Free Web NovelChapter 616: Chapter 616: The Collapsing City Wall
Chapter 616: The Collapsing City Wall
"As expected of a weapon left from the Fadlan Empire era. It can destroy our tanks so easily. But since that’s the case, there’s no need for us to hold back."
The hobgoblin gazed coldly at the overhead imagery transmitted by the bipedal wyverns and sneered.
"Just like His Majesty Cassius said—that phrase—’kill the chicken to scare the monkey.’ Right now, Saint Theo City is the chicken about to be slaughtered. I’ll let all Aetherians see what happens to those who resist the Empire."
His voice was sonorous and forceful. A fierce gleam shone in his muddy yellow eyes, and his scale-covered crimson face twisted with malice.
This hobgoblin officer was the supreme commander of the Fourth Army in this Blitzkrieg operation, the one leading the siege of Saint Theo—Arturo Redspine, the Dragonblood Marquis with legendary military merit.
As Duke Dolo’s confidant, a key member of the Empire’s military, and one of the representatives of the "ultra-hawkish" faction, Arturo wasn’t about to let this chance slip away.
With a decisive motion, Arturo drew the military saber from his waist and raised it high, roaring with all his might: "All troops—attack at full force! Reduce this city to scorched earth!"
His face was twisted with fury, saliva flying, while the pure gold general’s star on his shoulder gleamed brilliantly.
His roar, amplified by magical communicators into infinite electromagnetic waves, echoed into every tank and armored vehicle on the battlefield.
Before his voice even faded, the battlefield erupted into an angry roar. The ground trembled violently, quaking underfoot. Fire and thick smoke surged into the sky.
The battlefield boiled over!
"Boom——"
Over a hundred tanks fired in unison. Even the ground quaked and collapsed beneath the forceful recoil. Black smoke erupted from their barrels, darkening half the sky.
Blinding flames formed a line, shells trailing smoke ripped through the sky, crisscrossing to form a dense web of fire that crashed against the towering, fortified walls of Saint Theo.
"Boom!"
A fierce explosion made the entire city tremble. Raging fire nearly consumed the whole city. Billowing smoke blanketed Saint Theo’s skies.
"Amanata! Is this the end of days?"
"How do we stop this! I want no part in this war!"
"D-Damn it."
People looked up at the smoke-choked sky, witnessing an apocalyptic sight, their cries filled with fear and panic.
In that moment, faced with a catastrophe, the citizens of Saint Theo lost all reason, fleeing in all directions. The city plunged into chaos.
The shockwaves from the explosions made the outer defensive barrier flicker violently, cracks like spiderwebs forming. The walls swayed, causing several soldiers to lose their footing and plummet to their deaths.
Kallen stood atop the rampart, raising his longsword and pointing forward with gritted teeth: "Warriors! Do not retreat! Crush them!"
The soldiers beside the Sun God’s ballista cranked the winches with all their might, loading massive bolts again and again. But under the smoke cover, they couldn’t even see their targets.
Rays of light pierced the sky, only to vanish into the smoke and dust. Compared to the Ember Empire’s overwhelming bombardment, their efforts seemed laughable.
Seeing the weakening barrier riddled with cracks, Kallen turned to the mages and asked urgently, "Mr. Zaran, can you and your colleagues repair our defense array?"
Zaran shook his head grimly, sighing: "With our strength, we can only sustain the Shining Web above the city. We no longer have the power to maintain such a complex barrier."
"Lord Kallen, the Ember Empire’s assault is far more intense than anyone anticipated. I don’t think we can hold out much longer."
Kallen frowned. "You’re saying I should abandon this city? You want me to hand over Saint Theo, the city of the Fadlan Empire, to the Ember Empire? To flee like a rat scurrying from the light?"
His expression turned angry, his tone sharp. Flames flickered in his golden eyes.
"Lord Kallen, now is not the time for pride. Please let go of the illusions of the past and see the truth."
Zaran raised his gaze and pointed his staff toward the smoke- and fire-covered sky, his voice heavy.
"The fall of Saint Theo is inevitable. We have no means of stopping it.
"Lord Kallen, please conserve your strength. Don’t act recklessly. Our only hope to turn this around lies in the decisive battle at Collins City."
Kallen knew Zaran wasn’t wrong. Against such relentless shelling from the Ember Empire, even someone of divine descent like him couldn’t change the outcome.
