Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Eleven

Wind rushed against Adam’s face as he fell like a missile.

His eyes sprang open, seeing the black sky above and the trailing bright flame of his flare, before he quickly reoriented himself and pulled hard on his raiment to slow down before he’d splatter against the green hill flying up to meet him.

Adam sensed a great many bodies filled with his mana below him and, as the many G’s of his braking manoeuvre tore at him, he swept above the swathe of the forlorn army that he’d devastated with his afflictions. Before the other soldiers could react or the Forlorn Shadow could reanimate the corpses he’d made, Adam pulled them to him, absorbing as many as he could into his armour.

Successive announcements from his cube rolled in, one after the next, before it simply switched to using numbers.

[11 Forlorn Elites defeated.]

Adam didn’t push his luck, and immediately shot himself back to the wall of Gothershall.

He soon flew past a white fog that stretched outward from the city like a welcome mat for the invading force.

When he landed back atop the towering wall, Seo-Yoon was still walking in a small circle while moving her staff through fluid motions.

“You look unwell,” she said. “Did it work?”

Now that Adam was back near the lights of the city, he realised just how badly he’d damaged his mind with the mantle, because his vision was blurry and fragmented, like a cracked camera lens.

He sat down with his back to the edge of the wall and saw how his hands shook violently.

Adam tried to speak but his speech was slurred and nonsensical.

Seo-Yoon stopped walking in circles and looked down at him.

Her mouth moved but he couldn’t hear what she was saying.

A tinnitus whine steadily grew inside his head.

Then his back slid sideways along the wall and he banged his head against the stone floor.

Adam came to as an objective announcement rolled in. Next to him lay one of his healing potions, though it was empty.

Seo-Yoon was watching him while she worked through the motions of her mist-casting spell.

< < Optional Stage Objective > >

< Defend the city of Gothershall from the Forlorn Army >

The sky was still dark, but there was a light slowly blooming into life from the eastern horizon.

“Are you okay?” Seo-Yoon asked.

“I think I passed out,” Adam croaked, his throat feeling like sandpaper when he spoke.

“You woke up in fits and said things I couldn’t understand,” she told him. “You were like that for a few hours. I thought you were dying, so I fed you one of your potions. What happened?”

“The backlash from the mantle is too dangerous,” he replied. “I managed to afflict 116 soldiers though. My affliction damage is now 724%, although I will die from even the weakest affliction I receive.”

A horn shook the air, pulling Adam back to stage four briefly. Then a tremor rolled through the wall they were standing on.

He got up and looked down over the edge, where a carpet of shadow-clad soldiers crowded against the white stone and a forlorn knight wielding a sword and shield slammed into the sealed gate like a battering ram. He was covered in rusted plate armour and wore a helmet with horns, with a faded blue scarf around his neck that fluttered every time he slammed forward and sent quakes through the wall.

Further away from the human ram, standing like a tower amongst the soldiers, was the three-metre-tall spindly herald, whose clothes were very similar to what the aristocrat in stage four had worn, except for the blue cloak he carried over his left arm and shoulder. He held a long horn with a faded blue banner hanging from it in his right hand. In his left was a long sword with a simple crossguard.

“I spread the mist as far as I could,” Seo-Yoon said, and Adam at first didn’t even register it was there, because it was everywhere and encompassed the entire army, blanketing something like two-hundred square-metres in front of the wall.

“I didn’t know you could make the mist this big,” he replied, impressed.

Ballista bolts, crossbow projectiles, and arrows flew out from various gaps in the wall, barrelling through the horde below. But even when they killed the soldiers by the dozen, those same soldiers got back up within a minute, returned to their feet by the Shadow’s power.

Adam sensed about a hundred melodies waiting behind the wall inside the city. They belonged to the defenders who were prepared to throw their bodies into the breach when it formed, even if it would only buy their friends and family a few seconds longer.

While Gothershall had a great defensive advantage given its location, it was obviously susceptible to sieges starving out its people, and the fact that they’d put all their faith in the towering wall to protect them, meant that once it did fall, they had no way to escape the invaders.

“We have to defeat them before it’s too late,” Adam said.

Natalia and Chien were amongst the defenders, and Adam flew down to pick up both of them before they even knew what was happening.

He returned to the top of the wall and quickly shaped a Shade Barrier construct for each of them.

“What’s the plan?” Natalia asked. Based on her melody, Adam knew she hadn’t slept at all. She was filled with anxiety and guilt, no doubt because she’d been the one to kill Diwa. She clearly appreciated the distraction posed by the forlorn army.

