Chapter 1100

Someone once said that people feel the greatest wonder and fear when they come face-to-face with the unknown.

When they encounter something they’ve never experienced before and see it for what it is, every emotion is pushed to its extreme.

Jin Taekyung wholeheartedly agreed.

He also agreed with something a certain philosopher had said: Humans are creatures of learning.

Whooosh!

Hundreds of ice spikes shot through the curtain of rain amid a tremendous surge of energy.

Yet even as the powerful, wide-ranging spell took shape, Jin Taekyung didn’t flinch.

He’d expected it.

“Defend!”

The instant his shout, infused with deep reserves of internal energy, burst from between his lips—

Shhk! Fwssh!

Shields rose in a wave above the allies packed shoulder to shoulder along the high city wall. At the same time, brilliant beams of light shot up from all along it toward the hundreds of ice spikes.

Boom!

A thunderous crash. A flash of light.

The spikes shattered under the Sword Energy unleashed by the Peak masters, and fragments ricocheted toward the wall at high speed. But that was all.

Clang! Clang!

The massive rectangular shields, clad in steel on the outside, did their job.

If the spikes had retained their full force, things might have been different. But after that first blow had weakened them, the fragments couldn’t break through the solid wall of shields.

“Everyone’s safe!”

Excited reports came from all around.

But Jin Taekyung, who had anticipated the attack and prepared for it, didn’t let his guard down.

They’d gotten the battle off to a good start. Holding off magic—something almost indistinguishable from a supernatural miracle in this world—had lifted their morale, too. That was no small gain.

But Jin Taekyung knew better than anyone that this was only the beginning.

So did the Grand Sorceress and the Blood Lord, watching from beyond the wall.

“Loose!”

At the forceful shout, the signalers on the wall waved their flags to pass along the command. Arrows that had gleamed from between the shields finally left their taut bowstrings.

Whooosh!

Thousands of arrows poured down, blackening a swath of the sky.

They were meant to pierce the throats of the enemies advancing below—the merciless invaders.

But the defenders’ desperate hopes came to nothing the moment the red lips hidden behind a veil in the distance moved.

“O invisible veil.”

There is a power in human speech that no one can explain.

A mage’s spoken command gives that power form.

Fwoom.

An invisible wall forced its way between spaces and split the air.

It was a powerful protective spell, one that steel arrowheads could never pierce.

Crack!

Thousands of arrowheads snapped or bounced away in an instant.

The people on the wall gasped at the impossible sight. But the woman responsible remained as calm as ever.

“They’ve prepared thoroughly enough. Their countermeasures aren’t bad, either.”

At the Grand Sorceress’s murmur, the Blood Lord spoke quietly.

“Of course. They have to fight with everything they’ve got.”

“Don’t you think we gave them more time than we needed to?”

“That’s a pointless thing to say. You know better than anyone this is the surest way. And besides…”

The Blood Lord looked calmly at the Grand Sorceress.

“You used that time to prepare, too.”

She gave a short laugh and nodded.

Her slender white fingers were already forming a hand seal. The movement looked perfectly gentle, but it held another spell of terrible destructive power.

Rumble.

The air began to tremble. Strange patterns etched beneath the Grand Sorceress’s feet flared with light in a multitude of colors.

There were dozens of them: Magic Formations she had prepared over the past two days for this battle.

“So, what do you want?” she asked.

The Blood Lord briefly considered the question.

What do I want?

Jin Taekyung’s death, of course.

But he had to swallow the words welling up in his throat.

That stupid bitch would never defy that person’s will, and even he had no idea how she would react if she learned what he was thinking.

So he forced himself to answer calmly.

“The wall. Aim for the wall. Hit it hard enough to bring it down in one blow.”

The Dalai Lama, who had listened to their exchange in silence like a docile lamb, suddenly spoke.

“If the wall falls before the rear is completely sealed off, won’t the enemies give up resisting and flee?”

His suggestion sounded reasonable at first, but neither the Blood Lord nor the Grand Sorceress paid it the slightest mind.

