Chapter 857: Controlled Chaos

The celebration in the mountain clearing surrounding Isabelle was loud and passionate.

Yet, as warm as the atmosphere was, the Blood and Iron Brigade was still a high-security military unit protecting the single most valuable resource on the continent.

A tall female Beastkin with feline ears stepped forward, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Lady Isabelle...Sir...Please don’t take this the wrong way. We would happily throw a festival in your honor right now, but duty is duty."

"The Holyfield mines are a volatile zone. If even a single saboteur slips through the gates with an explosive rune, hundreds of miners working the deep shafts could be buried alive in seconds."

"So...could you please verify your identities with us?"

Isabelle blinked, her initial panic melting into understanding.

"Oh! Of course! You must do your job!"

Cassius simply smiled, reaching into his inner coat pocket without a hint of hesitation.

He pulled out a heavy, wax-sealed parchment stamped with the official crest of the Holy Guard, alongside a heavy silver medallion that gleamed under the grey mountain light.

"Julie prepared these before we departed. A formal transit clearance and the seal of the Holy Guard."

The Beastkin took the parchment, her eyes scanning the official signatures before checking the magical aura of the silver medallion.

The instant the authenticity of the seal registered, any lingering air of military caution vanished completely.

"Clear!" The Beastkin declared, returning the documents with a crisp, respectful salute. "Forgive the delay, Sir Cassius, Lady Isabelle."

"Welcome to the Holyfield Mines!"

—

It didn’t take long to gather the horses and join the returning patrol.

Cassius and Isabelle fell in with the column of warriors as they wound their way through the rugged terrain, following a well-worn path that snaked between rocky outcroppings and scattered pine forests.

The soldiers chatted amongst themselves, their spirits visibly lifted by Isabelle’s presence, occasionally glancing back at the legendary Sinful Sorceress with expressions of naked admiration.

Then the trees parted, and the walls came into view.

Isabelle gasped.

Cassius, who had seen many fortifications in his time, found himself genuinely impressed.

The outer walls of the Holyfield mines rose from the landscape like a mountain range shaped by human hands.

Massive stone blocks, each one easily the size of a wagon had been stacked and fitted together with such precision that the seams between them were barely visible.

The walls stretched endlessly in both directions, curving around the perimeter of the mining territory until they disappeared into the distant haze.

Watchtowers punctuated the walls at regular intervals, their heights crowned with flags bearing the rose-and-horns emblem of the Blood and Iron Brigade.

Soldiers patrolled the walls in steady circuits, their silhouettes dark against the grey sky.

Some carried longbows. Others held wands and staves, their tips occasionally glinting with stored magical energy.

But it was the contraptions mounted between the towers that caught Cassius’s eye.

Strange mechanical devices that looked like enormous crossbows, their metal arms gleaming dully in the grey light.

Ballistas, he realized. And beside them, other mechanisms he couldn’t immediately identify, their shapes suggesting projectiles and trajectories and devastating force.

As their party approached the main gates, Cassius braced himself for another round of verification.

But the guards atop the wall had already recognized the returning patrol.

A horn sounded and the enormous iron-bound gates began to swing open with a deep, grinding rumble.

Riding through the massive archway, Cassius looked up at the sheer thickness of the stone walls, unable to hold back his curiosity.

"I knew the mines were fortified, but this...this looks like a fortress built to withstand a siege from an entire nation."

Hearing his intrigue, the squad members immediately perked up, beaming with fierce, collective pride.

"You have no idea, Sir!" The female Ogre roared cheerfully, reining her mount closer. "This isn’t just a wall—it’s a multi-layered death trap!"

"That’s right!" A human mage added, puffing out her chest proudly. "First of all, we don’t just have one wall. The entire perimeter is built in layered barriers.

"There’s this outer wall, an open, heavily trapped kill-zone in the middle, and then a second individual inner walls surrounding the primary Aether refineries!"

"Even if an invading army manages to breach the front, they can’t get to the mines so easily!"

