Chapter 144
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Chapter 144: Purification
The Pretenders’ methods were indeed tough to handle. Their ability to turn enemies into servants, combined with unpredictable infection routes and the stubborn curses of two deities, made their attacks nearly flawless against ordinary people.
Yet there was always a solution.
In Midi’s past life, the Pretenders hadn’t meddled in Belmar’s civil war but had risen to power during another chaotic melee. For a time, they ruled as a dominant faction.
But their glory was short-lived. When renowned artisans gathered, they cracked the Blood Curse and Kazan Curse. Stripped of their infectious power, the Pretenders became toothless tigers. Their small numbers became a fatal flaw once their zombie armies fell apart. No matter their individual strength, they couldn’t withstand human nations. Soon, their faction crumbled. Most Pretenders died, while survivors fled to lick their wounds in the shadows.
As a commander in that purge, Midi knew how to counter their infection. Now, he also possessed the ultimate weapon—the Tree of Life. Its overwhelming life force neutralized infections, and combined with a formula from his past life—enhanced by Master Norton—the Hawk Brigade became immune!
While the Iron-Blood Duke battled the destroyer cavalry these past weeks, the Hawk Brigade hadn’t been idle. Every member received vaccines. Adventurers trained under Midi’s guidance to fight Pretenders.
The catch? Vaccines only activated when exposed to the curse itself—meaning they’d kick in mid-battle during actual infection. Activation caused agonizing pain, rendering even the strongest combatants helpless.
Midi’s fear was Pretenders slaughtering his disabled forces. So he sent adventurers in small teams, pretending to focus on urban warfare while probing enemy tactics. Greedy Pretenders took the bait, trying to convert every high-level adventurer into servants.
Midi coolly deployed elites in waves, cycling vaccine-activated comrades back to safety. After continuous battles, most Hawk Brigade members had activated their vaccines—including Midi, Fina, and Alice, who’d secretly done so at the front.
Now, the Pretenders’ greatest weapon—infection—was useless. Worse for them, the vaccine acted as a slow poison. The more they attacked, the more they weakened.
Meanwhile, Midi’s stealth teams located soul-refining arrays in Hertonmar, cutting off Pretenders’ options to use civilians as hostages. With vaccines neutralizing infections and covert ops crippling enemy plans, the Pretenders’ weaknesses—limited numbers and exposed tricks—left them vulnerable.
Only the Nibelungen Dragon Sealing Array remained as their last hope. Midi’s plan to break this national defense array?
Total assault.
A thousand unvaccinated adventurers anchored the rear. Four thousand vaccinated high-level adventurers led the charge. As Pretenders weakened from the vaccine’s poison, the Hawk Brigade struck—all five thousand elites unleashed at once.
This steel behemoth had loomed like a stalking lion, pressuring enemies without attacking. Now, it struck like thunder—a coiled snake lunging with lethal speed.
Facing the surging tide of Hawk Brigade warriors, the Pretenders had neither cannon fodder for cover nor their infection tactics. Their only option was direct hard clashes using their elite force of less than two thousand troops.
This was the choice Midi forced upon them.
After brief hesitation, a thousand Werewolf warriors and hundreds of Vampire mages charged from Dawn Garden, colliding violently with the Hawk Brigade’s steel tide mere street away from Tree of Life’s base!
Though trapped in Midi’s strategy, the Pretenders believed they couldn’t lose to humans in direct battle. As Pretenders, they possessed innate superiority.
The towering Werewolves surpassed humans in raw strength – a level 30 Werewolf outmuscled even level 35 paladins. Vampires were natural magic users excelling in four elements, possessing undying resilience and bat transformation abilities. A level 30 Vampire mage rivaled level 38 human magicians!
With Hawk Brigade’s 3,500 vaccine-protected warriors, the numerical difference seemed manageable. The Pretenders felt confident in holding the line while elders activated national defense array.
Yet when the forces clashed, the Pretenders’ elite shattered like glass against iron hammer in initial skirmish.
"Those accustomed to trickery can’t comprehend true King’s Path suppression," Midi commented calmly, watching the overwhelming assault.
His preparations extended beyond infection vaccines. Every battlefield variable had been anticipated.
Though physically powerful, hot-tempered Werewolves relied on brute strength and tough fur, disdaining ranged weapons as "weakling tools". Their blood rejected elemental balance according to past scholars, making them magic-inept with below-average resistance.
Against them, Midi deployed magicians, Elementalists, Ice Mages and magic scholars. Freezing spells and lightning vortexes trapped the thousand Werewolves in sluggish struggle. The rare breakthrough teams met judo experts specialized in redirecting brute force.
Vampires’ weaknesses proved more glaring. Despite magical prowess, speed, cunning and regeneration, they feared holy light, blessed Flame, and silver weapons.
Midi countered with paladin squadrons. Blue Fist Saint flankers provided holy light support while roaming gunslingers and gunners unleashed suppressing firepower for melee professions to close in. All weapons – paladins’ sharp swords, Blue Fist gauntlets, and bullets – contained holy silver for maximum Vampire lethality.
Both Pretender forces suffered targeted suppression. Their seemingly mighty defenses tore like paper instantly.
Impossible! The black-robed Pretender Chief stared in disbelief – his proud army crumbling before an eighteen-year-old’s strike?
Despite inner turmoil, his expression remained ice-cold. Glancing at vaccine-expelling wolf king and Vampire duke, he commanded: "Delay the humans."
The two leaders exchanged looks. Their excessive consumption of adventurer flesh left vaccine effects draining Vitality – fighting now meant burning life away.
Yet the black-robed elder’s word was absolute.
"Hold briefly," the elder added, "I’ll reactivate Nibelungen Dragon Sealing Array to summon lightning, crushing these insects."
With defenses crumbling and Dawn Garden at stake, refusal meant certain demise. The leaders roared, transforming into gray streaks that vanished into battlefield smoke.
