She'd been training for this moment her whole life, but it still terrified her.
Standing on the city walls of Lyon, Anne prepares to defend her hometown with her classmates. Beyond the lakes surrounding the city, cracks have widened, allowing an unnatural frost to sweep across the land.
Captain Garth and Gwen organized the defense line into two lines; the archers in front and the mages in the back. The former will attack those who try to climb the fortifications with arrows, and the latter will bombard enemy troops with spells. The infantry would stay behind in case the giants managed to open a breach.
Tai and other vendors move between casters, dispensing [Mana Potions] to prevent them from running out of SP during battle. Gwen oversaw the defenses, calmed a few soldiers, and then left to investigate the defenses of the bridge west of Anne's current position. Everyone knew that this area was the most in need of protection and the most dangerous place, so everyone was excited to see Princess Avalon taking the lead. Even the unperturbed Tai and Taki seemed mesmerized by Gwen's presence.
Meanwhile, Anne took a deep breath and tried to calm her anxiety. She was proficient and trained in spells, but her father and uncle lived in Lyonnes. If she fails here...
"Giant!" shouted an archer.
They passed through the crack and came to the other side.
A twenty-foot-tall titan with fair skin and blond hair, wearing armor and wielding a weapon of hard magical ice. Women and men formed a battle group that came out of the cracks, roaring crazily in all directions. From a distance, Anne might have mistaken them for oversized humans, different but similar to herself.
Yet as these giants looked out at the city, at the diminutive people on the fortifications, the witch saw something primal in them. The sinister look frightened her.
hunger.
That hungry feeling you get when faced with a free buffet.
These creatures are not cousins of human civilization. They are legendary cannibals who come here just to find food. Anne saw neither understanding nor pity in their eyes; if these beasts breached the walls, they would devour everyone inside, from the elderly to the children.
At the head was a burly knight, twenty-five feet tall, clad in ice armor; he wielded a hammer in one hand and a shield in the other. Two giant, elderly witches followed him, wearing wolf-hair cloaks and amulets. One looked like a witch from a fairy tale, a hunched old woman with evil eyes; while the other was younger and closer to the leader of the giants. His concubine, or his daughter.
Following them were smaller but more numerous green trolls, blue feathered orcs, and misshapen ogres with fangs. They don't threaten the walls like giants, but once inside, they take over the city and devour the people.
The witch counted two hundred giants in total, and their servants probably numbered several thousand. Anne knew they didn't have to kill them all; it wasn't until Avalon's army flanked the creatures and eliminated them. But she wouldn't lie, this otherworldly army made her uneasy.
"The giant from Jotunheim," Tai said, looking over the archer's shoulder at the icy lake, unmoved. "good".
"Do you think these odds are good?" Wu Long snorted, always rude.
"The weakest Jotun is about as powerful as a level 27 human," Annie reminded her alchemist friend. "The fortune teller said their leader is on level 54."
"An army from Muspelheim would be much more formidable," Tai shrugged, glancing at another group further east, which included Laufey and Morgan. "Their infantry is comparable to knights in their 40s."
Although Anne understood that her friend cared about his new protégé, she couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Ty had been her closest friend and confidant, guiding the young witch in her studies of magic; even now, she considered him her mentor rather than a teacher at the academy.
Although Anne has no aristocratic blood, she won the opportunity to enter the academy; her family has been in trouble since her grandfather was deprived of his status as leader, and all her magical magic books were obtained with her own sweat. To pass the entrance exams, she had to study hard for years, competing against older rivals who had private tutors.
At first, few believed she would succeed, but the Alchemist did. Still, she liked him. Whenever they come back from the store, that evil archer Take
u always teases her about her "teacher crush" which annoys her.
"They brought trolls and goblins." Take
said U, waving his magic bow. "a lot of."
"Annie, burn the trolls' bodies or there will be no end to them," Tye suggested.
"I know," she said with a forced smile. "I will try my best."
"Annie, you are the most promising offensive mage I have ever seen," the shopkeeper flattered her. “Your best transcends excellence.”
