Chapter 394. By Thy Name I Command Thee
Three new armies were dispatched from the Demon Empire. Morax took command at the forefront. Although he wasn’t a great demon of single-digit rank, he led an army that was among the top of the tenth ranks. It wasn’t just Morax’s army. Another legion followed, and yet another soared into the air from the main camp. Then the garulas, who had had to step down from the gate walls due to the assault of the tower of the dead, hurriedly returned to their post. They all inhaled sharply when they saw countless Demon Empire and the Abyss soldiers rush toward them without an end in sight.
It was different from the Demon Empire’s first assault, which was made clear enough by the vanguards of the corps. A giant siege tower with a triangular roof came pushing forward; it was a movable tower that easily dwarfed the helepolis, which was known as the strongest siege tower in the ancient world and called the Greek’s land battleship. Moreover, there were other siege carts that were covered by shields on all sides like a jeonhopicha[1]. The legions that followed Morax’s army suddenly stopped their march.
They stopped even before reaching the gate, and humanity and Cassiubia League soon found out why. The ballistae brought by the following corps were arranged in a row. Moreover, they weren’t just ordinary ballistae. They were reminiscent of a palintonon from Rome, and each was as big as a field gun. Then when they finished arranging and loading the ballistae, they aimed at the gate and fired all at once. The few priests among humanity and Cassiubia League hurriedly made barriers around the walls. However, the ballistae weren’t meant to simply gun down the archers. Huge bolts the size of iron pillars with a sharp end pierced through the air. There was something tied to the back sides.
Crackkkk! The bolts didn’t pierce the top of the wall, but slightly above the middle.
‘What? Are they trying to create stepping stones with the ballistae?’ The puzzled garulas heard an unidentifiable loud sound with their sensitive ears. There was a loud bang like an explosion. Then they immediately looked down and were hit by a mysterious nasty smell from below that made their noses twitch.
“Umph!” One of the garulas hurriedly covered his mouth after getting a whiff. “Don’t smell it! It could be poison gas…?” However, he stopped talking before he could finish because a myriad of shadows were swimming at the bottom of the gate. The garula unconsciously tilted his head and widened his eyes. A legion was flying through the air over the gate. Every one of them dropped what they were holding with both feet when they were right above, and what looked like bombs fell like rain. Soon, the projectiles made contact with the mysterious rising smoke
Baaaaaaaaaaaaam! A tremendous explosion enveloped the entire wall. It was so sudden that the majority of the archers died. Those who were supplied with the AI armors barely managed to scrape by, but they weren’t in good condition either. It was truly a terrifying explosion, to the extent that the garulas who weren’t able to receive any protection from a priest were erased without a trace. However, what was even more terrifying was that it had only been the first attack. After the successful assault, the legions immediately began to reload as if they were going to annihilate every single one of their enemies.
Meanwhile, Yeriel writhed after getting thrown to the ground by the shockwaves of the explosion. “Those…fucking bastards…” She struggled to raise her head and ground her teeth together while looking beyond the wall, where the disaster had occurred.
“What the hell are you doing! Are we just going to get beaten like this?!” Shouting angrily, she quickly got up and ordered the soldiers to replace the cannon balls. “Artillery unit! Fire!” The cannons fired at her sharp command.
“What? Where are they shooting at?” While loading the ballistae, the legion soldiers chuckled at the sight of numerous bombs flying over their heads and soaring high above the sky. Then the cannon balls suddenly opened up from top to bottom, and sharp metal blades popped out in all directions. The blades spun around and passed by the legion soldiers before returning like a boomerang. They rotated fiercely as they rapidly dropped toward the enormous ballistae placed behind the legion soldiers. All laughter was erased from their faces.
Clankkkkkkkk! The blade boomerangs attacked them in all directions, smashing and crushing more than half of the supersized ballistae. In addition, they swept through the ground and relentlessly ripped and sliced through the legion soldiers. Those who had been hit screamed and scattered left and right. The legions circling in the air to wait for the second wave of attack saw what was happening and tried to pull back for the moment.
“Where do you think you are going?” However, by that time, the cannons had already been reloaded and redirected under Yeriel’s orders. “Fire!” She shook her arm as hard as she could. The cannon balls shot up vertically. The rising cannon balls opened up again and shot out a myriad of small but sharp blades in all directions. The legion soldiers in the air fell after getting hit. In the meantime, the walls were fully repaired, and those who had guarded the walls with their lives began to attack as if they were avenging the comrades they had lost to the first wave of enemy assault. Yeriel tried to take a breather after succeeding in dealing a serious blow against the coalition army.
Bam! But her body shook at the sudden vibration. “What, what is it now?”
