Chapter 42: A Catastrophe
The group in the tent all turned to look at Linley—undoubtedly, Linley was the leader of this force.
"Boss!" Bebe said urgently as well.
Linley shook his head slightly. "If we break the agreement, according to the terms, Desri and the two sides—the Radiant Church and the Dark Church—will join forces to deal with us."
"What do we have to fear from them?" Bebe wrinkled his nose and said fiercely. "I'll just eat those Saint-level experts myself! And boss, that Desri probably won't come after you, right? He's clearly on our side."
Desri was indeed on Linley's side.
"If Sethler casts a forbidden spell to summon those millions of undead soldiers, victory is certain. Breaking the agreement might mean Desri won't attack us. But doing so would make us lose face with Desri."
When someone shows you respect, you can't embarrass them.
"Damn, this is such a hassle." Bebe was getting anxious. "Boss, Sethler is summoning undead—it's the undead that kill the soldiers. As long as we don't let the Saint-level undead act, it shouldn't count as a violation, right?"
Even Delia laughed at Bebe's argument.
Linley tapped Bebe on the head. "Bebe, that's sophistry. What real difference is there between summoning the ultimate spell 'Undead Calamity' and other forbidden spells? In fact, the Undead Calamity is even more terrifying in power. It even includes Saint-level undead."
"Then we're going to lose," Bebe said quickly.
Linley sighed. "If we lose, we lose. The biggest cost is just letting the other side take most of the magic crystal mine. Luckily, we've already dug out the magic crystals from the core layer, which are comparable to level seven, eight, and nine magic cores. Bebe, you've dug most of them out, right?"
After discovering that mysterious door, Linley had sent word to Bebe, instructing him to lead Beiru and the three Saint-level dragons to dig in the core layer.
Although those precious magic crystals only filled about the space of a room, their value was roughly two to three-tenths of the entire magic crystal mine. After all, they were equivalent to the energy levels of level seven, eight, and nine magic crystals.
"We've dug them out," Bebe said quickly. "But we've only dug about two to three-tenths of the ordinary magic crystals."
The two to three-tenths they had dug, even including the precious magic crystals from the core area, probably only amounted to about half the total value of the mine.
******
"Rumble~~~"
The dense army quickly formed into ranks. The nearly one million soldiers lay like a colossal beast sprawled outside the defenses of the magic crystal mine.
Within the army, Visport and Gilmore both had smiles on their faces.
"We've won," Gilmore said, looking at the distant magic crystal mine.
Visport smiled faintly. "Don't celebrate too early. Nothing is certain until the very end."
"I don't care about Linley's ordinary soldiers. What worries me most is that Linley might act personally. If those Saint-level magical beasts charge in again, rampaging through our lines, our army will likely scatter."
"Yes," Gilmore agreed with a sigh.
How binding was the agreement on Linley?
"Let the army rest now. They've been fighting all night and marching almost all day without much rest," Visport said. "It's already dark. Let them rest until tomorrow morning. We'll launch the attack at dawn."
The advantage was entirely on Visport's side now. Though the ordinary soldiers were tired, the nearly sixty thousand elite soldiers were not. The two legions' weakest members were level five warriors. In Code City, they had only attacked at the last moment and then marched for most of the day. With their strength, they could go three days and three nights without sleep.
……
Inside the Dark Forest.
"Rustle~~" The faint sounds of the primeval forest spread across the land. Countless Stone-Eating Rats and Shadow Rats—so many that they filled the entire field of vision—were rushing southward from the Dark Forest at great speed.
Gray Stone-Eating Rats, black Shadow Rats, silver Stone-Eating Rats, cyan Shadow Rats, golden Stone-Eating Rats, purple Shadow Rats...
Rat-type magical beasts of all colors surged like a tide from the Dark Forest, continuously advancing southward.
Among them, three violet-gold rats were flying through the air.
"Big brother, aren't we being a bit too harsh this time?" one of the violet-gold rats said.
"Harsh? Hmph!" the leading violet-gold rat snorted. "We are the kings of rat-type magical beasts. Since we three brothers are making an appearance, we need to make a grand show. I've only called a portion of the rat-type beasts from the Dark Forest, not all of them."
The Dark Forest was the lair of rat-type magical beasts. There, the rat-type beast horde was the most terrifying existence, and no other magical beast dared to offend them. Even Saint-level magical beasts were unwilling to provoke the Rat Kings.
These violet-gold rats were all terrifyingly powerful.
"Linley has never met us before, has he?" another violet-gold rat chuckled.
"Mm. He's done a great deed by taking care of Bebe all this time," the leading violet-gold rat said.
"Big brother, don't get too cocky. From chatting with Bebe, I know Linley's strength is astonishing. In his full Dragonblood Warrior form and with his high level of insight into the laws, you probably aren't a match for him," the third violet-gold rat said.
The leading violet-gold rat snorted a few times. "His strength barely qualifies him to be Bebe's boss."
Twelve years ago, when Bebe fought the violet-gold rats, he was at a disadvantage. But twelve years later, Bebe's strength was almost on par with theirs.
"This speed is too slow," the leading violet-gold rat said impatiently. Suddenly, it let out a sharp screech—"Yoo~~"—and the piercing sound spread out. Instantly, the countless Stone-Eating Rats and Shadow Rats below increased their speed dramatically.
