Legend of the Empyrean Blacksmith

WAR OF THE MADMEN (I)

On’yal crossed his arms over his chest as space before him turned into a lotus-like shape, exploding outwardly toward the oncoming, mile long hammer . He then immediately slapped himself back onto the chest and teleported back a whole kilometer behind, just barely being out of range of the explosion . Despite the sweat collecting on his forehead, he had no time to wipe it off; he extended his left arm flat and opened his palm, pushing forcibly forward .

En’kav clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction as he swiped both his index fingers in opposite directions, tearing open a mouth-like hole in the space which then spat out two glistening swords . The contorted space and two swords met at the halfway point between the two, causing yet another explosion . All the while, both were weaving about the sky at speeds that very few could hope to follow; On’yal through the displacement of space itself and En’kav through the use of his Gates -- connecting two points in space and opening up a tunnel between the two .

Suddenly gaining a couple of miles of distance, En’kav came to a halt, roaring from the depths of his lungs . Both his arms quickly began swiping like swords across the space as the world above him collapsed, hundreds and soon thousands of mouth-like tears seemingly wailing into the universe .

On’yal’s heart skipped a beat as he forced his Singularity to spit out even more Qi, shoving it all into the palms of his hands which he raised just above his head . Feeling it was enough, he coughed lowly whereupon a trail of blood cascaded down the corner of his lips before bringing both palms down . Even further up in the sky, above the mouths, a flat plane of space seemed to disconnect with the reality itself before plummeting down .

Lino observed the battle with a solemn expression, one entirely hidden by his mask . Whatever little confidence he had gathered by crafting his weapon arsenal had been completely destroyed in just ten minutes . He stood absolutely no chance against either one of the two fighting on the screen . Even if his body could regenerate hundred times as quickly, he still couldn’t do anything about the two shuffling through the space itself .

"They should be flanking right about now," Lino mumbled casually, calming his stirring heart . "Switch the main screen over onto them . "

"Yes . " the Emperor quickly nodded; it’s not as though he wasn’t worried about On’yal, but the battles of cultivators at such Level could take hours to reach the utmost climax . The battle beneath them was far more important .

The screen flashed momentarily in a faint cyan before the image switched . Nearly everyone -- including Lino -- immediately frowned . The first line of defense was already overran; thousands of corpses - both human and demonic - lay sprawled over the enclave, its just recently overgrown grass already toppled into crimson strands extending barely an inch off the earth .

Dozens of craters, trees still on fire, thousands of arrows . . . several even sucked in a cold breath upon witnessing the sight . As On’yal’s Legion -- initially comprised of 50,000 men -- was split into three, 20,000 were left to defend before the flankers arrived . Yet, of those 20,000, barely half still lived and were constantly forced in retreat . Vanguard Shieldbearers did their best to prevent the sheer onslaught of the Demons who had little care for their lives, yet they were simply unable to . This forced infantry to repeatedly press onward as to prevent the Demons from reaching the back line .

In addition, Continental Force was also outnumbered in the air battle; to say nothing of the 10 Devil Generals, there were also at least a couple of hundred of High-Tier Demons who were besieging the formation from the sky compared to just a few dozen trying to defend . However, it was exactly in times like these that the heroes are born -- a woman seemingly in her late twenties, who so far remained in the back, sending flickering bolts of flames in an arc -- stepped forward .

Lino’s eyes quickly focused on her; she was one of the Generals -- the youngest on the field, actually -- but he didn’t pay much attention to her information past that . She had jet-black hair and was wearing rather loose, cyan robes shimmering in deep coral .

She suddenly heaved into the air, her whole being encompassed in flames, appearing like a sun even in broad daylight . The flames quickly composed a spherical shape around the woman, repeatedly rotating at massive speeds while increasing in temperature, distorting the light itself surrounding it . Within a blink, the first tongue-lash of flames erupted, soon followed by dozen and hundreds of others, each extending like whips and breaking off from the sphere before bombarding the heavily concentrated area of Demons .

Hellish inferno quickly besieged the Hell’s Forces, forcing them to scatter like brainless chicken and allowing the Shieldbearers to resume at least a pretense of control over the frontline . After nearly a minute of ceaseless torrential inferno, the woman seemed to have ran out of Qi, clearly exhausted as she landed back on the ground .

