Joshua, shattering the attacks coming down one after another and each the size of a small mountain with his fists, finally reached Ventus's side. The Hell King, grabbing the mage trying to crawl away by her robe, was looking towards the wall where the cannons no longer firing were located.
"You have until sunrise tomorrow! Either you surrender, or this will be the end of all of you!"
Joshua, tossing Ventus into the air, struck a punch on the descent of the leader of the Companions of the Wind forces. In the first moment, the woman's bodily integrity wasn't compromised; accelerating, she rose all the way above the walls of the Death Pass, but right at the peak, she popped like a balloon, scattering her internal organs over everyone.
The Companions of the Wind mages were screaming; everyone else was watching the result frozen in place. The Hell King turned around and walked towards where his army was. Even though he won a one-on-one battle, he didn't just stop at that; he had shown he could stop the large cannons of the Death Pass on his own if he wanted.
"Sir!"
"Sir!"
The warriors of the Hell Army greeted him by bowing. Alis and his wife knew his might, but the astonishment of the Elemental Ten members watching his first serious battle wasn't at a level that could be hidden. As element users themselves, they were aware of the intensity of the attacks the large cannons sent, but the man opposite them could disperse them as if they were nothing.
"I am very glad we are allies with you!"
Alator didn't hide his intention; he voiced his thought directly. Joshua responded to him with a smile, and while heading towards the accommodation area belonging to him, he gave a 'come' sign to his staff with his hand. Before ten minutes passed, everyone was in front of him, and Joshua said something perhaps no one expected.
"Tonight, we will capture the Death Pass. Make all your preparations to go on the attack after midnight!"
The man who gave the enemy a deadline until tomorrow just a few minutes ago was now giving the order for a night attack. Even though no one could wrap their heads around it, no one spoke against his word; the Hell Realm army was preparing for the attack.
When evening hours arrived, a meeting was being held in another place too. The morale of the generals and the Lands of Light forces gathered to decide on the step to be taken tomorrow was zero.
"Franz, by your master's order we lost a person, the leader of the Companions of the Wind. How do you plan to account for this?"
Nympha was the first to speak; the judgmental tone never missing from her voice heavily outweighed the rest.
"Was I the one who said he died? We all believed Ventus could kill the Hell King, but how naive we were! While we thought he was a puppet put in charge by the orcs, we couldn't understand that the real monster was standing right before our eyes!"
Franz, practically managing the war on behalf of the Companions of Light Society, knew what he saw; he was sure they couldn't kill him even if they all attacked together. Joshua was a player in another league; if they wanted to deal with him, they needed someone at least at his master's level.
"What will we do? We lost our chance to attack. Will we ask for help, or stay on the defensive and trust the walls?"
When Ignis, another surviving force leader, spoke, his gazes were on the two generals watching them. The duo, who weren't taken seriously at first, had now turned into people whose opinions would be taken into account.
"We must stick to the original plan. Using the security the Death Pass provides, we will wage a war of repulsion!"
"Balbazar is right; if you don't want to suffer more casualties, don't even think otherwise!"
The idea of the two generals was common; just as their ancestors did, they would use the greatest defensive weapon in their hands and overcome this trouble too. This was their method until they heard the voices coming from outside.
"Help!"
"What is this, help!"
First two cries and a few screams were heard, but right after, the sound wave rose and never came down again.
"Sir, prepare for battle! Something we've never seen before is happening outside!"
After Nympha's subordinate entered, she closed the door and immediately prepared for an attack by drawing a magic circle. Her gazes were behind the door, but Ignis moved to look down from the window and saw what the mentioned thing was.
"Impossible, such a thing is impossible!"
His reaction caused the others to look at the same place too, and they all witnessed the phenomenon seen for the first time on the World of the Six Civilizations. There were things flying down from the mountains the Death Pass leaned against, from the rock fragments sloping down to the Middle Region, and the moment these shadows landed on the ground, they were biting the first person they caught.
The falling victims floundered for a while but then stood up and attacked the others by running. The army consisting of mercenaries began to fight among themselves within minutes. The bitten soldiers were attacking their comrades as if they were their arch-enemies, and this situation didn't change until the death of one of the two sides.
Even if those whose consciousness was intact managed to kill the others, they were killed by another newly bitten person before they even turned their backs. What the attackers, whose origins were unknown, did caused tens of thousands of people to panic, and even though Nympha's subordinate stood guard at the door, the two generals bypassed her and went outside.
"Franz, what's going on here?"
Ignis looked as if asking for an explanation, but Franz had no answer to give him. His priority was entirely different; taking his subordinates appearing at the door within minutes, they moved towards Godfrey de Bouillon.
"Ignis, gather your men here. We will form our last line of defense!"
Chaos reigned outside, and the mages, not knowing how they would react if they suffered the same attack, thought of defending in the position they were. It wasn't an illogical choice; the position advantage was theirs, and if they needed to put everything on the line, they could rain death below.
Of course, this was valid under normal conditions. As the hours progressed, the screams increased, the metallic sound the weapons made when they hit each other no longer grated on their ears, and perhaps they weren't aware, but a shadow was approaching the small door step by step.
"As I promised Joshua, the Death Pass is yours. I am going to take my share!"
Miloş, with his red eyes glowing in the dark, opened the single entrance of the Death Pass, and as he turned his back, he faded into the air. Joshua listened to what was said silently; after entering through the door, he listened to the surroundings for a while.
The turmoil continued; even if he learned what was going to happen beforehand, the feeling seeing it gave was entirely different. While watching the maddened mercenaries slaughtering the others, he noticed those hiding in the darkness. The army under Miloş's command, and they were allies; they wouldn't get in each other's way.
"Kill all the enemies you can see! No one will be left alive!"
Giving his order, Joshua blew the deranged mercenary running at him to pieces in one punch. Thereupon, the Hell Army began to fill the other side of the Death Pass; Miloş's army was retreating to the mountains.
The Hell King walked calmly amidst the massacre; neither severed heads, nor flowing blood, nor screams were anywhere near catching his attention. These were a part of the reality he lived every day, and the young man in red armor didn't stop until he arrived at the place he desired.
"Defending on top of the tower? You didn't think I would be here at all, did you?"
When his voice was heard by the mages above, the tower began to shake. The Hell King had only rested his palm, but seconds later, piles of rubble began to pour down along with the mages among them.
"Without a place to draw a magic circle, you are nothing but weak humans!"
Joshua was right in his words; the Lands of Light mages were ready for battle, but when the ground under their feet disappeared, everything turned upside down.
"Attack!"
The end of the mages left defenseless in the air came at the hands of the Hell Army soldiers; only two people who used the Guardian Angel Will Remnant at the last moment managed to stay alive.
The Death Pass was being crossed in a completely unexpected way; while the process operated, all indicators were in favor of the Hell Realm Army, but in these moments, there was a convoy moving towards the Lands of Light.
"Stop them!"