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Ch. 294 The Siege for Two
🕑 Added 2024-02-14 16:00:09 +0000 UTCWar was nothing unfamiliar to Russell.
Though the only war he had truly participated in was the Chitauri Army invasion of New York, he had watched numerous war movies and played war-related games on Earth.
Of course, what truly interested him now was not just any war but a siege that should have been a galactic war, yet it carried a strong medieval style.
If not for Asgard's army having artillery-like ranged units and energy cannons, this Windrest Fortress siege would truly resemble medieval European warfare.
Windrest Region, a well-known region within Vanaheimr, was not only fertile and beautiful but also incredibly vast. Otherwise, Asgard would not have established four front-line camps near the Windrest region.
You see, Asgard had only eight front-line camps in all of Vanaheimr, and Windrest Region accounted for half of them.
After departing from the front-line camps, Asgard's army did not march swiftly. Thor, the supreme commander, rode at the forefront on a black warhorse, unhurried and composed.
Accompanying Thor was Sif, clad in silver armor, wielding a longsword at her waist and carrying a single-handed shield on her back.
Like the deputy commander, the Three Warriors were not currently with the expeditionary force; Thor had assigned them to assist in the evacuation of civilians.
Besides Thor, Russell, and Sif, there were over ten generals from the front-line camps riding at the front of the army. They too were fully armed, donned in armor, and bore serious expressions.
At this moment, Russell, dressed only in light gold battle attire, seemed somewhat out of place.
What was even more incongruous was that he was currently holding a divine power book and silently perusing it.
As Thor led the front-line camp's army toward Windrest Fortress, the armies of the other three camps were also advancing toward the castle.
It was only upon reaching Windrest Fortress that the armies of the four camps would truly converge and, under Thor's command, launch a real assault on Windrest Fortress.
Time passed slowly. Asgard's army continued to advance toward Windrest Fortress.
Russell had expected Windrest Fortress to send out troops for initial harassment and interception during their approach.
However, reality proved him wrong.
Until Windrest Fortress appeared in their line of sight, they had not encountered any Vanir army's interception or attack.
Although no troops were dispatched to intercept them, it was evident that Windrest Fortress was prepared for war.
At this moment, Windrest Fortress had closed all of its gates.
Armor-clad Vanir warriors stood atop the walls, which were dozens of meters high, and light blue banners fluttered in the wind.
Upon arriving at Windrest Fortress, Thor did not immediately issue the order to attack.
After integrating the four armies into one, Thor, wearing silver armor and a red cape, wielding Mjolnir, calmly walked toward Windrest Fortress.
"What is he planning to do, issue a battle cry before the battle or declare war?" Russell put away the divine power book in his hand and asked Sif beside him.
"You'll see soon enough!" Sif turned to glance at Russell and replied slowly.
Although Sif did not directly provide an answer, Russell soon understood what Thor intended to do.
Upon reaching a position about two hundred meters from Windrest Fortress, Thor stopped.
Then, he began to swing Mjolnir in his hand.
As Mjolnir spun continuously, Thor shot into the sky like a missile, ascending rapidly.
Simultaneously, the clear sky suddenly filled with dark, gloomy thunderclouds.
These spontaneously generated thunderclouds converged over Windrest Fortress, blocking out the sunlight and making the already well-prepared castle appear even more desolate.
After summoning divine power to create thunderclouds that shouldn't have appeared, Thor, floating in the air without hesitation, raised Mjolnir.
As he raised the hammer, streaks of silver-white lightning shot out from it, speeding toward the gathering dark thunderclouds.
In the blink of an eye, the inky-black thunderclouds were filled with dazzling silver-white lightning and the ominous rumbling of thunder.
Under everyone's gaze, Thor, holding Mjolnir high, lowered it with his right hand, and the silver-white lightning from the hammer shot toward Windrest Fortress at breakneck speed.
Boom!
In just an instant, the lightning descended from the sky, coming within dozens of meters of Windrest Fortress.
However, just as this lightning was about to strike the castle walls and structures, a dazzling light blue glow shot up into the sky.
Although the light blue glow didn't carry the same annihilating momentum as the silver-white lightning, its speed was by no means slower.
Before the silver-white lightning could strike the walls, a hemispherical light blue barrier appeared before everyone's eyes, completely enveloping Windrest Fortress.
An enormous, wide-ranging defensive barrier!
Russell recognized the light blue hemispherical barrier instantly, but despite that, he silently remarked to himself when he saw this scene.
Although magic might not seem as reliable as science, magic could achieve the same things as science. From a certain perspective, it could even do them better.
While Russell mused, the silver-white lightning from the sky struck the rapidly forming hemispherical barrier, creating ripples on the surface of the barrier, like rings in water.
When the light blue hemispherical barrier blocked the silver-white lightning, a thunderous cheer erupted from the defenders within Windrest Fortress.
Thor's attack had been thwarted, boosting the morale of Windrest Fortress defenders.
However, at this moment, Russell, who should have kept a low profile, took flight from his black warhorse.
Even though this war had no direct relation to him, since he was already here, he wouldn't remain a mere bystander. If he wanted to be a bystander, he had no need to be involved in this matter in the first place. Even with Odin's arrangement, he could have chosen to refuse.
Of course, if he had refused Odin's arrangement, it would have been highly unlikely for him to enjoy a free stay and learn divine powers in Asgard.
Originally, Thor had intended to use a thunderbolt from the sky to intimidate the defenders of Windrest Fortress. However, it was clear that Windrest Fortress had prepared for his large-scale, full-map attack in advance.
The castle's lord was also someone who had awakened divine power. While his divine power was not purely lightning-based, he still had some influence in the domain of lightning.
