Throne of the North.

Chapter 705 The Battle of Twilight (Part 2)

His esteemed Chosen One, His Highness Volvo Columbus, personally trod upon this extraordinary fortress built from countless lives and blood.

He was draped in a golden robe, and the majesty and power of royalty were concentrated on his face, which bore the blood of Columbus.

"Your Highness, of the slaves at Twilight Keep, over 167,000 have died or been wounded, leaving fewer than 20,000 remaining."

The Marquis of Twilight gave Volvo this result, a figure that represents the cost of compressing months of work into seven days.

"so much?"

Even Volvo, who viewed slaves as a series of numbers, couldn't help but shudder, staring in shock at Hick Columbus, the Marquis of Twilight.

"Why are there so many?"

"That's inevitable. Slaves will die at the hands of orcs, and they will also die from carrying and building fortresses. It was too dangerous here a few days ago."

Without magical power to sustain it, Twilight Keep was just an ordinary high-walled fortress. The slaves were completely powerless to walk in this dangerous place. The orcs attacked several times and set foot on Twilight Keep. One orc could kill ten slaves.

What about the remaining slaves?

Volvo fell silent for a long time before speaking:
“Give them gold coins. I am the future emperor of the empire, and I will keep my word. I will grant them the status of commoners and give them the wealth to live on.”

There are really only so few people left, so it won't cost much at all.

After Volvo finished speaking, he walked past Marquis Twilight, then turned around and looked at the densely packed soldiers behind him, all wearing different noble badges, but now belonging to the Imperial army.

"Soldiers of the Empire!"

"In the name of the Elector and as the Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Army, I command you to launch an attack today against our eternal enemy, the evil orcs!"

"Your charge will trample the flesh and blood of the orcs, filling them with fear; your spears will pierce their hearts, making them understand that death is a terrible thing; your roars will tell those damned orcs that the Flor Empire is their forbidden zone!"

"For the Empire!"

"For the Emperor!"

"Long live the Empire!!!"

"Long live the Emperor!!!"

The soldiers roared wildly, raising their weapons high and marching in neat, powerful steps, their voices echoing throughout the north and south of Twilight Fortress, resounding endlessly.

Even amidst the wind and snow, the orcs will not halt their invasion because of human actions.

As one of the six royal families of the orcs, the Splendid Royal Court is the power center of the Northern Tiger Orcs. Acosta is the master of this royal court, which has lived for nearly six hundred years.

Their colorful fur is not suited to the northern environment, making them particularly conspicuous when hunting in the icy snow. Even so, the Tiger Beastman race still became one of the six royal families of the Beastmen thanks to their perfect attributes in all aspects.

The strength of their clan was the first reason they became royalty, and the terror of Acosta was the second.

It is the only orc king to have survived both the Behemoth King and the Behemoth.

That's a story from over 500 years ago. The Behemoth in the story is the same Behemoth, and the Behemoth King in the story is the grandfather of the current Behemoth King.

Acosta instilled fear in the orcs because it was not strong; compared to other orcs, it was merely lean and muscular, making it look like a frail human.

If we disregard the tiger's head that can crush steel in one bite.

"Can anyone tell me why those humans were able to raise their magical protective shield during your attack?"

Acosta sat on his throne, looking down at the hundreds of orc chieftains and leaders below, including some tiger orc chieftains.

All the orcs feared Acosta's majesty, bowing their heads and daring not to speak. They launched attacks at all times, but who knew that the humans were using the same methods, relentlessly decimating their own kind.

These leaders were naturally heartbroken by the deaths of their clansmen, because the more clansmen died, the less safe their tribes were in this world.

Especially now, the gods no longer respond to them.

Acosta stepped down from his throne, his massive tiger claws gripping the head of a snow leopard beastman. The next moment, the head exploded like a watermelon, splattering blood all over the colorful king.

"A bunch of useless trash, I'll show you what real aggression is."

"Humanity?"

"Just a weak food source."

Just as Acosta was about to order the entire orc army to advance, the voices of his people came from outside.

