v3c349

The Abyss(8)

At the same moment when Brendel and his men were being attacked, the defense line which the Kirrlutz were in charge of was pelted with rain and darkness, Sir Hawthorne was riding through the woodlands on his Battle Dragon with the monk soldiers. “Damn it.” He cursed quietly. “How can these Aouine people even stand this weather, experiencing it once is already enough for us!” The monk soldiers laughed softly, Hawthorne who was from the warm northern foothills of the Kirrlutz Manoran Mountains found the damp and coldness of this time of the year in Ampere Seale very uncomfortable.

The Battle Drake beneath the saddle stood upright at over three meters tall and the iron armor on its body weighed half a ton. It was the most common mount for heavy cavalrymen of this era. The ground seemed to tremble slightly with each step it took, leaving a mud print that was several inches deep in the muddy woodland.

(Missing sentences, should double check) After the fleet stopped attacking, it was attacked by strange creatures on its way back. But the Dragon Cavalry of Aouine’s Northern Coalition Army did not find a trace of this frigate in the relevant air route, so they sent out their ground troops.

Hawthorne would bet that the frigate had crashed, and the wreckage of a burning battleship did appear before the line of men who were walking through the forest. The once formidable war machine was now only a wreckage with broken masts and wind sails scattered all over the place, a number of ropes hanging on the nearby tree branches.

This is the frigate that was reported to have been attacked and had crashed. What a massive thing. Hawthorne could not help but think.

“Oh my god, it’s the Bull Shark!” Someone recognized the frigate and shouted in surprise, “Who on earth damaged it like this.”

“I think we’ll find out real soon.” Sir Hawthorne suddenly raised his head and drew his longsword, “There are enemies, let’s prepare for battle.”

Following his roar, everyone saw a pink monster crawling out of the wreckage of the battleship. The creature climbed up the fallen mast and soon reached the broken area. It was a giant monster that looked like both a bat and a humanoid creature. It was about two to three meters tall, had more developed forelimbs than hindlimbs, and muscular gnarled upper arms. A bull-like head grew out of its neck and it even had a nose ring.

“It’s a Devil, a Brute Devil!” Someone with a sharp eyesight called out the name of this monster at a glance. The Devils were one of the sworn enemies of the Holy Cathedral of Fire, the monk soldiers had seen images of this Devil in various scriptures and canonical texts before.

“Spread out!” Sir Hawthorne reacted quicker than the others.

The Brute Devils were the main air force of the Sulfur River, juvenile Brute Devils had the strength of the Silver Peak rank and adults had the strength of the early Gold rank. Long horns grew out of the Brute Devils before Sir Hawthorne’s eyes, it was obviously a real adult Brute Devil Lord. The Brute Devil Lord had the gift of controlling flames just like many other Devils and had multiple flame spellcasting abilities.

The Fireball Spell was one of them.

With a flicker of light, a ball of flame exploded in the midst of the Kirrlutz’s Holy Cathedral of Fire’s monk soldier formation. A few young monk soldiers were set on fire. After releasing the fireballs, the Brute Devil Lord let out a roar on the broken mast as if it was enjoying the thrill of killing.

“These goddamn Devils!” Sir Hawthorne could not help but rage, he immediately ordered the seated Battle Drake to charge forward. The Brute Devil Lord flapped its wings and flew up from the ship and threw fireballs at him one after another.

But Sir Hawthorne was undaunted, as if he was just strolling through the flames until he got close enough to draw the short spear from behind him, throwing it.

The monk soldiers saw a straight line of gold released from Sir Hawthorne’s hand and it hit the Lord of the Brute Devil in the sky. It was a magic throwing spear specially made by the Holy Cathedral. The spear tip had been blessed and was the Devil’s natural enemy. The short spear struck the Devil Lord’s wings and blazing white flames crackled like a drop of water dropped into boiling oil.

The Devil Lord fell down from the sky with a scream. It slammed its head on the broken mast of the battleship and its head immediately separated from its body, ripping meters of its spine out of its muscles. The Devil Lord died on the spot.

The monk soldiers froze for a long time before breaking out into cheers.

