Real Mount and Blade Game

The Holy Light Barrier groaned under the crushing weight of the Crystal Sand Dunes, and the divine fragments in Shen Mu's palm suddenly began to burn.

He realized that Yenogu's curse power was creating a deadly resonance with the Corpse Sands.

Just as the crystalline wave was about to engulf the barrier, Shen Mu slammed the divine fragments hard into the earth.

"Use annihilation to awaken new life!" he roared, detonating the last of the power of rules within the fragments.

The crystalline sand sea collapsed from within, and the blasphemous wounds became the graveyards of the corpse demons.

The dying sacred tree burned out its last breath, and the pure essence of the forest washed away the filth like a tide.

When the first rays of true sunlight pierced through the gray fog, a broken sword, stuck in a pile of crystals, stood like a simple tombstone on the scorched earth.

The light barrier of the Holy Light Barrier trembled violently, emitting a piercing, strained sound like glass about to shatter under its strain. Outside the barrier, the colossal crystalline sand dunes advanced slowly, crushing everything in their path, each movement causing the ground beneath their feet to undulate like waves. The Wood Elf craftsman chief almost collapsed to the ground, his voice trembling with sobs: "My lord! The Holy Tree… the roots of the Holy Tree… are withering faster! The Torch Tower… is about to go out!"

Despair, like a cold, venomous snake, coiled around everyone's heart. The light of the barrier visibly dimmed, and beyond the light curtain, the rustling sound of crystalline corpses rubbing together carried a chilling hunger.

In that deathly silence, the spot on Shen Mu's tightly clenched left palm, marked with a grayish-white imprint, suddenly erupted with a tearing, excruciating pain! It was as if a red-hot iron had been branded directly into the depths of his soul. A cold, chaotic, yet primal rhythmic wave, passing through the palm mark, resonated fatally with the crystalline sand dunes pressing down on the barrier from beyond!
"Ugh!" Shen Mu groaned, collapsing to one knee, veins bulging on his forehead. The intense pain almost made him lose consciousness, but accompanying the pain was a vague yet crucial realization—Yenogu! It was the curse power that the gnoll god had instilled in his soul before his death! This curse, like a malevolent coordinate, was now greedily resonating with the sea of ​​sand outside, composed of countless otherworldly corpses. Their power was resonating, accelerating their fusion, accelerating their destruction! This resonance was the key to the Corpse-Infested Sand Sea locking onto and crushing their last isolated island!

"My lord!" Altan Khan and Isera exclaimed simultaneously, trying to step forward to help him up.

"Don't come any closer!" Shen Mu abruptly raised his hand to stop him, his voice hoarse yet carrying an undeniable resolve. The excruciating pain, ironically, made his thoughts exceptionally clear on the verge of life and death. The curse was a coordinate, a chain, but wasn't it also a connection? Although the fragments of Yenogu's divinity had been annihilated, the lingering "residual flavor" of the abyssal undead fusion rules within this curse was perceived with unparalleled clarity through this resonance. Rules... shattered rules... Deep within his broken [Tallinn] mental network, those fragments of imprints left behind when forcibly anchoring to the [Mount & Blade] rules, not yet completely extinguished, were suddenly activated by the resonance of this curse!
The light curtain of the barrier emitted a final, mournful cry. The outermost area began to dissipate like melting ice and snow, and the jagged edges of the crystalline sand dunes were within reach, with the aura of death overwhelming.

No time!
A final glint of light erupted in Shen Mu's eyes, a madness that drove him to self-destruction. He no longer suppressed the burning curse in his palm, but instead poured all the remaining spiritual power in his body, along with the marks representing "order," "judgment," and "end" from the fragments of [Talin], and the faint "flavor" of the abyssal necromancy rules he had just resonated with, into the boiling curse mark!
"Use your curse as a catalyst!" He roared at the void, at the invisible remnant of Yenogu, and slammed his left hand, burning with grayish-white flames, down onto the earth covered with the roots of the sacred tree. "Burn my remnant soul as fuel! To annihilate... to awaken new life!"

"boom--!!!"

An unspeakable explosion occurred.

