Belk Loren walked step by step along the path leading to the inner city castle area, the sharp pain from several small wounds on his body constantly stimulating his already fatigued spirit, keeping him awake.
The mist was thin, but the lingering scent of blood in the air refused to dissipate, suspicious shadows still flickered past, and footsteps echoed from deep within nearby alleys. Every shadow and every footstep could potentially be a lurking monster—they might have completed their transformation or were in the process of transforming. Regardless, Belk couldn’t take the risk.
That voice still lingered in his mind:
"Turn into this... as long as you eat stone, you’ll survive... Sir."
For this reason alone, a person could willingly beco a monster.
At this mont, the young Marquis suddenly recalled a sentence he had seen in a report:
... Grain requisitioned six tis, households empty, even leaves consud, number of starving people...
Once, it was just a description, a few numbers; he found it alarming, yet rely found it alarming.
Now, he finally saw with his own eyes what that "world" looked like.
Incredibly, only a city wall, only a castle separated that "world" from his "world."
He finally understood why the prince’s edicts mostly struggled to be implented, why those aristocratic leaders could never be relied upon.
People living in the castle could never imagine what the world outside looked like.
Belk looked up and saw that Sorinburg’s main gate was right ahead; the drawbridge... hadn’t been raised, nor were there any soldiers guarding it.
An indescribable unease suddenly surged in his heart, and Belk imdiately quickened his pace.
He held his longsword tightly, crossed the drawbridge, walked through the deserted courtyard and barracks area, pushed open the slightly ajar main castle door, and entered the equally empty ground floor long hall.
His view lacked any sign of activity, yet the unsettling scent of blood was everywhere, marks of battle scattered throughout the long hall, with human blood and shattered fallen crystal clusters.
It wasn’t an external invasion; it was a battle erupted from inside. The guards briefly resisted, but within a short ti, they willingly halted their battle...
Belk quickly deduced these terrifying conclusions from the traces on-site while his footsteps continued unceasingly, swiftly running to the second floor, to the castle’s second-floor hall.
The hall’s doors were open, with no guards visible, and in the hall’s center, Belk saw the sight he least wanted to see.
A tall figure clad in black armor stood there—Edmund Moen heard the commotion at the doorway, turned his head, and a face already rged with sprawling crystal clusters erged into Belk Loren’s view.
Belk felt his heart skip a beat, imdiately drawing his sword and preparing for battle, but soon he realized that Edmund Moen’s gaze toward him hadn’t descended into complete chaotic madness; within those eyes rapidly becoming crystalline, a faint glimr of human reason remained.
He cautiously approached: "Your Highness—can you hear ?"
Edmund Moen stared at Belk intensely, his body trembling slightly as if two wills were vying for control of this body, and amidst this struggle, a hoarse voice erged from his throat: "Kill . Do it now."
This horrifying command montarily blanked Belk’s mind, but within two seconds, he regained clarity and made the most composed decision.
He raised his longsword, stepped forward: "Yes, Your Highness."
The longsword burst into illusory and blazing light, and knowing the strength of the prince before him, Belk gathered all his magic power into this strike, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound as his longsword thrust toward Edmund Moen’s heart.
Yet when the sword tip was re centiters from the heart, Edmund’s left hand suddenly lifted, the crystal-clad palm directly grasping the scorching adamantine longsword. Between the palm and blade, a series of blinding sparks and a teeth-clenching squeal erupted; Belk’s sword couldn’t advance even a fraction.
Both pairs of eyes locked on this scene, then Edmund raised his head and uttered a single word: "Run."
Belk instantly released his grip on the sword hilt, without any pause, he rushed toward the hall’s side, leaping forward and crashing through a window, fleeing the castle.
In one corner of the hall’s shadows, a tangle of winding vines quietly writhed, accompanied by rustling sounds, eventually retreating into the dark depths.
...
To the west of the Gigantic Tree Path Entrance, at The White City and White Pine Area, on the royal-controlled lands, the dense fog had completely dissipated.
The mist left cities and countryside, while in places it had perated, humans transford into monsters.
Nurous twisted giants ford by fused flesh and crystal clusters were assembling, spreading like wildfire disaster. Wherever people once lived, terrifying Crystal Cluster Legions would gather, and individuals dressed in black robes, giant-like, were the commanders of these legions. Under their leadership, Crystal Cluster Giants quickly occupied all villages and towns within hours, then started advancing toward the direction of the Anzu Kingdom’s military encampnt.
One of the Anzu Kingdom military’s critical strongholds, The White City was under attack, a city renowned for its sturdy walls now faced its greatest challenge in history.
"Hold the line! Hold the line!! Shield bearers—hold steady!"
"We need more oil! More stone shot!"
"Combat Mages are out of mana—bring up the catapults! The personal Mage Corps is on the way!"
Oil packets ablaze with roaring flas and rune-etched stones soared through the air, launched from the walls to distant targets, giant bolt arrows slicing the air with thunderous crackling, crashing into the midst of the "Crystal Cluster Tide," Knights and supervising Noble Officer ran amidst the walls, commanding the battle with hoarse voices, using various spells to fortify the walls, stirring soldiers’ already fragile morale, yet below the walls, the monsters continued to gather.
