Lane had laid his head down and was resting. While he was making plans in his head that evening, a high-pitched message amplified by magic suddenly began spreading through the area. At first, Lane could not understand what was happening, but the words he heard immediately put him on edge.
"ATTENTION! FORTRESS N017 IS UNDER ATTACK! ATTENTION..."
In an instant, fireballs began raining down on the fortress. One of them fell near the building where Lane was. The force of the explosion threw him off the bed he was sitting on and onto the floor. Somehow, the fortress's magical defenses had been broken. After everything he had already seen, Lane had begun to suspect everything.
"These bastards have infiltrated everywhere."
He clenched his fist. Then, without wasting a single moment, he reached for his sword and left the room. He hurried toward the main building. Everyone was in a panic, making preparations. Some were grabbing their weapons, while others were hurriedly putting on their armor.
Lane reached the main room and stepped inside. Everyone's face was grim. He understood the seriousness of the situation better when he looked at the map on the table. Black Fortress was preparing for an unprecedented assault by the demons.
Lane immediately asked,
"How many troops do we have right now?"
One of the commanders turned to him angrily.
"Who are you to be looking at the plans and maps?"
Lane answered calmly,
"Maybe I can help."
BOOM!
Another fireball suddenly crashed down beside the fortress. Everyone flinched at once. Lane raised his voice.
"Where is the Supreme Commander?!"
One of the captains answered,
"He went to the front lines to fight the demons."
Lane continued without hesitation,
"What we need to do right now is make immediate preparations and get ready to hold the walls. Do we have boiling oil?"
The captains looked at each other. One of them frowned and asked,
"What is that?"
Lane put a hand to his forehead and let out a short sigh. Then he immediately continued,
"Then do you have mages? Gather all of them. We're going to reinforce the defenses of the fortress walls right now."
Then he took a deep breath and added,
"Bring the mana stones. We're going to detonate them through the mages."
One of the captains suddenly stepped in and grabbed Lane by the collar. He shouted furiously,
"Have you gone mad, kid? Do you even realize what you're saying? Mana stones are huge, and what do you mean by detonating them?!"
Without pausing even for a moment, he continued,
"Are you trying to get us killed? You come to this fortress afterward and dare to make decisions here?"
Lane's expression did not change. He simply used the Dragon Eyes spell and looked at the captain. As the captain kept staring into Lane's face, fear began to rise in him. His eyes had turned into yellowish dragon eyes, and an immense pressure was bearing down on him. In the end, unable to endure that pressure any longer, the captain released Lane's collar.
The major spoke,
"Can the method you mentioned really work?"
Lane replied without the slightest hesitation,
"Yes, it can work. It's risky, but it can be done. The only issue is that the mages will become extremely exhausted. That's why, if we use catapults to launch the mana stones, we can succeed. The logic is this: when people try to lift mana stones with magic, they become difficult to move because of the mana they absorb into themselves. So we'll build a wheeled system, place them onto the catapults, then charge them with magic and detonate them using mana-infused arrows."
The major placed a hand on his chin and thought. Everyone believed the idea was extremely foolish and dangerous. But the situation they were in had already gone far beyond the limits of reason.
At last, the major nodded.
"Fine. We'll do it."
The moment he said that, everyone in the room was startled. Objections began to rise. The captain stepped in again and spoke harshly,
"But sir, if we do this, we could suffer casualties."
The major instantly became enraged.
"Hey, Captain! Are you questioning my orders?!"
The captain turned crimson with anger.
"No, sir!"
The major continued in a hard voice,
"Then carry out the plan. If we don't, we'll die anyway. More than two hundred thousand demonic creatures are coming. And we only have an army of sixty thousand."
At that moment, everyone fully understood the dead end they were trapped in. The plan was insane, yes. But in their current situation, the line between madness and necessity had long since disappeared. Soon after, everyone obeyed the orders and began putting the plan into action.
The major approached Lane and spoke,
"Boy, if you can pull off what you said, I'd like to invite you to join the fortress guards. As a captain. You know no empire can interfere with the fortresses on an individual basis."
Lane smiled faintly.
"If we make it out alive, we'll see."
The major laughed.
"Boy, for your age, you really know how to talk. Now go and take your position."
Lane nodded and obeyed the order. He left the main building and climbed onto the walls.
It was the first time Lane had seen beyond the walls this clearly. Outside the walls, the ground had turned pitch black. The trees had withered. The pressure of demonic mana was so heavy that even the air felt suffocating. Sunlight barely reached the earth. Above them there were only jet-black clouds.
Lane thought to himself,
"I feel suffocated... What kind of place is this?"
Then he looked around. The army had already taken their places along the walls and begun preparing. Some were readying arrows, others were organizing magic scrolls. Some soldiers were quickly constructing a mechanism with ropes to transport the mana stones.
Lane calmly observed his surroundings. It was the first time he was actively taking part in such a massive battle. Most of the army around him was also facing an assault of this scale for the first time. All the soldiers were demoralized.
As Lane was observing his surroundings, he suddenly heard the sounds of the walls of the other distant fortresses. Then, three seconds later, the horns of Black Night Fortress also began to blow. The entire army had already taken its place on the walls. Each empire raised its own banners facing the demonic region at the border.
