Chapter 164

Chapter 164

Back outside the tower, I could still hear the sounds of conflict between the Shadow and the defensive line in the distance.

I jumped up for a quick look, then didn't bother paying it any more attention.

With the Shadow's numbers this low, they had no chance of breaking through the crystal people's defensive line.

I turned back and kept directing the crystal people in their assault on the energy tower.

Based on what I'd seen inside the tower, I reorganized the attack force and calculated the right size for each wave of crystal suicide bombers.

Once the height of the explosions shifted noticeably, that would mean the trap floor had been successfully breached.

Then I'd send in the assault team to take on the guardian puppets and dolls.

Keep repeating this process, and the energy tower could be taken floor by floor in an orderly way.

The demolition charges weren't in great supply, so I tried to use them as sparingly as possible.

Once they ran out, I'd have no choice but to send in crystal people as cannon fodder, and the pace of the assault would probably slow down a lot.

But even so, with the forces I had at my disposal, taking the energy tower was only a matter of time.

"This is way too easy. I thought tonight was going to be a real fight." Youngest Princess hopped up onto the command platform and sat down on a crate beside me.

She'd just come out of the energy tower, and she didn't look like she'd run into anything particularly dangerous — just a little tired.

"I told you, there was no need to go in with the crystal people."

I was busy calculating troop losses and deployment, and only glanced over to make sure she was fine before replying casually:

"The forces we have completely outmatch the tower's defense systems."

"I was just curious," Youngest Princess said, stretching. "Curious about what the core of this salt fortress actually looks like."

"And now that you've seen it?"

I glanced at the girl stretching beside me. The way she curled back up reminded me exactly of a cat lying on its stomach.

I continued, "What do you think?"

"Nothing much."

Youngest Princess sat on the crate next to me, hugging her knees.

"Just a tower full of traps and mechanisms. No magical hidden space or anything like that. Completely boring."

"What exactly were you expecting to find in an 'energy tower'?"

I shook my head.

"Well, a normal energy facility shouldn't have traps and mechanisms in the first place. This place is clearly an exception."

With only two living people left in the entire castle, it would have been more surprising if the energy tower hadn't been fortified.

"Two people......" Youngest Princess muttered, looking a little conflicted:

"Knight...... you've met this so-called Queen, right?"

"Yes."

"Is she really not some evil witch who eats children?"

"......"

I turned to look at Youngest Princess, my expression completely deadpan, the corner of my mouth twitching.

"What kind of image have you been building up in your head?"

"An evil witch."

"She is technically 'the Salt Witch,' but I'm pretty sure we're not talking about the same thing."

I sighed.

"There's no point in my saying much more. What Eldest Princess did was admittedly a bit...... ugh......

We'll go up together later, and once you see her, you'll understand.

My take is still the same: she's just a dying person full of regret."

I looked at Youngest Princess, who still seemed completely lost, and knew that nothing more I said would get through.

She's just a kid.

How could she possibly understand the complicated things adults carry?

"Knight, there's something you may want to take a look at." The old servant's voice came from behind, cutting off their exchange.

"Hmph!" Youngest Princess turned her head away, refusing to look at the old servant. Ever since learning what the Eldest Princess's side had done, the Youngest Princess had held nothing but contempt for them.

"What is it?" I turned around.

"The Shadow...... seems to have changed somehow." The old servant's expression was very serious.

The two of us made our way to the front line.

The old servant cast a spell and carried me up into the air with her.

From high above, I could see that the Shadow creatures pouring out of the pit did look different.

It wasn't just the numbers — the special variants I'd encountered before, like the arm creature, the fusion creature, and the skull creature, were showing up in much greater numbers, too.

A massive wave of Shadow creatures surged out of the pit and rushed toward the crystal people's defensive line at the energy center.

I watched the Shadow below at the front line closely, and my expression gradually grew serious.

It wasn't just that the proportion of special variants had increased — as time went on, the total number of Shadow creatures pouring out of the pit kept growing as well.

Both the quantity and quality of the Shadow were getting stronger.

"What's going on?"

I watched the flood of monsters pouring out of the pit below, and the special variants now made up the majority.

The weak fodder I'd fought in the dungeon before was barely showing up anymore.

"Has the Shadow ever changed like this before?"

"No." The old servant shook her head. "We know the Shadow well, but nothing like this has ever happened."

"What do you mean?"

"By all accounts, after this much time, the Shadow should have exhausted its forces long ago. But this time it's already lasted far longer than any previous occurrence. And there's no sign of it running out. It's like...... it's like......"

"Like you — with an unlimited power source."

"Exactly......"

I instinctively looked up, my gaze cutting through the darkness and the fading mist, stretching all the way to the crystal lake.

"This Shadow isn't going to end."

"The magic circuit......" The old servant quickly caught on.

The Shadow had already corrupted the castle's magic circuit. By now, the energy of the Mana Stone lake was likely being used by the Shadow......

"We need to get back." I snapped out of it and said, "The priority right now is to take the energy tower as fast as possible and deal with the corrupted Runic Array. If I'm right, the Shadow is only going to keep growing. We won't be able to hold the line forever."

"Understood." The old servant grasped the seriousness of the situation.

There was no time to take the energy tower slowly, floor by floor. If we kept dragging it out, the Shadow would eventually swallow everything here.

We hurried back to the energy center.

Sure enough, the front line between the crystal people and the Shadow was already expanding.

At the rate the Shadow was growing, it wouldn't be long before they were the ones surrounded.

Back at the base, I gave Youngest Princess a quick rundown of what was happening.

I immediately ordered the crystal people to change their approach to taking the tower.

No more holding back — if anything, I was throwing troops away as fast as possible. Large numbers of regular combat crystal people were mixed in with suicide bombers and sent into the tower together.

The gap between each assault wave was cut down.

Their orders were all changed to push forward at maximum speed, no matter the cost.