Ember Dragon

When the beam of light shot out by the "Throat of Annihilation" hit the outer layer of the light curtain, there was no explosion, only a crisp tremor similar to the sound of glass breaking.

The "God-given coating" that August was so proud of - the golden light film created by dozens of angel descendants and thousands of sun priests praying day and night - peeled off, cracked, and gradually disintegrated like a broken eggshell.

Then, the internal structure of the light curtain was ruthlessly damaged and destroyed by the light column. With the impact point as the center, the space was twisted and wrinkled like crumpled parchment.

Finally, the sky let out a mournful and angry wail, and the light curtain was torn apart by the bombardment of the magic railgun, leaving a gap nearly a hundred meters wide on it.

"Amaunator, above."

"Then, what kind of weapon is that? How can it be so powerful? Could it be that it also borrowed the power of the gods?"

The officers and soldiers in the city of Auguste were horrified. It was the first time in a hundred years that they saw this sacred barrier being breached.

However, they no longer had time to be surprised - because a more fierce offensive from the Empire was about to come.

"All troops, listen to the order - charge!"

"For the Empire!"

"For His Majesty Cassius!"

The Green-footed Dragon Snake horn sounded, and the cheers from the Empire's camp resounded through the sky, shattering the clouds.

"Om-"

With the roar of the engines, the armored corps of the Burning Empire immediately launched a charge, rushing towards the gap like a steel torrent.

The imperial infantry followed behind the armored forces. They marched quickly, with shiny guns in their hands. Dazzling flames burst out from the muzzles, and dense bullets poured out like a storm.

"Shua——"

A shrill scream was heard, and hundreds of Wyverns equipped with "Skyfire" armor roared into the gap, each carrying extremely cruel weapons such as white phosphorus bombs and napalm bombs.

"Boom! Boom!"

Without the protection of the barrier, countless bombs streaked through the night sky and poured down. Fierce explosions shook the city walls and turned the Thracian position into a purgatory filled with phosphorous fire and gasoline.

The iron railings melted into red alum, the highly sticky incendiary agent splashed on the soldiers, the flames climbed and spread like living things, and milky white deadly smoke filled the city walls.

"no no--"

"Great Lord of Eternal Glory! Please save me!"

The Thracian soldiers wailed and struggled in the sea of ​​fire, praying to their gods almost frantically, but it was all in vain.

The noble officers hid in towers and fortresses, brandishing their magnificent sabers and shouting angrily, "You cowards! Counterattack! Counterattack! Don't let them attack us!"

The Apollo crossbows on the city walls shot out long arrows trailing light, shooting down the flying dragons one after another, but soon, having lost their shelter, they suffered a devastating blow.

However, several shells engraved with tracking arrays came whizzing in, destroying these precious Apollo Crossbows along with the soldiers operating them.

On the ground, the giant armor swung its power punch, smashing the steel golem blocking the gap into scrap metal. Then, the steam tanks also poured into the gap, galloping freely on the land in front of the city wall, and continuously bombarding the city wall.

Under the impact of tank armor-piercing shells, charred holes appeared on the walls of August, countless pieces of rubble fell, and the entire wall became riddled with holes and shaky.

The Empire's machine gunner sat on top of the armored vehicle, pointed his gun at the Thracian soldiers on the city wall, roared and pulled the trigger.

"Da da da--"

Tongues of fire shot out from the muzzles of the guns, and dense bullets poured onto the soldiers defending the city, causing them to fall down in groups.

These ordinary Thracian soldiers, holding double-barreled rifles imported from the Empire, struggled to load ammunition bags, but were often knocked down by machine gun bullets and killed before they could even lift the barrels.

"boom--"

At the officer's command, the steel gate was slowly raised again, and the elite heavy infantry of the Thracian Kingdom filed out of it, as many as five or six thousand people.

These soldiers held heavy shields engraved with the sacred emblem of the sun god in their left hands and held nearly ten-meter-long silver spears in their right hands, marching in unison.

Their luxurious golden heavy armor gleamed brightly under the light emitted by the Sun God's Tower. From a distance, they looked like a golden fortress.

