Emergency! Fall Back!

Psiu, psiu, psiu, psiu, psiu! Taradaradaradradaradaradradaradaradara- whooosh- whistle~~... THUDD, rumble~...

It was in broad daylight, and the skies were light blue and clear if it wasn't because of the massive amount of projectiles, bullets, and Power Energy arching from the ground into the air and falling back down, striking bodies and splurting blood everywhere. In the desert's most important City, in the very center of the Watery Land Sub Division, a battle was still being fought even after 5 hours of constant and intense fire exchanged between them.

War hadn’t stopped since the army achieved their first victory in the last Sub Division left to reconquer. Seventeen days had passed, and enemy Cities fell one after the other, taking from 2 to 3 days after the experience gained from the first mission. The operation sailed smoothly. Mini-turrets, attained before in the Care Sub Division, were utilized now more than ever.

In every battle, the transporting ships would keep a distance, overflying the enemy Cities for tens of kilometers. Their bombs were improved, not in explosive terms, but regarding their maneuverability and the speed of their improvised thrusters. Their accuracy was thus increased. Thanks to that, the transporting ships were safer, with much more room for maneuvers without fearing disrupting the box bombs’ trajectory.

The enemy continued sending missiles to intercept them, but the mini-turrets saved these vessels. They were managed by the foottroopers. It was cooperative support; one covered the skies and supported from there, and the other kept those in the air safe from the dangers on land. It was equally dangerous for both, but the mortality rate naturally belonged to the land forces that kept charging and advancing even without neutralizing the enemy machine guns.

Since there wasn’t a good enough use for those machine guns. Their use would only be an insult to their transporting ships and a waste of bullets. The army had orders to destroy any machine gun but secure as many mini-turrets as possible. They were adamant about the mini-turrets, so much so that it almost seemed obsessive. After all, without them keeping several previously, they might’ve lost more than half their transporting ships during the war against the Watery Land Sub Division.

But that was all a thing of the past. After reconquering the enemy Cities, ignoring the Sub Division’s central enemy City, and targeting the rest, only one City remained and was currently under attack!

At this moment, 7 contrails sped up into the sky, shooting towards the 11 transporting ships, flying fast and maneuvering like crazy. Even knowing there were dozens of mini-turrets below, after suffering so much against a mere Spirit Rebirth realm cultivator holding a bazooka, they didn’t dare show conceitedness and maneuvered until their radars told them they were safe.

Pom pom pom pom pom… Heian Ciemnosc and his team were rushing back into the enemy City along with several thousand student troops as they watched their vessels fly above them with incredible speed and maneuvering, even rotating nonstop to increase the chances of ricocheting an incoming missile, in case it wasn’t enough mini-turrets. However, a sudden bullet screen was formed from below, stopping every single missile as they detonated almost at once.

The mini-turrets’ fire rate wasn’t that much, but the screen it could pull off was enormous, and it left no choice but for the missiles to escape it and strike a transporting ship down. However, the mini-turrets continued shooting for a few more seconds, and the enemy kept sending a couple missiles every second to intercept the vessels. A sudden missile aimed elsewhere and launched in the direction a transporting ship was moving.

It was going at a tremendous speed even though it wasn’t its maximum potency. The transporting ship sensed it, but it was too late. It couldn’t slow down now, or it would be struck heavily around the belly and front, killing the piloting team. The vessel continued its course at the same speed. However, they continued moving forwards, believing it would be enough as long as it didn’t explode in the center or penetrate through its body.

“!!” Unfortunately for them, the missile did penetrate into the transporting ship. In a slightly fortunate situation, the vessel kept advancing. It only entered its body from its underside rear. It would naturally come out from above in the next second. However, and here is where the unluckiness made Heian Ciemnosc tremble as he rushed back into the City. The missile ricocheted within the ship!

The missile’s warhead landed on a smooth, well-armored corner, designed this way in case a commerce spaceship like this suffered an incursion in the middle of space. However, it had become unfortunate as the missile didn’t lose its speed. Instead, its momentum increased as it rushed towards the center, immediately reaching there in less than several seconds. The piloting team was warned only 2 seconds after the missile had ricocheted inside and started moving towards them.

