Here she is, the cast reacts to the attack of the dead men. Re-checking this document 2 to 3 times, I feel like it's ok now. Read, review and enjoy lol.
(This section will be deleted once I complete this chapter): It's been too long since I updated this fic, I managed to get this chapter around 20-40% done, but didn't want y'all to wait so now you guys get to read an unfinished chapter of the attack of the dead men. Keep on checking this story's description and eventually I'll post a notice saying that chapter 4 (this one) has been finished. Please do review and tell me how I could polish this chapter, even if it looks good to me, but other people might find flaws in the chapter.
But here's my little plan, I'll make the cast first watch Simple History's video on the subject, then I'll have the cast watch Sabaton's music video, because who doesn't love some heavy metal on a hundred dead men coming back to fight one last time lol
This new information horrified most of the viewers in the theater, they thought that Subaru's world wasn't too bad despite having... violent forms for warfare, at least in their opinion. A hundred men coming back from the dead to fight in a last stand?!
"What the fuck do you mean 100 men came back from the dead!? That's impossible!" Felt yelled, even though she now knew that it was possible for someone to return from death, the gift granted to him by a envious witch's obsession over Subaru.
Some of the people in this theater are still processing the fact that their Subaru really died to undo fatal mistakes, fix failed loops, etc. all at the cost of him committing self-harm behind everyone's back because of much dying hurts, and that envious witch refuses to let him share his taboo, she only wants him to confide in her and no one else. He even began thinking of his life as an expendable object that he can throw away should the situation call for it. Until the trials made him learn that his life does have value and just because he can go back in time doesn't mean that his friends won't be mourning his deaths. He doesn't have to suffer just to see them smile.
"I thought I've seen enough.. but the young man's world really has something new to surprise everyone with." Wilhelm spoke.
"Like I said, everyone, the men didn't truly die, but the statement about them being dead men is what's confusing me." Reinhard told everyone.
Everyone thought hard about what could it mean when 100 men came back from the grave to fight one more time. Nobody knew how that would be possible without the help of a higher being watching out for you. But no, in this case the Russians just thought the toxic gas was perfume and got back up to fight the Germans one more time.
"Could we go on a trip to Subaru-kun's homeworld some time? You managed to bring us here, so it should be possible for a quick visit over to his world?" Rem asked, even though she was a bit afraid of visiting a violent world, she trusted that it wasn't like that all the time and it has its good things as well.
"That's right Rem-rin! Maybe the warden would be nice enough to take us all to visit my Subaru's homeworld?" Emilia spoke, she wished that her knight told her more stories about his old life, but she supposes that she'll see for herself once she goes to his world with everyone else.
"Your Subaru?" Crusch rose an eyebrow as Emilia declared her possession over her knight.
"I think we can safely assume that almost every lady here has fallen for Subaru-dono." Wilhelm spoke, he sure misses being a young lad again.
"How does he do it? He just sleeps and he made all the royal candidates have a crush on him." Otto sighed, he understood perfectly why the royal candidates have taken a liking to Subaru. Though if his horrifying secret wasn't revealed, none would even know the heavy burden Subaru was carrying by himself. Staring them in the eye and saying he was ok. Now they were worried that if Subaru woke up and learned that everyone knows what he's been through, what will his reaction be?
"As for your question about visiting your friend's homeworld, I'm sure it can be arranged."
Everyone had positive reactions to the warden's comment, especially the ladies who would really like to see what an entirely different world is like.
"Didn't someone state that his world doesn't have any demihumans? What would they think if they saw some of the demihumans in this room?" Frederica asked.
"They'd just think you are cosplayers, in fact, they'd think that all of us are cosplaying, no one is born with blue, pink, silver, green, red, or purple hair, those are usually hair dyes to change your hair color with, I suppose." Beatrice huffed.
"Then I suppose it should be okay to walk around the streets with no problems?." Anastasia wondered, though she was eager to see the economic systems in another world, is it similar or different from what she's used to?
"It should be, though I wonder if my spirits would be able to come as well." Julius wondered. If the other world has little to no mana, would that mean his spirits won't have any mana to live on and would have to stay back until he returns?
"I can live off Subaru's mana, in fact, despite being unconscious, he still produces just enough mana for me to borrow, I suppose." Beatrice said.
"Now then, before we begin this viewing, what were everyone's thoughts about the previous viewing? How did you find the idea of 2,000 men huddled up like sardines in a mansion-sized war machine facing an entire naval fleet?"
Most of the watchers in the theater had various thoughts and opinions on battleships such as Bismarck, in their world they are basically useless because there aren't any oceans big enough for a battleship to freely move around. But in the right combat conditions, and with enough support from allied ships such as destroyers or cruisers, battleships are a formidable opponent.
