Chapter 262 - 249: War Begins! The Power of the Tide of Steel
Chapter 262: Chapter 249: War Begins! The Power of the Tide of Steel
"I have a way to counter the Evil Magic."
As everyone stepped onto the battlefield once more, Jon’s words still lingered in their ears, causing them to unconsciously turn their gazes toward the Giant God Workshop.
The master of the Giant God Workshop, the Prince of Apollonia, had made such a promise.
But what exactly would he do?
Everyone was waiting in anticipation.
...
A cold wind whipped flecks of snow against the Crystal Scorpion Armor, creating a fine, crackling sound.
The heavy scent of rust and scorched earth pressed down, mingling with the apprentices’ suppressed breaths.
Jon’s gaze swept over the twenty faces before him, all hidden behind Alloy Face Armor. His ice-blue eyes reflected the immense shadow cast by the distant Heta County City.
"A pre-battle pep talk might be cliché, but I think it’s necessary to make it clear to you all, to make sure you know what you’re fighting for."
His voice wasn’t loud, yet it cut through the biting wind, landing clearly in everyone’s ears and stirring silent ripples in their hearts.
The apprentices all straightened their backs, their eager gazes locked on their leader from behind their faceplates.
"This is a war of vengeance."
Jon began with a declaration.
His gaze swept over Aaron, then Raymond, then every face, young or weathered. It was as if he could see through the cold alloy to the unhealed scars in their hearts.
"I know most of you have watched helplessly as your homes were ravaged by the rebels, your families torn apart, your loved ones’ blood staining the frozen earth. That hatred burns in your hearts, an unbearable pain."
"But remember—your lives are your own. I brought you here not to be sacrifices on the battlefield. The flames of vengeance are meaningless if they consume you."
He paused for a moment. The cold wind lifted the bangs from his forehead, revealing eyes like frozen lakes.
"Survive! After the war, I want to see every single one of you return to the fires of the Workshop, back to your families and friends, carrying the glory of this victory. I want you to use your own hands to forge a future where no one will ever dare trample on your homes again!"
There was no fiery incitement, only a heavy, profound expectation.
As his words fell, ragged breaths suddenly sounded from behind the faceplates. Then, as one, the twenty of them roared with all their might.
"YES, LORD JON!"
The desire for vengeance and the hope for the future were smelted together in that moment, forged into hardened steel with every beat of their fists against their breastplates.
Jon nodded, then his gaze shifted to the side, landing on the figure who was practically shrinking into her thick Mage Robe.
"Esra."
The girl flinched as her name was called, like a startled snow rabbit. Her fingers unconsciously twisted the hem of her robe, her gaze darting away from behind her lenses, not daring to meet Jon’s eyes.
"Activate ’Fortress’—"
Jon’s voice was decisive, carrying an undeniable command.
"Let the world witness the Power of the Giant God—"
"I... I..."
Esra’s lips trembled, her faint voice nearly torn away by the biting wind.
Having been involved in the creation of the ’Fortress’ from start to finish, she knew exactly what Power these steel behemoths possessed. The cold, two-syllable word "activate" seemed to conjure images of a battlefield strewn with flesh and blood, making her stomach clench and her face turn deathly pale.
Just as she hesitated, a hand in a leather bracer slapped her hard on the back.
"Hey! What are you spacing out for, little bookworm!"
It was Dolores.
She had sidled up to Esra at some point, her amber eyes curved into crescents, sparkling with a mischievous excitement.
"I’ve got your back, what’s there to be afraid of? You’re just pressing a few buttons!"
"Just imagine it! Firing up those big boys and grinding the rebels’ scrap metal into dust! How awesome would that be!"
Esra stumbled from the blow, her train of thought broken. She then recalled what Jon had said earlier—’some things are impossible to escape’.
She thought of her grandfather, of everything she had seen on the day of the uprising...
’In a world like this, I need Power, and I need courage...’
And so, the girl raised her pale little face to look at Jon. Though her voice still held a faint, imperceptible tremor, it was now clear and distinct.
"Yes... Mr. Jon! I... I’ll go activate ’Fortress’ now!"
Just then, Leona, draped in a cloak decorated with orange-red flame patterns, strode forward.
"His Highness Jon! I hear the enemy in the city before us has users of Evil Magic?"
"If that is the case, the Radiant Knight Order requests to serve as the vanguard!"
She struck her breastplate heavily with her right fist.
"We carry the radiance of Po Ao. Our blades, too, can purge darkness for the light!"
"Moreover, we do not belong to the Sun Church and are not bound by worldly prohibitions. So, please allow us to charge into battle alongside you!"
Her voice was clear and impassioned. Behind her, several Radiant Knights also took a synchronized step forward, their Armor clanging, their will to fight burning like fire.
"Please allow us to charge into battle alongside you!"
Jon looked at these Knights from his "homeland," neither refusing nor agreeing immediately. He simply said coolly.
"I feel your fervor, and I will not refuse your aid."
"But just as the finest steel must be used for the blade’s edge, your Power must be used at the most critical moment."
"As for now—"
He looked toward the center of the Giant God Workshop’s camp, where three steel behemoths were slowly rising. A glint of light flashed in his eyes.
"We’ll let these Mechanical Bodies take the lead."
