Defiance of the Fall

But that also raised the question of just how those things functioned.
The man that Zac captured said that the silver puppets were dead, but they seemed somewhat intelligent from how they responded to Zac’s attack.
One possibility was that the leader could control them remotely, and even see what they saw through their eyes.

Zac guessed they would learn which was the case depending on whether there was a trap waiting for them at the top of the mountain.
Luckily everything was calm when they reached the summit, and they slowly made their way forward until they found a hidden vantage behind some windswept bushes to scout the summit.

Zac immediately saw the man earlier had been telling the truth.
There were almost a thousand of the silver corpses lined up at the square in front of the summit ’s palace.
Furthermore, Zac realized that all kinds of people were represented among the army, increasing the likelihood that these were people that had been caught and turned into puppets.

There were humans from both worlds judging by their attire, and there were also quite a few Ishiate and Zhix, though no Anointed stood among the silver ranks.
Curiously enough there were also a few extremely pale humanoids that reached roughly to Zac’s chest.

His best guess was that these things were Ratmen or Molemen going by their hunched over posture and long tails, but they didn’t exactly match the descriptions he heard from the Valkyries about their battles at the Ratmen Incursion.
They had more human-like features, and they seemed to be completely hairless.
The real Ratmen were essentially enormous bipedal rats.

’

It wasn’t a species that Zac had ever heard of before, and he guessed these things were either from the other world or something local that lived in these mountains.
But even these odd things weren’t what truly drew Zac’s attention.
It was the supposed leader sitting in front of them on the ground with his eyes closed.

At first look one might think that the man was a captive, going by how he looked.
He was even worse than Zac’s appearance back when he used a disgusting snake-skin for armor and was always caked in blood.
It was to the point that Zac even couldn’t make out the man ’s ethnicity or features since he was just way too dirty, and the only reason Zac knew it was a man was that he had a large grimy beard.

The man had black shoulder-long hair that was so oily that it looked wet, and the only thing he was dressed in was a large piece of cloth that Zac assumed might have been white once upon a time.
However, Zac didn’t relax when he saw the pathetic appearance of the leader but instead secured the grip of his axe with a somber expression.

The man emitted a chaotic power that even made Zac slightly apprehensive.
The freely released aura around the hobo was clearly weaker than his own, but it was something very off about it, almost feeling like a sickness.

Zac also realized that there would be no option fo a sneak attack, as the man soon opened his eyes and looked straight at the two of them in their hiding spot with a smile.
There was undisguised insanity in his eyes, and Zac couldn’t help but shudder when he met the crazed gaze.

“Welcome, lost lambs,” the man said, slowly getting up on his feet.
“I saw you stop my silver guards.
Are you here to make amends by joining the unity?”

“Who are you, and what have you done with all these people?” Zac asked as left his hiding spot and walked onto the large square on the summit, Thea soon following behind him.

“I am Salvation, prophet of the Great Redeemer,” the man proclaimed with a grand voice, the madness in his eyes burning even brighter.
“These ones have been freed from the curse of sapience, and have joined the eternal unity.”

“So you are Salvation,” Zac said, and without another word unleashed a fractal edge straight at the man, hoping to cut the head of the snake.

However, a hundred of the silver people behind him wordlessly slapped their hands together and an extremely thick shield appeared in front of their leader, effortlessly stopping his attack.

“Oh, you are quite powerful,” the grimy man said while looking at Zac with a burning gaze.
“Have the Great Redeemer provided me with the first Golden Guard?”

’

Zac didn ’t comment on Salvation ’s rambling and instead spoke to Thea with a low voice, without taking his eye off his target.

“I’ll clash head-on, see if you can find any opportunities from the flank.”

Thea nodded and actually disappeared by turning translucent.
It was the first time Zac had seen her use this skill, and he had to admit it suited herself and her weapon quite well.
But there was no time for admiration as part of the army suddenly stretched their hands into the air like they were trying to grasp something above them.

The next moment they literally melted into a silver river that started floating around Salvation, making his robes flutter in the wind.
The liquid metal that the soldiers turned into emitted the chaotic energies that he sensed from Salvation himself, though it was even stronger.

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“Those cursed by their clamoring souls are always led astray.
But all will be brought to the fold,” Salvation said as he pointed at Zac, and part of the silver river shot toward him with shocking speed, transforming into a huge lance heading straight toward him.

Zac summoned another fractal edge with [Chop] and swung it head-on to meet the incoming the attack.
But the moment the two forces clashed Zac’s brows rose in alarm from the pure force contained in Salvation’s silver lance.

The power pushed Zac back over fifty meters, and the shockwave from the clash causing widespread destruction of the square on the summit.
Zac’s hands were even shaking from the strain of holding the attack at bay, but it was also clear that there was a limit to the power of the river.

Zac noted that the river had shrunk by around ten percent after the clash, with some silver steam dissipating into the air just like when he destroyed the puppets at the foot of the mountain.
But the next moment the river was reinforced by more silver men liquefying and joining the river.

From there on Zac didn ’t have much time to analyze the situation as the silver river was trying to attack him from all angles like a rabid beast.