Thus, It Started

"Hey, why are you looking in a good mood?" A crew member from the Cruiser asked, to which a cinnamon-skinned, tall young girl with azure, aquamarine hair and eyes looked at them. The smile on her lips didn't diminish as the latter said, "Hehe, no reason. Uhm, is everything in order?"

"Yes, Captain, everyone is waiting for your orders," the crew member responded with a light bow. Blauw Ishikyy nodded and said before relaxing her expression a little and looking ahead. "I will tell the following orders from the Admirals in a while. Go to your positions and wait for further notice on this. We've just expanded a little. Don't you dare make a fool out of me now."

“We will not, Captain,” the crew member said before taking their leave. Ishikyy smiled lightly in satisfaction and nodded as she stared at the beaches. After 10 minutes, only 1 minute from reaching them, she instructed her Blue Force. They were to disembark at the shore without causing any commotion, and they would only respond if they were deathly attacked first before commencing a complete scout of the surrounding area while the other warships followed suit.

The Blue Force’s Cruiser observed that the energy shield taking up most of the shores had few gaps in between, which it moved to in order to not bump into a wall. They noticed the civilians they had seen before barely become aware of their humongous Cruiser, but since it didn’t seem to fire at them, knowing what kind of range these behemoths had, they were only restless but not panicked.

The Blue Force’s Cruiser disembarked, with soldier units lent to Ishikyy to follow her command and other officers with equal status as hers. They were met by tens of thousands of civilians who had a few cities built for their stay at the shores, beaches, and slightly further inland. Ishikyy led her Cruiser’s people deeper to the east and started their scouting protocols. Meanwhile, more and more warships from the Empire’s amphibious fleets arrived while the Second and Third fleets formed a protecting formation to secure their landing.

With a couple Fighters around each scouting team, their radars told them that every city, City, and other settlements and individual territories had been emptied out, and not even an ounce of richness remained. There wasn’t destruction, but there were no resources or even a rubbish weapon left in them. The Scouts ignored these after passing them over with one of their Fighters and continued to scout for more information.

An hour later, it was confirmed that virtually 25% of the Eclushisk Contrail Region’s territory had been abandoned. However, even with one’s naked eyesight, one could see that ridiculous amounts of defensive devices had been activated, forming circular surrounding walls, and were even littered with hidden traps underneath the land and in the air in the form of exquisite Art techniques. But what’s more, each settlement and City had enough arsenal to scare a 100,000-soldier unit group, forcing whoever wanted to step in to bring a much higher number with them.

Reporting back this information, the medallion in every General and Admiral’s pockets continued to warm up as they were all sending the same data. After a quick decision-making moment, they came to an agreement. The ground forces thus waited until every designated warship disembarked their personnel before returning to the Far East Region. The vassal organizations had their own fleets, but only the Door’s Expiring Death Sect had 2 and a half.

They sent 1 fleet to accompany the Empire’s core fleets, while their remaining 1 and a half were to stay and protect their sea territory. The other 2 vassal organizations could only protect theirs with their sole fleet. However, they at least sent their soldier units to the war in the ‘extra’ warships used for amphibious operations in case there wasn’t an attack on the Empire’s core Region as it is currently.

After all the troops landed and were ready to continue, with their armored vehicles prepared, and their scouting Fighters returned to their rear, where their mobile bases were being built. It wasn’t much, but they could take to the skies whenever necessary, and it was much better than possibly losing it whenever an Imperial Guard or Imperial Elder lost their lives on the battlefield.

Finally, the armies in each Region, from the east to the second last in the southeast, began marching. Their speed wasn’t too fast, as they were more than expected, and the enemy had clearly built formidable defenses that only peak Second Step battles could make short work of. But they were not. Nobody in these sea Regions was. However, that was nothing the Empire’s people couldn’t deal with! This wasn’t enough to scare them off!

… The first battle was about to begin, and in the Eclushisk Contrail Region, Ishikyy had already cooperated with the Sand Force to extract as much information as possible. Now that they were over with such and were just a few meters from the enemy’s fire range, she and the Draconic Force would work together to lead the charge. Meanwhile, the rest of the army would follow. However, while they were the first, it wasn’t like the whole army was with them.

