The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 195 The troops are approaching the city
Standing in the wind and snow, Natalia gazed for a long time, still unable to tear her eyes away from the overwhelming blackness below.

What started as a small group of demons was, in the blink of an eye, completely covered the white snowfield north of the Great Wall that remained unchanged year after year, by the sudden surge of black tide.

High walls blocked their path, and the demon army stood silently beneath the Black Ice Great Wall, seemingly waiting.

Natalia struggled to look away and forced herself to think.

What are they waiting for?
What methods will the demons use to break through the Black Ice Great Wall?
After a while, she noticed that the soldier beside her was kneeling on the ground, staring blankly at the ground below, his expression almost like that of a madman.

"There really are demons... so many demons..."

Natalia drew her decorative sword and pressed it against his shoulder. "Get up, soldier. You are not yet ready to die."

"Waaah... It's too late, Your Highness..."

The soldier regained some of his senses, but he was even more desperate, and he lay on the snow and cried.

Natalia kicked him on the shoulder and looked at the other pale-faced guards beside her. "Immediately send winged people to spread the word throughout the continent that the demon army is at the city gates. Please provide immediate support to the Black Ice Great Wall."

"Yes!"

"Send a message westward, leave a portion of the troops on the Great Wall to observe, and gather the rest of the forces below the city..." Natalia paused for a moment, "...and prepare for the city to fall."

"Yes……"

Natalia arrived at the watchtower, stood at the highest point, and gazed into the distance.

The massive demon army continued to converge on this side, a sight that sent chills down one's spine.

"Can the mages reach down there?" Natalia suddenly asked, as if asking a question, or perhaps murmuring unconsciously.

"I don't know, but we can let them try," the guard next to him replied.

Just as Natalia was about to give the order, a muffled boom suddenly came from below.

"what happened?"

She immediately moved closer to the lookout window and peered down at the base of the city wall. The demon army clung to the base of the wall like ants, and because they were so far away, she couldn't immediately tell where the commotion had come from.

Just then, another muffled thud was heard, this time from the ice-free bay directly below the watchtower.

Natalia frowned and stared as a large mass of white bubbles surged up from the seabed, faintly tinged with blood.

She soon saw demon warriors rowing small boats into the bay from the shore, then jumping into the sea one after another. A short while later, a muffled rumble came from the seabed again.

"..."

Natalia's face turned pale instantly. "The demons intend to destroy the underwater magic array in the Ice-Free Bay?"

"The underwater magic array was set up by dozens of archmages hundreds of years ago. The protective magic cast on the array is more numerous and complex than the array itself, making it not so easy to destroy."

She turned her head and saw the chief military mage who had rushed over.

"Are you sure?"

"I can only guarantee that the underwater magic array will not be easily destroyed..." the mage said, and then several more booming sounds rang out below. With each sound, the mage's face grew paler.

Natalia stopped looking at him and instead looked down at the bay below, and at the demons who seemed to be lining up to go into the sea and explode.

"Order... that the garrison concentrate at the bay, and that archers take boats into the bay to shoot down the demons who jump into the sea and explode. Hurry!"

"Yes!"

"The demons certainly won't just concentrate their attacks on this area..."

Natalia ran a hand through her hair. "Send the winged people to the western watchtower to deliver a message, strengthen the bay's defenses, and prevent the demons from destroying the magic array."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The continuous roaring sound from the seabed was enough to make anyone anxious.

Natalia quickly turned her attention to the accompanying mages, asking, "Can we fight the demons in the bay from the city walls?"

“It’s very difficult, Your Highness,” the chief mage said. “The distance is too far. Powerful spells have limited range, and spells that can reach that place are hard to guarantee in terms of power.”

“Give it a try, as long as it can distract those demons,” Natalia said. “Have all the mages come up to the city walls.”

"Yes." The chief mage accepted the order and left.

