Free Web NovelBlack mist, like a sigh exhaled by the God of Death from the depths of hell, slowly spread, silently licking the entire valley.
It flowed without wind, and had weight without form, like a giant black afterbirth, slowly swallowing the entire battlefield into its mother body.
The knights of the Dragon Blood Legion stood in formation, their battle aura slowly flowing between their armor, their heavy boots already sinking into the mud and blood-soaked earth.
Even veteran knights, seasoned by countless battles, could feel a chill not of this world at this moment.
No, it was the fear of being gazed upon by some existence.
That shiver, as if burrowing from the base of the spine all the way into the marrow, was the instinctive cry of reason: Do not approach.
"What is—that smell?" a knight whispered, his voice dry as sand.
It wasn't the smell of rotting flesh, nor the common acrid smell of smoke and fire on a battlefield.
It was the scent of death.
The Archmages of the Magician Forest in front raised their staves, and azure wind walls surged forth, whipping up several whistling air currents that lifted the black mist.
In just a few seconds, the dense mist rolled back like a tide, revealing a corner of the battlefield's wreckage.
But before they could even catch their breath, the black mist, like conscious blood tendrils, squirmed and gathered again.
It slowly spewed forth from the direction of “that thing,” viscous like amniotic fluid, carrying a murmur.
"It moved."
That knight's hoarse whisper was barely audible in the wind, yet it was like a stone thrown into water, stirring ripples across the entire battlefield.
The first to move was a broken knight's arm.
It had been lying quietly in the snow, next to a shattered battle halberd.
But at this moment, the arm itself slid, emitting a faint “clatter,” as if driven by some unseen will.
Next, other corpses.
Regardless of friend or foe.
Humans, Worm-Eaten Household corpses, livestock, broken bones, rotten intestines, fragmented faces, all squirmed, pieced together, and intertwined.
“Click.” A crisp sound of bones reassembling echoed in the black mist, like a signal of some “new birth.”
Immediately after, more sounds followed: “Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack—”
The sound was like millions of broken skeletons simultaneously rebuilding themselves.
Under the horrified gaze of the knights, the “corpses” before them had already completed a new round of construction.
They were monsters.
Monsters without shape.
Some had three arms but no head, some had gaping wounds on their backs, some were sewn together from the remains of five different species, and their breath was the cry of a human infant, sharp, tender, yet tearing at the ears.
There was even a detached hand that inserted itself into the eye socket of an Worm-Eaten Household corpse's face, transforming into an “eye,” while the rest of it squirmed into a new jaw that slowly opened and closed.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!"
Not far away, a Dragon Blood Knight roared and charged, red battle aura pouring into his spear tip, impaling a newly assembled monster against the rock wall with a single thrust!
"Hooah—!!"
Rocks shattered, flesh and blood splattered, but the victorious roar had not yet uttered its next word.
“Click.”
The monster’s chest caved in, its severed limbs gushed, yet the next moment, its bones twisted, internal organs popped out, and it reassembled, like gears realigning, lunging from the other side!
"Behind you!!"
At that moment, even the training, battle formations, will, and battle aura of the Dragon Blood Knights felt an unprecedented collapse of logic: no matter how strong the sword, it could not sever a “dead thing that came back to life.”
No matter how dense the battle formation, it could not encircle a life form outside of tactical understanding.
"This isn't right!" a knight roared, desperately cleaving open a fleshy Worm-Eaten Household corpse. "They—they don't die!"
Not just “undead,” but any wreckage caused by an attack would transform into something even more bizarre and new.
A Dragon Blood Knight, who had struck an enemy with a burning battle aura, found the next second that when ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) the severed arm landed, it not only didn't become useless but burrowed into another corpse, instantly granting it new “combat reaction skills.”
"Left flank! Four men missing! Right flank assault team trapped! Requesting backup!"
What echoed through the battlefield was not fear, but calm and urgent reports.
Battle commander Gaius gritted his teeth, crimson battle aura scorching the air around him.
When he personally cleaved in half a monster fused with the faces of three comrades, he felt a sense of helplessness for the first time.
"It's useless even if we smash them."
In less than a quarter of an hour, the foremost ranks of the Dragon Blood Legion had already lost over a dozen men.
It must be known that this was not an ordinary army.
Even the lowest-ranking Dragon Blood Knight was a high-tier knight chosen from ten thousand, a pillar of the Empire.
They were also bleeding.
They fought to the death, but what they “killed” was merely nourishment for “a stronger enemy in the future.”
They continuously devoured, reassembled, evolved, and regenerated.
