Chapter Ninety-One: Beneath the Walls of Roroa City

During the period when Adis had halted his troops and settled into camp, another battle that would shape the fate of the realm was beginning elsewhere.

Countless knights swept across the field, interweaving with formations of priests and soldiers. In the blink of an eye, how many lives were being taken, no one could tell.

Yet by now, most of the knights had already been wiped out. Only the last handful of survivors still struggled in desperate combat, trying to break through.

Seeing this, a broad-shouldered man with a stern, resolute face raised his hand from the front lines.

At his command, a large force of knights, leading countless soldiers, surged forward and gradually annihilated the remaining stubborn fighters.

When the battle came to an end, a general rode up from afar.

“Lord Nadir, with these men broken, the resistance within the kingdom of Loa has been nearly extinguished. What remains is no longer enough to threaten us!”

Nadir turned and saw that it was Bazel.

Bazel looked very different now.

After distinguishing himself in the previous campaign, Adis had appointed him as the new legion commander and allowed him to form the Third Legion on his own and begin training it. Since then, Bazel had not neglected his cultivation of battle aura either. In only a short time, he had already reached knight rank, not far from becoming a great knight, astonishing many.

“Good. This group is the last company of knights that could be assembled within the Duchy of Loa. The rest have either been bought over by us, or, because of the Nature God, secretly surrendered to us long ago. We now hold most of the land; only Loa City remains to be dealt with.”

Nadir looked at him and laughed.

Seeing this, Bazel also smiled in agreement. But then he said, with some concern, “However, within Loa City, there still remain the last of the royal family’s forces, as well as the ancestral god. With our current strength, I fear there may still be complications in the end.”

“Even if we take Loa by force, if the campaign drags on too long or our losses are too severe, we may not be able to reinforce His Majesty in time, and then we would be unable to pacify the surrounding region in one stroke.”

As he said this, he frowned.

As a legion commander, he was already one of the core leaders of the empire, and naturally he knew Adis’s plan. That was precisely why he found the matter troublesome.

“No need to worry.”

Nadir turned and looked beyond the camp.

There, a faint glimmer was rising, and a trace of divine power from nature was slowly undulating, stirring ripples in the surrounding air.

“Last night, several great priests from the northern lands arrived at the camp. With them here, there is no need for excessive concern.”

“Great priests?”

Bazel let out a breath of relief, but also asked in confusion, “How many came?”

The question was crucial. Coming from a remote rural place, Bazel naturally did not know how powerful great priests were. But judging by old assumptions, they ought to be weaker than the ancestral god. If too few had come, the situation might well reverse and they could end up being suppressed instead.

Yet to this, Nadir merely smiled mysteriously and said nothing.

…

Marching across the lands of an unfamiliar city-state, after encountering who knew how many bandits and scattered troops along the way, the outline of Loa had finally appeared in the distance.

On the city walls, countless people stared at the army below in shock.

“This... what a formidable army!”

A commander drew a sharp breath and looked down at the troops below, his heart shaken.

Below the walls, the army led by Nadir stood in neat formation, every unit uniform, every division properly organized. In their orderly ranks, a faint killing intent was slowly rising, making anyone who looked upon them feel a chill in the heart.

This was an army carefully trained by Adis over the past year and more. With fully opened supply lines, complete equipment for all, and officers trained in battle aura leading them, the army had undergone a qualitative transformation. It was by no means inferior to the few elite warriors led by the lords of this era. Yet it possessed far greater numbers, and when tens of thousands gathered together, the aura they gave off was astonishing.

“Quick, inform His Majesty and prepare to defend the city!” the commander ordered calmly to those around him, though his eyes were tense as he looked at the dense mass of troops below.

At that moment, however, his adjutant shouted, “General, look!”

Startled, he looked ahead.

There, soldiers were advancing, each carrying a heavy crossbow.

“Crossbows? Are they trying to test us?” That thought had only just flashed through his mind when he suddenly saw a flicker in the distance.

At the blast of a horn, countless bolts shot forth, each trailing a different eerie glow.

Some were wrapped in intense fire element power, some were smeared with poison, and some were even blessed with divine arts that sharpened and strengthened them. The arrows flew like a storm.

Then came the cries.

A knight stared at a bolt lodged deep in his chest, his face flushed red, his eyes bulging as though they would burst from their sockets. “This... impossible!”

Then, with a dull blast, a spark flashed across his body, and in the next instant flames erupted, engulfing him completely.

Scenes like this were everywhere.

Caught off guard by the sudden barrage, the overwhelming force of the bolts, far beyond anyone’s expectations, rapidly suppressed the defenders on the walls.

