Chapter 216: An Empty Domain?

From the Black Banner’s point of view, the plan served two purposes.

First, gather enough troops to wear down Cassian’s army and delay him. Second, attack his Domain while he was away. With luck, that would force him to spend War Intent on a retreat.

That was why Darian, Elara, and the others had kept their Domains outside the Capital even while issuing challenge after challenge. Each had only a few hundred main combat troops. They could attack or guard their homes, but not both.

Galen spoke through the channel.

[Galen Tervain: Your strength frightens me, Cassian. I’ll admit that. But Lord Alderwick is a powerful Spiritbound Lord and one of our bravest soldiers. He’s willing to die for the Black Banner. He isn’t a coward like Austin.]

[Galen Tervain: We’ll keep wearing down your troops and your War Intent. Sooner or later, victory will be ours!]

He gave a cold laugh.

[Galen Tervain: And your Domain must be empty by now.]

However many Lords had fled, the military could still find men willing to fight to the death. It had opened broadcasts on both battlefields, determined to expose every weapon Cassian possessed.

"An empty Domain?"

Cassian laughed. Explaining would be a waste of breath.

"Kill them."

His troops began the harvest.

——

Outside Cassian’s Domain, three Black Banner War Lords launched their assault. Each had brought every troop under his command.

The Crown’s viewers tensed again.

[They really exchanged for a Legion Writ. Three Lords attacking together!]

[The boss’s main force is away. Can his Domain hold?]

[He must have considered this. Perhaps he has more than a few hundred combat troops.]

[How? Just raising the ones we’ve seen to the Level limit would take more than ten times the Battle Essence an ordinary Lord could earn. Where would he get enough for another army?]

Nessa remained entirely confident. While directing her Legendary Knights against a Black Banner Domain, she answered without hesitation.

[Nessa Fenwick: Cassian refused our reinforcements. He must be certain he can hold.]

Darian suddenly laughed.

[Darian Frost: Look! I told you he wouldn’t fight without being ready. But where did he get all that Battle Essence? Another few hundred Eclipse troops! What Levels are they?]

Hundreds of Legionnaires stood along the walls, Lianne at their head.

One of the attacking Lords shouted up at them.

"Low-Level troops to bluff us? I don’t believe you have that many trained fighters!"

Hundreds of Swords of Space answered him.

Rare and Elite troops split in two before they could react. Bodies fell across the approaches to the walls.

The Crown Lords’ cheers drowned out the enemy’s shouting.

Corin stared at the broadcast.

"Nearly a thousand troops with at least Epic fighting strength. Brother Cassian... No. Lord Cassian. What an army!"

Beside him, Dain’s eyes shone with admiration.

"He’s turned the whole contest around by himself. Corin, are we still leaving?"

"Leaving? To hell with that! Come on, Dain. We’re going back to fight. We can’t leave everything to the Lords of Riftward!"

Before Cassian’s return, their bags had already been packed.

At the foot of Cassian’s walls, shock and fury hardened into desperation.

"Attack!"

"If we can’t kill him, we’ll destroy as many of his troops as we can!"

"For the Black Banner!"

An attacking Lord paid a flat cost of one War Intent for a challenge. These three had brought even the Level-20 and Level-30 troops that normally guarded their resource sites. They had come prepared to die.

Determination did nothing to close the gap.

The Epic Two-Star veterans fought under Veyra’s direction, strengthened by Cassian’s Gold Battle Name, their trained arts, exceptional Heartsense Swords, and the Combat site. Together, those advantages put their fighting strength on a level with wild Legendary monsters.

The attackers had few Epics at all. After the opening volley, the Legionnaires scarcely needed their skills.

Within minutes, the field was clear.

——

On the other battlefield, Cassian finally suffered casualties.

Alderwick’s army had abandoned defense. A hundred thousand troops threw themselves forward, intent on taking some of Cassian’s strongest units down with them.

Crystal One had just released Black Hole when more than a thousand control skills struck her. Her huge body crashed to the ground and lay pinned there.

Even a Legendary Dragon could not shrug off that many skills at once.

More than ten thousand ranged attacks poured toward her. Thousands of melee troops crowded around her body, hacking with no thought of survival.

The other Dragons, Stormlance, and Eclipse troops cut through the attackers as fast as they could. They intercepted attacks and tried to take some of the pressure off her. But One’s body was too large to shield completely. Wounds spread across it under the relentless assault.

