The Katepa Hills.
An unexpected party of visitors had arrived.
Count Jesai Swan, a hobgoblin and one of Marshal Duoluo's top generals who had distinguished himself during the Anzeta Unification War, led an imperial advance force marching south.
Passing through the narrow Anzeta Corridor and traversing the vast Anstica Mountains, they arrived at the Katepa Hills.
The Kingdom of Thrace had kept its promise, withdrawing all its military forces stationed in Katepa, but they had also dismantled their only outpost in the region—Castle Glennan.
Now, what the imperial advance force faced was an uninhabited hill country overrun with beasts and monsters.
They needed to establish a forward base in this barren land to prepare for the Cinder Empire's future southern invasion.
This sounded exceptionally difficult.
Yet the empire was already fully prepared, having long since mapped out the precise site for the new city's construction.
On their first day in Katepa, under Count Jesai's command, the vanguard reached the designated location on the map.
They felled and burned swathes of forest, pitched tents, erected wooden palisades around the perimeter, and set up a makeshift camp.
On the second day, the army's accompanying wizards began broadcasting beacons and inscribing magic circles at the campsite.
From the third to the twenty-first day, an infantry legion composed of tieflings, hobgoblins, and humans swept across a radius of dozens of li, riddling all the beasts and monsters in the area with holes and supplying the army with the meat harvested.
On the twenty-second day, the Imperial Ministry of Magic finally opened a permanent teleportation gate to the Katepa region, allowing a continuous stream of imperial manpower and supplies to pour in.
On the twenty-seventh day, Count Jesai led the infantry and wyvern legions in a raid against an orc tribe to the southwest, wiping them out entirely.
On the thirty-eighth day, the Imperial Ministry of Engineering dispatched dozens of civil engineering players led by Run with the Bucket to assist the vanguard in building the new city.
The City of Tahan—meaning "Southern Conquest" in Draconic—gradually took shape from nothing, rising step by step.
Now, on the seventy-third day since the vanguard's arrival in Katepa, the outlines of Tahan City had been erected. Imperial players, ogres, and frost giants bustled about, hauling materials in every direction.
Massive pieces of engineering equipment built by the Machine Cult were disassembled into parts, shipped through the teleportation gate, and reassembled on site.
Run with the Bucket, donning a white hard hat and folding his arms, directed the construction crews.
"Hey, frost giant over there, stop slacking off!"
"Everyone, look alive! You greenhorns over there, time to scabble the concrete!"
"Ogre! How many times have I told you not to sneak bites of concrete? What's so good about eating that stuff anyway?!"
Having spent a solid year building the City of Isdalia, these construction crews possessed plenty of experience, making them true veteran builders.
Jesai stood atop the mostly completed city wall, the hobgoblin gazing out at the distant hills with his yellow eyes.
"Cunning humans..."
"Did you think that razing your own city and unleashing the monsters would halt the empire's march? Heh, far too naive."
"The south will become imperial territory in the end."
He gripped the firearm in his hand and spoke each word deliberately. In the hobgoblin count's grasp was an exquisite, compact device—the newest "pistol" produced by the Cinder Armory. Handy and easy to carry, he could hardly bear to put it down.
"Lord Count! We have spotted a hill giant lair to the southeast."
"There are... roughly one hundred and thirty hill giants."
Suddenly, a Redscale Conqueror mounted upon a wyvern circled down from the sky and reported with utmost respect.
It was the largest hill giant tribe in Katepa, notorious for devouring virtually everything in the surrounding area.
A grin instantly broke across Jesai's face. He exhaled a puff of white smoke, revealing a mouthful of yellowed fangs as the scales on his brow ridged slightly.
"Splendid."
He raised his pistol high, aiming at the sky.
"Then let these crude brutes witness—"
*Bang!*
"—the might of the empire!"
The gunshot echoed, instantly drawing the gaze of everyone within Tahan City—except for the civil engineering blokes, who were furiously slinging concrete and had no time for anything else.
Standing atop the battlements, Jesai looked around, raised his hand high, and fired several more shots in rapid succession.
"For the Cinder Empire! For His Majesty Cassius!"
"For the Cinder Empire!"
"For His Majesty Cassius!"
"Conquest! Conquest! For the empire's grand design!"
Monsters and humans alike throughout the city raised their arms and cheered, celebrating another imminent victory—save for the players pouring concrete.
Celebrating before the battle even began had long been an imperial tradition. For they knew that beneath the shelter of their emperor's dragon wings, every battle would be an effortless, overwhelming triumph.
And so, rallied by Count Jesai, the grand army of Tahan City marched forth in magnificent array.
Meanwhile, the hill giant tribe remained fast asleep.
These simple-minded, muscle-bound giants sprawled carelessly across the wilderness, clad in untanned animal pelts roughly lashed together with hair and leather thongs.
The sweat dripping from their bodies onto the foul-smelling hides produced a pungent stench, accompanied by leftover bones and scraps of rotting meat strewn about.
The chieftain of the hill giants was named "Bone Club." Armed with the femur of the previous chieftain as his weapon, he was the tallest and fattest of the tribe.
"Huuu..."
Bone Club snored heavily, kicking away a giant huddled next to him before rolling over.
Suddenly, a piercing screech tore through the air.
His instincts told him that this was quite unusual in a hill giant's dull, monotonous life of simply scavenging for food.
"Ugh... huh?"
Bone Club blearily opened his eyes and rolled onto his back toward the sky.
*Is that food?*
So thought the hill giant. Instead of dodging, he inexplicably opened his maw wide.
What entered his vision was a metal sphere expanding rapidly before his eyes.
Immediately following was the fiery flash of an explosion.
*Boom!*
Bone Club's massive, flabby skull burst open in a violent blossom of gore, shards of cranium flying in all directions.
"Roar!"
"Who's there?!"
The hill giants were startled awake one after another, bellowing in rage, only to find their crude encampment engulfed in a sea of flames.
In the sky, Redscale Conquerors mounted upon wyverns swooped overhead in endless succession, dropping bombs upon them and spewing scorching fire.
"Little bugs!"
"They're in the sky!"
The hill giants furiously hurled boulders skyward, but their throws fell far short of the high-flying wyverns.
The Redscale Conquerors had grown increasingly adept at gauging distance; ordinary throws could barely threaten them now.
Even as the hill giants raged in helpless fury, another volley of gunshots cracked out, and several giants crashed to the ground.
The hill giants turned their heads in astonishment.
A muffled rumbling.
The wilderness trembled.
There rode Jesai atop a land drake, drawing the long saber at his waist. Behind him surged the empire's drake cavalry—charging toward the hill giants like a line of moving mountains.
"For the empire!"
"Slaughter them all!"
"This land belongs to His Majesty Cassius! None shall lay a finger upon it!"
Chapter 412