The bright, beautiful rays of sunlight shone from above, illuminating the vast, pitch-black land. The night sky gave way quickly as the glaring brilliance penetrated the darkness like a ruthless, razor-sharp blade. Facing this ambush, the undead creatures raised their heads in confusion and stared blankly at the dazzling golden light. Perhaps due to them living in darkness for too long, they couldn’t react instantly upon witnessing the blinding radiance… But it didn’t matter too much.
Because it was the end for them.
The golden brilliance metamorphosed into a powerful force, converging into spurts of surging tide that devoured the surface completely. A massive and glaring energy beam dazzled across their eyes. Long-overdue, explosive shockwaves erupted out of the abyssal gullies like an invisible, enormous palm reaching out and digging a tunnel in the sand, while continuous streams of airwaves blasted from within. After a few moments, deafening, resounding, and terrifying rumbles echoed. Gales that broke the sound barrier blustered in all directions, while the solid ground cracked, fissured, and collapsed entirely.
At this moment, the undead creatures who were under attack finally returned to their senses. They bellowed and fought back with lichs brandishing their magic staff and chanting profane runes and words. Shortly after, a dark, gloomy, and sturdy magical barrier appeared out of thin air, bringing along a foul-smelling, pitch-black cloud into the sky to conceal the sun. Death knights rode on warhorses as they galloped ahead. On the vast land, skeleton soldiers wielded their weapons. Their scarlet eyes glinted in flickering madness. They stormed forward, attempting to smash everything in their path into bits.
Until the brilliance descended.
“———!”
The crisscrossed, enormous, magical brilliance swept across the land. Its unparalleled force was indefensible by ordinary creatures. The magical barrier that the lichs went through great pains to cast shattered into powder in less than a second like a fragile, boulder-crushed egg. The pure energy devoured and dismantled everything in its path, scorching the land into charcoal-black with no survivors, and even plants and trees were gone in sight. Be it the living or undead, there were no more traces of them. In this vast land, the only existence was nothingness.
“The second round of the Delusion Rainbow has been fired, Your Majesty Rhode.”
“Give ’em the third!”
Standing in the command room of the magic warship, Rhode stared at the land that was burnt entirely. However, he didn’t seem to have the intention of letting down his guard yet.
“I want to uplift the entire Country of Darkness! This isn’t a metaphor, exaggeration, or delusion! I want everything to disappear from the Country of Darkness! Kill on sight—anything that stops you! Blast off any mountain and flatten all rivers ahead! Raze the Country of Darkness to the ground! When I step into the land of the Country of Darkness, I want to see no obstacles until the end of the horizon! Keep bombarding them! After the third round of blasts, send out the magician knights and carry out a raid. I don’t want to see any enemies alive!”
Along with Rhode’s snarls, the massive magic warship that blended into the starry sky sailed forward. The gigantic steel cannons on both sides of the lower hull rotated constantly, spurting strings of white, hot steam like clouds. At the next moment, magical radiances that were coalesced to the extreme emanated from the opening of the steel cannons. Then, spinning magical rituals took shape in front of the steel cannons that were at least three humans tall. At the next moment, the magical beams fired, streaking across the horizon and aiming for the land in the distance. In thunderous booms, the flat ground bulged instantly like a balloon and the energy contained in the magical beams reached its peak, exploding abruptly. In an instant, terrifying, scarlet fireballs blew up, while pitch-black mushroom clouds rose from the ground, blasting forward along the airwaves. Before the brave undead creatures reacted, they turned into fluttering ashes, spiraling in the air with flying sand and sparkling stars, before landing on the ground. The explosions brought upon a somewhat mechanical and regular rhythm of beauty, like a pipe organ used to perform in sacred palaces. The deep sound of the pipe organ astounded one’s spirit and entirety as it vibrated in wonderful melodies, releasing dazzling flashes, flames, and thunder rolls like a grand symphony of destruction.
“———! Leader, you’re amazing!”
Looking at this scene, Mini Bubble Gum couldn’t help but blow a whistle.
“That’s the way it should be! Air strikes, followed by advancements from armored vehicles on land!”
