Chapter 1390: Chapter 1389: Another Frontline

The sunset slowly sank, with orange-red light shining through the thin clouds, casting over this barren and corrupted land. The earth stretched out before Andresha Wendell’s gaze, and the black "ground" surged like the tide. Filthy giant waves roared in, accompanied by madness and malice that seemed to want to devour any living thing, causing the entire ground to tremble violently.

A dark red signal flare rose into the sky and exploded into a light group more splendid than the sunset at the cloud layer. Under the illumination of the flare, the defense line built by the Winterwolf Knights seemed to be instantly coated with a layer of fiery brilliance— the next second, a howling sound like the forming of a hurricane rose from the rear of the position, climbing from low to high, gradually becoming a rumble of thunder.

Andresha looked back, seeing a large expanse of magical glow suddenly appear above the hills to the north and south behind the knight’s station. Countless mysterious and complex symbols rained down from the sky like heavy rain, forming a three-dimensional and constantly evolving complex light curtain around the entire hill. Immediately, numerous rings branched off around the curtain, forming a huge matrix in the air. The twelve Magic Web Power Stations set up around the small hill roared to life, vast magic power accumulated from the Magic Web, and was transmitted to the Combat Mage Regiment’s matrix through broadcasting devices. After a short delay, the spell took shape.

The clouds in the sky were instantly torn into fragments by powerful forces. Dozens of brilliant halos formed a continuous "sea" over the knight’s station. Within this sea, heat waves surged, and thousands of scorching laser beams poured down like a downpour, recklessly sweeping through the incoming "black tide." As if a storm swept through snow, countless scorched fragments and red smoke from evaporated flesh coated the entire plain in the blink of an eye.

After one round of laser rain (corps-level thermal energy ray storm), the menacing dark tide had been riddled with thousands of wounds, and its numbers visibly reduced. However, the monsters knew neither pain nor fear, nor did they know to cover or form in loose formations, so after a very brief delay, the tide surged once more— though much thinner, its momentum toward the defense line was unwavering.

"Recharge," Andresha said to the communication device beside her, "Activate the electric field traps and close defense wall after the third round of thermal energy rays, and have the knights begin preheating the Thermal Energy Shield, ready to engage."

"Yes, General!" came the voice of the Combat Mage Regiment commander from the communication device, and as the voice fell, the two hills on either wing behind the knight’s station lit up once more.

At the Mage Corps’ station, combat mages had begun directing the second thermal energy ray storm. They stood on a vast corps-level Array, rapidly pieced together with prefabricated, modular engineering components, with interfaces and numerous pipes and grids left at its edge for connection with other power systems. When the corps mages began guiding the spell, the grids at the edge of the Array quickly began emitting large amounts of hot steam and "waste energy" glowing blue. Engineering mages standing at the Array’s edge watched closely the pipes coming up from the hill and the valves, pressure gauges, and other devices around them, guarding against overheating damage.

The times were advancing, even the Typhon Empire, reliant on traditional mages as their main force, knew how to adapt to the era. The wise mages found ways to combine magic guide technology with traditional spell casting, and the pressures of war gave all new ideas and technologies the chance to mature swiftly— using external energy stations for corps-level spell recharging, replacing old-fashioned Array setup methods with engineering prefabs, and using alchemical coolants and large cycle pumps to solve the corps-level spell cooling cycle issues. Additionally, there were personal mana coordinators, equalizers, load safeguards, and unlimited alchemical potions; with these, the power wielded by the Combat Mage Regiment nearly doubled.

These were the benefits brought by technological progress, also experiences gained on the battlefield through blood.

After a short delay, the second recharging completed, and a howling sound from low to high arose again from above the hills. Under the setting sun, the sky was once more ignited by magnificent laser rain, light bursts splattering onto the ground, and the tide of aberrations and bio-synthetic beasts steamed into smoke under this downpour.

After three rounds of thermal energy ray storms, the ground’s surging monsters had already been largely destroyed, those remaining still charged forward. They reached the defense line constructed by the Winterwolf Knights, and behind this defense line stood a tall tower rising from the ground. The tower’s peak had a metallic texture, with dull magic symbols gradually lighting up on its surface.

