CHAPTER 677

【 TWO PRONGED ATTACK 】

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The strange ellipsoid object did not appear to be very large at first, since it was only barely visible to the naked eye.

With nothing else in the sky to serve as a reference point, the lookout simply grew more cautious as he watched it draw closer and closer, although he did not yet take further action.

“Is it a magical beast?”

The guard muttered in confusion.

As the minutes passed, however, the flying object began to descend. It grew larger with every moment, and its outline became increasingly distinct.

When the lookout finally recognized the clearly artificial black dragon emblem and the scepter symbol engraved along the side of the object, his expression shifted to alarm.

“No. That is a man made construct! It must belong to a mage.”

He hurried to the other side of the tower and seized the metal tube fixed to the wall. He picked up a metal cone and tapped it sharply against the tube.

The tube extended down to the base of the tower. Anything spoken into it at the top could be clearly heard by the guards below. It was the most reliable tool for relaying urgent alerts, and every soldier stationed here had been trained to use it without hesitation.

With the guard’s strikes, the tube vibrated and produced a long metallic echo that carried through the entire structure.

Only a few seconds later, a voice rose from within the tube.

“What is happening?”

“There is a mysterious object in the sky! It looks artificial, possibly a reconnaissance puppet created by a mage. It is descending toward the city.”

The lookout replied, keeping his eyes fixed on the approaching contraption.

Yet the moment he finished speaking, the lookout felt as if the entire world had suddenly darkened.

A heavy tremor ran through his chest. He snapped his gaze toward the window and saw that the mysterious object had already descended to only a few hundred meters above the ground. Its immense body now has mostly blocked out the sun, casting a vast shadow over the tower and much of the fortress below.

The flying contraption continued to slow its descent, its motion steady and deliberate, until it hovered directly above Fort Forzel, the stronghold that guarded Augsburg City.

At this distance, every detail of the object have became unmistakably clear.

He could see a gondola suspended beneath the ellipsoid, shaped like the hull of a ship, with several humanoid figures moving inside it as though performing some tasks. A complex magical array glowed beneath the gondola.

“Gods above… What is that!?”

Staring up at the colossal object overhead, the lookout gaped in shock, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight.

Suddenly, the gondola beneath the object opened its hatch and countless glimmering objects began to fall from it, drifting down like snowflakes.

At first they seemed weightless, almost gentle as they descended in slow motion. But the farther they dropped, the larger and heavier they became, and the guard soon saw them clearly.

Those looked like stones inscribed with magical arrays!

A sharp sense of foreboding surged through him.

The strange stones plummeted from the sky with gathering speed. As they fell, each one began to ignite, then became fully engulfed by flames that wrapped their surfaces in blazing light. ɽÁΝò𝐛Е§

Seeing this, the guard’s face changed drastically.

“This is bad! Enemy attack! We are under attack!”

He rushed to sound the alarm bell, his hand shooting toward the rope, but it was already too late.

The flaming stones struck Fort Forzel like a storm of meteors as explosions erupted throughout the fortress.

The thunderous blasts shook the entire ground. One wave followed another with no pause in between.

The garrison stared upward in confusion. They had not even understood how could such a huge airborne object appeared just like that before they were overwhelmed by the sudden rain of fire.

The alarm bell finally rang out, its sharp tone echoing through the chaos. Explosions rolled across the fortress. Smoke rose in thick columns and darkened the sky while shouts and screams filled the air.

“Its terrible! The Empire is attacking us from the sky!”

“It is a flying magical fortress. They actually have a flying magical fortress!”

Panic spread throughout the stronghold as the bombardment continued.

“Damn it, what happened?!”

A middle aged man in mage robes stepped out of the keep. His expression darkened as he took in the devastation spreading across the courtyard.

He lifted his gaze and immediately spotted the culprit hovering in the sky, along with the continuous downpour of burning stones that streaked downward like a shower of meteorites.

“Mana ores carved with explosive arrays..?”

The man spoke through clenched teeth as his expression grew grave.

Without hesitation, he seized a nearby guard who was desperately trying to put out a fire and barked a sharp order.

“Quick! Go to the Temple of Twilight and tell them to activate the city’s holy barrier at once!”

The guard nodded in panic and sprinted away.

The mage looked again at the airborne construct. Specifically, at the black dragon emblem and the scepter symbol painted on its side.

“Do not panic! Those emblems do not belong to any Noble Household of the Empire. That flying object must be a creation of those lawless elven mercenaries!”

He raised his staff high as he shouted to the nearby troops.

“Point the ballistae and mana ore cannons at it! Prepare to counterattack!”

His gaze snapped around in irritation.

“Archers. Where are those damn archers!? Work with the mages and fire anything that you got at that contraption above us!”

Following his orders, the fortress garrison began to move.

Soldiers sprinted across the courtyard as they dodged the falling bombs, diving behind walls and overturned carts for cover before rushing to push the city’s ballistae into position. One by one, the massive machines were dragged to clear ground and aimed toward the sky.

