Free Web NovelThe darkness before dawn had yet to recede. The basin was like a closed giant bowl, quietly waiting for its prey to fall in.
Five thousand fully armed heavy knights charged down the slope amidst Kalian's roars.
This was a torrent of power that could not be ignored. Lances and longswords were held high, like a forest of steel advancing forward.
Kalian rode at the very front, his cloak billowing behind him. freeweɓnovel.cøm
He could feel the blood thundering in his ears, his chest filled with an almost suffocating excitement.
Crystal Rock City was just ahead. As long as they broke through, the heart of the Federation would stop beating this morning.
"Accelerate!" His command was swallowed by the battle cries.
"For the Empire!"
Five thousand knights roared in unison, their voices echoing repeatedly within the basin, as if to tear open the night sky.
However, when the troops rushed to the lowest point of the basin, nothing they had anticipated appeared.
There was no rain of arrows, no explosions, no magical radiance, no ambushes leaping from the shadows—there wasn't even any wind.
It was as if the world had been muted; only the heavy breathing of the warhorses remained, sounding exceptionally harsh in the empty basin.
In that instant, he sensed something was wrong. Kalian raised his hand, about to order the formation to regroup.
Suddenly, the sensation beneath the horses' hooves changed. The rocky ground, which just a moment ago had been hard, cold, and clearly resonant with vibrations,
became soft and viscous within a few short breaths, carrying an unnatural, scorching heat.
His warhorse neighed violently, a sound of primal instinctual fear.
The first row of knights began to slow down, followed by the second.
The horses' breathing became rapid and chaotic. Some began to spin in place, while others even tried to retreat, only to be pushed forward by the flow of riders behind them.
"What's happening?! Is it a trap?!" A knight's voice, filled with obvious panic, erupted within the ranks.
"Your Highness! The ground is moving!"
"Is... is this a swamp?!"
Kalian looked down, his pupils suddenly contracting.
The ground of the basin hadn't collapsed into a quagmire; instead, it was rising and falling extremely slowly.
It was like a giant piece of breathing muscle.
A golden-yellow liquid spread outward along the knights' horses' hooves, and fine, regular patterns emerged on the surface.
Those weren't cracks; they were more like... scales that hadn't fully opened, or veins writhing beneath the skin.
For the first time, a thought that made his spine go cold flashed through Kalian's mind.
They hadn't charged into a basin; they were stepping onto something.
Thump—
A dull roar, almost impossible to distinguish by hearing alone, came from the deepest part of the ground.
Kalian's pupils shrank violently.
He didn't sense any fluctuations of magic or outbursts of battle qi.
There was nothing, yet all the metal became heavier.
Not just by a little, but as if dragged by invisible weights; the gravitational pull on steel multiplied dozens of times in an instant.
The knights didn't even have time to understand what was happening.
At the same moment, the front legs of five thousand armored warhorses let out dense, clear cracking sounds.
Crack, crack, crack—
It was the sound of bones being forcibly crushed when they could no longer bear the weight.
The charging formation disintegrated instantly.
As if pressed down by an invisible giant palm falling from the sky, the knights were pushed into the ground in unison.
Heavy steel armor slammed into the liquefied ground, splashing scalding golden-yellow liquid.
One knight was almost thrown off, his knees hitting the ground hard, causing his vision to go white from the shock.
He propped himself up with his sword, trying to stand, only to find that the sidearm that had accompanied him for years was now as heavy as a nail, pinning his arm firmly to the ground.
Here, steel had become an instrument of torture.
The plate armor originally meant for protection had turned into iron coffins weighing thousands of catties.
The knights struggled desperately, trying to undo buckles and shed their gear, but their movements were stripped of all meaning.
A more terrifying change followed: the temperature of that golden liquid was rising rapidly.
Metal is the best conductor. Heat traveled along the armor, ruthlessly searing into flesh and blood.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!" The knights let out shrill wails of agony.
Skin sizzled beneath the iron plates, muscles spasmed, nerves were burnt through, and consciousness was torn apart by the intense pain.
"I can't... I can't get it off!"
"The armor is stuck fast!"
"The skin... the skin is fused to the iron... Aaaaaah!!"
Desperate screams rose one after another, soon merging into a single chorus.
The "For the Empire" that had shaken the valley just minutes ago vanished completely in this moment.
In its place were the simultaneous wails of five thousand people being welded to the spot by steel.
The sound reflected back and forth within the narrow, curved structure of the basin, with no exit and no end.
The basin began to vibrate. At first, it was just a tiny tremor, like the earth rolling over in its sleep.
Then, the vibration quickly became clear and heavy, carrying an incomprehensible rhythm, as if some gargantuan thing was slowly stretching its limbs underground.
