Beyond the Apocalypse
Chapter 220: Azarin Empire’s fortifications (I)

Chapter 220: Azarin Empire’s fortifications (I)

General Golkon glanced at a map of Radiance City, filled with nothing but rage and frustration. The map was dotted with dozens of red pins marking the sighting of the person causing mayhem all around the north.

The news of this terrorist had spread across the capital, and many voices were urging General Golkon to take care of it, with some even whispering that he should resign as he did not seem fit for the job.

The pressure and fear of losing his job made General Golkon take extreme measures. He had sent hundreds of spies and scouts to that location, packing the north with as many soldiers as possible, yet after weeks of searching, they found nothing. There were times when the scouts and spies located the person and even chased him, but just as they seemed to be closing in, he simply vanished.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" General Golkon shouted as he slammed the table in rage. "How can they be so useless? It is a single person, and they cannot capture him!"

Just as General Golkon was releasing his pent-up anger, his deputy opened the gates of his office and walked forward, his face pale and full of urgency. "General, there is urgent news!"

"Did you find the terrorist? Are there any new sightings?" In General Golkon’s mind, there could be nothing more important than the person causing mayhem in the north, yet his deputy immediately shook his head.

"No, General, this has nothing to do with the north!" The deputy shook his head, and just as he was about to continue, General Golkon interrupted him.

"Why are you bothering me if it has nothing to do with the north?" General Golkon could not care less about anything unrelated to the man in the north, so he shouted at the deputy with pure rage.

Under the rage and shouts of General Golkon, the deputy would normally cower, but the urgency of the matter was so immense he did not dare to leave and carried on. "General, there is an attack coming from the west!"

General Golkon’s eyes widened when he heard that and frowned. "An attack? What are you talking about? Explain yourself!"

"There is a horde of demonic beasts with more than twenty thousand creatures marching. They are less than a thousand meters from the capital!" The deputy practically shouted those words, his fear and dread clear on his face.

"What! How could a demonic horde that size be so close? What are the scouts doing..." Just as those words came out of Golkon’s mouth, he froze since he had practically diverted all resources from the west, east, and south to the north to catch the terrorist. However, he shook his head and continued, "Even if the scouts failed in their jobs, why the towns did not send a message as they faced the horde!?"

Golkon immediately blamed the scouts before continuing. The west had several towns, and there should have been signs of their destruction by the demonic horde, yet no message arrived.

"I investigated, General. The demonic horde seems to have bypassed those towns, marching directly toward the capital," the deputy explained. He was not a rookie and had also come up with that question, which was why he inquired about the status of the towns.

"That doesn’t make sense," General Golkon said, his face full of confusion. He did not understand what was happening since demons would never perform such careful displays of military tactics. However, he knew he needed to act since the blame for allowing a demonic horde to reach so close to the capital would fall on him.

Just as General Golkon was about to give orders to try to fix the situation, the door of his office opened again, this time revealing a group of men in dark armor, all of them exuding an imposing presence. The one at the lead was a man with a large white cloak, and his eyes were full of coldness.

"General Golkon, His Majesty is summoning you. Come with us now!" The man spoke coldly, and it was clear his words were not a suggestion but a command.

Golkon could not help but tremble as he heard those words and knew his fate would not be good. He turned to his deputy, who silently pulled back and lowered his head, leaving him completely alone.

...

Just as General Golkon was facing the worst calamity of his life, the trio that provoked everything was high in the sky, watching the demonic horde rapidly advance to the Azarin Empire’s capital.

Vlad’s eyes were cold as he gazed at the capital. By his side was Freya, and on the young viking princess’ lap was Jormungandr. The Depravita of Greed was sleeping, and his face looked extremely pale.

The trio was high in the sky on the back of the demon summon, using the clouds to cover their figures. Their plans had divided into two different goals, with Vlad going to the north and causing as much mayhem and chaos as possible, forcing the scouts and spies to focus on him.

Vlad even revealed his presence from time to time, risking being caught, forcing Golkon to send more soldiers.

As for Jormungandr and Freya, they marched to the city west of Radiance City and began to rally demonic hordes.

The Depravita of Gluttony used his mind manipulation abilities to control the minds of several Champion demons, using them as proxies to manipulate their demonic hordes. The viking princess was his guardian and also took care of any demon that could resist the small yellow cat’s mind manipulation.

It was extremely taxing and took a lot of hard work, but the small yellow cat managed to form a massive horde over twenty thousand strong and carefully guided it to the capital of the Azarin Empire. Jormungandr would need a lot of rest and might not fight for several weeks, but everything was a success, and Vlad would now know the offensive power of the Azarin Empire’s fortifications.

Vlad’s eyes were sharp and showed absolute focus as he gazed at the horde of demons advancing. They had worked very hard for this, and he would not lose a single moment since what would happen to the demons might happen to his forces if he did not prepare.

The demonic horde advanced at a very fast speed toward the massive thirty-meter-tall white walls that surrounded the Azarin Empire’s capital. While they sensed danger, these were demons from the Abyss, killing machines that, once they smelled the meat of their prey, would enter a rampage, and the capital had more than fifty thousand people in it, enough for a large feast.

Of course, despite their hunger and killing instinct, the demonic horde would not continue without the orders of the fifteen Champion demons. While Jormungandr was no longer with them, the small yellow cat had already played so much with their minds that there was an innate compulsion guiding their every move, and they could not stop until breaching that massive city.

The horde did not blindly charge at the capital, and even in that fervor, they were aiming at the west gate. It was small and allowed barely a few dozen to go through at the same time, but it was also the weakest point in the fortification.

As the horde was one hundred meters from the wall, the magic formation in the wall finally activated. Massive magic matrices appeared and seemed to channel the energy stored in the white stone before unleashing dozens of fireballs toward the horde.

"BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!"

The explosions echoed across the demonic horde, killing dozens and wounding many others, but there were so many demons that it barely made a dent, and the rest carried on. However, not even a second later, the matrices glowed again, unleashing a second barrage, and then a third, and so on, every half a second releasing dozens of fireballs.

Vlad’s eyes narrowed, and a solemn expression appeared on his face as he observed. The demons had not even reached the walls, and not a single soldier had emerged, yet more than two thousand were blasted to pieces, and many more were badly wounded by the blasts.

It became clear that the towering white wall was a very powerful artifact, capable of taking down Mortal Tier lives with ease, without the intervention or assistance of any form of intelligence.

Luckily for Vlad, despite the barrage of fireballs, the demon horde still managed to reach the walls. Dozens of them began to ram the steel walls while hundreds started to climb. The fireballs did not stop, but they could only reach the back of the horde.

Just as it seemed that the demonic horde was about to climb through the walls, with thousands of demonic beasts piercing the stones with their claws, the entire white wall began to glow. A massive burst of electricity coursed through the west section the next second, electrocuting all the demons in it, including those ramming through the gate.

A deep frown appeared on Vlad’s face. The power of that lightning current could match a Champion Tier spell, and it coursed through hundreds of meters of wall. If his soldiers had attempted to climb it, they would have suffered the same fate as those demons.