Chapter 60 - Collapse
"...what?"
Gorgre's breath caught in his throat. But ignoring that, the transmission continued, the voice on the other end ragged with anger.
[We attacked as planned. Broke through the elves' barriers and set fire to the forest as we killed the defenders.
But something felt off. The elves in the city... there were too few.
When I noticed and was about to order a retreat, they deployed a containment barrier around the forest and blew up the entire city along with all the elves and demons inside it.]
Gorgre's hands clenched into fists. He knew the elves were tenacious bastards, but this was taking it to a whole new level.
'Even so, there was no way all of them had willingly agreed to such a suicidal plan. He said the defenders were too few, so it surely wasn't all of them.
But if they were desperate enough to destroy their frontline city...'
Gorgre's blood ran cold. His gaze snapped to his aide who had informed him about their loss of contact with the west and he could see in the man's eyes that they'd arrived at the same conclusion.
'What if the same thing had happened there?'
The three frontline cities had always maintained communication. It was entirely possible the angels, elves, and humans had coordinated this in advance.
And yet, the army of angels was here.
That meant—
"Order a retreat."
Gorgre's voice echoed and the officers who just stepped in to report the successful pushback against the angels were dumbfounded.
"Sir?"
One of them asked hesitantly, and Gorgre repeated himself with a cold voice.
"All Demon Forces should retreat immediately. We have elves incoming."
"?!"
"Elves?! But they're in the east!"
Two of the three Majors were surprised by this claim, but the third smacked the backs of their heads and scolded them.
"Just shut up and obey the Lieutenant Colonel's orders!!"
As the three Majors rushed out of the command tent and Gorgre's aide sent out the retreat order to all Company Captains, Gorgre silently placed his hand on his chin.
'We came with enough forces to overwhelm the humans, so even if the angels joined in, we could manage.
But we can't take on all three at once.'
The demon army in Zlego didn't have the numbers for that. If they stayed, they would be slaughtered.
Gorgre stepped out of the command tent, planning to make an appearance on the battlefield when he sensed a surge of magic power from the forest east of Zlego.
Arrows shot out from it, streaking through the sky like a storm and raining down on those fighting in the plains between Zlego's broken walls and the forest.
The forest itself came alive, the trees rapidly growing to absurd heights. Their gigantic branches surged forward, jagged and sharpened like spears, lunging at the demons in the air.
"I fucking knew it!"
The elves and the angels had sacrificed their cities, blown them to hell along with the demons that attacked them.
As for the survivors, they sent the bulk of their forces here to Zlego to wipe out the demons there.
It was a reckless, insane strategy.
But the fact that they had resorted to such extremes showed just how much they were losing this war.
The demons had pushed them so far back that they were willing to burn their strongholds to the ground.
However, that didn't matter here. What mattered was retreating and making sure they weren't chased by the combined forces of the three races.
◇ ◇ ◇
"The heck? Where did the elves come from?!"
Carack exclaimed in shock as he, Xaren, and Ilya—who had just finished cutting down a dozen angel soldiers—were suddenly met with a volley of arrows from behind.
The elves who launched the ambush didn't live much longer.
The Danger Sense skill warned Xaren of the ambush, prompting him to activate his Graviton Swordsman Class's Gravity Shield, blocking the arrows from behind.
Ilya's Instinct skill reacted similarly, and by the time Xaren turned to retaliate, she had already spun around, sliced the arrows targeting her to pieces, and beheaded the elves responsible.
She scanned the area for any remaining enemies, only lowering her sword once she confirmed there were none. Their squad of 25 had suffered no casualties, but seven had sustained serious injuries, with three unable to move without being carried.
That was when the order to retreat came.
None of them hesitated before sprinting toward the shattered northern walls of Zlego.
As they moved, Xaren opened his status board and checked his current level—125.
'A good haul. Too bad I didn't have many chances to devour souls...'
The thought crossed his mind as he leapt over crumbling buildings, the squad following close behind—except for Ilya, who was already ahead.
He would have preferred to fly, but with so many demons crowding the air, he'd be more likely to crash into someone than reach his destination.
In fact, he had already counted five demons colliding mid-air and plummeting to the ground.
Xaren lightened the weight of the injured, making it easier for the others to carry them as they manoeuvred through the ruined city toward its gates.
The distance from District 7 to the gates was considerable, and going out a broken wall was not feasible as the closest walls were to the west—the same direction the angels came from.
Their best bet was to head for what remained of the northern gates, where several bridges stretched across the ravine, offering a clear route for retreat.
Pushing their speed to the limit, they reached the gates in under ten minutes, cutting down any elves and angels that attempted to halt their advance.
To make matters worse, the elves had somehow tamed the monsters of the Maplespine Forest. A good number of these beasts prowled the battlefield, lunging at every demon within sight.
