SWNOVELXO Chapter 345
Chapter 346. River of Blood, Mountain of Screams (9)
What Rajis blocked was none other than an arrow.
But something was different.
‘It’s neither Aura nor Mana. What is this power?’
It wasn’t an arrow with a physical form. It was an arrow made of an energy entity, something even Rajis was unfamiliar with.
Unaware that this was the perfect fusion of the strengths of Aura and Mana, known as ‘Ain,’ Rajis was utterly confused.
There was no time to analyze. No time to mourn the dead tactician. The rain of arrows had only just begun, intensifying with each passing moment.
“Ahhh!”
“Wh-where are they! Where are the enemies!”
“Block with Amantiir shields! Steel shields won’t hold!”
It seemed the arrows weren’t targeting just Rajis. From outside, the dull thuds of bodies falling and screams echoed.
At least Rajis, being a Prime, quickly adapted to the arrows and managed to block them. He stepped out of the tent—and immediately saw a scene of hell.
“……”
Just an hour ago, these people were healthy, full of fighting spirit. Now, they lay as corpses, their blood pooling on the ground.
There were more dead than alive. Those still alive trampled over the blood pools, desperately trying to dodge the arrows raining from the sky.
The squelching sound of blood underfoot echoed in Rajis’s ears. For a moment, he felt like he was losing his mind.
“My Lord, my Lord!”
If it weren’t for the voice of his subordinate calling out, Rajis would have been pierced by an arrow.
Regaining his composure, Rajis deflected the arrow and looked to his side. His 5-star Master subordinate was covered in wounds.
“Give us orders, my Lord!”
The subordinate was terrified. But he forced himself to endure, shouting for Rajis to give the command.
‘Orders? Me?’
That’s what being a Lord entails. Rajis had prepared himself, but when it came to actual combat, he found himself at a loss for words.
But he couldn’t stay silent forever. With great effort, he opened his mouth.
“I’ll block the arrows. Find the direction they’re coming from. The enemies must be there.”
Sephira had launched a surprise attack. How they managed to deceive the allied families and get this close was unknown, but the best course of action now was to attack the archers who had ambushed them. That way, they could save more of their allies.
It was a wise judgment, and the subordinate who agreed with him looked up at the sky. But within seconds, he spoke in a voice filled with despair.
“M-my Lord. The arrows are falling from the sky! Like rain…!”
Rajis also knew the arrows were falling from the sky. But how could arrows fall from the sky, and vertically at that?
Even if he didn’t know much about archery, he knew arrows couldn’t be shot like that. From a distance, they had to be shot in an arc.
“That’s impossible. Are you saying Sephira is shooting arrows from above the clouds?”
“It’s not just here. The entire camp is being showered with arrows!”
The subordinate, perhaps losing his mind, even forgot to use honorifics in the end.
Rajis felt like he was losing his mind too. In just two exchanges of words, the number of corpses had doubled. It felt like hundreds were dying every second.
“Damn it!”
The allied families had set up their camp on flat ground. The nearest hill was at least 500 meters away.
This wasn’t a condition where Sephira could launch a surprise attack. A surprise attack required hiding, and the allied families weren’t fools—they had sentries posted.
‘Can they really shoot arrows with this much power from 500 meters away, endlessly? Is that even possible?’
Rajis couldn’t make sense of it. So, for now, he ran to protect the people.
As a Prime, Rajis could handle a wide area alone, and the surviving soldiers hurriedly gathered around him.
But there were only about 50 left. Far more were dying meaninglessly than could be saved.
Above all, Rajis couldn’t guarantee how long he could hold off this rain of arrows.
‘What if this rain of arrows is endless?’
He knew it was absurd, but the situation itself was already beyond absurd.
Then, a booming voice echoed throughout the entire camp.
“All forces!”
It was the voice of Daul, the supreme commander of the allied families.
Those who had been drowning in despair perked up at the commander’s shout.
“Charge at Sephira!”
Daul’s following words were shocking. Charge at Sephira in this situation?
