Volume 2 chapter 15
Several Days Later.
Lilith stood atop the highest spire of the City of Darkness, gazing toward the distant horizon.
There, far beyond the reach of any normal vision, was the battlefield of the Demon Lord and the Eight Saints. It was a forbidden zone. No one could intervene; no one could even get close.
The chaotic turbulence of mana churned the heavens and the earth into a muddy, lethal slurry. Any living being foolish enough to approach would be dragged into the vortex like a leaf in a hurricane, only to be ruthlessly ground into dust by the colliding energies.
"Her Majesty... is she moving the battlefield toward the Human Empires?!"
Suddenly, Lilith noticed the epicenter of the cataclysm shifting. The flashes of light and the tremors were moving away from the Demon Realm, drifting steadily toward the east.
"Even in this state... you are trying to protect us? Your Majesty..." Lilith wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, her heart aching with a mix of reverence and sorrow.
"My Lord! Urgent report!"
A communications officer scrambled up the stairs, his face pale. "The Alliance has launched a total offensive! Raptala Fortress is under heavy attack! Tarisk Fortress is under heavy attack! Abivs Fortress is sending distress signals! The entire front line is burning!"
"What?!"
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Raptala Fortress. The Front Lines.
The banner of the Golden Twin-Sword Rose snapped violently in the wind. It belonged to the Morris Empire's most elite fighting force—the Rose Knights.
Over ten thousand strong, with the Emperor himself serving as Grand Commander and two Ninth-Rank Knights as his vice-commanders, they were the pride of humanity.
At this moment, the two Ninth-Rank vice-commanders led three thousand knights each, advancing slowly from forty kilometers out.
Flanking them were the knight orders of the Four Great Dukes, spread out in a terrifying line of steel. On the other wing, the Dragon Blood Knights of the Baran Empire and their ducal vassals pressed forward with majestic, suffocating pressure.
Behind this vanguard of nearly thirty thousand elite knights, a main army of hundreds of thousands marched, raising a dust cloud that choked the sky.
Ten Ninth-Rank Knights. Thirty thousand elites.
Even from forty kilometers away, Serafina, standing on the ramparts of Raptala Fortress, felt the air grow heavy. The killing intent was so dense it felt as though the atmosphere had solidified.
"Hmph!" Serafina snorted coldly, masking her anxiety. She waved her hand sharply. "Raise the guns!"
Five colossal fortress cannons slowly elevated their barrels, aiming at the distant horizon.
"Come then! Let us see who dies first!!" Serafina gritted her teeth. As the vanguard entered extreme range—
"FIRE!!"
"BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM..."
The five fortress cannons fired in sequence. The earth shook with the recoil as massive shells tore through the sky, descending like meteors of judgment.
"CRASH!!! RUMBLE..."
Every shell that found its mark excavated the earth. Explosions bloomed like flowers of death, blasting craters the size of basketball courts and three stories deep. In the blink of an eye, twenty or thirty knights would simply vanish, vaporized or buried by the upheaval.
Faced with this terrifying firepower, the knights did not flinch. They silently lowered their visors, shielding their faces from the debris.
The warhorses beneath them, enhanced by magic and breeding, accelerated to a blistering 120 kilometers per hour. At this speed, they were blurring shadows, making the long-range fortress cannons struggle to acquire targets. After the initial volley, most shells landed harmlessly behind the charging lines or exploded in the empty spaces between formations.
"BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM..."
Shells rained down, but the knights remained unmoved. They steered their mounts around the smoking craters in perfect silence, their formation bending but never breaking.
"BANG!! BANG!! BANG..."
When the distance closed to twenty-three kilometers, the secondary batteries opened up. The four turret cannons on the walls roared to life, spewing 250mm high-explosive shells.
While not as earth-shattering as the fortress cannons, these guns fired faster. While the fortress cannons struggled to fire three rounds a minute, the turret cannons laid down a suppressing rhythm. Within sixty seconds, forty heavy shells screamed down from the sky, forming a curtain of death that enveloped the approaching cavalry.
"CHARGE!!!"
