Thick, inky smoke, mixed with the ashen-white embers purified by the Holy Flame, billowed and surged in front of the Pangen Bastion, forming an ugly scar.
The first wave of suicidal charges by the Abyssal Undead Gnoll Bone Men had been crushed by the tight defensive system under the golden light of the Torch Towers.
Remains, like jagged reefs, were scattered across the scorched earth, burning with the last sulfurous flames, hissing and crackling.
However, the brief respite on the battlefield was not a declaration of victory.
Ohm—
An unprecedented, cold, and viscous Will, like billions of ice needles soaked in putrid decay, suddenly pierced through the smoke, violently stabbing into the minds of every living being inside and outside the bastion!
Pain, suffocation, despair… indescribable negative emotions surged through the soldiers' nerves like a tide. Several Vigia Sharpshooters on the city wall groaned, their faces pale as they clutched the battlements, their arrows falling from their hands.
“Hold steady! Soul Barrier!” Legolas screamed, runes flashing rapidly in his emerald eyes, as a faint green halo barely enveloped the upper part of the bastion. But the source of that pressure was unmistakably clear—
West!
Shen Mu suddenly looked up, his cold gaze piercing through the gradually thinning dust from the gaps in his mithril faceplate, straight into the core black domain.
There, the colossal phantom of the Doom Wolf Shadow still hung above the despairingly thick black-red light pillar. It did not dissipate or rage because of the annihilation of the cannon fodder; instead, its abyssal blood-diamond eyes became even more solid and colder, locked onto Shen Mu!
Distance seemed to vanish.
Within the wolf's eyes, there was no longer just the desire for destruction. It was a… greedy scrutiny. Like a butcher examining the toughest piece of meat before the chopping block, analyzing how to cut it to extract the maximum value. It was evaluating Shen Mu, evaluating this fortress, evaluating the essence of the golden light's power! Shen Mu clearly “perceived” that his commands, the power he mobilized, the trajectory of every ray from the Holy Light Torch Tower… all seemed to be scanned, recorded, and analyzed by an invisible, cold instrument!
This was not the end! This was merely the beginning of something even more terrifying!
“Roar—!!!”
Another earth-shattering, unified roar came from behind the still unsettled smoke! The penetrating power of the sound far exceeded before!
“My God… they…” Kalanzo’s voice held a tremor he hadn't even noticed himself. It wasn't fear of battle, but an instinctive shiver from his soul being gazed upon by a higher existence.
The swirling smoke was suddenly torn apart! More densely packed and even more frenzied Abyssal minions surged out than before!
They were still Gnoll Bone Men burning with dark-red Abyssal fire, but within the gaping wounds on their chests, viscous, magma-like dark-red demonic flames burned fiercely, and flames also seeped from the bone joints of their limbs, while the black aura surrounding them became even more solidified—their power was forcibly overdrawn and ignited by the core Will, turning them into pure destructive bombs!
And behind these life-burning demonic soldiers, even more numerous and swifter “Reapers” appeared, wielding burning scythe blades! Their compound eyes glowed with eerie green light, their target directly the ranged units on the city wall suppressing the firepower!
The true tsunami, at this moment, revealed its all-consuming ferocity!
“The Abyss wants to dismantle our Torch Towers!” Legolas roared, the will of the forest screaming.
“All defensive nodes, hold your positions!” Shen Mu’s cold voice crashed down like a heavy hammer, shattering the wavering air. “Swadian reserve unit, Holy Tree Knight stand by! Kalanzo—lead the First and Second Heavy Cavalry Battalions, with me—to smash their left flank cluster!”
The command was cold, devoid of emotion, yet it instantly ignited the fierce will to survive in the soldiers’ despair!
Rumble rumble!
The heavy main city gate let out a giant, groaning roar, and actually opened with a crash under the illumination of the Holy Light Torch Towers! Shen Mu charged at the forefront, his mithril heavy armor drawing a cold meteor trail through the dust! Behind him, Kalanzo roared hoarsely, the Swadian Heavy Cavalry, who had been suppressing themselves for a long time, erupted like a long-dormant volcano!