It was the Purification Tower, gradually "awakening" here. The orderly energy field it released began affecting the chaotic mana environment of this region. Aberrations, which could only maintain themselves with the special "field" in the wasteland, keenly sensed the threat. Driven by instinct, they became ten times more frenzied than before, madly charging toward the "final defense".

And this threw them right into the electric field trap— bright arcs of electricity suddenly erupted from the ground, using the monsters stepping on the trap as nodes, rapidly spreading throughout the entire "black tide". The net of lightning covered the ground, and the currents flowing everywhere chilled one to the core just by a glance.

This was a weapon developed during the previous "Typhon-Cecil War". It was once used to combat the Cecil Clan’s war machines, but now the Typhon Empire found this trap much more effective when dealing with clustered living targets— within a moment, it could fry hundreds to thousands of biochemical monsters to a crisp and spread rapidly among densely formed targets.

As the electric field, spread over the entire ground, finally dimmed, less than a tenth of the aberrations and synthetic beasts remained able to move.

These monsters stumbled, roared, and twitched, bumping into the Thermal Energy Shield in front of the knight’s line. The crimson heat erupted from the barrier’s surface, knocking these foolish, filthy creatures to the ground. Then the knights unsheathed their swords. This final fight was fierce and brief; after a nearly one-sided slaughter, the entire battlefield finally fell silent.

"... They are getting easier to deal with." Looking at the now-calm battlefield and the soldiers aiding the wounded, clearing the positions, Andresha Wendell softly said. "Although their numbers remain plentiful, they can no longer cause us great losses."

"They are declining, just as His Majesty predicted," behind Andresha, her silver-haired, dark-skinned female adjutant spoke seriously. "And relatively, our soldiers have grown rapidly in this war, in both technology and tactics advancement. Under such give-and-take, today’s result is very normal."

"Yes, they are declining— but that also means the battle at the ’Well of Deep Blue’ in the wasteland’s center is getting more intense, because those evil cult followers are focusing all their strength there," Andresha’s voice was low. "The Iron Soldier Corps of Princess Gondor is single-handedly fighting the entire wasteland’s force. The top command’s death order is to advance to the ’Old Imperial Capital Defense Ring’ within a month, meaning the defending strength at the Well of Deep Blue can at most hold for another month..."

She raised her head, gazing at the vast wasteland. Although the weather had warmed, Andresha’s voice still carried a chill: "Within a month, if the alliance army cannot break through this battlefield, and the Barrier Wall fails to activate smoothly, then all our efforts and sacrifices thus far will ultimately amount to nothing— when the entire planet is ’tamed,’ the victories we have gained will mean nothing."

The silver-haired adjutant glanced at her general. She knew Andresha would never say such things to the soldiers, who were bursting with morale amid a string of victories, advancing with all their might. The great shadow behind victories would cast tremendous pressure on everyone; some "truths" were destined only to be faced by a few.

The glorious giant sun finally set completely beyond the horizon, a remaining dim red glow lingering along the clouds in the sky, spreading like a blood mist. On the ground, engineering mages used the Stone to Mud spell and fortification spells to build several towering ramparts. Although the gray stone walls were not considered beautiful, on the blood-hued wasteland they possessed a unique desolate grandeur, while the high walls and the temporary barrier provided the warriors with the most precious sense of security after the battle— here in this realm away from civilization, the comfort and rest opportunities behind the high walls were as precious as gold to the expeditionary forces.

Magic crystal lamps were lit, and the prefabricated Magic Web along with mobile power vehicles started supplying energy to the entire front line base. The defense crystals on the temporary walls emitted a low humming sound, while the Eye of the Mage released by the night sentinels hovered in the high sky. Andresha Wendell walked between the barracks, listening to the rough laughter of the soldiers carried by the night wind.

A sudden melody from nearby made her stop. It was the tune of a folk song from home, and Andresha instinctively looked in the direction of the sound, seeing a group of soldiers gathered in the light of the lamps on an open space. A blonde female knight was holding the "Belum Harp" commonly seen in the Enqihok region, and the simple, bright yet melodious tune came from that instrument.

