Sword God in a World of Magic
chapter-920

After obliterating the second two-star Defender Flag, Shang strategically placed an attack flag, causing hesitation among potential attackers.

The Judgment Palace foresaw the upcoming challenges as they couldn't ensure the integrity of their long defense line.

The longer the line was disconnected from the Judgment Palace, the harder it became to deploy new Archmages.

If the Empress of Death had terminated her contract, the Judgment Palace could have traveled freely through the Land and Sky Empire.

Unfortunately, that was merely a possibility at the moment. Acting swiftly, the Mage King from the Judgment Palace deployed several attack flags in the north of the Land and Sky Empire within minutes.

While the Land and Sky Empire wasn't pleased with this development, they recognized the need to widen their defense line by at least three territories.

This strategy allowed the Judgment Palace to have one territory attacked by Shang, one territory attacked by themselves after Shang's conquest, and one territory left unscathed, providing a pathway for their forces.

However, due to the territorial allocation for Mage Lords, each territory was a massive 100,000 kilometers wide.

Given Shang's ability to attack any part of the line, the entire defense had to be three territories thick.

Consequently, the Land and Sky Empire sacrificed a significant portion of their empire, one million kilometers long and 300,000 kilometers wide, to fortify the Judgment Palace's line.

After the disappearance of Shang's attack flag, he noticed numerous impending attack flags around him, but he refrained from getting involved since they didn't directly concern the Lightning Manor.

The Starlight Queen informed Shang about the developments, to which he nodded in understanding.

Eventually, all the attack flags manifested, creating a formidable and expansive line for the Judgment Palace.

Shang proceeded to attack the territory south of his current location, resulting in the immediate appearance of a Defender Flag on the recently conquered territory.

The Lightning Manor also had Defender Flags in place, as both the Judgment Palace and the Land and Sky Empire had prepared for such scenarios.

Another attack flag emerged south of the Defender Flag, making this particular spot four territories wide. This allowed the Judgment Palace to continue their offensive, forcing the Lightning Manor to allocate their Defender Flag there, thus creating vulnerabilities in their defense elsewhere.

Both enemy empires took notice of this strategy and expressed concern.

If the Lightning Manor continued this approach, the defense line would reach a thickness of 400,000 kilometers.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem as the Land and Sky Empire could simply reconquer the territories Shang had attacked before he moved elsewhere.

However, a critical issue arose. The Empress of Death had yet to sever her contract, resulting in staunch defense from the Judgment Palace even against the Land and Sky Empire.

Therefore, attacking these territories would require the Land and Sky Empire to eliminate Mage Lords with threefold or fourfold Spirit Senses, significantly weakening the Judgment Palace.

If this situation persisted for several years, both the Land and Sky Empire and the Judgment Palace would lose a substantial number of their powerful Mage Lords.

Consequently, the Land and Sky Empire couldn't reclaim their territories for the time being.

The situation worsened when the Lightning Manor employed two Defender Flags simultaneously, compelling the Judgment Palace to further expand the line.

Within a day, the line extended to a length of one million kilometers and a width of 500,000 kilometers.

The Lightning Manor even went as far as using three Defender Flags at once, but this strained their defenses in other areas.

As a result, the line grew to a staggering one million kilometers long and 600,000 kilometers wide, no longer resembling a mere line.

At this point, the territories ceased to shift rapidly, leading to a period of stability.

Shang persisted in attacking one territory after another along the line.

The Judgment Palace would inevitably retake the recently conquered territories, which was precisely what Shang desired.

The rules of the war favored defense over offense, allowing the defender nearly an hour to select the appropriate unit for defense after the attacker revealed their unit.

While Shang was exempt from this vulnerability due to his status as the most powerful being at the Initial Seventh Realm, the enemy was not.

Whenever the Judgment Palace needed to reclaim a territory, the Lightning Manor could observe the attacker and deploy someone with an advantage against them.

Although this tactic didn't guarantee a flawless victory, it significantly increased the Lightning Manor's success rate to around 70%. Essentially, the Lightning Manor traded one of their Mage Lords for three Mage Lords from the Judgment Palace.

This pattern continued for ten years.

During this time, the Judgment Palace likely lost over a thousand Mage Lords, roughly 10% of their total count.

Naturally, the Lightning Manor also suffered significant losses among their Mage Lords. Both sides were sacrificing their Mage Lords in this brutal conflict, but the Lightning Manor deemed it a worthwhile sacrifice.

After the ten-year period elapsed, two monumental changes occurred in the war.

Firstly, it was time to reallocate the Zones, and with the Lightning Emperor no longer bound by the contract, he could employ various strategies.

One such tactic was transforming the Zone used by the Judgment Palace for attacks into one for Ancestral Mages, which was contrary to the Judgment Palace's desires.

Although the Judgment Palace already had access to attacking a Zone for Ancestral Mages, they had lost many of those due to Shang's actions. Furthermore, their numbers of Ancestral Mages hadn't recovered since they lost a few Archmages approximately three millennia ago when they attempted to drown Shang in Death Mana.

Thus, they found themselves in a predicament, rendering the line useless.

There were only two ways to resolve this predicament: either continue the war solely with Ancestral Mages or extend the line further westward.

However, the latter option would further isolate the Land and Sky Empire.

It should be noted that while the Judgment Palace disapproved of attacking Zones for Ancestral Mages, the Land and Sky Empire didn't face such reservations.

Consequently, although the Zones for Ancestral Mages could be attacked by the Ancestral Mages from the Land and Sky Empire, the expansive line created by the Judgment Palace prevented such attacks.

If the Judgment Palace extended the line by another 500,000 kilometers to the west, it would leave the Land and Sky Empire with even less space to launch their offensive, simultaneously alleviating pressure on the Lightning Manor.

Furthermore, there was a looming question: What if this pattern continued? What if, after a hundred years, the Lightning Manor further extended the Ancestral Mage Zone? Would it eventually lead to the Judgment Palace cutting off the Land and Sky Empire from the entire war?

However, even more significant than these events was another occurrence that unfolded almost simultaneously - three Mage Kings perished.