Badge in Azure

The Holy See’s attack on the south city lasted for an entire day. By the time evening came, both sides had already suffered heavy losses. Usually, the defending side would have the advantage, even if they had poorer soldiers because a twenty yard tall city wall was an obstacle that would be difficult for any army to overcome.

The soldiers of the Holy See were always able to continue fighting unless their limbs had been cut off or a huge hole had been blown open in their stomachs.

The alarm had already been sounded since morning and the reply they received was to hold the city and wait for reinforcements.

South city would already have fallen if not for the fact that they were facing the Holy See army. As long as the attacking side had enough soldiers, they would always be able to take the city sooner or later. Fortunately, the enmity between Qin and the Holy See had existed for the past ten-thousand years and the people of Bitter Water Prefecture born in Qin were no exception either.

As night fell, the attacks slowed down gradually and the armies in the main city began to gather.

Nailisi’s demon army would lead the way while the two death mages were arranged in the middle of the five regiments of knights. There was a total of six-thousand men, including the death knights, that followed behind the demon army.

Behind the knights were the charioteers. Charioteers were practically non-existent ever since magic chariots became obsolete, so they were now just a type of foot soldier.

The charioteers’ jobs was to protect the mages. Elemental mages were susceptible to attacks on the battlefield, mainly because of the white-robed mages’ speed of reaction and defense abilities. Typically, grand mages would no longer be making any fatal mistakes. These charioteers would travel with the white-robed mages as forty huge chariots protected forty white-robed mages.

The role that these mages played was not insignificant as they had to continuously cast grade-0 and grade-1 spells, healing and boosting all the soldiers. Low-level mages were able to recover very quickly, their magic chords were short and small. The magic nuclei they used were also low-level ones, so they were much more valuable on the battlefield compared to heavy-armored knights and foot soldiers.

There were too little accompanying white-robed mages this time around, so their main tasks were to detoxify and dispel divine spells.

Spells could affect divine spells just as the latter could interfere the former. The forty white-robed mages’ main responsibility was to dispel any divine spells that had been cast on the officers.

Behind the charioteers and chariots were the riding infantry. Most of these infantrymen had horses, but the speed and endurance of the horses could not be compared to those of the knights’. The riding infantry of Sanlian City usually had to seize the opportunity to ride. Typically, they rode on chariots as the paths in Qin were wide and convenient.

There were only fifteen-thousand riding infantry in total. Aside from the demon army and heavy-armored knights, the main city did not send any elite soldiers as there were still one-hundred-thousand enemies in the north and west that they needed to guard against.

The main forces of Tanggulasi were only more than fifty miles away from Sanlian City. If they were all determined to cross the river, they would be able to gather below the city walls within a day.

Nailisi did not care about the intentions of the human armies behind them. All she needed was a group of people that were able to help her collect the spoils of war, such as the enemies’ armor, weapons, crossbows, and warhorses. Demons were not used to transporting items, they were only good at killing.

No matter what army the secretive campsite was hiding, one thing was for sure, there were a lot of logistical supplies hidden there. Nailisi had decided to snatch the supplies, simple as that.

On the city tower, a white-robed mage turned the hands of the magic clock to indicate an hour past midnight. A faint white light shone from the top of the city wall and the city gate opened slowly. Nailisi leapt from the city wall and landed on the ground.

The demons rushed out from the city gates that had been opened wide. When the soldiers of Bitter Water Prefecture saw the demon army, they felt a mixture of emotions. At that point, only mages would be able to speak without going against any military discipline. Fortunately, a grand mage spoke to the white-robed mage beside him, “It has been tens of thousands of years since demons fought for humans to win over God’s disciples. This is a good thing…”

“Your Excellency, you are right. When humans were at their strongest, even the giants fought for us. If only humans are able to go back to those times.”

The conversation between the two mages was especially enlightening amidst the silence on top of the city wall. The soldiers could listen even if they could not interrupt. It resonated to varying degrees for almost all of the soldiers.

The poets used to sing about demons and other even stranger creatures fighting for humans. Most ordinary humans had no idea that all of it was true. Now that the mages had spoken, the people of Bitter Water Prefecture had chosen to believe.

The mages would not lie. Those legends from the past were really true!

Of course, the gray-robed mage would never think of that out of the blue. He said what he said because the Marquis had asked him to. What he said would gradually spread within the armies and before long, the narrative would be prevalent throughout the entire Bitter Water Prefecture and even the Qin Empire.

Once such a narrative spread, it would be difficult to turn it around. The Marquis was extremely smart. After interacting with Nailisi, he began to think of how to execute this step by step.

