Bang bang bang bang!
Arrows and spell rounds fell like a storm of meteors onto the narrow position at Thermopylae, sending violent tremors through the ground. The surrounding rock walls cracked and shattered, and flying stones shrieked through the air, rattling against the shields raised along the line.
Some of the more powerful fragments even punched through wooden shields or gaps in the formation, burying themselves in human bodies and kicking up clouds of blood mist and severed limbs, followed by screams and muffled groans.
"Archers, lines of two hundred. Spread out sideways. Five hundred paces ahead, forty-five degrees upward. Fire in staggered volleys. First row, loose!"
Using the rocks and low walls for cover, Alexander drew his short sword and organized the Arcadian archers to return fire.
"Apollo of Light, Artemis of the Hunt, O two great gods above, grant us your protection, and grant death and wounds to our enemies!"
The Arcadians, devotees of Artemis and her brother, murmured their divine prayers, then drew their fir bows. Under the surge of Ether, the runes on the arrowheads flashed with a cold gleam.
Shh shh shh shh!
With the shudder of bowstrings, hundreds of arrows tore through the air and plunged down with piercing whistles toward the enemy figures beneath the shields.
In an instant, several soldiers standing atop the elephant saddles were pierced through the chest and skull, tumbling to the ground, only to be trampled into pulp by elephant feet.
But far more arrows were blocked by raised round shields and sweeping trunks, so the actual losses inflicted on the Persian army by that volley were extremely limited.
"Second row, chant the divine words, activate the inscriptions, fire! Rotate in order. Don't stop!"
Alexander fought to stay calm, but his brow only drew tighter and tighter. In his sharp eyes, he could already faintly see the shadow gathering overhead.
Moo~ Moo~
At that moment, the advancing war elephants had all been turned into porcupines by the arrows, yet their movements were completely unaffected thanks to their thick hides. The pain merely enraged those hulking, slow-witted beasts. Their eyes turned bloodshot, and with their trunks they wrapped up boulders the size of millstones from nearby and hurled them screaming toward the Greek lines.
Boom boom boom boom!
In an instant, the giant rocks crashed down with thunderous force, bloodily plowing through the archers' formation. The Arcadian archer phalanx that had formed the long-range defensive line was torn open again, and the section under concentrated attack was nearly hollowed out.
With the suppression gone, the Persian Meteor Legion and secret Magi unleashed their firepower without restraint. Exploding arrows, screaming spell rounds, and falling boulders repeatedly ripped through every inch of Thermopylae. Lacking any effective means of counterattack, the Greeks suffered heavy losses.
"Rear guard, form ranks!"
Seeing the formation on the verge of collapse, and the black-clad Immortals surging forward like a tide under cover of the Meteor Legion and secret Magi, Leonidas immediately swung his spear with all his might and slammed it against his shield, letting out a near-hysterical roar.
"Bang! Bang bang!"
"Bang! Bang bang!"
"Bang! Bang bang!"
Amid the repeated pounding, like the booming of war drums, the remaining hundred or so Spartan royal guards charged into position through the rain of arrows, spell rounds, and falling stones, forming a tight battle line at the front. The overlapping light patterns of their shields condensed into an iron wall that could not be broken.
The royal guards braced against one another, muscles bulging in their arms, divine markings pulsing across their bodies. Putting all their strength into it, they held their shields one-handed and forcibly kept the Persian assault at bay.
"Roar!"
And as that mass of dark troops entered mid-range combat distance, one javelin after another, long held in readiness, screamed through the air and slammed into the front ranks like missiles.
In an instant, the tough hides of dozens of war elephants at the front were ripped open, their skulls pierced through. Some went mad and charged wildly, some collapsed with mournful cries. The Immortals using them as cover, along with the archers and secret Magi atop the elephant saddles, were caught off guard, and many were crushed underfoot into pulp.
At once, the pressure on the Greek side lessened sharply. The battle-hardened soldiers let out deafening cheers, instinctively regrouped, and unconsciously moved closer to the Spartan royal guards in search of a false sense of security.
Hum!
But suddenly, the figure looking down on the swarming mortals slowly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of cold, indifferent heterochromatic pupils, one red and one blue. Dazzling light radiated from that golden body suspended in midair.
"O Brahma, curse my body! By the divine might of my father Surya, bear witness to this. Burn mountains and boil seas, unmatched before or since!"
As those cool yet magnetic divine words were chanted, a scorching heat poured down, the kind that seared through flesh, boiled away blood, and burned armor and bone alike.
Whoom! Whoom!