Hawthorne was also relieved. He looked back, feeling like he already knew what had attacked the Bull Shark and caused it to crash. It seemed that Archbishop Wood’s guess was accurate, a large number of the Devils had already invaded Aouine. The Devils lacked a high-ranked air force and the Devil Lord was one of the most elite flying troops under the Sulfur River.

It was at this moment that he heard someone scream, “What was that?”

Sir Hawthorne was startled and subconsciously turned to look at where the scream was coming from. He felt as if the sky lit up for a moment and the layers of dark clouds in that direction parted at once, a flaming meteorite fell from the sky and it was falling towards a certain direction.

Then, as if it was a replication of this scene, the black clouds rolled and countless fiery red spots of light appeared behind the layer of clouds. Meteorites made their way through the clouds and fell from the sky, turning half of the sky blood-red.

Sir Hawthorne was stunned. He had estimated that the meteorites would land right on the main campsite of the Northern Coalition Army. It’s over. He felt a chill down his spine as he saw a meteorite strike the Perlan in the distance with his own eyes and the Kirrlutz’s flagship burned into ashes in a dazzling burst of light.

In that moment Sir Hawthorne had forgotten that the captain of the Konolia fleet was still aboard this flagship. In fact he had lost the ability to even think straight. No Magic Arrays appeared in the sky, it was a spell of the Devils which might be the tier fourteen spell: Doomsday.

There was a sovereign-ranked Devil that had crossed the portal and that was all he could think of.

“What did you say?!”

“Where are they now?” Makarov and Oberwei asked at the same time, but before they could say anything else, a bright light flashed from outside the camp and exclamation sounds were heard from outside the tent.

Half of the sky was lit up outside the tent.

Something big has happened. Everyone felt their hearts drop. Ciel, who was the first to react, turned around to open the tent. Then the red-haired girl who had been silent the entire time rushed out followed by Amandina. Makarov and Oberwei exchanged looks and followed them.

Everyone became speechless as soon as they walked out of the tent. They saw that the sky to the northwest was ablaze with fire and countless meteors were falling like rain from the sky.

Makarov made a quick estimation and calculated that that direction was exactly where Bunuo was.

“The Devils have decided to attack the Northern Coalition Army!” He immediately concluded.

“That’s the Doomsday Spell, they have an Ultimate Realm mage.” Oberwei said, “It’s the Devil Lord. Marsha above all, I’m afraid it will be an entire demon army coming this time, the amount will be more than the one recorded in history!”

Everyone knew about the last time he was referring to. A kingdom the size of Aouine was completely scorched and destroyed. Millions of lives were wiped out under the ravages of the Devils and it was in fact no longer a battle but a calamity of massacre.

This was a scar marked in Vaunte’s history that could not be erased.

But this time it seemed as if it was about to be the ancient country of Aouine’s turn.

The thought that the people of Aouine had done something wrong enough to deserve such a punishment rose in the hearts of all. The Lone Wolf of the Kingdom was the first to react, “Makarov!” He shouted.

“I know, Oberwei. I made a mistake.” Makarov was suddenly aware of the mistake he had made. Although he had intended to sacrifice the Northern Coalition Army, he realized that he had misjudged the Devils’ capability. It was clear that if the two sides did not join forces, neither of them could fight against the army of the Devils. The truth was that even if they joined forces, there would only be a faint hope of success.

“We must look for a way to support the Northerners immediately.” Makarov gritted his teeth, “After the spell, the Devils will definitely launch a ground attack. Those Northern men and the Kirrlutz would certainly not be able to withstand it. As soon as they retreat, the whole of Aouine would be doomed.”

Oberwei nodded but there was anger in his heart at the same time. It’s all because of the Kirrlutz and Holy Cathedral of Fire. Now he finally understood why Brendel was originally so angry to the point that he did not compromise or give way to the Holy Cathedral.

Thinking about it now, he thought that what Brendel did was totally acceptable.

“What about the Lord and the Princess?” Amandina asked suddenly, “They are still surrounded by the Devils.”

Oberwei and Makarov instantly froze as if they had forgotten about this matter. “Where are they now, and did Brendel say anything?” Oberwei asked.

