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Chapter 598.2: What Do You Want to Do? (2)

Roel’s return journey was smooth-sailing.

When he returned to Tark Stronghold amidst a stream of fog, Wilhelmina was in the emergency communication room, checking the condition of the two individuals collapsed on the floor. There was a brief pause when she noticed Roel before she rushed forth to embrace him.

“Mina?”

Roel was taken aback by Wilhelmina’s rare bout of assertiveness. He couldn’t help but notice that her body was trembling a little.

“…You’re finally back.”

“…”

Roel gently stroked Wilhelmina’s hair to comfort her.

No matter how powerful her transcendent powers were, she was still a youth. Having to wait alone in this huge but empty fortress, not knowing whether the person she was waiting for would return, was a mental trial for her.

“Mina, how long was I away for?”

“…I’m not sure. All of the clocks here have stopped. I’d guess a day or so,” Wilhelmina replied.

Roel nodded.

Through this piece of information, he could deduce that the flow of time in Tark Stronghold was roughly equivalent to that of the real world. As long as the collapsed soldiers quickly recovered, there was a chance he could still make it in time.

“Those two soldiers are…?”

“They appeared all of a sudden. I haven’t figured out what’s going on yet,” Wilhelmina said as she glanced at the collapsed soldiers with worried eyes.

Roel quickly checked on the soldiers’ conditions.

To his relief, they seemed to have passed out due to an overexposure of mana, which meant that they should recover soon. He figured that this was the side effect Artasia had mentioned earlier.

Following that, Roel and Wilhelmina made their way outside.

Unlike the previously empty corridors, Tark Stronghold was currently full of unconscious personnel lying all over the place, be they clergymen, logistical officers, or frontline soldiers.

Roel and Wilhelmina exchanged glances before quickly passing through the corridor and making their way toward the highest floor, where the fortress’s command center was. Now that the fortress’s personnel had returned, the first thing he had to do was to contact its commanders and explain the situation outside to them so that they could prepare for battle.

The earlier they joined the battle, the fewer casualties there would be for humankind.

The person Roel was hoping to meet was one of the key reasons he was determined to save the disappeared Tark Stronghold’s personnel. That person was his father’s old friend, as well as an elder whom he had always respected.

After traversing a long flight of stairs strewn with unconscious personnel, Roel finally arrived at the entrance of the command center. He tried knocking on the door but to no avail, so he pushed the door open and entered.

It was a simple but elegant office.

There were several figures lying unconscious on the floor, but Roel’s gaze immediately shot to the opposite end of the room, where a golden-haired man lay next to a wooden table.

This man was Kane Xeclyde, Saint Mesit Theocracy ex-prince, Nora Xeclyde’s biological father, and Carter Ascart’s close friend. In the two years since he had been devoured by Shrouding Fog, he had become a symbol to represent soldiers who had valiantly died in war.

After so many twists and turns, it turned out that he was still alive.

Roel rushed over to Kane’s side to check on his condition, at which he breathed a sigh of relief. He then carried Kane to the nearest chair before casting a recovery spell. It could be that Roel had made advancements in his recovery spells or that Kane had a good foundation, but the latter finally woke up after two minutes.

Upon opening his eyes, Kane stared at Roel in confusion for a long while before uncertainly asking, “Y-you are… Roel?” He was perplexed as to why Roel was here, as well as why the latter looked so much older than before.

Roel nodded affirmatively before replying, “Yes, Your Highness Kane. I am Roel Ascart. Are you feeling all right?”

“Mm, I feel fine… Wait! I remember now! That white fog…”

“Yes, Your Highness Kane. Tark Stronghold, including you, the commanders, and the soldiers, was devoured by Shrouding Fog, one of the Six Calamities. It has been two years since then.”

“Two years?!” Kane exclaimed in astonishment.

“Indeed, Your Highness Kane. Many things have happened during your disappearance, so allow me to fill you in on the details…” Roel nodded before proceeding to update Kane on recent affairs with a voice as composed as possible.

…

In war, you win some, you lose some.

This was a famous military saying in Roel’s previous world.

There were far more factors influencing the course of a war than one could imagine, from the equipment, the intensity of the training, the type of soldiers, and the geographical terrain, all the way down to the constant changes on the battlefield every passing second. All of these could draw the line between victory and defeat.

Of these factors, the one with the potential to cause the biggest change was military strategy.

Unlike the barbaric deviants, humans had the ability to plan, and they also possessed the means required to execute their plans. This allowed them to effectively capitalize on their strengths, which played a huge part in their ability to fend off the deviants despite being on the weaker side.

Such was the case in the Battle of Scorched Earth too.

Elaborate plans had been made beforehand so as to draw out humankind’s true potential to deal with the deviants.

From the moment the battle commenced, the three million human soldiers stationed on the eastern border simultaneously launched furious assaults against the deviants upon receiving orders from the united army through a tight network of communication magic tools.

Armored cavalry charged deafeningly across the plains to strike enemy camps, whereas guerrilla squads prowled treacherously in the mountain forests and quietly reaped lives.

