Chapter 348: Aftermath

The world turned white.

For one impossible instant, Kael saw nothing. There was no fortress, battlefield, goblin army, or sky. White light swallowed everything in front of him as the opposing forces inside the reforged weapon tore through one another and found the only direction left to escape.

Forward.

The railgun did not merely fire. It screamed.

The sound came after the light, crashing over the battlements with enough force to flatten soldiers and tear loose stones from between the ramparts. Kael felt the pressure pass through his armor, rattling every bone in his body and forcing the air from his lungs.

The projectile vanished between the rails, but what followed it was far worse.

Fire and Frost collided inside the channel, producing a violent arc of energy that wrapped around the metallic shell and drove it forward with more force than Kael had intended, predicted, or possessed any right to create.

The golem weapon failed immediately. Both rails softened as the heated side folded inward first, its metal losing shape beneath the impossible temperature. The frozen rail shattered into glowing fragments before melting beneath the electrical discharge. The reinforced chamber split apart, and the rest of the weapon sagged toward the ground.

The self-repairing metal tried to remember the form Kael had forged into it.

For once, it could not.

The cannon collapsed into a half-melted puddle beneath itself. Dark liquid metal spread across the stone, glowing red in some places and covered in white frost in others. Small arcs of electricity continued jumping across its ruined surface before gradually fading.

Kael barely noticed. His entire body felt hollow.

The attack had consumed almost everything. Internal energy vanished from his channels so violently that his legs nearly folded beneath him. The pathways inside his body felt scraped raw, as though the blast had pulled power through them faster than they had ever been designed to carry.

Kael grabbed the edge of the battlement and held himself upright as his vision slowly returned.

What he saw beyond the fortress made him forget the pain for several seconds.

The shot had carved through the battlefield.

A massive tunnel of scorched earth stretched from the northern wall toward the horizon. It was not a clean line like the path left by the Tower’s railgun. Kael’s improvised weapon had produced something wider, uglier, and far less controlled.

The earth had been bored open, leaving blackened stone along a trench deep enough to swallow buildings. Fire clung to the fractured ground, burning across soil that should not have contained anything left to ignite. The projectile had passed through hills, corpses, goblin formations, and every obstacle between the fortress and the distant plains.

Anything directly within its path no longer existed. There were no bodies, armor, or weapons. Only scorched earth and molten stone remained.

Enemies near the trajectory had fared little better. Goblins and orcs had been torn apart by the pressure surrounding the shot, their limbs scattered far from the remains of their bodies. Those farther out had been cooked where they stood, reduced to burning puddles of flesh, softened bone, and warped metal.

The crater continued farther than Kael could clearly see, with smoke rising from its entire length.

The surviving goblins stood at its edges, and none of them moved forward.

Fear spread through them, beginning with those closest to the burning trench. They stared at the ruined land and the weapon that had caused it, their crude faces frozen between horror and disbelief. The scenario driving them toward the last bastion could demand that they attack. It could sharpen their greed, anger, and hunger for destruction.

It could not convince them that approaching Kael’s gate was anything other than suicide.

Several goblins backed away, and others followed. The withdrawal spread through the formation until thousands began moving from the northern approach.

They did not retreat from the battlefield. They remained determined to destroy the fortress.

Instead, they flowed toward the eastern and western walls, avoiding the path Kael’s weapon had created. Goblin ranks shifted across the open ground and piled onto the other sides of the bastion, where the defenses were already struggling beneath the orcs.

Kael looked at his contribution total, and his eyes widened.

[Contribution: 83,740]

"Good."

His voice came out weaker than intended.

He opened the defensive interface. The others needed help immediately, so Kael selected the western wall first.

Several high-level ballistae rose along the battlements. Their foundations formed beneath them in flashes of light, with reinforced towers climbing above the soldiers before multiple bows unfolded from their sides. He placed more on the eastern wall, then the southern.

Cannons materialized behind them, their long barrels positioned to fire across the thickest sections of the approaching army.

Kael scrolled through the available structures and discovered that a new weapon had unlocked. Its image resembled a narrow metal tower surrounded by several branching rods. When he selected it, a structure rose upon the western wall and began humming as electricity gathered around its upper frame.

A goblin reached the top of the battlement nearby.

The tower discharged.

A bolt of lightning struck the creature and jumped into the goblins climbing behind it. Bodies stiffened, smoked, and fell together as the arc continued downward along the wall.

Kael smiled faintly. He placed a second lightning tower beside the first, then two on each of the remaining walls.

Currency vanished rapidly, but his total remained high enough to maintain the reserve he wanted. More importantly, the new defenses began killing immediately.

Kael watched his contribution rise by three hundred points, then another four hundred. Every ten seconds or so, the number increased again as ballistae, cannons, and lightning towers tore into the armies pressing against the other sections of the fortress.

His side had become almost peaceful.

The remaining northern goblins stayed far from the scorched trench. A few archers and slingers continued firing from distant positions, but no organized force approached the gate. The soldiers along Kael’s wall could now focus on shielding the siege crews and removing isolated climbers.

Kael looked toward the neighboring ramparts, where the orcs had already reached the defenders.

Several massive figures were fighting among them. One swung a cleaver through a line of soldiers and nearly reached a cannon before the spear wielder intercepted it. Another climbed over the eastern wall with half its body burned, forcing the mage to abandon her casting position and retreat behind a barrier.

Kael pushed away from the battlement and tried to run toward them.

His legs refused.

One knee struck the ground, and Kael caught himself with both hands before his helmet could hit the stone. His internal energy reserves were not merely low. They were critical.

The opposing runes had pulled power through him without restraint, demanding enough energy to maintain impossible heat, impossible cold, and the electrical bridge between both. Kael’s body had supplied what it could, then continued feeding the weapon until there was almost nothing left.

His arms trembled. Breathing felt strange, not painful, but empty. His body remained physically strong, yet the deeper reserve beneath that strength had been hollowed out.

The final orc upon the northern wall roared.

The burly climber swung his oversized sword through its torso and sent its upper half tumbling over the battlement. He turned immediately, searching for the next enemy, and then noticed Kael.