Before they selected the first enemy city to be attacked in this Region, the army of tens of millions divided and spread throughout the enemy’s territory. While each separate army was several million at the very least, and there weren’t that many marching to as many enemy settlements, Cities, or organization’s individual territories as possible, the army Ishikyy was in was only a little above 1,000,000 soldier units.

“Huff, huff…” - “Cough, don’t underestimate the enemy. These are not like those we faced before, and those were already something…” - “Yeah…” - “There’s no snow here, but it already feels cold with all those places empty.” - “You won’t have to worry about the enemy trying to overthrow you with someone stronger. Remember that! You only need to fear exhausting yourselves in the frontline…” - “Listen to your superiors, especially those who had already fought before you. No smart bullshit.”

“...” Ishikyy stood at the front, but she could hear the hushed voices giving instructions, chatting, trying to relax or remind the others what to do so they could survive… the most they could and kill the enemy. She stood with her arms relaxed beside her body, and Fernanda and Pou were behind her, checking every other Blue Force’s personnel and that their equipment was ready to be wasted. A few minutes passed, and the General in charge of this ‘small’ army finally ordered.

“Take positions. The Blue Force will commence the charge. Follow its lead! Whoever is behind will become the enemy’s target practice, and you won’t have the coalition’s array formation protecting you!” - “Huaa!!” The entire army shouted after hearing the General’s words. They crouched or entered their armored vehicle, boarding it before getting ready to be pulled by the sheer force of moving forwards at maximum speed and enhanced.

“... At my command!” Ishikyy took her Colorful Claw out in her right hand and raised it to the sky. The Blue Force personnel behind her, consisting of nearly a couple thousand, looked and became as ready as possible while remaining silent. Fernanda and Pou held hands and squeezed them tightly once before taking their Colorful Claws and Earth weapons that their royal princess’s teacher gifted them with a full Earth grade armor set.

The other Blue Force looked on with blazing passion. Although after the Blauw Empire ruled over 3 Regions, and they could finally create tens of millions of Mortal weapons, it was very costly, especially as the Empire had barely started to govern them. Thus, while there were nearly enough Craftspeople, the resources were still too little. In order to not waste time and resources and not neglect the resupply of ammunition, the empire only armed tens of millions of soldier units from each Region.

Everyone was the Blauw Empire’s soldier unit, but the Empire’s core soldier units were simply of different habits and typical knowledge, while those from other Regions came from homes far from the Far East Region, but that was it. There was no shortage of numbers, only enough Mortal weapons. Armor and equipment were also non-lacking, and their soldier units’ individual strength varied, but that was for every Region’s forces, not just those outside the Far East Region.

If the Empire had wanted stabilization and to peacefully live while arming the rest of their soldier units with Mortal weapons, it would’ve been possible after 5 years. However, time just never waited. For anyone. Thus, now the Empire was attacking what was known as the last step before they could be considered the ruling organizations of virtually every Region in the Blackotia Kingdom’s Eastern Sea.

… Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! -boom! Boom1 Boom! Boom! Boom!- Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Crruuushshshshshkkkhhh~~! Ta- rarararararararararararararararararara…!

“Go!!” Ishikyy yelled after she heard the Second and Third fleets’ Admirals give her a time before their missiles and shelling reached the enemy City they had in front. Just as the army behind her finished shelling their first round, and a few whistling noises could be heard from behind as the enemy’s anti-missile turrets turned around and faced the sky in her direction before firing. She shouted to her Blue Force’s personnel.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Psh- pshiiiiiiiiiiiiifftt~~- PSHIFT! ROOOOOAAAAAARRR! STOMP! Stomp, stomp, stomp!...

Immediately, Ishikyy launched her body forward as her people in the armored vehicles were at the rear. She was followed by everyone on foot, whose chests glowed as they palmed it slightly, and their armor intensely glowed, eliciting a piercing, sharp noise in between each other’s spaces. A second later, their backs overflew with pure energy as the pre-inscribed array formations within their armor and uniform, elaborating a conjoint array formation above their backs as they bent their bodies a little.

