Volume 2 chapter 16
"KILL!!"
Serafina roared, swinging her cavalry sword and leading the charge.
"BOOM!!"
Ten thousand demons surged forward like a dam collapsing. They became a flood of darkness, blotting out the very earth beneath them as they crashed toward the invaders.
"Child's play!!"
The eight Ninth-Rank Knights sneered. They swung their weapons, and the atmosphere screamed. Winds howled and mana surged as their techniques collided with Serafina’s charge.
"CRASH!!"
The momentum of ten thousand demons was halted dead in its tracks by just eight men.
If Serafina had been a true Ninth-Rank warrior, this would not have happened. Even as an Eighth-Rank, leading a charge of ten thousand, she could have forced the Ninth-Rank knights to pay a heavy price to stop her.
But tragically—she was merely a Seventh-Rank, artificially elevated by hasty methods.
A war hammer swung by a Ninth-Rank Knight swept toward her. Although she raised her sword in defense, the disparity in power was absolute. Her blade shattered upon contact, and the hammer head slammed mercilessly into her body.
"BANG!!"
She was launched backward like a ragdoll in a tornado. Her armor disintegrated, blood sprayed into the air, and the sound of shattering bones was lost in the chaos.
"Slaughter them!!"
The human knights charged into the broken demon formation, unleashing a massacre.
"Argh!!"
A Beast Demon was bisected at the waist, falling to the ground only to be minced into paste by the follow-up attacks.
"Ugh..."
A Rock Demon’s stone body was pulverized, his remains ground to dust under the steel boots of the knights.
"Ahhh..."
A Blood Demon was vaporized by a wave of sword-qi, leaving not even a corpse behind.
Amidst the ruins and broken walls, Serafina struggled to stand.
She propped herself up with a broken sword, leaning against a half-collapsed wall, her breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps. Her armor was gone. Her body was broken. She could not summon even a wisp of strength.
"Haa... haa..."
Her chest heaved violently, like a fish thrown onto the shore, struggling in vain to breathe, hoping to gather enough strength to leap back into the water.
She lifted her heavy eyelids and looked around.
The ruins were littered with the severed limbs of her kin. Blood had dyed the grey stones and walls a horrifying crimson. The human knights were killing without pause, though the demons were fighting back with desperate ferocity.
Those selected for the shock troops were mid-ranked demons, the elite of the army. Yet now, they were being butchered. The turning point was the presence of the high-ranking human knights (7th and 8th Rank), who sprinted through the battlefield, efficiently decapitating any demon that showed signs of rallying the troops.
"ROAR!!"
A Sixth-Rank Lion-man went berserk, bathed in blood. He physically tore a human knight in half, spilling entrails across the ground.
But in the next second, a beam of sword light descended from the heavens, splitting him down the middle. He died instantly.
With the high-ranking knights systematically eliminating the Sixth and peak Fifth-Rank demons, the remaining forces were no longer a match for the Alliance cavalry.
"So, you are the leader of this rabble? The Seventh-Rank demon?"
An Eighth-Rank Knight descended in front of Serafina. He reached out, clamped his hand around her throat, and lifted her into the air.
"So... what?"
She trembled, trying to break free, but her limbs had lost all sensation. She could only glare at him with pure hatred.
"Heh. The Demon Race has truly fallen. To think they sent a weakling like you to hold the line." The knight chuckled, shaking his head. "Forget it. In the end, you are just rats in a corner. You should be proud you managed to delay us this long."
"Now... die."
The knight raised his sword, preparing to execute her.
At that moment, the fortress cannons on the mountain peak roared again!
A 400mm shell slammed into the ground right beside them. The massive explosion instantly blew both the knight and Serafina away.
Serafina felt as though her entire body had been put through a grinder once more. Like a lone leaf in a tsunami, she tumbled, spun, and finally slammed onto the ground with a wet thud.
"Good job... Silva..."
Before her consciousness faded completely, Serafina looked toward the mountain peak and managed a faint, tragic smile.
_____________________
The Artillery Battery.
"Captain... we..."
A fortress gunner looked at his captain, Silva, with hesitation and horror.
