Chapter 60: The Silent Soldiers

"Tsk, Venti never said things would escalate to this scale, did he?"

Standing atop a high building, Seele watched the chaotic scene below with a mix of shock and concern, wondering if they had gone too far.

Though it was satisfying to see the upper district residents fleeing in panic, she didn’t feel any real joy.

In the past, she had always believed that everyone living in the upper district was arrogant and cold-hearted.

They were the kind of people who could coldly watch their fellow citizens suffer. But as she grew older, she learned from her boss that the blame lay with the Supreme Guardian.

That witch, who sat on the throne of the Supreme Guardian, deceived everyone and tarnished the will of Preservation—she was the one Seele should truly hate.

Since then, although she still harbored some prejudice, she had learned to suppress her resentment so it wouldn’t cloud her judgment.

Especially after getting to know Venti and the young lady, the barriers in her heart had subtly melted away.

So, as she watched these people flee in disarray under the protection of the Silvermane Guards, she felt an emotion she had never experienced before.

They are no different from us.

The lower district also has its weak who need protection, and the local militia, "Wildfire," who provide that protection.

The Silvermane Guards have not failed in their duties; they are doing their best to protect everyone, ensuring no one is left behind. None of them look particularly strong or extraordinary; they are just ordinary people like everyone else.

She gazed at the gray fortress under the afternoon sun, which resembled an old man on his deathbed, each sigh taking away a bit of warmth.

"...That place is the source of all the mistakes."

If it were her past self, she would have been unable to resist sneaking over to behead that witch.

But not yet—

Doing so would only ruin the plans that Venti and her boss had set in motion.

So, for now, let her linger on the throne a bit longer.

Seele withdrew her cold gaze, her attention now drawn to the massive hole in the sky, which was continuously pouring snow and wind into the city.

The sudden snowfall quickly blanketed parts of the city in white, and the howling wind relentlessly drained the heat from the air, until even Seele felt a chill.

For the other ordinary people, this was the precursor to a blizzard.

Having been sheltered for so long, they had long forgotten what the icy, snowy world outside looked like.

Similarly, they were unaware that in the lower district, where sunlight never reached, such low temperatures were just a mundane backdrop to their daily lives.

More importantly, such a dense concentration of crystalline elements would inevitably activate the Fragmentum, even stimulating the birth of new Fragmentum zones—

The former meant that monsters would quickly swarm and launch another wave of attacks.

The latter... was a sign that another human-inhabited area was about to fall.

Either way, it meant she needed to act.

Seele exhaled softly, watching her breath dissipate into the air.

Then, she gripped her scythe and leaped down—

...

Outer District

A patrol of Silvermane Guards was hastily moving through the area, knocking on doors and dispersing pedestrians.

A seasoned soldier was constantly issuing orders.

"Quick, cover the children and get them out of here! This place is no longer safe, hurry!"

The squad members under his command increased the intensity of their door-knocking, trying to ensure no one was left behind.

This was the nearly abandoned outer district, where living conditions were poor, and Fragmentum monsters could wander in at any time.

Only those who had lost their homes, couldn’t provide proof of property, or were orphans with no parents lived here.

Only one or two Silvermane Guard patrols would come through this area each day, and one squad had already abandoned their patrol due to the sudden crisis, returning to the inner district to regroup with other squads.

The entire neighborhood was left to them for rescue efforts, but even so, with such limited manpower, checking each house one by one was an incredibly difficult task.

To make matters worse—

The soldier looked up at the massive hole in the sky, the eerie blood-red glow at its center intensifying his sense of foreboding.

After that monster destroyed the Preservation barrier, snow and wind had poured in, bringing with them frost crystal constructs, but they couldn’t pass through the chaotic air currents around the hole.

This was the residual energy from the demonic dragon's attack, enough to shred any monster trying to pass through the wind wall into basic elemental particles.

