Chapter 124: The Fortress Reveals Its Final Weapon!
"Charge the cannon!"
"Guards shield up!"
Sorin gave one order after another to every guard present on the battlefield.
"Yes Commander!!!"
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Bronze knights, along with silver knights, planted one foot forward and raised their shields, while the second rank raised their shields overhead to form a protective sheel, so if arrows come again, they would be ready. Resulting in formation of a small steel defensive line, which even Silver knight couldn’t pierce.
In the warwalker fortress, Osric stepped closer to Luke. "My lord, those magic cannons could charge in 15s and each of them have peak Iron knight attack power without overcharging them."
After saying that, he paused and added. "But they can also use attack of Bronze knight, though this could damage the magic cannon immediately."
Luke’s interest piqued on this info, because he was not worried about Iron knight attacks, which his fortress was more than capable of resisting. But-
"Bronze knight..."
Thinking this, he ordered every fortress, "Aim the Ballista towers and Small Aether Cannons."
"Yes My Lord!" with that, soon forty ballista towers, four from each fortress and with the height of 8 meters tall with 2.5m long bolts mounted on them, aimed toward enemy magic cannons positions, along with 100 cannons following suit.
Seeing this, many Ashenford soldiers instantly backed away with fear, while many guards near the magic cannons even had their hands shaking on the shields.
The surrounding Bronze and Silver knights shook their heads on their behavior.
While Sorin narrowed his eyes, because Luke just now had locked his army’s 40 magic cannon positions, so he immediately ordered everyone to increase the guards toward those locations.
"Hey that ballista tower is looking so huge." One onlooker said to his partner, who nodded while saying.
"Its attack power would be definitely higher than peak Iron knight."
The surrounding groups nodded, but Blackstone haters’ faces became ugly and thought confusedly, ’Is this really a mechanical creation? because lower tier creations are not so much loaded.’
"My lord, our cannons and ballista towers couldn’t breach their bronze and silver knights’ formation." One operator said to Luke.
Luke didn’t reply, instead he observed Ashenford armies. And found that in many places Body temper and Iron knight soldiers were left without protection.
’I have to reduce their numbers, so if the frontal combat occurs then our army should not have disadvantage.’ thinking this Luke quickly made the strategy and ordered the operator to start channeling *AETHER DEVASTATION BEAM CANNON*
Upon hearing this, the operator’s eyes became wide, because this weapon would consume 50% of Fortress energy immediately and the channeling time was also as large as *30S*.
"My Lord... if we fire all three of them, then the fortress’s remaining energy will fall below thirty percent."
The operator’s concerned voice came beside him.
But Luke didn’t hesitate. He just gave a single nod.
"Do it."
"Understood!"
The very next moment...
The Central Aether Core within each fortress began to pulse.
Thump...
Thump...
Thump...
With every heartbeat-like pulse, the brilliance of the core intensified, flooding the interior of the fortress with an azure radiance.
Then—
VRRRRRRMMMMMMMM...
A deep mechanical hum rolled across the battlefield. It wasn’t loud at first.
Yet it carried an indescribable pressure, as though an ancient beast had begun drawing its first breath after centuries of slumber.
Every head instinctively turned toward the ten towering mechanical fortresses.
Even the soldiers preparing magic cannons gradually slowed and looked toward the fortress.
There, all the ten fortresses were trembling from the sheer mass of energy.
Each pulse of the core sent a visible vibration through their colossal steel bodies.
Thump...
VRMMMM...
Thump...
Thick Aether conduits embedded throughout the fortress suddenly illuminated.
Brilliant streams of blue-white energy surged through them like rivers of liquid light, racing upward from the central core toward the roof.
Every conduit became brighter than the last. And every pulse carried more power to achieve its mission.
Soon, the entire fortress resembled the circulatory system of a giant mechanical titan, with pure Aether flowing through every vein.
’What the hell is he doing!’ Sorin’s expression turned to worry and the same was happening with every Ashenford soldier.
Then...
Something atop the fortress began to move.
CLANK!!
CLANK!!
KRRRRRKKK...
Massive enchanted locks disengaged one after another.
The armored roof slowly unfolded, revealing a weapon that had remained hidden until now.
A massive cannon slowly rose from the center.
It was unlike the smaller Aether Cannons mounted along the walls.
This weapon dwarfed them completely.
Nearly six meters long, the enormous cylindrical barrel dominated the entire rooftop, its body almost three meters wide and over two and a half meters tall.
The muzzle alone measured 1.2 meters across—large enough for a fully armored knight to stand inside.
Thick focusing rings encircled the barrel at regular intervals, each one forged from reinforced enchanted steel and engraved with intricate Aether channels.
Thousands... of glowing blue runes covered its surface from base to muzzle.
And now they awakened one after another with each pulse of energy.
Tick...
Tick...
Tick...
Within moments, the entire cannon blazed with dazzling blue light.
Soon, fine arcs of blue lightning suddenly burst across the cannon’s surface.
Crackle!
Crack!
Zzzzt!!
They danced wildly between the focusing rings before disappearing into the glowing runes.
