53: Chapter 53 Earl, welcome to experience the saturation attack of "money power"

The air distorted from this force, emitting an overwhelmed hum.

On the city wall, Ella Radiance felt as if an invisible giant hand was clutching her throat, making even breathing incredibly difficult.

Beside her, Knight Julius, a battle-hardened imperial elite, turned pale. The veins on the back of his hand gripping his sword hilt bulged, and a low growl escaped his throat—the instinctive tremor of a beast facing its natural predator.

This was the true strength of one of the North's strongest, "Ironclad" Roland.

A power that transcended the understanding of ordinary warriors, a kind of unreasonable violence capable of elevating individual martial prowess above an entire army.

That suit of lava armor condensed from pure Battle Qi was no simple defense.

Ella could clearly feel that every crimson vein flowing across the armor's surface contained a terrifying heat capable of melting gold and iron.

The surrounding air sizzled from the heat, and the grass on the ground instantly withered and charred.

He was like a moving volcano; his mere presence was enough to warp the battlefield environment.

"All troops! Charge!" Count Roland's voice came from beneath that hideous Battle Qi helmet. It was no longer a human roar, but an outburst from deep within the earth, carrying a metallic rasp and unquestionable majesty.

He didn't wait for his personal guard to regroup, but took the first step himself.

With every step, the earth trembled, leaving a footprint of smoldering dark red sparks on the soft soil.

His speed wasn't fast, but that unstoppable momentum, crushing everything in its path, was more despair-inducing than the charge of the fastest warhorse.

The soldiers on the wall grew restless. Some young guards even involuntarily took half a step back, the muskets in their hands feeling like useless fire sticks.

This transcendent power had completely shattered the courage they had just managed to build up.

"Vivian!" Evelyn's cold voice rang out across the wall through a transmission conch, carrying an unquestionable calmness. "Execute the 'Point Harassment' plan, power level three."

Another sharp bang echoed. On the flank watchtower, that slender barrel spat fire once more.

A projectile shimmering with a faint blue light trailed an almost invisible path, accurately striking Count Roland's chest.

However, the expected scene of flesh and blood flying did not occur.

The moment the projectile hit the lava armor, it was like a drop of water falling into a red-hot iron pot, only stirring a negligible ripple of energy before being completely vaporized and dissolved.

Count Roland's charging pace didn't falter for even a second, as if he had merely been bitten by a mosquito.

"Useless... completely useless!" Knight Julius's voice was dry and filled with despair. "That's 'Battle Qi Armor Manifestation,' a technique only high-level Battle Qi practitioners can master! Unless it's a powerhouse of the same level, or an enchanted weapon specifically designed to counter Battle Qi, no physical attack can penetrate it!"

A deathly silence fell over the city wall.

Vivian's sniping seemed to continue, as bangs rang out one after another.

Projectiles repeatedly hit Count Roland's helmet, joints, and torso, but the result was always the same—aside from stirring ripples on his surface, they were useless.

He was like an invincible humanoid siege engine, braving the sporadic "artillery fire" as he approached the wall step by step. His haughty demeanor slowly crushed the last of Blackstone Territory's will to resist.

Ella's heart sank to the bottom.

She understood.

Levi's business methods and psychological tactics were ultimately too fragile in the face of absolute power.

War, in the end, had to return to the most primitive confrontation of iron and blood.

And Blackstone Territory happened to lack the "iron and blood" to compete with Count Roland.

However, below the wall, Evelyn's face remained expressionless.

She simply watched quietly as Count Roland stepped into the land previously "tilled" by the goblins. There wasn't even a ripple in her purple eyes, as if she were watching an actor perform according to a set script.

When Count Roland was less than three hundred feet from the wall, having entered the effective range of most heavy crossbows, Evelyn slowly raised her right hand and then lightly waved it down.

"Signal confirmed." On the wall, a guard holding a flag responded loudly, then vigorously waved the command flag in his hand.

"Creak—Creak—"

The tooth-grinding sound of giant mechanical winches turning came from behind the castle.

Immediately after, several specially modified catapults, hidden behind the arrow towers, revealed their menacing faces.

Unlike traditional catapults, the ends of their throwing arms were not stone slings, but giant iron-claw-like hooks.