This time, Shen Mu chose to attack not the weak points of the tower base, but the left flank of the massive Gnoll cluster that was furiously assaulting the outer defensive works, attempting to tear open the right flank and allow more “Reapers” to break through!
The objective was clear: cut off their momentum, and within the extreme range that the Torch Towers’ light could still cover, pin them down and grind them to dust!
Golden Holy Flames hummed above the charging knight formations; the knights’ mithril armor and the Swadian Heavy Cavalry’s steel plate armor shone brightly, enhanced by the light of the Torch Towers. This was the sacred armor bestowed by order! The light curtain of the Holy Light Torch Towers became the hardest sword in their hands!
“For Deherim! For the Light of Order!” Kalanzo’s greatsword, carrying the momentum of an overwhelming force, fiercely cleaved towards a demonized Gnoll with boiling magma in its chest, which was pouncing on a makeshift barricade.
Boom—CRACK!
The greatsword, imbued with the immense kinetic energy of man and horse combined, and the power of holy purification, instantly split open the Gnoll’s attempting to block forelimb along with half of its burning chest! Dark-red demonic flames and foul ichor splattered, but upon touching the sword’s halo, they violently evaporated and withered as if encountering a natural enemy!
“Kill—!!!” The torrent of steel followed closely, crashing into the Gnoll’s left flank!
The collision of iron and fire unfolded on the narrow front!
Steel lances unceremoniously pierced through the bone armor, which had become brittle under the suppression of the Holy Light; heavy flails crashed down, and the spark-emitting heads of the demonized Gnolls exploded; fallen warhorses neighed and toppled, their riders rolling to their feet the instant they landed, their blood-stained broadswords hacking at the ankles of the pouncing monsters!
Beyond the light curtain was the bloodthirsty Abyss and desperate darkness. Within the light curtain, the battlefield reached by Shen Mu and the Heavy Cavalry became a forbidden zone of slaughter, shining with the golden radiance of order!
Shen Mu himself was like a War God burning with platinum Holy Flames! Every strike of his mithril knight's sword resonated with the Torch Towers, simple, efficient, and lethal! He did not pursue the valiant Gnoll warriors, but precisely plunged his sword into the “bombs” whose demonic flames burned most fiercely in their chests, capable of self-detonating at any moment. The sword tip pierced the demon crystal core, and the Holy Flame instantly detonated from within, neutralizing their threat prematurely.
The counter-push of the Heavy Cavalry was like a giant scraper, carving out a large chunk from the left flank of the Gnoll Legion, which was surging like a black tide! The torn formation fell into chaos; subsequent charging Gnolls were blocked by debris and scattered comrades, and the momentum of their assault was instantly curbed.
The pressure on the defenders on the city wall sharply decreased, allowing them to redirect more firepower towards the pouncing “Reapers” and threats from other directions. The Vigia arrow rain became denser, and Rodok’s heavy crossbow snipers let out dull roars, pinning those Reapers attempting to throw scythe-bladed bone spears to suppress the city wall back to the ground.
A brief advantage!
Kalanzo, covered in blood, cut down a Gnoll that lunged at him, then looked up at Shen Mu, a fierce, battle-hardened glint in his eyes: “My Lord! We can hold! We can…”
His voice stopped abruptly.
Because the abyssal blood-diamond eyes, which had always hung in the sky, coldly observing everything, finally moved.
It was not a roar of anger, nor a sneer of contempt.
The massive black-red light pillar supporting the wolf shadow suddenly twisted and contracted! At the top of the light pillar, that colossal, mountain-like Gnoll head actually… slowly lowered! The greed and calculation in the blood-diamond eyes instantly transformed into a purely cold desire for destruction! Its enormous maw opened, aimed precisely at the core of the fiercely battling, holy light and steel-glowing battlefield outside the bastion!
A terrifying pressure, far exceeding any previous impact, descended with a crash, freezing the soul!
Immediately following, it was not an energy light pillar.
But from that giant mouth, a drop of pitch-black blood—more viscous than lava, seemingly imprisoning the wails of billions of tormented souls, and containing the ultimate filth and destructive primordial power! It silently condensed, seemingly heavier than the ruins of the entire Long City, and silently… dripped!
The trajectory of the falling blood drop was unmistakably clear.
