Chapter 207: Brace Yourselves
The sky stretched overhead, overcast and gloomy, without the slightest trace of sunlight. A thick blood-red mist filled the air with a brutal aura, while the nauseating stench of iron and decay overwhelmed the senses.
The five factions of young disciples found themselves standing before a colossal canyon—a gigantic chasm that had clearly not been carved by nature.
They stood within a vast circular area whose ground carried a faint whitish hue. It wasn’t sand, but the physical manifestation of an unknown energy in a lower concentration.
Behind the group, their view was blocked by an enormous spatial distortion. Somewhere beyond it was likely the sect’s main fortress on this planet, the structure they had to protect at all costs.
Ahead, the terrain split into five separate channels, divided by glowing walls formed from multicolored runes. The corridors stretched straight ahead until they disappeared beyond the horizon.
At that moment, a powerful voice echoed across the battlefield.
"All five factions must immediately advance into the channel before them. The Corrupted Beasts will come from the north and invade the channels in an attempt to reach the fortress. You are the last line of defense, while the veteran disciple factions hold the front lines."
"The enemy horde is enormous, and eliminating even the weakest among them would be far too costly. Therefore, the senior disciples will focus only on Mage Master-level threats, allowing the weaker creatures to reach your position."
"The enemies may appear at any point during a four-hour window. After that, the Planetary Inscription will unleash its absolute power, temporarily halting the assault. This open area where you’re standing will then shine with restorative energy, allowing you to retreat and rest for exactly two hours."
"That purifying energy will provide complete recovery, healing your wounds, nourishing your bodies without the need for food or water, and fully restoring each of your Ether reserves."
As soon as the voice fell silent, small objects materialized out of thin air before every young Mage. They were golden bracelets engraved with a small blue crystal displaying the digit "0."
Everyone picked one up and fastened it around their wrist. Every beast they killed would automatically be recorded as points on the bracelet.
"The total deployment period will last 275 days, or 6,600 hours. Remember this well: if even a single enemy breaks through your channel and reaches the fortress, the faction responsible will face severe punishment."
Everyone took a deep breath, clenching their fists with determination.
"Everything has been explained. The Supreme Space-Time Inscription will now be activated at full power. The fate of this defense rests solely in your hands. Take your positions immediately and prepare for battle!"
The command boomed like thunder, making everyone’s chest tremble.
Without hesitation, the five factions advanced in unison, entering their respective channels.
Priam’s faction took the channel at the far left edge of the canyon, bordered by a steep wall of rock and earth. To their right, in the neighboring channel, Daraen’s faction took position.
The moment they stepped into the channels, everyone realized that by using Ether to sense what lay ahead, the colorful runes compressing space made it easy to perceive hundreds of kilometers into the distance.
Far ahead, the five channels converged into a vast open plain.
When the Corrupted Beasts arrived, they would be forced to split between the five channels. That division of forces would make ambushes and containing the horde much easier.
For now, however, there wasn’t the slightest sign of any creatures approaching.
Priam glanced behind him. His nine hundred soldiers looked as though they were carrying an invisible boulder on their chests. In that grim environment, saturated with the suffocating smell of death, no one could remain unaffected.
This was the true pressure of the battlefield. This place had been defended by disciples from every branch of the sect in constant rotation, and casualties were inevitable.
The more lives that were extinguished there, the denser the pressure of Death Yin became. It was a natural energy born from death itself, lingering in the air and capable of easily disturbing the minds of the living.
"Form the Rotating Nine-Point Star Formation! Watch your spacing and maintain proper distance!" Dandara’s commanding voice cut through the air as she clapped her hands, drawing everyone’s attention.
"Focus on what you’ve trained for. Remember, the Boss is leading the front line! Nothing will go wrong!"
A unified roar answered her, and the soldiers quickly spread out.
The tactic, created by Dandara, organized the troops into multiple squads of nine members, each arranged into nine moving points. It was a flexible, highly adaptable formation that allowed the squads to merge into a larger formation in the blink of an eye. A simple strategy, yet absurdly effective.
For an army of nearly a thousand people, completely sealing off the passage through a narrow channel was a perfectly achievable task.
As the soldiers took their positions, they felt their anxiety ease slightly.
"Don’t be so nervous. The Corrupted Beasts ahead of you are nothing more than potential points," Priam’s calm voice rang out, reaching every rank. "No matter how physically imposing they are or how grotesque the energy they give off may be, they have no intelligence or reasoning whatsoever."
He paused for a moment, looking each of his soldiers in the eyes.
