Shadow of the Evil God

"Everyone has their own limitations," the monk said, also looking towards the distant nest. "But you simply couldn't realize your ambitions at court. I arranged for you to travel south, and you were constantly served and kept clean. Now, not only are you living under someone else's roof, but you're also having to deal with such matters. Don't you think this undermines your status and bloodline? Even if Gural Fortress is repaired, even if you resist the general's attack, it will belong to Evered IV, not His Highness."

"I don't understand what you mean." The princess glanced over.

Altinya actually understood, because Cesar had already told Diana everything he had learned. Given her and the princess's close relationship, they must have discussed this for days and nights.

Brother Keith coughed when he heard this, and Cesar realized that this insider also had information from Clifas.

"I believe you are aware of your teacher's family feud, Your Highness," the Templar said. "This feud has extended to the Dominican royal family. Their queen and the chancellor's daughter met at court earlier. No one knew what they were plotting, but soon news spread that Garcia was planning to lead troops to aid Evered IV. You must know that many of the troops he led were stationed in the empire, and to deploy them, they would require the consent of Chancellor Heanria... This matter has extraordinary significance."

She nodded slightly, "Anyway...just keep talking."

"We know that Dominy's queen has a grudge against your teacher. As for the other queen, she obviously has a grudge against you, Your Highness."

Altinya shook her head, as if offended. "Is that what you're saying?"

"Many of us think so," Brother Keith said. "Regardless, the important thing is that Gural Fortress itself is in danger, while Garcia's army has a huge advantage. The two are of incomparable significance. Evered IV is in danger now. If the Domini royal family makes some insignificant demands on him... such as you and your teacher, the decision he will make is almost a no-brainer. And..."

"as well as?"

The monk stared at Altinya. "Your Highness, with your deep knowledge of history, can't you see that General Clifas's use of Olidan as a battlefield to determine the outcome of his battle with Garcia is the true course of history? Any obstacle between the two is a stubborn obstacle, and any other person between them is merely a supporting role."

"You were acting as a lobbyist for Clifford when you were arranging the connections to get me south?"

"That's not important," Brother Keith said. "Our destiny depends not only on our own efforts, but also on the choices we make at every moment, Your Highness. And if you ask me, that's the most crucial issue."

Chapter 308: The First Siege

If the dog hadn't woken him and told him the corpse eaters were approaching, Cesar would have wanted to see the end. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible. He'd been sleeping fitfully lately, and his time in the wasteland had been sporadic, so he'd barely completed anything. Still, his destination wasn't far off. Once Clifas's strongholds, supply lines, and logistics routes near the front lines were reduced to ruins, the old man would be forced to choose between delaying the expedition and running out of supplies.

The former is best, but Cesar can accept the latter.

......

Diana leaned against the outer side of the tower, peering out the narrow window at the shattered road leading from the Ghoul's Lair to Gural Fortress. The Ghoul's Lair had already left behind the remains of numerous flesh puppets. She knew the destructive power of these puppets, but the city had ample ammunition reserves, and combined with the height and range of the city's defense guns, they could cover an entire area at distances difficult for even ordinary spells to reach.

It's easy to imagine the power of that artillery boom. After all, the roar of massive artillery fire was like thunder exploding across the city, shaking the ground as it landed. The shells fired were a mix of grenades and solid rounds, some of which would deviate due to inaccurate pre-calculations by the artillery, resulting in unintended trajectories. However, the majority of the shells exploded where they were supposed to.

While teaching Artinia, Cesar had her survey the entire terrain in front of the fortress, drawing a survey map with precise scale and markings. He then divided the map into a series of areas, extending from the city walls forward to the maximum range of the city's defense guns. They then developed more detailed tables and mathematical models based on the locations of the various defense guns.

It can be said that as long as they have the tables they mapped, any artilleryman who has received basic training can correct the problem of trajectory deviation to a great extent.

The first victims were the first group of flesh golems that attempted to drag the corpse-eaters' nest into the fortress. Clearly, as consumable resources, both the flesh golems and the corpse-eaters themselves were not as cheap as solid iron bullets.

Unlike other fortresses, Cesar devoted almost all his energy to modifying the artillery, maintaining the cannons, and supplying ammunition. From Gonzales to Sodoris, they had established an extremely complete mining, forging, production, and transportation route, which no one with the intention of profiting could interfere with.