When they wanted to start spinning the transporting ship. However, it was too late, and their well-protected command center room was blasted open. It exploded outside, but its explosiveness traveled inside, forming a hole 10 meters in diameter. The missile’s waves reached everywhere inside, everywhere, and only increased its area of effect as it came out of the vessel and made it rise.

From the outside, it looked entirely different. The missile that was supposed to penetrate and leave the vessel’s body never came out. And just as everyone looked up at it in confusion as it continued firing its machine guns and downing the enemy machine guns and troops fighting against their fellow soldier units, a deep ‘ka-boom’ sounded from the ship’s center, raising all student troops’ eyebrows and heartbeats.

The transporting ship, fighting and never falling for 5 straight hours, succumbed to the direct damage from a single missile to its structure. It suddenly lost control, targeting a far distance of about 200 km from the enemy Sub Divisional central City. It didn’t take more than 10 seconds for it to lower and then raise a tremendous cloud of dust that impacted even the City, producing a superficial sandstorm.

From a distance, it could be seen there were no survivors. The transporting ship also echoed with some ‘booms’ as the box bombs went off one after the other but at a slow pace. The student troops felt for it, and the heroic piloting team never shied away from possible danger. Even if one has fallen just now to the enemy, the other transporting ships didn’t stop or slow down and, instead, began bombarding respective points of the City!

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM- whoosh, whoosh, whoosh… BOOM BOOM…

The Wrath Nihility Academy’s army was furious, provoked, and hurt. Their transporting ships overflew the remaining enemy City with all risks considered. They maneuvered nonstop, sending a batch of box bomb after bomb. Their gigantic bodies threatened to crash into the enemy City and destroy as much as possible. If the transporting ship’s fall was the start of fireworks, the other vessels were the dancers and magicians.

As in this circus, several thunderous explosions resounded, and their bodies swung in the sky without even caring about the incoming missiles anymore. It wasn’t just a reckless response from their fallen vessel. But their training and experience take vendetta in their heart’s stead. But the ground forces were not to be left behind.

“Charge forward, charge forward, charge forward!!” - “Come and stop this filth! Take down the enemy!!!” - “Advance!! Fight for your fallen!”- “Fire!!”

Pshift, pshift, pshift. Swish, swish, swish. STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP…

Tens of thousands of student troops from all over the enemy City, not one of them without a target to kill, heard their superior’s words and became incensed! Their blood burned as Power Energy, offensive tools flew towards the enemy, and their weapons were brandished, thrust and swiping the enemy with their hearts poured out. For a moment, the entire City seemed to be of one mind only. Colorful lights and blood appeared on the enemy side, decimating their bodies and hopes as they came to know the Academy’s wrath.

“DIeeee!!!” - “Take this, yo- motherfucka!” - “Aaagghh!” - “To the ground, motherfucker!” - “Ghraaaaghh!” - “Die, die, die, dieeee!!!”

Terrifying, overbearing shrills and hollows rescinded. The battle continued. And it was massive, spanning over a couple hundred kilometers with over 600,000 student troops facing more or less the same number since the start of the battle. And the siege, in order to lift the enemy’s defensive barrier, lasted for 5 days, depleting so much of the army’s ammunition that only 13% of their entire storage remained. It was still more than expected, but 13% wasn’t small.

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If everything that the Academy Division’s army ammunition had been used nonstop for 4 months since arriving at the Endless Desert Division and starting the reconquering war. Thirteen percent was a large number. The army used as much of that in those 5 days of siege. Now that the barrier was down and the student troops had become readied up, knowing the difficulty of reconquering this last enemy City thanks to Heian Ciemnosc’s scouting group.

At the beginning of the battle, the second-in-command Cari, commander Lionel, and the other second-in-commands had taken a ‘ride’ with an improvised vehicle Heian Ciemnosc created. Its fabrication was basically like creating an armored vehicle from the Sinvonnia Kingdom. This flying vehicle was only for about 13 people, and they could go faster than any First Step cultivator could reach, even if it was Aleksander.

