The capture of Arascus marked a sharp decline in our study of Divinity. There were more like him in the past, but Arascus was the last one with enough boldness to fully test the strength of Gods and Goddesses. Fer’s experiments with drinking the essence of other Divines, Anassa’s weaving of delicate strands to push sorcery further, Baalka’s experimentations on minor Divines, Irinika’s madness generators, even Olephia’s curse was put to the study table.

Now though, I look at the Pantheon and I see the most precious knowledge and studies of ourselves have plateaued. The explanation is rather simple of course, maybe it could have been averted if we started sooner, but no tradition of testing was ever constructed as we rebuilt the world in those first two centuries. By the time we were done, I would not trust Maisara or Fortia to test their strengths on me, likewise they would not trust me to test mine on them. Kavaa is the only candidate, but her allegiance to the Pantheon has already weakened and needless healing offends her. Elassa may be the biggest victim of this most of all, magic requires testing subjects yet there are none.

– Excerpt from the White Pantheon’s Closed Library: ‘A World Slowing Down’, written by Goddess Allasaria, of Light.

Iliyal pulled the trigger as he aimed directly at that glowing blue sensor array of the Centurion-Sentinel. The gemstones cracked, the sensor array spun to an undamaged part and the automaton lowered its glaive to protect its vision with the blade. His mind quickly started to work as he thought of how to get past them, disabling them without artillery was a pipedream, there was no chance of that happening whatsoever.

So men would have to be sacrificed. Iliyal turned on the spot, his black coat spinning around him as he silently picked out the weakest to be left behind. Those would be the lure, the others would enter with him. “CLEAR THE ENTRANCE!” Iliyal shouted. “TEAMS ONE AND TWO, ON ME! TEAM THREE, HOLD THE MAIN GATE, TEAM FOUR, AIM AT THE CENTURIONS!” He waved his swords towards the two massive round balls on three legs, with four arms each. They took a step forwards as his eyes scanned further into the corridor. A squad of Paladins was already behind the giant bulk of the machines, shields were lowered, spears were pointed forwards and men stood at the ready with crossbows.

Sorcerers would have been good to have right now, although Elassa’s invasion had come too fast and plans had changed. Iliyal took a deep breath as men in black re-arranged themselves around him. More Paladins were starting to appear at the top of the crenulations. Some were armed with greatswords, others held crossbows, if they started to fire… “TEAM TWO! ABOVE!” Iliyal raised his pistol and took a shot at one of the men looking through the sights of his crossbow right at the elf.

But Iliyal was faster, his bullet crunched into the bottom of the maps helmet and managed to sneak in through the man’s visor. He fell backwards leaving a trail of blood in the air as Iliyal ran to take cover behind one of the vans. Team Two opened fire on the men at the top of the keep, dust and stone from where they impacted into the crenulations started to fall down, but a few more men fell were the rifle’s larger calibre managed to penetrate through steel plate and it was enough to get the Paladins at the top of the fortress to take cover.

Team Three opened fire once again to suppress the men trying to encircle from behind, and the Paladins stuck between the inner and outer wall stayed in their positions. Iliyal quickly thought of a way to deal with the automatons. “SAPPERS!” He shouted. “EXPLOSIVE COUNT!”. The sapper team quickly got to counting, it took them four rounds of bursts.

“TWENTY-THREE remaining sir!” One of the sappers shouted back from behind one of the other black vans, he started to run over, past crossbow fire, then dropping himself and diving under Iliyal’s vehicle, he crawled under the safety of that black armour.

Iliyal knelt down to speak to the man who had his bald head sticking out from underneath the vehicle to speak over the incessant blaring of gunfire. “Can they be thrown?” Iliyal asked and the man made a sour face, his eyes thought for a second. Iliyal had talked with enough to know when they were thinking of a feasible solution to an unfeasible question. The answer would be no. He clicked his fingers next to the man’s ears and hurried him along.

“No sir.” The sapper replied. “The wires have to be stuck in, they’ll break off mid-flight.” Iliyal nodded and closed his eyes. This would have to be reported to Kassandora, he would not accept that artillery shells could not be shrunk down to fit into human hands.

“Understood.” Iliyal said, he looked into the inside of Drayim Keep. Neat square stone tiles were being cracked under the thunderous footsteps of the centurion-sentinels as they slowly made their way forwards. They had made it half way through the corridor, and the Paladins behind them were slowly advancing onwards behind the cover. A few men opened fire on the machines, bullets harmlessly bounced off their weapons and embedded themselves into the stones around them, or just bounced off the heavy tower shields the Paladins were holding. One lucky shot managed to penetrate the shield, the man faltered, fell back and was quickly replaced by another of Maisara’s soldiers in their thick grey plate armour.

Iliyal looked where to set the explosives. The centurions were only moving slowly because they were protecting the men behind with their massive bulk, but they could be almost as fast as Fer if pushed to it, and just as durable. Iliyal turned and spun, the keep had to have more than one entrance. He refused to believe that there wouldn’t be a side door, a back entrance, even a window they could smash and get in. Plans changed immediately and quickly. “AROUND THE KEEP! TEAM ONE, THAT WAY!” Iliyal swung his blade behind himself and around the fort. There were more buildings here, storehouses from the looks of it. They didn’t have the time to investigate it now though, and Iliyal was never one to bet on his own luck. A hundred years with Leona had trained that out of him, if there was any secret tunnels leading from those homes and into the keep, they would remain secret.