The answer came from the battering ram as it hit the gate. Morax’s legions had reached the gate. The garulas, who had finally calmed themselves, hurriedly fired arrows at them, but the legion soldiers entered with shield carts at the front and blocked most of the damage. And soon after, the garulas became unable to shoot properly from the top of the walls as the giant siege tower brought by Morax’s legion arrived and settled down, and the two remaining towers of the dead also advanced again and reached the gate.
Yeriel’s sarcastic self would say she wanted to die of happiness. It was to the extent that she almost screamed out loud. No matter how many different cannon balls she had made, the amount of artillery they had was limited. However, since there were so many places that she needed to fire at, she couldn’t help but want to die.
Meanwhile, the walls were becoming a complete mess. Not only were there skulls falling in heaps from the tower of the dead, but Morax’s soldiers, armed with shield carts, were gathering below the two towers. One by one, they jumped out of the carts and climbed the towers to go up the wall. While the gate was important, the gate’s walls might be captured by their enemies at this rate. As the situation turned for the worst, humanity and the Cassiubia League became more urgent.
“Block them! Drop them from the wall!” Soldiers from humanity and the Cassiubia League rushed out all at once.
At the same time.
—Analyzing warfare situation…
—…Analysis complete.
A notification rang in the Sky Castle.
—Probability of capturing the gate…97%
Followed by another message.
—Confirming the existence of a large number of nutrients… Buffering is imminent…
It was an incomprehensible notification.
* * *
The siege, which had begun around dawn, was going on full swing. The Demon Empire had really sharpened their swords and were determined to win. They attacked without a break as if to demonstrate their intentions to fully destroy every last trace of humanity. Their determination was so strong that even the lives of their own troops were merely used as tools. Whenever humanity and the Cassiubia League were gathered in one place, they did not hesitate to make a shot even if their allies were in the mix.
However, what was even more astounding was that even then, their numbers weren’t decreasing. As soon as humanity and the Cassiubia League felt like their enemies were dwindling, Bael would send out new troops. As a result, humanity and the Cassiubia League had to endure and fight nonstop against what seemed like a never-ending number of enemies. It felt like water that never dried out was being poured and poured again into a bottomless well. The battering ram relentlessly hit the gate from below, skeletons constantly poured down from above, and Morax’s legion soldiers in heavy armors were always climbing up the wall.
But above all, whenever soldiers from humanity or the Cassiubia League tried to surround them and kick them off the wall, a ballista would shoot out a bolt. As bombs continued to drop from above the rising gas, those defending the gate with their lives at stake were almost losing their sanity. They had feared the worst, but they never imagined that the fight would be this terrible and intense from the very first day. It was to the extent that the members felt like their enemies were just trying to make as many corpses as possible without caring if they were friend or foe.
Even if they could give as good as they take, the enemy coalition would be at a significant advantage if it became a numbers game. If they could, they would have requested backup from personnels stationed in the mountain ranges on both sides. However, this was impossible as both groups were also busy blocking the Abyss. They were so occupied with defending against the enemies countlessly pouring out that they couldn’t even find out what their situation was like. They just fought back with the thought and determination that everything would be over if they were pushed back.
If the Demon Empire had maintained their initial firepower so far, the gate would have fallen already, but surprisingly, the gate was still holding on. Humanity and the Cassiubia League and the Demon Empire continued to fight without either side giving an inch. The reason why humanity and the Cassiubia League were able to hold out until now was because Chi-Woo had been moving all over the place to cover the whole frontline. Moreover, Yeriel could also be considered the number one contributor in a way. Thanks to her AI armors and the various weapons she had prepared, humanity and the Cassiubia League could avoid getting beaten up one-sidedly. In fact, the enemy’s firepower had been significantly reduced partly due to her continuous efforts to target the Demon Empire’s ballista units and air units.
It wasn’t only Yeriel who made significant contributions. Thanks to several other heroes besides her, the gate wall was still holding out. Case in point, Apoline was shooting flames like flowing water from both hands. And Eshnunna, while she couldn’t unleash extreme attacks like that, had made one big accomplishment—she completely froze one of the towers of the dead. Thanks to her, they got to witness the comedic scene of Morax’s legion soldiers tumbling down from the tower mid-climb.
It was the same for Hawa. She wasn’t able to produce outcomes equivalent to magicians, who were known as stars of the battlefield, but she was shooting arrows so relentlessly that her hands burned. While picking off enemy soldiers one by one from the watchtower, she suddenly turned around in surprise.