Target—
That temporary yet glorious counter-attack position, being fought for and constructed by Shen Mu and the Swadian Heavy Cavalry!
The light curtain wailed, the earth trembled.
The Doom Wolf Shadow's counterattack never left Shen Mu for a moment. It wanted to personally strangle this light of order that dared to resist, with the most direct and overwhelming posture!
As Shen Mu watched the Holy Light-weakened Gnolls crash like a tide outside the bastion, an anomaly suddenly occurred—a pitch-black blood bead, viscous as a living thing, silently penetrated the Holy Light curtain, plunging straight towards the base of the Torch Tower, the bastion’s core!
“Sizzle… sizzle!” The moment the blood bead touched the tower base runes, Shen Mu’s temples throbbed with a sharp pain!
The tyrannical whispers of the Abyssal Will pierced his soul like billions of poisonous needles—“Defile… devour… doom!”
However, just as the Abyssal erosion was about to erupt—【WARNING: High-level Rule Invasion!】
A cold system prompt exploded in Shen Mu’s mind!
Countless pure white data chains burst forth from the void, like billions of chains of order, coiling around the pitch-black blood drop.
The scarlet filth let out an ear-splitting shriek under the wash of the data stream, and was actually forcibly disassembled into its most primitive energy particles!
【Detected “God’s Blood (Fragment)”. Converting.】
【Gained 12,784,530 units of Faith Power!】
“What?!” Even with Shen Mu’s iron will, a stormy shock erupted in his eyes at this moment.
A single drop of blood contained more Faith Power than the accumulated reserves of a hundred Holy Light Torch Towers over a month!
He immediately injected the surging power into the Torch Tower network—“Ohm—!!!”
Twenty Torch Towers suddenly erupted with thousand-meter-high Blazing White light pillars!
The runes on the tower bodies, which had been eroded and dimmed by the black mist, circulated wildly, and the golden light curtain surged outwards by three hundred meters as if boiling!
Dozens of Gnolls clinging to the living root wall were instantly vaporized!
“Awooooooo—!!!”
The demonic pillar in the core black domain twisted frantically!
The sky-obscuring phantom of the Doom Wolf Shadow convulsed in pain, and its two blood-diamond eyes cracked with a spiderweb of black lines.
This drop of ancestral essence blood, originally intended to corrupt the core of the Torch Towers, had now become nourishment for its opponent!
The enraged Abyssal Will completely lost control.
Tens of thousands of sulfur bone spears suddenly pierced through the surging black mist, carrying self-destructive dark red flame streams, blasting towards the Pangen Bastion—"Abandon defense! Tear down the light barrier!"
The Gnoll Legion transformed into pure flesh and blood bombs, crashing into the Holy Light barrier one after another, each explosion causing the tower to tremble violently!
"They are sacrificing!" Legolas exclaimed in alarm.
The shattered Gnoll bones seeped into the earth like asphalt, and the scorched land actually churned with putrid veins—the Abyss was using its most elite claws as sacrifices, forcibly corroding the rules of reality!
Shen Mu's fingertips dug deeply into the command console as he coldly watched the mad counterattack of the demonic tide.
His data vision clearly showed a notification that Doom Wolf Shadow's core energy had plummeted by 17%.
"Just a hysterical wail..." A cold laugh, like the friction of an ice blade, sounded from beneath his mithril face mask: "Holy Light Tower Forest, heed my command! Initiate the 'Faith Overload Protocol'—"
The golden orbs on the tops of the twenty towers suddenly collapsed into incandescent singularities!
The converted tens of millions of Faith Power transformed into a spear of judgment spanning heaven and earth, fiercely piercing into the core of the churning black mist!
In the storm of destruction, the Abyss for the first time let out a shriek of terror.
The final strangulation between darkness and light had only now truly drawn its bloody curtain!
The moment the dark blood beads scattered, a shriek that tore through the void erupted from the core black domain!
Doom Wolf Shadow's roar, tearing through the sky, carrying the rage of stolen divine blood and the pain of rule backlash, slammed onto the Pangen Bastion.
The Abyssal Will contained within the sound waves was like billions of cold poisonous claws, fiercely tearing at the neural barriers of every defender.
