Chapter 667: Arrival at the Battlefield
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 667: Arrival at the Battlefield
It was a silver cliff so towering that its summit was lost to sight.
The upper reaches of the precipice were submerged in a haze of dust and mist that even sunlight could not penetrate. There, countless maelstroms of spatial turbulence surged, utterly sealing off this desolate land. No spatial magic could ever hope to establish a passage through that "sky" which, to an ordinary person, felt like it was right beneath their feet.
The base of the cliff, meanwhile, was as smooth as if it had been sheared by a blade. The wall was so polished it could almost reflect the endless, vast desolation of the abyss floor.
The entire abyss looked as if a hydraulic press from Muen’s previous life had slammed down upon a thick metal plate, carving out a jagged rift. On either side were insurmountable cliffs; in the middle was a sunless, hopeless valley floor.
And Muen, at this moment, was likely nothing more than a bacterium at the very bottom of that fissure.
"Truly... terrifying," Muen remarked.
Only by seeing this scene with one's own eyes could one truly understand the meaning of the "World's Scar."
The great war against the Demon God a thousand years ago must have truly shattered and torn the very tectonic plates of the continent to create such staggering terrain.
Yet, even a scar upon the world could not be perfectly "seamless."
Along the north-south boundary of the abyss, spanning an unknown number of miles, there were five regions where the terrain was relatively level and the spatial turbulence was fractured.
In these places, there was no need to scale impossible cliffs or risk a body tempered a thousand times over against the spatial storms overhead. One only had to cross a series of rising, terrace-like slopes for the Demon Race to reach the surface they so desperately craved—to see the sun they had never beheld since birth.
Dolonslei Fortress was built precisely upon the gap that fell within the Empire’s borders.
Calling it a "gap" was an understatement. The massive, fan-shaped area behind it rose in stages. Though it remained steep in places, its width spanned miles, meaning there was no longer any natural terrain to obstruct the Demon Race once they broke through.
It could be said that Dolonslei Fortress was now the Empire’s final line of defense against the demons.
If they bypassed this point, what lay behind were the thousand miles of the Campbell plains, countless civilians, and the fertile lands the Demon Race dreamed of.
This was how the region earned its name: the Natural Barrier.
*
Boom!
Muen and the others, who were about to take a closer look at the fortress from afar, were suddenly startled by a dull thrumming of drums.
Boom! Boom!
First one, then ten, then countless more... innumerable drumbeats layered upon one another, converging into a world-shaking roar.
"Re... Reporting!"
Vik came sprinting over, panting heavily. He snapped to attention and shouted, "The Demon Race has begun their assault on the fortress!"
"I see."
Muen nodded, signaling his acknowledgement.
In truth, Vik didn't even need to report it. The drumbeats made the very earth tremble; even a deaf man would have felt them clearly.
Muen shot a glance at Indra King, who gave a slight nod, indicating that the group’s presence was hidden and they would not be detected by the demons.
Muen breathed a sigh of relief. The group remained on their small hill, continuing their observation.
Following the roar of the drums, a dense, ant-like army of the Demon Race surged forward, following the line where the light gradually faded, charging toward the fortress in the distance.
There, the ring-shaped outer wall—cast from an unknown material—stood at least a hundred meters high. It was taller than any city wall Muen had ever seen, acting like a wedge driven into the gap, completely plugging the Demon Race's path to the outside world.
And that was merely the outer wall. According to Muen’s intelligence, Dolonslei Fortress consisted of three layers of walls. The spaces between these walls were hollowed out and filled with vast quantities of mercury, sealed in regardless of the cost. Mercury had the property of absorbing mana, which could dampen the impact of magical bombardment on the walls.
Within the walls stood over a hundred high towers. Mages specializing in long-range magic, military repeating crossbows, and magic cannons were stationed atop these towers and battlements. Any approaching demon army would be blasted into scrap by the absolute superiority of their firepower.
It was a fortress so sturdy, so grand, and so imposing that its mere existence was enough to suffocate any attacker.
Ten thousand Imperial elites were stationed within. These elites had once pushed the defensive line nearly a hundred miles into the heart of the abyss. Had it not been for the sudden joint attack by the five Demon Grand Dukes, the battlefield would not even be here today.
But amidst the thundering drums, Muen understood that this time, the Demon Race would once again throw away their lives to assault this indestructible bastion.
To them, compared to the unscalable cliffs and the impassable sky, this fortress was merely a small wooden door built between two mountains.
As long as it was a door, there would eventually be a moment it could be broken.
