Soul of Searing Steel

The red radiance was shining bright like a star in heaven. The dark clouds in the sky right above the radiance was instantly ripped away.

Under the glimmer of the stars and the moonlight, the knights were riding their warhorses, rearranging their formation a little by the hilltop.

They pulled the reins over their horses and slowed down a little. They sighed along their horses’ neighing as well. White vapor wafted out from their noses and dispersed by the cold wind.

Their shiny silver armor was covered in frost. The sign of wind blowing across was everywhere. Although they had been riding forward for days without any rest, these Silver-tier knights were no longer normal beings as they should be tired as hell. However, that level of exhaustion was still bearable for them.

The surroundings of the hills were covered with only snow and frost. The old trees that had already lost all the leaves were covered in snow as well. They were standing along with the gray rocks across the hills.

The knights were marching forward slowly together in a formation. They looked down at the edge of the hills and saw nothing down there. Everything was pitch black.

The scent of blood of the beasts filled the air, followed by some audible roaring that shook the mountains. Endless tides of Berserk Daemons were charging out of the Dark Forest like an unstoppable wave.

So these are the enemies that we’re going to face?

Without any fear in their hearts, the knights looked at the man that was standing in the frontline.

The man riding on his black warhorse was the same one that pierced the sky with a lance. That man was currently standing right by the flag that carried the insignia of his family.

Joshua.

Joshua van Radcliffe was currently standing on the highest point on the hill. Everyone looked forward, glaring at the ferocious beast horde down the hill in silence.

The dust and sand on the ground were swirled into the air by the violent movements of the daemons, followed by the dark purplish mist. The charging of countless monsters had lit up the battlefield.

The force of the daemons was so intimidating as though the sky and ground was about to turn upside down. Even the violent snowstorm and the howling winds could not stop them from advancing forward.

Facing the army of countless berserked and distorted monsters, even the bravest among the brave would feel some doubt.

However, it was different for the warrior.

Fear?

No… He looked forward to it even.

There was no better feeling than this. The delight he felt whenever there was a battle. He had no intention of hiding his glee either.

He was just like a hungry wolf that craved for raw meat and fresh blood. He craved the rush and satisfaction of battling without needing to hold back at all. It seemed that the man had found himself the thing he wanted most in his entire life.

Wearing his black armor, the black-haired warrior with red eyes tightened the grip of his right hand on the hilt of the silvery-white greatsword while holding a metallic lance in his left. The cold breeze that blew against his face made his cape billow. Facing the charging horde, his eyes were so bright as if they were ignited by flames. He smiled wordlessly.

So this is supposed to be my moment.

“My knights, on my command!”

The voice commanding the knights sounded like resonating steel. Joshua cackled like a madman as he gave his command—

“Follow me—charge!”

“Charge!”

*****

The fortress.

“Reinforcements? What’s the status?”

Other than the archers and Brandon, many others also noticed the red radiating lance that was plunged into the heart of the daemon horde. However, most of the soldiers that were focused on fending off the daemons did not notice it. They were repeating their attacks like machines, taking the lives of the daemons one wave after another.

Vale Dani was focused on repelling the large number of daemons that came from the sky and thus did not notice it either. However, when she overheard the word ‘reinforcements’, she could not help to turn her head over and looked at the archer who was looking through the binocular. Then she asked, “Did they really come?”

Ever since she sent out the letters a few days ago, she had been waiting, praying for reinforcements to arrive. However, she was disappointed day by day because no one came. She almost lost faith that someone would appear.

Putting more thought into it, the countess smiled bitterly. Who would cross thousands of miles just to provide aid to someone they barely kept in touch with, someone who could potentially be a threat to their territories? As for the fact that the daemons would bring about unimaginable threats across the entire continent of the north, people would only know if they were to experience facing the horde themselves.

“Yes, Dani. The reinforcements are here.”

Killing off the few daemons that was climbing onto the edge of the wall, the Gold-tier swordsman Brandon turned around and looked at his loved one before he spoke with a serious face, “I’ve seen it. Someone with unleashed Combat Aura threw a lance across thousands of miles into the heart of the horde causing massive damage However, the daemons were replaced too swiftly. So you couldn’t see it.”

“Is that so?”

The countess believed him of course. If there’s anyone in the entire world that would not lie to her, it would be this Gold-tier swordsman. Vale Dani cast an immediate spell ‘Eagle Eye’ on herself and looked towards the distant land where Brandon was looking at.

Through her vision, the flag that bore the insginia of the Radcliffe family was fluttering along the strong current of the wind. The mark of two hands bearing swords was visible.

The knights that were riding their warhorses following right behind the flag were marching in from the hillside in a neat formation. The leader was a tall man in a full set of black armor holding a greatsword and a lance, his body ignited with Combat Aura of a Gold-tier warrior.

