The wind howled as blood splattered across my vision and the roars of battle echoed endlessly in my ears.
My silver hair fluttered wildly in the gale.
"Your Highness, please mind your footing. We are about to activate our battle formation skills!"
On either side of the carriage, the two Guardian Knights of the Snow Country, Andre and Boris, stood guard.
They had already raised their heavy knight spears, and their words were merely a polite warning.
Of course, I wouldn't refuse a knight's well-meaning advice, so I jammed the flagpole into the frame of the Saint's Carriage!
"Knights, give it your all!"
Andre and Boris glanced at each other across the gap and gave a slight nod.
"As the Oracle commands!"
With determined gazes, they turned back toward the demon battle formation ahead.
At this moment, the distance between the two sides was less than fifty meters.
They took a deep breath and spoke in unison:
"By the God above, protect us — Ice Armor!"
"By the God above, grant us — Holy Ice Knight's Spear!"
"By the God above, bestow upon us unrivaled power — Snow-Treading Charge!!"
Boom—!
In that instant, holy light elements condensed in the air with visible clarity.
In the blink of an eye, the massive surge of holy light elements combined with water elements, forming sets of ice armor.
It manifested slowly over the bodies of all thirty thousand knights!
The translucent, sky-blue ice armor made these thirty thousand knights look like an army of frost giants!
At the same time, a layer of frost and snow covered their conical lances.
Crystals spread upward from the tips, and in an instant, the massive steel spears had transformed into pillars of ice!
Right in front of my Saint's Carriage, a chilling yet not freezing aura suddenly surged from behind.
A gale howled as it swept across the path ahead!
Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass filled my ears!
Ice crystals rapidly spread forward, and within moments, the ground had frozen into a field of ice and snow.
The charging demons, the moment they stepped onto the frozen ground, saw both their speed and strength drop by more than a level.
Is this... the elite of the Snow Country?
It seems the Kingdom of the Moon is still a long way off from reaching this level.
Even the Saint's Carriage was covered in frost.
However, this ice was not cold; it even carried a hint of warmth from the holy light.
The knights' hooves struck the ice, and their speed suddenly surged.
If Andre and Boris hadn't warned me beforehand, I would have nearly been thrown off the carriage.
Elites truly are elites.
While they might not reach the same grade as the Black Armored Knights, at least compared to the knights of the Snow Country...
The knights of the Kingdom of the Moon were simply hard to describe.
I held the Holy Cross Sword high. At this moment, though my heart was filled with complex emotions, there was no time for words.
The demons were already right before our eyes.
"Kill!"
"Kill—!"
Thirty thousand knights responded in unison, their shouts shaking the clouds!
Andre and Boris surged directly past the Saint's Carriage an instant before clashing with the demon army.
They were now positioned right at the front of the carriage.
I knew they were doing it to protect me, and I felt a small pang of emotion in my heart.
Boom—!
The long-awaited clash officially began. The moment the two central commands collided, the roar resounded across the earth!
The knights of the Snow Country were indeed elites. With the enhancement of three battle formation skills, the demons before them collapsed upon impact.
In the midst of their high-speed charge, Andre and Boris instantly impaled three or five demons on their ice spears.
Black blood flew through the air, and the sounds of slaughter were incessant.
I stood on the Saint's Carriage, watching the backs of the knights.
I watched as demons were impaled and torn apart.
I watched as knights were pulled from their horses.
I watched as the demons roared with their bloody maws wide open.
I watched the tragic scenes of the battlefield unfold one after another.
In this moment, a sudden sense of isolation washed over me.
Even though the sounds of battle were right next to me.
Even though the demons' gaping maws were clearly visible.
It felt as if none of it had anything to do with me, because from start to finish, not a single demon had managed to get close to the Saint's Carriage!
The knights, carrying the power of their battle formation skills and the momentum of their charge, might have been weaker than the demons individually.
But in terms of collective strength, they had already surpassed the demons.
Under these circumstances, even a level sixty Demon Marshal would find it difficult to stand in their way.
This... is the power of a collective.
Looking at the demons all around, I truly felt that the world was vast and I was incredibly small.
I strained my neck to look from my left all the way to the far right.
