Godfather's System

154. Development - 49

The battle against the cultist army was as close to perfect as possible. Quick, effortless, impressive.

Unfortunately, also, to an outside observer, it looked like Zolast and his incredible spell was responsible for that.

It was unfortunate because it made the main army finally pull the trigger. From a distance, I could see the whole army preparing to begin their assault. Apparently, I had underestimated just how intimidating such an attack would be.

I signaled Zolast to lead his forces as fast as possible while I started moving forward, wanting to get a better sense of the situation. At the same time, I signaled to Limenta, asking him to tell Mahruss to trigger the retreat into the inner town rather than trying to defend the outer town unnecessarily.

With all the population already evacuated and the critical resources moved, losing the outer town temporarily wasn't exactly a great sacrifice.

However, I didn't immediately go back to town, trusting all the plans we had made with Takis to hold the defensive for fifteen minutes. I used that opportunity to move toward the location Zolast had arranged with Jertann about the delivery of the magic ballista bolts.

We didn't have the necessary siege weapon with us but amusingly, I didn't need it. Not after my latest Strength boost. My Strength was more than enough to replicate the power of a ballista while I used those bolts as harpoons.

And, as an added benefit, it would add even more confusion than I had prepared.

With that, I moved to the meeting location and grabbed the large crates, some filled with bolts, others filled with mana stones. I grabbed them and rushed back to Zolast without being concerned about being seen, it was much easier to bring several crates at once while balancing them.

I left the mana stones with Zolast, along with half of the bolts. This time, the army noticed my presence concealment had its limits, and a small tower of crates was outside those limits but it barely earned a comment.

After all, from what they could see, I was just some kind of delivery person with Speed. Not even worthy of gossiping about when they were about to charge against a veritable army of evil.

"What are you going to do with the rest?" Zolast asked.

"Since they are already starting to panic, why not scare them with the prospect of even more reinforcements, right?" I said as I looked at the sky.

Zolast chuckled despite the tense situation. "I would have hated to be your enemy. It's like fighting in a house of mirrors."

"Well, I do my best," I said as I left the camp once more, this time holding only a small crate that could be affected by my Concealment. Even then, I moved away from both armies before I jumped up, a platform appearing under my feet just as I started slowing down.

[-2 Mana]

I stayed away from both armies, as the glow of mana was not as easy to hide as my presence. Luckily, there were many other distractions around us.

I climbed up rapidly, and a minute later, I had climbed almost three miles up, and found myself surrounded by the mist of the clouds. However, before pulling my plan, I decided to climb a bit higher, to see what was above the clouds.

Once I climbed above the clouds, I noticed two important details. One, at a great distance barely visible even with my perception I could see flashes of blue against several red spots across the sky, suggesting an intense battle across the line, explaining why no reinforcements had arrived despite the great delay.

No reinforcement had arrived to the battlefield, but one was on the way. One of the military fortresses was floating away from the line, its path directly toward us, but it was clearly floating slowly, the signs of battle damage visible despite the distance.

That raised a question: Why would the cultists play along with their siege despite the approaching military fortress? Even a flying castle was no joke. A military fortress, even a damaged one, represented a much greater threat.

And, with the number of spies they had in the military, it was impossible for them not to know about the approach.

Unless, of course, it was a part of their plan all along. After all, they were using a town as bait. Only a worthy prey would require such an important reward.

All of this renewed my plans to trigger that plot even faster. I dived down a bit before I created another platform, low enough to keep myself hidden by the clouds, and started raining ballista bolts down.

Right where they were gathering their secondary forces.

Five ballista bolts were enough to deplete most of my mana, so I reached my pouch to grab another mana stones to replenish it. At the same time I created another platform as I dashed away, avoiding their blind retaliation as I responded again, doing my best to give the impression that there were several flying carts that were using the cloud cover to attack them.

Which earned three responses from them. First, they ordered their ground forces to invade the town even faster. That didn't sound very good at first, but it was very hard to take down the wards through sheer numbers, even with destruction mana.

The numbers would only make the measures Takis implemented even more effective.

Another response was to start building a ward that would block the siege attacks. And, at the same time, they summoned several flying creatures to attack the flying carts, which would lack the agility and endurance to fight against them.

It wasn't a bad strategy. It would have worked well if their enemies were actually flying carts using their elevation to harass their forces.

Pity that only split their attention further. With their attention split between three different directions, I threw the rest of the ballista bolts to the sky, giving them time to fall down while also radiating enough mana to distract them.

