From the sky, these massive spell formations were larger than the castles below.
“Players, prepare to sortie!” Esa’s voice rang through the command channels.
Players who had been on the walls moved off, forming into parties and groups.
Deia continued to watch the destruction being waged through the air.
The Dragons’ spell formation unleashed a hellish rain that descended upon the Xelur-occupied castles as if meteors returning to the planet. Massive glowing barriers covered the castles. The Xelur burned their souls in order to gain cover from this oncoming barrage.
Those castles that weren’t under attack unleashed their own attacks at the four newly arrived Dragons. Among these attacks, Demon Lords raced into the sky, treating the sky as if it were land as they went to meet these Dragons.
The Dragons wheeled apart, dodging the beams of light with aerobatics that made Deia watch in awe. Hits peppered their personal Mana barriers as spell formations unleashed spells at their attackers.
The Xelur burned soul energy, enhancing their natural abilities as they fought against spells as if they were spears and swords, not magical formed creations.
It was a terrifying sight as these forces clashed in the sky above the portal.
“They’re nearly at the walls!” Lox yelled over the sound of fighting. His sword and axe formed in his hands.
Deia looked to everyone. They were all looking to the sky in wonder of the fight there. But with Lox’s words, their looks of awe hardened as they checked weapons or started to circulate their Mana so as to instacast their attacks.
The Mana barrier of the northern castle was quickly failing as the roars of the oncoming Xelur were clearer than ever. The very ground shook with their progress.
“Ready yourselves!” a commander called out. His deep voice made those on the walls brace themselves. Hundreds of small white beams illuminated the Mana barrier. The charging forces now added in their own attacks; for them to display their full power, they needed to get rid of this Mana barrier.
The Xelur might be a techno race that fell backward but they were as smart as any of the people on Emerilia.
The Mana barrier shone with brilliant light, weathering the impacts for a time. Finally, it was unable to take the attacks. Holes appeared within the barrier before suddenly the runes that were supporting the Mana barrier stopped lighting up with power and the Mana barrier collapsed!
“Use individual Mana barriers!” Esa called out.
In different areas, smaller barriers were activated to cover the people within their area of effect. They weren’t as good as the Mana barrier of the castle but they could blunt the worst attacks and give those underneath a better chance.
The main gate closest to the eastern side shook with an impact. More and more impacts sounded against the gate as the sound of metal hitting stone could be heard along the walls.
“They’re trying to break down the gate and climb the walls!” someone called out.
“Area attacks outside the gate and the walls. Archers, hit anything that moves out there,” Esa ordered.
With the Mana barrier down, they had lost their protection; however, they had regained their visibility. Mages and ranged attackers unleashed concentrated attacks that they had been holding back. Arrows left the castle in droves, whistling overhead to land among the Xelur and cutting them down as they continued to race toward the castle’s outer walls.
The Xelur didn’t let this pass as their Demon Lords started to reach the walls. With their soul-enhanced strength, they smashed into the walls, leaving large impacts as they continued to swing their weapons. Others got to the wall, leaping onto them, using their claws or weapons to climb the walls.
The castle’s outer walls were covered in Xelur fighters working their way up the wall. There were simply too many of them to be all killed by the spells and ranged attacks.
“We’ve got Xelur in the seventh and ninth area!” someone called out.
Deia looked to those areas, where Xelur were fighting with the Terra Alliance people. They’d created an opening on the wall; more and more of the attackers rushed to get into that gap and reinforce them. With each death, the Xelur would grow stronger, pulling the souls from their own fallen and the fallen from the Alliance. Much as Dave’s armor did.
With each death, the Xelur were absorbing their soul power, their average power keeping up with their consumption or even slightly increasing.
This made them a terrifying enemy as they wielded their blood rune weapons.
Lu Lu unleashed a lightning attack from Suzy’s shoulder, stunning the Xelur Demons that had made it over the wall in the seventh section of the wall. Most would have been killed by the attack but the Xelur were tough opponents and were merely stunned for a while.
Thankfully, this gave the people on the wall the opportunity to drive them back.
The first Xelur Demon made it to the wall. They roared in victory; from their body, it seemed that their soul aura erupted, killing off the POEs within the area. It twirled its spear and smashed through three others that had been nearby. His strength was so great as to throw them from the wall and into the Xelur waiting below.
All across the walls, there was fighting. There wasn’t a single place where people weren’t fighting for their lives.
Deia pulled out her bow. Drawing the string back, she sighted the Xelur and unleashed her arrows. Her accuracy was uncanny, as if she were some war goddess who had trained with the bow all of her life.
Xelur fell to her attacks while Induca and Malsour created lances from their respective Mana and started to add their own pressure to the Xelur forces. Steve now wore his own modified Devastator armor, increasing his defense and his abilities. He, unlike Lox and Gurren, instead of being sealed away, in a space of holding, was actually connected to the armor.
He, Gurren, and Lox put their weapons away. The runes around their wrists lit up as they fired Mana spears into the oncoming attackers.
Streams flew from Jung Lee, each of them a condensed spell. Jekoni linked to these spirits and was able to draw on their power with the bond that he had with Jung Lee.