Even the Empire's strongest high-tier elites were but a brilliant flash in its “food chain.”
"This won't do." Gaius raised his sword and shouted. "All troops! Retreat immediately!"
His voice was like thunder, and the battlefield instantly vibrated.
At that moment, no one questioned him; they were not retreating out of fear, but a tactical withdrawal.
Their lives could not be wasted in this endless horde of pieced-together monsters. freēwēbnovel.com
As the horn blared, the Dragon Blood Legion began to reorganize, with knights forming ranks and retreating, shield guards covering the rear, and cavalry sweeping from both flanks to secure the retreat route.
The warriors galloped back through the snow mist, their iron boots clattering on the cold flagstones, leaving a heavy and urgent echo.
"Frost Halberd City—all forces in position!"
As the command echoed through the wind and snow, the last Dragon Blood Knight entered the city gate.
"Close the city!"
The command, deep as a resounding bell, echoed across the sky. The next instant, the colossal city gates of Frost Halberd City—
That massive gate, forged from profound steel and inscribed with seven layers of anti-curse magic patterns, slowly closed with a rumbling sound.
"Click—!"
With a loud clang as the lock bolts engaged, the entire city, like a giant beast that had slumbered for years, awakened anew, and layers of magical runes lit up across its walls.
Boom—!!
Seventeen magic fortresses, deployed around Frost Halberd City, activated simultaneously. Complex rune arrays appeared at the tips of the fortress towers, and ice-blue magical arcs danced and intertwined in the air, like stars weaving a net.
The Frostflame Reactor at the heart of the city glowed with a low hum, and dense magical energy rapidly transmitted along the earth veins, awakening the network.
A layer of extremely cold energy web then rose, extending like a spiderweb from the castle center to every tower, finally converging in the sky to form a super barrier.
This strongest war fortress in the Northern Territory finally revealed its true fangs.
And in the black mist in the distance, the Worm-Eaten Household was already rolling in like waves.
"Catapults activated! Load Chillcrystal Magic Burst Roundss!"
As the tactical command was issued, the colossal magic-powered catapults lining the city walls slowly rose. Their massive mechanical arms embedded with levitation runes, and with a flash of spell power, the first wave of Chillcrystal Magic Burst Roundss were loaded into their tracks.
"Fire—!"
Whoosh!!!
The sky was instantly rent, as one Chillcrystal Magic Burst Rounds after another, trailing long blue-white frost tails, fell like comets, smashing violently into the squirming Worm-Eaten Household.
Boom—!! Boom-boom-boom-boom!!
Each impact was a localized freezing.
The violent explosions instantly froze the Worm-Eaten Household within a five-meter radius into ice sculptures. As the ice crystals burst, they shattered, cutting through the surrounding flesh, and the cold current, like a storm, devoured all life around it.
But they were still moving.
Even when frozen, even with severed limbs and remnants, even if they had just been blasted into fragments.
The next second, they would reassemble, combine, twist, and stand up again.
It was an extremely bizarre sight.
As if the entire Worm-Eaten Household had been lulled to sleep by “death” for a moment, only to quickly awaken from its dream.
On the battlefield, where shattered corpses, ice crystals, flames, and cold intertwined, they continued their silent cycle of rebirth and regeneration, at a rhythm almost like sleepwalking.
A Dragon Blood Knight stood on the city wall, staring at the endless surge of the Worm-Eaten Household, and muttered, "This is too disgusting—they aren't fighting to fight, but to aggregate."
A chill suddenly ran down his spine, as if he saw himself becoming one of them.
At the highest watchtower of Frost Halberd City, the cold wind howled, and cloaks billowed in the air like burning flags.
Duke Edmund stood atop the high wall, his eyes colder than the sky.
The endlessly reassembling Worm-Eaten Household surged forward like a tide, but was temporarily blocked by the fortified barrier of Frost Halberd City.
But it was only temporary; the barrier wouldn't last much longer.
The Duke remained silent for a long time, then slowly raised his hand: "Summon everyone: senior commanders, representatives of the Mage Towers, the commander and vice-commander of the Dragon Blood Legion, and those Councilors sent from the Imperial Capital."
And at this very moment, deep within that squirming throne, a pair of crimson eyes stared at the same battlefield.
"Heh heh heh heh heh... heh ha ha ha ha ha—!"
A chilling laughter echoed through the flesh and blood.
The Despair Witch leaned against the throne made of insect carapaces and human bones, her slender fingers lightly tracing lines in the air, as if conducting a grand symphony.
She “saw” it.