Xaren lost track of how many times he and Ilya had to activate their Unique Skills to send the rampaging creatures flying, carving a clear path forward for their squad.
Yet the chaos only intensified once they left Zlego's borders.
Both sides exchanged fire, magic spells of almost every element and nature shooting both down and across the ravine that separated Zlego from what was essentially demon territory.
Above them, the sky teemed with aerial combatants, dodging and weaving through magic attacks before launching counterstrikes.
Every second, at least one fighter was struck down, plummeting into the depths of the ravine—only to be bombarded by spells all the way down.
Xaren and his group wasted no time leaping onto Zlego's main bridge, sprinting forward as quickly as possible.
Well, as fast as they could, given that the bridge was packed with hundreds of retreating demons—both on the structure itself and in the air above.
Like before, the air was too congested to fly without the risk of colliding with another retreating soldier, so Xaren's squad stuck to the ground.
Behind them, more elves arrived, bringing with them the monsters of the Maplespine forest, sending them charging across both the main bridge and the ones the demons had constructed with earth magic in pursuit of them.
As they neared the other end of the kilometre-long bridge, Xaren spotted his Company Captain, Vollm, hovering in the air, unleashing spell after spell at the angels and elves attacking from the far side of the ravine.
Vollm spared a glance downward before amplifying his voice with magic and roaring out an order.
[EVERYONE WHO'S CROSSED, FIRE AT THOSE BEASTS! BRING THEM DOWN BEFORE THEY CATCH UP!]
The demons who had already reached the other side raised their hands, their magic circles flaring to life. Vollm then barked another command.
[THOSE IN THE AIR, DROP TO THE GROUND! NOW!!!]
The airborne demons took one look at the glowing magic circles of their comrades on the cliff's edge and wasted no time obeying, diving onto the bridge and the cliffside below.
This opened a clear line of fire for the demons, who unleashed spells over their comrades' heads, attacking the angels in the sky. Many spells drew parabolic arcs in the air, targeting the elves and monsters further behind.
Just when Xaren was about to curse about how much more crowded the bridge had become with the addition of those diving down from the sky, the structure shuddered violently.
Though he couldn't turn back to see it with the hundreds of demons behind him, he guessed the cause—the humans on Zlego's side, indifferent to both the demons and monsters still on the bridge, had begun trying to destroy it.
However, the bridge had been built for durability and reinforced to withstand even heavy combat. The soldiers attempting to bring it down knew it wouldn't collapse instantly.
It would take them multiple attacks.
Multiple attacks meant multiple shocks.
One of those shocks rippled through the bridge, sending a jolt up Xaren's legs. He had just stabilized himself when one of his squad mates who was carrying an injured squad mate, twisted his ankle.
He stumbled, his grip failing, and both demons were pushed by the dozens more behind them, nearly tumbling off the sides.
Noticing this, Xaren clicked his tongue and extended his left hand. A surge of gravity magic pules from his palm, catching them mid-fall and flinging them forward. They landed roughly on the other side, right in front of the demons who had just begun firing their magic.
As he anchored his feet to the ground with that same magic, no one could push him in the heat of the moment.
Just then, a massive crack spread through the bridge, and it began to collapse, but Xaren wasn't worried.
He exerted his will on gravity, about to use 'Repulsion' beneath his feet to launch himself forward.
It was at that moment, that his Danger Sense Skill screamed the loudest it had since he acquired it.
Xaren's head snapped to the side, his battle instincts screaming to conjure a shield with magic.
'Gravity Sh-!'
**BOOOM!!!!
A fireball half Xaren's height slammed into his face faster than he could activate the Class technique.
The roaring explosion knocked him and everyone behind him backwards, the flames searing against his skin as the bridge beneath his feet gave way completely.
He had taken a substantial amount of damage, but that wasn't the issue. The source of the attack was the issue.
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It wasn't the elves.
It wasn't the humans.
It wasn't the angels.
That fireball had come from in front of him.
Xaren's body tumbled backwards as the bridge collapsed. At that moment, he saw it—Carack's stunned expression, Ilya lunging forward, her Unique Skill activating in desperation—
And not too far from them, standing among the demons firing magic at the enemy, one demon's magic circle was not aimed at the angels in the sky.
It was aimed at him.
Ralguth.
Anger, unlike anything Xaren had ever felt ignited in his chest.
His left hand shot forward, and in that final moment, before he vanished beneath the cliff's edge, he activated his Unique Skill's technique.
"Gravitational Attraction!!"
A sudden, violent force locked onto Ralguth. The demon's body jerked, his eyes widening in horror as he was yanked from the cliffside—
And then, the collapsing rocks swallowed them both as they plummeted into the ravine.