Chapter 1222: Adamant Thunder Annihilation Campaign (13)
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!!!
A high-mass Magic Tower, hundreds of meters in size, accelerated at supersonic speed, traversing Vulcan’s airspace.
The absurdity of this phenomenon—a Magic Tower directly colliding with and piercing through an Aerial Fortress of comparable size—is undeniable.
It goes without saying how immense the physical laws that had to be broken and the side effects that had to be endured to achieve that miracle were.
The aftermath of the collision between the Adamant Tower and the Legion’s Aerial Fortress swept through the battlefield a moment later.
Drrrrrrrrrrrek-
KWAH-AH-AH-AH-AH-AH-AH!!!!
Hundreds of overlapping sonic booms exploded into the sky, knocking down all flying objects traversing the airspace.
The ground buckled, exploded in a straight line, and a massive canal was gouged out along the trajectory of the accelerating Magic Tower.
Thousands of soldiers and tanks waiting below were crushed, shattered, and torn apart, spewing blood and flesh.
P-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-
ERRRRRRRRRR!!!!
“Aghhhhhh!!”
“My body, my body……!!!”
“I, I can’t see anything!! My eyes!!!”
Bodies of soldiers, their heads and limbs exploded, lay scattered everywhere, forming pools of blood.
The wind pressure generated by the accelerating Magic Tower burst eyeballs, sent blood pressure soaring, and damaged sensory organs.
The desperate screams echoing from all directions overlapped, reverberating like a chilling melody.
Thump!!
CRUNCH!!
Fragments of a crushed tank plummeted, smashing the head of a still-living soldier.
Broken caterpillar tracks spun like whips, lashing the ground, sending splinters of bodies flying and scattering blood.
Gooey flesh and bone fragments spilled over the ruined tanks, painting an indescribable tableau of hell.
“This can’t be…….”
A wizard from the Blaiver Magic Tower stammered, his face pale, backing away.
“This isn’t a Magic Tower. This is…… even the Thorben bastards wouldn’t……!!!!”
A Tower’s Domain is not a power that can be reshaped and wielded so freely. Even the Thorben War-Mage Tower, with its formidable reputation, is only permitted movement by using the mighty Hall of the Thunder God as its engine.
However, the Adamant Tower not only floated above the outer zone, indiscriminately firing spells, but also transformed itself, accelerating to ram the Legion Command.
It wasn’t merely using its weight; it was a miraculous feat of accelerating the entire Domain from a standstill to penetrate and explode an Aerial Fortress.
Just what kind of twisted will and will-thought does one possess to manipulate a Domain in such a way for attack?
The Authority and Spellcraft wielded by Adamant Thunder already existed far beyond the scope of their understanding.
Even as it wielded power head-on, without any apparent intellect, they couldn’t properly discern even a fragment of it.
As the Allied forces’ wizards realized this fact and hesitated, sensing something was wrong.
The golden Magic Tower, having pierced the center of the 3rd Command, began to move slowly.
Creeeeaaak……!!!!
Each time the massive golden fuselage twisted, the facilities and surface of the Aerial Fortress it had pierced were ruined.
Corridors and rooms inside the fortress were crushed and broken, and the staff and soldiers waiting within died helplessly.
“Aghhhhh!!!”
“Evacuate!! Evacuate the fortress immediately!!”
A staff officer, his entire body turning to ash and vanishing the moment he touched the Magic Tower’s surface.
Officers, crushed by falling debris, their hearts and vital organs pierced, dying instantly.
Horrific screams and sounds of tearing flesh erupted from within the Aerial Fortress, shaking violently.
Then, the two wings of the Magic Tower, now transformed into the shape of a colossal fighter jet, flashed with fierce lightning.
FLASH!!
The fighter jet’s hull, having pierced the Aerial Fortress, gained propulsion and increased its speed.
The Aerial Fortress, its center pierced, also used its propulsion system to accelerate in the opposite direction, balancing itself.
P-zzz-zzz-zzz-zzz……!!!
BOOOOM-!!!
The lightning coursing through the Magic Tower exploded, and the Command’s boosters spewed flames, colliding.
The Adamant Tower and the Legion Command, now united in the sky, spun in place, scattering fragments and mana everywhere.
They bounced off each other, carving a colossal, diagonal shockwave thousands of meters long into the sky.
CRRRRRRRRRACK!!!!!
Fragments of the Aerial Fortress, severed by Adamant Thunder’s lightning, plummeted to the ground and exploded.
They rained down directly onto the Legion’s main forces stationed beneath the fortress, unleashing a barrage.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!!!!
[Aghhhhh!!!]
[Retreat!! All units stationed near the 3rd Command, retreat backwards!!]