She saw corpses squirming, combining, disintegrating, reassembling, regardless of friend or foe, regardless of species, even broken bones and frozen intestines began to “construct” themselves spontaneously.
She saw the roars and bloody battles of the Dragon Blood Knights, who fought desperately, severing the necks of those fused monsters, only to gain a stronger new form.
She saw Frost Halberd City begin to ignite the Frostflame, activate the extreme cold barrier, and Chillcrystal Magic Burst Roundss falling from the sky, freezing the Worm-Eaten Household corpses into shattered ice sculptures.
But what did that matter?
"Heh heh heh—heh heh heh ha ha ha—ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"
The Despair Witch laughed aloud, her laughter distorted like the chest tremors of someone suffocating.
She covered her mouth, trembling with excitement like a child who couldn't wait to see the ending.
"This—this is my trump card," she murmured, her voice filled with a lustful euphoria, "A poison purer than all magic—the resurrection of the dead."
"Of course," she gently caressed the squirming joints on the throne, "this poison cannot be spread at will—it can only be activated once it absorbs enough death qi."
"But now," her eyes reflected the fallen figures on the battlefield's snowy plain, "it's enough to take the entire Northern Territory."
"How many more days can Frost Halberd City hold out? Three days? Or five?"
She spread her palm, as if weighing the last barrier of the Empire, a playful smile appearing at the corner of her lips.
"More than enough. Enough for me to gestate more Mother Nests, enough for me to sow this 'Gift of Doomsday' into the heart of the Empire.
The Imperial Capital, the entire Empire—all will become my nurseries and hatching pools. The ashes of the Empire are the best soil.
The Doomsday Mother Nest will eventually sweep across the entire world, taking what you call order, gods, bloodlines, oaths—
—one by one, skinned, bone-washed, deconstructed, and then injected with insect embryos."
She stood up, her figure slender as jade, her long train trailing a crimson tide across the ground, like a goddess descending, or a demon kissing the earth.
"Heh—I am one step closer to Doomsday.
Wait and see, every one of you, living, dead, remembered, forgotten, will eventually be a dish at my feast."
Laughter echoed again, frenzied, joyful, full of anticipation, like a noble high priest preparing an infant's baptism for the world.
Frost Halberd City, Governor's Mansion. Outside the wind and snow, the giant gate opened.
Inside the meeting hall, dim yellow lights had not been extinguished, illuminating the mottled battle flags and magic rune carvings on the stone walls.
At the center now was an ancient stone conference table, its legs still engraved with the Empire's symbolic runes, but its surface was already covered with cracks from years and wars.
In the center were embedded the Imperial crest and the Frost Halberd crest, signifying the level of the current deliberation—the Empire's highest wartime council.
There was a huge lamp on the ceiling, and beams of cold light hung down from above, illuminating every solemn face.
The heavy curtains were tightly drawn, and magic arrays blocked out the wind and snow. Only the faint rumbling in the distance and the occasional trembling of the floor reminded everyone that the battlefield was not far outside the city.
People arrived one after another.
There were senior commanders in red and black cloaks with grave expressions, and Archmages whose robes were stained with snow, arriving in a hurry.
There were also some Councilors in Imperial Capital standard uniforms, their expressions clearly out of place with the local generals, as if they had not yet grasped the situation from the chaos.
Louis also quietly found a seat in a corner.
He had no official status and was not an officer within Frost Halberd City's system; theoretically, he was not qualified to attend such a high-level meeting.
But this was specially arranged by the Duke, who was intentionally cultivating him.
When Gaius entered the meeting hall, his gaze swept over Louis, recognizing his younger brother. He winked at Louis but said nothing more.
After all, now was simply not the time for pleasantries.
Everyone who entered the hall carried a complex emotion.
Heaviness, confusion, anger, and more, a premonition: the decisive battle was fast approaching.
No one spoke loudly, no one exchanged pleasantries.
People just nodded at each other in tacit understanding, then quietly took their seats, their gazes fixed on the still-empty main seat.
Until heavy footsteps sounded. Duke Edmund, cloaked, slowly entered the hall, his silver hair at his temples appearing frosted in the lamplight.
He slowly took the main seat, his entire being like a mountain, steady and silent, yet the air in the entire meeting hall suddenly grew heavier.
"Everyone is here." He spoke slowly, his gaze sweeping across everyone's faces, then settling heavily. "Now, no one will doubt what we are facing."
No one answered.
Because no one dared to easily define the scene they had witnessed: corpses resurrecting, piecing together and reassembling, the Worm-Eaten Household surging like blood waves, the earth like the God of Death's birthing bed.
