Throne of the North.

Chapter 814 Plague in War, A Glimmer of Hope Amidst Despair

In the extraordinary world, there is a power with absolute dominance, and that is the extraordinary itself.

No matter how brilliant an idea may be, it will be utterly defeated in the face of absolute, extraordinary power.

An army of ten thousand civilians could not possibly kill a legend.

Similarly, it would be impossible for 100,000 commoners and slaves, armed with their wooden spears and hoes, to defeat the monstrous creatures that roamed the abyss.

When the nobles' allied forces launched their attack, the Abyss Cultists in Brady Canyon wore expressions of suppressed frustration mixed with a sense of relief and resentment.

“These damned reptiles dare to challenge the majesty of my Lord.”

"It's a good thing they came to their deaths willingly, isn't it? Otherwise, we would have been too hesitant to take action and tear these weak humans apart in order to devour their souls."

A cultist grinned maliciously, removed his cloak, his eyes filled with cruelty, and then let out a hoarse roar.

Then, under the increasingly twilight sky, a massive monster appeared on the battlefield.

"My Lord has given me great power, how can a weak reptile understand the greatness of this power?"

"Become the soil beneath my feet!"

The towering monster roared, possessing reason that made him believe he was special, not one of those puppet-like abyssal monsters, but a devout follower of the Lord.

His actions triggered a chain reaction among the other Abyss Cultists on the battlefield. One after another, towering monsters appeared, leaping down from the top of the canyon and crashing into the army. They also charged forward from the front of the human noble alliance, until they collided head-on with the weak humans.

"For Lu Rui's glory!"

The moment Zakaria saw the abyssal monster, his pupils constricted. The soldiers at the forefront of the human army that had been charging behind him also showed signs of rapid breathing, and their powerful shouts weakened.

Humans have a fear of monsters, and the atmosphere of the battlefield offsets some of that fear. However, the difference between life and death still awakens the instincts in their flesh and blood.

Some were afraid, but they still charged forward. At this point, individual will could no longer determine anything. The human soldiers behind did not see the horror ahead. They shouted and urged the soldiers in front to move forward quickly, so the soldiers at the very front had no choice but to move forward.

Zakaria didn't turn around, but he knew that such a short time was not enough for the noble lords to leave Brady Canyon and appear in a safe place.

Zakaria's eyes hardened and turned cold as he contemplated the title of lord.

"By the Lord of Dawn, slaughter these servants of the Abyss!"

Jars of oil were tossed high into the air by knights in the army, and then arrows of fire shattered the earthenware jars, igniting the oil.

The burning flames, like meteors crashing down, scorched the battlefield ahead. The Abyss Cultists also suffered injuries, and the pain brought by the flames made them even angrier. Gradually, they lost their minds amidst the power of flesh and blood and began to howl madly.

Their very existence is a vessel for the power of the abyss. As the power spreads, the densely packed abyssal servants around them are also mobilized, their bodies shrouded in purplish-black mist, and their eyes turning malevolent.

Like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, the human-shaped abyssal servants above Brady Canyon plummeted down, crashing into the noble alliance with overwhelming force. The heavy impact was like cannonballs of flesh and blood, instantly throwing both sides into chaos on the battlefield.

"kill!"

Zakaria was still shouting, but in reality, only the thousands of soldiers around him were still under his control. On the battlefield further away, the situation had long since spiraled out of control and was difficult to predict. The only thing that could be seen were the Abyss Servants, many of whom had gotten up from the ground and were tearing at the human soldiers around them.

The scene was horrifying, but it wasn't the most terrifying part. The monsters that the Abyss Cultists had transformed into were the bloodiest part of the war.

Dozens of human soldiers surrounded a cultist from the abyss, but amidst the latter's cruel laughter, they were quickly torn to pieces, their blood mixed with fragments of internal organs being swallowed by the monster.

This scene completely shattered the psychological defenses of the hundreds of other soldiers around them. All their fervent morale was inexplicably and utterly defeated in the face of such a scene that exceeded their cognitive and acceptance thresholds.

The only consolation was that the battlefield was so chaotic and vast that even if they wanted to flee, it would be difficult.

Even looking back, there were falling abyssal servants preventing their escape. The only thing these 'soldiers' had learned during this time did come in handy: ensuring they were part of a group. Any act of being separated from the group would result in certain death.

