The Final Battlefield

"Enemy attack—!" "Amaunator above, it's the Cinder Empire! They're almost upon us!" Panic instantly erupted among the officers and soldiers along the ramparts. They rushed to and fro, hurrying to their defense engines and scrambling back to their assigned posts. "Quick! We can't wait any longer! Activate Auguste's citywide defense system!" A messenger pushed the door open and burst inside. "Lord Dayev, you must head over now! Defense Sector Three is short-handed!" "Understood." Dayev gripped the emblem in his hand tightly and gave a heavy nod, promptly following the defending soldiers toward his assigned sector. Standing atop the watchtower, a defense officer waved his battle flag and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Hear my command! Activate the alchemical matrices!" *Boom—* Beneath the walls, soldiers strained against the capstans. As the alchemical matrices embedded within the runic fortress's masonry were activated, more than a dozen hexagonal forcefield shields—each a hundred meters across—shimmered into existence outside the ramparts. Meanwhile, standing at the apex of the Sun Tower, Wilhelm watched the Imperial host advance like a rolling, sky-blotting tide. With fury etched across his face, he raised the Spear of Final Judgment high, leveling it straight at the heavens. "My subjects, war has arrived! They come! Let these minions of the evil dragon bear witness to the majesty of the Lord of Eternal Radiance—!" His cool, detached voice echoed over the ramparts, accompanied by the Sacred Chant Choir's increasingly grand and sonorous hymn. Under that sound stirring the Weave itself, the angelic godblood raised their longswords and cried out in unison, sending beam after beam of brilliance piercing into the sky. "For Thrace!" "For the Lord of Eternal Radiance!" In an instant, the pinnacle of the Eternal Sun God Tower unleashed ten thousand rays of sunlight, casting a luminous barrier several kilometers across above Auguste and enveloping the entire city. The barrier arched like a dome, adorned with gorgeous runes and studded with thousands of miniature suns, each radiating a blinding, piercing glow. "A miracle! This... this is a divine miracle!" "Such power..." "Long live His Majesty Wilhelm! Those Imperials will never breach Auguste!" Gazing up at the light-drenched sky, the populace turned their eyes toward their six-winged, supremely holy king. Several kilometers away, amid the blare of steam sirens and the roar of engines, the Empire's Eastern and Western Front Armies had converged, while expeditionary forces from diverse planes poured continuously from portals. Together, they coalesced into a colossal torrent that threatened to swallow Auguste whole. *Roar—!* A muffled, guttural roar shook the heavens as space above the crest of a hill suddenly fractured. A mutated dragon beast, nearly ten meters tall at the shoulder and built like a small mountain, marched out with thunderous steps. Astride the towering crest of the beast's back stood a winged dragonblood hobgoblin clad in ornate, heavy plate, his frame massive and imposing—none other than Imperial Army Marshal Duoluo. "It's Marshal Duoluo!" "He's arrived at the front lines in person!" From the moment Duoluo appeared, tens of thousands of eyes locked onto him, and an excited clamor rippled through the ranks. At the sight of Duoluo, Dror, Arturo, and the commanders of the various expeditionary forces pressed their fists to their chests, bowed low in crisp Imperial salutes, and spoke in unison: "For the Empire." Duoluo nodded slightly, placing his fist over his chest in return. "For the Empire." The hobgoblin marshal rose from the dragon beast's broad back, looked down, and swept his fierce gaze across the assembly of officers and soldiers. Lifting the Bloodfire Battleaxe in one hand, his voice boomed through an amplifier into every ear: "Soldiers! The shadow of dragon wings covers the walls of Auguste! I can smell the marrow-deep dread of cowards, trembling just as they knelt before the ruins of their old dynasty years ago!" "Ten thousand victories! Ten thousand victories!" The soldiers pumped their arms and cheered, iron armor clashing in unison. Duoluo slashed his battleaxe sideways and barked furiously, "And today, I ask you one question—why are we here?" At his words, behir horns blasted without pause, producing thunderous booms while war banners snapped fiercely in the wind. "For conquest! To take their lands and expand the Empire!" "For vengeance! To make the fools who dared insult the Empire and His Majesty pay the price! To show the Thracians our might!" "To fulfill the Great Blueprint! To repay the grace of His Majesty Cassius!" Eager to leave an impression on the marshal, officers and enlisted