When the knights emerged from the city gates behind the demons, the soldiers on top of the city walls felt a sense of pride. These iron knights were much more powerful than the Tanggulasi soldiers. If not for the blood knights, the battle would have been a walk in the park.

It was normal for the soldiers to think that way. When they first took down Sanlian City, they had a much easier time than the Tanggulasi soldiers even though they also launched their attack from a more advantageous point.

There were no horses in the demon army, but they sprinted at lightning speed behind Nailisi. The armor that was customized for the demons was not heavy at all and was much lighter than the crudely-made armor they wore in the demon dimension. One could only hear the sounds of the demons’ footsteps and the clinks of their metal armor.

The two cities were only twenty miles apart so theoretically, there should be no gaps in their defense. If not for the fact that the cities were built from the gigantic rocks from the ground, probably no humans would build their cities that way.

The catapults’ attacking range was five miles and there was only a passageway that was ten miles wide between the two cities. The Tanggulasi soldiers had stationed themselves across the passageway. A distance of five miles was too close for the demons as nothing could be hidden between both sides.

When the demon army appeared, the Tanggulasi scouts retreated beyond the attack ranges of catapults and magic stone artilleries. On the other hand, the Tanggulasi blood knights rushed forward to meet them head-on.

Blood knights had no need for rest nor logistical support. They only needed the attention of the holy priests of the Supreme Court once in a while. At least half of the twenty-thousand blood knights had come forward to engage.

Deploying more than ten-thousand knights would usually take a long time. For example, the six-thousand knights of Bitter Water Prefecture had taken a few hours to prepare their armor, get into formation, put on the armor for their warhorses, and test their magic equipment. On the other hand, the blood knights did not require such preparations. Within a short time, the ten-thousand blood knights sprinted straight towards the demon army.

Neither side used crossbows. The blood knights did not know how to and at most could only hurl javelins while the demons were not proficient in crossbows at all. In any case, the people of Bitter Water Prefecture knew that ordinary crossbows were useless against blood knights anyway. In order to take a blood knight out of the battle, one’s arrow must penetrate through their brain. Only an archer of the level of a high-level swordmaster would be able to achieve such accuracy. Archers of a lower level would never be able to draw the rigid strings on the crossbows properly.

A grin appeared on Nailisi’s face. She only gave a simple order –’kill!’

Then, Nailisi took out her magic stone artillery and aimed at the incoming blood knights with her huge arms.

The advantage that magic stone artilleries had over catapults was that they were smaller so their recoil was negligible. Even in her devil form, Nailisi would not have been able to move about freely with a catapult.

The blood knights were so fast that they only took less than a minute to be within fifty yards from the moment they were first sighted by the demons. The red armor, rotting flesh, and empty look on their faces completed the appearance of the blood knights. To the demons, the impact of the blood knights’ appearances was insignificant.

Nailisi squatted down and activated the magic stone artillery. Close to a hundred shells shot out from the thick barrel and straight at the blood knights.

In the defense of cities, magic stone artilleries would never be shot in a straight line. They were usually shot at projectile like catapults to disperse the enemy’s foot soldiers or large equipment with their magic shells. The way Nailisi was using it was a unique technique.

The magic stone shells swept across the blood knights and wherever they passed, the blood knights fell with flailing limbs.

The magic stone shells that hit the blood knights directly would penetrate their bodies completely while those that brushed past their bodies would take away huge chunks of flesh. If they were to hit the blood knights’ limbs, they would be blown off completely.

More than two-hundred blood knights, along with their warhorses, were completely taken out of the fight after the first blast. Nailisi laughed gleefully. How exciting it was to use it on the battlefield. If her enemies were not blood knights, the damage that the magic stone artillery could cause would be even greater.

Nailisi took out a complete magic stone shell and put it into the cannon. Her huge devil form provided her with unimaginable strength. Nailisi had the ability to trigger the magic array and focus the magic stone artillery’s damage. Within ten seconds, she shot out the next blast.

There were no longer any more blood knights in the front row, but those behind kept charging forward. They knew no pain, nor fear. The magic stone shells shot down the enemies that were within hundreds of yards from Nailisi. By the time those behind rushed to the forefront, they were already injured and still, they had to face the next wave of attack from Nailisi.

This was a meaningless massacre! Nailisi shot at the blood knights from close range with her huge magic stone artillery. There was no way they could survive the attack even if they were as powerful as swordmasters.

The clumsy and bulky magic stone artillery looked light and nimble like a child’s bow in the hands of a devil.

After six waves of attacks, Nailisi could detect that the magic array in the magic stone artillery was becoming unstable. Using the magic stone artillery to attack within short intervals was not something that was taken into consideration when designing the weapon. Nailisi had no choice but to put away the magic stone artillery and take out her thirty yard long lance instead.