Chapter 978: The Slide

Typhon had declared war.

Mariland stood alone in the highest tower room of Longwind Fortress, his eyes fixed through the crystal window, staring toward the Typhon Empire. His face was taut, silent for a long while.

The orders from the imperial capital and the declaration of war from Typhon lay side by side on the table before him.

A massive vortex had already formed. Whether it was the gods or Typhon’s hawkish faction stirring this storm no longer mattered. What was important was that once such a vortex began to unleash its power, those caught within it had little choice. Perhaps it truly was the madness of the war god’s faith spiraling out of control—but to Cecil’s soldiers, it made no difference. Enemies sent by the emperor or by the gods were still enemies. And the enemy was headed straight for Winterwolf Fortress.

Intelligence reports showed that since last night, the Winterwolf defensive line had been undergoing large-scale military mobilization. Massive main forces were gathering, and even the Black Flag Battle Mage Regiment from Winterfort was moving toward the border. Further reports from within Typhon hinted that several reserve legions had also received orders from Aldern. Though this last piece of intelligence was vague, it was enough to confirm Typhon’s war intentions.

Cecil’s advantage now lay in speed.

Mariland lowered his head, spreading out a tactical map of the Longwind–Winterwolf region on the table before him. Treaty Fort stood out prominently in the center, a buffer zone between the two nations. Around this symbol of peace, several blue flags bearing Cecil’s insignia were pinned firmly.

…

On the open ground beside Treaty Fort, hundreds of tanks, multipurpose infantry fighting vehicles, and troop carriers stood silently in the biting cold. Cecil’s blue banners with golden trim fluttered proudly against the winter sky. This fortress, once jointly garrisoned by both nations, was now fully in Cecil’s hands. The few Typhon soldiers inside had offered little resistance before surrendering as prisoners of war—their flags discarded on the ground, their minds still struggling to grasp what had just happened.

Inside an armored command vehicle, Philip exhaled slowly, his expression hardening into grim resolve.

A staff officer entered, carrying the chill of the outside air. He hurried to Philip’s side and whispered, “General, the next step—”

“Before dusk, launch a lightning strike on Winterwolf Fortress. Heavy artillery bombardment, massed advance. Don’t hold back on ammunition. Our mission is to destroy the core of their border defenses before Typhon’s main forces complete their mobilization and assembly. As for the specifics, follow the second plan we finalized.”

“Yes, General!”

The roar of arcane engines erupted one after another in the cold wind. Bearings spun, linkages moved, and treads crushed the hard, barren earth. One by one, the vehicles rumbled forward toward the Typhon defensive line.

…

The Cecilians had arrived.

In the hills to the northwest, bursts of magical light flared up. Within minutes, flashes of fire and explosions lit the sky. After a brief delay, distant rumbling could be heard faintly from Winterwolf’s walls. The low, ominous thunder made the soldiers uneasy, and darkened the expression on Andesha’s face even further.

The young wolf general stepped away from the window and approached the large tactical map on the table. She looked at a senior officer within the fortress. “Our mobile forces at Little Triangle Hill have engaged the Cecilians.”

The officer lifted his gaze from the map, meeting Andesha’s eyes with a grave expression. “Little Triangle Hill isn’t close to Treaty Fort. Even the fastest cavalry units need two hours to get there. The Cecilians are moving faster than we expected.”

“They rely mainly on vehicles—various kinds of armored vehicles,” Andesha said, looking at her subordinate. “They’re not just transports; they’re weapons and moving fortresses.”

“Based on current intelligence, unless our knights can pre-charge their energy and use combined shields and thermal cones to break through the Cecilians’ ‘steel advance tactics’ in one strike, conventional troops will be at a severe disadvantage in direct combat against those vehicles. On the other hand, mechanized battle mage units can counter them through flexible tactics and ranged attacks, but that’s only a stalemate at best. We need—”

Suddenly, hurried footsteps sounded outside, followed by a messenger’s voice breaking in: “General! Count Winterfort and the Black Flag Mage Regiment have arrived! The Count is outside now.”

Andesha immediately looked up. “Let Count Winterfort in at once!”

With steady, purposeful steps, Count Parin Winterfort entered the room. Clad in a deep blue star-patterned mage’s robe, a jeweled short staff at his waist and a black spellbook in hand, the familiar elder’s presence brought a visible relief to Andesha’s face. She rose to greet him. “Count Winterfort—we’ve been waiting for you.”

