Chapter 2985: Reinforcement
Emery’s sudden arrival did not draw much reaction from the battlefield.
After all, he was only a Two Cosmos Grand Magus. He possessed neither the status nor the cultivation realm necessary to influence a battle of this scale directly. Even his Group Nine teammates put little hope in him.
Under such circumstances, his arrival should have changed nothing.
Perhaps only Julian saw it differently.
Relief flooded his face.
"Emery... thank you..."
The reply came with a teasing smile.
"You look awful."
His eyes swept across the faint purple webbing creeping along Julian’s hand before settling on the darker, more advanced corruption spreading beneath Cassian’s collar.
Without a word, he opened his palm and produced two small pills.
"New batch," he said simply. "Take them."
He tossed one to each of them.
Julian caught his out of the air and swallowed it without hesitation. Almost immediately, warmth surged through his meridians, pushing back the corruption as the purple webbing retreated in visible strands.
Cassian was less graceful.
Still shaken by the battle, the City Lord nearly dropped his pill. Before it could fall, Twik’s vine darted forward and caught it neatly, lifting it toward Cassian’s mouth as though offering a child a piece of candy.
At the same moment, more than a dozen corrupted Magus and Grand Magus hurled themselves toward Emery from all directions.
They never reached him.
A heartbeat before the attackers arrived, two figures stepped silently out of the air to Emery’s left and right.
Both looked exactly like him.
One was wrapped in living shadow.
The other was cloaked in pale golden light.
His two avatars.
The dark one raised a hand. The space around the attackers on the left folded, swallowing the closest Grand Magus whole and redirecting their charge into one another — corrupted blades crashing against corrupted shoulders, while the weaker Magus were flung backward like leaves caught in a sudden wind.
At the same time the light avatar flicked his fingers, and dozens of flying swords streaked across the right side in a shimmer of golden brilliance. The blades flashed through the air like rays of sunlight, smashing into the charging infected and hurling them aside as though clearing debris from a path.
As for the group attacking head-on, another figure appeared before Emery.
Crimson hair flowed behind her.
Divine flame erupted from her outstretched hand.
The front line of attackers vanished beneath a wave of scorching fire powerful enough to reduce flesh, bone, and corruption alike into drifting ash.
Morgana.
Yet none of them were the true threat.
The deadliest danger descended from above.
Elder Ravik had already recovered.
High in the sky, the corrupted Three Cosmos expert drew back his spear for a second strike. Black wind gathered around the weapon, twisting the surrounding air into a howling vortex as power condensed around its tip.
This time, his target was no longer Cassian.
It was Emery.
Black wind gathered around the spear as the corrupted Three Cosmos expert unleashed a killing blow powerful enough to split the battlefield apart. The spear-light tore through the sky like a falling comet, dragging a trail of darkness behind it as it descended toward Emery with unstoppable momentum.
It never reached him.
A streak of wind and white fire erupted from Emery’s wrist.
Typhon.
"Finally, I get to join the fight!"
The Qilin hybrid burst from the beast bracelet with a roar that shook the heavens. His enormous figure appeared directly in the spear’s path, and his palm slammed upward into the descending attack before it could travel another meter.
The collision detonated across the battlefield.
BAMMMM!!!
A shockwave exploded outward, scattering clouds and rattling the walls of Dravos. Nearby Grand Magus staggered as spiritual energy surged through the air like a storm.
For a brief moment, spear-light and qilin flame struggled against one another.
Then the spear shattered.
Black wind exploded in every direction.
Typhon did not stop there.
White fire erupted along his arm as he stepped forward and drove a second palm strike directly into Ravik’s chest. The corrupted elder barely had time to react before the impact launched him backward, hurtling across hundreds of meters of sky while blood sprayed from his mouth.
More figures were already arriving.
The Star Tower Lord descended first, followed by Duke Damien and the Sword Demoness. All three looked terrible. Their robes were torn, their auras unstable, and traces of corruption still lingered beneath their skin despite their efforts to suppress it. Only Hubert appeared to be in somewhat better condition, though even he carried the exhaustion of hours of constant battle.
The four landed beside Emery, and he wasted no time.
He threw each of them one of the new-batch pills — except Hubert.
"What — none for me?" Hubert protested.
"I have more," Emery said casually. "But it’d be wasted on you."
"...damn. That’s not cool."
The exchange lasted barely a heartbeat. The parasite X above seemed to read the moment perfectly — that Emery had come bearing a fresh wave of medicine, and that every pill swallowed was another defender pulled back from the brink.
A shrill chittering cry erupted across the heavens.
The sound rolled over the battlefield like a command.
And the hive obeyed.
Nearly thirty infected grand magus answered.
Among them, the still-rising form of Elder Ravik, his crimson robes torn but his black-furnace aura blazing fresh. The hive was reinforcing for one decisive strike, one final smothering blow meant to end Emery’s intervention before the new pills could even take hold.