In Sodoris, Artinia had already eliminated the region's biggest profiteers, effectively purging the entire city council family. Since then, they've deployed so many inspectors and imposed such harsh punishments that it's almost like they're using military law.

The city walls have also been meticulously repaired and rebuilt, demonstrating maximum strength. They are protected by massive blockhouses, circular towers, and bastions. Triangular platforms flank the bastions, housing large artillery pieces to maximize and broaden their range. Not only has the maximum range been increased, but close-range fire can now reach within dozens of meters of the wall's edge. Passageways along the walls were carefully designed for personnel movement, with slings capable of hauling personnel directly from the base to the top, specifically for the engineers maintaining the artillery.

Although many facilities still have their scaffoldings removed, most of them are now usable.

Whether Diana looked left or right from the tower, at the highest point of this defensive line, she could see the tapering walls extending out to either side. Much of the massive wall was brand new, some even untouched by wind and rain, revealing sharp, uneroded edges. The mortar between many of the stones was still dark and hadn't yet dried.

In reality, the bastion they oversaw was by far the most effective defensive fortress utilizing the new military doctrine. For well-known reasons, perhaps due to the well-known political struggles and economic rewards, none of the older citadels, with their complex internal power dynamics, had ever made such a commitment. The vast majority of the economy from Gonzales to Sodoris was actually invested in the military strength of the fortresses, with almost no other purpose other than military might.

When the horde of corpse eaters first approached the fortress, their leaders, seemingly adhering to the defensive model of other fortresses along the way, planned to use a large number of flesh golems to pull their nests into the fortress and force their way out. However, their plan was thwarted. Even without Diana's command to use the special shells embedded with secret stones, the barriers protecting the flesh golems gradually cracked under the bombardment. Finally, multiple grenades collided directly with several shamans, completely wiping them from the surface and filling the craters with their minced flesh and flesh golem fragments.

It's almost hard to believe that there were ever multiple spellcasters in that place.

It was indeed as Cesar said. The Corpse Eaters had assigned a large number of shamans to hunt him. Otherwise, they would have had to use cannonballs embedded with ritual stones to break through the spell barrier.

Although the first siege ended in dramatic fashion, damage was sustained within the city. This wasn't caused by the Corpse Shamans' ancient and terrifying spells, but rather by artillery shells bursting under the strain. This was to be expected, of course; continuously firing artillery shells to suppress the Flesh Golems and Corpse Shamans did carry some danger.

It was said that experienced artillerymen could assess the artillery's ability to withstand a certain amount of fire, but most of their current personnel were new recruits who had only recently been trained. Diana knew that they were short-handed, and many people were rushed into battle without even memorizing the knowledge in the training manual, let alone considering the problem of overloading.

Although no one died, the explosions caused numerous broken arms and legs, internal organ damage, shrapnel lodged in arteries, and broken ribs. When Diana rushed over, some were screaming in agony, clutching the gaping wounds left by shrapnel. Some were crawling on the ground with two legs missing. Some were vomiting blood everywhere. Still others had faces covered in blood and flesh, their faces embedded in burn marks and debris.

The triangular platform was covered in scorch marks, blood, and cries, a scene even more horrific than the aftermath of two cavalry charges. Rescue workers, accompanied by temple doctors, rushed to the scene, applying emergency bandages and carrying the wounded to the city walls. Engineers inspected the wreckage of the artillery, shouting and cursing at the new operators who had only focused on adjusting the gun's position and completely forgotten other important tasks.

Aside from this scene, the tension in the fortress eased, and the sight of the corpse-eater's lair was less overwhelming. If the flesh puppets hadn't been able to pull it over and position it directly opposite the Gural Fortress, like two linked ships at sea, it would have been nothing more than a massive, obstructive hill.

But Diana was still not relieved. She knew that many spells were not as clearly visible as artillery. Their effects were more far-reaching, and their shapes and existences were more difficult to discern, such as plagues and curses.

Chapter 309: She Disdains to Listen to Love Words

......

The epidemic still broke out, and doctors diagnosed the disease inside the fortress. At first, it was only a few people, and then it quickly spread to hundreds of people.

Soldiers who weren't sick were still patrolling the city walls, staring at the giant nests in the distance, bewildered by their silence. Those who were sick, however, were already huddled on the ground, suffering from headaches and fever, coughing up blood-tinged phlegm. They shivered and coughed relentlessly, enduring the torment of high fever and stabbing chest pain, their bodies gradually twitching and their limbs spasming uncontrollably.

