[T.L: punisher87]
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Valeria unfolded the record window, but no information appeared on the screen.
In a typical war, they would have already received intelligence from an nameless reconnaissance unit or assessed the approximate enemy forces from the air through fleets and dragons.
However, in this war, none of these actions held any meaning. They had to push forward, regardless of the lurking danger beyond the darkness.
The fleet resumed its bombardment, targeting the walls that stretched on either side of the open gate.
They knew that physical strikes were effective against the walls, so the fleet needed to break through and secure a passage into the castle.
It was impossible to scale the heights.
However, as Jin approached the gate, he felt a growing unease.
'The gate... keeps opening.'
It seemed to be welcoming Jin.
With each step closer, the darkness within the gate grew. It was as if it were allowing the entrance not of an enemy, but of an ally.
"Sir Jin," Ronil spoke. Octavia and some members of the specter squad had also descended to the ground.
"Speak."
"Would it be better to enter after partially destroying the walls? The gate keeps opening as if taunting us."
Before Jin could respond, a disquieting and heavy rumble echoed through everyone's ears on the battlefield.
Grooaaan....
Like the mournful cry of a monster within a cave, it was a low and eerie sound.
Jin and the others involuntarily looked up at the sky.
'Ram's main cannon? Did Dame Lynn fail?'
It was moving. The hideous barrel was already adorned with a massive chaos.
The fleet immediately switched from bombardment to deploying protective shields. Signals flared up in various locations, alerting to sudden situations, and blue shields formed.
The ground forces also adopted defensive postures centered around Jin, and Ram's cannon unleashed its massive chaos.
Phaaaa...!
Ram's bombardment struck directly down on Jin and the fleet.
Five battleships that were there moments ago disappeared without a trace, but the ominous pillar that eradicated them remained.
"The 4th flagship, Pistro, annihilated!"
"We need confirmation on the change of the 4th fleet's flagship, over 10 battleships destroyed...!"
"Enemy cannon reloading, projected impact point, Kinzelo 1st fleet!"
"The fleet cannot keep up with Ram's reload speed!"
The fleet's mages were shouting frantically.
The fleet's protective shields were nothing more than sheets of paper in front of Ram's main cannon.
The terrifying bombardment they experienced during the first assault was happening again. The mages were consumed by fear, recalling the nightmare of that day.
Ram fired its second shot.
Even Grenil, the flagship of Kinzelo, could not withstand Ram's main cannon with its own capabilities alone.
[Tsk!]
Fortunately, before the bombardment hit, Zephyrin positioned itself above Grenil, exhaling a breath.
Unlike during the first assault, Zephyrin did not get pierced even when directly hit by the cannon.
There were reasons why Zephyrin became stronger, but it also meant that Ram's main cannon had weakened compared to the initial strike.
However, the weakened main cannon did not imply a decrease in overall power.
"Main cannon switched to radial mode! Damage radius, the entire fleet...!"
Black meteor showers spread like spider webs, relentlessly striking the entire aerial forces. With each passing moment, battleships were destroyed, and dragons let out cries of agony.
Bale soared into the sky, unleashing its golden powers, while Orgal deployed a shield encompassing the entire aerial space.
As Orgal's shield formed perfectly, the damage significantly decreased, but Ram seemed unwilling to allow it. The reload speed was increasing.
The aerial forces were already at a disadvantage due to the low altitude of the entire aerial space from the beginning, and they had no room to spare.
If things continued like this, the aerial forces would soon face annihilation or near-extinction.
Swift judgment was required. Veradin gritted his teeth and alternated his gaze between Ram's barrel protruding from the clouds and the battlefield below.
'It's difficult to retreat... The barrier that Jin broke through earlier has been restored. If we try to break through the barrier and retreat recklessly, the likelihood of complete annihilation is high.'
Veradin's gaze fell on the gate. It was still open, spreading darkness.
Unbeknownst to them, the gate now had enough width for the fleet to enter.
And although the impact from Ram's cannon had slightly altered the shape of the walls, they were still resilient enough to withstand the fleet, incomparable to their previous state.
"...Advance the fleet. We will enter the castle. Inform the ground forces as well!"
Veradin's command momentarily startled the commanders, but they quickly prepared for acceleration.
Jin and the heroes on the ground intercepted Ram's continuous cannon fire, reading the signals from the fleet.
At the forefront, Kozec reached the darkness of the gate. The battleships followed, disappearing into the darkness.
Indeed, Veradin's judgment had an effect. The ominous castle acted as an umbrella, protecting the entering battleships.
