Arrival at the Eternal Night Wall

After another seven days, the convoy finally edged into the Eternal Night Wall's buffer zone.

The sky was quietly changing. An unsettling dark red seeped through the depths of the gray clouds and spread over the wilderness.

There was no towering wall of brick or stone on the horizon, only a few twisted, withered trees and muddy hills that rose like burial mounds.

To people living inland, the Eternal Night Wall that protected human civilization was supposed to be a magnificent fortress wall.

But that was merely what the Church said to put people at ease.

The real Eternal Night Wall was not a wall at all. It was a defensive line formed by hundreds of territories joined together.

Each territory was a foothold driven into the edge of the wasteland, where Sacred Flame and the flesh and blood of countless people protected the fragile peace behind the line from the Dark Races.

The farther they traveled toward the Long Night, the stronger the smell of blood became. The horses and livestock grew increasingly restless.

At first, the horses only tossed their manes now and then. But the brown earth beneath their hooves gradually gave way to dark purplish-red frozen tundra.

Even these specially trained, blessed warhorses could no longer suppress their instinctive unease. They began pawing the ground and snorting great clouds of white vapor.

The living were also suffering from the Blood Moon's radiation.

The pervasive tainted fog slipped into their bodies with every breath, turning their stomachs and pulling nerves already stretched to the limit even tighter.

Shien sat upright in his saddle, his expression calm. "Pass the order. Light every mobile Sacred Flame."

Fabien and several military clerics swiftly dismounted and thrust torches into the silver fire cages atop the supply wagons.

The specially prepared fuel caught at once. A white-gold flame, so pure it was almost transparent, slowly rose inside each cage.

Every thread of fire burning in those braziers came from a Flame Seed taken from the Most Holy Origin Furnace, separated by the Church at enormous cost. Each was exceedingly rare.

On the Long Night Defense Line, a small jar of Flame Seed was worth a hundred times its weight in Holy Silver.

A white-gold glow spread along the Holy Silver Runes on the cages, forcing the dense Blood Mist back dozens of meters.

To the Dark Races corrupted by the Blood Moon, that sacred energy was poison. Even a brush with the edge of its light brought searing pain to their flesh.

Humanity had survived a thousand years without being swallowed by the Long Night entirely because of the Sacred Flames scattered across the wasteland.

The warmth of the Sacred Flames spread outward. At last, everyone could breathe a little easier, and the convoy resumed its slow advance.

But that by no means made them safe. Darkness still lurked beyond the reach of the flames.

Something moved deep within the Blood Mist.

Crimson eyes waited silently in the shadows, following the band of light like a wolf pack, ready to seize an opening.

Sure enough, trouble came quickly. Nearly a hundred twisted shadows burst from the darkness at the edge of the glow. Enduring the Sacred Flames' scorching touch, they charged out with shrill howls, straight for the rear of the line, where it was weakest.

Shien yanked his reins tight and looked toward the attackers.

The Gray Fog tore open, and a horde of twisted Ghouls lunged out.

By the faint White-Gold Sacred Flame, he could clearly see rusted Chainmail still hanging from their grotesquely elongated limbs.

They were the most pitiable monsters beneath the Eternal Night Wall. Once, they too had been living people who guarded this defensive line.

Without the protection of the Sacred Flames, years of exposure to the Blood Moon had stripped away their reason bit by bit, leaving only rotting husks driven by hunger.

Shing!

Steel shrieked against scabbard beside Shien. Ivan's bones crackled like popping beans as the violent Battle Aura of the Third Tier Resonance Realm surged into his broad blade.

The high-ranking knights guarding the convoy instinctively raised their weapons as well, ready to form up and slaughter the low-level monsters.

Shien fixed his gaze ahead. "Stand down."

Ivan froze for a moment. Though he did not understand his lord's intent, he took half a step back.

In this wasteland, deeply corrupted by the Long Night, Shien needed more than a few fighters who could crush enemies on their own.

He needed a war machine that could hold back a tide of monsters during the Blood Moon Season.

If the high-ranking fighters stepped in whenever blood was drawn, the recruits under them would never become anything but a useless rabble.

These weaker monsters were just right for training them.

Clang! Shien drew the sword at his waist and pointed its tip at the churning Blood Mist. "Rear infantry, form ranks! Hold them! Anyone who takes even half a step back will be beheaded on the spot!"

The novice soldiers and knights pushed into the front rank could not stop their legs from trembling.

A foul wind struck their faces. The Ghouls were so hungry that they charged straight through the scorching light of the Sacred Flames.

Shien lowered his eyelids slightly and sank his awareness into his sea of consciousness.

Basic Battlefield Awareness Lv. 1, copied from Ivan using Reward Value, joined with Battle Formation Command Logic Lv. 2, which Shien had copied days earlier, and took over his thoughts in an instant.

The chaos of the battlefield resolved before Shien's eyes into a series of marked targets.

"Lower the spears! Thrust at forty-five degrees. Aim for the chest!"

Their strict training over the past few days finally paid off.

The front-rank spearmen thrust almost by reflex. The Ghouls' own momentum drove their rotting chests and bellies onto the iron spearheads coated with Holy Silver.

Thick black blood sprayed out. More than a dozen Ghouls were pinned in midair, their limbs flailing wildly as the Holy Silver ate into their wounds.

"Knights, sweep around the left flank!" Shien's gaze raced across the battlefield. "Smash their kneecaps!"

The new knights who had trembled in the mud only days ago roared as they slammed into the enemy.

Their heavy Ironbound Oak Shields slipped past the slashing claws and smashed into the Ghouls' vulnerable legs.

Crack! Crack! The dull sound of breaking bones rang out again and again.

Robbed of their speed, the Ghouls fell across the frozen tundra. They could only scrabble frantically through the mud, helpless targets now.

The fear that had weighed on the soldiers' chests turned to savage fury the moment they saw the monsters rolling about with broken legs.

Eyes bloodshot, knights and infantry swung heavy swords and Battle Axes, hacking the twitching, rotting bodies to pieces.

The entire fight lasted no more than ten minutes.

A few front-rank infantrymen had bloody scratches on their arms. Otherwise, the whole line had suffered no fatalities.

Foul black blood spattered the infantrymen's cheeks and breastplates. Gasping for breath, they looked toward the man behind them.

Shien still sat steadily in his saddle. With a crisp click, he slid his command sword precisely into its sheath.

The recruits and knights gripped their blood-dripping sword hilts. The same thought rose in all of them: As long as we follow this lord's commands...

These man-eating monsters crawling out of the Blood Moon's Blood Mist are just rotting meat. Shields can break their bones, and spears can run through their guts.