But the explosion wasn't outwards, it was inwards, downwards! The cursed power that Shen Mu forcibly absorbed into his body, along with the spiritual imprint he detonated, under the rough and direct framework of the [Mount & Blade Rules], transformed into an extremely complex, extremely dangerous, and destructive turbulent current of rules, violently flowing into the earth along the veins of the Sacred Tree's roots.

At the heart of this power is "annihilation." It originates from Shen Mu's destiny to control the "Annihilation Tomb," from the "Spear of Ash Annihilation" he condensed, and from the self-destructive nature of the Yenogu divine fragments when they collapsed. It was detonated by Shen Mu using his own will as the fuse and a curse as the conduit, deep within the ley lines where the Crystal Sand Sea and the Heart of the Forest meet.

It's like throwing ice water into a pot of boiling oil.

The once seamless, overwhelming crystalline sand dunes suddenly erupted with a teeth-grinding, incredibly dense cracking sound! The grayish-white crystalline surface was instantly covered with spiderweb-like black cracks. Within these cracks, not sand and gravel, but a surge of thick, ink-like abyssal necromantic energy, emanating an aura of endless death and resentment—the very foundation of the Corpse Sand Sea.

Shen Mu's "Annihilation" turbulence precisely cut into the resonant node formed by the curse within the Corpse Sand Sea. It was like stabbing a red-hot iron rod into the weakest crack in ice. The devouring and chaotic characteristics inherent in the Abyss Necromancer's rules were amplified countless times under the stimulation of "Annihilation."

Autophagy has begun!

Large swathes of crystalline sand dunes near the forest barrier began to violently churn and collapse. The crystalline corpses were no longer cold-blooded killing machines; under the impact of the chaotic energy erupting within them, they tore at each other, devoured, and annihilated one another. Black necromantic energy mixed with grayish-white crystalline fragments, forming an area that continued to collapse and destroy itself inward. That crushing force was replaced by violent self-destruction.

"Roar--!"

A superhuman roar, filled with endless pain and rage, erupted from the depths of the desert, from the direction of the ancestral tomb's "wound"! With this roar, the swirling gray-white vortex above the ancestral tomb suddenly accelerated, its volume expanding wildly, its center becoming as deep as a prison. An immense, suffocating suction force burst forth from it!
The suction force wasn't directed at the Heart of the Forest, but rather at the Corpse Sand Sea, which was engulfed in self-devouring chaos!
The blasphemous "wound," the rift connecting to the unknown void of the end times, was fully activated the instant the core energy of the Corpse Sand Sea became violently unbalanced due to self-devouring. Like a greedy maw, it began to frantically devour everything around it—first and foremost, the crystalline corpses that were killing each other and whose energy was out of control!

A colossal sandstorm was whipped up by an invisible force, tearing groaning corpses into twisted lines as they surged towards the expanding gray-white vortex like rivers flowing into the sea. At the vortex's center, countless bones could be vaguely seen being utterly ground into primal, lifeless energy dust by the raging energy flow, returning to eternal nothingness. Yenogu's final curse, intended to guide the final destruction of Shen Mu, had now become the tomb of its remaining creations.

"Now! Ysera!" Shen Mu's body trembled violently, pale golden blood seeping from his seven orifices, his soul seemingly about to completely disintegrate in the next second. But he roared with his last bit of strength, his voice piercing through the roar of the engulfing sands and the wailing of the crumbling barrier.

Ysera, the Wood Elf elder who had been guarding the core of the Sacred Tree, her face streaked with tears, heard this call. She saw the self-destruction and collapse of the sand sea outside the barrier, saw the destructive engulfment of the "wound." A resolute sorrow flashed in her eyes, then transformed into boundless piety and tenderness.

She stretched out her aged hand and gently pressed it against the cracked trunk of "Elune's Throat," which flowed with golden sap. Ancient Elvish language flowed forth like the purest spring water: "By blood, by soul, Mother of the Forest, hear the final prayer of your offspring... Burn my remains, offer my essence, cleanse the filth, protect... new life!" As her last syllable fell, the entire massive sacred tree burst forth with an unprecedented, pure, and exquisite emerald light! This light was no longer a defensive barrier, but a torrent of life carrying endless sacrifice and a purifying will! At the roots, the long-withered roots, in this final burning, were like molten jade, pouring their boundless life force into the earth beneath their feet without reservation.

