Chapter 489

Chapter 112: Clashing Bones, Burning Blood, Part Eleven

The giant city shrouded in thick fog was barely visible from the distant darkness, only an indistinct outline remaining. Dark smoke rose from the mist, and the dim sky showed no stars. The heavy atmosphere made my heart tighten.

The city has fallen…

Buzz—

In the distance to the north of the city, golden light projectiles slowly ascended, illuminating the figures of the knights below. Among the crowd, a particularly bright and shiny bald head could be faintly seen.

“They’re over there!”

I shouted to the group behind me, turning to Saphiros. I tightened my legs around the beast’s back, and the horned horse galloped down the hill like a nimble cheetah. The wind whistled past my ears, and in front of me, a heretic covered in flames tried to attack me.

“Get away!”

My weak voice shouted angrily. Blue light glimmered in my eyes, and with a flick of my pale hand, several icy spears shot out from above, piercing the heretic’s chest and abdomen, one even passing through his right eye, nearly tearing off half his face.

Frost rapidly spread over the heretic’s body, and within moments, he froze into an oddly shaped ice sculpture. The raging fire was extinguished. I swept past him, shooting a fist-sized ice ball at the sculpture, which shattered into pieces with a loud sound. The massive beast continued on without stopping, heading straight for the direction where the elite riders were located.

After running down the hill for a long time, the knights’ formation came closer. In the solemn ranks, someone heard movement from the side and turned to look at me. In the dim night, resolute and stern faces appeared.

“Isaac—”

I circled around the formation to the front, climbing up a high slope, and called out the name of the bald man. Isaac had already noticed my arrival, giving me a brief glance before continuing to watch the distant city. Beside him, a young bishop gave me a slight smile, though it wasn’t very pleasant.

There was no time for pleasantries. I stopped between the two men on the horned horse, stroking the beast’s mane, then turned urgently to ask Isaac, “How is the situation?”

“It doesn’t look good.”

The bald giant shook his head, his fierce face immersed in the night, creating an oppressive atmosphere: “Most of the heretics have already entered the city. We didn’t see any knights resisting on the walls. Alethein City has fallen, but we don’t know to what extent. There might be street fighting inside, but it looks grim.”

“The heretics guarding the outer wall are estimated to be between three thousand and four thousand. It’s too dark to give an accurate estimate. At least three ‘Blood Sacrifice’ heretics are on the walls. After several charges, they retreated under the walls, making it hard for us to gain any advantage.”

“The northern gate has been destroyed, and part of the wall has collapsed. Currently, we need to consider how to break through these two gaps and provide reliable support to the Third Knight Order, who may still be struggling. What about His Holiness?”

“He’s coming up behind us soon.”

The bald man’s words sank my heart, making me feel short of breath.

If the situation was as bad as he said, with the heretics having taken the walls, the Third Knight Order… must have reached their limits. Street fighting is something even I can understand; it means the defending forces have been cornered and are unwilling to surrender, retreating into the city for a last desperate resistance.

Once the battle reaches this stage, the command system of the defending forces has basically collapsed. Surviving warriors defend key points, fighting individually with their last strength. What they hold onto is merely a belief in their hearts. If enemies couldn’t be stopped with walls, how could they hope to win in street battles? In such times, it is almost equivalent to the end of a siege.

“I originally wanted to organize another charge, but they released fog… Preliminary judgment indicates that there should be someone capable of using ‘Order of Fog’ at the Truth Gate. And given the current scale of the fog, their affinity seems quite high. They can cover half the city in just a moment. For us, this is the biggest trouble.”

“Vision obstruction means we can’t see their movements, so we can’t react accordingly. Now, we are effectively blind on the battlefield, while they can quickly track our movements… at least the person releasing the fog has a way to do so. Now that there’s fog in the city, if Williams is alive, his situation must be even more difficult… we need to respond quickly.”

Order of Fog…

I looked up at the spreading fog, my mind racing.

This rare order power, as rare as my Frost Order, is something I’ve encountered for the first time. They seem powerful, creating large-scale fog. If the knights charge again, they will be in a passive position or陷入混乱，信仰团也无法有效抵挡他们的火球……如何才能找到他，消除这些雾……

……要是维多利亚在就好了，她可以用强风驱散……信仰团里不知道有没有人是风之秩序？

不过我想就算有，亲和力恐怕也不足以吹散这么庞大的雾……火焰呢？提高温度会不会蒸发掉空气中的水分……但

It was extremely difficult to achieve. The city was already burning, and the mist still rose. Using ordinary fire intensity definitely wouldn’t work… Could it be that I have to charge in alone and secretly use the Sinful Flame?