The boldest among them climbed to the battlements despite the constant threat of explosions. Shrapnel and burning debris struck the stone around them, yet they continued upward without hesitation.

Working in small groups, the guards manned the fixed heavy crossbows and the few mana ore cannons the fortress possessed. Every weapon capable of reaching the sky was raised toward the monstrous flying object above the city.

The defenders launched their counterattack with remarkable speed. With the thunder of cannons and the sharp hiss of heavy bolts, charged magic rounds and massive bolts streaked upward, leaving trails of smoke in their wake as they flew toward the airborne fortress.

However, just as these attacks were about to strike the massive object, a faint glow surfaced across its exterior.

Complex and radiant magical arrays ignited along its hull, forming shifting patterns that wrapped around it like a curtain of light.

A couple of seconds later, golden radiance gathered around the structure, forming a pale golden barrier that shimmered like a second shell.

The ground attacks reached their target in an instant, striking the barrier with loud bursts. Yet neither the charged shells fired by the mana ore cannons nor the enormous bolts from the heavy crossbows could penetrate the defense. Every projectile slammed into the glowing barrier, halted at its surface, and dissolved into sparks without leaving even the slightest scorch mark.

Seeing this, the middle aged mage was stunned.

“That thing is protected by a holy barrier?!”

The city guards could do nothing to harm the flying fortress above them. Their attacks had failed completely.

Meanwhile, the people operating the object seemed to grow even bolder. The structure continued its slow, deliberate descent before a series of pitch black gun barrels extended from the sides of the gondola, each one rotating with mechanical precision as they took aim at the fortress below.

More precisely, the barrels targeted the heavy crossbows and mana ore cannons that had just fired upon them, as if the operators were perfectly aware of which weapons posed the greatest threat.

Recognizing those familiar gun barrels, the middle aged mage’s expression darkened further.

“Mana ore cannons…”

His voice trembled with anger and disbelief.

Those looked indeed to be mana ore cannons.

Not only that, they were heavy mana ore cannons that was exclusively produced by the Imperial Central Arcane Workshop. The reinforced plating, the unique barrel rings, and the faint glow around the focusing ore left no room for doubt.

How could such rare and expensive weapons appear in the hands of those Elves?

Even the Imperial Army was said to possess only a limited number of them and only the most elite corps were issued these weapons.

So for a group of foreign mercenaries to have several mounted on a single vessel was downright absurd.

Did they somehow buy them off from those corrupt smugglers?!

The thought made the mage’s blood boil.

But the enemy had already launched their attack.

With a deafening roar, the barrels flashed with brilliant light as streams of blue charged energy burst forth, streaking through the air with lethal speed.

Under this sudden surge of magical fire, the fortress’s heavy crossbows and mana ore cannons were destroyed one after another.

The ground shook with each strike, sending stones and debris tumbling across the courtyard.

Fortunately, mana ore cannons consumed immense amounts of mana.

It seemed that the airborne fortress did not possess many high-grade mana stones, as the attacks slowed briefly after each discharge.

After eliminating all the fortress weapons which are capable of threatening it, the flying object returned to its previous tactic of dropping mana ore bombs.

These ores, infused with explosive arrays, were not as immediately destructive as the concentrated blasts of the cannons, yet their relentless, meteor-like bombardment inflicted even greater devastation on Fort Forzel.

Boom after boom shook the fortress. Within moments, Fort Forzel was engulfed in roaring flames as the city guards’ cries were drowned beneath the constant explosions.

Looking at the devastation around him, the middle aged mage stood there with eyes reddened before shouting at a nearby guard.

“What about our holy barrier! How come it still has not been activated yet!?”

The guard replied with a strained and bitter expression, his voice trembling under the weight of panic and frustration.

“C-Commander, the temple priests said that since our holy statue was just recently placed, the divine power that the Gods of Dusk and Twilight have gathered in the city has not yet stabilized, so the barrier cannot be activated!”

The middle aged mage: “…”

His mind felt blank.

The protection of the holy barrier was one of a city’s most crucial defensive measures. Without it, more than half of their defensive strength had been stripped away in an instant.

By this point, there was no doubt in his mind that Fort Forzel would become nothing more than an easy target under the enemy’s assault and after this attack, this fortress that had long guarded Augsburg City would fall to the enemies hands.

The thought weighed heavily on him.

The only consolation, if it could even be called that, was that Augsburg City was not a major strategic location. So even if Fort Forzel suffered irreparable losses, it would not significantly alter the course of the war.

Perhaps by divine mercy, or perhaps because the attackers had simply exhausted their stocks of mana ores, the relentless carpet bombardment eventually slowed down.

After a final round of crashing explosions, the roar of destruction gradually faded, leaving a grim silence broken only by the crackling of distant fires and the groans of the wounded.

But before the battered city defenders could even breathe a sigh of relief, the airborne fortress began to stir once again.

