Real Mount and Blade Game

On the city walls and at the city gates, all the soldiers who witnessed this valiant scene were instantly ignited!
A deafening roar of cheers swept across the entire fortified stronghold! The flames of courage burned fiercely in the hearts of every soldier, as if it wasn't just those few knights who had charged into the darkness and brought back skulls, but all of them!

The Swadian knights surrounded their hero, roaring like beasts, their blood-stained weapons pointing to the sky.

Outside the fortress, the light of the Holy Light Tower seemed to shine even brighter amidst this soaring grandeur, illuminating the knights and the terrifying spoils they had brought back with unparalleled clarity.

The remaining abyssal remains seemed to be intimidated by the sweeping storm of will, retreating even faster and farther, disappearing completely into the gray fog and the depths of darkness.

For a moment, an eerie silence descended outside the fortress, broken only by the heavy breathing of the knights, the snorting of their warhorses, and the palpable roars of bloodlust echoing from the walls.

however--

On the watchtower, Shen Mu's cold body remained motionless.

The gaze, obscured by the mithril-faced helmet, did not focus on Kalanzo, who was wielding a skull, as others did. Instead, it pierced through the brief frenzy of victory and locked onto the darkness that had been dispelled by the knight and was now silent again.

His keen mental power, like invisible tentacles, sensed the subtle changes in that area.

Those slain, purified, and trampled remains of the abyss, their filthy flesh and dissolving energy flowing on the ground... did not simply vanish into nothingness like ordinary deaths.

An invisible, chilling force originating from the core of the End Wolf Shadow is silently drawing in these filthy remnants that Tarlin has barely managed to purify.

Extremely tiny, yet incredibly resilient.

In the purifying tide of light in Tallinn, they flowed back like a black and red stream going against the current, defying the laws of physics, towards the churning abyss deep in the western core...
Right under Shen Mu's nose, amidst the deafening cheers of victory.

"Legolas." The icy voice pierced through the cheers, reaching the ears of the wood elf captain who had just breathed a sigh of relief. "Concentrate all your senses. Pay attention to the edge of Tarlin, the 'flow' of energy from those undead deadlands. Has the forest told you anything?"

Legolas's smile froze instantly. He jerked his head up, his emerald eyes narrowing sharply as he tried to blend into the mournful cries of the forest. A few breaths later, his face turned extremely pale, his voice hoarse and trembling with disbelief:
"...My lord...the forest is crying out in despair...it says...the filth that our warriors bravely slayed, those things that should have been purified and dispelled...their 'death essence' has not truly dissipated...the forest senses...they are 'flowing backward'! Like being pulled by an invisible spider web...flowing towards...flowing towards that greedy maw at the core! This is not victory...my lord, this...this is more like...feeding!"

Shen Mu's thin lips, hidden beneath his helmet, formed a cold, straight line.

In the distance, the shadowy wolf of the end hovering above the demonic pillar, its two abyssal blood-diamond pupils gleaming with an even deeper and colder calculating light. The knight's heroic act of charging out of the darkness to retrieve the spoils seemed to have elicited no emotional response from it.

It's just waiting.

Waiting for more… energy.

A true storm of darkness brews beneath a brief moment of radiant light. The wolf's patience foreshadows a next devouring event that will far exceed everyone's expectations.

“Woooooooooooooooooooo!”

Suddenly!
A mournful, desolate howl, seemingly filled with endless suffering and savagery, tore apart the air that had just become somewhat "tranquil" due to the knights' victorious cheers! This howl did not come from the cold, doomed wolf shadow in the sky, but rather burst forth from the deepest part of the ruins of Long City, from the densest part of the core black domain!

Then came the second sound! And the third sound!
Rising and falling, one after another! Continuous and endless!
This howl was no simple demonstration; it was more like a piercing, soul-wrenching scream, with a chilling penetrating power that instantly overwhelmed the cheers remaining on the ramparts, causing all the soldiers' hearts to clench and their hearts to tremble with fear.

Shen Mu's iron-gray pupils, hidden beneath his helmet, suddenly contracted!

"Be on guard!!!" The icy voice, carrying an unprecedented sense of urgency, instantly resounded throughout the ramparts! All the knights and soldiers instinctively gripped their weapons, their gazes filled with fear and vigilance as they turned towards the darkness. The massive, monstrous skull in Kalanzo's hand seemed to grow even colder and heavier.

Then, right at the boundary between the golden radiance of the Holy Light Torch Tower and the surging darkness of the abyss, in the place where the thin gray mist swayed like rags, a strange change occurred!
One, two, three... dozens of figures slowly emerged from the dark crevices, their clarity chilling to the bone.