Such a scale of coordination was never seen before in the united army. The goal was to do everything they could to stall the enemy forces for the next two days, so as to prevent further reinforcements from reaching the Deviant Sovereign.

Their strategy was effective, as nearly all of the deviant tribes spread along the eastern border found themselves tied down.

On the main battlefield, the balance was starting to tilt in the favor of the humans too.

This was not the first time the holy artifact of the Genesis Goddess Church, the Square of the War Angels, had been invoked. The last time it was invoked, Holy Eminence John had activated it with his Seven Archangels Bloodline and successfully dealt a heavy blow on the deviants, thus achieving victory for humankind.

This time around, the one activating it was Nora, who possessed the stronger Angel Sovereign Bloodline. The only fate awaiting those who had crossed the Angel Sovereign was death, which was realized through the holy swords looming above the deviants. These holy swords couldn’t be dodged, and they were imbued with holy flames that seared sinners.

Deviants who attempted to escape were decapitated, their splattered blood dyeing the white sand crimson. Those who attempted to block the swords with their shields found their bodies ignited by the holy flames. Even the thickest armor was useless before the holy swords.

As for those who attempted to retaliate with spells, their mana was quickly broken down by the golden sky, which was suffused with the Angel Sovereign’s assimilation power.

Under this almighty area-of-effect spell, the deviants’ formation was quickly pushed to the brink of collapse.

The rain of holy swords continued for minutes.

By the time the light faded from the Square of the War Angels, the scenery had completely changed. Countless golden swords could be seen piercing into mountains of blazing corpses and rivers of blood. The deviant army had scattered in all directions, and the priests who attempted to cast army spells were obliterated.

And this was only the start.

After Nora was done, Charlotte stepped forward and impassively waved her hand, signaling the second wave of attack.

Rosaian soldiers brought out thousands of glowing long-range weapons and activated them. Gemstones of all colors gleamed brightly as the gigantic weapons unleashed a devastating bombardment that could be heard even from many kilometers away.

With no heed to cost, the Sorofyas carried out the most extravagant and intense long-range bombardment humankind had ever seen.

Tens of thousands of gold coins were being spent every single second. It was as if the world had become the Sorofyas’ plaything. Projectiles covered the horizon, flooding the Hawe Desert as if a tsunami crashing on shore.

Boom!

Thousands of projectiles exploded at the same time, and they overlapped with one another to give rise to an earth-shattering explosion. A blinding light obliterated countless deviants within a mere second. Shockwaves rippled across the ground, causing the surroundings to tremor.

It was then that Charlotte waved her hand, and deep war horns echoed. This time around, it was coming from the humans.

“Wu!”

A gigantic giant suddenly appeared out of nowhere and led the charge with clenched fists. Flying right behind the gigantified Kurt was the armored ‘Valkyrie’ Brittany. The two commanders of the vanguard battalions let out deafening roars, as the human armies began their charge.

Meanwhile, the Rosaian soldiers continued their bombardment to cover the human soldiers.

Such an overwhelming wave of attacks left the deviants with no room to breathe. Less than a tenth of the deviants remained after the rain of holy swords and the mass bombardment, and the survivors had practically lost their strength to counterattack too.

Rather than slaughtering the deviants, the most difficult part for the human armies was stepping across their enemies’ carcasses and the complicated terrain.

All in all, the united army had set two strategic goals to achieve victory in this battle.

One was the coordinated assault of all human armies stationed on the eastern border to tie down the deviants, and the other was to break through the deviants’ encirclement around Hawe Desert.

Knowing that the human armies lost out in terms of military prowess, Nora used her Angel Sovereign Bloodline to activate the Square of the War Angels so as to first destroy the enemies’ priests, before the Sorofyas followed up with a series of carpet bombings.

These built momentum for the human armies, allowing them to quickly breach the deviants’ first line of defense.

Unfortunately, their advantage didn’t last for long.

Indeed, the deviants’ armies weren’t as well-structured as the human armies, and their minds were far too corrupted by insanity for logical planning, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t have their own edge.

This was the first time humankind was confronting the Deviant Sovereign despite having fought many wars against the deviants over the past thousand years. Even so, humankind knew that the Deviant Sovereign was a monster that transcended common sense, wielding the power to push humankind to the brink of extinction.

The Deviant Sovereign welcomed the ferocious assault of the human armies and retaliated in his own way.

As soon as the Sorofyas’ bombardment concluded, an intense mana pulsation could suddenly be felt from the heart of the desert. A gray light whizzed into the sky before abruptly exploding into mana fragments reminiscent of ash. These mana fragments quietly fused into the bodies of the deviants below.

Under the effects of the ashlike mana fragments, the deviants let loose ferocious roars. Their bodies swelled up with tremendous strength as mana surged through them, granting them far greater vigor than before.

The tide of the battlefield had started changing.

“Impossible! An army buff spell cast on over a hundred thousand soldiers?”

“That damned monster!”

The human soldiers exclaimed in disbelief at the miracle unfolding before their eyes, and their momentum faltered a little. In particular, Nora’s golden eyes narrowed.