Chapter 733
Episode 184: Beyond Fate (5)

Unknown.

Valeria opened the information window, but nothing appeared about the fortress.

In a typical war, scouts like Mumyung would have already gathered intelligence, or the fleet and dragons would have roughly assessed the enemy’s numbers from the skies.

But this war rendered all such efforts meaningless. Whatever dangers lurked beyond the darkness, there was no choice but to push through.

The fleet resumed bombarding the fortress walls flanking the opening gate.

Since physical damage was effective against the walls, the fleet had to break through them to secure a passage into the fortress.

Flying over was impossible.

Yet, with every step Jin took toward the gate, an increasing sense of unease gnawed at him.

“The gate… it keeps opening.”

As if welcoming him.

The darkness within the gate grew deeper the closer he got, as if inviting an ally’s entry rather than an enemy’s.

“Sir Jin.”

Ronil spoke. Alongside him, Octavia and some of the phantoms had descended to the ground.

“Yes?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to breach the walls somewhat before entering? The gate keeps opening as if to show off.”

Before Jin could reply, a heavy, unsettling sound echoed in everyone’s ears on the battlefield.

Grrrrrkkk…

A low, gloomy groan, like a monster stirring deep within a cave.

Unconsciously, Jin and the others looked up to the sky.

“Ram’s main cannon? Did Sir Rin fail?”

It was moving. Already, the grotesque barrel was thick with a massive concentration of spiritual energy.

The fleet immediately switched the magic used for bombardment into deploying shields. Signal flares burst here and there, forming a blue protective barrier.

Those on the ground formed defensive lines around Jin, while Ram’s cannon unleashed the enormous spiritual energy it had been gathering.

Fwoooosh…!

Ram’s barrage struck in a straight line between Jin and the fleet.

Five ships vanished without a trace, but the black pillar that destroyed them remained.

“Flagship of the 4th fleet, Fistro, destroyed!”

“Confirmation needed on the 4th fleet’s flagship replacement. Over ten ships lost…!”

“Enemy main cannon reloading. Expected impact zone: Kinzello, 1st fleet!”

“The dispersal speed can’t keep up with Ram’s reload!”

The fleet’s mages shouted frantically.

The fleet’s shields were nothing but paper in front of Ram’s cannon.

The horrific bombardment from the first full assault was starting again. The mages, recalling that nightmare, were gripped by fear.

Ram fired a second shot.

Though Grnil was the top flagship of Kinzello, the ship’s own power alone was no match for Ram’s cannon.

“Tch!”

Fortunately, before the shot landed, Zephyrin positioned itself above Grnil and exhaled a protective breath.

Unlike during the first assault, Zephyrin’s body wasn’t pierced by the direct hit.

Zephyrin had grown stronger, but Ram’s cannon was also weaker than its initial strike.

However, the cannon’s weakening didn’t mean its total power had diminished.

“Switching cannon to radial fire! Damage radius: entire fleet…!”

A web of black meteor-like projectiles rained down, striking the entire aerial force. With every passing second, ships shattered, and dragons screamed their death throes.

Veil soared upward, radiating golden power, while Orgal deployed a shield encompassing the entire sky.

Once Orgal’s shield was fully formed, damage dropped significantly, but Ram seemed unwilling to relent. The reload speed accelerated.

From the start, the aerial forces had been flying at low altitude, putting them at a disadvantage and leaving no room for counterattack.

At this rate, the aerial forces would soon be annihilated or suffer near-total destruction.

A swift decision was needed. Veradin gritted his teeth, glancing repeatedly between Ram’s barrel protruding beneath the clouds and the battlefield.

“Retreat is impossible… The barrier Jin broke earlier has reformed. Forcing a retreat through it would likely mean total annihilation.”

Veradin’s gaze landed on the gate. The darkness within it still spread wide, the gate remaining open.

By now, the gate was wide enough for the fleet to enter.

Though the walls had lost some of their perfect right-angle shape from Ram’s bombardment, they still stood far sturdier than the fleet.

“Fleet, advance. Entire fleet, enter the fortress. Inform the ground forces!”

The commanders flinched briefly at Veradin’s order but quickly prepared to accelerate.

Jin and the ground heroes readied themselves, intercepting Ram’s continuous cannon fire.

At the front, Kozek reached the darkness of the gate first. One by one, ships slipped into the shadows.

