But these two generals approaching the wall were different. They were very high ranking.
The first was the kobold general, General Brakkar Fangrot, a level 70. His scaled skin was stretched over corded muscle, and his grin showed rows of needle-like teeth.
The second was one of the most powerful generals of the Beast Imperium, General Veymar Bloodhowl, a level 80 werewolf. His silver mane blew in the desert wind, and his yellow eyes were fixed on the Red Fort with cold, hungry intent.
General Varrus bowed his head. "My lord, are we going to attack them with our force now? They're still some distance away from the wall."
Aleric kept his eyes on the huge army, then slowly shook his head. "General, do you think they are the only ones coming to attack us?"
General Varrus's face changed immediately. Zephiron continued, voice calm, "This force may only be the scouts. Their main army is still behind them."
Aleric nodded, his gaze never leaving the sea of beastmen ahead.
Torin's whole body tensed in an instant. He glanced at Zephiron, someone he couldn't see through at all. General Varrus realized the same thing ,if this man was Lord Aleric's personal guardian, then he had to be powerful. Powerful enough to stand against at least himself.
At that moment, a massive marching sound echoed from behind them, inside the Margraviate. Aleric and the others turned to see a huge army of 100,000 soldiers. At their head was a level 62 general, leading them toward the wall.
Aleric's face broke into a smile. Warmth washed over him. "General Lucan! What are you doing here?"
The general below smiled as he looked up at the wall. This was General Lucan Ashford, level 62, of the Aetherion Duchy. Kael's family.
"Lord Aleric," Lucan called out, "Duke Aetherion sent me to stand by your side." He and his soldiers bowed toward Aleric.
Aleric smiled. "I am truly grateful to the Duke. That he would send his personal army to assist a small margrave with no affiliation to the Valerius family."
General Lucan smiled back. "My lord, don't mention it. We cannot intervene in House Valerius's internal matters ,that is your family rule. But as loyal subjects of House Valerius, it is our duty to stand against the enemy with our own strength."
Aleric nodded. The Aetherion soldiers marched toward the city gates and formed ranks. Now they had a total of 130,000 soldiers.
At that moment, the opposing force was only a few kilometers from the city wall. They activated a huge, magically enhanced device, and their voice boomed across the field:
"People of Red Fort, surrender! Or we, the scouts of the Beast Imperium, will turn this place into a hellhole for the Luminus Imperium!"
Zephiron answered in Aleric's place. His voice boomed across the desert with the force of his level 80 strength:
"We, the people of Red Fort, will not surrender, even in death. We will fight you to the very end!"
After he spoke, he glanced at the soldiers below. The war horn sounded immediately, Red Fort would fight to the last man.
On the side of the Beast Imperium scouts, both General Brakkar and General Veymar's faces changed the moment they saw Zephiron on the wall. His presence alone was something they never expected to see in this small Margraviate.
Veymar gritted his teeth. "He... he is clearly at my level."
Brakkar's eyes narrowed. "But where did they find him? Aleric has already been disowned by the Valerius family. And the Imperium gave us their word not to interfere in this matter."
Veymar sneered. "Hmph! I don't trust those humans at all. Maybe it was the Emperor who sent help to Aleric to gain support from the Valerius family."
He looked at the city wall coldly. "Hahaha... let's see their faces when they see our real force behind us."
On the mountaintop, General Kaine stared at Zephiron in horror. With his level 70 strength, he couldn't see through him at all.
He stammered, "Who... who is this person?! I've never seen him in the Imperium at all!" He pointed a trembling finger toward Zephiron on the wall.
Hadrian had a small smile on his face. He already felt a little relieved.
He said coldly to General Kaine, "Don't forget which family Aleric is from. They have forces that even the Imperium doesn't know about."
General Kaine turned to Hadrian with wide eyes. "But wasn't Aleric already disowned by them?"
Hadrian sneered. "So what? Even if he's disowned, it's not surprising that they'd send someone to protect their own blood."
On Aleric's side, Zephiron frowned when he felt a gaze fall on him from the distant mountain. He bowed slightly to Aleric and said, "My lord. Someone is watching us from atop the mountaintop."
Aleric smiled. "I know. They're from the Luminus Imperium. They came here to watch my demise."
General Lucan spoke up. "My lord, our forces are still too small to fight the enemy..." He looked out at the 400,000 soldiers of the Beast Imperium.
Aleric said, "Who said we're going to fight them with only these few soldiers?"
This time, not just Lucan, but General Varrus and Torin all looked at him in confusion. Only Zephiron smiled. As Aleric's personal guardian, he knew many of Aleric's secrets.
