The entire world was drowned in a blinding, biting green light as the gigantic fireballs struck the wall. On three sides of the glorious city of Gloris, these impacts erupted. On three sides, those constructions had been fired. After the initial shock had subsided, chaos broke out among the people on the wall, who screamed in panic. Some had even fainted, and others sat trembling on the ground. Luis blinked. His eyes burned from the bright light, but he had managed to protect himself in the last second; otherwise, he might actually have been blinded. He looked down the wall to assess the damage. Green flames burned across the surface. The entire ground in front of it was torn open, and a huge crater had formed, yet the stability of the wall seemed intact. Thousands of blue symbols glowed brightly and slowly began to fade again after absorbing the impact.
Gerald, standing beside Luis, growled angrily,
"What in the name of the glorious sun was that?"
Luis had no answer, but he had a very uneasy feeling in his stomach. If it hadn't been for the symbols, these machines would have immediately torn huge holes in the wall.
But he tried to hide his shock and replied instead, "It seems to have actually caused little to no damage to the wall itself. So if they really want to break through, they need to come up with something better."
Gerald looked down the facade of the wall, observing the disappearing symbols, " As much as I hate to admit it, that heathen mage probably just saved all of us."
"Send messengers to the other two gates immediately. We need damage reports. If they break through anywhere, we must know at once."
Gerald nodded and carried out the order immediately.
Far in the distance, Nero sighed in disappointment. "The effect of the construction is even weaker than hoped."
"That was to be expected," said Xersies as he looked down. "Shall we continue firing anyway?"
Nero nodded. "Yes, it was never planned that the first shot would destroy the wall. But it's time we move on to Phase Two! Give the signal to advance!"
The order was passed on at once. Fril now jumped down from the black cloud as well and joined the ranks, leaving only Xersies and Nero. Ester would join them later. He and Ramor were currently inside the construction, making sure everything functioned properly.
The construct was a creation of the two of them. It combined the power of blood with symbols, absorbed it and released it as pure energy. It was an incredibly destructive weapon, but its costs were immense, and so was its reload time. It would now take at least an hour before it could fire again. Polykenas flew out of the ranks and tore the now lifeless people off the spears to attach new ones. It was an extremely brutal method, and Nero had displayed it deliberately. He wanted his enemies to know that he was using the power of their own people to attack them.
Slowly, the symbols on the altar began to glow again. It was a real spectacle, but in reality, it didn't really do much. It was intended to convey the impression that they were ready to fire again at any moment.
Meanwhile, the army of the Polykenas marched around the construct toward the wall. Growling and hissing could be heard from the ranks of the millions of Polykenas as they rushed toward the hoped-for destruction in various forms, lined up in rows.
When the people on the wall realised that the construct was charging up for another shot, while the army of demons marched toward them like a tsunami of doom, many lost the last bit of hope.
How were they supposed to defeat this? They are only human beings, mortal, ordinary people.
Shouts and roars echoed over the wall as the generals desperately tried to boost their soldiers' morale. The only thing that gave the people hope was the golden star that still hung high in the air.
"We must stop them," Gerald said. "We cannot allow them to fire a second time."
But Luis disagreed. "The attack caused barely any damage to the wall. If we face them in open combat now, we will be at an even greater disadvantage."
Gerald narrowed his eyes and rubbed his temples. He hated being like a chicken on the chopping block, nothing he could do. "So we just wait until the thing finally causes real damage."
"We have no other choice," said Luis. "But until then," he looked at the advancing army, "we need to thin out their numbers."
Gerald nodded and roared an order. Instantly, it spread through the ranks as the countless archers lit their arrows. Gerald raised his hand. "READY," the generals shouted down the lines.
The army of the Polykenas came closer and closer. Gerald lowered his hand slightly. "DRAW," was immediately shouted as the commanders saw it.
Then the Polykenas were finally in range. Gerald pulled his hand down. "FIRE."
At once, more than ten thousand archers fired. Like hail, the burning arrows rained down on the Polykenas, who seemed helpless as they awaited their fate. Most Polykenas wore neither armour nor weapons; they should have been defenceless against the arrows, but before the first arrow could strike, thousands of individual Polykenas with pale, bright skin raised their hands. Magic surged through the ranks of the Polykenas. Shields of wind, water, earth, fire, light, blood and much more rose above the marching army and blocked most of the volley. Of course, many were still hit, but the number remained insignificant.