The first group of people who fell ill had their eyes dim on the second day. They lay in bed to rest but breathed rapidly. They were so exhausted that it seemed as if their souls were decaying. On the third day, they became unconscious and could only utter some meaningless and random roars.

The temple physician, seemingly conscious of past events, quickly established a quarantine zone. Though incense burned throughout the area, Diana could still smell the stench of death, decay, and decay as she passed. In the past, the Kuna had been attacked by groups of beastmen like the Corpse Eaters, and entire cities had been slain by the spreading plague due to a moment of neglect.

By now, the insane howling could almost reach the city walls, and the stench of rotting bodies spread, barely dispelling the scent until more fragrant wood was burned. Before leaving the house, people lined up to be blessed by the temple priests, soaking rags in herbal juices in basins of water and pressing them firmly over their faces. Only when they could smell the bitter scent did they dare to leave.

This was also the custom during the plague.

The plague oscillated between spreading and being contained, a grueling tug-of-war, fought by the very people who remained within the walls. Priests and physicians increasingly flocked to and fro, and the funeral pyres burned relentlessly. As history had foretold, to prevent the bodies from infecting further plague, every corpse must be burned with the utmost severity, ideally leaving no bones behind.

Diana believed that once the plague had reached its fullest extent, the corpse-eaters would launch a second assault. Given their experience the previous time, their methods would be even more brutal, involving more and more of the most well-documented war magic. She needed more than just worry and anxiety; she should once again summon her rather cruel rationality.

She had to use the plague to write the letter—no, she had to go to the Grand Temple in person to ask for help.

Diana knew that Cesar had previously met the Templar Knight and High Priest who had traveled to Noien, and had even provided them with considerable assistance. By leveraging this connection, even if Diana herself had never met the Templars, she could spark a conversation. Then, drawing on her recently acquired religious knowledge, she could build rapport and develop conversational conversation. Finally, given the current predicament of Fort Gural, she could turn this opportunity into concrete assistance.

The more aid Xiel's temple gave them, the closer the pact they maintained became. Thus, after the Grand Temple confirmed its intentions, her school was forced to participate in this conflict involving the secular world, monsters, temples, and academies.

The two ends of the empire, humans and corpse eaters, Sagaros and Hiel, the Yestren School and the Xisai School, even the nobility and the monarchy - this is an opportunity to build the foundation of everything from now on around them.

Cliffords actually said that they were obstructive stones, and that he himself was the one who had read too much history and had lost his mind, thinking that everything would repeat itself according to the established trajectory of history.

......

Although Gural Fortress was a military fortress, the Kingdom Knights of Olidan had been stationed there for a long time. Considering that Count Villar was as nepotistic as Evered IV, and considering what she had seen in Sodoris, it was not difficult for her to imagine the moral level of his officers.

From what Altinya had seen, the fortress contained meeting rooms nearly the size of a banquet hall, countless places for entertainment, and summer manors nestled in the forests surrounding the fortress. Undoubtedly, all of this revealed the decaying, bloated flesh of the Kingdom of Olidan's Knights beneath its ornate decorations.

When she first arrived at the fortress, her teacher Cesar had chosen a room haphazardly, but she, in contrast, had toured every building and facility, following the fortress's history. Finally, she settled into the room once occupied by the fortress's earliest general—not a suitable place for pleasure, but living there allowed her, as the actual controller of the fortress, to grasp and observe the overall situation.

This was Altinya's habit. She felt uncomfortable unless she had a clear understanding of the overall structure of the place she was in, a complete blueprint in her mind. In Diana's words, wherever she went, she treated it as a battlefield. If there was a corner she didn't remember, she thought it was where spies and secret agents were hiding.

How long had this habit troubled her? Artinia couldn't count. Though she hated to admit it, she'd initially developed it out of necessity, trapped by the prying eyes of palace spies. Now, it had become a source of pride and complacency. Furthermore, she truly desired to hear praise from others—especially from Cesar.

As a teacher with overly idealistic ideas, Cesar has a sincerity in teaching that others cannot match, but he is also hesitant to take even one more step forward due to his overall status.