Several soldiers, their skin red as boiled shrimp and their bodies curled in agony, ignited on the spot as the Ether within and around them twisted and caught fire. Flames engulfed them at once, and amid their screams, they were gradually burned to ash.
"In the name of our ancestor Heracles, awaken the courage in my blood! Gather souls into mountains, build flesh and blood into walls, and forge will into a fortress that shall never fall! Grant me once more the right to burn, O blood of Zeus!"
Leonidas's eyes were split wide with fury as he desperately drove his divine power to resist the might of the sun. At the same time, his spear scraped lightly across the round shield covered in arrows and scorch marks. He strode forward, straightened his back, and roared from the depths of his chest, the sound crashing across the sky like thunder.
"Roar! Roar roar!"
Almost at the same instant, the Spartan royal guards stood firm behind their shields and hurled their spears at the blazing sun in the sky. Their gathered military momentum resonated with one another, forging a forest of steel spears as fierce as fire.
To live is to burn. Life burns every moment.
But the heart of a god... the blood of a man...
At the very end, in the final ashes, no one knew which would shine with the more brilliant light and heat.
Boom!
In midair, the son of Surya, the Indian sun god clad in golden armor, thrust forward with the spear wheel in his hand. Under the outpouring of golden-red divine radiance, the blazing torrent burned away every spear thrown in its path, then struck the Greek formation ahead like a falling comet.
As the air twisted and exploded, a crimson-black Ether tide whipped up a searing gale, and a massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
When the smoke and dust gradually began to clear, the stench of charred protein spread through the air. Great stretches of the broken wall were simply gone, and the breach that had been plugged with corpses had now become a crater a hundred meters across, with half-burned remains and broken armor scattered all around it.
After that blow, the Thermopylae defenders dropped sharply to fewer than two thousand men. The Spartan royal guards at the core of the army numbered fewer than a hundred, and nearly every surviving soldier was wounded.
"Greeks, stand aside and submit. You have already done all you could. This is not a humiliating defeat, but an honorable exit."
Karna slowly descended, looking down from above. A rare trace of seriousness appeared in his red-blue eyes.
"Friends, this place is Thermopylae. Behind us lies Sparta, and where we stand is Greece! Tell him your answer!"
At the same time, one staggering figure after another dragged battered bodies forward and gathered there, proudly pounding on their shields and shouting back in scorn.
"Come and take it!"
"Come and take it!"
"Come and take it!"
One figure after another rose from mountain paths, broken stones, and behind low walls, stepping over corpses, broken swords, and shattered feathers. They assembled at the front, laughing wildly and freely, venting everything in their hearts, puffing out their chests as they joined the cry.
They were not only Spartans, but also Arcadians, Thebans, Corinthians, Mycenaeans, Thessalians... They came from every direction. They were born in different city-states, but they all shared one name. Soldiers of Greece. Defenders standing upon this land!
"Very well. Since you have made your choice, then on the battlefield there is no need for mercy, and no need for blame. Your courage is worthy of my full strength as a farewell gift. Foreign warriors, words are useless. From this moment on, bid farewell to your destiny!"
In Karna's hand, the divine construct adorned with a solar disk slowly unfolded one metal spine after another, while the enormous spear madly drew in the surrounding Ether.
"Witness the mercy of the King of the Gods. Extinction lies within this thrust... My father Surya, bear witness. Descend in divine might and burn all things away... O sun wheel, submit to death!"
Under the pulsing chant of divine words, the authority of the sun god and the craft of Brahma merged into an unstoppable torrent of flame, delivering a strike of annihilation toward the crumbling pass.
"Rho Aias (The Seven Rings that Cover the Fiery Heavens)!"
"Akhilleus Kosmos (The Little World that Encloses the Azure Sky)!"
At that very critical instant, the sea beside Thermopylae erupted into towering waves. Amid the deafening roar of a tsunami, two thunderous shouts boomed across the sky.
In an instant, layered red petal-like light membranes and a winding curtain of azure sky-lightning intertwined and shone together, blocking that spear of annihilation.
At the same time, a conical war chariot drawn by three divine horses came charging forward at full speed, slicing through several Persian warships like a comet racing over the sea. And amid the blue waves, the tuft of broken green hair on the leader stood out clearly, as did the guy at the back of the chariot wearing a laurel crown, who had just managed to slim down only to end up obviously rounder again.
Leonidas and Alexander, who had already been prepared to die, looked out at the rolling waves on the sea and the azure-red light membrane overhead. Both let out long sighs of relief, collapsed weakly to the ground, exchanged a glance, and burst into hearty laughter.
After holding on for so long, the reinforcements that fat bastard had called in had finally... arrived!