The Wisterian forces at the palace were significantly dwindling in number. Common soldiers and knights dying at every moment. While the imperials, on the other hand, suffered plenty of casualties, but considering the strength they have, and their total number, it would only be a matter of time before they dominate the place. This was even more reinforced by the few elves assisting them. The soldiers and knights hardly have a chance of fending them off.

At this rate, there was no way to overturn the situation. Eventually, Wisteria will keep on dwindling until they have no other choice but to surrender, or just accept being exterminated. Either way, once the head of the kingdom, and the capital city falls, it would negatively affect the nation. And it too will fall not long after.

To survive this initial phase of invasion, and the next after that, Wisteria must win this one. And this was what the king, Leodoule, was trying to achieve within the holy site the people of the far past had left behind for this kind of situation. For the nation to deliver a deciding fight against the invading forces that had reached the heart of the kingdom. That was supposed to be used in a final stand, to defend one last time.

But of course, none, even more so the king, wanted this to be the last one. Perhaps that was why this gift was given, not for a final struggle, but for one last hope.

The divine spell had reached the end of its initiation. The magic circle pulsed, while the palace ground all the way to the wall also gave a moment of pulsating violet light. This made the people pause, puzzled by what had just happened.

The king then felt something different, something so heavy, he felt many things linked to his mind.

The next moment, something appeared on the soil on the surface. The knights, both from the Empire and Wisteria, warily watched it. It started like a tree sprout, harmless and feeble. A simple step was all it would take to crush it. But then it instantly grew bigger, reaching seven feet high. Matter and substance multiplied, forming into a texture somewhere between a tree bark and flesh. Glowing violet haze filled its insides as four limbs rapidly grew out like a tree growing branches.

It stood on two legs, and it spread out its pair of long arms. Its body was twisted like a vine wrapped around something. The ominous, glowing violet haze radiated a dreadful and deadly aura. Its violet points of light that served as eyes glared at the humans in front of them as if it was waiting to consume. There was a sense of power within. Like predators.

“W-What the hell is that?!”

It was not only one. Several dozen more had also spawned all around the palace grounds, whatever they may be. But perhaps there was a general consensus among both sides.

What appeared before them were monsters.

Suddenly, as these creatures stood like statues, their heads instantly turned around towards their surroundings. The imperial knight that received one’s gaze flinched. And out of the blue, the monsters shrieked all at once. Everyone in the area covered their ears at the painful screeching sound. It was like a thousand screams compressed into each other.

Immediately, a monster lunged at an imperial knight. Grabbing his arm and easily crushing it in its hand like a tomato. The knight screamed in the agonizing and intense pain. He threw a punch at the monster.

“What—?”

But it was like punching a rock. It merely budged a little, but done no damage whatsoever. The monster plunged its hand into the knight’s chest, trivially digging through the metal armor. But it wasn’t done yet. Like any savage monster, it grabbed the man’s arm and pulled on it.

“Aaagh! Fucking help me!” he shouted at his nearby ally.

Another imperial knight tried to help him, swinging his magic coated sword at the monster’s back. However, upon impact, he was left shocked to see that his sword only dug about one centimeter. He unleashed a burst of magic, causing slightly more damage, but the monster was ultimately unfazed. Like it felt no pain at all.

The monster pulled and ripped off his victim’s arm and subsequently slammed it against the knight behind it. The force was so strong that the arm exploded into pieces and blew the knight away. And the monster finished off the enemy knight stuck in his grips by crushing his head with its bare hands. With a brief shriek, it continued on to rush against other imperial soldiers.

More and more imperial forces were being slain by the myriad amount of strange, never before seen monsters swarming the palace. The Wisterian side could only stand, dumbfounded at the fact that they were unharmed, the monsters never tried to touch them. It was truly bizarre, and how strange it was to witness monsters fighting on their side, exterminating the imperial knights like they were nothing but pests.

Perhaps fearing to intervene, or there was just nothing to do, the Wisterians could only watch the bloodbath before them. The monster ravaging the defenseless imperials. Easily running up the wall to kill even more. Indeed like beasts whose purpose was to exterminate. And truly, it was full of gore.

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Imperial knights worked together to destroy one monster. Throwing all kinds of magic at it. They were successful in knocking it down, but that was all. It immediately stood up like nothing. It was terrifying, even normal monsters feel pain.

The monster, despite being heavily damaged, rushed towards them. And crushing them.

One monster bashed a knight’s head on the floor, another to the wall. One grabbed a knight by the leg and began swinging him around against other knights like a blunt weapon. Blood splattered all over the place. The stench of death permeated the air.

“What the hell are they?!”

“Kill them!”

“They can’t be killed!”

“Run!”