From Dave’s bag of holding, he threw out Mana grenades that Suzy’s Air creations gathered up and headed out toward the walls with. Moments later, the rumbling explosions of the grenades could be heard as the creations returned for more of the grenades.
Deia concentrated on the Xelur Demon Lords. She hit one in the arm, making their attack go wide as a POE who would have died continued with their own attack, driving their spear into the Demon Lord’s chest.
The Demon Lord let out a howl of rage. Its other hand was covered in a soul glow as it smashed into the POE, crushing their helmet and dropping them to the ground.
The Xelur Demon Lord looked directly at Deia. It leapt into the air and pulled out the arrows from its sword arm. Its wounds on its chest and arm healed at a visible speed.
Deia drew and released arrows faster than one could blink. The Xelur Demon, now with nowhere to go as it was in the sky trying to attack Deia, was able to defend against a number of the arrows but because it had not made it to a high enough rank, it didn’t have the power or the ability to walk through the air as other Xelur Demon Lords could.
Deia’s arrows tore through the Xelur where they hit. Even as the Demon Lord tried to heal itself, its body grew smaller. With the consumption of so much soul force, it was thrown backward with the impacts of the arrows.
Deia, seeing that it would escape her and fall back over the wall, clicked the runed wheel on her bow over. A magical formation appeared in front of her bow as she released the arrow; the magical formation empowered it. It shot through the air like a red streak.
The Xelur Demon wasn’t able to bring its sword up in time and looked at its chest in confusion. A wide hole, from where the arrow had hit, appeared in his chest as he dropped lifelessly over the wall.
Deia didn’t spend any more time on the Demon Lord as she loo
ked back to where other Demon Lords were fighting along the wall. With her enhanced arrows, she was able to help those on the walls and quickly bring down these Demon Lords.
“The gates won’t be able to hold much longer!” a Dark mage yelled.
The gates had been sealed up with metal and stone to make it harder for the Xelur but they didn’t care.
A massive, full-grown Grand Demon Lord at fifteen meters tall landed outside the wall. It had run and jumped from the castle that it had been in. When it landed, a massive crater was imprinted into the ground.
He pulled out his sword, piercing the wall in front of him. With an eager laugh, the Grand Demon Lord was covered in his soul aura. The aura passed down his hand and covered his blade, appearing like flames as the demon swung his sword once again.
It hit the wall, this time making it shake as the half-foot cut from before turned into a foot-and-a-half deep gouge. The reinforced and rune-covered stone showed signs of burning and melting around the edges of the cut.
“Concentrate on the Grand Demon Lord!” Deia called out to the rest of Party Zero.
Deia flicked the wheel on her bow. Angular sheets appeared around her as they did when she cast the plasma cannon spell. The sheets surrounded her bow as a series of magical formations appeared in front of it.
Deia drew an arrow of blue flame. It tore through the sky. But even as the air around it seemed distorted, there didn’t seem to be any heat leaking from the arrow made from condensed flame.
The Xelur Grand Demon used their massive sword, which was nearly as big as Steve’s axe, and hit the flame arrow. It diverted some of the strength of the flame arrow as it exploded on hitting its sword.
The space beside the Xelur Demon Lord turned into a blue sun for a moment. The Grand Demon Lord’s aura flickered and fought the massive power that was contained within the arrow.
The Demon Lord stumbled sideways for a few meters. His sword melted and distorted, even with the protective and enhancing soul aura around it.
The Grand Demon Lord looked up as the rest of Party Zero unleashed their attacks.
From Jung Lee’s hand, a gray spear was released. The Grand Demon Lord was able to hit the gray spear but it was only slightly weaker than the blue arrow.
As it passed, a shock wave of air hit the Demon Lord. Although it didn’t explode like the arrow, the force of the wind was enough to shock and disturb the Demon Lord.
Induca unleashed a plasma cannon spell, which hit the off-balance Grand Demon Lord.
Its soul aura weakened, flickering for a moment before returning. The Xelur Demon Lord seemed to grow slightly shorter, pulling on its deep power reserves.
Anna’s attack didn’t leave the Grand Demon Lord much time to react as a tornado of wind was sent flying from her sword. This twisting and cutting attack found his shoulder, cutting deep into the creature’s arm and revealing muscle underneath.
His body started to regenerate as Gurren, Lox, and Steve’s attacks seemed to only increase in ferocity.
The area around the Grand Demon Lord seemed to fluctuate as Dave’s orbs appeared around him. A spell formation from these different orbs was created, pinning them down as it was hit with another round of attacks. Its body went from fifteen meters tall to just ten meters.
The Xelur soldiers all noticed this as well. Their attacks became wilder as they hit the walls and tried to climb the walls to engage those on top. Those that were closest to the Grand Demon Lord were attacking the different orbs that were around them.
They were trying to break him out!
One of the orbs failed, and the Xelur focused on the others.
“I can’t hold him for much longer,” Dave said.
“I’m nearly done,” Malsour said as a spell formation appeared around him.
Deia looked at the spell formation, understanding it was one of Malsour’s stronger attacks.