It was a fact that the lord of Windrest Fortress couldn't match Thor in the domain of lightning, but that didn't mean he didn't know how to resist Thor's attack.
A few days ago, in the lord's mansion, so many guards had been instantly killed by lightning controlled by Russell. However, the lord of Windrest Fortress had not suffered any obvious damage from the lightning.
Just from this, it was evident that the lord of Windrest Fortress had extensive experience in resisting lightning attacks. Otherwise, even with his strength far surpassing the guards in the lord's mansion, he would not have survived Russell's lightning attacks that were essentially free.
After flying to Thor's side, Russell said to Thor, "They've prepared for a lightning storm. Let me help you!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Russell activated "Power of Thor."
As divine power continuously surged within him, the thunderclouds hanging over Windrest Fortress began to undergo further changes.
The already dark and gloomy thunderclouds became even denser, with silver-white lightning constantly flashing within them.
Initially, Thor thought that Russell was planning to use lightning magic to assist him. However, he quickly realized that Russell was not using lightning magic but lightning divine power, just like himself.
His divine power was also in the domain of lightning?
Thor looked at Russell with puzzlement.
When Thor first met Russell in the Golden Palace Hall, he knew that Russell possessed divine power. However, he didn't know the specific domain of divine power Russell possessed, and Odin had not made it clear at the time.
"Don't be surprised. I gained this power after coming to Asgard," Russell replied with a simple statement, as he couldn't reveal the existence of the system to Thor.
Upon hearing Russell's answer, Thor showed an understanding expression.
Although Thor didn't say anything now, Russell could tell that Thor had been successfully misled by him.
It was evident that Thor believed that Russell had awakened the "Power of Thor" he currently possessed after coming to Asgard to study divine power, and Russell wasn't surprised by Thor's thought process.
After all, Thor had witnessed someone diligently studying divine powers with his own eyes.
When Russell began to unleash the power of the God of Thunder, the thunderclouds floating above Windrest Fortress expanded, flashing even more silver-white lightning.
Then, under Russell's control, six or seven massive, over ten-meter-long, silver-white lightning bolts, resembling world-ending catastrophes, carrying a sense of brutality and destruction, howled down from the sky, striking fiercely towards the semi-spherical barrier shrouding Windrest Fortress.
Rumble!
Amidst the deafening thunder, the silver-white lightning struck heavily against the pale blue barrier, creating enormous ripples with diameters exceeding a hundred meters.
"Why are you just standing there? Let's attack together!" Russell complained to Thor after seeing him floating idly by.
Only after he spoke did Thor react, raising Mjolnir in his hand once again.
Breaking through Windrest Fortress defensive barrier by the combined strength of two people wasn't impossible, but it was incredibly challenging. No one knew how large the magic arrays inside Windrest Fortress were or how much magical power was required to maintain this massive defensive barrier.
However, it didn't mean they couldn't break the pale blue semi-spherical barrier in front of them.
Just like when they forcibly broke the spherical barrier of the Space Stone, as long as the strength of their attacks could surpass the barrier's rate of recovery in a short time, it would create significant defensive vulnerabilities in the pale blue barrier shrouding Windrest Fortress.
With enough speed, they could exploit these vulnerabilities to continually expand the area of destruction, ultimately triggering a chain reaction like falling dominoes.
Of course, achieving this required meeting several basic conditions.
For example, launching attacks with sufficient intensity to create vulnerabilities and having enough energy to sustain subsequent attacks.
If Russell and Thor were the only ones here right now, they likely wouldn't be able to use this method to break Windrest Fortress protective barrier. It wasn't because of their lack of power, but because their divine powers weren't at the level where they could compete with a city-sized super-defense barrier face-to-face in terms of energy reserves.
They were human, not perpetual motion machines, and certainly not unreasonable items like the Infinity Stones that possessed almost limitless energy from the universe.
Not to mention that their divine powers were finite; even the All-Father, Odin, and the God of the Oceans, Njord, had limited divine power within them.
To reach the level of infinite energy, they would need to reach at least the cosmic beings level. For both Russell and Thor, this was still a distant goal.
However, Russell was now closer to this level than Thor.
The reason was simple: he already possessed an Infinity Stone.
As long as he acquired a few more Infinity Stones, such as the Power Stone, Reality Stone, and Time Stone, and spent some time and effort researching and using these stones, he would be almost able to step into cosmic beings level.
To fully step into cosmic beings level, he would either need to collect all six Infinity Stones or, like the Golden God, Superman Prime, spend eighty-five thousand years cultivating at the core of the sun to further enhance his life level.
As Russell continued to attack the pale blue semi-spherical barrier with his incredibly robust silver-white lightning, Thor also began his lightning attacks.
Unlike Russell, he didn't create those visibly powerful thick lightning bolts but generated regular lightning bolts with arm-thickness, searching for opportunities within the ripples created by Russell's attacks.
What was supposed to be a siege battle with both sides' armies facing each other had now turned into a stage for Russell and Thor alone.
Until they dealt with Windrest Fortress defensive barrier, neither the Asgardian army outside nor the castle's defenders would have a chance to show their prowess.
Time passed little by little.
Under Russell and Thor's relentless lightning attacks, the defensive barrier of Windrest Fortress began to undergo subtle changes.
The ripples that should have quickly subsided were becoming slower to calm down due to Russell and Thor's coordinated efforts.
Furthermore, in the areas where ripples were generated, the thickness of the barrier had noticeably decreased.
Although it might seem like the barrier had gone from being ten centimeters thick to just five centimeters, to those who understood magic, this was a sign that the barrier was on the verge of collapsing.
As long as Russell and Thor's attacks continued, it wouldn't take long before Windrest Fortress defensive barrier developed obvious vulnerabilities, ultimately leading to complete collapse.
