"Lifeforce Burn".
As he heard these two words that were forbidden on Angaria, Jonah felt his heart go still.
Even inside the fort, the soldiers all shared looks when they heard the Bishop"s command.
Discipline bade them to obey, but the sense of self-preservation that was present in every living being was clearly rearing its head to convince them to disobey.
Alas, the former won out, so with resigned expressions, all of the soldiers raised their hands… and pierced their foreheads using their index fingers.
For a mage, their Lifeforce lay in their consciousness and their Mageroot. Many of the soldiers weren"t human, but because the location of the Mageroot tended to be the same, their actions were all mirrored.
When one began to destructively consume both of these, what kind of power would they obtain?
This question answered itself in front of Jonah when all of the soldiers began to glow with a strange, grey light. It almost looked like the color of death, as he knew that if this went on for long, they would consume themselves in the bid to follow the Bishop"s commands.
As for the power that came from it… when the attack from the core struck down again, it was able to do nothing.
He quickly made the calculations, and that was when he realized that their power had been amplified to three times what it had been.
This act would leave them weakened, but no one could say that it wasn"t worth it.
The attacks from the core kept striking down, but just like before, they only managed to poke a few holes here and there.
As for those establis.h.i.+ng the formation, their movements were much quicker than before. After all, their very lives were burning in front of their eyes, so they seemed determined to make the best of the situation.
Until now, Jonah had not been able to understand just what they would be teleporting over. The first wave had already left the s.h.i.+p and arrived on the sh.o.r.e, and he knew that the second wave was not meant to attack at this phase. If so, what else was there that would give them an edge in the battle?
He studied everything in front of him, knowing that the answer lay in the details. There was no clue to be found in the image of the a.n.a.lysis room, which had been sent into a frenzy due to the Bishop"s words, and there was also nothing to be discerned in the image displaying the attacks from Angaria.
But when Jonah began to take note of the exact formation that all of the soldiers were hurrying to finish, he spotted something that he hadn"t noticed before.
Even after being partially destroyed before, it was at the 60% mark, so its complete form was now almost visible. The strange thing was that he could swear that he had seen it before… and when he finally made the connection, he whirled around and said, "You"re teleporting the entire s.h.i.+p over! But why?"
With her plan revealed, the Bishop gave her reply in a smug tone.
"Because this s.h.i.+p has enough defensive and offensive formations that it can double the power of the entire first wave. With a bastion such as this on their land, we will be the ones with a home-ground advantage. If needed, even the power source can be detonated whenever we wish to eradicate anything that might threaten us. In short… the moment the teleportation succeeds, I won"t even need the other two waves. That way, I will still have won enough merit in this battle to advance myself from the rut that you stupid continent has thrown me into."
He felt that he could almost hear the gears in her mind turning, but the fear that filled his mind made him turn around to the image that showed Angaria again.
The twists and turns in just the attack of the first wave were almost too much to bear, but he waited with the hope that Angaria would reveal another trump card that would destroy the fort.
"Even you must know that your wish is futile. We do not yet know whether they had external help… but even if they did, I doubt that they can be capable of much more than this. Do you know what it takes to use the core to attack like that? It requires thousands of people to work in sync to connect with the Will of the World, and even then, the tiniest mistake can kill them all. I must say that I commend them for what they"ve done so far… but it"s simply not enough."
Jonah didn"t know where he found the courage, but he simply ignored the Bishop.
She seethed with fury as she saw this, but as if she had taken solace in the fact that he would soon break down crying, she calmed herself and continued to look on.
Indeed, it did start to look as if the Bishop was right. He had managed to see the attack from the core by now, and they were in the form of elemental projectiles that had been strengthened so much that they were powerful enough to kill multiple Peak Heroes at once.
When fire was used, it came in the form of a lance of flame that inflamed the surface of the fort, but the fire was put out quickly.
When ice was used, a shard of it that was sharp enough to pierce through everything in its path struck the fort, but all it managed to do was poke a hole that was quickly patched up.
All of the elements were used in turn, but with the soldiers putting everything on the line, the fort stood strong. As the seconds pa.s.sed, the attacks that had come with brief intervals between them even began to speed up, and this finally looked like it would make a difference.
More and more holes started to appear, and the soldiers were hard-pressed to seal them all. But just as it looked like a few more seconds would be enough for the attack from the core to be able to strike down a significant number of soldiers… the Bishop chuckled and said, "Initiate teleportation."
Quickly turning to the image that showed the inside of the fort, Jonah saw that all of the warrior priests who had been laying down the formation had fallen on the floor, but their faces were filled with satisfaction and relief.
As the entire s.h.i.+p began to hum like before, all he could do was lay his eyes on the image of Angaria and pray once again that they would detect the something was amiss, and act quickly.
Alas, it seemed that all was lost as Jonah felt cold all over again, and an instant later, they were teleported from outside the protective sphere of Angaria to the sh.o.r.e they had been watching until now.
The Bishop even tightened her fist and banged it on the armrest of the chair she had sat back down on. Raising the same hand, she opened her mouth to give the order and Jonah knew that it was to annihilate all of the Angarians that they could detect.
He just couldn"t see it happen, so he closed his eyes and buried his head in his hands.
Only… two seconds pa.s.sed, and he did not hear it.
Cautiously raising his head, he looked at the Bishop and saw that her face that had been filled with triumph before was now almost… scared.
Turning to the images, he was puzzled as nothing had changed. No, there was something different… but was not in the images that he had looked at.
In the a.n.a.lysis room, all of those present seemed to have gone crazy as they were running around everywhere while speaking all at once.
"Abort, abort! We…"
"It was hidden! We didn"t…"
"Bishop, please, get us out…"
BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!
Before any of them could finish their sentences, a loud sound unlike any they had heard so far reached their ears.
It was accompanied by the ground below them shaking so much that Jonah was swept off his feet, but he didn"t care about this, at all, as his eyes were fixed on the image that showed Angaria.
Where the sh.o.r.e had been until now…only the sight of hundreds of explosions erupting from beneath the surface could be seen, and even as the s.h.i.+p was cleaved in two and the Bishop quickly moved to teleport both of them away, Jonah grinned like a fool.