[No, advance forward!! Retreating will only make you unable to avoid the bombardment—]
BOOM!! Zzz-zzz-zzz-
The voices of commanding officers, transmitted through the communication network, abruptly went dead with a final roar.
Screens of senior commanding officers from each Legion unit connected to the system flickered off one by one, plunging into darkness.
Robert Loveride, the 3rd Legion Commander, watched the scene with a grim face from the Assault Cruiser’s command center.
“2nd Reconnaissance Squadron annihilated. Aircraft damage rate 83%……!”
“Communication with the 7th Assault Squadron has been completely lost.”
“Pilots rescued from the 4th Assault Squadron. Immediately transferred to the emergency room, but declared brain dead…….”
“20% of the 2nd Legion Siege Battalion destroyed. Currently, units are reorganizing.”
“8th Legion Summoning Detachment severely damaged. Beacon signal lost.”
“How could this happen…….”
Damage reports from the 3rd Legion’s flight squadrons and status reports from other Legions poured in from all sides.
Each piece of news was not just despair-inducing, but even bizarre.
Loveride, who had been standing motionlessly, watching the command center screen, stumbled and turned around.
“Bring me my armor.”
“Lieutenant General……!”
“You must still rest!”
“Half of our main forces died and our Command was destroyed as soon as the annihilation campaign began. Are you telling me to just stand by and watch this situation?”
Loveride shook off his adjutants’ attempts to dissuade him, turning and speaking roughly.
“The Command’s judgment was wrong. I must intervene personally, even now.”
[Lieutenant General Loveride.]
Chiiiik!!
At that moment, a cynical middle-aged woman’s voice cut through the noisy communication network.
[You’d do well to break the habit of throwing your life away in meaningless battles. Haven’t you learned anything after dying once and coming back to life?]
“……Lieutenant General Neosoto.”
The 4th Legion Commander, Mirva Neosoto, who had been absent from the annihilation campaign due to injuries sustained while attending to the Zero Seat Ophelia Ionix Zaedark at the Legion Parade.
Loveride stopped abruptly upon hearing Mirva’s voice.
“How are you here…… Have you recovered enough to rejoin the annihilation campaign already?”
[No, I contacted you for another matter. And incidentally, to stop your reckless judgment.]
Only then did Mirva speak in a leisurely voice.
[If you have eyes, you’d know that sorcerer is a monster more insane than anyone else on this battlefield. He’s far more dangerous than Cheonbeon, who ran wild at this Legion Parade.]
“……Hearing that, it seems you haven’t arrived on site yet. In reality, it’s far worse than that, Lieutenant General.”
Loveride replied in a stiff voice.
The Legion Commander’s face, staring at the system screen, was unnaturally pale.
“That sorcerer is waging war against the Legion alone right now. Already, half the Legion and the Command have been dragged into it.”
[…….]
“I knew he was a powerful wizard, but it’s unthinkable that he could unleash such Spellcraft as easily as breathing…… Yet that unthinkable thing is actually happening on this battlefield right now.”
Turning away from his adjutants, Loveride spoke decisively.
“If this continues, the damage to the Legion’s main forces will become irreversible. Before that, I will sacrifice my life to temporarily halt Adamant Thunder’s tyranny.”
The opponent was the Eastern Continent’s worst Archmage, capable of single-handedly overwhelming and suppressing the firepower unleashed by tens of thousands of superhumans.
But precisely because of that, to contend with a power beyond all norms, an equally superhuman individual beyond norms was needed.
Even if the gap in power between Loveride and Adamant Thunder was far greater than what merely ‘levels’ might suggest.
At this moment, as the Magic Tower and the Command collided and fractured in the sky above the battlefield, there was something only a superhuman, not the Legion, could accomplish.
Simply buying time until a strategy could be found against the undeniable incarnation of disaster would suffice.
Just as Loveride, with a look of resolve, was about to head for the Assault Cruiser’s armory.
[Lieutenant General. I am not saying that the method or direction you propose is wrong.]
Mirva replied in a calm voice.
[I was merely informing you that a superhuman far better suited for that role has arrived.]
“What do you…… mean?”
[Do you still not understand why I contacted the communication network at this point to speak with you?]
Simultaneously, the sky of the battlefield, displayed through the system, began to darken.
[It was to guide that individual, who recently returned to the 1st Command, to this battlefield.]
“……No way.”
WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!!!!!
At that moment, a very long shadow was cast across the lightning-flashing sky.
A peculiar shape, like a colossal serpent, or endlessly coiling and twisting wings.
The moment Loveride sharply lifted his gaze, a truly enormous serpent floated in the sky.
A gigantic monster, its size comparable to the 3rd Command itself.
