Chapter 403 - 392: I Am War
「The morning of the second day after Cybertron unfurled.」
Inside the council hall of the royal palace in Golden Stone City, the atmosphere was as oppressive as the sea before a storm.
The five great legion commanders of the Aiselan Kingdom, Prince William, the Minister of Military Affairs, and a dozen other core members of the high command were all present.
They hadn’t slept all night. Their bloodshot eyes kept glancing out the window at the iron citadel that had sprung up overnight, their expressions a mixture of awe, unease, and an indescribable bewilderment.
Allen sat in the main seat, which traditionally belonged to the King. King Alexander sat to his right, showing no objection.
"Time is limited, so let’s get straight to the point."
Without any further preamble, Allen tapped a finger in the empty air before him. A massive, holographic sand table instantly unfolded, displaying the entire northern coastline.
"My defense plan is simple."
"I will deploy ten standard Golem Legions to ten key nodes along the western defensive line."
As soon as Allen finished speaking, ten red dots lit up on the sand table.
"The basic configuration of each legion is as follows—"
He summoned the model of a six-legged Golem, as menacing as a steel spider.
"Two hundred Spider Slayer Type II units. Their individual combat strength is equivalent to one of your Level 3 Spirit Mages."
The Minister of Military Affairs’s breath hitched.
’Two hundred units... times ten? That’s two thousand Level 3 Spirit Mages?’
’And that wasn’t all.’
Allen then summoned the model of a three-meter-tall Humanoid Golem with sleek lines.
"One hundred Peacekeeper PX-1B units. Their individual combat strength is equivalent to one of your Level 4 Spirit Mages."
BOOM!
It was as if an invisible bomb had detonated inside the council hall.
Duke Dorne shot up from his seat, his one arm trembling from the exertion. "One hundred units?" he asked, his voice cracking. "Each legion gets one hundred?"
"Correct," Allen replied, his voice devoid of emotion.
Duke Dorne slowly sat back down, his mind a complete blank.
’Ten legions... that’s a full one thousand units!’
’One thousand war machines, each on par with a Level 4 Spirit Mage!’
The entire Aiselan Kingdom, by mustering its full strength, had only managed to gather three thousand Level 4 Spirit Mages.
’And this Wizard from beyond the stars just produced one-third of the kingdom’s entire top-tier fighting force with a wave of his hand?’
The commanders in the room exchanged glances, the last vestiges of doubt on their faces utterly washed away.
Allen paid no mind to their reactions. ’We’re just getting started,’ he thought, and continued his presentation.
"Twenty Purgatory Launch Platforms and six Storm Falcon aerial combat Golems. The destructive capability of either is comparable to your Level 5 Spirit Mages."
"One Hive mothership. When fully loaded with drones, its area-denial firepower is equivalent to five Level 5 Spirit Mages attacking at once."
"Additionally, there will be ten Demon Eye Type II Air Fortresses, three Demon Eye Type V high-altitude strategic reconnaissance Golems, and two Floating Transport Ships for reconnaissance and logistics."
The Minister of Military Affairs’s hand was trembling. He picked up his pen and struggled to do the calculations.
’In a single standard Golem Legion, the number of units with the destructive power of a Level 5 Holy Spirit Mage... added up to a total of forty-one!’
’Ten legions meant four hundred and ten of them!’
And the entire kingdom only had forty-three living Level 5 Holy Spirit Mages.
When he reached the final tally, the pen in the Minister of Military Affairs’s hand broke with a sharp SNAP!
He looked at Allen as if he were gazing upon a god walking among mortals.
"Furthermore," Allen continued, his tone still placid, "I will also deploy an independent air patrol force. It will consist of thirty-six Storm Falcons and six... even stronger units, responsible for mobile support and rapid strikes across the theater."
He didn’t mention the name "Freedom Gundam."
’There was no need.’
’The natives before him were so shocked they had gone numb; they couldn’t possibly process any more information.’
「Early the next morning.」
In Defense Sector Five, the garrison of the Royal Army’s Second Legion.
Commander Carl stood on the ramparts, inspecting the defensive line as the sea breeze ruffled his graying hair.
Suddenly, he sensed immense and unfamiliar waves of Spiritual Power from behind him, so dense it made his scalp tingle.
Carl spun around.
On the vast, open ground behind the barracks, a massive Space Gate had silently opened.
Two hundred menacing Spider Slayers streamed out of the gate, marching in perfect, uniform lockstep.
The CLANK, CLANK, CLANK of their six sharp, jointed legs striking the ground merged into a heart-stopping, metallic torrent.
Following them were one hundred pitch-black Humanoid Golems, tall and silent as they formed up in perfect squares.
The sky was slowly blotted out by an inverted black pyramid.
A Hive mothership, like a floating mountain, hovered silently over the camp, casting a suffocating shadow.
