Kasine and Sokram rushed out of his lab, their gazes snapping to a plume of dark smoke rising in the northeast.

Sokram didn’t hesitate, dark lightning crackling around him as he dashed toward the top of the wall.

Arriving there, Kanami, Lazar, Liaranna, and Kasine, who got there before him, were looking at the army of three thousand orcs approaching.

Their advance was a low, strondous rumble that shook the ground, each step sending faint tremors up the stone walls beneath their feet.

The city guards and soldiers rushed the farmers and the people outside toward the gates.

Looking ahead, his heart trembled when he saw who the orcs were.

Liaranna’s brows furrowed, and her eyes burned with hatred as she spoke in a low tone.

“The Mud Brothers from Frostaxe…”

The Mud Brothers were part of the Powerhouses from Frostaxe, blue-skinned orcs, all of them taller than 2.2 meters, extremely muscular bodies, fangs and tusks tipping out of their mouths, covered in sets of light and medium hide armor.

Some of them were bald, while others had long, braided black hair and indigo blue eyes.

They called themselves the strongest of Frostaxe.

They all carried two-handed weapons, except for the eldest among them, the Shaman, who used a crooked staff that looked like a tree branch.

All ten of them were Tier 10 Exalted Existences.

“How did they pass through the border?” Lazar couldn’t understand how they were caught so off guard.

“It matters little now. Prepare to defend the city. They have ten Tier 10 Exalted, and the one leading them is a very old and shrewd Shaman,” Kasine pointed at an enemy she and Kamus had faced many times.

“You can count on us. We might be able to hold the orcs back until Licarus and the others get here.” Miralyn and Alain appeared beside them.

Seeing his mother there beside Alain stirred a flash of memory and a sudden tightness in his chest.

‘Has Fate failed me? Fuck!’ Looking at the people below, he saw Leona, Hilda, Brunhild, and Margiory rushing forward, cloaks whipping in the wind, snow crunching under their boots as they took their place in the first line of defense, as the soldiers and guards continued to aid the people into the city.

‘Is this my fault for meddling with the currents of time? Changing the fate of so many people?’

Sokram's heart tightened even more as he looked down into the city.

Faces twisted with panic, mouths shouting over the din, the sharp scent of sweat and fear cutting through the cold air, as the people rushed desperately toward the City Lord’s Palace to enter the underground tunnels.

Even the foxes of the Purple Pavilion were rushing to aid the line of defense.

He knew it was stupid of them to form a line of defense instead of staying inside, but there was no way the people outside of the city’s walls would make it safely without them there.

Sokram's mind was in turmoil, his face contorted, yet his emotions were clear to all: Fear, resentment, rage, all mixed as his heart rate spiked.

Then, Kasine’s voice reached him, “Sokram, don’t worry, none of them are on my level. I can face at least five of them; the others can deal with the rest.”

Yet, he knew it was a lie; even if she could face more than one Exalted easily, she wouldn’t be able to fight five.

At most two to fight them off easily, with three being the maximum. At the current state of her Core conversion, she became somewhat weakened.

‘I need more power! I’m too late, if the war starts now…’ His gaze fell on his family below him outside the city, ‘I won’t lose them, none of them! Think, Sokram! Think!’

But then Sokram saw his teammates rushing toward the city gates, and seeing Savannah, an idea came to him, ‘That’s it! Runes!’

“You guys try to hold them off. I have something I need to prepare. And Nana Kasine, your Energy Core is still unstable, don’t overdo it until I come back!”

When his voice reached their ears, Sokram had already disappeared in a flash of dark lightning.

He reappeared in front of his teammates while the Powerhouse of the city looked at him with complicated gazes.

They didn’t know what he wanted to do, but they doubted it could help with their current situation.

Once his teammates saw him, they didn’t have time to speak before Sokram issued a command.

“You guys go aid the guards with leading the people into the escape tunnels.”

Sokram stepped toward Savannah and pulled her by the waist.

“And you come with me, I’ll need your help!”

He flashed away with Savannah in his arms.

The team stared at the empty space where Sokram had stood, dazed, until Lucy’s voice snapped them out of it.

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“You heard the Captain's orders, let’s go!”

Back into his lab, Sokram’s hands moved in a blur over jars and bowls, the thick metallic tang of monster blood mixing with Dusted Mithril, Diamond Dust, his mana, and his Chaos Energy.

Savannah saw the gallons of monster blood, but the only instruction he gave her was:

“Mark yourself with the receiver Runic Mark, and this runic key in your palm. And go meet the Arch Mage Cecille, tell her I sent you so she can take you to the top of her Tower.”

“What am I to do when I get there?” Savannah asked while Sokram focused on mixing the solution.

Sokram didn’t answer it right away; instead, he took out a scroll and started drawing a complex runic array.

He finished drawing it and handed it to her along with the token he received from Sahvus.

“As soon as you get there,” he said, “activate this and enter the deepest meditative state you can. Focus only on keeping this active. It might hurt a lot, but until I say so, don’t deactivate it.”

Without wasting another word, Sokram urged her to use the fresh solution he’d just prepared.

Savannah nodded and followed his orders, but she couldn’t help but notice how much stronger the Chaos Energy in the solution he prepared for himself was.

Sokram uncoiled a full scroll in a circle around him.

Using Force with his utmost concentration, he started drawing a pattern of runic inscription that Savannah had never seen before.

It was too complex for her to understand, except for a few runic words: Power, Speed, and Sacrifice.

Seeing that she had finished but was still dallying, Sokram rushed her, “Go, we can’t lose time!”

Savannah hesitated, the weight of his words pressing against her chest, before forcing her legs to move through the door.

As she stepped through the door, she looked back at him one last time, “Promise me you’re going to be fine.”

