Chapter 407 - 404: Cheers

Chapter 407: Chapter 404: Cheers

By now, the battle had largely entered the cleanup phase. Less than one percent of the Demons from the Demon Tide remained, and even those who survived were hardly unscathed.

The battlefield, thick with the smoke of gunpowder, was filled with the wails of monsters—sounds that invariably attracted fire from the sky.

BANG... SPLAT

From a helicopter a hundred meters up, a sniper watched through his scope as a monster’s head erupted in a spray of blood and it convulsed, falling to the ground. He muttered to himself.

"I’m a natural-born sharpshooter. Number 36!"

The S-1 heavy sniper rifle in his hands was a deadly weapon, its power surpassing even that of traditional anti-materiel rifles.

Over a year ago, firearms experts had already predicted the new heights Soldiers’ physical conditioning would reach. Accordingly, the personal weapons developed for them had proven highly effective.

Snipers were already chosen through a rigorous selection process, their physical and mental conditioning among the best in the army. It was only natural that they were more than capable of handling their new "lovers."

BANG... SPLAT

Below, the head of an elephant-sized monster burst open, but it was still staggering forward. Two of its four legs were already broken, and its body was a mangled pulp of flesh and blood.

His teammate next to him fired as well, the muzzles of two large-caliber sniper rifles flashing in unison.

BANG! BANG!... SPLAT! SPLAT!

Two more shots struck the same spot, and the massive body finally collapsed.

"You know? Once they’re dead, these monsters aren’t so scary after all!"

As most Demons were quite large, it was rare for these elite marksmen, masters honed by endless practice, to miss their mark.

J-series fighters streaked across the sky, their passes punctuated by the occasional violent explosion in the distance.

The fighters were primarily patrolling the perimeter. By now, General Chu Jianfeng had given the order: not a single Demon was to be allowed to escape.

Against all odds, the Great Faceless Ghost and the Blade Demon were still stubbornly clinging to life.

The Ghost had lost over half its tentacles, and its Magic Power aura had weakened considerably. The Demon was missing one of its Claws, and though it had sealed the wound with its own Magic Power, it still looked pathetic.

They moved with cautious slowness. The moment they sensed one of the iron behemoths in the sky drawing near, they would instantly dive into a nearby pile of corpses and play dead.

Even when a helicopter flew low enough to present an opportunity to attack and bring it down, they didn’t dare entertain the thought.

They knew that the moment they drew attention, survival would be impossible. The number of unlucky souls who could serve as a distraction was dwindling.

The Great Faceless Ghost and the Blade Demon had seen too many Magic Creatures spotted and then instantly annihilated by focused firepower. Many of those beings had possessed Magic Power signatures even stronger than their own, yet they still hadn’t lasted long.

"I remember you. You were the one holding a few humans, weren’t you?"

A detached voice suddenly rang out beside them, causing the Great Faceless Ghost and the Blade Demon to shudder violently.

Their Perception seemed completely useless; they hadn’t detected anyone nearby before the voice spoke.

Standing on the corpse of a large Demon next to them was a hazy figure in a black cloak. It emanated no Magic Power fluctuations, no oppressive aura.

But their own Magic Power began to stir restlessly, and a powerful sense of crisis screamed from their very souls, warning them: danger.

Normally, to avoid being spotted by the iron behemoths in the sky, they would have killed a human like this on sight. But now, instinct made them freeze in place, their every potential movement now fraught with caution.

’This is a human?’

Qin Xiaoxia’s Magic Power unfurled like tendrils of smoke, and the two Demons finally felt an intense pressure. In their eyes, this was no Magic Power; it was a swarm of purple vipers, slowly coiling around them.

"Answer my question."

His tone was utterly flat, as if the speaker didn’t particularly care about the answer.

"Yes... powerful wielder of Magic Power... Those three humans are already dead. It was not our intention to come here. It was them! They brought us here!"

Even knowing there was no escape, the Great Faceless Ghost couldn’t bring itself to be defiant. The innate pressure from a superior Magic Power made its very soul quiver.

Its speech wasn’t a pure form of the Magic Language, riddled with imperfect and even incorrect pronunciations. However, because the communication was facilitated by Magic Power vibrations, the meaning was conveyed without issue.

Qin Xiaoxia, however, decided not to investigate this strange phenomenon for now.

’So it’s just as I suspected. The Demon Tide’s suicidal charge here was related to those three... whether they were from Yin Country or Nepalese.’

’He recalled the Soldiers’ cheers he’d heard earlier on the ridgeline. This great victory had consumed a vast amount of ammunition, but the resulting morale boost for Hua Country—and indeed, for the entire world—was unprecedented.’

’In a way, Hua Country’s military had those three to thank. But that was only because Hua Country had possessed the strength to hold the line.’

"Has Kaslopa really fallen so low? Heh. The corruption on your souls and your Magic Power... it’s truly disgusting."

’The giant Black Beetle Baru brought back last time had a trace of that same corrupting aura, though it wasn’t as obvious. Back then, I thought it was just the creature’s natural stench. It seems I was wrong.’

The sensation was akin to a normal person seeing a mangled human body crawling with fat maggots and catching its stench, only this perception was based on the level of Magic Power and soul.

The Great Faceless Ghost and the Blade Demon snapped their heads up to stare at the powerful Magic Controller.

"You... you can see the Mark of the Fall!?"

’So this is the dreadful situation the big Black Beetle warned about.’

’How laughable, and how pitiful. Back then, the big Black Beetle had been so sure it hadn’t been tainted by the Mark of the Fall. It seems it was deluding itself.’

’The Fall. I’ve heard that term many times now, and I’m starting to get some sense of what it means.’

"Whether I can see it or not is no longer your concern."

At his mere thought, the purple serpents of Magic Power coiling around the two Demons instantly erupted into magical flame, incinerating the souls and Magic Power of the two Magic Creatures.

The Blade Demon at least left a corpse behind, but creatures like the Great Faceless Ghost were simply reduced to ash.

Paying them no further mind, Qin Xiaoxia turned his gaze upon the entire battlefield.

The acrid smoke of gunpowder hung thick and heavy, and the burning forest kept the entire area searingly hot.

The members sent by the Dawn Association to assist had already descended from the ridge and entered the battlefield to more efficiently mop up high-priority targets.

Even as Magic Creatures, the half-dead, crippled Demons stood no chance against the Magic Steel Weapons wielded by the Dawn Members.

Furthermore, the members’ heightened Perception and mobility made them better suited for hunting down hidden targets. Besides, the battlefield’s intense heat, like that of a forest fire, was more than an ordinary Soldier in uniform could endure.

But today, the stars of the show were not the Dawn Association. They were the soldiers of Hua Country across the entire front, the modern armed forces of humanity.

As the time neared noon, dark clouds began to mass in the sky.

Before long, a torrential downpour accompanied by rumbles of thunder came crashing down. Large swathes of the burning forest were extinguished, and countless plumes of white steam began to rise from the battlefield, only to be quickly snuffed out by the rain.

Corpses littered the ground, and massive craters left by artillery shells were visible everywhere.

Rainwater pooled in the craters, turning them various shades of murky darkness as it mixed with copious amounts of Demon blood.

The rain clouds had arrived suddenly, but they dispersed even faster. Everyone along the entire front knew what this meant.

In the distance, Officers along the front began to shout at the top of their lungs.

"VICTORY!!!" "WE WON!!!"

"We won!!"

...

Unlike the smaller cheers for previous, partial victories, the roar from hundreds of thousands of soldiers celebrating this final triumph was like a tsunami.

The sense of accomplishment that came from felling those seemingly endless monsters was unprecedented!