If there is no such perfect relationship between teachers and students

The relationship between them was completely meaningless. Artinya disdained sweet talk. She knew that of all words, sweet talk was the most false, imbued with animalistic desires rather than human morality. To hear Cesar's sincere words from this liar, only a student could do so. To make him feel the burden of morality and hesitate, only a student could do so.

By nightfall, Brother Keith and the dissidents from the fortress had gradually arrived. Standing with Brother Mira on the second floor of the meeting room, looking down through the slits in the curtains, Altinia noticed that two more of them were missing and knew someone had fallen ill. A key characteristic of the plague was its indiscriminate nature, affecting even the self-proclaimed knights and nobles. Anyone who felt they could break away from the customs of the plague would be in great trouble.

Altinya looked at Brother Mira carefully. "In the future, if you still want to observe and record my affairs, you can stand beside me and watch like you are now. You don't need to hide in the distance and spy on me like a ghost."

"I don't know if this is appropriate," Brother Mira said. "In the past, I stood too far away from the secular world."

"You can start learning now, monk."

"Then can you tell me what this is for? Why allow Cliface's lobbyists to gather dissidents? I know he is indebted to you, but..."

Altinya turned and peered through the gap in the curtain at the conference room. "Dispersed dissidents are more difficult to deal with."

"Unless you want to follow the example of your predecessors and hack them all to death, otherwise, allowing Brother Keith to gather them together will only mean a greater threat."

"Things cannot be generalized, Brother Mira. These people have their own reputations in the fortress. If they are dealt with arbitrarily, the far-reaching impact will be unimaginable." Of course, Altinya couldn't help but think, - if she could really gather soldiers to guard the door, and close the door of the conference room after they arrived, when the door was opened again, the inside would have turned into a mess of blood and corpses. It would be an extremely breathtaking scene.

Brother Mira simply tilted his head. "But they are discussing how to spread rumors, how to exaggerate the plague, and how to make people realize that Cesar is not in the city, or in other words, how to make people think that he has escaped from the battlefield."

Altinya glanced at the whispering people below, scanning their features, savoring their temperament and refinement. She couldn't help but wonder if there was an informant here who was also important to Cliface? If everyone in this room was captured, would the old man shed tears for one of the dead? Although she had already planned how to maximize their use, she still felt an unbearable desire.

"It won't destabilize the situation," she said. "If I continue to let them do what they want, they'll organize themselves into a group of people who can perform the functions that only they can."

"Your words seem to have very dangerous implications, Your Highness."

Altinya smiled slightly. "It's no more dangerous than what the teacher is doing, Brother Mira. Everyone has things that only he can do, and so do I. And I think it would be beneficial for a newly established team to screen out a group of unreliable people in times of crisis."

"Do you have to hide this from everyone?" Brother Mira asked her.

"I've stopped you before, Sensei. That's why I don't want you to try to stop me again. It's pointless. I know how it all started and how it will end."

"That was the choice Zablon taught you. Cesar was making his own choice," Sister Mira pointed out. Although her words were calm and her face was emotionless, her eyes were sharp, always sharp.

Artinya savored the name. "Is the library owner called Zavulon? No, it doesn't matter. Even if it hadn't brought it up, I would have come to the same conclusion."

"Almost everyone who has ever considered Zavulun a teacher with me has accepted his seemingly perfect insights," Brother Mira said. "They initially thought Zavulun was the perfect teacher, not only giving them great knowledge but also direction in life. But in the end... many disasters caused by mage groups throughout history have their traces, and Land Corruption is one of them."

Chapter 310: Corpse Eater's Tactics

......

Cesar carried Soyn on his back, guided by her all-seeing vision. He made his way through the forest, avoiding the patrols' sight, and strode to the hillside overlooking the supply base. The sky was gray. It was only the early morning hours, and the sun looked like a hazy shadow glimpsed through the clouds. Everything was eerily silent.

In the dim white light, he noticed an alarming number of wheel tracks on the ground, the ground reduced to a shattered mud by horse hooves. Judging by the depth of the tracks, a large number of artillery pieces had passed through, each requiring more than a dozen packhorses to pull.

This shows that Cleaves must have believed that time was running out and that he had to seize the stalemate in the siege to inflict a fatal blow on both sides. In this way, it would be reasonable for them to seize the fortress and even be called the savior, and no one could condemn them.