The winged serpent, made entirely of ancient wood carvings, gleamed with eerie green eyes, looking down at the ground.
Innumerable complex sorcerous characters and symbols were densely carved into the wooden surface of the serpent.
Standing on the head of the colossal, crowned wooden serpent was a sparsely bearded man in a tattered military uniform.
[System connection complete.]
As the man yawned and gestured into the air, a bored voice interrupted the communication network.
[Ethan, I’m here. Where is everyone?]
As the voice echoed, the entire system screen flipped, and that profile rose to the very top of the command hierarchy.
Upon confirming the Captain rank engraved next to the profile, the faces of the commanders instantly brightened.
“Major General Baragan!!!”
“You’ve returned!!”
[Yeah. I just finished my promotion ceremony, so call me Captain now.]
WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!!!!
The man on the winged serpent, thousands of meters in the sky, cast a glance.
[So, that monster smashing Primo Alert into pieces, that’s the sorcerer Adamant Thunder?]
“Th-that is…….”
[He’s much fatter than the photo Deimus sent. And somehow, he seems to be flashing strangely.]
The man tilted his head, watching the golden fighter jet still flying at immense speed in the sky.
[No…… more than that, he’s just crazy. How have you been dealing with that thing until now?]
“……We are ashamed.”
“Half of the Legion’s main forces have been defeated. The factions participating in the annihilation campaign have also suffered immense damage…….”
[Ah, it’s fine. I think I get the gist without hearing it. From the start, it’s not something you can face head-on.]
The man cut off the commanders, who were struggling to report the situation, and mustered his power.
[First, let’s separate him from Primo Alert and then think about it.]
KIIIIING!!!!
No sooner had he finished speaking than the winged serpent floating in the sky opened its mouth wide and drew upon its power.
Innumerable feathers sprouted from the wooden serpent’s entire body, soon unfurling dozens more wings.
Upon seeing this, the commanders, who had just brightened, hastily grabbed their comms and began shouting frantically into the network.
“7th Legion Mobile Battalion, scatter immediately!!!”
“Remaining 2nd Legion Siege Battalion, follow the Mobile Battalion and move out!!”
“Lord Baragan is using sorcery. Everyone, clear the front lines and retreat!!!”
Baragan was one of the very few Transcendent individuals within the Legion who was considered to possess ‘Strategic-grade Spellcraft’.
He was the sorcerer with abilities most specialized for warfare among the three Captains present in Deadrise.
As an 8th-level sorcerer wielding abilities of a different caliber, he was not only exceptional in the output and scale of his Spellcraft but also possessed the ability to directly ‘transform’ the battlefield itself.
[Secret Method: Fallen Gate, Grand Descent]
[Anak Alma, Inner Gate, Sunnah]
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!!!!
The colossal wooden serpent’s body began to tear apart, thousands of wooden fragments raining down on the ground like a deluge.
The wooden fragments, wreathed in peculiar talismans, embedded themselves in the ground, imbuing the surrounding area with their inherent power.
They functioned as totems, immediately beginning to bestow immense augmentation sorcery upon the surroundings.
WOOSH-WOOSH-WOOSH!!!!
[Strength Enhancement. Will-thought Augmentation. Durability Reinforcement. Damage Repair. Affinity Bestowal. Necrosis Immunity.]
Each time Baragan’s voice echoed through the communication network, soldiers around the battlefield stood up one by one.
Their wounds healed, their strength increased, and their hands tightened their grip on their weapons.
As the soldiers, their eyes regaining focus, looked up at the sky, the sorcery bestowed by the totems continued to stack.
[Output Amplification. Fuel Resupply. Mana Conversion. Magic Power Restoration. Mental Fortification. Material Reinforcement.]
PA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BAT!!!!
The sorcery, emanating from the totems scattered by Baragan, bestowed power indiscriminately upon organic and inorganic matter, enhancing their capabilities.
Wounded soldiers recovered enough to move, and damaged tanks and self-propelled artillery began to repair themselves on the spot.
The members of Pandemonium, observing the situation from the Mobile Fortress’s deck, also immediately noticed the anomaly and turned their gaze.
“This is…….”
“Sorcery?”
“It’s a type of simplified Spellcraft deployed using totems as a medium.”
Lennok said, gripping a rope on the Mobile Fortress’s deck and tilting his head back.
Beyond his obsidian mask, crimson eyes glinted sharply towards the totems falling from the sky.
“It’s a very high-level, top-tier sorcery that uses specific symbols to amplify the power and scale of Spellcraft…… Among the Spellcraft used by the Legion, this is undoubtedly the best.”
Lennok looked up at the sky and scoffed.
