Chapter 93: Fortress Awakens, Now Attack
The city stayed silent as they stepped inside, golden lanterns lighting one after another down every street they could see.
No monsters appeared.
Nothing moved.
The roads stretched out empty in every direction. Arthur took a slow step forward, his boot touching ancient stone that hadn’t felt a footstep in centuries. Nothing happened.
He took another step. Still nothing.
Sun’s voice came out barely above a whisper. "I don’t like how quiet this is," he said.
Mithra nodded. "Me neither."
Athena looked around at the buildings, caught somewhere between fascination and unease. "There aren’t even signs of decay," she said. "The preservation is impossible."
Mara spoke quietly beside her. "Every story said this city was destroyed."
Arthur looked around at the perfectly intact streets, the untouched rooftops, the gardens still green and growing. "Does this look destroyed?" he asked.
Nobody answered.
Then Arthur’s hand grew warm.
The King’s Mark began to glow brightly, and golden lines spread outward across the streets like rivers of light.
Tracing paths through intersections, over bridges, around the buildings on either side, before converging on a single structure at the center of the city. It rose taller than anything else around it, circular and ancient, unlike any building they’d passed so far.
"It’s showing us where to go," Arthur said.
Sun smiled nervously. "That definitely won’t activate anything," he said.
Arthur started walking anyway.
Immediately, the entire city trembled.
A deep mechanical sound rolled up from somewhere beneath the streets, and stone shifted everywhere around them.
Everyone froze in place.
Athena’s eyes widened as she realized what was happening. "The city isn’t collapsing," she said. "It’s moving."
Massive stone panels slid open along the buildings, revealing hidden compartments untouched for centuries. Ancient mechanisms groaned back to life. Across the city, hundreds of stone statues began rising, on rooftops, at street corners, along watchtowers and balconies, everywhere they looked.
Stone Guardians poured into the streets.
Some were barely taller than Arthur, carrying swords and round shields polished smooth by centuries. Others towered over the rooftops, gripping massive stone hammers that could flatten entire buildings.
Shield bearers locked together at every intersection.
Archers climbed onto rooftops.
Builders drove their hands into the ground, raising fresh stone walls that cut off escape routes.
Support Guardians planted enormous banners into the streets. Golden light spread across nearby constructs, making their stone bodies glow brighter.
Cracks in damaged Guardians slowly sealed.
Broken shields repaired themselves.
Even shattered weapons began pulling themselves back together.
Athena stared. "They’re repairing them."
Sun sighed. "I officially hate banners now."
Arthur let out a quiet laugh. "The whole city is a fortress."
The first Guardians didn’t attack.
They watched.
Blue light glowed behind their stone eyes as Arthur’s group stepped farther into the city. One after another their heads turned like they were recognizing each person.
Arthur frowned. "They’re looking at us."
Then the first horn sounded.
Every Guardian moved at once.
"Incoming!"
Arrows rained down from the rooftops.
Arthur spun Dusk in his hand.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Stone arrows shattered against the spinning shaft.
"Vedas!"
"I’m on it!"
Golden light burst beneath Vedas’ feet as he shot forward. A Shield Guardian lowered its tower shield.
BOOM!
Vedas slammed into it shoulder-first.
The construct skidded backward, opening a gap in the formation. Arthur charged through it and his spear thrust toward the nearest soldier.
[Armor Piercing]
The spear punched straight through the Guardian’s stone chest. Cracks spread across its body before it exploded into dozens of fragments.
Three swords flashed toward Arthur at once.
"[War Shout]!"
Arthur’s voice thundered through the street.
A visible shockwave burst outward.
The charging Guardians froze for a heartbeat.
"Now!" Sun grinned. "Kong!"
Golden light covered both of them.
[Buff]
Kong’s muscles swelled.
He leaped into the middle of the stunned formation and slammed both fists into the street. The impact launched three Guardians into the air. Before they landed, Sun rushed in with Long glowing.
His staff swept across the first construct.
[Point Shockwave]
BOOM!
The invisible blast erupted on impact, smashing through two more Guardians behind it.
