The Broken Halo

Chapter 845 - 844: Frostveil Watchtower

Assault Core Seventeen reached Ammor and the battered remnants of his team before the dust from Sonya’s boulder had settled.

Ammor was still staring at the short Kragh when a sharp metallic hum came from Frostveil’s second terrace.

Simon looked up.

One of the artifact cannons had turned toward them. Blue-white light gathered inside its crystal-lined barrel, dragging frost from the metal around it. The air along the split ridge became painfully cold.

”Fire!” a human shouted.

The cannon discharged.

A thick beam of freezing Aether descended toward both assault cores.

Sonya waved one hand, and the ground in front of her rose with a violent groan.

Stone folded over stone until a wall several metres thick stood across the ridge. Dense demonic energy spread through it a moment before the beam struck.

BOOOOM!

The entire road trembled.

Cold exploded across the wall. Frost buried its front, and cracks spread halfway through its surface, but the defence remained standing.

Sonya looked toward Ammor.

”That is a true earth wall,” she said with open contempt. ”Not the crumbling crap you have been creating for the past half hour.”

Her finger shifted toward the broken slab near his feet.

”And definitely not that pitiful thing.”

Ammor’s face darkened.

”My energy reserves ran dry.”

Sonya scoffed.

”The excuses of a pathetic weakling.”

”You-!”

The earth moved beneath her.

A narrow platform carried Sonya forward so quickly that Ammor barely saw her approach. One instant, she stood beside Simon. The next, her face was only a few inches from his.

Ammor stiffened.

Sonya’s blind eyes settled directly on him. Her voice lost all its amusement.

”Finish what you wanted to say.”

The pressure beneath the ridge increased.

Small stones rose around her bare feet, while the armour covering Ammor’s body gave a faint metallic creak.

”Call me short,” Sonya said coldly. ”Call me a little thing. Call me a dwarf like you did back then.”

Her lips curved into a smile that contained no warmth.

”Go on. If you have the balls, say it. This Honourable would not mind making sure you leave this battlefield as a eunuch.”

Ammor opened his mouth.

He had not intended to call her a little thing.

At least, not this time.

He wanted to explain that he had been exhausted, that Earth’s World Law was resisting him, and that Frostveil’s Order arrays had locked much of the ridge away from his control.

However, he found it difficult to say any of those words.

Sonya’s small body emitted a pressure that felt completely wrong for her size. The ground beneath him belonged to her far more than it had belonged to him throughout the entire battle, and Ammor suddenly became aware of every piece of metal covering the most vulnerable parts of his body.

He closed his mouth.

’Does she truly have a peak S grade earth affinity? Why does it much more terrifying than a S grade affinity? Why is the difference between us so vast when we both have S grade earth affinities?’

Sonya waited for another second.

Then she sneered.

”Spineless coward. No courage. No balls.”

Akaza approached from behind Simon and raised a brow.

”You basically called him a coward three times.”

Sonya turned her head toward him.

”Keep talking and I will make sure the last one becomes true for you too.”

Akaza looked at her for a moment, then he chuckled and wisely said nothing else.

”Enough,” Simon said.

The coldness around Sonya did not disappear immediately, but she stepped away from Ammor.

Simon had allowed her to threaten him for as long as he had because he knew how much she disliked Ammor. She had also obeyed his earlier order and saved the demon despite that dislike.

Letting her vent with words was preferable to spending the rest of the advance preventing her from breaking Ammor’s bones.

A few threats were cheaper than another internal battle.

Simon’s gaze passed across Assault Core Nine.

Rathen had forced himself back onto his feet and was fighting beside two other demons near the remains of Ammor’s stone wall. One protected the wounded Runemasters while the other kept a group of human soldiers from descending farther into the split ridge.

The four sealed cases remained intact.

One combatant was dead. Several others were wounded, and almost every surviving demon had exhausted most of their demonic energy.

Then Simon’s eyes settled briefly on the demon who had touched the damaged human formation marker.

The suspected spy was helping to drag an injured member behind cover. His movements were hurried but controlled, and nothing about his expression suggested he had noticed Simon observing him.

Simon said nothing.

He did not know what the black trace meant yet.

Exposing the demon without proof could ruin the opportunity in front of him, so he looked away as though the stranger possessed no importance.

His eyes moved across the ridge.

He had already assessed most of the battlefield while approaching, but seeing it from within Ammor’s position made the difficulty clearer.

The Level 57 C-rank Sonya struck was still alive. His aura remained beneath the collapsed defensive walls farther uphill, although it had weakened considerably. The second C-rank had stayed near Frostveil’s lower gate, surrounded by soldiers and an active icy blue barrier.

More humans occupied the terraces above.

Frostveil Watchtower stood beyond them.

Unlike Ironcrest’s heavy dark walls and broad artillery platforms, Frostveil was tall and narrow. It rose from the mountainside like a spear of black stone trapped inside ancient ice.

Blue-white frost covered its outer walls despite the smoke and heat of the battlefield. Channels of frozen Aether ran between its four formation pillars, causing pale mist to spill constantly across the terraces.

Its defences were built around the ice element.

Short cannons lined the first two levels, their crystal barrels capable of firing freezing beams and condensed lances of ice. Silver formations beneath the road stole heat from anything that crossed them. Even the barriers possessed layers of frost that thickened each time they were struck.

At the summit rested Frostveil’s strongest weapon.

The Winterspine.

It was longer than the cannons below and shaped from a single piece of cloudy blue crystal held within black metal ribs. Jagged fins rose along its barrel, and a dense sphere of frozen Aether rotated inside its rear chamber.

Sunshear had been designed to concentrate its power into precise attacks that pierced whatever stood before it.

Frostveil had a different purpose.

It slowed down armies.

It froze demonic energy, locked limbs, buried roads beneath ice, and turned every failed advance into another frozen obstacle for the next group to climb over.

Ironcrest tried to break attackers.

Frostveil intended to make certain they never reached it.

Another volley of Aether bullets descended from the terrace.

Virella raised both hands. Roots spread across Sonya’s stone wall and closed its damaged sections, while Rellis covered them with water that froze almost immediately.

Akaza watched the new layer of ice form.

”What do we do now?” he asked, his tone calm despite the blood covering him.

Simon remained silent for several seconds.

His gaze moved from Frostveil’s barriers to the weakened members of Assault Core Nine, then briefly returned to the suspected Black Banner spy.

”We advance toward the tower slowly,” he said. ”We take our time.”

Ammor’s relief disappeared.

He stared at Simon with visible displeasure.

”Slowly?” he demanded. ”Why?”