“I spent years searching beyond the heavens. My spirit soared, drawn to distant whispers, while my body weakened from neglect. At the edge of our realm, I reached the seal that separated our world. I could see into the Aether beyond. Through the barrier the voices reached me, too faint to understand, except for a single word.”

Chapter 69

The wall was thrown into pure chaos under the undead assault. The wards sizzled and burned brightly as the undead pressed against them, desperate to end the lives just beyond it. For miles, the barrier was battered from the flying undead, scratching and clawing their way slowly forward.

Wil’s ears rang from the howls and screeching of the undead monstrosities above, and the endless ranks of ghouls below. He could hear the cleric’s prayers to the goddess as they fueled the altar with her divine power. The holy energy barely kept the press of undead back.

The legion had responded to the undead onslaught with their own fury.

Wil was nearly overwhelmed with the pressure coming from the magic the legion mages and their Guild allies were unleashing. The air reeked of ozone from the high concentrations of mana. Large spell matrices filled the sky, burning nearly as bright as the wards themselves.

Wil could see tiers of magic being channeled that he could never dream of attempting. Dozens of Tier 3 fireballs and lightning bolts fell upon the undead army. Massive explosions rent the air as the destructive magic struck the enemy, hurling the large monstrosities back as the undead clinging to it fell to the ground below.

Through the explosions, hundreds of Tier 2 flaming spheres and scorching rays streaked across the sky. They filled the air with the burning stink of melted undead flesh. The bright, flashing light left purple afterimages in Wil’s vision, and he blinked rapidly trying to clear his eyesight.

Fire spells may have been the most effective against the reanimated corpses, but when an army of mages cast thousands of Tier 1 magic missiles, not even the undead could withstand the impact. The air was filled with such a potent force of mana from the low tier magic that Wil thought the wall would crumble around him.

The glowing balls of energy erupted from mages, filling the darkness like stars in the night sky, before crashing into their enemies. Ghouls were hurled violently off the wall from the impacts.

One of the large birds were struck by dozens of the magical projectiles, and Wil saw it come apart in an explosion of flesh and bloody chunks.

The pressure of the magic being cast from both sides felt like a hammer beating against his chest. Waves of force crashed against them as spells detonated.

Wil was forced to look away from the ongoing battle before his head split apart from the vision of Mana his new eyesight gave him. The world was dyed with the colors of magic. Crimson fire and black, corrupted Mana. And through it all an intense blue from the goddesses’ divine protection powering the wards.

To Wil, it felt as if all the magic being cast by both sides detonated in a continuous succession, like a rhythmic beating of a drum.

Thousands of spells clashed and crackled in the air overhead and not even the wards could protect everyone on the wall from the impact. The pressure was immense and created storm winds that threatened to knock Wil off his feet.

He crouched low on the ground, forcing as much mana into his shield as possible. Next to him, his mage companion did the same. Together, they created a wall of magic that blocked most of the explosive force from reaching the altar behind them.

Their magical barrier glowed brightly in the darkness, sizzling and popping as it deflected dust and debris the winds swept towards them.

Turning behind to look at the clerics, he could see that the priestesses were not even looking at the battle taking place around them. All their concentration was placed on the altar in the center of the warding scheme.

While he was distracted observing the clerics, an intense barrage of magic erupted in the night sky. The light flared around him brilliantly and the wards flashed protectively in front of him, forcing Wil to shut his eyes tightly.

When he had first arrived on top of the wall, he had been preoccupied with the dead city below that he failed to think about how potentially destructive the forces stationed on the walls top could be.

There were thousands of people on top of the walls, and each of them were ranked. Thousands of mana wielding, powerful fighters stretched the miles length of walls.

The Legion, with the help of Mercantile Association funding, had gathered the most powerful humans in the Empire together, all with the single purpose of fighting the undead horde. It was this force that had just unleashed its fury and left Wil stunned at the destruction.

The force of magic eventually died down after nearly a minute of uninterrupted explosive energy, and Wil cautiously opened his eyes.

The wall still stood, with many of his companions crouched on the ground to protect themselves from the impacts. The undead had been driven back, the sheer amount of mana the humans had just unleashed overwhelmed even their superior forces.

The undead hadn’t retreated from fear, or to protect themselves. They had no concept of self-preservation. They had withdrawn because the sheer intensity of the magic had physically propelled them back, away from the wall.

Everywhere Wil looked, burning undead corpses littered the ground below, and many of the large flying creatures had crashed to the earth. But despite the intensity of the magic, the losses to the undead forces were only a drop in the bucket compared to their total numbers.

As quickly as the fighting had stopped, it started again, the wards under renewed assault. The coordinated effort to cast a cataclysmic amount of magic was now replaced by individual groups fighting all along the wall.

Chaos raged and through it all, Wil could still hear Garman laughing wildly.

‘The man is insane!’ Wil thought. ‘How can anyone in their right mind enjoy this?!’

The wards held, but large gaps were slowly being forced open and undead were dropping off the flying creatures, eager to close in on the human defenders. Hundreds of Ghouls, only a fraction of the total number, finally succeeded in climbing the walls and leapt amongst the living.

The wards were weakening from the continued draining attack the Lich had unleashed from the glowing black lines. Each moment they reduced in strength, losing their ability to repel the assault.

Wil saw Garman, shield lifted high and axe swinging wildly as he cut wide swathes in the oncoming undead. As a rank 5, he was like a farming cutting through fields of wheat when facing the rank 1 Ghouls.

The man was wearing a wide, ecstatic grin as he laughed at his opponents, screaming obscenities and cruses while he dispatched his foes.

All around Wil, more fighting was breaking out as larger gaps were forced in the wards. Despite the quantity of the undead they were facing, the higher ranked humans held the advantage as they cleared the walls of the attackers.

That advantage would slowly reduce as the wards failed and more undead joined the fighting. And humans, unlike the undead, would tire as the Night dragged on.

Wil’s attention was broken as directly in front of him, one of the large birds was forcing its rotting beak through the wards. He saw glowing dome develop small cracks, gradually becoming bigger as the undead applied more force to the breach.

He looked around for anyone to stop the assault in front of him, but everyone around him was preoccupied with fighting an ever-increasing horde of undead.

With no options left, Wil dropped his shield and formed the spell matrix in front of him. The glowing lines of mana spread out from him quickly as he forced more of his mana into the construct. With a final push of mana, he thrust his hand through the matrix.

“Web!” Wil shouted as the matrix flared to life.