The cultists continue to pour into the barrier and you can see the red color from the cultists committing suicide slowly creeping up the barrier wall towards the center of the dome above the kingdom. You watch the barrier slowly shift from blue to red, tilting your head backwards with everybody else in the tower until the entire barrier glows an ominous red and begins to fracture. Then, almost instantly, you hear an extremely loud cracking sound as the barrier shatters upon receiving one final bombardment and it breaks into giant glass-like pieces that fall down towards the kingdom below. Aatu, seeing that the falling fragments of the barrier are about to destroy the kingdom, holds his hand out and warps the space around them to have them crash down onto several of the large vehicles in the opposing army outside the kingdom instead. Aatu then glances around at the sea of cultists that are engulfing the horizon in all directions with a serious stare, who then immediately raise their rifles now that the barrier is destroyed and begin to open fire on Moriarch's front line. Aatu quickly turns and speaks to you.
" I tried to rewind and restore the barrier back in time to what it was before it got destroyed, but I was unable. I ended up having to distort the space around the barrier fragments just like I distorted the space around the Exemplars back in Voldoor. Based on that knowledge alone, it appears that these cultists are capable of tampering with the existence of things as well. "
" Guards! Go check on the mages responsible for the barrier! We cannot afford to lose our most powerful mages before the enemy even reaches our kingdom! "
The King looks back and commands a group of royal guards behind him. The guards bow their heads respectfully and quickly run through the exit doors of the tower, following the King's orders before the King turns back around and returns his attention to the battle at hand. You watch the flood of cultists continue pushing forward, unloading their magazines as another bombardment of artillery and missiles get fired at the kingdom. Aatu immediately uses his power over space to teleport the rounds of the incoming bombardment, having them explode and eviscerate large portions of the attacking force instead of hitting the kingdom.
After seeing that Aatu has turned the bombardment against them, the artillery and bombing runs stop which allow you to hear the billions of cultists chanting in unison, just like the corrupted mortals did back in Somniohm.
" NONE. NONE. NONE. NONE. "
They pick up the pace, using their Voldoorian rifles to kill thousands of the knights standing on the frontline of Moriarch's defenses who are trying to block their ammunition with their shields as the cultists quickly close the gap on the Moriarch soldiers outside of Moriarch's border wall.
Sir Gerard gives another command as the cultists continue to chant.
" MAGES!! CAST YOUR WARDS AND RUNES!! THEN RETURN FIRE!! "
Sir Gerard says as he points his sword outwards before you see several hundreds of thousands of mages within the defensive battalions casting magical spells that put a protective barrier around Moriarch's frontline to absorb the incoming energy bullets. Then, the mages reveal glowing symbols of various colors and shapes on the battlefield between the attacking army and Moriarch's forces on the outside of the border wall. The instant that the cultists step on the glowing symbols to gain more ground, the runes on the ground explode violently with different elements corresponding to each rune's color. Orange runes explode into lava that ignites them into flames and melts through their robes into their skin, blue runes explode into ice shards that freeze their limbs and shatter them like glass, green runes implode into air bursts that suck all of the air out of their lungs to suffocate them and yellow runes explode into lighting that electrocute them and stop their organs from working; all of which are simultaneously erupting thousands of times per second and taking out millions of the opposing forces all around the outside of Moriarch's defenses as the cultists continue pushing forward towards the kingdom.
" How are we looking on Mana? "
The King asks Sir Gerard as the mages and archers within Moriarch's defenses return fire back at the cultists with spells and magical arrows.
" We've exhausted 45% of our total Mana, 30% of which was spent on the barrier. We'll be expected to exhaust the remaining 55% in a couple hours if our mages and archers continue casting at this rate. "
The royal guards that the King sent to check on the mages then return with a look of disappointment before the King asks them a question.
" The mages who were responsible for keeping the barrier up. Are they okay? "
" No, your majesty. It appears that when the barrier shattered, it killed them… "
Aatu looks down, making a remark in a disappointed tone.
" That shield barrier was supposed to last much longer than it did… As long as I'm here, I suppose I can protect the kingdom from attacks from above by teleporting them. "
You look out over the battlefield to see the heavy vehicles readjust their aim at Moriarch's front line and unload another barrage of attacks at the wards that the mages are using to protect their forces from incoming fire. As the missiles and shells explode on the mages' protective wards, a few of the mages break their concentration from the strain of blocking such powerful attacks with their magic. Thousands of the weaker mages immediately fall to the ground and die from blocking the impact of the Voldoorian artillery, which leave several openings in Moriarch's defenses as the cultists close the gap between their front line and Moriarch's.
Once the cultists reach Moriarch's defenses, the knights and mages engage the attacking force with their enchanted weapons which dismember the cultists effortlessly with each swing and thrust. The battlefield looks like a ring of elemental fireworks around the outside of the kingdom as the enchanted weapons make contact with the cultists' bodies, who are now using antimatter daggers to overwhelm the knights and cut the armor from their bodies to kill them. The knights and mages give their maximum effort to keep the cultists away from the wall, but you can see the overwhelming mass of cultists still slowly closing in on the border wall as the knights and mages slowly fall to the enemy forces one by one.
" WALL GUARDIANS!! DO NOT LET THEM REACH OUR KINGDOM!! "
The King shouts out towards the battlefield before you see several of the large stone knights that you saw from before when you first visited Moriarch all emerge from the wall with giant axes, hammers and swords. The Guardians, towering over the men below them, all begin assisting the knights and mages using their weapons and stone magic to alter the terrain, crushing and impaling a multitude of cultists using the rocky ground below their feet. The heavy Voldoorian vehicles open fire at the Guardians, blowing them into rocky pieces and chunks to kill them as the Guardians try to assist Moriarch's defenses, and the Guardians switch their focus towards the vehicles as they rush towards them to attack. The Guardians who survive the barrage of artillery begin to attack the vehicles with their weapons and crush them with stone magic as the fight rages on, but you can still see the enemy forces closing in on Moriarch's border wall despite their efforts to keep the enemies at bay.
Aatu looks over at Reylesh and nods his head as he speaks to her.
" Reylesh! It's time for what we discussed! "
Reylesh nods her head as well before stepping forward and holding her arms out over the battlefield, and suddenly the chanting from the cultists stops and you begin to hear a horrific screaming instead. Looking out over the battlefield, you watch as blood begins bubbling out of the ground underneath the feet of both armies and several demonic succubus-like women begin reaching up out of the blood to grab the limbs and clothing of the cultists in order to immobilize them. You then realize that the screaming is coming from the cultists because the succubi are torturing them with a single touch, frying all of their nerves in their bodies as they siphon the cultists' blood into their hands before ripping their pale and bloodless limbs off like they're made of wet clay. The cultists turn their weapons on the succubi and begin desperately shooting down into the pools of blood while simultaneously trying to fight off the knights and mages and it seems like the enemy forces have finally been stopped in their tracks… that is until the ground begins to rumble as if something large is burrowing it's way under the kingdom.
" Something's not right… "
Aatu says as he looks down over the kingdom.
" There are hundreds of large entities burrowing under our border wall… and they're not organic. "