Chapter 642 — The Situation

That evening, the ground forces of the Cecil Legion established a second artillery position on the southern plains of Saint-Sunil, completing the preliminary fire coverage of the capital's frontal defensive line.

The battle was not yet over. Great numbers of crystal-cluster giants still roamed the south and the east. Driven by their instinct for destruction, these monsters would continue to assault any region dense with magical or vital signatures—in this respect, these spawn of the divine scourge resembled the thoroughly mutated aberrations of the Gondo Wasteland—but one thing was certain: the crisis at Saint-Sunil had, for the time being, been lifted.

Over the next twenty hours, Gao Yang did not allow the ground forces to blindly expand their positions. Instead, while maintaining fire superiority, he steadily whittled down the crystal-cluster legions in the open country south of the capital, and at the same time summoned the armored freighters on the Gorgon River to dispatch a corps of engineers to the battlefield.

Under the cover of the superior firepower and with the aid of quantities of engineering thaumaturgical devices, the engineers worked through the night to lay the first interception nets and temporary fortifications across the southern field. By noon of the seventh day, the thaumaturgical combat companies, equipped with individual flamethrowers, were deployed into these works in seven-man squads, while at certain key points they were garrisoned by the White Knights, whose fighting strength was greater and who carried heavy flamethrowers.

This defensive line would be used to intercept the crystal-cluster giants spilling over from the Plains of the Holy Spirit. The crisscrossing flame bunkers, barbed wire, and interception stakes were the most potent weapons against those massed charges—and before this campaign ended, the engineers would keep at their work, carpeting the plains with interception works and fire bunkers, until more than half of the various supplies carried by the transport fleet were consumed; then the ground forces would shift to conservative operations and await the arrival of Philip's main force marching north to join them.

Along the towering walls of Saint-Sunil, the knights and soldiers who had finally won a chance to breathe leaned against the battlements, snatching what rest they could. The danger of the defensive line's collapse had been averted for the moment, but they were still far from being able to relax. A considerable number of crystal-cluster monsters still prowled beyond the walls, and until those creatures were utterly destroyed, no one dared leave the line.

A griffin bearing the royal arms—azure field, golden border—sprang into the air and, beneath the gaze of the soldiers who all raised their heads to watch, departed Saint-Sunil and flew south.

Countless pairs of eyes on the walls followed that griffin knight who so bravely dared the sky. Some soldiers resting against the wall even rose to their feet without thinking, watching as the raptor cleared the western rampart, cleared the ruins of the mill town and the Crow Terrace south of the capital. One or two arcane arcs shot up from the ground and tore through the air, falling far behind the griffin knight—and at last the griffin flew safely across the battlefield.

Wales watched the griffin depart and let out a soft breath.

Since the capital had been besieged, this was the first griffin knight to successfully fly out on a scouting mission. Before him, dozens of well-trained griffin knights had perished in the dense arcane arcs, struck down almost the moment they left the barrier. Though the number of crystal-cluster monsters had now sharply declined, that knight must still have summoned immense courage when he flew over the walls.

May he return safely.

……

South of the capital, within the camp established by the ground forces of the Cecil Legion, Gao Yang gazed at the high walls of the capital that had already come into his field of view.

Far beyond the camp, in the direction of the two fire-height positions, the unbroken shrieking still came drifting over, while the sound of shells exploding on impact rose from even farther away, as though it had not paused for a single moment.

A faint chill drifted over from behind him. Gao Yang turned his head and saw Victoria walking toward him.

The duchess had come to the front with the second wave of landing troops, but she and her mountain legion had little real use on a "Cecil-style" battle line, so her chief role here was as an adviser. Gao Yang had satellite maps to assist him, but the resolution and detailed analysis a satellite view could offer were ultimately limited, and he himself knew almost nothing of the terrain around the capital in detail; Victoria's presence could ease that problem—indeed, the site of the second fire-height position had been chosen with reference to intelligence provided by the duchess.

"The enemy's main force on the frontal battlefield no longer poses a threat," Gao Yang said mildly, nodding to the Warden of the North. "Our next objective is to seal off the southern and eastern passes and cut off the monsters' follow-up."

Victoria's face, long frozen as though in ice, could not help but soften at this moment. The duchess, ever stern and sparing of smiles, seemed to have set down some burden in Gao Yang's presence. She exhaled a long breath, and a very faint smile appeared on her face: "You have saved this kingdom."

"It's too early to say that now," Gao Yang said. "The crisis is far from over."

His words carried two meanings. The first was that the crystal-cluster legions on the Plains of the Holy Spirit were still far from being wholly destroyed. The second was that the Order of the End of All Things had created an earth-shaking crisis deep within the Plains of the Holy Spirit, and there was no telling when it might erupt. Victoria, of course, knew only the first meaning. She nodded slightly: "As you say, we cannot let down our guard… preserving the capital is only the first step."

"Preserving the capital…" Gao Yang murmured, his gaze turning north once more, toward the high walls and ramparts of Saint-Sunil. "We're already this close."

Victoria turned her head to follow his gaze—her eyes swept over the gleaming railguns not far away, over the war machines and legions poised and ready, over the Cecil banner streaming in the wind above the camp, and only then did they follow the lines extending from all these things to rest upon the distant walls of the capital.

Against the backdrop of the two highland batteries thundering in the distance, the space around Gao Yang suddenly fell quiet.

Saint-Sunil had indeed been held, but its function as the capital existed in name only—whether its armed forces or its system of rule.

And a matchlessly powerful Cecil Legion now stood camped outside the city, and the legion's master had just accomplished the feat of saving the kingdom.

In that moment, Victoria's mind turned to the Fog-Month Civil Strife of a hundred years ago, which had changed the fate of Ansu, and to the day a hundred years past when the head of the Wilde family had brought his army to the gates of the capital.

"Duke Cecil, you…"

Gao Yang did not let Victoria finish: "What do you suppose Wales is thinking right now?"

"…I've already begun to find his actions hard to guess," Victoria said with a slight shake of her head. "Now that I think of it, perhaps I never saw through him from the very beginning."

……

The griffin sent to the south had returned.

The griffin knight had seen astonishing sights and brought back the latest intelligence. The knight exhausted his vocabulary trying to describe what he had witnessed—thundering war machines, soldiers spewing flame, incomprehensible engines of war, and their dreadful power.

Wales listened to the whole report on the wall without uttering a single word.