Chapter 628 — Monsters and Machines

No other reason could explain why the monsters would abandon a castle they were on the verge of taking at such a critical moment.

And once she realized that possibility, what rose in Victoria's heart was not only the comfort of expecting reinforcements—she thought of something she ought to do:

She could not simply let this horde from Stone City fall back to relieve Red Maple—she had to find a way to hold these monsters here, or at least their finest, even if only for a time.

She did not know who had fought their way into the contamination zone, did not know who was attacking Red Maple, did not even know whether the attacker was truly a relief force—but with no other choice, she had to believe it was, and on that assumption do everything in her power to support their action.

Victoria gripped her platinum staff, then drew from close against her body a pale-gold snowflake-shaped talisman of unusual design.

A faint, flowing light shimmered across its surface, and in that play of light and shadow it seemed as though a frozen world lay bound upon the talisman's face.

She had thought she would never need this thing, yet to her surprise an unexpected turn arrived—and to seize that small turn, she felt it necessary to borrow a measure of her ancestor's power.

The amulet's sharp point pierced her palm, and the blood of the Wilde family soaked into the pale-gold snowflake surface. Victoria exhaled softly and spoke a single word:

"Calamity."

Outside the castle district, Krolod was gathering its crystal-swarm legion. The urgent orders from Red Maple City and the auras of annihilation that kept streaming in through its psychic senses left this converted being restless and irritable—it had been so close, perhaps only a few hours, a day at most, and it would have taken that little castle, crushed that stubborn "Queen of the North" and her pitiful mountain legion. Yet at this very moment he was forced to abandon the prize already within his grasp, not even daring to delay a moment.

For the situation at Red Maple was critical—so critical that the city might fall at any time.

If Red Maple fell, if all the high-ranking priests in that city perished, Krolod and its subordinates could not escape the fate of losing their sanity—that plan at the Order's headquarters was not yet complete, the Grand Pontiff's "Final Defiance" ritual was still underway, and all godspawn individuals, Krolod included, were for now mere unfinished products. Without a higher node to share the corruption of the divine will, a converted individual like itself could not survive independently at all.

So it had to go rescue Red Maple, had to rescue that Bishop Seaton who knew nothing of waging war.

"I'll let you catch your breath," Krolod snarled, glancing back at the castle. "I'll soon..."

Its motion and its thoughts both froze in that instant of looking back.

A pale-white halo spread silently outward along the castle district, and wherever the halo reached, all things quietly froze.

Including the mountain legion, including Victoria, including the great stone castle, including Krolod and its crystal-swarm legion.

The entire castle district turned to a single sheet of ice crystal.

...

The Cecilian main force had fully entered the battlefield—there were more war chariots than expected.

One after another, they appeared on the horizon like a swarm of steel insects, arrayed in a loose assault formation, firing steadily as they advanced, drawing closer to the walls of Red Maple City.

The bombardment from the Gorgon River had briefly fallen silent, but ten minutes ago it had erupted again. The men ordered to block those warships had clearly failed, and amid peal after peal of thunderous detonation, the high-ranking priests of the Society of All Things Perishing watched this hellish spectacle—

The chariots advanced. There were no great companies of knights charging with war cries, no infantry squares ordered to their deaths, no chaotic slave legions—Seaton could see none of the battlefield elements he knew. He could see only that cold steel advancing—moving, firing, moving on, firing again...

The three forces that had sallied out to meet the enemy had been annihilated, fallen beneath that ceaseless fire and blazing flame, and still the Cecilian offensive maintained its steady advance.

They were like some kind of machine, like some tightly fitted, unwavering set of gears—they turned, they advanced, they ground to dust everything that stood before this machine. Nothing to do with glory, nothing to do with noble causes or the destiny of bloodlines; the sole reason this machine advanced was that "advancing" was its very purpose.

Seaton suddenly recalled something he had once said—

Godspawn are cold instruments of war.

Yet compared with this steel the Cecilian people had unleashed, that instrument was, perhaps, far too gentle.

"Bishop," a priest cried out, his voice nearly drowned in the unending explosions, "the shield can't hold much longer!"

"Use up the mana reserves, hold on a little longer—Krolod will be here soon," Seaton said rapidly. "Once Krolod and his elite troops arrive, everything will be all right. They'll strike the Cecilian flank from the east..."

"Bishop, Krolod, he..." Another priest, holding a crystal ball, spoke hesitantly. "Krolod's mind has vanished..."

"Damn it!" Seaton swore under his breath. He felt his voice trembling slightly, but he still forced himself to think rationally. "Don't panic, the shield can still hold. Have all the spellcasters charge the shield—we can hold out until the southern legion comes back to our aid. They'll attack the Cecilian rear..."

That was right, there was still a way out. The Cecilian "skyfire" was formidable, but it could not destroy the city shield in a short time after all, and as for those three mighty warships, they seemed able to strike only the western district of Red Maple—that district could simply be abandoned, and the shield's projection range contracted to the main city... In that way, Red Maple City could still hold out a long while, long enough for the southern godspawn army to return...

Seaton comforted himself so, but all at once an indescribable palpitation surged into his heart, cutting off all his thoughts.

Along with that palpitation came a low, dreadful voice from high above—

"Delivery pickup—"

Seaton looked up in astonishment and saw a vast shadow sweeping past the distant clouds, while countless dark objects plunged down from the sky with a piercing shriek...

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