Wait… If I charge in…

I am from the Frost Order.

I will cool it down!

In an instant, my thoughts raced. I had an idea and immediately said to Baldhead, “I’ll give it a try.”

Isaac frowned upon hearing this. “How do you plan to try?”

“Using cold air.”

When the temperature drops too low, moisture will condense out of the air, forming frost or rime… I forgot where I learned this, but I wasn’t entirely sure, yet it was worth a try. As long as the mist is indeed water vapor, then this method might work.

“I’ll be right back!”

Without waiting for Isaac’s reply, I immediately turned the beast head and charged down the hill, straight towards the burning city.

The night was as dark as ink.

Clusters of red flames still burned on the vast plain. The muddy road was rugged underfoot. Riding a huge horned horse, I galloped across the wilderness. In my vision, Yaretin City shrouded in mist rapidly approached. The raging flames emitted a hazy glow through the dense fog, and the smell of blood grew increasingly strong in my nostrils.

Gradually, the ground beneath my feet was stained with blood, turning red. Corpses too gruesome to look at appeared occasionally in my peripheral vision. As I got closer, more and more icy bodies could be seen—some with broken limbs, some with crushed heads, even some with disfigured flesh. The scent of blood wafted over with the breeze, silently recounting the brutality of the siege.

My heart couldn’t help but race.

Barry…

Stay alive.

For a moment, I even had the impulse to charge into the city recklessly.

This thought was quickly suppressed by me.

Now, the situation inside the city was unclear, and the strength of the heretics was also uncertain. If I rashly charged in…

Not to mention finding someone in the chaotic situation, if Isaac and the others behind me couldn’t break through the mist, they wouldn’t be able to provide assistance. The knight order would not risk charging into the mist; at that time, I would face many heretics alone, including several third-stage believers, and that clown…

I was confident I wouldn’t lose, but winning was another matter. If they resorted to tricks, I wouldn’t only fail to save anyone, but also put myself in danger.

The top priority now was to get Isaac and the knights behind the church to attack the city, giving us a chance to rescue the Third Knight Order. Even if I were incredibly powerful, alone, I could only ensure my own safety. Even killing more heretics wouldn’t match the speed at which those madmen slaughtered civilians and soldiers…

Soon, visibility around began to decrease.

I quickly dismounted and ran into the thick fog on foot.

The fog was denser than I imagined.

The closer I got to the city, the more blurred everything became. Soon, I couldn’t even see the ground one meter ahead. Under such harsh conditions, if the knight order and heretics engaged in battle, almost all advantages would be lost…

I no longer knew how far I was from the city walls. But after running for a while, my sharp hearing picked up the commotion hundreds of meters ahead—the sounds of voices and footsteps were very dense… Good, that’s enough.

I took a deep breath.

In the next moment, my eyes glowed brightly blue, and the frosty air surged out from within.

I drove the power of order, making the frost rapidly spread around—alone, using the Frost World would certainly be much faster, but that way, the knights would also freeze… I tried my best to control the freezing air to a level that humans could withstand without immediate harm, though it was still extremely low in temperature.

The frost on the ground spread visibly, the surrounding temperature dropped sharply, and I could already see my breath turn white. However, this wasn’t enough. I tried my best to expand the range of the frost. This method was something I had never used before, and I didn’t know how effective it would be…

However, soon, the fog around me began to thin noticeably. Small grass leaves were wrapped in frost, and the ground beneath my feet almost turned milky white. A nearby small tree condensed rime, resembling countless blooming white flowers, crystal clear. In the air, dense ice crystals drifted leisurely ten meters away.

I could already see the distant scenery.

… It works!

For a moment, I felt a surge of joy. I gently exhaled a white breath, planning to try harder to see if there would be better results when suddenly, a dull sound came from the wall. I was slightly stunned, and immediately afterward, a whistling wind sounded above my head.

Whoosh—

A gigantic fiery fireball shot through the floating mist, accurately heading straight for me. Instantly, the surrounding temperature clearly rose. The fireball rapidly approached in my sight, but its source remained hidden in the dense fog. I couldn’t see where he was. My right arm quickly swung, and a thick ice wall sprang up in front of me—

Boom!!!

The intense explosion unleashed a gale of scorching waves. Crimson flames surged out from behind the ice wall. With a crack, the solid ice wall suddenly cracked open, and the cracks were scorched red by the high heat, melting rapidly.

Such powerful sinfire…

Completely different from the one in the Silent Castle!

This is truly third-stage…