At the head, Ishikyy’s Spirit Image condensed, showing a gigantic azure dragon’s head that took the lead. Meanwhile, as they advanced, the army’s armored vehicles and foot soldier units advanced, too. Ishikyy watched as missiles flew over their heads and exploded in the enemy’s protective barrier. The anti-missile turrets detonated a few from reaching anywhere close enough, but the shelling from the armored vehicles arrived swiftly after and took a heavier toll than the few dozen missiles sent towards them.

At this moment, the shelling from the fleets also arrived, and the City’s protective barrier started quaking, rippling as it endured the heavy bombardment. The continuous firepower from machine guns made things worse for the enemy, but before they could start firing at the incoming Empire’s army, the ground beneath the rushing soldier units rose! Explosions covered the land several hundreds of meters before Ishikyy, and it was only then that the enemy realized that only the armored vehicles’ half the shelling was aimed at the City’s protective barrier.

“Huaaaaaaaa~!!” The soldier units from everywhere shouted, and somehow, their sound echoed everywhere around the enemy who were suddenly caught unprepared. As their protective barrier continued struggling to keep up with the incoming firepower, they started feeling threatened from every other side around them and started firing randomly. As their machine guns fired at the dirt and rocks flying upwards, their Spirit Sense blocked by it, they finally heard cracking noises and looked up, only to see several missiles raining down on them, passing through the small gap atop the protective barrier.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!... … …step, step, step!

“Here they are! They’re coming!! Prepare!” - “Dammit! Recompose yourselves, the enem-” Pshift, pshift, pshift, pshift~~! Phhshk! Crrreeesshhhhkk! Ckrsheeeeeerrrrr!

“Hua!!!” - “!!!?” Suddenly, the enemy heard energy moving through the air just as they were avoiding missiles’ explosions, suffering them. They heard a few of their superiors talk and tried to get them to stand back up to face the incoming enemy, widening their eyes at the reminder of the scary Imperial Guards and ‘fearsome’ citizens with those rifles from the back of their minds. They stood up and recomposed before joining towards their superior, but before they could be instructed in something, they saw their superiors struck by energy bouts from the back.

It wasn’t just from the side the enemy was coming. From every other side, as if they were everywhere, their comrades began falling one after another, defenselessly becoming divided pieces of flesh and organs before starting to defend themselves. However, as they attacked the smoke and dirt, they clearly hit nobody while they continued dying. The enemy became more and more restless, disordered, and afraid, but their superiors rapidly had them only protect each other.

This worked, and their numbers no longer fell so easily with each energy attack from the other side. However, they still lost from 1 to 2 comrades with every attack. But now, the enemy realized something. The energy attacks came with a circling pattern, from their right to their left. Rapidly moving, but taking some time to make half a circle. When the enemy prepared to send energy bouts and Art techniques in their direction past the opposite direction the Empire’s army was seen last time, the killing stopped.

The enemy, which was just regaining confidence, started losing it as they no longer saw any trails left behind by the enemy, asking their superiors what the hell to do. But the superiors themselves didn’t know what to do. Their Spirit Sense didn’t work, and they started sweating when news of their sensors and radars being ‘neutralized’ by some sort of device. Naturally, their communications were compromised as well, and they couldn’t send information about what they were seeing to the rest of their forces.

… pshiiiiiiiiffft~! And just as they were about to attack a little leftwards from where the superiors accorded their coordinated attack to strike, they heard like a match being lit. But instead of fire, it was Neutral Energy at work, and from the middle, opposite from where they had seen the Empire’s army come, a figure was slowly outlined in the settling smoke. Suddenly, blurry figures showed up before the first one, but before they could send the reasonable order to attack, they saw a pair of humongous, azure, starry, pristine eyes 20 meters above these outlined figures.

Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr!! PSHIFT! WHOOOOSH! Ta- rarara- Pum, pum, pu-... BAAANG!