“So, that man is the sorcerer Baragan, the Legion’s third Captain, then?”
KUOH-OH-OH-OH-OH!!!!!
A third colossal structure appeared in the sky where the Magic Tower and the Command collided and shattered.
A winged serpent, made of wood, boasting a massive size of hundreds of meters.
The moment he saw the man atop the serpent’s head, Lennok instinctively knew he was Deadrise’s last Captain.
The skill to scatter light Spellcraft, installing totems across the plains outside Vulcan, and then centrally deploying hundreds of top-tier augmentation sorceries around these symbols.
Sorcery, by its nature, differs completely from magic in its operating principles and concepts, inherently possessing an advantage over magic in terms of scale.
The immense scope of high-level sorcerer Grisha’s sorcery and her Domain was also due to her being a sorcerer.
In that sense, it was not surprising that Baragan, an 8th-level sorcerer who had reached a higher echelon than Grisha, wielded sorcery of such magnitude.
“In terms of the scope of sorcery application, it’s comparable to Freya’s Musical Scale Spellcraft.”
Hylaea muttered, her face etched with disbelief.
“He can stack and apply such immense augmentation sorcery so broadly with just a single totem as a symbol?”
“Baragan is one of the very few Grand Sorcerers in the Central Front who is regarded as possessing Strategic-grade Spellcraft.”
The Doctor, who was operating the system, said.
“Especially his sorcerous totem, ‘Quetzalcoatl,’ is an ancient magical beast converted into a totem, possessing strategic weapon-level value by itself.”
“Totem? That monstrous serpent is Baragan’s colossal totem?”
“More importantly, Doctor. You seem unusually well-informed about that sorcerer’s abilities.”
Ermont asked with a peculiar expression.
“Do you have some personal acquaintance with him?”
“Hmm? Ah, that’s right…… perhaps the members gathered here haven’t met him yet.”
The Doctor was slightly surprised, then forced a bitter smile.
“It’s not a major issue. More importantly—”
“I have one question.”
Lennok adjusted his mask and turned his gaze.
“That man, Baragan. Is he perhaps a disciple of Pyeonram?”
“……What?”
Ignoring Hylaea’s question, Lennok continued.
“He smells similar to the Ascendant I met at the Well. Given his bizarre incantations and sorcery, he’s definitely related.”
The Dark Scale Lennok had received directly from Pyeonram in Kundara was resonating strangely with Baragan’s appearance.
However, unable to reveal that fact, he merely cited his work at the Well while operating under the alias Victor.
It was certain that the sorcerer Baragan had some connection to Pyeonram.
The question was what exact connection Baragan had with Pyeonram.
“I’ll explain what kind of sorcerer Baragan is later.”
The Doctor said.
“More importantly, preparation comes first. Everyone remembers the plan we discussed earlier, right?”
“…….”
“It seems the Legion is about to begin as well.”
WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!!!!
At that moment, several Assault Ships accelerated, approaching the swaying deck of the Mobile Fortress.
The Assault Ships landed on the fortress deck almost instantly, opening their hatches.
A fully armed staff officer walked out from inside, looking at the members standing on the deck.
“Pandemonium. Is that right?”
“Why do you ask?”
“An order has come down from Command. From now on, we move to the battlefield to confront Adamant Thunder’s Magic Tower.”
A resolute tone that brooked no refusal.
Hylaea asked.
“Where is Deimus? He was commanding the units from this flagship just now.”
“The Lieutenant General moved first to assess the damage to the Command. He will join the battlefield soon as well.”
The staff officer spoke unhesitatingly.
“Primo Alert is a Strategic Weapon, created by remodeling an Imperial Palace Cruiser. At this point, it might be the only thing capable of withstanding Adamant Thunder’s Magic Tower.”
“…….”
“Now is our chance, with Adamant Thunder’s attention drawn to the Command and Captain Baragan’s intervention. Pandemonium’s abilities will shine brightest in such a special situation.”
Chiiiik!!!
The staff officer, seeing the Assault Ship’s hatch opening with a hiss of smoke, looked at the members and said,
“Get in. I’ll explain the detailed operation outline on the way.”
“…….”
Silence fell.
No one answered the staff officer’s words, the members silently exchanging glances.
At that moment, Ermont, who had been staring intently at the staff officer, grinned widely.
“No, thanks.”
“…….”
The staff officer, who had been about to turn and leave without hesitation, froze in place.
Slowly turning his head, the staff officer asked with an expressionless face,
“What did you just say?”
“Didn’t all the previous plans become useless the moment the Legion Command was hit?”
Ermont said with a sly smile.
“If that’s the case, there’s no need to follow your command. From here on, we’ll do things our way.”