Victory on the Horizon

On the fortress walls, the defenders had witnessed the enemy's crushing defeat from beginning to end. The despair, fear, and grief over fallen comrades that had weighed on them for days were like a giant powder keg, ignited by the mercenaries' red banners emblazoned with golden double-headed eagles. They erupted in an instant.

Long-suppressed emotions surged into a torrent of joy, crashing violently against every heart.

"V-Victory?!"

Ratt was the first to roar. His voice cracked and changed pitch from sheer excitement, becoming so shrill it nearly broke.

He clutched the battlements so tightly his knuckles turned white. His body trembled uncontrollably, and tears mingled with sweat and grime as they streamed down his face.

"Reinforcements! It's the Wesen Army! They're here!"

Beside him, Fank sprang to his feet and swung his fists like a mad beast. Tears and snot ran down his face as he frantically slapped the shoulders of everyone nearby, repeating incoherently, "It's the Wesen Army! They're here!"

His cry lit the final fuse.

In an instant, the entire stretch of wall—and the whole fortress—erupted in a deafening roar that seemed powerful enough to tear the sky apart.

"The Wesen Army is here!"

"We're saved! We're saved!"

The defenders were overcome with joy.

They waved their weapons wildly and cheered with earth-shaking force, as if their voices alone could drive away every shadow of the past.

They embraced those around them, whether they knew them or not, pounding one another on the back as they laughed or broke down sobbing.

The suffocating feeling of being besieged, the torment of dwindling supplies, the searing grief of watching comrades die—all the emotions they had kept bottled up found their only outlet in that moment, bursting skyward in a raw and overpowering release.

Every battlement was crowded with faces twisted