Heian Ciemnosc created many of these by using a tiny fraction from a transporting ship when compared to its gigantic body. They had used those vehicles to fly right into the enemy’s headquarters at the City’s center. It had been around 5 hours since then, but nobody knew how it was going there. The student troopers still had to fight for their lives, and the thought of their superiors doing the same in the enemy’s core riled them up.

Taradaradaradaradaradaradara… psiu, psiu, psiu, psiu… boom boom BOOM BOOM BOOM…

The battle went on, and Heian Ciemnosc, his teams, and the Concealed Ornament Team fought together once again. Decimating Flash Rollers flew all around, indicating their arrival at another City’s section in battle alarmed the enemies and boosted the allies’ morale!

The sight of their pale team leader and the silent, deadly, and lethal team members was a renowned image any side could talk about. The enemy could if they survived for a day or two, and the allies always did when it was resting times and their minds could wander a little.

Psiu- phishing. Fwuoh- pommp.

“?!” Heian Ciemnosc looked up, feeling another transporting ship was in danger. The Academy’s mini-turrets tried detonating it, but it had been launched with such momentum and abruptly that their bullets couldn’t catch up and could only continue aiming at the other missiles trying to do the same, at least detonating the second ones. That missile went up and was about to crash into another vessel!

However, at the last moment, the transporting ship slightly rotated, leaned its front, and pushed some smallish thrusters on its left side. The missile wasn’t waiting for the vessel to finish its self-preservation move. It rapidly reached its underside, but before it could penetrate its body, it formed a long trail through the metallic armor from below to up! The missile slid further upwards and exploded almost 100 meters above the vessel, away from danger!

“WOAOAAAH!” - “WOOOOH!” - “HUOOOOH!!” The student troops cheered. The battle Heian Ciemnosc was in had stopped even though he continued shamelessly killing the distracted enemy. But so were the student troops. However, looking at that save up in the sky, they roared mightily, their souls stirring as their morale shoot into space and became lost. They fought harsher and with endless fervency, forcing the enemy to back a step every second!!

On the other hand as he was killing, Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes became pensive, and many things went through that little head of his. Only he could tell what was going on in his mind.

The Academy slowly advanced towards the City’s center. Their pace was slow, but they were unstoppable. Whenever an enemy tried using something decisive, like a machine gun, mini-turret, or even a bazooka. It was either a Spirit Rebirth realm cultivator, a large group of Power Energy attacks, or a transporting ship meddling in and destroying that threat. Risking themselves but letting their army advance and never stop.

Before, the Academy’s army had to slowly advance and send a not-so-small portion of its strength outside the City. Besides much more arsenal than anywhere else in the Endless Desert Division and having fewer Crabstynian realm and Ashes Soul realm cultivators, they have the most Spirit Formation realm and Spirit Rebirth realm cultivators. The enemy had prepared for more than one situation.

Even as their main force was inside the City, protecting it and repelling enemies after the barrier was broken. There were tens of thousands of enemy cultivators hidden about tens of kilometers from the route the army took and the City. They were naturally weary of Heian Ciemnosc’s Spirit Sense. And since they couldn’t guess how extensive its range was, they took the safe choice of better to be prepared than sorry.

Every hour, they sent 20,000 to 60,000 cultivators to approach the student troops from behind, somewhat trying to pincer attack them and finish them off. In order to deal with this, the Academy’s army responded swiftly, sending equivalent numbers to stall for time before a transporting ship had enough time to prepare or a group of cannon teams could relocate to help with the enemy’s attempt at flanking them.

However, after 5 hours, it seemed like the enemy was spent up. There was no longer any new incursion from their rears, and the Academy’s army seemed to finally start winning this battle for once. They could even see the cultivators dying before them, wearing confused expressions, as if not knowing whether their fellow cultivators had run away and left them to die so they could search for a good life outside the Academy’s eyes or if they actually failed!

Now that the army had their enemies beneath their feet and their corpses nurturing the land they thought they had stolen from the Blackotia Kingdom’s true overlords, their ferocious and steel expressions became serene. Little by little, their hearts eased, knowing they had to work hard with their lives on the line just a little more before achieving victory for the world!

Their fallen comrades, no matter who they were or when they fell. The motives or paths they took to the end. This would all be worth it for them, and, in their life, they could peacefully live even if they didn’t become cultivators again…

. . .

