Chapter 626: The Siege of Zar’Kaleth – The Sky Burns

The black lightning lanced from his palm, shrieking across the sky.

It tore through cloud and air alike before slamming into the breast of a wyvern mid-flight. The beast convulsed, wings snapping as its chest caved inward, charred flesh splitting open in streaks of black fire. Its screech rattled the stones of Zar’Kaleth’s wall before its carcass smashed into the ground below, crushing dozens of enthralled soldiers in a fountain of blood and splintered bone.

“RAAAAAAAAAH!”

Following the fall of the first wyvern, the others that carried a semblance of confidence and order became erratic and stopped flying neatly.

“Archers, take aim!” Ciela’s green mantle flowed in the wind as she stood atop the elevated battlements above Asmdoeus, her curved longbow shimmering with a pale green light.

The roar from the wall was deafening.

However, Asmodeus didn’t rush to let his goblins and orcs shoot their crossbows, “Men watch how your queen does things! Prepare your bolts, wait for those foolish enemies to come close.” From the towers, Ciela’s longbowwomen drew strings until the wood creaked, loosing shafts that flew with killing precision, each one punching through wyvern wings or riders alike.

“Loose!”

Five hundred demon knights and an elven princess released their arrows.

Ciela’s magical shot twirled around the volley, keeping them on course for the thrashing Wyverns.

The sky turned into a storm of death.

Wyverns dove in flocks, wings blotting out the rising sun, their riders clutching spears that gleamed with a nasty colour, likely posioned. They plummeted toward the walls, screeches harmonising with the pounding drums below.

The first impact came swiftly as a wyvern slammed onto the battlements, claws gouging through stone, snapping up a goblin whole before the beast’s head was cleaved apart by a demon knight’s spear.

“Asmodeus! Above!”

Riel’s voice echoed sharply beside him, her golden orbs tracking another rider plunging straight towards the towers for Ciela. “Don’t worry.” He smiled as the second volley tore through the wyvern’s chest, killing rider and beast instantly.

However, a second Wyvern followed up faster than Ciela could react. Asmodeus didn’t hesitate. Blood Reaver spun from his back, glowing threads erupting as he vaulted the crenellations. His wings burst wide, carrying him upward in a gust of wind.

The rider thrust his spear, but Asmodeus wrapped around to the side and vanished from sight, reappearing in a blur beneath the wyvern’s belly.

He then cut the beast’s stomach with a brutal upward arc.

Thunk!

The wyvern’s scales burst like a water balloon, entrails spilling as the rider and mount screamed together before crashing down into the battlement, almost crushing a goblin or two if not for their orc brothers.

Mephisto’s forces stirred, although he could overwhelm their sense of self with possession, fear, and negative emotions remained. Hesitation stirred amongst the knights. Some of the knights faltered when seeing those huge beasts devoured by Asmdoeus without issue.

“Don’t stop!” Asmodeus bellowed, voice tearing through the hesitation like a blade, “if we give them weakness now, they will trample us down!”

The soldiers roared, pain twisting into fury, arrows and bolts loosed once more as the first wave of wyverns fell from the skies. The sky burned with wyvern carcasses, black smoke and feathers drifting across the dawn.

For a heartbeat, it seemed the defenders had seized momentum.

Then the ground quaked.

“LOOK OUT!” Someone screamed as the sound of the wind changed.

A low groan rolled across the plains as the first trebuchet arm swung. The air itself split with the shriek of stone.

Boom!

The boulder split into five jagged rocks, which crashed into Zar’Kaleth’s outer wall, shattering ice and stone. The force rattled through Asmodeus’s boots as cracks spidered across the battlements.

A second followed, then a third. The barrage of massive stones smashing against towers, sending shards of masonry into the defenders. Orcs gripped onto the walls, only to be tossed like dolls, goblins shrieked as rubble buried them, and even demon knights staggered beneath the impacts, forced to use their wings to remain stable.

“Fire the Trebuchet’s! Target their siege equipment!” Asmodeus pulled himself from the rubble, holding two goblins in each arm. “Mages, shoot down those rocks!”

The battlefield became chaotic, as each captain given a roll gave orders and tried to listen out for Asmodeus and his calls.

“Shields up!” Leviathan’s voice roared, her shield raised above her head as she braced against the rain of stone. The knights followed, their wall of steel groaning as debris rained down.

“Catapults!” Riel shouted, pointing south. Fire bloomed in the enemy lines as tar-soaked bundles flung into the air.

Trails of flame streaked across the dawn, arcing high before crashing into the courtyards below. The city’s screams joined the thunder with tents, carts, and stored supplies bursting into fireballs.

“Hahaha! This is it, this is how it should be!”