Andresha had no intention to interrupt the soldiers’ rare leisure time, but as she was about to quietly pass by, the female knight noticed her general first, stopped playing, and stood to salute Andresha. The other soldiers then realized what was happening and stood to pay their respects.

Andresha smiled and came to the soldiers’ side, after receiving their salute she focused on the female knight: "The melody is familiar... What is your name? Are you from Enqihok?"

"Reporting to the general, I am the captain of the 12th combat squadron of the second brigade of the newly established National Knights Corps 8th Group, Marianu Rivin," the young blonde female knight answered stiffly, then shook her head, "I am not from Enqihok, but my roommate during my study abroad is, and I learned this tune from her."

"Marianu... I have some impression, you were on the reinforcement list last week." Andresha nodded gently, simultaneously recognizing the mark on the young knight’s chest armor, which indicated that she was a newly promoted commander, recently seen more frequently on the front lines—as the situation changed, the front-line war gradually came under control, and this war had turned from a near-disastrous desperate situation into a training ground for the Empire’s troops. The Empire was sending wave after wave of new soldiers to the front lines for rotational training, and these warriors rapidly growing on the battlefield would compensate for the severe losses suffered by the Empire in the previous pursuit of the Gods.

As Andresha understood, not only Typhon was taking such action; nearly every major military power capable of dispatching large-scale expeditionary forces to the wasteland was using this method to "train soldiers." This destiny-changing war was both a hardship and an opportunity for the Loren countries. Under the pressure of war, many countries were forced into industrial reforms, and a large amount of material and personnel that previously required repeated disputes to mobilize were brought together, the army grew, technology advanced, and the alliance... truly became an "Alliance."

Honestly, Andresha did not actually believe that war is a driving force for social development—many thought she was naturally war-loving, but as a soldier she understood war, war is just war; its nature is destructive, not constructive, and it doesn’t create anything beautiful or useful in itself—what really moves countries forward in war is the pressure of life and death, the will to survive, and a correct and consistent belief.

Without these things, war could only bring pure decline and destruction.

Thus, sometimes Andresha felt lucky, lucky that this war resulting in the world’s changing landscape broke out between the civilized world and wasteland, rather than an endless struggle between two civilized nations—Typhon and Cecil had almost fallen into this abyss, she brushed past another destiny at that abyss’ edge, knowing what kind of future that was.

"Studying abroad... was it in Cecil?" Andresha curiously asked.

"Yes, General," Marianu immediately replied, "I was one of the first batch of children of nobility sent to study abroad in Cecil Clan..."

"Good," Andresha smiled, and at that moment, she suddenly noticed a small light yellow flower pinned at the shoulder connection of Marianu’s armor—this inconspicuous flower was probably the only "soft" element on this valiant female knight, making her gaze linger for two more seconds, "This flower is..."

"Ah, report, General. I found it while patrolling outside the camp, in a rock crevice," Marianu seemed somewhat blushing, her voice low, "just thought it was somewhat nice looking."

Andresha opened her eyes slightly wider.

In the polluted zone of the wasteland, life was nearly extinct, even moss struggled to survive, let alone such fresh flowers, reminding the young Wolf General of the bouquet of flowers the soldiers brought back from the Cecil Clan base—but she knew, the flower before her could not be the product of the "Living Forest," for the Living Forest’s spreading direction was elsewhere, its boundary still a distance from Typhon’s front lines.

She suddenly turned around and looked at the tall tower in the center of the base, the towering purification device emitting a soft glow under the night sky, yet its purification core had not fully "awakened," according to the technicians, the purification tower still needed at least twelve hours to start.

Even if the purification device were already activated—a flower couldn’t bloom in the blink of an eye.

"General?" Marianu noticed Andresha’s strange expression, couldn’t help asking softly, "Is there anything wrong?"

"...The barrier wall has started to have an effect."

Andresha’s voice was low, as if she were speaking to herself.

The barrier wall has started to have an effect.

The environment in the wasteland... is reversing!

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