Chapter 55: My First Wave Is Already Over—You Haven’t Even Started?
The next day.
08:57.
No one in Forgotten Shrine was training anymore.
Two hundred Eclipse Legionnaires stood in the first line.
Nine Praetorians waited behind them.
Eleven Highbloods held the flanks.
All twelve Level 10 Stormlance had returned to the Domain.
The Hill King stood beside the Muster Hall.
Twenty Rocketiers had not started loading.
Aurelia waited above the Oath Hall.
Veyra stood at the very front.
Cassian checked the external communications one last time.
Two Gold Veins.
The Battle Essence Spring.
Six Rare Gloomhoof still outside.
Twelve Blackfang.
Two Storm Guardians holding the Gold Veins.
And the external patrol personnel.
None of them would travel with the Domain into the Regional Boundary.
Bram had already split the outside supply and security arrangements into independent operation, just as Cassian had ordered yesterday.
One Storm Guardian still held each vein.
The white-stone line rules remained unchanged.
Everything that needed to come back had come back.
And Cassian had not stripped the outside holdings empty just to make this battle look stronger.
08:59:58.
Veyra suddenly looked down at the ground beneath her feet.
"It’s here."
The next second, golden light spread outward from Forgotten Shrine’s Domain Core.
It was not teleporting a single Troop formation.
It was not opening a Waygate.
The entire Domain lit up at once.
The Forge.
The Oath Hall.
The Eclipse Muster Hall.
The Beacon Watchtower.
The Gloomhoof Warcamp.
Walls.
Warehouses.
The training ground.
Every Building and every legal unit still inside the Domain was wrapped in the same golden light.
The seven Eclipse Chains behind Veyra rang softly at the same time.
She looked down at the boundary beneath her feet.
It had not broken.
It had not loosened either.
09:00.
[Regional Warden Contest begins.]
[Mode: Regional Boundary Defense]
BOOM—!
Gold swallowed Cassian’s entire field of vision.
When the light cleared, the gray slopes outside Forgotten Shrine were gone.
So was the western fissure the Rocketiers had collapsed yesterday.
In their place stood two nearly vertical walls of dark-gray rock.
One on either side.
Both stretching forward.
The canyon was less than two hundred meters wide.
Forgotten Shrine sat directly across the gap, fitting into it like a massive stone block dropped into the only opening.
Farther ahead, war fog rolled and churned.
The dark-silver observation ring atop the Beacon Watchtower was already turning.
Its 1,300-meter field of view opened rapidly.
Veyra did not look at the enemy first.
She walked forward several steps.
All the way to the Domain’s new boundary.
Then stopped.
The boundary was still in front of her feet.
Only the world beyond it had changed completely.
"The door is still here."
Cassian walked up behind and to the side of her.
"Yeah."
Veyra looked into the unfamiliar canyon.
"But it came with me."
The corner of Cassian’s mouth moved.
"Which means you can fight."
This time, Veyra did not wait for him to say anything else.
She had already turned around.
"Move the Eclipse first line twelve meters forward."
"Bring both sides in by three steps."
"Praetorians, don’t stand directly behind them. Offset by half a shield position."
"Split the Rocketiers into two ranks. Don’t let one canyon wall ruin their turning angles."
They had not trained for this canyon yesterday.
Veyra had not even known there would be a canyon.
But the point of the training had never been to memorize one terrain layout.
It was to be dropped onto an unknown border and have the line established before the first clash.
Less than two minutes later, the nine core segments of Aegis Fold were set.
Cassian did not change them.
The system rules were opening at the same time.
[You have arrived at the Regional Boundary.]
[Defense Sector: Riftwind Canyon · 88]
[The first wave of invading foreign-race enemies will arrive in 10 minutes.]
Several rules that had not been shown yesterday followed underneath.
[Your personal Regional Boundary Defense ends if any of the following occurs:]
[1. The Lord dies or the Domain Core is destroyed.]
[2. More than 100 invading enemies cumulatively cross the rear defense line of your Domain.]
[3. Voluntary withdrawal. All invading enemies currently inside the battle zone must be cleared before withdrawal.]
[The Regional Boundary is a real battlefield.]
[Hero / Troop casualties and Building damage will not be automatically restored after battle.]
[When the Region reaches 1,000,000 total Warden Points, Regional Boundary Defense is judged successful and the regional-success reward is settled.]
[Regional success does not end personal defense sectors that are still active. Lords whose defenses remain active may continue fighting and continue earning Warden Points and normal kill rewards.]
[While two or more valid competing Lords remain, the Regional Warden race continues to be decided by Warden Points.]
[When only one valid competing Lord remains, individual #1 locks immediately, and the Regional Warden seat and the individual #1 additional reward are settled.]
[Settling the Regional Warden seat does not force the winning Lord’s still-active Defense Sector to end. Later Warden Points continue accumulating and, once the higher-layer Shattered Marches Ranking opens, count toward that total.]
The area outside the Oath Hall went quiet for a moment.
Everyone who had been talking yesterday about getting in, earning a few points, and letting stronger Lords carry the rest had to be seeing those same lines now.
This was not a free reward.
And the system was not covering everyone’s losses for them.
Veyra looked at the final warning.
"Real casualties."
"Yeah."
"Then yesterday’s Lure fight wasn’t wasted."
Cassian looked at the first line.
"It was never about points."
Veyra glanced at him.
"I know."
She paused.
"It was about Abyssal Pressure."
Cassian did not deny it.
Aurelia dropped down from above.
"Ten minutes."
"Enough."
Cassian looked through the Beacon’s opened field of view.
Nothing had entered it yet.
He did not order the Rocketiers to load early.
He did not send the Stormlance to the front either.
First wave.
See what came first.