On the other hand, if the Corpse Eaters triumphed, Gular Fortress would be reduced to ruins, and the fate of Cleface's cherished princess would be uncertain, her whereabouts unknown. If the Corpse Eaters were defeated, and Cleface took advantage of the fortress's weakened defenses to capture it, he would not be able to completely crush the princess's pride and force her to willingly kneel before him. He would also face widespread condemnation and, with the support of the various temples, face a siege from all sides, forcing him to retreat to a remote corner of the world's northwest.

Regardless, each faction could pretend they didn't see the beastmen and find various excuses to avoid the beastmen horde. However, if they stood up and blocked the beastmen horde, achieving a tragic victory, then anyone wanting to lead an army to attack them would have to think carefully.

Cesar believed that it was impossible for Clefas to march through the entire force under his command at such a time that the old general likely sent out a portion of his assembled army ahead of time. This force appeared to be primarily cavalry, with an absurd number of horses pulling a large number of artillery. While Cesar was still navigating the mountains, they had already crossed the area where the corpse-eaters had been found.

It must be said that the old man's judgment was remarkably decisive, without hesitation. No matter who had led the ghouls into his territory, he saw no urgency. The most pressing matter was to arrive while the siege of Gular reached a stalemate—ideally, the moment the ghouls breached the walls. That way, they could enter the fortress and complete the siege and plunder under the guise of saving the city.

This force, while certainly not as large as the entire army Clephas was currently assembling, certainly contained his most elite cavalry, mages from the Hisai School, and the heavy artillery he had long been preparing. Once this elite force captured the Gural Fortress, the rest of the army would naturally arrive in an orderly fashion, resupplying at the vanguard's well-repaired stronghold.

Cesar realized that his plan to lure away the zombies only led away a part of them, and his plan to hinder Clifas's army now seemed to have only forced them to separate part of their army and move more urgently.

But this one is more pressing…

He gazed at the food carts being loaded in the distance and realized that the army had moved faster than he had imagined. The food and fodder hadn't caught up yet and were being loaded quickly. Whether it was Cliface himself who had made the mistake, or one of his generals, he didn't care. But he knew that the logistics convoys along the way would soon be trampled by the flesh-eating puppets of the corpse-eaters and returned to the earth.

Although it was a forage convoy, there were also soldiers guarding it. It was clear that they were follow-up troops, ready to advance in an orderly fashion to replenish their supplies just as the vanguard attacked the fortress. In reality, logistics were not a priority in this era, and the continuous supply routes Cesar had planned were practically nonexistent. Most armies resupplied on the spot—in other words, they looted whatever they could find.

The reason why Clifas prepared so many convoys was because he knew that the area north of the fortress had been ravaged by the zombies, and it was impossible for them to grab any supplies on the spot. As for the Gular Fortress, it was obvious that he had specifically ordered it to be treated well.

Cesar saw the rear guard marching in formation on the lower ground. The mainstay consisted of infantry, armed with sharp weapons, guarding the supply train in the center. Among them were numerous musketeers wearing leather armor and iron helmets. There were also cavalry, but few, apparently serving only as scouts, as the vast majority of the cavalry had already joined the vanguard. Flanking Clefas' infantry were the true main armies—soldiers recently recruited from various regions, their equipment patched together, and their discipline appallingly poor. Only officers, galloping back and forth on horseback and shouting loudly, kept them from disintegrating as they marched.

The team was very long, and soon shouts were heard from one part of the team. The sound spread quickly, and Cesar knew that they had seen the first group of corpse eaters. People's voices were nervous and curious, excited and fearful, too complicated to describe.

But Thorin was frowning, and Cesar picked up the telescope that was getting smaller and smaller and looked over there, and found that the beastmen in the lead did not look very scary. They were wearing tattered animal skins, were dirty, had hunched bodies, and their faces were a mixture of various beast features. Their weapons were also some broken spears and pitchforks.

He realized something was wrong. The hunting corpse eaters hadn't brought any hybrid beastmen with them, so their shamans had captured a new group of humans and transformed them into hybrids.

It was obvious that these hybrids were stumbling forward and emerging from the woods, either to intentionally cause interference or to lure the enemy.

This tactic is actually very old, but it becomes worth pondering when you consider that the officers will respond with equally old tactics.