“According to the Lord, they should be in the midst of the mountains around the west of the Marchenko Mountains. The Eagle Demons had blocked their retreat so they were forced to retreat towards the north. The Lord told us to send a royal fleet to meet the Princess and open a path for them,” Ciel answered.

“I’ve said long ago that they shouldn’t risk their lives.” Makarov grunted, “The Princess has been doing things her own way and she should have predicted the current situation long ago. Great, we can’t even withstand the Devils that are about to attack us now and yet we still have to figure out how to rescue them?”

“But except for Brendel, who else do we have here who is familiar with Jorgendy Ridge? The Princess was willing to risk her life as a noble act. Makarov, I thought that you were just brainless, but it turns out you’ve also given up the honor of nobility.” The kingdom’s Lone Wolf sneered.

“What did you just say?”

“Enough, stop arguing!” Amandina frowned, standing up to interrupt them. “What else did the Lord say?” She asked Ciel as Brendel was not someone who would give out orders hastily.

“Actually, the Lord has another plan. He wants us to inform Archbishop Wood to have the Kirrlutz cooperate with us,” Ciel said.

“What is he trying to do?” Makarov raised his eyebrows, looking sharply at the young wizard.

What is he trying to do.

Wood wanted to know too. The Devils had already launched an attack at the Bunuo area. To put it nicely, the Northern Coalition was retreating, but it was actually nothing more than a precursor to defeat. This was an army that had been defeated in the first place and had long lost its morale. It was the Holy Cathedral of Fire that was holding their ground, but they were also suffering greatly under the attack of the Doomsday Spell.

The Konolia fleet was nearly wiped out almost immediately and Naval Admiral Sir Robbins had sunk along with Perlan while the White Winged Cavalry suffered a loss of half their men. A large number of high-ranking Devils had appeared in the camp, and what was even worse was that the army of Jorgendy Ridge had joined forces with the Devils.

The earliest discovery of this information was a stone statue of a group of the Northern Coalition Army mountain infantry recovered by a scout cavalry from the battlefield. It was clearly not a sculpture but a masterpiece of Medusa.

“The Kirrlutz can last three hours at most. After a while, we will lose our last fighter. And you should know what the Northern Coalition Army is like.” A Paladin said to the young wizard in front of him, “We need back up.”

Wood actually knew that the other party was Ciel, the genius young wizard of the Peloche family.

“We can back you up, in fact our army is already on its way. But even with that, we still would not be able to withstand the Devils’ attack. You know our situation,” Ciel answered.

The Paladin fell silent.

“So how much longer can we hold on?” Wood asked.

“A day at most.”

“Can we still open another Door of Flame and ask the Holy Cathedral of Fire for support?” Ciel asked.

“It is impossible, we don’t have enough materials.” A Paladin rebutted, “Constructing a portal is not an easy thing to do.”

Wood was silent for a moment, “So what does your Lord have to say about that?”

Ciel nodded, “In that case, we may have one more opportunity.”

“An opportunity?”

……

Brendel struggled and finally led the remaining twelve knights of Anthony out of the dark fog. By the time they got a better view of their surroundings, they found themselves in a valley in the north. The valley was foggy and rain drizzled. Ahead was a forest clearing where a group of Arreck horses grazed. If they were not mistaken, these were the battle horses they had previously lost.

Count Audine and the Princess who were beside him were surprised by this strange scene.

“Heavens, what is going on here?” The knights marveled.

Although the princess did not ask, she looked at Brendel, puzzled. Since Brendel was able to lead them in getting rid of those Eagle Demons and out of the dark fog, she felt that he should know the answers to every mystery.

Brendel was actually also looking around carefully. The entire valley was shrouded with the sound of falling rain, and the surroundings did not look a lot different from the rest of the Arreck Mountains, but a feeling rose in his heart.

“May I ask who was the one who offered to help?” He asked.

Everyone saw a crooked old lady in black robes walking out of the forest. She saw Brendel and bowed respectfully, her trembling movement made everyone think that she might fall at any second.

Brendel however was shocked. “Ah, it’s you!” He recognized this old woman with wrinkles as the same old witch he had blackmailed in Fortress Riedon before, Babasha. He had never thought that they would run into each other here.