Every second...
The pressure doubled.
The surrounding aether became so dense that even ordinary knights found it difficult to breathe.
Their instincts screamed.
Something catastrophic was about to be unleashed.
Silence engulfed the battlefield.
No one moved. No one dared to speak.
Thousands of eyes remained fixed upon the rooftop of those mechanical fortresses.
Faces gradually turned pale.
"T-That’s... another cannon?"
"No... that’s impossible..."
"How can something that strong exist on this rank??"
Even seasoned Bronze Knights subconsciously stepped backward.
While silver Knights narrowed their eyes warily.
Their instincts warned them...
If that weapon fired... It would not merely kill. It would erase everything in its path.
But Luke silently watched the charging sequence, the azure flames within his eyes reflecting the enormous weapon as its power continued to climb.
Above every fortress, the colossal cannon remained locked on its target, humming louder with each passing heartbeat...
"Increase the shield! Use your aether! Protect the magic cannons at all costs!" Sorin gave another order, while looking warily toward the large cannon.
Because he could feel, its attack power had definitely reached half-silver stage. So his silver knights could also become injured.
WARNING: CORE OVERLOAD!
WARNING: CORE OVERLOAD!
WARNING: CORE OVERLOAD!...
"My lord, the core is overloading! We have to fire fast." Luke heard the operator’s panicked voice through the communication array of the fortress, so he ordered to first fire the small aether cannons and ballista towers.
"Understood Sir!!!"
Everyone said in unison, and the next moment the whole battlefield again became blind as those cannons fired.
BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOOOM!!!
"HOLD THE LINE!!!"
The Ashenford armies shouted and increased their grip on their shields. Soon, explosions occurred, but each magic cannon position was fine and only a few casualties could be seen.
"We survived!!!"
The soldiers, after surviving the blast, laughed and cheered happily, while onlookers looked toward the dust cloud and became confused.
"That it???"
"Shouldn’t that explosion be higher and more catastrophic??"
As they misunderstood the attacks and were now discussing their power, they heard a large mechanical gear turning sound, which brought another dread to them, and every face turned back again toward the fortress.
There, those large cannons were aiming far into the distance, where large clusters of Body Temper and Iron knight soldiers were present, but no high-level knights were present.
’This is bad!’
Everyone felt they had been fooled, and the same was true for Sorin as well, because after the cannons’ attacks, those fortresses raised their front part high, which hid those big cannons.
So without another thought, he roared at the top of his lungs.
"Silver Knights! Bronze Knights!"
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
"Hurry! Save them!"
The elite knights exploded into motion.
Silver Knights shot through the sky like streaks of silver light, while Bronze Knights leaped forward with everything they had, desperately rushing toward the sections targeted by the cannons.
Below them, thousands of soldiers abandoned their formations and tried to flee.
Panic spread like wildfire.
"Run!"
"Get out of the way!"
"Move! Move!"
Men shoved one another aside in their desperate attempt to escape the line of fire.
But...
It was already too late.
Titan Luke’s azure eyes remained utterly emotionless as he looked upon the battlefield.
Then, his cold voice echoed like the judgment of a god.
"Fire."
BOOOOOOOM!!!!
BOOOOOOOM!!!!
BOOOOOOOM!!!!
.....BOOOOOOOM!!!!
The Massive Aether Devastation Beam Cannons unleashed their fury.
Blinding pillars of blue-white light erupted from the six-meter barrels, so brilliant that every soldiers instinctively shut their eyes.
The beams crossed the battlefield in an instant.
There was no projectile.
No travel time.
One moment the cannons fired...
The next, the battlefield was engulfed in catastropic destruction.
SHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!
The continuous beams carved through everything before them.
Included steel which melted like wax beneath a furnace.
Some Bronze knights come at the way and tried to stopped the beam but their bronze Knight-grade armor or aether didn’t crack. It simply ceased to exist next instant.
"What!!!!!!!!"
The surrounding onlookers seeing this run away immediately, because they were afraid... afraid that beam would also come toward their direction.
The beam continued and every soldier caught within the five-meter-wide beams vanished before they could even scream, their bodies reduced to ashes by the unimaginable thermal energy.
The Silver Knights who rushed to intercept were struck by the outer edges of the beams and were violently blasted away, their armor glowing red-hot as they coughed blood midair.
Wherever the beams passed... The ground itself was melted.
Massive trenches stretched across the battlefield, their interiors glowing crimson as molten stone bubbled beneath the surface.
The air filled with ash. While on some places firestorms erupted.
Dust and smoke billowed hundreds of meters into the sky.
For two full seconds...
The battlefield belonged to nothing except the deafening roar of the Aether Devastation Beams.
Then...
The light disappeared.
Silence followed.
An eerie, suffocating silence.
Where thriving battle formations had stood only moments earlier...
There remained nothing except smoldering trenches, rivers of molten rock, and countless patches of scorched earth.
The surviving soldiers stared blankly at the devastation before them.
Their weapons slipped from nerveless fingers.
Their minds refused to accept what they had just witnessed.
It was no longer a weapon of war.
It was Devastation itself.