'Signal!' The piercing sound sent shivers down Ordyntsev's spine at the speed of light.
"Mari, Kaede, we're leaving!" Stas barked, spinning around and sprinting towards the towering black mass of the keep.
He had good reason to hurry. The death and negative emotions that reigned around them had a direct influence on Kaede, making her much more brutal and furious, while also causing her to lose her head a bit.
Hearing Stas's words and licking her lips, Kaede tossed aside the half-dead body from which she had been extracting spiritual energy just moments before.
Mari, on the other hand, disciplined as ever, surrounded herself with shadows, confusing her enemies, and then leaped to her master.
Levi had received the order through their bond, so she moved almost before Ordyntsev himself.
At the same time, many other fighters also turned around, driven by the tense shouts of their commanders, to run away from the walls.
Stas glanced back.
As he had expected, most of the ordinary warmasters remained on the walls. Nevertheless, some of them were still running for safety, albeit overtaken by the advanced warmasters.
The remaining fighters watched their departing comrades with confusion and indignation. But even so, there was no panic. Those fighting believed that the higher-ups had a plan.
The earthling frowned, not understanding how the remaining troops were supposed to withstand the unrelenting pressure.
Moreover, the attackers, seeing the strange behavior of the defenders, intensified their assault, aiming to strike the retreating in the back.
Apparently, the Mizuno commanders deemed it crucial not to give the Sumada and the Rashita samurais even a chance to implement whatever plan they had conceived.
But in the next second, it became clear what the defenders were counting on.
The defensive barrier, after a flicker, disappeared sharply, only to reappear above the first, almost destroyed, line of walls.
And before Stas could pose the obvious question, the barrier filled with green light in a matter of seconds and then imploded abruptly.
The surviving sections of the walls then simply exploded, scattering chunks of stone around.
The blast wasn't too powerful, but it was enough to slow down the attackers, giving the doomed defenders a chance to catch their breath.
The delayed strike of the supreme warmasters hit the newly reactivated barrier above the second line of walls.
'Master Satoshi is well worth his salt. I doubt anyone besides him could switch such massive arrays of seals so quickly,' Stas thought.
But even with such help, the ordinary and few remaining advanced warmasters physically couldn't withstand the pressure.
One by one, the sections of the defenders' front were breached, and the attackers chased after the fleeing troops.
'We're not going to make it,' Stas realized abruptly. Leviathan's senses reported gigantic volumes of earth prana beneath the fortress - the supreme warmasters were finishing forming the defensive plates.
And when they were done, the "doors" would slam shut.
Their problem was that Mari and Leviathan had expended too much strength in battle, falling further behind with each passing second.
He had to do something. And quickly.
Stas's eyes fixed on the exhausted Mari. She wasn't looking at him, so she couldn't see the calculating expression in his eyes.
'If I decide to help her, I risk being unable to save myself. She's not worth it.' The merciless acknowledgment of this thought was a logical and thoroughly calculated decision.
Ordyntsev concentrated all his remaining prana in his legs, making his muscles hum with the strain. Moreover, he pushed the flowing prana with all his might through his channels, causing them to explode with searing pain.
'Insensate Demon Technique!'
His muscles, strained to the breaking point, instantly stopped hurting, but Stas was under no illusions. Right at that moment, his body was crossing the safety limit.
"Kaede! Grab Leviathan and run as fast as you can!" he ordered in one breath, then swiftly turned and dashed to Mari, who squeaked as she was casually scooped up under his arm.
Her face was pressed against his torn armor with such speed and force that it broke her nose, but now was hardly the best time to worry about anyone's comfort. As for her mask, she apparently lost it during the battle.
The glowing barrier above them vanished with a deafening clap. At the exact moment, one of the walls literally exploded with a mixture of water and stone.
The force of the blast was such that those standing on the wall or behind it didn't even realize they were already dead. Heavy waves deceptively leisurely spilled into the inner courtyard.
