Little Tyrant Doesn't Want to Meet with a Bad End

The following morning, Roel woke up to the thunderous rumbling of fortress magic tools.

At the first crack of sunlight, tens of fortresses in the eastern border simultaneously launched long-ranged attacks on the Fallens, thus lighting the flames of war after three days of silence.

Under humankind’s bombardment, the Fallens, who were previously wandering aimlessly on Tark Prairie, began gathering in large droves to launch their counterattack. This marked the successful execution of the Battle of the Edges’ Phase 1.

A weapon’s edge was its sharpest point, and it marked the difference between life and death in a critical battle. The edge of this battle was none other than Roel’s thousand-man team. In view of that, the united army had decided to name this war ‘the Battle of the Edges’.

The Battle of the Edges could be divided into three phases.

Phase 1 involved bombarding the Fallens and guarding against their subsequent offense.

Given that the Fallens had the advantage in terms of military prowess, the united army had decided to rely on the sturdy fortresses they had built and reinforced over a thousand years to deal with the Fallens. This was their best way to level the playing field.

Thus, the first thing they had to do was to lure the enemy in.

With deafening rumbles, the fortress magic tools unleashed blinding streams of light that diverged into countless arrows that rained down in the far distance. This intense mana pulsation immediately caught the attention of the tens of thousands of Fallens on Tark Prairie.

At the same time, an army comprising soldiers from Rosa and the Knight Kingdom charged out to draw the Fallens’ aggro.

The Savior was a supreme existence embodying the sun in the ancient era. His authority remained even after He had succumbed to madness, which was why the Fallens were stronger in the day than at night.

Phase 1 of the Battle of the Edges began at daybreak and concluded at nightfall. The soldiers would devote themselves to guarding their respective fortresses during this period of time and thin the enemies’ fighting prowess as much as possible.

Only at nightfall would Phase 2 commence.

Phase 2 would see the human armies on the eastern border simultaneously launch a counterattack on the Fallens. Under the moonlight, they would snipe down their weakened enemies through guerrilla warfare and slowly advance on the massive imperial capital.

It was also around then that they would find an opportunity to launch Phase 3.

In Phase 3, Roel and his team would advance with the united army’s blessings, with the hope they would become the sharp edge that plunged into their enemy’s heart, paving a new route for humankind’s future.

Boom!

Amidst the rumbling of the fortress magic tools, Roel scaled the fortress wall to assess the situation. Soldiers were standing at attention across the stretch of the wall, with all sorts of weapons installed in place to fend off the enemy.

In the distance, Pendorian knights could be seen frantically retreating with Rosaian archers back to the fortress, with a large black army of Fallens chasing them.

The Fallens might have lost their weapons and sanity, but their strength was a sight to behold. Their black mana converged together to form an ominous cloud above them, making the sky look exceptionally gloomy.

The human soldiers fell silent.

Even the veteran soldiers who had seen the worst of the deviants were intimidated by the Fallens’ momentum, but that didn’t mean they would give up. They believed in humankind’s power to overcome tribulation.

The human soldiers channeled their mana into the fortress magic tools, unleashing brilliant streams of light reminiscent of celestial rivers that obliterated the Fallens. This was quickly followed by army spells and a rain of arrows.

Large patches of the Fallens were vanquished, but it wasn’t enough to end the battle.

Some of the stronger Fallens began launching their counterattack. The ancient magicians raised their wooden staffs and chanted their spells. The brawny knights emanated black-red mana that allowed them to easily ascend the city walls with a couple of jumps.

A bitter battle ensued.

Humankind used everything they had at their disposal to desperately fend against the Fallens, while an endless stream of Fallens marched out from Tark Prairie. There had not been a single moment of respite since the outbreak of battle this morning.

None of the Origin Level 1 transcendents, including Roel, Lilian, and Wilhelmina, participated in the battle. This was an order from the united army’s highest echelons, as they had to preserve their strength as much as possible for the critical battle.

However, there were other people to take their places.

Carter Ascart, Kane Xeclyde, Bruce Sorofya, and other veteran Origin Level 2 transcendents joined the battlefield. They were determined to protect humankind’s defense line from being overrun by the Fallens, until it was finally time to mobilize the Origin Level 1 transcendents.

“You are humankind’s hope and future. It isn’t time for you to make a move yet. Hold it in until the critical moment, then give it your best strike and make it count,” Carter had told Roel before heading to the fortress wall.

Roel knew that he was right, so he had no choice but to hold himself in.

Clashing swords and exploding spells echoed ceaselessly throughout the fortress. Roel quietly processed the situation while familiarizing himself with all of his powers.

Even now, Roel still didn’t know how many enemies he was up against. Putting aside Lukas, whom he knew was after Sia’s Scepter too, there was also a dangerous enemy amongst the Savior’s worshipers whose state he hadn’t been able to confirm—the Collector.

He had been aware of the abrupt disappearance of his number one enemy, the Collector. Perplexed, he had tried tapping into the church’s and Rosa’s intelligence networks, but it was as if the Collector had disappeared from the face of the world.

This unnerved Roel, especially after he learned the truth behind the Second Epoch.

If the Spirit Cataclysm of the Capital had been caused by the explosions of the Eggs of the Beast God instead of the Savior, the culprit behind the operation would have to be the Collector, who had been the leader of the Fallens a thousand years ago too. If he was willing to go this far, there was no way he would stay still now that the Savior was on the brink of awakening.