"No! Elder!" the surviving wood elves cried out in heartbreak.

Ysera's body became transparent in the light. She took one last look at the forest that was about to be purified, a relieved smile on her face. Her body turned into specks of light, completely merging into the radiance of the sacred tree.

The forest's essence released by the burning of the sacred tree, the "annihilation" aftershocks caused by Shen Mu's detonation of chaotic rules, and the enormous energy cavity created by the "wound" devouring the corpse demons, formed a brief and extremely delicate balance on this ravaged land.

Pure life force, like a gentle tide, carried Ysera's last will, washing over the scorched earth outside the ramparts—contaminated by carrion, covered in crystals, and soaked in necromantic energy. Where the green light passed, hissing black smoke rose—the sound of filth being thoroughly purified. Crystallized sand softened and crumbled in the green light, turning into harmless dust. The raging abyssal necromantic aura melted away rapidly, like ice and snow meeting the blazing sun.

This purification came at a price. After purifying the edge of the desert, the green light lost its strength, flickering like a candle in the wind. The sacred tree's massive canopy completely lost its luster, its leaves turning to ash the moment the light faded, and its enormous trunk withered and cracked at a visible speed, emitting heartbreaking groans.

However, it was this brief but brilliant torrent of purification that won the remnants of the Allied forces that crucially gave them a chance to breathe!
Beyond the barrier, the once despairing "Sand of Death" had vanished. In its place lay a vast expanse of scorched, soft land, emitting wisps of purified white smoke. Though desolate and lifeless, the malevolent power that had devoured life was gone. In the distance, the gray-white vortex in the direction of the ancestral tombs, having swallowed most of the Corpse Sand Sea, seemed to have exhausted its power. Its rotation suddenly slowed, its volume continuously shrinking, eventually stabilizing into a relatively calm, yet still ominous, black spatial rift.

The wound is still there, but the most deadly army of corpses has been devoured by itself.

The light barrier of the Holy Light Barrier flickered a few times the instant the Crystal Sand Dunes disappeared, then went out completely. The torch tower supporting it let out a muffled thud, its body cracking open as the last vestiges of holy light dissipated. The colossal "Throat of Elune," having exhausted its last bit of life force, let out a long, heavy sigh, and collapsed like a mountain crumbling, raising clouds of dust.

The heart of the forest has lost its last refuge and symbol.

Dust filled the air, obscuring the rising sun. The surviving soldiers stood frozen between the ruins and the fallen sacred tree, their faces covered in blood and dust, their eyes vacant, seemingly unable to comprehend what had just transpired. One moment it was annihilation, the next the enemy was being devoured and reduced to ashes?
Altan Khan was the first to react; the Khergits' inherent vigilance was etched deep in their souls. He abruptly wiped away what appeared to be sweat or tears from the corner of his eye, and his hoarse roar, like the howl of a wounded alpha wolf, pierced the brief silence: "On alert! Everyone! High alert! Rhodokians! Watch that breach! Vaegirs, nock your arrows, cover the perimeter! Swadian men, shield wall! Shield wall up! Quickly!" As he roared, he stumbled toward the man kneeling on one knee in the dust raised by the fallen sacred tree, his figure swaying precariously.

"My lord! Lord Shen!" Alatan Khan rushed to Shen Mu's side and carefully supported his shoulder. The touch was icy cold. Shen Mu's body was like a bowstring that had been taut and then suddenly relaxed, leaning softly against Alatan Khan. His breath was so weak that it was like a whisper, and the pale golden bloodstains under his skin were shocking.

"Medicine! Any more bandages! Elven herbs! Anything will do!" Alatan Khan roared anxiously at his surroundings. Several medics, their bodies wrapped in tattered bandages, scrambled over, frantically searching through the already empty medicine chest and the herbal juices that were left only at the bottom of the bottles.