"Kong!" Arthur grinned.
The monkey understood immediately. He grabbed a Shield Guardian and threw it.
"Mithra!"
She flashed forward and one slash with Kusa.
The flying construct split in half and before the pieces landed. Arthur’s spear shattered both halves.
Sun blinked. "We’ve been fighting together too long."
Across the rooftops, another volley of arrows flew.
Athy chirps from the sky.
"They’re reloading!" Through their shared vision, Athena watched the entire battlefield. "The archers are on the left!"
Mithra disappeared.
One moment she stood beside Melo.
The next she was on the rooftop.
Her Kusa flashed.
The first archer’s bow split cleanly in two. She turned with the same motion and cut through a second Guardian before kicking a third off the roof.
Behind her, two hammer Guardians charged Arthur.
"Arthur!"
"I see them."
The first hammer crashed down.
Arthur sidestepped just before it struck.
The street exploded beneath the impact.
Before the construct could recover, Arthur drove his spear into its knee.
"Vedas!"
Vedas understood immediately.
Golden light flashed around his spear.
[Armor Piercing]
The thrust pierced straight through the crack Arthur had created. The giant Guardian collapsed with a deafening crash. The second hammer Guardian swung toward Vedas.
Instead of retreating, Vedas smiled.
[Weapon Hurl]!
He threw his spear and it shot forward like a cannonball.
BOOM!
The spear blasted through the Guardian’s chest, carrying it several meters before pinning it against a stone wall. Vedas caught the returning spear as it flew back into his hand. Nearby, a Builder Guardian slammed both palms into the ground.
The street shook.
Stone walls burst upward between Arthur and the others.
"They’re splitting us apart!" Sun shouted.
"No." Arthur’s eyes narrowed. "They’re controlling where we move."
A dozen Shield Guardians marched into the narrow passage the wall had created.
Behind them, archers raised their bows.
Support Guardians lifted their banners.
The entire formation advanced together.
The traps grew more elaborate after that. Stone walls slammed shut without warning, splitting the group apart mid-stride. Floor tiles tilted beneath their feet, trying to spill them into the lower streets below.
Massive chains swung across intersections at head height.
Ballistae emerged from rooftops, firing down in tight volleys.
Narrow alleys suddenly flooded with crushing stone rollers, and rotating barricades funneled them directly toward waiting Guardians.
Every trap worked with the constructs rather than separately, and it felt less like a dungeon and more like an enemy army with a single mind.
Everyone kept fighting, destroying construct after construct, and nothing seemed to change no matter how many they took down.
Arthur noticed something strange. The same Guardian he’d already defeated three times kept returning to the fight, whole and undamaged each time.
Athena stopped fighting entirely, eyes locked on faint glowing lines running beneath the streets. "Arthur!" she shouted.
He turned toward her.
"We’re doing this wrong!" she called out.
Arthur destroyed another construct as she spoke, and it reformed instantly in front of him just like the others had.
Athena pointed toward the glowing streets beneath their feet. "The city is rebuilding them!" she said.
Mara’s eyes widened as she understood. "The whole city is sharing mana!" she said.
Sun sighed heavily. "So," he said, "we’re losing."
Athena shook her head. "No," she said. "We’re wasting time."
Arthur looked toward the golden trail still leading toward the center of the city, then back at the endless wave of Guardians surrounding them. Everything clicked into place at once.
He smiled. "We’re not supposed to win," he said.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"The Trial doesn’t want us to defeat the city," he continued. He pointed toward the glowing trail cutting through the streets. "It wants us to reach the center."
Sun’s expression shifted immediately. "So," he said, "run?"
Arthur pointed his spear forward. "Run."
The entire fight changed in an instant. Everyone sprinted toward the golden trail while Guardians flooded the streets behind them, arrows raining down from every rooftop. Builder constructs threw up obstacles in their path. Hammer Guardians tore through buildings just to block their route.
The entire team burst into motion.
The city answered immediately.
Guardian horns echoed through the streets.
Every construct turned toward them.
Archers lined the rooftops.
"Above!"