This was the Crystal Cluster Legion ford from the transford population of the entire region, against such overwhelming numbers, ordinary stone shot and fire oil, even mages’ fireballs and lightning appeared weak and powerless, these attacks hitting the monster ranks like pebbles tossed into the ocean barely stirring any waves.
A Noble Officer garbed in dark blue armor and draped with a ribbon stood on the wall, watching more and more Crystal Cluster Monsters surge from afar. These monsters didn’t rely rely on powerful bodies for battle; they had formidable spellcasting capabilities—powerful Arcane Lightning burst repeatedly from the densest cluster of monsters, every lightning strike leaving a dreadful crack on The White City’s walls or felling clusters of soldiers. If the situation continued as such, the fall of the city was rely a matter of ti.
"How much oil and stone projectiles do we have left?" the noble officer turned his head, staring at a nearby knight adjutant.
"We can hold out for two days, sir, but I’m afraid it’s still not enough—the monsters are too many, countless more coming!!"
Oil is the most effective ans against those monsters, but the oil packages thrown by the catapult can hardly stop the tidal wave of attacks, and as for the mages capable of continuously casting large-scale fire spells... they are too few, and all have exhausted their mana!
The noble officer’s face turned grim; he heard a loud noise from the western wall, followed imdiately by screams and clamors rising one after another.
A large number of soldiers on the brink of collapse fell into chaos; from the area under attack, the garrison began to show obvious wavering and started retreating.
The Supervising Knights rushed forward imdiately, using morale-boosting techniques to forcibly maintain the front line. The soldiers influenced by supernatural power returned to the wall under the effect of adrenaline and nerve excitent, yet their eyes were bloodshot, their actions unstable, and their internal consciousness rapidly approaching collapse. Whether they could operate the catapult a few more tis was entirely unknown.
Even more terrifying was that even the knights supervising them... showed signs of wavering on their faces.
These are already the kingdom’s elite forces, capable of fighting face-to-face with the powerful Duke of the East’s knights all day long, yet that was a war against "humans"; now, they face monsters.
This surpasses the limits of human willpower.
Another knight adjutant ran up to the wall, a look of fear on his face, his tone full of wavering: "Sir, it’s confird, many monsters are carrying fragnts of uniforms and armors from the Third, Fifth, Sixth knight brigades and Anzu Kingdom’s military soldiers, they... they are our soldiers transford!!"
The noble officer glared: "How many know about this?!"
"Everyone in the garrison has seen..."
It’s over.
The knight corps and conscription soldiers stationed on the north-south line of Gigantic Tree Path Entrance are all done for, this city should also soon be finished.
But before the noble officer could sigh, a nightmare-like shout suddenly ca from afar:
"Earl of Sorin has fallen!!"
After a brief mont of shock, the noble officer imdiately widened his eyes, attempting to find out which fool of a ssenger shouted such a thing on the battlefield, but quickly realized the voice ca from beneath the walls, from amidst the monsters.
A mangled corpse was thrown into the sky by the monsters, the Earl of Sorin’s dying face falling into the sight of the garrison soldiers.
In the end, that Earl still couldn’t reclaim his land and castle.
The defense line on the wall began visibly collapsing, retreating, forming large gaps and blanks, the garrison forces falling into irreversible retreat, and the Supervising Knights no longer had the ability to reorganize the line.
For even the knights’ morale had already crumbled.
Dozens of massive Arcane Arcs struck the wall simultaneously, accompanied by continuous explosions, the magnificent stone wall shook vigorously as if it would collapse the next second.
This city is already impossible to hold.
The mont he realized this fact, the noble officer and his adjutants heard a sharp whistle from high above, accompanied by this whistling, the entire sky rapidly covered in vast shadows—
Countless ice cones and howling wind swept the battlefield as if the recently ended winter returned once again to this world. In the suddenly descending ice storm, a new frozen barrier quickly blocked in front of the wall, hundreds of monsters pinned on the frozen cliff by ice cones.
Yet the next second, this ice-ford line faced continuous attacks, those monsters pinned on the ice began struggling, this damage, fatal to ordinary humans, could not thoroughly kill them.
Accompanied by cracking sounds, the entire ice wall rapidly split.
A majestic female voice ca from above, echoing across the battlefield: "Mountain Corps, follow to cover our retreat, Royal Knight Brigade and Personal Guards Corps, take the civilians and break through to the northwest!"
This was the voice of Duke Victoria Wilder.
The knight adjutant beside reminded: "Sir, it’s the order to retreat."
The noble officer glanced at the nearly completely collapsed defense line, took a deep breath.
"Retreat!!"
Ansu Year 738 Revival Month 12th, the greatest fortress of Anzu Kingdom on the Plains of the Holy Spirits, The White City, fell.
A massive legion ford by Crystal Cluster Giants started spreading in the direction of St. Soniel.
...
Days later, having just crossed the Pompeii Area, moving north along the eastern bank of the Duoergong river, Soldrin and his Steel Dragoon Warriors encountered completely unfamiliar enemies.
A kind of extrely tall humans seemingly infected by so crystal parasite.
The ground, scorched by single-soldier burners, reeked of heavy char, a large number of completely carbonized corpses and scattered crystal clusters piled in heaps within range, fully ard combat team mbers stood guard on the periter, Soldrin and several Steel Dragoon Warriors inspected those strange carcasses on the battlefield.
The High-Ranked Ranger furrowed his brows tightly.
What has happened in the north?
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