“We need to get rid of the herald and the bulwark,” Adam reminded them. “Seo-Yoon has primed the battlefield with her mist spell, and as soon as we’re ready, she will turn it all to ice, incapacitating the army for a moment.”

Chien looked at Adam. “Why are you covered in blood?”

Adam paused. “I am?”

“Yeah,” Natalia said.

“It’s a lot,” Seo-Yoon added.

She stepped out of the metal tub of water and Adam went over to look at the reflection that stared back at him from within.

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Dark dried blood ran from his tear canals, nostrils, ears, and mouth, creating sinister-looking lines down his face, as though he had intentionally dressed himself in warpaint.

He scooped up a bit of water and cleaned himself, then addressed the others again. “I managed to eliminate about a hundred soldiers last night, but the mantle’s effect was more punishing than I expected.”

He cleared his throat.

“Anyway. The plan is as follows,” Adam said. “Once the army is enveloped in ice, I will drop you two down there so you can eliminate the herald. If Chien is unable to deliver the killing blow, then you must use your ring to finish him off, Natalia.”

She nodded.

“I will fly to Old Town and retrieve another true flame if we need it, but I am hoping that defeating the herald will disable the army for good, leaving us with just the forlorn bulwark remaining. He is the one currently smashing his body against the city gate, but we should have a few more minutes before he can break through.”

“I thought it was a battering ram,” Natalia muttered. “I didn’t realise a knight was doing that much damage…”

“He has a shield with a ramming power,” Adam explained. “He’s quite dangerous to fight up close because of this unpredictable attack, so Seo-Yoon and I will attempt to give you two an opening to deal with him.”

“Couldn’t I absorb the true flame from the city wall and use that to take them out?” Seo-Yoon asked.

“No, we need to leave it in place,” Adam replied. “Even if we defeat the army, the Forlorn Shadow isn’t going anywhere. The true flame acts like a barrier along with the mountain range, preventing it from getting inside the city and reanimating the dead within. Without it, it would just be a matter of time before the city fell, and we need this place to remain as a safe zone, since otherwise our attack on the castle will be slowed down by the need to go all the way back to Old Town to rest and resupply.”

“Will the bulwark attempt to defend the herald?” Chien asked.

“I don’t know,” Adam replied. “It’s a possibility.”

“I see. I will utilise Diwa’s cape to make them focus on me,” he said. “No one else will die.”

“I don’t think it’s that effective on bosses,” Natalia pointed out. “After all, Diwa struggled to keep the horsemen’s attention, remember?”

“The Forlorn Shadow wants to kill him, so it may be more effective,” Seo-Yoon pointed out. She was back inside the tub, walking in circles and waving her staff.

Natalia rolled her shoulders and held tight to her katana’s handle and sheath. “I’m ready.”

“Me too,” Seo-Yoon said.

“We will defend this holy city from the vile invaders,” Chien remarked piously.

Adam had to steady himself against the wall as he struggled to retain his balance on his own. Despite feeling like there was a drill working its way through the inside of his skull, he managed to cast them all a grin. “Let’s go fuck up the Forlorn Shadow’s plans.”

Seo-Yoon suddenly gripped her staff and ran her right hand down its length.

Down below, at the foot of the Gothershall wall, the blanket of mysterious fog condensed, tiny aerosolised droplets coming together like static rain and clinging to every soldier and blade of grass.

“Go,” Seo-Yoon said.

Adam lifted himself into the air, using four floating hands of bone to pick up Natalia and Chien.

The static cloud of rain hovering around the forlorn army suddenly crystallised, producing a pale-white frigid wind that flowed through their ranks and spread across their armour, pushing past the black veil that protected them from most forms of attack.

The army turned to statues of ice, and Adam rushed himself and his two passengers down to the ground.

With damage inflicted to the knights, their two objectives rolled in.

< < Optional Stage Objectives > >

< Defeat the Forlorn Herald >

< Defeat the Forlorn Bulwark >

As soon as they landed, Chien and Natalia rushed towards the towering visage of the forlorn herald, breaking their way through the solidified soldiers and sending chunks of flesh and armour flying.

The herald was petrified as well, but the Shadow’s power was fighting to free him from within his frozen shell.

If he breaks free, he might use the horn to make the soldiers break free as well. We need to prevent that from happening.

Neither Emelia nor Beck had managed to take down the forlorn herald, but they had both warned that his true power came from the soldiers around him. His martial prowess was much less of a concern, compared to the other knights.

Adam flew back up to avoid being caught in the crossfire once the soldiers broke free, and wove a Snare pattern from blood silk, draping it over a gauntlet finger and firing that into the herald to incapacitate him even further.