"Keep firing... Do not let their sacrifices be in vain!"
Silva gritted his teeth, his knuckles white.
"But..."
"This is Lady Serafina's order! Her charge can no longer hold the humans back! Now, we must stop them! FIRE!!"
Silva roared, his voice cracking with emotion.
"Yes, sir!!"
The gunner saluted, tears in his eyes, and turned back to reload the cannon. Before he did, he glanced back one last time. He saw his Captain—the normally imposing, majestic Tiger-man—hunched over, looking as if he had aged hundreds of years in a single moment.
"BOOM!! BOOM!!..."
The fortress cannons fired relentlessly into the city below. They no longer cared about friendly fire. Every shell swallowed dozens of knights and demons alike, leaving nothing but craters and ash.
"Get up there! Destroy those weapons!"
A Ninth-Rank Knight rocketed into the sky, followed closely by several others.
The distance was several hundred meters—a climb that would take mortals an hour. For Ninth-Rank powerhouses, it was a matter of seconds. Before the gunners could even open the next ammo crate, the knights were upon them.
"You shall not pass!!"
Silva shouted, his fur standing on end. He exploded with all the power of a Sixth-Rank warrior, charging the lead knight in a suicidal tackle.
But the lead knight didn't even look at him.
With a casual flick of his wrist, a sword beam flashed. Silva was beheaded instantly. The knight’s pace did not even slow.
"Brothers! Charge!!"
The remaining artillerymen dropped their shells, grabbed their sidearms, and rushed the intruders.
But they were weaker still. The knights didn't even need to use their weapons; a simple release of their Battle Aura reduced the gunners to ash.
Reaching the cannons, the knights showed no mercy. With a few strikes, the massive barrels were sent flying, and the gun emplacements were demolished.
"Finally! The threat is removed! Hahaha..."
One of the knights laughed triumphantly.
"Ugh..."
In a corner no one was paying attention to, a Blood Demon with only one arm left dragged himself onto a stone platform. He turned his head, looked at the eight knights, and smiled—a smile of absolute relief and finality.
Then, he slammed his hand down on the button.
"Boooom......"
___________________
A noise that shook the heavens and moved the earth erupted.
A shockwave swept through the fortress, expanding outward for dozens of kilometers, knocking the knights on the ground below off their feet.
Everyone looked up in shock at the mountain peak.
It was gone.
A terrifying explosion had shattered the top hundred meters of the mountain. A mushroom cloud of dust and debris rose like a pillar of the apocalypse, reaching ten thousand meters into the sky.
"This... this... this..."
In the distance, Commander Abner watched the rising dust cloud, his mouth agape. He was speechless until a sudden realization struck him—Duke Edwin of the East was in that blast zone.
His face turned ashen. "No—"
"BOOM—"
Suddenly, a terrifying pressure, deep as the abyss and heavy as a prison, descended from the sky.
Immediately following it, a majestic torrent of mana swept over the world, dimming the sunlight.
Abner looked up.
It looked as though nine suns had descended into the atmosphere. Infinite, boundless power collided in the sky. Every clash released energy that rivaled the massive explosion that had just destroyed the mountain.
The violent mana winds instantly blew away the dust cloud from the explosion.
Then, the "Nine Suns" streaked across the sky, passing over the battlefield. Where they passed, the earth cracked, and thousands fell to their knees in forced submission. No one could remain standing.
"Run! SCATTER!!"
Abner screamed, his face drained of all blood.
But it was too late.
The Nine Suns swept past the flank of the army. Countless men and horses were lifted into the air by the wake of their passing, then torn to shreds in mid-air by the turbulent mana.
"Ahhhh!!"
"No!! Help!!"
Fortunately, the terrifying force came and went quickly. They were not targeting the Alliance army; they were merely passing through.
A few breaths later, the Suns vanished over the horizon, having only brushed past the Alliance forces by a few kilometers, taking "only" a few thousand soldiers with them as collateral damage.
"That was... a Saint?!"
Abner, covered in dust and trembling, stared at the retreating balls of light, his face a mask of absolute terror and awe.
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