The witch's cheeks turned a little red and she answered with a grateful smile. Tai joins the "Summoner", a group of 20 spellcasters who focus solely on providing reinforcements behind the city walls. Mrs. Soult led the effort.
"This is so cute," Zhuliu teased Annie. "You should treat him to tea after the battle."
"Shut up, you vile creature," Anne replied, preparing her own spell. "[Star power], [Ignition], [Chain spell]."
Damage spells are activated for 10 minutes.
Increases [Fire] spell effect by 30%.
You can cast the same spell twice in one action.
Lady Searle prayed in a powerful voice to her god, the beautiful Bald Man, and he answered. A winged sterling silver creature appeared in response, a very elegant naked woman, skeletal and with hair as long as her body; her golden eyes gave off a reassuring light that calmed Anne's nerves Come down.
"[Small Elemental Summoning]," Tai then cast a spell and four creatures materialized around him. A pure water serpentine; a humanoid that burns with bright flames; a living mini tornado; and a stone giant. In stark contrast to Mrs. Salt's elegant angel, the elementals all look evil, violent, and bloodthirsty.
Still, Anne was relieved to have them on their side.
On the shore, giant witches cast their spells, slowly freezing the lake so their fellow monsters could make their way to the walls. The captain led half the army towards the bridge, which the city guard had begun to drag under the water.
"Fire!" shouted a commander, and the archers fired arrows at the advancing army. Take
u's own weapon glows with bright purple energy, then releases a searing arrow of light. The projectile pierced a giant's ankle, passed through his flesh, and continued flying. The giant stumbled and fell into the lake.
"(Comet)!" Annie cast her most powerful spell twice in a row, while the other mages unloaded a barrage of projectiles. "(comet)!"
In response to her magical call, two fiery stones fell from the sky, one shattering the troll's hand and the other blowing off half of the giant's face.
Comet, while powerful, uses up a lot of SP; two throws depleted most of her reserves. She immediately drinks the magic potion, preparing to cast it again, while her companions continue to unleash lightning, poisonous arrows, or stone nails. Lady Thrall's winged servants led the summoned creatures over the city walls and waged war on their enemies.
The eldest witch facing this side of the fortifications countered the magic barrage with one of her own. She clasped her hands together and sang in a strange, unintelligible language, then rained icy spears from her fingers. The projectiles pierced the defenders unfortunate enough to be in their path, even making the stone fortifications tremble on contact.
Anne whistled briefly and prepared to hold her ground for the rest of the day.
They separated her from Gwen, these crazy people.
Morgan, barely able to contain her frustration, casts a fire spell on the walls, surrounded by her useless classmates and even more useless locals. It is a pointless, shameful mission, and the princess and the leader will gain the greatest glory by fighting the leader of the giants.
She hated leaving her half-sister, especially at a time like this.
As a secret illegitimate child of the King, with a sordid history like her own, Morgan had few means of getting ahead in life; her biological sister was one of them. Her half-brother Arthur is a fool, surrounded by sycophants, and immune to her charm; he needs neither allies nor fame, and has been promised the throne simply because of his parentage. And his ambitious sister...
Morgan has spent years trying to get into Gwen's inner circle and become her confidant and right-hand man. She solidified her power base by driving away those who threatened her position, doing everything she could to make her sister dependent on her; the witch established herself as the secret puppet master behind the princess, and once she had driven her brother away, she would pass She came to rule in her stead.
But the princess was slipping further and further away from Morgane's grasp, which worried her. Living in the city's dumpsters is a complete waste of time—not to mention the dangerous, evil wizards who live underground—but Gwen still refuses to explain her obsession with dungeons. She even began to "forget" to invite her sister to important meetings.
Morgan must regain control of the situation, and to do that, she needs Gwen to be in her sights at all times.
But what could she do? Her own troops were deployed beneath the city walls, closer to the city's houses than to the front lines. She didn't even see where her projectiles landed, the Soothsayer using advanced magical scans to guide them away to safety. This is the least risky part of the siege, but also the least satisfying. Morgan couldn't show himself or contribute.