The Royal Army soldiers stationed on the walls were struck speechless.
Their hands trembled around their weapons, their throats went dry, and they forgot to breathe.
"Entire... entire legion, attention!"
Carl roared the order reflexively, only realizing a second later what he had said—he had nearly ordered an attack.
He swallowed hard, forcing himself to calm down. He remembered the royal decree from the previous night: the Wizard’s troops would be entering the defense sectors to coordinate the defense, and no hostile actions were to be taken.
’But the decree never said... it would be on this scale!’
’This wasn’t a joint defense, this was a god taking over the battlefield!’
This same scene was playing out simultaneously in ten defense sectors along the seven-hundred-kilometer northern coastline.
Inside Cybertron, Jarvis’s voice echoed in Allen’s mind.
[All units deployed. Total time elapsed: 12 minutes, 47 seconds. Zero accidents, zero delays.]
Allen’s legions, like swords thrust into the earth, were deployed with pinpoint precision along the outermost line of defense, directly facing the sea.
Meanwhile, the Royal Army was pulled back to the inner lines, tasked with defense-in-depth and logistical support.
Within hours, the defensive line underwent the largest changing of the guard it had seen in three hundred years.
The moment the air patrol force took flight, everyone along the entire defensive line instinctively looked up.
Thirty-six Storm Falcons streaked across the sky at supersonic speed. The resulting sonic booms were like rolling thunder, and they left long, lingering white contrails in the clouds.
Higher still, the silhouettes of six humanoid Mechas flickered in and out of the clouds, like legendary gods patrolling the mortal realm.
A young recruit, his lips trembling, asked the veteran beside him, "Sir... those flying iron men... how strong are they?"
The veteran’s gaze was locked on the sky, his voice as coarse as sandpaper.
"Level 5. Holy Spirit Mages."
He paused, then added, "Every single one of them."
The young soldier instinctively counted the figures in the sky. Then he fell silent.
The iron citadel, Cybertron.
Inside the command center, Allen watched the real-time feed on the main screen, his expression serene.
"Jarvis, release all Demon Eyes. Begin constructing the Celestial Net."
[Command confirmed.]
Over fifty Demon Eye Type V units silently ascended to an altitude of ten thousand meters, while the Sky Throne rose slowly, eventually hovering at the edge of the atmosphere.
An invisible detection network, with Cybertron at its center, began to spread voraciously across the continent and the entire Plane.
Data flooded into Jarvis’s core database like a tidal wave.
Topography, climate, Magic Power distribution, biomes... The entire world was rapidly parsed before Allen’s eyes, stripped of all mystery.
The Celestial Net’s scanning range soon surpassed the continent’s borders, extending deep into the Endless Sea.
Suddenly, Jarvis issued an alert.
[Commander, an abnormal, high-intensity Magic Power interference belt has been detected.]
The generated map showed a perpetual Storm Belt of Magic Power encircling the continent where the Aiselan Kingdom was located.
It was like a natural cage, completely isolating the continent from the outside world.
Farther away, on the other side of the Storm Belt, the Celestial Net faintly detected the outlines of other landmasses.
Jarvis swiftly integrated three hundred years of hydrological data obtained from the kingdom, cross-referencing it with the Celestial Net’s real-time data.
A minute later, a complete, brand-new map of the Mora Plane appeared before Allen.
Ocean coverage was approximately 85 percent, with four main continents.
The western continent, home to the Aiselan Kingdom, was low in the west and high in the east. It looked like an isolated island, completely cut off by the ocean and the Magic Power storm.
"For three hundred years, none of the expeditions that have tried to venture deep into the Endless Sea have ever returned."
The old King’s words echoed in Allen’s mind.
Allen stared at the bizarre Storm Belt of Magic Power, his brow furrowed.
’This doesn’t seem like a natural phenomenon.’
He temporarily suppressed a hypothesis and turned his attention to another discovery.
"Jarvis, display the distribution of mineral resources within the kingdom’s borders."
The map instantly highlighted sixty-seven mineral veins of various types, all containing immense Magic Power.
Thirty-four of them were unexploited.
The abundance and variety of a few of the veins were so great that Jarvis’s assessment system flagged them with multiple high-priority markers.
An almost imperceptible, feverish glint flashed in Allen’s eyes.
’It’s no Molten Iron Mountain Range, but this Plane is still quite bountiful.’
Unfortunately, the White Wizard’s Code and the Association’s rules were like invisible shackles.
These resources already had owners. He couldn’t lay a finger on them without permission from the native civilization.
Allen leaned back in the Commander’s chair, his fingers drumming lightly on the armrest. His gaze shifted back and forth on the holographic map, moving between the ring of Magic Power storms and the tantalizing markers for the mineral veins.
A plan quietly began to form in his mind.
’This Plane,’ he thought, ’is far more interesting than the mission description let on.’