Pirate Kingship

Through the collapsed building walls, you can see many whale oil-powered machines covered in rust, suggesting it was once a sprawling factory...

Yet there isn’t a single soul in sight.

The Fairy Town School, trailing behind them, looked on with fascination, even though they’ve lived for centuries and never seen such an industrial wasteland, glancing around as they walked.

Byron and Violet, however, frowned deeply, only finding the scene before them blindingly glaring.

"The Rust Belt confuses space and time.

Now it feels like we’re on another timeline, having pushed industrialization to its peak, but still unable to prevent the apocalypse from arriving.

Or perhaps before Spiral Annals arrived, humanity ended up destroying themselves for some reason.

Turning the whole world into a post-industrial revolution wasteland."

The couple drew upon knowledge in seamless succession.

The Silver Civilization, after experiencing three Deep Breaths, completed its primitive accumulation and reached its peak through whale oil industrialization, ultimately faced the apocalypse decades or centuries later.

Industrial decline, abandoned cities, human extinction, leaving only a wasteland post-war.

Devastation everywhere, shocking to behold.

Don’t forget, Byron’s Demigod Promotion Ceremony is precisely "World Transformation," requiring the ignition of the Fire of Transformation on at least one continent to ascend to the Divine Position.

The larger the impact range, the better.

The scene before him might just be one possibility of world development among countless timelines, but the shock to him is imaginable.

"Be careful, something is catching up."

The oldest, most experienced [The Little Match Girl] constantly stayed alert to the surroundings, just opened her mouth to remind the others when the sound of aircraft cutting through the air reached them from behind.

The five, all possessing strong [Divine Sight], swept and saw hundreds of flying mechanical constructs resembling Steam Iron Birds appear in the sky behind.

White steam spewed from the fuselage, seemingly soaring through clouds and mist.

But these aircraft were pilotless, with only large brass metal balls the size of human heads in the cockpit, making the "tick-tock" gear-turning sounds of Difference Engines operating like rolling balls.

Once in each other’s sight, a cold mechanical voice sounded overhead:

"Humans detected, immediate extermination! Immediate extermination!"

"Execute Operation Plan No.1, begin bombing."

Oo-oo-oo...

The belly of the machine opened, and countless Whale Oil Bombs fell like black raindrops from the sky.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!...

The Whale Oil Bombs exploded into a sea of fire in the sky, sharp shrapnel and steel balls covered every inch of space, aiming to erase Byron and his group utterly.

But before that, the five quick-reacting Gods had already ridden the turbulent air currents and soared skyward, regaining distance.

"Is this... an airplane?!"

The various Aerial Embargo capabilities of the Dragon Court developed excellently, suppressing the development of the Air Force, but using the Air Force against Kin was quite suitable.

Probably because of this, a massive Air Force was birthed on a certain timeline, controlled by unmanned drones using Difference Engines and Analytical Machines.

Seeing them, Byron and Violet’s emotions were turbulent, all very unsettled.

They remembered clearly the Mandate of Heaven for Difference Engines and Analytical Machines:

"It will partly replace human jobs, painting, singing, literary creation... and even continually self-evolve as computing power enhances.

Please humans, hurry and improve yourselves; too slow a progress compared to it might lead to adverse events."

Ultimately, on this timeline, the Supercomputing Center not only failed to obediently do menial tasks but instead turned the tables and became the master.

And when they lost human control, it became what’s commonly referred to as— Intelligence Crisis!

Still belonging to the steam and mechanical computer era’s steam punk version, eradicating all humans, which they found hard to accept.

As the two lost divine focus, the other three Upper-level Wizards had already taken action.

[Alibaba] clapped his hands and shouted loudly:

"Sesame Closing!"

Two gigantic transparent doors slammed shut in front of them, blocking all the machine guns on the flying constructs.

They originally wanted to deploy the No-fly Zone.

But found these constructs carried the Law-Breaking Stone, rendering pure Spell domains utterly useless against them.

In astonishment, they couldn’t help but admire:

"How amazing! To exclude all Extraordinary Power, mortals relying solely on pure manpower can develop to this degree.

Truly astonishing."

Meanwhile, [The Little Match Girl] Polyxia launched a counterattack.

She pulled out a box of matches from her pocket and flicked her fingers.

Each match exploded into sparks mid-air, swiftly expanding into explosive fireballs as big as small houses, nearly possessing the ferocious might of Great Mage Xiu’er.

At her core, she was a Fire Mage, whose Authority [Prayer Matches] could transform her own and others’ wishes into various entities using the match-lit sparks as mediums.

Fireplaces, roast goose, Christmas trees, etc., somewhat resembling the Navigator’s [Heart Reflection Mapping].

And the most powerful move was "Grandma," where others’ coldness, selfishness, cruelty, malice... and other negative emotions were the strongest explosives.

Although numerous, swift-moving, the flying constructs were still shot down one by one amid a cascade of meteors.

As Polyxia unleashed her divine might, she transmitted to Byron: