Chapter 637: Worsening Combat Situation

Translator: imperfectluck  Editor: Kurisu

Even though we were still on the way, and even though we were changing out all our weapons and equipment, we didn’t have time to stop and rest.

Combat reports from the frontlines were constantly delivered to us. The war of diplomacy was also ongoing, so our information gathering had never stopped. The Mist Alliance’s diplomats were doing their very best to negotiate with all sorts of various human kingdoms to obtain permission for the elves to safely retreat.

Compared to ordinary information sources, the fairies were mysteriously able to appear everywhere, and they weren’t afraid of death. This made the fairies the best information brokers. Also…

“Ding! Your VIP account has been recharged… Damn those goblins’ cousins, still charging me money at such a time.”

“They’re pretty good to you already, giving you a 20% discount on their services. It’s quite nice already that we can still obtain new information at such a time, and at least this means…”

“…This means that the fairies are on our side.”

The fairies sent their salesmen to contact me. Of course, we wouldn’t refuse their intelligence. In any war, information would be of critical importance. The fairies’ current actions also indicated which side they were on.

Gathering up to date combat information on the frontlines would be both dangerous and inefficient. Not only that, the information would need to be transmitted quickly while it was still relevant. With the fairies’ charges for labor, it was only natural that the information fee was expensive. The fee was still ridiculously expensive even after a 20% discount. But, that was totally fine with me… since I took on all expenses in the name of the Mist Alliance!

The combat reports indicated the scale of the dimensional cracks. They were termed as being “half-permanent”. This helped us to learn that it would be impossible to stop the Chaos Abyss’s invasion any longer.

Both sides had already started fighting. It was probably still the early stages where they were just testing each other out. The elves had suffered some losses, but still within acceptable boundaries.

The battle had already arrived right outside the city walls. However, typical big capital cities in the mortal plane would have multiple layers of walls. From the information we had, the Moonwheel Capital was a super-sized city with five layers of city walls. In that case, the true battle had yet to begin.

As expected, the Chaos Abyss demon wave had already begun spreading everywhere. Although the Moonwheel Capital was like a nail that blocked the demon wave, one nail would be unable to stop a tidal wave. Countless demons and demonic creatures directly ignored the obstacle in front of them as they spread everywhere in the elven territory.

These demons and demonic beasts were no longer under the control of the Goddess of Chaos. This meant that they were destroyers with zero sense of logic and reason. Just like a hornet swarm, they would simply destroy everything that they saw.

The ancient forests here would become corroded, turning into demonic forests. The mountains would become flattened. The great majority of living creatures here would be instantly eaten or slain. The few creatures that survived would also become demonized themselves.

These demons and demonic beasts didn’t fear sacrifice or death. In fact, they even welcomed death. When they died on this land, their corpses would meld into the earth and taint the entire area with Chaos.

The aura of Chaos was tainting the sky and the earth. The death of these creatures of Chaos would directly begin corrupting the natural cycle on a deeper level. Soon, this place would truly become a part of the Chaos Abyss, becoming the frontline base for the Chaos Faction.

Creatures’ corpses were an important part of the natural cycle. However, thanks to the power of Chaos, this natural cycle would be sped up to be a hundred times faster than normal.

In this patch of Chaos Abyss, wild beasts would naturally transform into demonic beasts. The residents here would also naturally demonize. Even the farmers’ crops would become man-eating plants. After this new food chain and natural cycle was established here, it would be impossible for ordinary people to survive here.

What about the Moonwheel Capital Elven Empire? This empire was destined to become part of history. Even if the Moonwheel Capital elves were fortunate enough to survive the demon onslaught, this territory would no longer belong to them.

From a certain standpoint, territory equaled population. For the Gods, a species’ future potential was directly related to population, for population would equal power of belief. If the territory was greatly decreased, the population would greatly diminish. This meant that when the moon elves lost their territory, it would basically be the prelude to the Elven Gods’ death.

The fairies’ information’s veracity and timeliness were astonishing. I was even beginning to suspect that the fairies weren’t even from the mortal plane. Meanwhile, as time passed, the elves’ combat situation constantly worsened.

So far, it had already been confirmed that Donatis was indeed leading the Chaos army. However, it seemed as if he had no intention of personally fighting. He simply allowed the demon war slaves to attack as they liked, yet the elves still seemed like they were about to lose their outermost city wall.

The treants had suffered severe losses in the first clash. Although the war treants and hundred-year-old treants could be grown again, with their growth rate, they were no different from unrenewable resources. It was likely that the treants wouldn’t recover even by the end of the Holy War. It could be said that the elves had already suffered a major loss in the first battle.

The greatest good news from the combat report was that the silver elf elite knights had charged at the demon wave twice in order to prevent the combat situation from worsening even further.

Even back in the ancient Elven Empire generation, the silver elf knights represented top-level combat strength as silver elves were the most militaristic of all elves. Their steeds would be high-level magic beasts at the minimum, and it would be common to see them riding on exotic, rare beasts like unicorns. Plus, they had secret riding techniques and their own silver elf natural talents. When the silver elves charged, even a beastmen behemoth army would retreat in defeat.

I had previously witnessed a desperate full-strength charge of a small team of silver elf knights. The silver knights constantly cast various Divine Arts with effects such as increasing morale or increasing strength. The silver elves also used their natural talents to buff the strength of their weapons and equipment. Their unicorn steeds also cast various buff magic spells on the silver elves. By the time that the silver elves’ charge arrived in front of their enemy, they were glowing in rainbow colors from more than ten different buff effects. Their charge’s strength would also be multiplied in power by more than ten times over from when they started.

The silver elves’ natural talents were capable of buffing the defense of their armor and attack power of their weapons. With the faint silver light buffing their equipment, their spears would become incredibly durable and sharp, with frightful attack power.

To assess them by current power level standards, that silver elf knight squadron I witnessed would be able to attack with Legend power at average across all of them—as long as they were given enough time and distance to complete their charge first.

In historical records, there were even records of a silver elf knight squadron directly managing to knock over a castle wall with their charge. When I thought about that silver elf knight squadron I’d previously witnessed, I felt that such a story would be true.

However, the more powerful the troop type, the more expensive it would be to maintain and more difficult to obtain the equipment. The steeds would also be difficult to raise, and the knights difficult to train. That silver elf knight squadron I saw had been led by an unlucky prince of an elven kingdom, together with all his remaining royal guards.

The silver elves were just as low in number as the other Superior Elf species. It could be said that every single silver elf was noble class. Plus, in this new generation, steeds like unicorns became even more difficult to raise. Not only that, only a well-organized squadron of knights would have sufficient power. Too few of them would be no good. Most countries thought that silver elf knight squadrons were now nothing more than history. It was a surprise to find out that the elves had hidden such an ace up their sleeve.

“The silver elf knight squadron numbers approximately 2600. This is truly a well-hidden ace. Perhaps even the silver elf tribe leaders and princes are personally participating in battle… Still, this is strange. Why does the combat report say that many of the steeds appeared to be pregnant? The silver elves actually dare to abuse their steeds like this, riding them while pregnant into battle? The elves have truly gone overboard!”

As a long-time knight, I was quite angered at the way they abused their steeds, and swore that I would issue an official complaint… What? You’re telling me that most of their steeds were divine beasts from the elves’ Holy Lake? This was all related to a certain crime that someone who could never be named committed? I… I decided to act as if I saw nothing.

I frowned as I read over the combat report. The demons had sent out nothing but cannon fodder, yet the elves had already been forced to use their ace troops. It was obvious who was at a disadvantage here.

Any cavalry’s charge would be synonymous with high losses. Although the silver elves’ two charges had been outstanding, slaying many demons, they had also lost two hundred-ish silver elf knights. Most of the silver elf knights who died had been dragged off their steeds by the cannon fodder demons who didn’t care about their own lives. Additionally, any elf who fell off their steed in such a battle was basically dead.

The two charges had achieved good combat results. The treants successfully retreated behind the first city wall, and the charges also successfully raised the morale of the defending elven army. The silver elves unhesitatingly retreated right afterwards. It seemed that they couldn’t handle such losses.

The combat situation ended in a stalemate after that. Even for the first demon wave, it wouldn’t be possible to conquer the elven capital in a single day… Also, there was no need for Donatis to be in a hurry. The Chaos Abyss would only send him more and more reinforcements as time passed. Time was on the Chaos Faction’s side.