As long as it wasn't total despair, for the Demon Race, it was total hope!
BOOM!
A massive explosion drowned out the drums. Fire began to flicker atop the fortress towers. Terrifying torrents of energy and shells rained from the sky, blooming amidst the dense demon ranks. Countless sprays of blood and severed limbs quickly gave rise to clusters of Equinox Flowers, the heralds of death.
Yet, when scaled to the entire battlefield, these dazzling Equinox Flowers were merely tiny ripples in the vast ocean of the demon army.
Long-range fire alone was insufficient to suppress the momentum of the Demon Race's advance.
Muen had still underestimated the scale of this war.
There were indeed ten thousand Imperial elites in the fortress, but how many demons were charging toward it at this moment?
They were impossible to count.
He could only see a thick, ink-black painting formed by black dots stretching from one end of his vision to the other. Ragged low-level demons, hideous and massive magical beasts, and monsters he couldn't even recognize surged like a tide, wave after wave crashing against the fortress walls.
They scaled the walls only to be knocked down, while those behind them charged over the corpses of their comrades. They used crude ladders, siege towers, and were even thrown upward by the towering behemoths.
Occasionally, a squad or two would breach the battlements, only to be met with even more brutal close-quarters combat.
These low-level demons were far more ferocious than humans. They cared nothing for the deaths of their kin, even using the corpses of their comrades as stepping stones, weapons, or even food to replenish their strength.
Muen’s eyes flickered. He had originally thought there was no moat outside the fortress, but in this moment, he realized it wasn't that there was no moat—it was that the wide river intended as the first barrier had long since been leveled by corpses.
Yet this sight did not make the demons falter; instead, it only fueled their savagery.
"Are... are you alright, Young Master Campbell?"
Abel asked worriedly.
He was concerned that a pampered noble son like the Duke’s heir wouldn't be able to handle such a bloody and horrific scene. Even a country boy like Vik, who had hunted since childhood, had nearly wet himself the first time he faced this battlefield.
But to his surprise, Muen was far calmer than he expected.
"I'm fine."
Muen’s face was a bit pale, but he waved his hand dismissively.
"It is indeed my first time seeing a real battlefield, but it's not enough to scare me."
Muen took a deep breath, inhaling the air thick with the scent of blood.
He said it easily enough, but the scene truly did leave him shaken.
After all, this was a different kind of horror compared to the lofty, transcendent Evil Gods.
One was the pinnacle of power and the uncanny.
The other was the most visceral reality of death and lamentation.
"This should just be a probing assault, right?" Muen asked.
"Yes. Though it looks terrifying, the one thing the Demon Race has in abundance is these low-level demons. As long as there's no movement from the powerful ones, they're likely just throwing these things out as cannon fodder to wear us down," replied Guri. The scars on his face had healed, making the numbness of a man accustomed to such scenes even more apparent.
"Is that so?"
Muen rubbed his chin.
To be honest, he hadn't expected to run right into a demon siege.
But looking at it from another perspective, this scene had likely been playing out every single day before this fortress.
Day after day, it acted like a giant meat grinder, harvesting countless lives.
No wonder even Celicia couldn't keep her cool. Given the current situation, if something happened to his father, the Empire's defensive line would indeed find it difficult to withstand the demons' frenzied onslaught.
However... before dealing with the crisis of rescuing the fortress, there was a more pressing problem in front of Muen.
"By the way, how are we supposed to get in?"
Muen looked at Indra King.
To take a shortcut, he had Indra King carry him directly down into the abyss. The shortcut worked, but it had dropped them right in front of the fortress.
They couldn't exactly charge toward the fortress like the demons.
They’d be blasted into cinders by their own allies, who would be weeping and shouting, "Young Master, I'll avenge you!" as they fired.
"If it were just you, I could fly you straight over," Indra King said expressionlessly.
"That won't do. If I did that, Father would definitely kick my ass later."
Muen’s gaze swept over the dense demon army below once more, and he fell into thought.
As he pondered, Muen rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.
Damn it. He had eaten his fill of those magic materials earlier, and all his spiritual power was being used to suppress that thing in his head. Thinking this hard was actually a bit...
Wait.
Eaten his fill?
"I've got it."
Muen suddenly snapped his fingers and suggested, "Since I've just had a big meal, why don't we give our friends in the Demon Race an impromptu performance?"
"A performance? What kind of performance?" Indra King asked, puzzled.
"Nothing too fancy."
Muen smiled, a thick darkness beginning to flow within his deep blue eyes.
"I'll just show these country bumpkins... a little magic trick!"