Veradin’s judgment proved effective. The fortress of the Dread God acted as an umbrella, shielding the ships that entered.

When the fleet, dragons, and ground forces had all entered the fortress, about seventy percent of the original forces remained.

Less than ten minutes had passed before thirty percent of the aerial forces vanished.

The allies stared blankly outside the gate.

Only the same darkness they had entered through stretched before them.

Because of this, they felt as if they had just crossed a boundary—from the human world into the realm of the Dread God.

Yet Ram’s cannon’s merciless noise and vibrations still shook the interior.

In other words, the temporary alliance had escaped into the fortress from the bombardment.

This fact filled the allies with a humiliation as deep as if they had begged mercy from the enemy.

Inside the fortress, unlike when viewed from beyond the gate, the structure was visible to the naked eye.

A vast, cavernous space that conveyed the fortress’s immense scale.

Though the entire remaining fleet had entered, the ceiling felt far from oppressive.

It could have been mistaken for a plain on some night, rather than the inside of a fortress.

“It’s much larger than it looked from outside.”

“Why build such a huge space?”

“We were trapped from the start. Outside, we’d be killed by bombardment; to avoid it, we had to enter the enemy’s fortress.”

As the allies exchanged murmurs and scanned their surroundings, Ram’s cannon fire and vibrations suddenly ceased outside.

The gate closed.

“Gyaaah!”

“Krrrgh!”

As soon as the gate shut, the lowest-ranked knights and mages among the allies screamed in agony.

A mental assault.

The Dread God’s psychic attack, which had pressed down on the entire human world before deployment, now invaded the allies’ minds.

Inside the ships, many collapsed from the shock, and even dragons writhed and fell to the ground.

The absurdity of fighting gods continued relentlessly.

The only relief was that those with strong enough willpower remained unaffected.

This also proved why Rosa had been struck during Jin’s previous mental skirmish.

Back then, Rosa had indiscriminately unleashed psychic attacks regardless of will or rank.

“If we hadn’t come here without defeating Ricalton and the previous inner realm skirmish, we’d already be wiped out.”

Orgal said to Jin, his eyes faintly glowing with a light that only Jin could see in the darkness.

A light invisible to those of lower rank.

“Though it’s almost like kidnapping, since there was an invitation and a welcome ceremony, we have to comply. Quickly tend to the unconscious and move forward. Everyone must feel it—if this fight drags on, we have no chance.”

His words were accurate.

Many were already mentally faltering just by standing still, so pausing was a waste.

But where to go?

It was hard to find bearings. The interior was vast and empty, like a plain, open in all directions.

They could be ambushed from anywhere.

In the worst case, enemies could swarm from all sides at once.

All eyes turned to Jin. Like moths drawn to light in darkness.

Jin closed his eyes and read the spiritual energy. Though the entire area was thick with it, the center pulsed with a denser aura.

He took a step forward, and the allies followed.

Every hundred steps, more people collapsed from the mental assault. Enduring it and moving forward was a battle in itself.

They pressed on for about thirty minutes. Until then, the chaotic army had not attacked.

Instead, Jin and the allies stopped, staring down at a cliff that suddenly appeared ahead.

Like when they first attacked the walls, flying over was impossible.

Veil and Zephyrin tried to fly past, but as they neared the cliff’s edge, something seemed to pull them down, sharply lowering their altitude.

They nearly plummeted without warning.

Beyond the cliff was nothing.

Only by descending could a new path be found.

The Dread God’s fortress was structured entirely underground.

Jin looked down the cliff.

“Are they trying to draw us deeper…?”

It was like a swamp.

Just as Jin thought, Rosa was pulling the allies toward the lowest point in the world. Only by reaching there could they confront her directly.

“I’ll go down first and check.”

Jin drew his sword and spoke.

“I’m not sure if it’ll be possible to send a signal up from below, so if you don’t hear anything from me within ten minutes after I go down, have the rest of the top-tier forces enter one after another.”

Under normal circumstances, and if it weren’t Jin giving the order—

The allies would have raised concerns, urging caution and a more careful approach.

But in this war, Jin’s judgment was absolute. If he couldn’t open a path, no one else could.

As Jin began his descent down the cliff, his comrades watched his back.

For some reason, none of them could picture Jin falling into a trap—no matter what might be waiting for him down there.