Chapter 439 — The Knight
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 3
The magic barrier was linked to the fortress walls and to every mage tower in the city. As the barrier steadily weakened, the first things to react were the magic crystals atop those towers.
He rushed out of the tower at once with his men.
Inside the towering Boulder Fortress, whistling sounds were echoing back and forth, and with them came a low rumble that grew steadily more distinct—the sound of the city shield shuddering on the verge of collapse, the sound of the air inside the shield resonating with the trembling walls. The faintly glowing magic barrier was now covered in ripples; pale white patterns spread from the top of the wall all the way into the high sky. By the time Sir Marchi burst out of the mage tower, those ripples covered nearly two-thirds of the sky.
In all his life the senior knight had never faced such a desperate situation, yet at this moment he grew calm instead. Watching the magic barrier crumble bit by bit, one hand on the sword hilt at his waist, he asked the mage advisor beside him in a low voice: "Master, how much longer can the shield hold?"
"Twenty minutes, or less," the mage advisor replied. "I will lead the surviving battle mages onto the wall and charge the shield with our own mana—that may buy three or five more minutes."
"Do not waste mana. Manpower is useless against a weapon like that," the knight cut him off. "Let the battle mages conserve their strength and prepare to fight in the city."
Then he turned to his most trusted subordinate, the guard knight who had followed him for years.
This guard knight was surely one of the strongest men in Boulder Fortress, second only to himself.
The city shield could hold for twenty minutes. After it broke, there was still the south wall; the metal-poured south wall could hold out for at least several tens of minutes against the Cecil "Skyfire blast." Even if the Cecil men sent Skyfire over the wall into the city, it would only destroy surface structures within the second wall—the magic focus and the main runes of the magic barrier were all buried underground.
Before the walls completely collapsed, there were still things he could do.
"Hold Xuanque City," the knight said to his guard knight. "Also, find Ropeni Gran and her missing guards. They may well have betrayed us already. Once that is confirmed, they must be dealt with before they cause greater damage."
The guard knight's eyes widened: "General, what are you going to do?"
"I once swore by my family name to defend Boulder Fortress to the death. Now it is time to keep that oath," Sir Marchi said, hand on his sword hilt, each word clear and forceful. "If I succeed, the Cecil attack may stop. If I fail, your loyalty ends—take the survivors out through the north gate, go to the royal capital, and tell Prince Wales the full account of how Boulder Fortress fell."
"General! I will go out with you!" the guard knight said at once. "I too swore that I would follow you on the battlefield forever. To flee on the eve of battle is not what a knight should do, still less what a noble should do!"
"The war of nobles is over!" Sir Marchi stared hard into the guard knight's face, then his tone softened. "...The war of nobles is over."
...
Knights who still had courage stepped forward. A knight order, led by the fortress commander, set out for the south wall gate. Sir Marchi sat on the warhorse he trusted deeply and watched the gate grow nearer before him.
Outside the wall, the magic barrier had reached the brink of collapse. Great patches of chaotic ripples wandered everywhere, and in some places magic pores had already opened. Where the barrier was broken, uncontrolled mana turbulence leaped across the wall like lightning, leaving chaos in its wake.
Groups of southern knights and noble soldiers fled down from the wall, mixed with the figures of some southern nobles.
A moment before, they had been shouting and preening on the wall.