Nightmare s CallNightmare s Call
The rolling black clouds were hitting the massive holy city of Henricqal, engulfing it like a massive balloon with a pure white light inside and the endless black mist on the outside.
A strange shriek came from the inside of the black clouds, followed by a series of wings fluttering. Inside were numerous black vulture-like monsters with four wings, no feather, that relied on some strange energy to fly. Each bird monster was at least a dozen meters long. It was unable to count how many of these birds existed because there were too many of them. They just looked like a blanket of darker clouds, swooping out from the black mist and down toward Henricqal.
A loud boom was heard. On the ground, anti-air cannons started to fire into the air. Shells were shot at hypersonic speed through the air and blowing every monster that came into contact with them into pieces. As the shells exploded, the sky turned into a sea of fire, burning those monster birds out of the sky.
More monster birds were coming. They had no sense of fear as if all they cared was charging forward, carrying the Blacktide, and flying down toward the pure land below.
Anti-air shells lit up the sky, dyeing the atmosphere into a bright-red sea of fire. It stopped most of the monster birds but still a small number—about several hundred—of them, broke through the line of fire, shrieking as they swooped down onto the pure city below.
“Snowstorm Mirage!”
A beam of light shot up from the city. The light beam then broke up into hundreds of smaller beams of equal thickness in midair, hitting with precision every monster bird that tried to swoop down from the sky.
Amid the swoosh and slashes in the air, the monster birds were frozen into ice sculptures before shattering under the powerful sword energy.
Tiny pieces of frozen blood and body parts rained down from the sky. But before they touched the ground, the powerful holy power force field of the Sanctum had purified them.
Ten million people were praying together. Even if only part of them were sincere, the holy power produced was still more concentrated than during normal days. Not to mention the sacred crystal font was continuously releasing its holy power.
Tenko Kasumi leaped up, carried by a snow disc into the air. As she rose to about a thousand meters, she stopped near the battlefield that was still lit up by anti-air shells and looked at the swarm of monster birds.
Behind her was an army of cleric warriors, clad in flying suits and gears. Everyone was carrying a flying device on his back. The device was a hybrid of dark energy and holy power technology. It looked like a silver backpack, capable of setting up a hover magic circle that lasted for a day.
Everyone followed Tenko Kasumi. They formed a massive circle to hold back the monster birds in the surroundings.
“Beware that the anti-air firepower is going to stop. Next, it will be our turn to do the honors. The shells are non-renewable. The resource gathering has become difficult. After depleting the ammo stock, it is our turn to fight,” Kasumi said.
“Don’t worry. Whoever has come, no one is thinking of going back alive!” Her new aide-de-camp was a young lady with blonde hair. Her previous aide-de-camp was dead after a monster attack.
“Get ready.” Tenko Kasumi had noticed that the anti-air firepower had intensified, which meant that the arsenal was going to run out of ammo very soon. It was a signal.
As she raised her holy power sword in the air, the anti-air firepower stopped.
“Snow Halo Slash!
The holy power longsword fired numerous ring-shaped, white blades all of a sudden. These white sharp blades spread outward like snowflakes, slashing those attacking monsters.
“Up!”
The aide-de-camp shouted as she flew in a direction with her body covered in powerful holy power. The rest followed as holy power burst out to propel them into different directions.
Those who came up there were at least Oppressor-class elites. Average fighters would not stand longer than ten minutes. As it was difficult to fly in the air; the monster birds would have eaten them alive before they knew it.
Tenko Kasumi stopped, just letting the few hundreds of her comrades hold back the sea of monster birds. She looked into the distance at the black clouds. Inside the rolling clouds, a huge blood-red eye with a vertical pupil appeared and stared at her.
All of a sudden, the cry of a monster bird rang through the air, shocking the clouds as the thing roared at Kasumi. The black clouds began to disperse, exposing the mother of all monster birds inside.
It had many wings on its back, no mouth, no nose, no ears, just a gigantic eye with a vertical pupil that stared at Kasumi. Compared to other monster birds, this mother of all monster birds was at least several hundred meters long. It looked like a floating island when it was in the air.
Tenko Kasumi found herself looking as small as a sesame seed in front of that thing.
“You are… too noisy!”
Kasumi’s face looked hideous. As she condensed a pair of holy power long swords in her hands, holy power flakes swirled around her.
“I’m going to slaughter you!”
She hollered and leaped forward. Her body faded into a beam of light as she charged at the mother of all monster birds.
…
The Steel Lord was carrying a broadsword, the blade of which was as wide as a person’s waist, standing on the city wall, looking down at the land below.
Thousands, perhaps, millions of gray monsters that looked like mini dinosaurs were lunging out of the black water and scaling the wall. Clerics were roaring furiously as they waved their weapons in their hands, killing every monster that came up the wall. Blood was splattering, body parts of monsters and humans scattered on the wall.
Far out in the distance, the black water suddenly rose as if something big was coming out of it. The thing was coming at speed. Its target was the wall.
On the wall, a dozen beams of holy light condensed into spikes and shot out at once at the rolling thing on the surface of the black water.
Holy light and the contaminating power of the black water clashed in a spectacular explosion, with groups of white glow rising in the air. But the shot did nothing but only slow down the massive thing a little. It was still rolling in the wall’s direction. Some dinosaur-like, gray monsters did not manage to get out of the way. They drowned in the black water and never resurfaced again.
The Steel Lord’s face looked grave. Taking a deep breath, he raised his broadsword in the air. Sparks started to flicker on his body, his gray hair suddenly becoming as red as fire, his red body armor glowing as if a red hot iron. Starting from him, heatwaves expanded into all directions.