Chapter 2: New Century (Epilogue)
The first projectile didn’t achieve the desired effect, so the Ghoul legion naturally wouldn’t give up.
With a series of “poof” sounds, dozens of fleshy tumors soared from the dense jungle, flying towards the city walls. The Old Ones were masters of assimilation and corruption; these tumors were bound to be more than just explosive damage.
“Do you see the tumors in the sky?” Xi Wei roared, pointing at the sky. “Don’t let those things hit the city walls! Mages, priests, do everything in your power to intercept these tumors!”
He then turned to the Cardinal. “Alenon, what are you waiting for? Don’t your city walls have a barrier system?”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Alenon, his name called, finally snapped back to attention. He was indeed old, and his reactions were a bit slow. He stepped forward, standing at the very front of the city wall. A golden light pattern in the shape of a greatsword ignited on him, gradually expanding to encompass him and the surrounding city wall. Then, he raised his hands and began chanting a spell that Xi Wei couldn’t understand. The surrounding light elements boiled like heated water, and with a hum, ten or so longswords of light, burning with sacred fire, appeared behind him, aimed at the direction of the dense forest.
“Your Majesty, the dense forest is obstructing my vision. I can’t guarantee I can hit their siege mechanicals.”
Xi Wei twitched the corner of his mouth; he was busy sniping the tumors in the sky. Hearing the Cardinal’s words, he glanced towards the distant forest. Then, he channeled Qi into the King of Conquest Long Sword and slashed horizontally at the dense woods.
“Roar—!”
Amidst the roar of lions, a golden sword slash stretched for a thousand meters. It crossed the distance of several thousand feet in an instant, like a razor scraping over the treetops, instantly clearing away the bothersome trees and inflicting some damage on the enemies hidden within. This slash was originally intended for cutting trees, so its power wasn’t particularly strong.
Dozens of strange monsters, about twenty meters tall, appeared in the forest. Their skin was covered in wriggling black patterns resembling earthworms. Their limbs were like stakes driven into the ground, and their massive heads had no eyes, only a gaping maw. Their mouths, five to six meters in diameter, were aimed at the Church of Light’s city walls. As their abdomens convulsed, another tumor was ejected and shot towards the city walls with a whistling sound.
“Alenon, the obstruction has been cleared for you.” The King of Winter’s voice carried. The Cardinal didn’t hesitate and pointed at the hideous monsters.
Dozens of holy shining swords flew from afar with lightning speed, even emitting piercing shrieks as they cut through the air. The monsters in the forest sensed the danger and knew they couldn’t be hit, quickly twisting to dodge. However, their bodies were too massive, leaving little room to maneuver. The light element longswords, burning with sacred flames, struck their bodies, igniting pale holy fire . The pain from the flames made these monsters struggle frantically. In their panic, they set fire to a large number of surrounding ghouls.
“Wind, wind, wind—”
At the same time, countless arrows with burning tips rained down, dense as a swarm of locusts. One or two arrows could ignite a monster. The smoke rising from burning flesh and fat condensed into dark clouds in the air, once again obscuring the line of sight. But this time, it wasn’t as troublesome. A group of mages on the city wall summoned Gale spells and cast them towards the forest, making everything clear again.
“Your Majesty, how was my magic strike?” Alenon, having killed many ghoul siege monsters with his holy shining sword, seemed a bit agitated, his hands trembling. Standing next to him was a living legend, the King of Winter. He believed that anyone in the North Continent would want to perform well in front of the King of Winter, to gain the recognition of this King of Conquest.
“It was alright. You can barely report to my artillery corps,” Xi Wei replied with a playful smile as he split a ghoul that had climbed onto the city wall in half with a sword.
While the two were talking, more and more ghouls and flesh walls were approaching. Although the mages and the Cardinal on the city wall were doing their best to stop the flesh walls, these walls possessed incredibly strong regenerative abilities. Even if they were blasted into pieces by magic cannons, they could still grow back. Fire attacks were also not very effective, as the countless mouths on these flesh walls would spout a viscous liquid that quickly extinguished any flames. To deal with these walls, divine power was necessary. However, even Alenon, as a Cardinal, couldn’t wield divine arts at such a high intensity. Thus, even though many flesh walls were destroyed by divine energy, an endless stream of them continued to generate. Finally, they reached the city walls.
Within five meters of the city walls, countless thick tentacles emerged from these flesh walls. The twisted tentacles and irregularly shaped giant arms swung at the city wall, and like vegetables being scooped away by a shovel, dozens of Church guard soldiers were flung outwards.
“Spearmen, advance and stop them from getting closer!” A messenger ran back and forth along the city wall, shouting, “The Pope is watching you, and His Majesty the King of Winter stands behind you. Victory will surely belong to the Eternal Light!”
“Roar—!” The spearmen roared and moved forward according to the commander’s orders. The empty spaces just cleared by the tentacles on the city wall were immediately filled by these red-eyed soldiers. They held their two-meter-long spears horizontally on the city wall, their sharp tips leaving hole after hole in the flesh walls. A single spear had limited effect, but the dense formation of spears turned the yet-to-approach flesh walls into a beehive. Their mouths and eyes were poked and burst, and their tentacles were severed. However, their regeneration speed was too fast, and the spearmen couldn’t hold out for too long.
“For the Light!” “Long live the Eternal Light!” some soldiers roared, their morale soaring.
“Kill—!!” The Holy Knights of Light moved back and forth on the city walls, their main task being to sever the tentacles that were causing trouble on the walls and prevent these disgusting things from hindering the spearmen’s work. Meanwhile, the mages and priests condensed their magic power to eliminate the approaching flesh walls.
The attacking and defending sides seemed to have entered a balanced tug-of-war. The army’s morale was high, but Xi Wei was not optimistic. The Old Ones’ Retainers were endless, and in this completely sealed space, they couldn’t be killed. Until now, Xi Wei hadn’t received any kill notifications. He had been busy for half the day, fighting against thin air. False victories would boost the soldiers’ morale, but once they realized they were making futile sacrifices, the entire battlefield would be on the verge of collapse.
