Chapter 975: Chapter 974: Falling
In the early hours, still far from sunrise, not even the faint twilight appeared in the eastern hillsâ sky, the starry night slightly darker than usual covered the land of the border areas, the night sky hung low, the dark blue heavens stretched from the towering walls of Winterwolf Fortress to the Cecil Clanâs Longwind Fortress.
Knights in black helms and black armor gathered neatly under the night sky, swords sheathed, banners folded, horses controlled by magic potions and calming spells stood quietly, almost merging with the knights without making a soundâcold wind swept the land, the plains seemed to be a gathering of hundreds of steel-forged statues, silent and dignified.
A tall figure on horseback circled half a loop from the rear and returned to the forefront of the knights. His black steel armor appeared even more deep and heavy under the starlight, and from the visor covering his entire face came a low and majestic voiceâ
Sadly, it wasnât in human language.
It was a kind of muddled, strange sound as if countless people were muttering simultaneously, eerie to hear yet carrying a certain solemn rhythm akin to a benediction.
The commander in black armor raised an arm high in front of the knights, his indistinct and dreadful voice seemed to inspire the entire troop, knights also raised their arms in response, but no one shoutedâa disciplined display of resolve shown in silence to their commander, who was visibly satisfied with the gesture.
He nodded, turned his horse, and swung the longsword towards the distant dark plain, knights began marching row by row, the entire troop surged forth like a sudden wave of wheat, layers upon layers accelerating towards the distance, and during this advance, the standard-bearers at the front, middle, and both sides suddenly raised their bannersâ
Iron River Knightsâ flags fluttered high over the night-covered plains.
...
Andresha dreamt a dream.
In her dream, she felt herself falling into an endless vortex, surrounded by countless shadowy, misty black cyclones swirling around her, vast and obscure, blocking her sight and senses, and she kept plummeting within this enormous vortex. She wanted to wake up, normally this sense of falling would wake her immediately, but a powerful force in the vortexâs depths pulled her away from reality, separated by an unseen barrierâshe could almost feel the bedâs texture, hear the wind outside the window, yet her mind was trapped in this dream, unable to return to the waking world.
Andresha strained her eyes in the perpetual spin of the vortex, trying to discern what these shadowy mists contained, then suddenly, faces gathered in the mistâshe saw many faces, familiar and unfamiliar, she saw her grandfather, her most loyal soldiers, acquaintances far in the imperial capital...
Finally, she saw her father, Bard Wendellâs face emerged from the vortexâs depths, and he reached out to push her forcefully.
Andresha jerked awake, breathing heavily in the darkness, feeling her heart thumping, a post-drowning sensation tormenting her uncomfortably, while cold sweat soaked her body.
"General, General! Please wake up, General!"
The urgent knocking and shouts from her subordinates finally reached her earsâhad this sound just appeared? Or had they been calling her for some time?
Andresha quickly rose, pulling a casual coat over herself as she responded, "Come in!"
The door was pushed open, and a loyal subordinate appeared at the entrance, the young lieutenant stepped in, snapped a salute, a look of urgency on his face as he quickly spoke, "General, thereâs an incident, the War Godâs Clergy residential area erupted in turmoil, a batch of Combat Priests clashed with guardian soldiers, many casualties have occurred."
"What did you say? Turmoil?" Andresha was shocked, immediately reaching for her sword and outer clothing to leaveâdespite hearing an unbelievable message, she knew her loyal subordinateâs capability and judgment, such news couldnât be fabricated, "Whatâs the situation now? Whoâs on-site? Is the situation under control?"
Speaking as she temporarily handed her sword to the lieutenant while dressing quickly and heading out.
"Knight Commander Brule has already controlled the situationâdue to sudden loss of control, at first, the soldiers were unresponsive, resulting in seven deaths, thirty to forty injuries, at least fifteen severely wounded. Subsequently, nearby patrolling knights and combat mages swiftly arrived, warding off and separating the seemingly delirious priests," the young lieutenant quickly followed while reporting, "Other regions have increased patrols and surveillance, there are no signs of chaos for now."