A moment later, the garrison below rowed small boats onto the bay, where the waves were much more turbulent than before, in an attempt to stop the demons who were about to self-destruct at sea.

Natalia squinted at the scene below from the city wall. When she saw an archer pin a demon to a small boat with a single arrow, she clenched her fists.

The next moment, the fallen demon suddenly exploded, and the violent noise made Natalia on the city wall cover her ears.

"What exactly is this... an alchemical creation?"

Natalia murmured, but no one could answer—the only chief mage who knew anything about this had already been sent away by her.

The waves pushed the defending troops' small boats almost to capsize them.

After the explosion, black flames burned on the sea surface, and it took quite a while for them to go out.

The demons' successive suicide attempts by jumping into the sea seemed to have subsided.

Just as Natalia's tense nerves were about to relax a little, she saw dozens of small boats being launched at the bay simultaneously, and more demons rowing towards the middle of the bay.

"..."

The archers on the small boat didn't have time to shoot, and the accuracy of their shots plummeted due to the constantly churning waves.

Just then, hundreds or even thousands of ice shards flew off the city wall and shot towards the demons in the bay.

Whoosh whoosh!
The icicles fell like arrows, their power moderate, but their sheer number made them powerful. Although they were slightly deflected by the constant north wind, they still struck many demons, causing considerable damage.

boom!
After the demons fell, an explosion soon occurred, which also detonated the demons on other small boats. The explosions continued one after another, and the violent roar shook the heavens and the earth. Even Natalia on the high wall felt a clear shockwave.

"..."

The person next to her was talking non-stop, but Natalia couldn't hear anything; all she could hear was a constant buzzing in her ears.

After quite some time, my hearing gradually returned.

"That's it... Let the mages continue casting spells to stop the demons from going into the sea."

"Yes."

The guard beside her obeyed and left, and Natalia followed to the city wall, where she found the chief among a group of mages who were arguing about something.

"Field, what on earth was that could cause such a violent explosion?"

Field opened his mouth slightly, and the mages around him suddenly fell silent, then burst into a cacophony of opinions.

"Your Highness, this is definitely an alchemical artifact! It must be those scoundrels among the sorcerers in the south who have sided with the demons!"

"I'm from the South. If alchemists could easily create bombs with this kind of power, why would I be a military mage?"

"Then what do you mean? Is every demon who jumps into the sea a mage?"

"Stop arguing!" Field yelled, and the mages quieted down. He then looked at Natalia. "Your Highness, as you can see, we don't have a consensus either. Unless... we can obtain a demon's corpse."

Natalia looked down at the bay. After the series of explosions, most of the bay was covered in black flames. It was hard to say whether the demons who exploded had left any corpses. Now was not the time to study it carefully.

“Since we don’t know the answer, let’s leave it for now.” Natalia took a deep breath of the cold, strangely odorous air. “Continue to stop the demons from getting closer to the bay.”

"Yes, Your Highness."

The mages stood ready, and the ice spikes they unleashed together, though not very powerful, were quite effective against the demons below who were attempting to self-destruct.

Natalia looked down, where the demon army waited silently in the snowstorm, their casualties seemingly insignificant to them.

"Your Highness!"

A soldier captain suddenly ran over and whispered to her, "Some soldiers are fleeing into the city."

"..."

Natalia glanced instinctively behind her, but the snow was so thick she couldn't see what lay beneath the city walls.

"How many people escaped?"

The soldier captain stared at her and opened his mouth as if to say something, but Natalia heard nothing.

"What, how many people?"

She moved closer.

Pfft!

A large amount of blood suddenly gushed from his neck, even spraying onto Natalia's face.

"..."

Natalia stared blankly at the personal guard who had suddenly appeared behind the captain of the guards; it was the knight left to her by the saintess. Looking down again, she noticed that the captain of the guards had somehow acquired a dagger.

"Uh...uh..."

Despite being stabbed in the neck, the captain of the guard still trembled as he brandished his dagger at her. The next moment, his arm was also severed, and he was kicked to the ground.

