At the main entrance of the Demonic Cult's base, on the southwestern side of the mountain, Lusian surveyed his forces one last time.
He would lead the main assault alongside Emily, Adela, Charles, one hundred and nineteen knights, and twenty mages.
Albert would advance from the western flank.
Leonidas would lead the attack from the north.
To the east, Keitaro, Iris, and the adventurers would seal off the final escape route, supported by a detachment of knights and mages.
Four groups.
Four directions.
No one was to escape.
Lusian took a deep breath.
This was no longer a simple rescue mission.
It was a military operation.
He slowly raised his hand.
"First squad."
Forty knights stepped forward.
"Advance."
Their armor disappeared silently into the trees.
Behind them, the mages remained motionless, gripping their staffs.
"Wait for my signal."
Not a single spell was cast.
Several mages exchanged puzzled glances.
Under normal circumstances, they would have bombarded the entrance to force their way in.
Lusian shook his head.
"When the fighting begins, clear the area with wind before casting anything else."
One of the mages couldn't hide his surprise.
"Wind...?"
Lusian didn't answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the forest.
He remembered that mechanic all too well.
Dark mages always blanketed the battlefield with corrupted mist.
A fog that strengthened the undead while slowly weakening anyone who breathed in its mana.
If they allowed it to spread...
the battle would only become more difficult.
But if the wind swept it away from the very beginning...
the enemy's advantage would disappear before it could take shape.
Lusian slowly clenched his fist.
"The operation begins now."
They didn't have to wait long.
As soon as the first knights came within fifty meters of the cave entrance, a dense black mist began pouring out and spreading through the forest.
"Now."
The mages raised their staffs in unison.
A powerful gust of wind roared down the mountainside.
The mist barely had time to spread before it was swept downhill.
Several cult mages looked up in shock.
They hadn't expected anyone to know that tactic.
Then the ground began to tremble.
Rotting hands burst through the earth.
One after another, corpses clawed their way out of the ground as the cultists emerged from the cave and formed a defensive line.
At the center of their formation stood a Lich.
It wore armor blackened by the passage of time and carried a massive halberd wreathed in dark mana.
The green flames burning inside its skull slowly swept across the battlefield.
A chill ran through Lusian.
It wasn't fear.
It was the feeling of standing before an enemy he knew all too well.
"It begins..."
The knights crashed into the first line of undead.
Steel carved through bone and rotting flesh with ease.
The mages annihilated entire groups with fire and lightning.
But for every corpse that fell...
another emerged from the ground.
The line barely advanced.
Lusian observed the battle for several moments.
"Charles."
"Yes, my lord?"
"Send another twenty knights."
Charles relayed the order immediately.
The reinforcements filled the sections under the greatest pressure.
Lusian continued watching the front.
"The remaining sixty will stay in reserve."
Charles turned toward him.
"Wouldn't it be better to commit everyone at once?"
Lusian shook his head.
"No."
He pointed toward the battlefield.
"The knights tire as well. Mana and stamina both have limits."
His eyes never left the fighting.
"When the front line starts wearing down, we'll rotate them out. If we lose our formation... the dead will surround us."
Charles understood instantly.
They weren't fighting a battle of brute strength.
They were managing attrition.
Meanwhile, behind them, the mages had begun rotating their own ranks, maintaining a steady stream of spells without exhausting their mana reserves.
The battle had only just begun.
Although they possessed only a single light-affinity mage, the fire mages took advantage of the openings created by the knights.
"Inferno!"
Several pillars of flame crashed down upon the horde.
The four wind mages redirected the flames so they wouldn't reach the knights, turning the mountain path into a sea of fire.
Dozens of undead were reduced to ashes.
But others took their place almost immediately.
Emily watched the front with concern.
"Where are they all coming from?"
"The cult must have desecrated the graveyards of every nearby village," Lusian answered without taking his eyes off the battlefield. "You need corpses to create undead. They don't appear out of thin air."
Emily swept her gaze across the horde.
Some still had scraps of flesh clinging to their bones.
Others were nothing but skeletons.
"Then... how many are there?"
