The ladies were not surprised that Paul fell asleep, considering that he not only took an active part in the battle the previous night and healed many people after it, but also stood guard, allowing them to sleep, and now he was shooting arrows for over half an hour straight.
Despite his stage three cultivation, there was still a limit to how much he could do before trying himself out.
Luckily, with all the people around and the ants focusing their attack on this one section of the wall, they had quite some time before it would again be their turn to stand on the walls.
Anna covered him with a blanket, and they all sat down close by.
Irine and Natalie used this time to learn some more from their more experienced sisters, as the last night and today were their first combat experiences in their lives.
As they talked, the battle raged on, with defenders wiping out whole rows of the spirit beasts, not letting them approach the spell markers.
Ants' corpses formed hills in front of the wall, but they didn't relent even for a moment and continued their attack, gaining some ground every time the archers were swapped out, as the arrow rain weakened for a moment, before it resumed with full intensity.
Paul and his ladies were summoned to the wall after three hours of rest to take their place in the fifth line and wait for their turn to fight again.
-I know that these ants aren't supposed to be smart, but it should not be that hard to figure out that they are not getting into the city this way.
Anna said when they moved to the second line, two hours later, and she saw the number of dead ants full of arrows.
-You are assuming that they care about their losses.
Wei Lan said.
-I know they don't, but when we fought them at night, they learned pretty fast to avoid fire.
Yet here, they are unable to figure out that they are not going to break through.
Anna explained.
-It's like we are fighting completely different opponents.
She added.
Her words made everyone around think about it, and they all came to the same conclusion as her.
-Whatever the case, right now we are weakening their forces, slowly as it may be.
So let's focus on that and try to figure out the difference in their behaviour after we finish our turn.
Paul said, but he also felt that something was not right here.
Soon, it was again their turn to stand in the first line, at which time there was no time to think about such things, and they needed to focus on eliminating as many ants as they could for the next half an hour.
The space around the arrow marker was now so packed with the beast's corpses that the marker got buried under them completely.
During the last few hours, the defenders managed to eliminate hundreds of thousands of ants, which was the good news.
The bad news was that this was still not even one percent of the enemy forces.
Additionally, Paul had no memories of the capital coming under attack in his previous timeline.
Even if he was mostly kept in the mansion, he would have known of such an incident, as it was impossible to hide it.
He wondered if he was responsible for this mess by jumping back in time and changing history, causing a butterfly effect.
-It's not your fault.
The reincarnation soul said inside his mind.
Paul hesitated for a moment, hearing the voice, but he resumed shooting arrows a moment later.
-What do you mean?
He asked in his mind.
-The time reversal artifact might be rare, even in the upper worlds, but there are more of them out there.
Besides, your actions in this timeline never changed anything significant enough to trigger such effects.
The sopul explained.
-So you're saying that other time travelers might be behind this all?
Paul asked.
-I have no way to prove it, but it makes a lot more sense than your minor changes to the timeline.
After thinking about it for a while, Paul had to admit that the soul was right.
His actions after going back in time were too insignificant to affect the whole world.
Especially this fast, since he had been back for only a few months.
The reincarnation soul didn't say another word, but its words gave him quite a bit to think about.
Their half an hour in the first line on the wall ended quickly, leaving them with sore muscles again.
As soon as they got down from the wall, Paul cast some minor healing spells on the ladies and himself to relieve the pain and get rid of any possible contusions.
After that, he informed the ladies about the soul's words, which made them all think about their situation from another angle.
-If what you're saying is true, then there should be someone controlling the beasts.
But if that's the case, then this attack on the walls makes no sense at all, unless whoever it is wants to toy with us before he finishes us off.
Wei Lan said, after thinking about it for a while.
-Or they have another goal, and this is only a diversion.
Anna said, still thinking about it.
-Wait, if these are ants, then why are they even attacking on the surface?
Natalie chimed in.
-Wouldn't it be more efficient for them to tunnel their way under the wall and attack the city from the inside?
Hearing her words, they all looked at her, stunned, as none of them thought about the most obvious thing.
A moment later, Paul activated his search magic, modifying it slightly, to look for the things underground as well as what was on the surface.
To his surprise and horror, he discovered that his ladies were spot on, as less than 150 meters from the wall, he detected a tunnel being dug by the ants at an astonishing rate.
It was barely twenty meters underground and wide enough to allow a whole army of ants to march through it once they reached the surface.
Now it all made sense.
The ground assault on the wall made everyone focus on repelling it, while another force tunneled its way into the city, bypassing the barrier and walls completely.
The moment they would emerge inside the city, it would be way too late to stop them, and the capital would be as good as lost.