" . . . their morale is collapsing," Patriarch Chen commented with a serious expression . "There’s a high chance many of the survivors will withdraw from the military temporarily . "

" . . . they underestimated the Devils, and especially so the Demons" Sky-bearing Monk said, sighing . "Fear of death is the greatest divider of our races . "

"In addition to that," Unholy Guardian said . "However distorted they are, Demons are still humanoids . They bleed when cut and their guts spill out when drilled . It’s quite a deterrent . "

" . . . we’ll have to reconfigure the Legions," Lino said, forcing all eyes on him . "If the Commander comes to be busy each time with the Sin-Devil, we need someone else to take charge on the ground . They don’t necessarily have to be strong, just experienced and resilient . Look at them," he pointed at the screen . "Their formation has completely collapsed . Luckily, the Demons seem hellbent on just charging the front . Their flanks are open, they forgot to rotate the ranged attackers so now their firepower is running out, the Shieldbearers never opened a slight path for Demons when being overwhelmed and let infantry take care of them quickly . . . it’s a miracle they haven’t been completely eradicated . Are these really the best trained soldiers you guys have?"

" . . . "

" . . . " nobody replied, as they didn’t know how . Everything Lino said was right -- and even if it was easier for him as an observer to spot these things, some of them were too basic to be missing -- such as rotation of ranged attackers . While one group attacks, the other one recovers their Qi; that way, even if the overall firepower is lowered, at least it’s consistent .

"The good news is that even the weakest of them seem to be able to take on 2-3 Demons all on their own," Lino dispelled the heavy atmosphere; there was no reason to kill the morale any further . "If we put a good leader into every group, it shouldn’t be too hard for us to match them Legion for Legion, even if theirs number twice as many forces . "

" . . . the last major war that our continent had was over two hundred years ago," the Emperor said . "There’s nobody in the Empire’s entire army that’s older than hundred and fifty . "

" . . . then find the retired Generals," Lino said casually . "Doesn’t matter if they’re old, weak or crippled . Feed them whatever pills necessary and give them whatever benefits they want . Unless you plan on attaching two Commanders to every Legion?"

"I’ll relay the task to Annabelle . " the Emperor said .

"No . She is still setting up the logistics," Lino said . "Not to mention she’s already short of people, even if she wasn’t, creating supply tunnels is far more important for the time being . The only reason this battle in particular is so heated is because it’s the first one . Most won’t be this hellish . Just make the list of people and I’ll send someone . "

"Alright . " the Emperor nodded, quickly whipping out the piece of paper and beginning to write down the names he remembered; he wasn’t alone, though . Nearly everyone in the room except Lino began fervently writing the names . All of them were old monsters who were well aware just how important a seasoned veteran is to a group of mostly youngsters who’ve never seen, let alone lived, a war on this scale .

" . . . hm?" Lino mumbled into his jaw, his expression souring . "Keep monitoring the battle and make sure none of the Generals die -- especially the Prince . I have some matters to attend to . If anything crops up, you know how to find me . "

Without even allowing others to ask what’s wrong, Lino disappeared . Opening his eyes, he found himself inside his room in the inn, a familiar, silver-eyed husky lying on the floor next to his bed . Lino quickly took off his mask and put it back into the void world whereupon the husky jumped and wiggled his tail madly for a moment .

"What’s wrong?" Lino asked .

"Woof--woof woof, WOOOF, woof woof!!" the dog barked and growled with a seemingly enraged expression . Lino’s heart froze momentarily .

" . . . a-are you sure?" he whisked through his grinding teeth .

"Woof! Woof woof!" Non nodded his head fervently .

"Shit!!" Lino exclaimed, suddenly grabbing at dog’s collar and jumping out of the window, climbing onto the roof and whipping out the [Dimensional Pouch], summoning Grim immediately . "Go south . Don’t hold anything back!!" before the bird even had a chance to greet him, Lino jumped onto its back and roared at it . Though Grim seemed displeased, as though hearing the urgency in Lino’s voice, he merely screeched for a moment before lifting into the sky and swiping across it to the south . Why has no one reported it? Lino screamed inwardly . It’s not a small-scale raid . . . shit . I just hope I can get there in time . . .