Chapter 336: Sitting Targets

"What is it?" Marius shouted.

"An enormous energy signature, General! Closing fast!"

Before he could ask anything else, red light appeared on the horizon.

"That’s... Cinderfall!"

In a single second, the red streak crossed more than a thousand kilometers. Marius had no time to give an order before it plunged into the thickest part of the army.

Fire crashed down.

One drop struck an Epic Ironveil Warrior. Man and armor vanished together, vaporized before he could scream. The burning drop continued into the ground, turning everything within dozens of meters into a pool of molten rock.

Thousands more fell around it. The rain covered several kilometers.

"General Sorel! Save me!"

"God, protect your servant!"

"I’m a direct descendant of the Jade Court’s imperial line! I came here for a little military credit! I can’t die here!"

Lords, Heroes, and troops rolled and screamed amid the flames. Only a handful of flying units managed to escape into the air in time.

Marius stared at the inferno below him.

"How can Cinderfall be this powerful? How can it reach this far?"

Percival’s superbly ordered formations had made perfect targets. Hundreds of thousands of troops had died in that single strike.

"Hold formation! Don’t panic!" Percival roared. "An attack like that must come from a specially enhanced scroll. Something that rare can’t possibly be used a second—"

The alarm shrieked again.

Another red streak appeared on the horizon.

A second later, fire swallowed another section of the army.

"Hold formation, my ass! Spread out!"

A third wave was already coming.

"Consecutive casts?" Percival’s voice rose sharply. "Disperse! Break up the formations!"

Orders took time to carry out. An army numbering in the hundreds of millions could not scatter in an instant.

Seven or eight Cinderfalls struck in succession. Millions of troops disappeared into the sea of fire.

At last, the sky cleared.

"It stopped."

The second Black Banner War Marshal ground his teeth.

"I’ll leave nothing alive in Divine Province for this."

Marius had only just steadied his breathing.

"Rest assured, General Veylan. Your brother’s death, this attack—we’ll make them pay for all of it."

Leander Veylan was Damon Veylan’s elder brother. Like Damon, he was a gifted swordsman, one of the Black Banner’s most formidable Warbound Lords in Sector 632. He had descended specifically to avenge the brother Cassian’s forces had killed.

"I know..."

His expression was vicious. Then it changed.

"Moonless Gu—no!"

Holes burst through his body. In an instant, he was torn beyond recognition. His mastery of the Pale Moon Codex had done nothing to save him. Even a Mythic being could not have survived with its body destroyed like that.

One of Sector 632’s fighters closest to Mythic had died before he could finish a sentence.

He had been far stronger than an ordinary Legendary Nine-Star Hero. No one in the coalition surpassed him in personal combat. Even the Black Banner’s sovereign treated him with respect.

Now he was dead.

The three surviving War Marshals stared with the other Lords.

"What... was that?"

Thousands of hiltless swords hung where Leander had stood. Their energy spent, they slowly dissolved into the air.

Cold sweat soaked the watchers’ backs. If an attack could kill Leander instantly, what chance would they have if it came for them?

He was only the first.

Their Legendary Nine-Star Heroes died next. This time the victims were ready, their defenses raised. It made no difference. Sword energy tore through them one after another.

"A focused strike beyond an ordinary Mythic’s power," Marius said through clenched teeth. "At least Mythic Five-Star."

Cormac had gone pale.

"Perhaps we should pull out of the Region and reconsider."

"Be quiet." Percival still sounded controlled. "The attacks seem to select targets by the strength of their life signatures. Our personal strength is only comparable to an ordinary Legendary Hero’s. We won’t be their priority."

The other two looked a little less frightened.

"What do we do, then?" Cormac asked.

Percival waited. When no further strike came, his confidence returned.

"They’ve exhausted their long-range attacks. That proves it. This was an opening display meant to frighten us away."

"I’ll tell the western, southern, and northern armies to advance faster," Marius said. "We’ll avenge General Veylan."

He tried to contact them.

A moment later, his face darkened.

"Silenced again? Is that all Divine Province knows how to do? Hide behind dirty tricks?"

Percival gave a cold smile.

"More proof that they’re weaker than they look. Increase our marching speed."

"An excellent analysis, General," Cormac said quickly. "You see straight through them."

None of them knew what was happening to the other three armies.

To the north, fissures dozens of meters wide opened beneath marching columns and swallowed troops beyond counting. In the south, thorny growth spread across the ground. Sharp roots and branches pierced every living creature they could reach.

To the west, water poured down as though a river had broken open in the sky. For fifty kilometers around, the land became a raging sea.

Within an hour, the coalition had suffered dreadful losses. Lyra had singled out and killed every Legendary Nine-Star fighter, including its most powerful Warbound Lords.

Like Percival, most of the survivors believed the worst was over.

The bombardment had barely begun.

"Again?"

Marius shot into the air as a roaring flood bore down on the eastern army.

"Spread out! Farther apart!"

Against attacks on that scale, scattering was the only tactic left to them.

Percival’s face was grim. He had only just declared that Divine Province was bluffing. The flood sweeping through his army made a mockery of every word.

"Keep moving!" he shouted. "I refuse to believe attacks this powerful have no limits!"

They had little choice.

It had taken half a day merely to bring the army through Riftward’s entrances. Now they were more than a thousand kilometers inside. If they tried to retreat, their forces would bunch up at those narrow passages and become sitting targets.

At last, they understood why Divine Province had let them enter without a fight.

They had walked into a trap.

All they could do now was gamble that Divine Province had little ammunition left.

Unfortunately for them, the Five Elements Temple ran on ordinary Aether.