Defiance of the Fall

Zac gazed down at the backs of the advancing soldiers, their silhouettes illuminated by the still-smoldering flames ahead. In an odd way, the endless lines of cultivators stretching across the horizon made him calmer rather than more anxious. The suffering and death of war were turned into something abstract when individuals became cogs in such a vast machine.

The stars inside the spherical War Machines had greatly dimmed after unleashing their power, and the contraptions were rolled back to give way for other tools. One model looked like a statue of a masked goddess holding a large glaive in her hand. It radiated powerful waves of death, and a thousand-meter-long turquoise half-moon appeared in front of the statue like a ghastly rainbow that seemed to be constantly collapsing into itself in a cyclic swirl of monstrous energies.

The hundreds of gargantuan glaives acted like a protective cover for the advancing army below and quickly showed their value. Tens of thousands of pitch-black spears, each over twenty meters across, pierced through the smoke curtain and continued toward the advancing soldiers of the Calamity Company. The whole horizon was blotted out in no time, and even Zac felt some pressure upon feeling the innumerable spears flying in his direction.

It was a purely physical attack and a cheaper alternative to using proper War Machines. Most likely, these things had all been manually hurled by the stronger Warslaves to thin out the approaching army. The spears lit up with simple runes to add weight and piercing ability, but they were somehow dragged to the deathly rainbows like moths to the flame. And like the moths, they were incinerated upon touch.

The enormous glaives contained an intractable pull similar to Zac's skillset, dragging everything into the cyclic swirl of destruction. Left was only an ashy snowfall falling toward the ground, joining the soot and smoke of the battlefield.

The Volor stone turtle gave the call, and a third set of War Machines appeared out of nowhere. The contraptions looked like traditional cannons, though their barrels were wider and shorter than what you'd expect. It was roughly as tall as a man but only five meters long, and the payload took up almost half the barrel.

The cannons looked barbaric and crude, but they worked. Thousands of thunderous explosions erupted as the runes across the barrels flashed with burning light. Cannonballs the size of wrecking balls soared through the air above their army, each shuddering with barely contained energy. The bombs continued into the haze, and it felt like the world held its breath in anticipation.

Then, a deafening explosion overwhelmed all other sounds, its intensity so great Zac felt he'd been punched in the ears. The ground heaved, and a massive shockwave swept the dense smoke and lingering flames away. The Kan'Tanu fortress was once more exposed, and it already looked like its hastily erected defenses were teetering on the brink of collapse.

Its protective cover of cursed thorns had already been shorn off by the unrelenting flames of the Calamity Company's opening salvo, and the concussive explosion following in its wake had reached the very foundations of the array-reinforced walls. The array still worked, but the deep fissures across its foundations indicated that most of the embedded Array Flags must have been damaged.

Zac nodded in appreciation in the direction of Ciru, who returned a slightly manic grin. The [Godslayer Cannons] were actually homemade wares of the Atwood Empire, a joint effort between the Ishiate and clan Volor, and the former's mad penchant for destruction had stirred the berserker hearts hiding in the depths of the usually taciturn gemlings. The cannons didn't quite live up to their name as Late to Peak E-grade War Machines, but their destructive capabilities were nothing to scoff at when you had the money to craft high-quality bombs.

Ciru gave the call, and half of the deathly statues raised their weapons in an act of undisguised aggression. Their summoned glaives shot forward as they rose into the air, the whistling air sounding like the wails of lost souls. The conjured blades seemingly moved slowly because of their size, but they approached the Kan'Tanu compound with shocking speed.

The cultists desperately fired more spears and a blinding number of skills to prevent another strike at their barrier, but it was all sucked into the voracious swirl within the glaives. Most were eventually overwhelmed and destabilized, but a few endured. They looked like ghastly spires reaching for the sky at their final approach, before they fell onto the barrier with the force of a falling meteor.

The shield released a blinding light as the Kan'Tanu Array Masters saw no recourse but to activate some fallback measure. It proved futile.

The shield crumbled when the eleventh glaive struck, and piercing screams echoed across the battlefield as tens of thousands of Kan'Tanu warslaves died from the fallout. The Kan'Tanu didn't even have time to react before a fourth set of machines lit up behind Zac. They were thirty meters tall and looked more like traditional Array Towers. They had been transported in a lying position but had already been erected some time ago.

Zac only had ten of these beasts, but each created a huge shimmering array far above the Kan'Tanu's base. It almost looked like they were portals from another world, and hundreds of burning meteors were soon unleashed on the ground. The scene reminded Zac of the special event he encountered with Vai on the Ramsi Wall, where a huge vortex had spat out stones filled with truth.

The magmatic boulders kept coming, and the Kan'Tanu base soon turned into armageddon with their main barrier down. A storm of counter-attacks flew up from the ground, but the arrays were simply too far into the air. Only other War Machines or Hegemons could deal with them, and it didn't look like these Kan'Tanu had any to spare.