This time, Rhode didn’t lead the magic fleet to slaughter his way into the Darkness Capital like he mentioned earlier. If it were in the past, perhaps it would still be effective. But it was different now. Chaos consisting of Order had to be cleaned up progressively. It was like how one had to wipe every single tile cleanly and not clean up only the filthiest one. Even though this might take some time, it was definitely better than letting Chaos take advantage of a lapse.
“This is an adventure; a long journey.”
Canary held the railing and gazed at the burnt land below. There was nothing. Be it the living or undead, what remained was only the land itself. Rhode’s plan was relatively risky and insane. With the coordination of 15 magic warships, he requested all soldiers from the Munn Kingdom and Void Territory to advance side by side, crushing any enemies before them in the shortest time possible, with the mightiest strength. This way, they could eliminate the Chaos that was spread by the Dark Dragon. If Rhode chose the ‘decapitation tactic’, he wouldn’t be able to stop the proliferation of Chaos even if he killed the Dark Dragon. Not only that, but it might also cause him to sink into deeper and more dangerous trouble. On the other hand, by going hand in hand, even though he wasn’t able to kill the Dark Dragon in the shortest time possible, he was able to restrict the living space of Chaos, restraining them from wreaking havoc.
The booms of cannon blasts filled the sky as billows of smoke rose from the surface. The hue of red, scorching heat took over as the main melody of the battlefield. At a glance, the undead army was seemingly completely destroyed by the series of bombardments. But Rhode was aware that the undead creatures weren’t that weak. If more than a dozen magic warships were enough to demolish them, the Country of Light and Munn Kingdom wouldn’t have been at the mercy of the Country of Darkness for so many years.
“Gaaaa——!”
As expected. All of a sudden, everyone heard an ear-piercing call. They witnessed a large ‘cloud’ rising from the horizon far ahead, concealing the entire sky as it came flying toward the magic warships.
“Reporting, Your Majesty Rhode. Soul griffins spotted ahead!”
“Hmph.”
Upon hearing the report, Rhode let out a snort, before reaching for his sword hilt.
“Go all-out! No holding back! Crush those damn birds! Activate the Order defensive enchanted field and Holy Maiden Statues!”
A pure, holy radiance flickered in the air. Even though the omnipresent darkness obscured the blistering sun, the holy radiance was like a lighthouse in the darkness. The Holy Maiden Statues erected ahead of the magic warships raised their arms. Circles of clear, dazzling halos
diffused like ripples with the statues in the middle. At a glance, the lined-up magic warships glittered in white, sacred brilliance one after another. The spreading waves of energy linked up to form a crystal barrier that was as thin as a cicada’s wings. They looked so thin that one couldn’t help but worry if the hurl of a stone would smash it into bits. But shortly after, the thin barrier proved the value of its existence.
“Gaaaa——!”
Tens of thousands of soul griffins beat their wings and dove head first into the crystal barrier like an inclined flood. But at the next moment, they let out bursts of anguished screeches. Their rock-hard claws failed to leave any slashes on the thin crystal barrier. On the contrary, the instant the soul griffins came in contact with the crystal barrier, they were devoured by holy, white flames immediately, before burning into ashes without leaving behind any remnants. In an instant, one saw countless white flames flaring up in the sky like glittering stars. The soul griffins were like moths to a flame. Even though they were gravely hurt, they had no intention of stopping. The next waves of soul griffins chiseled away at the crystal barrier above the magic warships, only to be forcefully separated by hundreds of blinding magical cannon beams. But shortly after, the emptied openings in the sea of darkness were quickly filled up as though they didn’t exist.
The flashes of magical power, cannon blasts, and death merged as one in the sky, turning into a unique scenery. All of a sudden, the soul griffins that were ramming into the crystal barrier frantically came to a halt. Then, they turned around instantly like a school of fish swimming in the ocean, retreating to where they came from. Looking at this scene, Rhode twitched his brows.
At that moment, he witnessed hundreds of warships that soared toward him in the air. They were tattered and the holes at the bottom weren’t even repaired fully. Dense spiritual mist lifted the hulls like ocean waves pushing them forward. These warships that appeared indistinctly in the mist appeared in front of his eyes.
They were the strongest air weapons of the Country of Darkness: the Ghost Fleet.
