Vol 3. Chapter 83: “A Great Victory”
The vast snowy plains were abruptly engulfed in a sea of flames.
With the combined might of Xue Tianao-Valedin’s steel airships and various new weapons, the Abyss Demons that had surged forward like a black tsunami were finally forced to halt their charge beneath the relentless, storm-like bombardment of death.
They began struggling madly within the sea of flames.
Wave after wave of agonized howls rang out from within.
However,
the assault under Toma’s command was far from over. Several more waves of bombardment, none weaker than those before them and some even more powerful, descended one after another, inflicting unprecedented devastation upon the Abyss Demon horde.
Within that scorching sea of fire, as blazing as hell itself, the overwhelming Shadow of Silence Power surrounding the Abyss Demon horde began to crumble apart.
By the time the final round of bombardment came to an end,
the vast majority of the weaker Fourth-Tier and Fifth-Tier Abyss Demons, particularly those caught deep within the centers of the explosions, had already been blasted into pieces...
Even the powerful Sixth-Tier Abyss Demons, as well as several Seventh-Tier Abyss Demons, had suffered grievous injuries under the defenders’ terrifying counterattack, causing their combat capabilities to plummet rapidly...
As the raging flames gradually dispersed, fewer than one-sixth of the Abyss Demons that had charged so fiercely toward Sky Dome remained, and even those survivors had little fighting strength left...
And it was at this moment,
while the surviving Abyss Demons were still reeling from the bombardment, that the impassioned sound of a horn suddenly echoed across the snowy plains...
“Woooo~ Woooo~ Woooo~”
The soldiers atop the city walls sounded their stirring horns.
For a moment, war drums and horns thundered together.
The next instant,
the gates in northern Sky Dome, which had remained tightly shut for so long, slowly began to open.
This was precisely Xue Tianao-Valedin’s current strategy. First, he would use heavy artillery and airship bombardment to deal a devastating blow to the Abyss Demon horde, drastically reducing their numbers. Only afterward would the ground forces be deployed to wipe out the remaining Abyss Demons.
——
“Charge with me! Wipe out those beasts!”
Accompanied by the leading man’s furious roar,
Toma, battle axe in hand, was the first to spur his warhorse forward. Under countless expectant and excited gazes, an overwhelming surge of powerful battle aura erupted from his body as he charged fiercely toward the nearly routed Abyss Demon horde ahead!
Behind Toma, thousands of horses thundered forward at once.
The vast army composed of the Imperial Guards, the Royal Knights, and part of the Second Army followed Toma’s lead, raising their weapons and unleashing every last trace of battle aura within their bodies. Filled with murderous intent, they surged toward the Abyss Demons ahead like a raging tidal wave.
A heart-stirring charge signal immediately soared into the sky.
The Royal Knights were the first to accelerate.
Wrapped in dense magical power, the iron cavalry moved into action, accelerating, then accelerating even further...
The momentum of their charge rose higher and higher.
The roars of Toma and the others, the blaring horns, pounding war drums, thunder of iron hooves, explosions, and countless other sounds gradually intertwined, merging into an earth-shaking roar that pierced the heavens, as though playing the final movement of the end itself. With thousands of cavalrymen and tens of thousands of soldiers charging simultaneously, accompanied by the battle aura and magical power pouring from every one of them, even the earth trembled violently.
Dust billowed into the air.
The army led by Toma gradually transformed into a hurricane, into a tsunami, descending like heavenly fire as they surged forward with overwhelming, unstoppable momentum and crashed directly into the Abyss Demon horde.
As Toma violently swung his battle axe, the members of the Royal Knights also unleashed everything they had, launching a devastating assault against the remaining Abyss Demons.
“BOOM!! Rumble, rumble~”
In an instant,
blood sprayed everywhere, blades flashed, and battle aura and magical power of every color intertwined with Shadow of Silence Power before suddenly erupting all at once...
Across the scorched earth, countless multicolored tongues of flame immediately blossomed...
After enduring multiple rounds of bombardment, the Abyss Demon horde had almost no combat strength remaining. They were utterly incapable of resisting the Royal Knights, whose morale had reached its peak.
The instant the two sides collided at close quarters,
countless Abyss Demons fell one after another beneath the swords of the Royal Knights.
Even those that survived the first cavalry charge were immediately surrounded by the Imperial Guards following behind and killed on the spot...
Originally,
whenever Abyss Demons clashed with human armies, it was almost always the human forces that collapsed.
But now, under the assault of the Royal Knights, it was the Abyss Demon horde that was being driven back again and again...
As Commander of the Imperial Guards, Toma grew more exhilarated the more he killed. He simply leaped from his warhorse and began swinging his battle axe, venting all the fury in his heart upon the Abyss Demons.
“Go to hell, you pieces of trash!”
