Chapter 251: Soul Barrier Stone
The soldiers in the city wall had gloomy looks on their faces because the beast horde was attacking the city gate and wouldn’t last for too long. Moreover, there were too many beasts to deal with all of them in a short span of time.
As for the traps, for some reason, they found that there was one way which was completely clear of any traps and that all the beasts chose that way instead of just charging forward like everyone believed they would do.
They couldn’t understand how could such a big area be without traps; even if a soldier made a mistake, at most some traps would fail, but in that path, it was obvious that there were no traps at all.
Furthermore, they couldn’t believe that someone had really betrayed them because the beast horde was a huge danger for everyone, so even if there was truly a traitor among them, that traitor faced the same danger as them.
When their strength to endure was near the end, their desperation only increased as they saw an army nearing them from the direction of Nacesai City and some of the higher-ups recognized Swordmad in that army.
At that moment, they were already with their hands full due to the beast horde; there were three beasts at the Elder Rank that were pinning down the strongest members of their city, so facing another expert at the Elder Rank wasn’t something they could do.
However, they believed that the army would stop and attack when the beast horde ended. After all, it was always better to attack a weakened enemy, and those beasts would also attack them if they neared the city before the assault of the beast horde finished.
Thus, although the situation was problematic, they would still have an advantage on the numbers of Elder Rank experts; even if their three strongest members would be tired after the beast horde, if they acted together no one believed that Swordmad would win.
Sadly for them, that army didn’t follow the common sense and didn’t stop after seeing the beast horde.
In the eyes of the True Empire, attacking the city at the same time that the city was facing a beast horde was suicidal because the beast horde would also end that army, but a suicidal attack while disregarding their own lives was something that would pose a true threat to their city at that moment.
“They had finally turned crazy after being pushed to the extreme. However, this timing is really bad for us.”
One of the men at the Elder Rank said those words while he blocked the attack of an enormous Frost Wolf; it was the leader of all the Frost Wolves on the surrounding mountains and was the first beast at the Elder Rank to turn into Wyba’s servant.
Other beasts were attacking because they couldn’t disobey their instincts, but that enormous Frost Wolf had pledged loyalty towards Wyba. The bloodline pressure of a divine beast towards the species similar to it was far stronger than to other beasts; for that Frost Wolf, Wyba was like a goddess that he and his pack needed to worship.
The other two Elder Rank beasts were a Lightning Tiger and a Fire Bear; they weren’t weaker than the Frost Wolf, and they could have chosen to resist Wyba’s call with their level, but they loathed the people of that city because they hunted for fun and liked to torture the beasts they caught. Of course, there were tigers and bear among those ones, some of them direct descendants of those at the Elder Rank.
In the beast world, if one killed a beast to eat or in self-defense, although there would be a grudge for the part of the beasts and would attack the offender at any opportunity they had, the beasts wouldn’t attack a whole city in retaliation.
However, all the beasts hated those who killed them for fun, and a city in which the one who killed more beasts would have more reputation was something that couldn’t exist in the eyes of those beasts.
Sadly, they didn’t dare to attack the city due to their lack of confidence before that day, but thanks to Wyba they had a powerful horde to deal with them and they even know that there would be some reinforcements later.
Thus, those two prideful beasts choose to obey Wyba and follow the plan to avenge those who had been killed without any reason.
Some fireballs impacted to the already weakened gate getting it close to its disintegration.
The Nacesai Academy also added some powerful mages to their army, and they were silently casting spells while the golem soldiers moved the carriage in which they were traveling. Moreover, they were still quite far while casting those spells and in a normal situation there was no way those attacks would succeed.
“This is a shameless strategy! They are aiding the beast horde with ranged attacks!”
All the soldiers were shouting things like that after seeing that with the aid of those magic attacks, the resistance of their gate was nearing the end. Usually, a human wouldn’t assist a beast horde because beast hordes were something that any human should fear, but they couldn’t guess that the Nacesai Academy had a divine beast supporting them.
“Stop uttering non-sense, you group of trash! There is nothing bad in being shameless in war, but they won’t succeed. This is a Soul Barrier Stone; the elders gave it to me in case we needed it. The barrier generated from it is far stronger than the current one. With this, we don’t need to fear that beast horde nor that army!”
The soldiers were extremely happy when hearing their strict leader say something good for one time in his life, but that joy wouldn’t last.
“To activate this Soul Barrier Stone, we need to use some souls, and the failure in the traps is the fault of our squadron. Everyone, give your souls to the Soul Barrier Stone and die for me! I mean, for the glory of the True Empire!”
For one moment, the true thoughts of that man were exposed, but he didn’t fear that those soldiers would disobey because they had all marks on their souls and if they disobeyed, those Elder Rank experts could turn those marks into slavery marks at any moment.
“You all heard it. There is no doubt about what it is needed to do right now!”
One of the soldiers shouted, and the other nodded because they knew that they only had one option.
“I thought that you were a coward because you were late, but it seems that you were truly enjoying too much torturing that prisoner and lost track of time; you are truly loyal, so you can be the first of the squadron to die for our glorious True Empire.”
That soldier advanced to the Soul Barrier Stone while the others looked at him with admiration for his courage.
The leader smiled when he saw the soldier going to touch that stone, but that smile turned into his last facial expression before his head fell to the ground.
“Someone like you need to die; there is no doubt about that.”
The soldier then moved his sword towards the Soul Barrier Stone and destroyed it; finishing with last hope of the whole city to reinforce the barrier.
“You! Why?”
The other soldiers couldn’t understand why their companion acted like that even if everyone hated that bastard leader and had thought of how delightful would be beheading him.
“If you are evil people or just victims from the True Empire, my sword will decide it.”
They were annihilated in seconds. That was a weak squadron with the leader at the 2-star Practitioner Rank and the soldiers only at the Apprentice Rank. They had jobs like putting traps, dealing with prisoners or dying for the sake of the barrier, but no one counted with them to battle the beast horde.
However, that squadron died all without helping in any way to the beast horde attack because even the traps hadn’t been useful thanks to Yale’s interference.
“If you were only victims, I hope you more luck in your next lives. Don’t end under someone like the True Empire a second time.”
Yale recovered his true appearance after saying those words.
Fifteen minutes after leaving the prison, he had heard a notification from the system because his sub-quest to destroy the altar had been completed.
Initially, Yale just planned to flee among the chaos, but at the moment he heard the information about the true reason behind those Enslaving Altar Formations, he decided to finish off that city.
Fortunately, although he appeared late to the meeting with his squadron, they didn’t have too much to do due to their lack of use in such a strong beast horde and the other members thought that he was delayed because he was a coward or because he was enjoying the torture of the criminal he took to prison.
“This one was the only squadron destined for support due to the squadron’s lack of strength. There is nothing else to do inside the city once I help to break that gate from the inside.”
At that moment, Yale didn’t fear anyone in the city because he had confidence in fleeing at any moment; there was no way the soldiers would have time to deal with him while facing a beast horde and an army.