Chapter 638 — Stalemate
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
This was indeed major news.
Gao Yang sat quietly, his calm face betraying little emotion, but he was clearly sinking into thought. Beside him, Victoria instinctively turned to Amber for confirmation: "Wales is crowned? Is the information reliable?"
"It's reliable—our people in Saint Frostrest have been running continuously, and they're considerably more dependable than your Royal Shadowguard in this regard," Amber glanced at Victoria. "The details of the proceedings aren't clear yet, but we can confirm that the new king's coronation has temporarily stabilized the capital. At present, every knightly order and military corps in Saint Sunil has sworn allegiance to the king, and Silverkeep has announced that reinforcements are on their way, which has set the city's residents somewhat at ease. In short, the situation in the capital is improving—though only temporarily."
Gao Cen nodded as he listened, then looked at Victoria: "You say you know Wales. Did you anticipate this move?"
"That..." Victoria hesitated a moment, then slowly shook her head. "This exceeds my expectations."
"I actually guessed something of the sort," Gao Yun said with a soft breath. "Saint Sunil is a quagmire. You and I both know how those nobles operate. Even with word of reinforcements reaching the city, their hearts will remain divided—to control the situation, Wales and Bai Yu have few paths open to them."
"Is that so..."
Victoria said softly. That face, as though forever cloaked in frost, concealed all her inner thoughts. No one knew what the Grand Duchess of Ice and Snow felt at this moment, but one thing was clear to all: the king crowned now had been thrust ahead of the storm, and the regency dukedom that had endured in Ansul for a century had ended with this coronation.
Gao Yang said no more, only closed his eyes slightly, as though resting them—but deep within, his mind was recalling the visit last year, before the Grand Wall project began, from Cohen Roland, vice-commander of the Royal Knightly Order.
……
The new king's coronation had stabilized the capital's tottering defense line, and steadied the city's order on the verge of collapse—but cheering hearts could not change the hardship of the war. In this life-and-death defense, the situation along the line could only worsen day by day; it was an unchangeable trend.
The monsters were vast in number, seemingly endless, while the defending soldiers dwindled every day; the monsters knew no weariness and feared no death, while human will erodes without cease; the monsters did not worry over supply, nor care for any loss, yet all of Saint Frostrest's provisions were limited, and its shield and walls were no palace of the legendary God of War that could stand eternal through war—
On the fourth day, the crystal-cluster giants' assault suddenly intensified. An army of monsters that had wandered over from the southeast of the Holy Spirit Plain was drawn to the front and began battering Saint Sunil's eastern wall. This unexpected onslaught nearly broke the defenses atop the eastern rampart; after a bloody struggle, the knightly orders and royal mages finally drove the enemy back—at the cost of over a thousand dead in a single battle.
The corpses carried down from the wall were not brought into the inner city but burned directly at the foot of the outer wall. Thick smoke and acrid stench hung over the outer district all day, even drowning out the famous ever-present smell of Trout Street.
In a house near the wall in the inner district, a tall, lean man in a headwrap pushed open the door and entered. As he hung his coat on a hook on the wall, he lifted his eyes to his companion seated behind a table nearby: "The reserves have been sent up to the wall. The shield is said to be growing less stable by the day—the monsters' attacks often punch through it and land on the walls."