Several minutes and tens of thousands of dead troops later, the Black Banner finally killed her.

The rest of Alderwick’s army followed her into death. So did Alderwick himself.

Galen felt as though someone were cutting pieces from his heart.

A hundred thousand troops. In exchange, one Dragon and a few Eclipse veterans.

Those Legionnaires had been bad enough at range. Their strength in close combat was worse than he had imagined. Just how far had Cassian advanced his Epic line without telling anyone?

He could not let the others hear his despair.

[Galen Tervain: You all saw it! We killed one of his Dragons! Cassian can be beaten. Keep wearing him down, and he’ll fall!]

Across the Crown’s forces, grief turned to anger. The sight of the Dragon’s death drew them together more fiercely than ever.

What the viewers could not see was happening inside Cassian’s Domain.

Beside the Fountain of Life, Aurelia watched Crystal One’s body take shape again.

The Fountain had verified her belonging record and death. Cassian had authorized the reconstruction, and the required Life Energy and Battle Essence were consumed. The stored Life Energy was sufficient. One returned at the same Level and star rank she had held before the battle.

Cassian had expected the enemy to concentrate on the Dragons. He had checked the Fountain’s reserves before the fighting began. That was why he had let them show their immense bodies and stand so far forward.

If he wanted the Black Banner to keep feeding him armies, he had to let it hope.

This battle alone had earned him another five hundred million Battle Essence.

"This is wonderful. Even better than the last older-sector invasion."

He was nearly ready for Rank XIII. At this pace, he could raise his whole main force to Level 70 as soon as the new Rank opened the way.

Just in time to enter the Contest of Champions at full strength.

"The Homeworld’s best newcomer result was somewhere past a hundred thousandth place, wasn’t it? I might be able to break that record."

The thought excited him. He drew a breath and issued his next challenge.

The Black Banner had numbers to spare. Fewer than one in ten of its Lords had qualified for the final contest, but that still left hundreds of thousands. Their troops were far more numerous.

Over the next three hours, Cassian challenged twelve reinforced Domains. Millions of enemy troops died, earning him a total of seven billion eight hundred million Battle Essence.

One Domain had held nearly two hundred thousand enemies.

The Black Banner had wanted to see whether an even greater concentration of troops could stop him. In that cramped battle space, it only made the killing easier.

Sword of Space and Thunder Javelin tore through the packed ranks. Cassian himself rose into the air and drove an Origin Divine Fist down into the army.

More than ten thousand troops vanished beneath that single blow.

They had been standing far too close together. He had not even used his full strength.

The viewers were stunned all over again.

[So that’s how he did it! Westcott used Dimensional Lock on the Glory Battlefield. Dozens of Lords, more than a dozen of them Spiritbound Lords, and Cassian wiped them all out. His own fighting strength is this high!]

[He must have a Grade-A Lord Talent. A genius the Crown has been raising in secret!] ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The Lords of Riftward had already seen Origin Divine Fist, as had Orion. Cassian had counted it among the cards he could afford to reveal in this contest.

Under his assault, and with the Crown’s strongest Lords fighting together, the balance of the Capital map steadily shifted.

The Black Banner found comfort in one thing. All twelve of Cassian’s Dragons had fallen. Even Nine.

Galen forced himself to ignore what it had cost.

[Galen Tervain: His Dragons are gone! He’s lost more than a hundred Eclipse troops too. Victory is in sight!]

The Stormlance could kill even Dragons, but they were physical fighters. Their attacks could not sweep away masses of enemies as efficiently as Black Hole.

At home, the Fountain completed the other eleven Maidens’ reconstructions. Each death and belonging record had been verified, and Cassian had paid the required Life Energy and Battle Essence. The reserves he had checked were enough. All twelve were alive again, their Levels and stars intact.

The fourth progress report appeared.

[Current Occupation Progress:]

[1. Galen Tervain — 79%.]

[2. Cassian Vale — 22%.]

Cassian studied the figures with some regret.

"That’s enough. If I keep playing, I might overdo it."

It was time to let the Black Banner feel despair.

"Nine. Bring the Dragons back into battle."

"Yes, Lord!"

A smile spread across Cassian’s face. After sacrificing so much, what expressions would those Lords wear when they discovered it had all been useless?