The officers urged the soldiers to gather, surrounding the mainstay of the infantry and forming a square formation. A resounding horn blasted, and the spearmen advanced in formation, while the musketeers began to reload their ammunition. Large, hedgehog-like square formations gradually formed, and the newly recruited soldiers, inspired by the formations, stood firm, ready to meet the monsters' charge.

Cesar saw the hybrid beastmen approaching, howling as they raced down the hillside, their twisted forms hazy in the gray morning mist. Many hurled spears and pitchforks rained down upon the ranks, inflicting only a few casualties. The first batch of hybrid beastmen stumbled and fell to the clashing musketry, only to be crushed into the hail of bullets by the second, trampling over their corpses. Though fearless and unwavering, they seemed utterly vulnerable.

Where is the Corpse Eater?

It wasn't that Cesar's curiosity was uncontrollable; he wanted to observe how these evil monsters fought. If he could pass on more information to Diana or Sister Mira, the fortress would be more prepared.

Chapter 311: Message from Grandmaster Ferriers

The hybrid beastmen were like rioting peasants. Despite their terrifying roars, the phalanx of soldiers steadily engulfed them. The front of the phalanx was soon filled with blood and piled with corpses, and the mud was soaked with dark red.

The beastmen's chaotic charge gradually weakened. Cesar saw the phalanx become more compact and began to press forward, stepping over the scattered corpses on the ground. Scene after scene of brutality, bursts of trumpets and muskets, the army began to surround the hybrid beastmen, shouting loudly to convey their determination to win.

However, Cesar knew how many corpse eaters were following him, and he felt that beneath this beautiful scene of victory, there was something incomprehensible. The battlefield had become a strange symbol, like the ciphertext manuscript of Ferrieres, each person could only see and understand part of it.

Soyin seemed to be paying close attention to the battlefield. She whispered something inaudible at first, then suddenly raised her hand and pointed into the distance. "Over there," she said, "the morning mist is rolling in."

Cesar raised his telescope and scanned the distant hills, watching the fog surge, a gentle disturbance at first, then growing more intense. He thought about the reason why line tactics replaced phalanxes, and how the distant mountains, while steep and difficult to navigate, made it impossible for artillery to ascend, could be scaled by flesh puppets. Then he understood.

"We need to find cover," Cesar said to the dog.

"There is a depression over there where we can hide, but it's some distance away from us. If you want to get there quickly, we will be exposed." said Gou Zi.

"Never mind all that," he said. "This place reminds me of the time when I was standing on the top of a fortress, looking down at the city. Do you know what that means? The steep and difficult mountains are the walls of the corpse-eaters. They occupy the mountains and can cover the entire area just like the defenders occupy the walls of the city—"

Cesar saw a large area of ​​thick blood-red that stained the morning mist. Clifas's soldiers began to shout in panic, but it was too late. Even the depression pointed out by the dog was not big enough for him to hide his body.

Near the mountainside, the corpse eaters, sheltered by the morning mist and forest, assembled their flesh golems. As the hybrid beastmen charged the army, their shamans performed a ritual for the flesh golems, much like the Sassulai shamans had performed for the two-headed serpent. When the hybrids were nearly extinct and the Imperial phalanx had reached a terrifying density, the ritual was finally complete.

The mighty torrent rose from the mountain, broke through the morning mist, and shot out a huge arc to fall to the ground, as if blood-red suns were shooting down from the clouds, smashing the land and flesh into pieces.

The first phalanx collapsed, shattered bones coated in dense flesh spilling onto the ground in piles the size of millstones, each one packed with countless corpses. Corrosive, foul blood, scattering the corpses among the crowd, sent the screaming soldiers fleeing like an avalanche. Many clutched their festering cheeks, screaming in agony. Soon, only skulls coated in flesh remained, corroded to the point of decay.

"You may see this scene later." Cesar whispered to Soyin, "Be prepared."

He clutched the girl in his arms and galloped forward, but the imperial soldiers not far away were no longer aware of his presence. Mounted officers were thrown to the ground in a shower of blood, flesh, and bone. The horses pulling goods and warhorses were drenched in blood, corroded and festering. Others were struck head-on by the shards of flesh, crushed into a horrible mess by the massive impact.

More blood-red suns shot into the sky, and more blood-red suns fell from the clouds, drenching the entire land in a dark crimson. The living and the dead hissed, as if sinking into a pool of sulfuric acid. The roars from all around resonated with the stagnant air.