But the crystalline elements left behind after their deaths would become beacons, seeds for the birth of new constructs.

And when the Fragmentum energy here far exceeded the average level, a new Fragmentum zone would take root, sprout, and bloom.

At the limit of human vision, he could only see the space around the hole filled with cracks, and the blood-red glow at the center pulsating like a breath.

It was like a tumor blocking the self-repair of the Preservation barrier...

If people couldn’t remove this tumor, it would inevitably lead to even more terrifying disasters.

And on that day, Belobog might truly face its demise.

The soldier's stern face beneath his helmet showed a trace of bitterness.

However, despite his low spirits and fear of the future, his duty remained unchanged.

He had to save as many people as possible. As long as they could retreat to the nearest shelter in the inner district, there was still a chance of survival.

Otherwise, those left here would eventually face the onslaught of Fragmentum monsters.

He kept moving from one old, dilapidated house to another, knocking on doors and telling the people inside to evacuate quickly.

The houses at the front still had some response, but the further back he went, the more he hesitated, skipping over the obviously abandoned, crumbling buildings.

However, just as he was about to pass by a house he thought was empty, a faint sound came from within.

The soldier instinctively stopped, quickly returned, and leaned in to listen.

Only when the faint, almost inaudible sound—which he would have missed if he hadn’t stopped—repeated, did he confirm that someone was still alive inside.

For some reason, the door was covered in dust and locked from the inside.

After telling the person inside to move aside, he forced the door open, revealing a room filled with a sour, rotting smell.

The house was small, with just a living room and a bedroom. Near the entrance sat an emaciated child, with a broken bowl beside them.

There was no doubt that the sound had come from here—

But the child's appearance horrified him.

The child was practically skin and bones, with sunken eyes and sickly pale skin.

Their hair, unkempt for too long, was a tangled mess covering their face, only their thin lips moving slightly.

But no words came out, only a feeble attempt to point towards the inner room.

The soldier cautiously moved in, then caught a faint whiff of the smell of decay.

On the only bed in the room lay the desiccated corpse of a woman, her lips shriveled and gums exposed.

That must be the child's mother...

Judging by the state of the body, she had been dead for over a week, but the cold temperatures had slowed the decomposition.

He instinctively made this judgment.

Just as he was about to take the child away, a "buzz" came from the ceiling—

The soldier instinctively ducked, retreating from the inner room, but a cold light still grazed his helmet, frost spreading from the point of impact.

He didn’t just sit there; he quickly counterattacked, thrusting his halberd until he felt it pierce something hard. Only then did he see the attacker.

It was a frost crystal construct with a broken wing, which had somehow escaped here and had been coexisting with the mother and child...

But while he was still shocked by this, the cries of "Enemy attack!" came one after another from outside.

Through the visor's slit, he could see a group of Eternal Winter Shades rising like the living dead from the corners of the street.

One by one, these twisted, life-hating Eternal Winter Shades raised their frost-covered axes, charging forward like a pack of wolves.

And the king wolf they surrounded was a massive mechanical Fragmentum monster.

The official name given by the Silvermane Guards was the "Frigid Prowler." A mechanical unit corrupted by Fragmentum energy, usually only wandering within the Fragmentum.

Externally, it bore many similarities to the Ursus-type automatons, but its heavy armor was covered with a layer of ice crystals.

This monster, twisted by Fragmentum energy, would never follow the Three Laws of Robotics, and would only carry out its killing orders without hesitation.

Its anvil-like head swept across the people in the district, then the radiator lights on its massive mechanical body emitted a rapid roar, and its hollow, twisted abdomen made a hungry, squelching sound.

The Eternal Winter Shades summoned by the twisted Fragmentum energy gradually closed in.

Without exception, they stared at the humans, waiting for the Frigid Prowler's command to launch a full assault.

Although Fragmentum constructs themselves weren't highly intelligent, when a specific elite entity was present, they would default to following the "leader's" orders.

