“don’t bother they won’t help,” said Lucifer.

Arthus argued, “I have been preparing for this, they will be useful”

“now matter how well equipped your army is, they can’t do anything if they aren’t here. Just send them to the pass”

“ the pass, why” Arthus questioned.

“tell the Dwarves what they were after and the Magedom will be forced to go back that way, if they survive of course” Lucifer answered.

…

Lucifer continued, “Swadia’s victory condition is me not being taken to the Magedom, they can’t get here in time for the battle, but they can cut off the Magedom’s return. If your lucky the Magedom will suffer enough losses here to severely weaken them, and perhaps an alliance with korek will be able to defeat the Magedom in the years to cone”

“what do you want” asked Arthus.

“you” Lucifer smiled.

…

Arthus began, “I’m inju--”

Lucifer interrupted, “I’ll heal you. and you will fight alongside Merlin”

Less than a week later.

Lucifer stood on the walls looking over the invading army. Hippogryph mounted knights flew in formation above. Magic beasts surrounded by their tamers stood at the front, platoons of elite knights stood behind them in the middle. Mages were mostly in groups at the back with a few scattered throughout the army.

A group of mages made their way to the front of the army then the lead mage cast a short spell. His words easily carried all the way to Lucifer on the walls, “I am Gelliot Izmatis, one of the 12 Magedom council members, I wish to speak to your leader”

Lucifer smiled to himself and enhanced his voice with mana to respond, “I’m the leader and am willing to talk about the terms of your surrender”

Gelliot glared at the indistinct figure on the walls and said, “Well me and my army were more interested in talking about YOUR terms of surrender”

Lucifer deadpanned back, “oh… well, I guess you have me in a bit of a bind, okay I will be willing to go as low as accepting your unconditional surrender”

Gelliot roared, “IF I take your walls by force then there will be no negotiation”

Lucifer laughed to himself and simply replied, “if”

Gelliot was furious, he began shouting, however, Lucifer raised his hand and Gelliot’s head exploded with a bang, shortly after another softer bang echoed from the mountain.

While the army was still in disarray, trying to figure out what happened to one of their leaders several more bangs echoed out. Screams sounded from above as dead hieroglyphs fell from the sky along with their riders. Thump thump thump thump, several unlucky knights were crushed by the falling courses.

An eerie silence filled the air, the hippogryph riders screaming stopped once the hit the ground and there were only a few hippogryphs left. They broke what was left of their formation and lowered their altitude.

Suddenly a horn sounded and it began.

The magic beasts dashed towards the walls ahead of everyone else.

On the walls, Wolfram gave the order and rained mana gem arrows on the beasts. Most exploded into a mist of blood, a few smarter beats zig-zagged and luckily dodged the worst damage. They jumped at the wall intending to dig their claws into the stone, however, the wall was made of dungeon stone and didn’t give way to their claws.

Above them, soldiers poured down a green substance on the climbing beasts, the moment it made contact with flesh and fur it bubbled furiously and stuck like glue. The beasts roared and whimpered in pain as they were reduced to corroded skeletons.

Meanwhile, the knights quickly marched forward, undeterred by the defender's vicious means. Arrows rained down from above, however, the mages in the back had made a thin transparent shield above. The moment an arrow passed through the shield they spun around in the air. Very few arrows landed on their point and exploded, some were even caught by the knights and hurled back at the walls with mana enhanced strength.

Once the knights were close, slits in the walls opened. The knights assumed these were just arrow holes that would allow them direct fire, they put up their shields and braced for impact. Orders were frantically sent to the mages in hopes that they could make another barrier ahead of them sooner.

The slits roared into life sending a stream of death towards the knights. Their barely enchanted armor did nothing to protect them. Blood sprayed out and dyed the land red as the weapons in the slits raked across the army back and forth.

Shortly afterward a similar barrier appeared between the wall and the knights, but it seemed to have no effect.

The Knights were forced to charge over their comrade's bodies while taking heavy casualties.

Various magics slammed into the walls as the mages targeted the slits, however, the slits were small by design and large scale cooperative magic was hard to aim. Occasionally they scored a hit and cause a chain reaction, all the ammo exploded at once and sent a gout of super-heated flame out the slit, the wall cracked and shifted under these explosions but still held.

The magic battery was even less effective, the walls which they expected to be rubble by the time the Knights got there was still standing strong, dungeon stone had natural anti-magic properties and would require time to be destroyed.

Countless knights were dead, but countless more took their place and soon they started reaching the walls in small battered groups. Their success was greeted with the same green liquid.

Knights screamed, some tried to take off their wet clothes, but it was under armor which took too long to take off. Only skeletons remained in those suits of armor.

However, the supply of liquid wasn’t infinite and the defenders soon ran out. They broke off the crystals from their arrows and tossed them below. The barrier spun the crystals destabilizing their flight, but there was only crystal to hit the ground and they exploded anyway.

More and more slits exploded as time went on, some by simple malfunction. Lucifer hadn’t finished these prototypes, and others by brave knights who threw their own mana crystals into the slits. Most weren’t quick enough to get out of the way before being swallowed by the chain reaction.

The walls were beginning to crumble and fighting had begun on-top of them.

Cracks still sounded from the mountain, however, the mages had figured out that if their redirection barriers were closer to the cracks the attack wasn’t as effective. Leaders still found gaping holes in their bodies, but not as frequently as when the battle started, instead those near them tended to die instead.