Chapter Ninety-Nine: Zarmad, the Wolf Ancestor God

A roar surged up, and the clamor of slaughter and shouting echoed beneath the once-silent city, abrupt and jarring.

On the battlements, countless slave soldiers with sallow faces and feral expressions charged forward without fear of death.

Behind them stood ranks of knight overseers. Their eyes gleamed coldly, their expressions remote. In their hands they held swords and whips made for the purpose, driving the warriors onward again and again, as though the blood-soaked battlefield ahead meant nothing to them at all.

Perhaps, to them, such a sight had long since become routine. Slaves were, after all, always only slaves. Their initial stirrings of compassion had faded swiftly with time.

Yet their method of using slaves as expendable tools still posed a tremendous obstacle for Nadir and the others on the wall.

The powerful arrows that had been scattering devastation moments before had, at some point, ceased. In their place came ordinary shafts, while knights mingled among the slave warriors, making them even harder to deal with.

The sharp whistle of an arrow descending rang out ahead, its target a knight in armor, one whose body carried the unmistakable fluctuations of battle aura.

But the next instant, the knight shifted slightly, and several slave warriors threw themselves into the line of fire before him, taking the blow in his stead.

The arrow pierced through several flesh-and-blood bodies in rapid succession, dragging a spray of blood behind it as it surged onward. At last, however, its divine power was exhausted, and it could no longer break through the knight’s defenses.

And this scene repeated itself again and again across the battlefield. Even though Nadir had ordered the army’s sharpshooters to aim carefully at their targets, the chaos of the battlefield was too great; knights hid among the crowd, and unless one was close to the wall, it was nearly impossible to hit them accurately. Thus, although the enemy still suffered heavy casualties, the effect was no longer the nearly devastating slaughter it had been before.

After the enemy drew near the walls, and before Adis arrived, scenes of carnage finally erupted once more.

The cruelty of war was laid bare on this close-quarters battlefield. As the formations closed, the great army of the Ingdeli Duchy surrounded this stretch of wall so tightly that not a drop of water could have passed through. Countless warriors howled and fought here, dragging one living soul after another down into hell with savage grins.

"Mm?"

Adis looked up to the side and turned his head slightly.

The next second, an arrow flew across the ground where he had just been standing and, carrying great battle aura and force, shot dead a guard behind him.

He frowned and looked toward the battlefield.

By then the field had become a mass of confusion. The two armies were locked in brutal hand-to-hand combat, flesh and blood flying everywhere; it was impossible to see clearly, and one could only make out the rough shape of the struggle.

"It seems they’ve reached a stalemate."

He gazed at the defensive line before him, which, though visibly trembling, still held firm, and spoke slowly.

Even so, his brow remained furrowed.

"With such a vast advantage in bows and crossbows, and troops trained for so long, they can still only barely hold the line, and may even be falling behind?"

He lifted his gaze to the sky. There, under the pressure of the enemy’s fierce assault, a true form had emerged within the enemy’s pillar of fate: something half wolf, half man. Raising its head in a howl, it sent down a scarlet bolt of bloodlight, violently striking the other pillar, which took the form of an ancient tree.

This was the Wolf Ancestor-God Zarmad, the ancestral deity worshipped in the age of the Ingdeli Duchy.

Of course, ancestral gods were originally the heroes of ancient city-states, later elevated through worship after death, and thus should naturally have been human in form. But over the long ages, as later generations embellished their stories and spread various mythic tales about them, their images began to change. They gradually transformed from their original heroic shapes into the ancestral gods known today.

In the legends of the Ingdeli Duchy, the Wolf Ancestor-God Zarmad was the son of a union between man and wolf. He had a human body with wolf-like features, thick fur over his entire body, immense strength, and the power to command packs of wolves. He was revered as an ancient hero.

At that moment, the ancient tree and the wolf god collided wildly, each pouring forth its own power as the struggle deadlocked.

Yet through the vision of true spirit, seeing things from the essence of divinity itself, Adis clearly sensed that the power of the ancient tree was growing weaker, and that in this stalemate it was falling into a disadvantage.

This was no good omen. It meant that the other side’s destiny was far stronger, and the source power it enjoyed was vastly more abundant than his own, granting it greater reinforcement. As the situation continued to shift, all manner of unexpected changes could arise.

So he turned around and looked behind him, his gaze gradually settling on a man with a weathered face and a broad build, yet who carried himself with quiet steadiness.

"Ogdin."

Adis softly spoke the man’s name.

With a slight movement of his will, a faint fragment of starlight flickered above the other man’s head, as though sensing something and eager to answer the call.

"Take my guard corps and go reinforce the line!"

He shouted the order. Then, watching Ogdin turn and depart, a dark light flickered in his eyes as he continued to sense the battlefield.

This was the only fated one under his command. Though faint, he still possessed a portion of the world’s authority and could influence the present struggle.

As expected, once Ogdin moved forward, in the unseen depths beyond the two star fragments, another star began to shine. Carrying a trace of eager momentum, it swept up the surrounding source force and surged onward, streaked with blood-red light.

At once, a beam of radiance flared, carrying a wash of crimson as it slammed into the largest star, striking the wolf god with flecks of blood. Under this support, the formerly dim ancient tree suddenly blazed with brilliance, merging with the star and barely reversing its earlier disadvantage.

Seeing this, Adis let out a long breath.

In the real world, once Ogdin led his men into the fray, the battlements, which had been shaking slightly, also began to stabilize.

Adis’s guard corps had always been one of the most elite units in the entire Adis Duchy. Not only were they equipped with the finest weapons and armor, they also underwent the most rigorous training. Every one of them wielded both battle aura and divine arts. At this moment, under Ogdin’s leadership, they threw themselves into the fight like wolves among sheep.

"Not enough yet," Adis murmured at the sight.

"Priestly order, step forward!"

He raised his voice.

At his command, priests in ceremonial robes slowly emerged behind him, the divine power within them lingering in visible waves.

Adis glanced at Birl beside him, and Birl immediately understood. Stepping forward, he gave the assembled priests their orders.

"Prepare divine arts!"

Streams of divine power began to gather and interweave. In the sky, traces of natural elements started to ripple, drawn by a mighty force, slowly condensing around the leading elder.

The elder wore a gold-and-green priest’s robe and had hair and beard entirely white. He looked weathered and kindly, but the divine power wavering from his body was terrifying. Now, driven at full strength, he gathered the divine power of everyone nearby into one place. He was a high priest.

After a short time, sparks of fire began to glimmer in the air, one by one, sending out flashes of brilliance. Then a colossal divine art was unleashed.

On the ground below, everyone stared in horror as a massive blazing sun slowly descended from the sky, carrying boundless heat and light. Around it, fire began to spread, and seas of flame erupted in all directions, setting the surrounding area alight.

"Aah!"

Countless people screamed as they were crushed under the overwhelming force. The enemy’s earlier fierce offensive could not help but slow.

Adis fixed his gaze and looked closely. In the void above, the wolf god in human form and wolf shape was roaring in fury, his body flooded with crimson, while opposite him a giant tree stood silently in place, behind it surging a torrent of faith’s light. With this support, its power rose by several more notches.

And after this surge, at last the balance shifted. The enormous gap in rank and authority that had existed before was finally leveled.