Kalian looked up. He saw the rolling outlines surrounding the basin, which had looked like black mountain ranges in the night, beginning to change.
Dirt, gravel, and large slabs of rock slid off the mountain surfaces like they had lost their grip, crashing into the churning golden melt below with dull, short thuds.
As the outer shell fell away, what was revealed underneath was no longer rock.
It was an entire structure—pitch-black, smooth, and glinting with a cold light reflected from the molten gold.
Composed of an obsidian-like substance, thick and sharp, the pieces interlocked to form a massive frame that defied common logic.
Molten gold flowed between these skeletal frames like blood vessels, transporting a brilliant light source to every joint.
The entire basin was instantly lit up.
In that moment, Kalian finally understood that this had never been terrain; it was a curled-up body.
As the super-giant body stretched, the air was forcibly compressed, letting out low-pitched sonic booms.
The edges of the basin began to move; the original ridges were actually its coiled limbs.
Then, a head so massive it caused one to lose all sense of distance looked down from the night sky.
The head was a polyhedral structure composed of countless precision-cut diamond facets, every angle reflecting the light of the molten gold.
It looked down at the five thousand heavy knights struggling and melting in the golden liquid in the center of the basin, showing neither anger nor contempt.
It was like a human looking at food that had fallen into a bowl.
At this moment, Kalian's sanity snapped completely.
He saw familiar banners being melted; he saw his personal guards frantically pounding on their armor but unable to escape; he saw the generals who had once charged alongside him being welded shut, bit by bit, by the very steel they took pride in.
"Enough—!!" He roared, his throat tearing.
Relying on the high proportion of precious metals in his royal ceremonial armor and his own powerful battle qi, he barely broke free from that terrifying gravitational pull directed at iron.
He didn't choose to flee. He turned around and looked behind him.
In the area that hadn't completely submerged, nearly a thousand Extraordinary Knights who had also broken free were standing with difficulty.
Their armor was glowing red from the heat, their battle qi was radiating almost out of control, some had cloaks on fire, and some had mounts collapsing in sorrowful cries.
This was the Empire's final edge.
Kalian raised his sword, which had yet to break, high above his head.
"Those who can still move," his voice was hoarse but exceptionally clear, "charge with me!"
There were no grand speeches, no slogans of 'Long live the Empire,' only a cruel command.
Hundreds of Extraordinary Knights looked up.
They saw that diamond head blocking out the stars, they saw that terrifying body spanning the earth, and they saw their comrades being melted alive in the center of the basin.
Fear still existed, but it was outweighed by a resolution born from having no path of retreat.
They raised their weapons simultaneously, and their remaining battle qi was completely ignited at this moment.
Hundreds of figures set off at once from the edge of the churning golden sea of corpses, launching a final charge toward that super-giant existence!
"Kill!"
Kalian charged at the very front, advancing over melting steel and flesh. His battle qi burned to the limit, his life force draining with every breath.
He drew his sword—the precious blade that had accompanied him through years of war, its blade engraved with the crest of imperial power and glory.
He squeezed out every bit of battle qi he could still mobilize. His veins bulged, and his battle qi burned uncontrollably as a crimson light exploded around him.
This was the strongest strike of his life.
"Monster—!!" His voice sounded exceptionally tiny in the vast basin, yet it carried a tragic heroism of one facing death.
The extraordinary battle qi transformed into a slash condensed to the limit, tearing through the air and hacking fiercely at the lower limb of that mountain.
It hit. At the «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» moment the blade made contact with the leg structure composed of high-purity diamond,
"Ding." A crisp, soft sound rang out.
That battle qi slash, powerful enough to cut through rock, was completely neutralized the moment it made contact, leaving not even a faint white mark.
The counterforce traveled back along the blade. Kalian felt his arms go numb, and his previously severed arm throbbed with intense pain.
In the next second, the precious sword that had accompanied him for years shattered inch by inch starting from the tip. The fragments fell into the molten gold and were instantly swallowed.
He stood there, left with only a broken hilt in his hand.
The being didn't even lower its head because of this; it simply continued its motion of standing up.
Following that, the diamond head leaned forward slightly.
An irregular gap opened between the crystal facets. Deep within the gap, darkness began to swirl, and a visible distortion formed in the air.
A low vibration emanated from within it, like billions of pieces of metal being dragged toward the same center at once.
In the center of the basin, those knights who could no longer move, the flesh welded into armor, the broken weapons, and the horse bards were forcibly pulled up from the molten gold by an irresistible force.
Some struggled frantically in the air, vainly trying to undo the armor buckles that had long since fused with their flesh.