The demon wave was constantly spreading outwards. A portion of the demons surrounded and attacked the Moonwheel Capital under Donatis’s command. As the cannon fodder constantly charged at the city walls, the elves’ ordinary defending army didn’t even dare to face the demons in direct battle. If it wasn’t for the elves using their mage towers and mages to support the defenders with ranged attack spells, it was likely that the first city wall would have been lost already.

“The elves were forced to use their mages so quickly…?”

“It would seem that the demon wave is more difficult to deal with than expected. It also seems that the elves are even weaker than everyone thought.”

Harloys and I were on complete agreement on this. We had both originally thought that the elves would start using their mages on the third night of the demon wave. We’d never thought that the elves would use their mages on the very first night. This was definitely a bad sign.

The demon wave’s arrival had brought an entirely new Elemental Tide along with it. Although the power of magic had explosively increased, the explosive increase in power also meant that mages would have a much more difficult time controlling the magic. The mages would need time to get accustomed to the new high magic environment. Sending the mages into battle right away meant a chance of losing control while tense and blowing oneself up.

Magic wasn’t something where more was better. All magic formulas focused on exquisite designs where not even one little thing could be out of balance. A fireball suddenly powering up to become a fire wall or even inferno explosion might not even be a good thing. Overly powerful elements and magic would be incredibly dangerous to the casters themselves.

For example, if a child’s strength suddenly became on par with an adult’s, this child would likely injure himself if he used the newfound strength right away. However, if the child was given a few days to get accustomed to his newfound strength through various types of training and games to learn how to control his body again, then there would be no problem. It would be the same for the great increase in power of the elements and magic.

Two days, 48 hours, was the time that our mages extrapolated would be necessary. For any ordinary mage, even if they started meditating right away to readjust their bodies, it would take that amount of time to begin getting their newfound magic strength under control.

If a mage from the mortal plane went to a different dimension, that mage would also require several days to get accustomed to the new environment. This was common sense among mages. Immediately getting into combat was very likely to result in an accidental death.

It wouldn’t require much knowledge to know about this. All mages’ instincts and experience would warn them about the potential dangers of magic power running amok. The elven mages naturally knew this as well, yet they were already participating in battle. So, either they were foolishly suicidal, or there was an absolutely crucial reason for them to participate in battle already.

“The outer city wall has been damaged? Just the cannon fodder’s self-destructions created holes in the city wall? Hey, hey, hey, was their city wall built by a shoddy construction company?”

Of course, I knew that the moon elves would never use a shoddy construction company for something as vital as their important capital city walls. However, the city walls were supposed to be strong enough to block cannon fire and siege weaponry, yet holes had appeared so easily? This was the same as using physical bodies to break the city walls. This sounded too ridiculous.

Even without the important reason that the mages would need time to get accustomed to the new high magic environment, there were also other problems with having the mages participate in battle so early.

Mages would have limited mana pools. Mage towers would also have limited mana batteries. Entering battle earlier meant using up mana sooner than planned. Good metal should be used for forging a good blade. However, using elite mages’ mana merely to kill off some cannon fodder seemed like such a bad deal.

“It would seem like the elves don’t want to lose their outermost city wall so easily.”

Perhaps it would be quite common tactically to lose the outermost city wall on the first day. However, there was also the potential loss of morale to take into consideration. Right now, the elves were surrounded by enemies, and couldn’t even count on reinforcements. They would absolutely need to be careful about maintaining the defending army’s morale. In that case, they had basically been forced to send out the silver elf knight squadron for those charges.

“The Elven Gods should be intervening soon… How long will it take us?”

“If we can finish modifying our equipment and set out again by tonight, we’ll arrive two days from now at night at the very quickest. However, it will probably take one more day for all our personnel and mages to get accustomed to their new weapons and equipment.”

It would seem that we would likely arrive in time. I hoped that the elves could at least hold out for a while longer. If the elves were annihilated without even the War God Donatis needing to personally take action, that would be far too humiliating.

But if Donatis personally attacked… I had no idea how the elves were possibly supposed to counter him.

“Those rebellious traitors aren’t so simple to deal with. Just have fun watching the show,” remarked viciously the brightly smiling Elven Empress on my shoulder, referring to the elves we were going to rescue. Still, as the old saying went, the person who understood you best would always be your worst enemy rather than your best friend. Her statement was truly convincing.

“Alright. Tell our mages that they should focus on adjusting the new Borealis’s mage towers and finish the modifications. Perhaps they will be used in battle.”

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