Even at such a distance, one could see a figure with crossed arms riding pompously on the crest of a small tsunami, like a surfer.
The supreme warmasters of Mizuno were already here.
As if that weren't enough, a giant blue slash simultaneously took out several fleeing Sumada warmasters and a couple of Rashita samurai. The Higatsudo blade masters had also arrived.
As Stas ran back, Mei and Eiji zoomed past without paying any attention to him. One's own skin is, as they say, closer to the body.
'Forward!'
The earth splashed out in all directions as the earthling's legs struck it with monstrous force, impossible for an ordinary living being.
The air resistance instantly increased to such extreme magnitudes that the man had to cover his body with prana to be able to break through the surrounding "jelly."
The Insensate Demon was counting down its last seconds of effect, and behind, the incoming water roared. Left to fate, the weak Sumada, expendable samurai, and all the ordinary people were rapidly dying, giving a few precious seconds for an escape to those who were faster.
Why had he even rushed to save Mari? After all, he couldn't help but realize that he was risking his own life.
The world would not change from the death of one Rinako. The heavens would not fall, nor would the earth split asunder.
Another matter was himself. A talented medic and scientist. His ideas could forever change the approach to understanding prana and its use.
Not to mention that he was already on the verge of grasping the principle of immortality he had long sought. Only a small step remained - so why would he give up all this for a mere savage?
It's funny, but the real reason for Stanislav's actions turned out to be surprisingly childish. He simply thought that if he left Mari to die, this cursed world would win, finally turning him into something ugly and terrifying. Much like this very world itself.
And despite logic and "rightness," now he was tearing at his muscles, trying to outrun his death.
But Stas's actions did bear fruit; when the Insensate Demon came to an end, he was already at the doors of the keep.
The agony that crashed upon his mind made him stumble, but by sheer willpower, he contained it and continued running with Mari dangling in his hands.
The narrow corridors couldn't accommodate all the runners, causing bottlenecks, so at some point, he had to resort to extreme measures.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The blockage in front of him, made of jostling warmasters, Stas scattered without caring about broken bones or caved-in heads.
In any case, now was not the time for anyone to pay attention to such trivial details.
And when he finally burst into the impressive hall where the supreme warmasters had gathered, he fully realized that the attempt to save even part of the ordinary warmasters had almost completely failed.
Because they were much slower, they simply didn't make it. Even the advanced warmasters, squeezing out all their strength, were already too late.
And right on their heels were the ferocious Mizuno and the Higatsudo samurai, who most likely believed that there was some secret underground tunnel hidden there.
The hall was covered in glowing green runes, whose lines stretched and disappeared both into the ground and somewhere upward. Every couple of seconds, a wave passed over the signs, resembling the beating of an enormous heart. And one could notice that the beating happened more frequently with each minute.
The Sumada's defensive technique itself resembled a giant layered turtle shell in which plates constantly moved, stacking on top of each other for better protection.
There were a few holes left in the shell, which were being closed in real-time, getting smaller.
One after another, the advanced warmasters rushed inside, slamming into the tightly packed throng.
Kaede, carrying Levi, was the first to rush in. A significant part of the enormous snake's tail dragged on the ground, but this did not bother either of them.
And only a couple of seconds later, Stas arrived with Mari in his hands, making it just in the nick of time.
Inside, a wild tension reigned; the air was unbearably tainted with the smell of sweat, blood, and even crap. When a living creature explodes from a technique hitting it, it splatters around with various fluids. And those standing too close at that moment are very unlucky.
Some breathed heavily, wheezingly sucking in the viscous air; others listened intently to the horror happening outside. One could even hear someone's quiet sobs.
Ordyntsev turned his head and locked eyes with the woman he had treated earlier, who had lost half a face.
'Seems her name was Ayami?'
Right now, she was firmly gripping the shoulder of one of her students. The problem was that the other two were nowhere to be seen.