The meteor shower could last over an hour as long as Zac supplied the towers with enough Cosmic Crystals, and they put immense pressure on the soldiers below. The Kan'Tanu couldn't escape and they couldn't stay, so they chose the only option remaining. They advanced.

A swarm of desperate soldiers poured through the broken battlement, madly rushing toward the Calamity Company's frontlines. A second round fired from the [Godslayer Cannons] caused untold destruction, but there were millions of warslaves. The distance was huge, but the cultists were all E-grade and desperate. Soon, the unstable swarm of Kan'Tanu slammed into the Calamity Company's far more ordered frontlines, making the cannons useless.

"That's my cue," Joanna said before she set off with a squad of thirty headhunters.

The air rippled around them, and Zac noted they had seemingly become almost invisible to the warriors as they crossed the chaotic battlefield. The Valkyries used a War Array that hid their presence. Their method probably wouldn't work against an alert scout in normal circumstances, but the battlefield had become a perfect cover.

Smoke, flames, radiant skills, and chaotic energies rendered the valkyries practically invisible, letting them move toward the Kan'Tanu backlines in search of leaders. The warslaves had lost any semblance of order in their desperation to get out of meteor showers and cannon fire, and they couldn't let the Kan'Tanu leaders get their men in line: the more unorganized the enemy, the fewer casualties on their side.

Zac gave it some thought before he flashed forward, leaving his dias and following in Joanna's wake. He had already donned his cowl and bracer to hide his presence, allowing Zac to move through the Kan'Tanu soldiers like a specter. Occasionally, he'd swing his axe, and a body would crumble. Zac was gone before the body hit the ground, letting his actions go largely unnoticed.

The battlefield seemed completely out of control, but it had a unique tempo. Zac could feel the chaotic mix of energies and Daos congeal into something unifying as he progressed. An aspect of Conflict, born from the flames of war. It was nowhere near the pristine tapestry of Grand Dao he'd witnessed inside the Abyssal Pond, but rather something coarse, rugged, and unstable.

Then again, perhaps that was the nature of Conflict. It was embodied by the sooty soldiers desperately unleashing everything in their arsenal for a chance at survival. Or at least to cause as much death as possible before they met their demise, a final act of defiance. It was completely different from the tidiness of a duel or the war games they'd practiced.

Zac soon caught up with Joanna's group, who had found a group of commanders hiding behind a piece of rubble. The cultists had been trying to set up a command array but were forced to jump out of harm's way when the Valkyries descended like a pack of hungry wolves. Joanna's ferocity was shocking, and she seemingly didn't care that the group had two Hegemons.

Then again, she didn't need to. She was nowhere near Zac's level when he was at her stage, but these Hegemons were nothing special. Joanna managed to hold down both on her own while the Valkyries tore through the weaker cultists. However, a golden streak pierced through the clouds just as they were about to collapse on the two desperate captains.

It was like a golden laser that had somehow found a narrow gap through the confusing battlefield, and it pierced one of the Hegemons' heads before he had a chance to react. The other cultist was shocked by the sudden turnaround, but the Valkyries seemed to have anticipated it. Three spears destroyed the fallen D-grade cultivator's torso before his Heart Curse could erupt, while Joanna finished off the survivor with a storm of jabs.

"That jerk is stealing merit," Joanna said with exasperation when Zac walked over.

Zac smiled as he glanced in the direction of a distant skyscraper. Zac couldn't even spot the attacker at this distance, but it wasn't difficult to tell the arrow came from Carl Elrod. He was already famous for using his bow like a sniper rifle to pick out elites hidden among the crowd. The archer was the fourth native to become a Hegemon, and his Sealbearer-quest and designation were similar to Joanna's.

The more Zac learned about Carl, the more impressed he became. They hadn't exchanged more than a few dozen words, and he seemed to always be off somewhere when Zac appeared. Still, he'd performed his due diligence after Carl became a sealbearer. Surprisingly, the archer was actually among the earliest humans to join Port Atwood, but it wasn't from one of the standard recruitment drives.

He'd operated independently close to one of the first Incursions Zac closed, using sneak attacks and ambushes to take out invaders and free enslaved humans. After the incursion was closed, Carl chose to join his army, where he'd performed valiantly in every engagement they'd encountered. His ascent had been slow and steady, going from a decent talent who couldn't quite make Earth's ladder into a top powerhouse of his empire.

Becoming a Sealbearer was like adding rocket fuel to the unassuming archer's path, and he'd quickly advanced into Hegemony. With the energy of a Cosmic Core to power his skills and bow, his range and lethality had become simply terrifying. He was like a humanoid War Machine, one who could freely move about while avoiding detection.

"We have to move," Joanna said, and they blended into the chaotic battle before they could be swarmed.