They maintained an upright posture similar to humanoid creatures, yet were taller and more hunched, as if their spines were bent by heavy despair. Covering their entire bodies were dry, broken, and seemingly weathered gray-black bone armor, with an ominous dark red glow flowing from the gaps, outlining the twisted muscle texture.

What is most chilling are their heads—not human skulls, but grotesque, elongated skulls covered with barbed bony horns, resembling the skeletal remains of the legendary abyssal jackals! Deep within the empty eye sockets, there is no soul fire, but instead two pulsating, dark red abyssal flames, even deeper and more concentrated than the abyssal inferior skeleton crystal cores!

What they gripped tightly in their hands were not crude bone claws, but enormous scimitars forged from some kind of decaying black iron and demonic bones, gleaming with a chilling light. Wisps of viscous black sulfurous gas swirled around the blades, emanating a corrupting aura even purer than that from the previous explosion of the inferior skeleton's crystal core.

"Crack...crack crack..." The sound of knuckles grinding together was particularly jarring in the deathly silence. They stood in a row, eerily positioned just a step away from the edge of the Holy Light Torch Tower's reach!
Immediately afterwards, all the skeletal gnolls raised their terrifying heads at the same time, and let out even more shrill and ferocious howls towards the fortress!

"Ouch——!!!!!"

This howl was no longer the mournful cry of a lone wolf, but a unified, military-like bugle call to charge!
The sound waves emitted by dozens of monsters, mixed with the chilling killing intent of the abyss's will, actually created visible dark red ripples in the air!

The sound struck the light screen of the Holy Light Tower, even causing the defensive runes on the tower to flash rapidly and resonate slightly with a "humming" sound!
The soldiers on the ramparts were shocked by the soul-piercing sound wave, and their expressions changed. Several soldiers with weaker mental strength even staggered and covered their ears, their faces showing pain.

The Rhodok soldiers slammed their tower shields into the ground, attempting to withstand the invisible mental impact. The Vaegir archers instinctively drew back their bows, their arrows trembling as they locked onto the monsters that taunted them at the boundary between light and darkness.

Legolas's face turned deathly pale. The will of the forest sounded a sharp, unprecedented alarm in his ears: "My lord! These... are not undead! They are monsters formed from pure abyssal magic, highly condensed death essence, and some kind of extremely venomous soul fragments! Their 'core'... is extremely condensed!"

Shen Mu's icy gaze swept over the skeletal gnolls. His senses detected the anomaly more precisely than Legolas's—they weren't hesitating outside the light of Tarin out of fear, but rather… they were absorbing it!

The energy turbulence generated by the violent collision and annihilation of the light of Tallinn with the remaining death energy and abyssal aura at the edge of the area is being subtly absorbed by the abyssal fire dancing on their bodies like a magnet!
They were standing right at the intersection where this destructive energy was most active!

Each howl seemed to trigger a fluctuation of energy, which was then further absorbed by them.

They are on the verge of destruction by "feeding"!

Just when everyone on the ramparts, including the valiant knights who had fought their way through the abyssal carcasses, thought the next moment would be the moment when these terrifying monsters would launch a frenzied charge—

The howling stopped abruptly! All the skeletal gnolls, like a well-rehearsed army, suddenly ceased their roaring.

The leading ones, with their eyes blazing with abyssal fire, seemed to pierce through space, precisely "locking in" on the cold mithril figure on the watchtower.

one second.

two seconds.

A deathly silence.

The next moment!

brush!brush!brush!
Dozens of figures turned around decisively and cleanly without making any unnecessary movements!

They didn't run, but with a seemingly sluggish yet incredibly swift pace, like rocks sinking to the bottom of water, silently and rapidly retreating into the churning, viscous, dark red, blood-red abyss of mist! As if they had never existed!

They retreated?
So... you just cancelled?
The ramparts were deathly silent. Only the humming of the Holy Light Torch Towers and the specks of light left by the golden spears projected from the forest of towers in the thin gray mist made it seem as if the terrifying scene just now was merely an illusion.

The soldiers looked at each other, their palms sweating as they gripped their weapons, their faces filled with astonishment, confusion, and a deeper unease.

Cheers? They've long since vanished.

Instead, there was a sense of oppression and... eeriness that was even heavier than when facing an endless horde of monstrous corpses.

Who are they? Why are they howling? And why did they come, only to reveal their ferocious fangs before retreating so decisively?
Legolas's Adam's apple bobbed as he said with difficulty, "My lord... this is too abnormal. They don't seem like defeated routs... more like... they came here specifically to show themselves to us, to issue a challenge, and then... wait?"

“No. It’s not a challenge.” Shen Mu’s icy voice interrupted Legolas’s speculation. His gaze, like the most precise probe, remained fixed on the edge of the darkness where the skeletal gnolls had disappeared.