This army was called the "Glorious Legion" and was a well-known army with outstanding military achievements. It once wiped out the giant tribes left in the north and was very good at fighting against huge enemies.

The leading noble warrior raised his spear, waved the Thracian flag with the sun and wings painted on it, and shouted loudly: "For Thrace! For the Lord of Eternal Glory!"

"For Thrace!"

The war cry resounded through the sky, but was easily drowned out by the even louder roars and gunfire in the distance.

Steam tanks surrounded from different directions, their turrets on top quickly turned, aimed their guns at the Glorious Legion, and then opened fire in unison.

"boom!"

In an instant, hundreds of shells, trailing thick smoke, roared towards the Glorious Legion.

The noble quickly raised the huge golden shield in his hand and shouted at the top of his lungs: "In the name of the subjects of the Sun God - stop them!"

Suddenly, the patterns on the giant golden shield lit up, and shields of light appeared in the air, like walls made of magic, blocking the shells.

Little did they know that this was just a test by the Imperial Armored Corps. With the roar of artillery fire, the steam tanks fired again - and this time, they fired armor-piercing shells specifically targeting sacred and glorious magic.

"boom!"

In an instant, armor-piercing bullets trailing thick smoke penetrated the light shield and slammed mercilessly into the crowd. The violent explosion blew away several soldiers, and fragments of armor, broken spears, and charred wreckage appeared in the air.

The noble officer used his huge shield to block an armor-piercing bullet and shouted, "Keep the formation! We must not let them break into August—"

However, at this moment, most of the soldiers of the Glorious Legion were blown into darkness, and many even felt deafened and could no longer hear any sound, and their formation was broken.

Thick smoke filled the interior of the Glorious Legion's position, making it difficult for them to see their comrades - and of course the approaching enemy.

Without giving them any time to breathe, the steam tanks rampaged across the ground like roaring beasts, charging towards the chaotic Glorious Legion.

The heavy infantry of the Glorious Legion could only rely on instinct to charge towards the diffuse smoke, trying to resist those "iron lumps".

"boom--"

Engines roared, artillery fire whistled, and steam tanks broke through the thick smoke. Their hard tracks rolled over the bodies of the heavy armored infantry, turning them into meat patties.

"We can't stop it!"

"These things are impossible to break!"

Hundreds of steam tanks divided the battlefield like a fierce and turbulent flood, completely destroying the Glorious Legion and leaving corpses and ruts all over the ground in front of the August city wall.

"Victory!" "Crush these cowardly Southerners! They are not worth a single blow!"

The humans and goblins in the steam tanks were extremely excited. They raised their arms and shouted, as if they had already seen a bright future of further advancement.

But then, the Thracian arcane army once again showed their terrifying strength.

Dozens of mages in scarlet-gold robes were seen floating in the sky above the Elemental Tower. They raised their wands and chanted spells at the same time. Their voices became clearer and the surrounding magic net fluctuations became more violent.

The legendary wizard Aquilis stood on the top of the city wall, his red robe fluttering like a crow's wings in the wind. He twirled his staff, and golden liquid runes appeared on his knuckles.

As the ancient elven spells sang from his mouth, every rune on the wall of August glowed brightly, and the smell of sulfur filled the air.

Aquilis suddenly opened his eyes.

"boom!"

The ground in front of the August city wall suddenly cracked, and a deep abyss with white smoke appeared, swallowing up more than a dozen steam tanks and several giant armored vehicles.

The moment the magic wand was swung, boiling magma gushed out from the cracks, enveloping the entire city of August, forming a tsunami-like wave that spread wildly towards the Empire's armored corps.

Even an indestructible steam tank would turn into molten iron in an instant after being swallowed by the underground magma, and the driver inside would not even leave any residue.

The tank's armor melted like wax, and the crew members became flesh reliefs embedded in the steel.

In just a dozen seconds, more than thirty tanks and a dozen giant armored vehicles were swallowed up by the magma wave - this is a spell of the forbidden level!

But the magma could not distinguish between friend and foe after all, and those Thracian soldiers who remained in the wilderness were swallowed up in despair, leaving no trace of their bodies.

"As expected of Aquilis! As expected of the Arcane Legion of our Thracian Kingdom!"