Seizing the opportunity, Nadir ordered the assault. As wave after wave of soldiers in vine armor climbed the walls, Loa’s inner defenses suddenly looked precarious.

And yet, even so, reinforcements quickly arrived within the city and drove the wall-top fighters back down. But under the cover of the arrows, defending the city became increasingly difficult, and its fall was only a matter of time.

Half a month later.

At the suggestion of Loa’s great priest, the King of Loa slaughtered ten thousand people as a blood sacrifice and awakened Loa’s ancestral god, hoping to reverse the tide of battle and, as in ages past, preserve the dominion of the city-state.

At once, the scene changed dramatically.

Outside the city, Nadir and the others, who had been directing the siege, were slightly startled. They only felt that, in the unseen depths of the world, an incomparably powerful force had begun to stir. Merely a trace of its aura leaking out was enough to make their flesh crawl.

At the same time, the sky above, which had been clear and boundless, suddenly changed. A tinge of blood began to seep from the heavens, as if stained by countless years of blood that could never be washed away.

The scene fell silent at once, but within Loa City, countless nobles were cheering, witnessing their god’s awakening, ready to lead them in defeating their formidable enemy and protecting Loa City-state.

“O great ancestral god! Please awaken!” As a deep voice slowly rang out, an aged man with a gloomy face shouted in fanatical fervor, as if bearing witness to a glorious moment.

With his call, the blood upon the altar began to glow faintly. A force from nowhere slowly evaporated it, turning it into pure blood essence that was absorbed to support the awakening of a transcendent being.

A crimson domain was slowly unfolding, within it seeming to contain an extraordinary essence that inspired awe. It was gradually taking shape.

It was a massive figure dozens of meters tall. Crimson domain power shrouded its body, though it was not yet complete. From it emanated a tremendous majesty that made hearts tremble.

The moment this figure appeared, no one could remain calm.

Within Loa City, countless people dropped to their knees, bowing repeatedly and praising it. On Nadir’s side, though they did not kneel, every face had gone pale, their souls shaken by that overwhelming presence.

A bead of cold sweat slid down Nadir’s forehead as he looked at the figure ahead, fear and solemnity both in his eyes.

“I must trouble you, revered great priests!”

He turned and addressed the countless priests beside him in golden-blue robes, his tone respectful.

“To drive away the evil god for the Nature God is what we should do.”

A voice slowly sounded, carrying a warmth of divine power that gradually soothed the heart.

Comforted by it, Nadir steadied himself and watched their movements.

One by one, they stepped forward, leaving the camp in succession. At last, five great priests came to the front and gazed at the crimson ancestral god that had taken form ahead, their expressions grave. They began to pray in silence.

As their prayers continued, the natural divine domain that had already gathered in the unseen depths seemed to leap faintly. Threads of divine power were being drawn together by them, jointly reaching toward some great and supreme will.

“What are they doing?” someone on the wall said, watching their actions with a growing sense of foreboding.

As if sensing something, the ancestral god suddenly turned around. A pair of dark red eyes swept across the five great priests, and then a crimson force of the domain condensed into a faint barrier and slammed down hard, as though trying to suppress them outright.

Yet when that domain finally descended, the priests’ last prayer was already complete. With a divine art unleashed, a faint light streaked across the heavens.

There, a brilliantly radiant star suddenly appeared, bursting forth with a force that was both gentle and natural, yet also wildly terrifying, and it rebounded the descending domain power back upon itself.

A closer look would reveal that it was not a star at all, but the phantom of a colossal ancient tree, its entire being suffused with immense divine power.

This was the avatar of Adis’s true body, a divine projection summoned through the resonance and convergence of the five great priests’ power, together with the active response of Adis himself.

Of course, the phantom was not as powerful as the true body, but it had nonetheless reached the fourth tier, and it also carried a trace of the essence aura of the fifth tier. With the support of the believers behind it, it might not be weaker than the ancestral god across from it.

In an instant, the two sides launched into battle.

The ancient tree phantom trembled throughout, slowly lowering a branch that transformed into one divine art after another, each carrying a sacred essence as it struck out. Opposite it, crimson domain power roared and danced. The two sides clashed head-on, confronting one another blow for blow. Merely a leak of their aura was enough to sweep across vast stretches of land.

But in the end, the two forces canceled each other out. As a star and a crimson domain shadow fell, the ancient tree phantom and the ancestral god vanished together, turning into countless fragments that gradually dispersed.

Seeing this, the entire city of Loa fell silent at once, all eyes filled with deep terror and disbelief.