When the beam of light fired by the Maw of Annihilation struck the outer layer of the barrier, there was no explosion—only a crisp, resonant chime like shattering glass.
The God-Given Plating that Auguste took such pride in—the golden membrane created through the ceaseless day-and-night prayers of dozens of angelic godblood and over a thousand solar clerics—flaked away and cracked like a shattered eggshell, rapidly disintegrating.
Immediately after, the barrier's internal structure was ruthlessly torn apart and destroyed by the beam. Centered on the point of impact, space crumpled and twisted like wrinkled parchment.
At last, the sky itself let out an anguished wail as the barrier was ripped wide open by the magitech railgun's bombardment, leaving a breach nearly a hundred meters across.
"Amaunator above..."
"What... what kind of weapon is that? How could it possess such power? Has it drawn upon divine power as well?"
The officers and soldiers inside Auguste blanched in terror. In over a century, this was the first time they had ever witnessed their sacred barrier breached.
Yet they had no time to gawk in shock—for the Empire's even fiercer offensive was already upon them.
"All units, hear my command—charge!"
"For the Empire!"
"For His Majesty Cassius!"
The behir horn blared, and the cheers from the Imperial battle lines echoed through the heavens, shattering the clouds.
*Whirr—*
With the roar of engines, the Cinder Empire's armored corps launched an immediate charge, surging toward the breach like a raging torrent of steel.
Following behind the armored vehicles, Imperial infantry advanced at a brisk march, their firearms gleaming as blinding muzzle flashes burst from their barrels, unleashing dense barrages of bullets like a torrential storm.
*Whoosh—*
A piercing shriek split the air as over a hundred wyverns clad in Skyfire armor dove through the breach, each carrying horrific munitions such as white phosphorus bombs and napalm.
*Boom! Boom!*
Stripped of the barrier's protection, countless bombs tore through the night sky and rained down. Blast after violent blast rocked the ramparts, turning the Thracian defenses into an inferno soaked in phosphorus fire and burning fuel.
Cast-iron railings melted into glowing red pools of molten metal. The fiercely adhesive incendiaries splattered across the soldiers, flames crawling and spreading like living things while deadly, milky-white smoke drifted across the ramparts.
"No, no—!"
"Great Lord of Eternal Radiance! Save me, please!"
Thracian soldiers wailed and thrashed within the sea of flames, praying frantically to their deity, but to no avail.
Aristocratic officers huddled inside watchtowers and bastions, furiously waving ornate sabers as they barked, "You cowards! Counterattack! Counterattack, damn you! Don't let them scale the walls!"
The solar ballistas atop the walls fired massive bolts trailing streaks of light, shooting wyverns out of the sky one after another. But exposed without cover, the ballistas were soon met with devastating counterfire.
Several shells inscribed with homing arrays whistled through the air, obliterating these precious solar ballistas along with the crews manning them.
On the ground, giant mechs swung powered heavy fists, smashing the iron golems barring the breach into scrap metal. Immediately behind them, steam tanks surged through the gap, rumbling across the open ground before the ramparts and relentlessly pounding the walls.
Under the relentless impact of tank armor-piercing shells, charred craters pocked the walls of Auguste. Debris rained down in showers of crushed stone, leaving the entire wall riddled with holes and teetering on the verge of collapse.
Mounted atop the armored vehicles, Imperial machine gunners trained their barrels on the Thracian defenders on the ramparts and roared as they squeezed their triggers.
*Da-da-da-da—!*
Tongues of fire leaped from the muzzles as dense sprays of bullets raked the defenders, mowing them down in swathes.
Meanwhile, ordinary Thracian soldiers, clutching double-barreled rifles imported from the Empire, struggled clumsily to reload paper cartridges; all too often, before they could even level their barrels, machine-gun fire cut them down, leaving them dead on the spot.
*Rumble—*
At the command of an officer, the iron gates slowly cranked open once more, and the Kingdom of Thrace's elite heavy infantry poured forth in ranks, numbering fully five or six thousand.
Bracing heavy shields emblazoned with the holy symbol of the Sun God in their left hands and gripping silver pikes nearly ten meters long in their right, the soldiers marched in lockstep.
Their ornate golden plate armor gleamed brilliantly beneath the radiance radiating from the Sun God Tower, resembling a moving fortress of gold from afar.
This force was known as the Radiant Legion, a renowned formation with an illustrious battle record that had once wiped out the remnants of giant clans in the north, exceptionally skilled at combating massive foes.