Sokram looked at her and remembered Nhiria’s words when he cast the spell that brought him back to the past.

Sokram smiled at her broadly, “Of course, everything is going to be fine, my crystal flower. Who do you think I am? Now go, I’ll be counting on you!”

Hearing the confidence in his voice, Savannah nodded, rushed out of his lab, and ran toward the Palace, eyes marred with tears and a tight heart, as she went to meet Cecille.

Meanwhile, in front of the city gates, the main body of the orc army stopped advancing two hundred meters away from the city.

A wave of dismay washed over Kasine and the others as the orc army entered position for a siege, forming four lines.

The vanguard had only five hundred orcs, the weakest among them.

They were pawns, used to probe the enemy’s strength.

Those were already attacking and being held back by Eversnow's improvised line of defense.

The line behind the vanguard consisted of another thousand orcs of the Uncommon, True, and Reformed Existence levels. Mostly common warriors who fought with spears, swords, and shields. The common infantry.

The third line counted with a thousand more infantry soldiers, but also counted with many Flawless Existence and the commanders of their army, including the Ten Mud Brothers.

In that line, they organized the trebuchets, siege towers, and battering rams.

And behind them were five hundred rangers, Shaman apprentices, acolytes, mages, and archers, with the archers being the majority.

“Damn, they are preparing for a siege, why now of all times?” Lazar looked down, seeing Eversnow's quick response.

Out of the ten thousand inhabitants of the city, only eight thousand were counted as a fighting force.

With the enemy movements on the border, seven thousand of their contingent were relocated to the forts along their borders, but that didn’t leave them completely defenseless either.

The city could withstand a siege if it hadn’t been caught off guard.

From atop the walls, Lazar’s gaze swept the field.

A patchwork of blood-streaked snow, shifting shield lines, and flashes of steel.

Every guild, extermination squad, hunting team, personal guards, and even some family heads were already there, amounting to eight hundred warriors facing the first wave of attacks from the Orcs.

The remaining ones were either already wounded or ordered to stay inside the city to aid and guide non-combatants to escape through the underground tunnels if necessary.

They were at a complete numerical disadvantage.

Lazar's jaw tightened, and with clenched fists, he summoned his spear, but Liaranna stopped him.

“If you enter the battle now, their Exalted will also, and the people outside will be in even greater danger.”

Liaranna pointed downwards at Hilda and the others. “The orcs don’t seem to have a great number of Flawless and Reformed, but look at that beautiful widow and her child making short work of the orcs’ vanguard.”

Brunhild and Hilda, along with the guards of the Andronys, had slaughtered many orcs and continued to hold back their vanguard.

Brunhild swung her bladed staff left and right, lightning crackled at her heels, and each step snapped the air with sharp, electric zaps.

With each swing, the staff made a sickening thud as it cleaved through orc flesh, and blood spilled in a crimson spray.

Wherever she went, blood spilled, and her morbid laughter, heavy with killing intent, resounded, honoring her title as the Battle Junkie Widow.

Hilda was more conservative in her fighting style, using some of the spells she learned from Sokram mixed with some of her own.

Five True Existence orcs tried to surround her, and her staff swung in an arc leftward as she cast, “Ice Scythe!”

A bitterly cold arc of sharp ice surged forward, leaving a freezing trail of mist that bit at exposed skin and frosted nearby blades as it cleaved all the orcs in half.

With another swing of her staff, Hilda sent the arc of ice spinning forward, cutting through orc after orc until it broke into many deadly shards.

Even those shards became deadly when she waved her hand, sending them shooting like bullets, wounding and killing even more of the orcs.

Leona, too, crisscrossed among the enemies, her katana a silver blur in her hand.

She swung it in all directions, cutting down orc after orc.

Each swing was a clean hiss as it sliced through air and flesh, beheading most of them, while those who escaped with their necks intact lost an arm or a leg.

Karini and the White Wolf Squad pushed forward in shield wall formation, killing and defending, and stopping most of the enemies from advancing into the city while the gates remained open.

Then, a bolt of green lightning shot forward, incinerating every orc it touched.

“Cursed Thunder!” Margiory shouted again and again, a bolt of lightning shooting from her wand.

The air filled with the acrid stench of burning flesh as green lightning lanced from her wand, killing orc after orc as she stood surrounded by her guards.

Alain’s eyes never left her as he stood on top of the wall.

During this first encounter, the orc vanguard was annihilated.

The orc's bodies, blood, and pieces tainted the snowy ground, but there was no real victory.

Eversnow didn’t come out unscathed either, losing nearly three hundred of their fighters.

Before sending the second line forward, one of their captains approached the Shaman, the only one of the ten Exalted dressed in a mix of hide armor and mage robes.

The Captain's brow furrowed deep, looking at their felled vanguard, “Shaman Nulk, what are we waiting for? Most of their forces are outside the city. This is our chance.”

“Calm your blue ass down, Madulk! The information we received from Whiteland is solid; these are all their forces within the city. We’re going to take this city soon. But it wouldn’t affect their morale a lot more if the people they are trying to protect get burned down by our trebuchets after they think they are safe inside?”

Captain Madulk, Nulk's eldest son and a Tier 10 Flawless Existence, nodded at his father's words, grinning proudly at his father's War-Insight.

“I failed to see the depth of your strategy, Shaman! Tonight we’ll be with their women lying in our furs while their men’s heads rot on our spears, singing praises to Lady Azulla, the star of War! The Pale Sun in the Eternal Darkness!”

Madulk shouted, and the army responded in kind, “WAR! WAR! WAR! FOR AZULLA!”

“WAR! WAR! WAR! FOR AZULLA!” The chant rolled like thunder over the snow, rattling shields and quickening pulses. But also causing ripples of fear and anxiety in the hearts of Eversnow's people.