"Kill all these Imperials!"

"Counterattack!"

The Thracian soldiers on the city wall cheered loudly, with a hint of relief in their tone for having survived the disaster.

The Imperial Armored Corps quickly organized a retreat, retreating nearly a thousand meters. The Empire's spellcasters also cast various cold and water-attributed spells to solidify the magma.

The airships in the sky released thick, cold beams of light, and wherever the cold light passed, it turned into solidified volcanic rock.

Finally, a relatively flat volcanic rock wasteland appeared in front of August's city wall, with a wavy shape on it, and the remains of the steam tanks, giant armor and Thracian soldiers were all buried deep underground.

"August will never fall!"

"Damn Imperials!"

The Thracian officers raised their arms and shouted, rejoicing at having resisted an attack from the Imperials.

Dayev looked at the black wasteland, tore off his torn clothes, and felt increasingly heavy-hearted.

Is this worth celebrating?
Is it worth for him to continue following a country that can bury its own soldiers alive in lava at any time and a country that brutally exploits its people?
The Empire's armored corps suffered heavy losses in the last round of attack, with one-fifth of its tanks being swallowed by magma.

This time, after careful consideration and discussion, they did not advance rashly, but instead sent out a ragtag army of Starfallers.

A boundary monument engraved with an ancient teleportation array appeared in the empire's camp. Soon after, thousands of players poured out of the array and rushed to the battlefield excitedly.

"Brothers, rush!"

"Make way! Let's go hold a retirement ceremony for the boss!"

"Fuck, is it true that the first person to reach the city will be rewarded with a title? This is so cool!!"

As soon as the players appeared, the entire battlefield became noisy, as if they were about to go not to a bloody killing field, but a relaxing and enjoyable amusement park.

The following task prompt appears on the screens of all players:
[Conquer Augustus]

Mission Type: War Mission

Mission objective: Capture August and kill Wilham

Mission Description: With the slumber of the Sun God, the era of the Thracian Kingdom has long ended, and these survivors of the Sun God are only fit to tremble in fear before the iron hoof of the empire!
Use all means and spare no expense to capture August, the former "City of the Rising Sun", and welcome the arrival of a great era!

Mission rewards: massive gold coins, camp contributions, gold coins

Special Mission Title: [Sunset Hero]

Players called their friends to join in, and soon a snowball effect was formed.

"This mission is awesome. Wait, let me call a teammate over!"

"Stop mining and start fighting!"

"Get rich today!"

In just a few minutes, stimulated by the [War Mission], millions of players appeared on the battlefield, rushing towards August like surging waves.

"Ah ...

"Wilham, die!"

Iron Frenzy stuffed himself into the flying cannon, grinning and shouting: "Everyone get out of the way! I'm going to perform a textbook-level free-for-all... No, a textbook-level breakthrough!"

"boom!"

One by one, the Dragon Scale Monks drew a graceful arc in the sky and landed directly on the city wall of August, then started a brutal massacre.

They swung their chainswords and fired their bolters in a storm of blood.

On the high tower of Apollo, Wilham looked at the strange people rushing towards August, his eyes narrowed and his look cold.

"The Falling Star."

As the ruler of the Thracian Kingdom, he certainly knew about this immortal existence that appeared on the continent several years ago, and the Thracian army recruited a number of Starfallers.

But in terms of strength and numbers, the Starfallers under his command are far inferior to those under the Imperials.

At this moment, the players who defected to Thrace were huddled in the crowd, trembling as they carried their outdated rifles.

Looking at the overwhelming number of players from the enemy camp, a warrior player nicknamed "Leader of the Royal Knights" wanted to cry but had no tears, muttering to himself: "How could this happen? Where are the three kingdoms that were promised? Where is the promised favor from the Sun God?
Thracian Kingdom, please get up quickly, where is His Majesty Wilhelm? Please save him quickly!" His voice was filled with tears.

No wonder when asking questions on the forum, veteran players all recommend choosing the Empire as the birth point.

He worked hard for several months and finally became a junior officer in Thrace, but in the blink of an eye, he had to start from scratch as a prisoner of war in the Burning Empire. (End of this chapter)