"Thousands.
Perhaps more."
Lusian slowly exhaled.
"The good news is that most of them are weak.
The bad news...
is that our knights don't have infinite mana."
Emily fell silent.
She could already see some soldiers falling back to swap places with the reserves.
This wasn't a contest of strength.
It was a race to see who would collapse from exhaustion first.
"I can help too."
She raised her staff.
"Purification!"
A wave of radiant light swept across the battlefield.
Several undead staggered backward, engulfed in brilliant white light.
But none of them fell.
The spell faded only a few seconds later.
Emily slowly lowered her staff.
"...It wasn't enough."
Lusian glanced at her.
"You're still trying to increase the power of your light spells."
Emily turned toward him in surprise.
"How do you know?"
Lusian pulled a carefully rolled parchment from his spatial bracelet.
He unfurled it with one hand.
It was covered with precise notes, magical circles, and complex formulas.
"Because I'm researching them as well."
Emily's eyes widened slightly.
"Dark magic?"
Lusian nodded.
"I've always found it strange.
Light and darkness have no physical form.
And yet...
when combined with mana, they can strike, cut, and destroy."
He unrolled the parchment a little farther.
"I want to understand why."
He finished chanting the spell.
A beam of darkness shot across the battlefield and struck an undead soldier head-on.
The creature stumbled back several steps.
Then it stood up again.
Lusian studied the result thoughtfully.
"...Still not enough power."
"As expected... I still have a long way to go."
The beam of darkness had done little more than delay the undead.
Emily stared at him in astonishment.
"That spell...
I've never seen it before."
Lusian rolled up the parchment.
"It's only a theory.
I found it in some ancient documents in the castle.
It still doesn't work the way I expected."
Emily extended her hand.
"May I see it?"
Lusian handed her the scroll.
As her eyes traced the diagrams, her expression gradually changed.
"This..."
Her eyes widened slightly.
"You're not trying to pour more mana into the spell."
Lusian shook his head.
"No.
I think the problem lies elsewhere.
Ordinary spells shape mana into a form.
A sword.
A spear.
A sphere of fire.
But..."
He looked back toward the battlefield.
"Light and darkness aren't physical elements.
Perhaps the mistake is trying to give them a shape."
He pointed toward a burning torch near the battlefield.
"A torch gives off light.
A blacksmith's forge melts steel.
The fire isn't different.
Its heat is simply concentrated in one place."
His eyes met Emily's.
"Do the same with light.
Don't make it larger.
Force every part of it to pass through the same point."
Emily blinked several times.
Little by little, surprise gave way to understanding.
"...I see."
Lusian smiled.
"Really?"
Emily nodded slowly.
"I think so.
I don't need to make the light bigger.
I need to make it... purer."
Mana began gathering between her hands.
This time, she didn't try to create a spear or a glowing sphere.
The light simply condensed.
Brighter.
Denser.
More intense.
Lusian watched the transformation with fascination.
"So that was it..."
Emily completed the spell.
A brilliant white flash tore across the battlefield.
The undead it struck weren't blasted backward.
They simply disintegrated, as though the light had erased the dark mana holding their bodies together.
Emily's eyes widened.
"It worked!"
Lusian chuckled softly.
"I knew you'd understand it before I did."
Little by little, the pressure on the front line began to ease.
The undead were no longer emerging in endless waves.
The remaining skeletons were cut down by the knights before they could reach the defensive line.
A few meters behind the front, the squad's only light-affinity mage breathed heavily.
Sweat drenched his face.
He had nearly exhausted his mana by continuously casting Light Arrows, the most effective spell against the undead.
Even so, the first ten minutes of battle had taken their toll.
Several knights were retreating with injuries to be replaced by fresh reserves.
Two others lay motionless on the ground.
Their legendary armor had kept them alive, but the wounds inflicted by the cult's mages were too severe for them to continue fighting.
Lusian tightened his fists.
This battle was proving far costlier than he had expected.
Then...
The Lich stepped forward.
The dark mana surrounding it surged violently.
Ten figures slowly rose behind it.
They wore armor.
They carried swords.