However, the sacred domain constructed by the Holy Light Tower Forest, now filled with tens of millions of converted Faith Power, was no longer a simple energy barrier, but more like an impregnable iron wall woven from pure rules of order!
Buzz—!
The incandescent singularities on top of the twenty Torch Towers, which had collapsed to their extreme, suddenly expanded, erupting with an unprecedented brilliant stream of light.
It was no longer a gentle purification and disintegration, but a nearly materialized holy torrent driven by Faith Power!
"Sizzle sizzle—boom!!!"
Countless Abyssal Gnolls, rushing like flesh and blood bombs, crashed against the golden light barrier, without even a chance to self-detonate.
The blazing holy flame torrent instantly submerged and evaporated them; even the rain of sulfur bone spears, potent enough to corrode refined steel, melted away instantly like snowflakes thrown into a furnace upon touching the materialized light waves of Faith Power.
Where the light stream swept across the scorched earth, a "hissing" shriek erupted, and the remaining dark red veins, like ignited grease, twisted, withered, and turned into ashen embers.
The Abyss's most frantic and reckless sacrificial charge slammed against a stronger shield forged from their "divine blood," futilely stirring up ripples of destruction, yet unable to shake the re-anchored foundation of order!
Above the Pangen Bastion, the soldiers watched this magnificent sight in stunned silence.
The desperate battlefield, which had been red with the Gnolls' demonic flames just a moment before, was instantly dominated by a pure, blinding holy white light.
However, on the watchtower, Shen Mu's head, covered by the mithril face mask, slightly tilted to the west. His gaze did not relax in the slightest due to this temporary suppression; instead, it pierced through the energy storm of the fierce collision between the Faith Power light stream and the Abyssal black mist, landing on the rear side of the core black domain—that western district of the Long City ruins, which was enveloped by the vast shadow of Doom Wolf Shadow and should have been thoroughly contaminated by Abyssal power.
"Legolas." The cold voice pierced through the roar of the Holy Light, accurately reaching the Wood Elf captain's ears, "Focus your perception. To the west... towards Ash Hills. An 'energy counter-current.'"
Legolas was strenuously stabilizing the natural barrier protecting the soldiers' souls; upon hearing this, he immediately closed his eyes and concentrated, natural runes rapidly swirling in the depths of his emerald eyes.
The information transmitted by the forest's will was chaotic and painful, mixed with the stench of the Abyss and the searing heat of the Holy Light.
He filtered with all his might and finally caught a hint of an unusual wail...
"My lord! Is it... is it that dead zone of the old city, almost completely swallowed by the Abyss?" Legolas's voice was filled with an incredulous tremor, "There... a vast, yet long-dormant Undead power... is awakening? Like... an undercurrent beneath a dry riverbed suddenly finding an outlet!"
The corners of Shen Mu's lips beneath his full-face helmet tightened almost imperceptibly.
Boom—!
It wasn't the roar of a physical explosion, but a terrifying sound, as if ice that had solidified for millions of years suddenly cracked, and boundless silence was abruptly shattered!
This sound resonated through the medium of the soul, even briefly overpowering the clash of Holy Light and Abyss!
To the west of the core black domain, deep within the ruins of the central plaza—a place Shen Mu had personally witnessed become a "food" slaughterhouse—a thick, impenetrable gray-white mist, like volcanic ash that had slept for eons violently churned, suddenly shot skyward!
This gray mist was distinctly different from the surging Abyssal black mist.
It carried no stickiness or dark red veins; it was stagnant, chilling, with the scent of decaying dust like an ancient tomb, yet it contained immense power originating from the same death rules as the entire Long City land—it was the last echo of Long City's native Undead Legion from the old era, buried deep after its complete dormancy!
Within this rising wall of gray-white dust and mist, as if a giant coffin lid had been flung open, a vast, silent legion of Skeletons... revealed itself!
Decayed and tattered, yet still gleaming with a cold, eerie green light, black iron armor covered their skeletal frames, and in their hollow eye sockets, an eerie green soul fire flickered, no longer frenzied, but cold as ice.
They were shattered black iron heavy shields, forests of rusted long spears, and countless densely packed, drawn Skeleton longbows!