"Who would have known that a massive steel ship would be able to move at such high speeds, moving 50,000 tons of steel is no easy task." Otto, as a merchant, has some experience in selling raw metals, though he never heard of steel before, and he didn't think it occurred naturally, so the fact that engineers in his brother's world managed to form a strong metal and an engine powerful enough to move 50,000 tons of steel at 34 miles per hour told him everything he needed to know: Their world is centuries behind Subaru's world. Even a hundred thousand ground dragons wouldn't be able to haul Bismarck even if it were put on wheels.
"Just the guns alone look like they weigh a lot, yet they can traverse easily like they weigh as a feather." Emilia briefly remembered Bismarck's 15 inch guns turning to aim at HMS Hood, though she also remembered the sound of straining metal as the turrets traversed, maybe the system used to move the turrets is in massive stress from having to move 1,000 ton guns as fast as it can?
"Tsk, even with all their might and power, Bismarck didn't last long against the Royal Navy. They should have had Prinz Eugen stay back and support, then they probably would have stood a chance on making it back to where they're going." Ram scoffed, sure, she thought that Bismarck's crew were brave for staying back to fight off their pursuers. Even then, it was a suicide mission if all the big guns are blown up and the only guns they can depend on were the smaller guns on the sides of the ship, perfect target for torpedo attacks.
"Did any battleships or any warships survive the war? I really would like to go visit one and see for myself. At least one or two has to have had survived." Crusch said. Yea, only the United States battleships are still afloat, the rest have either been sunk, sold, or scrapped for raw metal once they were deemed useless during peace time. She would like to go on a field trip and see if a battleship really is as big as Roswaal's mansion, or if the turrets themselves are as big as her bedroom. But if that's obsolete technology, what warfare methods are used today? She feared to know what warfare technology would be used today. Their world's warfare technology depends on mana, meanwhile the other just makes do with what resources they have.
"Nuclear bombs, I remember the warden mentioning nuclear bombs a while back, you think we might get to learn more about them? They don't seem to be all that awful to be honest." Petra asked, oh how innocent she is. Two bombs and Japan surrendered, though if they didn't surrender, the United States would have bombarded Japan with nuclear bombs and left it a burning wasteland that not even flies would fly near. Though none of them knew that information, yet. Wonder what they'd think of Subaru's home country being stubborn and refusing to surrender after the first nuclear bomb. Or the fact that the United States warned Japan telling them to surrender or else a bomb of horrifying power would be unleashed on one of their cities, but the Japanese government didn't believe the warning, declaring it to be enemy propaganda.
"I still don't understand much about those nuclear bombs, it's the first time we heard about those weapons. Can someone please simplify them for us? Thanks." Rem asked, she too wanted to know about nuclear bombs and what their purpose is. Though if she remembered right, her hero's home country fought in the second world war.
"Sure, here's the simple explanation that you might understand: Split a bunch of special atoms in a metal container, and those split atoms violently release enough energy to defeat the beast of the end in one shot."
Atoms, now that's a new word. But wait, the beast of the end getting defeated by a nuclear bomb? Now that got everyone's interest. Even Puck at his full power couldn't defeat Reinhard, would that mean nuclear bombs are about equal to Reinhard's level of strength? That information alone terrified everyone, even the most inhumane people like Roswaal. A world with little to no mana yet they found out how to make a weapon that releases enough energy to kill the beast of the end?
"Th' fuck are atoms? Some ingredients for that nuclear bomb?" Garfiel wondered, his amazing self couldn't understand how atoms contributed to making enough energy to defeat the beast of the end.
"Some special tiny balls making up your entire reality as you know it, and some like uranium, plutonium and other radioactive metals have atoms that if you split them, they violently release their stored up energy."
"I think some smart people in their governments spent years researching how to make a nuclear bomb, a weapon like that isn't made overnight you know?" Anastasia commented, she wondered what would it be like to witness a nuclear bomb's explosion with her own eyes. (She'd go blind obviously, you need special goggles to look at the explosion) But her imagination couldn't imagine the real thing, she could only imagine an explosion the size of Roswaal's mansion, she's underestimating nuclear bombs. They would need around a million fire mana users to even come close to tsar bomba's TNT output.
Before watching a video about the SR71 Blackbird, the watchers had a brief discussion about nuclear bombs. And how Japan was the first victim of nuclear warfare.
Japan is Subaru's home country.
Horrified expressions as they realize just how heartless and merciless warfare really is when you're trying to get a stubborn country to surrender. Japan wouldn't give up no matter the cost. Warfare is also the time technological advancements are made, in an effort to be better than your enemy and have the upper hand against them.
"Can we get a more in-depth view to the nuclear bomb's beginning later?" Crusch asked, even if she was concerned about what would be shown on the screen.