As far as the eye could see, everything was a battlefield!
The endless waves of demons were like black tides, constantly crashing against the knights.
But under the leadership of the two Guardian Knights, the knights were like a sturdy ship sailing through surging waves.
They continuously cleaved through the spray, and though they seemed to bob up and down, they never stopped their forward progress.
I didn't know if a minute, five minutes, or ten minutes had passed.
When the view ahead suddenly cleared and the black tide was finally severed, I realized... there was nothing left to block our path.
Looking back, all that remained on the earth, besides the ice and snow, was black blood flowing like a small river.
It slowly soaked into the ground.
I had no time to lament the tragedy of the battlefield, let alone mourn the lives lost.
"Your Highness, what should we do next?"
Boris's voice rang in my ear, instantly pulling my consciousness back from its inner reflections.
I took a deep breath and looked out at the empty plain before us.
"Turn around! Charge again!"
"Yes—!"
An excited light erupted in the eyes of Andre and Boris.
That was the bloodlust inherent in warriors on the battlefield... or more accurately, the nature of men!
Bloodlust is the foundation of survival for any human male.
It is an instinct carved deep into the body.
"Battle formation skill — Rapid-Turn Charge!!"
Andre and Boris raised their spears simultaneously and roared at the top of their lungs.
With that roar, the thirty thousand knights followed the two leaders and executed a sharp V-shaped turn while still at high speed.
The high-speed turn caused the left wheels of the Saint's Carriage to lift off the ground, and the entire carriage tilted more than forty degrees in an instant!
Among the eight white horses out front, the hooves of the two on the left could no longer touch the ground, while the horses on the right were struggling to keep their footing!
Feeling the carriage about to overturn, I barely managed to grip the flagpole to keep myself steady.
Seeing this, Boris dropped back slightly and reached out to push the frame of the carriage.
Boom!
The wheels slammed back onto the ground, and the entire Saint's Carriage shook violently.
My feet lost their grip for a second, and if it weren't for my floating skill, I would have fallen off the carriage right then.
"Is Your Highness unharmed?"
Seeing this, Andre hurried to look back and ask.
I shook my head.
"I'm fine. Continue the charge! Do not worry about me! Even if I fall off the carriage, you are not permitted to turn back for me!!"
On the battlefield, once cavalry loses its charging momentum, its collective strength drops off a cliff.
At that point, these elite Snow Country knights would become nothing more than a meal for the demons.
The racial difference in individual strength meant that once the knights stopped, they would only be picked apart and devoured.
"What!?"
"How can that be allowed!?"
Andre and Boris cried out in shock.
"Do not turn back!!"
I roared, striking the Holy Cross Sword against the flagpole with a sharp clang!
The two of them stiffened at the sound!
"This war is not just my war alone. Hundreds of millions of lives across the continent are watching you!!"
"If we lose, we will no longer be able to stop the demons' advance, and the continent will be devastated!!"
"Do not turn back, do not be cowardly! Think of your families! If we lose this war, they will all become slaves to the demons!!"
A strong impulse from within pushed me to say those words.
This was completely different from my original plan.
However, perhaps influenced by the power of holiness, I no longer cared about my own safety in this moment.
It was exactly as I said.
If we lost, if we failed to achieve our strategic objective of pinning down the enemy to strike their reinforcements, then all subsequent plans would collapse.
The Kingdom of the Sun would not be able to hold out.
Using the Kingdom of the Sun as a springboard, they could connect directly to the mainland through countless small islands!
Using the Kingdom of the Sun as a nursery with its population of hundreds of millions, they could breed billions of demons within a few years!
Over the past thousand years, the Kingdom of the Moon had exhausted its blood and used every available power to keep the demons restricted to this island.
Their reproductive capacity had been thoroughly suppressed.
Without a source of females, the demons on the demon island simply couldn't reproduce on a large scale.
Even after a century of development, their numbers were less than a million, which proved they had almost no females on hand.
It was for this very reason that the Kingdom of the Moon had been able to resist them.
But once the demons gained a foothold in the Kingdom of the Sun, what we would face next would be a demon army of billions that could drown the entire continent!!