But a commander’s orders are absolute. Surely, there must be a reason for such an order… The soldiers wanted to believe that.
“Ugh, uwaaaaah!”
“Charge!”
If the commanders don’t lead by example, soldiers paralyzed by fear won’t follow. Knowing this well, the Master-level knights, who could at least block the arrows, charged first toward Sephira.
“Shamans! Deploy the barrier!”
Daul, the supreme commander, hadn’t given the charge order recklessly. He instructed the surviving shamans to deploy the prepared barrier, and soon, a net-like barrier began to form in the sky.
“Ooooh!”
“The arrows are being blocked!”
As the arrows falling from the sky were visibly blocked by the barrier, hope began to flicker in the soldiers’ eyes.
“Charge!”
The generals, sensing the moment, gave the order to charge. Simultaneously, those hiding underground also began advancing toward Sephira through tunnels.
Rajis, too, moved according to orders, but unease gripped him.
‘Staying still isn’t good, but does this reckless charge even make sense?’
Thousands had already lost their lives to the rain of arrows. Even the survivors, though they didn’t show it, had their spirits broken.
Those underground had mostly survived, but the planned fog was nowhere to be seen.
But this was war. Once started, it wouldn’t end until one side was utterly defeated.
*
Daul, too, was stunned by the rain of arrows falling from the sky. But, true to his role as supreme commander, he calmly analyzed the situation.
‘The camp is surrounded by flat land with no undulations. Moreover, we’ve been monitoring Sephira’s movements 24/7. A surprise attack is impossible. Yet, arrows keep falling from above us. This is a phenomenon that defies common sense.’
Fwip!
A ricocheting arrow grazed Daul’s shoulder. A chunk of flesh fell, but Daul didn’t stop thinking.
‘If we spread our forces to find the direction of the ambush, Sephira will only target us more. They could pick us off one by one. We’ve been had. Retreat or charge. Neither option favors us.’
He didn’t need to see it to know. The sound told him thousands of soldiers had died.
If they retreated, thousands more would die. Worse than the casualties was the fact that morale, once broken, could never be restored.
The soldiers would tremble in fear. The uncertainty of when the arrows would fall again would haunt them.
‘There’s no answer but to charge.’
We started at a disadvantage, but we haven’t lost yet. The number of Primes still overwhelmingly favors the allied families. Plus, the soldiers in the tunnels are safe.
‘We can’t achieve an overwhelming victory, but we haven’t lost.’
Though the loss of thousands of soldiers was tragic, the Master-level knights were still intact. Daul felt confident enough to give the charge order.
But he hadn’t anticipated one thing: Sephira hadn’t launched a surprise attack.
The allied families’ eyes were sharp. Sephira’s army had never left Sephira. They had simply shot arrows from Sephira.
Who could have predicted that arrows shot from Sephira, 5 kilometers away from the allied camp, would reach here and fall from the sky?
“They’re charging as expected.”
And Keter was watching it all.
On top of the massive earthen wall that hadn’t been there before in Sephira, Keter stopped shooting arrows.
“Brother. Are your hands okay? They’re smoking.”
Maknun, standing beside him, tapped Keter’s hand. Then, feeling the heat, he quickly pulled his hand away.
“Ain Soph is hard to handle. If it weren’t for Eslow’s arm, I wouldn’t have been able to use it at all.”
Keter had just used ‘Ain Soph,’ the power he had longed for.
The higher power of Ain, Ain Soph. Its definition was simple yet complex.
‘Flip the inside and outside of Ain. Then it becomes Ain Soph.’
Easy to say, but nearly impossible to do. How do you define the inside and outside of ‘energy,’ which has no physical form? Even Keter, called a genius among geniuses, couldn’t grasp it.
What made it possible was the fact that he had absorbed a dragon’s heart and obtained Eslow’s prosthetic arm, which had experience using Ain Soph.
“Not bad for something forced, right?”
“Indeed. It’s a good thing you’re not the enemy, brother.”
