SWNOVELXO Chapter 201: Chapter 202: The Broken Wall
Chapter 202: The Broken Wall
The air near the Ironroot Bastion was wrong.
It wasn't the silence—it was how silent. No birdsong, no rustling wind, no magic drifting naturally in the ley-lines. Even the trees stood too still, as if afraid to breathe.
Vaelyss raised a fist, halting the column.
"This is where the ward perimeter used to be," she said quietly. "There should be scouts posted here. And mana beacons…"
She looked around.
None remained.
Only stone warped into curves that hadn't been there before. Spiral grooves melted into trees. The soil itself had cracked into unnatural arcs, as if the land had twisted under pressure it couldn't resist.
Isaac stepped forward.
The fortress ahead loomed in ruin.
Its once-grand gates hung open and shattered. Walls blackened with mana burns. And above the threshold, carved into the stone—scorched as if by branding—was a wide spiral mark, rippling faintly with violet-gray energy.
Selene's eyes narrowed. "This pattern shouldn't exist here. Not unless…"
"Unless a god's will is bleeding through," Isaac finished softly.
Lira drew her weapon. "Let's clear it."
—
The group advanced slowly through the outer yard, moving between charred barricades and broken siege lines.
A dead elven sentinel leaned against a wall, dried blood pooled beneath her. No visible wounds—only the hollowed, glassy stare of someone who had seen too much before dying.
Then one of the Vaelorn soldiers reached out.
He touched the spiral mark burned into the stone beside the gate.
"Wait—!" Sylvalen began.
Too late.
The soldier froze.
His pupils widened unnaturally, and his mouth dropped open as if choking on something unseen. His body convulsed once, then twice, before he screamed—high, broken, primal.
"HE SEES—HE SEES—HE SEES—"
Vaelyss seized him, forced him back, and knocked him unconscious with a clean blow.
Everyone drew weapons.
The air had changed.
From silence… to waiting.
Then the gates burst open.
—
The monsters did not walk.
They crawled, skittered, twisted forward—broken and rebuilt by something that did not understand anatomy, only repetition.
Wolf-like beasts with spider legs and no eyes.A deer fused with armor plates, twitching and leaking mana.And one horror—a centipede with a fused human torso that screamed in three voices.
They came fast.
They came screaming.
And Isaac met them head-on.
"[Phantom Legion – Rank EX]," he whispered.
A wave of spectral weapons burst from his side—spears, glaives, swords—all moving in perfect formation. They danced across the yard, carving the beasts apart before they reached the soldiers.
Lira raised her hand. "[Stormlash!]"
Lightning forked from her fingertips, chaining through the charging swarm. The air cracked and hissed.
Selene stepped into the path of a lunging hound-beast and raised her hand—flame licked around her fingers as a barrier of soulfire erupted, incinerating the creature mid-air.
Behind them, Vaelyss shouted orders. "Hold the line! Rotate forward! Defensive formation six!"
But more kept coming.
Dozens.
Twisting, reforming, crawling.
Until Isaac's eyes narrowed and he whispered: "[Devourer Omega Matrix – Ω Rank]."
He stepped forward.
And the battlefield tilted in his favor.
With each kill, his presence grew.
The spiral-tainted beasts began to hesitate.
But it wasn't fear.
It was recognition.
As if something inside them understood him—and hated him.
—
After the last monster fell, twitching in the dirt, silence returned.
The courtyard was a ruin.
Bodies twitched.
Ash fell like black snow.
And somewhere, deeper in the fortress, a single voice began to speak.
—
They found it in the command hall.
An elven corpse sat slumped in a throne-like chair, flesh bloated and covered in spiraled glyphs. Dead for days, maybe more.
But as they entered, the corpse's mouth opened on its own.
A dry, gurgling rasp echoed through the air, followed by two voices layered imperfectly atop one another:
"You are not of my order."
"The devourer walks against the weave."
Isaac stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
The corpse spasmed.
"Spiral will correct."
"Spiral will feed."
"He will come…"
Its eyes rolled back.
"…wearing no shape.And many."
Then its mouth split open too wide—
And a second spiral glyph bloomed from the tongue.
Isaac didn't hesitate.
A bolt of soulflame tore through the body and silenced it for good.
—
The others stared in heavy silence.
Even Vaelyss said nothing.
Selene finally broke it. "That… wasn't just corruption."
Lira shook her head. "That was a message."
Sylvalen turned to Isaac.
"Someone's watching us."
Isaac's jaw clenched.
Not just watching.
Waiting.