At this moment, these hooks were firmly gripping giant wooden boxes, each three feet square.

"Fire!"

Following the commander's order, heavy counterweights crashed down, and several massive throwing arms whipped toward the sky.

Those clunky wooden boxes traced parabolas through the air, accurately flying toward the airspace above Count Roland's head.

Count Roland obviously noticed these "shells" falling from the sky, but he only gave a disdainful cold snort.

Such slow-moving projectiles couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes.

He didn't even bother to block, intending to charge directly under the boxes' landing points.

But just as the boxes reached their highest point and were about to fall, several inconspicuous latches on the sides of the boxes suddenly snapped open.

"Clatter—"

The wooden boxes disintegrated mid-air!

In an instant, Ella saw a wondrous sight she would never forget for the rest of her life.

Pouring out from those disintegrated wooden boxes were not rolling stones, nor fire oil, nor lethal caltrops.

But... thousands upon thousands of light, crudely textured parchment scrolls!

They were like a sudden blizzard, or a swarm of startled white moths, dancing in the sky, scattering and drifting, covering Count Roland alone in an overwhelming manner.

Under the sunlight, the surface of every scroll shimmered with a faint blue and yellow glow, representing the lowest level of magical aura.

"What... what is that?" Ella muttered to herself, unable to comprehend the absurd scene before her.

Using scrolls as ammunition?

How extravagant and foolish could this be?

Even the trashiest Tier 1 magic scroll was worth dozens of copper coins!

Throwing down thousands of them at once was practically burning money!

Count Roland was also stunned.

He looked up at the slowly falling "paper snow." The magical fluctuations contained in these scrolls were so weak they could be ignored. Let alone thousands, even tens of thousands wouldn't hope to budge the Battle Qi armor on his body in the slightest.

However, the moment the first batch of scrolls lightly touched the layer of lava armor on his body, a sudden change occurred!

"Poof!"

A faint sound, like a tiny bubble bursting.

The blue aura on one scroll was instantly triggered, and a ripple of energy, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, rippled out.

This was the most basic "Tier 1 Dispel Magic," designed to dissipate extremely weak magical effects.

For Count Roland's Battle Qi armor, its effect was infinitely close to zero.

But then came the second, the third, the hundredth, the thousandth!

"Poof! Poof poof poof poof poof—"

The sounds of countless bubbles bursting merged into a continuous, scalp-numbing, dense crackling.

Thousands of "Tier 1 Dispel Scrolls" and "Tier 1 Slowness Scrolls" were triggered at the same time and place, forming an unprecedented magic storm!

A single, weak magical effect, upon reaching a terrifying order of magnitude, triggered a qualitative change!

One plus one was far greater than two at this moment!

The magical elements in that area instantly became violent and chaotic.

Thousands of weak dispelling energies, like thousands of tireless ants, crazily gnawed at the solid "dam" on Count Roland's body.

And the effects of thousands of slowness spells stacked together made that space as viscous as a swamp.

The contempt on Count Roland's face instantly froze, replaced by shock and disbelief.

He could clearly feel that the indestructible Battle Qi armor on his body was being consumed and neutralized at an alarming rate.

The Battle Qi output required to maintain the armor increased dozens of times in an instant!

Like a cup being sucked hard by countless straws simultaneously, the Battle Qi he had painstakingly cultivated for decades was draining away at an unprecedented speed!

"No—!!"

Count Roland let out a roar of shock and fury.

He tried to surge his entire body's Battle Qi to stabilize the armor, but the sky full of scrolls seemed endless.

His lava armor flickered violently under the onslaught of the massive amount of magic, its light dimming and brightening, the lava veins on the surface looking like charcoal that could go out at any moment.

His movements also became incredibly sluggish. Every time he raised an arm, it was like being caught in a bottomless quagmire, requiring immense effort.

A temporary "Magic-Forbidden and Stagnation Field," built with money and quantity, had formed out of thin air.

Ella watched from the wall, dumbfounded. She finally remembered an item in Levi's budget report: "Special Ammunition Procurement—5,000 low-quality Tier 1 mixed scrolls, unit price 30 copper coins, totaling 1,500 Silver Lion Coins."

