They saw a Warrior wielding a Two-Handed Heavy Hammer, radiating an astonishing aura, who, with the cooperation of that Transcendent Paladin whom Raine had met once before, broke through the defensive circle of several Two-headed Giants and charged straight at the body of the Wandering Eye Tyrant!

"Vibration Wave!!" The unfamiliar heavy-hammer Warrior leapt high, his great hammer sweeping out a gray arc as it smashed down heavily.

"Smite Evil Slash!!" At almost the same time, the Great Sword in that Paladin’s hand burst out with a dazzling, thick milky-white light as it cleaved down.

"Boom! Ssshh!"

Two clearly visible wounds instantly appeared on the surface of the Wandering Eye Tyrant’s body—one a basin-sized dent, the other a gash over a meter long.

That fierce?

Huh? At this rate, the Urein Empire might really win!

Raine’s gaze flickered as he rapidly calculated in his heart.

But in the very next instant!

"Rooaar!!"

As the Wandering Eye Tyrant roared in pain, some kind of invisible domain suddenly erupted. Raine clearly saw those two Transcendents swatted away as if by an unseen giant hand, sent flying backward more than ten meters.

"A gravity field?"

Just as Raine was pondering which Magic the Wandering Eye Tyrant had just released, suddenly, a gray ripple spread out rapidly from the Wandering Eye Tyrant as the center, sweeping toward the surroundings.

All the Urein Empire elites covered by the ripple instantly became listless one after another.

The ones most severely affected were those Imperial soldiers who had already been gravely wounded and on the verge of death; they actually perished on the spot in an instant.

As for the large number of Imperial Legion soldiers who were only lightly wounded, they stared in terror at the wounds on their bodies, from which great spurts of fresh blood were suddenly gushing!

It was as if the blood had developed its own consciousness, voluntarily flowing out from their bodies and forming strands of red threads in midair, converging toward that enormous spherical aberration in the not-too-distant distance.

The blood was so abundant that for a moment, the entire sky seemed filled with those fine, blood-colored ribbons.

And after these blood threads of varying thickness gathered together, they turned into hundreds of blood-colored rivers like small streams, which were absorbed by the Wandering Eye Tyrant’s spherical body.

The skin on the surface of the Wandering Eye Tyrant’s body also changed from its previous shriveled state, becoming rosy and plump.

The original wounds were rapidly recovering as well; the dent bulged back out, and the torn gashes were swiftly knitting together...

"Get back, this is Death Wave!" The Transcendent Priest Bard of the Wings of Seraphim shouted.

"Anyone below Transcendent, fall back at least a hundred meters!

Death Wave?

Raine, standing to the side, widened his eyes slightly.

He had heard of this famous 8th-ring Magic.

Unlike the more single-target-oriented ’Death Finger’, Death Wave was a notorious area-of-effect Magic.

He hadn’t expected the beholder Zergelos to have mastered such a powerful death-type spell.

’Wait! The beholder Zergelos has already undergone Mutation and transformed into a Wandering Eye Tyrant—being proficient in death Magic is only natural.’

The center of the battlefield.

A bizarre scene began to unfold.

The Legion soldiers who had died after having large amounts of Life Energy drained by Death Wave were at this moment staggering back to their feet, launching frenzied attacks on all sides.

"Hold the line!"

"Form shield wall!"

"Protection from Evil!"

The power of the 8th-ring Magic Death Wave immediately made General Kobataen’s expression turn extremely ugly.

As one side waned and the other waxed, the monster army had practically returned to its initial battle strength, while the Fourteenth Legion, fighting up to this point, had already lost at least four to five hundred men.

’This Wandering Eye Tyrant is far too strong!’

"The enemy has practically reached Legendary level!"

As Raine sighed inwardly, his pupils suddenly contracted, and he stared intently at the Wandering Eye Tyrant in the center of the field.

He saw that as the second gray ripple spread out, the opponent’s plump, full spherical body actually began collapsing inward again, compressing; the blood-red hue faded, the skin turned pale and shriveled, yet its aura suddenly surged!

This aura...

"Legendary? It’s Legendary!" Meredith cried out in shock.

"It actually advanced!"

The Quasi-Legendary Wandering Eye Tyrant in front of them had actually used the life drain effect attached to the second Death Ripple it had just unleashed to take a single leap into the Legendary tier.

’The Urein Empire is in real trouble now.’

And having stepped into the Legendary tier in one stroke, the Wandering Eye Tyrant Zergelos let out an ear‑piercing, terror‑inducing cackle, and completely abandoned its previous posture of lurking at the rear of the monster army and not taking the initiative to attack, charging straight toward the legion.

