After the second explosion happened, all of the soldiers holding swords immediately moved toward the walls and started fighting against the demonic creatures. The Major shouted:
"Hold the waaaalls!"
Lane was also on top of the fortress, trying to hold the walls together with the others. But no matter how many the soldiers slaughtered, the demonic creatures did not seem to come to an end.
"They just don't stop coming... And fighting on top of the walls is very hard."
The battle was growing more and more intense. The Major shouted again:
"How much longer until Commander Stoney arrives... Ughhh, dieee!"
Fshhh!
He cut down the creature that leaped in front of him with a single strike. At that very moment, one of the captains ran up to the Major.
"Sir, according to the message from the ravens, they have been ambushed. It will take a very long time for them to arrive."
The Major clenched his fist. His face tightened with anger.
"Everyone focus on protecting your own lives! We absolutely cannot allow the demonic creatures to cross these walls!"
While Lane continued fighting, something suddenly came to his mind and he stepped back. He quickly came down from the walls and looked at the large army waiting behind.
"I think this army can be used."
Without wasting any time, he ran to the main building. Since everyone was in the middle of the battle, the building was completely empty. Lane took a sheet of paper from the table and wrote a short text with his own hand. Then he began searching for the Commander's seal. When he opened one of the drawers, he found the seal, took it, and stamped it onto the paper he had prepared.
Then he went outside and ran toward the fifteen-thousand-strong army standing in front of him. Opening the paper, he shouted loudly:
"By order of the Commander!!"
Everyone immediately straightened up where they stood and paid attention.
"The fifteen-thousand-strong army will, under this order, move under the command of Captain Lane!"
Most of those who heard these words thought it was nonsense. Some of the soldiers stepped forward and shouted harshly:
"What nonsense are you talking about? Who do you think you are? Why are you using the Commander's name and lying?"
Lane did not break his act. With an angry expression, he walked toward the soldier.
"Are you defying the Commander's orders, soldier?!"
The soldiers who had stepped forward flinched, but they did not step back. In response, Lane turned the paper around and showed the seal to the soldiers. It truly had the Commander's seal on it.
At once, disagreements began to spread through the ranks. At that exact moment, Lane released his dragon mana there for the first time and applied a great pressure.
"I can't apply pressure to all fifteen thousand soldiers... If I apply it to the ones in front, that will be enough."
The moment he used his dragon authority, the soldiers felt the crushing pressure. Some of their knees buckled, and some of them crouched where they stood.
Then Lane spoke in a cold and harsh voice:
"If anyone wants to question my orders, step forward! We have to fight anyway. If we do not do this, we will die!!!"
Under the pressure pressing down on them, the soldiers first began to make scattered sounds, then those sounds gradually became clearer.
"We are under Captain Lane's command!"
That voice first rose from a few mouths, then grew like an avalanche and spread everywhere.
When the Major and the other captains heard it, they looked around briefly. The Major called over the captain beside him and shouted:
"What is happening down there? What are these slogans?"
The captain answered breathlessly in the middle of the battle:
"Sir, they are shouting, 'We are under Captain Lane's command!'"
The Major's eyes widened in shock.
"What did you say? Captain Lane? Did that child do this just now?"
The captain cut down the demonic creature that lunged at him with his sword and nodded in confirmation.
At that moment, Lane raised his sword into the air.
"Brave men! Today we will drive back the demonic creatures and carve our names into history! Forward to battle...!"
Lane took the army with him, left the fortress, and began moving toward the other side of the walls. What caught his attention was this:
"These creatures are not attacking in a coordinated way. They only move toward places where humans are concentrated. If we strike them from behind, our chances of winning will rise."
A short while later, they arrived at one of the gates between the fortresses. The gate was small, but it did not seem like it would waste too much time passing the fifteen-thousand-strong army through it. Lane turned and looked at the soldiers.
"The moment we pass through this gate, there will be no turning back. If any of you are afraid, you can return. But do not forget this, if these walls fall, you will die even if you are afraid. If death with honor is possible, then why should we hide?!"