"Watchtowers at regular intervals." A beastkin added, pointing toward the nearest tower. "From up there, we can see any army approaching long before they reach the gates. Nothing surprises us."

The mage who had been arguing earlier now spoke with academic cadence.

"The gates themselves are reinforced with iron bindings and can be sealed independently. Even if one gate falls, the attackers must still overcome another barrier. And the approach roads—"

She gestured behind them.

."—they’re deliberately designed to converge toward a handful of controlled points. An invading force cannot simply spread around the perimeter. They must come through us."

"Don’t forget the guard barracks inside the walls." Another warrior continued. "Permanent soldiers stationed here at all times. We don’t wait for trouble to arrive before summoning defenders—we’re already here."

"And the alarm system!" A young beastkin chimed in. "Bells, horns, signal fires, runners—if one section spots danger, the entire complex knows within moments."

As they rode deeper into the complex, more details emerged.

"Underground checkpoints at every mine entrance."

"Restricted mining districts. Workers can’t wander freely throughout the complex. The most valuable shafts and storage areas are isolated in independently secured sections."

"Emergency closures in the tunnels. Massive stone-and-iron barriers that can seal off entire sections of the underground network. If an invasion reaches the mines, we can trap them down there and deal with them at our leisure."

The information came rapid-fire, each warrior adding another layer to the picture. Isabelle listened with wide eyes, her head swiveling back and forth as she tried to absorb everything.

"Just how large is the Holyfield mining territory?" She finally asked, her voice carrying a note of genuine wonder.

The feline Beastkin laughed heartily. "Compared to the entire Holyfield territory? It’s only a tiny fraction! If the mines covered the whole estate, we’d have enough Aether to power the entire continent for ten thousand years!"

"A rough estimate?" The female Ogre scratched her blue chin, thinking. "The surface perimeter covers roughly fifteen square miles of mountain terrain, but the underground shafts go down at least seven tiers!"

Cassius absorbed this information with a thoughtful expression.

"Building walls this extensive, with so many defensive measures...it must have taken decades."

One of the mages nodded proudly.

"The outer walls were constructed approximately one hundred and twenty years ago."

"The initial construction took five years of round-the-clock labor, with resources poured in from across the continent."

"The stone alone had to be quarried from the northern mountains and transported over hundreds of miles. The iron for the gates came from our own mines, of course, but smelting and forging it required facilities that hadn’t even been built yet."

Another mage immediately took her place wanting to boast as well, saying,

"The watchtowers were added in phases over the following decades. The underground checkpoints came later, after a minor breach in the eastern tunnels demonstrated the need for internal security. And the ballistae—"

She pointed toward the massive weapons mounted on the walls.

"—those were installed only fifty years ago, after a particularly nasty encounter with a flock of mature wyverns."

Cassius shook his head slowly.

"When I first heard that the Blood and Iron Brigade consisted of a thousand elite warriors, I thought it seemed like an impressive force. A rather large army."

He glanced around at the sprawling complex, at the walls stretching endlessly in both directions.

"But now that I understand the scale of what you’re guarding...a thousand suddenly seems rather modest."

He spoke carefully, wondering if he had inadvertently insulted them.

But a ogre simply shook her head, her tusked face splitting into a grin.

"Not at all, sir. The Blood and Iron Brigade numbers around a thousand warriors, yes. But we’re not the only force here."

She pointed toward the walls, where dozens of figures stood vigilant.

"The Sentinels of the Wall—that’s a completely separate unit. Over three hundred soldiers whose sole responsibility is guarding the outer perimeter."

"They’re the ones you see up there with bows, wands, and ranged weaponry."

A beastkin took over, gesturing toward a cluster of buildings visible in the distance.

"And the residential sectors, the small towns where the miners live with their families, they have their own dedicated force called the Deepwatch Guard."

"Two hundred and fifty members handling internal security, civilian protection, and law enforcement."

"They’re not frontline combatants, but they’re trained to defend the towns if anything breaks through."

"Mining Shaft Security." Another warrior added, ticking off on her fingers. "Specialized units for each major tunnel complex."

