Chapter 133: Zero Tolerance
The Northern Sect soldiers had already finished setting up their camp.
Several large tents stood beneath the Eternal Night, while Unbroken Fire burned between them and kept the surrounding darkness at bay.
Most of the soldiers were resting after a long day of preparation, but a few remained awake and watched the distant Fortress with nervous expressions.
One young soldier quietly looked toward the towering walls before lowering his voice.
"I don’t feel right about this."
The older soldier sitting beside him glanced over with an irritated expression. "What are you talking about?"
The young soldier swallowed before looking toward the Fortress again.
"Hera is just a girl, isn’t she?" he asked hesitantly, his voice carrying a trace of doubt. "I don’t understand why we’re preparing for a full assault when she shouldn’t be able to do much against us."
The older soldier immediately frowned.
"You idiot." He leaned closer and lowered his voice. "That’s exactly why we need to deal with her before she becomes a problem."
The young soldier looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"If we leave her alive and she finds a powerful ally, everything changes." The older soldier pointed toward the distant Fortress.
"The Soragon Bazaar is our home, and we can’t allow someone else to take control of it."
His expression became colder. "It would be better to kill her before she gets that opportunity."
The young soldier remained silent as he still didn’t seem convinced, but he knew better than to argue with his superior.
Before either of them could say anything else, heavy footsteps approached from behind.
Both soldiers immediately straightened when Mord slowly walked through the camp.
His limp was more noticeable than before, and the fake eye covering one side of his face made his appearance even more unsettling.
He stopped beside them and glanced toward the Fortress. "You’re discussing Hera?"
The older soldier immediately bowed his head. "Yes, Lord Mord."
Mord’s remaining eye narrowed.
"Killing her is necessary." He paused before his lips curled into a cold smile. "But don’t kill her immediately."
The soldiers exchanged uncomfortable looks.
Mord continued without explaining himself. "My son would like her alive."
The older soldier quickly lowered his head. "Understood, Lord Mord."
Mord turned toward the Fortress once again as his expression remained confident. "Once that wall falls, everything inside belongs to us."
A sudden sound interrupted him and made the others immediately alert.
Clink!
Clink!
A small bell rang repeatedly from the direction of the forest.
Every soldier immediately turned toward the sound.
A scout standing on a small observation platform was frantically ringing the warning bell.
"INCOMING ATTACK!" His voice echoed across the entire camp.
"INCOMING ATTACK!"
Mord’s expression changed instantly, and despite his injured leg, he moved faster than anyone expected.
"Bring out the Anti-Tower!"
The soldiers immediately rushed toward a large covered structure.
Several men pulled away the heavy cloth.
What appeared beneath it made Edgar’s soldiers on the Fortress wall widen their eyes.
It was an enormous piece of machinery resembling a massive mechanical ballista.
Several thick arms were connected to its central body, while multiple firing mechanisms were positioned along its frame.
On the Fortress wall, the Watch Towers immediately reacted.
Several beams of ballistae shot toward the incoming projectiles.
But before they could reach their targets--
Mord slammed his hand against the Anti-Tower’s control mechanism.
"Now!"
A massive spear suddenly launched from the machine.
WHOOSH!
Unlike the other projectiles, this spear possessed a rapidly spinning blade at its tip.
The weapon tore through the air.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The spinning blade intercepted the incoming bolts one after another.
Ten projectiles were destroyed before reaching their targets.
Mord laughed loudly. "You think I would come here without preparing for your towers?!"
His voice carried across the battlefield, and even from several hundred metres away, Edgar clearly heard him. Yet the blonde boy simply stood on the Fortress wall.
His expression remained completely calm.
That calmness made Mord’s smile slowly disappear.
’Why isn’t he reacting?’
For some reason, seeing Edgar standing there without the slightest trace of fear made Mord’s stomach tighten.
Then another scream erupted from somewhere behind him.
"AAAAAH!"
Mord immediately turned around.
"What happened?!"
Nobody answered. Before long, another voice suddenly screamed from deeper within the darkness.
"Something is attacking us!"
"Where?!"
"I don’t know!"
"There’s something in the forest!"
The soldiers began turning in every direction as the Unbroken Fire illuminated only a small area around the camp.
Beyond that circle of light was nothing but endless darkness.
Another soldier disappeared. One moment he was standing beside his companion, and then his body was dragged into the darkness.
"AAAAAAH!"
His scream lasted only a few seconds before abruptly stopping.
"What the hell was that?"
"Where did he go?"
"Stay together!"
Mord’s face slowly became pale from the abnormalities that were happening around them.
The enemy was supposed to be inside the Fortress. Nobody had prepared for something hunting them from the darkness behind their own camp.
"Light the forest!"
Mord grabbed a burning wooden torch from one of the soldiers and threw it as far as he could into the darkness.
The flame landed on the forest floor before slowly rolling downhill.
For several seconds, nothing appeared.
The fire continued moving.
The soldiers began breathing again when they saw nothing until the torch reached the end of the slope.
Its flames briefly illuminated something standing between the trees.
Mord’s remaining eye widened. "...What?"
A headless figure stood silently beneath the trees. A pale azure flame burned inside its empty neck, and beneath it stood a skeletal horse.
The creature slowly raised its sword, which had a glow on it. The torch went out, and darkness swallowed the forest once again.
For one brief moment, nothing happened.
Then--
BOOM!
The Headless Soul Knight burst from the darkness.
Its skeletal horse charged directly into the camp.
A soldier barely raised his shield before the azure blade swept through him.
Slash!
The man collapsed without even understanding what had happened.
Another soldier tried to attack from the side.
The skeletal horse kicked him away before the sword returned.
Slash!
"It’s a Nightmare!"
"Kill it!"
"Don’t let it reach the camp!"
The Headless Soul Knight didn’t slow down. It moved through the soldiers like a silent executioner.
It had only the cold efficiency of something created solely to kill.
Mord stood frozen. "What..."
Another scream came from his left.
A second black skeletal figure emerged from the darkness.
Within moments, dozens of pale azure flames began appearing throughout the forest.
The soldiers’ formation completely collapsed.
"THERE ARE MORE OF THEM!"
"WHERE ARE THEY COMING FROM?!"
"RUN!"
Some soldiers attempted to retreat toward the Unbroken Fire.
Others desperately raised their weapons and attacked whatever moved inside the darkness.
It didn’t matter. The Soul Guardians kept advancing like the darkness itself seemed to belong to them.
Mord slowly stepped backward, the confidence he had completely disappeared.
He had never prepared for an army of undead monsters appearing from the Eternal Night.
His hands began trembling. "What the hell is happening?"
Another Soul Guardian emerged from the darkness directly in front of him, which made him run toward the Fortress.
Its pale azure eyes stared at him without emotion.
Mord’s face turned completely pale.
"What the hell..." His voice trembled as he looked around at his collapsing army. "What the hell is happening?!"