men scrambled to answer, whipping the atmosphere into a fervor. Duoluo nodded with satisfaction, clearly pleased by their replies. Then his eyes widened in a ferocious glare, and he let out a deep, resounding roar over the crowd: "You speak well, for we are the children of iron and fire! We are the subjects of the great Red Dragon! We are the conquerors who trampled the north! "While southerners wrapped their cowardice in silk, our children swung hammers beside smelting furnaces! While the nobles of Auguste stacked lies of gold coins, the edges of our blades severed the throats of thirteen fortresses!" Duoluo drew the Bloodfire Battleaxe and pointed it toward the distant Eternal Sun God Tower. "Look! That monument to hypocrisy sheds its dying afterglow, but soon it will tremble before the Imperial host!" Heavy infantry pounded swords against shields in a thunderous roar, and distant artillery fired into the sky, rattling the heavens. "They say Auguste will never fall? Ha!" The dragonblood hobgoblin bared his fangs in a sneer of utter contempt. "Ten years ago, the Grand Dukes of the Northlands barked the same—until His Majesty Cassius incinerated them with dragonfire! "Every enemy of the Empire barked like this—be they northern nobles, shield dwarves, or the godblood of North Aethel! Yet in the end, every last one was crushed to dust under the Empire's iron hooves!" Duoluo hoisted the massive Bloodfire Battleaxe. "Remember! Your names will be carved upon every brick of those ramparts! Those who breach the city will receive medals of solid gold, alongside peerless power and status! "And the souls of cowards will be pinned to factory anvils to wail for all eternity!" Dragonfire ignited along Duoluo's axe, blazing like a colossal torch that illuminated the sky. "When the gates crumble, I want the Thracian king's screams to drown out the funeral knell! I want to see their godblood kneeling in scorched earth to kiss the crest of the Empire! "At this very moment, as your Imperial Marshal, I stand with you on the front line!" Duoluo wrenched open his armor and tore his tunic, exposing a terrifying thicket of scars crisscrossing his chest. "This scar came from a Northlander arrow! This one from the tusks of a frost giant! This one from a godblood's radiant blade! And here—" He slammed a heavy fist against his heart. "—it seethes forever for the Empire! It burns for His Majesty Cassius! What about you?!" Duoluo swung the Bloodfire Battleaxe with all his might, the blade cleaving the air as his deafening roar pierced the clouds. "Will you crawl back home in disgrace, leaving your descendants to spit upon your cowardice? Or will you cast a new monument in the ashes of Auguste?!" "Destroy Auguste!" "Conquer the Kingdom of Thrace!" In an instant, the Imperial positions erupted. The army's battle cry shook the earth, while swarms of lesser dragons—wyverns, fire wyverns, pseudodragons, and shadow drakes—soared into the sky, craning their necks to screech toward the heavens. "In the name of the Empire, by the power bestowed by His Majesty Cassius—crush these lambs cowering behind their walls!" Duoluo threw his arm up and bellowed, "Let their blood soak your armor! Let their weeping become the anthem of our triumph! Today—Auguste shall become the stepping-stone to eternity within our wrath!" Gathered across the battlefield, hundreds of thousands of Imperial soldiers brandished their weapons, unleashing a thunderous roar that reverberated through the clouds, threatening to crack the sky itself. "Life unending! Conquest unceasing!" Face twisted in a savage snarl, Duoluo swung his axe toward Auguste and roared until his voice grew hoarse: "Open fire—!" Instantly, ten thousand cannons thundered together. Countless artillery shells trailing thick smoke ripped across the heavens, weaving a dense, burning web against the sky as they plummeted toward distant Auguste. *Boom!* *Boom! Boom!* Countless shells slammed into the colossal luminous barrier. Flames and smoke from the detonations almost completely blotted out the sky, cloaking all of Auguste beneath their shroud. Even with the barrier absorbing the brunt, the walls trembled under the violent shock waves, dislodging rubble and dust. Within the city, Thracian soldiers showed open terror, murmuring in fearful whispers. "This is nothing short of a natural disaster!" "Amaunator above... th-they won't break in, will they?" "They shouldn't... with His Majesty Wilhelm protecting us, we..." Even the Thracians, who were well accustomed to cannons and firearms, had never witnessed a spectacle of this scale, such a barrage of shells, or such ferocious firepower. A bombardment of this intensity would have spelled total annihilation for any other city. Fortunately, this was