Three pillars of concentrated celestial light struck the interlocked obsidian shields.
The detonation erased all sound across the battlefield. Fractured cobblestones beneath the Death Knights vaporized into a fine gray mist. These dark constructs were built to withstand heavy siege artillery. Yet the kinetic weight of the sacrificial strike forced the central giant to its knees. Its gigantic shield shattered under the divine pressure. A thousand razor-sharp shards of black metal exploded outward, tearing through the undead infantry and clearing a brutal path.
"Gap!" Kaelthas roared over the ringing silence. He locked his eyes on the narrow opening. "Push through!"
The armored wedge surged forward. They poured like a tide of white steel through the fractured barricade. Formal formations dissolved upon entry, devolving the structured engagement into a visceral brawl inside a lightless slaughterhouse.
Paladins discarded their unwieldy polearms. Drawing short swords and serrated trench knives, they stabbed frantically through the narrow eye slits of the skeletal heavy infantry. Mutated abominations tore heavy steel pauldrons from human shoulders using only their bare hands.
A knight stationed to Kaelthas's left vanished under a suffocating tide of crawling ghouls. The horrific sound of tearing meat and snapping bone muffled his desperate screams. But the line did not break. Stepping over their fallen brothers, the vanguard continued the grim work.
Above the chaotic melee, a skeletal Soul Eater crawled along the underside of a ruined merchant stall. It tracked the dense concentration of positive energy. The equine abomination lunged downward at Sister Milla. Its rotting jaws gaped impossibly wide, revealing a swirling vortex of necrotic purple energy deep within its throat. The beast sought to consume the fragile healing aura the cleric projected.
Refuse, Milla thought. She locked her trembling knees.
Refusing to evade the massive weight dropping toward her, she thrust her tarnished silver holy symbol upward and focused her remaining magic into a single point.
A [Barrier of Purity] flared to life, manifesting as a solid dome of hardened light. The massive beast smashed its decaying snout directly against the celestial energy. The uncompromising recoil snapped the monster's elongated neck with a sharp crack.
Milla gasped and collapsed onto one knee. The barrier shattered into dissolving motes of light. A thick stream of dark blood poured over her lips from her nose. Her entire mana pool drained completely in a single second. Arcane exhaustion left her veins feeling packed with crushed ice. Then her vision swam with black spots.
Despite the heavy casualties, the vanguard had successfully fractured the first defensive line. The massive civilian evacuation carts surged forward into the newly created pocket of safety. Draft horses rolled their wide eyes in pure terror, whipped into a blind frenzy by desperate teamsters. Heavy wooden wheels clattered brutally over the writhing bodies of the undead frontline. They crushed skulls and snapped ribcages under the immense weight of the cargo.
"Keep moving!" Horgus the Stonebearer bellowed. His deep voice cut through the rising panic.
The towering knight stepped toward the exposed edge of the protective corridor. Using his massive slab shield, he shoved a leaping Carrion Wight backward into the roaring boundary of holy fire. The creature shrieked as its dry flesh caught alight. Horgus did not watch it burn. Bracing his boots against the stones, he deflected a rain of rusted arrows aimed at the passing wagons.
"Do not look down at the dead! Look at the gates!"
Near the collapsing front of the wedge, Valerius dropped heavily to the bloody stones. Three aberrant ghouls immediately surrounded his kneeling form, snapping at the exposed joints in his armor. The roaring vortex of fire surrounding his body sputtered out and reduced to a sickly orange glow.
"Hot..." the Flame Brand mumbled through blistered lips.
His eyes glazed over beneath his visor. and His internal organs were beginning to fail from thermal overload. The unfiltered output of his martial art was slowly cooking him alive inside his breastplate.
Before the encroaching ghouls could sink their teeth into his exposed throat, a blinding spear of solid celestial light descended from the sky. The projectile impaled the lead creature and pinned the thrashing monster violently to the bedrock.
Elena hovered just three feet above the chaotic ground. Her silver wings smoked heavily. The ethereal feathers frayed visibly at the edges. Her pale face presented a mask of bleeding exhaustion. The divine connection nearly severed her mortal mind from her physical body.
"Get up, Brand!" Elena screamed. Her serene voice cracked with raw desperation.
"Burn brighter! You do not get to die sitting down!"
The vanguard pushed forward. They bled out onto the stones. Their armor dented, and their blades notched. Physically carving the escape lane open, they used their own shattered bodies as the driving force of the wedge.
High above the slaughter, Commander Vane remained stationed at the parapet. His cold eyes watched the final civilian cart rumble past the ragged Paladin line. They rushed frantically toward the safety of the Inner District's subterranean vaults. The lane was open. The innocents were through the breach.
Vane did not cheer. Gripping the stone edge of the wall until his gloves split, warm blood seeped over his knuckles. The tactical victory tasted like Dust.
Down in the suffocating kill zone, the exhausted casters finally collapsed into unconsciousness. The towering parallel walls of [Holy Fire] flickered violently. Starved of critical mana, they died out entirely. The viridian darkness of the apocalyptic night rushed back into the void and erased the only source of light on the battlefield.
An endless ocean of the undead collapsed the space left behind by the civilian carts. Hundreds of thousands of rotting corpses, elite Death Warriors, and ravenous Soul Eaters filled the gap. Surging forward without hesitation, the writhing sea of black iron and gray flesh completely severed the remaining Vanguard Paladins from the safety of the city walls. The suffocating dark swallowed the brilliant white wedge alive, burying them beneath a tidal wave of rotting bodies.
Vane closed his eyes against the stinging smoke. The heavy mechanical groan of the massive inner vault doors echoed across the burning ruins of the city. The great seals were shutting.
He had purchased the civilians' fragile lives. And paid the grim toll with the greatest heroes the Theocracy had ever produced.
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