Deep Abyss Excision, the Fall of a Fief

Cannon fire rolled in from the front line several miles away.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Under cover of the noise, Kane led the seventy members of the Wound-Sealing Special Unit in from the flank toward the edge of Third Cremation Slope.

High overhead, the Blood Moon cast down its corrupting red light, making every Third Tier knight's body recoil.

The Battle Aura that had once flowed freely through the knights now turned sluggish, as though it were clogged in their veins.

The ground beneath them was growing treacherous too. The frozen soil had lost its firmness.

The Grayblood Lesion was festering below. Black blood, rotten flesh, and half-melted bone fragments mingled, soaking the surface into a swamp of flesh and blood.

Every time a horseshoe came down, it sank into the mire. When it pulled free, the mud made a sticky sucking sound.

The heavy cavalry had lost forty percent of the speed they relied on for a charge. They could only advance slowly through the mire like heavily armored infantry.

As the unit drew closer to the heart of Third Cremation Slope, the Gray Blood pulse beneath the ground quickened.

In areas untouched by the frontal bombardment, large numbers of small and midsize Mutants freshly assembled from bloody mud began to pour out.

The neural network at the base of the Grayblood Lesion seized control of them at once. Torsos pieced together from severed limbs and scrap iron twisted in unison with a series of faint clicks.

They locked onto the armed unit approaching the underground core.

The mire ahead churned violently, like boiling black oil.

Dozens of Iron-Scaled Corpse Beasts sprang from the shadows on the flank. Each was stitched together from half a wolf's body and heavy pig-iron armor made for a human. A pack of Mud-Blood Wraiths