Flowing through them was no longer the brutality and chaos of the Abyss, but pure, accumulated hatred and coldness from endless years of being plundered, devoured, and trampled!
This Undead Legion did not utter any battle cry.
Their very existence was a silent accusation against the destructive nature of the Abyss.
The several gigantic Skeleton commanders at the forefront, whose forms were more complete and whose skulls were still branded with the mark of a twisted crown, turned their hollow eye sockets, in unison, to "look" forward—towards the flank of the Abyssal Lesser Undead army, which was desperately clashing with the light of the Pangen Bastion!
Their target was crystal clear—the Abyssal Gnolls! These were the culprits who had once crushed and devoured their comrades, trampling the last dignity of Long City's Undead into dust!
The Abyssal Gnolls' offensive was temporarily suppressed by the blazing Faith Power light stream, their formation forced to slow, with large numbers of self-sacrificing demonic soldiers and self-detonating Gnolls being evaporated, and their rear ranks falling into temporary chaos.
All their attention was focused on the Pangen Bastion and the Doom Wolf Shadow hanging above like the end of the world; they had absolutely no idea... that from behind them!
From the discarded remains they had long considered as nourishment, the most fatal spear would be thrust!
Buzz—
Countless Skeleton bowstrings were silently drawn to full moon.
The eerie green soul fires of the Skeleton Archers in the gray mist suddenly solidified, their arrows pointing directly at the most concentrated flank of the Abyssal Lesser Undead army, which was exposed!
Puh—whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—!!!
It wasn't a downpour, nor a swarm of locusts!
It was the silent Grim Reaper wielding a massive scythe of wind! A destructive torrent of Skeleton arrows, condensed from pure death rules and enveloped in eerie green soul flames, suddenly tore through the thick gray mist! They were silent, yet carried an extreme cold killing intent that froze souls, like a green meteor shower streaking across the sky!
The dense rear ranks of the Abyssal Lesser Undead instantly became a target range of hell!
Hiss! Crack! Splat!
Arrows imbued with pure Undead resentment easily pierced through the not-so-thick bone plates on the Gnolls' backs! The eerie green soul flames burning on the arrowheads invaded the Abyssal Lesser Undead's bodies, violently colliding and annihilating with the dark red Abyssal demonic flames, like natural enemies!
Each annihilation erupted with a localized soul corrosion shock, tearing at the Gnolls' bone cores!
Large swathes of Gnolls silently fell like harvested stalks of wheat.
Their self-detonations were prematurely interrupted, and they didn't even have time to let out a full wail.
The Skeleton arrow rain was like a chilling torrent of steel, fiercely piercing through the lower back of the Abyssal Lesser Undead army, abruptly cutting off their surging offensive and causing unimaginable, heavy losses!
The stalemate was instantly broken.
The Faith Power light stream in front of the Pangen Bastion still shone brilliantly, like an insurmountable chasm.
The vanguard of the Abyssal Lesser Undead army burned and evaporated before the light barrier. And the rear ranks were torn open by this fatal "backstab," creating a huge, bloody wound!
The rage mixed in Doom Wolf Shadow's roar abruptly ceased, and its two cracked blood-diamond giant eyes contracted violently, for the first time, truly revealing... a hint of bewilderment and suspicion?
The Abyss's absolute dominance showed its first crack under this cold rain of revenge!
The battlefield instantly fell into a three-way strangulation stalemate.
The Abyss was attacked from front and back, and the Pangen Bastion... became the only stable lighthouse.
Shen Mu's cold voice suddenly rang out, without any hesitation, like a command issued by the most precise war machine: "Kalanzo, left flank heavy cavalry reserve, push forward, drive the confused Gnolls towards their... 'allies'! Bandak, concentrate crossbow fire, cooperate to suppress the main Abyssal force directly in front! Legolas—lock your perception onto those... 'allies,' tell our archers to prioritize clearing any Lesser Undead that dare approach the edge of the tower forest! Don't waste arrows on that 'gray mist'!"
His gaze swept over that silent and deadly Skeleton Legion, and beneath his mithril face mask was a clear understanding that saw everything. (End of Chapter)
