“Stone!” 
 
I screamed, seeing him falling, but wasn’t able to reach him quickly enough, before his whole body fell down on the ground hard.
 
I had been following behind him, watching the intense battle that raised all the hair on my body. I don’t think, I would be able to last against the Knight, even with the help of the establishment.
 
Especially with that artifact in his hands. It would have crushed through every shield I put in front of him.
 
I reached Stone and what I saw couldn’t help, but scare the hell out of me. I wanted to get as far away from him as possible.
 
His whole body turned purple with magic poison, and had dense bronze energies covering him, that even I didn’t dare to touch him.
 
However, the thing that scared me was the intensity of the energies inside him. They are powerful and unstable, I don’t think. I would survive if those energies erupted out of his body.
 
Hun!
 
I was thinking about what I should do when I looked left and a couple of seconds later, a woman walked into the view.
 
“Shouldn’t you be in a safe zone?” I asked Caena, seeing her appear. “Things have nearly stabilized there and besides, I feel, I might be more needed here,” she said, and she couldn’t be more right.
 
“Can you save him?” I asked, with hope rising in my heart. “I would have said no. if we weren’t standing in the legacy, but even with it, the chances are extremely slim,” she replied, looking at Stone.
 
“Try. Even if it is futile,” I said, and she nodded and appeared beside me.
 
I left him in his care and walked away. I want nothing more than to stay and watch, but there is a battle needed to finish.
 
Soon, I appeared close to the battle, and the people turned to me. The enemies had already realized that winning wasn’t guaranteed.
 
Five of the eight of their powerhouses are dead, one has surrendered. Only two are fighting and they are doing that only because they are still thinking that Knight is alive. 
 
Well, it is time; I tell them the truth with little proof.
 
“The Knight is dead,” I said, and the head of the knight appeared in my hand, with radiant light covering me. 
 
The moment those words came out of my mouth; the vast change occurred across the battlefield.
 
The enemies started to run away, and powerhouses stopped fighting. They started to retreat, but where would they retreat? We had already massacred more than half of the horde fighting there, with many pillars dead.
 
They can not run anywhere since there are mines everywhere aside from the place I am standing. There Valentina and others have appeared, blocking that path too.
 
“Kill all those who do not surrender!” I said, with the sword raised, and ran toward the battlefield.
 
The others moved, with their target being the two Lv. 30 powerhouses. They moved to escape, with our moving to stop them.
 
It is really hard to stop them; especially the assassin who is avoiding every spell and skill being thrown at her. 
 
She is coming at me, and she is extremely fast.
 
I looked at her and readied myself. She will not get to me without paying a price.
 
“You will die by my hand, just not today,” promised the assassin, before taking the sharp right into the minefield.
 
Many others tried but exploded into pieces. There are a lot of mines; they would have survived it, but they are also needed to deal with the attacks from our powerhouses, which makes a journey through the minefield difficult.
 
Many pillars begin to surrender, while some have led the suicide charge. We dealt with each and every one of them.
 
I was able to snipe a few with my spells.
 
Minutes passed, and the undead got killed, one after another. They are much easier to kill now. There is no direction from the pillars; the last necromancer, who had been commanding them, had also escaped.
 
Making them even weaker.
 
It took a while, but we had killed every undead on the battlefield. There were no cheers or claps. Just a relief mixed with joy and grief.
 
We have defeated the undead, but the victory was not without a cost. 
 
If someone had told me the result of yesterday and given me the choice to surrender and fight. I would have chosen to surrender as long as the undead had accepted my conditions.
 
“Lord Silver; the enemy has been defeated,” informed Lt. Colonel Aazalea. After Stone, she is the highest-level officer on the battlefield, since Colonel Cardin is staying in the safe spot.
 
“Remove all the communication blocking tools. Send the scouts out. We need to know what is happening and see if you can catch those escaped,” I ordered.
 
“It will be done, my lord,” she said and left, while I went back to my work.
 
I am casting healing spells on the two circles where they have placed the injured. Some are in critical conditions and need the spells to survive.
 
I continued casting spells for nearly half an hour before I stopped and turned to three people in front of me. 
 
Zela, Stena and Shaun.
 
“Is Stone dead?” asked Zela, with a quivering voice and grief in their eyes. “Not yet,” I replied, and a surprise flashed in their eyes.
 
“Will he survive?” she asked with hope filling her eyes. “The chances are slim, but we are trying,” I replied.
 
Caena is trying. The magic she is weaving is kind of scary. She is using one of the planets, but as supplementary aid, most of the magic is hers.
 
They looked at me but didn’t ask any more questions. Understanding, they wouldn’t get a reply to that.
 
“The blockade had opened. There are a lot of messages for you,” she said, and the first news is confirmation of information that Eli’s bird had brought.
 
Though it is the second news that I didn’t like.
 
“Another horde had come out of Ashton Harbor yesterday. It had divided into two after reaching Almin. Half of it had stayed there, while the other half is moving toward the Panar.”
 