Asmodeus grit his teeth, wings flaring as he caught one of the flaming boulders mid-flight. The heat licked across his skin, flesh blistering, but he spun with the force and hurled it back toward the siege line. The stone exploded into an enemy tower, splinters of wood shredding the crews within.

His hands smoked with the residual heat.

Another impact struck the wall, this time closer. Stone burst beneath his feet, nearly sending him over the edge. He caught the wall with one hand, teeth grinding as rubble rained into the courtyard below. The enemy advance had begun in earnest. Siege towers creaked forward across the plains, monstrous frames crawling on iron wheels.

The defenders roared back, but fear crept into their eyes.

Zar’Kaleth itself shook under the assault.

However, its lord wouldn’t shake!

“Insolent beings.”

Asmodeus stepped atop the wall, his palm pointed towards the approaching forces, a massive swirl of mana flowing into a sphere.

“You worms, dare to attack my home, where my children sleep!”

“Master!” Sariel’s cry rang as she darted to his side, tail curling around his arm. Her eyes widened at the blistering on his palms.

“Don’t falter,” he snapped, masking the pain with a grin.

The massive ball of black and red fire grew to the size of a large boulder before he released it from his palm with a twisted smile. Yes, they might be knights of Grigor, but when under attack, he couldn’t hold back.

A searing orb of flames shot towards Mephisto’s army, the heat devouring the oxygen in the air while crackling.

The orb howled through the sky, a comet of death.

It struck just ahead of the advancing lines, erupting into an inferno that swallowed men, beasts, and siege crews alike. Screams rose as the flames clung like tar, consuming armour and flesh in the same breath. It ripped a trebuchet from its base, wooden frame collapsing in splinters as black fire spread along the ropes and pulleys.

For an instant, the enemy advance staggered.

But the tide didn’t stop.

Another crash, another groan of ancient timbers. Siege towers lumbered forward, their iron wheels crushing the burnt corpses of their own fallen. The monstrous frames loomed higher than Zar’Kaleth’s outer walls, plated in black steel, crawling with possessed soldiers who pounded their weapons against the sides in eerie rhythm.

“Archers, pour everything into taking down the ones pushing them!” Ciela’s bow thrummed like thunder, green light splitting another wyvern from the air before she turned her shots downward. Her elves followed, shafts slamming into the advancing towers, pinning enthralled men to their armour.

“Frustrating…” Ciela clicked her tongue because for each man she killed, two popped up from the possessed, ready to die.

The first impact came like an earthquake.

Boom!

The nearest tower slammed against the battlements, a steel-plated bridge slamming down with a crash that sent knights and goblins staggering back before locking into place. And from within, thralls surged out, eyes blank, mouths open in soundless screams as they poured onto the wall.

“KILL!”

“Orcs behind me!” A muscular orc stepped forward with his curved blade.

“Idiot, Form Ranks!” Levia’s voice cut through the chaos. She raised her shield, bracing as possessed men and women slammed into her line. Spears thrust, swords clashed, goblins darted between orc legs with poisoned blades, stabbing tendons and throats. The wall became a writhing chamberpot of steel and blood.

Asmodeus wrenched Blood Reaver free from the stones, his wings snapping wide as he cleaved through the first wave of thralls in a single swing. His aura fluctuated and spread outward, crimson threads ripping puppets from their master, their bodies collapsing as black mist bled from their mouths.

“Push them back!” he roared, stepping into the melee. Orcs bellowed, goblins shrieked, knights slammed their shields forward. For every foe cut down, three more clawed their way up the bridges.

Then the sky darkened.

A shadow fell across the battlefield as Mephisto rose.

With the flick of his hand, a black sphere materialised in the eastern wall. Asmodeus gasped as the divine power activated. The sphere collapsed, a gravitational pull sucking in dozens of his men and destroying the surface of the wall with ease.

The corrupted demigod’s form lifted on burning wings, his body crackling with green deathlight. Emerald fire dripped from his palms, his twisted smile wide as the army below screamed his name.

“Asmodeus!” His voice rolled like thunder, a chorus of hate and mockery. “Hiding behind walls? Come down and die like the pawn you are!”

The clash on the battlements faltered as both friend and foe turned their eyes skyward.

A demigod’s aura was so heavy that it restricted their movements.

“There’s no helping it…”

Asmodeus turned to Riel and Sariel. “Activate your spell, protect our people the moment I start fighting, use this time to cure the remaining knights and hide them from Mephisto.”

He spread his wings, stepping onto the crenellations.

Behind him, Sariel cried out, “Master, wait—!”

But he was already airborne, Blood Reaver gleaming in his hands.

“I’ll keep him away from the wall,” Asmodeus growled, his voice cutting through the storm of war. His gaze never left Mephisto’s rising form. “The rest is up to you!”

And with a crack of air, the Demon King took flight, the duel that would decide the fate of Zar’Kaleth igniting in the heavens.