"Cough..." Shen Mu's eyelashes trembled, and he opened his eyes with great difficulty, revealing an endless weariness and excruciating pain in the depths of his pupils. He didn't look at his own injuries, but instead cast his gaze with difficulty to the scorched new land outside the barrier, then turned to the stable black crack in the direction of the ancestral tomb, his voice so weak it was almost inaudible: "...Sha...Sha Nie...how is it? That...'gate'...?"

"It's gone! Sir! All that sand is gone! It was swallowed up by that huge hole!" A Swadian heavy infantryman, his face covered in soot, cried out with a voice filled with the joy of surviving a catastrophe. "It was you! You saved us!"

Alatan Khan nodded forcefully, his voice choked with emotion: "My lord, the Corpse Demon Sand Sea... is gone! It was swallowed by that 'wound'! For now... for now we're safe!" He deliberately emphasized the word "for now." The ancestral tomb's crack still remained, like an unhealed scar branded on the horizon, reminding everyone that the crisis was only lurking, far from over.

Shen Mu seemed to try to force a smile, but this aggravated his injuries, causing him to cough up a small mouthful of blood tinged with golden light. He closed his eyes, gathering his strength for a long time before slowly raising his leaden arm, pointing towards the depths of the forest—to that relatively intact area not yet completely consumed by the war. "...Retreat...to there...build...the last line of defense...hold...and await reinforcements..." Each word exhausted his remaining strength. After giving his final command, his head lolled to the side, and he fell into a deep coma.

Altan Khan wiped his face, mixing blood, sweat, and dust. He straightened his back; the shrewd and fierce Khergit leader had returned. "I heard you all!" His voice was hoarse but carried an undeniable iron will. "Retreat into the forest! Those who can move, carry the wounded! Rhodoks, cut down trees as you go! Set up roadblocks! Dig pits! Vykjaer archers, take the high ground! Khergit men, cover my retreat! Move! For our fallen brothers! For those who can still breathe! Quickly!"

The order, like a stone thrown into stagnant water, stirred ripples. After a brief moment of disorientation, a fierce will to survive drove these utterly exhausted survivors into action. Groans, commands, the sounds of chopping wood, and heavy footsteps mingled together. Soldiers supported each other, lifting the seriously wounded on makeshift stretchers, using their still-usable weapons as crutches, and step by step, with difficulty but determination, retreated towards their last refuge deep in the forest. Altan Khan, leading the few remaining Khergit riders, vigilantly patrolled the rear of the column, his hawk-like eyes fixed on the direction of the ancestral tomb's breach.

Time passed anxiously. As the remnants of the army managed to construct a rudimentary new defensive line deep in the forest, relying on a few massive rocks and fallen ancient trees, heavy, orderly footsteps finally echoed from the distant horizon, accompanied by the clanging sound of metal armor plates scraping against each other.

A tattered but still fluttering banner embroidered with the coat of arms of Uxhauer appeared on the horizon. A reinforcement force of about five hundred soldiers arrived, weary from their journey. The commander, upon seeing the scorched earth, the fallen giant trees, the extinguished holy tower, and the fewer than one hundred survivors who seemed to have crawled out of the deepest abyss of hell, paled instantly, leaving only silent shock and grief.

Alatan Khan's taut nerves finally relaxed a little. He staggered forward, his voice hoarse as if sandpaper scraping: "...Finally...made it..."

Deep in the forest, in a makeshift tent erected from branches and rags, Shen Mu remained unconscious. But even in his unconscious state, his tightly furrowed brows seemed to sense the appearance of the flag, relaxing slightly. Outside the tent, the surviving soldiers silently reinforced their new fortifications, planting their last remaining arrows before them. The black fissure in the direction of the ancestral tomb, like the single eye of a colossal beast, silently watched over this scorched earth that had just experienced annihilation and rebirth.

Scattered across the scorched earth are countless grayish-white crystalline fragments, devoid of all evil energy, reflecting a cold light in the thin sunlight. At the edge of this vast, newly purified sea of ​​sand, a cracked, broken sword is deeply embedded in a small pile of relatively intact crystalline fragments. The hilt is slightly tilted, pointing towards the last vestiges of new green life deep within the forest.

Like a warrior's final tombstone, simple yet stubbornly proclaiming the outcome of this fierce victory. (End of Chapter)