"Fall back, everyone fall back!" General Kobataen immediately sensed how dire this had become and shouted aloud on the spot.

If, originally, the eye demon Zergelos’s combat power, while strong, was still only staying at the Quasi-Legendary tier, then they could still have buried it under bodies.

But now, even if the entire Fourteenth Legion went all in, facing an opponent that likewise commanded an Undead Army, they still might not win.

No—more precisely, they would most likely lose!

...

Dorne City.

The second‑floor study of Baron Olsen’s Castle.

Sitting opposite each other at the rosewood desk were Henry and Baron Olsen, and placed on the desk was a parchment scroll with gold‑thread inlaid borders—the recently delivered promotion decree.

Baron Olsen had been promoted to Viscount, and at the same time appointed Governor of Dorne City.

Henry, on the other hand, had been promoted to Earl.

But these two promotion decrees had not brought much joy to either Henry’s or Olsen’s face at this moment.

Right now, the brows on Henry’s youthful face were twisted into a knot; opposite him, Baron Olsen’s expression was likewise solemn, his thick black brows tightly furrowed into the shape of the character "川".

"Has the situation really deteriorated to this extent already?"

Hearing Baron Olsen’s question, Henry let out a sigh, paused for a moment, then nodded. "Yes."

In stark contrast to the two of them successfully rising in rank and enjoying flourishing prospects, the overall situation of the Soladin Kingdom over these past two days had plummeted like a waterfall.

In just a few days, seven cities within the Soladin Kingdom had already announced their independence and were preparing to hold so‑called referendums, planning to join the commercial alliance centered on Winterless City as soon as possible.

In response, the Soladin Kingdom naturally denounced this at once and organized troops to carry out punitive expeditions.

But the problem was that the Black Fist Army’s preparations were extremely thorough, the battlefront deadlocked, and his aunt, the Eldest Princess Leonore, had also been heavily wounded in a major battle yesterday.

"Bang!"

"That bastard Gareth! To actually betray the Kingdom completely!" Henry slammed his palm heavily on the desk, his face slightly flushed as he cursed angrily.

In fact, under normal circumstances his aunt Leonore would not have suffered such grievous injuries, but because Marquis Gareth of Bornberry provided false intelligence, she walked straight into a trap and was besieged by several Transcendent strongmen.

If not for his aunt’s habitual caution, having long since prepared a fallback—a "Secret Teleportation Array" allowing her to quietly teleport here to recuperate—she would likely have fallen right then and there.

"How are we going to handle Her Highness’s injuries?" Viscount Olsen recalled the scene from half a day ago when he had just laid eyes on the Eldest Princess Leonore, and still felt lingering fear.

At the time Leonore’s Magic Robe was damaged, the outside of her right leg was a sheet of crimson, as if struck by some high‑potency ray magic. The wound was deep enough to see bone, and some kind of toxin was festering within it. Even Priests at Classes Level could neither purge nor heal it, only barely suppress the injury.

"They’re continuously worsening."

"Then I..."

"No! My aunt’s intention is to hold off for two days." Henry, face full of worry, shook his head and continued, "Because if we were to immediately contact Bishop Level figures from the various Divine Halls in these two days, I’m afraid that with the Talin Association’s intelligence network, her presence here would be exposed at once."

"But if Her Highness’s wounds can’t be treated quickly, won’t that lead to even more serious consequences?"

"Also, with Her Highness absent, I fear the situation in the southern part of the Kingdom will completely collapse."

"Indeed." Hearing this, Henry couldn’t help but rise to his feet and once again let out a long sigh.

Although the Soladin Kingdom was not without Legendary powerhouses, as the very last foundation, the few Legendary figures they had were needed to stabilize the situation in the Royal Capital.

As the Kingdom of Soladin’s final trump cards, once they were played lightly...

"Given the current situation, I’m afraid that even if Mr. Rein returns, he won’t be able to help much." Viscount Olsen murmured under his breath.

His impression of Raine was extremely deep; not only had Raine saved his life twice, afterward he had also stepped in at several critical moments to turn the tide.

But facing the combined pressing advance of the Black Fist Army and the Talin Association, even Viscount Olsen—who had absolute faith in Raine’s strength—did not believe that Raine could accomplish much this time.

"Yes, Raine is still a bit too young. If we could give him a few more years, I believe his strength would be no less than my aunt’s."

"Then we’d have a chance to turn the situation around!"

Henry likewise trusted Raine and greatly admired his strength, but the enemies they faced this time were simply too powerful; even he couldn’t help but lament.

...