Then he raised his voice even more:
"Come on, soldiers! All of you, divide quickly into a 25 by 25 formation and move through!"
Lane was the first to pass through the wall gate. Right behind him, the army began to flow through as well. The soldiers ran out beyond the walls and in a short time formed their order. In about five minutes, the ranks had regrouped. Seeing this, Lane thought to himself:
"The army knows how to organize quickly... very good."
Then he smiled faintly and raised his voice again:
"Follow me, soldiers! We are going to war!"
The soldiers shouted back in one voice. Then, without breaking their 25 by 25 formation, they began to advance. The army had been divided into twenty-four units, and each unit had six hundred twenty-five soldiers.
As Lane advanced, he could see that the demonic creatures were now climbing the walls. War cries were rising, and the top of the fortress had turned completely into chaos. Because of that, he immediately turned back and shouted:
"Move faster!"
With this order, the soldiers gripped their spears tighter and increased their pace. Before long, the fifteen-thousand-strong army could clearly see the demonic creatures. In the black night, the right wing of the fortress looked as if it had almost been completely swallowed.
Lane shouted with all his strength:
"Attaaack!!!!"
The first unit lowered their spears and rushed forward to deliver the first blow. When the demonic creatures noticed the soldiers coming from the side, they stopped climbing the walls and immediately turned their direction toward the army.
The soldiers and the demonic creatures experienced their first great clash. Spears flew through the air. Some struck hard bodies and shattered, while others pierced into the flesh of the demonic creatures. With the very first moment of collision, screams covered everything.
Lane shouted with all his strength:
"2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th units, ATTAAACK...!"
Behind the first unit, the other units also charged forward and gave support to the front line. Lane also did not stay behind and ran straight into the attack. At that moment, the great majority of the demonic creatures climbing the walls had abandoned the walls and focused their full attention on Lane and his army.
Lane and his army were fighting bravely. But the violence of the battle had reached an unbelievable point. In a short time, the demonic creatures had nearly brought the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th units to the point of collapse. In the other units as well, half of the soldiers had fallen to the ground. The front lines had now completely turned into a field of slaughter.
Seeing this, Lane slammed his sword hard into the ground and released his dragon authority.
At once, all the demonic creatures within approximately sixty meters around him were crushed into pieces under the overwhelming pressure.
Without wasting time, Lane shouted again:
"All units, attack now!"
With this order, the units remaining in the rear also joined the battle. The soldiers charged forward shouting. The sounds of shields colliding, the dull sounds of metal meeting split flesh, and the screams of battle mixed together. The remaining ten-thousand-strong army had now fully entered the clash as well.
For the first time, the demonic creatures were truly beginning to be suppressed.
At that very moment, fireballs suddenly began raining down from the sky.
Flames fell onto the soldiers. The 15th, 16th, and 21st units were wiped out in an instant.
From the force of the explosion, Lane was thrown into the air and slammed hard into the ground. Before he could even fully understand what had happened, the demonic creatures swarmed over him. Lane used his mana to form a shield and tried to stop their attacks. But after the fireballs, the soldiers' formation had broken apart. The lines were beginning to scatter, and people were starting to panic.
Lane gritted his teeth.
"No... impossible. We are going to lose. I need support. I have to support them... The soldiers must not die like this."
In an instant, he detonated his aura. With the resulting shockwave of power, he shattered and hurled away the demonic creatures that had piled onto him. Then he released his dark energy into the surroundings and merged it with the aura on his sword. Lane was doing something like this for the first time. This was not something he was used to.
He intensified his aura even more.
"AAAGHHHHHH!"
The force of the pressure was straining his body. Blood began to stream from his eyes. The demonic creatures were attacking with such ferocity that stopping them was becoming more and more impossible. Lane was now clearly pushing his limits. His body was struggling to bear this power, yet he still did not retreat.
His face was covered in blood. Even the inside of his mouth was full of blood. Even so, he raised his sword and shouted in a muffled but determined voice:
"DRAGON SWORD TECHNIQUE... 10TH TECHNIQUE, FINAL LINE!"