The backs of Andre and Boris seemed to straighten a bit more after those words, as if even their bones had hardened.
"We have received the resolve of the Saintess of the Moon!"
Andre responded calmly, his voice carrying a trace of unwavering conviction.
Boris raised his spear.
"Did you all hear that!!!"
"Roar—!"
The thirty thousand Snow Country knights raised their ice spears simultaneously, responding with a long, skyward howl.
"For our families, for the Holy Church, and for the Saintess of the Moon who has taken to the battlefield regardless of her own life... Knights, charge—!"
"Kill—!"
Rumble—!
The sound of hooves suddenly accelerated, and the speed of the Saint's Carriage jumped to another level.
I didn't expect my words to bring such a massive surge of morale to the knights of another country.
However, this aligned perfectly with my goals.
The entire knight regiment had completely turned around and begun their second cavalry charge.
Wherever they passed, no demon could stand against them.
A heavy weight seemed to lift from my heart.
At this rate, victory was certain.
It looks like I'll be able to go back to my hometown, get a wife, and start farming after all.
Wait... did I just raise a death flag for myself?
Boom—!
The thought flashed through my mind and vanished as a black shadow descended from the sky, crashing into the ground ahead.
A massive cloud of dust obscured everything.
The shockwave instantly flipped the Saint's Carriage.
The carriage beneath my feet jerked upward before overturning completely!
I didn't even have time to react before someone grabbed my arm and pulled me downward!
As my feet hit the ground, the knights behind us were forced to halt their advance, and the entire army's charge suddenly fell into chaos.
To avoid hitting me, the knights swerved toward the flanks.
Wind and dust filled the air.
I looked back at Dominica, who had pulled me off the carriage.
Then I looked at the overturned Saint's Carriage not far away, and at the two Guardian Knights, Andre and Boris, who were standing ready for battle.
My gaze followed theirs toward the dust ahead.
A figure gradually emerged as the dust settled.
He was holding someone in his hand, whom he tossed onto the ground.
Thud!
A battered Lina was thrown at my feet.
My heart felt like it was on a roller coaster; one moment I was certain of victory, and the next I was plunged into the depths of despair.
"Ugh... sorry, I couldn't hold out... cough..."
Lina lay on the ground, most of her armor shattered. Her left eye was swollen as if she had been punched, and blood leaked from the corner of her eye.
Her left wrist was twisted and broken, and there was hardly a single uninjured spot on her body.
Even so, my Chain Healing was still bound to her, and her wounds were visibly recovering.
But given the current situation, even if her injuries healed, it was unlikely she could join the fight anytime soon.
After all... the holy power within her was almost completely exhausted.
The holy light that had once erupted from her sword hilt to a length of five meters was now less than five centimeters long.
Even the light was so dim it looked like a 0.1-watt light bulb.
The wings on her back had almost no light left at all, appearing completely translucent.
The threads of holy light connecting the wings were nearly invisible to the naked eye.
Lina struggled to roll over and lie on her back, her chest heaving as she gasped for air. The high-intensity combat had drained her stamina significantly.
The healing speed of Chain Healing was constant, and she was still in this state when she reached me; if it weren't for the spell, she would probably be dead by now.
"Knights, continue the charge! Do not stop!"
"Andre, Boris... I'm sorry. It seems I'm asking you to die with me."
"Your Highness, those words are a bit too distant."
A smile curled on Andre's lips.
Boris was also full of smiles.
"We are comrades on the same battlefield!"
Though they responded to my words, their eyes remained locked on the dust ahead.
And now, the dust finally settled.
I finally got a close look at this beautiful man.
He was indeed beautiful, perhaps even more so than most women.
But he gave me a strange feeling of being superficial and insincere.
I didn't know where that feeling came from.
"Heh. Saintess of the Moon, you've done quite well. I didn't expect you to come up with such a plan in this predicament... attacking the demon island to force the demon army on the front lines to retreat, right?"
The Demon Emperor finally spoke. A smile hung on his lips, but his eyes were cold as ice.
"You flatter me."
To my surprise, the Demon Emperor vanished in the next instant!
He then seized me by the throat!
"My lovely Saintess, I wasn't exactly complimenting you, you know~"
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