Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 272 - 250
Sesela no longer questioned Lily’s words, and she clenched her teeth and ordered the Vengeance Witches to continue their assault on the Guardians.
"We must not let them reach the summit. Veraliz is the Witch Mother, our hope!" More Shadow Beasts began to surge against the Paladins, but to little effect. The Guardians advanced in an orderly fashion, slowly progressing, while the witches were forced onto the back foot, seemingly helpless against this turn of events.
The battalion of Guardians made slow progress, their pace significantly reduced. They were closer to the altar now, where attacks from the Shadow Beasts became more frequent, and full-coverage armor was not their own, as the dense scratches on it would not heal. The witches were indeed making slow progress in peeling away the Guardians’ armor. However, in the wake of the sacred blasts emitted by the Guardians, a double-digit number of witches had already been turned to ash. Moreover, the rate at which witches were perishing was speeding up; the Guardians were learning how to distinguish the disguised witches among the beasts. Without command, the wild animals were just beasts.
Sesela looked at her sisters screaming in the flames, her heart bleeding. She turned to Lady Lily, whose lips she had bitten through, and opened her mouth.
"We need your help, no one can stay out of this now, the Witch Mother must come to no harm."
Lily looked at Sesela, whose face was grim, with a gentle expression.
"We’re already on it, Sesela."
When the Guardians’ troop had advanced about a hundred meters or so, something changed around them. The turf turned over, vines tripped their iron boots, and one by one, Forest Witches cloaked in turf leapt out. They screeched and chanted spells, turning the earth beneath the Guardians into soft mire. Despite the Guardians immediately bursting forth with golden light, forming a solid path of Holy Light beneath them, their speed was still slowed down.
At that moment, witches hidden in the corners leapt out, wielding their magic to layer spell upon spell on the tall Paladins, nullifying the layers of augmentative divine magic. They were not strong enough to inflict more debuffs on the Paladins, but stripping away that layer of mental resilience was enough.
One after another, spectral phantoms appeared out of thin air, encircling the stymied Guardians at the center and doing what they did best: the Banshee’s Wail, an annoyance even to liches.
The piercing screams assaulted the brains of every Guardian and were amplified countless times under their hive consciousness, with blood flowing from the nostrils of the Guardians as their brains were severely impacted. But it was not lethal as the crown of the age allowed the Power of Holy Light to suppress all anomalous powers, and their hardy physiques allowed them to recover quickly. The attacks they suffered in the process did little more than scratch the skin.
However, the Guardians’ formation was disrupted; Paladins, Shadow Beasts, and witches mingled together, breaking the group consciousness, and the fewer numbers of Guardians became passive in the developing situation.
"This is not enough." Sesela gazing at those entwined lights and shadows, truly understood for the first time what kind of force the Crusaders were.
In a one-on-one fight, the worst Sixth Tier Paladin could simultaneously face off against three Shadow Beasts of the same level and the interference of a witch without falling behind. And now, the average strength of the witches was equal to that of the weakest Paladins. Moreover, there were the Fifth Tier Guardians, the backbone of the legion and the largest in number. Without their group consciousness, they relied on their superior quality to rampage through the chaotic battle, rescuing those weaker new Guardians. And as they rallied, the group consciousness began to reintegrate, and they were becoming whole again.
"We must stop them; they won’t be felled by the same ploy twice." Sesela took a deep breath, her expression returning to calm. Looking at Lily, Sesela stretched out her hand. "I need you, Lily." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
In response to Sesela’s gesture of goodwill, Lily readily accepted, "For the future of witches, my sister." They crossed their arms together, and on the backs of their hands, the silvery protective light glowed.
Lily’s hand bore the scythe emblem of the Vengeance Witch, and Sesela’s hand bore the twin moon emblem of the Witch of Death, formerly the Moonshadow Witch, blending into one.
Shadows and death wrapped around them.
In the cold world, we only have each other, a closeness beyond blood, granting us rebirth.
The newborn Witch Mother burst forth, gliding across the night sky like a massive bat, diving into the ranks of the Paladins. Her shrill roar, laden with undertones, penetrated the minds of all witches.
"Sisters, unite!" The Vengeance Witch and the Witch of Death, who were previously overpowered by the converging Paladins, began to cooperate. They understood each other’s strengths and initiated coordinated combat, as if these two once mutually exclusive witch factions now shared a collective consciousness.
The Witch Mother charged into the battlefield like a hunting lioness, rushing toward her target. The dark grey shadow spikes were set ablaze by the Holy Light’s flames; she locked her gaze on Frey with the flame-shaped helmet, her intended target. Losing a commander would severely impact the legion’s morale.
Frey was isolated, surrounded by the figures of Shadow Beasts and Vengeance Witches, their predatory gaze fixated on him, seemingly capable of tearing flesh from bone.
"Paladin, you must die, I am sorry," the Witch Mother said as she slowly approached, the spikes behind her blooming like flowers of shadow or specters, all pointing directly at Frey.
Facing such a threat, Frey clapped his hands together, and flames appeared in the palm of his hand.
"Fifth Tier strength, not bad. Your own legions have a hive mind, but you don’t allow other legions to use it. You like beheading strategies, taking out the leader to defeat the group; we have so much in common," he said.
"But there is one difference between us."
"You’ve never seen a Sixth Tier Mystic use their power."
"!!!"
Nelson had already regrouped with the other Paladins; they were engaged in strenuous combat with the cooperative witches. The witches commanded endless legions of Shadow Beasts, and their power surpassed the Paladins. However, continuous intense fighting began to take its toll on the Guardians’ spirits, and the sporadic hive mind also made Nelson feel the exhaustion of consciousness.
"Individual strength is still too weak; I wish I could reconnect with the hive mind again," he lamented.
The heavens did not hear his complaint, but the commander of the Guardians did. Following a resonant explosion, the fiery blaze engulfed all those around him.
The earth was burning, the air was burning, enemies were burning, and so was he. Flames tinged with the color of Holy Light climbed up his body; the sting of healing wounds, the surge of renewed strength within, and the expansiveness of the reconnected hive consciousness.
Within the collective consciousness of the Guardians, they saw their commander.
Twelve commanders, their bodies enveloped in flames, their iron armor melting away to reveal bodies like ash, with veins of molten blood coursing through intricate web-like patterns. Their eyes shone like stars, as if a sun lay hidden beneath their skulls.
They seemed not human but rather like slender, humanoid Lava Giants.
The burning Frey seized a witch; the flames turned her screams into sizzling hisses. Frey watched the Witch Mother escape from the fierce blaze, his cracked lips letting out a sound of pity.
"I’m sorry, the situation has reversed," he uttered.