Those were really reinforcements.

However, she could not help but sigh in disappointment after seeing that.

“Just fifty of them?!”

Fifty of them?

Upon hearing what their countess said, some of the soldiers and patrollers nearby her had puzzled expressions on their faces. Some of them even yelled immediately, “Fifty of them, what good can they f*cking bring?!”

“What do they think this is? A drill?”

“This is a f*cking tide of 200,000 daemons! Fifty of them will be wiped out by the horde in an instant! If we did not have the walls to protect us, we would have been wiped out clean as well!”

One of the warriors struck a wolf daemon off the edge of the wall. He wiped off the cold sweat on his head and looked at the gushing wave of daemons that looked like a black sea of hell. Then he said loudly, “We can’t afford to waste our breath now. Look at that. Our city gates have been blocked by a mountain of dead daemons. Even if they can make it here, we won’t be able to open the city gates for them to come in!”

What he said was true. There were already thousands of dead daemons piling up right in front of the city gates. Not to mention that each of the daemons was large in size. If the city walls were only tens of meters tall, the piled up dead bodies would have formed a slope that would allow the daemons to breach the walls easily. Even though the gigantic walls in Moldova that were made of mountain rocks would be tall enough not to be drowned by the dead bodies of the daemons that were piling up quick. The city gates had been shut tight with the huge pile of dead bodies.

“It’s no use. There are only so few of them. It’s pointless even though they’ve come to our aid.”

Sighing out loud, the army of the fortress had once again looked at the seriousness of the situation. Facing such a large scale Dark Tide, it seemed pointless even if the reinforcements arrived. Let alone fifty, even if there were thousands or tens of thousands of them coming to aid the fortress in defending it, it would still be unclear if they would be able to win the war.

The hope that was ignited upon hearing that reinforcements had arrived was extinguished by cruel reality just like that. The morale that they fought so long to the point that they became numb just to maintain instantly dropped tremendously. It was obvious that the pace of the forces defending the fortress had slowed down.

The daemons would give no sh*t about how bad the morale of their enemies had become. They had already lost their sanity and became ferocious all the while. They only had one thought in their minds. That was to tear their enemies apart and swallow their blood and bones whole.

Some much more powerful daemons could not resist their hunger any longer. When they could not reach the wall or attack the humans near them, they stopped to pick up the corpses of the other daemons and chewed them all up. The blood and flesh in their mouth mixed with the dark purplish liquid were dropping and splashing as they chewed. The purplish-blue glow in their eyes became even brighter because they had obtained more viral dust from consuming their dead comrades.

“Rawgh!!”

Upon swallowing a corpse of its own kind, a daemon that looked like a white bear let out an intimidating roar as every single muscle on its body expanded. Crackling sounds were heard echoing across the battlefield. Its eyes had now become dark purple. Each time it let out a breath, there were visible magic light dots and black mist emanating from its fur throughout its entire body. After that, the daemon had expanded into twice its original size. The snow-white fur across its body had been pumped up so much that they appeared like spikes all over its body. Incredible power was surging across the daemon’s entire body at the moment.

Intense Berserk!

“Phew!”

The purplish-blue breaths that were mixed with a sense of chill that could go deep into the bones were gathering in the mouth of the giant bear that grew to approximately eight meters tall. After that, a beam of light surged violently out of its mouth. The condensed cold breath was shot out straight onto the wall. It was a direct hit.

Boom!

The violent explosion caused a large impact which left a large crack on the side of the gray-white wall. The rocks that were covered by a layer of solid ice fell from the wall and crushed right on top of the daemon horde by the wall outside the city. Instantly, a few number of monsters that were weaker were crushed to death, splattering flesh and blood everywhere. Meanwhile, the other daemons did not hesitate but instead became more violent than before after they picked up the scent of blood from their own kind. They roared and climbed up the walls at a faster speed than before.

“God damn it! That’s not good!”

Arriving at the scene with the speed of the howling wind, Brandon whirled his two swords and sliced the few daemons that came up to the edge of the wall into pieces. Then he turned around and shouted at Vale and the city guards, “Even if we don’t have reinforcements coming to aid us, we should not feel despair. Dani, at least someone has willingly come to aid you. Meanwhile, their leader should definitely be the level of a Gold tier. Set aside the others, that warrior should be able to charge through the daemon horde to lend a hand to use!”

“Three powerful Gold-tier fighters should at least be able to guard the city!”

The Gold-Tier swordsman’s boomed from his Combat Aura. His voice managed to echo across between the city walls and the tower. Instantly, everyone heard his voice and snapped out of it—even if the fifty knights could not do much good to the current situation, at least there was still one Gold-tier warrior among them! No matter what, it would be a better formation than before. There was no reason for the soldiers’ morale to drop.

