### Chapter 168: The Disaster Battle (Part 2)
On May 29th, just two days later, the Abyss monsters gathered outside the southwestern defense line, seizing the cover of darkness and night to launch yet another attack on the three largest fortresses on the line.
This time, they weren’t scared off by the mere menace of the cannons.
Amidst their roars, the monsters charged through the bombarded area, and from above, one would see dozens of Abyss creatures rushing towards the human-occupied points in the east, southwest, and south.
Some of these monsters flew straight in like black meteors, leaving trails of smoke, and the moment they hit the city walls, the real bloody battle began.
Flames, water blasts, sharp stone spikes, and blinding lightning painted the wall with a rainbow of chaos, accompanied by war cries and splattering flesh. A black mist began to spread from the landing spots of the monsters, but many warriors of the Order of the Wind quickly blew it away. Fearless, they surged forward, turning to vapor under the claws of the monsters, and charred, shriveled corpses tumbled down from the wall, sporadic manic screams echoing in the battle frenzy.
From the distant darkness, more monsters continued to flood towards the defense line. On the wall, Skarlij swung his colossal ice sword, more than two meters long, slicing through the feeble Abyss creature before him, cleaving it in two and smashing the city battlements behind it into rubble.
“Pasifal—”
In the chaos, the Emperor of the Empire shouted, gazing at the ridge outside the wall and the wriggling shadows among it. He raised a hand high and fired several ice projectiles into the sky, his expression fierce as he exhaled a breath of anger: “It’s time!”
“Got it.”
From a nearby watchtower, Pasifal gave an “OK” sign—one he learned from his sister.
The man then signaled the nearby horn-blower, and as the long notes rang out, several hot air balloons floating two-thousand meters high ignited the fuses of half-man-size explosives and dropped them in a hail of chaos onto the forest below.
Moments later, a series of intense explosions erupted, lighting up the sky.
Boom, boom, boom, boom—!!!~
In that instant, it felt as if the earth itself was shaking. The horrifying explosions startled nearly all the Abyss monsters, who turned their gazes towards the flames shooting up into the sky. The roaring fire quickly ignited vast sections of dry forest land, and cries of agony erupted from monsters that found themselves trapped in the blaze.
On the city walls, the monsters, now having nowhere to run, screeched as they realized the small fires dotting the night sky. The flying monsters momentarily lost their minds, dropping the humans in front of them and soaring skyward.~
The warriors aboard the hot air balloons seemed to have anticipated this. They were the elite among the Workshop Hunters, donning top hats while retrieving their exaggeratedly-styled weapons from their backs.
With the sound of rotating gears, the bizarre weapons morphed into stocks and triggers in an instant. Two or three tubes of pitch-black firearms extended from their sharp blades, aimed at the approaching darkness. Without needing to light them, they pressed the hammer down. Some decisively pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The serrated steel wheels whirred, sparks flying as copper bullets surged forth from the barrels, creating a flurry of fire as intense gunfire broke out, blending with the monsters’ screeches. Those Abyss bodies struck by the projectiles emitted sizzling sounds, plummeting from the heavens. _
Of course, not every monster was hit in this hail of gunfire. A few of the stronger ones easily dodged the shots, tearing apart the hot air balloons and unleashing smoke serpents, ready to gobble up the unbalanced humans as they fell.
But in the next moment, the Hunters leaped from the balloons, free-falling momentarily in the raging wind before opening their cloaks, which flared out like banners. They glided through the flames, disappearing into the darkness, scattering in escape. Some were caught and killed by the Abyss, while others vanished into the vast night, having narrowly escaped disaster.
Above the ridge, the fire intensified.
Thick smoke rose into the night, spreading with the perfectly timed west wind towards the area shrouded in dead smoke.
Soon after, the monsters retreated a second time, paying a hefty price of at least twenty lives, unable to seize any part of the southwestern defense line.
When the last defiant monster fell, the warriors on the fortress walls raised their arms in triumph, letting out thunderous roars. They had once again triumphed over the invading disaster, even though the cost for that night was over two thousand brave lives, and those people left behind not even a decent piece of a corpse.
But for the southwestern border defense, this performance exceeded the expectations of Skarlij and Little Reikmon.
If this continued, they could hold out much longer—perhaps even twice as long as initially predicted.
After this night, the monsters stayed put for a whole half-month.