This allowed them to maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness, while dodging the monsters' attacks and clearing what they thought were safe paths. The abyssal servants that fell down, with countless broken bones, were still relatively weak.

Zakaria only realized half an hour into the battle that the army was no longer under his control, because he wanted to concentrate his forces to kill a group of abyssal monsters.

He overestimated the soldiers' military skills. As extraordinary knights, they had received more knowledge and education, and were better able to accept the appearance of these monsters. He did not consider that ordinary soldiers were just civilians and slaves not long ago. The only things they could accept were pests in the fields and wild beasts running out of the mountains.

The monsters of the abyss are things that will drain your strength with just a glance.

He simply couldn't mobilize a large army to concentrate its forces and clear out the abyss monsters. On the contrary, those monsters fought each other and wreaked havoc everywhere, turning these 'weeds' into their food like mowing grass.

Who knows how many people were scared to death by this scene?

"At this rate, we won't be able to wait until tomorrow."

After considering the safety of the noble lords, Zakaria had to start thinking about his own safety and the fighting strength of the human noble alliance on the battlefield.

He stayed behind voluntarily for the title of lord. If the army were to be defeated, he would die in front of the servants of the abyss. He did not want to become a monster, nor did he want his soul to be corrupted by the abyss.

After taking the sacred potion he had purchased from the Church of Dawn, Zakaria calmly considered the situation.

"We need to retreat. As long as the army is still in Brady Canyon, the Abyss Servants won't all be able to chase after Lord Lurie and his men. When the soldiers discover that the food hasn't been completely burned, they can maintain their fighting spirit and morale. When reinforcements arrive, I will also become a distinguished lord."

This was Zakaria's original plan. Of course, he couldn't and dared not actually burn all the food. This was for the sake of what would happen after he became a lord. Otherwise, this alone would have bleaked the future of his Lord Zakaria family.

The unexpected turn of events in this plan was the appearance of these abyssal monsters, who were indiscriminately and cruelly slaughtering humans without any apparent purpose. This meant that his army might not be able to hold out for as long as he had imagined.

The original plan was to fight until dawn tomorrow, but now it seems that we may not even be able to hold out until dusk today.

Zakaria hoped that a portion of the noble lords' personal guards, especially the knights and mages, could be retained.

He knew it was impossible. Without the tens of thousands of people delaying them in Brady Canyon, it would be difficult for the lords to reach the Kingdom of Coran. The noble lords would definitely prioritize their own safety.

"Go, pour out all the oil and set it on fire!" Zakaria finally roared at his soldiers. This was the only solution he could think of: to use the burning flames to stop the abyss monster minions from slaughtering the human soldiers.

Although doing so would result in significant losses for ourselves, such sacrifices are essential for achieving strategic victory.

"This is all for the glory of the Lu Rui family!"

Zakaria said coldly that as long as he could hold out until tomorrow, he, Zakaria, would be given the surname Lure and become a noble lord.

Zi la la!
The burning flames swept across the entire battlefield as the liquid flowed. Just as Zakaria had guessed, the abyssal monsters were monsters after all, and they too feared the intense flames. The originally dim battlefield became bright under the illumination of the firelight, and against the backdrop of countless figures whose bodies were set ablaze and who were running and howling like fireflies.

Brady Canyon has probably never been brighter than this sunset.

However, everything has two sides. The flames brought heat and a slight advantage over the abyss monsters, but the bright Brady Canyon also allowed many soldiers to see further, higher, and more clearly.

"The noble lord has run away!"

It's unclear which brilliant strategist glanced behind them in fear, then roared out this command, causing an uproar across the battlefield and a rapid collapse of rising morale.

The soldiers, running around like headless flies, looked up at the direction of the noble lords on the hillside, their eyes gradually filled with despair.

In fact, they were not unable to accept this outcome; in fact, they believed it was only natural, a historical legacy and ingrained mindset formed over thousands of years of aristocratic rule on the Norris continent.

The noblemen wanted to escape danger as quickly as possible and get to a safe place.

What right do commoners and slaves have to come into contact with the ranks of the aristocratic rulers? They and the nobles live in two different worlds, and people from different worlds naturally don't think about each other.

The key to the problem lies with Count Kanazawa.

This wise and noble earl, in order to ensure morale and stability within Brady Canyon, has, over time, shown everyone that they stand with them.