Wiping the blood off her sword, several knights surrounded her, one of them kneeling down to treat the captain of the guard.

"Your Highness, someone has betrayed you, and betrayed humanity as well."

Natalia didn't speak, the blood of a traitor still flowing down her face.

“It’s hopeless.” The knight on the ground raised his head. “Beaumont, you went too far. We won’t be able to get anything out of him now.”

"I'm sorry, the situation was critical at the time..."

“It’s alright.” Natalia wiped her face, making sure the blood was all over her. “You did a good job, Sir Beaumont.”

Her voice turned cold again as she looked at another guard, "Brook, temporarily detain all members of his squad."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

Natalia walked to the other side of the city wall and looked down. The guards on the city wall had already gathered below and were setting up ballistae on the coast. The chevaux-de-frise had also been moved here and laid out along the coast.

But she knew that even all the soldiers in the East Watchtower garrison wouldn't be enough to stop the demons here.

Natalia gazed towards the snow-covered south.

The winged people who requested help have been flying away for quite some time, but will the reinforcements arrive in time?

The wind and snow intensified.

When the first batch of demons appeared at the foot of the Black Ice Great Wall, it was already afternoon. The two sides continued to fight for control of the Unfrozen Bay, and it soon got dark.

The watchtower has been occupied by mages; its proximity to the bay makes it easier for them to cast spells.

The accompanying chaplains continuously fired illuminating orbs into the bay to prevent the demons from entering the sea at night, but in reality, the demons never stopped trying to do so.

The explosions never truly stopped; sometimes they occurred underwater, and sometimes on the surface.

The mages still didn't know why the demons exploded, nor how long the underwater magic array, which had been operating for hundreds of years, could withstand such continuous bombardment.

Inside the watchtower, boxes of magic stones had already been moved up for the mages to rest and replenish their magic. Natalia had returned here countless times to check on the situation.

"Can you hold on?" she asked Chief Mage Field.

The latter nodded, "After casting spells all afternoon, everyone has found their rhythm. We don't need so many people casting spells at the same time to accurately interfere with the demons."

"How long we can hold out here depends on you," Natalia said.

Field smiled wryly, but still nodded and said, "The mage corps will certainly not disappoint Your Highness's expectations."

boom!
A loud bang came from below.

By the end of the afternoon, Natalia had become numb to the sound of explosions, but she still went to the lookout window and looked down at the bay, which was brightly lit by the illumination spell.

"I heard that the demon race is divided into many tribes. These demons who were driven to jump into the sea and explode must be the tribes that resisted the most fiercely during the Demon King's conquest," she heard a mage whisper beside her.

“Then they should run to where the Demon King is and fight him… If it were me, I would do the same,” another mage chimed in, his voice weary.

"Speaking of which, did you see where the Demon King is?"

Will the Demon King come to the front lines?

"Who knows what they're thinking..."

As midnight approached, a series of muffled explosions brought Natalia, who had gone to rest, back to the watchtower.

Field apologized repeatedly and asked the princess, who looked unwell, to go back and rest.

Back inside the dark city walls, Natalia tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

With one last turn, she crawled out of the room and into the empty room next door, lying down on the bed where Her Highness had slept during her previous secret visit, finally feeling a little sleepy.

By the time I finally fell asleep, it was already one or two in the morning.

Tormented by nightmares, she "woke up" several times in her dreams to find that the Unfrozen Bay had frozen over and that the demon army had crossed the ice and reached the other side of the Black Ice Great Wall.

In her final battle, she fought a demon on the city wall, and they both jumped off the wall. During the fall, she realized she was dreaming, and then she truly woke up.

"..."

After a moment of disorientation, she climbed out of the room and found that it was already the next morning, and the sky was already bright.

boom!
The loud noise jolted her awake, and she immediately climbed over the city wall to check the situation outside.