At that moment, another march echoed from behind them. A huge army of around 150,000 soldiers was advancing toward the wall. At the front was a man of about 30 to 35, level 70, leading the army.
Everyone on the wall frowned. They didn't know about this army at all.
The army and the young man came before Aleric and dropped to one knee.
"We greet you, Lord Aleric! May you live a thousand years in absolute health!"
Aleric smiled. "Stand up, Corvin."
The young general stood as Aleric introduced him. "Meet him. This is Corvin Wolfsbane, my personal general, and the army I trained myself."
Everyone looked at Aleric in shock. Zephiron, however, kept his smile. Yes, no one from the Valerius family was simple.
Aleric had trained a personal army in secret, in case they were ever needed. And he had been right to do so.
On the mountaintop, General Kaine's face grew darker and darker. The moment he realized that Aleric was gaining reinforcements from nowhere, he grew agitated. He clenched his fist so hard that blood began to drip.
But the soldiers atop the mountaintop were different. Seeing their people receive help from nowhere, a spark of hope lit up in their eyes.
General Veymar gritted his teeth and roared to his army, "Soldiers, attack! Kill every human you see, and capture those villagers from our Imperium!"
Thousands of wolves, hyenas, and kobolds in their semi-human forms howled and charged toward the red wall, kicking up a wall of sand as they ran.
Aleric's eyes narrowed. He commanded, "Zephiron!"
That was all he needed to say.
Zephiron shot into the sky. From level 71 onward, everyone gained the ability to fly, but the speed at which Zephiron tore through the air was on another level entirely. In a blink, he was hovering above the center of the beastmen charge.
He raised both hands. The clear desert sky turned dark instantly. Thick storm clouds gathered from nowhere, swirling above the battlefield like a living vortex. The air grew heavy, charged with terrifying thunder. Everyone's hair stood on end.
Zephiron's eyes glowed with purple light. His voice boomed, infused with level 80 mana.
"Thunder Descend!"
His divine affinity was Purple Thunder, a rare, heaven-defying element known for its destructive purity. And he wielded it like a god of war.
A thousand bolts of thick, violet lightning crashed down at once. They didn't strike randomly. Each bolt was guided. They chained between beastmen in groups of ten or twenty, turning whole squads into ash before they could even scream. The kobolds, with their natural weakness to lightning, exploded. Their strong furs offered no protection. The stench of burnt fur and carbon filled the air. 8,000 beastmen died in the first five seconds.
Zephiron clapped his hands. The clouds responded. The vortex above compressed, then erupted downward as a single, massive pillar of purple thunder, 50 meters wide. It slammed into the densest part of the charge. The ground liquefied. Any beastman within 100 meters was vaporized. The shockwave alone ripped apart another 5,000, sending broken bodies flying like ragdolls. The sand turned to black glass.
He spread his fingers. From his palms, hundreds of thin purple threads of lightning spread out, connecting to the weapons and armor of the charging army. The metal acted as a conductor. Zephiron pulsed his mana once. 12,000 beastmen convulsed as the purple thunder used their own gear to cook them from the inside out. Their eyes burst. Smoke poured from their mouths. They dropped mid-stride, still twitching.
Zephiron looked down coldly. He was not tired. For a divine elemental archmage, this was just a warm-up. He pointed one finger down. The entire sky flashed white, then purple.
Thunder didn't just descend ,it rained beautifully. For ten seconds straight, a storm of fist-thick purple bolts hammered the battlefield without pause. No area was spared. Wolfmen were blasted into chunks. Hyena-kin were reduced to ashes, in the glassified sand. The screams were drowned out by the endless, deafening thunder. When it finally stopped, another 7,000 beastmen lay dead.
In under three minutes, 20,000 to 30,000 beast soldiers were gone. The front of their charge had been erased. Where there was once a sea of charging beastmen, there was now a kilometer-long field of blackened glass, smoking craters, and twitching corpses.
The survivors skidded to a halt, their morale shattered. Many dropped their weapons and fled backward, howling in terror.
Zephiron hovered above the carnage, his robes untouched, purple lightning still crackling around his body like living snakes. His voice echoed across the stunned battlefield...
"Who else wants to die?"
On the wall, General Lucan and General Varrus stared with their mouths open. Torin looked at the guardian with his big eyes , aleric just chuckled at the stun face of Torin...
General corvin knew that the outcome would be like this , he just smiled looking towards the battle...
On the mountaintop, General Kaine took an involuntary step back. The soldiers cheered unknowingly, Kaine didn't even bothered to stopped them, he still looked at zephiron in the sky in horror....
Hadrian felt immense happiness in his heart.
But General Veymar and Brakkar's faces turned ashen. They couldn't even stop Zephiron when he attacked. It all happened in just a few minutes...