"They must have already rescued Voltrex," Kharos muttered, his brows furrowed.
An unsettling pressure spread through the camp following Kharos’s conclusion.
"But Your Majesty, Voltrex is being guarded by an army of half a million," a middle-aged man with short grey hair said in a subdued tone. "Is it possible for them to rescue him within just a few hours of receiving the letter?"
The grey-haired man was Ned Stormhold, the Duke of House Stormhold.
"Also, the place where Voltrex is imprisoned is quite far from here. There simply isn’t enough ti to even reach it," another man with long white hair and a clean-shaven face said.
His armor appeared cleaner and shinier than the others, without a speck of dust. At his waist rested a silver-colored rapier with an intricate design. The handso white-haired man was Bran Silvergard, the Duke of House Silvergard.
"I didn’t co to this conclusion based solely on the behavior of the Banes regarding our proposal," Kharos said, rubbing the bridge of his nose in stress. "You all sensed that ominous pressure yesterday."
"Y-you an that pressure belonged to Voltrex?" Rhaegar from the group asked, his voice laced with worry.
"Perhaps because I am at the peak of the Eternal Sage Realm, I could sense it, if only slightly, but it felt like that pressure belonged to Voltrex," Kharos revealed. "Now the Banes’ behavior has only confird it for us."
"Wasn’t his dantian destroyed!?" Rhaegar murmured, his eyes widening in shock. But then he rembered Kharos’s words, not to analyze Voltrex with common logic.
"But if that is true, then we have just lost an army of half a million," Brandon said, joining in. "There is no way the soldiers there could have survived that kind of press—"
"No! It can’t be!" Hector shouted, jolting to his feet. "We need to make haste and reach the Valley of Heavenly Pillars. The army could still be fighting against Voltrex. We need to support them—"
"Hector, why do you seem so restless?" Kharos asked, his eyes narrowing.
"F-father..." Hector murmured. Clenching his fists tightly, he revealed, "Adam is at the Valley of Heavenly Pillars."
Gasps of shock rippled through the army camp.
"He told he would stay back at the capital. What is that idiot doing there!?" Kharos demanded, his booming voice echoing through the camp.
"H-he was angry because you scolded him for the hand incident. He went there to vent his anger on Voltrex."
"How dare you hide that from —" Kharos stopped mid-sentence. This was not the ti for bickering.
Turning to Rhaegar, he commanded, "Take an army of elite knights with you and leave for the Valley of Heavenly Pillars this instant!"
"As you command, Your Majesty," Rhaegar said, leaving the eting camp with hurried steps.
An ominous premonition gripped Kharos’s heart. He knew that if Adam had truly been present when Voltrex was freed, he could not have survived. Yet he refused to think logically. Perhaps Adam had escaped or was hiding sowhere, waiting for his father’s help.
Kharos wanted to abandon the war imdiately and rush to the Valley of Heavenly Pillars, but his duty as Emperor bound him.
"If even a hair on Adam’s head is hard, I will make the entire Hundred Sky Mountains pay," Kharos muttered, clenching his fists.
Turning to the Dukes, he ordered, "We are attacking the Banes this instant!"
---
The earlier reverberation that had once silenced the valleys around the Ironvale Fortress began again as the empire’s army started advancing.
The valleys were naturally ford in such a way that the army was forced to split into several squads due to the multiple narrow paths leading toward the Ironvale Fortress.
Soon, the empire’s soldiers ca into view from the fortress. They were advancing from every direction. Wherever the eye turned, soldiers clad in the empire’s armor could be seen. Instead of rely surrounding the fortress, they were encircling the entire country.
"They are even coming from the opposite side of the country," Titan muttered, standing atop one of the fortress’ high towers. "Are they intending to infiltrate by breaking the wall protecting the country?"
"I expect nothing less from these empire dogs," Barbatos said, standing on a neighboring tower. "Not even invaders would resort to such tactics. The Emperor would fight us inside the city if it ensured him victory, even if it caused the massacre of regular citizens who are his own subjects."
While the empire’s army continued to advance, the Banes did not make any move, remaining silently in their positions.
High in the sky at the center of the Ironvale country, Aurelion was releasing his suppressive pressure of the Demi-God Realm in every direction, targeting only the empire’s soldiers.
The pressure was bearable enough to allow the empire’s forces to advance, but it was steadily exhausting them. So of them already had ragged breathing.
"Demi-God Aurelion... what is he trying to achieve by releasing his Soulforce pressure in such a way?" Kharos muttered, hovering in the air behind his army.
"He must be trying to intimidate our army," Hector replied, standing beside him in the air.
Although Aurelion’s pressure was overwhelming the soldiers, it was far too wasteful of his Soulforce to release it in all directions rely to intimidate them.
"He will only exhaust himself by doing this," Kharos mumbled. "Still, I can’t shake off this feeling that sothing is not right."
As the empire’s army drew closer to the border of Ironvale, Aurelion suddenly suppressed his Soulforce pressure and ordered,
"Do it, Tartaglia!"
"Alright!" Tartaglia shouted from one of the high towers, forming multiple hand signs.
Multiple vast magical circles, each with a radius of over fifty kiloters, began glowing around Ironvale’s border, along the paths where the empire’s soldiers were marching.
Before the soldiers could even react, the arrays detonated with thunderous booms that shook the entire area.
Explosive flas surged across one side, while bolts of lightning rained down upon another. In so areas, catastrophic tornadoes erupted, hurling soldiers through the air like ragdolls. Elsewhere, massive waves rose like a raging tsunami, swallowing everything in their path and drowning those caught within.
From the ground, razor-sharp earthen spears shot upward without warning, impaling soldiers where they stood. At the sa ti, illusion arrays took hold in scattered zones, warping perception and turning the empire’s own soldiers against one another in chaotic, blood-soaked confusion.
Chaos erupted everywhere. The screams of confused soldiers echoed as the ground turned crimson, corpses piling up at a terrifying rate.
"Elental arrays?" Kharos muttered, confusion and shock clear on his face. "But offensive arrays radiate energy that should have been easily sensed by the soldiers."
Forget about the regular troops, even Kharos, at the Eternal Sage Realm, hadn’t sensed any energy radiating from these arrays.
Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he clenched his fists in frustration, veins bulging across his forehead.
"So this was why Aurelion was releasing his Soulforce pressure."
---
Hello readers,
It has been over 200 days since I started writing this story. It has gone through its share of ups and downs, and it hasn’t reached the height I once hoped for.
Even so, I kept writing. The reason is simple. A few loyal readers like you stayed with , and for that, I am truly grateful.
But to be honest, I am just barely holding on. I have put my ti, my career, and a lot of myself into this novel, yet I am only earning enough to scrape by and pay my bills.
This March has been especially difficult. For reasons I still do not understand, new readers have almost completely stopped coming. Because of that, my earnings dropped sharply, to less than 200 dollars, which is the minimum required by Webnovel. If the book does not reach that threshold, the paynt gets held for the entire month.
I know I still have a lot to improve as an author. But I never imagined things would reach a point where the story might not even earn enough for to continue it.
I have co this far, and I truly want to see this story through to the end. Not a rushed ending, but the one I have planned from the very beginning.
So I ask for your support. If you can, please consider sending gifts to help the novel reach at least the minimum 200 dollar mark. Right now, it still needs around 7,000 coins to cross that threshold.
Forgive for taking your ti and adding to the word count like this. This will be the first and last ti I ask like this.
Yours,
Agnivrat03
User Comments
0 comments from readers