"Your Majesty!"

"Humans have launched an attack on us!"

Acosta was utterly astonished. Those humans dared to attack them? Could their short legs even get them over those mountains?
"ridiculous!"

The magnificent king roared, his tiger-like howl echoing across the sky, dispelling the boundless wind and snow overhead. It was precisely because the sky became clear that countless orcs looked up and saw the dazzling, brilliant heavens!

High above, a rainbow of vibrant colors blanketed the entire world. Crimson light, like thousands of flames falling from the sky, adorned the heavens, burning away all the void. The scorching energy turned the snow into a torrential downpour, but also fueled the future storm in the sky. The mages' tempestuous storms have always been stronger than the world's own natural disasters. The waterspout-like storm tornado, fueled by the wind and snow, became even more violent, rising high from the sky and falling towards the earth below.

Countless snowflakes were melting. To the north of Twilight Keep stood majestic mountains, but at this moment, countless snowflakes turned into torrents and were swept up by the power of magic, becoming part of the magic. The once snow-covered, vast mountain peaks had now returned to their original colors. The lush, verdant world was a story from a hundred years ago, but now, under the influence of magic, it had reappeared.

The lush green forests made the beastmen realize that the world's true colors were not pure white.

However, this original brilliance is fleeting.

The magic overhead drew ever closer, and the starlight formed an invisible connection with the metal veins deep within the earth. From within the verdant mountain peaks, various colored metal particles were drawn up, transforming into rivers in the sky and converging into a dazzling, shimmering ribbon.

The heavy magic of the earth emanated from the depths of the ground. After the metal veins collapsed, giant stone hands rose from the earth, and hundreds of meters high mountains collapsed one after another. These mountains, which were originally the best barriers against the wind and snow in the northern part of the Twilight Province of the Empire, now became flattened.

The earth trembled and the sky shook—this was the great terror caused by magic. But in the land of the North, the most powerful magic was never the fiery stars that fell from the sky like meteors, nor the brilliant brilliance of metal veins that eroded flesh and blood, nor the stone hand of the earth that reached out and crushed the orcs after the mountains collapsed.

In the world of the North, the most active source of magical energy is always the boundless, centuries-old ice and snow.

"Ten Thousand Glaciers!"

From the depths of the void, came the majestic low chant of Lord Lan, the Imperial Regent, whose title was "Eternal Silence." His call awakened the ice-attribute magic factors that had existed in the Northern Territory for centuries. North of Twilight Fortress, on that magically chaotic land, with this ancient chant, the void froze, the earth turned into glaciers, and the melting snow in the sky once again froze.

However... the snowflakes before were only the size of soybeans, which could be crushed with a fingertip, but now the crystal snowflakes are the size of a palm, crystal clear and sharp. In the instant, the indifference of this world can be seen in the transparent snowflakes.

They drifted down from the sky as lightly as leaves, falling gently. They touched the void, and the void was torn apart. They touched the bodies of orcs, and in a dazed, icy state, the orcs saw their limbs detach from them. They landed on the ground, and when an orc stepped on them, he felt as if his flesh had been frozen, leaving him stiff and unable to move.

They... are not the entirety of this forbidden magic.

The falling, glistening snowflakes became the executioner's guillotine, ruthlessly reaping the lives of the orcs. However, hiding on the ground was not a good option either.

The mountain collapsed, and the once majestic mountain range was transformed into a boundless plain. At this moment, on this plain, the icicles of the card rose from the ground like bamboo shoots.

Pure, frigid glaciers have formed new bamboo shoot-shaped mountain ranges on the plains.

They are bright red because the blood is like ink spreading across a watercolor painting.

Countless orcs died without even having the right to wail, torn apart by the sharp edges of the glaciers, or frozen directly inside the mountains. The transparent ice seeped into the orcs' terrified and desperate eyes, their very souls frozen in place.

How much wealth Volvo spent on magic scrolls, and how many magicians personally chanted and released them, to create this boundless and magnificent scene of the sky and the earth?

I don't know, probably not even Volvo itself knows, it was just doing its best for this achievement.

