After the Demon’s offensive ended, the command post was left in a state of total shambles.
Gerald sat slumped on the ground, his armor covered in dark red blood—whether it belonged to his comrades or the Demons, he did not know.
His face was deathly pale, and his lips trembled.
“Saint Deputy, these… these Demons are not like what we agreed upon…”
It wasn’t that Barnes Territory had never encountered a crisis involving Demons before, but those were nothing like a Demon Tide.
At most, there would only be two or three Demons within their territory, and dealing with them wasn’t particularly difficult.
And that was exactly what had given them their blind confidence.
The Deputy’s face also showed he was still shaken, but it was overshadowed by a surge of anger and a desperate need to shift the blame.
“Useless! I told you long ago that Demons are different from Beasts. They are cunning and full of tricks, not something ordinary soldiers can handle. I have no idea where you got the confidence to think you could deal with them!”
What absolute bullshit!
Gerald was fuming.
The plan to come “support” the Snow City Fortress was the result of a discussion between Viscount Barnes and the Deputy.
During that discussion, the Deputy had also believed that the Demon Tide would be easy to handle.
The ones who had looked down on the Demons the most, besides Viscount Barnes, were this Deputy.
But now, after witnessing the horror of the Demon Tide, he was shoving the ultimate Responsibility onto Gerald’s head.
He really deserved to die!
However, even though he was filled with resentment, Gerald didn’t dare to curse out loud.
Squeezing out an expression that looked worse than crying, Gerald asked with a shaking voice, “Then… then what should we do now?”
He stared intently at the Deputy, still harboring a sliver of hope.
After all, no matter what, the Deputy had accepted a massive sum of money from Viscount Barnes. He wouldn’t just throw up his hands and quit now, would he?
The Deputy paced back and forth irritably. Then, he took a deep breath and made an extremely difficult decision:
“What else can we do? We go find Breno, of course. Right now, he is the only one who can find a way to repel the Demons.”
—
Just like that, the two of them found Breno with fawning smiles on their faces.
In stark contrast to the chaos and carnage of the frontline command post, the room where Breno was currently staying was simple but exceptionally tidy.
When the Deputy and Gerald found him, he was sitting by a small table, slowly and methodically brewing tea.
The curling steam carried a faint tea fragrance, making him appear incredibly leisurely.
The Deputy’s mouth twitched as he forced a kind smile.
His tone was unprecedentedly polite, a complete transformation from the person who had issued the rotation orders earlier.
“General Breno, we haven’t seen each other for a few days. I hope you have been well.”
Breno didn’t even lift his eyelids. He focused on pouring boiling water into the teapot, his voice flat and steady:
“Saint Deputy, what brings you here? And General Gerald, shouldn’t you be out on the Battlefield, slaying enemies in every direction?”
Gerald’s face instantly turned the color of a pig’s liver.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he struggled to defend himself.
“How could that be? When there is no combat, one cannot stay at the frontlines forever, right?”
“Oh? Then after returning from the frontlines, have you thought of a way to deal with the Demons?”
Breno set down the teapot, picked up a teacup, and took a gentle sip.
“I’ve heard that this was merely the first wave of the Demon attack after the rotation, yet your soldiers suffered heavy casualties. If we wait for the second wave, I’m afraid the defensive line might collapse entirely?”
“This… this…”
Gerald stammered, unable to say a single word. Breno gave him no face at all. After putting down his cup, he asked word by word:
“Are these the soldiers of Barnes Territory? Aside from liking to steal the credit of others, do they have no other abilities?”
“You!”
Gerald was so enraged by this naked humiliation that his whole body trembled. He clenched his fists tightly, nearly losing control.
Seeing this, the Deputy quickly took a step forward, blocking Gerald. His face was piled with an even more “sincere” look of apology and anxiety.
“General Breno, it seems there is a deep misunderstanding between us. Let’s not talk about credit for now. We came here today hoping that you could help us repel the Demons.”