"Let us see how long they can keep that up," Gerald muttered and signalled to fire again. A new volley rained down, and even before it landed, another followed.
Nero watched the spectacle. "How warmly they welcome us. Let's give it right back to them!"
Xersies passed the order on at once. In the rear ranks of the Polykenas, hundreds of catapults were pushed forward until they were finally in range. Creaking, they came to a halt. Polykenas loaded them with massive boulders.
As they fired stones, they hailed toward the city of Gloris, but now it was the human mages' turn to respond. They stood firm at the edge of the wall and used their magic to deflect the stones. They did a good job, but whenever one slipped through, it tore enormous gaps into the rows of archers.
"Let us see if they can deflect the ballista as well," Nero said with a smile as massive bolts suddenly launched from hidden openings in the ground. They were incredibly fast, and blue symbols glowed on their surface to give the bolts more stability and lightness. They cut through the air and struck the mages, who were focused on the incoming stones from above, catching them by surprise and unprepared.
Blood and body parts sprayed as the huge stakes carved their path through the rows and then burst out behind them. They arced as they fell down into the ranks of soldiers positioned behind the gate, doing even more damage.
Gerald cursed furiously as he issued orders for the army below to pull back out of the line of fire.
"So that is how they surprised us on the other side," Luis murmured when he realised that tunnels must have been dug underground, in which the ballistae had been mounted. This was further proof that they were at a permanent disadvantage. They were like rats in a cage, while the cat prowled around them. As safe as she might seem in the cage, she was still locked up, while the cat was free to do whatever she wanted until she found a way to open the cage.
"I can destroy the ballista myself," Gerald growled angrily as golden light formed at his fingertips, but Luis held him back. "I feel they are just waiting for us to make a move. Just keep defending. We cannot allow ourselves to be lured out."
Nero saw that they still made no move of their own and sighed again in disappointment. The ballista seemed strong, but now that the element of surprise was gone, they were blocked just as easily as the catapults. "So we truly must break the wall."
Slowly but surely, the army of the Polykenas came closer. They were under constant fire from the enemy. Now, even catapults from behind the wall began to fire on the Polykenas. The losses pained Nero deeply, but he could not do anything about it now. At last, the Polykenas reached the wall. Slowly and steadily, they began to climb up the wall. They used indentations and bricks to drag themselves higher and higher. It was an incredibly exhausting task. The humans hurled stones, tar, burning bottles and a lot more down at them.
Gerald shouted orders, but Luis frowned. "What are they planning? Even if they manage to get up there, they can't climb over the wall without the symbols burning them to ashes. Have they found a way to get around the symbols?"
Gerald grunted, "I don't know. Maybe this false magic isn't as safe as the heathen led us to believe. But it doesn't matter, I'm not going to let them up anyway!" With that, he shouted further orders to his men. They stepped up to the wall, leaned forward, and desperately fired volley after volley of arrows. The mages were unable to help, as they were still busy fending off the enemy's constant bombardment.
Luis watched as the creatures climbed higher and higher. They came by the thousands, yet they died as quickly as they came. A giant heap of demon corpses slowly piled up below.
Yet no matter how many died, more kept coming. They hurled themselves blindly into death.
Luis frowned at this seemingly unnecessary sacrifice when his eyes suddenly fell on a strange figure. It was wrapped in a brown robe so that none of its skin was visible. It did not climb like the other polykenas, but seemed to be standing in the air. For a brief moment, he saw a claw of the demon emerge as it touched the wall. On its hand, he could clearly see blue symbols glowing.
Luis's expression collapsed as he watched the demon touch a seemingly insignificant spot on the wall and then leave a notch with a precise claw. Immediately, the entire wall pulsated with thousands of symbols, all of which began to glow at once, but the demon was not finished yet. He began to work on a now visible symbol in the wall.
Panic swept through him. He looked ahead and saw that the young man, the leader of these creatures, was flying toward the wall. He watched Luis closely, his black eyes fixed directly on him. His expression was cold and calculating. Luis hissed angrily. He knew he was just waiting for him to make a move, but he couldn't let the symbols on the wall be destroyed. He leaned far over the wall as he began to command his magic within him.
It surged as heat rose through his body. Suddenly, he hurled this heat out of himself in the form of a gigantic wave of light. It seemed as if the sun itself plunged down. Light so burning hot that every Polykenas touched by it instantly disintegrated, carved its path down the wall. Like a cloth wiping a table clean, the light removed every demon from the wall as it rushed towards Ramor.