Chapter 2096 - 559: Black Hand vs. Black Hand (Part 4)

Tens of thousands of skeletons surged up the hillside, gripping rifles identical to their own, with ghostly green soul fire flickering in their eye sockets.

A bloodier slaughter than before began.

The eerie bones ignored the rain of bullets falling from the sky and plunged brutely into the mass of sewn-together giant rats!

They felt no fear, knew no pain, and at the sight of a lurking shadow, they'd fire a shot, followed by an exceptionally fierce melee.

A sewn rat swung its claw and shattered a skeleton's rib cage, but instead of collapsing, the skeleton used the momentum to stab its bayonet savagely into the ratman's eye socket, emitting a bizarre "clack clack" laughter, appearing both eerie and ferocious.

The human soldiers standing at the rat hole's entrance were completely dumbfounded.

On one side were the stitched-together corpse monsters oozing black blood, and on the other, armed skeletons charging with Prince Rifles... Is this still the mortal world?!

"Saint Sis above..." The squad leader felt his rifle tremble in his hands, staring fixedly at the skeletons that appeared out of nowhere, "Were we... actually saved by the undead?"

"No... those aren't the undead!"

In the crowd, an old soldier from the Twilight Province suddenly shouted excitedly, his eyes glinting with fervor.

"Those are the Holy Spirits!"

"Holy Spirits?" a young recruit, recently enlisted, asked in confusion, "What are those?"

"They're the souls of the ancestors!" the old soldier, staring intently at the skeletons bravely fighting the enemy, continued with conviction, "I heard from a brother who survived the Twilight Province, that in the most desperate moments of war, Saint Sis grants the souls of the ancestors the ability to return to the earth, using the remains of the dead to save their descendants! It was thanks to those Holy Spirits that Princess Erin's Northern Relief Army could successfully purge the Chaos corruption from the Twilight Province!"

At this point, the old soldier let out a genuine exclamation.

"Saint Sis above, back then I thought he was talking nonsense, but it turns out he was serious!"

"Ancestors..."

The recruit stared blankly as a skeleton skillfully loaded a rifle, then blew a sewn rat's head apart with a shot.

The smoothness of the shooting and reloading actions was just like a battle-hardened veteran... at least more proficient than this new recruit who had just enlisted.

Saint Sis above, these ancestors sure are trendy, even knowing how to use a rifle produced just in 1054.

Who knows where they learned that.

Sir Dickbin was even more astonished, his expression more brilliant than when witnessing "combined spellcasting".

As a noble who received orthodox theology education, his reason told him that the concept of Holy Spirits was utterly blasphemous.

However, he ultimately swallowed the word "blasphemy" that had already reached his lips and chose silence.

Compared to the "ancestor borrowing the bodies of the deceased," it was more obvious that the entities hurling fireballs over the heads of the Ryan people, determined to stop them at all costs, were more blasphemous.

Whether these beings were demons or undead, one thing was certain—

They were saved.

...

Behind the rolling smoke, on a mountain peak ten kilometers away, the suffocating hum of magic power echoed in the silent evening breeze!

Two hundred young apprentices clad in rune robes, like lifeless sculptures, stood orderly on the rune-etched magic power nodes.

They cradled quickly dimming demon crystals in their left hands, raising magic wands uniformly with their right, pointing towards the sky stained red by flames.

The overload of magic power caused their eyes to be bloodshot, their pupils reflecting flickering orange-red, as if igniting a flame.

However, no one noticed that a massive Earth Cave Spider had already breached their heavy barriers, silently perched in the shadow of a higher rock wall.

Standing on the hairy back of Alakdo, Luo Yan let the noisy evening wind blow by his side, the corners of his clothes not making a sound.

The Butterfly of All Things, unobserved, could traverse any obstacle unimpeded, and magic barriers were certainly no exception.

Overlooking the precise "war machine" operating below, he wore an amused expression, like a professor inspecting a student's homework.

In terms of seniority alone, they indeed had to call him professor... although he would never admit to having taught such blasphemous students.

"Back in the Academic State, I often heard that Elemental School graduates either joined the Imperial Army or went to the New Continent for pioneering, or ate sand at Brass Pass." Luo Yan tapped his fingers lightly, "But now, it seems that many are diverted to do dirty work."

The scene before him did indeed surprise him somewhat.

Two hundred Fine Steel Level magic apprentices, under the leadership of a Silver Level quasi-mage, could use array resonance to project spells over a dozen kilometers away, achieving a "strategic magical strike" with destructive power and range to rival Diamond Level magic!

It's hard to say whether this was more useful compared to a Magic Crystal Cannon.

However, considering that the Magic Crystal Cannon is benchmarked against the Empire's cannons, these two items shouldn't be compared together.

Behind Luo Yan, Sarah watched those mechanically spellcasting apprentices, her amber eyes filled with indifference.

"I didn't expect the Academic State to shamelessly get involved, discarding even their veil."

"Unexpected, yet reasonable." Luo Yan smiled faintly, unbothered.

Beneath him, Alakdo shifted its steps restlessly, multifaceted eyes glinting with greedy excitement, its mouthparts clicking.