Auguste—the legendary City of Sunrise, the city where the Eternal Sun God Tower stood tall. "Second volley!" *Boom—* Steam tanks roared across the wasteland, muzzle flashes bursting from their thick barrels as highly destructive armor-piercing shells slammed into the perimeter, sending ripples through the barrier. Thanks to the relentless research of the Machine Cult, these armor-piercing shells boasted destructive power rivaling ordinary 5th-circle evocation spells, each capable of catastrophic damage. Meanwhile, formations of airships surged toward Auguste, the heavy elemental cannons mounted on their undersides firing beams of staggering energy. Accompanied by piercing, death-like shrieks, wyverns clad in Skyfire Armor swooped over the skies of Auguste, dropping a dense rain of bombs. *Boom!* Under this relentless bombardment, even the light barrier projected by the Eternal Sun God Tower flickered faintly. Along the ramparts, men lost their footing to the shock waves and plunged from the walls, amid cascades of falling stones. "Hold your footing!" "Dammit, Kahn fell!" Raising her flaming longsword, Tirena's eyes blazed with holy light as she shouted, "Angelic godblood, hear my command! Stop the dragon's minions at all costs!" To the accompaniment of resonant sacred hymns, further beams of light soared skyward. The solar divine power of the angelic godblood surged into the sacred domain, reinforcing the barrier to make it shine brighter and solidify further. They looked down upon the steam tanks and armored combat vehicles tearing across the wasteland, and the wyverns sweeping through the skies above the city. "Counterattack! Counterattack!" Behind Dayev, a Thracian officer roared and shouted without pause, yet against the deafening artillery roar, his voice was reduced to a mosquito-like squeak. Listening to the ear-splitting shrieks and earth-shaking booms, Dayev stood numbly atop the watchtower, clutching the emblem tightly in his fist, overwhelmed by unprecedented shock. *Was this how the Cinder Empire waged war?* The auras of these Imperials were palpably weak; many were not even classed individuals. Yet through the Empire's terrifying weapons and equipment, they unleashed destructive force on par with archmages of evocation—perhaps even legendary mages. Still, this army was Thrace's elite after all. Faced with the Empire's fierce onslaught, they managed to mount a creditable counterattack. The runic fortresses absorbed the energy of the explosions, channeling it through the alchemical matrices into elemental towers manned by the mages of the Arcane Legion. *Boom! Boom! Boom!* In an instant, scorching fireballs hurtled from the elemental towers, striking the hulls of steam tanks and detonating them into scorched wreckage. Immediately following with heavy thuds, bolts of lightning crashed down, blasting a charging armored vehicle straight into the air before its smoking remains crashed to the earth. Other elemental towers unleashed searing pillars of flame, burning clean through advancing steam tanks. Along the highest crest of the walls, forty-eight Sun God ballistas displayed their terrible might—just as they had driven back hordes of chromatic dragons a century prior. "Quick, shoot down those dragon minions! Show them the wrath of the Sun God!" "One, two, heave—!" Straining with all their might, soldiers wound the capstans and aimed toward the sky. *Whoosh—* With sonic booms, massive bolts trailing radiant light shot forth, carving golden arcs through the upper air. *Awoo—!* In a single volley, over a dozen wyverns were impaled by the giant bolts. Screeching and thrashing, they plummeted from the sky in a grisly display. Yet faced with the deaths of their kin, the dragon swarm did not waver in the slightest. With raucous roars and beating wings, they surged toward Auguste like an expanding storm cloud. Wilhelm's expression was cold and aloof. Sweeping the Spear of Final Judgment, his majestic voice resonated across Auguste: "The Lord hath said—destruction unto them!" Before his voice even faded, the Eternal Sun God Tower at the center of the city blazed with blinding brilliance. The solar disc rotated slowly, and the entire light barrier shuddered. The miniature suns dotting the canopy swayed faintly before raining down in all directions. *Boom!* Those miniature suns triggered blinding explosions across the field, blazing fire covering the earth like divine retribution incarnate and consuming the vanguard steam tanks. "Armored Legion, advance!" Just then, massive figures emerged from the smoke and dust. Giant powered armor units bearing magic forcefield shields advanced in steady strides, pushing the front line through the thick smoke until they stood less than two hundred meters from the walls.