Chapter 260: Faith Ascension
Twilight had arrived.
The blood-red sun hung precariously at the edge of the world, its dying rays
reflecting off the Crimson Purgatory to bathe the Gale Prairie in an unnatural,
sickening hue.
The Aegis Legion Centurion was down on one knee. His tower-shield was a network
of jagged cracks, and the soulfire in his sockets had dimmed to a pathetic,
flickering spark. Behind him, his thousands of Aegis Giants were in a similar
state—their Od wells were dry, their frames rattling, and their spirits hovering
at the absolute precipice of termination.
The logistical flood of medicine and Od-transfers from the citizens had slowed
the collapse, but it hadn't changed the tactical math. The sapphire-blue shield
had been compressed until it occupied a radius of barely a hundred meters in
front of the gates.
One more retreat, and they would be pushed against the very walls they were
sworn to defend. Behind them lay the Imperial subjects—thousands of Orcs, Elves,
and Humans who had collapsed from exhaustion, slumped beside empty supply
crates.
There was nowhere left to fall back to.
The Centurion turned his skull, looking at the spent populace. He saw the
sisters of the Evernight Cathedral sprawled on the stones, having squeezed every
drop of Mana from their bodies to sustain the line. He saw the common porters,
their muscles locked in tremors, leaning against the cold stone for support.
On the battlements, a Lizard-folk warrior suddenly felt his vision go dark. His
balance failed, and he began to tumble toward the abyss of the wall. A comrade
reached out to seize his tunic, but his own arm refused to obey—he lacked even
the strength to lift a finger.
"Is this the conclusion...?" an Elven mage whispered, slumping against a
crenellation as his staff clattered uselessly away. "Gods, what a waste. If I
knew I was dying in a ditch today, I wouldn't have haggled over that bottle of
Vollachian red last night. I should have gone out with a bit of flair."
Outside the dome, the sea of bone remained infinite. The million-man host of the
Necrotic Realm continued its slow, mechanical advance, a grey tide that seemed
impossible to stem.
And then, it happened.
A faint, crystalline snap echoed through the Crimson Purgatory.
The sound was tiny—a needle dropping in a hurricane—but every soul in Gale City
heard it. It was the sound of a law being rewritten.
The Centurion snapped his focus toward the horizon. The sun had finally vanished
behind the mountain peaks.
The light was gone.
The Evernight had arrived.
Against the sudden, absolute black of the prairie, the red glow of the enemy's
barrier looked like a festering wound.
Then, the Centurion felt it.
A wave of power, vast and unquantifiable, surged from the Void. It didn't drift
through the air; it pierced through the Crimson Purgatory, ignored the
structural laws of space, and bypassed every physical obstacle. It slammed
directly into the Centurion's dying soulfire like a tidal wave of sapphire ice.
BOOM!
In a single micro-second, the Centurion's spark detonated into a roaring
inferno. The dim, grey ember was incinerated, replaced by a pillar of blue light
that shot from his eye sockets and pierced the heavens.
His internal "System" began to redline as his Tier ascended at a rate that
defied Planar logic.
Tier 5 Peak... Tier 6 Initial... Middle... Upper... Tier 6 PEAK!
He wasn't alone.
In front of the gates, the soulfire of every single Aegis Giant erupted in a
simultaneous, blinding flare. Thousands of blue light-pillars punched through
the dark, turning the night into an artificial day.
Their Od wells were refilled to overflowing. Their structural damage was
repaired in a heartbeat. Their biological and spiritual parameters were boosted
far beyond their previous peak.
The Aegis Centurion looked down at his gauntlets. Faint, blue circuitry-like
lines of Mana flowed across his bones—energy so concentrated it had achieved
physical form.
He clenched his fist. This was Tier 6 power. A realm he hadn't even dared to
dream of. He felt the weight of the Sovereign's gaze upon his marrow.
"[Faith Ascension]..." he whispered, the vibration of his voice rattling the
nearby stones.
Behind him, the citizens watched the miracle with wide, disbelieving eyes. The
exhaustion vanished, replaced by a frantic, religious fervor.
"What is this?! The light!" "It's the Sovereign! He has answered us!" "I have
never seen such a manifestation! To witness this... my life is fulfilled!"
The Orc Father of the Cathedral scrambled to his feet. He raised his hands high,
his voice booming with a new, reinforced power.
"THIS IS THE EVERNIGHT!" "SUBJECTS OF THE KING, CLAIM YOUR PROVIDENCE!" "WHERE
THE KING STANDS, THE NIGHT IS ETERNAL!" "WHERE THE NIGHT PERSISTS, THE EMPIRE IS
IMMORTAL!"
As the Priest chanted, the strength of the Aegis Legion continued to climb. The
[Immovable Fortress] shield they were maintaining underwent a structural
metamorphosis.
A sapphire shockwave erupted from the city gates, expanding outward like a
kinetic tsunami. The Necrotic thralls pressed against the shield didn't even
have time to register a threat before the blue light-curtain expanded through
them, grinding their bones into microscopic dust.
The expansion didn't stop. It continued to surge across the prairie, claiming
the territory back from the invaders. Eventually, it settled into a gargantuan
hemispherical dome, enveloping Gale City and tens of kilometers of the
surrounding grasslands.
The Blue Shield and the Crimson Purgatory met. Two absolute Authorities clashed,
causing space itself to twist and warp visibly at the boundary. But this time,
the blue light did not buckle. It held its ground with the stubbornness of a
mountain, neutralizing every ounce of pressure Thanatos could muster.
In the center of the battlefield.
Inside the sector that had been frozen by the [Space-Time Cage].
The tens of thousands of Imperial soldiers stood like statues, still caught in
their final, desperate poses. But as the clock struck the hour of the Evernight,
their soulfire ignited in a synchronized explosion of sapphire flame.
The flickering blue fire punched through the temporal seals. The grey
Mana-chains binding them began to spiderweb under the pressure of the incoming
Od before shattering into a million useless links.
Crack. Snap. Shatter.
The Cage was demolished.
The Imperial Vanguard—Centurion 269 and his legions—regained their mobility.
Their Mana surged. Their ranks broke through the ceilings of their potential.
Tier 3... Tier 4... Tier 5... Tier 6 PEAK!
Every Imperial soldier on the field had been ascended to the summit of Tier 6.
Centurion 269 flexed his wrist, his joints emitting a sharp, rhythmic series of
clicks. He looked down at his frame, his soulfire burning with an
uncontrollable, lethal joy.
"I can feel it," he vibrated. "The Master is watching."
He gripped his Bone-Cleaving Greatsword, the death-energy wreathed around the
blade now so thick it looked like flowing obsidian smoke.
The Death Knights of the Fearless Vanguard remounted their steeds. The hellfire
erupting from the horses' nostrils was now three times as intense, scorching the
dirt beneath them. The Vampires of the State Army licked their fangs, their eyes
glowing with a predatory, Tier-6 hunger. The Shadow Guards vanished into a
darkness that was now their absolute domain.
Everyone felt it. The source of the surge.
In a single, unchoreographed movement, every soldier turned their skull toward
the distant horizon.
They couldn't see the Sovereign's face. But they knew.
The Master was looking at them. And he expected a return on his investment.
☆☆☆
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