The eyes were at least 10 meters long and were looking towards them despite lacking pupils or irises, and all they could distinguish, with the blurry outlined figures disappearing somewhere in their befuddlement, was a gigantic head slowly solidifying before them. The order to attack finally came, and they fired at the dragon’s head before them, but it did nothing! The bullets and shells passed through as if they weren’t worthy enough to land on it.

But just as they realized this, it rushed forward, and below the azure dragon’s nose, a well-known person rushed towards them with a claw in her left different from her right one and a trident in the latter!

The azure dragon’s head fell upon a group of enemy cultivators, exploding their bodies under the unexplainable mighty cultivation base! Ishikyy impaled a Neutrality realm cultivator with her trident, holding her arm up while gazing at the other cultivators casually. The azure dragon’s head continued rushing somewhere else, tumbling and massacring more enemies as her left hand slowly moved towards the impaled cultivator’s collar.

Ishikyy grabbed her uniform’s collar and lifted her in the air. She let go of her collar, and the cultivator fell in her Colorful Claw’s grasp for a moment before squeezing without even trying hard, easily squishing her neck and letting the cultivator’s body from her shoulders down to slam against the ground heavily. Ishikyy Blue Force’s personnel rushed sideways and lunged at other enemy groups, selecting those with their more or less equal cultivation base to fight!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!... Meanwhile, Ishikyy was accompanied by 3 royal guards in the Dantreulity realm later stages but didn’t move to intercept the 6 enemy cultivators flying towards her, whose cultivation base ranged from the Neutral Encephalon realm 1st stage to the 3rd stage. Ishikyy looked at them behind her helmet and uniform’s extended fabric to act as a mask covering her head under it. She looked indifferent and unconcerned about many enemies below and in her battling prowess range threatening her.

Thud! Ishikyy threw the dull-eyed head of the female cultivator on her chest, crushing it from the force of her throw, and swept her trident upwards, where the incoming enemy cultivators saw it and took it as a challenge. A young girl wanted to face them after killing someone below her realm? She was wishing for death! And, what’s more, she was the royal princess! This was the opportunity the remaining ‘struggling’ Regions were waiting for!

The royal guards behind her did nothing, and the flying cultivators were unworried about them. Meanwhile, one of the royal guards looked in another direction, where a few Dantreulity realm enemy cultivators hid and did not fight Imperial Elders in the 1,000,000+ army from the soldier units that followed Ishikyy. Their gaze went off somewhere after being detected by the royal guards, and their eyes went in the direction where the Empire’s army was seen.

“Huaaaaaaaaaaa!” STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP!

“!!” - “They’re coming from the south! Turn around! Turn around!!” The enemy had changed their position when the smoke was still settling down but still blocked their Spirit Sense, their eyesight, and their detecting devices and surveillance array formations were neutralized. Each side to the north, south, west, and east faced the exterior with their backs only by those behind them.

When Ishikyy finally attacked them with her Blue Force’s technique in synergy with her innate Art, she had gathered enough attention from everyone in the City. Now that they were more or less focused on her as the battle seemed to start on their northern walls, they were amazed and terrified seeing 1,000,000 Empire soldier units rush towards them, already at their walls! They had heard nothing at all!

Their response was timely, but the Empire’s army had already started firing and bombarding them, breaking the walls as their protective barrier was long gone before Ishikyy even attacked. It was all well-planned and timed! Now, as they were just moving towards Ishikyy and her fearsome Blue Force, with trembling legs that only gained confidence as they saw their whole City’s forces reunite to end them, they were suddenly told the army they nearly forgot about was already breaking their walls down on the south?!

“Charge!” Ishikyy’s voice suddenly roared, heard by the enemy and the Empire’s soldier units alike. It woke the enemy up, but it also brought endless courage to the Empire’s army rushing inside the City, devoid of any civilians… allowing them to go all-out!! Equally, they responded in kind to her command!

“Huaa!” - “Huaaaa!” - “Huaaaaaaaaa!!”

What the remaining 2 cultivators besieging her could see before they engaged in the last struggle for their lies was none other but Ishikyy’s ferocious, bloodthirsty expression, turning those cutest, brightest azure, aquamarine eyes into cold, murderous dragon’s eyes.

…