Just as they retreated, Shen Mu's mental power detected a deeper level of "flow".

When those gnoll monsters retreated into the thick fog, they didn't simply vanish into thin air. The highly condensed abyssal fire and death essence they carried were flowing in a more concealed and orderly manner, like streams flowing into the sea, drawn by an invisible net, accelerating towards—the depths of the core dark domain! Towards the final wolf shadow hanging above the demonic pillar!

The previous inferior remains were passively absorbed.

These newly emerged "skeleton gnolls" seem to have been "recalled"!
They... were originally the highly condensed life energy and death essence that the End Wolf Shadow had just consumed by the last resistance of the undead in Longcheng, and after being combined with the core will of the Abyss, they were shaped into "reconnaissance units" or even... "energy conduits"!
They stand at the boundary between light and darkness, emitting soul-shaking howls, which is both a direct "test" of the barrier's strength and a brief but efficient "recharge" in the chaotic energy annihilation!
Once the test is complete and the energy has been collected, it will be immediately retrieved without lingering in combat!
"They are... assessing and absorbing." Shen Mu's voice was clear and heavy, like shattering ice. "In the fastest way, with the most efficient means. Not testing our weaknesses... but testing the 'upper limit' and 'nature' of our power."

His gaze slowly rose, piercing through the surging darkness, and fell once more upon the core of the dark domain, upon the pair of abyssal blood diamond giant eyes that hovered in the sky, coldly watching everything.

Deep within those enormous pupils, a glint of... satisfied calculation seemed to flash?

Beneath Shen Mu's helmet, the corners of his mouth were pressed into an even colder, straight line.

This brief appearance, the fierce howl, the decisive retreat—all of it points to only one thing:

The Shadow of the End, the abyssal predator entrenched deep within the core, is not merely "feeding" death; it is also rapidly learning, evolving, and preparing for its next attack.

And its next attack will definitely not be a war of attrition with cannon fodder and inferior corpses.

In what form and with what power will it break through this barrier of holy light?
unknown.

But this unknown brought with it a terrifying premonition a hundred times more suffocating than the mountains of corpses and seas of blood just moments before. At the heart of the storm, an apocalyptic power was brewing, enough to engulf everything.

The skeletal gnoll monster's figure completely disappeared into the churning abyssal fog, leaving only the piercing howl echoing inside and outside the fortress, and a chilling, deathly silence that seemed to freeze the air.

The soldiers' faces were still showing surprise and bewilderment, but the fervor of victory had been completely replaced by a deeper unease.

Caranzo unconsciously tightened his grip on the grotesque skull, the heavy trophy seeming to transform into a cold warning sign.

On the watchtower, Shen Mu's icy voice broke the silence, without the slightest hesitation, clear and distinct, reaching every corner of the fortress like a cold iron hammering against the ground, striking every tense nerve:

"All clear? No! The battle has only just begun!"

His gaze never left the churning darkness of the western core, and his words were like the sharp edge of a tempered blade:
"Those monsters are the true claws of the abyss! Their appearance is not an attack, but an assessment! It's a lurking after baring their fangs! They are spying on our light and fire, and testing our will!"

"Legolas! Increase the cast of 'Eye of the Sentinels'! Have all perception spells scan the edge of the core dark domain in rotation, expanding the range to its maximum! Report immediately any energy accumulation points or any abyssal fluctuations exceeding the baseline!"

"Order all Tower Forest nodes! Maintain maximum purification power! Immediately activate fine scanning mode! Focus on monitoring the area where the Tower Forest light curtain meets the abyssal mist! Track any abnormal energy loss! I need to know the direction and scale of every bit of 'absorbed' filth! Report any residual energy traces as well!"

"All garrison troops!" Shen Mu's voice suddenly rose, carrying an unyielding, iron will: "Continue the highest level of alert! Reinforce all sentry posts! Keep a close watch on every inch of shadow along the edge of the light in Tallinn! Any unusual fluctuations—even if it's just an untimely gust of wind, an unnatural distortion of the mist, a faint flicker of ghostly light from the remaining bones on the ground, or... another subtle noise from the depths of darkness—any sound! Anything! Immediately alert! No mistakes allowed!"

"Up and down the city walls, open your eyes wide and listen carefully! The claws of the abyss take many forms! Any attempt to infiltrate, harass, or probe, however small, signifies a deeper attack brewing! From this moment on, there are no 'safe zones'! Inside and outside the walls, it is the front line!"

Shen Mu's order came down like hail, dispelling the last shred of hope in the soldiers' hearts.

That brief, eerie retreat, as interpreted by the lord, transformed into an invisible hammer, shattering the illusory sense of security they had gained from defeating the horde of vile corpses. (End of Chapter)