I dove down.

I couldn't help but feel nostalgic. It was the same way I had first escaped from the hands of Toross and that corrupted flying castle, but unlike then, I wasn't filled with a desperate panic.

It was nice to take revenge.

While their forces were distracted by other things, my Concealment was enough to keep me hidden, especially since I had picked a nice hill to fall behind, not even bothering to slow down.

Hitting the ground was somewhat painful, but that was it.

I didn't waste any time before I started running, and as I did, my ballista bolts were still falling from the sky, but soon, they realized the attacks had stopped.

Too bad I was already in front of their command tent before that happened.

The command tent was supposed to be the best-defended position in the whole camp, but with their forces committed to the siege and the attention of their mages firmly on the sky, there wasn't anything they could do.

Soon, I was in front of their commander, destroying his head with a stab before he could even react. And, since there was no hiding the glow of a mana attack, I triggered the golden effect at full force.

The other cultists in the tent shouted in alarm, but it was too late. Most were either occupied with casting the ward that was supposed to block the endless attacks from the sky, or controlling their summoned flying creatures to counter-attack against their flying enemies.

And, in their occupied state, their resistance against me was laughable. I almost felt bad as I demolished their strongest mages, any resistance they might have been able to put up prevented by their own summoned creatures.

Like that wasn't enough, Zolast chose that moment to use his own ballista bolts, each bolt shattering at contact as they dispersed. With that, the siege was shattered.

All that remained was to make sure no cultist managed to escape. A task that was far more fitting to a knight who could command an army than a lone assassin.

When I arrived in the inner town, the town forces were already in the process of counter-attacking, led by the baron himself. Then, I noticed Takis behind the forces, not stopping even for a moment as he rapidly distributed his orders to couriers with Speed, and corrected that statement.

Led by Takis, and spearheaded by the Baron.

Which meant that I would find Mahruss at the dungeon entrance. Halfway in, I used my Charisma to give him a signal, and he momentarily disappeared into a room.

Mahruss left that room followed by the Holy Crusader. "Stay here and protect the dungeon," I said as I charged forward, once again clad in my armor and carrying that large sword.

The morale of the army was already high suddenly finding themselves winning against the army that was threatening to devour them would do that when I joined as my knight identity, but it rose even faster as my glowing sword took down a raging monster after its controller had died.

[Invader Slain]

[+3,471,220 Experience]

[+31 Authority]

"For the sun god!" the army shouted around me. I didn't wait for a second before moving toward the next creature. They were even more dangerous without a controller restricting their movements, but luckily, they were equally motivated to kill cultists.

I focused on killing the monsters closest to our forces, making sure the risk was kept to a minimum. And, the anti-monster teams Takis organized worked just well enough, keeping the dangerous monsters occupied until I could arrive and deal with them.

Then, just as I was starting to hope that the torturous saga was about to come to an end ...

A dark flare exploded in the sky, a suffocating feeling of destruction mana, its glow enough to paint the skies red for a moment. And that was with it being far away.

Right in the direction where the Flying Fortress was coming from.

"Continue with the clean-up," I shouted as an order, one that was accompanied by a strong wave of Charisma to dispel the fear even as I created a platform under my feet, and once again achieved my poor-man's flight.

A flying creature dived toward me, but it took only two slashes to get rid of it before I reached the sky.

[Invader Slain]

[+2,962,488 Experience]

[+25 Authority]

And, I saw a dark portal in the sky, crackling with red energy, a corrupted red castle pushing through it, to attack a much stronger but damaged flying fortress, the creatures already jumping down. I could already see a few smaller red explosions across said fortress.

A boarding action. Finally, I could understand why the cultist army extended the siege for so long. They wanted the fortress to arrive right as they were about to take the town, and the flying fortress would react by sending most of their soldiers to support the town, making it very vulnerable to a boarding action.

I moved closer by jumping through platforms, ready to intervene in case things went badly, which turned out to be unnecessary, as the spots of red glow across the flying fortress extinguished just as quickly, their magical attacks forcing the flying castle to retreat back to that dark portal.

Still, I was glad that I had approached, as I noticed several familiar landmarks on the castle, making me suspect that I might have been more familiar with it than I had expected.

Then, I noticed a figure watching from a balcony as the castle disappeared. A familiar figure despite all that corruption.

Toross.

"Small world," I chuckled as I moved back.

The battle was over. Now, we had to handle the aftermath.