"I’m saying this with absolute certainty because I spent two months in intense training, stranded on a planet overrun by these abominations. I was hunted countless times, and nearly every monster was strong enough to kill me if it had even the slightest bit of intelligence. But as you can see, I’m standing here just fine. The creatures we’ll be facing today are even weaker than the ones I fought alone. You’re more than capable of wiping them out as a group."
Seeing Priam’s relaxed and unwavering posture at the front of the formation, completely unfazed by the suffocating pressure of the battlefield, the weight pressing on every soldier’s chest began to ease.
"Besides..." Priam continued, his voice carrying a teasing, amused tone, "I’ve got some great news. Our neighbors on the other side of the wall are the ladies from Daraen’s faction."
"Boys, make sure you show them what a real man is made of. Show them just how dependable and dominant you can be! If we clear our area quickly and they end up in trouble... well, we can cross the boundary and play the heroes by lending them a hand. Got the message?"
At that very moment, the eyes of more than eighty-five percent of the army lit up with an entirely different spark—a mixture of excitement and pure motivation.
After all, the overwhelming majority of those nine hundred soldiers were men. During the sect’s recruitment, Daraen had monopolized nearly all of the talented female disciples, while also taking in many of the weaker women that any Super Genius would have rejected.
As a result, ninety percent of the rejects that Priam later accepted were men.
Curiously, among the three hundred traitors who had recently been expelled, every single one of them—for reasons even Priam himself never truly understood—had been a man. Not a single woman had betrayed him. Because of that, the gender gap within the faction had narrowed slightly.
A faint smile appeared on Priam’s face as he watched the men’s attitudes change.
Dandara, Flaris, and Shione exchanged glances and chose to remain silent.
Priam’s method of firing up the male troops was shameless, but its effectiveness was undeniable. Several soldiers were already subtly stretching their necks to the right, trying to sneak a peek at the mostly female battalion in the neighboring channel. The faction’s atmosphere had completely transformed, now overflowing with a thirst for battle.
"As for the girls..." Priam added calmly, "I’m counting on you to keep these idiots alive. I’m worried they’ll get so caught up trying to impress the neighbors that they’ll end up getting themselves hurt in some stupid way."
A lively burst of laughter and a unified reply immediately echoed from the hundred women.
Every one of them looked at Priam standing at the front with eyes full of devotion and excitement.
Dandara, Flaris, and Shione snorted in unison, shaking their heads. Priam seemed genuinely oblivious, but the truth was simple: every female disciple in the faction was completely enchanted by him.
Even when the temptation of betrayal had lurked behind the scenes, not a single one of them had ever considered betraying him.
The gender psychology of humanoids was simple, though it wasn’t an absolute rule for everyone.
Men tended to be more competitive and impulsive, willing to risk everything for immediate gains or status. That constant drive pushed them to become stronger, though it also made them far more likely to die.
Women, on the other hand, were driven by stronger emotions. Because of that, once they chose to commit themselves, they displayed unwavering focus and loyalty. That emotional nature came with its own drawbacks—such as inflexibility and a strong resistance to change—but it also meant that once they trusted someone, that trust was absolute.
That was precisely how Priam had become the supreme figure and unquestioned leader they admired.
**BUZZ!**
Without warning, the ground beneath their feet shook violently, and the air around them began to hum at a high frequency.
The relaxed atmosphere vanished in an instant.
Every disciple’s expression turned serious immediately. The army of Corrupted Beasts had finally arrived.
A few seconds later, a grotesque black tide came into view, charging straight toward the channels.
There were creatures of every imaginable shape and size. Although most weren’t gigantic, the density of their auras was pure tyranny. Pitch-black runes covered the skin and scales of the abominations, releasing a corruption so profane that it sent chills down anyone’s spine.
As the horde thundered forward, the ground shook as though caught in a never-ending earthquake.
As the distance closed, more details became visible: beasts resembling baboons with enormous tusks, crocodiles, and even grotesque, headless abominations made up of nothing but massive muscular limbs.
Even from kilometers away, the foul stench of blood and corruption had already reached the soldiers’ noses.
"Brace yourselves," Priam instructed calmly as he took the first steps forward, his expression completely cold. "Dandara will remain in the center, in charge of tactical command. The generals will focus on the front line, intercepting the strongest Corrupted Beasts the moment they collide with us."
Flaris, Shione, and Lumiere cracked their knuckles and clenched their fists, taking position right behind Priam.
Dandara took a deep breath and drew a pair of gleaming short daggers. Although she was a Mage with combat power well below average, she was still a Fighter Mage.
**BOOM!**
The first explosion echoed through the channel, marking the beginning of a long, brutal, and exhausting battle.