The distance between both armies shrunk to less than two hundred meters, the clash of the front lines would happen at any instant. Knights and warriors held their shields and spears tightly, looking with bloodshot eyes to the incoming demonkins. Although the demonkins were doing a frontal assault, at the same time a number of them were running towards spots at the left and right side of the human army. With the numbers the demonkins had, encircling them was not a big deal.

One hundred fifty meters… One hundred meters… Eighty meters…

When the distance was about to shrunk to fifty meters, four thick pillars of light exploded from four spots inside the lines of the human army. The origin of the pillars of light were the huge tents that were placed in the heart of four of the divisions. All the nearby light aura surged frantically towards those tents, tearing them to pieces in the blink of an eye.

Beneath the tents were revealed a huge spell circle engraved with celestial symbols, in the center of which ten paladins and clerics were seated cross legged meditating. Smaller circles that were surrounding the tent interlocked with the huge spell circle forming a magnificent spell array. Each of the smaller outer circles poured an absurd amount of energy to the main celestial spell circle.

The eyes of the meditating clerics and paladins snapped open, filled with a mysterious glow that contained the power of light, a light that would bring judgement upon the land. They started to recite a powerful chant in celestial tongue, making the glyphs and runes of the spell circle to start to shine and emit a powerful aura.

It was at this instant that the first line of the human army clashed with the demonkins, a tiny portion of the demonkins were slightly distracted by the development in the heart of the human army, and in a moment of carelessness suffered fatal injuries. The more seasoned soldiers could only spit with derision at how pitiful those who got distracted were.

The sound of steel clashing with steel, and the display of numerous martial abilities filled the scenery. The human army defended their position with a heavy priority in the defense, retreating a few steps when necessary and holding the ground when possible, minimizing their number of casualties.

Not much time passed and huge figures started to materialize from each of the spell circles. The pressure those figures exuded far surpassed that of the elementals that the wizards used to attack by a far margin.

Each one had a towering height of ten meters, and had immaculate angelic, yet robust, appearances. A white full plate armor enveloped the entirety of their bodies from shoulder to toes, in which there were engraved the same celestial glyphs and runes of the spell circle, giving it a sense of indestructibility.

Their faces were expressionless, yet dignified, and on top of their heads was a golden halo that emanated a purifying light. In their left hands they held a great spear, which was slightly larger than them, and in their right hand they were holding a huge round shield that had a single rune engraved in the center of it. In ancient celestial language, that rune represents an unyielding spirit.

This entities were known as Celestial Guardians. Their will to protect is unmatched. They were so powerful that in order to summon one required the combined effort of several practitioners of the holy arts, and the amount of time they could be summoned was limited.

However, even if you met all the requirements, being entities from a different plane, normally you could only summon them with a fraction of their original power, but this four Celestial Guardians weren’t ordinarily summoned, and clearly retained almost all of their original power upon materializing outside of the Celestial Realm.

“Hmp, to be able to summon four Celestial Guardians with their full strength, I have to acknowledge that there are capable people in your ranks, witch.” Isiurem softly snorted and murmured upon seeing the four towering figures from his position and feeling the aura they emanated, “However, it is wishful thinking if you believe that just four pitiful Celestial Guardians are enough to preserve your lives…” He exclaimed, revealing a vicious grin, full of maliciousness and anticipation.

The Celestial Guardians immediately moved towards the front ranks, and with their aid, the human army secured their foothold. Each wave of their shields could deflect one thousand arrows, swords, and spells, while each thrust of their spears would impale dozens of demonkins, burning them with the light of judgement.

Although it was clear that their offensive capabilities were not as good as their defensive ones, they allowed the rest of the first line of defense to focus a little bit more on the offense, exerting more and more pressure on the demonkin lines.

However, the demonkins were not incapable soldiers. Not only they stood on their ground, flickering lights of summoning circles started to appear everywhere between their ranks. Multiple hideous beast that had no eyes, a formless mouth, a black and slimy body, and only two legs, filled the battleground with their mad roars. They started to drag their bodies in order to move, leaving a trail of a black substance that corroded the essence of the earth they stepped on.

This creatures were known as Shadow Devourers. Although far from comparable to the power of a Celestial Guardian, a single summoning circle could spawn tens, and even hundreds of them.

It clearly was a taunt directed towards the human army, should they remain on the defensive side, the Shadow Devourers will outnumber them sooner or later. In order to avoid a calamity, they had to press forward and close the summoning circles, but pressing forward meant that they had to face a direct confrontation with the demonkins while being outnumbered, tactic which will lead to heavy casualties, casualties which they could not afford.

Upon witnessing this scene, the human army could only clench their jaws and still endure on their positions. They knew that a single summoning circle of shadow devourers could lead to the calamity of a city, let alone hundreds or even a thousand of summoning circles.

They tightened their defenses and gave their all to fend off the combined attack of demonkins and shadow devourers, but after a couple of hours of continuous defense the front line was showing signs of breaking apart.

“Hahahahaha.” Isiurem laughed complacently from the room at the top of the tower, “It’s time for your demise!” His expression was twisted and the tone of voice was filled with malice, it was hard to believe that Isiurem was formerly a paladin.

“Send three hundred thousand more soldiers, let’s finish this farce qu…” He was about to finish issuing an order to the three subordinates behind him when he had to pause his speech. He focused his senses towards a tent that was in the center of the human army and his pupils constricted to the size of a needle hole. “Impossible!” He muttered, disbelieve written all over his face.

Although Isiurem had no means of knowing, that was the tent in which Sile was currently meditating. She was in the center of an even more magnificent spell circle than those which summoned the celestial guardians. Her eyes snapped open.

Torrential amounts of light aura surged forming a huge vortex that lit up the spell circle. However, instead from originating from auxiliary spell circles, the light aura originated from a jewel Sile was holding between her hands.

“Light, guide me!” Sile yelled, provoking a huge chain reaction from all the glyphs, runes, and every nook and line of the spell circle in which she was standing.

The land quaked and the clouds churned. Sile’s hands trembled and her face paled, but her eyes were filled with an unwavering will. She focused her senses and let out a howl filled with power. A pillar of blinding light descended from the heavens and a kneeling figure was barely visible within.

When the light dispersed, the figure slowly stood upright. It was slightly shorter than the Celestial Guardians, and didn’t even had a halo. His armor was golden and filled with celestial patterns, but it didn’t seem as robust, nor impressive, as the armors that the Celestial Guardians were wearing. However, for some reason, a terrible threatening feeling will surge in the hearts of whoever looked at that figure.

The celestial being slowly opened his eyes, and only a golden glow could be seen. It opened its mouth an uttered a single word that shook the souls of every single person on the battlefield.

“Vengeance…”