Bringing the wall down wasn’t their only reason for targeting it first.

Fwoosh.

The Grand Sorceress slowly extended a hand. High overhead, the rain pouring endlessly from the sky stopped at her will, then began to gather.

By the time it had formed dozens of enormous spheres of water, she spoke again.

“Fly.”

At her quiet command, the spheres hurtled toward the wall. Each carried the weight and force of ten thousand geun¹, surging forward with a speed and momentum that seemed to brook no interference.

ROOOAR!

That was when the archers, who had been firing without pause at the approaching enemy, stared with their mouths open. The shield bearers guarding the front lowered their shields without realizing it.

At last, they stepped forward.

Whoosh!

Dazzling flashes cut through the air.

Some were as hot as lava. Others were stealthy enough to send a chill down the back of the neck. Still others were as swift as lightning.

By the time the martial artists and imperial troops on the wall sensed them, it was over.

Fwoosh! Boom!

The enormous spheres of water evaporated, were sliced apart, and burst.

Spheres that had looked capable of flattening a mountain, let alone the city wall. Terrifying calamities that had seemed as impossible for a human to stop as a natural disaster.

“……!”

“……!”

Those who’d instinctively sensed their imminent deaths opened their eyes wide in unison.

At the same time, they remembered something they had momentarily forgotten.

Those terrifying dark arts called magic weren’t the only thing beyond human power.

“They’re coming in hard from the start.”

Across the world, only ten great martial artists had earned the right to a king’s throne. Jeok Cheongang, the Fire King, held the highest seat among them, shoulder to shoulder with the stars in the heavens.

He spat out some phlegm and grinned.

“How’d they know this old man likes that sort of thing?”

His voice rumbled like a beast’s growl, and warmth rose in the people’s chests.

The tiny spark of hope, beginning to stir again, blazed brighter still when the giants who appeared next came into view.

“They’re trying to wear down our key fighters.”

He looked more like a boy than a young man. But everyone knew now that the boy, who still looked as if he hadn’t even lost all his baby fuzz, was the Slaughter Saint, once revered by all.

They knew, too, that another man whose legend could rival his stood among them.

“Obvious, but effective.”

The voice was clearer than raindrops. At odds with it, a rough finger drew back a bowstring.

Whoosh!

A beam of light shot forth.

And then, destruction.

Crack!

The beam shattered the invisible protective veil over the enemy forces in an instant, then exploded with a thunderous roar.

It tore through the ground and pierced the enemies beneath it.

BOOM!

The ground shook. The blast swallowed their screams.

Neither the hulking monsters moving like little hills nor the Dark Heaven followers advancing behind them under their cover could withstand that One Strike.

The name Bow Saint was no empty boast.

We can do this.

A glimmer of hope flashed through the minds of the people on the wall, and they trembled with emotion.

They saw the radiance of those who had not lost their light, even in a world this dark.

They saw the other Supreme Peak masters stepping forward to block the magic that kept crashing toward the wall, and Jin Taekyung, who remained completely unfazed even in this dire situation.

They were moved. They shuddered.

They stood shoulder to shoulder with living legends, and those legends were giving everything they had to save them.

Thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud-thud!

A massive rumble rippled outward like a wave.

As if they had all agreed to it, they stamped their feet. They slammed down their shields, beat their spear shafts, and struck their swords and sabers together.

Even as a fierce rain of fire poured down. Even as lightning flashed and ice bearing a terrible chill came flying at them. Even as the rain that should have soaked their heads turned to arrows.

They did not yield.

No—they never doubted that, whatever end awaited them here today, they too would become part of the legend.

And as the little sparks in their hearts grew into a great torch—

Rumble!

The hulking monsters, who’d steadily advanced despite the relentless rain of arrows and other attacks, charged toward the wall with a roar like an earthquake.

—GRAAAAH!

Their roar made the defenders’ hair stand on end.

At the same instant, one of the monsters launched its body forward with strength and speed far beyond human limits and slammed into the wall with all its might.

RUMBLE!