And they moved with coordination no ordinary undead could possess.
Charles frowned.
"Knights..."
A knot tightened in Lusian's stomach.
"No..."
He studied them carefully.
The armor bore the crest of House Erkhan.
"They found the bodies of the missing soldiers..."
Charles stepped forward.
"My lord.
Allow me to enter the battle."
Lusian nodded without taking his eyes off the Lich.
"Granted.
Take Umber with you."
The wolf remained perfectly still.
He didn't even turn his head.
His eyes continued scanning the forest around Lusian.
Adela gently shook her head.
"He won't go."
Lusian looked at her.
"As long as you're in danger, Umber won't leave your side.
That's an order he'll never disobey."
Adela stroked Aureus's neck.
"Aureus.
Help him."
The enormous white tiger let out a deep growl and charged toward the front lines.
Charles drew his sword.
"That will be enough."
Then he rushed into battle.
Lusian followed Aureus with his eyes.
Suddenly, he realized how they could break through the enemy's line.
"Water mages!"
Five spellcasters turned toward him.
"Concentrate all your attacks wherever Aureus advances. Don't waste mana anywhere else."
The mages obeyed immediately.
Columns of water streaked across the battlefield, striking the undead blocking the tiger's path again and again.
Adela smiled.
"Aureus."
The great beast roared.
A layer of frost spread beneath his paws.
"Frozen Mantle."
The instant the water touched the ground, ice spread at astonishing speed.
Corpses became trapped up to their knees.
Others were frozen solid.
The knights wasted no time.
"Now!"
Their swords fell in unison.
The immobilized undead shattered before they could free themselves.
Lusian watched the result.
"It worked..."
They hadn't needed stronger spells.
They had simply needed to combine their affinities correctly.
Thanks to that opening, the battle line advanced several more meters.
But the advantage didn't last.
The Lich slowly raised its halberd.
The ten undead knights charged in perfect unison.
Their speed was completely different from the rest of the horde.
The impact was devastating.
Two Douglas knights were hurled backward.
Another was impaled before he could even raise his shield.
"Fall back!"
The formation began to crumble.
Charles appeared at that very moment.
His sword slammed into the Lich's halberd with a deafening metallic crash.
"He's mine."
Wind began swirling around his body.
The fire mages understood his intention immediately.
"Inferno!"
The flames surged toward Charles.
Instead of dodging them, he raised his sword.
The currents of wind wrapped around the fire, driving it toward the Lich like a blazing whirlwind.
The explosion illuminated the entire cave entrance.
The Lich staggered back one step.
But it did not fall.
Charles gritted his teeth.
He could hold it back.
Defeating it...
was another matter entirely.
The battle began tipping dangerously against them.
Charles was barely managing to contain the Lich.
Every clash of weapons forced him back another step.
The difference in strength was unmistakable.
Lusian watched the exchange with a deep frown.
"...He won't last much longer."
He tightened his grip on his sword.
If Charles fell...
the front line would collapse.
He had no other choice.
"With me!"
He immediately rushed toward the front.
Before leaving, he glanced back.
"Emily!"
She looked at him.
"Stay with the mages.
Don't get involved in close combat."
Emily hesitated for a moment.
"...Understood."
Lusian accelerated.
He arrived just as Charles blocked another strike from the halberd.
CLANG!
The impact was so violent that the knight lost his footing.
He crashed onto his back.
The Lich slowly raised its halberd.
There wasn't enough time.
Emily gripped her staff tightly.
"Purification!"
A brilliant beam of light tore across the battlefield.
It struck the Lich's right arm directly.
The undead let out a harsh growl.
The halberd shifted just a few centimeters.
It was enough.
Lusian finished chanting his spell.
Several spears of darkness pierced the air.
They failed to penetrate the Lich's armor.
But they completely drew its attention.
The green flames inside its skull locked onto Lusian.
At that instant...
A black shadow burst from the forest.
"Umber!"
The enormous wolf leaped directly at the arm holding the halberd.
Its fangs sank into the bone with a sickening crack.
For the first time since the battle had begun...
the Lich was forced to retreat.