This piqued Roel’s vigilance.

The sun eventually began to set, and night enveloped the sky. It was finally time for the older Origin Level 1 transcendents to make a move.

Five Origin Level 1 transcendents—Holy Eminence John, Principal Antonio, Sword Saint King Friedrich, Military God Layton, and the newly awakened Astrid—joined forces to eradicate the remaining Fallens.

Inviolable holy light, devastating flames, and iridescent lights descended upon the battlefield, vanquishing large swathes of enemies. Friedrich and Layton rushed into the Fallens’ ranks and destroyed enemies with their unstoppable slashes and destructive lightning.

At the same time, the human armies quickly got into formation and marched out.

Layton didn’t say much when he saw Roel, choosing to just pat Roel’s shoulder and smile. He felt that this was a responsibility that Ro’s descendent ought to shoulder, and it proved that he hadn’t chosen the wrong person back then.

“Grandpa Layton, you’ve worked hard,” Roel said.

“I’m just clearing the obstacles in the way. I’ll entrust everything to you,” Layton replied.

Friedrich pulled Wilhelmina to one side to give her a pep talk, whereas Astrid and Antonio appeared to be discussing something.

The members of the golden generation, such as Paul, Geralt, Selina, and Teresa, as well as a few other military commanders, walked up to Roel’s thousand-man team and bowed to them, expressing their respect to the brave soldiers who dared to charge right into their enemy’s core.

Roel’s team was set and ready to go. The thousand-man team comprising elites from the five countries responded with military salutes, and they offered their blessing to the vanguards who would be paving a path for them.

The soldiers felt a mix of trepidation and excitement, as they watched the armies march into the battlefield one after another.

After seeing off his close friends, Roel quietly stood at the fortress wall, as if awaiting something. A long time later, he finally noticed two intense bursts of mana gushing into the sky and heaved a sigh of relief.

The most important Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Battle of the Edges could finally commence.

…

Nora’s and Charlotte’s successful breakthroughs were good news to humankind. The addition of two more Origin Level 1 transcendents to their forces greatly roused the soldiers’ morale, and Roel’s worry could finally be set to rest.

With that, Phase 2 officially commenced.

Similar to the Battle of Scorched Earth, the three million human soldiers stationed on the eastern border would simultaneously march forth to tie down the Fallens to the best of their ability.

After several hours of effort, with the older Origin Level 1 transcendents taking the lead, the main army comprising hundreds of thousands of soldiers had cleared off most of the Fallens lurking on Tark Prairie and successfully advanced to the point where they could clearly see the imperial capital’s walls.

Even the most bloodthirsty of soldiers, upon spotting the imperial capital’s walls, were startled by its sheer scale, and it filled them with deference.

Humankind actually once reached such a height. This was the thought that surfaced in everyone’s mind.

However, the main army made no further attempt to approach the imperial city, as previous scouting reports had indicated that the number of Fallens significantly increased the closer they got to the heart of the imperial capital.

And the sheer number of enemies before them reflected that.

Countless black silhouettes wandered under the moonlight. Unlike the Fallens they had encountered in the day, most of those here had distorted into monstrous shapes.

Ancient magicians wandered with decaying skin and rotting flesh, looking like ghouls. Knights had mutated to all forms of monstrosities. There were even some resembling meat mountains in the distance. It looked almost like a painting of hell.

The human soldiers were chilled by the nightmare they were witnessing, but even so, they gritted their teeth and stood their ground. They knew that if they fell here, the next would be their friends and family in the distant human world.

If they couldn’t advance with the strength they had now, it would eventually brew into a calamity for all of humankind.

For thousands of years, humankind had survived thanks to the valiant sacrifices of their predecessors. This would be no exception. As terrified as the human soldiers were, they would muster all their courage and fight.

Meanwhile, a thousand spatial magicians were working under Antonio’s guidance to sense the spatial pulsations and carefully weave a powerful teleportation spell to deliver Roel, Alicia, Nora, Charlotte, Lilian, Wilhelmina, and the thousand-man team into the imperial capital.

However, things wouldn’t proceed smoothly, just as they had anticipated.

As soon as their spatial spell began to pulsate, the mana around the imperial capital spiked. Tark Prairie erupted in several places as massive black monsters rose from the ground.

Eggs of the Beast God.

Sensing potential danger, they rose from the ground to confront their enemies. Each of these Eggs of the Beast God was humongous, looking like a mountain under the moonlight. Sinister, bestial howls shook the prairie, as they exerted tremendous pressure that stopped the soldiers from taking the slightest step forward.

The battlefield fell unnervingly silent, as the human soldiers stared at those monsters in horror. Just as they were about to descend into despair, a white fog suddenly emerged from the horizon and morphed into a six-colored cloud.

Six colossal monsters—fiery red, frosty blue, deathly black, aurora orange, fog white, and tempest pale yellow—appeared from the horizon and unleashed unimaginably powerful mana pulsations that shook the surroundings. They used to be the greatest calamities of the world, but this time around, they were humankind’s allies.

The Six Calamities charged at the Eggs of the Beast God, silencing the bestial howls. Flashes of radiant light and explosions ensued.

Meanwhile, the teleportation spell channeled by Antonio and the spatial magicians began glowing brilliantly.