“Hey, L-Look… Look at the sky! What is that?!”

A surviving soldier pointed upward in terror.

The disheveled middle aged mage followed his gaze.

Brilliant golden light flickered within the gondola beneath the flying fortress, pulsing brighter with every second. Then, one golden magical array after another appeared in the sky.

The arrays continued to multiply at an alarming rate as each of them expanded across the heavens until they blanketed the entire sky and covered all of Augsburg City in a great shimmering network of light.

Recognizing the familiar arrays, the middle aged mage finally cried out.

“Elven summoning?!”

There was no doubt about it. Those arrays were the same summoning arrays that had rapidly spread in popularity across the continent, the ones linked to the holy statues of the Goddess of Life which are capable of summoning forth elves in an instant.

Realization struck him like a hammer, and panic overwhelmed him.

“T-This is bad!”

He looked around and shouted, “Notify all units and prepare for melee combat immediately!”

But no one answered.

The soldier who had been following him had been killed earlier in one of the explosions. The entire fortress had become a shattered ruin, with weapons scattered across the ground, most of them twisted, broken, or stained with dried blood.

Oddly enough, there were very few bodies visible on the ground.

Even so, the middle aged mage understood that the number of dead could not possibly be this low. He had seen with his own eyes many soldiers reduced to ashes in the explosions.

Undoubtedly, the fortress was now almost defenseless.

Even the surviving soldiers had completely lost their morale under this sudden and devastating assault, crouching in fear or fleeing aimlessly among the ruins.

In the sky, the various summoning arrays finally finished forming. The next moment, brilliant golden light flashed in blinding waves, and one figure after another descended like divine beings.

They were elves riding flying magical beasts. Their mounts varied widely, including griffins, wyverns, and giant eagles.

The sheer number of them filled the sky. By his estimates, there were at least several thousand, spreading out in coordinated formations around the airborne fortress.

Upon appearing, each elf took something from within their clothing and scattered it downward. The objects drifted slowly, almost weightless, like falling snowflakes.

Squinting his eyes, the mage realized they looked to be sheets of paper.

Soon, those countless sheets fluttered down across Fort Forzel. One sheet drifted directly toward him and stuck to the middle aged mage’s face. Startled, he peeled it off and held the paper up to read.

It was about the size of a palm and written on it, in the continent’s common language, was a declaration:

“An evil god has descended in its true form, the reigning nobles have fallen, plunging the entirety of Maple Leaf Territory into chaos and misery.”

“Yet justice still remains. The true Light shall never fade.”

“I, Sophia von Wells, Godwarden of the Goddess of Life and rightful successor to the lordship of Maple Leaf Territory, hereby lead two hundred thousand elven Chosen Ones in the name of our Patron Deity to thereby declare holy war upon the corrupted King of Red Maple Kingdom and his forces corrupted of the Abyss.”

“Evil shall not stand in my way and I shall not cease fighting until its eradication.”

“This oath I swear upon my soul before Her Divine Grace, the merciful and mighty Goddess of Life, Evé.”

“After this holy war, I will assure that peace and safety shall return to Maple Leaf Territory.”

“After this holy war, true change shall come to the land.”

“After this holy war, whether rich or poor, every citizen shall live in happiness and security.”

“To all who suffer under oppression, take up the weapons at your side. Stand with us and cast down all these corrupted minions of the Evil God of Dusk and Twilight.”

“Victory shall be ours.”

“The future shall be ours.”

“O’ common people of Maple Leaf Territory…”

“For the glory of the Goddess of Life and for the true light of tomorrow, rise with us and fight.”

“…”

The declaration was not long.

However, after reading it, the middle aged mage’s expression darkened immediately. Every line of the proclamation seemed to burn into his mind, leaving him stunned and horrified.

He jerked his head upward, terror flashing in his eyes as he took in the sight of the elves in the sky.

“…Holy war. Those damned long-ears have actually declared a holy war!”

“How dare they?! They actually had the gall to declare one!”

The commanding mage stood frozen in utter shock, his hands clenched at his sides, heart hammering in disbelief. Not long after, faint sounds of shouting and the clash of weapons drifted to him from outside the fortress walls.

Soon, a pale-faced soldier came running up, his armor scratched and dust-covered, crying out in panic.

“C-Commander, it is bad! Riots have broken out everywhere in the city!”

R… riots?

The middle aged mage froze, disbelief rooting him to the spot.

Then his frozen shock erupted into anger.

“A pack of lowly peasants actually dares to rebel against us? Who do they think they are?!”

But his fury quickly shifted to fear, and his fear to helpless confusion, leaving him trembling slightly. Especially when he looked up and saw the elves descending toward the ground, riding their beasts whilst shouting in unison:

“For the glory of the Goddess!”

Their fierce and passionate war cries echoed from above, carried on the wind and shaking his very bones.

Seeing this, the middle aged mage’s face turned completely pale.

“It’s over…”

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