The Sun God’s ballista atop Saint Theo’s wall could fell a dragon—but it could not hold off an entire armored legion of steel behemoths.
Yet he still felt unwilling. To him, Fadlan represented conquest, victory, and glory. They should be the ones conquering the world. How could they fall into ruin, losing their lands to invaders?
Kallen stayed silent for a long while before muttering, "Sir Zaran, I can’t give up the homeland of Fadlan." freewebnσvel.cøm
"Boom!"
Another deafening blast. The wall shook violently as the Ember Empire’s specially-made armor-piercing, anti-magic shells tore into the barrier.
Then came a succession of similar shells, creating a chain of explosions.
In an instant, circular cracks appeared across the barrier, rapidly spreading until the entire array was riddled with fractures.
"Crack!"
Finally, with a crisp shatter, the barrier—a product of dozens of archmages and guardian of the city for decades—crumbled under the strain.
"This is bad! Retreat!"
Zaran’s face changed drastically. He hadn’t expected the barrier to break so quickly.
Next moment, the Ember Empire’s mortars roared, shells tracing high arcs in the sky as they homed in on the soldiers atop the wall.
"Boom!"
Explosions tore through the wall, stone and dust flying, fire blazing. Soldiers screamed in panic, many swallowed by blasts before they could escape.
Kallen flapped his wings and rose into the air, brandishing his divine longsword. He slashed wildly, intercepting and detonating over a dozen shells mid-air.
Yet compared to the Empire’s concentrated firepower, the effort of one divine-blooded marquis was negligible.
Though he protected a dozen soldiers and a stretch of wall dozens of meters long, the Empire’s shells rained down on every defense of Saint Theo without pause.
The towering city wall was scarred and battered, gaping holes ripping through its mighty structure.
More wyverns swooped down from the skies, their steel wings shrieking as they cut through the air.
Kallen flapped hard, soaring upward, raising his divine longsword above his head and shouting hoarsely: "Fadlan will never retreat!"
Amidst the tidal charge of hundreds of wyverns, Kallen looked minuscule.
"Shhhk——"
Then golden flames burst from his sword, cleaving the wyvern horde down the middle. Several bipedal wyverns shrieked and exploded midair.
Others dodged and twisted away from his strikes, continuing their flight over Saint Theo, releasing hundreds of deadly bombs.
"Boom! Boom!"
Dozens of bombs were intercepted by the mages’ Shining Web and exploded midair, scattering flaming shrapnel over the city like rain.
Buildings caught fire. Fleeing citizens were struck by shrapnel, some even having half their heads sliced off.
Then the bombs that slipped through exploded across the city, devouring both people and buildings in fire and smoke.
Survivors knelt among the rubble, gazing skyward in despair. No sun—only black smoke and the faint outline of "Death."
"God... What did we do wrong to deserve this punishment?"
"Hell! This is hell itself!"
"We’re all sinners... Lord Amanata has forsaken us. This is divine wrath!"
Amidst the burning wasteland, madness took hold. The city’s order was shattered, leaving only cries of despair and screams of insanity.
"No... it shouldn’t be like this."
Looking down at the once-prosperous, now-ruined city, hearing the shrieks of wyverns and the thunder of artillery, feeling the searing, acrid air.
Kallen flapped his wings. Confusion clouded his nearly perfect face.
"Lord Amanata... Have you really abandoned us?
"Lord Walter, if it were you—what would you do? Am I truly to give up this city and become the coward I despise?"
Too conspicuous in the sky, the divine-blooded had already slain many wyverns and intercepted over a hundred shells.
So the Ember Empire’s artillery focused on him. Countless armor-piercing and anti-magic shells locked on, trying to shoot down this angelic warrior.
The Empire’s player army had already reached just a hundred meters outside the city. Some raised staves and chanted spells, others drew magic bows, some aimed magi-tech sniper rifles, and a few even hurled forbidden spell bombs.
To them, this wasn’t a fearsome divine warrior—it was a walking bounty of EXP and battle merit!
"Shoot that birdman down!"
"Hahaha! Kill him! For the Empire!"
In an instant, radiant arrows, blazing spears, poisoned darts, null-magic shells, freezing ice spikes—all manner of dazzling attacks surged toward Kallen.
"Boom!"
With a thunderous crash, an enormous explosion erupted midair. The sky itself cracked. Dazzling flames and thick smoke engulfed the angel-blooded warrior.
