Rewind to the previous day.
Principality of Norton, near Fallen Leaf Trail.
"Move faster! The Master is watching you!"
"This is the will of the Great Red Dragon!"
"For the Kingdom of Cinders!"
Duoluo was leading an army of several hundred hobgoblins and bugbears on a forced march along a hidden route. Their mission was to capture Kenyaza City, the capital of the Principality of Norton, as swiftly as possible.
Though nominally a principality, Norton's territory was smaller than that of many prosperous marquisates. The entire realm possessed only three cities, and three-quarters of its population was concentrated in the city built with the assistance of the Principality of Bosque—Kenyaza City. In the Skandian tongue, the name meant "Place of Rising," carrying the fervent hopes of the Principality of Norton.
Nearly twenty thousand people lived within its walls. Once it fell, the Principality of Norton would effectively cease to exist. The Kingdom of Cinders' strategy was to launch a blitzkrieg against Norton's capital, taking it in a single lightning strike.
To that end, they had brought ten full cannons—heavy siege engines forged by the players of the Storm Armory working around the clock.
Fortunately, the dragonblood hobgoblins were powerful enough that, even hauling cannons, they could march at high speed without being weighed down.
A bugbear escorting Duoluo asked in confusion, "Boss, are these busted iron pipes really good for anything? Feels like my club hits harder."
"Ignorant brute."
"Hmph, you'll see soon enough."
"These are the genuine article—the embodiment of blood and fire."
Duoluo grinned broadly, his voice brimming with excitement.
Having experienced multiple large-scale battles and tasted the sweetness of firearms, this war-savvy hobgoblin had become a thorough reformist, even striking up a friendship with Gangtie Kuangchao, guild leader of the Machine Cult.
The garrison, never having encountered this kind of warfare, was utterly oblivious to the impending danger. They had not even spotted the army of the Kingdom of Cinders, which remained well-hidden in a blind spot.
The well-trained hobgoblin gunners set up their batteries, calibrated their angles, and swiftly completed their preparations.
The hobgoblin skirmishers waited in readiness, poised to advance.
Duoluo wiped his Bloodfire Battleaxe, tore off a scrap of minced flesh stuck to the blade, and roared, "Fire!"
Obeying the order, the hobgoblins loaded the shells into the barrels.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The cannons screamed, unleashing rolling thunder across the earth.
The bugbear from earlier clamped his hands over his ears in terror and slumped to the ground, babbling incessantly, "S-So strong... what a terrifying iron pipe..."
"Hmph, coward."
"You're dismissed from personal guard duty."
Duoluo cast him a dismissive, contemptuous glance.
A bugbear terrified of mere cannon fire was unfit to serve as an escort to the Kingdom of Cinders' grand general!
"Hahaha!"
"That's it! Blow them to pieces!"
Duoluo roared with laughter, savoring the delightful scent of gunpowder filling the air. Not even the deafening roar of the bombardment could drown out his laughter.
The Principality of Norton had previously committed the bulk of its forces to the coalition army, leaving fewer than a thousand defenders on the walls.
Never before had the garrison on the ramparts witnessed such a spectacle: cannons thundering in unison, sparks and fire bursting in every direction.
They only saw blurred streaks tearing through the sky before their vision was consumed by the fiery glare of explosions.
Many soldiers on the wall were blasted to pieces, while most of the survivors remained paralyzed with terror, unable even to grasp that war had descended upon them.
"Ye gods... has divine punishment arrived?"
"What in the world is this?!"
"Aargh!"
"Where are the enemies?!"
Having endured centuries of "assimilation" and "taming" by the Principality of Bosque, these former barbarians had long since lost the fearless valor and bloodlust of their ancestors.
Shells rained relentlessly upon the city walls. Battered by the artillery barrage, the ramparts that had stood proud for centuries collapsed with a deafening roar, leaving a breach several meters wide.
That was more than enough.
"Charge!"
Duoluo hefted the Bloodfire Battleaxe in one hand and bellowed fiercely, "Follow me into the city! Crush them!"
Charging at the very front of the line, he bounded into the breach in a single leap. With a savage spin of his colossal axe, he cleaved a dozen defenders blocking the gap clean in two at the waist.
"Monster!"
"Help!"
"Heavens, it's Duoluo the Jealous Warmonger!"
"It's the army of the Kingdom of Cinders!"
Hearing that nonsensical title infuriated Duoluo even further. Leaping dozens of meters forward in pursuit, he brought the flat of his axe slamming down, flattening the insolent human into meat paste.
"I am Duoluo!"
"The mightiest general under the Great Red Dragon!"
"And your eternal nightmare!"
Duoluo brandished his axe, roaring in fury.
The hobgoblin swordsmen and shieldbearers surged close behind, slaughtering the defenders along the walls and freely indulging their long-suppressed lust for blood.
"Damn it, these monsters!"
"I can't even cut them!"
"Are those scales?!"
Under the lightning assault of the Kingdom of Cinders, the garrison on the walls crumbled completely, fleeing in panic.
Meanwhile, the hobgoblin skirmishers raised their muskets. At the skirmisher corporal's command to fire at will, they unleashed volleys, picking off heads peeking over the battlements and sending defender after defender tumbling from the ramparts.
Soon, the nearly one thousand defenders were entirely wiped out.
By this point, it could hardly be called a battle; it was an outright, one-sided slaughter.
And it had taken merely an hour.
To put it crudely, slaughtering a thousand pigs might have taken longer, yet the army of the Kingdom of Cinders had wiped out the defenders in sixty minutes flat.
Duoluo, transforming into a veritable killing machine, had cut down over a hundred men with his own hands.
"Something's wrong at the walls!"
"What's happening out there?"
"I think there are enemies!"
"I thought I heard thunder."
"Damn it, what on earth is going on?"
Within the city, the residents had yet to realize what had transpired. Anxious and terrified, they had no idea their city had already fallen.
Yet soon enough, the truth dawned on them.
A resounding dragon roar echoed across the sky.
"Roaaar—"
A terrifying fiery illusion of a red dragon materialized above the city. Golden vertical pupils gazed down upon the land, and outspread wings resembled a dancing sea of fire poised to burn the entire city to ash.
"Gods above..."
"What kind of monster is that?!"
"I... I know what that is..."
"Is that the legendary Purgatory Scourge?!"
Dumbfounded and terrified by the colossal phantom of the dragon in the sky, the populace fell into sheer panic, the streets erupting in clamor.
"Greetings, residents of Kenyaza."
The sky-bound monster actually spoke, its voice deep, majestic, and overwhelmingly oppressive.
"I have come to inform you."
"From this moment forth, there is no longer any so-called Principality of Norton. There is only the Kingdom of Cinders."
"To all of you: the Kingdom of Cinders."
Chapter 161