Some let out discordant cries in the moment of weightlessness, calling for their mothers, wives, or military commands that could no longer be heard.
Others clung tightly to the corpses of their comrades, as if by not letting go, they could fall back to the ground together.
The entire legion seemed to be dismantled into parts, or perhaps crushed into dross, turning into a black storm that tumbled and collided in mid-air before being dragged into that slowly opening giant maw.
Kalian stood on the spot.
He watched helplessly as his legion was swept away layer by layer, saw the banners burning in the air, and saw the figures of Extraordinary Knights struggle for a moment at the edge of the vortex before disappearing completely.
Finally, his own body suddenly felt light. He lost the sensation of the ground beneath his feet and was dragged into the air by that irresistible force.
In the moment of weightlessness, he saw only a churning golden molten sea below, with no living soldiers left.
In the final instant before the last prince was sucked into that diamond mouth, only one thought flashed through his mind.
This world is finished... "Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!"
The sound of the diamond structure gnashing through steel, bone, and flesh echoed in the night sky... The night wind blew from high above, carrying mineral dust and the bloody scent of scorched metal.
The terrace hung above the obsidian outer wall, with a bottomless abyss below. The distant basin, however, was lit as bright as day by an unnatural golden light.
Duke Remont gripped the high-powered alchemy telescope mounted on the railing with both hands.
He saw Kalian standing in the golden molten flow, saw the sword symbolizing imperial power shatter the moment it was swung.
He saw five thousand Imperial knights like swept-up iron filings, dragged along with their armor into that abyssal maw of diamond.
Every swallow was accompanied by the sound of metal grinding and bones breaking.
The veins on the back of Remont's hands bulged, almost crushing the telescope's barrel.
His stomach was churning, and a sour taste rose in his throat, but he suppressed it firmly.
What was that?
A creature? An alchemical construct? Or a god bred by human hands?
He had once thought that the Dragon-blooded Youths hidden in his secret room were the trump cards sufficient to influence the world's direction.
But now, before that existence that used mountains as a body and armies as snacks, all his calculations seemed like a wooden block tower built by a child.
A single gentle breath would be enough to make it all collapse.
"I cannot show weakness," Remont forced himself to think.
He picked up his red wine, using the motion of tilting his head back to hide the uncontrollable twitching of the corners of his mouth.
The crystal glass made a faint sound in his fingers; an almost invisible crack had already appeared on its wall.
The Federation Councilor standing beside him gently swirled his wine glass, his gaze never leaving the golden light in the distance, as if he were admiring a grand firework display.
"Duke, you seem very surprised?" The councilor's voice was gentle and casual. "Do you feel that our ultimate weapon is... a bit too lively?"
Remont did not answer immediately.
The councilor took two steps forward, leaning against the railing, his tone carrying an almost devout expression.
"Please do not misunderstand; it is not some weapon. It is the cornerstone of the Emerald Federation, the guardian deity we have enshrined for three hundred years.
Over these three hundred years, we have sent the purest magic stones and the most expensive metals into its mouth, batch after batch."
The councilor lightly raised his glass toward the giant shadow slowly raising its head in the distance: "Today, to welcome the guests from afar, it has finally awakened."
He turned his head to look at Remont, his smile still gentle.
"In this world, no one can stop an awakened god from feeding—not the Empire's steel, nor that Louis Calvin rising in the south."
A chill ran down Remont's spine.
He set down his wine glass, elegantly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, and took a deep breath to let the trembling in his chest settle down bit by bit.
When he looked up again, his expression had returned to being calm as he evaluated, "Truly impressive. The Federation's alchemy... lives up to its reputation.
That fool Kalian deserved to die. What he took with him was only the vanguard; the Empire's main legions, the logistics system, and the provinces controlled by my Remont Family are still intact."
Remont adjusted his bow tie, straightened his back, and assumed the posture of a Duke.
"I will not be like him, serving myself up on a platter. I know how to judge the situation.
I am willing to bring the remaining Imperial legions and all the intelligence on the Imperial defense system to join the Emerald Federation completely.
In exchange, I hope to retain a place for my family in the Federation's new order."
The councilor stared at him for a few seconds, his gaze like that of someone evaluating an asset about to be inventoried. freёwebnovel.com
Then, he nodded slightly: "A wise choice."
He snapped his fingers. A waiter appeared silently, bringing two glasses of wine the color of blood.
"Then it's a deal, Councilor Remont." The councilor raised his glass in a toast.
Remont took the glass. Even though he tried his best to control it, the wine still trembled slightly in the glass.
From this moment on, he was no longer a Duke of the Empire, but a shepherd dog of the Federation at the feet of this monster.
