Facing Harbor’s devastating attack, General Sost could only force himself to hold on.
Monts later, his body was already covered in wounds, his face twisted with pain. But still, he refused to retreat.
Sost’s persistence left Harbor deeply surprised.
"You really are different from those generals of the Stellar Empire. Under normal circumstances, I would truly admire you. But since we’re enemies, I have no choice but to strike you down."
Harbor did respect n like Sost who fought to the death. But the fact remained—they were on opposite sides, and respect didn’t matter in battle.
This ti, Harbor decided to act personally.
The Angel of Light could easily kill Sost, but if it wasted too much energy now, it wouldn’t be able to quickly rge the power of the Gem of Light into itself later. That would be a serious problem for Harbor’s plan.
Harbor’s body suddenly blurred into a phantom. In an instant, he teleported right in front of Sost. His eyes glowed with a dark violet light, and Sost felt his consciousness rapidly slipping away.
Though he clenched his teeth and tried to resist, his body collapsed against his will. Harbor effortlessly tore away a part of Sost’s mind.
If he had more ti, Harbor could have completely erased Sost’s consciousness. But he knew Charles could return at any mont. He couldn’t afford to waste even a second.
Since Sost was already down, Harbor rushed to the chamber where the Gem of Light was kept.
He forced the heavy doors open. The mont they swung wide, a shockwave burst out and spread through the fortress. This was the final layer of defense around the Gem.
The shockwave carried imnse power, but for Harbor and his beasts, it was easy to endure. Harbor himself was barely affected. Even the Angel of Light only staggered back a few steps.
Once the wave passed, Harbor imdiately dashed into the chamber. The Angel of Light followed, transforming into a streak of light as it darted inside.
The shockwave might not have hard Harbor or his beasts, but its effect on the Withered Tree Fortress and everyone else nearby was enormous.
The Serpents inside the Withered Tree Fortress quickly felt the crushing force of the shockwave. They imdiately realized that sothing serious must have happened deep within the fortress.
So of the elite warriors began rushing back toward the inner sections as fast as they could.
When the shockwave reached the fortress walls, both armies clashing outside felt it too. Ordinary Serpent soldiers had no idea what was going on. So even thought it was a new Serpent Empire weapon, unleashed to disrupt the Stellar Empire’s assault.
But the Serpent command level understood more or less what it ant. A few of them showed fear on their faces, but most gritted their teeth and continued directing the battle.
Azka, who was locked in combat with Aldany, felt the shockwave and his expression imdiately darkened. General Sost had once warned him: if a powerful shockwave erupted from inside the fortress, it ant the fortress was under deadly threat.
After thinking for a mont, Azka decided to withdraw from the battlefield. He summoned his strongest mystical beast, a black bat, and ordered it to launch a fierce attack on Aldany. The purpose was clear—give him cover so he could retreat successfully.
While his beast kept Aldany busy, Azka leapt toward the wall at full speed. But just as he reached the middle of the wall, Aldany wove a net of curse power that trapped him in place.
"You think I don’t know what that shockwave ans?" Aldany’s cold, sinister voice ca from below.
"The Withered Tree Fortress must be facing a great threat. I don’t know who caused it, but I’ll be sure to help them. If they succeed, the fortress’s defenses will collapse completely.
"There’s no way I’ll let you leave so easily. The mont you chose as your opponent, you were already dood. That was your greatest mistake."
Aldany mocked Azka without hesitation.
Azka imdiately shot back. He knew very well that if he stayed silent, Aldany would definitely pass this news on to the Stellar Empire’s crown prince. And the crown prince would likely seize the chance to launch a fierce assault on the fortress walls.
That would push the Serpent Empire into an even more desperate situation.
"You really think I was trying to run away? You think I’m afraid of you? How ridiculous! You don’t even know your own limits. The only reason I wanted to leave was because your strength is far too weak to interest .
"But since you insist on fighting , then I’ll show you just how powerful I really am. I will never lose to you in battle."
As soon as Azka finished speaking, he broke free from the cursed net Aldany had woven. He dropped straight from the sky, landing right beside him.
Without hesitation, he swung his short sword again and again, aiming strike after strike at Aldany. Most of his attacks targeted Aldany’s throat, while the others slashed toward his eyes.
Azka knew the situation was dire, so his assault was relentless and fierce.
Caught under this storm of attacks, Aldany’s judgnt began to falter. Doubt crept into his mind.
"Was I wrong? Was the shockwave only ant to mislead ?"
For soone like Aldany, once doubt took root, he would no longer act rashly. On top of that, he already felt he hadn’t fully gained the crown prince’s trust. That made him even more unwilling to report an uncertain guess to the Stellar Empire’s crown prince.
Since Aldany chose to focus fully on his fight with Azka for now, Azka managed to defuse what could have beco an even greater crisis for the Serpent Empire.
But even though Aldany didn’t say anything, the people from the Ancient Academy still understood what was happening.
When the shockwave reached their side, Maxwell—the acting commander of the Ancient Academy—finally broke into a grin.
He turned to the people around him, excitent clear in his voice.
"Senior brother’s plan must have worked! This shockwave ans he’s already destroyed the core of the Withered Tree Fortress!"
Hearing this, the other Ancient Academy mbers were thrilled as well. If Maxwell was right, then the battle was already as good as over.
They also knew they had to act quickly—if they didn’t move now, they wouldn’t even qualify to fight for the spoils.
"So, don’t you think we should strike now? Since senior brother has already succeeded, if we keep hesitating, we might not even have the right to share the spoils!"
The mbers of the Ancient Academy were restless, eager to move. One after another, they urged to launch an attack.
But Maxwell still kept his calm. Smiling, he shook his head.
"This isn’t the best ti for us to act. What you need to do now is calm your excitent. We will only move once we receive a direct order from senior brother."
Maxwell didn’t want to act rashly. He couldn’t risk damaging the impression he had in Harbor’s eyes. To him, even if this mission failed completely, as long as Harbor thought well of him, he could still gain a great deal of resources afterward. So he would never take risks lightly.
After all, Julian’s downfall was still fresh in everyone’s mory.
Hearing Maxwell’s words, the mbers of the Ancient Academy all showed disappointnt. They had already been terrified by Charles’s constant hunting before, and now that they finally had a chance to fight, they weren’t allowed to.
This left most of them without any real battle experience.
Maxwell knew exactly what they were thinking, but he didn’t care about their complaints. His focus was only on how far Harbor had gotten.
anwhile, after forcing open the doors to the Gem of Light’s chamber, Harbor quickly began searching for it. But Charles had prepared traps in the room earlier, slowing him down.
Even with the help of his mystical beasts, it still took Harbor a full fifteen minutes to finally discover the Gem of Light glowing with imnse power in a corner of the room.
"At last, I’ve found you. Everything is still on ti."
A voice answered from the doorway:
"I couldn’t agree more. My timing is perfect too."
It was Charles.
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