Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 2981: Baeldum Battle 8

"ROAAARRR!"

Ayla’s golden tiger threw back its head and released a thunderous roar that echoed across the battlefield. At the same time, the beastmaster’s voice cut through the chaos, carrying across the withdrawing line as she relayed the new orders.

"Fall back! Fall back!"

At first, many thought they had misheard.

The walls were collapsing, and the infected were breaking through in greater numbers with every passing minute, but surely this was the moment to reinforce the defenses, not abandon them.

Yet all around him, many were already disengaging.

Julian drove his sword through the chest of an infected expert before smashing another aside with his shield. Instead of pressing the advantage, he immediately withdrew. Poseidon reluctantly followed, summoning walls of water to slow the pursuing swarm while Guskov unleashed a final barrage from the rear, his cannon fire tearing enormous gaps through the infected ranks before he too abandoned his position.

Less than eighty surviving Grand Magus broke away from the battlefield in a single coordinated movement, abandoning the walls and withdrawing toward the heart of the city.

The effect was immediate.

As the defenders vanished from the walls, the gates fell.

The infected surged forward like a flood released from a broken dam.

Thousands became tens of thousands. Tens of thousands became hundreds of thousands. Within moments, the swarm was pouring through the breached entrances and spreading into the city beyond.

Then came the screams.

The sound rolled across the battlefield even louder than the fighting.

Citizens running.

Families separated.

Children crying.

The desperate panic of thirty million people suddenly facing annihilation.

Several retreating cultivators visibly faltered when they heard it. Some half-turned as though preparing to charge back toward the wall despite their orders. Even Poseidon felt his chest tighten as he listened to the chaos unfolding behind them.

"What are we doing?" he demanded, staring at Julian. "Are we abandoning them?!"

Julian did not answer immediately.

Instead, he continued retreating while keeping his gaze fixed upon the city.

Then the first runes appeared.

At first, there were only a few.

A single glowing line crossing a district.

A cluster of symbols lighting up along the boulevard.

Runes blazed into existence across streets, buildings, towers, plazas, and walls. Countless formation lines connected into a single vast network stretching from one end of Maren to the other. What had appeared to be an ordinary city suddenly revealed itself as the foundation of a colossal formation spanning dozens of miles.

The sight was so immense that even many Grand Magus stopped retreating for a moment to stare.

Then they realized.

The people—the thirty million screaming, fleeing citizens—were not bleeding where the hounds tore into them.

They were turning to light dust.

Not flesh.

Not blood.

Every "citizen" the swarm ran down simply burst apart into motes of fading light, vanishing like candles being snuffed out one after another.

Illusions.

Every last one of them.

"What...?" Poseidon stared in disbelief. "What is this? What happened?"

Julian let out a slow breath, and there was something almost like guilt in his expression as he finally answered.

"This is the plan, the Lieutenant General only told a few of us."

At the command position, Arctus, the three cosmos formation master, stood with his hands moving through a ceaseless rhythm of seals while sweat streamed down his face. He was not alone. Half a dozen other formation masters worked beside him, every one of them pouring their spiritual power into the enormous array.

This had always been his true task.

Because Maren had never been full.

Hours before the battle had begun, under Anderson’s direct orders and in absolute secrecy, all thirty million citizens had already been evacuated.

What remained behind was not a city full of people.

It was a city full of illusions.

An enormous formation spanning dozens of miles, filled with phantom citizens, phantom crowds, and phantom life, all created for a single purpose.

To fool the parasites.

And it had worked.

For all its terror, the scourge still possessed only the low cunning of a swarm-mind. It could coordinate armies and direct infected hordes, but its perception remained crude, its judgment slow, and its instincts predictable.

It had never realized the prey it hunted was nothing more than light.

By the time the infected finally understood the truth—

The second stage of formation was activated.

The streets behind them ignited.

More than a hundred towering pillars erupted along the formation lines, each one blazing with white-gold purification flames that shot high into the sky. The infected flooding through the streets shrieked in unison as sacred light swept across district after district. Those closest to the pillars dissolved instantly into ash, while those farther away convulsed violently, their corrupted flesh smoking beneath the relentless radiance.

Every infected caught within the formation was struck by overwhelming agony. The parasites lost control of their stolen bodies as the sacred energy flooded their systems, causing countless infected to collapse where they stood.

The formation could not cure them, yet it could cripple them, suppress them, and buy precious time.

Hundreds of thousands of infected were subdued in a single moment.

The phantom streets became littered with writhing bodies as the swarm’s momentum finally shattered.

Nor was that the formation’s only purpose.

As entire districts ignited, the massive array began reshaping the battlefield itself.

Walls of purification fire rose across key intersections, cutting off pursuit routes and trapping large sections of the infected horde inside burning sectors. At the same time, safe corridors were opened, creating a clear path for the retreating Grand Magus forces.

In the middle of the city center, another formation had already been prepared.

A spatial array, constructed in absolute secrecy before the battle had begun.

The moment the retreating forces reached it, the formation activated.

Space distorted.

Columns of silver light rose into the heavens.

"GO! GO! GO!"

One after another, the surviving Grand Magus stepped into the array and vanished.

The transfer carried them hundreds of miles across the continent in mere moments.

All head towards a new heading, the final defensive line.

The last great city of Dravos.