“I hope I haven’t missed anything,” the Count nodded. “I heard the Cecilians have already begun their assault.”

“Yes, the attack has started, and they’ll likely reach the Winterwolf defensive line soon,” Andesha said calmly. “Our mobile forces near Little Triangle Hill have already made contact.”

Parin Winterfort hummed thoughtfully, then asked, “Besides the Black Flag, which other units are in position?”

“The National Knights’ 17th and 22nd regiments arrived from Brown Valley before noon, then your Black Flag Mage Regiment. The rest are still en route, and the earliest reinforcements won’t arrive until around this time tomorrow.”

“Then the Cecilians will surely try to storm Winterwolf before dusk to break the line early,” Parin said immediately. “Winterwolf is the only gateway into the empire from the northwest. The Cecilians won’t want it to become a hardened stone wall.”

A few officers whispered quietly among themselves, but the room soon fell silent again.

To launch a full-scale assault and destroy a fortified fortress with shielded, enchanted walls within a day and a night was almost unthinkable in the old order of warfare. Yet none of those present were naive country folk. Each had studied the intelligence from Cecil thoroughly. They knew well that the Cecilians had not only done this before—they had succeeded multiple times.

A series of tactical scenarios flashed through Andesha’s mind. She sighed, furrowing her brow. “This is far beyond what we anticipated. Our preparations are insufficient…”

“This isn’t just beyond our expectations—I believe it’s the same for the Cecilians,” Parin said calmly. “This is a war no one was ready for. Everyone stands at the same starting line. Once the vortex forms, no one can resist being drawn in. So we can be cautious and serious, but there’s no need to be so pessimistic.”

Andesha exhaled and nodded. “That’s true. The Cecilians are fierce, but—”

Her words suddenly cut off, as if she sensed something. The officers exchanged confused glances, but soon someone hushed the room. In the sudden silence, Andesha and her adjutant held their breath, listening intently to the sounds outside.

The dense explosions near Little Triangle Hill were thinning rapidly.

“Less than half an hour,” the adjutant said grimly. “Faster than we expected…”

One officer muttered quietly, “If we had the Iron River Knights and the Clergy, with high-level war blessings combined with the battle mages’ strategic magic, we could have stalled the enemy’s advance in the northwest…”

Andesha shot the officer a glance, then looked away. “We no longer have the Iron River Knights or the Clergy—only the main force of the Winterwolf Knights, three reinforcements, and this fortress. Ladies and gentlemen, think about how to face the Cecilians based on that reality.”

Her tone was firm and resolute, but as someone familiar with her, Parin Winterfort could sense the deep frustration and regret hidden beneath the young wolf general’s exterior.

He had no comforting words to offer. He knew most here likely felt the same. Even he himself could not be overly optimistic at this moment.

And this pressure did not come from the Cecilians, nor from fear of battle—the empire’s soldiers never feared war. What truly shook them was the dark cloud hanging over Typhon’s future.

The mutated War God’s Church, the out-of-control elite knight orders, the pollution lurking nearby ready to erupt at any moment—these were topics avoided in such meetings, but everyone knew they weighed heavily on their minds. Many officers, after accessing deeper intelligence, harbored an even darker fear—

The Iron River Knights had gone mad under spiritual corruption, and they were worshippers of the War God. So what if those of them who also followed the War God’s faith—or had even just been exposed to it—might suddenly lose their minds? What if the very tactics they were now planning and the orders they were giving were not truly their own free will?

The empire’s soldiers were human too. These terrifying pressures were eroding morale across the board.

“On the western side of the line, we’ve set up a large-scale arcane stress field,” Andesha broke the silence. “It’s a targeted trap designed against the properties of arcane engines and magic network substrates. It should have a significant effect. If it successfully halts the enemy’s advance, the Black Flag Mage Regiment’s strategic spell strikes will be even more effective.”

Parin raised an eyebrow. “Arcane stress fields? That’s a research breakthrough from the Royal Mage Association… You’ve managed to put them into practical use?”

“Barely,” Andesha nodded. “We didn’t have enough time to deploy them fully, but they should still have some impact…”

After asking Parin Winterfort to rest for a while, Andesha finally exhaled deeply. She felt slightly lighter than before, but only just.