So that was it! That was how it was!

He wasn't trying to use magic to harm Count Roland at all; he was using the lowest cost to conduct the most efficient "energy attrition"!

Using a massive amount of "ones" to grind down the opponent's powerful "ten"!

This wasn't a battle at all; it was a cost accounting precise to the copper coin!

"Now!" Evelyn's voice rang out again, cold as ice.

Before her voice finished, the air-tearing bang sounded once more from the watchtower.

This time, the projectile's target was no longer the solid armor, but the exposed joints!

"Bang!"

Count Roland's lava armor, under the impact of another wave of scrolls, finally reached its breaking point. With an unwilling wail, it shattered into a sky full of light spots.

At the same instant the Battle Qi armor disappeared, a specially made armor-piercing round, wrapped in spiraling air currents, accurately drilled into his right knee before he could fully defend!

"Splatter!"

Blood sprayed! The solid kneecap was completely pulverized in an instant by the powerful kinetic energy.

"Aaaaah—!"

Count Roland let out a scream of extreme agony. His tall and burly frame suddenly buckled, and he fell to one knee.

His eyes were bloodshot. Ignoring the piercing pain in his knee, he tried to reconcentrate his Battle Qi.

However, another gunshot rang out. A similar cloud of blood mist erupted from his left elbow.

His mobility was instantly restricted!

He roared in fury, striking the ground with his remaining right hand, trying to use the reaction force to stand up.

But Evelyn's instructions were like a seamless flow chart, one link after another, giving him no chance to catch his breath.

"Sako, finish it."

Along with Evelyn's cold command, an earthy-yellow alchemical formation glowed beneath the ground Count Roland had struck.

"Give me a roar!" A sharp, excited goblin cry seemed to come from deep underground.

"Boom—!!!"

A muffled roar like a dragon's cry, completely different from the previous explosives, erupted from beneath Count Roland's feet!

No fire, no shrapnel—only a visible, massive shockwave spreading out like a ripple!

The ground churned violently, as if it had been plowed hard by a giant.

This alchemical bomb, named "Earth Dragon's Roar," had only one purpose—concussion!

Count Roland was already heavily injured and mentally shaken. Under this terrifying shockwave specifically targeting internal organisms, he felt as if his internal organs were being gripped hard by a giant hand and then violently tossed aside.

His mind went blank, stars danced before his eyes, and before that pained roar could be fully released, he fell forward and completely lost consciousness.

From full Battle Qi activation to being knocked unconscious, the entire process took less than a minute.

The battlefield fell into a deathly silence.

All the allied soldiers stared blankly at their commander, who had been like a god of war in their eyes, now lying motionless on the ground like a dead dog.

The conviction that had supported all their courage collapsed completely at this moment.

"What are you all looking at! For the five-hundred gold coin capture bounty! Get him!"

A shout full of mundane energy broke the silence.

A team of Blackstone Territory guards, who had been waiting inside the city gate and were armed to the teeth, came rushing out with a howl.

There was no reverence for the strong in their eyes, only the most primitive desire for money.

They skillfully pounced, using several specially made enchanted chains shimmering with faint electrical sparks to bind the unconscious Count Roland like a giant bundle. They then lifted him up and dragged him toward the city in high spirits.

The scene didn't look like they were capturing a distinguished Count, but more like a group of hunters hauling in a priceless magical beast.

On the wall, Ella Radiance watched all this in silence.

Watching the waste paper that had exhausted its magic drifting through the sky, watching the no-longer-imposing Ironclad Count being carried away, and watching the soldiers cheering for their bounty.

This victory had no knightly charge, no duel between heroes, and not a shred of honor or tragedy to speak of.

It was cold, efficient, precise, and reeked of money.

It was like a cold and heartless ledger, clearly recording every investment and output.

Ella Radiance slowly closed her eyes, a deep sense of powerlessness washing over her.

She suddenly realized that the old world she was familiar with and held onto—built on bloodlines, honor, and martial force—might truly be coming to an end.

A new era led by Levi, where everything could be measured by money and numbers, including the outcome of a war, had begun its bloody prologue before her with the fall of Count Roland.