Party Zero had been doing their best to suppress the Grand Demon Lord without going all out. The night was young and the battle had only just started. If they were to use up all of their power now, then there would be no time for them to regain their strength later.
There was no knowing what life-and-death situations they would find this night.
Even with Party Zero’s power, they weren’t able to kill the Xelur Demon Lord one on one—unless they were willing to sacrifice deep reserves of power.
Another orb failed and then another. The Grand Demon Lord’s aura erupted, going from ten meters tall to eight in an instant. Burning all of that supporting soul power made him look like some kind of war god of destruction, with his Xelur minions aiding him in his escape.
With a shout, the Grand Demon Lord pulled out a new sword from the dead around him and cut at the wall with it, letting out a wild howl filled with rage.
A blade of soul energy refined into a single slash crashed against the wall, making it shake violently as a hole appeared within the outer walls.
“Kill them all and refine their souls!” The Grand Demon Lord’s voice carried through the air, reaching Party Zero as he stared at them, his eyes filled with pure anger.
They had made him burn so much of his soul power that he had been building up for nearly a century.
“Got it!” Malsour said as Xelur started to swarm toward the breach within the wall. The Xelur now gained access to the corridors that ran through the outer walls where the archers, mages, and ranged attackers lay.
Esa could be heard calling for people to move to the breach and push back the Xelur. The defenders who were within the area stopped firing on the Xelur outside and started to fight for their own lives within those corridors.
The Xelur, now with less ranged attackers firing on them, were able to push forward with larger numbers, swarming the breached wall and making it over the top.
The Grand Demon Lord rushed forward, making it ten meters.
A realm of darkness descended over him, blocking out all light. Shrieks of pain filled the air as Xelur around the Grand Demon Lord were affected by the attack.
Flashes of white soul energy rippled through that dark dome.
Party Zero added their own aid to the people on the top of the wall, unable to see into the corridors where Xelur and the people of the Terra Alliance were fighting a fierce battle to control the breach.
A beam of light hit the walls, leaving a half-foot-deep groove as it swept across the wall, catching casting balconies and arrow slits.
The balcony shields were powerful but the Xelur had been hitting them this entire time, trying to get the mages who were using these platforms to rain powerful spells down on them. These balconies’ Mana barriers weren’t as strong as the castle’s original Mana barrier and quickly fell under this powerful beam’s attack.
Some unlucky mages and archers were hit by this soul-powered attack, letting out screams of pain. Some died immediately, while the wounded were left in a terrible state.
Others tried to pull them away, adding to the groups of wounded that were being funneled through the ono within the castle, back to Terra.
More forces that had been held in reserve were pushed through the ono and to the walls around the castle to try to keep up with the casualties.
“Grand Demon Lord!” someone called out. A marker appeared in front of everyone. A second Demon Lord had made it onto the battlefield.
They had been the one to cast the focused attack. They launched themselves from where they’d been reaching the base of the outer wall.
Party Zero couldn’t see down to the base of the castle and were unable to attack the newly arrived Grand Demon Lord.
“Another one!” someone else called out. A new marker appeared as a Grand Demon Lord that was almost parallel with the ground charged forward. Within his hands, he carried a massive war hammer.
Attacks rained down around the Grand Demon Lord but he was able to dodge as he moved closer, his aura erupted, defending him from these attacks and his speed increased even higher.
�
�He’s going for the gate,” Dave said.
“If he comes through, we have to put him down,” Deia said.
If the Grand Demon Lord made it inside, then he would slaughter nearly all of the POE within.
The majority of players who were within the castle were actually logged off, dealing with real-world life stuff or getting sleep so that they were ready for the battle tomorrow morning. Some were coming online in a hurry after learning about the battle that was happening now but it was only a thousand or so of them.
The POEs within the castle were mostly mages, dwarven artillery, and people who were good at ranged attacks.
The reinforcements they were getting were good and they were also more melee-based. But they didn’t know this castle or what threats they were facing that well. They were just reacting, which, although it helped, didn’t make them as effective as they could be.
The Xelur were driven; they had the numbers and the powerful forces to put to use. They were able to fight weaker Dragons in the air and could group together to try to take down the more powerful creatures.
“Looks like we’ll get to go all out pretty soon,” Anna said.
“Remember, always make sure we’re close together. If we get separated, we can’t help one another,” Deia reminded them. She had changed back to regular arrows, killing Xelur that had unknowingly entered her range as they stepped upon the outer walls.
“Dammit!” Malsour’s realm of darkness was banished as the Xelur Grand Demon Lord standing within an aura a meter wide seemed to be burning off his skin. The Xelur bodies around him shook as their soul energy was all pulled into the Grand Demon Lord, growing from his reduced five-meter-tall stature back to ten meters.
It activated one of its Legendary abilities and hurled its sword. A massive magical formation appeared around the now mangled sword from blocking Party Zero’s attacks.
The sword smashed into the outer wall, cutting inside it and passing through the inner corridor to the wall on the other side. It smashed into the ground between the outer wall and the castle in the middle of a group of players.
Emerilia Series Box Set 4 Page 47