The knights did not slow down. Instead, as they crossed the twenty-kilometer mark, the lead Ninth-Rank Knight raised his lance and roared.
As if sharing a single mind, thousands of knights raised their lances in unison.
"RUMBLE!!"
Shells continued to fall, but the mana in the air began to warp. The sheer density of the knights' Battle Aura began to pull at the ambient magic, creating a slipstream that even altered the trajectory of incoming artillery.
"Fire! Keep firing!!"
The spotters on the towers screamed hysterically, but it was futile.
Over twenty thousand elite knights coalesced into ten distinct Charge Formations. Their collective aura manifested physically, forming ten gigantic, spinning drills of mana. They looked like unstoppable siege rams of pure energy, aimed directly at the fortress.
"BOOM!!"
A lucky shot from a fortress cannon slammed directly into one of the mana drills. The explosion successfully shattered the coordination of the unit, sending knights tumbling in a chaotic heap of broken limbs and armor.
"It works! Quickly! Retarget!!"
Serafina saw the formation break and shouted in excitement, hope flaring in her chest.
"It's impossible, Commander! They are too fast!" the gunner cried out in despair.
Under the lead of the Ninth-Rank Knights, the cavalry had pushed their mounts beyond the biological limit. They were now moving at 150 kilometers per hour.
Normally, such a speed was reserved for the final five kilometers to conserve stamina for the melee. To charge at top speed from twenty kilometers out was madness—it was a suicide run that would leave the horses dead and the knights exhausted upon arrival.
But the Alliance didn't care. They were throwing everything into the fire.
"Damn it! Shock Troops, assemble!!"
Serafina threw down her binoculars and turned, sprinting from the command platform.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM..."
The wall cannons continued to spit fire, but the 350-kilogram shells merely bounced off the spinning mana drills like pebbles off a tank.
As the steel tide surged closer, the gunners reloaded with desperate frenzy, their accuracy improving with the closing range.
"CRASH!!"
Another fortress shell found its mark, obliterating dozens of knights and collapsing another drill formation.
But that was the limit.
Twenty kilometers, at 150km/h, took only eight minutes.
"CRASH!!!"
Eight massive mana drills slammed into the fortress walls like colossal industrial boring machines. The Ninth-Rank defensive array flickered and groaned, holding for less than a second before shattering into motes of light.
The walls breached, the knights did not stop. Riding the momentum of their suicidal charge, they plowed through the breach and into the city, crushing houses and paved roads alike, grinding everything in their path to dust until they finally ground to a halt near the city center, just below the upper keep.
As the momentum died, the mana drills dissipated, revealing the knights within.
Aside from the high-ranking commanders, every knight was gasping for air. Their faces were purple with exertion, and white steam hissed from the joints of their armor—they looked like human steam engines pushed to the breaking point.
Beneath them, the warhorses foamed at the mouth, spraying blood-mist from their noses. Their bodies radiated heat so intense it warped the air, and their legs trembled violently. They would never run again.
"KILL!!"
At that moment, a deafening roar erupted from all sides. The demons, waiting in ambush, surged forward like a black tide to engulf the exhausted humans.
"Hmph!!"
The eight surviving Ninth-Rank Knights, still possessing reserves of power, discarded their shattered lances. They drew their personal weapons and began the slaughter.
"BOOM!"
One knight swung a massive war hammer into the ground. The shockwave pulverized the earth, turning hundreds of approaching demons into a mist of blood and bone.
"SHING!"
Another knight unleashed sword light like a thunderstorm, reducing waves of demons to charred cinders.
"CRASH..."
A third knight wielded a great guan-dao, slashing downward with the force of a titan. The blade-beam split the earth for hundreds of meters, leaving a gouge several meters deep filled with corpses.
In less than a minute, the first wave of several thousand demons was slaughtered by the eight powerhouses.
But then, the ground began to tremble again. The knights looked up, their eyes narrowing as they located the source of the vibration.
Serafina took the lead. Behind her, a shock formation of ten thousand demons charged down the slope of the city center like tigers descending a mountain.
"HUMANS! DIE!!"
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