The major strode up onto the walls and shouted using his aura,
"Today, demonic creatures are attacking us! Perhaps we are living our final hours, or maybe even our final minutes! They are raining fireballs down on us, but more than half of them either missed or were deflected by our mages! Today is the day to show our valor! Together, let us destroy these vile creatures! TOGETHER!"
The major raised his sword into the air and roared. The army lined up on the walls also raised their swords at the same time. Instantly, shouts rose from every direction. Morale began rising as if it were being forcibly dragged out from the heart of fear.
The demonic creatures were now visible in the distance. The moment Lane saw them, what had happened in the church came back to his mind. His eyes hardened for an instant, but he immediately pulled himself together. Stepping forward, he gave the order in a loud voice,
"Mages! When I give the command, fire the catapults! Archers, you get ready too! The moment I say fire, release!"
Lane raised his hand.
"Wait..."
His eyes were locked onto the approaching horde. He was trying to time it perfectly.
"WAAAAIT..."
The demonic creatures came even closer. Their numbers could now be seen more clearly. There were so many of them that they were climbing over each other, crushing one another, and still continuing to advance without stopping. They spread across the black earth like a savage, chaotic, suffocating tide.
Lane's hand was still raised.
"WAAAAIT..."
Then, a moment later, his voice exploded over the walls.
"FIREEEE!"
At that moment, all the catapults moved at once. The mana stones loaded into them were hurled toward the densest parts of the demonic horde. As the giant stones tore through the air, the swarm below did not slow in the slightest. The creatures were so densely packed that they no longer looked like ranks, but like a wall of flesh piled on top of itself.
As the mana stones flew through the air, Lane gave the second command:
"Towers, fire!"
The archers released at the same moment. Mana-infused arrows soared into the sky. The mana stones were slower than the arrows, and because of that, the distance between them closed exactly as Lane had calculated. Almost a second later, just as the mana stones were about to reach the ground, the arrows struck their targets.
The moment the first arrow pierced one of the mana stones, everything changed.
The mana stone could no longer contain the energy building inside it.
It exploded.
Then the others detonated one after another.
In an instant, everything turned white.
It was as if a second sun had risen over the battlefield. The light was so intense that everyone, including Lane, reflexively shut their eyes. No one could look at that brightness directly. Even behind closed eyelids, the light pierced into a person.
But the real horror came in the next moment.
Not even fractions of a second had passed after the explosions before terrifying shockwaves spread across the battlefield. The sound did not merely fill the ears; it struck the bones and collapsed into the chest. Most of the soldiers on the walls were hurled about a meter backward when the blast hit them. Some lost their balance and fell, while others managed to cling to the stone cover at the last moment.
Lane too felt the weight of the impact through his entire body.
Even so, he did not retreat.
Holding his arm in front of his eyes, he slowly tried to look.
When Lane slowly opened his eyes, he saw the true scale of the explosion. The blast was so enormous that a mushroom cloud nearly two and a half times the height of the fortress had formed. The explosion could be seen not only from N017, but even from the N016 and N018 fortresses. The shockwave had reached the other fortresses as well.
Even the Supreme Commander of N016 shouted in shock,
"What the hell is N017 doing? What kind of explosion was that?!"
The moment Lane's vision became clear again, he immediately ran and looked down from the fortress. The first thing he felt was disappointment.
"No, impossible... It wasn't effective enough. More than half of them are still alive. Stopping them is going to be very hard."
Even so, the demonic creatures had taken severe damage. Enormous craters had formed where the mana stones had fallen. The area had been devastated, but the weight of the assault had still not been broken.
Without wasting a second, Lane shouted at the soldiers,
"Prepare the second batch of mana stones! NOW!"
Everyone immediately began rushing around again. At that moment, the major stepped forward and gave the order in a hard voice,
"The remaining forward units, prepare for collision! Thirty seconds left... Fifteen seconds... Five seconds..."
Then his voice fell silent.
In the next moment, the fortress walls began to tremble. The demonic creatures were trying to climb the walls, and at the same time they were digging at the base of them. The pressure had now reached the fortress directly.
"ARCHERS, FIRE!"
The archers stepped forward and unleashed a rain of arrows. The demonic creatures were falling one by one, but it was not enough to stop the assault. They kept coming in waves.
Lane drew his sword. Then he spoke to the Dragon Sword:
"You wanted blood. It doesn't matter to you, does it?"
A demonic smile answered him. Immediately afterward, the Dragon Sword began to shine a blood-red color. A horrifying bloodlust spread into the surroundings. The aura was so intense that even the soldiers near him shuddered for a moment.
Lane raised his sword.
Dragon Sword Technique, Seventh Form: Endless Majesty.
He executed the movements of the technique with flawless flow and unleashed a horizontal slash. The sword strike tore forward violently and directly shredded a portion of the demonic creatures before him to pieces. At the very least, it had bought them a short moment of time.
At that exact moment, the mana stones had been prepared once again. Lane was about to give the order, but this time the major acted before him. The new volley was aimed directly at the line from which the demonic army was advancing. The goal was to cut off the continuation of the assault.
The mana stones were launched again.
A short time later, the second explosion occurred.
The same terrifying shockwave spread once more, but this time it was not as effective as the first one. The mages were now seriously exhausted. Their mana flow had weakened, their faces had gone pale, and their bodies had begun collapsing under the weight of exhaustion. The power of the first attack could not be repeated.