The power of a Seventh-Tier powerhouse erupted without restraint as he slaughtered the surviving Abyss Demons as effortlessly as chopping melons and vegetables, ending their lives one after another.
Even a bull-headed Abyss Demon at the Peak Sixth Tier was split cleanly in two by a single swing of Toma’s axe. Its blood directly dyed his golden battle armor scarlet, making him look almost like an Asura upon the battlefield as he continued harvesting the lives of the Abyss Demons.
And so,
amid flashing blades and clashing swords,
the number of Abyss Demons upon the scorched earth continued to fall.
Their complete annihilation seemed to be only a matter of time...
--
At that very moment,
in Dragon Dance Square,
Xue Tianao-Valedin watched the battlefield displayed through the magical projection.
Seeing Toma’s forces achieve victory after victory, the smugness on Xue Tianao-Valedin’s face grew increasingly pronounced.
Meanwhile, throughout the square,
the civilians who had previously become anxious and uneasy because of the approaching Abyss Demons fell into a stunned daze upon witnessing the scene before them.
Deep within their minds, Abyss Demons had always been existences humans simply could not confront directly. The only reason humanity could withstand attacks from Abyss Demon hordes was because of defensive advantages and the presence of a handful of top-tier powerhouses.
An Abyss Demon charge of such overwhelming and horrifying scale simply should not have been something a human army could withstand.
And yet,
such a massive horde of monsters had actually been routed so quickly under the combined assault of the Royal Knights and the Imperial Guards.
Most of the Abyss Demons had been buried within the sea of flames, while the survivors were dying one after another beneath the cavalry charge...
‘Is this... really a victory we humans are capable of achieving?’
Everyone was utterly shocked.
But after a brief period of astonishment, once they accepted the reality before their eyes, earth-shaking cheers erupted once more.
All the doubts that had arisen when the phantom of the Founding Emperor collapsed vanished without a trace, and the people once again directed worshipful gazes toward Xue Tianao-Valedin.
And it was not merely the ordinary citizens.
The envoys from the various major powers reacted in much the same way.
When they saw the images displayed on the projection, expressions of disbelief appeared across their faces.
One middle-aged man dressed in a red military uniform even repeatedly raised his hand and pinched his own cheek, as though trying to confirm that he was not dreaming.
After finally calming himself, the man turned with mixed emotions toward the young man seated beside him, who possessed a head of brilliant crimson hair.
“Second Prince, that Abyss Demon horde... it was actually defeated? And so quickly?”
“Mm.”
The red-haired young man—Anmutu, Second Prince of the Crimson Leaf Empire—gave a slight nod.
“I originally thought Luokefei would have to personally intervene before they could drive back this Abyss Demon horde... I never expected... that these troops alone would be enough to accomplish it so easily... Xue Tianao really has been hiding quite a few things up his sleeve...”
Looking toward the enormous airship hovering high in the distance, Anmutu slowly narrowed his eyes.
“I really don’t understand how he managed to create something like that...”
“Your Highness, should we change our strategy and take the initiative to show him goodwill? But this Child of Destiny defeated an Abyss Demon horde with his troops right in front of so many envoys and civilians. On top of that, he previously drove back Flame Prison as well. If we really form an alliance with him in the future, won’t our Crimson Leaf Empire end up being led around by the nose?”
“We’ll deal with the future when it comes. For now, wait until the battle is over.”
“Hmm?”
Hearing those words, the middle-aged man looked puzzled.
“Your Highness, hasn’t the outcome already been decided? The remaining Abyss Demons are completely incapable of resisting Xue Tianao’s forces. It’s only a matter of time before they’re all killed.”
“That’s true, but... something feels wrong.”
“Hmm? Wrong?”
The middle-aged man asked in confusion.
However,
Anmutu apparently had no intention of answering him for the moment. Instead, he thoughtfully stared at the live battlefield footage being transmitted back through magical projection.
As he watched the Abyss Demon horde being driven backward again and again, Anmutu gradually narrowed his eyes, his gaze becoming increasingly grave.
An Abyss Demon horde capable of breaking through the northern defensive line and reaching Sky Dome shouldn’t be only this strong...
These Abyss Demons merely had an advantage in numbers.
Upon closer inspection, their attack power, defensive power, and speed were all vastly inferior to the Abyss Demon the Asumos Church had once provided for him to experiment on, despite both being Fifth-Tier.
Moreover, these Abyss Demons somehow...
looked remarkably similar to humans...
And there was something else.
Abyss Demons had always been fearless.
Even when facing opponents far stronger than themselves, they would charge forward without hesitation and fight them to the death.
Yet the Abyss Demons on this battlefield were actually...
retreating?
What...
What was going on?
...
Wait?!
‘No... Could it be...?’
In an instant, Anmutu’s pupils abruptly contracted.
A terrifying possibility surfaced within his mind...