Where the boundless rat horde passed, other magical beasts immediately fled and hid. No one dared to block them!
*******
Linley's army was hiding behind the defenses, relying on the terrain and environment to hold off the enemy. Though they knew the enemy soldiers were tired from the night before, their own 150,000 soldiers, who had marched all day, were equally exhausted.
At dawn, a light fog hung in the air. It wasn't thick, but anything a few hundred meters away was blurry.
"The enemy is moving."
The soldiers behind the defenses could hear the dense footsteps. The enemy soldiers were charging forward, and through the fog, they could vaguely see countless troops surging like a tide.
Linley, Delia, Bebe, Sethler, Barker, and the others watched silently.
"So frustrating," Bebe muttered from Linley's shoulder.
He glanced at Linley, but Linley remained silent. In truth, no one present was willing to give up. Who wanted to hand over more than half of the magic crystal mine to the enemy? But Linley had signed the agreement. He didn't want to embarrass Desri and the others, so he would abide by it—even if it meant losing magic crystals worth thousands of billions.
Suddenly—
The footsteps stopped, and a booming voice echoed across the battlefield: "Surrender! You cannot stop our army. If you surrender, we will not harm you." The words were polite.
"They're being quite courteous," Gates said with a grin.
"Of course," Sethler sneered coldly. "They're afraid of our Saint-level experts acting."
"If you lay down your weapons and come out to surrender within one minute, we won't harm a single one of you. The countdown begins now..." the voice finished. But none of the 350,000 soldiers surrendered. They silently awaited the start of the slaughter.
Time ticked by, one minute at a time. It was very short.
The entire battlefield was suffocatingly tense. On the Baruch Kingdom's side, many soldiers had sweat on their foreheads, and their fingers gripping their weapons were white from the strain.
"Ready—"
At the command, the Sacred Legion and Dark Legion, nearly sixty thousand elite soldiers who had suffered almost no losses in the Code City battle, raised their shields and lifted their spears and blades.
"We're going to lose," Gates sighed softly.
Delia and Bebe both looked at Linley, but he remained silent.
But just then—
Three beams of violet-gold light shot over at incredible speed, accompanied by an excited voice: "Bebe, I'm here! I brought my big brother and second brother this time!"
"Saint-level magical beasts?" Linley turned to look. There were three violet-gold rats. This was the first time he had seen Saint-level rat-type magical beasts other than Bebe—and three of them at that.
"What's that sound?" Linley, highly sensitive to wind elements, sensed a noise in the distance. It was approaching rapidly. He extended his spiritual energy to investigate, and what he saw—
"So many!"
Countless rat-type magical beasts—black, cyan, purple, gray, silver, gold—covered the entire land like an endless sea. They raised their heads and screeched excitedly—
"Yoo~~"
"Yoo~~"
The terrifying, countless screeches instantly pierced the sky, echoing across heaven and earth.
"What's that sound?" Even the soldiers of the Sacred Legion and Dark Legion, who were about to advance, felt a chill. The sound came from behind the magic crystal mine, but there were so many voices, as if billions of magical beasts were screeching at once.
Visport and Gilmore's faces changed.
"What's happening?" They both felt a sinking dread but didn't know what was going on.
Not just them—even the soldiers on the Baruch Kingdom's side felt a chill.
"Magical beasts are coming! All soldiers stay within the defenses. Do not go out, and do not attack these beasts!" Linley's voice rang out across the camp. His words immediately drew cheers from the Baruch Kingdom's soldiers.
On the Radiant Church and Dark Church's side, it was the opposite.
"A beast horde?" Visport and Gilmore's faces turned pale.
Controlling a beast horde to attack didn't violate the agreement, as long as the Saint-level beasts didn't act personally. For example, the O'Brien Empire had the Bloodthirsty Iron Bull Legion, a terrifying war group formed by tens of thousands of Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls paired with soldiers.
"A beast horde? Where did it come from?" Visport asked urgently.
Gilmore's face was white. "Linley's Shadow Rat! Yes, that one! The Dark Forest is the gathering place for rat-type magical beasts!"
"It shouldn't be. The rat-type beasts in the Dark Forest have their own king," Visport said. He knew that the king of the rat-type magical beasts in the Dark Forest was a violet-gold rat, not one that Bebe could command.
But at that moment—
Like an endless tide, countless rat-type magical beasts surged forward, squeaking and chattering. In an instant, they covered dozens of miles of land. Dozens of miles! In other words, everywhere you looked, there were magical beast rats.
"Wow!"
"Whoa!"
Exclamations came from Linley's soldiers. The rat-type beasts carefully avoided Linley's soldiers and surged toward the Radiant Church and Dark Church's forces. Rat-type magical beasts typically ate rocks and stone, so their teeth and claws were incredibly sharp. Shadow Rats were fast, and Stone-Eating Rats had terrifying defenses.
When a rat horde charged, even a mountain could be devoured clean in no time.
"Wow, old pal, that's intense?" Bebe's eyes went wide as he looked at the three violet-gold rats beside him. "How many rat-type beasts did you bring? My spiritual energy can't even see the edge of this horde!"
The leading violet-gold rat grinned smugly. "Not many, not many... just a small part of our Dark Forest. Only a few hundred million or so."