Tap, tap, tap. As soon as she took cover, she heard something hit the wall of the watchtower in quick succession. Hawa clenched her teeth. It was probably shot from the siege tower facing the gate. Enemy soldiers have been shooting at her whenever they had the chance, and it was extremely bothersome. Even though she tried to shoot at them from her side, it was hard to hit them because they shot through a small hole by sticking out only their crossbow.
It was then a cry broke out under the watchtower. The roar grew louder and louder and was accompanied by a scream, disrupting her hearing. Hawa looked down, and she scowled when she saw their ally protecting the nearby wall getting pushed back. On the contrary, the number of undead and legionnaires were growing rapidly. Judging by the situation, it seemed that at least one place was going to fall under their enemy’s attack. Hawa turned around, thinking they should first escape.
“We have to get out. The enemies below…” Then she paused and trailed off. The garula archer, who was watching the opposite direction for her, was half leaning against the window and not moving anymore. There was an arrow through their temple. Hawa had seen them shoot arrows without a break just a few minutes ago.
“…Fuck.” She heaved and was about to escape by herself when something unbelievable caught her eyes. She saw a familiar person walking towards her. She couldn’t see the person’s face because it was covered by a veil, but Hawa believed she had seen her before. ‘Her name was Al—something.’ Hawa blinked a couple of times and soon widened her mouth in realization. ‘Whatever it was, she’s Ho Lactea.’
Hawa remembered seeing her a couple of times at Seven Stars and thought ‘What’s with her?’ when she saw Alice casually strolling across the gate’s wall. While a bloody and fierce battle was in full swing, Alice strolled along as if she was on a leisurely walk. When Hawa became suspicious that Alice might have gone crazy for a moment, she noticed a translucent haze swirling around Alice, and her eyes twitched. By that time, the enemy soldiers climbing the wall also discovered Alice and were flocking toward her. However, she continued to walk calmly.
Hawa wondered if she should go help Alice or not. And while she warred with herself in her mind, she witnessed something unbelievable. The army soldiers rushing fiercely towards Alice had disappeared. To be more precise, they scattered away as soon as they reached the glow hovering around Alice, as if they were split into nano units in an ultra-precise mincer.
Shocked to see their comrades disappear, the enemy soldiers hurriedly withdrew. They were confused for a moment, but soon each raised their hand and threw their weapons as hard as they could at Alice. The ax flew and slammed into a target—not Alice, but the air around her. It wasn’t just the ax. Knives, spears, arrows, even a ballista bolt and a bomb—everything directed at her stopped as soon as it was within a certain range, as if time had stopped only around her.
Then Alice stopped walking. “…” She glanced around her, and her hand moved slightly.
“!” Hawa was shell-shocked. The very moment Alice moved her hand, all the weapons aimed at her changed direction and were ejected at once. The soldiers got hit by their own weapons and let out blood-curdling screams. The same was true for the ballista, and the bomb also reversed direction in the air and exploded. That wasn’t the end of it.
Alice turned to the distant siege tower. She stared at it for a moment before pointing at it with her index finger. Then she said, “Re…” She swirled her finger slowly while she muttered. “Re…re…re…”
Round and round. She kept turning her fingers in a counterclockwise circle. Then an extraordinary event unfolded. The more she rotated her index finger, the more the siege tower, which stood firm—
Shaaaaaaa…. Began to fade away from the top. When she turned her index finger ten times and said, “…Gress”, the siege tower, which boasted of grandeur and an enormous size, disappeared without a trace like a mirage in the desert. Hawa rubbed her eyes several times, staring at the now wide open view beyond the wall in disbelief. The siege tower that had been causing them grief since its appearance had regressed—not as an artificial object, but to its origin in nature.
Of course, the only thing that disappeared was the siege tower. The soldiers hiding inside fell down in heaps and were shocked by the sudden disappearance of the structure protecting them. Hawa gulped after seeing such an unbelievable sight. Although she wasn’t sure what had happened, the woman named Alice or A-something was the one who had brought it about. With only a few steps and some hand gestures, she reclaimed the gate’s walls that were on the verge of getting captured and removed the entire siege tower. Although it was truly an astounding feat, enough to shock anyone senseless, Hawa was able to recollect herself quickly; she had been through something more amazing and ridiculous than what just happened.
‘…Thanks to someone,’ Hawa muttered to herself and settled back into the watchtower. Now that the situation has become like this, there was no reason for her to leave. Therefore, she stuck her head out the window and was about to take aim with her bow. When she looked down, however, she immediately frowned.
“…Uh?” She lowered her bow and furrowed her brows like she couldn’t believe her eyes.
1. A type of cart with shields, usually made out of leather, on all sides to enhance the survival rate of soldiers. ☜
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