Inside the watchtower, the monks were either sitting on the ground or resting against the wall, while seven or eight monks stood at the window, yawning, their eyes fixed on the bay below.

Natalia leaned closer to the window, watching the waves surging in the bay, and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

The magic circle is still operating, and the bay has not yet frozen.

As long as the sea surface does not freeze into solid ice, the demons will not be able to break through the Black Ice Great Wall.

They survived the first day of the demons' attack.

After giving instructions to the mages and inspecting the city walls, Natalia descended to the ground in a gondola and arrived in the middle of the main force of the Great Wall defenders.

"Your Highness!"

"Your Highness, it's not safe here. You should go back upstairs."

"You've worked hard. The demons have been attacking for a day, but they still haven't been able to break through our defenses." Natalia moved among the soldiers, encouraging them with her words, "Your bravery will spread to every corner of the empire. News of the demon invasion has already reached the south, and reinforcements from all over will arrive soon..."

No sooner had the words been spoken than a soldier rode up on horseback to report: "Your Highness, the Holy Maiden has sent a large quantity of grain, and the convoy has arrived outside the camp—"

The soldiers fell silent for a moment, then burst into cheers.

Natalia was equally pleasantly surprised. "Did Her Highness send this?"

"Yes!"

"I gonna go see."

When she finally saw the grain convoy outside the camp, she remained silent for a long time.

This grain was incredibly timely.

Your Highness...

boom!
The sound of an explosion came from the other side of the city wall. The grain transport drivers were bewildered and horrified. "What's that noise?"

"The demons are attacking." Natalia snapped out of her daze, took a deep breath, and said, "Put down the food and get out of here as soon as possible."

The coachman's mouth dropped open. "You mean the demon race..."

Just as Natalia was about to say something, she looked up and saw a white-winged winged person flying closer from afar. She immediately guessed that this might be a messenger sent by the saintess, so she didn't say much to the coachman, told the soldiers to unload the grain, and then rode back to the city wall in a gondola.

The church messenger, who had already landed, was staring intently at the overwhelming demon army on the other side of the city wall, almost lost in thought.

"Did Her Highness send you?" Natalia asked as she climbed out of the basket.

The messenger snapped out of his daze, first nodding, then shaking his head. "Her Highness the Holy Maiden was assassinated. She was still unconscious when I set out. Before she was assassinated, she instructed that everything that had happened in Lutia be told to Her Highness the Princess."

boom!
Another explosion occurred over the bay, and Natalia felt a ringing in her ears.

She didn't hear a word the messenger said next.

She opened the letter. The writer was Elise, who recounted everything Sinmaggu had done after returning to Lutia, including storming the palace to demand the emperor's surrender, returning to the cathedral, and escaping after fighting the saint and a group of church knights.

The saintess was ambushed by a knight who betrayed the church during the battle and was seriously injured. However, she could not receive divine healing from other clergy, so her wounds were bandaged in a primitive and traditional way, and she remained unconscious.

While confronting Simago, the saintess conveyed crucial information to those outside the church: the demon army had set out and would break through the Great Wall by destroying the underwater magic array in the Unfrozen Bay.

This was crucial information... but it was too late.

Knowing that Eric was still unconscious and had not been killed, Natalia breathed a slight sigh of relief amidst her anxiety.

She took a deep breath, put away the letter, and said to the messenger, "You've had a long journey. Please rest here for a while. I have a reply to ask you to send back to Lutia."

"Yes, Your Highness..."

The messenger responded, his gaze remaining fixed on the demon army below.

Natalia stared down for a while, then hurried to her room in the watchtower. Amidst the constant roar of explosions, she wrote a letter detailing the situation and requesting the most urgent assistance.

She had the monks who were resting in the watchtower make many copies of her letters.

Natalia handed several more letters to the messenger, instructing him, "Please be sure to deliver these letters to Governor Forrest in Frostwind City first. The fate of the Empire... no, of humanity, rests on this battle."

(End of this chapter)