smiled in satisfaction. His decision to invest all the skill points into Wave of Truth turned out to be correct.

It had always been like this. No matter what opponent he faced, the answer was always hidden within his debuff skill tree. The combat system created by the Level 999 Hidden NPC, Deus, had no weaknesses whatsoever. It was flawless.

Siegfried had yet to grow into a vessel capable of wielding the power of invincibility, and this was the only reason he had yet to become invincible.

“Could you send me one of the items you split? Anything will do,” Siegfried asked.

— Of course, Father.

Verdandi pulled a snack from her pouch once more, split it with alchemy, and then sent it to Siegfried using a warp spell.

Wooong...!

A handful of snacks landed in Siegfried’s hand.

‘Okay, let’s test this out.’

Siegfried activated the Absolute Nullification skill, aiming it at the split snacks.

‘Hehehe...’

After seeing the result, an evil grin tugged at Siegfried’s lips.

***

Meanwhile, Emperor Stuttgart was monitoring the progress of the war.

He seemed quite relaxed while watching from the comfort of his chair.

For the first time in a long while, the emperor was smiling. Though he had lost the three Grandmasters, he was more confident than ever that he would win the war.

The clone army was created by pouring in all of the economic might and technological prowess of the Marchioni Empire.

Each of the clones boasted combat prowess equal to a knight, and the strong ones were on par with Duke Randoll himself.

The army of clones had encircled both the Proatine Imperial Army and the allied forces.

Emperor Stuttgart couldn’t wait for the battle to begin the following morning, as it would be the moment the great Marchioni Empire would finally wash away all the humiliation it had suffered during the course of this war.

“Hmm... Establish communications with Siegfried von Proa,” Emperor Stuttgart commanded.

“As you command, sire.”

He wanted to see Siegfried cornered and desperate, so he deliberately initiated contact.

Once the link was established—

“How are things looking for you, Siegfried von Proa?” Emperor Stuttgart asked in a casual tone.

— What do you want?

As always, Siegfried answered bluntly, but the emperor was not bothered this time.

Why? Well, he was convinced that he had already won the war, so he did not feel the need to get worked up.

“You seem to be in a desperate situation.”

— Huh?

“Siegfried von Proa.”

— What?

“Beg for forgiveness while you still can. Kneel before me and repent for your past sins. Then, I might be merciful and grant you clemency.”

Emperor Stuttgart spoke as though he were a benevolent monarch bestowing mercy.

— Fuck off. Who the fuck do you think you are to ask me to kneel before you?

“So, you intend to stay defiant till the very end, is that it?”

— Blah blah blah! Just wait and see. We will find out soon enough who will be the one kneeling and begging for forgiveness.

With that, he cut the communication without even waiting for the emperor to respond.

“Sigh...” Emperor Stuttgart let out a sigh. He had tried to be a benevolent and merciful ruler, but it seemed that Siegfried still refused to bow to him.

What the emperor truly wanted to see was Siegfried grovel pathetically for his life and the lives of those dear to him. Simply razing the Proatine Empire and its allies would no longer be enough to quell the rage pent up inside of him.

However, Siegfried had refused to yield even though the situation was really dire, and that only fanned the emperor’s fury further.

“In the end, you have chosen to lose everything. Fine, I will take everything from you until you beg for your pathetic life.”

Suppressing the rage welling up inside him, Emperor Stuttgart decided he would first crush the Proatine Imperial Army and the allied forces.

“Tighten the encirclement. And let the assault begin first thing tomorrow morning.”

“As you command, sire.”

“Send the command to all commanders. Not a single enemy is to be left alive. No prisoners will be taken. Anyone with the Proatine Imperial Army and the allied forces is to be killed.”

“As you command, sire!”

Thus, Emperor Stuttgart gave the command, and the all-out battle would soon begin.

The final conflict, one that would be recorded as the greatest war in the history of the continent, the battle that would decide the hegemony of the world, was now less than twelve hours away.

Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock...

And finally, dawn came...

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The Marchioni Imperial Army’s two and a half million troops began marching toward the place where the Proatine Imperial Army and the allied forces turtled in.

“They’re coming,” Siegfried said, his face hardening as he saw the enemy in the distance.

The Marchioni Imperial Army fielded an army so massive that their silhouettes in the distance made them look like a black tide.

‘This is the final battle...’

With the fate of both the Proatine Empire and its allies resting on this single clash, Siegfried felt his shoulders heavier than ever before.

‘I must win. I will win.’

His gaze swept across the tense faces of the soldiers under his command.

‘I have to send them back into the arms of their families.’

With that resolve, Siegfried tightened his grip on the +10 Sky Piercer.

“Enemy fleet spotted!”

“It’s the Immortal Fleet!”

The Marchioni Empire’s Immortal Fleet emerged from behind the ominous black clouds.

These battleships were regarded as the most powerful strategic weapon in the history of the world. A single one of these battleships was enough to decimate an entire kingdom and raze it to the ground.