Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 702 The Arrival of the Evolvers

Located beneath the thick ice layer of the icy sea and snowfield, down to the bottom of the deep sea at a depth of nearly 10,000 meters.

The seawater, under the invisible influence of tidal forces, transformed into surging turbulent currents, making this absolutely dark area even more murky.

A bottomless chasm splits open in the deep, dark seabed, enclosed by obsidian-hard cliffs that form an irregularly shaped oval crater.

Further into the ravine, the closer one gets to the bottom of the crater, the more black cocoons appear on the circular cliff face. They are crowded together irregularly, densely packed and overlapping, in such large numbers that they are impossible to count.

As the crater below erupted regularly at intervals, large amounts of viscous black liquid were released, transforming into clumps of tadpole-like living creatures that eagerly swam around these giant cocoons.

Some of the black cocoons had broken shells, and the gaps exposed in the seawater seemed to attract the attention of tadpoles. Once they spotted one, they darted inside... Then the cocoons began to quickly repair the damage and transformed back into a smooth, complete form.

But its bulging interior clearly indicates that something is being conceived within it.

As the crater erupted several times in succession, even more violent tremors followed... The giant cocoons attached to the cliff walls cracked open again, and one by one, slender and twisted creatures, resembling humanoid spiders, slowly crawled out. Their flat faces, devoid of any features, sniffed around for a moment before quickly swimming towards the bottom as if they had found their way.

Meanwhile, the dark red vent at the bottom of the crevice, resembling the mouthparts of a giant insect, also sensed the arrival of the large force above. It opened and closed its worms at the opportune moment, once again spewing out streams of extremely thick black liquid. These liquids condensed into numerous spherical clumps in the cool seawater, silently floating and waiting to be captured.

Humanoid spiders, one after another, slithered around, stretching out their deformed long arms to desperately grab the black ball. Once their bodies came into contact with it, they were immediately covered by the black liquid, which completely enveloped their bizarre shapes, leaving only two red sacs on their sides that kept swelling and contracting.

The Lizardmen use this bizarre method to rapidly transform from newborn larvae into adults.

As the ordinary lizardmen who were the first to obtain the black orbs, and the red lizardmen who snatched the special crystals from among the many black orbs, gradually completed their transformations, they swam one after another towards the top of the seabed fissure...

Near the now-silent crater, only a newly hatched larva remains.

However, it looks no different from other larvae. It just floats there quietly throughout the entire process of embracing the black water, completely disregarding the black spheres and crystals around it, as if it has been waiting for something.

Finally, when the crater showed signs of wriggling and opening again, it moved instantly... its slender limbs moved rapidly, and it plunged headfirst into the insect-like mouthpart-like fissure.

The volcanic fissures seemed to immediately realize that they had swallowed a "foreign object," and immediately stopped erupting and closed tightly.

After an unknown amount of time, the huge fissure vent was suddenly torn open from the inside... A phantom figure with a crystal-clear dark red body shot out, paused briefly at the bottom of the crater, and then floated upwards without hesitation.

Its entire body was tightly enveloped in a crystalline substance, with only a single, swollen, pupil-less eye visible on its chest and abdomen. In the dim, lightless abyss, it shone like a brilliant, deep red humanoid gem. ...

In the frigid, snow-covered sea, the pale sunlight teetered precariously on the horizon.

Vaughn stood atop the towering watchtower, gazing at the approaching black tide surging across the distant plains, his expression grave and silent.

These enemies, who attacked from the No. 17 estuary, did not adopt the tactic of digging underground ice trenches and advancing slowly step by step. The nearly one hundred suddenly emerging conch beasts seemed to have given them extra courage and confidence—they intended to use their huge bodies and hard coral shells as mobile shields to resist artillery bombardment and rush straight towards the Ice Sea Base.

Although the icy sea is flat and boundless, the observation range of the binoculars at high altitudes is only about ten miles. These enemies, who have just emerged from the horizon, have not yet entered the range of long-range attacks by the artillery units. Apart from constantly sending airships to conduct close-range reconnaissance, all Vaughn can do is watch helplessly as they slowly walk into the positions pre-set by the Northern Army.

"Commander, the ground forces that have come close to observe them are not many... not even as many as those deployed in the night raid a while ago. It's strange... There are only about a thousand Winged Ones. Could this just be a probing attack?"

Vaughn picked up the communicator and replied in a deep voice, "There's no need to get too close to their main force. The Conch Beasts also have black water vents on their backs, which pose a certain threat to the airship... Try to get around to their rear and see if there are any hidden reinforcements."

Although he had repeatedly confirmed the number of enemy troops deployed, Vaughn still did not believe that this was just a simple probing attack... The reason was simple: the enemy had suddenly deployed so many conch beasts that could be called "heavy weapons," a number that even the No. 2 floating island, which was considered the largest main castle, did not have. It seemed impossible that they had traveled a long distance to be used as targets for artillery.

As the light of the gradually dimming sky shone through the binoculars, the enormous figures of the conch beasts could be clearly seen. They were neatly arranged in a square formation, their bell-tower-sized bodies clinging to the ice. Each time their thick, long legs pierced the ice, they slid forward dozens of meters at a time. A large number of winged beings folded their wings and clung tightly to them, instead of frequently flapping their wings to fly into the sky and launching a surprise attack on the human army as they had done before.

More ordinary Lizardmen soldiers followed closely behind, dragging the plump jet worms with crystalline chains formed from black water, using the conch beasts as mobile cover as they slowly advanced.

The Son of Flame suddenly flew to the watchtower and came to Commander Vaughn's side.

"They intend to use these huge tortoise shells as cover to get as close as possible to our positions; it seems they're determined to engage in close combat..."

Vaughn nodded, pondered for a moment, and said, "But they don't seem to realize that even if half of the heavy artillery is deployed to the second floating island, the weapons and ammunition supplies that the Ice Sea Base will receive later are more than enough to destroy all of these turtle shells."

The Son of Flame chuckled and rubbed his hands together, saying, "These alien monsters are indeed not fools. After getting a bit of an advantage in vision during the last night raid, they're planning to use the same trick again... to attack us after dark. They know very well that the accuracy of human armies' artillery and gun fire will be greatly reduced after nightfall."

Of course, all of this is based on the premise that... the other side is unaware that the human army has been expediting the deployment of a new weapon called a solidification incendiary bomb.

(End of this chapter)