A storm of arrows fell.
Arthur and Vedas glanced at each other.
They understood without speaking.
Their spears blazed with brilliant mana.
[Magic Burst]
BOOM!
Twin explosions erupted above them.
The blast scattered the incoming arrows in every direction, turning the deadly volley into harmless fragments of stone.
"Keep running!" Arthur shouted.
Builder Guardians slammed their hands into the ground.
Stone walls erupted across the street.
"Kong!"
"I’m on it!"
Golden light covered Kong.
[Buff]
He lowered his shoulder and charged.
CRASH!
The wall exploded into rubble as Kong burst straight through it.
The team rushed after him.
A Hammer Guardian dropped from a rooftop, its massive weapon crashing toward Arthur.
Arthur twisted aside.
The hammer smashed into the street, sending cracks racing through the ground.
Before it could lift the weapon again—
Thrust!
Arthur’s spear pierced its chest.
A second hammer swung toward Vedas.
He stepped inside the attack.
[Armor Piercing]!
His spear drove through the construct’s shoulder.
With a roar, he spun and hurled it into two charging Shield Guardians.
"Melo!"
"I know!"
The fox’s eyes shimmered.
The charging Guardians suddenly stopped.
Instead of Arthur’s team...
They saw an empty street.
The illusion lasted only a heartbeat.
It was enough.
The group slipped past before the constructs realized they had been fooled.
"Left!" Athena called.
"The street ahead is closing!"
The road trembled.
Entire buildings rotated on hidden foundations.
A stone bridge began folding into the wall.
"Mara!"
"There!"
She pointed toward a narrow alley hidden between two ancient buildings.
"It reconnects further ahead!"
Arthur didn’t hesitate.
"This way!"
The team dove into the alley just before the bridge vanished behind them.
A dozen Shield Guardians emerged from the opposite end.
"They’re blocking us!"
Sun planted his staff. "Kong!"
The monkey grinned.
Sun’s staff struck his back.
[Point Shockwave]
The burst launched Kong forward like a cannonball.
BOOM!
He crashed into the shield wall.
Stone shields shattered and guardians flew in every direction.
The opening was just wide enough.
"Go!"
Everyone sprinted through.
Behind them, Vedas slowed and three spears flew toward the group. His own spear glowed brightly.
[Magic Burst]!
The tip exploded with mana. The shockwave blasted the spears off course before tearing through the nearest Guardians.
Vedas smiled and turned. "Arthur!"
"I’m here!"
Arthur grabbed Vedas’ arm and pulled him forward as another volley of arrows darkened the sky.
The golden trail suddenly stopped.
"There!"
A massive circular chamber stood at the end of the avenue. Its enormous doors groaned as they slowly opened.
"Inside!"
Arthur dove through first.
Mithra followed.
Melo slipped in behind her.
Sun grabbed Athena by the wrist and pulled her through.
Mara stumbled across the threshold.
Vedas shoved her safely inside before turning back. "Kong!"
The monkey was still outside. Instantly countless arrows rained down on him, making Arthur frowned.
He quickly tapped into his King Mu essence in the King Mark. He thrust out his hand as golden figure appeared with a spear and hurled it towards Kong. The spear cut through some of the arrows and then another spear that was massive dealt with the rest.
"Come on, Kong!"
Kong nodded as it rushed over. Dozens of Guardian spears thrust toward him but Kong laughed before leaping as the spears missed by inches as he crashed through the narrowing gap.
BOOM!
The doors slammed shut.
Silence.
Outside...
Every Guardian froze.
Bows lowered.
Hammers rested against the ground.
The shifting streets stopped moving.
The rising walls sank back into the earth.One by one, the golden lines running beneath the city dimmed until only darkness remained.
The fortress had finally fallen silent.
Nobody spoke for several seconds, everyone still catching their breath from the run.
Then Athena exhaled slowly. "We passed," she said.
A deep bell echoed somewhere far beneath the city.
Once.
Then silence.
Arthur looked back toward the doors. "Was that..."
Mara quietly smiled. "I think the city acknowledged us."
Comments