They would lure the automatons around them, make a single full rotation around the keep and then race in. The corridor that made up the entrance was huge, but there had to be smaller staircases where the centurion-sentinels would not be able to fit. The fortress was simply too small to be built entirely for beings larger than most Divines. Iliyal shouted out order after order. “SAPPERS! AROUND THAT CORNER! LAY A TRAP, BLOW THEM UP!”

More than twenty men answered in their own way. Some roared, some shouted a loud ‘yes sir!’ Some just started pacing forwards. They took cover behind doorways and lunged into the long shadows cast by the moon. Under the cover of the night, the black shirts and trousers melted into the darkness. Iliyal should have gotten them to wear long-sleeves and balaclavas too, that would be for next time.

A squad of Paladins was caught out of positions as the thunderous footsteps of the centurions started to speed up, they were accelerating out. “GET THE CHARGES PREPPED!” Iliyal shouted as he retreated from the van and ran forwards, sword drawn and pistol ready. Three men with automatic rifles ensured that no Paladin was left standing as they neared the corner of that small storehouse. Sappers immediately dived behind it and started laying the blocks of pale explosive putty on the ground.

Further on, Team One, led by Stalker, dived out from the building and sprinted behind crates. Two men were dropped by crossbow bolts, their dark clothes changing discolouring into an even blacker black as they bled out. Iliyal stopped the near sappers and waved his swords to signal the men to move faster around the keep. One of those who had taken a crossbow hit to the chest managed to lift his head off the ground, he held his rifle in shaky hands, he took aim, and he emptied his magazine. The clatter of steel shields and swords bounced off the walls as Iliyal caught sight of them. “FURTHER ON!” Iliyal shouted.

Team Two, peaked from behind the storehouse, their team leader shouted. “We’ll supress! You move on!” He shouted and patted two of his men on the back. They dived out of cover and onto the ground, then started emptying the magazines. Two more men peeked out from behind the building, one kneeling, one standing over him, and lay down their own hail of lead.

“THERE’S A DOOR!” Stalker shouted suddenly over the din of Paladins shouting to each other, the cacophony of gunfire, the clattering of metal and the thunder of the centurion-sentinels marching forwards. They had left the keep now. Iliyal thought for an instant about trying to race past them, if he could make into the Divine Armoury, the entire situation would be flipped, but where its entrance even lay would take at least an hour to find with all his men. By himself, he could spend an entire walking around in there.

“SECURE AND BREACH!” Iliyal shouted back.

“THEY’RE COMING!” The sappers shouted from next to Iliyal and the elf just in time to get a chance to duck underneath the blow of a glaive. It slammed into the storehouse and tore through the stone wall, sending bricks and shards of stone flying into the shields of the Paladins behind it. The other centurion was just as close. “GO!” The sapper shouted as he stuck more wires into the putty and pulled out a detonator. “CLEAR FOR BLA-“

The man’s shout was suddenly cut off as another glaive pierced through his chest. Iliyal took a step back and retreated to the numbers of team two. In this courtyard, there were already over fifty Paladin’s lying on the ground, a small puddle of dark crimson blood. Stalker’s Team One pushed further onwards, men letting out blasts of gunfire as they took down Paladins behind the keeps crenulations or on the walls. The wall of men with shields retreated once again as they realised they wouldn’t be able to close the gap. Most likely they had orders to let the Centurions deal with the invaders, that is what Iliyal would do. Better to draw the fight out and let the unstoppable automatons be the main fist.

Iliyal turned back around to get one glance at the centurions. He never believed in luck, but for once, all he could say was that luck saved him. He saw the sapper lift a shaky hand and stare up at the automaton as it took a step past him. The thing crushed stone cobbles into pulp as it trod. Iliyal dived backwards as the sapper pushed the button with whatever strength he had left. Explosive set off explosive, several men were caught in the blast, both Paladin and Legionnaire, fire engulfed them, shards of metal blew off the automaton and it started to topple to one side.

And then it stopped toppling as the dust began to clear. Two of its arms were being used as replacements for the damaged leg, the other two were charred but unscathed. Iliyal took a heavy breath as the machine took one step forwards, glaive anchored into the ground as a walking stick. And then the machine started to speed up one again.

Iliyal clambered backwards on the ground, the heavy coat saved him from tearing his skin apart on the sharp fragments of stone that fell from the air. The centurion took a step forwards. Cobblestone cracked underneath its weight. Another thunderous step echoed off the castle walls as Iliyal’s men fell further back. The elf grabbed his pistol and opened fire into the machine’s blue sensor array. A few of the crystal cracked, one shattered into delicate mist. The sensor array rotated around the spherical body, the damaged part retreating to the rear as Iliyal clicked the trigger on his gun. Another bullet bounced off gold-bronze plating and the pistol clicked.

Iliyal rolled to the side as the machine’s glaive slammed down from overhead and cut the stones around him. He rolled again, grabbed a windowsill and threw himself backwards. The machine took another step to close the distance as Iliyal’s men raced around the entire keep. Any Paladins towards the front were still mowed down by the leading Team One, but it was obvious they were taking return fire from crossbows. The gunfire was getting sparser and sparser.

The plan in Iliyal’s head changed once again. This was merely a failed assault, and if it pushed the White Pantheon onto Lubska, so be it. That didn’t matter at this point, he had to save his own life. It would be a retreat, into the walls, over them, then run back to the vans. Risky, and most of his men would no doubt die, but there was no other way.

And then his plan stopped when a shadow engulfed them all. The moon was eclipsed for a moment by a bird with a huge wingspan.

An eagle cried from overhead. 

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep