NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 217: Silent night.
"Leader! We have breached the walls!"
Xena turned around and looked at the female knight. Xena was a bit surprised by the information and immediately went out of the tent to look.
The walls had been breached, torn down, and turned into rubble. The enemy army didn't stop bombarding the Servil faction army with arrows and boulders. It was similar to what happened to the Union army, but they came more prepared with magic tools that created unbreakable barriers.
The mages kept bombarding the walls, lowering the enemy's morale. Although the Servil faction was all-female soldiers, it didn't change the fact that they were as merciless as any powerful army. It would make civilians tremble in fear, and they would choose to surrender themselves without resisting.
"We have surrounded them, yes?" Xena asked as she looked at the other sides of the walls.
"Yes, leader. The enemy hasn't shown any sign of surrender, and we are waiting for your order."
"Let's enter the city, and make sure the enemy doesn't have a choice but to surrender or die," Xena said as she got on the horse and unsheathed her sword. "Be cautious of everyone's surroundings because we don't know if the enemy has sided with demons."
Xena charged down the hill, followed by the army's commanders. The moment her army saw her charge toward the city, they all shouted and followed her.
Once she went beyond the Mana barriers, arrows were shot from the wall at her. She easily blocked and repelled the arrows as she kept charging toward the city wall with the commanders.
As soon as they entered the city, a barricade of shields welcomed them. Xena tapped her horse's thigh with her foot, and the horse imbued itself with Aura. The horse charged through the knights and sent them all flying, unable to stop them.
Xena's horse was one of the extremely rare breeds that could be called a beast rather than an animal because of its ability to utilize Mana. Her horse was trained by an expert equestrian trainer who made the horse so strong and fast. The horse was worth more than a single big mansion because of its abilities.
As soon as Xena got surrounded by enemies, she jumped down from her horse and stabbed her sword into the ground. The shockwave was enough to knock them down, and that was when her commanders did the finishing move, trampling them with their horses.
She charged toward a big group of knights that were approaching her. She coated her sword with Aura and released a strong slash wave, breaking their weapons and armor. Once she got close, she swiftly slashed them before they could block all her attacks.
Her army entered the city from all directions at the same time and began to bombard the enemy with magic and arrows. The streets were filled with screams and shouts, destroying the enemy's force in a single swoop.
"Rescue and escort all the civilians! Don't harm any of them!" Xena shouted.
All the commanders rode their horses toward Xena at the crossroads, and then took different paths with their knights and mages following behind them.
It took them half a day to finally conquer the whole city, the enemy was completely defeated by the Servil faction army. Not a single Servil faction army was killed during the invasion. The Servil faction finally showed off their fangs, and how strong they were.
"Any sign of them?" Xena asked as she entered a meeting hall in the palace and stared at her commanders.
"There's no sign of demonic cults. We have interrogated the commander and the leader of the revolutionary army here as well. We are convinced that they have no connection to those demons or the emissary."
"We brought them to the brink of death, but they insisted that they had nothing to do with them. They even despised those demonic cults based on what they said."
"And you all believed them?" Xena asked as she stood at the table.
All the commanders nodded in unison. Xena didn't question their abilities to tell if someone had told the truth or not. After knowing this revolutionary party didn't have any connection with those demons, she was relieved.
"What should we do with them, leader?"
"Imprison them, and treat them with care. Treat the wounded, and try to gain more information about the other revolutionary parties," Xena answered as she sat down and leaned back. "Keep our eyes open, we don't know if there will be an attack from the other party or not. Don't forget to burn all the bodies," she added as she closed her eyes.
"Yes, leader, and please get some rest. We will send a message to the Alliance about our successful invasion."
All the commanders excused themselves and left the room, leaving Xena alone.
"This is still one of the many nations that we need to take care of..." Xena muttered as she lazily stared at the sunset. "I hope the others managed to eliminate the enemy..."
(At the same time, far south of South Neva.)
The city was devoured by the sea of fire, there were screams from all over the city. Dead bodies of knights from both the revolutionary army and the Alliance army filled the street. There was no sign of living, only crows and vultures on the roofs and city walls.
"Sir... undeads are everywhere... our fallen knights and the enemy's knights are coming back to life..."
"How did this happen?!" The Alliance general slammed his hand on the desk, enough to crack the sturdy and thick table. "We had 7,000 soldiers and we lost half of them?! And now they become undead?!" He gritted his teeth as he clenched his fists.
"General, we should fall back... We can stay here, and we can't lose the remaining army that we have."
"Nonsense! We had it! We took the city, and now we have to fall back?!" The general shouted.
"We don't have a choice, General. No living beings would dare to enter the city. We need to wait for reinforcement if we want to secure the city. We need more priests."
The general gritted his teeth once again, knowing that he had no choice. He decided to listen to the captains and ordered his army to fall back to the cities nearby.
After all the Alliance army abandoned the capital city, a person came out from a dark alley. He looked at the thousands of Corrupted roaming aimlessly around him.
The Corrupted suddenly stopped moving and slowly approached the man. They didn't show any hostility toward the man and gathered around him.
"Follow them, and kill them," the man said with a calm voice.
All the Corrupted heed the man's order and began to march toward the east gate. The man watched the army of the dead from the top of the city wall, smiling in excitement.
However, the Corrupted stopped moving not long after they left the city. The man was confused until he saw a figure landed in front of the Corrupted. Not a single Corrupted move when they saw the figure.
In a matter of a second, the thousands of troops of the Corrupted collapsed. The man was shocked by what he had just seen. He blinked his eyes with a confused look until he realized all the Corrupted lost their souls, including the demons within the bodies.
"What's going on..." the man muttered as he leaned against the wall and looked at the Corrupted bodies.
"Thank you for gathering all of them," a cold and chilling voice whispered into the man's ear.
Before the man could turn around, he felt his life and soul were sucked forcefully. He couldn't move a muscle until he collapsed and died.
Videl licked his lips as he chuckled, and turned into a laughter that echoed throughout the night. His laugh echoed while he was no longer there, disappearing into the silent night.