24th of the Black Star

“You will stay here. No matter what happens, do not move from here.”

Leiu stared at Julie and Elyna, repeatedly warning them not to act.

“How are you going to do it?”

“You don’t need to know.”

With a casual sword given by Julie, Leiu turned around and walked out of the forest. He was slowly marching toward the gargantuan Skywall Fortress.

It didn’t seem like he had a plan. He was literally going to attack the place and bring Feylord out. It sounded like an absurd plan, but neither Julie nor Elyna dared or wanted to stop him, especially since they know his identity.

Barely a minute after Leiu left, a loud alarm reverberated from the fortress.

“He couldn’t have reached it this fast, right?”-Elyna

They were still a couple of kilometers away from the fort, so this reason behind the alarm definitely wasn’t Leiu.

Inside the Skywall Fortress

“Intruders! Kill them!”

Housing thousands of soldiers, all under Castellan Julian, the Skywall Fortress was currently in chaos as several black-clothed intruders were spotted.

These intruders, dressed like the notorious Hashashin, didn’t attack the soldiers. They brazenly revealed themselves before running away and luring with them dozens of soldiers.

Archwood

Blackcrest

7:15AM

Although the sun had risen, the sky was tinted by an ominous crimson veil, signalling the imminent arrival of the Blight Demon.

The four armies were mobilised, the soldiers orderly grouped together as the assault was about to begin.

Their plan was to weaken the city’s defences, wait for the Blight Demon to unleash his plague and absorb Halric, then raze Blackcrest to the ground.

“You all remember the plan?”

On the city’s Southern wall, Arthur faced Chris, Evelyn, Charles, and Isabella.

The young apothecary was nervously fidgeting, clearly afraid of what was to come. He wasn’t a fighter, nor was used to such high-stake and extremely dangerous scenarios.

In comparison, Isabella was relatively calm… probably because of her Immortality Skill, which made her practically unkillable.

“Halric’s familiars will take on the Viscount’s small army. Once you see an opening, you slip away. Stay close to Chris so you can be ready when he teleports.”

“And you, Master?”

“I will be alright. Chris, you know where to go?”

“Yeah. I’m not sure if it’ll work, but I’ll focus on the South-West.”

“Even if you don’t teleport far away, you still need to head to Wilsden. The Baron there is a friend of mine so just mention my name to her. She will not turn you away. Also, once you’re out of sight, I doubt the army will give chase.”

“What if Mister Chris’ magic d-doesn’t work?” Sttuteringly asked the fearful Charles.

“As long as you are outside of the city, it will hopefully work.”

Arthur took a deep breath and scanned the four of them with his eyes,

“No matter what happens or if we all get separated, don’t forget that our meeting spot is Wilsden.”

After that, Arthur approached Evelyn and patted her shoulder,

“Please take care of them, Evelyn.”

“I will, Master.”

“Good! Be careful, everyone!”

Arthur transformed into a Little Bunting and shot into the sky, heading toward the Eastern Wall.

“This feels a bit surreal… hehehe..”

His laughter notwithstanding, Chris had a slightly pale face and shaky hands. Even with Halric’s plant-like familiar on the base of the walls, ready to attack, the sight of an army staring back at him made him feel a bit unsettled and scared.

“All of us are to stay close to each other. Our only job is to load, power-up, and fire the magical cannons. Chris and I can use Mana, so we’ll be in charge of powering up. Don’t do anything stupid or leave my sight. I will not be able to protect you then.”

They all solemnly nodded as synchronised and loud sounds came from the North, East, and West.

Although Blackcrest’s walls were quite a distance from each other, Chris could hear the screams, explosive spells, and fighting.

It had finally started, but the Viscount’s small army, composed of only a few hundred soldiers, were stationary and eerily silent.

A minute, two minutes… three minutes passed but nothing happened. Things sprung into action only when Halric’s familiars moved on their own and charged at the humans.

“What?”

Evelyn was confused when she saw the soldiers form a defensive line and only block the incoming attacks. There were literally no counterattacks or retaliation, even when they were getting pushed. It was like the soldiers weren’t even putting up a fight.

…

On the Eastern Wall

Arthur stared at the Seat of Order

‘So that’s Sulong.’

There were many unknown moving parts that Arthur couldn’t wrap his head around. Halric deeply empathised with the fact that Sulong’s involvement in this matter was, to say the least, very surprising and unexpected.

As a zealot patriot obsessed with order and stability, joining this war seemed to defy Sulong’s principles.

Still, he was currently an enemy, and a powerful one, at that. Trying to uncover his intentions was pointless.

Arthur glanced at the thick vines forming somesort of a birdcage around Blackcrest.

Halric focused most of his forces East and West of the city, planning to support Arthur, Emil, and Melia as best he could.

‘The mages are at the far back. He’s going to stay with them, from the looks of it.’

Sulong had fifty mages and a thousand soldiers under his command. Compared to the couple dozen Treants summoned by Halric, it seemed to be an overkill.

When the action finally kicked in and the soldiers charged forth, Arthur patiently waited for the opportune moment before joining the fray.

Sulong’s fifty mages were forming a big circle, the tips of their magical staff letting out a fiery light and pointing toward the scarlet sky.

In fact, the hurdle Arthur had to face wasn’t the thousand soldiers but Sulong himself. Halric had told him some details about the Seat of Order, like how he was an extremely good combattant and was able to use all of the elements.

Nevertheless, Arthur felt confident in being able to take him on as long as he relied on long-ranged attacks and the support of the Treants.

The clash between the two opposing parties finally happened: The Treants, albeit slow, were able to conjure thorny vines and swing their bodies with enough force to instantly kill a soldier or two.

‘I’ll make use of everything.’

The notion of killing hundreds of people wasn’t particularly pleasing to Arthur, but this was a war and he couldn’t let go of the opportunity to strengthen himself by possessing so many bodies.

…

‘Forgive me, Terden.’

Sulong let out a heavy sigh as his soldiers clashed against the Treants. The alchemist’s scary creatures were tenacious and deadly, but there were far too few of them to stop a thousand soldiers.

Barely two minutes passed since the fight started yet the Treants already lost a third of their number. The troublesome part was the tree-sized vines occasionally surging from the dirt and trapping and then killing five to ten soldiers at a time.

As Sulong was calmly spectating the battlefield, his eyes were pulled toward a large shadow that took to the sky from the city’s wall.

“What?”

Although smaller than a dragon, the appearance of an Empyrean Wyvern utterly astonished Sulong, especially when it spun and dove down with an absurd speed.

It led out a screech before opening its mouth and spitting a wave of fire that engulfed the soldiers, burning their armors and killing over half of them in one-go.

The wyvern flew upwards before some of the arrows hit it and then repeated the process three more times.

Even when some of the arrows managed to hit it, they weren’t able to pierce through its scales.

‘That’s no normal wyvern!’

Sulong’s eyes narrowed as he grabbed his golden 2-meter long staff with two hands and walked away from the group of mages, which were wholly concentrating on finishing the Meteor spell.