The number of Fortress Defenders dwindled with every passing second, but the Abyssal Army seemed endless as they scaled the walls, slaughtering at will.
One.
Two.
Three.
...
Cold sweat soaked Reinhardt's coarse linen clothes, and his heavy breathing signaled that his body was reaching its limit. Even during his years fleeing famine and seeking refuge, his body and mind had never felt so weighed down.
He had lost count of how many longswords he'd gone through—their blades dented, snapped, and shattered.
His fractured right hand could barely grip the hilt.
The Morphic Armor, which he struggled to maintain, was like a bottomless pit, draining the last of Reinhardt's stamina. The once-eerie, dark purple light flowing from it now flickered erratically, as if it could dissipate at any moment.
CLANG—!
[Giant Devouring Current Layer Number: 288]
[Current Physical Enhancement Coefficient: 0.288]
Reinhardt let go of the longsword, its blade utterly ruined. He couldn't remember which number Convicted Demon this was that he had killed. His body swayed, and he staggered back three steps before managing to steady himself.
His Physique had been slowly increasing along with the stacks of his Steel of the Heart, which was just barely enough to sustain the horrific energy consumption of the Extraordinary Armament. But there were too many enemies, surging toward him like an endless dark tide.
Through Reinhardt's dimming vision, the stretch of wall, not even two hundred meters long, was littered with corpses. The tall, powerful bodies of the Convicted Demons had completely overwhelmed the Fortress Defenders.
He raised his head.
Under the night sky, an Evil Dragon Knight sped past overhead. Terrifying, magma-like Dragon Breath ravaged the fortress interior, turning large swaths of the barracks into a sea of fire!
A war of such intensity.
No reinforcements.
No supplies.
And on top of it all, the fewer than fifteen hundred defenders of the Steel Knight Order and Frostfire Fortress were ordered to hold out here for seven full days.
Reinhardt's right hand trembled uncontrollably. The terrifying recoil from that one punch hadn't just broken two of his fingers; blood was seeping from the skin all along his right arm.
An agonizing, tearing pain deep in his bones relentlessly assaulted his nerves.
He furrowed his brow, leaning a hand against the wall to try and catch a moment's breath. But the tremor of a landing Convicted Demon sounded like the drumbeat of the Death God hurrying him to his grave.
A whistling Chain Hammer grew rapidly larger in the reflection of his eyes.
Reinhardt exhaled a scorching breath. The Morphic Armor's air sacs blasted out a jet of high-pressure air, and his body blurred into an afterimage, vanishing from the spot.
The blast of air sent ripples through the pool of blood at his feet.
Reinhardt's stamina was already severely depleted, and the grievous injury to his right arm was draining what little he had left at an accelerated rate.
As he tried to dodge the Convicted Demon's claws—sharp enough to shred steel—the high-pressure sacs on his back disconnected from his body for a split second. It was like a limb going numb and unresponsive from utter exhaustion.
'Not good!'
Reinhardt's face fell. He threw up his arm to protect his chest and neck. The Morphic Armor's dark purple glow had become extremely faint, threatening to dissipate at any second.
The Convicted Demon's thick arm let out a terrifying whoosh as it cut through the air, smashing down onto his forearm with immense force.
The claws gouged a deep scratch across the Morphic Armor, even breaking through the Extraordinary Armament's defenses to leave a bleeding gash on his arm.
This heavy blow shattered the last of Reinhardt's stamina. The dark purple glow around him vanished completely, and his body shot backward like an arrow from a bow, slamming hard against the fortress wall.
"Koff—!"
The stabbing pain of broken ribs felt as if his spine had been split in two. The agony, far beyond what his body could bear, was like a giant hand squeezing his heart. Suffocation. Pain!
"Reinhardt! Damn it!"
Adrian wasn't in much better shape. Despite his Two-star Military Rank, he was being crushed by the coordinated assault of four Convicted Demons, leaving him breathless, let alone able to free himself to save Reinhardt.
An old veteran Reinhardt had saved earlier saw him get thrown back, sprawled motionless at the base of the wall. The veteran's eyes went wide with fury. With a great roar, he charged recklessly at the Convicted Demon.
He hoped to buy Reinhardt precious time to get back on his feet with his own flesh and blood.
But a Mortal's body was as fragile as paper before a Tier Two Demon.
The wooden shield shattered. The Convicted Demon's claws plunged straight through the old veteran's chest, and it tossed his body aside like a piece of cloth.
Reinhardt gritted his teeth, desperately trying to stand, but his body refused to obey. He could only watch helplessly as the Convicted Demon killed the veteran and drew ever closer.
Lying in a pool of his own blood, the old veteran stared right at Reinhardt. As death closed in, his lips moved, as if trying to say something to the young man who had saved his life moments before.
Even though no sound came out, Reinhardt witnessed his sublime courage and fearlessness. He heard his voice.
'Live, Reinhardt...'
The Death God's laughter echoed in Reinhardt's ears, eager to savor his fear and screams. But for Reinhardt, sprawled against the wall, there was only rage in his heart.
Like an erupting volcano!
In that moment, he finally understood why there was always a lingering shadow in the eyes of the Steel Knight Order and the other Fortress Defenders.
The Seventh Group Army and Lord Hearn hadn't sent them to defend Frostfire Fortress. They had sent them to be a stopgap, to use their lives to delay the Abyss Legion's invasion of the Hearn Territory for as long as possible.
In a war forged of blood and fire, there is no "why."
There are only orders, and their execution.
This was their mission, and their responsibility.
He also finally understood why that bastard Sedon could act with such impunity and never be punished. Sedon's machinations were no secret plot; they were built upon the grand strategy of the Seventh Group Army, carried out openly and brazenly!
The Steel Knight Order—a band of defeated soldiers who had once made a terrible blunder.
There were only two paths laid out before them.
Either they hold Frostfire Fortress for seven days until reinforcements arrived, reforging their former glory with blood and death to win back the trust of the Legion's high command and the Emperor...
...Or they die on the frigid ice fields of the Northern Lands, their best-case scenario being an Imperial Honor Medal sent to their families and a flag draped over their coffin after the war was won.
Reinhardt didn't know what had happened in the autumn of the year 1438, but it was the only time Adrian had ever let something slip in his presence. When Reinhardt had pressed him with questions, Adrian had chosen to remain silent.
The cruelty of war was far more soul-shaking than any severed limb.
But Reinhardt no longer feared death.
For this was the path all Knights must walk. They tread upon mountains of corpses and seas of blood; a sublime Mighty Power leads them to the pinnacle of the world, even as it secretly shoves them into the Abyss of death.
As the towering figure of the Convicted Demon stood before him, its swinging Chain Hammer like the Death God come to reap his life, Reinhardt saw streams of dark purple energy being drawn from the Demon's body and flowing into his own.
His silence was a wordless rage.
His lips lost their color, turning a deathly gray, but from the depths of his soul, his body burst forth with power once more, as if injected with a shot of adrenaline.
The dark purple glow of the Morphic Armor instantly enveloped his head and shoulders, meeting the whistling, deadly Chain Hammer head-on!