Sector 1 was engulfed by hordes of different types of monsters. Giant Moths and Manticores emerged from the crack, spewing poison across the battlefield.
Flocks of Moths gathered around the aerial space, completely obscuring the vision of archers. Sector 1 is rapidly being filled with monsters and long-range weapon users couldn't afford to focus on monsters from both ground and air.
Sector 1 was too small for a large-scale battle. Engaging thousands of monsters head-on in such a tight space would be suicidal, like jumping into a cage of starved lions. It was time to shift the battlefield to Sector 2.
After the fall of the behemoth, earth mages strategically set cracks and cavities inside the wall, which will create four different entrances through the wall, once break down each entrance leads prepared alleyways, directing monsters toward the four zones occupied by Rod, Kleines, Elara and Theon.
Packs of Minotaur's started throwing themselves on to the wall like battering rams. Slowly visible cracks started appearing on the wall. Monsters guided by instinct towards the weakest point of the defense, started gathering near them.
With a few more attacks, parts of the wall slowly started crumbling down creating gaps. Monsters started squeezing themselves through the widening gaps. Slowly monsters started appearing on the other side of the wall.
Casting bait, hit and retreat tactics, adventurers started luring the monsters while slowly thinning their numbers. Alleyways between the zones and the wall are filled with wreckages and blood and flames.
Corpses started piling up along the streets, dawning the reality of a battlefield. Among the corpses, human lives could be counted as miniscule. The reason being not just the tactics but thanks to the efforts of Veryn and her crew of assassins. She effortlessly coordinated among assassin type adventurers and used their stealth and speed-based skills to rescue all those who were heavily injured and moved them to a safe location where Marla and other priests were tending to them using holy magic.
Fire, water, wind and earth. These are the primary elements considered as the foundation of mana manipulation. Each person was born with an elemental affinity, allowing them to utilize mana of that particular element. But with time, due to mix of lineage, continuous exposure to dense or low mana conditions and rare terrain conditions, new types of elemental affinities were born, either derives from primary elements or a single element evolved into something else.
Veryn was an excellent assassin thanks to not just her skill, but the abilities she inherited from a long line of assassins. Among her sisters, she was the closest to their mother, not in terms of looks or personality, but their abilities.
Her mother was Selene Noctis, or most commonly know by her alias, "The Assassin Queen". One of the seven people who was believed to have reached the zenith of humanity. The seven zeniths. Veryn was born with the ability to manipulate sounds and cast illusions. Same as her mother.
Using sound magic, she could create an area of absolute silence, increasing the proficiency of her stealth by leaps and bounds. Furthermore, she could communicate with her allies using sound waves, allowing her to coordinate with others.
As good as she was with sound, she was even more gifted with her ability to cast illusions. Maybe even more so than her mother. Illusion type abilities would usually create a false three-dimensional image, tricking your opponents. But the assassin queen takes it up to a different level, trapping an opponent inside their own mind, inside a false world of her own making.
Of all the members of the bloodwolf party, it was Veryn that Theon was truly wary of. His mind was already messed up and has poor mana circulation, making it harder for him to break through an illusion. But rather than avoiding this ability, Theon asked Veryn to use it on him completely, allowing him to distinguish between illusion and reality with subtle observation and develop his own natural instinct and resistance.
This is what helped Theon regain his lost instinct within just aa year. It also helped Veryn develop her own abilities. Further developing and specializing in a particular element of her mother's ability. Casting the feeling of the illusion so deep into a person's mind that, their brain would actually think that the damage was done in reality. If an opponent was thrown into a lava pit, an unexperienced person's mind would think that its reality, causing them to experience the pain of burning inside lava and eventually death.
For victims, it would seem like the line between reality and illusion was blurring. That's why she decided to name this ability with a similar meaning.
Veryn casted her gaze towards a pack of lizardmen who has surrounded two adventurers. Likely used to live in this city, now determined to fight to the very end.
They had better hurry with that ridiculous plan. I'm running out of mana. Very though as she lowered her hood and slowly muttered….
"Reality Phasing"
The last thing lizardmen saw were flames all around, burning them to a crisp.
..............................…
From a bird's eye view, Entire sector 2 looked like a whole mess of fireworks. From one corner of the sector, a golden streak could be seen, beheading monsters at an astonishing speed. For those who possess good and experienced kinetic vision, they could see a silhouette of a swordman clad in golden aura. Although no one was fast enough to make sense of his swordsmanship style, this scene reminded them of an incident that happened over a decade ago, when the strongest swordsman in the world. one of the seven zeniths, "sword Saint", Lucien Vaelhart took down an entire army with a single sword strike.
From another corner, A towering figure could be seen fighting against a pack of minotaur's confronting them with raw strength and am impenetrable body clad in steel. Spikes of steel could be seen popping out from the ground creating a gruesome scene.
And in another area, a pink haired woman could be seen wielding a magic staff and levitating in the air. Monsters gathered in this area were in an even more pitiful condition being subject to all sorts of attack spells originating from countless mana circles weaved in the air.
And right between all those areas, there was the 4th zone occupied by Theon Ignisborne. White flames surrounding him in the form of a cloak, producing immense creating an impossible atmosphere for anyone to engage in close combat with him. Sometimes white flames would condense around the sword when engaging monsters with great defense. His fighting style was different from his predecessors. His grandfather would create a huge dragon or multiple dragons made of white flames when fighting. His father would condense the flames into weapons such as arrows, swords and spears with different sizes.
Unfortunately, his bloodline did not favor him as it did to others. Even if he could wield the white flames, his output was lower than others, so he came up with his own method. To condense the flames, small as possible and surrounding himself with it. This would provide him with an overwhelming advantage in close combat. He could still use long range attacks using regular flames, especially since his mana core was now recovered.
Entire zone took the appearance of an hellscape of flames with a figure of white flames standing in the middle. And then, the ground started vibrating and magic circles etched to the floor started glowing blue. Just a few minutes from mana veins will completely be destabilized, sending torrents of raw mana throughout the zones. Everyone started retreating from the zones except for Theon. Soon, the remaining monsters started gathering within the zones.
It's about time. Theon's memories of that day were still a little bit blurry. But he remembered what Adrian told him. About what happened when a necromancer and his undead army attacked Cindervale. When more than half of the undead were defeated, he felt like hew being watched by a sinister presence. In the direction where necromancer was, the place where the war began and originated, he saw a figure of a horseman. It only lasted for few seconds, but that horseman looked familiar the portrayal of the horsemen of war from the novel.
It was like an easter egg in a game or a bug. Adrian stated it as a glitch in reality where the spirit of war manifests when the right conditions aligned. To be honest this was a gamble upon a gamble.
Theon took a deep breath, feeling the raw heat of his flames surging through his body. The ground trembled, as if the battlefield itself awaited his next move. The mana circle beneath his feet pulsed red, a heartbeat of destruction. One by one, the surrounding zones ignited in crimson light, their power linking together in perfect synchrony.
Theon's voice rang through the flames, steady and unyielding.
"Ignisborn Sacred Art…"
The air itself seemed to hold its breath.
"Ignis Ultima- modified : Quattuor Pyrae"