At least she felt it was the safest place
Like a divine sign that the gods don't like, a summoning circle appears in the middle of Morgan's units, and a monster instantly teleports over.
The monster hurled the two mages as it appeared; Morgan thought at first glance it looked like a giant snowflake, only with vicious spikes around the edges and a ghostly purple eye at its core. It gave off an unnatural chill that froze the road and even people.
"Giant!" The weak farmer Laufei panicked. "The giant's mage has summoned a monster among us!"
"[Pe
masca
] !The caster casts a spell on the creature, revealing its weaknesses to everyone.
hell ice element
Level 41
The creature was too powerful for the spell to reveal anything more, and it promptly impaled a classmate with a stick of ice, initiating hostilities. Morgan never bothered to remember his name because he came from a small family, but seeing his blood splattered all over the floor was very disturbing to her.
Morgan casts a fire spell on the monster, but the monster's icy aura extinguishes her flames; her classmates don't even manage to weaken the abomination, and it starts stinging people left and right. The monster's spikes carry the body around like a morbid collection of trophies.
Images of the dungeon and Larmour being killed flashed through Morgan's mind. Seeing this tragic scene, her legs stopped working.
"Let's go!" Laufey grabbed Morgan's shoulders to wake her up from her trance. "We have to get out of here!"
The students of the academy followed the shopkeeper towards the house in the city, away from the battlefield and the monsters. Morgan would have called the girl a coward, but the failure of her own spell had shaken her confidence. She couldn't harm the creature, even by targeting its weak points.
Yes, maybe it would be better to hide and let others weaken it. Morgan has plenty of time to prepare, and once the monster is weakened, she swoops in to claim victory. Laufey kept telling herself this as she led them through a nearby alley. That alley is too small for the monster to pass through.
"What a terrifying creature, don't you think?" said Laufey, walking up behind Morgan to look around the corner of the alley to see if any of the beasts were following him. "That's the ice element. I've never seen anyone like that in my hometown."
"I suppose so," Morny replied sarcastically, irritated by her presence. If she could place her in the element's path and get rid of her...
"But I wish he'd let me carve it. I'd make it more beautiful."
Mo
ga
e was stunned. "he?"
A terrifying solid shadow appeared on the sidewalk at the other end of the alley, blocking the path of the two women. Morgan panics, fearing that the undead in the dungeon will take advantage of the chaos. "(Fire Bla——"
Morgan was never able to complete her spell.
She felt the knife stabbing her back, the blade sliding between her ribs and into her heart.
She tried to scream, but Laufey put a hand over her mouth, muffling the sound, smiling happily as he deepened the wound. For a moment, the girl's face blurred, revealing the terrifyingly peaceful face of a dark elf.
"It doesn't matter," the traitor said, kissing Morgan's neck lustfully. Meanwhile, Shadow Ghost observed the scene, waiting. "Shh, it's okay. I'm here to support you."
She said this with a vicious feeling, rejoicing in the fact that the life of her victim was slipping away from her arms.
Morgan should have died there, her body going cold, her mind losing consciousness from the blood loss...but, something kept her awake. The dagger injected poison into her bloodstream, and the foreign fluid invaded every inch of her body.
Warning: You have been infected with an alchemically enhanced [vampire].
If you die from this disease, your soul will be sent to hell
Morgan's vision blurred before he finished reading, but it didn't matter. She knew what happened to those who died of disease, and she had never found any god worth worshiping.
She was afraid of her fate and wanted to scream, but... the monster's grip was too tight.
With Mo
ga
e's life quickly left her body, and the shadow entity finally moved, revealing its wings and horns. The shadow entered her chest, and through it, into her soul. As her soul fell into Hel's hands, the noble felt something else take over her body, hollowing her out from within. Something inhumane and very vicious.
You were killed by a [Shadow Demon].
"You have such beautiful curves," a voice echoed in Morgan's head - her voice - "I prefer virgins, but you're attractive enough for my taste... Oh, I'm going to use my body Do something."
These were the last words Morgan Sieglinde heard before his soul left Midgard for the darkness of Helheim.
Her short life was over, but her pain had just begun.