The noble warrior leading them raised his pike, waving a Thracian standard bearing a sun and wings, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "For Thrace! For the Lord of Eternal Radiance!"
"For Thrace!"
The battle cry reverberated through the sky, only to be easily drowned out by the far louder rumble of artillery and the thunder of gunfire in the distance.
Steam tanks converged from several directions. Turrets spun smoothly into place, training their muzzles on the Radiant Legion before firing in unison.
*Boom!*
In an instant, a hundred shells trailing thick smoke howled toward the Radiant Legion.
The noble hastily raised his massive golden shield and bellowed with all his might, "In the name of the Sun God's subjects—hold the line!"
Patterns across the golden tower shield flared with light. Barrier after barrier of radiant energy materialized in midair like walls of solid magic, intercepting the incoming shells.
Little did they know that this was merely an exploratory volley from the Imperial armored corps. With another roar of cannon fire, the steam tanks fired another salvo—and this time, they fired armor-piercing shells specially designed to shatter sacred and radiant magic.
*Boom!*
In a flash, the armor-piercing shells trailing thick plumes of smoke punched through the radiant shields and crashed mercilessly into the ranks. Violent detonations flung soldiers into the air, scattering shards of armor, shattered pikes, and charred corpses across the field.
The noble officer braced his tower shield to deflect an armor-piercing shell, gritting his teeth as he roared, "Hold the formation! Never let them breach Auguste—"
Yet by now, most of the Radiant Legion's soldiers had been battered into utter disarray. Many were left deafened by the concussion, unable to hear a thing, their formation shattered.
Dense smoke swirled through the Radiant Legion's ranks, making it hard to see their own comrades—and impossible to spot the oncoming enemy.
Without giving them a single breath of respite, the steam tanks rampaged across the earth like roaring beasts, charging straight into the chaotic ranks of the Radiant Legion.
The Radiant Legion's heavy infantry could only thrust their pikes blindly into the swirling smoke, desperate to halt those iron monsters.
*Boom—*
Engines roared and cannons screamed. The steam tanks burst through the smoke, their heavy treads rolling right over the armored infantry, crushing them into paste.
"We can't hold them!"
"We can't even scratch these things!"
Over a hundred steam tanks cleaved through the battlefield, utterly smashing the Radiant Legion like a savage, raging deluge and leaving a wasteland of mangled corpses and deep tread marks in front of Auguste's walls.
"Total victory!"
"Crush these cowardly southerners! They can't take a hit!"
Inside the steam tanks, humans and goblins roared in exhilaration, pumping their fists as if they could already envision their glorious promotions and noble titles.
Yet right then, Thrace's Arcane Legion demonstrated their terrifying depth once again.
Dozens of wizards clad in crimson-and-gold robes hovered high above the elemental towers. Raising their wands, they chanted incantations in unison, their voices growing sharper and clearer as turbulent ripples surged through the surrounding Weave.
The legendary archmage Aquilis stood atop the ramparts, his scarlet robes flapping in the gale like raven wings. He twirled his staff as liquid golden runes surfaced across his knuckles.
As an incantation in ancient Elven poured from his lips, every rune carved into Auguste's walls began to shine with blinding light, and the stench of sulfur permeated the air.
Aquilis snapped his eyes open.
*Boom!*
The ground before the walls of Auguste abruptly split apart, yawning fissures billowing white smoke opening wide to swallow over a dozen steam tanks and several giant mechs whole.
The instant his staff swung down, boiling magma surged out from the chasms. Enveloping the entire perimeter of Auguste, the molten rock surged outward like a tsunami, sweeping toward the Imperial armored corps.
Even the ostensibly indestructible steam tanks melted into slag within moments of being swallowed by the subterranean magma, leaving not a trace of the crews inside.
The tanks' armor melted like wax, their crews reduced to reliefs of charred flesh embedded in molten steel.
In barely a dozen-odd seconds, more than thirty tanks and over a dozen giant mechs were swallowed by the wave of lava—this was a spell on the scale of a forbidden curse!
Yet magma could not distinguish friend from foe, and the Thracian soldiers still trapped on the open plains were swallowed up in despair alongside their enemies, leaving behind neither bone nor ash.
"Truly worthy of Aquilis! Truly worthy of our Kingdom of Thrace's Arcane Legion!"
"Slaughter these Imperials!"