[3 Afflictions applied.]

Because of his Affliction bonus multiplying his afflictions’ power by over seven times, the small Snare spell pattern exploded outward into a crimson tree-like thing that wrapped its branches and trunk around the forlorn knight, producing creaking and snapping with the sheer force of its embrace of the large petrified boss.

Adam flew back up to Seo-Yoon as the others reached the herald.

With an activation of her katana’s special skill, Natalia flew past the boss and sent a breeze out across the battlefield, cleaving the herald’s lower body from his torso. But before he could topple apart into two pieces, dark magic shot out to keep his body intact. Then the Shadow burst him out of the ice cocoon with a thrumming explosion of its tainted power.

The herald made to lift his horn, but Chien swung his war hammer into the instrument, sending it flying away. Natalia returned with a slash through his legs from behind, forcing the Shadow to spread itself thin to keep the herald intact. She made sure to aim for everywhere the dark veil wasn’t protecting, since her weapon couldn’t get past the Shadow’s defences on its own.

Adam picked up Seo-Yoon and they flew down towards the foot of the wall, just in time to catch a glimpse of the bulwark firing himself through the frozen army to come to the herald’s defence.

Seo-Yoon led her shot and fired an ice bolt out of her winter gloves, nailing the knight in the gap between his helmet and shoulder plate. The attack made the boss pause to look up at them. His sword filled with malevolent dark magic and he slammed it into his shield, launching a bolt of darkness up at them. But Adam was quick to manoeuvre them around it, and he retaliated with a bombardment of finger bullets.

Thanks to harvesting over a hundred soldiers the night before, his raiment was filled to the brim with material, allowing him to fire off an endless series of projectiles. Only a few got past the knight’s armour and spreading protection from the Shadow, but he was able to pile on many bleeding afflictions and stack the slowing effect of the Venom upgrade.

[12 Afflictions applied.]

Adam spun up a Heart Lance spell and when it launched it was duplicated by his elementalist’s skirt, but both of the beams failed to harm the knight, since the Shadow fully coated his armour.

[Your Magical Disturbance is now at 95%. Your next spell will trigger this Affliction.]

The bulwark was about to try and take another shot at them, when Chien yelled from behind, “Face me, tainted knight!”

The boss turned around, exposing his back to Adam and Seo-Yoon floating above him.

Behind Chien, the herald was dead, cut into mince-meat by Natalia’s katana.

They would have to use the true flame’s oath to kill it, and it would have to be quick.

Fortunately, the bulwark obliged them and used his ramming power to send himself flying right towards Chien.

At the same time, Adam wove the spell pattern for Snare and covered a gauntlet finger with it.

[You have been afflicted with Magical Disturbance. Your activated spell will undergo a wild transformation.]

“Get clear!” he yelled.

Natalia quickly zipped out of the way, but Chien stayed near the severed remains of the herald, making sure the bulwark wouldn’t go anywhere, but putting himself at risk.

“Sacrificing himself won’t bring Diwa back,” Adam muttered and fired the finger with the dangerous payload.

The projectile struck the back of the shadow-coated knight, failing to penetrate the magical protection, but nevertheless delivering its payload.

A hundred needle-thin blood spears shot out of the tiny spell pattern, briefly overwhelming the Shadow’s defence with its sheer physicality and then ramming the remaining half of the spears through the bulwark’s body, managing to skewer him out through the front of his torso, leaving only a hair’s breadth between the tips of the spears and Chien’s face.

[92 Afflictions applied.]

Each of the spears had inflicted two afflictions.

“Oh shit,” Adam muttered and suddenly lost control of his ability to fly as the backlash hit him like a brick to the face.

He only barely managed to slow them down before they struck a frozen archer, crushing it with the impact while Seo-Yoon somehow landed on top of Adam.

“Are you okay?” she asked, not getting off of him until he groaned breathlessly.

He’d survived taking damage thanks to the raiment, but the rough landing had still forced all the air out of him.

Natalia activated her ring nearby and Adam felt the uncomfortable heat of the special power, as a bright golden-glowing cross sheared through the two forlorn knight’s corpses and briefly lit up the early morning darkness.

[Forlorn Knight defeated.]

[Forlorn Knight defeated.]

[24 Forlorn Elites defeated.]

< < Optional Stage Objectives Complete > >

< Defeat the Forlorn Herald >

< Defeat the Forlorn Bulwark >

< Defended the city of Gothershall >

< < Quest Complete > >

< Man the Walls! >

< Defended the city of Gothershall >