Attacking enemies thousands of meters away. Not just one or two, but tens of thousands simultaneously. The enemies had no choice but to be hit. There was no other option.
Like now, charging toward the enemy’s main base or running away—there was no other choice. They were caught in a hellish dilemma.
“Ah, brother. There might be some coming through the tunnels. Over there.”
Daat pointed to a spot with his finger. It looked like ordinary ground, but it was the entrance to a tunnel made by the allied families.
The allied families thought Sephira hadn’t noticed, but they were only half right.
Sephira hadn’t noticed, but Daat had.
Since Sephira had to be fooled for the allied families to be fooled, Daat had deliberately hidden the tunnel’s existence from Sephira.
“Those coming through the tunnels can just be buried alive.”
Keter shrugged his shoulders and placed his palm on the ground. Then, Toban began to glow.
This massive earthen tower was something Keter had created in the blink of an eye. The tunnels, supported by mere wood, couldn’t withstand the power of Toban, the divine artifact of earth.
Rumble! Crash!
The ground outside Sephira’s walls began to collapse. The long, snake-like tunnels leading to the allied camp were being buried.
Total: 4,927.
All those charging through the tunnels toward Sephira were buried alive. The allied soldiers charging forward didn’t realize it.
Who could have predicted that this rumbling was the sound of thousands of their comrades being buried alive?
Having dealt with more than half the enemy without even facing them, Keter crossed his arms. His arm was a bit numb from overusing Ain Soph, but he still had some energy left.
Yet, he stopped attacking because he needed someone to spread the word.
“If we kill them all before they even get close to Sephira, who will spread the rumors?”
So Keter waited, not shooting any more arrows. There was a reason for this.
Soon, the allied forces finally reached a point where Sephira’s walls were visible, and they stopped without any orders from their commanders.
“……”
“Ah……”
The archers of Sephira, densely lined up on the walls, greeted the allied forces.
Keter hadn’t attacked alone. Just before the attack, he had told everyone to prepare.
The archers weren’t just on the walls. There weren’t enough spots, so they had lined up outside the gates on the flat ground.
The knights at the front hesitated. Even though they were armed with Amantiir armor and trained not to fear arrows—they were still afraid of Sephira’s archers.
They knew charging forward would only turn them into porcupines and kill them. They knew their sacrifice would ensure the safety of the troops behind them. They knew war required sacrifices… but…
“This… this can’t be.”
A proud and honorable knight was the first to step back.
It wasn’t just one person’s impulsive action. Fearing they might be within the archers’ range, many turned their backs and started retreating.
“What’s this! Why are you coming back?”
“Stop!”
“Don’t do this!”
“Get out of the way!”
Those trying to go back and those trying to go forward tangled together. People fell, were trampled, and fights broke out.
Sephira hadn’t shot a single arrow, yet the allied forces were collapsing on their own.
The commanders watching this felt devastated but had to admit it.
‘Where did it all go wrong?’
Everything had been going well. They had been monitoring Sephira’s movements 24/7 without fail. They were confident that a full-scale attack using the fog tonight would surely win—but at some point, they felt defeat creeping in.
The sight of Sephira’s archers waiting in advance, and the allied soldiers panicking and falling into despair, was laid bare. Even the enemy, Sephira, felt pity.
Then it happened.
Four figures charged rapidly from the allied side.
“Everyone, fall back! We’ll take it from here!”
The Primes of the allied families.
They still refused to admit defeat.
Though their numerical advantage was gone, they believed that if they combined their strength, they could still win. After all, Sephira had no Primes.
Garcia family’s Sword Dragon, Rajis.
Garcia family’s Knight Captain, Magon.
Marquis Ruvan’s elder, Dust of the Gale.
Marquis Ruvan’s Storm Knight Captain and former Southern Sword, Jerpy Ruvan.
But the four of them stopped their charge as if by agreement. Because one person had appeared before them.
“The guy you all hate, here I am.”
As if by agreement, the four immediately used their Authority upon seeing Keter.