"Oh, the tunnel Patrols that sweep for monsters spawning in the deeper sections!"

"The Mage Corps handles magical threats and mana purification!"

"The Engineering Division maintains the walls and siege weapons!"

"The Logistics Command manages supplies, rations, equipment distribution..."

Finally after listening department after department, the ogre leading shrugged, saying,

"The Blood and Iron Brigade may be the elite, but we’re part of a much larger system."

Another beastkin stepped forward, her expression smug with pride.

"As for us, the Blood and Iron Brigade, we’re not in charge of walls or towns or supply lines."

"We handle the monsters. The demons. The mana Fiends that spawn from the mines and emerge without warning."

"We take on the most dangerous, brutal fights so everyone else can do their jobs in peace!"

The squad members puffed their chests out, radiating pure, unadulterated pride.

"And that’s not all!" A mage added enthusiastically. "We also have—"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A series of heavy, thunderous explosions suddenly reverberated through the mountain, rattling the very earth beneath their horses hooves.

Cassius and Isabelle immediately reined their mounts to a halt atop a sweeping, elevated ridge.

Looking down into the wide basin below, the true, breathtaking reality of the Holyfield Mining Domain laid itself bare.

Isabelle’s breath caught in her throat.

Below them, stretching across the rugged landscape, the Holyfield mining territory was alive with battle.

Not one battle. Dozens of battles!

Small groups of warriors clashed with monsters across the valleys, explosions erupted near the mine entrances, spells streaked through the air like multicolored lightning, and everywhere there was motion.

From this vantage point, Cassius’s eyes swept across the panorama with keen interest and he realised something.

The Blood and Iron Brigade had not deployed as one enormous army.

Instead, they had divided themselves into compact combat units—groups of two, three, four, or more warriors—each operating independently while supporting the others in a complex dance of violence.

—

Below the ridge, a squad of heavily armored warriors held a choke-point outside a lower shaft entrance.

A horde of Bonabees, monstrous, heavily armored insectoid beasts with thick chitin plates came charging down the rocky slope.

The front-line warriors waited until the last possible second before suddenly splitting apart.

The insectoid beasts charged through the gap—only for two hidden swordsmen to leap out from behind rock outcroppings!

Their enchanted blades struck simultaneously, one severing a beast’s foreleg while the other thrust deep beneath its armored neck plate.

"Hold the line!" An minotaur shouted, slamming his tower shield into the dirt as a second wave approached.

Behind him, a mage raised his staff, erupting a wall of brilliant fire that swallowed three beasts whole.

—

Farther up the slope, another squad was executing a complex hit-and-run maneuver.

Three agile Beastkin warriors deliberately separated, luring different clusters of monsters away from the main path.

Every time a beast pursued too far, a waiting archer or spearman would ambush it from the high ground before retreating again, fragmenting the enemy’s strength.

—

Near the mountain face, two mages coordinated a layered elemental trap.

One raised a massive wall of ice across a narrow canyon, trapping a pack of monsters.

The second instantly struck the frozen ground with a high-tier lightning spell, conducting a lethal shockwave that obliterated the trapped beasts.

—

BOOM!

Another explosion rocked a distant mine entrance as a Gargantuan Bonabee, a mutated variant twice the size of its normal self burst through a collapsed stone barrier.

"Giga monster!" a sergeant shouted. "Don’t let it reach the lower refining sector!"

Instantly, three nearby squads shifted position without a single word of command being shouted.

Archers took the high rocks, heavy vanguard warriors drew its attention from the front, and mages began weaving heavy binding spells.

The coordination was so seamless it looked as though a single mind were directing every sword stroke and spell cast across the entire five-mile valley.

—

Cassius stood atop the hill, watching another explosion illuminate the distant mines.

For the first time since arriving, he truly understood why the Blood and Iron Brigade had such a terrifying reputation.

They weren’t merely a collection of powerful warriors.

They fought like an enormous machine made up of countless smaller parts, each one moving in perfect synchronization with the others.

’A war enthusiast would nut his pants it he sees this sight.’