The monsters were relentless, no show of hesitation. Innards pulled out, limbs ripped off, heads trampled, the fleeing ones chased down and in the end they too met the same fate. The creatures were just so fast. It was as if there was not a thought in their actions, just to fulfill their purpose — to kill their enemies.

However, these creatures were not entirely mindless and guideless. Beneath the palace was the brain of all these monsters, connected like a hivemind. Namely, it was the king. He was seeing everything that these creatures were seeing, all at once. The images sent straight to his mind. And he had to give them orders all the while.

His head kept shaking, and sweat beaded his forehead. All that information all at once was overwhelming. And his mana was kept being drained to maintain them and keep control. But that part was not the biggest issue.

His head hurt, his body trying to catch up with all the information he had to receive and send. This was why he couldn’t use it early on. He couldn’t keep using this forever. He had to make sure the enemy had gathered here so he could take them all out in one fell swoop and not search around, wasting more time. Here, all enemies were exposed. However, if he were to help the city, he had to quickly finish up the enemy here at the palace, if given he would still be conscious. Making the monsters travel far and wide would be a struggle, but he had to do what he could.

That said, he shouldn’t overdo it. Otherwise, he’ll die.

Blood ran down his nose.

Thirty minutes. At the very least he could get thirty minutes, that would be a great help.

On the other hand, while the monsters ran rampant, the princess was just taken by demons. The Cursed Children leader, along with an ally, flew through the palace area as they chased after the demons.

“Kali,” he said to his ally. “Gather as many reinforcements as you can, force them to stop their feast if you have to. Retrieve the princess before the demons escape.”

“Understood.”

“Move quickly.”

She separated while Heneis headed straight while intending to bring along allies that came his way. He watched the strange monsters rampaging below him, but they were nothing to be worried about right now. Spotting one cursed child feasting on one human, Heneis dived down and grabbed him by the cloth, pulling and throwing him up.

“The princess has been taken! Get her back!” He pointed in the sky, towards the direction of the princess.

The cursed child was shocked for a moment, being disrupted from his moment. But then quickly did as ordered, flying in the air and moving in the direction of where it was pointed. As they left the palace area, more and more black fogs rose up to the sky. They should be able to catch up and retrieve the princess. However, were the demons even planning to fly all the way?

That can’t be it.

From the looks of it, they were heading to the outside of the city.

Could it be… the forests?

What could be in the forests? To lose their enemy? They couldn’t be that foolish to think they could escape both the Cursed Children and the elves.

Then he came to a realization.

Teleportation?!

He increased his speed. They shouldn’t be allowed to reach wherever their teleportation circle may be.

Meanwhile, back in the palace grounds, the second prince of Wisteria was holding out a hand on the wound on the side of his body, casting a healing spell. With him was the more wounded Alzen. He had cuts all over his body, his armor more of a wreck than Estevan’s. But, he was still standing, he’ll live.

Truth be told, the female elf was truly hard to beat, almost impossible. They were only able to land surface attacks and scratches on her. And as time went on, both Estevan and Alzen were becoming more tired, making it even worse trying to catch up with how fast she was. If Estevan was alone, he would have died already.

In fact, she was about to land a fatal hit on him. But then, suddenly, these monsters popped out of nowhere. Estevan had no idea what they were and where they came from. But these monsters just attacked the imperial forces, and even the elf woman they were fighting.

At the moment, she was clashing with one. Unlike the humans, she was dealing with it way better. She dodged the beast’s hands and swung down her blade at its arm, cutting halfway. Still, the monster kept on moving. Seemingly annoyed, she sent several quick and subsequent stabs at its upper body. Ultimately demolishing it.

The monster fell to the ground before turning to dust and vanishing.

But then, to her surprise, another spawned anew.

“How annoying.”

She fought it off, and then another elf came in, easily slicing the monster in half.

The elf woman looked at the new arrival in surprise, then to another that came with him.

“Alruwin?”

“Withdraw from this place now. Mission has changed. Follow me quickly.”

“R-Right!”

As if in a hurry, the elf named Alruwin swiftly jumped over the wall, the two elves closely followed behind him.

“Hey! You’re running away?!” Estevan shouted at his opponent from before.

But the elf woman merely glanced at him from the corner of her eyes before jumping down.

“Running away after these monsters appeared? Heh,” said Alzen with a bitter smile.

Truth be told, they wanted to defeat the female elf, kill her, to be exact. That could have been less of a problem to worry about. So it felt quite disappointing for her to just escape, especially now that apparently Wisteria had the advantage.

“I wonder. They easily dealt with them.”

“They must have seen how pointless it would be to keep fighting. What do we do now?”

“Let me heal you before you bleed out. After that, clean out the remaining enemies.”

Then they faintly saw several dark fogs rising and flying in the air.

“What the hell is going on?” Alzen muttered in puzzlement.

“I don’t know. At any rate, let’s get this over with so I can check with my family.”