Having said this, he leaned in closer and lowered his voice, adding in an enticing tone:
“As long as the General is willing to take action, I will certainly say a few kind words about the General when it’s time to submit the report.”
The Deputy attempted to lure Breno into acting with an empty check, but Breno didn’t take the bait. He blew on the tea leaves and said calmly:
“It’s not that I don’t want to help you, Saint Deputy. It’s that the Fortress garrison under my command is also no match for the Demons. The only ones who can truly deal with Demons are the Rose Knights and the Cross Knights.”
“If you really want to ensure the Fortress isn’t breached by Demons, you have to go to them.”
This was the plain truth. He only managed the Snow City Fortress garrison, and the garrison was simply not the Demons’ match. To truly repel the Demons, one had to rely on the Rose Knights and the Cross Knights.
The Deputy’s face turned even uglier. He suppressed his rage, trying to grab onto a final straw: “Since that’s the case, could General Breno…”
“I cannot.”
Breno cut him off decisively, leaving no room for negotiation.
“It’s useless for me to step forward. This is a conflict between you and them, Saint Deputy. If you truly care for the Fortress, go find them yourself.”
Enraged by this heartless rejection, the Deputy snapped upright. The last trace of his fake kindness vanished, and his tone became cold and full of threats:
“Breno! You really won’t help? You should know that if the Fortress falls, the Responsibility you will have to shoulder will be the greatest!”
Hearing this, Breno didn’t show fear. Instead, he let out a clear sneer. He stood up and stood toe-to-toe with the Deputy:
“Heh, as for who needs to shoulder the greatest Responsibility, we both know the truth in our hearts. I believe those above will be able to see everything clearly.”
“Fine! Fine! Breno, you will pay the price for your stubbornness today! Reality will wake you up!” The Deputy’s whole body shook with rage as he pointed at Breno’s nose, but he could no longer find a more powerful threat to utter.
Afterward, the Deputy led Gerald out of Breno’s room.
After weighing it over and over, the Deputy eventually chose to go discuss things with Leanna and Morton. But just as expected, Leanna and Morton rejected him without any hesitation.
Morton even mocked him directly, making his face flush bright red with anger.
Returning to the frontlines once more, looking at the Battlefield littered with Demon corpses and smelling the eerie atmosphere permeating the air, Gerald finally couldn’t hold it together anymore. He spiraled into a complete panic.
“Saint Deputy, what… what should we do?!”
The Deputy spun his head around, his face a mask of desperate ferocity and indifference. He spoke almost through gritted teeth: “Since they refuse to help, then let the Fortress fall.”
“What?!” Gerald felt like he’d been struck by lightning, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. “This… how can we do that?! That wouldn’t be good, would it?!”
Letting the Fortress fall just like that—was he joking?!
Setting aside who would actually have to take the Responsibility after the Fortress fell, just the fact that Viscount Barnes’s plan would fail meant that he, as the executor, would be in deep trouble!
When he went back, he felt he would be killed by the Saint Viscount!
Not only that, if the higher-ups found out that the Fortress fell because of Viscount Barnes’s greed for credit, the Saint Viscount would be beheaded as well!
So no matter what, they couldn’t let the Fortress fall!
However, the Deputy seemed to have made up his mind. He snorted coldly and said, “Not good? Hmph, then what other ideas do you have?”
Ideas?
Gerald didn’t have any ideas, but as a Deputy of the Imperial Command, did this Saint truly have no other way?!
He didn’t believe it.
Furthermore, in his view, the fact that this Saint could say something like letting the Fortress fall meant he had clearly already planned an escape route for himself.
When the time came and the Fortress actually fell, he could completely push all the Responsibility onto those of them who had “failed in frontline command.”
Most importantly, looking at his current state, he had completely given up on caring!
Thinking of this, a flash of desperate, cornered-dog ferocity flickered in Gerald’s eyes. He crossed his arms and said coldly, “If the Fortress falls, Saint Deputy, you won’t be able to escape the Responsibility either, will you?”
The Deputy narrowed his eyes, hearing the threat in the words.
“General Gerald, do not stray into the wrong path.”
