Chapter 526: Charge of the Dead

Ferti’nier’s arrival sent a ripple amongst the gathered overlords; regardless of race or gender, there wasn’t anyone who wasn’t bedazzled by her. Like that nightmare steed’s shadow, who hadn’t even spoken to her.

The overlords raised their heads blankly at Ferti’nier as she descended from the sky, Mo Na safely in her arms. The sheer beauty of her figure rendered them speechless. Let alone speak, they did not even wish to waste a single second breathing, lest they missed out on catching a glimpse of her.

“Ahem… this is Overlord Mo Ke…” Mournwraith tried to announce her arrival, but found himself stuck for words when he saw their reactions. Furthermore, his shadow was still whispering to him, “Stop talking, I’m trying to focus on lady Mo Ke!”

But I’m the one talking, not you… Mournwraith griped to himself. Yet was there anything more annoying than someone talking over their idol?

Seeing as the overlords on the ground were too busy gawking at Ferti’nier for the time being, she was more than happy to take the initiative in this negotiation.

“Excuse me but, I’m rather busy.” She unabashedly said, not even bothering to land on the ground as she addressed them from twenty meters in the air. She swept her eyes over the overlords awed by her presence, then continued, “I see that you’ve saved me the trouble of gathering you all up. In that case, let’s go meet the Undead army and be done with it.”

“…” Silence ensued for a merely second before, strangely enough, everyone started shuffling off like a bunch of a minions, a fact that couldn’t help but strike Mournwraith as odd…

“Brother, have you not been listening to lady Mo Ke? Hurry up and gather the youngins already. We need to get rid of those Undead right this instant. I can’t believe we had to trouble her ladyship to fly all the way here -what if her beauty were to get marred because of that?!” Mournwraith’s shadow anxiously pushed his counterpart. However, he seemed to have noticed that something was up with him. “Brother? Are you alright?”

“No… it’s fine…” Mournwraith thought about it for a second but brushed off his concerns in the end. Reassured and a little touched, he could at least see that this brother of his hadn’t suddenly forgotten about their bond just because of Ferti’nier. However…

“Well. Since you’re fine, what are you doing dawdling about for?!”

“…” Mournwraith almost wanted to kick himself at that point for even thinking his shadow cared about him… that Fallen Angel was just too scary…

“Aunty… they seem to be really obedient towards you…” Mo Na’s eyes sparkled as she looked up at Ferti’nier with puppy dog eyes. Furthermore, it wasn’t just her eyes that were extra sweet, that ‘aunty’ was as well; even Ferti’nier couldn’t help but feel a warmth in her heart.

“Haha, if you want to learn how to do that, all you have to do is ask your aunty over here, she will definitely teach you.” Ferti’nier cheekily tapped her on her forehead. The moment her finger came into contact with Mo Na’s forehead, a flood of information immediately surged into her brain. Mo Na herself realised right away Ferti’nier was trying to impart her the skill, so she closed her eyes in concentration.

To that, Ferti’nier smiled and nodded her head lightly: this little devil was quick on the uptake.

In the end, the various overlords took a mere half an hour to gather all the fighters of note in their clans. In this hodgepodge army, the lowest starred combatant was at least Five-star. Even so, the total amount still numbered in the tens of thousands!

Amongst the troops, the largest contributors had to be the Demon Fire Salamanders. Of the lower-starred warriors, they accounted for a third in total.

The Demon Fire Salamanders, out of all the clans in Purgatory, definitely numbered the greatest thanks to the number of Demon Fire Worms swimming throughout the lava pools. There was just no competition there.

Naturally, Ferti’nier had no interest in those beneath her. Plus, the Undead so happened to appear just when their troops had finished assembling.

Faced with a coalition army of the various clans, even Karlston had to take the battle seriously for once. Their army might have been able to run rampant throughout the individual territories, but a combined front was a different story entirely -unity is strength, and all that jazz.