Just as he was about to bring his sword down, the image before his eyes suddenly darkened.
Everything became pitch-black.
Within that darkness, two eyes appeared first. Then a silhouette emerged. Lane could not make out what stood before him. The image was blurred, and its face could not be seen. He could only feel the presence coming from within that darkness.
Then that silhouette spoke:
"You cannot die today. There are still things you must do."
The silhouette extended its finger and touched Lane's forehead.
And at that moment, Lane's power suddenly increased a hundredfold.
Lane swung his sword.
At once, a brilliant gleam appeared. A gigantic slash formed in a straight line, stretching toward the walls of the Night Fortress. The attack tore through an area of more than six hundred meters, and it was as if everything had suddenly frozen.
Then three seconds passed.
And then, from the point where the sword had descended, a massive shockwave burst out in every direction.
The blow was so powerful that it shattered everything in its path. The demonic creatures and the soldiers alike were blown apart within that wave. After the blast, when one looked back, nearly all of the demonic creatures had been annihilated.
Lane was standing while barely managing to keep his sword in his hand. His body was exhausted.
"So... this is how it was going to end, huh..."
The words came out of his mouth with difficulty. Then he collapsed where he stood. His body had been completely ruined. His consciousness was slowly slipping away. He could now see his surroundings only in a dark and blurry way.
Not all of the demonic creatures had died. Some of them had been heavily wounded by that strike. The walls of the fortress had been shattered, and a great portion of them had been blown away. Some of both the demonic creatures and the soldiers had been buried beneath the collapsed walls.
Lane slowly closed his eyes.
At that very moment, magical spears suddenly began raining down from the sky.
Stoney had finally arrived.
Alone, he destroyed all of the remaining creatures one after another by tearing them apart. Then he took Lane into his arms and returned to the Black Night Fortress. While moving through the air, he thought to himself:
"Did this child really unleash an attack like this? This power... it is almost at the peak of a five-star aura. There is something abnormal about this child."
When he brought Lane back to the fortress, the sight inside was disastrous. The Major had lost his right eye and one of his arms. The fortress looked as if it had almost been destroyed. Yet even so, a single fortress had held back more than two hundred thousand creatures.
Stoney added his own aura to Lane's wounds and helped them heal. Then he sent him to the infirmary.
At that same time, a raven arrived at the church where the Saintess was staying. The Cardinal hurried inside and spoke:
"My lady... the attack on the walls has failed..."
In an instant, the Saintess struck the stone-worked throne with her hand in fury. The throne shattered from the force of the blow.
"What do you mean it failed? How did they stop an attack of two hundred thousand?!"
The Cardinal lowered his head and continued speaking:
"My lady, according to the information from the soldiers in the fortress, we had lured Stoney into a trap. But inside the fortress, someone using dragon mana stopped the force of two hundred thousand demonic beings through both tactics and an abnormal level of aura."
The Saintess's eyes widened at once. Her face tightened with fury.
"Did you say dragon mana?"
She paused for a moment. Then her voice became even harsher.
"We had not completely lost control of that kingdom. We sent the elder daughter somewhere else. We turned the wife into our puppet. We are keeping the younger one under our control. The girl knows nothing. And the elder has been missing for a long time..."
Her voice grew darker and darker.
"It must be that child... Find him and kill him!!"
The Saintess had gone mad with rage.
Two days had passed since the incident. Lane slowly opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling of the tent. His vision was still not completely clear. One of the soldiers near him leaned toward him and spoke:
"So you are awake... our savior."
Lane's consciousness had not yet fully returned, but he understood what he meant.
"Our savior...?"
Then he tried to move his body, but he could not. Even the smallest movement spread through his entire body like pain.
"Ugh... my body is in terrible condition... Wait... my mana has become four-star. That man appeared in my consciousness again... He told me, 'You cannot die yet'... I guess he still has plans for me."
Lane was thinking in a worried way.
At that very moment, Stoney entered through the flap of the tent.