“That’s right!”

The countess had understood it at that moment. She also immediately tried to cheer up her knights and other soldiers from her side. “Everyone! Let’s guard the fortress against the waves to come!”

Right after that, the Gold-tier mage did not waste her breath at all. Her face turned deadly serious as she lifted the gray staff in her hand up high. Then she charged her magic power with all she’s got, causing a stir in the elemental power in the air.

As the surroundings had already been infected with Chaos, the magic and elemental power had become contaminated. However, the violet-haired mage was not bothered by that. She still managed to unleash her full potential as a Gold-tier mage.

Instantly, the northern winds that were howling strong went still. The blizzard also stopped. The dark clouds seemed to be separated by some sort of mysterious forces layer by layer. The clouds were rippling slowly into the surroundings in the sky. After that, the stars were shining brightly in the sky. The scenery in the sky right above the fortress had not been seen for tens of days. Everyone felt refreshed and determined after seeing something that seemed like a miracle right before their eyes.

“…”

The countess remained silent while she was using everything she had to control her power. As a Gold-tier war mage that used magic and elemental power, the spells that Vale Dani knew were created for handling large-scale wars. That being said, it would mean that her attacks were extremely powerful. So she could never simply use her spells and magic whenever she liked.

The countess knew that with her current strength, if she used her most powerful spell with all she’s got, she would definitely fall into a vulnerable state for quite a long period of time. She might even go into a coma. If she did not have anyone to protect her, she would become a target that would drag the others down with her. So during the first few waves of getting attacked by the daemons, she did not use her strongest spells no matter how dire the situation was.

However, Brandon was right beside her now. Meanwhile, the situation had become too dangerous now.

So…

“Witness the power of the stars!”

[Glorious Strength: Starbow Break]

Upon that command, countless beams of lights instantly rained down upon the ground by using the shining stars as their power source.

Instantly, countless explosions and flashes bombarded the area where the Dark Tide was. The impacts were visible, like ripples on the calm surface of a lake. The dark purplish mist was instantly removed by the intense light and high temperature that was bombarding the land. After that, the daemons suffered tremendous casualties. The stench of burnt meat could be picked up along the wind that was blowing strong.

Vale Dani’s Glorious Strength [Starbow Break] could link the shadows of the stars in the heavens. Using the countless stars across space as the initial point, the magic bombs that were charging at light speed could inflict tremendous damage to the enemies.

“Great job!”

This was the first time the golden-haired swordsman saw the love of his life unleash such a powerful spell. Currently, he was slaying the daemons on the frontline. He could instantly feel that the pressure on the frontline outside the wall was reduced tremendously.

However, right after that, he was shocked to see what was happening before his eyes. The violet-haired mage was holding her staff to support herself, as she slowly collapsed to the ground.

“Dani!”

He immediately dashed over to Vale Dani and held her in his arms. Brandon then lifted her head with a worried expression on his face. He put his hand on the mage’s head trying to see if she was alright. After that, he let out a breath of relief. “Thank god. She’s just over exhausted. Not a big deal…”

However, that was not the time to celebrate just yet. He immediately turned his head around in a hurry to look at the monster horde.

Although they had annihilated over a thousand Berserk Daemons, the daemons coming in from the sky would oppress the human army without the support from the Gold-tier mage’s large-scale spells to intimidate and fend off the daemons. Furthermore, an endless wave of monsters that arrived right after was beginning to charge towards the fortress at the same time. The situation became even worse than before!

This was also one of the main reasons why those of Gold tier could not use their powers on a whim. Sometimes, they could just stand their ground without having the need to move. They were capable of suppressing their enemy’s attacks by not moving at all.

Upon turning his head back, the Gold-tier swordsman saw a scene that made him hold his breath.

The huge hole that was caused by the collapsing star was still there. The daemons on the city walls were wiped out clean. The soldiers had finally gotten a chance to catch their breath. They could finally take a brief rest.

The Dark Tide… has stopped?

Impossible! Brandon felt an intense tremor in his heart. He knew that there were no powerful forces that could actually scare the insane monsters that were infected by Chaos. They would not falter just because they were scared. Look at the cannon attacks from the alchemy cannons. Even though the cannons had bombarded the horde leaving lots of holes across the land, the holes were swiftly loaded by the monsters that were charging forward. Although killing thousands of daemons was actually an achievement beyond imagination, it only took tens of seconds for the monsters to restore their numbers.

“Wait a minute, they’re not faltering or stopping!”

After all, Brandon was still a Gold-tier swordsman. He could sharply sense the strange movements of the daemons. “They’re heading over to a spot to gather!”

Could it be…

His eyes widened, the Gold-tier swordsman looked into the distant hill.

That area was the area where the daemons were gathering around. Right within the tide of death that looked pitch black.