The newly formed coalition army had ten or so overlords themselves. Adding on their numerous troops, even if the Undead army could emerge victorious, it would undoubtedly be a pyrrhic one.

In order to avoid any unnecessary losses, Karlston had especially rushed over to intercept the various clans. Unfortunately, Ferti’nier had acted a lot quicker than he had expected. That and the fact that her charms instantly silenced and controlled the overlords probably made the job of assembling a lot easier than anyone could ever expect. Just like that, the coalition army finished preparing just in the nick of time to welcome the Undead army -truly a bit of serendipitous coincidence.

Karlston had brought over three thousand Eight-stars, eight thousand Seven-stars, and finally a combined eighty thousand Four-stars to Six-stars, all of varying races.

Such a showing of strength was why the overlords only arranged for those above Five-star to join the coalition army. At the end of the day, their troops were flesh and blood, meaning every loss required a newborn to replace years later. Furthermore, the newborn might not even match the soldier they were supposed to replace. In comparison, the Undead were just corpses, and corpses weren’t exactly hard to replace…

The unfortunate truth of the matter was that the Undead held absolute advantage here, whether in numbers or quality. Had it not been for Ferti’nier forcing them to prepare right away, the sudden attack by the Undead would have most likely dealt the unprepared clans a serious blow by now.

At the head of the Undead army was a unit of death knights, dressed in a sinister-looking set of platemail, riding skeletal horses. Of the Undead, the death knights had to be the strongest cavalry unit they had. They specialised in charging their enemy lines, scattering apart their defenses while creating opportunities for the foot soldiers behind them. On their own, they possessed immense power, with gale winds-level of speeds afforded to them by their horrific steeds.

The leader of the death knights had initially wanted to open up with a thundering charge down into the devils. However, his hopes were dashed when his plan to reap some souls was met with a decidedly calm and collected coalition army. In fact, it almost seemed like their enemies had somehow gotten wind of their sneak attack, and were setting up in wait for their arrival -was there a traitor amongst the brass? Naturally, that was impossible. Why would the dead ever defect to the living? Just like how they did not accept living troops, the living did not accept the dead amongst their ranks as well.

A coincidence? That would have to be a really convenient one then. As facts would have it, this really was a coincidence… seeing as even Ferti’nier did not expect the Undead to turn up where they were assembling…

However, once an arrow was fired, there was no retrieving it. The death knights had preemptively started off with a cavalry charge before the coalition had even entered their sights. And once a cavalry charge was started, there was no stopping it halfway, especially not in front of the enemies. No longer in the position to care about the details any further, the overlord death knight focused his attention entirely on leading his thousand strong unit into the gathered Purgatory army. No matter what, they weren’t returning empty-handed!

At least… that was what he had hoped would happen.

The overlord death knight’s charge was awe-inspiring, for sure. It had even terrified a number of the creatures below. The Purgatory clans had a cavalry unit of their own as well: the Hellhounds. The job of meeting these riders would naturally fall unto them. In a head-on collision between a thousand death knights and the Hellhounds, the result would be devastating. At least a thousand Hellhounds would have to die in just the first moment!

An overlord would find himself hard-pressed to fight off such a cavalry charge, let alone their subordinates. And that was why their plan was to send off said subordinates in the first wave. Plainly speaking, they hoped to waste the enemy’s first strike on their weaker members, like how one would bait out another player’s stronger skill before striking.

A cruel decision. But it was one that the overlords unanimously agreed upon.

However, that did not include Ferti’nier. She was late to the party, and also the only one who could prevent such a tragedy from happening.

With a calm wave of her hand, a wall of nether flames, spanning a hundred meter long, rose up from the ground with a roar, coincidentally appearing right in between the furiously charging death knights and the Hellhounds. It went without saying that they collided into the nether flames!

The sheer burning power of the nether flames was such that even the overlord amongst them would find it hard to survive, let alone the other weaker death knights who also did not have a means of resisting fire…