While they couldn't perform advanced tactical maneuvers, the memories replicated by Fragmentum energy allowed them to somewhat replicate the combat habits of the living.

The biggest difference between an organized attack and a chaotic melee was efficiency.

Once the Fragmentum monsters launched a full assault, how long this squad of Silvermane Guards could hold out depended entirely on when the enemy decided to end their "game."

In such a life-and-death moment, the first thing the soldier thought of wasn't running away or whether they could win.

It was—they had to buy time for the others to evacuate.

Yes, whether they could win was never the Silvermane Guards' primary concern; it was the oath they had sworn to uphold.

From the moment they became guards, their lives were like an hourglass counting down, waiting for the last grain of sand to fall before they met their end.

This was something every guard knew, a vow they had all made together during their nightly gatherings—a vow that should not be broken.

—To forge their bodies into Belobog's strongest shield, to live and die with their comrades, and to protect the people.

The oath itself didn't have any binding force, otherwise there wouldn't be cowardly squads that abandoned the outer district residents and fled to the inner district.

But they were different; all the guards who stayed here held fast to their promise.

The soldier quickly made up his mind, then sheathed his weapon and turned to the child.

"Can... can you walk?"

The sickly child just stared straight at the woman in the inner room, not answering.

This silence made the soldier pause, then he picked the child up.

"Sorry... this place isn't safe anymore. I'll have someone take you to the inner district; it'll be safer there."

It was less persuasion and more the soldier convincing himself.

The moment he stepped out of the house without hesitation, the child seemed to lose all strength, their head drooping as they leaned against him.

The soldier silently quickened his pace, catching up to a fleeing adult and stopping him, then solemnly handed the child over.

"Please, take them with you. All the guards will buy you time."

After a moment of stunned silence, the man looked at the Fragmentum monsters, then at the soldier, and gritted his teeth as he took the child.

As the crowd grew more restless, the guards stood ready, like a solid wall blocking the monsters' path.

The Frigid Prowler finally made its move, letting out a deafening roar. The Eternal Winter Shades charged forward, their frost-covered axes raised high, while the guards opened fire, with some close-combat guards engaging in melee.

The soldier charged at the front, his target not the Eternal Winter Shades, but the Frigid Prowler commanding from the rear.

If it continued to issue orders, the situation would only worsen.

However, its massive size didn't make it as slow as most people thought.

The thrusters installed on its mechanical body, now free from energy constraints, quickly showed their ferocity.

The powerful thrust and mechanical body made its charge unstoppable; in one sweep, it could crush any foolish human into pulp.

The soldier quickly dodged; no one would try to block a charge from a monster four or five times their size.

But just as he thought he had avoided it, the charging Frigid Prowler suddenly braked, its mechanical feet scraping sparks off the ground, making a sound like nails on a chalkboard.

Its bulky body, like a drawn bow, suddenly swung its arm back, then punched at the soldier, who could only hurriedly raise his halberd to block.

The ice crystal structure covering its mechanical arm transformed into a chainsaw-like mechanism, sparking wildly upon contact with the weapon, and the tremendous force sent the guard flying into a nearby house.

The sound of breaking bones, a bent arm, and a ruined weapon basically signaled the end of this encounter, with the Silvermane Guards' futile resistance.

But as the soldier struggled to get up from the pool of blood—

A new turn of events occurred on the battlefield.

"—Fade away with the butterflies, shadows of the past!"

A cold female voice came from nowhere, accompanied by a barely visible quantum ripple, as a swift figure appeared behind the Frigid Prowler, which had exposed its weak spot.

The chaotic, butterfly-like onslaught left a massive, unhealable gash on its back.

In an instant, the tide of battle turned. The Frigid Prowler stumbled and rolled into the surrounding monsters, crushing a few Eternal Winter Shades that couldn't dodge in time.

Its mechanical body let out a shattering cry.

Seele had arrived—just in time!