Chapter 75: Chapter 75: The Hero’s Crucible

Chapter 75: The Hero’s Crucible

The battlefield at the base of the Great Wall had devolved into an incomprehensible meat grinder, but for the first time since the war began, the Vanguard Knights were not the ones being ground down.

The unified, terrifyingly coordinated ocean of monsters had suddenly shattered.

Without the neural tethers of the Cult Elites commanding them, the Abyssal Razor-Hounds turned on each other in a frenzy of territorial bloodlust.

Corrupted Storm-Vultures dove from the skies, tearing into the exposed necks of the Goliath Siege-Turtles.

The feral instincts of the beast horde had entirely overridden their demonic programming.

Standing behind the shattered main gates, Aegon Logcheville wiped a streak of blood and soot from his cheek.

He gripped his Blood Fire Spear. He saw the chaos ripping through the enemy lines.

"They’re breaking formation!" a Vanguard Captain yelled, his voice hoarse.

"The beasts are eating each other!"

"Don’t just watch them!" Aegon roared, his voice cutting through the din of battle.

The Vanguard Knights turned to look at the first-year student.

Aegon stepped forward, his Asura’s Crucible flaring to life. But he did not explode in a chaotic, wasteful pillar of fire.

He forced the immense thermal energy inward, channeling every ounce of his blistering heat directly into the dark, conductive metal of his spear until the blade glowed with a terrifying, blinding white-hot intensity.

"They are feral animals! We are the Vanguard!" Aegon yelled, his natural, undeniable charisma washing over the exhausted soldiers.

He pointed his blazing spear at a towering Goliath Siege-Turtle that was currently distracted, trying to shake off a pack of rabid Razor-Hounds.

"We do not hide behind broken gates!" Aegon commanded, his eyes burning with absolute conviction.

"We push them back into the Abyss! WITH ME!"

Aegon didn’t wait for permission. He charged directly into the fray, a blazing comet of crimson and gold.

The Vanguard Knights stared for a fraction of a second, completely awestruck by the sheer bravery of the young prodigy.

Then, their exhaustion evaporated, replaced by a roaring tide of adrenaline.

"FOR THE BASTION!" the Captain bellowed, raising his sword.

"HRAAAAAAGH!"

The Vanguard surged out of the gates behind Aegon.

The young "Hero" reached the massive Goliath.

He planted his boots into the mud, twisted his hips, and thrust his spear upward.

FWOOSH!

The hyper-compressed thermal thrust acted like a plasma cutter.

The white-hot blade of the Blood Fire Spear pierced straight through the Goliath’s impenetrable, four-story-tall armored shell.

KRA-BOOM!

The heat violently expanded inside the beast.

The Siege-Turtle’s shell detonated from the inside out in a massive geyser of boiling blood and steam.

The colossal monster let out a dying wail and crashed into the dirt.

Aegon ripped his spear free, standing atop the steaming corpse.

The Vanguard Knights roared his name, crashing into the disorganized monsters with renewed, unstoppable fury.

The Hero of Bastion Seven had officially arrived.

---

A mile down the western flank, the mud was frozen solid.

Reina Frost was breathing heavily. Her silver hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat, but her eyes were sharp, calculating, and cold.

She was locked in a brutal duel with a Level 118 Cult Elite.

He was not one of the commanders Zero had assassinated, he was a frontline vanguard Elite wielding twin jagged sickles dripping with necrotic poison.

SWISH! SWISH!

The Elite attacked with blinding speed, a flurry of dark steel aiming for her throat and ribs.

The old Reina, the reckless brawler, would have let out a war cry, swung her axe in a massive, wide arc, and traded a fatal blow just to land a hit.

But Draven’s brutal lessons echoed in her mind.

’Don’t swing wide. Control your center of gravity. Stamina over burst.’

Reina kept her heavy, double-headed ice axe tight to her core. She didn’t attack. She parried.

CLANG! CLANG!

She shifted her weight flawlessly, deflecting the jagged sickles with the thick handle of her weapon.

With every block, the high-density ice core in her axe flash-froze the moisture in the air, slowly lowering the ambient temperature around the Cult Elite.

"Stand still and die, you little brat!" the Elite snarled, his breath turning to mist.

