Chapter 275: The Infinite Artillery
A blinding flash of spatial magic illuminated the ash-choked plains outside Aethelgard. When the light faded, the six Heralds stood before the towering obsidian walls of their former capital.
The city no longer resembled the shining metropolis they once knew. The Vanguard had transformed it into a brutal, monolithic fortress of black stone and jagged spikes.
Almost immediately, the deep, resonant blast of a war horn echoed from the battlements.
The Vanguard garrison did not hesitate. The heavy iron gates violently swung open, and a surging tide of heavily armored Chaos beasts and elite shock troops poured out onto the plains.
"Form up!" Julian ordered, raising his hands to summon a shimmering, golden barrier of hard-light.
Derek laughed, cracking his knuckles as his forearms hardened into dense, metallic armor. He charged directly into the front lines, throwing a devastating punch that shattered the skull of a charging goblin.
However, the sheer physical density of the Vanguard forces quickly overwhelmed his initial momentum. A massive, four-armed beast slammed a spiked club into Derek’s chest, sending the Herald skidding backward across the dirt.
"There are too many of them!" Brittany shouted over the deafening roars. She pressed her hands to her temples, projecting a wave of localized sensory deprivation into the crowd. Several beasts stumbled, clutching their eyes and ears as they went entirely deaf and blind.
Yet, the Vanguard soldiers simply trampled their fallen comrades to maintain the relentless charge. They were not mindless monsters they once were. They were a highly disciplined army executing a coordinated defensive perimeter.
Julia took several steps backward, completely removing herself from the frontline. She delicately brushed a speck of ash from her immaculate, custom-tailored battle garments and stepped safely behind her brother’s golden barrier.
"This is absolutely disgusting," Julia complained, wrinkling her nose at the smell of blood and ashes. She crossed her arms and looked at her twin. "Clear them out, Julian. I am not ruining my boots in this mud."
"I am working on it!" Julian snapped. His golden barrier groaned under the concussive force of Vanguard explosive shells raining down from the battlements.
The six Heralds were rapidly losing ground. Their divine magic was incredibly potent, but they lacked the combat experience to manage a coordinated, overwhelming siege.
’We cannot fight a war of attrition against an entire garrison,’ Julian thought, watching Derek get swarmed by three elite Vanguard knights.
Julian reached into his robes and pulled out the crimson crystal. The moment the artifact met the open air, a chorus of thousands of agonizing, ethereal screams echoed across the battlefield.
The weaponized souls of Aethelgard’s slaughtered citizens pulsed with a terrifying, concentrated divine energy.
"Zach!" Julian yelled, tossing the glowing artifact to the defensive support Herald. "Link it to her!"
Zach caught the crystal. He immediately slammed his palms into the dirt, acting as a living magical conduit. Glowing tethers of red mana erupted from the crystal, wrapping tightly around Zach’s arms before snapping directly into Sarah’s back.
Sarah gasped violently as the infinite mana battery flooded her system.
Usually, her destructive magic required her to burn out her own physical mana nodes, crippling her body with every cast.
Now, the crimson crystal absorbed the entire physical toll. Her eyes ignited with a blinding, thermal white light. The air around her instantly warped and shimmered from the sheer, radiating heat.
"Everyone behind me!" Sarah screamed, her voice distorting with raw power.
Derek threw off the knights and sprinted behind the golden barrier. Brittany and Zach braced themselves.
Sarah raised both her hands toward the charging Vanguard army. She didn’t cast a fireball or a lightning strike like before. This time, she unleashed a continuous, concentrated beam of thermal annihilation.
The beam struck the center of the Vanguard vanguard. There was no explosion. Instead, the sheer temperature instantly vaporized the front lines. The armored beasts did not have time to scream before their bodies turned to ash.
The devastating laser swept across the plains, instantly melting the dirt and sand into a smooth, glowing sheet of liquid glass.
Sarah screamed, pushing more power through the crystal, and aimed the beam directly at the towering obsidian gates.
The black stone hissed, bubbled, and completely liquefied under the sustained thermal barrage. The infinite artillery melted a massive, gaping hole straight through the impenetrable defenses of Aethelgard. The Vanguard sentries on the battlements fell into the molten slag.
Julian lowered his barrier and smiled, looking at the glowing, glassed battlefield. "Move in. Leave no survivors."
Deep inside the subterranean vaults of the Trinity Hive, Iron-Scale sat at the main command terminal.
"Commander," a communications officer shouted from the lower tier. "We just lost the outer gates! Casualties are in the thousands."
Gulag stepped out of the shadows, her heavy cleaver resting on her shoulder.
"It is not an army," Iron-Scale noted, pulling up the visual feed from the surviving perimeter crystals. He watched Sarah continuously glass the courtyard while Julian, Julia, Derek, and Brittany strolled through the molten ruins. "It is six Earthlings. And they possess an energy signature I have never seen before."
Iron-Scale stood up, his heavy armor clanking in the silent command center.
"Mobilize the heavy guard," Iron-Scale ordered. "Lock down the lower vaults. Gulag, you and I will handle these children personally."
Julian stepped over the cooling glass of the vaporized gates and led his team into Aethelgard. He kept his hard-light barrier active just in case of an ambush. The outer districts stood entirely empty. The buildings lacked any signs of Vanguard troops.
"Where is the rest of the garrison?" Derek asked loudly. He hardened his forearms into metallic plating and scanned the abandoned alleyways.
Julian focused his eyes on the central palace in the distance. He realized Iron-Scale had systematically abandoned the upper city. The outer gates served as an intentional sacrifice. Iron-Scale wanted to funnel them into a highly specific location.
They eventually reached the ruined courtyard of the palace. The open area provided absolutely no cover.
Suddenly, Iron-Scale dropped from the palace balcony and cracked the stone tiles upon impact.
"I heard from the Spiral that he knows you personally. He asked me to treat you the way he was treated."