My expressions couldn’t help, but turn bad hearing it.
 
“The merchant states had put out a notice that the traffic on the river will resume tomorrow,” she added before I could ask any questions.
 
Hearing that, a small relief flooded my heart.
 
There is a blockade on the river by the undead, but the merchant state has just declared that trade will resume from tomorrow. It means the blockage will be removed tomorrow, which will provide us with some breathing space.
 
Merchant state isn’t weak. It is as strong as Navr or more and Vris’alud, won’t try to antagonize it, especially when it is given a chance.
 
They created a blockage, and the merchant state followed, and now, they want to open it from tomorrow. If the undead doesn’t remove the blockage, it will be removed forcefully.
 
The merchant state had said it publicly, and they won’t have their words taken lightly.
 
Besides, it is the best time for the merchant-state. Any delay and they will suffer the loss. The civil war has begun in the empire and the parties fighting need a lot of things from food to feed their people to weapons to fight their battle.
 
The merchants could tolerate anything aside from loss of business. It is their red line.
 
“Has the battle at Port Midlet concluded?” I asked, to which she shook her. “No, they are still fighting. Though the information states that, it is the final battle and will end by the late morning,”
 
“There is another battle being fought by Riverbell and the city is doing good, according to the information,” she replied.
 
The horde that went for the south-east. I had expected it to attack Riverbell. As the horde was too small to attack, Deerpond.
 
I truly hope they don’t succeed.
 
If I were to choose between the victory of the undead at Port Midlet and Riverbell. I would choose Port Midlet, because Riverbell is very important to me.
 
The undead had nearly blocked the western land route with the capturing of Amin and Panar. That only leaves me the river route to reach the empire and other western kingdoms. 
 
If the undead have conquered the Riverbell. They would gain the ability to block this route whenever they please; they might keep it blocked, which nobody would like to happen.
 
Nor me, nor Deerpond, nor the merchant states at the least.
 
“Inform our neighbors of the result of the battle, but keep information to the minimum,” I said to her.
 
She nodded and sent the messages. I needed to reply to a few important ones, like those coming from the merchant state and Deerpond, but I let Zela deal with the others with Steven's help.
 
Soon, the healers and doctors arrived on the battlefield and began to operate on those who couldn’t be shifted. 
 
The rest were shifted to the hospital.
 
The army is working. A few thousand had gone to a safe zone, to kill any stray undead, while a few thousand began to scout through the city. 
 
I will not let the people out of the safe zone before we have the whole city safe.
 
An hour passed, and I got to know many things that happened while I was fighting here. Some made me beam with pride, while others have brought tears to my eyes.
 
I was still replying to the messages, when I saw Lt. Col Aazalia coming toward me, with Lt. Colonel Julian and Valentina; her mood didn’t look good.
 
“My lord,” they greeted.
 
“What happened?” I asked, feeling a little worried. “The two got away,” she replied, and relief flooded into my heart. I was expecting something else, like a sighting of another horde, that we are in no condition to deal with.
 
“Don’t beat yourself too much. Lt. Col. One was a mage, and the other was a rogue. Our abilities would have been far too shocking if we were able to catch them,” I said, which seemed to ease her expression.
 
“Everyone other than them has been killed or surrendered. It won’t take us long to finish up the stray undead,” she informed.
 
“Good, finish as soon as possible. We need to bring the people out of the safe zone,” I said. It is too crowded and such places aren’t good for the order; I need to let them out of there before any incident occurs.
 
She left soon after, with Lt. Col Julian. Leaving Valentina, who sat beside me.
 
“So, the legacy?” she asked, sounding worried. “It is fine. Though, I have to build it anew,” I said, with a sadness and excitement. 
 
“I want the project,” she said, with her eyes shining brightly like a sun. I had never seen her as excited as I am right now. This is understandable; it is the opportunity of the lifetime, that extremely few had got it over the ages.
 
Many have worked on the legacy, but a few have built from scratch after turning it into the legacy.
 
For most, the building is a legacy. If it is destroyed, the legacy too would be destroyed.
 
The idea had already begun to be developed in mind. It is something the world had never seen before. 
 
“I am glad you are staying,” I said after a moment of silence, to which she smiled. “This is my home; I am not leaving,” she said, taking my hand in hers.
 
Convincing people to stay is going to be one of the biggest challenges in front of me.
 
Many would want to leave after what they had experienced. I have some advantages, seeing what is happening in the empire, but I will have to play them well to make maximum people stay.
 
It is just the one challenge. 
 
There are more from decrepit finances to rebuilding the parts of the city that had been destroyed.
 
There is also the question of the army. The undead will attack again without a doubt, this time we were able to defeat them, but next time, they will be more prepared.
 
I will need to be prepared to deal with that.
 
I took a deep breath and looked up. The sun has started to come out of the clouds, erasing the darkness of the night.
 
It is a new dawn for the city with me leading it, and I will not let it down.

An.

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