Chapter 1611 1611. Storming the Capital
While Aldryth's army fought fiercely against the Liguritudum army, Jack led his army toward Messephyria. His Runestone of Marching afforded his army a boost of speed. In half a day, they had arrived near the capital as expected.
Jack looked at the defensive walls surrounding the capital. It was in a bad state. He was not here during the defensive battle last time, but he supposed the condition was still the same as when that battle ended. He had heard the info from Arthur, but he still couldn't believe Master just left this capital unattended after he conquered it. That man truly just treated this country as a place to milk for its resources.
The last time, his side was defending this place. This time, they were the aggressors. He supposed he had to be thankful that Master didn't spend any effort in rebuilding the capital's defenses. This should make retaking the place easier.
The place didn't even look to have many troops guarding it. Master truly no longer considered keeping this country. With all the massacres he had done, he doubted the draconians would listen to him. It was only a matter of time before he lost this country, even if there was no one to seize the throne from him.
Peniel said that if the good Gods were still functioning as they should, they would have come when Master repeated his atrocious deeds. They would have confiscated the throne from him and given it to a more suitable candidate. But they didn't appear, this further proved that the good Gods had abandoned their roles after God of Hope fell.
This was regrettable, but Master also lost support from the bad Gods. Jack preferred it this way. They shouldn't rely on these divine interventions. Although it might be convenient at times, like when he was saved by Goddess Serenity a few times in the past, he still thought that mortals should solve their problems themselves.
Jack took out his Staff of Illios. He fed 1,000 mana cores into it. An image projection appeared, showing houses from a bird-eye view. Jack used the Eye of Surveillance to spy on the situation inside the capital. He wanted to make sure that there was no surprise inside.
Jack moved the image around to see the different parts of the capital. There were truly not that many troops. The ones they saw seemed to be lazing around. After searching around for some time, he spotted a large group of soldiers. They were situated near the palace, and a majority of them were ethereal soldiers. It appeared Master left a portion of the Liguritudum army inside this capital.
When the image disappeared, Genesis asked, "How should we do this?"
"The capital gate is still open," Jack said. "As we see from the image just now, there are not enough sentries. That's why they haven't spotted us. Those sentries are also too lazy to do their job. With how the state of this country is, I can't blame if the morale of the draconian troops is very low."
"Should we charge the main gate then?" Grace asked.
"We will divide into two and go in from two entry points," Jack said. "The main gate and that gap in the wall."
He had heard from Arthur about the gap in the wall. He had also made sure just now during the spying that the gap was truly there. With two entry points, this operation should be easier.
"I will lead the native army through the gap in the wall," Jack announced. "Genesis, you bring the players and storm the main gate. Even if they close the gate when you are charging, players have more options. The ranger-based class can use their grappling hooks to scale the wall. I believe many should have this skill."
Genesis nodded. "Leave it to me. As long as there are truly not that many enemy troops, we should be able to manage."
"Let's move out!" Jack ordered.
Their army divided following Jack's instruction. Grace followed Jack. Jack led the army and charged toward the gap in the wall. He summoned his Runestone of Marching. His army speed was so fast that he arrived at the gap before Genesis and the army of players arrived at the main gate.
Sounds of warning horns were heard from inside the capital. Their presence was finally noticed. Clamors were heard. But by the time the city guards responded, Jack and his army had stormed through the gap in the wall.
The draconian soldiers came at them. Jack had given instructions to his soldiers to spare the draconian troops if possible. With their low morale, those troops should surrender once their HPs were reduced to a threshold. He also gave strict orders to not touch the civilians.
As his soldiers dealt with these city defenders, Jack continued charging through the capital. Many of the houses were in ruins. Almost no civilian was seen, they should have hidden inside their houses when they heard the warning horn. Jack preferred it this way. He also had his army utter loud sounds after coming through the gap, to scare the civilians away.
As he neared the palace, he finally saw the large army from the surveillance image earlier. A row of draconian soldiers blocked their way. Behind this row were the ethereal soldiers.
Jack was disgusted when he saw the draconian troops being used as a shield wall to protect the ethereal soldiers behind. He summoned his royal agents, Therras, Spark, and the golden wolves. He then unsummoned Pandora and took to the sky. He cast Double Clone. One clone turned into a supreme dragon and the other one cast Remote Magic Field before casting Perpetual Lightning Judgement. He himself used Lightning God Incarnation.
The Perpetual Lightning Judgement triggered double-cast. Empowered by mana manipulation, the innumerous lightning snakes accurately went past all the draconian soldiers at the front and hit the ethereal soldiers at the back. While the enemy was in disarray, Dragon Jack and Lightning Jack charged into their midst.
The two fought and sowed chaos from within the enemy ranks. Lightning Jack used most of his AOE skills, including Lightning God Barrage and Realm of Sword God. All the while, his second clone cast one spell after another, triggering double-casts with the help of the Runestone of Spellcasting.
The enemy troops were led by a level 80 ethereal commander. Jack used Time Lock at him before using Superior Acceleration on himself, his clones, Therras, and Spark. They then ganged on this commander. When the time lock was at its last second, Jack grabbed the commander and threw him to his army that followed behind. With that commander alienated from his troops, he was soon killed.
Between losing their leader and Jack's disruption, the enemy couldn't hold a proper formation. Jack's army easily crashed into the defending army. Many of the draconian soldiers surrendered after losing a portion of their lives. The others were incapacitated using runic ropes. The ethereal soldiers were simply killed.
Jack continued fighting until his Lightning God Incarnation ended. He rushed into the midst of ethereal soldiers when his duration was ending. The finishing attack slew many enemies.
He looked around after the deed. His army outnumbered the enemies and was superior. They had no problem finishing the enemies here. He saw Genesis and the player army was also approaching. They didn't seem to encounter much resistance.
Jack left his minions, his royal agents, and his two clones to continue fighting the battle here. He used gold dragon wings and flew upward. He continued up until he reached the royal guest meeting room. Last time he was invited into this room. He knew that the wall facing outside was composed of glass and this room was directly beneath the throne room.
When he saw the enormous glass wall. He cast Wind Jet and then used Flame Strike on the glass wall. The momentum produced enormous force. The glass wall broke upon one hit.
Now, he only needed to go one floor up into the throne room.