It took just one look into her eye filled with indescribable agony to understand what had happened. Realizing that she couldn't rescue everyone, Ayami chose the one she could still save. Like Stas, she picked up the student and left the others to certain death.
With some perverse satisfaction, Stas found confirmation of his theory, noting that this student had the smallest build.
Ordyntsev averted his eyes. He didn't want the woman to realize what he was thinking. The earthling doubted she would react in any way adequately.
In the center of the space under the dome stood the focused supreme warmasters. Despite the overall crampedness, there was an empty space around them, within which a disheveled rune master bustled. Several other masters were also bent over complex drawings beside him.
Each of their actions was accompanied by an increase in illumination.
"Just half a minute more, and the source will be overloaded. After that, the explosion will follow in a couple of seconds," momentarily distracted, Satoshi threw a few words at the samurai.
"Alright, close it," ordered Kero Jonoro, grimly looking up somewhere. Apparently, he was pretty skilled at sensing prana.
Perhaps that's why he became the commander.
The supreme warmasters immediately began to execute the order. The already small entrances started to close with the converging plates.
By that time, only a few of the ordinary warmasters had managed to reach the safety of the dome. Most were still descending.
"No, wait!" Desperate people stretched their hands through the narrowing holes and screamed in dismay as the merciless forces crushed their bones and flesh, completely severing and tearing off limbs.
More than just a couple of hands fell inside the dome, no longer attached to their bodies.
But what was more memorable was the unfortunate young lad, so thin that he managed to slip through halfway. The closing plates first crushed his thighs and then completely severed the remaining mess, causing the human stump to fall inside the dome under everyone's gaze.
The flickering green runes on the floor created a truly infernal aura for the scene.
The lad continued to stare with big, wet, and shock-emptied eyes as a warmaster approached and ended his suffering with a precise dagger strike.
"Those who can transfer prana into collective techniques, transfer it to the dome!" came the command from Koji Sumada.
As Ordyntsev did not know how to do this, he, bringing Mari, Kaede, and Leviathan closer, began to erect their own little dome around them. Although it looked more like a small tower, as there was simply no room for more.
Leviathan's tail bumped into Stas's face, and Mari pressed against his stomach with something soft. Kaede, on the other hand, leaned her impressive chest against his back.
Around them, the warmasters also began to make final preparations. The samurai simply concentrated, surrounding themselves with a thick layer of prana.
At some point, the cries of the ordinary warmasters outside stopped, but not because they were already dead. Rather, the thickness and quality of the defense being erected became so great that the sound simply did not penetrate inside.
Stas even had time to think about where to get air if they stayed here for too long, and then his thoughts were cut off.
*****
"I don't understand what they're planning," Sora Mizuno, one of the few supreme warmaster women, irritably looked at the fortress, swaying on several giant water tentacles. Prana, coupled with constant physical activity, gave the forty-year-old woman unfading beauty. And if her body bore several unsightly scars, she managed to preserve her face and hair in perfect condition.
Women warmasters were still underestimated in warmaster society, although officially, they had no restrictions. At least, that was the case for Mizuno.
That's why Sora had to develop such a sharp and unyielding character, so her enemies would think twice before saying anything.
"They abandoned their ordinary warmasters just to hide in this fortress?" the woman tilted her head slightly, sizing up the black keep.
"The command believes they have a tunnel there," shrugged a second supreme, standing on his own water technique and watching as the Higatsudo troops poured into the fortress. Shigo Mizuno appeared as a tall man dressed in unusual black-and-blue garments, about forty years old, with his temples substantially silvered by gray hair. And it wasn't his age that was to blame.
"But that's pointless!" the woman snapped. "We've checked a hundred times - there's no secret passage there."
"You know as well as I do that the Sumada can do much more with earth," Shigo responded indifferently. "They could have hidden something."
"Yeah, these earthy rats are a real headache, hiding in their dungeons," the woman spat, hitting the empty eye socket of a skull eroded by water below. "But still, I think..."
