This was the first time Tato had directly suffered the torment of sorcery.
All those terrifying rumors that spread from regiment to regiment and company to company were clearly true. Those cultists possessed arcane knowledge far beyond mortal reason. They were demon-like sorcerers.
BOOM~~~!
A shockwave slammed him into the ground, filling his mouth with blood and his nose with sand.
He pushed himself up and saw a soldier curled up beside him, his charred body still smoking.
Amid a series of brilliant explosions, he saw bodies scattered all around him, the sand beneath them melted.
He had never imagined that a raid on a cultist stronghold would turn out like this, though the mere existence of a cultist stronghold in the war zone was frightening enough.
They were carrying out a secret mission, which meant reinforcements were basically impossible.
"Sir—"
The squad's deputy commander rushed out of a burst of light, shouting something at Tato.
Tato could see his lips moving, but he could not hear a thing.
Then the deputy commander pulled Tato to his feet. Only then did his hearing gradually begin to return, though every sound came in fragments.
"Get... to... those... we... can't possibly...!"
"What? What did you say?"
"...too many... all... get to... that... fucking idiot!"
Suddenly, the hail of fire ceased.
Tato blinked at the devastation around him. In the sudden silence, he heard many sounds: the crackle of flames and the screams of the wounded, though everything reached his half-deaf ears in broken bursts.
"Fuck!"
A voice suddenly shouted, terrifyingly clear.
The cultists were charging.
The cultists, once civilians and now madmen, emerged with the descending night, pouring out from patches of shadow and sweeping toward this land of fire.
Their crimson robes fluttered, and the bright brass brands on their foreheads