However, the allied forces outside the city were not to be outdone, having long anticipated the assault from Kassande's army.
After all, this had happened countless times before. Even the walls of the Holy City were riddled with damage, and there had been instances where the allies had breached them—only to be pushed back by Kassande soldiers.
Thrace's arcane corps raised their staffs, summoning golden energy shields identical to those on the city walls, blocking the descending attacks.
As descendants of the same empire, their techniques were remarkably similar.
But even these solar shields couldn't block everything. When the massive golden arrows shot by the ballistae pierced the shields, soldiers were still impaled in succession.
Death was ever-present on this land, never ceasing.
"Eli, you're courting death!"
Tyrena's eyes burned with fury as she flapped her wings and gripped the hilt of her massive sword, unleashing explosive divine energy.
"Boom!"
Two forces of the same origin collided midair, creating an earth-shaking explosion.
The scorching shockwave rapidly spread, and everyone present felt a wave of hot wind rush past them.
"Tyrena, it seems you've completely forgotten how to respect your elders!"
Eli leapt from the city walls, ascending rapidly to hundreds of meters in the sky, his blade shimmering in the light.
He immediately slashed downward.
A torrent of terrifying energy descended from the sky, with Eli's fury even stirring the winds into a violent storm.
"For traitors of the empire, there's no respect to be had!"
Undaunted, Tyrena raised her giant sword once more and unleashed another surge of explosive divine energy.
"Boom!"
Another massive explosion reverberated.
Several angelic demigods fell from the sky like burning meteors.
Under cover of the firelight, Eli closed the distance, swinging his blade toward Tyrena's pale neck.
But Tyrena flapped her wings, ascending another ten meters, and unleashed a beam of light at Eli from above.
Eli held his long blade horizontally, blocking the searing beam as he retreated.
As a Titan Demigod, Eli could also float in the air, but he wasn't nearly as agile as the Angelic Demigods.
Tyrena darted and circled around Eli in midair, seeking the warrior's weak points.
"Marshal Eli!"
"Defend the Holy City to the death!"
Titan Demigod warriors leapt from the ramparts to support Eli, but many were pierced by arrows of light midair.
They clashed with the angelic warriors, with angels plummeting from the sky and Titan Demigods falling during their charges.
Explosions and flames erupted everywhere.
Beams of light descended from the sky, easily melting solid rock.
The already devastated ground was further marred with deep cracks and massive craters from the battle.
Eli descended to the ground, standing opposite Tyrena and roaring furiously.
"Tyrena!"
"Emperor Aragon once said, whoever controls the Holy City holds the imperial crown!"
"His Majesty Otis is the true emperor! The Wilhelm you serve is just a greedy, selfish man clinging to power!"
"His Majesty Otis is the true emperor!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The Titan Demigods roared, slamming their war hammers into the ground, causing the earth to tremble and wail in agony.
This was the power of the demigod nobility. They had once been the pillars of the Sacred Fadlan Empire and remained the trump cards of the three major kingdoms.
Each demigod possessed power comparable to extraordinary beings, and the strongest dukes among them could even reach the pinnacle of legend.
As the demigods clashed, the mortal soldiers retreated to avoid being caught in the chaos.
It was a battle akin to a natural disaster.
Mortals had little chance of survival.
The angelic beams of light and the earth-shaking blows of the Titan Demigods could easily take mortal lives.
This was a characteristic of the Sacred Fadlan military system—the elite demigod corps was overwhelmingly powerful, capable of battling celestials and demons, while the mortal forces were woefully inadequate.
Only the arcane corps could barely be considered formidable.
This imbalance led to the fractured kingdoms of the Sacred Fadlan Empire struggling to control their own territories once the demigods' power waned.
The empire had once expanded its dominion across various planes with the help of Ammanata, but without the Sun's radiance, they couldn't even secure their homeland.
"You're twisting the emperor's words!"
"The Holy City is closest to Thrace, yet you shameless Kassandians have occupied it!"
"You traitors will never truly own it!"
Tyrena flapped her wings again, effortlessly swinging her three-meter-long sword and unleashing more explosive beams of light.
The angelic demigods behind her also flapped their wings, releasing streams of fire.
Behind them, tens of thousands of mortal soldiers marched steadily under the orders of their commanders, the rumble of supply wagons echoing across the battlefield.
Eli sneered, slashing through a beam of light and turning his gaze to the massive mortal army behind them, laughing heartily.
"Hahaha!"
"Have all the Thracian demigods died? Is that why you're sending mortals to their deaths?"
"Wilhelm must be at his wit's end! Do you think these feeble soldiers can stand against Kassande?"
But this time, the Thracian mortals weren't just bystanders. They uncovered the tarps on their wagons, revealing rows of black metal cannons.
—They were the Thunder Hammers of the Ember Empire!
Tyrena pointed her giant sword toward the Holy City.
"Destroy them! Open fire!"
"Boom!"
"Boom! Boom!"
Thunderous booms echoed as smoke spewed from the cannon muzzles, and projectiles arced beautifully through the sky, crashing into Kassande's lines.
Though the cannons were outdated models and lacked the newer explosive shells, their solid projectiles still wreaked havoc.
Even the mighty Titan Demigods were caught off guard, with several sustaining injuries.
The cannon fire wasn't as powerful as the spells from the arcane corps, but—there were a lot of them.
Thrace had purchased 35,000 Thunder Hammer II cannons, with thousands deployed on this battlefield alone.
To maximize their effectiveness, Wilhelm had brought over 70,000 mortal troops—an immense effort for most northern kingdoms but just a fraction of Thrace's capacity.
As cannonballs rained down from the sky, Eli casually extended his hand—
"Boom!"
A muffled explosion.
Eli caught a cannonball midair, its surface glowing red-hot and emitting white smoke.
"Szzzt!"
He tightened his grip, crushing the cannonball into fragments.
"These weapons…"
"They're powerful enough to give mortals the ability to harm demigods, and there are so many of them."
Eli stared at the countless black cannon muzzles in the distance, his expression growing serious.
Even the Sun God's ballistae required highly trained veterans to operate and were expensive and limited in number.
But now, he saw that the mortal soldiers wielded strange short rods that fired high-speed projectiles far deadlier than ordinary arrows.
"What exactly are those weapons?"
Eli's expression darkened further, and his gaze toward the mortals shifted from disdain to surprise.