"Come on! I’ve been waiting for you for a long time."

Phield drew his sword with a sharp metallic ring. Everything they had wiped out before had been nothing but undead and expendable cannon fodder that felt no pain. This time, the enemy had finally committed their elite forces, and he intended to crush them completely.

"Archers, volley fire. Ballistae, target their ballistae."

Allowing the enemy’s front ranks to enter range, Ophelia gave the order decisively.

"Once the archers become exhausted, they are authorized to switch to Rapid Wands."

"We fight to the death!"

"We fight to the death!"

The soldiers of Nightfall Domain roared in unison as they drew their bows and raised their crossbows. The creaking of bowstrings filled the air before a swarm of arrows shot out like locusts, blanketing the densest parts of the enemy formation.

"Raise your shields and keep advancing. Maintain the formation."

Sistina personally led the assault. She concealed herself beneath the battering ram and shouted to rally her troops.

She hardly needed to say anything. The soldiers instinctively hid behind their shields.

As arrows thudded into shields and clattered against armor, soldiers fell one after another. A young officer gripped a small ornament tightly in his hand while whispering constant prayers. It was a charm his wife had given him for protection.

Before he could finish, a ballista bolt as thick as an arm tore straight through him. It ripped apart his shield and armor before pinning him and the two soldiers behind him to the ground.

"Don’t lose focus! The rear ranks, fill the gap immediately! There must not be any openings!"

A fanatic shouted while raising both arms.

"He hasn’t died. He’s gone to meet the True God. That is the highest honor."

Before he could finish speaking, an arrow pierced straight through his throat. Without making a single sound, the fanatic collapsed lifelessly.

"Damn it... This is ridiculous. Couldn’t they have waited a few more days before attacking?"

Sistina cursed under her breath as she maintained a steady pace forward, stepping over countless corpses until she reached the city wall.

After several previous battles, the bodies piled before the fortress gate had formed enormous mounds. Under the scorching heat, the stench had become utterly nauseating.

"Tier Three Divine Skill, Blood Shadow Spiral!"

Veronica thrust her lance forward with explosive force. A tremendous surge of divine power poured into her heavy cavalry lance before smashing violently against the city gate.

"Creak..."

The gate let out another agonized groan. Behind it, the massive boulders bracing the entrance collapsed one after another like an avalanche.

"Beautiful!"

Sistina could not help shouting in delight as she pulled the battering ram with all her strength.

"Keep smashing! Don’t stop!"

"Pour the boiling oil! Burn those battering rams!"

The defenders used long poles to tip huge cauldrons of boiling oil over the gate. As soon as the oil spilled downward, the soldiers drew Fireball Wands and launched a blast into it, instantly setting the oil ablaze.

"Not a chance, you annoying pests. Tier Three Divine Skill, Peerless War Roar!"

For the first time, Mushai displayed one of her Divine Skills before Phield.

Her aura surged wildly as violent currents of divine power enveloped her body. A terrifying lance beam erupted into the sky, blasting apart the falling oil before it could reach the ground. The attack continued across the battlements, obliterating an entire group of soldiers pouring the oil.

The sudden strike threw the defenders on the walls into confusion. The soldiers operating the ballistae immediately concentrated their fire on Mushai.

Seizing the opportunity, Larson immediately issued another order.

"Mage Corps, suppress their firepower!"

With the ballistae no longer threatening them, the mages unleashed an overwhelming barrage of spells against the city walls.

Yet the soldiers of Nightfall Domain possessed terrifying resolve. Even while enduring relentless magical bombardment, they continued raining arrows, stones, and every piece of debris they could find onto the attackers below.

The battlefield instantly descended into a brutal stalemate.

Human lives became the cheapest currency on the battlefield as casualties mounted rapidly on both sides.

"Boom!"

A thunderous explosion echoed across the fortress.

Unable to withstand the combined assault of the battering ram, the mages, and Veronica’s attacks any longer, the fortress gate shattered into several massive pieces. Only piles of rubble and scattered debris remained, no longer capable of blocking the rebels’ advance.

"The gate is breached! Charge with me!"

Ecstatic, Sistina led two hundred elite vanguard soldiers over the heaps of rubble and stormed straight into the long passage beyond.

"Ophelia, leave the fighting on the walls to me. Command the undead legion and the golems. No matter the cost, trap that Divine Chosen who entered the fortress."

"Ben, bring out the hidden trebuchets. Target the enemy Mage Corps and hit them hard."

"Rosalia, seal the gate and stop the enemy’s reinforcements!"

"Yes."

Everyone immediately moved to carry out their orders.

Leading her two hundred elite vanguard troops, Sistina charged forward without hesitation. After advancing through the passage for a short distance, she saw a tightly packed formation of heavily armored spearmen standing in formation across the corridor.

"Tier Three Divine Skill, Blinding Folded Slaughter!"

Transforming into a dazzling phantom, Sistina crashed directly into the spear formation, slashing left and right as she instantly cut down thirty or forty soldiers.

Yet the collapse she had expected never came.

Instead, the heavily armored soldiers surrounding her roared and charged forward, fiercely engaging the soldiers of the Shadow World Sect.

"What kind of morale is this? They’re even crazier than we are."

Something immediately felt wrong.

With considerable effort, Sistina hacked open the heavy armor of one soldier. A wave of rotting stench poured out.

She quickly pried the armor apart, and her eyes widened in disbelief.

Inside was a snarling undead.

"How do they have corrupted soldiers? Did they make a deal with the undead too? There’s no way the Imperial Army would sacrifice entire cities just to gain the support of the undead."

Completely bewildered, Sistina felt as though her mind had stopped working.

Where the hell am I?

Who the hell am I even fighting?

"Tier Two Divine Skill, Sapphire Dragonification."

Powerful waves of energy erupted outward.

The surrounding undead rapidly mutated, their bodies becoming covered in gemlike sapphire scales that dramatically increased their defenses.

At the same time, endless ranks of heavily armored undead mixed with stone golems poured out from every corridor, charging toward her from all directions.

The moment the two sides collided, an unimaginably savage battle erupted.

The narrow passageways became packed solid with soldiers and undead.

Spears thrust forward while blades slashed back. Blood splattered everywhere as though it had become worthless.

As for footwork, martial techniques, and refined combat skills, they had become nothing more than a joke.

The packed crowd was even more congested than rush hour traffic. Simply raising an arm was difficult, let alone dodging. Both sides collapsed row after row.

A warrior of the Shadow World Sect had just killed his third undead when, before he could even unleash a combat technique, a halberd hooked him and dragged him into the sea of corpses. His screams echoed through the passage as he was torn to pieces.

Sistina desperately carved through the undead around her, but attacks rained down from every direction onto her Divine Power Cloak. Her strength was draining away at an alarming rate.

"Where are the reinforcements? Why is it nothing but enemies? Veronica, get in here and save me already!"

Hearing the desperate cries from inside the fortress, Veronica and Mushai prepared to lead even more soldiers through the breach.

Suddenly, the air itself let out a mournful cry.

An overwhelming pressure descended from above.

"Boom!"

Alarm bells rang in the minds of the two rebel Divine Chosen.

They instinctively raised their weapons to defend themselves.

Even so, the terrifying destructive force of Star Erosion instantly drained the color from their faces. Both were forced back more than a dozen steps before barely managing to hold their ground.

As the dust scattered, the soldiers standing near the gate looked as though they had been struck head on by a speeding truck.

Every last one of them had been crushed into bloody fragments.