"Did we forget about the 100 men who rose back from the grave? That's kind of a big deal you know!" Felt voiced her thoughts.
"We didn't forget, but we were just talking about nuclear warfare, honestly, I don't think the effects of a nuclear bomb would be that great. Just a big explosion and that's it." Emilia naively voiced her knowledge on nuclear bombs.
"Yes, a big explosion that's strong enough to kill Bubby, I suppose!" Beatrice facepalmed, with the information she was given, her contractor's world is one they didn't want to piss off. Enough money and resources and they came up with a weapon that can destroy Puck at his full might?. Just by splitting a bunch of atoms?. It concerned her about what other formidable weapons are in existence that they can't even comprehend.
"I think we'll get more information on those nuclear bombs later, now let's watch the attack of the dead men?" Julius sighed, preparing himself for what the screen will show them. Attack of the dead man, that phrase really does fit Natsuki Subaru.
Video begin
The video gets straight to the point and tells everyone what it will be about.
"Attack of the Dead Men, 1915, World War One"
A beat up concrete fortress is shown on screen, with dead trees in the background and a wooden fence in front, this is Osoweic fortress.
"Osoweic Fortress was constructed in the 19th Century by the Russian Empire, in what is now known as Eastern Poland. To defend its borders against Germany."
Russian soldiers are seen defending the fortress from invading German troops, while artillery shells explode around them
"In the first World War, the fortress would be heavily contested by German attackers and Russian defenders. The Germans made their first assault on the fortress in September, 1914, using large calibre artillery guns, bombarding the fortress for six days."
The fortified concrete fortress is shown being bombarded by artillery, chunks of concrete being blown off and steel bars being bent from the explosions.
"Six days? How can it still stand after six straight days of being attacked non-stop?" Anastasia thought hard about how a building could withstand six days of full-on, non-stop warfare.
"The Germans are probably trying to weaken the fortress so that they may charge in and take it when it's severely weakened." The knight of knights theorized, a fortress would need to be slowly brought down to its knees in order to be conquered.
"Is this what my knight's world was like all those years ago? Just full on violence everywhere?" Emilia had her fair share of battles in her life, but for a world to be this violent.
"Friendly reminder that the current year over there is 2021, so world war 1 happened more than 100 years ago."
"Let's just hope it's not as violent as it was before when we go visit someday, if our warden lets us." Frederica sighed.
"After intense showing, the Germans confidently launched an attack on the fortress, however, Russian artillery and infantry counterattacks forced them back with a swift withdrawal."
German soldiers are seeing charging in towards the fortress while artillery explodes around them, confident that 6 days should have been enough for the fortress to be weakened. But no, the Russians fight back and prevent the fortress from falling to Germany.
This somewhat amused the viewers, all those days of non-stop battle and the fortress was far from being destroyed or weakened.
"All that fighting only to end in defeat. Though I'm sure this won't be the last time those Germans are gonna try invading." Wilhelm theorized, he was sure that they wouldn't give up after one defeat.
"What other ideas could they come up with to get those Russians to surrender, old man Wil?" Felix asked. (Poison gas lol)
"They may fail on the first try, but they'll come up with a way to defeat the Russians, not that I'm rooting for the Germans, I'm just theorizing." Frederica was interested on how this would play out.
"No one's perfect, and I guess that includes the military of any nation." Julius knew that even knights had their limits. Though that doesn't apply to Reinhard, he has no limits.
"A second German attack was attempted in February to March 1915. The Germans were again optimistic with their brand new, heavy 1420mm calibre "Big Bertha" cannons." German soldiers are seen near Big Bertha cannons, confident that these weapons will do the job on destroying the fortress
"The fortress was bombed with intensity, including from the air; which it was presumed by the German command, would cause the quick surrender of its Russian defenders. The Russian command also had a similar notion, in order that the fortress be held for just 48 hours after the evacuation." Russian soldiers are seen defending the fortress from the Germans
"There they go, trying out new ideas to see what works on the battlefield, and what ideas are ineffective." Crusch was starting to like military history from another world, maybe she should learn a thing or two from these viewings
"Why do they want this fortress so much, can't the Germans just leave the Russians alone?" Emilia asked, if only she could understand the complicated turn of events that lead to entire countries mobilizing their military forces to slaughter each other over something as simple as an archduke being assassinated.
"Od laguna, those cannons are huge, not as big as a battleship's, but they're big compared to the German soldiers." Otto whistled as he made himself comfortable and watched to learn history from another world.
"Hehe, Big Bertha, they even name cannons themselves women's names." Petra giggles.
Remarkably, even with massive damage to the fortress and high Russian casualties, it would be held for months. And the Russian artillery bombardment forced the German guns to again pull back.
To be continued