Zac followed the Valkyries for the next thirty minutes like an intern shadowing their instructor. His hands itched for action, but the war was over almost as soon as it began. It only took fifteen minutes for the Calamity Company to completely overwhelm the uncoordinated assault of the fleeing Kan'Tanu. Morale was already low, and order completely crumbled with all the leaders being hunted down by Joanna and other elites.

Many tried to flee into the ruins, but the engineers hadn't been idle either. Massive energy walls cut off most escape paths, and soldiers were already waiting in the gaps. Zac stood atop the crumbling wall, shaking his head at the scene. The situation was lopsided from the start and had now turned into a downright slaughter.

The warriors of the Atwood Empire kept order, slowly shrinking the circle. The battle was all but over, but every single warslave carried a bomb in their chest. A single stab was all that was needed for a promising elite of his faction to get infected. The curse was a death sentence for the living, and having a cure didn't mean it was safe for his undead soldiers. The cursed tangles could still cause a whole lot of damage even if the host could resist its possession.

Zac saw no reason to observe the grisly clean-up, so he turned away and walked toward the three Battlefront Arrays. Ten minutes later, Zac received a notification the campaign was over. The slaughter was still going on outside, but Zac guessed the situation had reached a point where the System didn't deem it an active battlefield anymore.

As expected, Zac only received a pittance for his temporary mission, not even fifty merit. The Atwood Empire fared slightly better, but even they only got 107 Faction Merit for the decisive victory. As expected, not even the D-grade Neutral Battlefronts were worth much.

Zac sensed powerful auras approaching and looked over to see Rhubat and Joanna walk over. Both radiated a bloody aura, but they only had some surface wounds a common healing pill would deal with.

"Good job. How's the situation?"

"No surprises, except for a few managing to flee into the ruins," Rhubat said. "We have sent hunting squads to deal with them."

It was ruthless, not even sparing the deserters, but they couldn't have Kan'Tanu running around in this place. It was almost a day until they could advance, and having desperate cultists hiding in the shadows was an unnecessary variable.

The thought of being forced to wait so long until they could advance filled Zac with impatience, and he began fiddling with the new features that had been unlocked after being declared the victor.

"So expensive," Zac swore as he looked at the prompt provided by the conquered Battlefront Array, prompting the Anointed to look down in confusion.

"There's little point in unsealing the teleporter early," Rhubat agreed after Zac shared the screen. "At least not for a standard engagement like this."

"We could use the downtime anyway," Joanna added. "We need to go over the result and make adjustments. Besides, we must have spent thousands of D-grade Nexus Coins in this blitz. This place looks run-down, but there should be some resources hiding somewhere. I've never heard of a battlefront being completely barren. We might be able to recoup some of our expenses."

Zac nodded in agreement. Their War Machines might have allowed them to overwhelm the enemy, but using hundreds of D-grade Siege Arrays cost a fortune. Not even the Calamity Company wasn't meant to act this exorbitantly. Most Early D-grade armies only had a few as a hidden reserve, but few actually used them in a normal engagement. Many, like the Kan'Tanu divisions they'd fought, had none.

But what could they do? They needed to get used to the equipment, even if it burned money.

"Carva, can you come over?" Zac said into a communication crystal, and the spectral appeared within a minute.

"I'm here, my lord."

"If the Kan'Tanu missed something when they sacked this city, it's most likely hiding underground," Zac said as he took out an [Automatic Map] and marked a few spots. "Beyond the castles, check these locations. I felt something different over there. Coordinate with the hunting groups in case you run into the stragglers."

"If there are underground vaults, we'll find them," Carva assured before leading tens of thousands of spectrals into the ruins.

"I guess I'll join in," Joanna said. "I think we got all the Hegemons, but you never know."

Zac considered going out himself, seeing if his massive pile of Luck could lead him to some treasure. However, a deep thump threw those plans out the window, and Zac's eyes widened in realization. He turned to the Anointed next to him, whose energy antennae had clearly picked up something was happening within Zac's body.

"Could you make sure no one disturbs me for the next couple of hours?"

"Of course, Warmaster."

"Thank you," Zac said, flashing over to a secluded corner of the former Kan'Tanu fortress.

He threw out a block that quickly expanded into a small square house. It was a tent of sorts, or rather a mobile Cultivation Chamber. This particular model was quite expensive, coming installed with both isolation and defensive capabilities. Zac didn't particularly expect a surprise attack, but he didn't wish to be interrupted. Zac entered and nodded in satisfaction when a thick stone dome enclosed the building. Finally, Rhubat sat down atop the newly-formed mound like a stalwart guardian.

Zac retracted his Soul Sense and turned his vision inward. The source of the disturbance was unsurprisingly [Void Heart]. The Hidden Node had been unresponsive since his dip in the Abyssal Pond, but it had finally woken up. Each beat grew deeper than the last, and Zac's eyes glimmered as he felt a shadow of the Abyss spread through the body. Most things entering the Void were returned as normal energy, but there were also special circumstances like the Heavenly Lightning.

He couldn't wait to see what would come from swallowing the purest waters of the Abyss.