---
Walter stood atop the high walls of Heta County City. The leaden-gray sky pressed down, and the cold wind carried the stench of rust and scorched earth into his nostrils.
His hawk-like gaze was locked on the Resistance Alliance’s camp in the distance.
The sudden increase in activity could only mean one thing—
"They’re making their move."
The voice of this former confidant of the Heta family, now the rebel leader of the city’s defense, was like sand ground beneath frozen earth, carrying a bone-chilling cold.
"Preheat all Magic-guided Crossbow Cannons! Ready the boiling oil and falling rocks! Archers, to your positions! Pin any of those bastards who dare approach to the ground below the walls!"
The orders spread along the wall in an instant, followed by a cacophony of scraping metal and the sharp sounds of scurrying Soldiers.
Then, he whipped his head to the side. A tall, slender figure stood there silently, completely enveloped in a heavy black robe. Only a sharp, pale, and bloodless chin was visible beneath the hood.
The shadows of the wall seemed to flow over him, emitting a nauseatingly sweet odor mixed with sulfur and rotting flesh.
"Now, it’s your turn."
Walter’s voice dropped even lower, laced with the ferocity of a final, desperate gamble.
"For the will of the Governor! Let those arrogant ants who don’t know their place have a taste of true despair!"
"KYEHEHEHE..."
A hair-raising cackle escaped from beneath the black robe.
The figure bowed slightly, its posture twisting bizarrely, as if it had no bones.
"As you wish, Commander... Radiant sacrifices always make the ’feast’ more delicious..."
Before the words had even faded, the figure had vanished without a sound beside the crenellation, like smoke melting into shadow.
The instant the black-robed figure disappeared, disaster struck!
On the inner side of the wall, the huge Arrays that had long been drawn on the cold stone bricks with a dark red paint, the color of dried blood, lit up without warning!
It wasn’t a dazzling radiance, but a viscous, dim, decaying halo, like the light from burning, foul grease.
The halo pulsed and spread like a living thing, rapidly devouring the surrounding light.
Immediately after, something even more bizarre "flowed" out from the center of the Array—it wasn’t a liquid, but a gray fog so thick it couldn’t be dispersed!
The fog moved as if it were alive, silently spreading and climbing along the surface of the wall. Wherever it passed, the metal bases of the crossbow cannons emitted a faint but grating "SZZZ" sound, as if being slowly gnawed and corroded by something unseen. A slick, cold layer of dark moss rapidly condensed on the surface of the cold stone bricks.
The Soldiers guarding the top of the wall first stared in terror, but as the gray fog engulfed them, they seemed to lose all emotion. Like puppets following orders, they began to operate the city’s defenses, and their efficiency skyrocketed.
Just as this gray fog was about to completely swallow the top of the wall, turning the entire section of fortifications into a silent, unbreakable defensive line—
BOOM!!!
A terrifying, sky-tearing boom, like thunder from the heavens, suddenly erupted from the camp!
It was followed by a second, and a third!
Walter, horrified, snapped his head up toward the sound, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks!
He saw three blinding, white-hot meteors high in the sky. Tearing through the leaden clouds with an overwhelming aura of destruction, they trailed long wakes of Energy as they fell with unstoppable force toward the wall beneath his feet!
"BOOOOM—!!!"
A deafening explosion ripped through the air. The wall trembled violently, and rubble rained down like hailstones.
Walter was thrown back by the shockwave, stumbling backward. He barely managed to stay on his feet by gripping the crenellation with his gauntlet.
But he was puzzled.
The gruesome scene he had anticipated—of collapsing walls and flying body parts—did not occur.
The shells’ impact points left only three shallow, scorched craters. A few scattered fragments were embedded in the cracks of the stone. Compared to the tremendous noise, the destructive Power of these shells was almost laughably weak.
However, the real change followed immediately!
In the center of the craters, a blinding white light suddenly erupted!
It wasn’t a flame of destruction, but a pure, piercing light of order—like the first ray of dawn tearing through the eternal night, or a spear of judgment cast down by a Deity!
The light spread rapidly in ripples. Wherever it passed, the viscous, pulsating gray fog on the wall’s surface let out a "TSSSS" wail.
The dark red Arrays carved into the bricks flickered violently. The Rune lines twisted and snapped like dying vipers, and the cold moss clinging to them was instantly charred, flaking off and turning to ash.
"No—!"
Walter’s eyes looked ready to split as a roar tore from his throat.
He watched helplessly as the gray fog rapidly receded under the searing light of order, revealing the dazed and vacant faces of the Soldiers behind it.
The hollow fanaticism in the eyes of the puppets controlled by the Evil Magic receded like a tide, replaced by the sudden terror and confusion of waking.
Some dropped their crossbows and screamed, clutching their heads. Others stumbled and knocked over barrels of boiling oil, the pungent smell mixing with the acrid scent of burning.
The entire wall instantly descended into a vortex of madness—shouted commands, desperate wails, and the harsh clang of metal on metal wove together into a suffocating cacophony.
At the very moment this chaos reached its peak—
A silver-gray torrent of steel suddenly tore through the wind and snow in front of the Resistance Alliance’s lines!
A full thirty ’Gun Cavalry’ Mechanical Bodies, assembled in formation, charged out from their ranks with unstoppable momentum!