His movements were growing sluggish.

The localized absolute-zero aura of her weapon was seeping into his muscles.

Reina saw his right foot slip on a patch of frozen mud. He overextended his swing.

’Now.’

Reina pivoted on her heel, dropping her center of gravity, and drove the blunt side of her heavy axe directly upward into his sternum.

CRACK!

The sickening sound of shattered ribs echoed through the freezing air.

The Elite gasped, blood spraying from his lips as the sheer concussive force lifted him off his feet.

Reina immediately spun the weapon and slammed the razor-sharp, freezing blade down across his chest, sealing the massive wound in a block of dark red ice.

The Elite crashed backward into the mud, his eyes rolling up into his head. He did not move.

Reina let out a long, shuddering exhale. She lowered her heavy axe, resting the head in the dirt. Her arms were screaming with fatigue.

’I did it,’ Reina thought, a faint, proud smile touching her lips.

’I didn’t lose control. I fought exactly how Draven taught me.’

She turned her back on the fallen Elite, looking out across the battlefield to try and locate Aegon and Estella.

KACHCK!

Behind her, the ice on the Elite’s chest violently shattered.

The Cult Elite’s eyes snapped open, glowing with a vile, demonic purple light.

A surge of forbidden dark magic forcibly restarted his shattered heart.

He pushed himself off the ground with unnatural silence. He pulled a poisoned dagger from his boot.

His face twisted into a mask of hateful malice. He lunged at Reina’s exposed back, aiming the poisoned blade directly at her spine.

SHCK!

The wet, tearing sound of pierced flesh echoed over the din of battle.

Reina gasped, spinning around instantly, raising her axe.

She froze.

The Cult Elite was stopped mere inches from her. The poisoned dagger slipped from his trembling fingers, splashing into the mud.

Protruding directly through the center of the Elite’s chest was a blade of compressed spatial distortion.

Standing right behind the dying Elite was a man in a sleek, dark tactical suit.

He wore a featureless white mask.

He held the invisible blade of gravity with one hand, his head tilted slightly to the side.

"Fifteen," Zero’s musical, chilling voice hummed cheerfully from behind the mask.

Zero casually twisted his wrist.

The spatial blade expanded, completely shredding the Elite’s internal organs.

He withdrew his hand, and the Cult Elite collapsed face-first into the mud, dead for good.

Reina stumbled back a step, her eyes wide with sheer terror.

The oppressive, bottomless aura radiating from the man in the white mask was suffocating.

Zero stepped over the corpse. He looked down at the dead Elite, then up at Reina.

"Always double-tap, little berserker," Zero chuckled, his tone light and playful, utterly contrasting the brutal murder he had just committed.

"Backstabbing is such a lazy trope. If you turn your back before the curtain falls, the punchline tends to creep up on you."

"W-Who are you?" Reina stammered, gripping her axe tightly, completely unaware that the terrifying assassin was her lazy classmate.

Zero placed a hand over his heart and offered her a highly exaggerated, theatrical bow.

"Just a humble stagehand," Zero mused, straightening his suit.

"You may deliver a message to your commanders for me. Tell them the board is theirs to play. The Embracing Hands have cleared the weeds."

Reina’s breath hitched.

The Embracing Hands.

Zero offered her a jaunty, two-fingered salute against his blank mask.

"Keep up the good work. The show is just getting to the good part."

VWOOM!

The air warped, and Zero completely vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind except the dead Cultist in the mud.

Reina stood alone on the flank, her heart hammering against her ribs.

---

Miles away, standing atop the safety of a watchtower, Draven Mordis materialized out of the shadows.

He pulled the white mask off his face, his cold, calculating demeanor instantly returning.

A bright golden screen flashed before his eyes.

[System Alert: Scenario Quest ’The Headless Snake’ - Complete!]

[Calculating Rewards...]

[+50,000 System Points Awarded!]

[+5 All Stats Awarded!]

[Item Acquired: 1x Mythic-Grade Gacha Token.]

Draven closed the screen, his dark eyes looking out over the battlefield.

The Cult Elites were dead. The Vanguard was pushing back. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The students had survived their crucibles.

Everything was going exactly according to plan.

Which meant it was time for the Cult to play their hidden card.