With each word she spoke, her tone gradually changed. And the reason was that her water was currently exploring the fortress from the inside. And since she had some knowledge of rune art, she immediately noticed something amiss.
Suddenly, Sora turned deathly pale, her eyes wide open in fear.
"Run," she rasped, casting a panicked glance at her friend.
"What..." Shigo frowned.
"Shut up, it's all a trap; the fortress is about to explode!" she yelled. In the meantime, the water around her came to life, forming a gigantic tube pointed away from the fortress.
But Shigo didn't see this anymore. Despite her awful character, he and Sora had been through a lot, so he knew that when she spoke in that tone, questions could be asked later.
Taking note of his friend's words, Shigo employed a different technique. The water beneath him split into two streams, which began to tremble very quickly, synchronizing their rocking.
And as soon as the waves reached a certain resonance, the warmaster instantly placed himself between them, using the released energy of the resonance to give himself monstrous acceleration.
A little earlier, the water cannon shot the woman, sending her far into the sky.
The two didn't even try to warn anyone, knowing there was no chance to change anything.
The other Mizuno supreme warmasters and strong samurai noticed the rapid departure of the pair of supreme warmasters, but among them, only a few managed to do anything.
And then it was already too late.
The sky, the earth, water, and even fire seemed to freeze in anticipation of what was soon to happen.
First came the light. Initially, it streamed through the windows and arrow slits, but gradually its power grew, easily piercing the stones and tiles of the fortress through the joints and the slightest cracks.
For the human consciousness, it was a momentary change, from victory to when the world flared up.
The brightness and intensity of the green light were such that everything within several hundred meters instantly ignited and began to shrivel, falling to the brightly burning earth.
Dirt and water instantly dried up, lifting clouds of steam that were quickly blown away.
As if a small star was born inside the fortress, which released its gentle rays outward.
The power of the light continued to grow, and the stone of the fortress could not withstand, beginning to break down and burn in the runic fire. Floor by floor, right down to the very bottom and very top – everything blazed in this emerald abyss.
The internal floors fell first. But the things unfolded so fast that all the stone mass continued to hang in the air, gradually melting away like sugar in a hot cup of green tea.
And then, once the surrounding walls evaporated, the room with the energy source - now just a glowing orb of prana and natural energy - finally burst, releasing all the power stored in it.
The energy, upon contacting the surrounding air, changed its parameters to unimaginable values. Pressure, temperature, density of the heat flow, and speed of movement – all increased in a matter of fractions of a second, starting to expand, spreading its influence further.
The only ones who could react here were the supreme warmasters. Their minds, accelerated by prana to inhuman speeds, could not compete with the green light, but they did notice the shock wave.
The expanding wave pressed against the external walls of the fortress and, not noticing resistance, moved on, flinging burning and melting stones in all directions.
Ordinary human bodies were instantly splashed into ash, drying out in the green air. The warriors were slightly more fortunate. Their burning and dried mummies were caught and shattered by the shockwave.
The destructive front, carrying ash and fire, swiftly rolled in all directions, smearing and mixing everything it encountered with the ground.
The supremes standing outside the fortress had but a second to do anything. Their water rose up as impregnable shields, but was immediately swept away by the terrible explosion.
Others tried to burrow into the earth, but they, along with the topsoil, were simply blown off.
The scorched supremes rolled away, continuing to form protective techniques even in such a plight.
Their bodies, saturated with prana, tumbled among the rolling rocks. Fortunately, they were much sturdier than the surrounding stones.
While that part of the army that had entered the fortress was annihilated, as well as those close to the walls, the units standing even farther away, although they sustained some damage, were still able to survive the man-made apocalypse.
Nevertheless, the survivors were now thinking about anything but continuing the fight.
Lifting their scorched faces smeared with ash, they looked with trepidation at the gigantic blazing pyre where the fortress once stood and the monstrous black cloud rising into the rain-weeping heavens.