"Counterattack!"
The Thracian soldiers on the ramparts cheered wildly, relief and triumph mingling in their voices after escaping certain death.
The Imperial armored corps rapidly organized a withdrawal, falling back nearly a thousand meters. Imperial spellcasters cast various cold- and water-based spells to solidify the magma.
High above, airships projected thick beams of chilling radiance; wherever the cold light swept, the molten rock froze into solid volcanic rock.
In the end, a relatively flat expanse of volcanic rock wasteland formed before the walls of Auguste, undulating in frozen waves, with the wreckage of steam tanks, giant mechs, and Thracian soldiers buried deep beneath.
"Auguste will never fall!"
"Damn Imperials!"
Thracian officers pumped their fists and cheered, exultant at having repelled a wave of Imperial assault.
Dayev stared out at the blackened wasteland. Ripping off his shredded coat, his heart sank heavier by the moment.
Was this really something to celebrate?
A kingdom willing to bury its own living soldiers in molten rock at a moment's notice, a realm that brutally exploited its own people—was it truly worth following any longer?
The Imperial armored corps had suffered devastating losses in the previous assault, with a fifth of its tanks swallowed by the magma.
This time, after brief deliberation, they did not make a reckless charge. Instead, they sent forward a motley army of Starfallen.
Boundary markers engraved with ancient teleportation circles appeared within the Imperial lines. Next, thousands upon thousands of players poured forth from the circles, eagerly rushing toward the battlefield.
"Brothers, charge!"
"Out of the way! I've got an appointment to give the boss his retirement party!"
"Holy crap, is it true that the first person to scale the wall gets awarded a noble title?! That's so sick!!"
The moment the players arrived, the entire battlefield grew raucous, as though they were not heading into a gory slaughterhouse, but entering a theme park.
A quest prompt appeared on every player's interface:
Conquer Auguste
Quest Type: War Quest
Quest Objective: Capture Auguste, kill Wilhelm
Quest Description: With the slumber of the Sun God, the era of the Kingdom of Thrace has long since ended. These remnants of the Sun God are fit only to cower before the Empire's iron hooves!
By any means necessary, at any cost, capture the former "City of Sunrise," Auguste, and welcome the dawn of a glorious new age!
Quest Rewards: Vast Gold Coins, Faction Contribution, Gold Coins
Special Quest Title: Sunset Hero
Players called out to their friends, and the crowd soon snowballed.
"This quest is amazing! Hang on, let me call my party members over!"
"Stop mining and get over here to fight!"
"Rags to riches, today's the day!"
Within mere minutes, spurred by the War Quest, over a million players appeared on the battlefield, surging toward Auguste like a raging sea.
"Awoooo—for the Empire! For Emperor Kai!"
"Wilhelm, prepare to die!"
Gangtie Kuangchao stuffed himself into a sky-cannon and grinned ferociously as he roared, "Out of the way, everyone! Watch me pull off a textbook throw... wait, no, a textbook breach!"
*Bang!*
Dragonscale Marines arched through the sky one after another, crashing straight onto Auguste's ramparts and immediately unleashing bloody, merciless slaughter.
Whirling their chainswords and firing their boltguns, they whipped up a gory storm.
Aloft the Sun God Tower, Wilhelm narrowed his eyes as he watched the bizarre mob surging toward Auguste, his gaze turning chilly.
"Starfallen..."
As the ruler of the Kingdom of Thrace, he was naturally well aware of these immortal beings who had appeared on the continent several years ago; indeed, Thrace's own army had recruited many Starfallen.
Yet in both power and numbers, the Starfallen under his command were far inferior to those serving the Imperials.
At that moment, the players who had allied with Thrace were huddled in the crowd, trembling as they hoisted obsolete rifles.
Looking at the overwhelming horde of opposing faction players, a warrior player whose name tag read "Huangjia Qishituanzhang" felt like weeping, muttering dazedly, "How did it end up like this? What happened to the three orthodox kingdoms? What happened to the Sun God's blessing...? Kingdom of Thrace, pull yourself together! Where's His Majesty Wilhelm? Someone do something, please!" His voice was already cracking with sobs.
No wonder when he asked on the forums back then, all the veteran players recommended choosing the Empire as a starting location.
He had spent months grinding his way up to become a petty officer in Thrace, only to find himself about to start from scratch as a prisoner of war in the Cinder Empire.
Chapter 705