[First Wave Countdown: 00:01:00]
The Battle Channel had opened.
Only one hundred people were inside it.
[Anonymous Lord: Mine is a swamp entrance. Black water everywhere in front of me.]
[Tobias Reed: Stone slope here. My defense zone is around three hundred meters wide.]
[Rowan Ashford: Terrain is independently randomized. Don’t guess difficulty from sector number.]
[Anonymous Lord: I put all my workers onto materials yesterday just to force Rank III. My wall still isn’t fully repaired.]
[Elara Vayne: Survive the first wave before you start discussing how many materials you saved.]
Seraphine said nothing.
Neither did Cassian.
He watched the countdown.
00:00:10.
Veyra raised one hand.
Two hundred heavy shields lowered together.
The Highbloods already had arrows nocked.
The existing Level 2 Repeater Ballista Tower slowly turned toward the front of the canyon.
Aurelia asked,
"Do you want me in?"
"Watch first."
Three seconds.
Two.
One.
The war fog bulged outward.
The first dark shapes burst through.
Not one.
An entire mass of them.
[Cinder Imp]
[Race: Demon]
[Quality: Common]
[Level: 7]
The Cinder Imps at the front were barely more than a meter tall.
Long, thin limbs.
Mouths split almost to the ears.
There were a lot of them.
Behind them, more than a dozen taller figures raised their hands together.
Dark-red fire gathered around their fingers.
[Ashfire Caster]
[Race: Demon]
[Quality: Elite]
[Level: 8]
Aurelia’s sword had already come half an inch out of its sheath.
No order had been given.
It was instinct.
Cassian noticed.
"You hate them that much?"
Aurelia kept her eyes on the Demons pouring out of the war fog.
"That kind of presence makes drawing my sword the first thing I think of."
"Then think it."
Cassian kept his eyes on the first line.
"Just don’t draw it all the way yet."
Aurelia turned her head toward him.
"When you first arrived, you said a contract couldn’t decide what you believed."
"I remember."
"That still applies here."
"If you believe they should die, that’s your judgment."
"Deciding when I need your sword is my call."
Aurelia was silent for two breaths.
Her grip slowly loosened.
The half-inch of silver-white steel slid back into the sheath.
"I thought, back then, you might have only said that because you wanted me to stay."
Only then did Cassian look at her.
"I didn’t spend a million to turn a sword that can judge for itself into one that can’t."
The corner of Aurelia’s mouth moved faintly.
"Then I’ll wait."
She looked forward again.
"Not because the contract tells me to."
"I know."
Cassian checked the panels.
No Core Trait worth stopping for.
"Fight normally."
Veyra’s order came immediately.
"Highbloods, suppress the Casters first."
"Legionnaires, no pursuit."
Eleven arrows left first.
Then came Rapid Shot.
The volleys passed over the shield line.
The Ashfire Casters at the front had barely raised their fireballs before arrows struck shoulders, elbows, and throats in rapid succession.
The Ballista Tower loosed at the same time.
THOOM!
A heavy bolt punched through two Cinder Imps and nailed a third into the ground behind them.
The first mass of Demons crossed two hundred meters.
One-fifty.
One hundred.
The Highbloods kept changing targets.
Not every arrow was a kill.
But the Casters never formed a complete ranged volley.
The first Cinder Imps finally crashed into the Eclipse shield line.
BOOM—!
Aegis Fold lit.
The impact spread outward across the formation.
The first line did not move.
Veyra did not even rotate in the Praetorians.
"Second group, take the left."
"Fourth group, stay where you are."
"Let the center finish taking it."
More than a hundred Demons jammed against the shield line in the middle of the canyon.
Polearms thrust out from behind the shields again and again.
The Demons behind were still trying to push forward.
The ones in front were already falling.
Less than three minutes later, the final Ashfire Caster took an arrow through the chest.
The combat log stopped scrolling.
[You successfully defended against the first invasion wave.]
[The second wave will arrive in 10 minutes.]
A golden announcement appeared in the Battle Channel at the same time.
[Cassian Vale has successfully defended against the first invasion wave.]
The channel went blank for two breaths.
Then—
[Tobias Reed: ?]
[Anonymous Lord: ???]
[Anonymous Lord: Mine only just entered visual range.]
[Rowan Ashford: Your first wave is already over?]
Seraphine finally appeared.
[Seraphine Valcrest: Mine still has another one hundred forty meters to go.]
Cassian glanced at the messages.
He did not answer.
Something new had appeared in the ordinary settlement from the first wave.
[Warden War Drum ×5]
[Battlefield Consumable]
[Effect: Shortens the arrival time of the next invasion wave by 5 minutes.]
[Valid only during this Regional Boundary Defense.]
Veyra saw it too.
"Ten minutes of recovery."
"Yeah."
"Do you need it?"
Cassian looked over the first line.
Zero deaths.
Shield formation intact.
The Legionnaire group that had rotated out was already recovering Aether inside the Aether Mist.
No wall damage.
The Ballista was intact.
The Highbloods had only gone through one real stretch of sustained fire.
"No."
"Knew it."
Cassian took out two Warden War Drums.
"Use two."
THOOM—!
The first drum sounded.
[Second Wave Countdown: 00:05:00]
The second followed immediately.
THOOM—!
[Second Wave Countdown: 00:00:00]
The Battle Channel went silent again.
The war fog did not.
It churned as if the two drumbeats had enraged it directly.
The second Demon wave was already breaking through.
More than the first.
Higher Level too.
Veyra watched the front.
"First group isn’t full yet."
Cassian asked,
"Does that stop you from holding the line?"
"No."
"Then take it."
Veyra raised her hand.
"Second wave."
Two hundred heavy shields hit the ground again.
And in the Battle Channel, some Lords’ first waves had not even reached their walls yet.