With this attitude, although the soldiers still wouldn't think that the noble lords were wrong to stay away from the dangerous battlefield, they could instinctively sense the defeat of the war through their behavior before and after.

The nobleman promised to stay with them, but now he's fled. Why? Has the war already been lost?

On the vast Brady Canyon, even a Sky Knight in the sky could hardly see the whole picture, let alone an ordinary soldier on the battlefield. The soldiers at the bottom knew that there was only one way to win or lose a war.

Look at their commander, look at what their noble lords are doing.

The commanders and nobles are laughing excitedly; that must mean they have won the war and survived. The commanders and nobles are fleeing, roaring with rage; that must mean a pessimistic outcome.

The soldiers involved in the war could not know directly when it began or ended; this was the only indirect way they knew the answer.

The nobles' departure at this moment was undoubtedly announcing this outcome to them, which left the ordinary soldiers, still in the midst of war, in despair.

They naturally assumed that their war had been lost.

"The war has been lost, and we are all going to die!"

Some soldiers ran around in panic, crying, no longer caring about sticking together. Their instinct of fear told them that there was only one outcome to the defeat in the war: the losers would be killed.

They couldn't even become prisoners or slaves in the face of the Abyss's servants.

Despair began to spread as more and more soldiers witnessed the departure of the nobles, and the drawbacks of Zakaria's inability to truly control tens of thousands of people became apparent.

At this moment, he was unable to express that he was still alive and that the war had not yet been lost. At least, on the battlefields outside of his own side, his voice could no longer be heard.

The nobleman's figure disappeared further and further away until he was completely gone from the high slope, and the atmosphere on the battlefield turned into a desperate gloom.

However, the battlefield was not over yet, because the Abyss Cult monsters had not stopped their slaughter; they would not let go of such a rare and delicious meal.

Torment is not enough to describe the suffering of the human soldiers who were trapped in it. They cried and fled, but they could not escape the fact that there was nowhere to hide in Brady Canyon. They could only be found and killed again and again. In addition, there was the despair of betrayal. Many human soldiers had their souls corrupted by the abyss during the battle and became servants of the abyss. They turned around and gave them a heart-wrenching greeting.

The soldiers gradually forgot the high morale-boosting declarations made by Commander Zakaria, forgot the benevolence of the noble lords and their escape during the war, forgot the satiety and satisfaction brought by food, forgot that they had their own huts in their hometown, where the food they depended on for survival was grown in the soil outside, and that old grains for dealing with disasters were still hidden in a cellar of their houses.

All that remained was the trembling of life and soul, which reminded them that they were not soldiers at all, but merely ordinary people at the very bottom of the world. They were slaves, commoners, peasants who would cower and pray that suffering would fall on others instead of themselves at the slightest disturbance.

More and more people have forgotten how to resist and fight. Not everyone can take up arms in such despair and trembling. Zakaria successfully stopped a desperate war, but he could not continue this desperate war. Ninety-nine percent of the people on the battlefield, their inherent cowardice is the most terrible plague in war.

"Lord, please save me."

In despair, the most devout faith was born, and the Lord of Dawn was great once again in this world.

Believers are devout, just as they devoutly believe that the great Lord is omnipotent, and devoutly understand that the Lord will not truly appear at this moment.

There wasn't even a priest in their prayers!

Dusk had not yet passed, but Zakaria was filled with despair. He had tried every means and method, only to find that the war was no longer relevant to him. At this moment, he was nothing more than a slightly stronger Golden Knight.

His individual strength is meaningless on this vast battlefield.

"Am I going to die here?"

Zakaria thought desperately and fearfully, "I still want to become a lord."

When the despair of war permeates the commander-in-chief, that is the moment when all hope has vanished. Yet, it is in this darkest hour that passionate roars and laughter, the complete opposite of numbness, panic, and despair, resound.

"Hahahaha!!! Brothers, look at those ugly, disgusting creatures! Kill them all, kill them all!"

"The smell of war is so delicious! My men, charge!"

A burly armored bear carried a burly young woman, her fervent excitement fueled by an intense thirst for war. Leading an extraordinary legion just like her, they swept through the battlefield like a torrent, leaving behind a trail of trash. With an unseen, divine light, they descended upon the center of the battlefield in Brady Canyon, dispelling all the pressure under the cover of night.

(End of this chapter)