"Is he dead?"
"Who got the EXP notification?"
Suddenly, two blinding beams pierced the smoke, followed by more explosions that consumed several players.
"Ignorant mortals!"
Everyone looked up. Kallen stood wielding his divine longsword, eyes blazing like fire, radiating the presence of a true angel descended.
His snow-white wings flapped, dispersing the smoke and ash, raising a gale that swept the battlefield.
"Who gave you the courage—to challenge the blood of the Sun God?"
Kallen roared, raising his sword. The intricate divine patterns on the blade lit up, unleashing blinding divine flames.
A pillar of red-gold fire soared skyward, piercing the clouds. Countless flaming meteors fell like divine wrath from heaven.
Within moments, dozens of players charging the city were turned to ash by falling fire.
This was the angel-blooded of holy Fadlan—the fearsome army that once followed the "Sun King" Aragon I in conquering the multiverse!
"Glory to Fadlan!"
Kallen raised his arm in a rallying cry—but even his voice was drowned in the thunder of explosions and screaming shells.
The player deaths did nothing to weaken the Ember Empire’s bombardment. Shells and bombs rained down even heavier upon Saint Theo.
"Boom——"
Suddenly, a deep rumble echoed behind Kallen, followed by screams of panic and terror.
"It’s collapsing! The wall is collapsing! It’s going to crush us!"
"Get out of here!"
He turned. Smoke and dust filled the air. The city wall crumbled completely under the Empire’s relentless barrage.
Saint Theo wailed, a cry that shook the heavens. Hundreds of meters of wall collapsed in a roar. Dust choked the air. Countless soldiers and citizens were buried beneath the rubble.
"Lord Kallen, we must go! To Collins City! We can’t stay here!" Zaran flew over using a flight spell, urging him urgently.
His fellow mages had already left using mass teleportation before the wall fell. To him, Saint Theo’s fall was inevitable.
No matter how many tanks they destroyed or soldiers they killed, it wouldn’t defeat the Ember Empire. Their only hope—was to slay the Crimson Red Dragon.
"We... did we lose?"
Kallen hovered in the sky, wings slowly flapping, his gaze dim.
He looked at the ruined city below, then turned to the charging steel beasts and wyverns. His golden eyes showed confusion once more.
"Boom!"
Another explosion struck near him, blocked only by his divine shield.
Under bombardment, Zaran cast a teleport spell. His form blurred, but he still called out urgently: "Lord Kallen, we haven’t lost!
"We will win! Fadlan will triumph—but not here! Duke Walter needs you!"
At last, Kallen clenched his jaw. Resolve shone in his eyes. He said slowly and firmly: "We... will be victorious."
The angel-blooded raised his longsword high. Light gathered at the tip. His form grew translucent.
Moments later, countless shells rained down on his previous position, erupting into fierce explosions—but he was already gone.
The steel behemoths rampaged across the land, steam and smoke billowing as they charged into the scorched, ruined city. There was no resistance.
They had successfully captured Saint Theo—or perhaps, completely destroyed this once-glorious city.
On July 15, New Calendar Year 1789, the military stronghold of Northern Aether—Saint Theo City—fell. That same afternoon, five other major cities including Calvin, Farin, and Asher also fell. freewebnoveℓ.com
Three days later, another seventeen cities—including Bertrand, Mitchell, and Graywood Fortress—were successively seized by the Ember Empire.
By July 30, in just nineteen days, under the Empire’s thunderous offensive, every city in Northern Aether—except Collins—had fallen. Almost all important territories were under Ember control.
The Ember Empire’s "Blitzkrieg" shocked the world. The powers of the Feianso continent hadn’t even reacted before the news of Northern Aether’s collapse swept across the land.
And the Grand Duke of Northern Aether—once the "Wing of Fadlan," Walter Graham—led the remnants of his army in a last stand at Collins City, awaiting the final battle.
"With lightning-fast, brutal tactics, the Ember Empire appeared on the stage of the Feianso continent, forcefully declaring its presence and tolling the death knell of the old Fadlan order."
——"Feianso Chronicle", Todd Brown
"...His Majesty Wilhelm told me not to worry, but I’m already considering advancing further south.
"Damn it, these arrogant Fadlan folk still wallow in their delusions. They have no idea how terrifying that red dragon is. They’ll pay the price for it."
——"Luton Journal"