“Have we made any contact with the Cecilians?” she suddenly turned to her longtime adjutant.

“All attempts have failed,” the adjutant straightened and answered solemnly. “We tried using the communication devices to call Longwind Fortress’s backup lines—no response. We sent out three waves of messengers; none returned alive. It seems the Cecilians are thoroughly enraged. They probably won’t negotiate until the outcome is decided.”

“Damn it…” Andesha clenched her teeth. “Have their minds gone as mad as theirs?”

The adjutant glanced at his commander with a hint of worry. After a brief hesitation, the young man who had followed Andesha for years couldn’t hold back any longer. “General, do you still believe this war can be stopped? Both sides have already engaged in real combat… With all due respect, I think trying to contact those Cecil people again, trying to explain the misunderstanding at this point, is pointless.”

“But the truth is, none of this should have happened!” Andesha fixed her gaze on the adjutant, forcing her voice to remain calm. “This war is harmful to the Empire, harmful to everyone. Only those corrupted madmen gain some false satisfaction from it—listen carefully, make one more attempt to contact them. That’s an order.”

Meeting her eyes, the adjutant lowered his head after two seconds and accepted the command. “Yes, General. I’ll go to the communication tower once more.”

After he left, Andesha remained, her heart growing heavier as she faced the disaster steadily bearing down on them.

As time passed, more and more intelligence reports flooded in.

These were gathered at great risk by scouts operating outside and the griffon units in the sky. Through these reports, the defenders of Winterwolf Fortress finally saw the reality of the Cecil forces’ “Iron Advance Tactics” — details about the performance of their war machines, their combat style, and comparisons of both sides’ capabilities and strategies.

Along with the intelligence came the relentless advance of the iron legion.

Before sunset, the last outpost on Winterwolf’s western border spotted the Cecil army. Steel war machines rolled in from the plains, their tracks effortlessly tearing through the outpost’s defenses amid thunderous cannon fire. The few soldiers who managed to retreat brought word that Winterwolf would be within enemy firing range in just over ten minutes.

That was the final piece of intelligence.

At the same time, the adjutant returned with more bad news — there was still no response from Longwind Fortress.

Andesha stood atop the towering, sturdy walls. The fortress’s energy shield was steadily charging higher, and the enchanted stone walls beneath her feet resonated faintly with the growing magical power, occasionally trembling. But no matter how much the defenses rose, her heart refused to settle.

Some truths only become clear when faced head-on. No amount of prior simulations could match the harsh reality — Andesha saw clearly the weaknesses in the Typhon army.

The Cecil’s magitech had changed the era. When the times change, everything must change with them — from how people live to how wars are fought.

The Typhons had fallen behind, and that lag showed on the battlefield. Their army lacked enough units capable of matching the Cecil’s new weapons.

Against those steel war machines called “tanks,” the Empire’s Iron River Knights were absent, the clergy could no longer be deployed, and only the recently upgraded battle mages, equipped with magitech vehicles, could stand a chance. Yet their numbers were severely limited, and on this new kind of battlefield, they were far less experienced than the Cecil forces, who had endured civil wars and divine calamities.

After careful comparison, Andesha realized that once the Cecil tanks hit the field, she had very few troops under her command who could even leave Winterwolf and face the enemy head-on.

The string of defeats suffered by several mobile units from Treaty Fort to Winterwolf had already proven this.

In truth, even if the Iron River Knights and the clergy were present, this “no troops available” predicament wouldn’t improve much. The reason was simple: the Knights and clergy were the Typhon elite, rare and difficult to train, while the Cecil army was composed entirely of mass-produced machines and ordinary soldiers trained at lightning speed.

Before today, Andesha had seen reports on the Cecil army’s rapid training and the pros and cons of their magitech weapons. She had imagined this as a new kind of army — easy to mass-produce, quick to train, fast to form and grow. She had even submitted many proposals to the capital on how to reform the Empire’s forces accordingly. But now she realized her imagination had been too limited.

Far off to the west, faint clouds of smoke and flashes of magic shimmered, blurring the line between reality and illusion under the sinking sun.

Today, Andesha finally understood what she had missed that rainy night on the Paramel Heights.

(End of chapter)