On Emery’s side, only a handful of nearby Grand Magus were able to break away and reinforce the position. One of them was Anderson himself, dragged inexorably toward the gathering clash by the duel he could not escape. Colonel Garran followed close behind, the corrupted Three Cosmos expert pursuing him like a black furnace descending from the sky.
The arithmetic was brutal.
Emery. Typhon. Anderson. Duke Damien. The Sword Demoness. The Star Tower Lord. Hubert. Cassian. Morgana. His two avatars. Julian. The Randhal Guardian Golem. And three additional Grand Magus who managed to reach them in time.
Even counted generously, they were still outnumbered nearly two to one.
Worse, their strongest combatants were in terrible condition. Damien’s aura was frayed, the Sword Demoness was barely suppressing the corruption spreading through her body, and even the Star Tower Lord had yet to fully recover. The new pills had brought them hope, but the medicine had not yet completed its cycle through their meridians.
The enemy gave them no time.
The battle erupted before anyone could properly prepare.
Typhon charged first.
The Qilin hybrid crashed into the corrupted formation like a living meteor, Morgana and the Randhal Guardian Golem advancing at his flanks. Qilin flame, divine fire, and ancient runic power exploded across the battlefield in a single devastating exchange, tearing open the front ranks of the infected and carving a path that should not have existed.
Hubert immediately followed.
His revolver thundered without pause, crimson-gold bullets streaking through the chaos while his cane-blade flashed in his other hand whenever an infected fighter broke through the barrage.
Meanwhile, Emery’s avatars established a layered defense around the group.
The light avatar unleashed waves of flying swords that filled the sky with golden streaks, intercepting incoming attacks before they could reach the defenders. Beside him, the shadow avatar summoned clusters of writhing Cthulhu-shaped bombs, the grotesque constructs diving into the enemy ranks before detonating into bursts of corrosive darkness that consumed everything nearby.
And at the center of it all, Emery finally made his move.
Working in perfect coordination with Twik, he raised a hand and released his strongest spell.
[Elden Wildburst]
The battlements exploded with life.
An Elysian fortress erupted outward from his position, towers of roots and vines tearing through shattered stone as dozens of plant-monsters burst into existence. Each creature was wrapped in spiraling Khaos energy, their crystalline thorns harder than steel as they surged into the corrupted ranks.
Twik chirped happily atop one of the rising towers, leafy arms outstretched, conducting the chaos like a satisfied gardener watching his garden eat the trespassers.
The displays were not meant to win the battle.
They were smoke and flash — a thunderous distraction meant to buy the recovering team the few precious minutes their meridians needed to fully absorb the new-batch pills.
Anderson landed beside Emery in the eye of the storm, his armor cracked, blood streaking one side of his face.
"We need a new plan."
The Star Tower Lord spoke first, "When will the reinforcements arrive?"
"Six hours," Anderson said grimly.
Duke Damien’s eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, his thin strands of golden spirit-light still flickering at his fingertips. "We cannot hold that long. That thing needs to come down before all of us are infected."
Cassian, who had been muttering retreat, retreat under his breath for the past minute, finally found his voice.
"We don’t have enough time," he said hoarsely. "We need to run."
"You are the city lord!" the Sword Demoness snarled, blood still on her chin. "Calm the fuck up!"
Emery did not react to any of them.
He simply reached over his shoulder and drew his sword in a single, calm motion. Excalibur slid free of its sheath with a soft chime.
"Don’t worry," he said, with a small, almost amused confidence. "The reinforcements are coming."
The rampart went quiet.
All stared at him as though he had spoken in a foreign tongue.
Reinforcements?
In one hour, all of them would be dead or infected. The math was not subtle.
Emery did not bother to explain.
He simply raised a finger and pointed at the sky.
"They are here!"
Only then did the others notice it.
High above the battlefield, hidden behind the violet clouds and the chaos of war, a massive vessel was descending from the heavens.
Its design was unfamiliar, formed from smooth black metal and organic-looking structures that seemed almost alive. Strange luminous patterns pulsed across its hull, while dozens of crystal towers protruded from its sides like the limbs of some colossal creature.
It did not resemble any vessel belonging to the Magus Alliance.
In fact, it looked almost alien.
As the warship descended through the clouds, sections of its enormous hull slowly opened.
Tens of thousands of figures poured from the ship in organized formations, among them were dozens of powerfull grand magus experts.
Their leader flew at the front.
A woman.
A Three Cosmos powerhouse.
Two slender antennae extended from her forehead, while faint golden patterns covered portions of her skin. In fact, all who followed her — the whole army — bore identical physical traits.
The battlefield fell silent for a moment.
These were not the reinforcements anyone had expected.
They were not Alliance soldiers.
They were the Insect Halfbloods.
And leading them personally was the Insect Queen herself.
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