It was dusk, but the world was still on fire with sparks of war. But they were weaker now in the Endless Desert Division and the world in general. It had been 7 hours and 57 minutes since the start of the battle. From 600,000 soldier units sent to the enemy City to recuperate it, less than 450,000 remained. A colossal number, one that demonstrated the enemy’s convictions even now after endless defeats.

They didn’t have an arsenal as good as the Academy’s, but they could face off their same numbers without fear and more or less trusting their troops. Similar to how the Academy’s army looked after suffering tremendous events. Looking back… things weren’t as good-looking as right now. Losing too many soldier units in just the first 3 Cities was inconceivable. However, if it served for any consolation, their total individual units were more than 1,200,000 after almost half a year of war from 1,500,000 and their initial 200,000.

… Step, step, step, step…

“Haaah…” Walking through the streets, Heian Ciemnosc’s steps lifted too many sand grains before sitting on a fat, towering cultivator’s belly. It was a Human corpse, its remains intact but had become bluish. After being iced by someone’s Art, this person died with his eyes open. Heian Ciemnosc could only feel like sitting after fighting so hard from within and outside the City time and again.

‘... So tired,’ Heian Ciemnosc thought. He bent his back and felt his immeasurably powerful body relax. His lungs were lighter than ever, and his neck felt alive. As he looked into the distance, a towering structure was covered by array formations, impeding Heian Ciemnosc’s Spirit Sense but not others from entering or exiting.

‘It’s been so long. How much longer are they going to fight it out?’ Heian Ciemnosc thought as he didn’t bother getting in. Inside that structure, peak Spirit Rebirth realm cultivators. Going there was throwing himself into space as an ordinary person below the Spirit Formation realm, instant death by Elemental poisoning.

“Hm,” Heian Ciemnosc exclaimed as he felt his medallion heat up. He took it out of his Covert Space bags and read it directly. It was Cari and Lionel’s message. Since he was a soldier unit and team leader under Cari, he received his message as a second-in-command, speaking to his subordinates. Lionel’s message was simple, brief, and messy. Cari elaborated on the extensive methods used to kill the enemy, save each other’s lives, and how they emerged victorious in that towering structure.

‘Alright.’ Heian Ciemnosc continued to sit and slowly narrowed his eyes, almost to a close. He was just thinking about breaking into the Spirit Formation realm starting tomorrow. It wasn’t a complicated process, but it usually took a day or 2 weeks to breakthrough. It was the second last cultivation realm of the First Step, and this breakthrough time was nothing compared to the latest few cultivation realms in the Second Step.

“!?” Suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc’s medallion heated up hot like lava to an ordinary person, not harming him because of his constitution but immensely alarming him. Only dead-serious matters would cause a student’s medallion to brun like this!

Then, Heian Ciemnosc read through the contents with his Spirit Sense while placing the medallion in front of his face, his left hand grasping it in the middle of his palm.

| To all First Step students out at war, collocate enough garrisons in the Cities and return immediately with the rest of your armies. The large Cities are under attack. Every free soldier unit must rush at maximum speed with their transporting ship!! The large Cities are under considerable threat. If your army is late by 40 hours, you will be severely punished!! |

The message ended there, leaving Heian Ciemnosc feeling incredulous. What was going on back there? How could the Academy’s territory be under attack? It was impossible to think that, just after so much effort and sacrifice, Heian Ciemnosc and his team had to return before they could see the result of their achievements! It was so tiring, it was unbelievable!

WhoooooOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOSHHHHH~~~~~~...

“...? …!?” However, just then, in front of Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes, as he looked up. His retinas trembled slightly, and his left hand holding the medallion now cooled off - was stiff.

Tremendous sand shadows formed atop the tower structure. It slowly developed with more and more wind and attracted more sand from below, from hundreds of kilometers away. It was as if this thing was formed from nature, thousands of kilometers away, before deciding to come down unto this City, now theirs.

It looked like a…

‘Disaster!’

Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes trembled more as he looked at the massive windy-sand body forming before his eyes. It seemed about to strike down at that tower structure. His body palpitated, as he knew and felt endangered even being so far away. He looked at his team members, barely noticing the change as they looked atop the tower structure.

…