The great forest fire had long since extinguished, and amidst the charred ruins, monsters were nowhere to be seen, and the distant black mist seemed to be thinning—hinting that they might be temporarily giving up on this area. No way! They couldn’t let more monsters flock toward the Holy City.
Just when the allied forces thought this and began planning their next move, on a day in mid-June, the black mist suddenly surged behind the ridges, and monstrous, mountain-sized figures emerged lazily from the dead smoke.
…………
North of the defense line, outside Holy Angel Fortress, lay a bloody yet eerily clean battlefield.
There weren’t many corpses or rivers of bl**d; instead, the valley stretched for miles filled with deformed armor, broken banners, and severed swords—scattered or collected in heaps, countless in number.
Meanwhile, the garrison stationed at Holy Angel Fortress had seemingly been halved compared to more than half a month ago.
Whether they were the Huntress Falcons or the City Guard, Her Majesty the Queen’s loyal protectors had paid an extremely heavy price in this short time against the relentless Abyss onslaught.
Monsters had begun to emerge in small groups since the end of May, and by June 8th, hundreds of them launched a full-on assault against the Holy City.
The allies stood guard in the valley, using divine miracles to seal the valley path, and blew up stone hills with gunpowder, fighting ravenously for three days. With Her Majesty the Queen at the Holy Wall, leading several Pope Knights and the Sword of Kanli, they eliminated almost all the formidable monsters attempting to approach the giant tree, swiftly driving back the relatively weaker ones attacking the valley.
However, that battle felt like a nightmare for Sophia, who had been in the logistics and witnessed the entire ordeal.
So many people died…
So many familiar faces, the ones she had spoken to—they all vanished into the horrifying dead smoke.
Since the end of May, the phrase “They’re coming” echoed in her mind like a curse from a dream, constantly haunting her. Every day, she feared for her life, worrying about when those monsters would suddenly breach the city, whether the people she saw today would d*e tomorrow, if Her Majesty would suddenly fall as well—during the previous battle, she had single-handedly held off two of the strongest monsters, nearly dying while killing one.
It was a brave soul from the Sword of Kanli who sacrificed himself to block that deadly strike; that man died, yet Her Majesty survived.
Even Her Majesty, the formidable Ethanbel Black Mandala, appeared somewhat small and powerless when facing the Abyss, and Sophia began to feel this way, too.
Inside Holy Angel Fortress, she wasn’t alone in her feelings.
It was evident to her, especially in recent days, that everyone’s morale was not what it had been. Many had already developed an avoidance mentality; when the Abyss came, they no longer thought of charging in but rather how to stay alive.
After all, this was a war with no hope in sight.
Just from a single probing attack by the monsters, so many had fallen; what would happen next time?
If a hundred came last time, would two hundred come next? How many monsters were there? Were there even stronger, more terrifying creatures lurking in the distant black mist, waiting to devour everyone guarding this place?
Sophia didn’t know.
Nobody knew.
So they feared.
But what could fear do? Could they really surrender to those monsters?
They could only resist, fighting desperately to survive.
Survive, waiting for that tree in the city to “bear fruit,” waiting for the existence spoken of by Her Majesty that could turn the tide to emerge from that tree, like divine warriors descending from the sky, killing all the Abyss in one fell swoop—they knew such dreams were impossible, yet they had to place their last shred of hope in the “lies” professed so earnestly by Her Majesty and that saint.
But—
Only Sophia knew this might not be a lie.
Because Her Majesty had told her who was fighting against the “Source of Disaster” within that tree.
…………
Inside the Holy City.
The once-spreading dead smoke had completely vanished. Just returned from the battlefield, Queen Elizabeth removed her helmet, her golden hair cascading down like a waterfall. Her face, exquisitely beautiful like a fairy from a painting, bore some dirt yet exuded the valor of a female general.
She approached the giant tree’s base, now cloaked in a golden barrier, where many nuns from the Saintess Class worked day and night, using divine relics like the “Muddy Coffin of the Mother Deity” to pour continuous belief power into the holy tree.
Stopping at the barrier of sin, Her Majesty noticed Saint Margaret stepping out from its clutches, her brow furrowed as she asked, “How’s the situation? How much longer will it take?”
Margaret shook her head at her inquiry.
“You don’t know?” Her Majesty frowned deeper.
“This newly sprouted tree, to grow beyond the black dead tree of Cartelgarin and become the true holy tree, only the meager power we’re providing is far from enough. It’s utterly futile.”
Saint Margaret paused before continuing, “She is still inside the tree, battling that mad deity.”