“I have no choice, Saint. If the Fortress truly falls, perhaps General Breno will shoulder the blame, but both I and Saint Viscount Barnes will similarly be held accountable. This is the complete opposite of our original plan!”
Blocked from his path, the Deputy roared with extreme impatience: “Hmph, stealing credit always comes with risks! You should have had a plan for failure from the very beginning!”
These words completely ignited Gerald’s fury and panic. He no longer cared about rank or status and almost screamed:
“You were the one who vowed and guaranteed back then that this would definitely succeed! And you were also the one who accepted the Saint Viscount’s massive bribe! Now that things look bad, you want to shift the blame, ignore everything, and just walk away? Is there anything so cheap in this world? You are being too shameless!”
“You…” The Deputy’s face turned livid from Gerald’s sudden counter-attack. He was about to explode, but at that moment…
Wooo—!
A shrill horn blast, sounding like a death knell, suddenly rang out from the frontlines of the Fortress, instantly echoing through the entire Snow City Fortress!
That was the horn signaling that the Demons were launching another attack!
The second wave of the assault had begun!
On the Fortress walls, Gerald and the Deputy both turned bloodless in an instant.
That horn blast, tearing through the night, was like the tolling of a bell for Snow City Fortress.
The second wave of the Demons’ offensive was entirely different from the first.
They seemed to have already seen through the weaknesses of the Fortress’s defensive lines. As such, they were no longer attacking aimlessly or chaotically, but with clear tactical intent.
The sky was obscured by dense swarms of flying Demons, like moving dark clouds casting suffocating shadows. On the ground, a number of Demons far exceeding the first wave surged forward like a tide.
“Hold the line! For Viscount Barnes!”
Even though he was already scared out of his wits, Gerald still pulled the Longsword from his waist. He screamed himself hoarse on the wall, attempting to restore the crumbling morale.
As for the Deputy, the moment the horn had sounded, he had already hidden himself within the Fortress.
the soldiers of Barnes Territory had long since been terrified by the horror of the first wave. Their formations, under the coordinated impact of various bizarre Demons, melted away as quickly as snow under a hot sun.
The first crack appeared on the eastern side of the defense.
Under the cover of a massive number of Low-ranked Demons, the flying Demons focused their bombardment on one corner of the soldier formation. Accompanied by a deafening roar and clouds of dust, the Magic Circle formation finally revealed a massive gap.
“A gap! A gap has appeared in the formation!”
Desperate cries spread among the soldiers. General Gerald was currently being dragged toward the interior of the Fortress by his personal guards.
The Demons, who had been waiting for a long time, were like sharks scenting blood. They flooded through the gap. From that point on, the soldiers of the Barnes Territory no longer had the ability to resist the Demons.
The defensive line collapsed instantly. The Demons soon swarmed up to the final wall of the Fortress defense.
Under the protection of his guards, Gerald fled in panic from the Fortress toward the relatively safe underground. Using Magic, he saw the apocalyptic scene outside the Fortress walls, and his face lost every last trace of color.
In the depths of his heart, only total terror and regret remained.
“It’s over… everything is over…”
He sat slumped on the ground, staring blankly and muttering to himself.
The final collapse came from the city gate.
Under the pincer attack from the sky and the ground, the soldiers holding the main gate finally broke completely. They threw away their weapons and fled in all directions.
After a heavy thud of impact, the massive city gate was forcibly breached from the outside!
Like a burst dam, an endless stream of Demons surged through the wide-open gate, completely flooding into this steel Fortress that had once stood immovable.
Long before the horn had blown, everyone else inside the Fortress had already hidden in secure bunkers.
On the other side of the Fortress, the Deputy, after seeing the Demons covering the sky, hurriedly followed his guards toward the exit of the Fortress.
However, the moment he was about to step out of the Fortress, a Longsword landed in front of him. It scared him into taking a step back, and he stumbled, falling to the ground.
Clack, clack, clack—
Accompanied by the sound of footsteps, Morton appeared in front of him, leading two or three Knights.