Seemingly delirious...
Andreshaâs heart sank, her pace quickened.
Nearing the camp within Winterwolf Fortress designated for some clergy, a pungent scent of blood assaulted her senses.
Knights had controlled the scene, heavily armored soldiers guarded all entrances without fail, combat mages continuously used detection spells to scan for all magic disturbances within the camp, ready to respond to any transcendentâs loss of control and resistance, several tense patrol knights noticed Andreshaâs approach, halting and saluting in respect.
Andresha waved and went through the human barricade directly into the camp.
Wounded had been moved, corpses remained on the ground, splattered hot blood had cooled in this cold winter night, residual waste energy from dense spell and divine art releases accumulated nearby, showing as foggy in Andreshaâs magi-sight. She frowned at the imperial uniformed soldiersâ bodiesâthey were killed by scorching magic spell blades or divine arts, yet there was little blood loss, the blood scent largely came from those priests slain by swords.
The priestsâ bodies lay nearby, intermingled with the soldiers they killed.
Suppressing intense emotions inside, Andresha arrived beside a War God Priestâs body, unphased by the surrounding bloodstains, crouching and rolling over the corpse.
The priestâs body was turned over, hollow eyes stared at Andresha, or perhaps at the dark sky, those eyes seemed to retain a certain chaos and frenzy, making them especially unsettling.
But Andreshaâs focus quickly shifted from those eyesâshe looked at the priestâs wound.
A fatal wound cut from near the neck through the chest, enchanted blade sliced through weak fabric and cotton robe, under was torn fleshâblood no longer flowing, yet on both sides of the wound there were many... strange objects.
They were flesh sprouts emerging from the flesh, appearing bizarre and disconcerting, Andresha was certain humansâ wounds shouldnât grow such, and as for their function... these sprouts seemed trying to recover the wound, but the complete cessation of bodily vitality made such attempts futile, now all sprouts wilted, melded with the flesh, exceptionally revolting.
A knight with blood-stained armor approached Andresha.
"Brule," Andresha didnât look up, she sensed the familiarity in the aura, "did you notice these wounds?"
"Yes, General," the knight officer replied solemnly, "Iâve inspected them before; itâs not an effect of healing spells or alchemical potions, nor normal War Godâs divine arts. But one thing is certain, these... anomalies granted the priests here stronger vitality, thatâs why many soldiers suffered greatlyâno one expected the downed enemy to retaliate as if unharmed, resulting in soldiers seriously injured or even killed by surprise."
Andresha nodded slightly, the knight officerâs statement confirmed her suspicions and explained why the chaos led to such severe casualties.
The War God Clergy here were disarmed, without amplifying talismans or handy weapons, bare-handed priestsâeven War God Priestsâshouldnât inflict such damage on fully armed and collectively acting regulars, even in a surprise attack.
After all, the Empireâs soldiers had extensive transcendent combat experience, aside from the armyâs highly proportioned mass-produced knights and mages, ordinary soldiers too possessed enchanted gear and underwent specific training.
But... if they confronted Corrupted Priests transforming from humans to monsters, then everything was different.
Andreshaâs face was grim â although she didnât want to, at this moment she had to categorize those out-of-control War God priests as "Corrupted Priests".
"Where are the other War God priests?" she stood up and asked in a deep voice.
"They have all been controlled, placed in two adjacent camps, with guards tripled," Knight Commander Brule immediately replied, "Most of them are tense, and a few are emotionally agitated, but at least they havenât... mutated."
Andresha felt a surge of irritation in her heart: "...We can only keep them confined like this."
"Yes, we can only keep them confined like this," the Knight Commanderâs face didnât look any better, "This chaos is evidently caused by some kind of âmadnessâ, and we cannot take action against the ordinary awake priests â but I worry the soldiers may not see it that way."
