CHAPTER 104: CHAPTER 104_1

His words startled Barton, who then began to speak, his expression troubled.

"At first, nobody cared about these refugees. To be honest, not even we officers did. We had an army of three thousand, supported by two units of Army Chaplains and the Empire’s latest cannons. We had enough strength to face off against other Regular Armies, let alone refugees armed with nothing more than kitchen knives and pitchforks.

It wasn’t until we reached a village they had overrun that everyone began to take notice. Not a single living soul remained in the village—neither people nor livestock. No food was found either; everything edible had vanished.

However, the scouting soldiers soon discovered large amounts of blood on the ground, and white bones, devoid of any flesh."

Barton suddenly stopped speaking and looked at everyone before finally voicing the conclusion they had all guessed.

"Yes, they were..."

Although they had anticipated it, Barton’s words still sparked a wave of contempt for these refugees they had never seen.

"Oh! Damn that evil cult."

"Have they gone mad?"

"These are no ordinary refugees; we must strike hard!"

In contrast to their agitated emotions, Lance remained remarkably calm.

Ancient texts briefly describe tragic and insane incidents. But in reality, such events are often glossed over, with no one delving into the reasons behind them. The situation now was no different. Those seated in high authority above did not care. After all, they wouldn’t lack clothes or food regardless of the situation. Those living in the cities didn’t care because the disaster hadn’t struck them directly, nor had they witnessed the horrors themselves. People who hadn’t personally experienced this calamity wouldn’t ponder its cause. Instead, like the few present here, they immediately turned their hostility towards the refugees! The cause of this incident was rooted in a natural calamity: a severe drought in the central region led to poor grain harvests and widespread famine. However, it was largely a man-made disaster. The Empire’s failure to provide relief and its negligence allowed the evil cult to seize the opportunity.

Barton did not stop there; he continued to recount his story.

"We also came to realize this situation. Everyone was filled with a fierce will to fight, determined to bury these blasphemers.

The army gave chase, continually searching for their trail. Along the way, we encountered more villages that had been attacked. The refugees ravaged them like locusts, leaving nothing but devastation in their wake.

After a long march, we finally caught up with the refugees led by the Sons of Harvest Cult, only to find not a single sane person among the vast throng."

Barton struggled for a moment, unsure how to describe those individuals.

"They could no longer be called human. Each had undergone aberrations beyond normal human comprehension. These mutations weren’t just present in humans; even the livestock accompanying them became deformed.

The most obvious characteristic of these monsters was their uncontrollably growing, chaotic, teeth-filled maws, and their elongated tongues, which were twisted like tendrils and far surpassed those of a normal person.

Some monsters had faces completely overtaken by these maws, while other body parts transformed into mouths. Their teeth grew so wildly, protruding in rows, that they couldn’t close their jaws. The more powerful the monster, the more exaggerated and numerous the mouths.

Within that massive troop, gigantic, deformed lumps of flesh pushed carts. They were devoid of any human-like features and ceaselessly drove the carts forward.

And atop those carts were piled various dismembered bodies—some animal, but mostly human—with butcher’s knives still stuck in them."

According to Barton, this was their first encounter with these creatures. Everyone was taken aback. The Commander also realized that the evil cult’s reputation was no sham and that the power of an Evil God was indeed involved.

Seeing the desecration of their kind’s bodies, everyone erupted in anger. This was especially true for the Church members, who were shouting about purifying those monsters. At that time, I was confident in the power of the artillery; I wasn’t afraid of the monsters at all.

The army was in high spirits. When the Commander gave the order, over twenty cannons, large and small, were aimed at the monsters.

The moment the army spotted the monsters, the monsters spotted them too. These beasts exhibited no fear. Instead, like starved madmen, they exuded endless hunger and greed as they charged at our lines.

The war began.

The cannons roared with the first volley, humanity’s war machines challenging the Evil God.

"The first volley was very effective. The Bombs whistled over and tore through the monster formation. Not a single creature could withstand them. Even a graze resulted in severed limbs and mangled fragments, and a direct hit turned them into bloody pulp. It seemed even monsters couldn’t resist the power of our artillery.

The monsters’ advance paused. At that moment, everyone felt the creatures were quite feeble, easily defeated. Meanwhile, under my command, the Artillerymen began reloading for a second volley. Then, we witnessed a maddening scene."

Barton’s eyes widened as if that distant scene were playing out before him again.

"The monsters had paused their advance not because of the artillery, but because they stopped to seize the bodies of their comrades. I saw with my own eyes how they frantically snatched the corpses and greedily shoved them into their massive mouths. Once the bodies were gone, the monsters resumed their charge towards us.

At my urgent urging, the second artillery volley was ready. We switched from solid shot to explosive Bombs—a type of Bomb capable of killing any human within three meters of the blast and injuring those within ten meters with shrapnel.

I watched the Bombs detonate amidst the dense crowd of monsters. Logically, the effect should have been much better. However, it only killed the monsters at the center of the explosion. Those around were merely knocked aside by the shockwave. Shrapnel embedded in them had no effect. After a brief pause, they got up and proceeded to feast on their comrades.

The second artillery volley only managed to momentarily halt the monsters’ frenzied attack, but the delay it bought was minuscule. Once they finished consuming their fellows’ remains, they came for us again.

When the monsters drew within a hundred meters, the Commander realized something was wrong. He immediately ordered the musket lines into formation, firing at the approaching creatures.

However, bullets that could pierce metal armor had little effect on the monsters. Although they caused damage, they didn’t impede the creatures’ movement.

More trouble arose when the muskets failed. By this point, some soldiers had succumbed to panic and gone mad with fear. The Supervision Team killed many deserters who had lost their nerve, but they still couldn’t stop the army’s morale from collapsing as the monsters closed in."

Barton didn’t realize his speech had grown increasingly hurried, creating an atmosphere so tense it felt as if Lance and the others were right there in the thick of it.