In less than ten minutes, the majestic and solid mountains of the North disappeared.

Instead, there are terrifying and sharp, transparent glaciers. Unlike the mountains, they have no gentle slopes and are perpendicular to the ground at nearly ninety degrees. Furthermore, the gaps between the glaciers are hard, flat ground that could be trampled and charged by human cavalry.

"Soldiers of the Empire!"

"Attack!"

Volvo stood excitedly atop Twilight Fortress, personally roaring the order to attack. The next moment, a dense, surging tide of Imperial soldiers leaped down from Twilight Fortress behind him.

Jumping directly down would certainly mean death, but the day before, the slaves piled up boulders to form a stepped path; otherwise, the gates of Twilight Keep wouldn't have been able to accommodate so many soldiers rushing out of the fortress.

"For the Flor Empire!!!"

"For the Emperor!!!"

"attack!!!"

The imperial army, surging forward like a tidal wave of ants, fearlessly charged towards the orc army, which had already suffered countless casualties and was in complete disarray.

At the same time, the magic of the sky, like a vast array of stars, finally arrived at their battlefield against the earth.

Countless fireballs and meteorites crashed onto the glacial land, shattering hundreds of glaciers into fragments. However, the flying fragments of ice still became a harvesting machine for the orcs. The metal chains merged with the storm, creating a terrible disaster. Wherever it passed, thousands of orcs were swept into the sky. Their weight of several hundred kilograms was still a toy in the face of this storm.

The magnificent storm turned blood red under the influence of blood, and countless spells descended from the sky, covering not just ten miles, but hundreds of miles of the northern border.

Hundreds and thousands of orc tribes have gathered on this land. They are either the main force attacking the human empire or cannon fodder, but now there is only one ending for them: to become part of the magnificent performance of this magical feast.

This was the power of money, and the authority of magic. The imperial army marched forward on the flat ground, and before the orcs could organize a complete defense, they were crushed by the aftershocks of magic.

"Attack, attack!"

Harald raised his longsword with fervor and charged forward. As a legendary commander, he personally appeared at the forefront of the battlefield, with the nobles' extraordinary legions behind him. In the surging charge, no orc could stop them for even a second.

Further ahead, the magic was still blasting.

Boom! ! !
The earth cracked open, lava erupted like a volcano, and the roar of a tiger drowned out all the magical booms on the battlefield, even surpassing the thunderous hoofbeats of the imperial cavalry.

Deep within the crimson lava earth, the ferocious king Acosta stood amidst the magma, then drew a greatsword flowing with fiery red liquid from the blazing lava.

If Ryan were here, he would recognize that this scene was strikingly similar to Surtur's, and on this battlefield, everyone could feel the intense energy emanating from the body of that magnificent king.

The molten earth that cracked open was not contained within the earth itself, but rather created by the power of this magnificent king.

The raging power of blood and qi melted the depths of the earth, thus creating a world of lava.

"Demi god?"

From the void, the legendary mage Lan emerged. She had a cold expression and pale skin, and looked at the orc king opposite her with some shock.

Several other legends appeared nearby, frowning as they looked at the magnificent king.

"No, it doesn't seem like a demigod, it's more like... a divine favor?"

"The favor of the gods has been solidified on it. No wonder this orc king has lived for so many years. If possible, its lifespan could even exceed a thousand years."

"It's really scary."

There are six legends in total, three of whom are among the Empire's Ten Legendary Magic Priests. Tasi, who set up the Star Magic Array at the Cathedral of Light, is also among them.

The first to approach Acosta was naturally 'Lionheart' Harald. This royal member was no weakling; he possessed top-tier legendary combat prowess. The moment he saw the variegated king, he had already drawn his legendary longsword.

The blinding sword light tore through the sky and the earth, like the roar of a lion covering the orc king's domain.

However, he still underestimated this orc king. The fact that the legendary mages behind him all stepped out was the best explanation. The moment the molten longsword was swung, all the power evaporated, including Harald's knightly combat skills.

(End of this chapter)