Andresha frowned deeply, about to issue some orders, but soon noticed other details from the priestâs corpse.
She bent down, her fingers touched a thin chain around the priestâs neck, and with a random tug, she pulled out a blood-soaked, triangular iron talisman.
"War Symbol..." the knight commander exclaimed in a low voice, "I didnât notice this just now!"
Andresha said nothing, instead, she solemnly tore open the priestâs sleeve. Under the bright light of the magic crystal lamp nearby, she immediately saw a triangular insignia painted in red on the inside of the arm.
"Wearing iron war talisman, with War Godâs insignia painted on the inside of the arm..." the Knight Commander instinctively muttered, "It represents bearing arms in the name of the God â a sign of entering a state of war!"
"These priests arenât mad, at least not fully mad, they did these according to doctrine, this isnât a riot..." Andresha said solemnly, "This is a sacrifice to the War God, to indicate that the faction they are loyal to has entered a state of war."
"State of war!?" Her adjutant came over with a look of astonishment, "Where does the war come from!? Are these people trying to start a rebellion against the Empire?"
"Oathbreakers cannot wear talismans, this isnât rebellion..."
Andreshaâs words were only halfway through.
She quickly recalled various messages recently sent back from the homeland, swiftly organizing the abnormal circumstances of the Sect of the God of War and the balance of the border regionâs situation recently â the intelligence she knew was indeed sparse, yet some wolfish intuition has started to sound an alarm in her mind.
She suddenly sprang into a dreadful, extremely atrocious guess.
The Sect of the God of War has issues, the gods of these priests have problems, and at this moment the zealous, fanatical believers in a state of frenzy most want to... please their gods.
But how could these disarmed priests, ostensibly under protective observation but actually under house arrest in the camp, please their god?
Itâs difficult for them to achieve... but there are more followers of the War God!
Andresha abruptly lifted her head, yet almost simultaneously, corner of her eye caught sight of a mage hastily flying in the night sky towards here.
This seems specifically designed to confirm her horrible guess.
Andresha felt a sensation arise within her, a feeling of clutching the crucial point yet unable to alter the course of events. She remembered the last time she had such a sensation â it was on a rainy night at the Palamere Highlands.
The messenger mage landed before her.
"General!" The mage gasped with a look of panic, "Without orders, the Iron River Knights moved out, their camp is already empty â the last witness saw them assembling on the plains away from the fortress, heading towards the Longwind Defense Line!"
Falling.
Andresha felt herself falling into a whirlpool.
...
The Longwind Fortresses, centered on Longwind Fortress and constructed with a series of fortresses, outposts, railway nodes, and military stations as its skeleton, forming a composite defense line.
Since its construction, it has not yet faced the test of fire.
At the eve of dawn, the myriad stars in the sky grew dimmer and more indistinct, and the distant eastern hills bore a faint luminescence, heralding the end of this cold night approaches.
The knight regiment, marching under the night sky, had reached the end of the "Carmanta Crossroad", the boundary of the Cecil Clanâs defense alert zone.
Under the black mask, a pair of dark red eyes gazed at the faraway dim horizon, gazing in the direction of the Longwind Defense Line.
Behind this commander, a massive knight regiment had already formed a battle formation, the surging magic power filled the entire resonance field.
A few minutes later, the magic resonance reached its peak.
The Commander raised the longsword high, and at the moment the longsword swung down, the entire knight regiment began to slowly accelerate in waves, at first cumbersome and slow, but then charging at the distant horizon like a wild, fast wave surge.
God needs everything to return to the right track.
Blood and fire warfare is the right track.
The servant of the Lord doesnât care who will win, doesnât care whether they might suffer a crushing defeat, doesnât even care about the ultimate meaning of this war.
At this moment, the war itself is the meaning.
Containing terrifying energy reactions, highly compressed binding plasma â "Thermal Cone" began to form above the knight regiment.