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He couldn’t hear anyone else’s voice.
General Leonard had already placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
An abnormal quiet.
It was too quiet.
Even the howling gale seemed to have stopped, as birds and beasts altogether fell silent, creating a strange and eerie stillness.
An inexplicable fear seized everyone’s spirit, a tremor that came from the depths of their souls.
General Leonard was the first to notice the anomaly; years of battle intuition told him that something was terribly wrong.
"Cotter, come to my side quickly! Everyone else, hold your positions and form up, watch out for an attack! Stay alert and be ready to face the enemy!"
He instinctively clutched his weapon, his bronze face tense, calling out in a low voice.
Cotter immediately came to the commander’s side, his sword already unsheathed, its blade flickering with a cold light.
The Pot Star Table Legion quickly formed up, their densely packed longswords stood like wheat in a field, forming a connected sword array that surrounded the battlefield.
Every nerve was stretched to its limit, every muscle tensed, as they vigilantly scanned their surroundings, gripping their weapons, ready to face a major enemy at any moment.
However, to their chilling horror, the anticipated attack did not come.
On the contrary, fog began to spread silently across the battlefield, enveloping the entire Zerest Highlands, making the ground under the soldiers’ feet soft and sticky, as though they were standing in a swamp.
"The environment... has changed?"
They looked around in disbelief, some unable to believe their eyes.
It was as if they were no longer in the Zerest Highlands in an instant.
Before they could truly panic,
even the dark skies seemed to warp and deform, transforming into a ferocious gaping maw with bared fangs, resembling a divine face that wanted to devour everyone whole.
They stared up in shock,
realizing how minuscule they were compared to the colossal face in the sky, as small as sesame seeds.
Was this really something achievable by a spell?
Or rather, if someone could control the entire sky, were they human or god?
This was beyond their comprehension.
Before the soldiers could react, a fog rolled in like a tide, swallowing everything.
General Leonard felt as if the world before his eyes shifted, and he was thrown into another bizarre and unpredictable world.
All around was an endless wasteland of desolation, the gray world shrouded in fog like the depths of the ocean, where all color was lost and only a heavy deathly aura remained, almost suffocating them.
"This is an Illusion Technique! Everyone, do not be deceived, concentrate your spirits!"
General Leonard shouted, trying to awaken his comrades’ minds.
Unfortunately, it was too late; even though he tried to focus his spirit by sensing the acute pain from self-harm, the other legion members had already fallen deep into the phantasmagoria, standing stock-still like puppets, clutching their throats, slowly losing the ability to breathe in terror.
Only the deputy commander Cotter managed to barely break free from the illusion.
At the same time, an invisible overwhelming force cloaked the battlefield.
General Leonard and Cotter felt an immediate constriction, their actions hindered, as if a thousand-pound weight was on their shoulders, making it nearly impossible to move.
They both came to the same chilling realization.
"General Leonard! Don’t worry about me, run with all your might! I’ll cover for you!"
Deputy commander Cotter gritted his teeth, veins bulging, and went berserk trying to break free from the invisible shackles.
But as an experienced swordsman, he resisted with all his might and gradually found his strength waning, his sword heavy as if it weighed a thousand pounds, impossible to swing even slightly.
While General Leonard and Cotter desperately resisted, a tall dark silhouette slowly emerged from the fog.
He was clad in a dark coat, holding a mechanical agate rod, his visage handsome yet cold and detached under the drifting fog, his indifferent eyes flashing with contempt for all life.
The mere magic fluctuation he emitted caused Cotter to stop struggling and tremble.
"The Third Army God, Entwining Agate Seat Gaiat..."
General Leonard recognized the enemy at a glance, his voice trembling with a desolate despair.
Compared to Deputy Commander Cotter, he was more acutely aware of the gap between themselves and the enemy.
He even felt a sense of relief that his disciple Juliana was not there.
Because even with Juliana, she would be no match for Gaiat.
Gaiat did not respond; he simply lifted a hand, pointing, and General Leonard and Cotter felt as if an unseen hand gripped them, sealing their movement and forcing them to kneel involuntarily.
The two of them, like puppets with their strings cut, lost all power to resist, bleeding profusely from their mouths.
Minutes later,
when the fog of Zerest Highlands dissipated, the field was littered with corpses.
Not a single member of the Pot Star Table Legion was spared, and even the residual communication magic devices on the ground were still ringing, the commanding post incessantly inquiring about the front-line situation, but no response would ever come.
...
In the southwestern border of the Poseen Kingdom lies the fortress of Hargengarde.
This ancient fortress stood tall, backed by rolling mountains and facing the vast plains, guarding the border towns behind.
Hargengarde Fortress was surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only a narrow valley passage to the south, also housing the Central Army of the Poseen Kingdom, serving as the first line of defense on the kingdom’s southeastern border.
The smoke-filled Hargengarde was a scene of broken walls and charred ruins, its thick stone walls riddled from the bombardment of magic instruments, with debris rolling down, kicking up clouds of dust.
The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and blood, with limbs and bodies scattered everywhere inside and outside the fortress, the blood staining the earth red, forming stinking pools, nauseating.
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