When the fleet, dragons, and ground forces had all completed their entry into the castle,
Only about 70% of the remaining fleet and dragons remained.
It hadn't even taken 10 minutes for 30% of the entire aerial forces to disappear.
Allies stared at the gate from outside, their eyes momentarily dazed.
Inside, there was only the same darkness as when they entered. It gave them a feeling of crossing some kind of boundary. A boundary that connected the mortal world to the world of the evil god.
However, the merciless noise and vibrations caused by Ram's cannon were still being transmitted from within.
In other words, the temporary alliance had escaped to the castle of the evil god from that bombardment.
The allies couldn't help but feel a great sense of humiliation as they sought mercy from the enemy, just as much as they did in asking for mercy.
Inside the castle, it was possible to visually confirm the structure, unlike when observing from beyond the castle gates.
It was a vast space where one could truly feel the size of the castle, an immense cavity.
Even though the entire fleet had entered the interior, there was no feeling of claustrophobia at all.
It felt like being in the middle of a plain rather than inside a castle.
"It feels much larger than it looked from the outside."
"Why would they create such a spacious area?"
"They were already bombarding us from the outside. If we stayed out there, we would be killed by their artillery. To avoid that, we had no choice but to enter the enemy's castle."
As the allies looked around and made their remarks, suddenly, the roaring and vibrations coming from outside, made by Ram, ceased.
The castle gates had closed.
"Ah!"
"Ugh!"
And as soon as the doors closed, the knights with the lowest resistance and the mages among the allied forces began screaming.
A psychic attack.
The mental attack of the evil god that had been pressuring the entire forces had infiltrated the minds of the allies.
Many collapsed within the fleet, even the dragons twisted their bodies and fell to the ground.
The absurdity of facing a god continued to unfold.
The only fortunate thing was that those who had a certain level of willpower were unaffected, as evidenced by the fact that Rosa had been struck during the previous internal battle.
At that time, regardless of willpower or resistance, Rosa indiscriminately unleashed psychic attacks.
[If we had come here without winning in the previous battles, we would have already been wiped out.]
Orgal said to Jin. In his eyes, he could faintly see the light that enveloped Jin's body in this darkness.
For lesser beings, it was an unseen light.
[It's more like a kidnapping, but since there was an invitation and a welcoming ceremony, we must oblige. We need to quickly attend to the incapacitated personnel and move forward. I'm sure everyone feels it, but if this fight drags on, we have no chance of winning.]
His words were accurate.
Just staying still caused people to suffer mental blows, and it was a waste even to pause for a moment.
But where should they go?
It was not easy to find a clue. The interior was so vast that it was empty, truly like a plain with openings in all directions.
They could be attacked from any side.
In the worst case, enemies could converge from all sides at once.
Everyone's gaze fell on Jin. As if they naturally looked at the light in the darkness.
With his eyes closed, Jin was reading the chaos. Although all directions were filled with intense chaos, an even denser energy was rising from the center.
Without delay, Jin began to move, and the allied forces followed behind him.
With every hundred steps, more personnel collapsed from the mental attacks. Just by continuing to move forward, people engaged in their individual struggles.
They advanced for about thirty minutes. By then, the chaos army hadn't attacked the allied forces.
Instead, Jin and the allied forces stopped moving and suddenly found themselves staring at a cliff that appeared in front of them.
They couldn't fly over it, just like when they attacked the fortress wall.
When Bale and Zephyrin attempted to fly, the moment they tried to pass over the cliff, something seemed to drag them down, and their altitude rapidly decreased.
They almost fell below the cliff without warning.
There was nothing beyond the cliff.
They had to descend below the cliff for a new path to be formed.
The interior of the Evil God Castle was a structure that strictly connected only to the underground.
Jin looked down below the cliff.
You are trying to draw us deeper and deeper...'
It was like a swamp.
In Jin's thoughts, Rosa was pulling the allied forces to the lowest point in the world. It was as if they had to reach there in order to confront her head-on.
"I'll go down first to check."
Jin said as he drew his sword.
"I don't know if it will be possible to send a signal from below, so if there's no contact after 10 minutes, the remaining high-ranking forces will enter one by one."
Normally, if it weren't Jin. The allies would have suggested being more cautious about the danger.
But in this war, Jin's judgment was absolute, and no one could open a path that he couldn't.
As Jin began to descend below the cliff, his comrades watched his back.
For some reason, the sight of Jin being trapped in a trap didn't come to mind. Whatever awaited him below, it didn't matter.
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